Revenge on Bile Mountain (pt. 4)
I cannot believe we took a week off! broods Baron Lillamere.
We have limited time to make progress here before we leave to assault the Bastion of Law, by our agreement- and we have squandered half of it. He sighs. Thoughts of the Bastion hang over him like dreary clouds.
I gave my word, he thinks again, reflecting on the party’s journey to the Isle of Vuivui, where Chaos gifted members of the party with an impressive array of items in exchange for their vow to assault the Bastion of Law. Now neither Lester nor Orbius is inclined to follow through. Only reluctantly have they been persuaded to go. Inoke has outright refused, though he has vowed not to fight the rest of the party. Lillamere scowls. And Horbin is showing more and more reluctance...
Even if I must go alone, I will go, he vows silently. He glances sidelong at his old friend and lover Hyliss.
Even at the worst, I will not have to go alone.
Then he pulls his thoughts back to the present, as the party proceeds into the chamber. He is in the back, but he has seen the reports of his
prying eyes and he can see through Sybele’s
synesthetic link with the party. There are three vicious-looking beasts in the room, one of them three-headed. He unleashes a volley of
seeker missiles at the three-headed one, but is disgruntled to find that the creature has sufficient spell resistance that they break against it.
Then Lillamere flinches back as the two-headed monster lets out a tremendous roar, which stuns both Gerontius and Hyliss! The other two leap to the attack, tearing viciously into Inoke. Orbius bestows a
mirror image on the big warrior. The monsters ‘pop’ several of them. One bite lands on the real Inoke despite the images, and it latches onto his leg. Blood immediately begins to flow as the massive teeth crunch into his thigh. He growls and pulls it from him, throwing it off after only a few seconds, but despite all his protections, his leg is badly torn.
With a roar he
schisms his mind into two. Then his second mind activates another power and he
expands to about 12’ tall! Out comes his mace, but even as he is preparing to swing the monsters tear at him again! His
mirror images pop like so many soap bubbles, and the monsters begin ripping at him again. Even with his mighty ability to withstand damage, the creatures inflict terrific wounds, tearing into his arms, leg and chest. Lester steps up, using a
ring of spell storing to cast another bestowed
mirror image on Inoke, and once again a shimmering, interchanging series of alternate Inokes springs into being.
Nor are the other party members idle. As Zyltha begins singing, Thrush, a little further back in the hallway, grins. The
far strike laid on his blade enables him to attack with killing speed. The preeminent swordsman of his age (as Thrush styles himself) goes to work, and one of the beasts dies in short order, a web of deep slices punctuated by stab wounds across its body. Chakar moves up into position to aid Thrush by distracting the creatures, making it easier for the warrior to hit them. Sybele uses her psicrystal to
control sound so that the monsters cannot roar again- that was devastating, and Gerontius and Hyliss have not recovered yet! Orbius, Lester and Lillamere start unleashing spells of ridiculous power. But the monsters are extraordinarily resistant to our heroes’ spells. Furthermore, they are extremely fast and nimble; it proves surprisingly difficult to hit them with ray attacks.
With a gleeful prayer, Alcar casts both a quickened
divine power and
righteous might. He steps up to join the melee. Simultaneously, Inoke takes on the
form of doom. Tentacles sprout from his back as he grows forbidding and monstrous- and quite powerful. The tentacles slap out for the rending, tearing three-headed creature, which is now engaging him directly. Horbin casts
heal and steps up to touch Inoke, mending some of his wounds, but the three-headed monster is dealing incredible damage with every blow that lands, and it pops five images to top it off!
These things are tough, Thrush sends respectfully over the telepathic link that the party shares. He slices into the other one-headed creature again and again. Lester stabs at it as well; a momentary pang goes through him as he recalls his old sword
Felix Optima Maxima, which he lost long ago. Alcar pounds at the beast with his mace, but still it lives!
“Forget this!” exclaims Baron Lillamere. He calls out is the strange tongue of magic, making grand gestures, and a
wall of force suddenly springs up, walling the one-headed monster off.
The entire party turns its attention to the three-headed monster. It continues to tear at Inoke, who continues to pound it. Sybele fires a
crystal shard, and a huge jagged block of crystallized ectoplasm streaks over and smashes into it. It shakes one of its heads, but it continues fighting. Inoke is starting to flag, though the monster itself is looking weaker and weaker moment by moment.
Inoke! cries Gerontius’ psychic voice from behind Inoke.
I am ready now!
Clearly, he is no longer stunned.
Inoke and Gerontius have discussed their tactics many times before. So it is that Inoke launches a full attack at the beast, further wounding it, and then uses a
dimension swap to trade places with his halfling companion. Gerontius’ twin daggers,
Gerontius and
Diplomacy, are both sheathed, but with a flick of the wrist he pulls one out and thrusts deep into the monster’s chest. The thing’s three heads all eye him foully, with disgruntled expressions of dismay on their faces. It’s as if the monster is thinking,
A dagger??
It collapses.
Gerontius chuckles and dusts his hands off before withdrawing his dagger.
“There is still the one behind the
wall of force,” Baron Lillamere says.
“Let’s get it!” exclaims Lester. “Can you
disintegrate the wall?”
Hyliss, head still ringing from the stunning roar of the beasts, says, “I can take care of it.” The party turns expectantly, weapons at the ready. Hyliss moves up and casts
disintegrate. There is a flash as the
wall of force is destroyed.
Alcar steps into place immediately, slamming his mace into the monster’s head. Hyliss discharges a spell into an
arcane strike and slices at the creature, inflicting more damage on it. The beast lunges forward, tearing at Lester, popping over half of his
mirror images and wounding the would-be god of adventure.
But the monster, however formidable, cannot stand up to the combined fury of Chakar, Thrush, Inoke, Gerontius, Lester and Alcar. Together, they inflict more damage on it than most battlefields see in a war. It is once again the invisible blade whose blow slays the monster.
“Those things were tough!” declares Horbin.
“But we killed them,” says Thrush with some satisfaction.
The party looks around the chamber. Though there is no treasure to be found, they immediately notice a stairway spiraling up.
“There we go,” Sybele exclaims.
Chakar and Gerontius lead the way further up into the mountain. The stairs spiral up for around 30’ before ending in a chamber full of Axons and Axels.
The nimblewrights never even have a chance to act.*
When it is done, Orbius strides through the wrecked springs and gears and digs in the pile of destroyed constructs for a moment. He pulls out a head. “I thought so,” he muses. “It appears that the Axons, Axels and Axars we have met so far have been numbered... except for this one. This one was different.” He displays the head to the others. Instead of a number, a bold
A is stamped in the electrum faceplate.
“Axon-A,” breathes Chakar.
“I hope he is the toughest of them,” grins Wankerman.
Again, some looting ensues. Indeed, the nimblewrights were well-equipped. Gerontius grins to himself.
Again, he and Chakar lead the way, stealthily heading forward a little ways ahead of the others while Lillamere and Orbius send out various magical eyes. The two scouts find that the sole passage leading from the chamber with the nimblewrights soon T’s, though a door lies in the wall straight ahead as well. The party gathers at the door, while Lillamere sends
prying eyes down each branch of the passage. The door opens easily, and reveals a promising-looking hallway. At the end of it is a room, once fairly richly-appointed but now spoiled by rot and bile. A search doesn’t turn up anything of value, so the party turns back and, by long tradition, at the T they take the passage that now lies to their left. This soon leads to a large chamber- though a fat passageway leads off just before the room. The large chamber is very interesting indeed, for one the far wall is composed of a strange greenish-silver energy. Some books are in the chamber, both on shelves and on a sitting table that is in one corner of the room.
The glowing wall radiates magic. Nobody can really remember much about it from before, so they decide to get back to it. The books don’t radiate magic, so they decide to get back to them, as well.
“Let’s explore some stuff while we have effects up and running,” suggests Horbin. The rest of the group agrees with his idea, and they move back to the wide tunnel just before the entrance to the chamber. It leads to a door, and when they throw it open, our heroes find themselves staring into a kennel, made out of flimsy wood.
Anything with any strength or spirit could only be kept in there by its own choice, thinks Chakar- and the four vomit hounds within the pen prove him right.
Next Time: Our heroes battle vomit hounds!
*This through a very poor initiative check. I had previously decided that they would all go on the turn of Axon-A. We use a house rule by which, if you roll a 20 or a 1, you roll again and add (or subtract, if the initial roll was a natural 1) to the first die roll. Sure enough, I ended up with an initiative of (iirc) 1.
