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Explorer
The Big Brawl
Twenty Five: “The power of the night, the press of the storm . . . the Arch Fear in a visible form”
- - Robert Browning, Prospice
or, “Oh, I’m sorry, was that my blood you slipped in?”
During the night, the party is shaken from their slumber by an earthquake. It is brief, but disturbing. Once awakened, the party sees Jespo reading by candlelight, muttering arcane phrases to himself and crying.
The next day, C’min receives a darkvision spell and leaves the party’s lair to scout. She consults her map, and stealthily moves throughout the complex until she finds a suitable place for Jespo’s passwall. Returning to the group, she has strange tidings to report. Apparently, there has been a recent battle in the Temple dungeons. Scores of humanoid corpses, both Iuzian and others, lie where they fell. The third level is otherwise deserted. Scorch marks and vile residue hint that powerful magics were used while the party slept, perhaps accounting for the tremor felt during the night.
Before leaving their sanctum, Prisantha summons Celestials to her side - - the lantern archons from the day before return to help, and bring a hound archon with them. The Celestials greet the party, and give their blessing to the day’s affairs.
The group has no trouble burrowing through the floor, and descends into a chamber off of the main hallway leading to the Temple’s inner sanctum. A lone formorian giant is the only nearby denizen, and Prisantha handily brings him under her sway using Anne’s ring of formorian giant control.
The party scouts away from the main hallway, and quickly stumbles into an Evil antipathy effect. Divination magic reveals that there are no living beings in that direction, so the decision is easily made to avoid that part of the complex. Travelling toward the inner sanctum, however, produces different results.
C’min scouts ahead, and notices several human rogues guarding the entry into the main chamber. She slips past them, and is greeted by a startling sight. Zinvellon himself is in the back of a huge temple, dressed in ritual robes, preparing some sort of invocation. He is attended by a pair of lesser priests, and guarded by formorian giants, a score of orcs, a half-dozen or more wererat rogues and Egil. The stalwart fighter stands in an eerily familiar pose. On his guard, the warrior still bears the marks of his death-blow, his undead corpse peering about the room with a malign intelligence.
C’min returns with the news, and it is determined that she should use her stealth to cross the room, and position herself for a sneak attack on Zinvellon. That would be the signal for the rest of the party to begin. Heydricus sips a potion of heroism, Ethel a potion of fly, and Gnomer prepares the party with protective spells.
“And it would have worked, too, if it wasn’t for you meddling undead!”
The plan goes awry from the first moment. As C’min makes her way to the midpoint of the chamber, Egil spots her with his undead senses and gives a warning. The party takes that as their cue, and begins the opening volley of a lethal assault. Zinvellon and Egil are the targets of a lightning bolt, disrupting the ritual. The wererats suffer magical attacks from Jespo, and attacks from Gnomer and Ren Qi. Heydricus charges forward to lend aid to C’min. Thrommel and Keriann begin a melee with the orcs near the entrance, and Prisantha magically convinces the formorians in the room to turn on their master. Ethel strikes Zinvellon with a fireball, harming him and severely wounding his underpriests. The formorians turn on their master, and ignoring attacks of opportunity from the surprised orcs, begin thumping the villains around the altar. Egil manages an answering blow, but in the end, his animated corpse cannot withstand the giant’s attacks. After the first few seconds, the PCs have cause to be optimistic.
Then the Abyss breaks loose.
More wererats and priests emerge from nearby hiding places, and Heydricus is held. C’min begins a grim defensive struggle. Badly wounded by enemy missile fire, she attempts to fight her way to Gnomer and Keriann. Gnomer uses a dimensional anchor to ensure that Zinvellon won’t be going anywhere soon.
Ren Qi shows her stuff, and charges to Heydricus’ side, beating severely the priest who was hoping to coup de grace the sorcerer, but takes a beating herself, and is soon in dire straits. Ethel flies to the end of the chamber, all the better to fireball Zinvellon and his retinue.
Zinvellon attempts to invoke his word of recall, but is foiled by Gnomer’s spell, and unleashes a stream of uniquely debauched profanity. He next utters an unholy word, stunning the PCs near him, and cries out for abyssal aid. His pleas are heard, and it seems the vile priest has, in fact, made a pact with a powerful abyssal lord, who appears to aid him. The demon is 25’ tall, and appears as a winged red-skinned humanoid wreathed in fire, brandishing a flaming greatsword. The balor regards Zinvellon with contempt and replies that he shall have his Demonic Army. A round score of cambion demons appear within the room and begin menacing the PCs. Suddenly, the rooms to either side of the inner sanctum are flooded with a swarm of least Tan’nari - - a dretch horde. The dretches begin flooding into the chamber, numbering in the hundreds, and threaten to overrun all combatants, both Good and Evil in their mindless bloodlust.
Suddenly, at the opposite end of the chamber appears a magnificent, beautiful winged man. He is 12’ tall, and seems wreathed in a golden nimbus of living light. He addresses the balor, using its abyssal name, and the two lock eyes in a titanic battle of the wills. The sword archon raises his arms in a gesture like an embrace, and from the outer chambers, hundreds upon thousand of motes of light wink into existence, one lantern archon for every dretch.
The archons summoned by Pris grow excited and exclaim “O great Lord! You heed our call!”. Apparently, Prisantha’s celestial friends had informed their superiors about Iuz’s activities in the Temple, and those superiors told their superiors and so on and so on, until word had reached the very pinnacle of Mt. Celestia. Bureaucracies can work efficiently, after all. If you’re in a Perfect World.
While the opposing hordes of demons and celestials manifested, the combat had ground to a halt, with each side waiting to see who would win. Almost at once, everyone in the room realizes that the balor and archon have reached a stalemate, and the victor would be determined by the forces on the floor. A giant stares at an orc who is watching a wizard look at the evil priest who is regarding the prince as he faces a wererat. And with a fierce yell, the fighting starts up again.
Zinvellon takes the initiative to heal himself before the three formorians can transmute him into a priestly paste. The cambions start making trouble for everyone, and the situation gets tight. Ethel begins saturation bombing the back area where Zinvellon is hiding with what would be the first of five fireballs.
.
Prisantha places a stinking cloud in the midst of the largest group of foes, but in so doing divides the battlefield, channeling all the enemies toward the party, and stranding Heydricus.
Meanwhile, at the front of the room, Jespo has stopped fighting and is staring at the celestial. He tugs on the celestial’s toga. “Excuse me, sir?” He begins, lifting Fräs’ corpse up to the archon’s vision.
“Not now, Jespo. Fight evil,” commands the celestial.
“This is my cat Fräs.”
“I know who your cat was, Crim. Fight Evil.”
“Well, sir, I believe that Fräs was murdered before her time, sir. Perhaps . . .”
“You who have come so far, would you abandon your charge now? Go to battle!”
“But you could raise my cat? She means so much to me.”
“Yes. Yes, I will. NOW FIGHT!”
“Do you promise?”
“I gave you my word, Jespo Crim! Dare you doubt the honor of a celestial born?”
“I suppose I do not. But I’ll keep my eye on you.”
C’min manages to defeat her immediate foes, and slips into the shadows, intending to stay there and out of danger until the fight is over. But she spots a cambion rogue moving into position to sneak attack Keriann, and cannot stay in hiding. C’min sneak attacks the rogue before the rogue can sneak attack, and with Keriann’s help, they kill the fiend.
Ren Qi finds herself surrounded by cambions and evil priests, and realizes that she must win free to where Thrommel, Esril and Gnomer are fighting. She braves the attacks of opportunity, and uses her amazing speed to dash across the room. She draws off most of her enemies, saving Heydricus’ life in the process.
The formorian giants are by now severely weakened and look soon to fall. But they have played havoc with Zinvellon’s retinue, killing his under priests and Egil, and forcing Zinvellon himself to retreat into an outer-chamber where he is vulnerable to Ethel’s fireballs.
Unfortunately, with the cambions thrown in the mix, the giants are outnumbered and begin to die, one by one. During this time, Jespo marks his return to the battle by casting an Evard’s black tentacles spell into the opposite side of the room from Prisantha’s stinking cloud. This makes the center of the room the only safe place to be, and crowds the fight into one lethal killing alley between the balor and archon. This also strands Heydricus and Ethel alone with Zinvellon.
Thrommel and Esril beat back the cambion tide by combining their attacks, whittling away at their foes. Unfortunately, C’min is struck into unconsciousness and falls within reach of the black tentacles, which snatch up her unconscious form and begin to slowly squeeze her to death. Gnomer is targeted by a darkness effect, and blinded, he slips on a grease spell, then falls within range of the tentacles. He begins struggling to free himself from the tentacles, as well as the grease. The overall effect would be comic, but as he is in darkness, no one can see the poor gnome, so no one laughs.
Heydricus comes out of his held state, and begins to fight his way through the general melee at the back of the room in order to get to Zinvellon. Ethel has kept the pressure on the priest, forcing him to heal himself for yet a second time. Ren Qi slips through the phalanx of cambions, and begins attacking Zinvellon, wounding him, but he touches her with a cause wounds spell, and she falls to his dire necromantic magic.
Heydricus finally manages to confront the fetid abbot of the Temple, and Zinvellon looks worried. His minions haven’t protected him, his Abyssal hordes haven’t protected him, and now he is running out of spells. Well, thank Iuz he has a bone staff. He and Heydricus stand toe to toe as Ethel stings Zinvellon with magic missiles.
Zinvellon asks Heydricus, "Why are you doing this?" and seems to truly not understand.
Twenty Five: “The power of the night, the press of the storm . . . the Arch Fear in a visible form”
- - Robert Browning, Prospice
or, “Oh, I’m sorry, was that my blood you slipped in?”
During the night, the party is shaken from their slumber by an earthquake. It is brief, but disturbing. Once awakened, the party sees Jespo reading by candlelight, muttering arcane phrases to himself and crying.
The next day, C’min receives a darkvision spell and leaves the party’s lair to scout. She consults her map, and stealthily moves throughout the complex until she finds a suitable place for Jespo’s passwall. Returning to the group, she has strange tidings to report. Apparently, there has been a recent battle in the Temple dungeons. Scores of humanoid corpses, both Iuzian and others, lie where they fell. The third level is otherwise deserted. Scorch marks and vile residue hint that powerful magics were used while the party slept, perhaps accounting for the tremor felt during the night.
Before leaving their sanctum, Prisantha summons Celestials to her side - - the lantern archons from the day before return to help, and bring a hound archon with them. The Celestials greet the party, and give their blessing to the day’s affairs.
The group has no trouble burrowing through the floor, and descends into a chamber off of the main hallway leading to the Temple’s inner sanctum. A lone formorian giant is the only nearby denizen, and Prisantha handily brings him under her sway using Anne’s ring of formorian giant control.
The party scouts away from the main hallway, and quickly stumbles into an Evil antipathy effect. Divination magic reveals that there are no living beings in that direction, so the decision is easily made to avoid that part of the complex. Travelling toward the inner sanctum, however, produces different results.
C’min scouts ahead, and notices several human rogues guarding the entry into the main chamber. She slips past them, and is greeted by a startling sight. Zinvellon himself is in the back of a huge temple, dressed in ritual robes, preparing some sort of invocation. He is attended by a pair of lesser priests, and guarded by formorian giants, a score of orcs, a half-dozen or more wererat rogues and Egil. The stalwart fighter stands in an eerily familiar pose. On his guard, the warrior still bears the marks of his death-blow, his undead corpse peering about the room with a malign intelligence.
C’min returns with the news, and it is determined that she should use her stealth to cross the room, and position herself for a sneak attack on Zinvellon. That would be the signal for the rest of the party to begin. Heydricus sips a potion of heroism, Ethel a potion of fly, and Gnomer prepares the party with protective spells.
“And it would have worked, too, if it wasn’t for you meddling undead!”
The plan goes awry from the first moment. As C’min makes her way to the midpoint of the chamber, Egil spots her with his undead senses and gives a warning. The party takes that as their cue, and begins the opening volley of a lethal assault. Zinvellon and Egil are the targets of a lightning bolt, disrupting the ritual. The wererats suffer magical attacks from Jespo, and attacks from Gnomer and Ren Qi. Heydricus charges forward to lend aid to C’min. Thrommel and Keriann begin a melee with the orcs near the entrance, and Prisantha magically convinces the formorians in the room to turn on their master. Ethel strikes Zinvellon with a fireball, harming him and severely wounding his underpriests. The formorians turn on their master, and ignoring attacks of opportunity from the surprised orcs, begin thumping the villains around the altar. Egil manages an answering blow, but in the end, his animated corpse cannot withstand the giant’s attacks. After the first few seconds, the PCs have cause to be optimistic.
Then the Abyss breaks loose.
More wererats and priests emerge from nearby hiding places, and Heydricus is held. C’min begins a grim defensive struggle. Badly wounded by enemy missile fire, she attempts to fight her way to Gnomer and Keriann. Gnomer uses a dimensional anchor to ensure that Zinvellon won’t be going anywhere soon.
Ren Qi shows her stuff, and charges to Heydricus’ side, beating severely the priest who was hoping to coup de grace the sorcerer, but takes a beating herself, and is soon in dire straits. Ethel flies to the end of the chamber, all the better to fireball Zinvellon and his retinue.
Zinvellon attempts to invoke his word of recall, but is foiled by Gnomer’s spell, and unleashes a stream of uniquely debauched profanity. He next utters an unholy word, stunning the PCs near him, and cries out for abyssal aid. His pleas are heard, and it seems the vile priest has, in fact, made a pact with a powerful abyssal lord, who appears to aid him. The demon is 25’ tall, and appears as a winged red-skinned humanoid wreathed in fire, brandishing a flaming greatsword. The balor regards Zinvellon with contempt and replies that he shall have his Demonic Army. A round score of cambion demons appear within the room and begin menacing the PCs. Suddenly, the rooms to either side of the inner sanctum are flooded with a swarm of least Tan’nari - - a dretch horde. The dretches begin flooding into the chamber, numbering in the hundreds, and threaten to overrun all combatants, both Good and Evil in their mindless bloodlust.
Suddenly, at the opposite end of the chamber appears a magnificent, beautiful winged man. He is 12’ tall, and seems wreathed in a golden nimbus of living light. He addresses the balor, using its abyssal name, and the two lock eyes in a titanic battle of the wills. The sword archon raises his arms in a gesture like an embrace, and from the outer chambers, hundreds upon thousand of motes of light wink into existence, one lantern archon for every dretch.
The archons summoned by Pris grow excited and exclaim “O great Lord! You heed our call!”. Apparently, Prisantha’s celestial friends had informed their superiors about Iuz’s activities in the Temple, and those superiors told their superiors and so on and so on, until word had reached the very pinnacle of Mt. Celestia. Bureaucracies can work efficiently, after all. If you’re in a Perfect World.
While the opposing hordes of demons and celestials manifested, the combat had ground to a halt, with each side waiting to see who would win. Almost at once, everyone in the room realizes that the balor and archon have reached a stalemate, and the victor would be determined by the forces on the floor. A giant stares at an orc who is watching a wizard look at the evil priest who is regarding the prince as he faces a wererat. And with a fierce yell, the fighting starts up again.
Zinvellon takes the initiative to heal himself before the three formorians can transmute him into a priestly paste. The cambions start making trouble for everyone, and the situation gets tight. Ethel begins saturation bombing the back area where Zinvellon is hiding with what would be the first of five fireballs.
.
Prisantha places a stinking cloud in the midst of the largest group of foes, but in so doing divides the battlefield, channeling all the enemies toward the party, and stranding Heydricus.
Meanwhile, at the front of the room, Jespo has stopped fighting and is staring at the celestial. He tugs on the celestial’s toga. “Excuse me, sir?” He begins, lifting Fräs’ corpse up to the archon’s vision.
“Not now, Jespo. Fight evil,” commands the celestial.
“This is my cat Fräs.”
“I know who your cat was, Crim. Fight Evil.”
“Well, sir, I believe that Fräs was murdered before her time, sir. Perhaps . . .”
“You who have come so far, would you abandon your charge now? Go to battle!”
“But you could raise my cat? She means so much to me.”
“Yes. Yes, I will. NOW FIGHT!”
“Do you promise?”
“I gave you my word, Jespo Crim! Dare you doubt the honor of a celestial born?”
“I suppose I do not. But I’ll keep my eye on you.”
C’min manages to defeat her immediate foes, and slips into the shadows, intending to stay there and out of danger until the fight is over. But she spots a cambion rogue moving into position to sneak attack Keriann, and cannot stay in hiding. C’min sneak attacks the rogue before the rogue can sneak attack, and with Keriann’s help, they kill the fiend.
Ren Qi finds herself surrounded by cambions and evil priests, and realizes that she must win free to where Thrommel, Esril and Gnomer are fighting. She braves the attacks of opportunity, and uses her amazing speed to dash across the room. She draws off most of her enemies, saving Heydricus’ life in the process.
The formorian giants are by now severely weakened and look soon to fall. But they have played havoc with Zinvellon’s retinue, killing his under priests and Egil, and forcing Zinvellon himself to retreat into an outer-chamber where he is vulnerable to Ethel’s fireballs.
Unfortunately, with the cambions thrown in the mix, the giants are outnumbered and begin to die, one by one. During this time, Jespo marks his return to the battle by casting an Evard’s black tentacles spell into the opposite side of the room from Prisantha’s stinking cloud. This makes the center of the room the only safe place to be, and crowds the fight into one lethal killing alley between the balor and archon. This also strands Heydricus and Ethel alone with Zinvellon.
Thrommel and Esril beat back the cambion tide by combining their attacks, whittling away at their foes. Unfortunately, C’min is struck into unconsciousness and falls within reach of the black tentacles, which snatch up her unconscious form and begin to slowly squeeze her to death. Gnomer is targeted by a darkness effect, and blinded, he slips on a grease spell, then falls within range of the tentacles. He begins struggling to free himself from the tentacles, as well as the grease. The overall effect would be comic, but as he is in darkness, no one can see the poor gnome, so no one laughs.
Heydricus comes out of his held state, and begins to fight his way through the general melee at the back of the room in order to get to Zinvellon. Ethel has kept the pressure on the priest, forcing him to heal himself for yet a second time. Ren Qi slips through the phalanx of cambions, and begins attacking Zinvellon, wounding him, but he touches her with a cause wounds spell, and she falls to his dire necromantic magic.
Heydricus finally manages to confront the fetid abbot of the Temple, and Zinvellon looks worried. His minions haven’t protected him, his Abyssal hordes haven’t protected him, and now he is running out of spells. Well, thank Iuz he has a bone staff. He and Heydricus stand toe to toe as Ethel stings Zinvellon with magic missiles.
Zinvellon asks Heydricus, "Why are you doing this?" and seems to truly not understand.
