Helmed Horror

Together with Myrddin, I walk to the quest board – we’ve signed up for the Helmed Horror quest, and we see more Guild members have joined us.

The basement of the "Golden Sun Tavern" in the Emporium-district is unused for over a week now. The patron heard things that he couldn't explain and there was something different when he went there last. He got scared and called a town guard that went in to investigate. The town guard never returned, so the patron send down one of his staff that came back up screaming. He saw an armor moving towards him.
We suspect it is a Helmed Horror. This threat should easily be cleared by a party of 4 adventurers. The patron set a reward.
Reward: 400 GP

We gather the group and walk to Desmund, the receptionist, to tell him we’re ready to start the quest. Desmund is an Aasimar with blood-red eyes. He gives us the directions to the Golden Sun Tavern, but Zeph also knows where it is; just a few blocks from here. Tamir and Zeph did some research together on the Helmed Horror, so that’s nice. I reckon they’ll tell me on the way.

As we arrive in the tavern, we see it is almost totally empty but for ONE drunken guy sleeping in a chair in the back – drooling, I might add. The tavern is very large, I reckon it is almost three times as large as the Guildhall of Heroes Roost, but not nearly as large as the throne room in my castle in Abu Fabous, so I’m not THAT impressed.

“Are you from Heroes Roost?” we hear originating from the bar. “Great, you’re the ones we’re looking for.”

I’m the first to approach the bartender while pushing Tamir back to get there.

“So, you’re the big guns, right?” he looks up at Tamir. “You seem like a great group fit for the task.”

“I’m Carl Daemon,” he continues. “I’m the patron here. I hired you. I’ll tell you what happened. I cannot enter the basement for a week now – however, all the food is in there. It is lying there for a week already, so it must all have gone bad already. I’ve ordered new food, but I need a place to store it. The reason that I cannot go in there, is that I heard something down there that was making a fuss. I called the town guard. He went down but did not come up. I sent someone of my staff down to check up on him, but he came back screaming. He told me something was moving there – a harness. So, that’s why we suspect it to be a Helmed Horror.”

We ask if the staff member is present today. Carl calls for Jaiden and asks him to tell us what he’s seen in the basement. Jaiden went looking for the guard but only saw a giant harness moving towards him. He was so scared he immediately turned on his heel and ran back upstairs. He did not see the details of the harness, he dropped his torch out of fear. We thank Jaiden and Carl sends him back to work. “We’ve done some research on this subject: someone did create the Helmed Horror. Do you know anyone who might want you dead?” Tamir asks. “No….” says Carl fearful. “Not that I know of.”

“Okay, let’s go downstairs to find that Helmed Horror,” I say. I’m already bored with the story and want to find the source of the trouble. Zeph stops us – he first would like to talk to the guy in the corner. I stand in the back, not really interested. As Zeph starts asking questions, I can see the drunken guy broaden his eyes in fear and disbelief: “I’VE DONE IT NOW… I AM SO HIGH RIGHT NOW. WHAT IS THIS FLYING THING?” 

“Did you see something in the basement?” 

“UGGHHHH UMMMM NOOO.” 

“Don’t be afraid, I’m a fairy. I’m Zeph!” 

The drunken man looks past the fairy and his eyes rest on Tamir – his gaze becomes more frightened. What scares him, even more, is the illusion of a beer pull in the middle of the air. I can sense this is going in the wrong direction so I wave Zeph aside and stand in front of the man. Next, I ask him if he’s been to the cellar lately. Suddenly, the man makes a swift move and runs off. “He’ll come back, don’t worry!” shouts Carl from the bar. “Let me show you guys the cellar.”

We follow Carl into the cellar. Tamir and Zeph cannot see a thing, so Tamir lights a torch, and Zeph uses his magic to produce some lights. It looks ominous in the cellar, it smells sour and I only see creates and barrels. There is a little side room with bags and some grains next to it. In the main room, we see a still harness with a sword. I point my javelin at it, but a spectral hand floats past me and tries to touch the harness to see if it is ‘alive’. However, before it can touch the harness, it gets stopped by something invisible! It is a weird jelly-like cube!

Zeph shoots an arrow at it, and I slash it with Legbiter. Tamir throws crates and barrels at the cube. It all gets absorbed in its jelly and stays there – immovable. “AGGRESSION DETECTED!” Tamir says as he gets hit by the cube when he steps back. A firebolt scorches the surface of the cube. It crumbles and then the jelly covers the deprivation. “LEGBITER, you’re awesome, keep using your FIRE!” I yell, pumped up by the battle. Suddenly, my joy is replaced by surprise: the cube covered me in a matter of seconds and now, I’m trapped, unable to move. The cube is transparent, so I can still see everyone, but cannot breathe. I need to get out! I collect all my power and with immense strength, I can step out of the cube. When I step out, Tamir transformed into the monstrosity I saw during battle royale: Decimator. Decimator attacks and gets the cube to leak its ooze. “Look out for the other one!” he says. “There is one around the corner.”

I need to pay more attention, as I’m distracted looking for Myrddin, I almost get swallowed by the same cube. Luckily, I can deflect it just in time. However, I get pushed back, and now, Myrddin and I are standing back to back – and suddenly, COVERED IN GLITTER. I like being shiny, but only from the gold and metal of my armor. This is just too much. Zeph flies off singing, leaving a trail of glitter.

I leap in the air, using my divine favor, and smite-slash the cube with Legbiter. The cube almost falls apart but is still jiggling. Decimator deals with the final hit: the cube falls apart and goops to the floor. The harness stays up and we can see a skeleton within. Probably, that was the ‘Helmed Horror’. There is no time to investigate: there is another jelly around the corner. Decimator tries to protect Myrddin in my absence. Despite the protection, the cube covers Myrddin. It has my buddy!! “GET HIM OUT!” I yell as I stick my hand in the cube trying to grab Myrddin’s hand. It fails, and I get a lot of acid on my hand – it hurts like hell. Decimator also tries to get Myrddin out, but seemingly, within the cube, it is way too slippery to get hold of objects or creatures inside.

Oh damn. What to do next? Luckily, I don’t have to think long, because Myrddin steps out of the cube the same way I did. I have to jump out of the cubes’ way for it not to cover me again – I search for a place out of its reach and heal myself. For some reason, the cube doesn’t want to cover Decimator/Tamir, probably because he is made out of metal instead of flesh and bones. Or maybe I’m just that attractive. We’ll never know: Decimator slices the cube with his claw and slices it clean. The pieces of the cube slide off each other and blob to the ground.

I pull myself together and stand up again, feeling refreshed. I kick against the harness – it is quite hard. Decimator transforms back, and Tamir asks: “What happened?”

“You’ve slain two gelatinous cubes,” Zeph replies. 

“I cannot believe it! I wanted to catch it…”

“That did not really work, huh…” says Zeph. 

Tamir looks quite sad. That is just weird – not knowing you did something and being sad about slaying your enemies. Not in MY book.

Everyone approaches me and the harness. I let everyone know I feel horrible, and in response, Zeph heals the acidic wounds on my body. Myrddin thought this encounter was scary and that even he had to take cover. We investigate the body and all think this is the town guard that went downstairs a week ago. He must be covered and digested by the gelatinous cube during the time it got to get us here, and Jaiden thought it was a Helmed Horror because the cube was transparent and could only see the harness.

Tamir is busy scouting the cellar for other enemies but only finds some stairs. I walk with him and he says: “You go back to the party, I’ll stay here and keep watch.” “No. I keep watch.” l reply. I don’t mind that magical stuff in the other room. I hear in the distance “… the harness is not usable, but the sword, it’s magic…” I’m intrigued nevertheless. “Hey, guys,” I shout. “Let’s go down the stairs!” 

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER! STAY AWAY!”

“Why?”

“Just… just stay there!” 

“Sorry, that is not a good enough reason!” I reply. 

We descend. I go first because Tamir doesn’t feel that good.

We enter a square room with two blobs of water on the ground, a round table in the corner with a couple of chairs, and a candle on the table. In the corner, I can see a young boy. “Why did you come downstairs? I told you not to!” the young boy points at us with a wand. “THREAT DETECTED!” I hear behind me. 

“Calm down, we’re friends!” says Zeph to the boy. 

“NO! Go away! I’m not going to warn you again.”

“Are you afraid?” asks Tamir. 

“Go away!” the boy shouts. I can see the hand he’s holding his wand with, shaking. 

“Put. The wand. AWAY.” says Tamir intimidatingly. I back him up. 

The boy warns us one more time, or else.

Suddenly, I see Myrddin appear next to the boy, grabbing his wand out of his outstretched hand, and running away.

“No! That’s mine!” the boy cries.

Tamir walks towards the boy, but steps into a puddle. I look at the puddle and can see that it is solidifying in seconds. The puddles turn into grey oozes and a black pudding drops from the ceiling. They all attack Tamir. Ouch! That must hurt; especially because Tamir just let us know he is not feeling well.

What I can see, is that the enemies do less damage than we expected – the attacks they do seem more intense than how Tamir responds. Zeph yells: “I’ve cast a spell on them so they cannot hurt you as much as they normally would!” Nevertheless, Tamir turns into Decimator again. I hit the black pudding with Legbiter, and split up the enemy: the black pudding just splits into two smaller ones. I am totally shocked. Not by the black pudding, but by Legbiter: my sturdy and trustworthy sword is eroding before my eyes! I walk away and take a moment to inspect Legbiter. Myrddin shoots little bombs from the wand he just snatched from the boy.

During the battle, Decimator grows a tail! What the hell?! Zeph attacks with his arrows and heals me. Some enemies are gone, but I am still in a pickle with Tamir. I have to attack an ooze and slash with my sword. It erodes even more! No. no. no… Legbiter… However, I have to help everyone. Legbiter has served me many many years, and will be missed, but needs to be used for its purpose! Myrddin, in the meantime, attacks again with the wand and kills the last ooze. Decimator shouts: “Magical swords work better!” he reaches for his belt and hands me the magical sword the party just found. I drop my valued Legbiter and reach for the magical sword. “Thanks!”

The black puddings attack again, and I meet them with a slash of my sword. Again, the pudding splits up into smaller bits, but my new sword doesn’t get damaged. Thank god. The sword feels better in my hand, and even more powerful. It is also shinier than Legbiter. Hm. I’ll have to name it. Quickly, I come up with a name: Desecrator, destroyer of oozes. With this name, inspired by Decimator, I try to honor the kindness he showed during battle. Suddenly, I see Decimator collapse in pain. He yells for help, so I have to disengage from the oozes and puddings to get to him. As I’m trying to get away, the enemies don’t want to let me go and attack with my back turned to them. I knew I was attempting something dangerous, but I am tackled and fall to the ground. Before I hit the floor, I faint.

Fighting for my life, I finally wake up. I see Zeph floating in front of me. Apparently, he killed the last enemies and stabilized us afterward and waited for his magical powers to return from a short rest, and healed me after. I use my healing powers to heal Myrddin, who also collapsed, and Decimator. When Decimator wakes, he turns back into Tamir. He twists his head 360 degrees and says: “SCANNING FOR THREATS”. After a few seconds – “THREAT NOT FOUND” follows.

Apparently, the boy ran away from home. He is called Jonathan Birchwind. His dad was not very nice to him, so that is why he ran away. Zeph offers him a place with Heroes Roost, but Jonathan chooses to go home. Zeph realizes that this is the son of the town’s lord. The oozes protected Jonathan, but he did not know why. We also noticed the oozes and puddings did not attack Zeph at all during the fights. We decide to do some research when we get back to the guild, but first, we need to take Jonathan home. We take Jonathan with us and go upstairs. We see Carl walking toward us as we walk up the stairs. 

“Oh, you’re back! And… JONATHAN BIRCHWIND!” he bows. “Where did you come from?”

“I hid in your basement… Sorry…” Jonathan replies. 

“Ah okay… And the harness?” 

“It was the harness of the guard preserved in a gelatinous cube.” Tamir answers.

Carl tells us he’s already paid the Guild. He thanks us many times and shows us out.

We walk to Jonathans’ home in the Gold Cloud district. The moment the guards see we have Jonathan with us, they let us through. We knock on the door. Guards open the door and call for Lady Birchwind. She is a very nice-looking lady, maybe a bit too old for me, but if I wanted to, I could charm her right here, right now. I choose not to because I intend to return later. It is always good to make a heroic first impression so she might remember me later. 

“JONATHAN! There you are! I cannot thank you lot enough!”

Apparently, some other officials were assigned to this quest, but we solved it. Luckily for us, we’re getting paid. She walks off and returns with 500 gold pieces. We thank her, and I wink at her. Unlucky for me, she doesn’t notice.

We return to the Guild, all bloodied and tired. Violet approaches us as she sees us come in. “Oh guys, you look BAD. However, you did a good job! Carl came by and said he was happy! So yeah, you all get 100 gold pieces as a reward!”

We are all happy with what we did and sit on a couch to divide the loot we found. We divide the 500 gold pieces from Lady Birchwind and Zeph also splits the 55 gold pieces he found on the floor when we killed the gelatinous cubes. Nice! I did not take that much money from the Abu Fabous treasury, so I welcome this money with open arms.

We high five, and try to relax. I tell Myrddin: “You are very, very resourceful, you know that? You had me scared for a moment, but I think you’re very powerful. This is also the first time I’ve seen you use magic from a wand. Is the wand magic, or you?” I think for a minute and slap him on his back. “OH, it doesn’t matter, I now have a magical sword! I’ve called it Desecrator, destroyer of oozes!”