Solom Ned’razak
Apologizing for being extremely late in posting is getting to be a bad habit. The game from which this is drawn is still in hiatus as we all continue to be very busy, but I do plan on catching up both here and there. Really. Anyway, here's the big bad fight with Solom. I've included it in its entirety; I hope this makes up for the delay at least a little.
Solom Ned’razak
Kyree clutches the enchanted rope tightly, his hands white from the effort to hold on against the winds buffeting his upper body. Rhien slowly begins focusing his ki to transport himself between space, but stops at the urgent sound of Snicker’s telepathic voice in his mind. Quid’s desire to transport the monk, the ranger, and whomever else she can get into the room is made manifest, and Rhien waits patiently for his chance.
Braced for the expected impact of the archmage’s fury, the party is somewhat surprised that it is not he who acts first. Instead the gaunt, black-clad drow’s spindly fingers twist and point, summoning ethereal molasses to counteract the party’s quickened movements. This elicits a sharp curse from Quid.
The arcane guards act next, focusing their assault on the rocky exteriors of Trella’s “boys.” Lightning and spiked chains send chunks of stone tumbling away in equal measures, and the bolts singe Khail and Erdrick on the way out.
Though the two warriors ignore the minor electrical burns, they cannot so easily brush off the sudden bestial roar emitted by the central figure in the room: the heavily armored spiked chain wielder. Raising his chain—twice as large as his pupils’—as the shout still echoes off the walls, the large humanoid exhibits his astounding reach as he batters the greater elemental about the body, putting his arcane disciples to shame with both the accuracy and potency of each strike. The lightning that coruscates over the chain seems almost excessive as he pulverizes the earth elemental into shards of stone with three lashes of it. Not satisfied as the inner planar being fades away, he continues his assault on the next closest creature, knocking huge chunks out of that one as well. From inside the demon head of the armor, a coarse voice shouts, “More!”
On Trella’s orders, the most recently injured earth elemental moves to interpose itself between the swirling winds and the party, in the process thrice bringing one huge fist down upon the creature that brought it such pain. Twice the humanoid’s dancing shield deflects blows that would have crushed a large house, but the elemental’s final strike catches the chain wielder in the shoulder. A tusked smile behind his helmet is the being’s only response.
A second elemental tries to do the same, but finds itself unable to come close enough to strike. Changing targets smoothly, it bashes the closest arcane guard once, as he is apparently not so warded.
Still cursing, Quid reactivates her boots and transports much of the party into the room. As she appears next to the demon, she searches for the proper words to express her dismay. All she can come up with is: “F***.”
Rhien and Kyree share a look fraught with meaning, knowing somehow that this could be their last battle together. On silent agreement, Kyree takes a step back and turns toward the chain-wielder, while Rhien moves toward the throne.
The elf draws his bow back, wincing in pain as the chain-wielder again evinces his superior reach, brutally beating Kyree about the head with his weapon. Electricity is absorbed by protective magic, but the archer has no such defense against either the physical damage or the flood of negative energy that combined render him badly wounded from only a single blow. Bravely holding to his feet despite the pain, the archer fires a full barrage of arrows at his foe. Though the first misses, the second and third miraculously find gaps in his foe’s full plate, and the fourth sails straight and true through the opening in his helmet, taking him through his cruelly grinning mouth.
Rhien smiles slightly at his friend as he moves over to the base of the throne. By closing his eyes and letting his other senses expand, the monk is able to pinpoint the location of the archmage. Drawing his fist back, he waits patiently to disrupt whatever magic Solom plans to cast.
Khail spurs Steve into an immediate gallop, and the celestial warhorse bursts into the room in a fury, sending arcane guards and elementals alike scattering in an effort not to be overborne. The paladin ignores them, galloping toward the chain-wielder with his head near his steed’s and his holy blade parallel to the horse’s flank. Khail remains in this position until an instant before reaching the large warrior, whereupon he explodes into action, slicing into the barbarian’s sternum with awesome force. Blood sprays from the vicious wound, tinting the warhorse's hindquarters crimson, but the burly humanoid does not fall.
Flying outside the scene of such violence, Kai’s bad feeling about the battle grows. Nevertheless, she does what she can to aid her friends, illuminating Solom and two lesser mages via motes of golden glitter. In a display of small favors, the apprentices throw their hands to their faces, apparently blinded as well as revealed. Kai smiles wanly.
Erdrick flies Chag into the room then, surveying the battlefield with an experienced eye. Noting that the arcane guards refused to stand in Steve’s way, he directs Chag to charge over to the corner nearest Quid, Trella, and the demon while seeking to inspire courage with the words of Master Ittei: “If one were to say what is to do good, in a single word it would be to endure suffering. Not enduring is bad without exception.”
Trella gapes at him. “Yeah, just what we need: more suffering,” she snarls, but feels emboldened despite herself. Erdrick calls Chag to a halt after the arcane guards have predictably dived out of the way, but instead of beginning a charge, the purple dragon reaches one mailed hand into a belt pouch, withdrawing a tiny black sphere which he then casts toward the opposite corner of the room. The marble explodes upon impact, expanding into a wave of force that buffets several foes, yet fails to encase any in the sphere of force that is a possible outcome of the item’s use.
Calla creeps up to the top of the rope and peers inside. Realizing that the elementals blocking the wind from tossing her aside like a leaf will not last much longer, the rogue seizes her chance and tumbles into the room, tossing a dagger as she rolls. Unlike the display of acrobatics, however, her aim is poor, and does not strike hated drow flesh.
Trella provides covering fire, scorching those in the room’s center with a column of flames that incinerates the gaunt mage and burns two other figures. Pleased, she directs the lesser elementals to pummel the nearest arcane guards, and they respond with stony aplomb.
The demon turns on Quid, though only she can see this, and attempts to dig into her with vicious claws. Tymora aids the Waukeenar as both swipes are weak and clumsy, and Quid readies herself to return the demon to whence it came. Kai, who sees the outer planar being now that its invisibility is gone, immediately recognizes it as a nycaloth, for what little good this does her at the moment. Before any further action can be taken, the archmage finally reaches the conclusion of his magic.
Rhien senses this, and focuses all of his energy on disrupting the drow’s spell. The monk’s fist lashes out, but layers of spell protections prove sufficient to deflect the blow. Solom chuckles at the monk’s efforts. “Watch how it’s done, half-breed,” he laughs, and then releases a torrent of fire. Four flaming spheres, centered on Erdrick, explode into small balls of fire; these are instantly followed by a bolt of ravening flames that targets Quid before splitting off to lash out at the rest of the party. “Enjoy that, b*tch of Waukeen?” the archmage asks, quite unnecessarily. Quid glares at him as she takes in the complete destruction of the elemental horde. Horrible burns cover Trella’s snarling lips.
In the center of the room, the mighty barbarian surveys the battle. Not wanting his allegiance to Solom to result in his demise, he dips his left hand into his belt, withdrawing a potion that he swiftly quaffs. As a minor cut closes, he whirls the chain above his head, focusing his ire on Khail. In a thick, guttural voice, he says in heavily accented Common, “When you see Torm, tell him that Bargh sent you.” Then his chain descends upon Khail’s body.
The paladin raises his shield to counter, but the barbarian is simply too strong for such a tactic. The unholy spiked chain pierces Khail’s groin, armpit, and finally throat, sending a perverse mixture of unholy energy and electricity cascading through his torn body. The third blow is enough to send his spirit flying from his battered and bloody corpse, which slides off of Steve to thump upon the floor. Solom exults, “One.”
Not quite done yet, Bargh spins dexterously on his heel, bringing his weapon to bear on Calla. Twice she is struck, surviving largely by virtue of her resistance to the darker aspects of the weapon. Still, the rogue is not in good shape, and she reflexively holds her hands over her stomach to keep her internal organs where they belong.
Seeing his friend fall yet again, Kyree knows that the barbarian cannot be permitted to hold to life. Though the archer knows the act will cost him, he draws his bow, nocks an arrow, and lets it fly. The barbarian’s chain slashes a deep gash across his cheek in response, but Kyree is undaunted and releases the rest of a barrage. Bargh stares down at the four additional arrows now quivering along his body. “Is that all you've got, elf?” Kyree blanches.
Hunched over in pain from the sudden onslaught of flames, Quid clenches her fist in determination and anger. "Alright Mr. Pretty-boy, if that's how you're going to play…." Tuning out the vagaries of battle through intense concentration, she imparts a powerful abjuration unto herself. Then, intoning, "Begone you foul unnatural negative externality," she lays hands upon the nycaloth. As the spell harmlessly dissipates against its skin, she launches into a tirade of profanity, pausing only to heal herself somewhat in preparation for the carnage to come.
Steve charges the one who slew his companion, lashing out with hooves and teeth, but his wild attacks merely add confusion to an already chaotic battlefield.
Kai turns over possible tactics in her mind at a pace appropriate to her genius-level intelligence. She quickly comes to the conclusion that the archmage must be stopped at any cost, and prepares accordingly. Calla and Erdrick choose to wait as well, though only the former’s intent appears to be the same as the sorceress’.
Growling, Trella closes the distance to Quid and heals a few of the Waukeenar’s burns. Before the priest can thank her, though, the yugoloth drives its claws into Quid’s chest, and Trella receives only a spurt of blood in the face for her effort.
Rhien notes the state of the party—particularly Calla’s and Erdrick’s battered forms—and opts for succor over offense. Exhausting the last of his gloves’ healing, he purges those still living of all wounds and ailments. Solom stares through avarice-tinted orbs and whispers intensely, “I will have that magic.” He immediately begins the spell designed to accomplish this goal.
Calla and Kai assault him in turn. Though Calla’s blade—aimed at the drow’s kidney—is turned aside at the last moment, Kai’s bolt flies true, and is enough to cause the archmage to lose concentration.
On the first spell, that is. The second releases a multihued fan of light that blankets the room, with all save Calla in its area of effect.
Trella feels pressure on both mind on body, but exerts will and reflexes to the extent that she is barely harmed. Kyree leaps out of the way of an electrical bolt, suffering no injury. Rhien manages to avoid being turned to stone.
This is the extent of the group’s luck. Kai’s normally hearty constitution is taxed to its limit and beyond by a poison the likes of which she has never known. The beautiful sorceress races against time, bravely attempting to finish her abjuration as she feels her heart slowly stop beating. By the barest of margins she manages to do so, and with her last breath attempts to strip the archmage of his myriad protective magics. Though she does not learn of her success, Rhien feels the wreath of flames vanish from Solom’s body. Unfortunately, so does the glitter making him visible. Snicker feels Kai’s demise and emerges from her cloak, emitting a high-pitched keen that is a mixture of sorrow and rage.
Quid starts in shock, but her movement is soon arrested by the growing spread of stone across her lithe form. The Waukeenar begins, but does not finish her curse of Solom as the transformation completes, leaving her an inert stone statue. Nearby, the celestial warhorse Steve suffers the same fate.
Erdrick’s mind is assaulted as Trella’s was, but to far greater effect. As his mount suffers the effects of the same poison Kai experienced and expires under him, the purple dragon’s mind simply snaps under the weight of Solom’s potent magic. Lost in a confusion from which he will not escape without mystical aid, Erdrick lashes out at the nearest creature to him, which happens to be an injured arcane guard. Insanity has apparently not dulled his skill with the blade, and he neatly dispatches the drow with two expert strikes. Moving with practiced skill, he spins on the next nearest one, slamming his blade into the drow’s mithral shirt with such force that the vibrations induced cause it to ring out for long after the drow has fallen to the earth, unconscious. Finally, making his sensei proud, the quite batty Erdrick advances toward Bargh and takes a couple of swings at him as well. Unfortunately, this time he fails to make contact.
Trella screams then, her wrathful cry providing a potent counterpoint to Snicker’s wailing. Rhien stares at his unharmed fists in anguish, wondering if he has truly fallen so far from Ilmater’s grace that he must continuously watch the suffering of those he cares about while remaining unharmed himself. Calla raises her dagger once again, keeping a cold eye on Solom’s back. Kyree calmly nocks an arrow, prepared to end this one way or another.
Solom Ned’razak, archmage of Szith Morcane, smiles cruelly, avoiding clumsy strikes from Calla and Rhien as he calmly enters the safety of his prismatic sphere. “Two and three,” he chuckles after his retreat.
Two arcane guards back further into a corner of the chamber, readying their magic to disrupt that of others. The third speaks words of magic with a rapid tongue before lashing Rhien in the rear once with his spiked chain. Far from distressing him, however, the injury seems to bring the monk back into focus, and doubt gives way to resolve. His sight flickers across the landscape, looking for some opening to seize.
Near him, the half-ogre only has eyes for Erdrick. Again and again he whips the samurai with his chain, leaving him barely recognizable under the blood and bruising. Yet, much to the dismay of Bargh, Erdrick lives, and the barbarian’s fourth blow is uncharacteristically wide. Unable to withdraw a potion without swift retaliation from Erdrick, Bargh settles for ending his life. A fifth strike crushes his skull beneath his helmet, dropping his now-lifeless body to the floor in a heap. As Erdrick falls, Bargh almost casually turns to Trella and scores her flesh with deep welts, though the druid resists the electricity. Solom laughs from within his sphere. “Four.”
Kyree’s attention never wavers as he takes one final step back, finally placing him out of the long reach of Bargh, though the action places him within Solom’s bedchambers. Bargh mocks his strategic retreat. “Scared?”
Kyree's arrow answers for him, skimming the barbarian's armor and somehow finding a gap in the knee. The wound it causes is minor, but sufficient, and the mighty half-ogre finally falls from the combined weight of his numerous injuries. The archer stares thoughtfully at the ring of gore surrounding the body, then slays two of Bargh's pupils with a trio of precision strikes. “Perhaps I was,” he finally answers, “but so should you have been.”
Just then a thought hits him. “Trella; Stone; Solom,” he passes along to the druid via Snicker, and his idea is immediately comprehended. Moments later a hemispherical wall encases the prismatic sphere; all are surprised when Solom does not come tumbling out before it forms. Apparently, he is satisfied where he is for now.
The nycaloth snarls then, the normally aggressive sound tinged with a hint of amusement. It takes flight and leaps toward Rhien, attempting both to strike and to grapple the monk. It fails at both as its claws come nowhere near the frantically dodging man.
The monk shares a look with the rogue, and the two agree silently that they can't wait for Solom's emergence forever. Instead they flank the yugoloth and rapidly eliminate any pleasure it might have been deriving from the fight with a series of blows and cuts that leave it stunned, torn, and dripping a foul ichor that sizzles angrily upon striking the stone earth.
With the majority of the combatants eliminated, the battlefield situation is clarified. The last arcane guard fires a volley of missiles at Trella, which she completely ignores, not even deigning to glance at their author. Kyree eliminates the threat for her, ending the chain wielders' presence in the melee with missiles of his own.
Suddenly and quite unexpectedly, the blind mage screams, “No!” and charges mindlessly toward the closest person to him, which happens to be Calla. His blind flailing misses her nimble form, but his presence does present another potential complication.
Trella ignores him as well, nearly frothing at the mouth as she manifests her staff and charges the nycaloth. Her aim and her armor’s potential work in perfect synchrony as her staff contacts the yugoloth’s head…and knocks it clean off. As it bounces off wall and floor grotesquely, the body collapses, remaining on the plane to which it was called. Were Trella fully rational at the moment, she might take some comfort in permanently destroying a creature of evil, but as it is she merely looks around for her next target.
Freed of their proximal foe, Rhien and Calla return to waiting for the archmage to exit. Unfortunately, it is not he who returns first, but rather an earth elemental which phases through the wall of stone to bull rush Rhien. The monk attempts to push back, but he is simply no match for the large elemental and its three tons of weight. Rhien is shoved nearly forty feet away, upending a table and scattering books across Solom’s library in the process. Realizing that there is now no way he can get to Solom in time to disrupt his concentration, the monk beats his fists upon the elemental, hoping to escape his rocky adversary. The monk’s blows are potent, and nearly sufficient to render the elemental to rubble, but not quite. It maintains its position, seeming to threaten to push Rhien back through the very walls of the tower.
Calla curses the loss of her flanking partner, particularly as an entire ten-foot region of the wall of stone suddenly vanishes. She springs into action immediately, acting on Snicker’s description of the mage’s location, but her dagger barely glances off of the archmage’s cloak. Solom smiles—a gesture lost to all save Snicker—and suddenly a tremendous bebilith looms over the frightened Calla. Though rationally she knows that it is probably an illusion, the rogue cannot master her fear, and her heart skips a beat when it touches her. Pain courses through her small form, but she is hearty, and avoids Erdrick’s fate from earlier in the day. Solom’s smile vanishes quickly, and he flies over to the door and out of the room.
With only one real target left, Kyree must trust in luck to guide his arrows. The archer toys with the fletching of one while waiting for Snicker’s order to fire. Meanwhile, a tiny part of Trella’s mind contemplates casting a spell, but the rest is consumed with the need to hurt those who have taken so much from her. With a thought her form shifts to that of an immense dire bear, and she lets her nose guide her to the archmage, intending to smash his skull in as soon as possible.
The blind mage, lacking the telepathic urgings of the nycaloth, decides to sit down for a while, sinking into self-pity with astonishing rapidity for a drow.
Back in the library, the earth elemental slams Rhien into the bookshelf standing against the opposite wall. Rhien kicks out once, smashing the elemental to dust, and then makes all the haste he can muster over to Trella and his desired foe.
A moment later, Snicker gives his signal. Calla and Kyree let loose their projectiles a second apart, looking to disrupt all of the archmage's magic. They are partially successful; Calla’s dagger misses wide, but somehow Kyree’s arrow makes it through, cutting past numerous layers of protection to strike deep into the archmage’s chest.
Solom glares at Kyree in shock as one spell trickles off his lips, but he recovers quickly enough to bathe the remaining group in frigid cold. It has far less of an effect than he had hoped, however, and for the first time he entertains the notion that he might in fact lose.
This is sufficient to alter his plans, and he holds off his foes with a jet of flame while escaping to a lower floor. Again they surprise him, and rake his back as he departs.
Kyree runs to the doorway of the third level, peering down, but can see no one to fight. He exchanges a look with Calla as Trella and Rhien fly after Solom with Snicker in tow.
The latter pair finds naught but a discarded potion vial, and immediately turns back. They make it nearly all the way before slamming into an invisible wall that now blocks their forward movement.
Calla wheels to face the interior of the room after watching her companions denied access; the rogue knows a trap when she sees it. Kyree picks up on this, and his sharp eyes spot motion as the archmage begins casting another spell. Unfortunately, this time his rapidly-fired arrow misses, and the room is abruptly dropped into utter darkness.
Trella feels at the invisible wall filled with inky blackness with her hands, quickly confirming that the wall of force is of the hemispherical variety. Getting an idea, she uses her staff to call a huge earth elemental, which she orders (via pointing, growling, and gesturing profusely) to smash its way through the stone floors between levels so she can get through. Rhien chooses to wait with her, taking the opportunity to close a few of his own wounds.
Inside the wall, the combatants lash out into the darkness. Lightning and more solid projectiles fly, doing minimal injury to those struck, before the three take up new positions, looking for an advantage.
Outside, Trella rages impotently against the wall, and angrily calls a second elemental to help the first. Together they begin making swift progress through the thick stone. Rhien closes his eyes and meditates on suffering.
Kyree and Calla hear Solom begin to run, and they fire at the source of the movement. Both miss, and suddenly Calla feels delicate drow hands grasp her tunic and begin to push her in the direction of the prismatic sphere. She resists, and were it not for the high stakes, the contest of strength between the two might seem comical. There is nothing funny about the outcome, however, as Solom uses the advantage of size to shove her through all seven layers of the sphere. Fire, electricity, and acid assail her, but she twists and turns her body and avoids damage from each. Poison wracks her body, but her constitution expels it after a mighty effort. Finally, though, the halfling’s luck runs out. Her body begins turning to stone upon touching the fifth layer, her mind shatters on the sixth, and both are sent to another plane at the seventh and last. Suddenly lacking resistance, Solom collapses to the ground inside his sphere, cackling with glee. “Five!” he screams, earning him a futile shot from Kyree.
Trella releases an anguished moan, and waits against the ceiling of the lower level for her servants to do their work.
Kyree hears the elementals, but can do little but continues his deadly game with Solom. He fires when he hears the archmage emerge, striking true once; the elf is struck by ten mystic missiles in return. Undaunted he continues his assault, and this time hears the thunk of two arrows. Again ten missiles blast shallow craters in his flesh in response, and he despairs that he will eventually be the loser of this game.
Kyree is saved for the moment when the elementals finally finish their task. The floor five feet from both archer and mage vanishes abruptly in a cloud of dust, allowing Trella the dire bear to burst through. She easily scents the foul odor of the drow, and furiously pounds him with her opposable staff. Rhien follows, though he fares less well.
Surrounded, Solom dips into his nearly depleted spell repertory in an attempt to end the battle; the gout of acid he releases burns, but fails to do the job. Activating his wand yet again proves more effective, and the five missiles it fires are enough to send Trella into unconsciousness. This time, Solom does not verbalize the body count.
This is little comfort to Kyree and Rhien, as neither they nor the elementals manage more than marginal success in their counterattack, and afterward the elf is left reeling upon being on the receiving end of another barrage of missiles.
Rhien utters a prayer to Ilmater, hoping that Erdrick's earlier speech proves correct. The monk moves in for a grapple attempt, and this time he manages to take hold of Solom's forearms, overcoming the mage's desperation with superior strength.
Solom snarls and speaks a single word, vanishing. He reappears in front of his sphere, whence he launches yet another barrage of missiles at Kyree, simultaneous with the latter's firing of a volley of arrows. Three of the archer's projectiles hit, the last stuck quivering in the drow's chest. Solom, however, indeed wins in the end as Kyree's body, riddled with small wounds, fails. The elf collapses to the floor, barely clinging to life.
Solom wheezes, forcing air out of injured lungs through blood-flecked lips. He stares hatefully at Rhien during the barest of pauses that separates the actions of the two. Then there is no more time for thought, as the monk is upon him.
Rhien's hands again dig into his forearms, but this time there is no more magic with which to escape. Solom fires his wand off twice at point blank range, but Rhien's innate resistance is proof against the lesser magic of the wand. When the monk's hands begin to squeeze, causing injury, the great Archmage of Szith Morcane does the only thing he can think to: he jerks free with a great effort and retreats to his prismatic sphere.
For an instant Rhien contemplates charging in after him, but abandons that idea quickly in favor of forcing Trella's expiring form to down a potent curative draught.
She is up in a flash, appraising the field with an intellect as bestial as her form. Noting only a blind mage available to strike, she pounces, and tears him to chunks with tooth and claw.
Rhien turns his head from the grisly sight and shouts, “Trella!”
This earns the dire bear's attention, and for a moment her ire. But the monk's gentle demeanor, even in the midst of this carnage, calms her slightly, and his gesture at Kyree's fallen form brings her back to herself. The druid resumes her usual shape and lets a healing circle flow from her battered body, reviving Kyree.
The elf sits up with a groan. “I’m still alive?” He sounds somewhat surprised.
A voice cuts him off from within the sphere, as the archmage pleads for his life. “I can help you. We can make a deal.”
Trella considers it not for an instant, as her delicate emotional state tips swiftly back into rage. “Your sphere won’t last forever, coward. I’ll rip off your head and feast on your brain.” Kyree groans and whispers a spell of healing.
Solom abandons his efforts at negotiation and charges out of his sphere, wand ready. The decimated party leaps to the attack one final time. Kyree embeds another arrow in drow flesh; Trella grabs the mage by the arms. Solom unloads ten missiles into Trella’s stomach.
Trella reels back, letting go. Kyree fires one last arrow, puncturing Solom’s left eye. The archmage gasps, and finally collapses. Trella falls to her knees, and tries hard not to cry.
[To be continued…]