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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 744535" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Twenty-Two, Part Two: Temple Battle (Part One)"...so I snuck past the wormface and into the main part of the temple," Dru continued.  "There's a lot of them.  Cannibals," she hastily added. "Not wormfaces.""I wonder if he's the leader?""If he's not, I don't want to see what the leader looks like." Dru poked at the glowing coals. "I think you should try that fireball spell from the book.""I think so too. I just hope it works." Di'Fier looked dubiously down at the page, where humidity and age had blurred the sigils. "It really would have helped had I known the spell before, but I'm just guessing now."Benares stood. "We'll have to leave early if we want to steal a canoe before the fishermen awake.  I'd suggest getting some rest now."  He glanced at Di'Fier. "If they'll let us."The mage chuckled.  The villagers had been overjoyed to see 'new blood', and Benares' blonde hair made him seem particularly exotic - and therefore desirable.  Not that Di'Fier had been left alone... "All right.  Maybe we can convince them it's a holy day or something."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />"There it is.  Go to the left, you'll see the docks.  Don't circle the entire thing like I did," Dru grumbled."I'm just glad we stopped going in circles," Di'Fier said. "It would have been embarassing to still be paddling around out there when the fisherman came out."Shesara held out her hand to Ampiel, who obediently hopped onto it, hoping for food. "I'm going to use you as the focus for my spell fo invisibility," she told him.  "That way, if one of us makes an attack, the others will still be unseen.  All you have to do is stay close to us.""All right."The quintet faded from view, and an empty canoe glided up to the crude docks.  No sentries were visible, and after all were touching to make sure they stayed within the radius of the spell, they crept forward."If we can get their attention, maybe we can draw them out," Dru muttered.  "Use their own defenses against them."  A small chunk of marble lifted into the air, and arced towards the stone feet, shattering on them.Two natives crept out warily, spears at the ready, lips drawn back from pointed teeth in silent snarls.  They died swiftly, with barely time to cry out.  The wormfaced creature was right behind them, its spear knocking aside their blows and stabbing at Benares.Shesara stepped up behind Dru and laid a hand on her shoulders, singing a single low note that rose in pitch and intensity.  Dru could feel it stirring her blood, moving her faster as the world slowed around her.  She stepped inside the reach of the wormface's spear, sneering as he tried desperately to stop her, and struck three times, collapsing him into a heap.She looked down the corridor.  It's going to take them forever to come out here, she thought, and with that, she headed down the corridor, vaulting the rubble easily and entering the main temple.  Golden globes of light streaked past her, knocking two of the cannibals down, and she knew the her friends were following her.It was a mass of chaos, as the cannibals prepared to repel the invaders - warriors preparing their weapons, flooding out of the rooms on the second floor.  Some had their bows already strung, and Dru sidestepped the arrows that swam slowly though the air. Behind her, she could hear Di'Fier's chanting - low, slow, and strange. A virulent green haze formed over the center of the temple, catching many of the cannibals in it.  She could hear choking and vomiting from within it, and she grinned wolfishly, advancing towards the few who had been outside its effect.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Di'Fier followed Dru in, watching as she sliced through the warriors.  "More wormfaces!" he cried, as they came down the stairs.  On the upper balcony of the temple, he could see a tattooed man gesturing and shouting in an unknown language.  Shaman, he guessed.  I'd better use this fireball before I can't anymore.He began to chant the words he had impressed in his mind.  No...this isn't right... Desperately he tried to force them into the pattern he thought they should be. I never should have tried this...was it like this? Or... As the spell shuddered and tried to take form, he finished with a half-remembered flourish from one of his favorite spells, and gestured at the balcony.A tiny red bead flew from his hand, expanding into a sphere of flames - but instead of the explosion he had expected, it stopped when it was six feet across, slamming into the shaman like a physical force - and remaining.Di'Fier rolled it back and forth experimentally.  Like a flaming sphere, but hotter... His thoughts were interrupted when the smouldering shaman stepped out of the flames and launched a bolt of misty energy at him that slammed into his side with great force.  That was no magic missile! Di'Fier thought, and rolled the sphere over the shaman again, following it with a volley of arcane bolts of his own that knocked the enemy spellcaster from the balcony to plummet to the ground.Di'Fier watched him fall, pleased with himself - until the sharp pain of a wound brought his attention back to the battle. The old man who faced him was muscular, scarred, and grizzled, with years of experience at using the spear he held in his hand.  The leader? he thought, stepping backward.  One hand pulled out the scroll he had stuffed into his belt, leting it fall open.  He spoke the words inscribed there, and saw a glimmering disk of force form in front of him.  A thought sent the ball of flame leaping from the balcony towards the warrior, but he sidestepped it easily, moving foward and swinging his spear low, under the shield.Di'Fier hit the floor, staring up at the ceiling as the old warrior stood above him, his spear raised...</blockquote>

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