Alair - Holy Wars |
 DM Note: Full house this week! |
Egia and Ghlaads addressed their injuries with Lay on Hands and potions, after which Ghlaads could walk once more, though painfully as her abdominal injuries remained.
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14. They looked around the room of the massacre, noting the sad remnants of the monastery's inhabitants, many lying next to the pitiful kitchen implements they'd seized to try and fend off the dreadful Prince's attacks. Egia stood, looking down at the body of Tremones the Pure for some time. "We should lay him to rest with respect," she said at last, "though he was a heretic follower of false Gods, he died well in defence of the defenceless." She lifted his bones, gathering them in the shredded remnants of his armour, and as she did so a belt pouch split, disgorging some papers. These were mostly decayed beyond reading but one had some tantalizing hints of information about the events two hundred years before.
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After laying the knight out respectfully in the Abbot's shrine, they pored over these papers but were unable to make much of them, except for the name of Severi - the von Dorenn mage around whom much seemed to revolve. Egia and Ghlaads had a feeling that this related to the unopenable door near the teleport trap, and went back to have another look in case that jogged any memories. Hougaard remained in the massacre room, making a more careful search of the wreckage and the walls.
15. The doors proved immovable and uninspiring of fresh ideas, so Ghlaads turned to her magic as she studied them. Unbreakable, impossible to open they might be, but they were still set in plain stone walls. Carefully, she cast a Stone Shape, and the rock walls around the edges of one of the two halves of the door flowed like water away from the metal. The concealed hinges came into view, the door tottered for a moment, and then toppled backwards into the room beyond with an echoing crash.
The air in the room beyond the ensorcelled doors resembled a well of cloying ink. All was darkness except for one thing, clearly visible; a huge glyph in the centre of the floor, pulsing with an eerie red light. This didn't so much illuminate the darkness as lend a crimson hue to the blackness. Their own light seemed to have failed them; the only light in the room came from the strobing, blood-red rune.
Egia's goddess-granted senses were screaming with the evil power she was facing. Ghlaads reached for her Daylight-treated dagger and groaned. Hougaard still had it!
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A form straightened from where it had been leaning against the far wall. The flashing red light etched a figure against the darkness; humanoid and skeletal, it lifted a black sword as a long cartilaginous tongue whipped from its' mouth and weaved back and forth, dripping something vile.
Neither was in any doubt that they had found the cursed prince the diary had spoken of, and their mistake at splitting up became instantly plain. "Run!" shouted Egia, "go get Hougaard; I'll hold it off!" Ghlaads paused a moment to cast Mage Armour on her sister and then took off at a sprint as the paladin drew Sunrazor and began to back out of the room in a fighting retreat. She angled her holy Flower pendant towards it and tried to turn it back with the power of her faith, but it chuckled wickedly at her and advanced at a saunter, casually brandishing the awful black sword it bore. Undead as it was, its' state of mind was hard to read, but it looked to be enjoying itself.
3. Carefully backing away to keep out of range, Egia cast a Protection from Evil on herself in preparation for the fight to come. She retreated through the passages to the room of the Sigil, the main entry hall to the complex, and there she made her stand to hold the monster prince in the corridor. This abomination must not be allowed to reach the surface! she thought.
The damned prince advanced on her, sword poised easily in one hand and that disturbing tongue writhing alertly. Egia set herself and struck, Sunrazor's holy flame cutting a wound into the unliving flesh of the creature's chest. Though no blood flowed, it snarled with pain and anger - and struck back. Defending frantically, Egia felt the sword bite twice, and a palpable darkness clawed at her spirit from those wounds. His blade was as unhallowed as hers was holy, it seemed. Distantly, she could hear Ghlaads screaming for their monkish comrade. "Make it quick, you two!" she muttered to herself as she ducked the dripping tongue's lunge for her face.
| DM Note: There's all sorts of maths one can do with dungeon squares, move rates, run moves x4, Listen checks for when he heard her and so on to work out how long it took Ghlaads to go for help. Working all that out with my poor old number-blind brain would have stopped the game dead. DMG, page one, "The DM's Best Friend is +2" - two combat rounds. Felt reasonable, kept play rolling, job done! Masterful use of Disarm here from Allan; 1d8+6 +2d6 unholy damage was a good thing to get away from the Prince! |
Gritting her teeth at the pain in her belly, Ghlaads ran down the dark corridors, yelling Hougaard's name. Rounding a corner, she saw him - still surrounded by the nimbus of the Daylight-treated dagger, come into view, running towards her with the inhuman speed of his secret training. She turned and headed back, Hougaard slowing to match her pace and falling in next to her. In a few gasped words she explained, then cast a second Mage Armour on him as they headed back towards the sounds of battle where Egia stood her ground against the terrible Prince who had slain so many.
Bright pale Sunrazor clashed and skirled against the dark, unholy sword of the prince as the paladin of Belisama fought back and forth across the flagstones with the walking corruption which dwelt in what remained of the Prince's body. Both had taken more wounds but the Prince did not seem to be slowing down at all. Suddenly the words of magic sounded from behind Egia, and a luminescent sphere of energy began to form around the opponent she fought, rising from the floor to close like a flower. With a deft, flowing movement, the Prince dodged around to escape being trapped in the sphere, and Ghlaads groaned in frustration. The movement disturbed his concentration, though, and his thrust at Egia went wide. As his arm reached its' full extension, Hougaard stepped up from the side, whirling his nunchuku. With a deft flick, one end spun around the Prince's dark blade, the chain rattling as it tangled itself up with the sword. Before the Prince could react, Hougaard yanked hard on the other end and hauled the sword out of his hand. Foregoing any more attacks, he rolled backwards out of the fight, taking the Prince's weapon with him.
Although undead were normally not prone to emotion, in this case the Prince's feelings were crystal-clear. For a moment he stared crestfallen after the swift-moving Unfettered, then was jolted as Sunrazor bit into his body once more. Tearing his eyes from the disappearing sword, he lashed out at her with his gaunt fists, which she easily evaded. The hideous tongue struck her on the arm, and for a moment she felt her muscles stiffen as the Paralysis venom assaulted her system. Then she shook the effect off as she felt Ghlaads touch her shoulder with a spell. "Strike true!" she whispered urgently.
| DM Note: Smite Evil, Power Attack 6 and True Strike - wallop! |
Egia cried a war-shout as she struck down at the creature's shoulder with all her might. Undead ribs cracked as the blade bit deep, and the Prince stumbled back half a step. Behind her, she heard a rattle as Hougaard backhanded the black sword down the passage towards the exit, then sprang back to the attack.
"Stand clear," warned Ghlaads in an undertone, "Wall of Fire incoming." Egia stood her ground. "Then you'd better get it in the right place!" she gritted, her blade flashing as she struck again, a moment before Hougaard's punch rocked the Prince's horned head backwards. The Unfettered's movement carried him back from the fight as was his way, but Egia remained in place, eyes narrowed, as Ghlaads cast her spell.
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With a deafening roar of flames, the Wall of Fire appeared right at Egia's feet. Her face was gently warmed by the fire, but the main fury of the flames was directed away from her, straight at the Prince. Taken completely by surprise he made no effort to seek shelter (not that there was any!) and was engulfed. For a moment the faint outline of his form was visible as a shadow amongst the flames, and then it crumbled as the undead creature was reduced to a scatter of ashes. Atop the sigil of his House inlaid into the floor of the hall died the lost Prince of House Tandalin, his troubled soul released at last into death.
Egia and Ghlaads dropped to their knees and gave thanks to Belisama. Hougaard's relationship with his taciturn Sea God was rather less formal, so he took the time to examine the sword he'd acquired. Long and smooth, light seemed to fall into it as he looked, and despite his lack of the senses Egia had, it sent a shiver down his spine to touch it.
He looked up as the others approached, Egia holding a small golden object. Graven into the metal was a symbol - the same symbol as was inlaid into the floor beneath their feet - the badge of House Tandalin. "More proof," said Ghlaads. "Priceless to our Count out there," suggested Hougaard, "but nicely made; several hundred golds' worth by the look of it."
15. The room wherein the Prince was imprisoned was now simply dark, and the Daylight dagger illuminated it sufficiently to reveal a huddle of crumpled bones and once-rich robes at the far side. The spine was severed completely by a heavy bladed weapon, almost certainly a sword. Leather bracers remained on the arms, and a dark leather satchel on a strap lay nearby. Neither item was decayed, suggesting they were enchanted, and so it proved.
Inside the satchel were some loose papers and a heavy book, with "Severi von Dorenn His Spellbook" written on the cover in the archaic script of the 1630s. So these bones were those of the wizard Severi, his vaulting ambition curtailed by his loss of control over his own creation.
Egia took the satchel, which was enchanted to hold far more than it otherwise could; Hougaard took the bracers which would improve his defensive forms; and Ghlaads paged through the spellbook greedily, chuckling as she ran her eyes down the list of spells laid out therein. It would take her a while to master some of these, but it would be well worth the effort.
12. Before they left they took the Prince's sword to the Abbot's shrine and Hougaard broke it against the altar. All three felt a lightening of their spirits as the evil power leached away from the splinters of metal, now returned to a more normal grey steel colour.
The sun stood almost due overhead as they descended the crag towards where a thin thread of smoke told that Lortes had a fire lit for lunch. As they followed the zig-zag path down through the undergrowth, though, the faint sounds of cries and blows came to their ears. Lortes was under attack!
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Egia and Ghlaads began to hurry down the path, but Hougaard struck straight down the hill, his superbly trained muscles and reflexes allowing him to leap from crags and outcrops and slow his fall to land in safety. As he crashing out of the trees into the campsite, he took in the scene at a glance. Young Lortes was backed up against a tree, sword in hand, desperately defending himself against a ghast which snarled and clawed hungrily against the wounded youth. As he charged at it, it spun and lunged at him with its' teeth. Hougaard grinned as the fangs skated off the new bracers, then struck savagely. Lortes, exhausted and weakened, tried to assist with an attack from behind but was unable to pierce the creature's tough hide.
Hougaard punched twice, jarring the thing backwards, and then swung into a roundhouse kick that smashed its' ribcage in, dropping it dying to the grass as Egia and Ghlaads came into the camp.
Egia looked at Lortes' wounds, and declared them minor, but gazed into his eyes for a moment before saying "If you feel ill in the morning, tell me; you may need more help."
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Session Date: 17th Jan 2013 |
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