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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gfunk" data-source="post: 1304502" data-attributes="member: 1813">Session 55"Bringing down the house" Hor’ahun, though momentarily surprised by the appearance of the Alhoon, saw through the illusion for what it really was. Noir was not as convinced, however, and her unholy longsword fell from her nerveless, stunned hand into the depths of the shaft from which they had ascended. Both warriors fanned out into the room but could not see the source of these weird occurrences. Seconds later, Amal and Entropy emerged from the shaft. Looking upwards, Entropy spotted three incorporeal Githyanki hovering near the ceiling. In response, she shapechanged into a Beholder and directed her antimagic cone upwards, fully cognizant that it would cause incorporeal undead to wink out, “I can delay them indefinitely. Everyone prepare yourselves for battle and I will release them!” While Noir and Hor’ahun readied their weapons, Amal prayed to Bane for a miracle and was granted the ability to direct sunbeams which would surely spell the destruction of these undead. Seeing that her allies were ready, Entropy closed her central eye as the T’lak’ith (or undead Githyanki knights) reappeared. Amal was ready for them as he projected one of his sunbeams upwards though it passed through the incorporeal creature, much to his chagrin. Without further hesitation, the three T’lak’iths dive bombed the party using their silver greatswords imbued with the ghost touch property.  Over the next several seconds tense combat occurred, with the knights holding the clear advantage. They would begin their attack sequences by casting quickened weirds to keep the party off balance, followed by melee with their weapons. The counter-attacks by the party were mostly nullified because many of their attacks simply passed through their foes. While Hor’ahun and Noir were merely swinging at air, Amal’s sunbeam and disrupting weapon infuriatingly failied to connect. Only Entropy was able to inflict consistent damage, using force spells and by shapechanging into an incorporeal Energon, thereby channeling positive energy. When one knight finally went down, its two remaining fellows began concentrating their attacks on Entropy. Deprived of all her magical equipment in the alien form of an Energon, the Alienist began to take serious damage. Fortunately, the Dreadlord finally intervened as his disrupting weapon connected twice, reducing both foes to dust. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Attempting to retrieve her unholy weapon, Noir found that it had mysteriously vanished at the bottom of the shaft. The party continued forward nevertheless until they came upon an oval portal filled with silvery gray mist.  “The Dreadlord tells me the library is through this passage, however I would not recommend simply stepping through it.” Disintegrating a hole above the portal instead, the party continued. In the next chamber they found a vile tapestry seemingly constructed of the sewn flesh of Demons, Githzerai, and Illithids. In the place of precious gemstones stood glazed eyeballs that stared blankly at the party. As they moved closer to investigate, the tapestry animated as it launched a pair of pseudopods towards them. With little muss or fuss, the party promptly took it apart. Their journey continued into what appeared to be a summoning chamber. In the center of a magic circle stood what was meant to appear as a Dretch, the least of Demons. However, with their true seeing the party noted that it was in fact a Marilith, a multi-armed snake-like creature which typically stood as the general of abyssal armies. Surrounding the fiend were three smooth black pillars and, outside of these, was a circle of twelve shelves each holding a small chest. Fortunately for Entropy, she had chosen to assume the form of a Balor prior to entering this room. Furthermore, she had warded herself with a nondetection, which did not allow the Marilith’s divinations reveal the Alienist’s true nature.  The demon bowed its head in obeisance as it communicated with the “Balor” telepathically, “My Lord! It pleases me greatly that you have arrived. Release me and together we can wreak havoc upon this plane!” Maintaining the ruse, Entropy responded in Abyssal so that her companions could understand, “I have been sent by the undead goddess Kiaransalee to destroy Queen Vlaakith. These are my slaves. What brings you to the Palace of Whispers?” “My name is Arythyzl. I am a minion of Gra’zzt and was sent here to inform Vlaakith of our recent gains in the Blood War. However, the Lich chose to imprison me instead. I assume that she would release me when my services were required. However,” she smiled cruelly, “why don’t we simply help ourselves to her treasure hoard that surrounds us?” Nodding, Entropy flew into the room as she broke the perfect lines of the magic circle, freeing the Marilith once more. Hor’ahun moved up to their side, “The Demon is correct. Though the chests contain powerful items, they are themselves magical. Obviously trapped, we should be wary.” “All of you, get out of here! I will eliminate all the magic in this room.” Realizing what the Sorcerer was about to do, her three companions and the Marilith speedily moved into one of the small adjoining rooms and closed the door. Gesturing, Entropy cast her most powerful anti-magic spell, the dreaded disjunction. Instantly, the fabric of the Weave in the entire chamber was undone as all the chests were rendered non-magical. However, the black pillars were not what they appeared to be as they magically held three gargantuan oozes. They slowly spread out over the entirety of the room and Entropy found herself surrounded by three inky pools of death. ----------------------------------------------------------------- “Traitors!” The Marilith immediately turned hostile. Perhaps by slaying these intruders, she could win Vlaakith’s favor and the Queen’s permission to return to the Abyss. Concentrating, she tried to summon three Hezrou to assist her but, due to the fickle nature of demonic summoning magic, they failed to appear. Instead she bathed her form in an unholy aura. Noir tore energy from the Demon with Helltongue, Hor’ahun unsuccessfully tried his psychic crush and mind blast, and Amal found that his heightened destructions could not bring down their hardy foe. Outside, Entropy sneered as the clumsy Oozes tried to envelop her. She sent two of the three to extradimensional mazes. Being effectively mindless, these automatons would not be finding the exit anytime soon. Noir, Hor’ahun, and Amal found themselves standing in the middle of a blade barrier conjured by the Marilith as she moved forward, her swords moving with expertly timed precision. The Demon aggressively slapped away foes who approached her – effectively keeping them in the blade barrier.  Unaffected by the morass of whirling swords due to his spell resistance, Amal calmly chanted as he froze the Marilith where she stood. Taking advantage of her paralysis, Noir stepped forward – still grimacing in pain as the blades ripped into her flesh – and administered the coup de grace. Meanwhile, Entropy had finished her remaining foe with a series of fireballs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- “By the Silver Void, we seem to have hit the jackpot,” Hor’ahun whistled appreciatively as his eyes feasted on the trove of valuable items the party had secured. “There is no time, just toss it in my portable hole and move on,” in Pit Fiend form, Entropy looked comical as she used her powerful swipes to shred the shelves holding the chests, quickly flinging them into her storage device. Amal pointed to a spot on the wall, twenty feet off the ground, “My spell is at an end. The Lord of Tyrants informs me that the library is through a secret door there. It is warded by a forbiddance, the password is Mir’r’tal.” Noir, with the aid of her winged boots, moved up to the door and opened it – their final goal had been reached. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In addition to the dreaded T’lak’iths were the Lich-Queen’s wizards – the Kr’y’izoth. Ki’yaj was one such creature, instructed to safeguard Vlaakith’s phylactery. In truth, he thought it was a futile task. Who could move emerge from the hordes of Duthk’giths to even reach this place? His concerns were resolved when the sole entrance to the library opened. Out stepped a human in black full-plate, followed closely by a Githzerai! Ki’yaj sprung into action, launching a black, crackling ray of energy at the human followed by an additional spell out of his staff. Noir and Hor’ahun felt the moisture being sucked out of their bodies from the wizard’s necromantic magic. The Blackguard charged the Kr’y’izoth but missed as her sword clumsily fell from her grasp and the Psychic Warrior’s psychic crush was ineffective against this undead mage. Ki’yaj was fairly certain he could handle these two foes, but he was wholly unprepared for the large devil that flew down towards him from the secret door. The beast whipped its tail around, trying to seize the mage but Ki’yaj managed to dodge. However, it then began casting as the entire library was suffused with in an emerald field of energy. A dimensional lock! It was clear that the Githyanki would not be able to exit by a dimension door. “Seize him!” Following the command of his mistress and heedless of danger, Noir dropped both her weapons as she placed the Githyanki in a bear hug. Unable to break free of her grasp, Ki’yaj’s mere touch began to enervate the Blackguard.  With her foe immobilized, Entropy tried to tear him apart. Despite her impressive strength and battle prowess however, Ki’yaj’s desiccated body resisted the damage. He continued energy draining Noir until the Blackguard dropped him in exhaustion, her life force weakened nearly to the point of death. As she flew away and retreated to the secret door above, Hor’ahun threw a small, rusty metal ball at the Kr’y’izoth. Immediately, adamantine shackles emerged from the device as Ki’yaj was neatly trapped. After more punishment from Entropy, the Wizard managed to fly (shackles and all) out of the dimensional lock as he dimension doored away. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Noir returned to Amal, still waiting in the summoning chamber due to his inability to fly. “Banite, my life force wanes after battling the Wizard. Heal me so that I may resume the battle!” The priest looked upon Noir with utter contempt. Of course he had a restoration memorized but he was not about to waste it on mere cannon fodder. No, in case his death ward was brought down (likely, he thought, if he entered into combat with the Lich-Queen) then it was his only means of repairing his own life force. “Perhaps you should have considered that before you attacked him. Move aside, I have no inclination to waste my power on the weak!” Stunned, Noir returned his contempt with a stare of venomous detestation but, for now, there was nothing she could do. Suddenly, the Gith Wizard emerged from his hiding place – he had dimension doored into the multi-room chamber of the summoning room – as he enervated Noir one more time, followed by a quickened disintegration. The thin green ray hit the Blackguard dead center, as she struggled mightily to resist its effects. Though she failed to do so, her increased energy reservoir from repeated uses of Helltongue saved her life. “Now, Blackguard, let me show you true power.” A thin green ray emerged from Amal’s outstretched hand which turned the powerful Kr’y’izoth to ashes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Easily bypassing the nondetection spells on the party, Vlaakith had been secretly scrying on them for some time. She had carefully observed their battle strategies, sacrificing her many minions so as to deplete them as much as possible. However, with the invasion of her library, she knew that her observation was at an end. If she struck now with her most powerful retainers, she would succeed. Raising her staff, the Lich’s body as well as her servants began to grow ruby red as they teleported from her chambers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- While Hor’ahun remained behind to investigate the library. Entropy returned to Amal and Noir. The Banite turned to the incoming Pit Fiend, “I know you could have simply shapechanged into a Beholder and finished that insufferable Wizard. Why did you make it so hard on yourself?” Landing next to Noir, the Alienist began to twist the Weave to her purposes as she restored the Blackguard’s depleted energy, “Because that would have been too easy.” Her flippant attitude was dispelled when Vlaakith and her minions appeared in the room. The battle area was effectively two large rooms, the summoning chamber on one side and the library on the other. Between these stood a small, open secret door – twenty feet up on the wall – that connected them. Alone with Hor’ahun was a T’lak’ith Githyanki Knight. Surrounding Amal, Entropy, and Noir was an additional T’lak’ith, three Kr’y’izoths, and two wingless, fiendish Red Dragons. Hovering between both rooms, in the secret door, stood Vlaakith herself. She gazed down upon her would-be assassins, “There is a secret song at the center of creation, fools, and its sound is like razors through flesh. I will enjoy this!” Gifted with unparalleled reflexes in Pit Fiend form, Entropy acted quickly tossing a disjunction at the Lich-Queen. Vlaakith simply smirked however – she knew that the Alienist could cast such a spell and had decided against putting up many of her preparatory magics. In fact, Entropy had only accomplished in destroying a few of her magic trinkets though, thankfully, her artifacts remained intact. Vlaakith’s smug expression was temporarily frozen in time following Entropy’s quickened time stop. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Cornugun scampered quickly up the volcanic slope. Amazingly, it had survived for eighteen days – two more and it would once again be free to return to the Nine Hells. It paused for a moment and looked apprehensively below it. Bladac – as it was known in Baator – had been gated into the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna for mere sport. He was given an offer, be slain immediately or survive his pursuer for twenty days.  Having choosen the latter, Bladac was forced to bear the indignity of dimensional shackles around his ankles, effectively nullifying his ability to teleport. Using hit-and-run tactics, he had eluded his pursuer for two weeks until he was forced into a confrontation that had left the Horned Devil’s spiked chains in ruins.  Now, Bladac no longer thought of combat which he knew he would never win. Instead he focused on fleeing as best he could. Using his muscular prehensile tail for support, the fiend was able to ascend this volcano with relative ease. Gripping the ledge with his two clawed hands, he easily hoisted himself onto the summit. He shrank back in fear as a giant human of statuesque proportions calmly waited for him. In his hand was an adamantine warhammer that appeared too large even for its massive wielder.  “I congratulate you fiend, no one has been able to evade me for this long. Your carcass shall enjoy a prized place in my trophy room.” Drawing back his warhammer with all his might, he brought it down upon the devil over and over again. Without a place to flee and deprived of his own weapon, Bladac was reduced to a quivering mass of flesh. “Ha ha! I know that you can regenerate from even my blows, fiend! However, who said you had to be dead for me to mount you as a trophy?” As Cronus reached down to claim his prize a silver gate opened next to him. Though he tried to resist, he was compelled to step through it and serve the caster who opened it – much as he had enslaved Bladac. ----------------------------------------------------------------- It was a losing proposition. Sidhe’s forces had been crushed by Kostchtchie’s counter-attack. In the Icy Wastes of the 23rd layer of the Abyss, there remained little for the Balor to fight for. Though he had managed to slay dozens of fiendish Frost Giants that were sent to track him – the general of Jubilex’s army – Sidhe was aware that he would be inevitably overwhelmed and slain maybe even by Prince Kostchtchie himself! For this reason, he was more than pleased when a silver gate appeared beside him. Not even waiting for the compulsion effect to take place, he stepped through.</blockquote>

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