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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 97040" data-attributes="member: 93">Ulfang, Midnight, June 3rd, AE 420Sir Brennen casts protection from evil on himself, and Corwin gives him a haste.  Jalea and Reana continue firing into the figures on the podium, and Gavin rushes up to start cutting his way to the altar.  Cultists begin running in all directions; the rank and file of the cult wants nothing to do with serious warriors!  Brennen runs up through the path created by Aris’ snowball swarm and cuts down a cultist, then another with his hasted action. Aris casts stargaze on the leaders on the podium and the sahuagin priestess succumbs and is dazed.  Corwin casts summon swarm on the cultist leaders, or rather tries; his spell is ruined by his armor yet again!The leader in the fancy bird-mask, and the bird-masked man to his right each begin casting spells, followed soon by the Nabassu demons.“Five spellcasters!” Jovah says.  “I don’t like this at all!”The four-armed sauhuagin starts forcing his way past cultists to get to Brennen, who is on the bridge leading up to the podium.  Kentfield’s bodyguard does the same from the other direction.  The Sword of Kelanen is hasted however, and cuts down a cultist in his way, and then moves up to the altar and swings at the leader, whom the party is presuming to be Kentfield.  The blow clangs off his armor.  Corwin casts improved invisibility on himself, and follows Brennen.  Aris does the same, clearing out enemies with his flametongue.  The cult leaders finish their spells, and a summoned tiger and a summoned Girillon appear.  The tiger is right behind Brennen, and in front of Aris, and the Girallon is behind the platform, ready to get anyone coming around from behind the cultists.  Aris is clawed by the tiger, but holds his ground.Jovah has cast expeditious retreat on himself, and sees an open spot on the walkway around the raised platform.  He backs up a few feet to get the necessary run-up, and then charges forward in order to get enough speed to make the fifteen foot jump (quite a prodigious leap for a gnome).  Just as he he is almost ready to make the jump, the Nabassu finish their spells, and summon a total of eleven ghasts to join the fray!  One appears right by Jovah, and swipes him with a claw, and the gnomish priest of luck fails to resist it and is frozen one step before leaping over the water!Jovah failed his save, and then failed on his second attempt, which he gets courtesy of the Luck domain’s special ability!Reana makes a desperate grab to keep the paralyzed Jovah from toppling over into the water, and pulls him back just in time.  Brennen’s path to the cult leader is blocked by two Nabassu and three snarling ghasts, but he steps calmly into their midst and attacks the leader again!   The creatures grin at their good fortune, and then snarl angrily as all of them find themselves unable to touch the Sword of Kelanen, as they are all summoned and he has protection from evil!  Brennen snickers to himself, and keeps on swinging at the four armed sahuagin with the two tridents, and at the cultist leader.Gavin has made it around to the left side of the platform only to find his way blocked by ghasts.  He resists their paralyzing claws, and begins swinging back, but they are holding him off.  He switches strategy, and sacrifices accuracy for power against the undead beasts, and the tactic starts paying dividends immediately, as he drops two ghasts with one swing each.  He moves up and gets a swing in on Kentfield’s bodyguard, who then retreats past the Girallon.With 8 points of power attack and a Bull's Strength, Gavin was doing a minimum of 20 points per swing!  Factor in Cleave, and the ghasts (HP: 26) were not long for this world.The sahuagin decide they’ve seen enough, and begin retreating.  The four armed sahuagin stays and tries to cut down Brennen but doesn’t accomplish much even with his multiple attacks.  The cultist leaders retreat away from Brennen, past the Girallon, and down the far passageway.  The Girallon blocks the bridge; Brennen can’t be hit by it, but he can’t force his way past the eight foot tall, 800 pound four armed wall of muscle.  The two Nabassu fly away form the raised platform and land by the cult leaders, but Brennen still has a ghast and a sahuagin warrior on his back, although only the one can actually harm him.Brennen takes a deep breath, and steps towards the Girallon, and then jumps off the raised platform (which is five feet tall).  He tucks his legs up underneath him, and clears the eight foot tall gorilla-thing in one standing broad jump!  He lands just past the creature, and since he’s hasted, he takes his full complement of attacks on the one enemy available (that isn’t summoned), the bodyguard.  “Good god!” exclaims the bodyguard, as Brennen leaps the Girallon, and then wails into him, hard.First Brennen jumps the gorilla, aided by the five foot platform, then he lands three shots on the bodyguard, including a critical!The four armed sahuagin screams in anger at Brennen escaping his clutches, and drives his trident down into the sacrificee’s chest.  He then curses again at Brennen, and rushes off to rejoin his felllows, who are retreating down the right-hand passageway.  Aris sees this, but can’t do anything since his path is blocked by the tiger, one remaining sahuagin, and a ghast.  He takes a  chance, and tries to tumble past all three!  He leapfrogs the tiger, landing on the steps, and somersaults over the altar, coming to a stop just feet away from the sahuagin and the ghast.  He lets them both have a burst of burning hands, taking them both down!Aris has an ungodly Tumble score - +16, I believe – and rolled a 19.  He’d have been toast if he hadn’t gotten at least a 25, since he would have taken three attacks of opportunity.He checks the figure on the altar, a boy of no more than fifteen, and tries to stop the bleeding, but has little luck.  Gavin cleaves his way through the last of the ghasts, but can’t help much either.  Corwin has been taking down a few ghasts invisibly, as he has no spells of note left.Brennen takes down the bodyguard, and begins advancing on the cultist leaders again. “Quinn!  Do something!” the leader says to his subordinate.  The second man beings casting a spell, and moments later, the ground is filled with black tentacles, covering the whole area.  The two spellcasters pull back their remaining summoned creatures, and array them behind them as they retreat slowly up the passageway; the two Nabassu, Girallon, tiger, and one lonely ghast form a rear guard.  If Brennen wants to get to the leaders, he will have to break his protection from evil spell against that one creature at least.  The Sword of Kelanen mutters innumerable curses under his breath, but doesn’t follow them; the party is too wiped out of magic and strength to continue on, especially past the evard’s black tentacles.Jalea and Reana begin sweeping up anything interesting from the fallen foes, and finally someone manages to stop the young sacrificee’s bleeding.“What now?” Reana asks.Just then comes a crumbling, cracking noise from the far passage, where the cultists retreated to.  Aris looks around, and notices the water level beginning to rise, slowly but steadily.“We’ve got to get out of here!” the bladesinger says, “and quickly!”They gather up the would-be-sacrifice, the scavenged items from their fallen enemies, and the still stiff-as-a-board Jovah, and rush back down to the basement under the Gregarious Gargoyle, where the Ghour Demon is quickly decomposing into demonic goo.   There, as they try to decide how to proceed,  Aris checks the trapdoor to the bar, and hears voices.  Jalea checks it out by sneaking up into the bar, and getting close enough to listen.  He sneaks behind the bar, and peaks over the topHe tenses as he sees the the tentacled gold-eyed creature slowly rising above the level of the bar……and then relaxes as he sees it’s on the tip of a spear!“Hey, lieutenant, what the hell is this?” the voice from the other room says.“Hell if I know.  Uh, put it in the evidence folder, I guess,” says another voice.“It’s too big for the evidence folder, sir.”“Well, then find a crate or something!  I want to get this done fast…”“Should we check that trapdoor, sir?”“No, I don’t like the smell from that basement…  maybe in the morning, when it’s light out.”Jalea smiles to himself.  The Ulfang constabulary is efficient, but not terribly brave.  Quite likely bought and paid for, too, Jalea considers.He returns to the basement, and informs the rest of the group of the constable’s presence.  They decide to find a hiding place in the sewers, and then after they’ve healed up, they will decide on a further course of action…</blockquote>

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