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 DM Note: Sally was with us today and took over Thengorn the Cleric for the biggest battle so far in this campaign! |
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8. The Fae Mhor warrior who'd spotted Caitlin gave a low cry (which she alone understood) and all the dark elves responded.With an eerie rattle of needle-pointed legs, the spidershell sprang forwards to engage Caitlin, who braced herself to meet it, inadvertently blocking all her allies from exiting the passage. As it reached her she lashed out, but it wove sideways and lashed out with its' jaws, tearing into her armour and releasing a trickle of blood. A Magic Missile darted over Caitlin's shoulder as Yoshin, six inches taller, took aim from behind her. The spell blasted into the nearest of the two acolytes. Recovering, she lifted a hand, spoke a word in the language of magic - and everything went black.
Krizzen blinked helplessly for a moment, unable to see anything at all, and then loosed the bow he'd been holding ready at the place he remembered seeing the acolyte standing. She may have moved, or he may have missed; either way there was no sign he'd hit anything. He winced as he heard spellwords being chanted in the Fae Mhor tongue far off to the right, but nothing horrible seemed to happen at the end of them.
At the back of the group, Thengorn the dwarf was just at the edge of the magical Darkness, which to him appeared as a vast curving black wall blocking the corridor ahead of him. Gathering his faith, he called on Athagari to grant her light to the party and cast a Light spell into the room he'd glimpsed before. The effects weren't what he'd hoped; the Darkness remained as a muddy murk dimming and confusing vision, but the party could once more see their foes. Catilin gave a yell of shock at discovering a Fae Mhor warrior right in front of her, next to the undead spider, just in the act of striking at her with his sabre. Desperately she threw in a parry with her sword, just deflecting the cold edge away from her face as the other Fae Mhor advanced to join battle.
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Krizzen grabbed another arrow, nocked, drew and shot, this time wounding the female acolyte he'd missed in the dark, spoiling the spell she'd been just about to cast. Yoshin barked out another spell, and a Flaming Sphere three feet across came into existence between the acolyte and the warrior she'd just been speaking to. The two dark elves leaped apart, just evading the ball of fire, which twitched as if frustrated and rolled off across the floor towards the other warrior.
Words of magic rolled across the room from the far corner, and Thengorn - though unable to see the priestess casting them - recognized a Bless spell. Two can play at that game, he thought, and responded in kind, extending the goddess's help to all his allies.
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The second warrior sprang up onto the lip of the ghastly Font and levelled one of the strange little pistol crossbows at Caitlin. The weapon's high-pitched twangwas barely audible over the din, and the tiny bolt no more than a pinprick to the battling Tellaran. Rubbish, she thought, pulling it out and dropping it. Then a wave of dizziness rolled over her, and she stumbled. Damn, she thought, poisoned!The ground came up to slap her in the face, and everything went away.
With Caitlin out of the way, Yoshin had a much better view of the battle, and directed his rolling Sphereto attack the warrior who'd felled her. With a bound, it soared into the air, directly at the dark elf, but as it passed by him, the areas of the sphere that should have intersected him fizzled and vanished, leaving a strange-shaped cutout that prevented it touching him anywhere. As it passed, its' shape resumed, and it struck the floor a full globe again. Damn,thought Yoshin, magic resistant! A moment later, the warrior who'd been fighting the now downed Caitlin levelled his own deadly little weapon, and a poisoned dart felled Yoshin in the same way. The Flaming Sphere winked out as it's caster stopped concentrating.
Krizzen loosed another arrow, cursing as he missed again, then flinching as Thengorn shot a crossbow bolt past him down the narrow corridor. We've got to get out of this place!he thought desperately, ducking as the spidershell scuttled up onto the ceiling and slashed down at him, and the second acolyte threw a Hold Person at him. Rolling his shoulders, he shook the spell off, grabbed Thengorn by the backpack, and charged down the corridor past the prone forms of Yoshin and Caitlin. He lowered his shoulders and crashed into the warrior and acolyte now blocking the exit, sending both sprawling several paces back as he barreled past them to reach the Font. Dropping Thengorn and his bow, he reached over his shoulder and pulled Soothslayer free.
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Several thing happened all at once. In response to a spell cast by the priestess in the corner, a dog-like form materialized next to Thengorn and Krizzen, summoned from the lower planes; a hyena touched with fiendish power. Thengorn lifted the symbol of Athagari and bellowed defiance at the undead spider - which broke and fled, disappearing down the opposite corridor to the one the party had entered through. And Caitlin blinked, opened her eyes, and wondered where everyone had gone. Standing up, she was promptly hit with a Fear spell from the acolyte Krizzen had knocked down. Fear that was not her own washed through her, overcoming her completely. Throwing up her hands in terror, she fled back down the passage.
Krizzen dodged a mace strike from the second acolyte as the warrior on the font jumped down to attack Thengorn, and his compatriot advanced gloatingly on Yoshin, preparing to finish the helpless sorcerer. The priestess cast a Searing Light, and a bolt of blinding light tore through Krizzen's shoulder, leaving a smoking and cauterized wound. Swearing, he retaliated by lashing out at the hyena with Soothslayer. It was the first time he'd used it in battle, and the effects were startling - the beast was bisected at a stroke, gobbets bouncing in all directions. Beside him, Thengorn shot his last crossbow bolt at the priestess, wounding her slightly. "Valaquania!" cried one of the acolytes in distress.
7a. Caitlin shook her head to clear it. Her flight had taken her into the consecrated tomb of the lizardman priest, and the holy aura it radiated had helped her rally her courage. Getting a grip on herself, crestfallen at fleeing the field of battle, she spun and sprinted back the way she'd come, drawing her rapier to replace her dropped longsword. Damned if she'd fail her glorious ancestors and house, or her friends!
Back in the passage, Yoshin awoke, to find a Fae Mhor warrior poised over him, sabre in hand, ready to deal the death-blow. He didn't bother trying to get up, but thrust both hands straight at the dark elf, rapping out the words of a Magic Missile spell. The two bolts of energy caught the warrior completely by surprise, blasting into his chest, and he staggered backwards, stunned. Yoshin stumbled groggily to his feet, only to catch another dart from the corridor doorway and keel over again. The Fae Mhor leaned on the wall for a moment, recovering, then bent and picked up his sabre, preparing once more to finish off the downed spellcaster. At that moment, Caitlin pounded up the corridor and leaped at him, rapier extended, with an ear-splitting cry of rage.
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Back in the Font room, Krizzen had just been burned by another Searing Light spell from Valaquania, enough to make him miss the acolyte he was fighting Red streaks danced across his vision, and he knew he couldn't take much more. Thengorn heard a noise behind him and whirled, dropping his crossbow and clawing his mace from his belt in time to strike the second warrior who had reached him and was preparing to attack. Thengorn dealt the warrior a glancing blow across the legs with the mace, but the acolyte near the corridor cast a Command and ordered him to drop the mace.
Caitlin whirled and spun, her blade singing as she held off the warrior from Yoshin's still form. Both wounded, neither gave ground, locked in battle, running with sweat.
Krizzen, exhausted and badly wounded, fought on, surrounded by an acolyte and a warrior and battered by Valaquania's spells. The priestess had turned her attention to trying unsuccessfully to tear down Thengorn's Bless spell, easing the pressure on the lizardman, but then the acolyte got through his guard and her mace crunched into Krizzen's head. The lizardman went down, mortally wounded, and the Fae Mhor screamed an exultant prayer of offering to Lolth as she prepared to finish him off.
Disregarding his own safety, Thengorn turned and knelt over Krizzen, his hands already fortuitously empty, and hunched his shoulders against the inevitable attack as he cast healing magic to save his comrade's life. The gamble paid off - the warrior's sabre slid off Thengorn's scale armour - and Krizzen's eyes sprang open. As he scrambled up, seizing Soothslayer, the acolyte took the opportunity to heal herself, and Valaquania summoned another - rather smaller - hyena which began rather ineffectualy to attack Thengorn from behind.
Then the two indomitable heroes counter-attacked, Krizzen with Soothslayer, Thengorn with a dagger he pulled from his belt. A Fear spell slid off Thengorn's faith, and a crossbow bolt from Valaquania zipped past Krizzen, causing him to grin fiercely - if the priestess was reduced to missiles, she must be low on spells and her danger was reduced. Krizzen redoubled his efforts and delivered a deathblow in return, sending the acolyte who had so nearly killed him to the stone floor in a welter of blood as she turned to flee.
| DM Note: Both the Fae Mhor failed their Spell Resistance checks against something as simple as a Sleep spell. |
At that moment Yoshin, who had recuperated once more, dropped a Sleep spell into the battle, centred on the Font. Both the warrior and the last acolyte staggered and went down, plunged into unconsciousness. At the end of the room, Valaquania cast again, a thread of angry fear in her voice. Once more there was no apparent effect, but Krizzen wasn't fooled that she was harmless. Reaching over his shoulder, the lizardman grabbed the Blitzspear and hurled it at the priestess.
The javelin lanced across the room towards Valaquania, bursting into a blaze of electrical energy halfway as it accelerated to twice it's former speed. With a deafening crack of lightning, it struck home, staggering the startled Valaquania as it blasted her backwards. Snarling in fury, the priestess stepped into the stone wall - and disappeared!
Thengorn skewered the second hyena with his dagger, while Yoshin turned and blasted Caitlin's foe with two more Magic Missiles, destabilising him enough for Caitlin to wound him again, after which Yoshin delivered the fatal strike with his final Magic Missiles. As Krizzen and Thengorn delivered the coup to the sleeping Fae Mhor, Caitlin stumbled wearily into the room to slump to the ground, panting in exhaustion.
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Session Date: 5th May 2013 |
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