Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 9824474" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 34The three stirges, roused from their slumber by the shattering of a burning flask of oil, quickly darted to attack the prey that had been presented to them.Ravani, in the lead, drew the attention of two of them. He swatted the first one away with the stave of his bow, but the second landed on his shoulder and stabbed its pointed proboscis into his back. The elf gasped in pain and tried to pull it off him, without success.The last stirge swooped toward Leana, perhaps thinking the halfling easier prey. It turned out to be mistaken, as she flipped up her mace and batted it out of her way. The impact staggered it, but it quickly refocused on its intended victim.Ravani got his magical sword out, and contorting his body he jabbed the blade into the stirge clinging to his shoulder. The enhanced steel edge tore into the creature, spitting it and causing its grip to relax. The elf grimaced as he ripped it clear from his body.The other one used that distraction to come around him and dive for his other side, but it was intercepted from a point-blank blast of frost from Folgar that hit it squarely in the center of its body. The stirge stiffened, and when it hit the ground one flash-frozen wing snapped entirely off. Ravani gave it a kick for good measure, sending the thing flopping into one of the side passages.The last stirge pressed its attack on Leana, but Greghan intercepted it with his greatsword. Careful of hitting the priestess, he failed to get a solid hit on it, but as he drew the blade back it caught on the trailing edge of one of its wings, ripping it free of its body. The stirge fell, struggling but essentially helpless as the warrior punched the point of the weapon down into its body.Ravani staggered back, favoring his injured side as he snapped the dead stirge off the blade of his sword. The flames from the burning oil were starting to die down; they hadn’t done much other than attract the stirges and fill the entry with a haze of swirling smoke. “Did you see who threw the oil?” Leana asked as she started to go to the elf’s aid.“No, I…” Folgar began, but he was cut off by a heavy, rhythmic thumping that came from one of the passages. That alarming sound was augmented by a sharp cry that started to turn into a scream before it was suddenly cut off by a titanic thud. A form appeared, this one sliding along the floor toward them. It came to a stop almost right in front of them. The dying light of the flames and the dim light that made it in from the cave mouth were just enough for them to identify the limp, broken form, clad in red robes. The cultist’s head was crooked at an angle that was obviously inconsistent with life, and the lower half of his face looked like it had been staved in by a battering ram. By some accident he landed so that his eyes were staring up at the four companions, their dead sheen looking almost like accusation.The heavy thump resumed, coming closer, recognizable now as the tread of some monstrous threat. Greghan stepped past Ravani and Folgar to confront it, but even as he raised his sword in challenge the thing charged, faster than he expected. He barely caught sight of a humanoid form, taller than him by several feet. It carried a weapon, a huge axe that seemed to be wreathed in deeper shadows, but it ignored that in favor of simply lowering its head and slamming it into the warrior’s chest.“Greghan!” Leana cried, but he could no longer hear her; he too went flying back, his heavy armor clattering loudly as he fell hard to the floor. He bounced once and rolled over onto his face, and when he came to a stop he didn’t move, either dead or unconscious.His companions turned their stunned gazes from their fallen friend to the form that materialized out of the darkness. The weak light revealed more details, the most alarming of which was the fact that while it stood upright, its muscled legs ended in cloven hooves, and its furred body culminated in an oversized bull’s head, complete with curved horns as long as a man’s arm, huge jaws full of snapping teeth, and glowing red eyes that fixed a malevolent stare upon the startled adventurers.Game Notes:The Minotaur of Baphomet doesn’t mess around. It did 28 points of damage to Greghan with one attack, and I didn’t even roll that high. This guy makes the ogre look like a patsy; the Heroes are going to have their hands full.</blockquote>

Verification