December 2, 2012

The session began with the party finishing up business in Solaria, spending their 1000 GP each in whatever way they felt appropriate (Nikolai/Micah got a potion and a floating lantern… not sure if anyone else bought anything). After bidding farewell to Nulath & Scout (who stayed behind with the kids at the casinorphanage), they headed south to the campus of the Academy of Solar Studies.

Nikolai also got to know his new mechanical man, a Gnometech Industries Modular Servant Prototype, with many empty add-on ports for various GnomeTech accessories (sold separately). Nikolai decided to call him Spike. Spike has limited function right now, though he’s a passable cart driver and reasonably strong for manual labor. He also takes many opportunities to note additional attachments that may be available from GnomeTech’s extensive catalog.

At A.S.S. (I didn’t plan that… I swear!), the party met the gnome Dean Attleby Merriweather, and his right-hand man, the human Assistant Dean Smithers. After an interesting Q&A session between a class of students and Akara/Valarie, the funeral for the minotaur Chaplain (& former ASS student) Dezia Sanctus went off without a hitch. Before leaving, the party attempted to get Jimmy enrolled at ASS… but found out that he has some family history that caused Admissions to discreetly deny his application (12 times). Turns out his father is some kind of Blackguard and a bad customer, and if his son, Jimmy, was a student, he’d gain access to the campus, which the Pelorian faculty did not want. Unable to pawn him off on the school, the party kept Jimmy with them.

In addition, while at the school, the party had access to purchase any non-necromantic rituals they might have wanted (up to lvl 5).

Further down the road, at the base of the mountain that holds the Monastery of the Setting Sun, the party saw an inn with a large sign (the “Let the Sunshine Inn”). They also saw some wyvern-mounted dragonborn knights chasing a young drow boy. After the party scared off the knights, they treated the wounded boy, Harl, and learned that his grandmother, Danifae, had been captured by the knights. Inside the Inn, Nikolai met Meepo, a kobold dressed as a squire, who was drinking away his sorrows. Meepo told the party that Master Paladin Sunbeam, the head of a paladin temple to Pelor up on the mountaintop, had been acting strangely for the past month. And by “strangely”, he meant “EATING MEEPO’S FAMILY!!!”

The party snuck halfway up the mountain to the monastery, which had been locked down against possible attacks from the knights. Eventually they managed to meet with Radiant Embers Grandmaster Sol, an earth genasi monk who was also a vampire. He told the party that about a month ago, he had sensed his Sire (the Drow vampire who initially made him into a vampire) on the mountain, and he feared that the Master Paladin may have been turned. The Grandmaster agreed to launch a distraction to divert most of the knights & wyverns, so the party could attack the temple and get to the bottom of things.

At the temple, the party started off by fighting some paladins and a wyvern. Though they killed the wyvern, they managed to knock out the paladins, realizing that they were probably under the vampire’s charms. Then the vampire paladin burst out of the temple… and the party realized that Master Sunbeam, head paladin of the Knights of the Sunbeam, was actually a GOLD DRAGON. And after the corrupting influence of the Drow vampire that had turned Sol, this paladin dragon was now he was a VAMPIRIC GOLD DRAGON!!! Needless to say, the combat was fierce, but the party managed to pull out a victory, helped briefly at the last moment by the barely-alive Danifae.

In the aftermath, the party managed to keep Danifae from dying, and learned that the second-in-command Paladin who was to take over after Sunbeam’s passing was, in fact, Meepo (!).

Experience
The party got 500 XP each for their efforts.

Treasure
None given, though the party may have purchased items & rituals. Each party member had 1000 GP from their casino adventures the previous game.

Next Game
Our next game will be sometime (maybe before Christmas?), and will feature the party heading to Coventry, to deal with the next body on their list.