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<blockquote data-quote="MarauderX" data-source="post: 2295468" data-attributes="member: 9990"><p><strong><u><span style="font-size: 15px">Session 34: Brutal Mercy</span></u></strong></p><p></p><p>The dimly glowing walls barely reflected the snake-man before Grimnyr, and he made out its face and its lowered jaw in time to see flames spew forth from its maw. Arrows from the nearby archers pelted him, and rage wrested his actions away from rational thought. Grimnyr heard Jerrin’s quick call for how many stand in front of him. In a misconstrued blurt he shouted the number three at the top of his powerful voice before heaving his axe down on the fire-breathing beast in front of him. </p><p></p><p>Thovaas watched as the lizard-like creature spat flames at him and his mount a moment before he swung his large sword at it. His mount reared upward and slapped the beast with its hooves, knocking it to the ground with its skull caved in. Alex slinked closer to the two snake-archers and slashed one of them repeatedly. Quentin followed closely, using the shadows for cover before striking out with arrows. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Jerrin heard a thump of something that had landed at the entrance they had come through. Though he couldn’t see beyond the wall of fire that had been erected, his ears told him something was there over the roar of the fire. His spell ended and five dire wolves now leapt through the wall of fire to aid the others. Jerrin followed two of them toward the brilliant sword Alex wielded and barked for two others to attack any lizards down the other passageway. </p><p></p><p>Grimnyr swung around and split the bow of one of the archer snake-men before turning to attack the caster. That was when two flaming arrows sailed down the hall, one striking the barbarian in the shoulder. The wolves loped down the roughly hewn corridor to aid in the attack, and they downed the archer nearest Grimnyr. They moved in the tight area as the caster tried to place a curse on the raging bard. The other archer retreated all the way back, but the wolves chased him there, relentlessly attacking. </p><p></p><p>The other side pressed their advantage against the two archers as they gave ground, as an explosion ripped through the middle of them. The fiery blast failed to caution the party, and Quentin led the way down the hall, surging forward in the darkness to fire several arrows at the second archer. With his bowstring still humming, Quentin saw two figures standing in the murky darkness behind him. </p><p></p><p>The archer didn’t seem to take notice of him as he fired into the crowd down the hall, striking one of the other archers as well as a summoned wolf. The other snake-figure completed a spell that projected a ray from its clawed hand. The ray found Quentin in the darkness and drained his strength from him instantly. </p><p></p><p>Alex struck down one of the archers and moved to gain advantage by slipping around the other. Thovaas had dismounted to push the archers back down the hall, and he struck out down the hall just as Alex motioned him into a flanking position. The blow he landed struck down the remaining archer with such force that the lanky creature was sliced in two. </p><p></p><p>Quentin lunged at new archer with his rapier then spun out of the way in one swift motion. Alex set off in pursuit of the new targets, his sword of light revealing the two new figures in a nearby room. Jerrin’s collar blazed when he told the wolves in their language to attack the caster, and they recognized him as the pack leader, not to be questioned. The wolves brought the caster to the ground as the archer fired on Alex. The snake-man caster suddenly conjured an area of grease beneath the summoned wolves, and they fell to the ground. Thovaas ran down the hallway, armor clacking around him, and tried to use the one summoned wolf as a bridge over the area of grease. The wolf pitched, and Thovaas felt his weight go forward uncontrollably. He slid down next to the caster and for an instant they looked each other in the eye before a spell and a smile followed. The caster slapped the paladin on the arm and Thovaas felt his endurance weaken. </p><p></p><p>Jerrin sprinted back toward the entrance and popped his head through the wall of fire. There a manticore took a swipe at the small Halfling as he ran toward the other corridor where Grimnyr had disappeared. The wolves struck out again to knock over the caster near Grimnyr, and Jerrin commanded them to then attack the manticore that had followed him down the hall. They traded blows and the manticore was finally brought down. </p><p></p><p>Grimnyr, with no nearby foes and seeing the sword of light, ran toward the archer that was firing on Alex. In a quick blow by Grimnyr and Quentin the archer brought down, and Grimnyr leapt through the air to land a devastating hit on the prone caster near Thovaas. Quentin fired his last two arrows and with a lucky shot struck the snake-caster in the side of the head. It went limp instantly. </p><p></p><p>Jerrin summoned forth a unicorn that promptly healed Grimnyr and Quentin. Thovaas helped with the healing as well, and after a few minutes everyone had their wounds sealed. The strength that had been sapped from Alex and Quentin returned, the wall of fire burnt out, but Thovaas’s cursed health remained. They gathered the light metallic arrows, bows, and swords from the defeated reptile-men and stripped them of the armor as well. After Grimnyr and Jerrin had examined the strange layered armor, Thovaas systematically slashed the hide-like protective covering up the middle, cut the straps and poked a plethora of holes in each of the three suits. He broke the three swords at the hilt and also destroyed the bows. </p><p></p><p>Quentin kept watch at the stair entry and a strong, hot breeze forced him to squint as it pushed his hair back. The group readied themselves and proceeded down the steps, always forty feet behind Quentin, and Grimnyr held the ever-burning torch aloft above his head for everyone. After progressing for three or four hundred feet down the crudely crafted steps Quentin saw an opening to a room ahead. Motioning for the others to remain behind, he and Alex crept toward the room to investigate. Quentin sensed a trap of some sort, something that would go off if he took another step. A whispered debate ensued about who should try to disarm it, and Quentin impatiently gave up and decided to take a chance. A moment later the group saw a vortex of flame shoot forth from near the wall where Quentin was, but he had ducked in time to avoid the severe burns. Alex just shook his head as Quentin shrugged. </p><p></p><p>Quentin used his darkvision to scan the room. He saw a table, some bookcases and a few cabinets. The only thing moving was a piece of paper fluttering around the room, repeating a circular pattern. Quentin stepped in and saw that on the other side of the room were more stairs leading down. </p><p></p><p>The group was motioned in and Alex began searching the blackened walls for anything suspicious, as it seemed the hotter air was leaking from the room in more than one place. Alex followed the direction of black sooty streaks along the wall and moved a cabinet out of the way to see that there was indeed an outline of a door, black on black. In a few minutes Alex popped the door open and it swung out from the room. It was only four feet tall and two feet wide and pitch black beyond. </p><p></p><p>Quentin moved into the enclosed space and walked twenty feet before he saw an opening ahead. From the widening corridor he could see the room was cylindrical with a slightly bowl-shaped floor. In the middle of the floor was a grate. A liquid seemed to be draining to the grate after dripping from a location above near the surrounding walls. Quentin peered upward and his breathe caught in his throat at what he saw. </p><p></p><p>Hanging nearly twenty feet from the floor were bodies. The bodies had been stripped of their skin, completely, even between their toes and fingers, and no hair could be seen. The exposed organs glistened but the bodies did not seem to bleed from a lack of skin. The bodies that were hanging there had been slashed, stabbed and mutilated - recently. Blood poured from the wounds, pooled on the floor, and then ran into the drain at the center of the room. Quentin turned away in disgust and he nearly dry heaved into his hands. Sensing trouble the others made their way forward to observe the room.</p><p></p><p>The group examined the bodies that hung there. They discerned the bodies had elven bone structure and features, but were missing many of the signature features that designate the race, such as pointed ears. The wrists were tied together and the bodies hung down from them with the feet tied together at the bottom ten feet above the floor. </p><p></p><p>The round room had four exits, and Quentin peered down each to see another cylindrical room of the same type. He ventured into the next as the party stood in silence with the sundered bodies. Quentin stopped and called back, saying that they have some ‘live’ ones. By living he had meant undamaged; they were still bodies without skin, but they had not been destroyed in the same way as the others. Thovaas detected no evil on them but Grimnyr could tell there was a strong presence of necromantic magic. </p><p></p><p>Alex found and opened a second secret door in the room with the stairs, in a mirrored location to the other secret door. Quentin began the task of exploring the other side to find more cylindrical rooms in a symmetrical pattern with skinned bodies hanging in each. Quentin became jitterier as he explored room after room of the same, finding that none of the elven bodies in the rooms were damaged on this side. On each side there were twenty-four rooms with the hanging bodies for forty eight total, and three of them had freshly bloodied bodies. </p><p></p><p>It was when Quentin returned that Thovaas made a realization. The bodies that had been mutilated showed wounds very similar to the armor that he had destroyed, with the same gashes running up the middle and holes poked through the armor at the same points. The others concurred that this was likely true, and Grimnyr surmised that it was the reason his axe did not sink so deeply in the reptile-men casters. Thovaas murmured a prayer for them and himself as he did not know what he had done. Grimacing, the group decided to cut down and behead all of the hanging bodies to put them at peace as well as undermine the magic to the armor the humanoid snakes wore. </p><p></p><p>The group got underway immediately. They began with Thovaas cutting them down, Grimnyr swinging his axe and the paladin blessing them while the others kept watch. After several rooms Thovaas felt his muscles aching, but they decided to keep going despite the slower pace. They made their way through more rooms and the paladin was exhausted from his efforts as Jerrin informed them night had come. They rested. </p><p></p><p>The next day they began again, only this time Thovaas called upon the power of Heironeous to turn away the necromantic hold on the bodies. It worked, and the bodies were charred from the holy blast Thovaas shot forth. Jerrin undid his own magic he had used to transform Tempest, his wolfhound companion, into a monkey. He then took the form of a giant ape and began ripping the bodies apart, leaving arms hanging downward by the wrists. He stacked the bodies in first one room, then another as they piled up. Jerrin was hoping to plug the drains with the bodies to prevent the blood from spilling into it. He couldn’t help but calculate that there were five-hundred-seventy-six elven bodies that they were removing from the walls. That could encompass five or six elven families, and he shuddered as his imagination raced with how the elves might have been caught and strung up. </p><p></p><p>While the others worked, Quentin decided to explore. In a wink he was down the steps, and the party didn’t notice that he was gone until he reappeared an hour later asking for some rope and a grappling hook. He went back down the steps, and the stairs progressed deeper and deeper into the mountain. They kept sloping downward the further he went until the steps seemed to be more of a climb than anything else. Quentin fastened the grappling hook to a nearby crevasse and lowered himself the full length of the rope – fifty feet. From there he could see downward with his darkvision that the steps evened out once more. He returned back to the party to report. </p><p></p><p>Later, while the party worked, Quentin had been keeping watch at the top of the steep drop when he saw what he thought was a piece of paper fluttering upward on the hot air. Instead it was something tiny with wings, and it was using the updraft to easily glide upward. The scaly thing was much smaller than even Jerrin and as it was about to whisk by, Quentin lunged at it. He had struck it with his rapier, jabbing it in the side and it spun about to look at Quentin with a face of alien surprise. It then let go of the ceiling which it clung to, folded its wings tightly to its side and dropped like a rock down the shaft. Quentin looked down but didn’t hear it hit the bottom – it had likely slowed its decent before it hit. </p><p></p><p>The group still worked to bring down the bodies from the walls and completed the task on the third day – just as Quentin returned in a hurry from the stairs. He told them what had happened and the heavily breathing Jerrin, Thovaas and Grimnyr thanked him and said they could only hope for enough rest if something was going to come after them. </p><p></p><p>Wheezing from the hot, dry air, Jerrin cast a spell that brought forth a being who presented an exquisite meal for them all. Meats, cheeses, and most importantly water was available to them immediately. The group ate and drank before setting up three watches for the night. </p><p></p><p>In the morning the group decided to continue down the stairs several hundred to the drop Quentin had mentioned. Jerrin cast a spell to walk on air again, and holding the rope the others rappelled down the chase. They continued onward again, the hot air blasting against their faces. Four or five hundred feet downward they descended until Quentin made out a soft glow ahead. The glow became stronger and they heard a dull roaring sound fill the stairs. Quentin could see something beyond the archway and pressed himself against the wall as he neared the reddish-orange opening. </p><p></p><p>Before him was a lake of magma and in the center a stone peak rose from it. Quentin saw that there was a floating tiled path that led from the landing to an opening in the solid black rock. Several rock islands seemed to be floating on the lava as well, and on them several reptile-men were stooped, and some of them were enormous. Smaller winged creatures, like the one Quentin had stabbed, circled in the vast cavern. Looking around the ring of magma Quentin saw something that had only been described in legends and fairytales like some of those Grimnyr told. It must be a dragon. The shear size of it made Quentin’s mouth drop and he couldn’t turn away from it. A colossal head was supported by an S-shaped neck, and the broad torso had mammoth wings extend behind it. Sinewy arms were outstretched, and one clawed hand blazed with magic that held a massive orb aloft. </p><p></p><p>Then, without moving its neck, the head swiveled about to show a black eye that seemed to peer straight at Quentin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MarauderX, post: 2295468, member: 9990"] [B][U][SIZE=4]Session 34: Brutal Mercy[/SIZE][/U][/B] The dimly glowing walls barely reflected the snake-man before Grimnyr, and he made out its face and its lowered jaw in time to see flames spew forth from its maw. Arrows from the nearby archers pelted him, and rage wrested his actions away from rational thought. Grimnyr heard Jerrin’s quick call for how many stand in front of him. In a misconstrued blurt he shouted the number three at the top of his powerful voice before heaving his axe down on the fire-breathing beast in front of him. Thovaas watched as the lizard-like creature spat flames at him and his mount a moment before he swung his large sword at it. His mount reared upward and slapped the beast with its hooves, knocking it to the ground with its skull caved in. Alex slinked closer to the two snake-archers and slashed one of them repeatedly. Quentin followed closely, using the shadows for cover before striking out with arrows. Meanwhile, Jerrin heard a thump of something that had landed at the entrance they had come through. Though he couldn’t see beyond the wall of fire that had been erected, his ears told him something was there over the roar of the fire. His spell ended and five dire wolves now leapt through the wall of fire to aid the others. Jerrin followed two of them toward the brilliant sword Alex wielded and barked for two others to attack any lizards down the other passageway. Grimnyr swung around and split the bow of one of the archer snake-men before turning to attack the caster. That was when two flaming arrows sailed down the hall, one striking the barbarian in the shoulder. The wolves loped down the roughly hewn corridor to aid in the attack, and they downed the archer nearest Grimnyr. They moved in the tight area as the caster tried to place a curse on the raging bard. The other archer retreated all the way back, but the wolves chased him there, relentlessly attacking. The other side pressed their advantage against the two archers as they gave ground, as an explosion ripped through the middle of them. The fiery blast failed to caution the party, and Quentin led the way down the hall, surging forward in the darkness to fire several arrows at the second archer. With his bowstring still humming, Quentin saw two figures standing in the murky darkness behind him. The archer didn’t seem to take notice of him as he fired into the crowd down the hall, striking one of the other archers as well as a summoned wolf. The other snake-figure completed a spell that projected a ray from its clawed hand. The ray found Quentin in the darkness and drained his strength from him instantly. Alex struck down one of the archers and moved to gain advantage by slipping around the other. Thovaas had dismounted to push the archers back down the hall, and he struck out down the hall just as Alex motioned him into a flanking position. The blow he landed struck down the remaining archer with such force that the lanky creature was sliced in two. Quentin lunged at new archer with his rapier then spun out of the way in one swift motion. Alex set off in pursuit of the new targets, his sword of light revealing the two new figures in a nearby room. Jerrin’s collar blazed when he told the wolves in their language to attack the caster, and they recognized him as the pack leader, not to be questioned. The wolves brought the caster to the ground as the archer fired on Alex. The snake-man caster suddenly conjured an area of grease beneath the summoned wolves, and they fell to the ground. Thovaas ran down the hallway, armor clacking around him, and tried to use the one summoned wolf as a bridge over the area of grease. The wolf pitched, and Thovaas felt his weight go forward uncontrollably. He slid down next to the caster and for an instant they looked each other in the eye before a spell and a smile followed. The caster slapped the paladin on the arm and Thovaas felt his endurance weaken. Jerrin sprinted back toward the entrance and popped his head through the wall of fire. There a manticore took a swipe at the small Halfling as he ran toward the other corridor where Grimnyr had disappeared. The wolves struck out again to knock over the caster near Grimnyr, and Jerrin commanded them to then attack the manticore that had followed him down the hall. They traded blows and the manticore was finally brought down. Grimnyr, with no nearby foes and seeing the sword of light, ran toward the archer that was firing on Alex. In a quick blow by Grimnyr and Quentin the archer brought down, and Grimnyr leapt through the air to land a devastating hit on the prone caster near Thovaas. Quentin fired his last two arrows and with a lucky shot struck the snake-caster in the side of the head. It went limp instantly. Jerrin summoned forth a unicorn that promptly healed Grimnyr and Quentin. Thovaas helped with the healing as well, and after a few minutes everyone had their wounds sealed. The strength that had been sapped from Alex and Quentin returned, the wall of fire burnt out, but Thovaas’s cursed health remained. They gathered the light metallic arrows, bows, and swords from the defeated reptile-men and stripped them of the armor as well. After Grimnyr and Jerrin had examined the strange layered armor, Thovaas systematically slashed the hide-like protective covering up the middle, cut the straps and poked a plethora of holes in each of the three suits. He broke the three swords at the hilt and also destroyed the bows. Quentin kept watch at the stair entry and a strong, hot breeze forced him to squint as it pushed his hair back. The group readied themselves and proceeded down the steps, always forty feet behind Quentin, and Grimnyr held the ever-burning torch aloft above his head for everyone. After progressing for three or four hundred feet down the crudely crafted steps Quentin saw an opening to a room ahead. Motioning for the others to remain behind, he and Alex crept toward the room to investigate. Quentin sensed a trap of some sort, something that would go off if he took another step. A whispered debate ensued about who should try to disarm it, and Quentin impatiently gave up and decided to take a chance. A moment later the group saw a vortex of flame shoot forth from near the wall where Quentin was, but he had ducked in time to avoid the severe burns. Alex just shook his head as Quentin shrugged. Quentin used his darkvision to scan the room. He saw a table, some bookcases and a few cabinets. The only thing moving was a piece of paper fluttering around the room, repeating a circular pattern. Quentin stepped in and saw that on the other side of the room were more stairs leading down. The group was motioned in and Alex began searching the blackened walls for anything suspicious, as it seemed the hotter air was leaking from the room in more than one place. Alex followed the direction of black sooty streaks along the wall and moved a cabinet out of the way to see that there was indeed an outline of a door, black on black. In a few minutes Alex popped the door open and it swung out from the room. It was only four feet tall and two feet wide and pitch black beyond. Quentin moved into the enclosed space and walked twenty feet before he saw an opening ahead. From the widening corridor he could see the room was cylindrical with a slightly bowl-shaped floor. In the middle of the floor was a grate. A liquid seemed to be draining to the grate after dripping from a location above near the surrounding walls. Quentin peered upward and his breathe caught in his throat at what he saw. Hanging nearly twenty feet from the floor were bodies. The bodies had been stripped of their skin, completely, even between their toes and fingers, and no hair could be seen. The exposed organs glistened but the bodies did not seem to bleed from a lack of skin. The bodies that were hanging there had been slashed, stabbed and mutilated - recently. Blood poured from the wounds, pooled on the floor, and then ran into the drain at the center of the room. Quentin turned away in disgust and he nearly dry heaved into his hands. Sensing trouble the others made their way forward to observe the room. The group examined the bodies that hung there. They discerned the bodies had elven bone structure and features, but were missing many of the signature features that designate the race, such as pointed ears. The wrists were tied together and the bodies hung down from them with the feet tied together at the bottom ten feet above the floor. The round room had four exits, and Quentin peered down each to see another cylindrical room of the same type. He ventured into the next as the party stood in silence with the sundered bodies. Quentin stopped and called back, saying that they have some ‘live’ ones. By living he had meant undamaged; they were still bodies without skin, but they had not been destroyed in the same way as the others. Thovaas detected no evil on them but Grimnyr could tell there was a strong presence of necromantic magic. Alex found and opened a second secret door in the room with the stairs, in a mirrored location to the other secret door. Quentin began the task of exploring the other side to find more cylindrical rooms in a symmetrical pattern with skinned bodies hanging in each. Quentin became jitterier as he explored room after room of the same, finding that none of the elven bodies in the rooms were damaged on this side. On each side there were twenty-four rooms with the hanging bodies for forty eight total, and three of them had freshly bloodied bodies. It was when Quentin returned that Thovaas made a realization. The bodies that had been mutilated showed wounds very similar to the armor that he had destroyed, with the same gashes running up the middle and holes poked through the armor at the same points. The others concurred that this was likely true, and Grimnyr surmised that it was the reason his axe did not sink so deeply in the reptile-men casters. Thovaas murmured a prayer for them and himself as he did not know what he had done. Grimacing, the group decided to cut down and behead all of the hanging bodies to put them at peace as well as undermine the magic to the armor the humanoid snakes wore. The group got underway immediately. They began with Thovaas cutting them down, Grimnyr swinging his axe and the paladin blessing them while the others kept watch. After several rooms Thovaas felt his muscles aching, but they decided to keep going despite the slower pace. They made their way through more rooms and the paladin was exhausted from his efforts as Jerrin informed them night had come. They rested. The next day they began again, only this time Thovaas called upon the power of Heironeous to turn away the necromantic hold on the bodies. It worked, and the bodies were charred from the holy blast Thovaas shot forth. Jerrin undid his own magic he had used to transform Tempest, his wolfhound companion, into a monkey. He then took the form of a giant ape and began ripping the bodies apart, leaving arms hanging downward by the wrists. He stacked the bodies in first one room, then another as they piled up. Jerrin was hoping to plug the drains with the bodies to prevent the blood from spilling into it. He couldn’t help but calculate that there were five-hundred-seventy-six elven bodies that they were removing from the walls. That could encompass five or six elven families, and he shuddered as his imagination raced with how the elves might have been caught and strung up. While the others worked, Quentin decided to explore. In a wink he was down the steps, and the party didn’t notice that he was gone until he reappeared an hour later asking for some rope and a grappling hook. He went back down the steps, and the stairs progressed deeper and deeper into the mountain. They kept sloping downward the further he went until the steps seemed to be more of a climb than anything else. Quentin fastened the grappling hook to a nearby crevasse and lowered himself the full length of the rope – fifty feet. From there he could see downward with his darkvision that the steps evened out once more. He returned back to the party to report. Later, while the party worked, Quentin had been keeping watch at the top of the steep drop when he saw what he thought was a piece of paper fluttering upward on the hot air. Instead it was something tiny with wings, and it was using the updraft to easily glide upward. The scaly thing was much smaller than even Jerrin and as it was about to whisk by, Quentin lunged at it. He had struck it with his rapier, jabbing it in the side and it spun about to look at Quentin with a face of alien surprise. It then let go of the ceiling which it clung to, folded its wings tightly to its side and dropped like a rock down the shaft. Quentin looked down but didn’t hear it hit the bottom – it had likely slowed its decent before it hit. The group still worked to bring down the bodies from the walls and completed the task on the third day – just as Quentin returned in a hurry from the stairs. He told them what had happened and the heavily breathing Jerrin, Thovaas and Grimnyr thanked him and said they could only hope for enough rest if something was going to come after them. Wheezing from the hot, dry air, Jerrin cast a spell that brought forth a being who presented an exquisite meal for them all. Meats, cheeses, and most importantly water was available to them immediately. The group ate and drank before setting up three watches for the night. In the morning the group decided to continue down the stairs several hundred to the drop Quentin had mentioned. Jerrin cast a spell to walk on air again, and holding the rope the others rappelled down the chase. They continued onward again, the hot air blasting against their faces. Four or five hundred feet downward they descended until Quentin made out a soft glow ahead. The glow became stronger and they heard a dull roaring sound fill the stairs. Quentin could see something beyond the archway and pressed himself against the wall as he neared the reddish-orange opening. Before him was a lake of magma and in the center a stone peak rose from it. Quentin saw that there was a floating tiled path that led from the landing to an opening in the solid black rock. Several rock islands seemed to be floating on the lava as well, and on them several reptile-men were stooped, and some of them were enormous. Smaller winged creatures, like the one Quentin had stabbed, circled in the vast cavern. Looking around the ring of magma Quentin saw something that had only been described in legends and fairytales like some of those Grimnyr told. It must be a dragon. The shear size of it made Quentin’s mouth drop and he couldn’t turn away from it. A colossal head was supported by an S-shaped neck, and the broad torso had mammoth wings extend behind it. Sinewy arms were outstretched, and one clawed hand blazed with magic that held a massive orb aloft. Then, without moving its neck, the head swiveled about to show a black eye that seemed to peer straight at Quentin. [/QUOTE]
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