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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rybaer" data-source="post: 456317" data-attributes="member: 118">Session #14.5 – The Last Tangle with Lord BoogeyFeng called upon Kord for a surge of strength and, together with Nigel, tried to force the metal plate up.  The plate was distressingly heavy, and only lifted a few inches.  In the magical silence, the effort was very surreal, yet they held out hope that the Shadow would not be alerted to their presence.  The pair was able to slide the plate to the side a foot and a half, enough for everyone to fit through.Feng and Nigel pulled themselves up and through, great sword and bow ready as quickly as possible, and moved aside to let the others up.  Nigel scanned the surroundings, making full use of Star Slayer’s ability to See Invisible.  The metal plate they had shoved aside was indeed covered in boxes as well as a largish coat rack which appeared to have toppled over during their initial push.  Probably a warning device, Nigel thought to himself.  Stacked up against the walls around him were a variety of other small chests and sacks, just as Jonas had described it.A short distance away, where the cave started to widen, was a small table with chairs.  A lit candle and several books sat upon it, but there was no sign of either the Shadow or the other elf.  He could just make out the bedroll, but it too was unoccupied.  Silently, Nigel cursed to himself for it looked like the element of surprise had been lost, likely when the coat rack tipped over.  The furthest end of the cave held some large stone columns and dark recesses, so it was possible the pair was still hiding within the chamber.Amblin and Amill followed through the trapdoor and took the silent signal from Nigel that the Shadow had not yet been spotted.  Nigel held Star Slayer with the Silenced arrow at the ready while Feng, Amill, and Amblin advanced further into the room.  Bommer and Zalman, meanwhile, climbed up through trapdoor and familiarized themselves with the layout.Feng and Amill, swords brandished threateningly, quickly moved to the left side of the chamber, expecting any attack to come from around the rock column.  Amblin followed close behind.  Amill was the first to spot the female elf, seemingly floating near the ceiling of the cavern, as she peered out of the dark around the corner of the column.  The psychic warrior charged.Feng was about to follow, but found himself abruptly cut off when a roiling wall of pearly white material erupted before him.  The wall reached from floor to ceiling and side to side, filling into the irregularities of the rock to completely seal off one half of the cave.  Feng hammered on the wall with his sword and found it to be completely unyielding and unharmed.  Amblin, Nigel, Zalman, Bommer, and Feng all looked at one another – they’d just been cut off and Amill was likely in grave danger now.Amill closed with the elf.  In the back of his mind he registered her physical beauty, but by the look in her eye he knew that she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.  In spite of her position levitating up in a high niche, he was still able to reach her with his ferroplasmic falchion.  Inches from connecting with her body, Amill could feel his blade slowing down as if it were being swung through heavy syrup.  She grinned and gave him a focused look.  White strands of ephemeral material swirled about the psychic warrior, seeking to wrap about him and bind him tight.  Relying on his warrior instincts, he tucked and rolled, and the strands evaporated harmlessly as they closed in on empty space.Amill bounced back to his feet and was about to take another crack at her when he was rudely interrupted by a rapier blade puncturing his right lung from behind.  The blade’s horribly unnatural coldness froze the tissue around the wound.  When the blade was pulled free Amill turned about only to watch as the dark cloaked figure ran him through again with the rapier as well as the short sword he carried in his other hand.  Amill dropped his own sword, the ferroplasm reverting to a limp formless lump on the cold cave floor.  The Shadow blew Amill a silent kiss as he mercilessly ran him through once more.  Amill was unconscious before he hit the floor.On the far side of the Wall of Ectoplasm, Zalman tried casting Dispell Magic, but was unable to overcome the energy holding the wall together.  Feng and Bommer carefully inspected the unusual surface.  Feng, contemplating the few spells he had left in his repertoire, hit upon an idea.  Using a small lump of clay they’d scrounged up earlier, he began to mold a model.  The others, recognizing one of Rurik’s old tricks, nodded in silent agreement.Once the clay was molded to his satisfaction, Feng planted his hand upon the side of the cave right next to the ectoplasmic wall.  He called upon Kord’s grace and the stone parted, creating a tight passage through the stone and around the otherwise impenetrable wall.  Feng quickly moved through with Amblin right behind.Both spotted the female elf, flying near the ceiling and almost out of sight around the backside of the column.  Feng, seeing Amill’s ravaged body lying in the middle of the floor, advanced very deliberately into the room with his sword leading the way.  Amblin jogged along the ecto wall and positioned himself to go around the column from the other side.  Nigel and the others filed through the narrow passage as quickly as they could.Just as Feng and Amblin passed the column on their respective sides, another Wall of Ectoplasm erupted across the chamber.  This time, it separated Feng and Amblin from the rest of the group, and used the stone column as a natural separator between the two of them.  Feng tensed but it did little good.  The Shadow, invisible and nearly silent, slid around from the backside of the column and sneak attacked the half-orc.  His icy rapier and short sword both bit deep in a dizzying combination.  As the blood spilled from his body, Feng valiantly lifted his sword for one single counterattack.  Just as Amill had experienced with the female elf, Feng felt his sword slow down just before making contact.  He drew blood, but it was only the slightest of scratches.  The Shadow scowled at the half-orc, and then ran him through one last time with his rapier.  Feng fell to his knees and watched as first the Shadow disappeared and then the rest of the room.  The faithful of Kord was dead before his head struck the ground.Amblin became highly alarmed when the second ecto wall appeared behind him.  He was very suspicious that the female elf was dividing them up so that the Shadow could easily conquer them.  Between the swirling white wall behind him and rock on either side, he was corned well and good.  The sound of a struggle, followed moments later by the clattering of metal on stone, told him exactly how well Feng was faring on the other side of the column.Throwing caution to the wind, he advanced around the stone column and found the female elf flying a short distance above and ahead of him.  She spotted him instantly and called up the twisting white bands of ectoplasm to bind him.  Amblin, however, was far too nimble a customer to succumb to that and he easily leapt clear.  He launched himself nearly twenty feet in the air and used his magical metal boots to plant a kick right in the center of her shocked face.  Unfortunately, it didn’t quite connect all the way.  The monk felt his blow lessened considerably by some manner of barrier and he fell to the floor.He considered trying a leaping grapple, but never had the chance for the Shadow appeared immediately before him as he attacked from invisibility.  The first blow of his icy rapier bit deep, but the subsequent blows of his attack sequence failed to connect.  Amblin performed a backflip, kicking the Shadow in the head on the way, and again was distressed to feel the force of his blow dissipated before making full contact.  He rolled back into the corner and watched as the dark elf advanced upon him with supernatural speed.Meanwhile, stuck between two walls of ectoplasm Zalman, Nigel, and Bommer all cursed loudly and repeatedly – all falling on deaf ears thanks to the Silenced arrow that Nigel still had knocked.  Feng and Amblin were both on the other side and time was their worst enemy.  Zalman was forced to fall back on summoning a thoqua to melt a passage under the wall.  Watching its work was painfully slow, but the wizard finally judged the hole large enough and dismissed the elemental.Bommer dove under the wall, burning his hands and knees on the near-molten rock, and then climbed out and rolled to his left.  Nigel followed immediately and dove right.  Both spotted the female elf flying a short distance ahead.  She was ready for them as soon as they made it through and began manifesting the white ectoplasmic bonds on Bommer.  The halfling deftly avoided their binding grip.  Nigel was about to shoot her, but remembered that he only had one Silenced arrow and that one had to hit the Shadow, so he held his fire and looked about for his nemesis.The Shadow grinned widely as he used his incredible speed to jab Amblin repeatedly.  The monk, in spite of all his training, was outmatched in a close quarters fight.  He punched, kicked, and even tried to grapple the dark elf.  The barrier protecting the drow, along with his amazing reflexes, prevented Amblin from doing anything more than landing a few glancing blows.  “But I’m too young to die,” Amblin thought to himself as the icy rapier pierced his chest one last time.  He hit the floor unconscious and bleeding to death.Zalman gritted his teeth and climbed through the molten passage.  He knew that Nigel had gone right, so he went left in hopes of getting outside the range of the Silence spell.  Bommer was right there, cautiously advancing on the female elf while Nigel held his arrow for a shot.Zalman saw Feng’s body on the floor.  As the Shadow was not in this part of the cave that could only mean that he was in the far corner behind the column.  The wizard sidestepped to get a better view and suddenly spotted the Shadow turning to face him.  Zalman let fly with a Fireball into the back corner of the room, hitting far enough back to get both the Shadow and the female elf, but miss Bommer and Nigel.  He didn’t realize that it was his Fireball that would ultimately finish off his friend Amblin.“Amazing,” Zalman thought to himself.  The Shadow actually looked like he’d been singed by the spell.  The female elf didn’t look too happy, either, and she let him know it by sending the ectoplasmic bands at him next.  In an unusual display of agility, Zalman avoided being bound up.The Shadow rounded the corner with blinding speed and was about to attack Bommer when he spotted Nigel.  The close personal hatred between the two was shared only in scowling glares.  Rapier and short sword went to work on Nigel immediately and left the elf bloodied and pissed.Nigel took a step back and let fly with the Silenced arrow.  The ultimate marksman missed from nearly point blank range.  The arrow (soundlessly) ricocheted off the stone column and bounced to a stop just underneath the flying female.  For the moment, the Shadow was still within the area of Silence however.  Nigel dropped his bow and drew out his backup long sword.Zalman quickly did the math in his head:  Three and a half of us are down, and the two of them hardly appear scratched.  He didn’t like the results and briefly considered fleeing.  No, he decided, this was it.  Vengeance would be had.  He began to summon a creature.Bommer was unwilling to close to point blank range with the Shadow unless he was certain the dark elf’s attention wouldn’t turn to him.  He recognized that there was almost no chance he could withstand the full brunt of one of his attack sequences.  Instead, Bommer slid along the wall and tried to position himself for a sneak attack when the Shadow’s attention was diverted.Ectoplasmic strands tried to bind Nigel mere moments before the Shadow laid into him again.  Nigel was able to slip out of the grasp of the psionic attack and only suffered one hit from the Shadow.  Nigel returned the attack and barely managed to push his blade through the barrier surrounding the dark elf.  Zalman finished his summoning and a massive dire ape appeared directly behind the Shadow.  It swiped its mighty paws but failed to connect.  It did, however, split the Shadow’s attention.  Zalman unleashed a precisely aimed lightning bolt at the Shadow and watched in dismay as it fizzled away harmlessly.Bommer saw the ape’s appearance as the opportunity he needed.  He tucked and rolled into the Shadow’s flank and jammed his short sword up under his ribs.  Bommer felt his blade slowed by an invisible barrier, but even still it connected with flesh and bit deep.  The halfling felt elation mixed with fear that he had just brought unwanted attention upon himself.That attention came a moment later when bands of ectoplasm wrapped around him.  Had he not been so focused on the Shadow, he might have slipped free.  Instead, he found himself trussed up so tight he could barely breathe and he became little more than a spectator.The Shadow and Nigel continued to trade blades.  Nigel could tell the fight was very quickly going against him.  Something about the Shadow’s movements gave him a glimmer of hope, however.  The Shadow seemed to have slowed down a bit, to have come down to a mortal level.  Nigel was able to turn a couple of the attacks and land another couple of his own.Zalman had little left to do but to keep pounding away with the Lightning Bolts in hope that one would get through the Shadow’s defenses.  Perhaps Rurik was watching over him because his prayers were answered and one of the bolts hit the dark elf’s side and didn’t dissipate.  The Shadow cried out in silent fury and spared Zalman a hateful glance.The female elf sent ectoplasmic bands at Zalman and again the wizard was able to slip free.  In spite of her own relatively safe position, she was starting to look concerned.The dire ape continued to claw away at the Shadow’s back and managed to land a hit.  Nigel took another icy blow from the dark elf before he delivered a hard swing of his own…and felt it connect cleanly.  Elation surged through Nigel as he realized that the Shadow’s defenses were finally down.Zalman launched another lightning bolt, but watched in disgust as it dissipated harmlessly.  The Shadow, rather than press his attack and almost surely finish off Nigel, tumbled backward and into the corner...outside the area of Silence.  The female elf flew down to him and wrapped her arms around the battered drow.  With a glare of pure hatred flung in the direction of the survivors, the Shadow uttered a single word and the pair disappeared.Next:  Epilogue...and prologue?</blockquote>

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