Alair - Holy Wars |
 DM Note: Allan and Derek this session, Aimo off doing in-law things, so DM controlled Egia - any mistakes are mine not his! |
Hougaard grabbed his bow off his back, stringing it as he step-step-stepped sideways with the speed of his training and Ghlaads' Haste spell. This brought the street gap in the surrounding houses level with the flight path of the flying form, which he could see heading south silhouetted against the moon, man-sized and shaped with a long batlike cloak. He had time for one hasty arrow, but the mixture of haste, target speed and agility defeated his aim and the arrow thumped into a gable as the creature swung out of sight behind a roof.
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Standing still, he swivelled his head, his wilderness-trained hearing triangulating the howling noises. "That way!" he declared, pointing, and the three set off into the winding streets, heading towards the sound. After a few minutes' hustling, they rounded the corner of an alley and there was the creature - another werewolf in its' hybrid form, attempting to sneak down a small street without much success; werewolves are not by nature stealthy creatures.
Missiles readied, the three moved cautiously into position to attack, but Egia's armour clinked at the wrong moment, and the beast whirled, snarling and growling. In a flash, it had closed more than half the hundred and thirty foot distance between them before anyone could react.
Egia loosed two arrows, but they glanced off the monster's heavy hide. A second later, Ghlaads sent a Fireball straight into its' face as it ran. Completely surprised it had nowhere to dodge to, and was engulfed in the blooming blaze of flames. A moment later it emerged, still running, but blackened, trailing smoke and a strong smell of burning dog, and on fire in several places. It was nearly upon them when Hougaard put his own arrow neatly through the low, sloping forehead and the creature dropped, ploughing into the ground as it shrank and changed. A moment later, the naked, scorched and pierced corpse of a villager lay at their feet.
Without wasting any time, the adventurers set off for the location of the next nearest howling - though the sounds had ceased. Their route took them across the main town square, and as they did so something caught Hougaard's eye - a change in the shape of the dark, silent Tower in the centre. The smooth curve of the domed top was broken by a blocky protrusion, square in the moonlight. Ghlaads cast a Light spell on one of Hougaard's arrows, and the Unfettered shot it as close to the tower top as he could. A ball of light forty feet across soared into the sky, passing close to the tower and illuminating the shape. It appeared that a slab had lifted like an opening window, then slotted back half its' length into the body of the tower to expose an opening into the interior.
Hougaard circled the tower to the place where he'd left his rope hanging, and found it in a heap at the bottom. After a brief argument, Ghlaads cast Spider Climb and shinned up the side of the ancient building with the rope, which she re-secured at the top for the others to climb up. As they did so, she prepared a small stone with a second Light spell and dropped it into a pocket. She then fished out the crystal from Vezdor's house and examined that. It was much brighter than it had been before, with a faint pulsing to the light that she'd not noticed before.
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Peering down the opening, the light of the moons showed them a stone floor, ten feet or so below, with a black circular aperture in the centre, presumably a staircase. Careful to avoid the central hole, they lowered themselves into the room beneath the dome, discovering it to be empty and unoccupied. They also discovered that the 'staircase' was nothing of the sort; it was simply a ten-foot-diameter shaft, disappearing down into the blackness for as far as they could see. At the very limit of the darkvision all now shared, sixty feet or so down the shaft, the faint outlines of the tops of four arches could be seen, leading into the body of the tower. Hougaard tried shining the light of the crystal down the shaft, and noted that it intensified as it passed over the archways. Egia reported that the whole place was steeped in evil, and the taint was stronger down near the arches.
Ghlaads began a detailed and thorough search of the area around the lip of the shaft for some switch, pad or mechanism that would produce stairs from somewhere. Hougaard watched her for a while, then shook his head. "These magic-users do like to overcomplicate things," he said to Egia, before pulling through his rope from the roof, knotting handholds into it, and feeding it down the shaft. Ghlaads looked at it, giving up, and sighed. "This is a place built by creatures who can fly, isn't it?" she said uncomfortably.
Shinning down, Hougaard reached the level of the arches, discovering that each led into a short passage - more of a ledge - leading to a gnarled and ancient door. Hougaard was just preparing to bash it in when a sound of rustling movement caught their ears from inside. On an obscure whim he reached out and knocked. Much to their surprise, silence fell inside and the door sung silently open.
Inside was revealed a narrow, curved room fitting into the shape of the outside of the tower. A vast sense of age pervaded its' appearance; bookshelves along one wall held nothing but dust, a stone table was surrounded by small crumbled heaps of what might once have been wood, other unidentifiable heaps of corruption were scattered across the floor. A huge stone block, marked with a joint and looking suspiciously like a tomb, squatted like a threat against the left hand wall. Of the source of the rustling there was no sign at all.
Cautiously, Hougaard and Ghlaads stepped in, bow and spells poised, looking right and left to try and locate what or who had opened the door. The same thought occurred to both at once and they looked up sharply - to meet the gaze of the black-robed, pale-faced figure hanging calmly in the air directly above the door with his back to the wall. The man gestured sharply, and each of the three adventurers felt a sudden assault on their minds, as if a million people were shouting into their minds' ear all at once. A wave of dizziness swept across them and was gone, leaving them unharmed but more than a bit angry. "Vampire!" yelled Egia.
Hougard reacted instantly. Leaping an incredible distance straight up into the air, he threw his arms around the figure, hoping his weight would drag it down to the ground. Whatever kept it in the air was equal to his weight though- for a moment he envied Egia the weight of her armour - and it remained airborne. His aim had been to get a grip on its' throat, but the solidity of its' position spoiled his aim and he ended up holding it around the waist. The two struggled and grappled, trying to immobilize each other.
Below, Egia struck out with Sunrazor, the flaming sword cutting a wound into the creature which screamed thinly. With a sinking feeling, she noticed that the wound wasn't as deep as it should have been, and moreover showed no signs of burns. Ghlaads launched Magic Missiles at it, and unlike the werewolf this creature was damaged by them. She stabbed with the sword in her other hand and grimaced as it glanced off without even penetrating the undead creature's skin. Her earlier wounds were already beginning to heal.
Egia continued to hack with Sunrazor as Hougaard wrestled with it, smashing a headbutt home to try and break its' grip. The vampire glared down at him, and he felt a heavy blow, as if he had himself been punched, though there was no physical contact nor sign of any spellcasting. The protection of his magical ring deflected the attack - just - and he continued to grapple frantically, finally getting his legs wrapped around the creature enough to tip it over in the air and disturb its' balance. Together, they crashed to the floor, and Egia struck hard, smashing the vampire's right arm. It thrashed, trying to escape, but Hougaard hung on grimly until Ghlaads loosed another flurry of Magic Missiles at it, striking it in the head several times. With a shudder, it went limp in Hougaard's arms, its' bloodless wounds gaping in front of his sweating face. Warily, he let go of it, and Egia slashed its' head off with Sunrazor.
The head - on closer examination, showing features not unlike those of the villagers below - rolled free, mouth agape and eyes glittering, and came to rest looking up at them.
"Strange," said Egia, "no fangs...."
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Session Date: 20th Feb 2013 |
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