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<blockquote data-quote="Netherstorm" data-source="post: 5821511" data-attributes="member: 84943"><p><strong>14. Temple of Urgathoa</strong></p><p></p><p><em>2/6/12: Ryan was sick this week and couldn't make it. And it's almost time for the heroes to begin Madness at Gardmore Abbey. </em></p><p></p><p><em>The unicorn-people are like white-skinned humans from the neck down. Their heads are unicorn heads. They are considered the most pure and beautiful race in all of the feywild, and live in the magical valley of the unicorns, which is accessed by walking through a rainbow waterfall. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The first unicorn-person appeared in the <a href="http://revengeofthegiants2.webs.com/adv30.htm" target="_blank">revenge of the giants campaign</a>, who was used as a gross comedy character. All the npcs thought she was super-hot and beautiful, and the players held back vomit at my descriptions of her horse-like beauty. Her name was Gelda. The heroes re-named the chaos ship they stole from Orcus as "Gelda's Fancy".</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The second unicorn-person appeared earlier in this campaign as a "date" of Lady Tarentia. The heroes sort of got him killed by the King's cursed sword, Blackrazor.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Now that Lucky has died, Sam will be playing a unicorn-person. She lives by the unicorn code:</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>1. Unicorns never cheat.</em></p><p><em>2. Unicorns always lend a helping hand.</em></p><p><em>3. Unicorns don't talk to strangers.</em></p><p><em>4. Unicorns respect the Earth.</em></p><p><em>5. Unicorns are never late.</em></p><p><em>6. Unicorns aren't conceited.</em></p><p><em>7. Unicorns don't judge people.</em></p><p><em>8. Unicorns always give 100%.</em></p><p><em>9. Unicorns graze on peace and love.</em></p><p><em>10. Unicorns don't do drugs.</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'"><span style="font-size: 12px">Saga of Valor </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'"><span style="font-size: 12px">Book One - NyrodSpace War 3</span></span></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center"><em>Chapter Fourteen: Temple of Urgathoa</em></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Aurora Brightbol</strong>t - Unicorn-Person Ranger</p><p><strong>Ardra</strong> - Eladrin Bladesinger <em>Vovoidja</em></p><p><strong>The Blue Monk</strong> - Half-Orc Monk <em>Almoner</em></p><p><strong>Ryltar </strong>- Drow Avenger <em>Constable</em></p><p><strong>Scarlet</strong> - Human Fighter <em>Constable</em></p><p><em></em><strong>Varis</strong> - Half-Elf Warlock<em> Hostarius</em></p><p></p><p>and</p><p></p><p><strong>Fayte Bonesunder</strong>, Ally of Graz'zt (<em>from the <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/nyrod/elementalevil.htm" target="_blank">Temple of Elemental Evil Campaign</a></em>)</p><p><strong>Zahar</strong>, Raven Knight of the Raven Queen</p><p></p><p>The city was under attack, and Bwimb had sent her oozy minions to slay the adventurers. An ooze had killed Lucky and dragged her into a muddy portal, delivering her soul to Bwimb, the para-elemental princess of ooze.</p><p></p><p>The shocked heroes had run through the hole in the city wall that they'd been defending to escape the oozes. But the source of the muddy portals seemed to be Ryltar, who carried Bwimb's curse with him. As the heroes headed through the wall near Zahar's raven knights, Ryltar collapsed. He was in a coma-like state, and his skin was becoming translucent and slimy.</p><p></p><p>The giant Vecna-bird, Dark Secret, swooped down. The adventurers climbed on the bird's back and flew over the city toward Moonstone Keep. The King was a very skilled ritual caster. If anyone could heal Ryltar, it would be him. But, to the heroes' chagrin, mud spread beneath Ryltar's body and onto Dark Secret's back and wings..</p><p></p><p>Scarlet opened up her bag of holding and slid Ryltar into it. Dark Secret tried to stay airborne, but the mud made it difficult to flap its' wings. Dark Secret crashed in the city below. Ardra teleported just before the bird hit the ground, and appeared safely nearby. Zahar stood on the back of the bird's head and laughed the whole way down.</p><p></p><p>The heroes dusted themselves and tried to patch up their injuries off as a Drow-captured ship lowered down to the street. On either side of the street was scaffolding, as the city was in the process of re-building from the last drow attack. </p><p></p><p>Drow invaders climbed down a rope ladder and fired from the deck of the ship. </p><p></p><p>One drow stood in the street as his allies fanned out. He had a skeletal hand that burned with dark fire. He aimed his hand at fleeing citizens, about to launch fire at them. </p><p>But before he could, an accomplished hero arrived. She had survived the temple of elemental evil, and rode a skeletal horse. She wore pieces of metal armor and had many tattoos. She was the mighty warrior Fayte Bonesunder!</p><p></p><p>All the drow invader could do was scream as Skullstrider, Fayte's horse, trampled him utterly. </p><p></p><p>A darkfire skeleton in the street launched off fireballs at any nearby citizens. Zahar ran toward it, jumped over it, and sliced it's head off, rendering it inert. </p><p></p><p>A drow cut into a tall section of scaffolding, hoping to tip it on The Blue Monk. The Monk flung blue dust in the drow's eyes and tried to dodge the collapse, but his leg was pinned in the collapse.</p><p></p><p>A drow on board the ship fired his crossbow at Varis. Varis used the power of his card from the deck of many things to launch a torrent of flame at the drow and the ship. The drow caught fire, shrieked, and fell over the side to his death. The ship caught fire and the blaze quickly spread.</p><p></p><p>A drow priestess wielding a fang whip (the end of which split into the heads of three snakes) closed in on Ardra, hoping to kill the bladesinger. Ardra used her fey step to avoid the priestess' attacks. </p><p></p><p>The priestess cast a spell at a ruined wall section, hoping to collapse it on Fayte Bonesunder and her undead steed. Fayte quickly pulled out her ten foot pole, which was invaluable during her excursions into the temple of elemental evil, and braced it against the wall. The wall tipped, but the pole held it up at an angle. The priestess yelled drow curses at Fayte.</p><p></p><p>The main priestess of the ship strode up to Scarlet, held up a metal rod, and spoke arcane words that caused three yellow tentacles to sprout out of it. Scarlet flipped up to a level of scaffolding and punched a pile of building materials at the priestess. Bricks and tools crashed down on her, giving her a number of bloody wounds.</p><p></p><p>Zahar unfurled his flying carpet and flew on it at the priestess with the tentacle rod. He plunged his shadowfell blade into her, killing the priestess.</p><p></p><p>The Blue Monk freed himself from the tipped scaffolding. He ran over to the drow who had collapsed it, picked him up and threw him at the priestess with the fang whip, bloodying both of them. </p><p></p><p>Drow were evacuating the ship, which was ablaze. As they climbed down rope ladders, Varis gleefully cast burning spray spells on them, killing four more drow.</p><p></p><p>Ardra kicked the priestess with the fang whip in the chest and swung her sword. The priestess dodged the blow. Fayte Bonesunder rode up to the priestess and used her trusty mancatcher to grab the drow by the neck. Fayte dragged the priestess and thrust her into the propped-up wall. The wall collapsed on the priestess, killing her. </p><p></p><p>Scarlet grabbed and killed the few remaining fleeing drow.</p><p></p><p>The burning ship fell to pieces as the heroes caught their breath. With no more drow to kill, the mysterious Fayte Bonesunder rode off into the city as suddenly as she had arrived. Dark Secret was able to shake off the hardening mud. </p><p> </p><p>They made their way to Moonstone Keep only to find that the King was battling the drow on their ships. Ryltar noticed that the King was using a drow sword to fight rather than Blackrazor.</p><p></p><p>They searched the keep for Lady Tarentia. She hated the heroes for ruining her standing in the Court of Stars, but she had little choice but to help them. They found her shmoozing with Solufine the bard, and a new unicorn-person named Aurora Brightbolt. The unicorn-people had sway in the Court of Stars, and Lady Tarentia was hoping to befriend Aurora.</p><p></p><p>Solufine said, "Yes, Lady Tarentia, I thought you'd like to meet my friend Aurora Brightbolt."</p><p></p><p>Lady Tarentia said, "You're so beautiful! Please come in and have a drink!".</p><p></p><p>Then the adventurers burst into the room.</p><p></p><p>Lady Tarentia scowled and said to them, "What do you want?".</p><p></p><p>Zahar said, "We have a slippery drow that needs to not be that way."</p><p></p><p>Lady Tarentia said, "The city is under attack right now. I really don't have time for this."</p><p></p><p>Scarlet tipped hr bag of holding. Ryltar's slimy body plopped out and onto the floor. The floor began to burble and turned to mud. Now it was her problem too. Ardra explained that oozes loyal to Bwimb would sprout up from the mud and attack. </p><p></p><p>The Blue Monk said to Lady Tarentia, "We lost a friend to the ooze. Don't speak to us of loss!".</p><p></p><p>"How dare you bring monsters to Moonstone Keep. I could get you into a lot of trouble over this!".</p><p></p><p>Scarlet said, "Well you should start by curing him so the monsters don't kill you."</p><p></p><p>Aurora said to Lady Tarentia, "Unicorns don't judge. Some say that King Thennrynnia, or even me, is a monster! But this is not the case. Unicorns always lend a helping hand. It's part of the unicorn code." Lady Tarentia needed to befriend Aurora to try to get back in good standing with the Court of Stars. Ardra resisted the urge to comb Aurora's long, flowing white hair. </p><p></p><p>Lady Tarentia told the heroes that they were lucky. She chanted, and her hand glowed. She reached into Ryltar's slimy body, pulled out the tiny snake, and crushed it in her fist. </p><p></p><p>Scarlet said, "Thanks Lady Tarentia. You're not all bad."</p><p></p><p>Aurora nodded and said, "There's goodness in all of us!".</p><p></p><p>Ryltar quickly recovered and seemed to be fine. Ryltar was at last free of Bwimb's curse. Zahar left the keep and rejoined his raven knights, who were slaughtering the monster army outside the city walls.</p><p></p><p>The heroes headed to the throne room. Solufine went with them and introduced them to Aurora. </p><p></p><p>Ardra said, "So fuzzy..."</p><p></p><p>Orem, Ardra's grandfather, arrived with some guards. Scarlet turned her armor into a classic female fighter outfit - A metal bikini, more or less - for his benefit. He had a "present" for them. It was Tark Graven, the man who'd bought the cylinders and given them to the Cult of Urgathoa. He was secretly one of the plaguebringers!</p><p></p><p>Orem proudly added, "...And I didn't use any spells. He should be able to tell you where the cult's lair is. And then you can go get rid of them!"</p><p></p><p>The heroes took Tark to a quiet room. He was a tall, thin human with dark circles under his eyes. The Blue Monk punched him in the stomach. He groaned and fell to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Tark asked, "So are you taking me to the multi-dimensional prison? Or the King's Jail?"</p><p></p><p>Scarlet said, "Worse. You're with us."</p><p></p><p>"I'll never talk!".</p><p></p><p>Varis, the evil twelve year old boy, cackled gleefully.</p><p></p><p>The Blue Monk asked, "Are you going to tell us where the cult's lair is?"</p><p></p><p>"Never!", Tark cried. The Monk slapped him across the face.</p><p></p><p>Varis prepared to go to work on Tark. Aurora looked at him and the heroes and said, "Please. I don't want to see any unnecessary violence."</p><p></p><p>Varis scowled and asked, "Why not?".</p><p></p><p>Tark was overcome by Aurora's equine beauty. He told the others, "Urgathoa will get revenge on you. The plaguebringers will strap you down to a able and fill you full of diseases."</p><p></p><p>Varis said, "Speaking of diseases...". He pulled out a vial of blood veil. Tark gasped. The heroes donned plaguebringer masks, which gave them immunity to the disease.</p><p></p><p>Tark said, "The horse lady said you weren't going to do anything to me."</p><p></p><p>Scarlet said, "Well, you do a thing for us and we don't brutally murder you."</p><p></p><p>Tark said, "Dying by blood veil is a gift from Urgathoa. I'll just come back as a leukodaemon and then I'll come kill you."</p><p></p><p>Ardra glared at him and said, "We have other ways...". He was intimidated.</p><p></p><p>Tark explained that the cult lived in an undergound temple in Thunderspire Labyrinth, the maze-like caves underneath the city of Olwynn. The entrance was protected by a disease cloud. The plaguebringer masks could protect them from the cloud.</p><p></p><p>The heroes asked for specific directions to the temple. He refused to say.</p><p></p><p>Aurora looked at Tark and said, "Please. I don't want to see them harm you!"</p><p></p><p>Overcome by her loveliness, Tark gave them exact directions.</p><p></p><p>They dropped Tark off in the King's Jail. He had a cell near Derrinnil, the drow prisoner who the King was fond of.</p><p></p><p>The Raven Knights had defeated the monsters, and Hirbe's ship was able to defeat the invading drow ships. Olwynn was safe. The heroes were able to rest. They slept for the night.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, they ate breakfast with the King. Ryltar noticed that the King was looking frail. Later, when the King was gone, Ryltar pointed this out to his allies. The King was purposely not using his cursed sword, even though he would turn into a wight forever if he didn't take a soul with it once a week. Scarlet surmised that the King might have felt guilty about using it, especially with Ryltar judging him about it. Ryltar pointed out he'd only made one comment. The heroes made a note to themselves to get the King to kill somebody soon...</p><p></p><p>The Cult of Urgathoa's lair was underneath the city, in the maze-like Thunderspire Labyrinth! The entrance was guarded by a disease cloud. The heroes all had plaguebringer masks, which would protect them from the cloud.</p><p></p><p>Following Tark's directions, they soon found the entrance amid the disease cloud. It was a runed magical lift. They activated, and descended into the enemy lair, hoping to find and kill the cult's leader, Lady Andaisin.</p><p></p><p>The entry room was adorned with murals of skeletons holding scythes. There was a set of double doors that Ryltar examined and determined were trapped. They avoided the trapped doors and examined the other rooms.</p><p></p><p>They came upon a small room where four plaguebearers lurked. The heroes made quick work of them.</p><p></p><p>They headed into a room where the walls and floor were lined with glass. Behind the glass were zombies! The glass was strong, and the zombies seemed unable to free themselves. Ardra sensed that the glass could be melted through magic tied to Urgathoa.</p><p></p><p>They opened a southern door, and came upon a necromancer and two daughters of Urgathoa experimenting on a half-dozen unfortunate citizens strapped to beds. One was dead, three more had grey skin and in a half-zombie state, and two others were suffering from fever dreams.</p><p></p><p>The Blue Monk rushed in and decked one of the daughters, as the other fired off a magic bolt at Ardra. Ardra blocked it with a shield spell. The daughter clawed the Monk with her giant, diseased hand, and uttered a prayer to Urgathoa, which melted the glass and freed the 12 zombies from the walls!</p><p></p><p>The zombies attacked and bloodied Aurora. Aurora's blink dog snarled and tore apart a zombie. Aurora took advantage of her dog's magical aura and teleported away from the horde of zombies that surrounded her.</p><p></p><p>A zombie grabbed the dog and smashed it on the ground. The dog disappeared in a flash. It had returned to the Feywild! The dog raced through the forest, sniffing for the inter-dimensional scent of her master. She picked it up quickly, and in another flash was back at Aurora's side. </p><p></p><p>Varis activated the power of his card from the deck of many things and sent forth a massive wave of flame that destroyed four zombies. Then he followed up with a burning spray spell, destroying two more. </p><p></p><p>Ryltar maneuvered his way around a daughter and hacked into her with his scythe, bloodying her. The other daughter had grabbed Ardra, ready to swipe into her. But the blink dog was near, and Ardra used its' power to teleport herself back into the zombie room. </p><p></p><p>Near Ardra, Scarlet was finishing off the last of the zombies. </p><p></p><p>Rolth the necromancer had been firing off spells at the Monk and Ryltar. Now, he closed in on Ryltar with a daughter and stabbed his curved dagger into the drow avenger's back, dropping him.</p><p></p><p>Ardra ran in, sliced a daughter of urgathoa and then sent Rolth flying with an unseen hand spell. This cleared the way for the Blue Monk, who knelt down next to Ryltar and poured a potion of healing into his mouth, reviving him. Rolth launched off a death bolt at the Monk. The Monk was hit and slumped over, dying...</p><p></p><p>Ryltar staggered to his feet and called forth a cloud of ravens to protect himself as he bandaged his wounds. Aurora fired off arrows at Rolth. She ran, her white hair flowing dramatically, and hopped onto a bed. She shot an arrow into a daughter of Urgathoa's chest, killing her.</p><p></p><p>Varis hit Rolth with a dark worm's feast spell. </p><p></p><p>Aurora said to Varis, "Good work, little friend! I have a feeling that we'll make a great team!"</p><p></p><p>Varis called out sarcastically, "Sure we will...". Varis deliberately moved farther away from her.</p><p></p><p>Ardra asked him, "Don't you want to pet the pony?".</p><p></p><p>Rolth lunged at the boy, stabbing him. Varis' darkspiral aura went off, injuring Rolth far more for his transgression.</p><p></p><p>Scarlet said to Varis, "You are terrifying sometimes."</p><p></p><p>Ryltar called out, "Sometimes? Varis, are you sure you worship the Raven Queen?".</p><p></p><p>Varis said, "Eh. She's a source of power. I find it very cute that you devote your life to her, though."</p><p></p><p>Scarlet called out to Ryltar, "A twelve year old just called you cute..."</p><p></p><p>The adventurers finished off the villains and rested for a few minutes. They explored an adjacent room, and found it to be a prison with five prisoners yet to be experimented on. The heroes freed them, as well as the two sick men having fever dreams. The prisoners agreed to wait for the heroes to finish their assault to try to escape.</p><p></p><p>The heroes traveled deeper into the cult's lair and came upon a room with three vats of foul liquid. A catwalk was above the vats, where two leukodaemons lurked! A plaguebringer was also among them. Scarlet immediately dashed up onto the catwalk and came at the leukodaemons. </p><p></p><p>The plaguebringer opened a door and freed two zombies from the small room. The pair of zombies immediately lumbered forth and came at the heroes, blocking the doorway and leaving Scarlet all alone on the catwalk with the leukodaemons.</p><p></p><p>The daemons fired disease-ridden arrows into Scarlet's thigh. Scarlet grabbed a leukodaemon.</p><p></p><p>Ardra sent one zombie flying with an unseen hand, and then knocked the other one back with a blow from her blade.</p><p></p><p>The zombies got up and again came at the heroes, blocking the doorway. The Blue Monk punched one, his fist going through its' head, destroying it (<em>a critical hit, which on these zombies, reduces them to 0 hit points</em>). Varis blasted the other with a spell, and Ryltar beheaded it with his scythe.</p><p></p><p>Ardra raced up the catwalk, where the plaguebearer was creeping up on Scarlet as she fought the two leukodaemons. Ardra dumped the guy over the side. He fell into the vat and was killed by the hideous concoction inside.</p><p></p><p>Scarlet smacked a leukodaemon into a wall and then threw it into a vat as well. Aurora took aim and put an arrow through the last leukodaemon's chest. They dumped its' body in a vat for good measure.</p><p></p><p>They could sense they were close to Lady Andaisin. While they had seen her on two separate occasions, they had no idea how powerful she was. But if they could not defeat her, then the city of Olwynn was likely doomed....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Netherstorm, post: 5821511, member: 84943"] [b]14. Temple of Urgathoa[/b] [I]2/6/12: Ryan was sick this week and couldn't make it. And it's almost time for the heroes to begin Madness at Gardmore Abbey. [/I] [I]The unicorn-people are like white-skinned humans from the neck down. Their heads are unicorn heads. They are considered the most pure and beautiful race in all of the feywild, and live in the magical valley of the unicorns, which is accessed by walking through a rainbow waterfall. The first unicorn-person appeared in the [URL="http://revengeofthegiants2.webs.com/adv30.htm"]revenge of the giants campaign[/URL], who was used as a gross comedy character. All the npcs thought she was super-hot and beautiful, and the players held back vomit at my descriptions of her horse-like beauty. Her name was Gelda. The heroes re-named the chaos ship they stole from Orcus as "Gelda's Fancy". The second unicorn-person appeared earlier in this campaign as a "date" of Lady Tarentia. The heroes sort of got him killed by the King's cursed sword, Blackrazor. Now that Lucky has died, Sam will be playing a unicorn-person. She lives by the unicorn code: 1. Unicorns never cheat. 2. Unicorns always lend a helping hand. 3. Unicorns don't talk to strangers. 4. Unicorns respect the Earth. 5. Unicorns are never late. 6. Unicorns aren't conceited. 7. Unicorns don't judge people. 8. Unicorns always give 100%. 9. Unicorns graze on peace and love. 10. Unicorns don't do drugs.[/I] [CENTER][FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=3]Saga of Valor [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=3]Book One - NyrodSpace War 3[/SIZE][/FONT][/CENTER] [CENTER][I]Chapter Fourteen: Temple of Urgathoa[/I][/CENTER] [B]Aurora Brightbol[/B]t - Unicorn-Person Ranger [B]Ardra[/B] - Eladrin Bladesinger [I]Vovoidja[/I] [B]The Blue Monk[/B] - Half-Orc Monk [I]Almoner[/I] [B]Ryltar [/B]- Drow Avenger [I]Constable[/I] [B]Scarlet[/B] - Human Fighter [I]Constable [/I][B]Varis[/B] - Half-Elf Warlock[I] Hostarius[/I] and [B]Fayte Bonesunder[/B], Ally of Graz'zt ([I]from the [URL="http://www.freewebs.com/nyrod/elementalevil.htm"]Temple of Elemental Evil Campaign[/URL][/I]) [B]Zahar[/B], Raven Knight of the Raven Queen The city was under attack, and Bwimb had sent her oozy minions to slay the adventurers. An ooze had killed Lucky and dragged her into a muddy portal, delivering her soul to Bwimb, the para-elemental princess of ooze. The shocked heroes had run through the hole in the city wall that they'd been defending to escape the oozes. But the source of the muddy portals seemed to be Ryltar, who carried Bwimb's curse with him. As the heroes headed through the wall near Zahar's raven knights, Ryltar collapsed. He was in a coma-like state, and his skin was becoming translucent and slimy. The giant Vecna-bird, Dark Secret, swooped down. The adventurers climbed on the bird's back and flew over the city toward Moonstone Keep. The King was a very skilled ritual caster. If anyone could heal Ryltar, it would be him. But, to the heroes' chagrin, mud spread beneath Ryltar's body and onto Dark Secret's back and wings.. Scarlet opened up her bag of holding and slid Ryltar into it. Dark Secret tried to stay airborne, but the mud made it difficult to flap its' wings. Dark Secret crashed in the city below. Ardra teleported just before the bird hit the ground, and appeared safely nearby. Zahar stood on the back of the bird's head and laughed the whole way down. The heroes dusted themselves and tried to patch up their injuries off as a Drow-captured ship lowered down to the street. On either side of the street was scaffolding, as the city was in the process of re-building from the last drow attack. Drow invaders climbed down a rope ladder and fired from the deck of the ship. One drow stood in the street as his allies fanned out. He had a skeletal hand that burned with dark fire. He aimed his hand at fleeing citizens, about to launch fire at them. But before he could, an accomplished hero arrived. She had survived the temple of elemental evil, and rode a skeletal horse. She wore pieces of metal armor and had many tattoos. She was the mighty warrior Fayte Bonesunder! All the drow invader could do was scream as Skullstrider, Fayte's horse, trampled him utterly. A darkfire skeleton in the street launched off fireballs at any nearby citizens. Zahar ran toward it, jumped over it, and sliced it's head off, rendering it inert. A drow cut into a tall section of scaffolding, hoping to tip it on The Blue Monk. The Monk flung blue dust in the drow's eyes and tried to dodge the collapse, but his leg was pinned in the collapse. A drow on board the ship fired his crossbow at Varis. Varis used the power of his card from the deck of many things to launch a torrent of flame at the drow and the ship. The drow caught fire, shrieked, and fell over the side to his death. The ship caught fire and the blaze quickly spread. A drow priestess wielding a fang whip (the end of which split into the heads of three snakes) closed in on Ardra, hoping to kill the bladesinger. Ardra used her fey step to avoid the priestess' attacks. The priestess cast a spell at a ruined wall section, hoping to collapse it on Fayte Bonesunder and her undead steed. Fayte quickly pulled out her ten foot pole, which was invaluable during her excursions into the temple of elemental evil, and braced it against the wall. The wall tipped, but the pole held it up at an angle. The priestess yelled drow curses at Fayte. The main priestess of the ship strode up to Scarlet, held up a metal rod, and spoke arcane words that caused three yellow tentacles to sprout out of it. Scarlet flipped up to a level of scaffolding and punched a pile of building materials at the priestess. Bricks and tools crashed down on her, giving her a number of bloody wounds. Zahar unfurled his flying carpet and flew on it at the priestess with the tentacle rod. He plunged his shadowfell blade into her, killing the priestess. The Blue Monk freed himself from the tipped scaffolding. He ran over to the drow who had collapsed it, picked him up and threw him at the priestess with the fang whip, bloodying both of them. Drow were evacuating the ship, which was ablaze. As they climbed down rope ladders, Varis gleefully cast burning spray spells on them, killing four more drow. Ardra kicked the priestess with the fang whip in the chest and swung her sword. The priestess dodged the blow. Fayte Bonesunder rode up to the priestess and used her trusty mancatcher to grab the drow by the neck. Fayte dragged the priestess and thrust her into the propped-up wall. The wall collapsed on the priestess, killing her. Scarlet grabbed and killed the few remaining fleeing drow. The burning ship fell to pieces as the heroes caught their breath. With no more drow to kill, the mysterious Fayte Bonesunder rode off into the city as suddenly as she had arrived. Dark Secret was able to shake off the hardening mud. They made their way to Moonstone Keep only to find that the King was battling the drow on their ships. Ryltar noticed that the King was using a drow sword to fight rather than Blackrazor. They searched the keep for Lady Tarentia. She hated the heroes for ruining her standing in the Court of Stars, but she had little choice but to help them. They found her shmoozing with Solufine the bard, and a new unicorn-person named Aurora Brightbolt. The unicorn-people had sway in the Court of Stars, and Lady Tarentia was hoping to befriend Aurora. Solufine said, "Yes, Lady Tarentia, I thought you'd like to meet my friend Aurora Brightbolt." Lady Tarentia said, "You're so beautiful! Please come in and have a drink!". Then the adventurers burst into the room. Lady Tarentia scowled and said to them, "What do you want?". Zahar said, "We have a slippery drow that needs to not be that way." Lady Tarentia said, "The city is under attack right now. I really don't have time for this." Scarlet tipped hr bag of holding. Ryltar's slimy body plopped out and onto the floor. The floor began to burble and turned to mud. Now it was her problem too. Ardra explained that oozes loyal to Bwimb would sprout up from the mud and attack. The Blue Monk said to Lady Tarentia, "We lost a friend to the ooze. Don't speak to us of loss!". "How dare you bring monsters to Moonstone Keep. I could get you into a lot of trouble over this!". Scarlet said, "Well you should start by curing him so the monsters don't kill you." Aurora said to Lady Tarentia, "Unicorns don't judge. Some say that King Thennrynnia, or even me, is a monster! But this is not the case. Unicorns always lend a helping hand. It's part of the unicorn code." Lady Tarentia needed to befriend Aurora to try to get back in good standing with the Court of Stars. Ardra resisted the urge to comb Aurora's long, flowing white hair. Lady Tarentia told the heroes that they were lucky. She chanted, and her hand glowed. She reached into Ryltar's slimy body, pulled out the tiny snake, and crushed it in her fist. Scarlet said, "Thanks Lady Tarentia. You're not all bad." Aurora nodded and said, "There's goodness in all of us!". Ryltar quickly recovered and seemed to be fine. Ryltar was at last free of Bwimb's curse. Zahar left the keep and rejoined his raven knights, who were slaughtering the monster army outside the city walls. The heroes headed to the throne room. Solufine went with them and introduced them to Aurora. Ardra said, "So fuzzy..." Orem, Ardra's grandfather, arrived with some guards. Scarlet turned her armor into a classic female fighter outfit - A metal bikini, more or less - for his benefit. He had a "present" for them. It was Tark Graven, the man who'd bought the cylinders and given them to the Cult of Urgathoa. He was secretly one of the plaguebringers! Orem proudly added, "...And I didn't use any spells. He should be able to tell you where the cult's lair is. And then you can go get rid of them!" The heroes took Tark to a quiet room. He was a tall, thin human with dark circles under his eyes. The Blue Monk punched him in the stomach. He groaned and fell to the ground. Tark asked, "So are you taking me to the multi-dimensional prison? Or the King's Jail?" Scarlet said, "Worse. You're with us." "I'll never talk!". Varis, the evil twelve year old boy, cackled gleefully. The Blue Monk asked, "Are you going to tell us where the cult's lair is?" "Never!", Tark cried. The Monk slapped him across the face. Varis prepared to go to work on Tark. Aurora looked at him and the heroes and said, "Please. I don't want to see any unnecessary violence." Varis scowled and asked, "Why not?". Tark was overcome by Aurora's equine beauty. He told the others, "Urgathoa will get revenge on you. The plaguebringers will strap you down to a able and fill you full of diseases." Varis said, "Speaking of diseases...". He pulled out a vial of blood veil. Tark gasped. The heroes donned plaguebringer masks, which gave them immunity to the disease. Tark said, "The horse lady said you weren't going to do anything to me." Scarlet said, "Well, you do a thing for us and we don't brutally murder you." Tark said, "Dying by blood veil is a gift from Urgathoa. I'll just come back as a leukodaemon and then I'll come kill you." Ardra glared at him and said, "We have other ways...". He was intimidated. Tark explained that the cult lived in an undergound temple in Thunderspire Labyrinth, the maze-like caves underneath the city of Olwynn. The entrance was protected by a disease cloud. The plaguebringer masks could protect them from the cloud. The heroes asked for specific directions to the temple. He refused to say. Aurora looked at Tark and said, "Please. I don't want to see them harm you!" Overcome by her loveliness, Tark gave them exact directions. They dropped Tark off in the King's Jail. He had a cell near Derrinnil, the drow prisoner who the King was fond of. The Raven Knights had defeated the monsters, and Hirbe's ship was able to defeat the invading drow ships. Olwynn was safe. The heroes were able to rest. They slept for the night. The next morning, they ate breakfast with the King. Ryltar noticed that the King was looking frail. Later, when the King was gone, Ryltar pointed this out to his allies. The King was purposely not using his cursed sword, even though he would turn into a wight forever if he didn't take a soul with it once a week. Scarlet surmised that the King might have felt guilty about using it, especially with Ryltar judging him about it. Ryltar pointed out he'd only made one comment. The heroes made a note to themselves to get the King to kill somebody soon... The Cult of Urgathoa's lair was underneath the city, in the maze-like Thunderspire Labyrinth! The entrance was guarded by a disease cloud. The heroes all had plaguebringer masks, which would protect them from the cloud. Following Tark's directions, they soon found the entrance amid the disease cloud. It was a runed magical lift. They activated, and descended into the enemy lair, hoping to find and kill the cult's leader, Lady Andaisin. The entry room was adorned with murals of skeletons holding scythes. There was a set of double doors that Ryltar examined and determined were trapped. They avoided the trapped doors and examined the other rooms. They came upon a small room where four plaguebearers lurked. The heroes made quick work of them. They headed into a room where the walls and floor were lined with glass. Behind the glass were zombies! The glass was strong, and the zombies seemed unable to free themselves. Ardra sensed that the glass could be melted through magic tied to Urgathoa. They opened a southern door, and came upon a necromancer and two daughters of Urgathoa experimenting on a half-dozen unfortunate citizens strapped to beds. One was dead, three more had grey skin and in a half-zombie state, and two others were suffering from fever dreams. The Blue Monk rushed in and decked one of the daughters, as the other fired off a magic bolt at Ardra. Ardra blocked it with a shield spell. The daughter clawed the Monk with her giant, diseased hand, and uttered a prayer to Urgathoa, which melted the glass and freed the 12 zombies from the walls! The zombies attacked and bloodied Aurora. Aurora's blink dog snarled and tore apart a zombie. Aurora took advantage of her dog's magical aura and teleported away from the horde of zombies that surrounded her. A zombie grabbed the dog and smashed it on the ground. The dog disappeared in a flash. It had returned to the Feywild! The dog raced through the forest, sniffing for the inter-dimensional scent of her master. She picked it up quickly, and in another flash was back at Aurora's side. Varis activated the power of his card from the deck of many things and sent forth a massive wave of flame that destroyed four zombies. Then he followed up with a burning spray spell, destroying two more. Ryltar maneuvered his way around a daughter and hacked into her with his scythe, bloodying her. The other daughter had grabbed Ardra, ready to swipe into her. But the blink dog was near, and Ardra used its' power to teleport herself back into the zombie room. Near Ardra, Scarlet was finishing off the last of the zombies. Rolth the necromancer had been firing off spells at the Monk and Ryltar. Now, he closed in on Ryltar with a daughter and stabbed his curved dagger into the drow avenger's back, dropping him. Ardra ran in, sliced a daughter of urgathoa and then sent Rolth flying with an unseen hand spell. This cleared the way for the Blue Monk, who knelt down next to Ryltar and poured a potion of healing into his mouth, reviving him. Rolth launched off a death bolt at the Monk. The Monk was hit and slumped over, dying... Ryltar staggered to his feet and called forth a cloud of ravens to protect himself as he bandaged his wounds. Aurora fired off arrows at Rolth. She ran, her white hair flowing dramatically, and hopped onto a bed. She shot an arrow into a daughter of Urgathoa's chest, killing her. Varis hit Rolth with a dark worm's feast spell. Aurora said to Varis, "Good work, little friend! I have a feeling that we'll make a great team!" Varis called out sarcastically, "Sure we will...". Varis deliberately moved farther away from her. Ardra asked him, "Don't you want to pet the pony?". Rolth lunged at the boy, stabbing him. Varis' darkspiral aura went off, injuring Rolth far more for his transgression. Scarlet said to Varis, "You are terrifying sometimes." Ryltar called out, "Sometimes? Varis, are you sure you worship the Raven Queen?". Varis said, "Eh. She's a source of power. I find it very cute that you devote your life to her, though." Scarlet called out to Ryltar, "A twelve year old just called you cute..." The adventurers finished off the villains and rested for a few minutes. They explored an adjacent room, and found it to be a prison with five prisoners yet to be experimented on. The heroes freed them, as well as the two sick men having fever dreams. The prisoners agreed to wait for the heroes to finish their assault to try to escape. The heroes traveled deeper into the cult's lair and came upon a room with three vats of foul liquid. A catwalk was above the vats, where two leukodaemons lurked! A plaguebringer was also among them. Scarlet immediately dashed up onto the catwalk and came at the leukodaemons. The plaguebringer opened a door and freed two zombies from the small room. The pair of zombies immediately lumbered forth and came at the heroes, blocking the doorway and leaving Scarlet all alone on the catwalk with the leukodaemons. The daemons fired disease-ridden arrows into Scarlet's thigh. Scarlet grabbed a leukodaemon. Ardra sent one zombie flying with an unseen hand, and then knocked the other one back with a blow from her blade. The zombies got up and again came at the heroes, blocking the doorway. The Blue Monk punched one, his fist going through its' head, destroying it ([I]a critical hit, which on these zombies, reduces them to 0 hit points[/I]). Varis blasted the other with a spell, and Ryltar beheaded it with his scythe. Ardra raced up the catwalk, where the plaguebearer was creeping up on Scarlet as she fought the two leukodaemons. Ardra dumped the guy over the side. He fell into the vat and was killed by the hideous concoction inside. Scarlet smacked a leukodaemon into a wall and then threw it into a vat as well. Aurora took aim and put an arrow through the last leukodaemon's chest. They dumped its' body in a vat for good measure. They could sense they were close to Lady Andaisin. While they had seen her on two separate occasions, they had no idea how powerful she was. But if they could not defeat her, then the city of Olwynn was likely doomed.... [/QUOTE]
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