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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 1749" data-attributes="member: 150">Brindinford V: Half a Season of Buffy?The second morning dawned grim and gray. The funeral of the blowhard Modeir, despite Pah’s efforts to cheer everyone up with odd, anachronistic lyrics that seemed like an ode in his honor (“Keep your Modeir running/Head out on the highway”), and the abduction of Uri’s Pal Minimonk, left everyone feeling a bit down. Morning came, and a few of the outlying rafts had apparently cut free in the night, making a run for safer territory. The streets of the city were becoming more and more dangerous, as there seemed to be a gradually growing infernal population. It became clear that the gate between worlds had to be closed. For that, they needed a cleric. They had two choices for Clerics. Dentheira, the ancient halfling healer and community leader who could barely hobble around with a cane, and Alein, the paladin. Luckily, Alein had a score to settle and didn’t mind the idea of trying to close the gate. So the party got healed up, geared up, and headed off to the temple.En route they met a Bargest patrol, but managed to dispatch the beasts without difficulty. Irk was just getting used to the newly-enchanted +2 axe, and as he could use that one handed he liked that he could use a shield at the same time. Uri had a few new spells he wanted to try out. Pah’s guns were loaded, although she was concerned that without enchanted bullets she was going to be of limited use to the party. Eli had a small handful of arrows and Shatterspike. It would have to do.Faced with the temple and several doors to choose from, the party selected one of the smaller side doors on the wing. The lock had to be picked, which Pah managed after a few tries, and then Irk led the way into the belly of the beast.The party was faced with a hallway, a couple of doors, and another passage that clearly led to the main temple. “Well, let’s get in there,” said Irk.“Wait,” said Eli. “Shouldn’t we clear out these rooms first.”Pah fidgeted with a cocked hammer. Uri twiddled a finger in his ear. Alein, an NPC, was characteristically devoid of opinion. Irk looked longingly at the door to the main temple room, with it’s big pillar of fire and untold horrors. “Nah,” he said. “Let’s do it.” And so he led the way.The main temple was dominated by the big fire. It was pretty damn hot. Oh, yeah, and there was an Osyluth, the big ugly devil thing that had appeared on the roof after the Baron’s speech a few days that seemed like decades before. The infernal creature started a spinetingling wail.Irk wasted no time waiting for formal introductions. He charged the Osyluth, nearly laying it low with a single massive blow (rolled a critical). Alein, next through the door, moved in close enough to try to channel the power of Heironemous into the fire to try to close the portal. The heat burned exposed flesh, heating her armor, but she pressed forward, holy symbol threatening to melt in her hand.Eli, worried, asked “How long can it take to close a hellmouth?”Uri answered him. “Half a season of Buffy.”The others stopped and looked around for a minute, wondering what the hell he was talking about. Then they got back to work.The Osyluth fled from Irk, returning to the center of the great fire to hide, and called out into the abyss, bringing forth a cousin (probably an in-law) to help face the rest of the party.Things got a bit interesting after that. The new Osyluth traded blows with Irk, while the wounded one, still within the fire, sensed the weakening of the gate and turned to face Alein, settling in to lash at the paladin with bite, claws, and tail, trying to drive her back before she could finish closing the gate. At the same time, responding to the wail of the devils, the rest of the temple perked up. A pair of hell hounds crashed through a door to one side, and a evil cleric on another, engaging the members of the party that were still in the hallway waiting to enter the room (Uri and Eli). Pah had slipped into the main chamber and was skulking around the edges of the fight, looking for an opening. Alein did her best, trying to close the gate, but between the fire, the heat in her armor, and the onslaught of the Osyluth, she had to pull back, stepping back to the doorway where she, to quote Wulf Ratbane, touched herself in her special way. The Osyluth, relieved that it had driven her back before the gate was closed, threw up a wall of ice to keep her out. In the hallway, things had started out looking pretty grim. Eli had pushed himself to the front, drawing his sword to protect Uri from the hell hounds, only to fall prey to a cause fear spell cast by the cleric. Eli turned and ran like the wind, as only a light-footed elf can run. Uri, on his own with a couple of hell hounds and a cleric to deal with, fell back on a trusted friend, web. He managed to immobilize the cleric and one of the hounds, and set about dealing with the other, with a couple of shocking grasps, and a little help from Alein, who ran back from the ice wall to help deal with the threat. The trapped hound breathed on the web in its frustration, and the web began to burn away. Alein and Uri dealt with the other hound and then the cleric in a few rounds.Eli eventually stopped running, turned around, and started running back. While Irk was fighting the devil-in-law in the main room, Pah heard movement from a balcony above. She bounded up there, thanks to her ring of jumping, and was faced with the high priest of the temple, who had just cast a protection spell on himself of some sort. She took a shot at him, and he turned and came after her, swinging his huge flail around his head and smashing the rail behind her with a terrible blow. Not one to hang around someplace where she wasn’t wanted, Pah took a shot with her other pistol and jumped back down to the ground. At about that time Irk had hacked his way through the Osyluth-in-law and was looking for a way to get at the one hiding in the fire. Irk took a few rounds to hack a passage through the ice wall, only to find that Alein was not on the other side of the wall. The evil high priest jumped down to the main floor and engaged Irk, while yet a third Osyluth appeared nearby, although this one seemed to be behaving oddly. Pah lept back up to the balcony to try to spot more trouble coming. Uri appeared on the other side of the temple, spiderclimbing up the wall over the ice wall. From his perch he exchanged fire with an enforcer (Named Farji) that appeared on the balcony opposite Pah.Irk, frustrated with the Osyluth in the fire that was doing its best to make his life difficult, picked up the corpse of the one he’d killed and tried to toss it at the one that was still living. (Irk’s player prefers a very loose interpretation of the feat Throw Anything). He missed, but enjoyed the effort anyway. Then he turned to face the high priest.The Priest cast Hold Person on Irk, a spell Irk was painfully familiar with, but somehow this time he was able to shake off the effect and close with the Cleric, raining heavy blow after blow on the evil priest. The priest exchanged a few blows, then backed off to cast a spell, and was caught in a sleet storm spell cast by Uri from his perch above. An area of driving sleet took over the southwest section of the room, making movement and visibility difficult at best. Pah took advantage of the sleet for cover, moving to a spot near the wall where she could be easily out of sight and reload her pistols under the cover of her cloak. Irk, standing just outside the area of sleet, waited for the third Osyluth or the Priest to come out. The Osyluth was the first to move, stepping out of the sleet apparently unaffected. Irk hefted his axe and took a swing which passed right through the beast, scattering it in a puff of pixilated smoke (it had been an illusion). Meanwhile Farji dropped down to the main floor to try to help, where he fought Eli and eventually Irk. The surviving Osyluth, the original, still flying around the room and mostly hiding in the hellmouth, saw an opportunity to go after Uri up on the wall, It raced up to Uri’s position and started pounding on him. Uri managed to get off an acid arrow before being knocked unconscious and nearly killed by the beast, which would have escaped back to the healing flames of the hellmouth if it had not been for Eli with his bow and the lingering burn of Uri’s acid arrow. Alein, having made the circuit through the eastern wing of the temple, up to the second floor and out onto the balcony, dropped down to the ground level and returned to the work of trying to close the hellmouth. Davros Hellseeker, the high priest, had spent about four rounds slipping and falling around in the sleet storm. His visibility was practically nil, but he’d heard the death throes of the Osyluth and decided it was time to get out of there. He managed to find his feet and blindly made his way to the temple’s main doors. He bolted out into the street and started running for the Baron’s keep. Pah heard the door, and slipped over to it to investigate. Outside the door she saw the priest running for the hills, and fired a parting shot at him, hitting him, although it was not enough to slow him down it did give him something to remember her by.Alein, meanwhile, poured the last of her energies into the Hellmouth, finally managing to close it before passing out due to severe burns and other wounds. With the Hellmouth closed the others were able to treat her wounds, and Uri’s and stabilze both of them, while Irk finished Farji. Then an eerie silence took over the temple. Without the roaring of the Hellmouth, and the screeches of the Osyluths, it seemed uncannily quiet.It had been an ugly, long, confusing battle. Uri was mangled. Alein was in no condition to continue. Irk had taken a beating, although he was still ready for action, and Pah and Eli were still in pretty good shape, but the party decided not to take any chances and returned to the Halfling community, where they delivered Alein to Dentheira’s care, found a few potions for Uri, and headed back out to the Baron’s keep. The streets were also quiet, and the party saw no sign of the infernal patrols that had made life difficult for the past few days. From time to time they saw frightened militiamen in the distance, heading for their homes, staying out of the way of the party and jumping at shadows.When they came to the Baron’s manor house they spent some time outside, peeking in windows and seeing what they could from outside the walls. The could see the Ogre Mage and the high priest talking in front of a fireplace. On a balcony they saw Minimonk going through his Kata with an eerie calm. And there was no sign of the Mind Flayer. They settled down to make a plan of attack, and we stopped for the evening.</blockquote>

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