Dragon Slayers of The Drinking Crow Session #49- How About Demon Slayers? Eh?

 The Dragon Slayers debated over many a pint at the Drinking Crow about the fate of the Rillis Atamar Kerym. Copra wanted to keep it while Armeen wanted to return it. Even though the Lunar Elves seemed to be lacking in the arcane qualities that usually vexed Father Bert of elfin beings, the errant friar still eyed them with a level of suspicion. Crambo, not present at the parle with the elves just thought that a magic flaming sword was cool. Eventually, they came to the follow resolution- the party would return it to the Lunar Elves but they would wait to do so. After all, the had to wait to try to obtain another item before all item could be returned.

With that, Copra Kaan went off to align his spirit with the spiritual blade called Rillis Atamar Kerym for the blade's flames derived their fuel form the deepest stirring in one's spirit. Armeen went to the Shrine of Danu to aid in the education of young Chauncey in the faith of the Mother of the Primordial Waters. While greatly appreciative of the adept's mentorship, the acolyte was distracted by the troubles of the refugees of Orm. Chauncey himself is a foreigner to Orm--one of a handful of survivors of a wrecked Imperial Galley that formed a key base of the city-states initial hireling pool. Chauncey wanted to know if Armeen and the shrine could do something to for the refugees to help counteract the protests against them outside the Container.

After Copra Kaan had attuned himself to Rillis Atamar Kerym, the antaur returned to the Drinking Crow. As the Dragon Slayers pondered their next move, Armeen asked out loud, "Are we still the Dragon Slayers? All that remain from that dragon slaying expedition are Willow the Wisp and the retired Bors Redbeard. The rest are dead. Does that make us like that mythic ship--the one whose boards are slowly replaced until none of the original remain."

This lead to all sorts of philosophical debate. The bartender Gabby was quick to point that the Dragon Slayer Fredrick Featherstone remains--though as a permanent Drinking Crow fixture whose petrified form stands constant beside its bar. While the party could not come to an end around this topic, they did pick a course of action. Armeen's cousin Rustam wrote him with tales of water weirds in the northeastern section of Level 1 of 'The Complex'. Rustam hypothesized that purifying the water with the powers of a cleric could bring the weirds to an end. Father Bert proclaimed, "Wherever we go, I need something I can cook. I want to enter a contest."

With that, the following party headed towards the beach and to the Iron Gate of the Rani:

• Armeen of the Twin Rivers (Level 2 Cleric fo Danu)
• Jubal (Level 1 Beastmaster retainer)
• Minotaur (Jubal's hunting dog)
• Copra Kaan (Level 6 Vat Spawn Antaur)
• Crambo (Level 4 Magic-User)
• Agera (Level 1 Fighting Mutant)
• Father Bert (Level 3 Errant Friar of Arishem the Judge)

When the party returned through the Iron Gate, the celestial sphere of the Teacher moved brightly in the sky above Orm. Their pupils trailing after them. A tax of 156gp in gems and gold was handed over to the 111th at the Iron Gate. A selection of meat from carrion crawler made Father Bert's steps heavy in the sand of the beach. Armeen carried his Arcadian towel at a distance. A wounded minotaur with grass green fur followed the party.

They regrouped at the Drinking Crow to divided up the coin from the sold gems. Copra Kaan headed off to research a pair of swords the party has obtained on their expedition. Even in the antaur's brief appearance at the watering hole, everyone made note of the new two-foot long, moutaches-like appendages that now hung from each side of his upper lip. Found in Fredrick Featherstone's hand was the following piece of paper with a glass ring centered in Fredrick's palm:

Copra Kään’s To-Do List:

-Debate whether or not to return the sword, and if so, when. 

-Enter The Complex. 

-Fight two Carcass Crawlers. 

-Discover that they can paralyze us. 

-Discover that they can paralyze us 8x/round, EACH.

-Kill the Carcass Crawlers!

-And their little riders, too. 

-Apply some new, living facial hair with paralyzingly good looks (they’ll make you stop right in your tracks ;) ) while waiting for paralysis to wear off some party members. 

-Avoid a Spider-Squid. 

-Fight a great and terrible demon!

-DESTROY A GREAT AND TERRIBLE DEMON WITH A SINGLE BLOW!!

-Discover the demon’s hoard!

-Free a Minotaur. 

-Leave The Complex, victorious!

Father Bert, with the Minotaur in tow, headed to his stalled. There, the friar turned the carrion crawler into a sausage. The sausage was smoked. Finally, Bert steamed the sausage by pouring holy water onto a stack of white-hot demon scales.

Jubal and Agera went to spend their hard earned coin to celebrate another adventure survived. The pair entertained crowds at the Drinking Crow with tales of how the Dragon Slayers should, perhaps, be re-named the Demon Slayers! The party had discovered a twelve-foot long serpentine demon torturing a green-furred minotaur in territory that once had belonged to the Imperial Mother. In fact, it was the very same room that the current rulers of this section of Level 1, a pair of demons known to some as maraliths, had been the subjects one with forces of the Imperial Mother had tested in-development magic arms on.

The party moved quicky to free the minotaur from the demon. The light radiating form the foul being's white-hot scales were blinding. Armeen assailed the fiend with a volley of holy water. The demon tired to summon forth another to aid it. It could just be that none would answer its call, but Jubal and Agera liked to think that it was the holy chants of Father Bert that prevented it. Crambo brought created a shell of permanent darkness within the room as to negative the blinding effects of the scales as Agera and Father Bert freed the minotaur. Due to a pair of amulets Crambo and Copra Kaan had taken from the Cave Elves, they could gaze into the darkness and still see the demon. With one skillful blow of the Rillis Atamar Kerym, Copra Kaan struct the evil creatures head and ended its time on this plane. Dragon slaying was for Fredrick Featherstone and Drinking Crow adventurers of old. Let these newer adventurers that now rest their feet and share a pint there be called "Demon Slayers!"

And so the tale was shared as the pair moved from waterhole to gambling hall to early autumn fires. The pair were seen re-enacting of the events by Agera and Jubal outside the Burning Witch occurred right before a civil commotion broke out in around the Monument of the Old Gods. By the brute squad had broken things up, a pair of red crystal smoking wastrels were dead and no one could remember what started it all. All worry about whether Agera or Jubal were hurt or jailed in the ballyhoo was put to rest when the hungover pair were seen picking away at offerings from Father Bert's BBQ stall. 

Treasure

• Assorted gems including:
•  a .3 carat piece of jade worth 10gp
• a 2 carat piece of onyx and two 2 carat pieces of bloodstone worth 50gp ea.
•  a trio of 18 carat lapis lazuli stones and a 2 carat piece of amber worth 100gp ea.
•  an 18 carat carnelian gem and a .3 carat diamond worth 500gp ea.
• A pair of magic swords

Experience Points

• 1560xp from treasure
• Carrion crawlers killed 2 x 75xp
• Carrion crawler riders defeated 2 x 13xp
• Serpentine demon slain 1 x 2300xp
• Minotaur freed 1 x 275xp

Player Character Cut

• 280gp 8sp (140gp and 4sp to Agera and Jubal)
• 1077xp ea. (538xp ea. to Agera and Jubal)

Write-ups, art, or maps submitted as reports earn PC Level x 100xp. I know what Copra Kaan and Father Bert is up to for downtime. Let me know if Armeen or Crambo want to undertake a downtime activity.

The Fangs of the Phlogerus

Copra Kaan visited the Athenaeum of the Dying Sun to see what he could discover about the pair of blades he and his comrades had retrieved from the demon they slew on Level 1 of the Complex, in the old "Weapon Testing Site". With the help of the Librarian Valtropis and a tome written by the late-era Imperial Abbot Malus, he was able to ascertain that the curved long and short swords were magical weapons (+1) of an unholy nature known as the Fangs of the Phlogerus. To utilize the blades, a mortal must enter into a pact with them. They must heat the blade then brand the hand that they wish to wield it with the hot tip. Servants of divinities associated with the forces of law, such as the Archons of Law or Arishem the Judge, risk being forsaken by their deities for performing such a ritual. It is not only the divine powers of law that such mortal users much concern themselves. Any mortal wielding either the longer right fang or the shorter left willing gain instant enmity of the Phlogerus' fellow demons of the Sixth Shell and their servitors and allies.