L'amore tra i mostri: Session 7, Q7-9

Continued from HERE.

7. Where can the heroic motivation be most effectively redeemed? 

Be the PCs first: 
Encounter: defiance & combat
Place: Subterranean Cove, Northern Wilds, same time
After snooping around the cove in squirrel form, Gino returns to the others and tells them about the distorted monstrous image around which a circle of colorful beads and gems is being arranged. The image flickers as space and time around it contort, giving it, perhaps, a "dancing" characteristic. The Dark Adept who is commanding the Port Aghi ruffians to deliver and arrange the beads and gems is clearly trying to summon something horrific from another plane. Orsini, Don Pantaloni, and Liliana agree with Gino that this unnatural thing must not come into their world. On the count of three, they charge into the cove!

Be the GM next:
Story Cube: potion
The dozen ruffians are surprised, dropping their crates, and most are unarmed, so they flee, but the Dark Adept throws a vial on the floor which bursts with arcane light, and the ruffians are transformed almost instantly into zombies! Three are commanded to protect the Dark Adept, while the rest are sent to kill the heroes.

Be the PCs once more: 
Orsini tries to slice his way to the Dark Adept, but there are just too many zombies in his way, and two are able to strike him hard. One stays up with its zombie fortitude [power] and hits him again! Liliana gets close to Orsini and is able to use her backstabbing ability to great effect. Don Pantaloni fires arrows at the zombies protecting the Dark Adept, and then becomes a target of the servant of evil, taking a painful injury from his Inflict Wounds Spell. In return, the elf sends his final Magic Missile spell straight at the Dark Adept. With Gino cleaning up the rest of the zombies with his great club, Orsini is able to reach the Dark Adept, demanding that he surrender. The Dark Adept refuses and attacks, forcing Orsini to kill him. [Both Orsini and Don Pantaloni were nearly killed in this fight.]


8. Where does the final showdown between the heroes and the enemy take place in relation to the results of Q7? 

Be the GM first:
Story Cube: ladder
Encounter: enemy nears completion of its goals
Place: Subterranean Cove, Northern Wilds, same time
Deeper within the cove, the colorful lights get brighter. Sounds begin to emanate from the room - the sounds of something trying to climb into this reality.

Be the PCs next:
Gino leads the others to the monstrous image. There, they see the hideously large, grossly inhuman thing still distorted, but now able to reach a terrible claw into the physical world. Don Pantaloni calls it "ugly," curses at it in the fey language, and then casts Mage Hand to push away some of the beads and gems on the ground, breaking the circle.
  
Be the GM once more:
The monster screams, its image folds in on itself and disappears, and the arm that was reaching through the planes falls to the ground, severed from its body. The fingers twitch a bit, and then the entire appendage melts away into a puddle of puss.


9. Where does the world stand after the results of Q7 and Q8?

Be the GM first:
Story Cube: scales [taking it as a measure, not justice]
One of the Five Dancing Demon Kings has been defeated, but four others remain.

Be the PCs next:
• There are small boats and a subterranean river. Guess what's next?
• Too much skulking about for decent XP, but Level 4 is close.