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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrow" data-source="post: 649207" data-attributes="member: 301">2nd of Charder (the month of servitude)The next morning the group shared another meal of stew, and Doon began to usher them toward the door.  The cat-demons wanted to stay and look at the sculpture, letting the party go on ahead.  Thar supported the idea enthusiastically, seeing a means to escape the clutches of the demons.  “Sounds great, let’s go,” he exclaimed and allowed Solon usher him down the tunnel and toward the door beside the other humanoids.  Atarax, however, was more perceptive. He whispered to Thar, “They’re going to kill him.”  Thar shrugged as Atarax asked Solon, “Why don’t you come with us and look at some of the available residences.”  As Solon explained his intention to stay the group could hear Doon telling the other cat-demon, Curuscan that he would have to leave.The group had reached the door, and Thar thought his escape was at hand when Atarax cast a spell."I suggest you don't hurt the troll." Even before Atarax realized his spell had failed Kriggle and Foleful began casting spells of their own.  Kriggle’s bless weapon  was successful, but Foleful’s summoning failed.  Kriggle, spurred Mighty Steed into a charge, smiting Solon.  The newnewly blessed lance sank deep into the creature’s side and brutally ripped free.The rest of the party sprang into action.  Thar cast a spell on Kriggle, increasing his strength considerable.  Krikara, hidden somewhere in the shadows, fired an arrow at Solon with minimal effect.  Atarax unlimbered his horn of good and blew it, creating an enchanted area which protected the party from the creatures like the cat-demons, but also hampered Foleful’s attempts to summon creatures.  Solon turned and fled down the tunnel, back toward the cave.Thar immediately advocated fleeing.  “Can anyone magically lock this door?”“But they’ll kill Doon,” objected Atarax.“Oh, the troll.  I keep thinking about me.”Kriggle decided the issue by spuring Mighty Steed into action, charging down the tunnel and skewering the fleeing Solon on his lance.  The cat-demon's lifeless body dropped to the ground as Kriggle continued on into the cave.  Thar sighed and called out aprayer to Maglibuyet, increasing his companions’ battle prowess.  Thar heard Foleful casting somewhere off to his right as he moved back into Doon’s cave.  He saw Curuscan flying into the air, sailing out of Doon's reach.  “Kriggle, get over here!”  Thar cast a spell on Mighty Steed, explaining that it would allow the steed to walk on air.  Kriggle grinned and directed the lizard to climb into empty air above Thar’s head. Krikara entered the cave, scampering halfway up the wall.  A sphere of darkness bloomed, hiding the darkcreeper.  Atarax ran into the cave with Plikt at his heels.  "I suggest you come down here." Curuscan responded by calling up a great ball of fire around Atarax and Kriggle.  Thar and Foleful were able to escape the full brunt of the blast, but Plikt was not so lucky.  Thar saw the kobald laying very still on the cavern floor.Foleful was able to maintain concentration on his latest spell in spite of the fireball.  Five earth elemental stirges popped into existence around Curuscan and began pecking ineffectually at the cat-demon’s skin. Curuscan called forth glitterdust around Kriggle, who was able to escape being blinded by the clinging, glittering cloud.  Atarax cast another spell to create confusion in the cat-demon’s mind,  but the spell only succeeded in driving the stirges into a frenzy.  They ignored the cat-demon and tore each other to pieces.Curuscan called up more glitterdust around Kriggle, which the kobald again resisted.  “Oh excrement,” his squeaky voice echoed forth, “I hate it when they do this.”  Kriggle attempted to charge, but the faster moving cat-demon merely flew beneath Mighty Steed, forcing lizard and rider to laboriously climb down through the air attempting to once more line themselves up to charge.Thar, tired of waiting for Kriggle to move into position, cast a dispel magic on the cat-demon, and watched the creature drop thirty feet to the cavern floor.  Rhuun was ready, stabbing at Curuscan as he lept to his feet, but her blades could not pierce his natural protection.  Doon attempted to grapple the cat-demon, but was unable to maintain a hold as Curuscan once more flew into the air, positioning himself beneath Kriggle and Mighty Steed.Atarax takes a moment to cast cure light wounds on himself, and Thar does the same for Plikt, bringing the kobald back to consciousness.  At the same time Foleful summoned a cloud of solid fog into being, filling the entire upper half of the cave, from the roof to just above Kriggle’s head.Kriggle managed to maneuver himself into position to attack.  Curuscan cast another glitterdust on the kobald paladin, who resisted the spell and charged the cat-demon, sorely wounding him.As Thar watched the confrontation between the demon and the paladin, a sly smile creeps across his face.  He had no more spells that could turn the tide of the  battle, but had one more card to play.  He kneeled over the Solon's body slipped a small black gem between the cat-demon's already cooling lips, and intoned a spell.    In mere moments the cat-demon’s body twitched, and it laboriously lifted itself to its feet.Curuscan, caught between the enchanted fog above, and the claws of the troll below finally decided that discretion was the better part of valor.  He turned to fly out of the cavern and down the tunnel toward the exit from Doon’s home.Thar watched Curuscan fly toward him, and saw the cat-demon’s eyes go wide as it saw Solon's body, turned into a shambling zombie.  Thar’s smile grew wider as he spoke to the zombie, more than loud enough for Curuscan to hear.“I’d like a foot massage.”Curuscan's expression promised death as he lpassed over Thar's head, flying down the tunnel toward the still-open door of Doon’s cave.  Then his form was obscured by the cloud of solid fog that Foleful summoned around him.Even as Foleful began to summon a fire elemental dire bat to pursue the cat-demon, Thar turned and healed the xvarts injuries with a cure moderate wounds spell.  The spells were hardly complete when another fireball exploded around them.  Thar fell, his skin blistering and clothing smoking.  He looked over to see the still, unmoving bodies of Plikt and the recently created zombie.  Thar shakily climbed to his feet as Kriggle charged through the air and disappeared into the fog, closely followed by Krikara.  The rest of the group waited a few moments, but still hearing the sounds of combat, they all charged into the cloud, leaving Thar alone.  Thar could hear the sound of Kriggle’s battle cries, and the trollish snarls as Doon ripped himself through the fog.  He listened to the battle beyond the fog as he examined Plikt’s body, confirming that the loyal kobald was dead.  Then he turned to the body of the cat-demon, and after a quick spell began stripping the body of valuables and magical objects.  By the time the fog dissipated and his companions returned, reporting Curuscan's escape, Thar was sitting with his back to one of Doon’s sculptures, contemplating what the cat-demon would do to him given the opportunity.</blockquote>

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