--continued--
A deep chuckle grumbled from the dragon as it saw the Balor. "IT HASh BEEN ShOME TIME ShINCE I TAShTED DEMON FLESH. THISh SHALL PROVE TO BE A FUN MEAL," it slurred with the helpless rogue dangling from its maw. The remaining party members quickly drank potions of a greater protection from fire, a barrier meant to absorb the mighty fire from the dragon. Spitting the rogue to the floor, the dragon unleashed it's mighty attacks against the Balor - claws, wing buffets, a mighty bite. All tore into the demon unerringly. But now it was the Balor's turn to laugh. The evil dragon's attacks did not have the special qualities to fully bypass the fiend's damage reduction. Where gaping wounds should have been, the Balor seemed barely scratched.
The rogue scrambled to his feet and springingly darted in at the dragon. He touched his puncturing rapier against the dragon's flesh and eased his blade past the thick scaly hide deep into its underbelly. The rapier seemed to drink the life from the mighty dragon, and it appeared noticably less fortified. As it roared in pain, the Balor slashed at the monsters neck with his vorpal blade. Causing wounds, but not deep enough to severe its head. His whip lashed against the scales as well, and a few flicked off almost unnoticed.
I knew that this creature was a far more powerful caster than I, so I cast a spell to shunt his experience to the negative energy plane. I had prepared the spell to have a maximum effect and the enervating ray struck the beast full in his chest. Much to my dismay, the ray seemed to waver and fade until it winked out without having any effect. The creature's natural spell resistance had foiled my attack.
The barbarian pulled out a new weapon - one created especially for this foe. Fearlessly he raced towards the dragon, who snapped his bite as the warrior raced through his threated area. Though struck by the mighty bite, the barbarian was able to slash his way from the creature's grappling bite. The dragon bane falchoin seemed to yearn for the dragon and he was able to strike a deep cut which caused great physical damage and also drained some of its fortification as the rogue's rapier had. The cleric, knowing that his foe was weakened - cast a mighty spell which sought to implode the creature. The dragon's spell resistance failed, but his strength was still such that him saving against the effect was little trouble. The archer began assaulting the dragon with dragonbane arrows, striking hard with several, but more clinked harmlessly aside.
The archer's companion, another cleric, had remained alert during the fight, and now readied an action to dispel any healing attempt by the dragon. Not knowing that this was prepared, the dragon attempted to Heal himself. The cohort was able to sacrifice one of his own heals to prevent the action.
The rogue, standing beside the huge dragon and smoking Balor, again placed his rapier deep into the dragon, soaking Constitution. And again - and when he withdrew his weapon from the dragon, fonts of steaming blood spilled onto the floor. "That's my load!" he cried.
Again the Balor lashed at the wounded dragon. Again few of his blows landed, but the dragon was hurt - and hurt badly. I did not want for the dragon to heal himself - so I tried to send it into an extradimensional maze. Hopefully, this would also give us more time to ready our next attacks. Unfortunately, the dragon's resistance defeated my attempt. Again.
The barbarian lashed repeatedly at the dragon, striking once causing it to bellow with pain as more life seeped away. The arrows plunged into its chest and wings - tearing gashes and burying to the fletches. The party's main cleric leveled a spell of Destruction at the dragon. This did not cause its death, but did cause pounding damage. The cohort cleric again prepared to dispel any healing. The end of the great beast was near!
With but a thought, the dragon shrunk down into a shadow again, and fled backwards through a wall to the south. We heard a spell being cast which several of us recognized as a Heal. This was then followed by a scream of pain. Apparently the shadow had forgotten that undead tend to have a "negative" reaction to heal spells.
---At this point the DM really had forgotten that he was a shadow and had cast heal on himself. For him to make a ---boo boo like that - needless to say it was pretty dang funny. But it wasn't dead.
The rogue drank a potion of healing to knit the wounds from the dragon bite, and began to run for the exit. With the dragon apparently retreated, he was not eager to follow it into a trap. I felt that the time to find and finish this monster had come, so I was intent on using all the preparation I had...um...prepared. So I drew forth another mighty scroll, which when its magics were released, I called forth another Balor from the Abyss. "Destroy the dragon!" I shouted to my fiendish ally.
"Hi Tom," the first Balor said to the newcomer.
"Hey, Jim," said the second.
The cleric threw open the curtain blocking the room in the rear of the main entrance room. We had thought that the shade would be behind the curtain, but he must have been beneath the floor. The shadow emerged from the floor of the room, and seemed to be barely holding onto it's existance. However, the shadow transformed into a Storm Giant and well out of the reach of the party - Healed himself. His wounds mended - and life seemed to rush back into him. Even one of the Balor's groaned.
The Balors moved towards the open wall where the curtain had been - blocking off passage for the dragon-now-giant. The Balors summoned their demonic magic and both firestormed the giant. No longer immune to fire, it felt the intense fire for likely the first time in its life. The other firestorm was shunted aside by his magical resistance. I had positioned myself to see inside the room and launched a fireball at the giant.
The monk, not wanting to squeeze past the Balors into the small room, opted to run to the 2' thick north stone wall and pound a hole through. Perhaps this was a strange time to take up architectural redecorating, but it would offer the rest of the party a porthole for attacks.
The barbarian rushed in past the Balors and carved another gash into the giant. Our attacks were taking a toll, and hope began to shine again. Arrows again struck home.
Reeling back against the close wall - the giant changed shape again returning to his natural form, crushing the barbarian underneath him. Concentrating to avoid attacks from the Balors, he cast a spell and thick acidic fog spread in the small room and around the Balors. The Balor's tried to strike the dragon, but were unable to strike it with any of their attacks. Ready for such a powerful spell, I had prepared and cast a Gust of Wind, which quickly dissapated the acid cloud.
Miraculously, the barbarian was able to wriggle free from the dragon, such that he was positioned between the Great Wyrm and the two Balors. He dusted himself off, and brandished his weapon. The monk was still working on his window. Stone dust flying from his fists.
The dragon now altered his tactics, he needed to detroy the Balors to get at the softer targets behind. So he unleased a full attack against a Balor. This time, however, the dragon harness his power to attack with much greater ferocity. Despite the more reckless attacks, all landed against the Balor and had nearly half of his life ripped from the mighty beast.
--The dragon was powerattacking and absolutely shredded the Balor. Even after damage reduction was taken into account, he had done about 170 points of damage in one full attack.
The Balors resumed their attacks, chipping away at more of the health of the great dragon. I aimed another ray of enervation at the beast, striking it - the ray pierced through his resistance and drained several caster levels from the dragon. This caused the dragon to lose his highest level spell slots in addition to lowering his capabilities..
The barbarian began hacking at the dragon, each slice ripping life from it. The monk, finished with his porthole, admired his own handiwork. The rogue tried to poke the dragon through the newly formed hole, chinking off it's armor. The archer lightly peppered the dragon with more dragonbane arrows, but the damage was quickly taking its toll. The cleric reached forward and Healed the Balor who had been hurt so badly earlier. Remarking on the oddity of healing a demon, he nevertheless brought the Balor's health back.
Angered at the healing of the Balor, the dragon sucked in a mighty breath. Each of us could feel a rush of air past us as it inhaled, and the cohort cleric could barely keep his footing. Then the dragon exhaled a gout of flame unlike anything I have ever experienced. It was like fires from the forge of creation had been unleashed to destroy the world. Only the Balors and the cleric were caught in the inferno, and although the Balors were immune to the destruction - the cleric was only saved by his earlier potion. The effects of the draught had prevented most of the damage, but not nearly all. His blackened armor steamed, and his tabbard had burned away. He then muttered something about that breath being hotter than "A Great White concert."
The Balors struck again, (this time the dice were rolled by the monk who declared that he could roll the nat20
) and the dragon evaded all of their attacks. Not a single attack pierced the tough scaly hide. I cast a Waves of Exhaustion which I shaped around the Balors and the pinned barbarian. Sadly, the spell resistance of the dragon foiled my spell. Again.
The cleric quickly tried to get away from the dragon and drank another potion to protect him from the flames. The barbarian and the rogue tried to poke the dragon through the porthole, while the monk started to work on another section of the wall. More arrows bit into the dragon from the archer.
Pulling back, the dragon changed shape again. This time taking the form of an angelic planetar. I could feel the Balors hatred surge forward as if floodgates of a river of pure evil had burst open. The planetar cast a spell, which some recognized as Greater Restoration. The cohort cleric - who had been maintaining his readied action, also recognized the spell, but he was unable to counter it as he did not have a similar spell prepared. To our dismay, the wounds again closed, the negative levels sloughed away.
Roaring with fury the Balor's lept at the angel, both attempting to grapple and pin the creature. The planetar slammed one of the demons away, and was barely able to escape the grasp of the other. The Balors were both inside the small room with the planetar. I needed to move closer to the action to target the planetar. I then cast a Greater Dispelling at the planetar and removed one of his high level spells.
The barbarian rushed back into the room, unable to strike the planetar through the porthole (because it didn't fill up the entire room any longer). He was able to tear through the planetar and golden blood and feathers spouted from it. After seeing the cleric charbroiled, the rogue decided this was a good time for him to drink his own potion of protection from fire. In his bizarre "TPK!" charge earlier he had neglected to do so. The monk was hard at work making another hole. And the archer shot more arrows at the planetar.
The planetar flew up into the air, causing the Balors and the barbarian to swing at him. The barbarian clipped a foot, and one of the Balors gashed a wing. Then the planetar transformed BACK into his collosal dragonform, crushing both Balors and the barbarian beneath him.
The Balors struggled unsuccessfully to free themselves, and I cast a maximized Ray of Enfeeblement at the great beast. It easily struck, overpowered his spell resistance and the dragon became noticably weaker. Hopefully that would help my Balors and the barbarian to free themselves from being pinned under the dragon's junk.
The monk finished his second hole; the archer attacked with more arrows; the barbarian squirmed helplessly. The rogue tried to attack from the hole, unsuccessfully. The cleric healed himself, which made him feel much better, but didn't do much about the smell of burned cleric that pervaded the area.
It was then that I realized my error of moving to the new position. With his enormous reach, the dragon snatched me in it's mouth and bit deep into my devilish flesh. (Note to self: beating a grapple check of 84 is very hard.) Over a third of my life spilled into the dragon's maw. He then squirmed and slapped his tail on the barbarian and the Balors.
Because of the grapple, all three of us (Balor Jim, Balor Tom, and I) were only able to cast verbal spells, so all three of us teleported away. Balors close, to block the hallway again. Me far, because I was pretty dang scared.
The barbarian groaned. The monk did a quivering palm attack on the dragon. Although it did not succeed, the monk took some Strength damage from the unholy aura. The rogue poked away. More arrows sunk into the dragon, and he was beginning to look haggard.
The dragon took his frustrations out on one of the Balors. Not a ferocious as earlier, but it still caused severe damage as his full bevy of attacks pounded the demon. Now the demons decided that they should use their magical abilities against this beast. Both Balors concentrated on Greater Dispelling the dragon. Along with some buff spells, they realized that they had also removed his Shapechange. Because the negative levels had wiped those slots from his mind, the dragon was effectively trapped in that small room.
I cast a polar ray at the beast, piercing his spell resistance and freezing his torn flesh to itself. He seemed to take extra damage from the cold nature of the spell, so I planned my further attacks accordingly.
The barbarian groaned. The monk slapped the dragon a few times and was finally able to hurt it without fear of the now dispelled aura. The rogue also was finally successful in attacking through the hole, which not only did physical damage but also drained constitution from the beast. More arrows pounded into it, the dragon was reeling.
In a panic, the dragon began hacking at the wall. It was physically unable to move past the blocking Balors, and it now tore at the wall. The Balors renewed their attacks and scored several more blows against the faltering dragon. I shaped a cone of cold around the Balors and it blasted the beast with frosty destruction.
The barbarian groaned. The archer pulled back a single arrow and aimed for the staggering wyrm. In one swift motion, the arrow sped from the bow and plunged itself deep into the open maw of the dragon. The tip of the arrow broke through the scaled skull. And the beasts eyes grew black. Their fire now extinguished. The head and neck of the dragon swayed lifelessly and then collapsed to the ground in a shattering thud. The great wyrm was defeated.
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Thanks for reading this. Hope you all enjoyed it. And thanks for the advice on how to fight (or run from) it in the first place.
