Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 258692" data-attributes="member: 202">Temple of Elemental Evil - Part 41 (session 18)Dawn arrived quietly like a cat slinking home after a night of hunting.  Mazi rose from last watch to rouse the others.  The preternatural silence of the woods seemed to muffle the sounds they made as they struck camp.  They had decided as they began camp the night before that today they would abolish the evil of the Water Temple.  Each were lost in their own thoughts as they went about their tasks.  Milo occupied his mind by figuring out what they might be thinking.  He decided Mazithra was absorbed with thoughts about the head priest that they would be facing that day.  He knew that she was extremely uncomfortable with what the priest said in their first meeting about her and some 'Thari'.  He knew Brigit had to be thinking about her father.  Ever since they left the temple she had grown surly and quiet.  Milo remembered what the salamanders chanted in the fire.  He was sure they weren't done with the Fire Temple yet.  Jeremiah was harder to decipher.  He was always silent, only speaking when absolutely necessary.  Milo thought he was unusually somber for one so young.  He did know that Jer had a great responsibility to his tribe back on the plateaus.  Perhaps that is what occupied his thoughts.They discussed tactics as they traveled through the woods.  Milo assured them that he prayed for spells specifically for dealing with the priest of the Water Temple.  He wasn't happy with how he had escaped them before.  They all vowed that he wouldn't escape again.  Mazi seemed grateful for the thought.The temple sat as it had since long before their time, unchanged by their actions of the last few weeks.  That changed at the door though.  As soon as they entered the temple they could tell something was different.  Everything was cast in a greenish-blue hue.  It was as if the air itself had taken on a different color.  The normally musty smell that filled the halls had intensified and taken on a sea-air quality.  Far in the distance, or perhaps deep underground, they could hear the steady beat of great drums.  Milo thought back to the last time they heard that sound and the climactic battle that followed.  The villain had gotten away that day, he was determined that their foe would not escape this time.The drums grew louder as they descended the stairs to the second level.  The sound reminded Milo of a beating heart.  Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump.  He couldn't help but notice that all of the remains they had left strewn about were gone.  Brigit had done a thorough job of dismembering all of them, so raising them as undead would be difficult.  They could be reanimated though, like their old friend Bordy.  He shuddered at the thought of an army of flesh golems shambling towards them.  It was almost as bad as the undead.Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump.  The rhythm picked up pace by the time they descended to the third level.  The drums echoed throughout the halls, drowning out their careful footsteps.  The beating gave them a sense of urgency, like a lightning bolt striking too close as you run to get out of the rain.  Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump.  Milo gripped the hafts of Reft and Rend with sweaty hands as they neared the Water Temple.  They entered the room preceding the chamber where the original battle against the water priest occurred.  It was empty, completely devoid of life and unlife.  They could tell the drums were being beaten beyond the secret door into the chamber.  Milo paused and ignored the drums for a minute.  He concentrated on a spell granted to him by Usamigaras that morning.  The familiar shimmer that followed one of his protection spells surrounded the whole party."Stay close, the circle against evil only extends a few feet from me.""We will if we can." Mazi responded.  "I want to cast a spell of my own before we go in."Mazi slung her bow around her shoulder and began her incantation.  Her fingers formed complex symbols almost faster than the eye could follow.  She suddenly stopped and a look of intense concentration came over her face."I can see the large fountain.  The water is still though.""What tha devil is she babblin' about?" Brigit began."Shhhh!  It's a divination." Milo interrupted with a whisper."There are four figures, two on either side of the altar near the middle.  I think they're zombies, definitely bugbears.  They're beating the drums."Milo fingered Usamigaras' holy symbol that hung from his neck.  He hoped he could perform the same kind of turning that obliterated the last batch of undead they faced."A man is lying on it, alive.  Another man is holding a knife over him.  It's the water priest!"  At this her face contorted into a mask of loathing.  "I think - yes, the man on the altar is the earth priest.  The water priest is about to kill him!""Enough O' this.  Let's go!" Brigit stumped to the secret door and activated the catch.The drums reached a crescendo as they entered.  Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump. The heroes seemed to be unnoticed, more likely ignored.  The water priest's back was to them.  He was caught up in the frenzy of his ritual.  Milo examined the room quickly, taking in the sight of the zombie bugbear drummers.  The room was much as they left it, except that the bugbear corpses, the juggernaut, and the broken gargoyles were all gone.The priest shouted words in a strange language, one that made the skin on Milo's arms crawl.  Milo readied his silence spell.  He hoped to disrupt whatever ritual the priest was performing.  The sound of the drums sped up even more, growing deafening.  THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!Just as it seemed like their eardrums would burst, it stopped.  Complete and utter silence filled the vacuum left by the drums.  The absence of sound hurt Milo's sensitive ears almost as much as the beating of the drums.It lasted only for seconds.  The stillness was broken by a piercing scream.  The water priest's twisted knife plunged into the chest of the bound earth priest.  The cry trailed off into a weak sigh as the life drained from his body and his blood stained the altar.It was as if a spell on the heroes was broken as they all launched into action as one.  Jeremiah charged the nearest zombie.  His sword cleaved through its unfeeling flesh down to the spine, severing the vital link.  Milo released his silence spell on the altar itself.  He hoped to prevent any spells from the priest.  Mazithra ran to the other side of the room and cast a new spell, aimed directly at her enemy.  A fire arrow sped from her pointing finger to sizzling impact on the priest's back.  Brigit charged after the arcane arrow and joined her axe to its damage.Surprised, the priest staggered under the attacks.  He turned to see the invaders with an almost feral look in his eyes.  He tried to speak and the feral gleam turned to shock.  Milo grinned.  The zombies didn't need to speak though.  The three remaining zombies lurched into motion and dropped their drums.  One stumbled in-between Jeremiah and Brigit and the other two shambled towards Mazi.  It was then that Milo noticed strange capsules that hung around their rotting necks.Their purpose soon became dreadfully clear as each zombie reached up to their capsule and pulled the cork.  Three detonations rocked the room as the "glyphs of warding hidden in the capsules activated.  Jeremiah and Brigit ducked the blast and flying zombie bits.  Mazi didn't escape as easily.  Her lithe reflexes allowed her to avoid most of the first blast but she rolled right into the path of the second.  She was blown back a pace by the explosion.  An audible grunt escaped her lips as she sprawled to the ground."This," she said as she climbed to her feet, "is why I hate that man."The priest leered at Mazi as he backed around the altar and out of the range of Milo's silence spell.  He shouted more words in the outlandish language of the ritual.  The twisting syllables and harsh consonants almost hurt to hear.  He gestured to the fountain and then to the heroes.  The fountain began to churn.Milo quickly summoned another spell to mind.  He cast sound burst at the priest and was happy to see the effects reach all the way to the fountain.  Some sort of black liquid swirled in the bubbling water and the water priest covered his ears against the sonic assault.  Mazithra worked her fingers into arcane formations and cast her own spell to disrupt the priest.  Sticky strands of her magical web sprang into being like a compressed ball of yarn exploding.  The web covered the fountain and stuck the priest firmly to the wall he backed into.The stench of the briny deep filled the room as slimy tendrils slipped out of the seething water of the fountain.  The tendrils gripped the lip of the fountain and heaved an immense body into view.  Eight tentacles dotted with vicious suckers whipped around as the summoned octopus searched for its prey.  Another heave of its huge body brought its flailing tentacles closer to the combatants.Brigit and Jeremiah stepped back, not eager to face eight tentacles as once.  Brigit drew her bow and an arrow in a flash and fired a shot at the menace.  The arrow sped faster than a swallow towards its target only to bounce harmlessly off its rubbery hide.  "Don' tell me, magic only?" she cursed."Maybe, that or you have to hit it harder." Mazi shouted back.The priest could be heard shouting in his harsh tongue from within the web.  He pointed at Brigit almost triumphantly.  Brigit froze in mid-draw.  She trembled for a moment as she tried to break free from the curse the priest flung at her.  She strained against the invisible bonds that the hold person spell drew around her.  Suddenly she was free, her willpower overcoming the spell.  She turned to the priest with a vicious snarl, paused, then stuck out her tongue.  Brigit turned around in a little jig as she held her bow and arrow over her head.  The priest cursed in his guttural language.Jeremiah had stepped back with Brigit and drawn his own bow.  He pulled back on the heavy string and aimed for the immense bulk of the octopus.  His arrow sped as Brigit's did, but this time it stuck.  Thick black ichor seeped from the wound and the octopus emitted a piercing cry.  His next arrow bounced off like Brigit's first."See, you've just got to hit it hard!" Mazi said as she launched her lightning bolt at the fiendish monstrosity.  The bolt fizzled midstream.  Mazi, hampered by her armor, had been unable to complete the spell.Then the octopus was upon them.  Brigit, Jeremiah, and Milo virtually danced to avoid the flailing tentacles.  Brigit and Jeremiah's heavy armor made them slower targets.  The octopus whipped a tentacle into each, sending their heads spinning.  Milo managed to tangle two of the tentacles together for a moment with his nimble tumbling.It was then that a palpable miasma settled on them.  The priest had cast an unholy blight right in their midst.  Milo seemed least affected by it.  He shrugged off the affects quickly and focused on the battle.  Mazithra was hit much harder with the blight she doubled over and emptied her stomach in a quick succession of painful heaves.  The priest cackled.Milo could see the dire strait Mazi was in and disengaged from the octopus.  He ducked under a flailing tentacle and tumbled by two others that whipped past him.  He was soon at Mazi's side with a healing spell ready.  Mazi herself sat down and pulled out a healing draught to recover from the sickness and the burns she sustained.The priest ceased cackling and pointed a bony finger at Milo.  "Vile avatar of a long dead god!  You will die!"With that an icy mist coalesced before him and sharpened into tiny daggers.  The stream of hardened air raced towards Milo.  He recognized the sword stream as it was cast and hoped he could dodge the small blades.  The priest didn't count on the effect of Mazi's web.  The daggers cut through pieces of the mystical trap but were nearly spent by the time they reached the edge.  The spell didn't have enough impetus to reach Milo.Mere feet away the octopus proved it was a challenging foe.  Only one of Brigit and Jeremiah's attacks pierced its thick skin.  It's retaliation was vicious.  Tentacle after tentacle slammed into the heroes.  Jeremiah was buffeted back and forth like a child's toy.  His eyes glazed over after four repeated blows sapped the energy out of him.  Brigit tried to avoid the tentacles coming her way.  She managed to dodge one but stepped into another.  The tentacle wrapped around her, squeezing her armor into her flesh.  Another tentacle whipped around her torso, followed by yet another.  Brigit was caught in a deathgrip by the fiendish octopus.  She strained at the tentacles, unwilling to be held by spell or by creature.  Brigit summoned the strength of the dwarves from deep within and broke one of the tentacles' hold.  She ripped free of another then pried loose the third with a roar.Milo paused a moment to make sure Mazi was all right before springing to Jeremiah's aid.  He jumped into a forward handspring and bounded over a questing tentacle.  Once by Jer's side he channeled another spell into healing energy and bolstered the barbarian's dwindling reserves.  Jeremiah shook his head and charged back into the fight.  His sword punctured the octopus and sunk deep.  More of the black ichor oozed out of the wound and the great beast reared away from the pain.The octopus was far from finished.  This time it had three targets to deal with and it seemed to know just where to strike.  Two tentacles slammed into Milo, sweeping him off his feet.  He sprang up immediately but could feel a cracked rib where he had been hit.  Brigit and Jeremiah were slammed as well and Milo could tell that they wouldn't last through much more of this abuse.Suddenly the priest stopped struggling in his bonds.  A sly, knowing look passed over his face.  He spoke quietly but nothing happened.  Milo could tell he cast a spell but couldn't tell what.  Mazi tried to attack him from her vantage point outside the web but found that she couldn't quite force herself to bring down the sword.  Milo then knew what he had cast, sanctuary.Meanwhile Jeremiah had taken enough from the octopus.  His blood boiled as he drew from an inner well of strength.  He loosed a deep bellow as his barbarian rage took over.  Milo could see his muscles bulge as his plate mail expanded and marveled at his ferocity.  The plateau barbarian charged into the writhing mass of tentacles again, delivering a piercing thrust with the Windsword.  The octopus screeched it's piercing cry again.Brigit and Milo joined their friend.  Both of them cut deep as they drew nearer to the rubbery body of the beast.  It flailed back and connected with multiple tentacles.  All three were slammed by the attack, taking even more damage.  Jeremiah's raging constitution saved him from being knocked out completely.  Brigit was very close to toppling over as well.Back at the web Mazi struggled to attack the priest.  Her sword came inches from her hated enemy but she couldn't force it into him no matter how hard she tried.  The priest smirked at her before he began to pull at his bonds once again.The others surged back together in one last desperate onslaught against the octopus.  Jeremiah single-mindedly hacked into a tentacle, lopping it off near the base.  His attack opened the way for Milo.  He tumbled into the opening and sliced away at the thick hide.  Reft and Rend had no trouble cutting through the rubbery skin of the beast.  Dark ichor flew and the octopus began to keen as he chopped deeper.  With three strokes of his axes he found a vital organ.  The keening ended and the whole octopus seemed to deflate around them.  Tentacles practically rained down before bouncing lifelessly on the ground.Milo dug himself out from under the sagging skin of the dead octopus.  "That's right, they slice, they dice, they serve up sushi in record time!"He was the only one paying attention to himself.  Brigit and Jeremiah had turned to address the threat of the priest.  Mazi still couldn't attack him.  In a flash Brigit drew her bow again and fired two arrows in quick succession at the bound priest.  The web was too thick between them and the arrows got caught in its sticky strands.The priest stopped struggling again, a bemused expression on his face.  He held up his hand and stared at the ring on his right index finger.  Suddenly a brilliant flash of light flared from the gold band.  The webs around the priest slipped off and he was free.  He snarled at the others as they hurried to bring him down.  He summoned a divine storm right in-between the three heroes.  Blades sprung into being and sliced into their legs.  They managed to move out avoiding the better part of the whirlwind, but Brigit was on her last legs and Jeremiah didn't look much better.  Even Milo was beginning to feel lightheaded from his wounds.Jeremiah and Brigit fired off more arrows at the priest.  The arrows fared better with the web out of the way.  The priest was wounded, but not out.  Milo cast his lesser version of sword stream and directed it towards the priest.  He was disappointed to see his foe dodge most of the knife spray.  Meanwhile Mazi was busy swearing a storm in elven while trying to attack, unsuccessfully.That was when the priest ran.</blockquote>

Verification