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Memoirs of a Lawyer turned Dungeoncrawler (Updated May 13, 2008)
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<blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3110534" data-attributes="member: 939"><p>Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Eight – Door on the Left, Columns on the Right, Screams down the Middle</p><p> </p><p> Ee went through the door before me, though it was after Morwen. Morwen took a few cautious steps forward, listening intently. I sensed that she heard something terribly disturbing down that hall ahead of us. The hall quickly ended in a room with multiple doors that had another hall leading in the opposite direction, taking our path in a U-shape around a thick stone interior wall. The unnatural screams of agony continued from down that hall. Lining that hall were six female statutes, twice as tall as ordinary women that seemed to hold up the walls from alcoves. The structure apparently did not need them, however, as was evidenced by their stepping forward, out of their alcoves, to attack us. </p><p> Moving quickly, Larch, still in bat form, said faint syllables of druidic magic and blended the stone walls over the alcoves of three of the strange statuesque women of stone, sealing them in. The remaining three proceeded to bash on Ee and Morwen with wild, mindless fury. </p><p> From my experience with the earlier stone statute in the cave of the dragon, I expected that nothing I did could directly affect it. My mind called out for help from beyond the outer planes, and Valaria again loyally answered my call. She appeared amidst all three of the stone statues and attacked them with a fury of her own. </p><p> Ee suddenly screamed, “Bertha!” as he hit one of them with his great axe, his love, and watched her shatter into a hundred tiny pieces upon the statue’s hard, stony skin. The cry of agony from Ee seemed to echo for a time in both Ee’s and my own head. Knowing my mind would be useless in this fight, I left Valaria to fight them while I sent the tendrils of my mind out back toward Cauldron. </p><p> Somewhere in Cauldron, one of Tuvstarr’s apprentices responded, and I told her “I want to buy an axe…” and so things were set in motion… </p><p> Meanwhile, the pummeling continued. A barrier of blades sprung up around them, but it had little effect. Valaria’s own great sword shattered upon them, also to little effect. Finally, she let loose with a rage all her own and in one strong, mighty blow of her fist augmented by her focused mind, she shattered one of the statues into a thousand small chips of stone. </p><p> One of the statues picked Larch’s bat form from the air and began to squeeze him in her stony fist. Just as he was about to be crushed to a pulp, the bat suddenly grew to a form eight times the size of the large statues, into a bulette, which then proceeded to gore Larch’s former captor. Valaria chose that moment to encase that statue in a sheath of ectoplasm, immobilizing it. The last one, surrounded, was then finally beat down by my companions, followed by the ectoplasmically cocooned one. Just as we were about to catch our breath, a demon appeared. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Nine – Big Beefy Demon</p><p></p><p> The demon seemed to appear out of nowhere, which would have been purely an illusion of its invisibility had it not, in fact, appeared out of nowhere. My true seeing eyes saw him there and not there, but did not see him arrive. Slippery. He looked like he had the head of a cow and he was covered in scorpions, which he proceeded to exhale all over Morwen, though she deftly jumped out of their way. </p><p> Valaria charged him, as did Ee, and soon the demon was leaking foul ichor that resembled poisoned blood. The demon, coward that it was, then vanished. I put plans for our demon steak barbeque on hold. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Forty – Hall of Horrors </p><p></p><p> The hall thus cleared, we continued forward, Morwen and Valaria leading the way. Without even seeing it myself, I felt the horror of what they saw ahead from both of their minds. Then I felt Morwen’s mind snap and then go slack and she ran back, past all of us, and down to the far room in the corner, where she cowered, her mind almost blank with terror. I reached out the soft tendrils of my mind to hers and slowly pried away the strands of horror encasing her mind, restoring her balance. She then quickly returned to the front of the hall, seemingly unaware of what had just transpired. So much the better. </p><p> At that moment, Valaria again bowed to me and vanished, the fragments of her great sword vanishing off the floor as well. I would be calling her back soon. </p><p> We all then moved forward to see what she had seen. Five men, one woman, all held fast in alcoves by three chains running through the flesh of each of them, writhing beneath their skin, creating an agony unimagined. They all seemed on the brink of death, barely conscious, always screaming and moaning. Strangely, it had no effect at all upon me when I saw it, nor upon Ee. I surmised it was because their moans of agony were nothing compared to Ee’s scream when he saw his beloved Bertha shattered into oblivion. </p><p> Larch and Kyrnyn were affected, however, throwing up their trail rations in an almost never-ending stream of vomit. Kyrnyn was unable to do much but wretch, but he tried to help out the poor victims anyway. Mostly he just got the innards of his stomach on their bare, scabbed feet, but perhaps that moisture was a blessing for their sufferings. </p><p> As I watched this, in my mind I heard from Tuvstarr’s apprentice. A suitable axe had been found, one even more powerful than the admittedly barely-enchanted Bertha. But one cannot discount the power of sentimental value. </p><p> I again summoned Valaria, handing her coin, and sending her off to the blacksmith’s shop, an image of its location implanted in her mind from my own. She quickly returned, coin gone, an impressive, large, black gleaming great axe in her hand, crackling with magical energy. Ee was almost in tears. “Me have Big Bertha Two!” </p><p> I handed him his new axe and he immediately took a few practice swings. He then turned and shouted “Me rage!” and charged down the hallway toward where the puking Kyrnyn stood. I idly wondered if this was how Ee reacted every time he bought a new weapon. It was then that I noticed our cow-headed demon friend (Daraka Demon, according to my stolen planar knowledge) stood, once again appearing out of nowhere to do us ill. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Forty-One – Demon with Scorpions and Demon Scorpion</p><p></p><p> Just at that moment, another door to our rear burst open and another demon, this one not covered in scorpions, but instead resembling a large scorpion, a Gharros Demon, charged against us. It would have charged me had not the massive bulk of Larch’s Dire Lion blocked its way. With a quick thought, I dispatched twin globes of fire toward both demons, more than singeing their foul flesh. </p><p> Morwen charged forward and tumbled behind our cow-friend, just as Ee ended his rage-filled charge, Big Bertha II tasting flesh for the first time as he and Morwen disemboweled the demon. </p><p> Then Ee, Morwen ran back toward the Lion, and together, they three slowly wore it down until it, too, met the destiny of all demons we meet (and all of our employers) face – lying facedown in a puddle of demon-blood. </p><p> Looking back at the still-puking Kyrnyn and Larch, I said “We ought to rest for a little while. Perhaps somewhere not surrounded on all sides by openings for demons to charge us.” Kyrnyn seemed still to take some convincing. I hoped his stubbornness at remaining in this exposed hall would not lead us to doom.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Altalazar, post: 3110534, member: 939"] Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Eight – Door on the Left, Columns on the Right, Screams down the Middle Ee went through the door before me, though it was after Morwen. Morwen took a few cautious steps forward, listening intently. I sensed that she heard something terribly disturbing down that hall ahead of us. The hall quickly ended in a room with multiple doors that had another hall leading in the opposite direction, taking our path in a U-shape around a thick stone interior wall. The unnatural screams of agony continued from down that hall. Lining that hall were six female statutes, twice as tall as ordinary women that seemed to hold up the walls from alcoves. The structure apparently did not need them, however, as was evidenced by their stepping forward, out of their alcoves, to attack us. Moving quickly, Larch, still in bat form, said faint syllables of druidic magic and blended the stone walls over the alcoves of three of the strange statuesque women of stone, sealing them in. The remaining three proceeded to bash on Ee and Morwen with wild, mindless fury. From my experience with the earlier stone statute in the cave of the dragon, I expected that nothing I did could directly affect it. My mind called out for help from beyond the outer planes, and Valaria again loyally answered my call. She appeared amidst all three of the stone statues and attacked them with a fury of her own. Ee suddenly screamed, “Bertha!” as he hit one of them with his great axe, his love, and watched her shatter into a hundred tiny pieces upon the statue’s hard, stony skin. The cry of agony from Ee seemed to echo for a time in both Ee’s and my own head. Knowing my mind would be useless in this fight, I left Valaria to fight them while I sent the tendrils of my mind out back toward Cauldron. Somewhere in Cauldron, one of Tuvstarr’s apprentices responded, and I told her “I want to buy an axe…” and so things were set in motion… Meanwhile, the pummeling continued. A barrier of blades sprung up around them, but it had little effect. Valaria’s own great sword shattered upon them, also to little effect. Finally, she let loose with a rage all her own and in one strong, mighty blow of her fist augmented by her focused mind, she shattered one of the statues into a thousand small chips of stone. One of the statues picked Larch’s bat form from the air and began to squeeze him in her stony fist. Just as he was about to be crushed to a pulp, the bat suddenly grew to a form eight times the size of the large statues, into a bulette, which then proceeded to gore Larch’s former captor. Valaria chose that moment to encase that statue in a sheath of ectoplasm, immobilizing it. The last one, surrounded, was then finally beat down by my companions, followed by the ectoplasmically cocooned one. Just as we were about to catch our breath, a demon appeared. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Nine – Big Beefy Demon The demon seemed to appear out of nowhere, which would have been purely an illusion of its invisibility had it not, in fact, appeared out of nowhere. My true seeing eyes saw him there and not there, but did not see him arrive. Slippery. He looked like he had the head of a cow and he was covered in scorpions, which he proceeded to exhale all over Morwen, though she deftly jumped out of their way. Valaria charged him, as did Ee, and soon the demon was leaking foul ichor that resembled poisoned blood. The demon, coward that it was, then vanished. I put plans for our demon steak barbeque on hold. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Forty – Hall of Horrors The hall thus cleared, we continued forward, Morwen and Valaria leading the way. Without even seeing it myself, I felt the horror of what they saw ahead from both of their minds. Then I felt Morwen’s mind snap and then go slack and she ran back, past all of us, and down to the far room in the corner, where she cowered, her mind almost blank with terror. I reached out the soft tendrils of my mind to hers and slowly pried away the strands of horror encasing her mind, restoring her balance. She then quickly returned to the front of the hall, seemingly unaware of what had just transpired. So much the better. At that moment, Valaria again bowed to me and vanished, the fragments of her great sword vanishing off the floor as well. I would be calling her back soon. We all then moved forward to see what she had seen. Five men, one woman, all held fast in alcoves by three chains running through the flesh of each of them, writhing beneath their skin, creating an agony unimagined. They all seemed on the brink of death, barely conscious, always screaming and moaning. Strangely, it had no effect at all upon me when I saw it, nor upon Ee. I surmised it was because their moans of agony were nothing compared to Ee’s scream when he saw his beloved Bertha shattered into oblivion. Larch and Kyrnyn were affected, however, throwing up their trail rations in an almost never-ending stream of vomit. Kyrnyn was unable to do much but wretch, but he tried to help out the poor victims anyway. Mostly he just got the innards of his stomach on their bare, scabbed feet, but perhaps that moisture was a blessing for their sufferings. As I watched this, in my mind I heard from Tuvstarr’s apprentice. A suitable axe had been found, one even more powerful than the admittedly barely-enchanted Bertha. But one cannot discount the power of sentimental value. I again summoned Valaria, handing her coin, and sending her off to the blacksmith’s shop, an image of its location implanted in her mind from my own. She quickly returned, coin gone, an impressive, large, black gleaming great axe in her hand, crackling with magical energy. Ee was almost in tears. “Me have Big Bertha Two!” I handed him his new axe and he immediately took a few practice swings. He then turned and shouted “Me rage!” and charged down the hallway toward where the puking Kyrnyn stood. I idly wondered if this was how Ee reacted every time he bought a new weapon. It was then that I noticed our cow-headed demon friend (Daraka Demon, according to my stolen planar knowledge) stood, once again appearing out of nowhere to do us ill. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Forty-One – Demon with Scorpions and Demon Scorpion Just at that moment, another door to our rear burst open and another demon, this one not covered in scorpions, but instead resembling a large scorpion, a Gharros Demon, charged against us. It would have charged me had not the massive bulk of Larch’s Dire Lion blocked its way. With a quick thought, I dispatched twin globes of fire toward both demons, more than singeing their foul flesh. Morwen charged forward and tumbled behind our cow-friend, just as Ee ended his rage-filled charge, Big Bertha II tasting flesh for the first time as he and Morwen disemboweled the demon. Then Ee, Morwen ran back toward the Lion, and together, they three slowly wore it down until it, too, met the destiny of all demons we meet (and all of our employers) face – lying facedown in a puddle of demon-blood. Looking back at the still-puking Kyrnyn and Larch, I said “We ought to rest for a little while. Perhaps somewhere not surrounded on all sides by openings for demons to charge us.” Kyrnyn seemed still to take some convincing. I hoped his stubbornness at remaining in this exposed hall would not lead us to doom. [/QUOTE]
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