All the Way to the TopAll the Way to the Top |
After some discussion, the vampire Tallan volunteered to go scouting to the two remaining floors of the tower. Slipping into Wraithform, she faded out through the external wall and made her way up past the fifth floor towards the sixth, where she had reasoned Mandalar must be hiding. Rather to her surprise, however, as she passed the fifth, the singular human heartbeat that she had identified as Mandalar's proved to be on the lower floor, with the demonic ones on the highest floor above. Pausing at that level, she ghosted through the wall and peered around.
Once, this had probably been Mandalar's own quarters. Once it had been beautifully appointed in taste and luxury. However, virtually everything - whether of value or not - had been smashed to bits and scattered across the floor in an orgy of destruction. At a guess, this was the reaction of demons balked of their wizardly prey as they had chased him in here after the accidental creation of the Fistula.
Turning her senses around, she tracked the heartbeat to one of two small wooden doors that seemed to open into "dead spaces" within the thickness of the walls. Lining herself up outside this, she cautiously made her way inside.
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Sure enough, there was Mandalar, sitting in reasonable comfort and reading one of a stack of books. Although it was obviously the same man, his appearance was rather tireder and more rumpled than his projection had depicted. Tallan grinned as she realized that the demonologist's "safe haven" was nothing other than his own garderobe. Backing out, she ascended again to the sixth floor and, even more cautiously, looked in.
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This, it appeared, had once been a set of luxurious guest rooms for visitors or friends of Mandalar to stay in. Almost everything in the entire floor, however, appeared to have been smashed out and battered to small pieces, then heaped up to create an ad-hoc throne. Upon this was seated a demon unlike any the vampire had seen so far; a vast, hideous dark figure of shadow and flame. Grouped around it in a circle were ten smaller demons - short, rather pudgy and bearing the unmistakable signs of irredeemable stupidity. They were armed with the most ludicrously cumbersome polearms.
Tallan's memory went back to books she'd read, and she swallowed. This demon was a balor - one of the Abyss' most feared creatures. She only got a glimpse, however. It's massive horned head snapped around and it threw a spell at the immaterial vampire.
For a moment, she felt her Wraithform waver, and the suddenly solid stones of the wall around her crushed in, stopping her breathing. Then she threw off the Dispel Magic and fled through the once more unfelt wall.
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Returning to her comrades she broke the news to them that they had a very serious fight on their hands to regain control of the tower. Forewarned, the party climbed to the 5th floor and prepared themselves with all the defensive magic they could muster. Kryo'Jenix, with a wicked grin on his bearded features, applied a Grease spell to the stairs leading up from the 5th to the 6th floor. He then tapped on the door of the demonologist's hidey-hole. "There's a queue, you know," he called. There was a pause, then a ripple of power ran down the door (explaining how the wizard had remained safe within) and Mandalar emerged.
At the urging of the party, Mandalar drew out a pentagram and summoned something hideous and tentacled from the Abyss, binding it temporarily into Baron Iraj's greatsword - which instantly turned black. When he picked it up, the dwarf's skin crawled at the contact; this sword was now an item of the blackest evil and only with an effort could he make himself hold and wield it. Mandalar treated Tallan's longbow the same way, producing another weapon able to wound the terrible demon waiting above.
The party attempted to use taunts to lure the demons above down to fight them - and into the trap of the Grease. All this produced, however, was a magical Darkness cast into their room, which Benedicta countered with her Daylight. Iraj cast a Mount spell for Benedicta and another to place a horse in the middle of the room for reasons of his own.
Guided by Tallan's heartbeat sense, Mandalar used Stone Shape to open a hole beneath the Balor's throne, dumping around a ton of rubble atop the unfortunate summoned horse Iraj had invoked. What did not fall through, of course, was the balor... whuch was of course equipped with wings. it flapped in a leisurely fashion as it considered its potential victims.
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The party had spread out to even spacing around the tower room, and Ozymandias, Iraj, Tallan and Bendicta opened up with longbows. Some of their weapons were magical and some weren't, but all their missiles bounced harmlessly off the demon's armoured hide. Kry'Ojenix lobbed a Fireball at it, but to no-one's great surprise, the demon appeared to enjoy being bathed in the flames. Then the fiend responded. Revolving on its' pinions, it lifted its' hands and snapped its' fingers. A mighty sword appeared in one hand, and a huge multi-thonged black whip in the other. Both erupted into flames. Not pausing, it traced a complex arcane symbol in the air with one flaming finger, and a wash of magic blasted through the party. Almost all of them threw it off, but Mandalar the demonologist sank to his knees and Geoff the Redshirt was flung back into the wall as the Symbol of Stunning struck them. Then the balor lashed at Kry'Ojenix with its' flaming whip.
Had the strands enwrapped him, he'd have been drawn into the flames enfolding the fiend. The dwarf battlemage stood his ground, however, and turned the tables, catching the strands on his greatsword before a sudden wrench tore the whip from the balor's hand.
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Unobserved by the party, outside the tower, the barely-visible dome of the Forbidding shimmered, then dissolved rapidly like liquid running off the inside of a glass as the Stunned Mandalar's superhuman concentration finally failed. An exquisitely beautiful and utterly evil female figure faded into view atop the tower before spreading her wings and soaring into the sky, peals of wicked laughter trailing in her wake. Violenna was free, loosed upon the world, here in truth rather than a summoned projection, immune to banishment. It lay before her, a delicacy to be savoured. With a flick of her wings and a blown kiss in the direction of a certain vampire, she was gone. For the moment...
From his place of concealment, Ozymandias launched another flurry of pistol crossbow bolts, narrowly missing Kry'Ojenix across the hall. The dwarf glared at him but let the matter lie. His attention was diverted as Tallan's arrows suddenly started to sink into the Balor's back. Whatever Stoneskin it had had was now gone.
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Dropping through the hole to land lightly on the rubble, the demon appeared slightly startled to meet Bendicta the paladin coming the other way - on a horse with a lance couched. It prepared to defend itself, but there was no need; Benedicta's riding skill wasn't the match of her courage and purity of heart. Guiding a charging horse through the middle of a fight on a shifting heap of loose rubble in a confined tower room was more than she could manage, and the horse staggered across the fight, nearly pitching Benedicta into the far wall. She barely made it back to her feet to deflect two thunderous strikes from the balor's flaming sword.
Iraj swapped his bow for his greatsword and advanced, making some testing strikes to probe the balor's defences. Kry'Ojenix tried to Disarm the fiend's sword as well, failed, and slashed it across the leg, loosing a swath of black blood and making it howl with fury.
Kryo'jenix grinned. From behind him, through the door to the stairs up, he could hear the miserable dretches slithering and clattering as they tumbled helplessly down the Greased stairs in a tangle of fiends and polearms. A shriek seemed to indicate one had been stabbed in the process.
 DM Note: A really successful round from Aimo; 2 Strike Mighty Blows, one Critical and one plain hit.. |
Beleaugured now, the balor looked around a bit frantically and threw a Cause Fear at Tallan. For perhaps the first time since her turning, the vampire felt cold terror flood her body, and without another thought turned and fled down the stairs to the fourth floor as Benedicta's lance jabbed home again and again with the power of the Light. Spreading his attacks, the demon slashed at Iraj, Kry'Ojenix and Bendicta but all blocked or evaded the massive blows. Kry'Ojenix saw an opening as the creature leaned across to slash at Iraj, and struck four times. His greatswords sank in and the dreadful balor sank coughing black blood to sprawl on the stone floor.
As the party recovered its breath, Mandalar and Geoff came out of their stunned state. Those observing Mandalar closely could see that he seemed somehow more powerful, his already strong presence enhanced somehow. Stepping across to the doorway to the stairs up, he disposed of the struggling dretches with a flick of his hand. Meanwhile Kry'Ojenix had headed down the other stairs in search of Tallan. The vampire had frantically tried to hide herself, but was apparently spectaularly bad at hiding because the dwarf found her straight away. A swift Dispel Magic had her back to herself.
Upstairs again, Mandalar made it clear that any valuable items they found among the balor's loot were freely theirs for returning his tower to him. He also reaffirmed his promise to bind a magical item each if they so desired. Tallan amused herself trying to get Iraj and Kry'Ojenix to fight for the balor's sword, but the dwarf noticed and ceded the weapon without an argument. The vampire herself had picked out a clear blue sapphire which, as Mandalar demonstrated, would orbit its' owner and provide protection, and got some amusement by Charming Iraj to do the onerous job of trawling through the rubble for spilled coin.
Although he intended to keep his promise and make their rewards, Mandalar was quite firm that the next thing that had to be done was to close the Fistula before anything else horrible came through. Ozymandias offered to accompany him, catching the eye of Kry'Ojenix as he did so; not only was he watching to see Mandalar did nothing underhand, there was always the chance a quiet knife in the back might leave the party in charge of a nice tower, one careful owner, slight renovation needed.
They descended the stairs and entered the workroom, and for the first time Mandalar's composure slipped as he saw the destruction the fight had wrought there. Shaking his head as he stepped over the decomposing marilith, he approached the glowing portal of the Fistula, energy gathering around his hands as he prepared to close it.
What neither of them was prepared for was the huge howling demon that exploded through the gateway a moment later!
Session Date: 12th Apr 2016