Episode 38 – The Lion Fling

Battle erupts! In the tight quarters of the Foxglove Manor, the two Faceless Stalkers begin slashing out at Theo with their razor-sharp claws. One manages to grab hold of him and Theo feels weak as blood pours out of the puncture wounds.

Krask provides cover fire with his crossbow while Barnaby and Fobias move closer to rescue the fragile witch. Theo summons his quasit in an attempt to provide an additional target for the stalkers, and does his best to land hexes to help out the rest of the party.

After the first stalker goes down, the trembling voice of a small girl comes from the upstairs. “Mommy? Daddy? What’s going on?” The remaining stalker, hearing the voice, turns to bolt upstairs but is cut down by multiple attacks of opportunity before it can get up the stairs. Before the party follows up on this new development, Theo blasts off some healing magic in preparation of anything.

Sensing that stealth isn’t really an option after the sounds of battle downstairs, Barnaby leads the group to the third floor and finds the voice coming from the other side of a locked door. In conversing with the voice, the party learns that this girl is allegedly Eriza, Aldern’s daughter. Having been duped multiple times in the past week, everyone is skeptical. They begin asking questions for Eriza to verify her authenticity, but they seem unable to come to a definitive conclusion that she is anything more than a newly-orphaned girl. Krask uses the conversation as a distraction to pick the lock and open the door.

The voice may have belonged to a little girl, but the body is all too familiar to the party.

Nualia.

Instead of having a single demonic arm, the gorgeous white-haired aasimar boasts two massively clawed hands, which are assumed to be gifts from Lamashtu. Nualia makes a brief speech about the Mother’s Children and attacks!

Krask is first to get picked up and he is hurled across the room at an ornate marble fireplace. The force of the impact destroys one of the outer columns and a metal lockbox tumbles from a secret compartment within. While Krask investigates the contents in a characteristic bout of prioritization, the rest of the party focuses their attention on the woman that easily defeated them back at Thistletop. Inside the lockbox is a hefty pouch filled with metallic coins and an important-looking scroll case stuffed with documents.

As the battle begins to turn in the party’s favor, Nualia sprouts two terrible horns from her head and begins to phase in and out of existence. Luckily, the party is able to connect through the concealment and hacks her down before she unleashes whatever power she was preparing. Just like that, Nualia is no more.

The party swells with vigor as they ascend to level 7!

Why was Nualia waiting in the Foxglove Townhouse? What secrets lay hidden behind the fireplace? Just one time can somebody actually be who they claim to be?