Alair - Holy Wars |
"I wonder how the werewolves get up?" mused Egia. Hougaard shrugged. "Climb probably," he said, "the shafts are quite narrow and the surface is rough." After some deliberation, they selected one of the shafts and prepared with Darkvision and sundry other battle magics. Then Ghlaads stepped into space, the enchanted Featherfall effect of the shaft cradling her as she drifted gently down. Ten seconds later, Egia and Hougaard followed her, giving her room for her first action on arriving.
As she emerged at the bottom through the ceiling of the lair, heavy breathing confirmed to her that the five creatures who'd fled their first encounter were waiting for her. Dropping the last five feet as she emerged from the shaft, she landed lightly and unleashed the spell she'd held ready all the way down.
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A wash of flame erupted from a circle around her and radiated out in all directions, filling the small room almost completely. Howls and yelps confirmed that the five hybrid-form werewolves had been engulfed by the fire - even if the strong smell of burning hair hadn't been enough. As the spell completed and the flames faded - except for a few sullen flickers in corners where items or clothing burned - Egia and Hougaard dropped from the shaft and took up positions to form a circle facing outwards; just in time.
 DM Note: Werewolf number 1 had been referred to as "Lucky" because he not only made his save against the Greater Fireburst but managed to wound Egia. Hougaard responded to that with a critical hit, maximum rolled on both dice. Yelp. |
A scorched, blackened form loomed up over Ghlaads, claws and teeth bared. She flicked her wrist and snapped out an evocation, and five Magic Missiles battered it backwards, wounds appearing all over its' upper torso. Behind her, Egia's flickering sword carved lines through one werewolf, releasing runnels of blood, and next to her Hougaard punched one in the neck, shattering its' spinal cord, and kicked another in the chest hard enough to stop its' heart. Claws drew blood from Egia, and more raked at Ghlaads, but the Stoneskin she'd cast absorbed the impact and she escaped injury. She unleashed more Magic Missiles and her attacker's right forelimb dangled uselessly, broken above the elbow.
Egia rolled her blade over the guard of her opponent and plunged it into his body, sending him down coughing as his lungs began to fill with blood. Hougaard punched two-handed, low into the belly of a lycnthrope - noticing as he did that it was less burned than the others - and it was dead before it hit the ground. Egia took out the last one with a mighty swing and the fight was done.
While the others searched for anything useful - unlikely after the amount of fire that had been used - Ghlaads explored the passage leading to the other lair. It was empty, and she climbed back out up its' shaft. The others soon joined her, and after a little thought they decided to return to their camp and wait the night out. If the remaining Maculate wanted to get them, they'd have to come and look. Their prisoners looked heartened to see their rescuers return from under the palace floor.
After doing some healing and meditation, Hougaard and Egia turned in, leaving Ghlaads poring over her books in the firelight. First she put some time into learning the first of the spells from Severi von Dorenn's spellbooks, then she set up the spells she expected to need for the next day's action and turned in.
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The next day dawned grey and pale. The rescuees were asleep around the ashes of the bonfire and the three adventurers were fully rested. As they ate breakfast, Ghlaads sent Clauch around to investigate the surrounding area while the three cast their pre-battle spells. The weasel reported that the ruins of the ancient city extended for as far as he had travelled around their current location, but the only area not reclaimed by the patient forest was around the palace where they were. Satisfied that reinforcements for their enemies weren't imminent, the adventurers prepared to descend to the final Maculate stronghold.
Once again, Ghlaads led, her Greater Fireburst poised to fill whatever she found below, a cast of a more conventional Featherfall used to control her descent into the darkness. After a while, the Darkvision inherited from her mother showed that the bottom of the shaft was coming up, and she braced herself for landing. Her feet touched down gently and she straightened, her eyes widening as she took in the sight around her.
The drop-shaft had deposited her in a wide, circular depression not unlike an amphitheatre, with concentric stepped tiers rising to the level of the main floor, just around her eye level. That floor, far from being the modest-sized room she'd rather expected, extended more than two hundred feet away. The space around was huge; a vast cathederal-like space apparently formed from the living rock around it, the walls fluted and curved with smooth flowstone, the ceiling hidden by stalactites of various lengths, ranging from close to reaching the floor near the edges to ones with their tips a hundred feet above her head near the middle. Though no light source was visible, the cavern was evenly lit with a pale, unwholesome radiance. At the far end was a dais, again seeming naturally grown from the floor rather than crafted. On it rested a throne - not a carved block, but a thing of swirls and baroque curls, something that might have oozed from the floor like some hideous infection.
Flanking the throne were two figures. One was familiar - a thin, gaunt Maculate in close-fitting black, with a crimson cloak and a silver headband. He had only one complete arm; the other ended just short of the wrist, still not completely regenerated from where Egia had burned it off the day before. On the other side was a bulky-looking man, rather overweight and scruffy, dressed in nondescript brown robes and with his left hand resting on a waist-high stack of books as thick as his wrist. A strange helmet rested on his head, enfolding the sides of his face in silvery metal. This, by elimination, had to be the loremaster Wyr Venkos, the Eater of Children.
Between them, seated on the throne, was a taller figure, whose grace and elegance betrayed his elvish ancestry despite millennia as a vampire. Geofram, Psimaster Maculate and the most mentally powerful of all his kind, wore close-fitting pale grey leathers and a sheathed short sword; a heavy morningstar leaned against one of the throne arm, and five throwing stars twinkled on his chest.
Ghlaads didn't hestiate. Changing spells in a flash, she rapped out the words and levelled a finger, sending her Empowered Fireball lashing across the cathederal to burst neatly right in the centre of the group - right in Geofram's face. Blazing flames erupted outwards, engulfing all three of the Maculate, and they writhed in agony as they blackened and burned. Before her startled eyes, they staggered and dropped to the ground, the fire eating away at their undead flesh as their dark spirits evaporated. Ghlaads stared in disbelief for a moment, unable to believe this easy victory - with good cause. As she stood stunned, a massive bolt of lightning erupted from somewhere off to her right and struck her full in the side. As it did so, the illusion of the dying Maculate vanished from the throne end of the cathederal - though the stack of books still crackled and curled as the flames consumed them.
Egia and Hougaard saw the blast from where they were - around ten feet from the bottom of the shaft, climbing down a rope - and they dropped hastily down, knowing their wizardly friend had no such spell and that this had to be enemy action. Egia cast a Protection From Evil on herself as she dropped, and they came to rest ready for battle.
As they landed, a burst of magical emotion rushed over them from an unseen source; gibbering, unreasoning terror of the dark and the unknown. Such things could not penetrate the iron faith of a paladin of Belisama, however, and her indomitable nature bolstered and supported the courage of her allies, allowing them to throw off the spell without difficulty. As they did, the three Maculate appeared once more, a hundred feet from them to the left, poised in attitudes of spellcasting and attack. Egia tensed to strike at them, but Hougaard hissed, "The lightning didn't come from there!" and all three began to see flaws in the illusiouy figures. As they did, the shapes wavered, became indistinct, and vanished.
Egia focussed her faith's eye, seeking for the evil in their foes, and located one of them approaching stealthily almost straight ahead. "There.." she murmured sotto voce, allowing the others to prepare. Ghlaads speared him with a Greater Dispelling, her spell tearing the sorcerer Coriahad's magics to shreds and leaving him standing, startled and defenceless, in the open. The others wasted no time. Egia hurled Sunrazor, slashing a wound across his belly and staggering him. Just as he regained his balance, Hougaard reached him - moving at a fast walk to avoid losing the effects of the Strength of Stone spell Egia had cast on him. Desperately, the Sorcerer of the Maculate tried to get a spell off, but Hougaard punched him twice, disturbing his arcane gestures enough that his spell failed. A final kick crushed his skull and dropped him to the stone floor, ostensibly dead, though Hougaard knew that he would regenerate enough to rise again if nothing was done to prevent it.
 DM Note: After such a build-up, perhaps it was inevitable that Aimo would throw a 20/20 instant kill on this character. Why do my players have this uncanny ability to deliver instant kills to the 'boss monster'?! |
Egia had picked up another trace of moving evil; approaching herself in a stealthy way, clearly preparing to attack her from behind. Leaving it to the last moment, she suddenly moved, body, shoulder, arm and hand blending with flaming sword and iron will to drive home a strike of such perfection that Geofram, Psimaster of the Maculate, was slain in a single blow, his skullgem spinning off into the darkness.
Only Wyr Venkos remained fighting, but Ghlaads knew he was not to be disregarded simmply because of his unimpressive appearance. She erected a Wall of Fire where she believed him to be, but no cries of pain suggested she might have been right. At the same moment, from wherever he was, the Loremaster conjured a plain, ordinary Web spell and dropped it into the amphitheatre, right on top of Ghlaads and Egia. Egia remained still and evaded being enmeshed, but Ghlaads was mid-gesture and became entangled.
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Session Date: 17th April 2013 |
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