Temple of Elemental Evil - part 26 (session 11)
He's a fast bugger." Milo thought to himself as he chased the fleeing rogue.
Milo was just as fast, even gaining on the retreating figure. The rogue darted to the right into a doorway. Milo followed close behind. The room beyond was lined with beds as the hallway behind him. A sturdy wardrobe also decorated the room. A table littered with maps and notes sat in the middle of the room and a fire roasted food near the hearth. Milo noticed a trickling fountain set in the wall to his left. Two door led out of the room to his right, one had just been used.
Milo leaped to the door, tore it open, and stopped dead in his tracks. Five very angry men looked back at the panting halfling. Seconds later Milo was running again, in the opposite direction. Two javelins and two crossbow quarrels chased him out of the room. He was surprised when he made it back to the hallway, no one had followed him.
Out of breath and thankful for his life, Milo returned to his companions.
"Four - fresh - guards - and - the - rogue." He puffed between breaths.
"Ach, they know we're here, we canna take em by surprise. They've prolly got a nice lil' ambush set up fer us in there." lamented Brigit.
"Hang - on - a second." Milo said. Once he caught his breath, "Let me heal up a bit and we'll set up an ambush of our own."
"Ah like tha way ya think, Milo." Brigit said excitedly.
Once Milo healed himself they retreated to the minotaur's room. They arrayed themselves to either side of the secret door, readied their range weapons, and waited. After a few moments they could hear sounds from the hall. Milo heard voices and some movement, but no one peeked out of the secret door.
Time stretched one, every second seeming like minutes. The tension built up, the aggravating wait began to gnaw at Milo.
"Ok, here's the new plan." said Milo after he couldn't take it anymore. "I'm going to go invisible, check things out, and see what trouble I can bring back here."
With that Milo called on Usamigaras' domain of trickery to render himself invisible. He snuck back into the hallway, wary of any traps or tripwires. The door to the first room was still open so inside Milo crept. The room was empty as far as he could see. The left-hand door, the one he had run through before, was closed.
Milo cursed mentally, unwilling to risk further attacks on his own. Milo left the door and returned to his companions. He told them in a disembodied voice of the lack of people and the likely ambush waiting beyond the closed door.
"We'll jus' have ta wait here for em then." Brigit said.
"Ok, I'm going to stay invisible then. Twice the surprise!" Milo whispered.
Just as Milo returned to his position the door in the southwest corner of the room burst open. Six large and vicious bugbears spilled into the room, searching for targets.
Thinking quickly, Brigit spun around, shut the secret door, and started to pound her pitons into the wall. She soon had the door completely jammed. The others turned to attack the new threat.
Mazi was able to fire off two shots before Jeremiah closed the distance to the bugbears. He tore into the first bugbear with abandon, completely cutting it in two. Milo moved next to Jeremiah and let loose a deadly knife spray, becoming visible immediately. By then the bugbears were more than aware of the battle and most dodged the spray from Milo's fingertips.
Brigit finished spiking the door just as she heard voices and pounding from the other side, followed by shouted instructions to "go the back way". She shouted a warning to her friends before joining them in the fray.
Now visible, Milo suffered two blows from the attacking bugbears, pushing him backwards with their force. Jeremiah took one particularly mean slash to his leg. The wound was just enough to push him over the edge. Jeremiah growled in rage, his muscles bulged, and his eyes went wild.
Just as Jer moved to attack Milo heard Mazithra shout, "Zaboomifoo!" She had used her Wand of Enlarge!
Jeremiah grew as he bore down on the bugbears, soon he towered above them, his greatsword was the size of a tree as it came slashing down on three separate bugbears, killing two and wounding a third badly.
Milo drew his axes in preparation for more close combat. He stood next to the towering giant Jeremiah had become. On Jer's left Brigit fought axe to sword with another of the monsters.
The third bugbear sidled behind Brigit, dividing her attention. It didn't get the chance to exploit its advantage, Jeremiah spun around and sliced clean through it. His spin took him around full circle to cut down the next bugbear as well.
"Zaboomifoo!" came from Mazi again. This time Brigit grew.
She was soon as tall as Jeremiah used to be. He enlarged axe cut through the last bugbear with ease. Sheathing her weapon, Brigit ran to the door, slammed it shut, and spiked it closed as well. Mazi and Milo drew their bow and crossbow. Now they had only one avenue of attack to watch.
They didn't need to watch for long, a half dozen more bugbears were soon tromping up the hall towards them. Jeremiah charged with abandon, his greatsword sliced through three more of them before they could even enter the room.
The others fired their range weapons before the enemies could come into close quarters. Behind the bugbears were four guards and another lieutenant or captain. Milo loosed an exasperated sigh, they just didn't stop coming.
The bugbears charged into the room making way for the human guards. One bugbear flanked Brigit while another attacked Mazi, wounding her slightly. A human guard stabbed Jeremiah, finding it easy to hit him while he was in his enraged state.
The human had no time to revel in his minor victory, he was brought down next to his comrade and another of the bugbears with Jeremiah's next blinding attack. The barbarian was in a frenzied battle haze as he relentlessly hacked away at his opponents.
Mazi took a cautious step away from the bugbear, leaving herself enough room to form an arcane shield in front of her person. Brigit distracted her enemy after she destroyed the bugbear attacking her.
The remaining humans and bugbear mounted a weak attack before Jeremiah's rage consumed them. Mazi felled the bugbear with a well-aimed arrow to the head. The room fell quiet. The four waited for another charge from the open passage, or for more pounding on the spiked doors.
After a few moments of tense silence they allowed themselves to relax slightly. It seemed that the attacks had stopped, for the time being.
"Whew, they mean business." said Milo with a low whistle. He looked around the room at the bodies of the fallen. "Neither were we though.
"Got that right Milo. Brigit agreed. "Ah like that enlarge thingy Mazi. So this is what tha world looks like ta ya, Jeremiah."
"I thought it might come in handy. The added strength at the very least." Mazi said.
"Okay, let's take care of these bodies before we're attacked again. Why don't you and Jeremiah stand watch near the passage while Mazi and I check the bodies?" Milo asked Brigit.
"Aye, get ta work." replied Brigit.
Before setting about the corpses Milo drew out his Staff of Healing then used it on himself and Jeremiah. The staff almost completely healed the wounds they had received in the last battle.
He and Mazi searched the bodies quickly, finding a good amount of coins distributed among the soldiers. The lieutenants had slightly better gear, they divested them of the more valuable items and kept them for identification later.
"Done here, let's un-spike the secret door and finish up in the other room." Milo piped up.
Still enlarged and feeling strong, Brigit and Jeremiah agreed readily. Brigit wrenched out her pitons and they pivoted the door. The hallway lined with bunks still had the bodies of the dead. No ambush awaited them on the other side. Milo and Mazi went to work again, finding the highest concentration of gear on the dead rogue. They kept his armor, sword, cloak, and coin pouch.
While they were working Brigit was listening in on the door leading to the previously empty fountain room Milo ran through before.
"Shhhh!" Brigit quieted them, "There's some mighty heavy breathin' on tha other side 'O this door."
"We're done, are you two up to taking out whatever's behind this door too?" Milo asked. "I know that other rogue either knows something, or has something. We can't let him get away."
"Ah said it before, yer a halflin' after me own heart, Milo." Brigit said quietly.
