Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)

[LordVyreth]

Excerpt number five

Expect a full update tomorrow, and a second one some time over the weekend. For now, here's another excerpt to tide you over. This one is from Nelkiss, the goddess of death. Basically, think of Kelemvor, if he was reincarnated as a female goth.

The New Creation and the Betrayal
(Excerpt from the Book of Nellkiss. Again, we would like to remind you that great force of evil doesn’t mean another goddess. No revision was necessary or performed. We don’t know where these rumors come from. Thank you.)

And so, the eleven of us, we who were blessed and cursed to live forever and look on while others slowly wasted away and died before our eyes, acted to join our strengths, so that future beings would be partially eased in the sufferings that serve as the very definition of life. They pooled their energies, and created new civilizations on the world, which started their existences armed with all the mental weapons of the gods at their disposal. We hoped that our powers combined would be enough to create a truly content society, that is immune to the inevitable destruction and entropy that the universe continuously forces upon its terrified inhabitants. Alas, it again was demonstrated that no force could possibly withstand sorrow’s dark touch, as no sooner had we created our masterpiece than dark forces overwhelmed it in War and Strife. Soon, the people, once loyal believers of our claims, were led astray by the constant turmoil of their lives, and they surrendered to cynicism. They denounced us, and created new images that they worshipped as gods, in the mistaken belief that they could rescue the world. But in their foolishness, they created two powerful monsters that fed off of their weakness and desperation. They were called the Puppet and the Head the Rules the Claw, and they tore the world asunder in their arrogance. The good people were scattered, and had to flee from the very sun that gave them life into the cold, dark tomb of the underworld. Still the two despots schemed, and they combined their power in an attempt to bind the sun entirely, and suffocate the world’s people. With the mortal forces powerless, even the slightest chance at salvation seemed utterly, utterly hopeless.

 

[LordVyreth]

Drow City Urliz-Val

“You did WHAT!”

Quercus, as expected, was not pleased. “How could you make a deal with a vampire? They’re among the greatest evils of the undead empire!”

Tal sighed. He knew this would be difficult. “What choice did we have? She already saved our lives once by warning us not to sleep on the lake.”

“And how do you know we can trust her! She might be Bas’ enemy, too, but she might be eager to get both groups of us killed!”

Tsine decided to be pragmatic about this. “Look, we don’t have a choice about this now. If we betray them, they’ll just turn us in. We might as well see it through.”

Quercus looked disgusted at the entire group, but sighed. “Well, it’s too late for the rest of you, I guess. But while I’ll help you guys survive this, don’t expect me to lift a finger to help the vampires. You’re all lucky I want to make sure Shedell would be safe.”

The conversation ended when the party saw lights in the distance. They were near the docks, and the vampire and her servants were apparently seeing to it that the guards were distracted, judging by the jets of flame being fired into the air. Slowly, the party’s boat drifted to a corner of the dock, and the party disembarked. Carefully, the crept between the boats and the crates piled up behind them, until they spotted a cavern wall, with an opening that led to a staircase leading downward. Unfortunately, the area was guarded by four drow, and a strange monster with a body like a gorilla but a head like an insect. As soon as they saw the party, all of them made a beeline for the exit.

Fortunately, the party was prepared for this. Robin and Quercus moved to take down one of the unarmored drow, (who appeared to be a wizard,) while Tsine created a wall of ice around the entrance to the cavern. Two of the surviving drow drew weapons, and began to help attack the wall, while the last wizard launched a ball of flames at the party. They had managed to use the last of their healing wands and potions to recover their wounded before this fight, but everyone was still hurting, so the blast managed to almost stagger everyone! Dane moved to attack the second wizard, and Tal helped him finish the enemy off. Rudyard began attacking one of the two remaining drow, while the umberhulk finished brining the wall of ice down.

However, it was too late for the enemy’s scouts. Robin finished the wounded drow with his bow, and Quercus and Tsine finished the second one. Before the umberhulk could even move to get down the stairs, Dane and Tal had finished him as well. The unfortunate insect was so fixated on removing the wall that he couldn’t even get a good look on his attackers, and use its infamous confusing gaze on them.

Quickly, the party descended the stairs, while slipping on the robes as they went. With luck, they would be able to enter the city and find the inns, or wherever the cultists were staying, before they were noticed. At the bottom of the stairs, they were greeted by little but darkness. Of course, since this was a drow city, it made little sense for it to be lit. Fortunately, there were a few lit areas. One especially unusually building, which was a school or guild of magic as Tsine judged it, had a wall of fire around its entire perimeter, but there were also a few large buildings that were lit up and flooded with torch lights around it. Tal whispered, “We should try to get there. If there really are a large number of red-robed refugees from the temple, they probably are gathered where they can see. And since we’re clearly of the same temple, at least as long as we have these robes, than it would make sense for us to use lights as well.”

The party agreed, and pulled out their lanterns and continual flame torches. As they traveled the city, they noticed that very few red-robed beings were around. In fact, there were few people at all that were dressed in the standard robes of the Bas worshippers. It became apparent why that was as soon as they were stopped by a group of drow guards on the way. While they were willing to let the party pass, they all had to give the familiar sign of the scimitars first. The party members each winced as they felt the scimitars cut into their forearms; after the wounds of their many fights, this was the last thing they needed. Considering most of the cultists probably aren’t as trained to deal with pain as the party is, it was no wonder they feared to travel the city!

Finally, the party made it into the first lit building they could find, and the drow who was running the place didn’t even bat an eyelid when they requested. They were halfway up the stairs before they finally noticed something: the girl was gone.

Rudyard was furious. “How could you let her go?” he shouted at Tal. “You were supposed to look after her. For all we know, she could be a spy for the enemy. We could have the entire city at our throats within an hour!”

Tal looked defensive. “Oh, relax. I was watching her for days. There’s nothing suspicious about her. She probably just tried to get back to her home, or to find someone she knew. This is probably her home city, after all.”

Quercus moved to stop the fight. “Look, it’s too late to worry about it now. We can’t track anyone in this city without drawing too much attention to ourselves, and none of us could survive a fight anyway. We’ll post guards during the night and look for some other ways out of the inn, but we don’t really have a choice now except to rest here anyway.”

Rudyard shrugged, and moved to one of the beds, but he did his best to indicate that he wasn’t taking a watch. After all, it was Tal who let her go, and Quercus and Robin were the only other ones so eager to keep her around in the first place; let them do it.

A short time later, during Quercus’ watch, he heard a rapping on the window. Very carefully, he moved towards the window, and peeked out. There was a bat there, and oddly enough, it looked like he was gesturing with a claw to open the window. A puzzled Quercus obeyed, but even when the window was opened, the bat gave him a funny look. Finally Quercus realized who this was. “Fine, I invite you in,” he said, but he put one hand to his sword and the other two his holy symbol while he said it.

The bat fluttered it, and suddenly transformed into a dwarf. “About time you caught on,” he complained. “Now, it’s time to finish your part of the deal. If you help us free our ally, we tell you where the Lay of Blood lives, and how to deal with her.”

Quercus shrugged. “I never agreed to your help, but I will help my friends no matter how dubious some of their decisions are. If you want to deal with them, speak with them directly.”

The dwarf muttered in annoyance while Quercus woke Dane. He copied down the location of the jail that the dwarf gave him, and they agreed to meet afterwards at an entirely different part of town. The dwarf vampire then flew off, and Quercus slammed the window shut, and then went downstairs to see if the inn had a kitchen, and if it did, if they had any garlic he could borrow.

The next day, the party finally finished healing their wounds, and after preparing their magic, they prepared to find and raid the prison. The prison itself was found at the end of a long tunnel near the end of the city. The first part of the tunnel was unguarded, but soon, a number of pungent smells filled the hallways. At first, the party backed away after first smelling it, out of fear that it was some sort of poison gas, but Robin got a good whiff of it, and turned back to the party. “Garlic,” he said with amusement. “And a bit of belladonna, for some reason. I guess they were just being thorough.”

After a few minutes of traveling, they found a door, which had a note attached. It was from Solamand, who is described as the mayor of this city. The note insists that his authorization on property supercedes that of anyone else in the city, and that without his direct permission, no one is invited into this area of the city. Quercus whispered, “Obviously, another way to keep any potential vampire rescuers at bay. They can’t enter without being invited, and they can’t even mind-control a guard into inviting them in.

The door itself was locked. Since the now lacked a thief, Quercus and Dane decided to use their much larger and sharper lock picks to open the door. However, by the time they were done, the guards on the other side of the door were prepared for them, and attacked immediately!

The largest foe in the other room was a strange, hunched over figure with red-tinted gray skin. He roared and slashed at Quercus, giving him not only a powerful cut to the chest, but also a dark, sickening feeling in his chest, and he knew that this monster was no ordinary creature. It was tainted with evil, and could deaden the soul of a good being with its very presence! Meanwhile, a drow wielding a bow fired repeatedly at Dane, giving him a pair of deep wounds to the chest. While he was firing, a bear moved up to help guard the drow.

Robin was the first to react after the sudden attack. He dashed into the room, though this meant he would be an easy target for the hunched-over monster. He received a slash to the shoulder as a reward for his bravery, but it appeared the creature was unable to infuse him with evil energy like it did with Quercus. Ignoring his wound, Robin stabbed the bear, in an attempt to bring him down and reach his master.


Fnipper was dashing down the halls of his prison. Just when he finally managed to escape, things went crazy. There were sounds of battle reverberating down the halls. He didn’t know where they emanated from or how to get out of here, so he just began to run and hope for the best.


Meanwhile, Tsine launched an explosive ball of flames at the bear and ranger, destroying the wounded bear and causing serious damage to the ranger. The ranger responded with another volley of arrows, right into the nearby Robin. Robin was already looking wounded, but with the gray monster in the way, the rest of the party had another concern to deal with first. Quercus began to strike at the monster with his blade, but the creature was so large that he couldn’t get more then a few minor flesh wounds past its thick armor and powerful muscles. Tal helped Quercus out with a volley of magic, but only a couple of his missiles survived to reach the creature. Dane also helped fight the giant monster, though he shouted a few choice curses at the ranger who fired at him earlier. Rudyard couldn’t get up to help Dane and Quercus, so he followed Robin’s lead and dashed around the monster. Fortunately, it was too big and slow to react to another sudden threat, and Rudyard reached the drow ranger safely, though by the time he reached his enemy, the ranger saw him coming and easily dodged his sword.

Suddenly, another enemy appeared out of the shadows. He was another drow, and he suddenly tumbled in behind Robin to stab him in the back. Robin groaned in pain, and collapsed to the floor, bleeding but still alive. Meanwhile, the giant monster continued to rend into Quercus, who was now bleeding from a massive chest wound and many cuts and scrapes.

The fight suddenly was interrupted when a small, gray gnome appeared from the door on the far side of the wall. He looked at the fight with surprise, and then turned and ran in the opposite direction. The party gave him a funny look, but it was obvious that they had bigger concerns.

Tsine realized that Rudyard, and possibly even Robin, were doomed if they didn’t receive help, so he sent a volley of magical orbs that split and struck both of them twice. The rogue was seriously wounded by the blast, and the ranger wasn’t looking much better. The ranger howled with anger and struck at his nearest foe, Rudyard, with both of his swords. The wounds were serious, but not fatal, and they just gave Rudyard even more anger to channel into his attacks Quercus, Tal, and Dane meanwhile finally finished off the giant beast, when Quercus charged his legs, causing him to buckle, and Dane leapt up and slashed the creature’s neck. Rudyard was also ready to finish things. He took a light step to get right in between the ranger and rogue, and his blades were a blur as he finished both of them of at once!

After binding and healing their wounds, the party examined their foes. One of the drow, the rogue, still lived. Rudyard was happy to put him to death, but Tal intervened, saying he could be helpful if they have trouble finding their way through the prison. They decided to bind him and brink him along, and they continued deeper into the prison, where they eventually found the strange gnome again. He looked at them fearfully. “Goaway,” he said quickly.

“Easy, little one, we don’t want to hurt you,” Tal said. He was looking at the creature carefully. He looked like a normal gnome, but it was bald, and had rock-like skin. He thought he heard stories of these gnomes, but they were supposed to be extinct. Maybe some of their villages still were hidden deep under the domain of Methosilang?

“What are you doing here?” Tal continued. “Don’t worry, if you’re a prisoner of these drow, we’re here to rescue you.”

The scared gnome paused for a moment, and then continued. “Name’s Fnipper. My village was attacked by the drow. Most of my family was taken prisoner or killed, including me. Now I don’t even know if they’re still alive!” There were tears in the earnest gnome’s eyes, but they soon ceased. “Now I’m going to kill every one of those evil drow!”

Rudyard was impressed, but also worried that he’d attract attention in this city. Tal decided to handle this. “Well, we’re in a drow city right now. We can’t attack them all; we’ll be killed. However, we are trying to go after one of their leaders. If you want to help, we could use the assistance.”

The gnome nodded. If these strange tall ones could help him get revenge and maybe find his family, it would be worth traveling with them. Even if they were all really weird looking.

OOC Notes: Chris’ second character has now been introduced. This one was a lot more effective than poor Seldszar. I mean, he was death. A deep gnome’s AC is sick already, and he eventually got a Ring of Blinking! Combine that with his sneak attacks and Expert Tactician feat, and he was almost unstoppable. Note, however, that I did say almost.

 

[Axegrrl]

Tsine realized that Rudyard, and possibly even Robin, were doomed if they didn’t receive help, so he sent a volley of magical orbs that split and struck both of them twice.

Waitaminit... Tsine sent magical orbs at Rudyard and Robin? Say what???

 

[LordVyreth]

Waitaminit... Tsine sent magical orbs at Rudyard and Robin? Say what???

Oops, typo. I meant both of them, as in the rogue and ranger they were fighting.

 

[LordVyreth]

Excerpt number six.

Yeah, I know, sorry about that. The next update will have to wait a day or two, I'm afraid. I underestimated the scope of this update, and I've been having some back problems all weekend that really killed my motivation.

The Mercy of the Goddesses
(Excerpt from the Book of None. Again, long O sound; it isn’t the book of nobody or anything.)

However, just as the two despots finished construction, a thundering force from the heavens crashed into the earth! The power of the goddesses erupted from the earth, for the goddesses have put aside their differences and loudly made their presence known! The people first cried out in fear, but they soon stopped lamenting and instead yelled out in triumph, for the goddesses have joyfully announced that they will show mercy on the world, and will release their power to partially deflect the dark powers of the evil ones!

The despots were just finishing their centuries of a toil so extreme that if it was put to virtuous deeds, it would be sufficient to create paradise. However, they instead warped toil with their corrupting will, and instead carved gigantic stones; monoliths to evil! They then poured their unholy magic into them, and with a forceful blast the orbs were sent skyward! These orbs, fueled by their dark energies, shot into the air at an amazing velocity! However, as they neared the end of the world’s power, they slowed, and deployed themselves around the world to serve as fiendish sentinels, daring the great energy of the sun to sneak past! Just as the last one was slowing into place, the mighty hand of Bha-Ael thrust out from the heavens, and struck the orb. It crashed downwards with a deadly force, and upon striking the earth, it created a massive explosion that devastated all around it! Soon, the forces and lands of the Puppet were ravaged, and he howled in anger and agony as he saw the futility if challenging the goddesses! The humans cheered and made a merry noise for weeks, as they rebuilt their ruined kingdoms; not as separate countries, but as a new empire, under the glorious rule of the returned goddesses!

 

[Lela]

The gnome rocks and I'm really getting to know Quercus.

The fight scenes are a little scattered though. Try following one character for a few rounds rather than going via inititive. It gets confusing and there's little emoitonal bond.

 

[LordVyreth]

Confrontation With The Lady of Blood

Tainara, a gray-robed servant of Bas, and a powerful cleric, was waiting with Beggity, a strange blue-furred goblin that also worships her. Beggity was also known for his ability to harness the powers of the mind, to control a power similar to but entirely different from magic. The two had been assigned to work in the drow city, but having found most of the drow’s tasks distasteful, Tainara elected instead to pull standard guard duty for an unusual prisoner, and Beggity went with. However, the future plans of the duo were soon rendered irrelevant, as they were suddenly ambushed by a huge party of heroes, who were eager to save a vampire for some reason. Tainara was killed in the initial fireball volley and the arrow swarm that followed it, while Beggity survived long enough to partially burn the front row of their enemies with ectoplasmic fire, before he two was killed.

The party investigated the two guards they just killed. Tal noted that they weren’t normal guards for this area, but the party had bigger concerns. One notable item that the gray-robed priest had was a portable hole that was filled with treasure. Fnipper recognized some of it as the stuff he had when he was captured, and immediately reclaimed it. The rest of it was unknown, but included a coffin, which suggested that came from the vampire.

Behind the guard station that the party just penetrated, there was a shallow river running through a cross-cavern. Quercus nodded knowingly; this was the ideal thing to help trap a vampire. Though the drow were obviously taking no chances, as the area was also covered with more garlic. Behind the river, the hallway continued for a few feet, before abruptly ending at an airtight door made of metal. Dane unlocked the door with a key he found on the gray-robed cleric, and then he and Quercus entered the room, with Quercus’ holy symbol at the ready.

On the other side of the door (which had a note on the inside, similar to the one at the start of the prison,) a depressed, pale figure was sitting hunched over on a fragile wooden coffin. A small pile of desiccated rat bodies was in the corner of the room. The vampire looked up with surprise when he saw the party arrive. His eyes narrowed with suspicion as he saw Quercus’ holy symbol. “Who are you? You’re obviously not with the cultists, but somehow I can’t imagine you care greatly about my imprisonment.”

Quercus glared at him with a “don’t press your luck” look in his eyes, but Tal moved up to speak.

“This isn’t a normal situation. We have agreed to a temporary alliance with some of your allies. We have a common enemy in the leader of these drow.”

The vampire looked interested. “The Lady of Blood, you mean? I have heard much about her. If you can defeat her, I would be very impressed. Now, I’ll need your help to get me out of here.”

The party removed the sign on the door (and the door itself, actually,) cleaned up all the garlic, and then took out the vampire’s coffin from the portable hole, and let him ride it over the river. However, there was a bit of a conflict when he asked for the rest of his equipment from the hole.

Quercus sniffed arrogantly. “Actually, I think we’re going to keep that. Our agreement is only that we help you escape, not that we get you re-supplied.”

The vampire hissed. “And how is that different? Without my equipment, I wouldn’t be able to escape anyway.”

“Your allies will meet with you after we leave the prison. I’m sure they can help you escape.”

The vampire paused for a moment, and then changed tactics. “You know, I could make it worth your while. The shorter of the two guards here that you…slaughtered,” he pauses for a moment, with a hungry look in his eyes, “Had quite a few conversation with me over the weeks, and told me a lot about the layout of this city. Despite worshipping the same god, the four sects of this cult don’t have much love for each other, so he had little reason to protect the Lady of Blood. He told me a few secrets about her. If you agree to return my equipment, I’ll share them.”

Quercus paused, pondering if this could be considered a violation of the oaths he had taken. He finally decided it would be fine as long as he wasn’t the one dealing the monster, so he tossed the hole to Tal and let him finish the transaction. Satisfied, the vampire began talking.

“Apparently, the Lady of Blood has the enemy that is following her. She usually stays at this mansion in town, but when she thinks this enemy is getting close, she flees the city through this secret passageway in the ceiling of the cavern. She usually travels with an entourage, including her mount, her personal servant, at least some sort of monster bodyguard, and her latest of consorts?”

“Consorts?”

“Yes, apparently violence isn’t her only passion. And while she’s not too picky about the race or gender of her companions, she tends to attract powerful friends, so you’ll have to worry about them as well.”

“So what do we do?”

“Easy. Instead of trying to attack her at her mansion, go to the secret passage, and lay a trap. She’ll be there sooner or later, and you can ambush her that way. It will still be a nigh-impossible fight, but at least then you’ll have a decent advantage.”

“Interesting. Well, if that’s it, we have to be on our way. We have many preparations to make.”

“Err, before you go, I did have one more request.”

“And that is?”

“I haven’t had any real food for ages now. And I couldn’t help but notice that you had a prisoner…”

Needless to say, Quercus re-entered the negotiations at this point, and the vampire was forced to make do with the spilled blood of the enemies the party killed. He then departed, to meet with his allies and discuss their escape plans, while the party immediately went to find the secret passage.

With the vampire’s directions and a little help from some magic, they were able to find an illusionary part of the ceiling, which led into a winding cavern. The party began to explore it, so they would be prepared for when the Lady of Blood arrived. However, it became obvious that exploration would be discouraged about ten minutes in, when a dark cloud of pure evil suddenly appeared all around them. The party quickly decided that this was as good a place as any to prepare, and they started making a plan. Eventually, they had Tal use his staff to create alcoves in the walls, where they would rest and then hide when they finally hear the Lady of Blood coming. They would also use the staff to make a pit just in front of them, to trap them or split them up during the fight. Finally, Tsine will use an illusion to block the wall openings and pits, letting them hide safely until they were ready to attack.

A few uncomfortable days’ later, it finally began. Off in the distance, the sounds of chanting could be heard. One voice sounded like the Lady of Blood, but they couldn’t place the others. Quickly, Tsine created his illusion, and the party watched anxiously. The chanting grew louder, and they were afraid that it was some sort of complicated spell ritual. Finally, a group arrived in front of them. The group was lead by a strange, green giant with three hands, but he was so big that the rest of the group couldn’t be seen from their position. The giant wasn’t the most observant creature, however, so it missed the pit entirely, and fell into the hole. However, he was so tall that he was still five feet out of the hole after falling into it!

The party prepared to attack. Tsine, Tal, and Quercus fired their most powerful magic at the enemy group, to take advantage of their surprise, while Robin fired at the giant, since he couldn’t get a good shot at anyone behind it. Quercus, Fnipper, Rudyard, and Dane meanwhile all tried to rush the giant at once, but only a few of them could close to within melee. The creature still stood after this onslaught of violence, however, and while there were a few grunts of pain coming down the hallway behind the monster, there were no dying screams. Their enemy still lived.

The party continued to press their attack, even though they heard the sounds of casting coming down the hallway. The giant quickly fell to the combined attacks of the seven heroes, letting our heroes get a good luck at their true enemy. Besides the Lady of Blood on her nightmare mount, there was a familiar-looking drow priestess, and the group (save Robin and Fnipper, of course,) realized it was the same priestess they had earlier killed at the dwarf town! The Lady of Blood was also accompanied by a slightly old, but extremely powerful-looking, human man, and a surface elf dressed in wizard’s robe. He was smiling smugly, for reasons that became obvious when Dane flew over the pit to attack, only to bang painfully into an invisible wall! Realizing immediately what happened, Tsine prepared to create his own wall of force. That way, even if they can’t get to their enemy, they can’t be suddenly attacked by them, either. However, the wizard apparently saw what happened, and he whispered what happened to the others. The Lady of Blood’s panicked expression indicated that she believed she had to escape quickly, and made Tal suspicious. There was more going on here than he thought…

Suddenly, the enemy party’s area was engulfed in darkness, as the drow priestess used her natural magical talents to blot out the corridor with magic. Realizing they were planning something, and aware of the nature of the mount that their nemesis was riding, Quercus prepared a spell that would let him see invisible and ethereal creatures. His intuition paid off, for he saw the shadowy form of his enemy galloping upwards through nothingness. “Follow me,” he yelled. “We can cut them off a little farther up!”

He led the way as Tal, Tsine, Robin, and Rudyard followed. Dane and Fnipper weren’t as fast, however, and they began to lag behind their friends. For a few desperate minutes, the party dashed through the tunnels, guided only by the occasional glimpse of their quarry. Finally, fortune smiled upon them, when the desperate Lady of Blood ran through a part of the corridor instead of the stone that surrounded them. “Quickly, Tsine, block off that corridor!” Quercus screamed.

Tsine obliged, and created the second magical wall of pure energy that he could cast for that day, and the Lady of Blood ran right into it. Though she could have just ridden around in the wall, panic and fear had made her desperate, and she elected to return to the material plane, and be rid of these nuisances so she can escape without risks. However, before she could respond to her attackers, a volley of magic and arrows flew at her horse. The brutal attack destroyed it almost instantly, and it suddenly reverted to a strange black and white striped horse before crumbling into ash. Realizing that her only real chance of escape was just destroyed, The Lady of Blood broke down into a fit of rage. “You fools! You made me an easy target for my rival! I will destroy all of you before she can arrive and you can help her!” she fumed, and she drew her scimitar.

Though she was partially wounded by Tsine’s next magic volley, she still was very healthy, but that didn’t stop Robin and Rudyard from charged in to attack her, only to repeatedly fail at even scratching her! She was just too fast, and her armor and even her skin were incredibly thick. She responded with an unearthly ferocity, cutting first into Rudyard’s arm, and then stabbing him in the gut as he was recoiling in pain. The second blow stunned him for a moment, and she used it as the perfect opportunity to finish her foe, and cleanly cut off his head with one swift cut! As Rudyard experienced his last moments of life, his last thoughts were of rage. “Why?” he screamed inside his own head. “Why should it end like this? I deserve a worthy death, fighting the orcs, not buried in the earth fighting some pointless dark elf! I want my chance for a true death!” But it was not to be, for he then slipped from this mortal realm.

Realizing finally how powerful their foe was, Tal, Quercus and Tsine were panicking as they fired more magic at her, but Quercus had little offensive magic left, Tsine’s lightning bolt had no effect on her for some reason, and Tal’s Ice Knife was able to cut into her slightly, but she shrugged off the cold of the knife without difficulty. She then turned to nearly eviscerate Robin, who had been futilely trying to hit her without any success. As he backed off to try and heal his wounds, Tal decided it was time to try something desperate, and charged at her with his rapier. Remarkably, his attack managed to catch her unaware, and it was aimed perfectly at her heart! Unfortunately, her armor managed to magically shift at the last minute to deflect the attack into a less serious part of the body, but the power of his rapier still was able to reach its full strength, and it sent her reeling back with the sonic waves that pummeled her from inside. As she was about to get her revenge, Quercus entered the melee combat just as Dane finally caught up to the advance guard of the party. He caught up to Quercus, and the two strode up to her as one. Dane gave her a brutal cut to her legs, and as she was forced to kneel, Quercus lowered his great sword, and ran it through her chest.

Kulstra, The Lady of Blood, gave one last look to the party, and then slumped to the ground. As she fell, she dropped her scimitar, which suddenly twisted into a perfectly ordinary iron bar as soon as it left her grip. She then began to change as she went into her death throes. A second pair of wings appeared above her demonic bat wings, which were black, but feathered. Her face began to contort, and her body subtly altered as well. In the end, she resembled a new woman, and while this woman was clearly Kulstra, she also looked just as much like Quercus’ sister, Shedell! She then breathed her last breath, and then collapsed into dust.

OOC Notes: Okay, who saw that coming? Only one of my player’s did; the player of Tal had pretty much guessed it. Apparently, the fifth season of Buffy had a similar concept, though I haven’t yet watched that year’s episodes, so I still can claim it was original, right?
The fight more or less ran like I described it. I was disappointed that I couldn’t use the rest of Kulstra’s servants for the fight, but it was a pretty intense fight anyway. With one exception, the fights with the Strife Masters tend to be long and exciting, though the PK amounts have been a little disappointing. I can only imagine what JollyDoc would have done to the party in this same situation.

 

[Lela]

Good move by Quercus there. Did the group follow by spell or did she run alongside the tunnel?

 

[LordVyreth]

Good move by Quercus there. Did the group follow by spell or did she run alongside the tunnel?

She was basically running alongside the tunnel. It basically was curving in on itself as it was ascending, so since she was going straight up, she was basically right next to the tunnel, and eventually would have intersected with it for a brief time.

So, did you guess the Shedell/Kulstra thing in advance? Or was it a suprise for you?

 

[Lela]

So, did you guess the Shedell/Kulstra thing in advance? Or was it a suprise for you?

Complete Surprise.