Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 4466049" data-attributes="member: 12037">The second floor of the temple was empty except for a dozen or so empty rooms, some of which looked like had been moved into recently - although any furniture was long dilapidated. Checking each one quickly, they eventually found a staircase leading up to the small third floor they had seen from outside. Checking for traps, they made their way up to the top, readying their weapons and flinging the door open at the top of the narrow stairway.They found Sandra Mallory inside, chained to an alter at the far end of the room, an intricately carved pool below her that looked like it was made for blood - thankfully empty at the moment. Braziers lit the room in a dull green, and in front of her stood a cloaked figure with a holy symbol to Zehir adorning his neck. At his side was a small creature, apparently made of clay - a homunculus, and two statues like the ones they has seen below were between them.The PCs rushed into the room. The small stairway wouldn't make a good chokepoint, so they made their way to one side of the room, using the right wall to try and keep the enemy from flanking them. Alandra let out several shots at the head priest while Quinn and Korvun intercepted the statues. The homunculus slid to the left, looking for a hole in their defense, and the head priest shouted a curse, blasting Quinn with dark energy.From behind one of the braziers, a rock flew at Korvun, striking him. Looking, they could make out the outline of a small humanoid - another one of those creepers they had seen earlier. He pelted them with more sling bullets as Quinn and Korvun held back the statues, Quinn taking the brunt of the assault. Tordek called upon Avandra's favor and healed his injured companion, attempting to strike down the homunculus at the same time, who had by now worked its way around the front line defenders and attacked those in the back.It was now that from its invisible cover the imp made its move, striking Tordek with its stinger and poisoning him. With this new combatant, the PCs found themselves split by opposing forces and taking punishment from their enemies. Quinn and Korvun focused on a single statue and took it down just as the head priest let out a blast of necrotic energy that caught both of them in the blast, weakening them. Gritting through, however, they turned their attention to the other statue, determined to take on the priest as soon as they could, trusting their companions to take the others.The poison did nothing to stop Tordek, who quickly shrugged it off. Turning his attention to the imp, he found it fading away into invisibility again. Alandra kept her attention focused on the priest, ignoring the slinger who hid behind the cover of the brazier. Sapphire pelted the homunculus with her blasts, most of her arcane energy spent, but managed to take it out just as the second statue was dropped by the pair in the front, who were on their last legs, having almost no stamina left to speak of.Quinn retreated to the back, bleeding from several wounds. The slinger had turned to Korvun who now advanced on the priest, almost as bad off as Quinn. The imp popped in and out, stinging, but was ignored for the most part because he proved to be too slippery... better to take out the priest, who proved to be their most powerful adversary.Korvun and the priest engaged in melee combat, and though Korvun almost died, he prevailed with the aid of the others. The slinger was then dispatched. The imp, however, remained invisible, and his voice echoed through the chamber."Complete the ritual... and the power of this place shall be yours to do with as you please.""Never!" Shouted Korvun. "Show yourself, vile devil. Fight us, and stop this game.""The followers of Zehir proved to weak... but if you claim this place in the name of my master Asmodeus, you will be rewarded tenfold what he could have shown you.""Creature, we will never bow before your devil god." Shouted Tordek."We shall see." And he was gone.OOC:[sblock]This was a hard battle. Quinn and Korvun both nearly died and both were completely out of healing surges by the end of the encounter. It was 875 XP for a group of 5 level 2 PCs, and it consisted of 2 Iron Defenders, a Clay Scout, a Halfling Slinger (Dark Creeper Slinger), and a toned down head priest whats-his-name from H1.[/sblock]Unchaining the unconcious Sandra, they made sure she wasn't injured and then checked the room over. They found a journal and several reagents for rituals. Making their way carefully out of the temple, they found a spot to make camp and rested for the night. Reading over the journal, they found that the imp had told the head priest, Hariel, about the temple and shown him now to desecrate it in order to unlock its powers. It seemed that the temple itself was created long ago but had been held by many different followers of different gods, from Moradin, to the Raven Queen, to Tiamat. It was last used by the Kingdom of Reskia under Bane, but when the kingdom fell, it was lost once again.In the morning they were stiff, but refreshed. Tordek decided that in the future he might claim the temple as his own, but he would need to find a way to consecrate it in alignment with his own goddess, Avandra, to realize its potential. He decided when they returned to town, he would begin some research into that. Sandra awoke, and though shaken by her ordeal, walked back to town herself, along with her childhood friend Sapphire.In town, father and daughter reunited, and the nobleman was extremely grateful. Tordek began his research while Quinn began work on a plan of his to build up a mercenary force under him, a force to rekindle and reinvigorate his home town of Hent. Several weeks passed as the group waited the month out that the eladrin Caelynnasidhe had promised it would take her to find the details behind their book and creature.</blockquote>

Verification