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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1520716" data-attributes="member: 15043">In many films, the final showdown between good or evil has one of the following elements:  an abused victim getting revenge, a child taking on their parent, a tortured person seeking revenge for a sibling’s death, friends seeking justice for the death of one of their own, and above all... good versus evil.  This has all of them!The ShowdownFor a split second, the world seemed to slow to a standstill for the party just after the Countess’ sneering laugh.  They could hear her starting to chant; deep, malevolent words in another tongue, rolling off of her lips as the room seemed to grow hotter and hotter.And then the party struck back.As the words to the Incendiary Cloud spell, the party’s weapons flashed into sight... and for some such as Tess, Aeron, Lucius, and the two clerics, their weapons didn’t even need to be drawn.Luke felt something come over him.. a wave, a wash of energy seemed to come back into his veins as his heart flooded with fear, guilt, and confusion at seeing his mother this way.  Instinctually, he raised his hand, and a spell came to his lips (Yup... he got his magic back...).A horrific shriek echoed from Tess’ lips, and three blasts of sonic noise flashed towards the loathsome Countess.  For a split second, the air just in front of the woman seemed to shimmer, but then she reeled as the sonic blasts burrowed through her magical defenses, impacting her hard.At the same moment, Grumki and Hidalas both called upon their pertinent gods for fiery vengeance from above, to cast this abomination from the world it now walked upon.  Twin fiery columns cascaded down from above, thundering into the Countess with blazing fury.  Even as the demon woman dodged the other mundane weapons of the party, and the magical spells from other members (a lightning bolt from Aeron, and a hold person from Luke) fizzled, she let out a scream, and the party could feel the air around them return to normal.Burned but not dead, the Countess leapt upward, and flew towards the stairs.  As she reached them, a curtain of flames erupted from the floor and ceiling of the chambers, closing within a second to form a solid wall of fire between her and the party.  From beyond its roar, the noise of her shouting out new spells could be heard.Orion, seeing this, leapt at the single one of the massive black demons he could see.  With a mighty punch and flurry of kicks, Orion delivered a series of blows that would have crushed a hezrou with ease.  The twin heads of the massive beast snarled, and it seemed hardly affected as it slowly began to swing its massive axe in arcs, bringing the huge weapon up to attack speed.The axe, going back and further, forming a larger and larger arc each time, was nearly hypnotic... until it reached attack speed, and suddenly was whirling through the air with the speed and power of terrifying proportions.  To the party’s horror, the creature leaned out, and with its large reach, one of the axe’s slammed into Aeron.  Siabrey noticed that the blade came down at a bad angle... Aeron should have lost an arm maybe, but nothing more.  Instead, the blade seemed to jerk into a correct arc, and the wizard’s head sailed across the room.“VORPAL GREATAXE!” she screamed in panic as Aeron’s head, shocked and surprised, thunked against the far wall.Immediately, Luke shifted his attentions to the creature that he could strike without breaking down, and a lightning bolt launched from his hands, striking the demon full bore in the chest.  This blast seemed to hurt the creature some, as it staggered back, small arcs of light now coming from its skin.Sensing the new danger, Siabrey rushed the demon on the teleportation floor, swords upraised.  How can I kill this thing!?  Orion’s blades hardly touched it!  Kelir... I pray you are strong enough...As she rushed forward, Orion recovered from his shock as well, and decided to go for the one thing he could... the creature’s axe.  With a sharp flurry of punches and blows, the monk delivers a stunning array of force on the weapon, which shatters in the demon’s hands (Yes... Orion can sunder weapons with his unarmed strikes... fricking cool! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).A loud series of curses echoed through the room, as both Geoffrey and Pyrion realize that their bow and pistols, respectively, were not getting anywhere near the beast.  At this moment, the other large demon’s steps could be heard on the stairs, just before it leapt down onto the teleportation floor as well... another wicked greataxe in its hands.The Countess’ form then appeared outside her fiery wall, and pointed a finger at Orion, who had destroyed the normal weapon of her favored pet.  Vile, cursed words came to her lips, and for a second, Orion felt as if he was being fused with the floor, unable to move.  His discipline and training allow him to push off the mental assault, allowing him to continue his work (Power Word Stun... the Countess saw he was the only one that kept destroying her pet’s vorpal weapons, and wanted him halted so her babies could play... hey, she’s got a 28 Intelligence! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).Seeing her plan fail, the Countess disappeared back into the flames, and the party could hear (and see slightly between the edges of the writhing flames) the thundering of another one of the massive Molydeus demons coming down the stairs.  Tess sent another shriek at the demon’s only to see her sonic assault seem to fizzle as it struck them. Lucius again blasted a lightning bolt at the beast in front of Orion... and to the party’s surprise, the beast backed up, and pointed a snarling finger at the party’s midst.  A massive lightning bolt, dwarfing the one sent by Luke, slammed through the midst of the party, coursing through Quin, Shaun, Geoffrey, and Pyrion.  The halfling was left barely standing, and the other three were all nigh unto death’s door from the magical blast as well.  Siabrey and Orion were now jointly the party’s front line against the two demons baring down on them... one armed with one of the horrible axes, the other merely standing, unarmed, save for his magical assaults.  Orion leapt up, and with a vicious move, wrapped his legs around the beast’s neck.  Using the supernatural abilities of his body, he snapped rolled his entire body, the force of the move snapping the creature’s neck.As he did so, the creature’s brethern that had just jumped down from the stairs charged.  The massive axe in the creature’s hand sang through the air, a whispering death that Orion knew he couldn’t avoid.  He twisted as hard as he could nonetheless, and while a good portion of his chest and stomach found themsevles slashed open, he realized the blade had cut right where his neck would have been a split second later (the vorpal blade got a critical... Orion passed his fort save to avoid instant death).With Orion barely dodging death, Siabrey now found herself alone facing the massive behemoth and its greataxe.  To make matters worse, the third molydeus thundered to the ground after jumping from the stairs.Kelir... she thought mentally, fear rising to the surface as she stared up at two demons that were each easily twice her height.  Should I fall, Kelir... cover Luke... please for all that is holy... cover Luke... not me!Stop your sniveling and strike him... leave the rest up to me! her sword confidently replied.  With a yell of desperation, Siabrey charged the demon right over Orion’s body.  She leapt airborne, and spunt her body through the air, causing both of her weapons to sing a whispering song of death.  Blood, gore, and demon entrails flew in arcs around her, as Kelir held up to his promise, goring the demon deep and true.  When she landed, however, the beast merely tottered above her.  Despite its entrails now laying on the floor, it still stood, its weapon now swinging towards her (Siabrey did 178 points of damage to the demon... too bad it had more hit points left).Seeing this, and knowing that as nearly half the party recovered from the powerful lightning blasts, Tess knew someone had to do something about the Countess... who would shortly re-emerge from her fiery wall, and possibly kill them all in their weakened state.Fa’rallan, she thought mentally, tracing back into her mind all those months ago when she had desperately charged a demon, striking it down.  Her hand started to clasp around the dagger, until her mind realized the awesome, terrible power she had yet to use... a power that she feared in herself, considering her past rages...Tess leapt airborne, her voice rising in power.  She flew directly towards the fiery wall... and through the flames.  As she burst through the flames, smoke billowing from her burnt hair and small flames licking her boots, she let out a shriek... a cry that was horrific, violent, and shatteringly loud to all in the room.  Her hand reached out, and for just an instant, she touched the shoulder of the icy demon.Tess’ mind had a split second to think... the Countess’ flesh, despite its icy appearance, felt normal... as far as her badly burned hands could tell.  The demon’s beautiful face contorted into a look of surprised terror, her green eyes flashing wide, her mouth opening to emit a horrified scream... as Tess’ burnt, terrible visage gave her a final adieu with a vicious smile....and bit by bit... seemingly slowly but quickly building into a torrent, her feet and hands turned to dust, whisping away in the heat caused by the fiery wall.  She let out an unearthly wail of horror and rage, as within seconds, her legs, arms, and chest had fallen to dust.  Her head collapsed onto the dusty pile, and the wail ended as it too joined the dust.  (Tess used a spellchord Destroy Utterly with Sound, and the Countess rolled a 2, and thus failed her save)The fiery wall came crashing down almost as soon as the Countess’ final transformation had begun, and Shaun could only look on in horror as Luke witnessed his mother collapse in writhing agony.  Shaun wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw the same agony echoed in the boy’s eyes... and Luke just stood there, rooted to his place, mouth agape, eyes shimmering with terror.The rogue then snapped back to the situation at hand.  Grumki and Hidalas had been busily healing those that had been badly injured in the lightning blast, and as Shaun was now functional, at least, he drew his bow, and shot at the demon that Siabrey wasn’t facing... hoping to draw him off from attacking her while Orion regained his bearings from the furious blow that had hit him.  The ploy didn’t work, but Shaun was happy to watch as Orion stood, and with a powerful punch, snapped the weapon of the injured demon in twain.The third demon then leapt back up onto the stairs, and with a furious gaze, stared down at the creature that had killed its lady, its mistress (DM’s Note:  or as I told the players... its mummy).  It extended a hand, and fired at her a lightning bolt of incomparable fury.The bard, despite her burns, her tiredness, and her wounds, managed to dodge most of the blast... but not all of it.  She can once again feel the world spinning, going black, and then reappearing again.  Knowing full well how terribly wounded she is, she takes alight, flying up towards the rafters, hopefully out of the demon’s reach.Siabrey slashed again at the demon to her front, cutting it down.  Then she, Orion, Quin, Pyrion, Geoffrey,,, and Shaun all dashed towards the stairs to attract the demon’s attention and save their friend.Lucius, meanwhile, finally broke down.  The strain of having to fight his mother, and now watching her die before his eyes, was too much.  Even as the battle raged, the noise of bombards pounding outside and the roars and screams of demon’s inside assaulted his ears, all he could hear was a single, writhing scream in his mind.  The first part had been demonic, true, as the voices of a thousand hells seemed to scream at Tess for what she did.  But near the end, just before the screaming stop, Luke heard it...... one scream... and not a scream, a singular cry... a voice in his head... I’m sorry.  For the first time in a while, the young man revealed exactly how young and vulnerable he was... and he wished, with all his might as tears started to roll, that things would have ended differently... and he went from being Lucius the warrior, to Luke... the 17 year old kid.As he started to sink, two surprising hands grabbed him and held him up.  Grumki the cleric pulled Luke close.  “’Tis okay to cry, young one... not even Kord expects us to keep our wails silent when we lose one we used to love,” the half orc comforted.  The cleric angled himself so he could see what was happening to the others, but as Siabrey and Orion mounted the stairs and charged the last molydeus, it appeared they had everything under control...  just before they arrived however, he took one hand and unwrapped it from around Luke's shaking frame, and the strength of Kord let fire rain from heaven on the molydeus clambering down the steps.Indeed, Siabrey and Orion did have affairs under control.  Orion sundered the molydeus’ greataxe, and Siabrey then proceeded to slash and hack while Orion punched and kicked.  Jointly, within a few seconds, they’d shattered and sliced the creature to bits that fell off the stairs, staining the room below.As this was finished, the two looked up in disbelief, as another demon started coming down the stairs... this one a massive, bare-chested woman, fully seven feet tall, with six arms.  Just below her belly button she changed, her form merging into that of a snake, fully 20 feet long.  In each hand, she held a scimitar, and a raging cry was on her lips.“Dammit, when will they learn?” Orion growled, his face and clothes bloody.  The monk charged forward, with his kicks and punches shredding three of her weapons.  In a surprised fury, she backed up, and called upon the powers of the Abyss to blight the party.A seemingly massive black pall slammed into the midst of the largest gaggle of the party, causing horrific boils to appear on their skins from the unholiness of the damage.  Tess (who had landed to get healed by Hidalas), Pyrion, Geoffrey, and Hidalas all found themselves excruciatingly close to death’s door.Hidalas immediately went about healing Pyrion and Geoffrey, the worst cases (down to 3 and 1 hp respectively), while Tess took to the air again as Siabrey and Orion battered back the marilith.  A final, piercing shriek caused the demon’s head to explode... and for once, Siabrey and Orion didn’t complain.</blockquote>

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