Xanesha

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Rise of the Runelords episode
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Episode no.	Episode 37
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
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The big room opened up almost to the top of the tower. There were stairs going up into the darkness. We started walking up the stairs and soon found them to be weak and quite unstable. By spreading out we lessened our weight on it. Honeypot changed somehow and didn't look like a satyr anymore. She had turned into some kind of cat-human cross. Suddenly we saw several of the wood-like shape shifters coming from above. There were five of them climbing down the walls from above and the creatures looking like city guards that had been chasing Nathaniel came in the door.

The ones climbing down the wall reached us first. One of them attack me from above, clinging to the wall, but missed. Another attacked Honeypot in the same manner and the rest attacked Nathaniel and Velicia in front of me. I stabbed the one that had been foolish enough to stand between me and Nathaniel and killed it. It fell down the middle of the room and hit the floor with a sickening thump. It was a long fall down. The other creatures climbed down to the stairs that creaked dubiously from the weight. I killed the second creature that took the place of the last one between me and Nathaniel. As the stairs were failing I retreated by flipping over another of the creatures. Honey went up to that one attacking it, and retreated back a few streps. Nathaniel drew it into his fight and killed it and two more. We all felt relieved that all the attackers were defeated before the stairs would fail and we all would fall to our deaths.

File:Falling bell.png

One of the bells fell down onto the heroes.

Then we heard a sound from above when a huge brass bell came crashing down. It fell towards Nathaniel and Velicia. They survived it by clinging to the wall but wasn't unscratched when the bell tore the stairs from under them. That's when the creatures looking like guards coming from below reached us. As I was rearmost one attacked me. It hit me and I used my cloaks power to teleport past Honeypot up the stairs. I threw my new dagger back at it but missed. Velicia used a spell on all three monsters attacking her and Nathaniel killing two of them. She then teleported up the stairs. Nathaniel climbed towards the part still standing of the stairs. The last one tried to attack him while he was exposed on the wall but suddenly Velicia appeared in thin air attacking the monster killing it and grabbed hold of the wall just as she started falling. There were two monsters left, both behind us surrounding Honeypot. I tumbled down the stairs down to one of them and killed it outright with a stab. The last monster tricked me by changing it's shape in strange ways but I still avoided it's attack. I responded by stabbing high and kicking the legs from under it, making it fall down the stairs. Nathaniel, who had continued up the stairs threw a hand ax from the next level of the stairs killing it.

We pressed on quickly up the stairs and noticed that those dropping the bell had been working on dropping another of the originally four bells but now they hurried upwards before we could reach them. The stairs ended at the bells but there was an old rickety platform outside the wall. Climbing up it we reached an empty room. We took a short rest regaining our breath from the hurried climb, before going back out to climb up to the roof.

File:Xanesha.png

The greater lamia Xanesha.

The top floor had no real walls but parts of the roof made sloping walls that protected us all from falling the almost hundred feet we were above the ground. There were big parts of the roof missing and the leaning angel was clearly visible from there. There were four more of the shape-change creatures there looking like two men and two women all very beautiful. There was also a fifth creature that was a woman from the waist up, but from waist down she had a snakes tail. Honeypot cast her glittering spell at a man, a woman and the snake-monster, blinding all but the man. Velicia followed with some electrical and some cold magic that made two enemies fall prone.

I threw my dagger at the blinded woman but missed. Nathaniel went right into the middle and struck around him, killing the monster looking like a handsome man. I killed the monster looking like a woman and retreated to behind the pillar holding the enormous statue of the angel above. The last woman followed me and stabbed me. I activated my braces and went out from behind the pillar and threw my knife at the snake monster. When the other dagger appeared in my hand again I put the vicious dagger back into its sheath.

The monster cast some kind of evil spell that made me see awful snakes attacking me, restraining me. Velicia used her magic to trade places with me and I appeared next to the big snake monster. I pulled out my duelist's dagger and used it's magic to trick the snake monster into an awkward position making the attack even better at unbalancing her. She called even more snakes to restrain us, but the pain from the snakes couldn't stop me from taking advantage from her being off balance. I stabbed her in the snake belly spilling lots of her blood, spinning around on my trapped legs I followed up with a stab to the side of her ribcage. Loosing my balance from spinning with my legs trapped I fell to my knees. The monster howled in agony and preparing for a powerful stab it raised it's spear menacingly above me. I felt my blood dripping from earlier wounds, feeling very vulnerable, but just when it's grip tightened on the spear for the thrust, Nathaniel skewered the monster with my fathers sword and the spear fell to the ground harmlessly. The monster was slain.

The last creature surrendered. It said that the snake monster was called Xanesha and was a greater lamia. It didn't know anything more about Xanesha but seemed almost religiously respectful before it and couldn't be humble enough. It seemed fairly stupid. Velicia told it to run for it's life and tell every evildoer that we would kill anyone staying, in a menacing voice. It did. As I peeked down over the city below I saw a lot of people gathering below. I told Velicia and she walked up to the edge and stood in a heroic pose and shouted to the crowd. I don't know if they heard, but at least they cheered.

We found coins, jewelry, clothes, mainly dresses, and decorations worth a couple of thousand gold pieces. The dresses were archaic and definitely out of style and probably had been for centuries. I took the mask she had been wearing. It had some medusa theme. There was another amulet with the seven pointed star on it, just like the one we already have. There were also proof of Xanesha's involvement in the murders in the for of signet rings from the victims and a sacrificial alter. There were signs that Aldern had stayed there when he was infected with ghoul rot. There were also a list with crossed out names of the victims. There were also some not killed yet, among those were that of the mayor. There were notes written in draconic that Velicia translated to us. It was notes about the mayor and studies of his habits. It seems Xanesha was planing to kill him herself.

Talking about Xanesha, she looked out of place, as if she had stepped right out of a portal from the other end of the world. She had very archaic clothes and jewelry. Her things seemed to be in the same style as the amulet with the seven pointed star on. She even had one herself. That could mean she was involved in the whole runelords thing. Marking the victims with the star before killing them would according to the letter to Aldern serve to capture the soul to give power to that greedy runelord.