Alair - Holy Wars |
 DM Note: Everyone aboard for the first time for quite a while this session! :) |
As the light failed, the three adventurers took turns to rest and restore their strength - Hougaard meditating and renewing his inner energy; Ghlaads studying her book of spells and carefully casting the bulk of each one she planned to use, poising it ready for release at the appropriate moment; Egia offering heartfelt prayers and gratituide to Belisama for her aid so far and hereafter.
Each also snatched a little sleep, taking it in turns to keep watch over their comrades and the rescued prisoners of the Maculate. The items taken from Venforvyr's corpse were re-examined and ownership settled.
A little more than four hours later, Hougaard heard sounds from within the palace. Faint hints of movement were visible in the preternatural shadows, and the adventurers lost no time in preparing themselves for battle with various spells and enchanted equipment. Behind them, most of the prisoners huddled around the fire in terror, only two standing firm with the heroes, clutching their spears. Gradually, a group of furry bipedal shapes became visible, with other, slimmer forms behind them.
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Lifting her symbol of Belisama to the heavens, Egia cried an invocation to her Goddess and confronted the Maculate in the shadows wit her faith. Her willpower slammed into them like a wall, and all five simply disintegrated in a shower of golden sparks and fragments of dust and bone. Next to her, Hougaard dropped a skullgem to the ground and stamped it to dust, cocking his head at the cry of pain and fury that resounded from the back of their foes - not all the Maculate had been destroyed then. His fists ignited with the flames of his art, and he waited for the advancing hybrid werewolves to reach him.
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As they did, another Mind Blast washed over them from whatever Maculate still lurked in the shadows. Their preparations and research into such attacks stood them in good stead, however, and they threw off the effects. As the werewolves reached the centre of the palace, Ghlaads unleashed another Empowered Fireball on them, a massive detonation that engulfed the startled werewolves and burned off most of their pelts. Half of the ten turned and fled, leaving five more to charge home - to meet Hougaard, Egia and the two prisoners waiting for them.
Behind them, a slender female form, clad in tight-fitting mail and armed with a massive maul as well as a shield, bounded forward across the palace, heading across the battlefield towards one of the corners. She moved with incredible speed - only Hougaard could have had a hope of catching her - but Egia didn't even try. She lifted Sunrazor, angled it towards the Maculate, and released an eye-aching beam of wholesome golden light. It drove right through the woman's belly, burning a hole in her and releasing a flow of rich red blood. Egia blinked at this for a moment before realizing that it wasn't the Maculate's blood; the wound had opened whatever internal sac vampires used to store their stolen lifeblood and all the creature's stolen gore was leaking away. Hougaard bounded past her, striking as he went, but her agility was still enough to twist her away from his blow. Ghlaads cast swiftly, and an Orb of Force smashed into the woman, staggering her. Ghlaads' attention was torn from this by a werewolf's attack, claws and teeth lashing out, but the wizard's Stoneskin deflected the energy of the attacks, much to her relief.
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Shifting her grip on Sunrazor, she lashed out, beheading two of the werewolves. The prisoners glanced at her in relief, the spears which had failed to pierce the monsters' tough hides gripped in their hands. From next to her, Hougaard dashed forward with inhuman speed, his run culminating in a flying kick which smashed the female Maculate to the groumd, her leg shattered. As she tried to rise, Hougaard crouched and punched once, straight into her face. The impact was such that not only did her skull collapse, but her head actually came completely off, bouncing away across the cracked stone floor.
Back at the main fight, Ghlaads had been put to defending herself with her sword, and was fending the last werewolf off as best she could despite only basic training with the weapon. Beaten slowly back, her face cleared with relief as Egia and Hougaard closed on the beast, surrounding it. Glancing around at them, it realized its' predicament and backed away, hands raised in clear surrender. Egia levelled Sunrazor at it. "Revert to your human form if you wish to yield!" she barked. Bowing its' head, the lycanthrope concentrated for a moment. Its' form rippled and shifted, shrinking down to a burly naked human man, heavily bearded and desperate-looking, with wounds in his arm and leg - though less serious than they had been.
While Egia talked to him, Hougaard scoured the palace floor for the six skullgems from the slain Maculate. Keeping the large one for himself along with one of the smaller ones, he handed the others around.
Their prisoner named himself as Tarchoth, and on questioning told them he'd been a werewolf for about a week and a half. "Would you be free?" asked Egia. He looked her straight in the eyes, his own filled with pain. "I would do anything to be free." Hougaard stepped back into the group. "Would you die?" he asked bluntly. Tarchoth didn't hesitate. "Yes," he said "but I'd prefer to live." Hougaard looked at him for a moment, then pulled out paper and writing materials. "Help me map this place," he said, "describe it to me, and then run as far away as you can. Keep going until dawn. Don't hide your tracks; I will find you." Egia placed a hand on his arm. "We can help you," she said, "but not today." Tarchoth glanced gratefully around and then turned and fled into the trees.
The female Maculate turned out to have some pretty good equipment. Egia took her mailshirt, and Ghlaads the shield. Exploring around, they found themselves under what had once been the main dome of the palace. While much of it had collapsed, enough fragments arched overhead to make them a little nervous of standing beneath it. This feeling increased when they searched the pillar the female Maculate had been heading for and discovered steel wires running up it to an ingenious mechanism designed to drop the whole dome onto the heads of anyone in the centre of the room. Egia stood, her head tilted back, for a long moment. "Why not," she said with a smile that might have had her in hot water back at the seminary, "cut the cables up at the top so when they pull it, nothing happens?" All three laughed at the idea, especially when it was improved by the idea of reconnecting them to flasks of holy water. Hougaard swarmed up to the top and set their trap up, and the party turned their attention to the other parts of the palace as revealed to them by Tarchoth.
Two circular pits gaped in side halls, indicated by their guide as the werewolves route down to their lair, turned out to have some kind of slow fall magic on them, as a burning rag and then a stome drifted down like falling feathers into the darkness. A third shaft - described as forbidden to the lycanthropes - had no such magic on it. Egia glanced at Hougaard. "You can fall safely - why don't you jump down it?" she asked. Hougaard didn't look all that enthusiastic.
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Session Date: 3rd April 2013 |
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