Episode 2: Dancing with the Devil

With the ghouls defeated our Heroes investigate Preston in hopes of discovering what caused the destruction in the town!

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Episode Summary
The episode starts with the wounded Paladin crawling out of the mist towards the players. As Iskander tends to his wounds, the heroes notice that he has large scratches in his armour and his veins have turned black, as if being corrupted by something. He introduces himself as Lord Agren, the paladin that Iskander was travelling to meet, and warns the group of the ‘Winged Demon’. He explains where the survivors of the town are hiding and gives Iskander his holy symbol. As he dies and begins to turn into a Ghoul, Rasend and Belrun both try to dismember him, but Rasend ultimately gets the kill.

Iskander prays using Lord Agren’s holy symbol, and is shown a vision of the attack and of the shadowy winged demon. He warns his allies, and Belrun shares the knowledge that Ghouls hunt in packs.

The Heroes make their way to the Inn that the survivors are hiding in and introduce themselves. They meet Aurora who fills them in on the situation: A man named Mason Silentdawn purchased the mines north of town a month ago. Days later, he came to Preston offering to pay for the inhabitants to move to Chandar, but they refused. He took this as an insult and threatened the townspeople with blood raining from the sky. He followed through with his threat, and summoned a Spined Devil to terrorise the town. By infecting the town with its blood, the Spined Devil was able to turn people into Ghouls. The Heroes are told that killing the fiend would reverse the transformation.

Immeral approaches a pair of identical guards who are protecting a hooded woman, and hands them a letter he received. Recognising it as one he distributed, one of the guards introduces themselves as Lord Dell. He explains that he is on a royal mission, and needs mercenaries to escort his patron to Thornoral in exchange for a hefty reward. In order to be deemed worthy of this quest, the Heroes must bring him the head of The Necromancer, Mason Silentdawn.

Wanting to secure Preston before moving on to the mines, the Heroes decide that the Spined Devil must be killed, and the town’s population freed from their transformation. Learning that it seems to be drawn to screaming women, Rasend convinces Aurora to act as bait in order to lure it out into the open. Able to hide themselves from the Devil and some nearby Ghouls, the group ambush their enemies and enter combat.

As Belrun lands the killing blow to the creature with an arrow to it’s heart, the Ghouls start to turn back into people and the fog disappears. Fillius uses the spell Create Water to produce rain that washes the blood from the streets. As the citizens of Preston rejoice, the Heroes are labelled ‘The Heroes of Preston’.

Characters (in order of introduction)
Players NPCs
 * Rasend Dracon
 * Immeral Nial
 * Iskander
 * Fillius Senneck
 * Belrun
 * Lord Agren
 * Spined Devil
 * Aurora
 * Marcus
 * Lo
 * Po
 * Princess Orianna Zera Severen (identity hidden)
 * Lord Dell
 * Mason Silentdawn (mentioned)

Key Events

 * The Heroes learn about the Necromancer.
 * The Heroes meet Lord Dell and discuss the Royal Mission.
 * The Spined Devil is slain and Preston's infection is reversed.
 * The Heroes are dubbed 'The Heroes of Preston'.

Notable Battles

 * Rasend, Belrun, Fillius, Iskander and Immeral vs Spined Devil and Ghouls
 * Belrun: Spined Devil
 * Other:
 * Rasend: Lord Agren

Quotes

 * “Fillius, who is playing... David?” – Adam
 * “[for killing Lord Agren] I’ll give you all 25 experience…” – Adam, sarcastically
 * “Are you going to try and kill me next, ‘cause I’m a Paladin?” – Iskander
 * “I hear living people in there, we should knock” – Fillius
 * “We should kick down the door” – Rasend
 * “We should KNOCK” – Fillius
 * “Alright, if you must” – Rasend
 * “Was that the knock? I don’t remember it was so complicated. Well somebody is knocking, a Ghoul’s not going to knock you idiot.” - Townspeople, muttering
 * “IT WAS THE RIGHT KNOCK, LET US IN.” – Rasend
 * “This is a pretty average looking Inn…” – Adam
 * “Is it a brothel?” – Jesse (Rasend)
 * “No.” – Adam
 * “Perception check.” – Jesse (Rasend)
 * “Okay, I’ll attack with my quarterstaff… and it will be a 1d10 since I am using both hands… And a bonus action to go for unarmed strike… 1d4… so 6 total damage on the Ghoul” – Cody (Immeral)
 * “What?” – Adam to Billy
 * “(laughing) It’s just a lot of build-up for 6 damage” – Billy (Iskander)

Trivia

 * Billy is the first player in the series to retell the events of the last episode.
 * Rasend rolled the first Nat1 of the series, when judging whether Aurora was lying to him.
 * Immeral rolled his first Nat1 when trying to attack the Ghoul on the first turn of combat.
 * Rasend was reduced to 1 hit point by the Spined Devil in the first round of combat. This is the second time he has been reduced to 1 hit point
 * Belrun rolled his first Nat20 of the series on the first round of combat and killed the Spined Devil. He was awarded his first inspiration point.
 * Belrun plays his Eukalala for the second time in the series.
 * The Spined Devil is also referred to as a Horned Devil in the episode, which is a much more fearsome type of fiend.
 * The Heroes are originally referred to as 'The Saviours of Preston', however this was changed to 'The Heroes of Preston' in Episode 3.