Sir Maxwell Norrington’s blood sings as he strikes down one fiend after another. The cadre of ice devils is not falling back due to him alone, though; Lester, Inoke and Sybele have all done their parts as well. Certainly, the combination is one that is breaking the ranks of the devil squad and will quickly lead to a route- if that monk doesn’t ruin it all.
Frost bursts in chilling cones around Bennodel (“that monk” to Maxwell’s mind) and the villains he’s fighting, but he slips away, evading the frost, steps past Lester and strikes down one of the devils in a pair of swift chops with his hand. Inoke, beside him, crushes another one even as Alcar invokes a
holy aura to surround himself, Lester and Inoke.
Something is not right, Bennodel thinks again. He feels very uneasy.
Why are they using a holy aura
if they serve the Dark One? He tenses as both Lester and Inoke move in on him, and then he leaps up and back, spinning over the top of a building, away from the deafening arena.
That was some jump, Inoke thinks, and leaps after his foe, also clearing the building’s roof in a single bound.
Grimdim grimaces dourly. He chuckles inwardly.
These are our first worthy foes since Bel, he thinks.
Agents of the Dark One! They must be stopped! He turns on Veil, who gulps and raises his shield, but a slash from the axe tears the mindspy nearly in two. Then the dwarf whirls towards Sybele, recognizing that she is focused on Kyrion and that Kyrion seems unable to cast spells.
That’s about enough of that! Grimdim thinks.
The next thing Sybele knows, the savage dwarf is on top of her, striking with incredible fury. She yelps and
psionic teleports far enough away to survive- but the dwarf spots her and begins advancing again immediately. Her blood pours from his axe to join with that choking the streets.
He hurt me surprisingly badly, she realizes.
Lester turns on the dwarf and begins to unleash the fury, using his new metamagic rods of quickening. He blasts two
meteor swarms at the dwarf, and Grimdim simply soaks it up.
He shouts at Lester. Though the Angel of Adventure cannot hear his words, he can read lips well enough to know what Grimdim is saying.
Is that all you got?
Meanwhile, Albin and Gerontius are dueling, knives vs. sword, a duel of finesse and expertise. The sound of their blades crossing cannot be heard over the roar of the games, but if it could it would be remarkably delicate. Neither wastes a move; each acts with the sort of precision and finesse that requires years of experience and training. They are both blurs.
Each lands a blow or two, but neither can slip through the other’s defense easily. When Kyrion lands a blow across the halfling, and he momentarily turns to fend her off, Albin manages to sneak one in; but then Gerontius tumbles back, getting a little distance, and grins.
Evenly matched. He shakes his head ruefully.
This guy is the best rogue I’ve ever met, unless you count Asmodeus’ freaky faceless assassins. He grins again.
Kyrion, meanwhile, falls back a few paces. She can’t speak, thanks to the
control sound that Sybele is using to keep her from casting, but she has noticed a number of things that just aren’t adding up.
That celestial over there, she thinks,
he has invoked a holy aura
. That doesn’t make sense. Unless...
Gerontius tumbles in again. He leapfrogs past a sweeping blow of Albin’s, landing froglike next to Kyrion. She braces herself for an attack, and the halfling slashes in with a dagger.
The blow is perfect.
It slices in and out again, cutting out the target area, and as it leaps free of Kyrion, Gerontius snatches it out of the air.
Her badge of the Ruby Rod.
Gerontius looks her in the eye and shouts as loud as he can. She can’t make out his words at first- but his intent is clear.
He offers her his pipe.
Not far away, Inoke comes down in a loud crash in the midst of a garbage heap near an infernal fruit stand. Bennodel stands impassively, watching him. There’s a lot of cover between here and the arena, leading to a lot less noise here; when Inoke moves cautiously forward, the monk cries out loudly, “Something’s wrong here. I have a feeling we’re being duped- all of us!”
Inoke hesitates. “Then why do you serve Asmodeus?”
The monk winces.
”Don’t say that name! And we don’t, not exactly.” His eyes narrow as he stares hard at Inoke. “And I think your group has a lot to answer for.”
“My group!” exclaims Inoke.
Out front, Sybele notes that the battle has seemingly teetered to a stop, at least for the moment. She switches her
control sound to allow conversation, dimming the unceasing noise from Tiamat’s Games. Grimdim is still coming forward like a mad juggernaut, but Kyrion cries out, “Grimdim, no!”
The dwarf draws up short, scowling.
“I think,” Kyrion says, “that we have been tricked.”
***
“Are you sure this place is secure?” asks Inoke again.
“Absolutely,” reassures Bennodel.
The two parties have returned to a demiplane the ruby fist gang (which is
not their own name for themselves, but it is a convenient identifier for our purposes) have the use of. Our heroes are more than a little nervous; they have no reason other than their new tentative allies’ words to trust the demiplane’s safety. Yet-
“What about that fishmonger?”
The fishmonger and his friends were more diabolic agents. They had seemingly been some of the agents keeping the ruby fist gang (“Don’t call us that,” their cleric said again) on the trail of our heroes. But once they realized that the two parties had figured it out, the game was up, and the fishmonger and his friends had made an attack on the combined force. They were no match for the group- not even close.
Now the two parties compare notes.
Our heroes tell the other group their tale. “Well, it all started when we defeated this pit fiend and saved a phoenix egg that it had captive. We had known for years- well, some of us anyhow- that after the egg was retrieved, it would hatch in a year and a day and grant us a
wish. Unfortunately, it turned out that it was kept bottled up, so to speak, as part of a deal that we unwittingly broke. That deal released the guy who came before Asmo-“
”Don’t say his name!” the entire other group cries at once.
Bennodel explains. “He knows. If you say his name, he can hear it- and what you say immediately afterward.” He grins sheepishly. “We’ve been calling him ‘the Big A’ to avoid letting him know all our plans.”
“Go on,” Kyrion urges. “Tell us the rest.”
“Wait a minute,” interjects Grimdim. “They released the guy who came before? Does that mean who I think it means?”
“He once ruled Hell; call him the Big L,” Lester replies.
“We need Lazenby back,” Albin comments.
“And we could use Orbius and Jezebel,” retorts Horbin. “Well, I can
true resurrect them tomorrow if you can come up with the necessary diamond.”
“Not necessary,” responds Kyrion primly. “I’ll bring them all back- no diamonds needed.”
“Well, but to bring them back at full strength, unhindered by their time across the veil-“ Horbin starts.
“No diamonds needed,” repeats Kyrion. She smiles.
“Your tale,” Albin prompts impatiently.
“Hold on,” Sybele says. “We might as well get their two guys, and my daughter and our wizard guy back first, otherwise we’ll just have to tell it all over again.”
Albin leans over and whispers to Gerontius. “Does she have a problem with names or something?” The halfling only laughs.
Soon the two groups have recovered their friends. A
break enchantment restores Lazenby to human form, and he is quickly appraised of the situation. Then, not long after, Kyrion
true resurrects all the dead- no diamonds required.
“How did you do that?” Hobin asks. She tries to explain, but it’s convoluted and it seems like it would require a considerable amount of devoted study to achieve.* Still, he is grateful for her lessons, and he in turn tries to show her the basics of an unusual spell he knows, called
thunderous blows.**
Then, finally, our heroes relate the rest of their story. They tell of their release of ‘the Big L’ (“it starts with Luci and ends with the stuff you line cold weather gear with, you know, not hair...”) and of the sudden complications of having the Big A out to get them. Assassins,
scrystrikes, it’s generally not a very good deal for anyone.
“So the Big L offered to help us set up an ‘opportunity,’” Alcar spits. “And we’re going to kick the Big A’s ass.”
“Meantime, we were warned about you guys,” Inoke picks up the thread. He explains that the group had been led to believe that they were the Big A’s elite agents.
“Well, not exactly,” Albin replies. And the other group begins their tale.
Next Time: The other group’s perspective! Let’s compare and contrast our two groups!
*Which is to say, she has the epic feat Ignore Material Components.
**This was really cool, actually- a Cydra spell migrated to another campaign world in game!
I know Horbin the MFKG Holy got schooled in cheap true rez techniques that day, which (I think) is one of the things that prompted him to teach thunderous blows to Kyrion. 