#rubymassacre

The Ruby Masquerade is in full swing. Nigel, dressed as a Dottari guard, is bluffing and sneaking his way through the opera house to gain intelligence about the coming ambush by Barzillai’s forces. Jiao, Clenchjaw, and Boudicca are mingling with the crowd, gathering information and building trust. Lothario is making-out with a noblewoman he just met in the art gallery.

While the Silver Ravens maneuver, the orchestra performs and the guests eat and drink. Nigel finds a side-room with three Cockatrices in cages, with a hidden quick-release switch. He disables this device and jams the cage doors so the beasts cannot be freed.

At 10pm, the Dance of the Damned begins in grand Chelaxian tradition. Guests take the stage and dance together, being tapped on the shoulder by their gracious host, Barzillai Thrune, and “damned” off the stage if their dancing does not please the crowd.

Jiao, with the grace and stamina, outlasts and outperforms the hall to wins the Dance of the Damned, which appears to irritate Barzillai. But the night continues unimpeded, and the stage is cleared for the next performance. 

A powerful singer takes the stage and fills the hall with her voice. Her song carries through the orchestra pit into the basement, where more Silver Ravens lie in wait. Boudicca begins her prep spells while resting a hand on the Edge of the Sea.

As midnight approaches the singer concludes and Barzillai takes the stage. He gives a short speech describing the Silver Ravens as murderous criminals whose reign of terror ends tonight. While confusion spreads amongst the crowd, he seals the exits to the Opera House, and dozens of thugs dressed as Silver Ravens flood into the crowd. 

What appear to be angels accompany these false Ravens, and they immediately attack. Dozens are killed within the first few moments as sword blades, axes, and flaming arrows fall amongst the civilians. Jiao, Clenchjaw, Femmik, Lothario, and Boudicca fly into action to combat them. Streya assassinates the loading bay guard and works her way into the backstage area.

The orchestra, apparently a detailed illusion, vanishes just as a huge creature appears in the middle of the first floor crowd. She has the upper body of a beautiful woman, and the lower body of a huge snake. She terrifies all around her and summons a cloud of toxic gas.  

Nigel joins the fight on the second floor, as Caleb, Gabriel, Morfak, and Azwraith fly up through the empty orchestra pit. A chaotic battle ensues on every floor and staircase, in every room, and in the center of the great hall. Civilians are dying by the dozen even as the Silver Ravens fight to save them.

Eventually the Thrune forces are all engaged and must pause their wholesale slaughter to contend with the Ravens. Barzillai and a heavily augmented Nox join the fight and square off against Azwraith and Gabriel. By now the Ravens have assessed the fake-angels are in fact Erinyes Devils and a Bone Devil.

Octavio and the Hellknights of the Torrent storm the front doors of the Opera House with Hetamon and Rexus following them. They find the outer door guards dead with Lore standing over them, but she cannot breach the doors.

Rexus releases the heavy lock with a ‘Knock’ spell but the Dottari have barricaded the entrance from the inside. Kasston and Octavio chop and bash through with remarkable speed and ferociously fight their way into the lobby.

Gabriel hammers Barzillai but is brought down by the Erinyes arrows. The huge man falls onto the edge of the stage and slips over the side, plummeting into the basement. Boudicca dives from the balcony to the stage to fell Nox, and then dives again down into the basement to save Gabriel. 

She finds him laying very still in the orchestra pit, about to be devoured by half a dozen hellhounds Barzillai has as guards there. She casts ‘Slow’ on the hounds and stands over Gabriels unconscious form with her gleaming blue sword held out in front of her as long-dormant runes light up along its blade.

With Nigel blasting from above, Caleb dispelling their magical attacks, and Morfak channeling positive energy, Barzillai’s forces are brought to heel and he is knocked to the ground. But the soldiers of Thrune fight on, and the snake-devil is still killing civilians with abandon. 

Clenchjaw and Jiao have been stuck in the thick of the fight throughout all of this. While she has held her own against several Thrune agents, Clenchjaw has not faired so well. The bartender and bouncer has been knocked unconscious five separate times and raised back into the fight by Morfak and Hetamon’s positive energy channels. 

Ilsani the Hellknight Monk would later recount how Clenchjaw was grabbed by the bone devil, held four feet off the ground by his neck and with a positive channel, awoke and punched the devil square in the face before being flung to the ground again.

The second Erinyes is defeated, and Streya murders her way to the front of the stage along with Benjen and Hortense. Civilians are rushing out of the opened back doors and breached front as the Hellknights usher them with shouts and shoves. 

The bone devil teleports out, and the remaining Thrune forces are defeated or captured. Nearly 100 civilians are down but the Silver Ravens employ their clerics and medics in every possible capacity to save those that can be saved. People are traumatized, but thankful. Many of those invited to the Masquerade were Thrune loyalists, a stance they now question given what they have seen tonight. 

The Silver Ravens and Hellknights of the Torrent secure every room in the Opera House, but Shensen finds a trap door that was not there before Barzillai made this his home. Gabriel and Azwraith descend through the door down a narrow vertical passage with only stone handholds.

There they find underneath the Opera House basement is a natural cavern, magically shaped to connect to this trap door. They are given no time to contemplate this before they are engulfed in a swarm of bats and attacked by a powerful vampire who is none other than Lord Mayor Jilia Bainilus!

Jilia attacks immediately, attempting to mind control Azwraith who hurries down the ladder but he resists. Caleb and Lothario join the fight but are mind controlled by the vampire. The wizard begins to cast protective spells on the vampire as Lothario sinks arrows into Azwraith and Gabriel. Morfak saves the day with a ‘Protection from Evil: Communal’ he’s been saving up and they defeat the vampire.

They take her body upstairs and Shensen instantly identifies, as she puts it, “the rightful ruler of Kintargo.” The Silver Ravens utilize their only scroll of ‘Resurrection’ on Jilia who apologizes for being forced to attack them, and thanks the Ravens for their heroism and generosity.

The Ravens prepare to return to the Lucky Bones but Shensen stops them, saying that they must hold the Opera House. When they ask why, she informs them that it is the only place that the Song of Silver can be activated, and they will need it to win the battle for Kintargo that will surely follow the Ruby Massacre.