Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 1031292" data-attributes="member: 202">The Lost City - Part 11 (Session 34)Milo awoke on what he assumed was the next morning. He had trouble marking the passage of time in the sunless caverns. After a brief breakfast and a discussion on tactics, the entire party met at the pier. Mazi, Kella, and Milo busied themselves with the casting of numerous preparatory spells. Protection abounded in the party when they were done. By the time they had finished a crowd had gathered at the end of the pier; Milo hoped it was a safe distance.”No time like the present to get in over your head. Would you do the honors Jeremiah?” Milo gestured to the gong.CHONG!Milo shifted nervously in his armor. They had never fought a god before, not even a false one. CHONG!He figured they got away lucky from the temple, defeating the temple forces and being teleported away before anything really big was awakened.CHONG!Fighting Zargon must be some kind of karmic thing. Trade one ancient evil for another.”You’re up,” Mazi’s words broke Milo’s reverie. He nodded and set to casting. In moments a divine sixth sense flowed from his being. He directed the detect evil out over the water towards the island. The limited range of the spell prevented him from extending it all of the way out to the barren rock, but it was only moments before his senses were flooded with pure, malevolent evil. Seconds later they could all see bubbles breaking the murky surface of the water. The pockets of air moved slowly but determinedly towards the pier.”Get ready, here he comes!” Milo shouted unnecessarily. Zargon’s single horn crested the water first, followed by a single, baleful eye. His lamprey-like mouth made disturbing sucking noises as it cleared the surface. Six flailing tentacles splashed gouts of silted water on the pier. Milo noted with a resigned dread that Zargon was identical to the statue in Zenobea’s temple, right down to the wickedly curved talons capping his tentacles.He reacted first, conjuring up a divine storm on a sloping plane right through Zargon. A noise that Milo could only assume was a laugh emerged from Zargon’s tooth-ringed maw as the blades whirled and bounced off of his rubbery hide. The laugh was cut short as Mazi’s lightning bolt arced into the half-submerged monstrosity. As he gasped in pain Kella cast Miasma, filling his maw with deadly gasses. Zargon shrugged off the effects of Mazi’s attack and seemed to breath in Kella’s conjured vapors with relish. With barely a splash Zargon slipped back into the water, out of sight. As the others readied themselves for Zargon’s assault, Kella cast another spell. Her ice storm was aimed randomly at the water and Milo doubted if they’d ever know if Zargon felt the pelting hailstones. Milo used a prayer that had served them well in the past. He hoped to bolster his friends and weaken Zargon with the same action.Seconds later Zargon emerged with a surprising speed that his frame did not reflect. A hideous voice emerged from his sucker-like mouth, ”After ages, I have my revenge!” He slithered up the shore on six tentacles emerging from his thick trunk. He lashed out with a clawed tentacle, raking a large scratch into Jeremiah’s plate mail as Jer returned the blow with slightly more effect. Kella backed away and cast another ice storm, this time they knew the huge stones of ice made contact, they just didn’t seem to damage Zargon at all.Jeremiah pressed his attack as lightning bolts flew from Mazi’s fingers. Brigit charged in to join the fray. She was caught by surprise as one of Zargon’s long tentacles lashed out. He smote the dwarf with a profane power that struck her to the core. Milo tried to distract Zargon with a confusion spell. For a moment it seemed as if it would work. It appeared that Milo was able to penetrate the unearthly resistance Zargon had shown towards his spells, but he was disheartened as the indomitable will of a being that had lived for an eon merely shrugged off the spell. The moment’s distraction is what Brigit needed to recover. She finished her charge and she and Jeremiah layed into Zargon like two woodcutters chopping a great redwood.Kella conjured up a swarm of spiders to plague Zargon’s tentacles as Milo, Brigit, and Jeremiah attempted to surround the monstrous ancient. All three scored multiple hits, slicing into his rubbery skin and releasing a black ichor that resembled anything but blood. Undeterred, Zargon shifted back into the water away from the spiders and lashed out with two tentacles. Time seemed frozen for an agonizing moment as the tentacles sunk their wicked claws into Milo’s sides. Milo’s chest burst into pain as the claws rended through him. All Milo could hear was a sick ripping noise as his skin was torn through. Milo staggered back along with the others, not wishing to fall victim to more of Zargon’s reach attacks. Mazi continued to loose lightning bolts into Zargon. His skin singed, but he showed no signs of faltering. Suddenly, the false god slithered back under the water and out of sight. Milo clutched his bloody chest and stared out at the water. There were no bubbles this time.After the seconds stretched on to minutes it was obvious that Zargon had done his damage for the day. Mazi quickly cast her arcane eye to try tracking him back to the island. The water was entirely too murky to see through from the raised silt, so she directed the eye to the shore of the distant island.As Mazi searched for Zargon, Kella ran to the end of the pier and shouted insults at the retreating monster. Most were in a language Milo didn’t understand, but he could guess at her meaning. Milo joined her at the end of the pier.  He ignored the pain from his wound and picked up the gong hammer.CHONG, CHONG, CHONG, CHONG, CHONG!”Come back, you coward of a god! Come get the revenge you’ve waited so long for!” Milo shouted. He eventually lapsed into silence before his throat was worn raw. Zargon was not coming back.Meanwhile Mazithra’s eye had made it to the rocky shore of the island. She described a ruined parthenon at the center. Broken columns littered the ground like stark-white bones on an ancient battlefield. There also seemed to be a ghostly presence on the isle, but every time she focused the eye the wispy traces disappeared. She searched the island for any traces of Zargon, but found none.By then the crowd behind them had grown quite loud. It seemed they thought that Zargon was defeated. Milo groaned at the thought of the chanting that was sure to follow. He groaned even louder at the thought of what the people’s reaction would be when they found that Zargon was still very much alive and likely to be very angry after today.</blockquote>

Verification