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The Fall of Civilization
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4863108" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>Springing from the spatters of blood that hit the floor, the pair of demons is fleshy, well-muscled and vicious-looking. Torinn immediately identifies them as carnage demons, but that designation doesn’t really provide any helpful information to the party. </p><p></p><p>Iggy isn’t waiting to see what they can do. He hurls first a <em>fireball</em> into the area, and then follows it up with a globe from his <em>necklace of fireballs</em>. The twin detonations shake the bloody room; foul vapors rise from the scene, boiling into the air and making our heroes gag with their stench. </p><p></p><p>The oni replies with another wrenching attack on the party’s souls, trying to jerk them free and devour them, and the mummy gestures and a pair of <em>horns of force</em> slam into Iggy, knocking him up the stairs! The minotaur mummy laughs harshly and charges forward, goring the wizard and knocking him back further! The oni, meanwhile, moves out of sight to the side, and Vann-La’s keen ears detect the sound of a door opening.</p><p></p><p>The two carnage demons lope up the stairs towards the party, but Loridell interposes herself. They claw wildly at her while she hacks back, her axe whirling around her! While Vann-La moves up to stand beside Loridell, Torinn gets in the mummy’s way before it can finish off Ligir. </p><p></p><p>Then, behind Cook, the oni emerges from a side door, which necessitates a sudden change in his tactics. Instead of hurling daggers or shuriken from where he is, as he had planned, the dwarf instead somersaults away before he hurls a dagger towards the mummy, wounding it in the knee. </p><p></p><p>Suddenly Hkatha reappears, behind the enemy, as he launches a <em>fireball!</em> It catches the two demons and the mummy, none of whom are expecting it; a moment later he follows up with a <em>scorching burst</em>. Vann-La moves into the center of the enemies and forces them to <em>come and get it</em>, dealing punishing blows against the monsters around her. Hkatha hits one of the carnage demons with a <em>force orb</em> that explodes and sends waves of force out that also slap the minotaur mummy. Loridell leaps up and swings her battle axe mightily, sinking it into the demon’s head. Hot, black blood splatters all over; the demon collapses. Torinn charges in and slays the other one, and then the party focuses on the oni, cutting him down when he attempts to get some distance between himself and them.</p><p></p><p>That leaves the mummy, who proves to be most troublesome, using either <em>horns of force</em> or his own horns to knock Iggy and Torinn around, and eventually impaling Iggy on the bull horns mounted on the wall in the upper chamber! The wizard screams in agony, writhing on the horns. With a gasp, he <em>dimension doors</em> away from the horns, freeing himself- and almost collapsing with the pain. </p><p></p><p>The minotaur mummy roars a challenge and swings its mace, dealing tremendous blows to the party members that dare face it in melee. Vann-La stabs it with her sword, finally bloodying it; it whacks her back, and then she’s bloodied too. The fight is vicious, but now that the other monsters have fallen, numbers will surely carry the day. </p><p></p><p>And, finally, they do, as Loridell lops off one of its horns, Torinn hammers it with a <em>righteous brand</em>, and Vann-La finishes it off, pushing it into a last-minute <em>wall of fire</em> erected by Iggy with a <em>tide of iron</em>.</p><p></p><p>Iggy sustains the wall for a while to be certain that the minotaur is dead; then the party allows themselves a brief respite to regain their breath, to re-center themselves. Then, a search of the nearby rooms yields a chest with about 4000 gp in it. Iggy whistles. “That’s a lot of money!”</p><p></p><p>Hkatha snorts.*</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The “steak room,” as Vann-La calls it, eventually reverts to normal stone again. “I wonder how that gets triggered,” muses Heimall.</p><p></p><p>Cook says, “Maybe say that name that the mummy said when he went down there, what was it, Ba-”</p><p></p><p>“Good idea, but probably best not to say it right at the moment,” interrupts Iggy.</p><p></p><p>“Or maybe,” suggests Hkatha, “you have to spill blood there.”</p><p></p><p>Iggy shrugs. “Or both.”</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>According to their map, the party only has one more path to explore. When they reach it, it leads into another maze, with an immediate triple-branching at the very start and more side branches visible in two of the directions available. They move down until they have a choice and elect to go right. </p><p></p><p>About a third of them start to go in each possible direction. </p><p></p><p>They all stop.</p><p></p><p>“Wait, we said <em>right,</em>” says Iggy.</p><p></p><p>“Exactly. We went right, you guys went left,” replies Hkatha.</p><p></p><p>“No, <em>we</em> were going right.”</p><p></p><p>Vann-La frowns. “Well, let’s try again.”</p><p></p><p>The same thing happens: it seems as though roughly a third of the group believes each direction is the right hand direction. </p><p></p><p>“Some kind of maze magic,” Iggy sighs. </p><p></p><p>“Let’s go back,” Vann-La says. “We don’t need to go down here anyway. We got Morl.”</p><p></p><p>The party starts to head back- and about a third of them think each of the three available paths is the right way to go. </p><p></p><p>“Uh-oh,” grunts Torinn. </p><p></p><p>The party strikes out again, but this time the lead member makes the decision. Everyone else follows. This technique works- but who knows how lost in the maze they will become?</p><p></p><p>Then again, what choice have they?</p><p></p><p>As they proceed deeper and deeper into the Maze of Lost Hope, devoted to the demon prince Baphomet, lord of minotaurs, our heroes become increasingly aware of an evil presence that squats on their minds, crushing hope and cheer. As they navigate their way- at least, as best they can- the psychic malignancy grows ever stronger, weighs ever heavier. Soon they are growing short-tempered and angry with each other.</p><p></p><p>Not long after that, they start coming to blows.</p><p></p><p>“Wait!” cries Torinn desperately. “It’s this place. It’s influencing us, stealing our hope, filling us with hate and anger. We can’t let it win!”</p><p></p><p>“If only we could get out of this maze,” groans Heimall. </p><p></p><p>“It’s certainly logical, given that this is a minotaur-based place devoted to Baphomet,” muses Hkatha. “But what’s at the center? Another undead minotaur? More beetles?”</p><p></p><p>“It seems like this maze is the more, er,” Iggy searches for the right word for a moment, “<em>serious</em> one. We navigated the other one without any trouble.”</p><p></p><p>The party’s anger continues to grow. Iggy, Torinn and Hkatha try to use their knowledge of the arcane to lead the party, while Vann-La keeps a keen eye open for any sign that they are crossing their own path. “Dammit!” roars Heimall, smashing his fist into the wall hard enough that he almost breaks it.**</p><p></p><p>They stomp on. </p><p></p><p>Finally, as the pressure on their minds is just starting to become unbearable, they find a chamber- </p><p></p><p>“Careful,” warns Vann-La, halting. “There’s a drop. About... ten feet, it looks like.” She frowns, surveying the chamber. “It looks like a couple of feet of brackish water at the bottom. There are a couple of rocks protruding above the surface, and lots of... fungus, maybe? Something is growing on top of the water, anyway. There’s a door on the other side.”</p><p></p><p>“What’s that smell?” asks Cook, wrinkling his nose in distaste.</p><p></p><p>Indeed, a foul, fish-and-cattle stink comes from the chamber. “I don’t know,” Vann-La replies. </p><p></p><p>“That no good to eat,” Cook says. </p><p></p><p><em>That</em> makes everyone uneasy. Cook has shown that he will harvest, scavenge, salvage and eat virtually <em>anything.</em></p><p></p><p>“I don’t know about this,” mutters Iggy. “Water, you say?”</p><p></p><p>“Yeah...” Vann-La considers her options. <em>If we don’t check this room out, we’ll have to go back into the maze.</em> She sighs. “I think we should check it out.”</p><p></p><p>“I’m not so sure,” Hkatha retorts.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly Vann-La cries, “There’s something in the water!”</p><p></p><p>Iggy whirls- and casts a <em>magic missile</em> at Hkatha! The other wizard yells in surprise. “What are you doing?” he exclaims. </p><p></p><p>“It took control of me for a moment!” Ligir sputters. He whirls to face the water and fires a <em>magic missile</em> where Vann-La indicates the shape in the water is and fires a second <em>magic missile,</em> this time at it. However, it zips into the water and fails to hit the target.</p><p></p><p>Vann-La, meanwhile, decides that the water is shallow enough to fight in and leaps down with a splash. <em>I’ll get on one of the boulders. Now, where the hell did it go?</em></p><p></p><p>No sign of it. </p><p></p><p><em>It’s elusive...</em></p><p></p><p>And then, suddenly, it pops up out of the water with a strange, warbling roar. Our heroes stare at it, aghast, wondering <em>what the hell it is.</em> The weird fish-cattle stench intensifies immensely- for the creature is a disgusting mixture of minotaur and some kind fish-like, tentacled sea monster. A bull’s horned head tops a semi-humanoid torso that ends below in a fishy lower body. Powerful, leg-like tentacles squirm beneath it. </p><p></p><p>Vann-La strikes. She has been waiting for it to show itself! Her sword sings through the air, bites into the beast’s shoulder. Blood sprays out and the monster screams, then rams its horns into Vann-La and tosses her aside. She flies up and across the room, landing in a heap near the far wall!</p><p></p><p>Then, glaring at Heimall, the beast hypnotizes him- and Heimall, who had his bow out, pivots and shoots Vann-La in the shoulder!</p><p></p><p>“Sorry!” he cries immediately. “Damn it!”</p><p></p><p>“It’s gruesome!” Cook gulps. Then, his eyes widen. “Wait, where did it go?” </p><p></p><p>“It’s still right there, what are you talking about?” exclaims Iggy- then his eyes widen. “Wait... it’s gone!”</p><p></p><p>One by one, our heroes lose sight of it. It doesn’t submerge or teleport; they just can’t see it any more. </p><p></p><p>Then, Torinn moves to where he can see it. “Wow, that’s ugly,” he comments. He squints at it, misses it with a <em>sacred flame,</em> and grumbles to himself.</p><p></p><p>”You can see it?” cries Heimall. </p><p></p><p>“Yeah...” The monster hisses in rage at the dragonborn, but nobody else hears it. “I think- it’s some kind of minotaur crossed with a morkoth.”</p><p></p><p>“What the hell is a morkoth?” demands Loridell.</p><p></p><p>“It’s an underwater maze-dwelling creature,” Torinn starts, and then Heimall leaps down into the water, completely against his will. “Hey! What are you- oh. Morkoths can hypnotize you. It is said that they lair in mazes- the connection with Baphomet makes sense- and that if you travel their maze, sometimes they can come up behind you and bite out huge hunks of your flesh without your even noticing!”</p><p></p><p>“So,” Vann-La says, rising to her feet, “it’s not good that we can’t see this thing?”</p><p></p><p>“And it can hypnotize people,” Torinn adds. He jumps down into the water himself, his spiked chain at the ready. </p><p></p><p>“Obviously!” snaps Heimall. He fires his bow blindly, hoping to hit his unseen adversary, but misses. </p><p></p><p>From nowhere, an invisible attacker slams into Vann-La. She brings her sword up to guard herself just in time. Then it moves away, charging Torinn and knocking him sprawling. </p><p></p><p>Ligir is sweating, trying to force his eyes to see it. <em>I know it’s there! It just hit my friend! I must pierce its illusion!</em> Suddenly- it <em>is</em> there, he <em>does</em> see it! With a grim smile, Ligir casts a <em>spectral ram,</em> knocking it back and away from Torinn. Then Ligir squeezes off a shot from his pistol. The report is deafening, but the bullet zips into the water harmlessly. </p><p></p><p>Hkatha can’t see it- but he saw the ram, and he knows how it works. He casts a <em>lightning serpent</em> at the morkoth of Baphomet, and when it strikes, even failing to grasp the foe, it does some good, shocking it (with the presence of the water helping exacerbate this) and slowing it.</p><p></p><p>Vann-La and Torinn rush back in to get close, and Heimall utters a <em>commander’s strike</em> at Vann-La. She swings and wounds the beast, even not seeing where it is. But in response, it gores and tosses her- then does the same to Torinn, leaving it clear to use its <em>hypnotic glare</em> on Heimall again- who whirls and shoots Hkatha in the leg. “Ow!” shouts the tiefling. </p><p></p><p>The wizards pour the spell fire on: <em>scorching burst, sleep, cloud of daggers...</em> several attacks that don’t need the exact precision of knowing where your target is prove remarkably effective. The warriors cluster around, striking when they know where the monster is and falling into defensive stances when they don’t.</p><p></p><p>The poor morkoth! All this tasty prey, but they keep playing dirty, lighting it on fire and worse. It vanishes from their perceptions, maddeningly elusive, but when Ligir creates a <em>wall of fire</em> that fills a quarter of the room, its options become very limited. It charges Cook, knocking him away and throwing him from his feet, but Vann-La hits the monster with a <em>disruptive strike</em> that is a virtually perfect blow.*** Then she hits it again, this time driving it with a <em>tide of iron</em> and forcing it, squealing, back into the <em>wall of fire!</em> </p><p></p><p>The party moves close, and when it tries to come out of the wall, Vann-La stops it cold. It grabs Hkatha and hurls him into the flames, but the Ilmixie just laughs and strides from it, barely injured thanks to his infernal heritage. Then it uses its <em>hypnotic glare</em> to force Vann-La to walk into the flames itself. </p><p></p><p>“Torinn, get it!” commands Heimall, and the dragonborn’s spiked chain smashes into the side of its head, dealing a terrible wound. It staggers, and Vann-La roars as she grapples it back into the flames again. </p><p></p><p>Hkatha adds another <em>scorching burst</em> to the mix, and that’s it: the beast dies with a smell like burnt burgers cooked in fish sauce. Gagging, our heroes fall back for a moment.</p><p></p><p>Then it’s time to loot. </p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> On Leave!</p><p></p><p>*Hkatha, of course, is an aristocrat, so a few thousand gold pieces is small change to him. Of course, he’s also deeply in debt.</p><p></p><p>**This maze was a skill challenge- I’ll post the details for kicks. Once the pcs were in ‘phase three’ of the skill challenge, each character had to make a basic attack at the nearest ally or else lose a healing surge on his or her turn. </p><p></p><p>***During this fight, the party kept on critting- this was a crit, Vann-La crits again when she knocks it back into the <em>wall of fire,</em> Cook got a crit, Torinn got a crit, the wizards critted when they couldn’t even see it... Sheesh.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 4863108, member: 1210"] Springing from the spatters of blood that hit the floor, the pair of demons is fleshy, well-muscled and vicious-looking. Torinn immediately identifies them as carnage demons, but that designation doesn’t really provide any helpful information to the party. Iggy isn’t waiting to see what they can do. He hurls first a [i]fireball[/i] into the area, and then follows it up with a globe from his [i]necklace of fireballs[/i]. The twin detonations shake the bloody room; foul vapors rise from the scene, boiling into the air and making our heroes gag with their stench. The oni replies with another wrenching attack on the party’s souls, trying to jerk them free and devour them, and the mummy gestures and a pair of [i]horns of force[/i] slam into Iggy, knocking him up the stairs! The minotaur mummy laughs harshly and charges forward, goring the wizard and knocking him back further! The oni, meanwhile, moves out of sight to the side, and Vann-La’s keen ears detect the sound of a door opening. The two carnage demons lope up the stairs towards the party, but Loridell interposes herself. They claw wildly at her while she hacks back, her axe whirling around her! While Vann-La moves up to stand beside Loridell, Torinn gets in the mummy’s way before it can finish off Ligir. Then, behind Cook, the oni emerges from a side door, which necessitates a sudden change in his tactics. Instead of hurling daggers or shuriken from where he is, as he had planned, the dwarf instead somersaults away before he hurls a dagger towards the mummy, wounding it in the knee. Suddenly Hkatha reappears, behind the enemy, as he launches a [i]fireball![/i] It catches the two demons and the mummy, none of whom are expecting it; a moment later he follows up with a [i]scorching burst[/i]. Vann-La moves into the center of the enemies and forces them to [i]come and get it[/i], dealing punishing blows against the monsters around her. Hkatha hits one of the carnage demons with a [i]force orb[/i] that explodes and sends waves of force out that also slap the minotaur mummy. Loridell leaps up and swings her battle axe mightily, sinking it into the demon’s head. Hot, black blood splatters all over; the demon collapses. Torinn charges in and slays the other one, and then the party focuses on the oni, cutting him down when he attempts to get some distance between himself and them. That leaves the mummy, who proves to be most troublesome, using either [i]horns of force[/i] or his own horns to knock Iggy and Torinn around, and eventually impaling Iggy on the bull horns mounted on the wall in the upper chamber! The wizard screams in agony, writhing on the horns. With a gasp, he [i]dimension doors[/i] away from the horns, freeing himself- and almost collapsing with the pain. The minotaur mummy roars a challenge and swings its mace, dealing tremendous blows to the party members that dare face it in melee. Vann-La stabs it with her sword, finally bloodying it; it whacks her back, and then she’s bloodied too. The fight is vicious, but now that the other monsters have fallen, numbers will surely carry the day. And, finally, they do, as Loridell lops off one of its horns, Torinn hammers it with a [i]righteous brand[/i], and Vann-La finishes it off, pushing it into a last-minute [i]wall of fire[/i] erected by Iggy with a [i]tide of iron[/i]. Iggy sustains the wall for a while to be certain that the minotaur is dead; then the party allows themselves a brief respite to regain their breath, to re-center themselves. Then, a search of the nearby rooms yields a chest with about 4000 gp in it. Iggy whistles. “That’s a lot of money!” Hkatha snorts.* *** The “steak room,” as Vann-La calls it, eventually reverts to normal stone again. “I wonder how that gets triggered,” muses Heimall. Cook says, “Maybe say that name that the mummy said when he went down there, what was it, Ba-” “Good idea, but probably best not to say it right at the moment,” interrupts Iggy. “Or maybe,” suggests Hkatha, “you have to spill blood there.” Iggy shrugs. “Or both.” *** According to their map, the party only has one more path to explore. When they reach it, it leads into another maze, with an immediate triple-branching at the very start and more side branches visible in two of the directions available. They move down until they have a choice and elect to go right. About a third of them start to go in each possible direction. They all stop. “Wait, we said [i]right,[/i]” says Iggy. “Exactly. We went right, you guys went left,” replies Hkatha. “No, [i]we[/i] were going right.” Vann-La frowns. “Well, let’s try again.” The same thing happens: it seems as though roughly a third of the group believes each direction is the right hand direction. “Some kind of maze magic,” Iggy sighs. “Let’s go back,” Vann-La says. “We don’t need to go down here anyway. We got Morl.” The party starts to head back- and about a third of them think each of the three available paths is the right way to go. “Uh-oh,” grunts Torinn. The party strikes out again, but this time the lead member makes the decision. Everyone else follows. This technique works- but who knows how lost in the maze they will become? Then again, what choice have they? As they proceed deeper and deeper into the Maze of Lost Hope, devoted to the demon prince Baphomet, lord of minotaurs, our heroes become increasingly aware of an evil presence that squats on their minds, crushing hope and cheer. As they navigate their way- at least, as best they can- the psychic malignancy grows ever stronger, weighs ever heavier. Soon they are growing short-tempered and angry with each other. Not long after that, they start coming to blows. “Wait!” cries Torinn desperately. “It’s this place. It’s influencing us, stealing our hope, filling us with hate and anger. We can’t let it win!” “If only we could get out of this maze,” groans Heimall. “It’s certainly logical, given that this is a minotaur-based place devoted to Baphomet,” muses Hkatha. “But what’s at the center? Another undead minotaur? More beetles?” “It seems like this maze is the more, er,” Iggy searches for the right word for a moment, “[i]serious[/i] one. We navigated the other one without any trouble.” The party’s anger continues to grow. Iggy, Torinn and Hkatha try to use their knowledge of the arcane to lead the party, while Vann-La keeps a keen eye open for any sign that they are crossing their own path. “Dammit!” roars Heimall, smashing his fist into the wall hard enough that he almost breaks it.** They stomp on. Finally, as the pressure on their minds is just starting to become unbearable, they find a chamber- “Careful,” warns Vann-La, halting. “There’s a drop. About... ten feet, it looks like.” She frowns, surveying the chamber. “It looks like a couple of feet of brackish water at the bottom. There are a couple of rocks protruding above the surface, and lots of... fungus, maybe? Something is growing on top of the water, anyway. There’s a door on the other side.” “What’s that smell?” asks Cook, wrinkling his nose in distaste. Indeed, a foul, fish-and-cattle stink comes from the chamber. “I don’t know,” Vann-La replies. “That no good to eat,” Cook says. [i]That[/i] makes everyone uneasy. Cook has shown that he will harvest, scavenge, salvage and eat virtually [i]anything.[/i] “I don’t know about this,” mutters Iggy. “Water, you say?” “Yeah...” Vann-La considers her options. [i]If we don’t check this room out, we’ll have to go back into the maze.[/i] She sighs. “I think we should check it out.” “I’m not so sure,” Hkatha retorts. Suddenly Vann-La cries, “There’s something in the water!” Iggy whirls- and casts a [i]magic missile[/i] at Hkatha! The other wizard yells in surprise. “What are you doing?” he exclaims. “It took control of me for a moment!” Ligir sputters. He whirls to face the water and fires a [i]magic missile[/i] where Vann-La indicates the shape in the water is and fires a second [i]magic missile,[/i] this time at it. However, it zips into the water and fails to hit the target. Vann-La, meanwhile, decides that the water is shallow enough to fight in and leaps down with a splash. [i]I’ll get on one of the boulders. Now, where the hell did it go?[/i] No sign of it. [i]It’s elusive...[/i] And then, suddenly, it pops up out of the water with a strange, warbling roar. Our heroes stare at it, aghast, wondering [i]what the hell it is.[/i] The weird fish-cattle stench intensifies immensely- for the creature is a disgusting mixture of minotaur and some kind fish-like, tentacled sea monster. A bull’s horned head tops a semi-humanoid torso that ends below in a fishy lower body. Powerful, leg-like tentacles squirm beneath it. Vann-La strikes. She has been waiting for it to show itself! Her sword sings through the air, bites into the beast’s shoulder. Blood sprays out and the monster screams, then rams its horns into Vann-La and tosses her aside. She flies up and across the room, landing in a heap near the far wall! Then, glaring at Heimall, the beast hypnotizes him- and Heimall, who had his bow out, pivots and shoots Vann-La in the shoulder! “Sorry!” he cries immediately. “Damn it!” “It’s gruesome!” Cook gulps. Then, his eyes widen. “Wait, where did it go?” “It’s still right there, what are you talking about?” exclaims Iggy- then his eyes widen. “Wait... it’s gone!” One by one, our heroes lose sight of it. It doesn’t submerge or teleport; they just can’t see it any more. Then, Torinn moves to where he can see it. “Wow, that’s ugly,” he comments. He squints at it, misses it with a [i]sacred flame,[/i] and grumbles to himself. ”You can see it?” cries Heimall. “Yeah...” The monster hisses in rage at the dragonborn, but nobody else hears it. “I think- it’s some kind of minotaur crossed with a morkoth.” “What the hell is a morkoth?” demands Loridell. “It’s an underwater maze-dwelling creature,” Torinn starts, and then Heimall leaps down into the water, completely against his will. “Hey! What are you- oh. Morkoths can hypnotize you. It is said that they lair in mazes- the connection with Baphomet makes sense- and that if you travel their maze, sometimes they can come up behind you and bite out huge hunks of your flesh without your even noticing!” “So,” Vann-La says, rising to her feet, “it’s not good that we can’t see this thing?” “And it can hypnotize people,” Torinn adds. He jumps down into the water himself, his spiked chain at the ready. “Obviously!” snaps Heimall. He fires his bow blindly, hoping to hit his unseen adversary, but misses. From nowhere, an invisible attacker slams into Vann-La. She brings her sword up to guard herself just in time. Then it moves away, charging Torinn and knocking him sprawling. Ligir is sweating, trying to force his eyes to see it. [i]I know it’s there! It just hit my friend! I must pierce its illusion![/i] Suddenly- it [i]is[/i] there, he [i]does[/i] see it! With a grim smile, Ligir casts a [i]spectral ram,[/i] knocking it back and away from Torinn. Then Ligir squeezes off a shot from his pistol. The report is deafening, but the bullet zips into the water harmlessly. Hkatha can’t see it- but he saw the ram, and he knows how it works. He casts a [i]lightning serpent[/i] at the morkoth of Baphomet, and when it strikes, even failing to grasp the foe, it does some good, shocking it (with the presence of the water helping exacerbate this) and slowing it. Vann-La and Torinn rush back in to get close, and Heimall utters a [i]commander’s strike[/i] at Vann-La. She swings and wounds the beast, even not seeing where it is. But in response, it gores and tosses her- then does the same to Torinn, leaving it clear to use its [i]hypnotic glare[/i] on Heimall again- who whirls and shoots Hkatha in the leg. “Ow!” shouts the tiefling. The wizards pour the spell fire on: [i]scorching burst, sleep, cloud of daggers...[/i] several attacks that don’t need the exact precision of knowing where your target is prove remarkably effective. The warriors cluster around, striking when they know where the monster is and falling into defensive stances when they don’t. The poor morkoth! All this tasty prey, but they keep playing dirty, lighting it on fire and worse. It vanishes from their perceptions, maddeningly elusive, but when Ligir creates a [i]wall of fire[/i] that fills a quarter of the room, its options become very limited. It charges Cook, knocking him away and throwing him from his feet, but Vann-La hits the monster with a [i]disruptive strike[/i] that is a virtually perfect blow.*** Then she hits it again, this time driving it with a [i]tide of iron[/i] and forcing it, squealing, back into the [i]wall of fire![/i] The party moves close, and when it tries to come out of the wall, Vann-La stops it cold. It grabs Hkatha and hurls him into the flames, but the Ilmixie just laughs and strides from it, barely injured thanks to his infernal heritage. Then it uses its [i]hypnotic glare[/i] to force Vann-La to walk into the flames itself. “Torinn, get it!” commands Heimall, and the dragonborn’s spiked chain smashes into the side of its head, dealing a terrible wound. It staggers, and Vann-La roars as she grapples it back into the flames again. Hkatha adds another [i]scorching burst[/i] to the mix, and that’s it: the beast dies with a smell like burnt burgers cooked in fish sauce. Gagging, our heroes fall back for a moment. Then it’s time to loot. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] On Leave! *Hkatha, of course, is an aristocrat, so a few thousand gold pieces is small change to him. Of course, he’s also deeply in debt. **This maze was a skill challenge- I’ll post the details for kicks. Once the pcs were in ‘phase three’ of the skill challenge, each character had to make a basic attack at the nearest ally or else lose a healing surge on his or her turn. ***During this fight, the party kept on critting- this was a crit, Vann-La crits again when she knocks it back into the [i]wall of fire,[/i] Cook got a crit, Torinn got a crit, the wizards critted when they couldn’t even see it... Sheesh. [/QUOTE]
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