ltclnlbrain
First Post
Well, I've kept you waiting long enough. 
Chapter 11
Rumar Destare sat cross-legged on the floor of his room, still clad in his full plate armor. Sigils and holy symbols decorated virtually every available space of metal, no two of which appeared to be alike. His two large, pearly-white wings were folded close to his body. A squat, plumed helmet adorned his head, concealing all of his features save for the two swirling pools of gold that were his eyes.
Rumar was an aasimar paladin, sworn to uphold the beliefs and tenets of the Upper Planes. Across from Rumar on a padded pillow rested an ornate longsword, glowing with a soft blue light. This sword, or rather the celestial spirit contained within, was Pergium, a young and fledgling angel. Rumar had been assigned to be Pergium’s caretaker in his early years, to indoctrinate the spirit into the ways of the world and to protect him so that one day he might make a fine addition to the heavenly choirs.
“Now then, Pergium,” Rumar said in Celestial, “what did we learn from that battle with the ogre mage?”
The sword thrummed as the spirit within answered. “The enemies that you see may not be the only enemies that are present. Do not take your senses for granted, as they may deceive you. Once the enemy falls, be sure he stays down, for he might be able to regenerate his wounds.”
Rumar nodded in satisfaction. “Very good, Pergium. These are important lessons, and you would do well to remember them. Heed them well as your powers increase.”
The paladin’s lesson was interrupted by an insistent knocking coming from the door. Sighing, Rumar flapped his wings once to propel him to his feet, and then moved over to answer the door. The sight that greeted him made his breath catch in his throat. Before him stood his sister, Serrila, though it looked like she had been in a hell of a fight. Her silver hair was disheveled, her white robes torn, and dirt and dried blood covered her body. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as her brother took her in his arms.
“Serrila! What happened? You were due back in town almost a tenday ago! Who did this to you?”
“Relax, Rumar,” she said, choking back a sob, “it’s okay. It’s okay, I’m safe now. The wagon we were escorting was ambushed. It was a set up.”
Fire crackled in Rumar’s eyes as he stalked over to Pergium. “Those who did this to you will feel the edge of my blade,” he said coldly, taking his sword into his hand. He would have charged out of the room to seek justice for Serrila’s injuries had she not laid her hand on his arm and stared imploringly at him.
“That won’t help, Rumar. There are some adventurers who are even now working to eliminate the cultists who imprisoned me from the region, but there is something we can do to help. We’re going to visit somebody.”
“Who?” the paladin inquired.
“Merik Thornridge.”
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Xorfilstaarg grinned wickedly, and suddenly the adventurers’ minds were filled with terror. Gillian's stoic presence calmed their nerves and they shook off the magical fear effect. The blue slaadi charged forward, slashing with their bone-claws. One tore a gash across Grundar's chest. The other slashed at Rhys, but he brought his staff up and managed to parry the attack.
Grundar grimaced as he tumbled away from his assailant and flanked the one attacking Rhys. He stabbed his rapier deep into its back, causing the slaad to croak in pain. Rhys took advantage of the creature’s momentary lapse in defense and lashed out with his staff in a furious combination of blows. He hit the slaad over the head with the dragon end of his staff and thrice with the other end, bashing in the thing's skull and dropping it to the ground, twitching.
Terenon cast a spell to lock up the large green slaad's body, but the creature resisted the magical attack. Gillian slashed the other blue slaad with her spiked chain, scoring its mottled flesh. From the back of the group, Allanon cast a quick spell and let loose a large fireball at the slaadi. The green managed to dodge most of the blast, but the blue took the full brunt of it and wavered unsteadily on its feet. Berek charged at the blue: it scored a hit with its claw before he got within its reach, but then his maul shattered the thing's ribs and it went down in a heap.
Xorfilstaarg was surprised. Both of his blue allies had fallen within a few seconds! He needed some extra protection. He chanted a short phrase in Slaad and waved his arms, and with a sudden flash a normal-sized green slaad appeared behind Allanon. The slaad tore at the sorceress with his teeth and claws, opening up vicious wounds and shredding her blue robes.
“Great, another one!” cried Grundar. “I’ve got the big green meanie,” he said as he tumbled past Xorfilstaarg’s reach. He stabbed his rapier at the creature, but as he was using his ring of blinking, he phased into the Ethereal Plane right before he struck and he failed to hit his target.
Terenon floated backward, surprised that the green slaad had shrugged off his attack. He started an incantation and a small intensely glowing green globe hovered above his hands. With a motion of his finger, the globe rocketed toward the huge slaad. "Eat this!" he cried as it splashed against the creature’s body, but his expression fell when he saw the attack did little to slow him down.
Gillian tumbled around the new arrival and lashed it with her chain. Rhys moved toward it and, sidestepping a claw swipe, whomped it heartily with his staff.
Berek blew loudly through his lips, sending his mustache flying about while emitting a rather rude noise. "This is it?" he said skeptically as he stomped towards the summoned slaad. "From the way everyone was actin', I sorta expected 'em to be at least puttin' up a decent fight.” He smashed the slaad twice with his maul, and the creature reeled, seeing stars.
"Speak for yourself, dwarf," Allanon muttered while backing away from the slaad, nursing her wounds. She slipped one hand down to her belt and pulled out a trusty wand. She tapped herself with it and her skin became hard as stone, protecting her from further physical damage.
Both slaadi's wounds began to heal rapidly before the adventurers’ eyes, though they still bore signs of damage. The normal sized one scored two hits against Rhys with his claws. Xorfilstaarg knew things were not going well. It was time to call for reinforcements. The enormous slaad bellowed loudly and attacked Grundar. One claw passed through him as he blinked back and forth, but the second claw and the slaad's enormous mouth tore Grundar's flesh quite painfully.
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Flame Lord Durzhul looked up from the papers arrayed at his desk as an enormous bellow echoed through the chamber. That could mean only one thing: the adventurers had finally arrived. He looked to the two red slaadi in the room with him and gestured toward the door, then began casting defensive spells on himself. He wanted to be prepared for the imminent battle.
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Grundar stabbed Xorfilstaarg twice, eliciting bellows of pain and rage from the slaad, coupled with gouts of shifting, multicolored blood.
“I’m sick of you, you slimy, soulless frog,” cried Terenon as he sent a lightning bolt sailing toward the green slaad. He dodged aside, but his flesh still boiled from the powerful blast. Gillian and Rhys assaulted the normal slaad with a barrage of attacks, and it disappeared in a flash of light.
Allanon cast a spell and gathered an enormous amount of electrical energy at her fingertips, her whole body tingling with the approaching discharge. She formed the electrical energy into a bolt and angled it at Xorfilstaarg. Keeping up its trend of dodging lightning bolts, though, the enormous slaad managed to evade much of Allanon's damage as well. As Berek hustled over to attack it, the slaad bit down on the dwarf with enormous crushing power, dealing a tremendous amount of damage. The enraged dwarf flew into a frenzy and bashed the slaad with his maul.
Despite his wounds, Xorfilstaarg pressed on, tearing Berek apart with his teeth and claws. Though his left arm dangled by a thread, though his rib cage had been virtually torn asunder, though his lungs had since filled up with blood, Berek continued to flail wildly at the slaad with his weapon, grinning with crazed satisfaction at each crunch of metal on bone. Grundar poked at the slaad with his rapier, tearing open an enormous puncture wound in its gut, causing blood and entrails to spill out on the floor. The beast collapsed to the floor, finally dead. Unfortunately, Berek was still gripped by the throes of his battle frenzy and he lashed out at Grundar; fortunately, Grundar's blinking saved him from the brutal attacks.
“Terenon!” cried Grundar as he tumbled away from the crazed dwarf. “Freeze Berek! We need to heal him before he hits one of us!”
“I’ll try to lock the mighty midget down!” replied Terenon as he cast a spell to paralyze the berserker.
Berek succumbed to Terenon's hold spell and was locked rigid in place. Seeing as he was no longer moving, Rhys laid his healing hands on the dwarf, healing some of the horribly grievous wounds he had taken. The rage in the dwarf's eyes died down as he managed to control the fires of the frenzy inside him.
Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived. The doors in the western part of the room flew open and a small group of creatures emerged. Two were hulking red slaadi, and the third looked like a rust-skinned dwarf with a scraggly grey beard and glowing red eyes. The durzagon looked at the adventurers before surveying the carnage around the room.
"It is you," Durzhul hissed. "I should have figured you would be resourceful enough to make it this far. I'm afraid I can't let you go any further on your own volition: I'm sure you understand how risky that would be. Terenon will come with me, willingly or not. The rest of you will die, sad to say. No hard feelings, right?"
With that, he began casting a spell and the slaadi surged forward to attack. The dwarf finished his spell and a wall of ice sprung into existence that separated the party, leaving only Berek and Rhys immediately threatening the enemies. With a sudden word and gesture, the durzagon immediately cast another spell and a lightning bolt flew from his outstretched fingers, hitting Berek and Rhys. Rhys managed to avoid most of the blast, but Berek was still paralyzed from Terenon’s spell. His flesh bubbled and boiled, his hair smoldered and crackled, and the poor dwarf dropped to the floor, lifeless.
The two slaadi pounced on the badly hurt Rhys, biting and tearing at him with their claws. They moved preternaturally quickly, and Rhys was hard pressed to deal with their furious assault. Their teeth tore into his flesh, and he succumbed to the damage, joining Berek in the long sleep of death.
Grundar turned off his ring and sank to his knees, bleeding profusely. “I’m going to need some healing Gill! Gill?” Gillian cried in outrage as she heard the dying screams of her comrades on the other side of the wall. She resisted the urge to bash through the wall and take vengeance on them, but she knew that it would be more prudent to help her friends who were still alive first. Tears streaming down her face, she moved over to the elf and laid her hands on his wounds, healing him as best she could.
“We’ve no time to grieve,” Terenon said coldly. “We don’t have much time before the slaadi break through the wall. Grundar, hold still; I’m going to make you invisible.” He cast a quick spell and the elf faded from view. Allanon reached into her torn robe and drew a potion. She downed its contents, and instantly her wounds faded from view.
The sounds of croaking and pounding came from the other side of the wall, and after a few seconds a ten-foot square section collapsed. The wall was a little more than a foot thick, and the red slaadi stood directly on the other side of the hole, with Durzhul behind them. The Flame Lord cast a spell and a shimmering, swordlike plane of force appeared before Gillian. It struck her, leaving a deep wound across her chest.
Grundar downed a healing potion and tumbled forward, stopping right next to the wall, being careful not to step into the chilly hole in the wall. He said, "Gillian, help me cover the hole. Terenon, Allanon, let that dwarf have it!" Gillian nodded to Grundar, then tumbled up next to the wall and let the slaad on the other side have it with her chain. She whipped it across the thing's chest in a critical strike, drawing a large gout of blood from the slaad.
“I see you,” said Terenon in a singsong fashion as he sent a lightning bolt at the slaadi and the durzagon. The enemies convulsed as the energy poured through them, and then they shook even more as Allanon followed up a bolt of her own. Durzhul was ready this time, and he managed to dodge the second blast. The slaad that Gill had struck dropped to the ground.
Unfortunately, the slaadi’s wounds began to heal and the one on the ground leapt to its feet, emitting a loud, reverberating croak. The noise clouded Grundar's mind, stunning him and making him drop his rapier and wobble unsteadily on his feet. The other slaad slashed through the wall at Gillian, but she dodged and parried the creature's attacks.
The floating sword of force sliced another wound across Gillian’s chest again. Durzhul cast another spell, and a black ray of crackling negative energy shot out and hit Terenon. He felt the energy clawing at his body, surpressing his life force.
"You're simply too powerful in your current state, Terenon; let's see how well you fight in a more weakened position." The durzagon grinned evilly, and his eyes glowed bright red.
"Why won't you frogs stay dead?" shouted Gillian. The halfling gritted her teeth against the pain of the sword wounds, determined to take out the slaadi before they took her out. She lashed out at the slaadi with a flurry of blows. The first two dropped the croaking slaad and tore his throat out, ensuring he would never croak again. The third strike opened a bleeding wound on the other slaad’s shoulder.
Terenon knew they had to hamper Durzhul’s spellcasting. When he had traveled to Waterdeep, he had purchased a small token for each of the party members. When activated, the token would turn into an enormous whip that would grapple enemies. “Use your tokens!” he called as he activated his. Allanon activated hers as well, and the two whips wrapped around Durzhul, who grunted in surprise.
As the slaad scored a nasty hit across Gillian’s face, Durzhul began chanting the words to a spell. His hands were bound by the whip, but he had prepared this particular spell to be used even without any gestures. A small red bead sailed through the wall of ice and detonated on the adventurers. Gillian and Grundar managed to evade the blast, but Terenon was caught in it and was badly burnt by the roaring flames.
Gillian backed off from the slaad and focused her ki inward. Her wounds began to close up, though she was still badly hurt. “If you wizards have any other tricks up your sleeve, now might be the time to use them!” she called.
Allanon obliged and let loose with a chained lightning bolt. The lightning struck the red slaad and its body burst apart, splattering chunky pieces across the room. The bolt then arced to Durzhul, though it did not seem to hurt him much. The floating whips tried to pin the durzagon to the ground, but he chanted a short phrase and disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the wall behind Allanon.
“Take down his magical defenses!” cried Terenon. Allanon cast a spell and dispelled most of Durzhul’s defensive spells. Grundar, having since recovered from the slaad’s stunning croak, picked up his rapier and charged Durzhul, stabbing deep into his shoulder. Gillian followed up with a flick of her chain across the dwarf’s face.
Durzhul staggered back from the melee fighters, badly hurt. “This isn’t over!” he called. “You haven’t seen the last of me!” He muttered a few arcane syllables and disappeared in a flash of light.
Terenon dismissed his spell of flight and sank to the ground, then collapsed on the floor as soon as his feet touched. As Grundar moved over to help him, the mage gasped, “We need to get out of here before he comes back.”
Allanon reached beneath her torn robes and withdrew a scroll of teleportation. “Where should we go?” she inquired. “Back to Silverymoon?”
Terenon shook his head. “That’s where they’ll be expecting us to go. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had agents waiting there for us.” The mage thought for a few moments, then nodded.
“Baldur’s Gate.”
Chapter 11
Rumar Destare sat cross-legged on the floor of his room, still clad in his full plate armor. Sigils and holy symbols decorated virtually every available space of metal, no two of which appeared to be alike. His two large, pearly-white wings were folded close to his body. A squat, plumed helmet adorned his head, concealing all of his features save for the two swirling pools of gold that were his eyes.
Rumar was an aasimar paladin, sworn to uphold the beliefs and tenets of the Upper Planes. Across from Rumar on a padded pillow rested an ornate longsword, glowing with a soft blue light. This sword, or rather the celestial spirit contained within, was Pergium, a young and fledgling angel. Rumar had been assigned to be Pergium’s caretaker in his early years, to indoctrinate the spirit into the ways of the world and to protect him so that one day he might make a fine addition to the heavenly choirs.
“Now then, Pergium,” Rumar said in Celestial, “what did we learn from that battle with the ogre mage?”
The sword thrummed as the spirit within answered. “The enemies that you see may not be the only enemies that are present. Do not take your senses for granted, as they may deceive you. Once the enemy falls, be sure he stays down, for he might be able to regenerate his wounds.”
Rumar nodded in satisfaction. “Very good, Pergium. These are important lessons, and you would do well to remember them. Heed them well as your powers increase.”
The paladin’s lesson was interrupted by an insistent knocking coming from the door. Sighing, Rumar flapped his wings once to propel him to his feet, and then moved over to answer the door. The sight that greeted him made his breath catch in his throat. Before him stood his sister, Serrila, though it looked like she had been in a hell of a fight. Her silver hair was disheveled, her white robes torn, and dirt and dried blood covered her body. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as her brother took her in his arms.
“Serrila! What happened? You were due back in town almost a tenday ago! Who did this to you?”
“Relax, Rumar,” she said, choking back a sob, “it’s okay. It’s okay, I’m safe now. The wagon we were escorting was ambushed. It was a set up.”
Fire crackled in Rumar’s eyes as he stalked over to Pergium. “Those who did this to you will feel the edge of my blade,” he said coldly, taking his sword into his hand. He would have charged out of the room to seek justice for Serrila’s injuries had she not laid her hand on his arm and stared imploringly at him.
“That won’t help, Rumar. There are some adventurers who are even now working to eliminate the cultists who imprisoned me from the region, but there is something we can do to help. We’re going to visit somebody.”
“Who?” the paladin inquired.
“Merik Thornridge.”
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Xorfilstaarg grinned wickedly, and suddenly the adventurers’ minds were filled with terror. Gillian's stoic presence calmed their nerves and they shook off the magical fear effect. The blue slaadi charged forward, slashing with their bone-claws. One tore a gash across Grundar's chest. The other slashed at Rhys, but he brought his staff up and managed to parry the attack.
Grundar grimaced as he tumbled away from his assailant and flanked the one attacking Rhys. He stabbed his rapier deep into its back, causing the slaad to croak in pain. Rhys took advantage of the creature’s momentary lapse in defense and lashed out with his staff in a furious combination of blows. He hit the slaad over the head with the dragon end of his staff and thrice with the other end, bashing in the thing's skull and dropping it to the ground, twitching.
Terenon cast a spell to lock up the large green slaad's body, but the creature resisted the magical attack. Gillian slashed the other blue slaad with her spiked chain, scoring its mottled flesh. From the back of the group, Allanon cast a quick spell and let loose a large fireball at the slaadi. The green managed to dodge most of the blast, but the blue took the full brunt of it and wavered unsteadily on its feet. Berek charged at the blue: it scored a hit with its claw before he got within its reach, but then his maul shattered the thing's ribs and it went down in a heap.
Xorfilstaarg was surprised. Both of his blue allies had fallen within a few seconds! He needed some extra protection. He chanted a short phrase in Slaad and waved his arms, and with a sudden flash a normal-sized green slaad appeared behind Allanon. The slaad tore at the sorceress with his teeth and claws, opening up vicious wounds and shredding her blue robes.
“Great, another one!” cried Grundar. “I’ve got the big green meanie,” he said as he tumbled past Xorfilstaarg’s reach. He stabbed his rapier at the creature, but as he was using his ring of blinking, he phased into the Ethereal Plane right before he struck and he failed to hit his target.
Terenon floated backward, surprised that the green slaad had shrugged off his attack. He started an incantation and a small intensely glowing green globe hovered above his hands. With a motion of his finger, the globe rocketed toward the huge slaad. "Eat this!" he cried as it splashed against the creature’s body, but his expression fell when he saw the attack did little to slow him down.
Gillian tumbled around the new arrival and lashed it with her chain. Rhys moved toward it and, sidestepping a claw swipe, whomped it heartily with his staff.
Berek blew loudly through his lips, sending his mustache flying about while emitting a rather rude noise. "This is it?" he said skeptically as he stomped towards the summoned slaad. "From the way everyone was actin', I sorta expected 'em to be at least puttin' up a decent fight.” He smashed the slaad twice with his maul, and the creature reeled, seeing stars.
"Speak for yourself, dwarf," Allanon muttered while backing away from the slaad, nursing her wounds. She slipped one hand down to her belt and pulled out a trusty wand. She tapped herself with it and her skin became hard as stone, protecting her from further physical damage.
Both slaadi's wounds began to heal rapidly before the adventurers’ eyes, though they still bore signs of damage. The normal sized one scored two hits against Rhys with his claws. Xorfilstaarg knew things were not going well. It was time to call for reinforcements. The enormous slaad bellowed loudly and attacked Grundar. One claw passed through him as he blinked back and forth, but the second claw and the slaad's enormous mouth tore Grundar's flesh quite painfully.
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Flame Lord Durzhul looked up from the papers arrayed at his desk as an enormous bellow echoed through the chamber. That could mean only one thing: the adventurers had finally arrived. He looked to the two red slaadi in the room with him and gestured toward the door, then began casting defensive spells on himself. He wanted to be prepared for the imminent battle.
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Grundar stabbed Xorfilstaarg twice, eliciting bellows of pain and rage from the slaad, coupled with gouts of shifting, multicolored blood.
“I’m sick of you, you slimy, soulless frog,” cried Terenon as he sent a lightning bolt sailing toward the green slaad. He dodged aside, but his flesh still boiled from the powerful blast. Gillian and Rhys assaulted the normal slaad with a barrage of attacks, and it disappeared in a flash of light.
Allanon cast a spell and gathered an enormous amount of electrical energy at her fingertips, her whole body tingling with the approaching discharge. She formed the electrical energy into a bolt and angled it at Xorfilstaarg. Keeping up its trend of dodging lightning bolts, though, the enormous slaad managed to evade much of Allanon's damage as well. As Berek hustled over to attack it, the slaad bit down on the dwarf with enormous crushing power, dealing a tremendous amount of damage. The enraged dwarf flew into a frenzy and bashed the slaad with his maul.
Despite his wounds, Xorfilstaarg pressed on, tearing Berek apart with his teeth and claws. Though his left arm dangled by a thread, though his rib cage had been virtually torn asunder, though his lungs had since filled up with blood, Berek continued to flail wildly at the slaad with his weapon, grinning with crazed satisfaction at each crunch of metal on bone. Grundar poked at the slaad with his rapier, tearing open an enormous puncture wound in its gut, causing blood and entrails to spill out on the floor. The beast collapsed to the floor, finally dead. Unfortunately, Berek was still gripped by the throes of his battle frenzy and he lashed out at Grundar; fortunately, Grundar's blinking saved him from the brutal attacks.
“Terenon!” cried Grundar as he tumbled away from the crazed dwarf. “Freeze Berek! We need to heal him before he hits one of us!”
“I’ll try to lock the mighty midget down!” replied Terenon as he cast a spell to paralyze the berserker.
Berek succumbed to Terenon's hold spell and was locked rigid in place. Seeing as he was no longer moving, Rhys laid his healing hands on the dwarf, healing some of the horribly grievous wounds he had taken. The rage in the dwarf's eyes died down as he managed to control the fires of the frenzy inside him.
Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived. The doors in the western part of the room flew open and a small group of creatures emerged. Two were hulking red slaadi, and the third looked like a rust-skinned dwarf with a scraggly grey beard and glowing red eyes. The durzagon looked at the adventurers before surveying the carnage around the room.
"It is you," Durzhul hissed. "I should have figured you would be resourceful enough to make it this far. I'm afraid I can't let you go any further on your own volition: I'm sure you understand how risky that would be. Terenon will come with me, willingly or not. The rest of you will die, sad to say. No hard feelings, right?"
With that, he began casting a spell and the slaadi surged forward to attack. The dwarf finished his spell and a wall of ice sprung into existence that separated the party, leaving only Berek and Rhys immediately threatening the enemies. With a sudden word and gesture, the durzagon immediately cast another spell and a lightning bolt flew from his outstretched fingers, hitting Berek and Rhys. Rhys managed to avoid most of the blast, but Berek was still paralyzed from Terenon’s spell. His flesh bubbled and boiled, his hair smoldered and crackled, and the poor dwarf dropped to the floor, lifeless.
The two slaadi pounced on the badly hurt Rhys, biting and tearing at him with their claws. They moved preternaturally quickly, and Rhys was hard pressed to deal with their furious assault. Their teeth tore into his flesh, and he succumbed to the damage, joining Berek in the long sleep of death.
Grundar turned off his ring and sank to his knees, bleeding profusely. “I’m going to need some healing Gill! Gill?” Gillian cried in outrage as she heard the dying screams of her comrades on the other side of the wall. She resisted the urge to bash through the wall and take vengeance on them, but she knew that it would be more prudent to help her friends who were still alive first. Tears streaming down her face, she moved over to the elf and laid her hands on his wounds, healing him as best she could.
“We’ve no time to grieve,” Terenon said coldly. “We don’t have much time before the slaadi break through the wall. Grundar, hold still; I’m going to make you invisible.” He cast a quick spell and the elf faded from view. Allanon reached into her torn robe and drew a potion. She downed its contents, and instantly her wounds faded from view.
The sounds of croaking and pounding came from the other side of the wall, and after a few seconds a ten-foot square section collapsed. The wall was a little more than a foot thick, and the red slaadi stood directly on the other side of the hole, with Durzhul behind them. The Flame Lord cast a spell and a shimmering, swordlike plane of force appeared before Gillian. It struck her, leaving a deep wound across her chest.
Grundar downed a healing potion and tumbled forward, stopping right next to the wall, being careful not to step into the chilly hole in the wall. He said, "Gillian, help me cover the hole. Terenon, Allanon, let that dwarf have it!" Gillian nodded to Grundar, then tumbled up next to the wall and let the slaad on the other side have it with her chain. She whipped it across the thing's chest in a critical strike, drawing a large gout of blood from the slaad.
“I see you,” said Terenon in a singsong fashion as he sent a lightning bolt at the slaadi and the durzagon. The enemies convulsed as the energy poured through them, and then they shook even more as Allanon followed up a bolt of her own. Durzhul was ready this time, and he managed to dodge the second blast. The slaad that Gill had struck dropped to the ground.
Unfortunately, the slaadi’s wounds began to heal and the one on the ground leapt to its feet, emitting a loud, reverberating croak. The noise clouded Grundar's mind, stunning him and making him drop his rapier and wobble unsteadily on his feet. The other slaad slashed through the wall at Gillian, but she dodged and parried the creature's attacks.
The floating sword of force sliced another wound across Gillian’s chest again. Durzhul cast another spell, and a black ray of crackling negative energy shot out and hit Terenon. He felt the energy clawing at his body, surpressing his life force.
"You're simply too powerful in your current state, Terenon; let's see how well you fight in a more weakened position." The durzagon grinned evilly, and his eyes glowed bright red.
"Why won't you frogs stay dead?" shouted Gillian. The halfling gritted her teeth against the pain of the sword wounds, determined to take out the slaadi before they took her out. She lashed out at the slaadi with a flurry of blows. The first two dropped the croaking slaad and tore his throat out, ensuring he would never croak again. The third strike opened a bleeding wound on the other slaad’s shoulder.
Terenon knew they had to hamper Durzhul’s spellcasting. When he had traveled to Waterdeep, he had purchased a small token for each of the party members. When activated, the token would turn into an enormous whip that would grapple enemies. “Use your tokens!” he called as he activated his. Allanon activated hers as well, and the two whips wrapped around Durzhul, who grunted in surprise.
As the slaad scored a nasty hit across Gillian’s face, Durzhul began chanting the words to a spell. His hands were bound by the whip, but he had prepared this particular spell to be used even without any gestures. A small red bead sailed through the wall of ice and detonated on the adventurers. Gillian and Grundar managed to evade the blast, but Terenon was caught in it and was badly burnt by the roaring flames.
Gillian backed off from the slaad and focused her ki inward. Her wounds began to close up, though she was still badly hurt. “If you wizards have any other tricks up your sleeve, now might be the time to use them!” she called.
Allanon obliged and let loose with a chained lightning bolt. The lightning struck the red slaad and its body burst apart, splattering chunky pieces across the room. The bolt then arced to Durzhul, though it did not seem to hurt him much. The floating whips tried to pin the durzagon to the ground, but he chanted a short phrase and disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the wall behind Allanon.
“Take down his magical defenses!” cried Terenon. Allanon cast a spell and dispelled most of Durzhul’s defensive spells. Grundar, having since recovered from the slaad’s stunning croak, picked up his rapier and charged Durzhul, stabbing deep into his shoulder. Gillian followed up with a flick of her chain across the dwarf’s face.
Durzhul staggered back from the melee fighters, badly hurt. “This isn’t over!” he called. “You haven’t seen the last of me!” He muttered a few arcane syllables and disappeared in a flash of light.
Terenon dismissed his spell of flight and sank to the ground, then collapsed on the floor as soon as his feet touched. As Grundar moved over to help him, the mage gasped, “We need to get out of here before he comes back.”
Allanon reached beneath her torn robes and withdrew a scroll of teleportation. “Where should we go?” she inquired. “Back to Silverymoon?”
Terenon shook his head. “That’s where they’ll be expecting us to go. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had agents waiting there for us.” The mage thought for a few moments, then nodded.
“Baldur’s Gate.”
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