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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SolidSnake" data-source="post: 201059" data-attributes="member: 102">Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Session 13- “The dead friend will not really die until tomorrow, when silence is round you again. Then he will show himself complete, as he was--to tear himself away, as he was, from the substantial you. Only then will you cry out because of him who is leaving and whom you cannot detain. “ -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (or “And another one bites the dust…”)The search for an additional member to the party was more difficult than the Band had anticipated. Most of the local men had no wish to travel into the "cursed mines." Everyone was about to give up when a halfling melded away from a roving crowd of human loggers. With audacity uncommon for a man of that stature, the halfling walked straight up to the Band and introduced himself. Halfling (addressing Elias): “My name is Stacy and I would be interested in joining your party.” Aramek (between bouts of laughter): “Your name is Stacy??!” Bandar (ignoring Aramek): “How do you know of us?” Stacy: “Your fame has spread through the village like wildfire…the daring group of adventurers that continuously risks its life to quell the evil in the mines.” Bandar: “Are you sure you want to join? It is no easy task and many of our members are dead already.” Stacy: “I understand and accept this responsibility.” Bandar: “What skills do you have that could be useful to us?” The halfling seemed to ponder the words for a moment before his face contorted in a mask of distress at something approaching the group from behind. Needless to say everyone turned instinctively only to find that there was no danger at all. When their gazes came back to the halfling, he was gone! Bandar: “He's in.” With its newfound strength, the Band entered the Crater Ridge Mines once again. Their travels took them past the cavern where they had fought the rust monster and its ettin master, into an even greater cave containing a dwarven device used to scoop rock onto a raised track. A quick inspection revealed that someone had recently used the ancient track. The inquisitive party decided to continue onward past the great machine, but was stopped cold by a booming voice that spoke from the darkness ahead in Common. “STOP!” Elias was the only member of the Band who had a gift with languages and so it was he who recognized the accent inherent in the voice's pronunciation. Elias (in draconic): “Who are you?” Dragon (in common): “An educated man…impressive. However, your education has not prepared you for a battle with me. I suggest that you not jump to conclusions about your current predicament and proceed to attack me.” Elias: “What would you have of us then?” Dragon: “A simple sign of respect for gracing my lands would be sufficient to allow your passage to remain unmolested.” Not wanting to do battle with another dragon, the Band quickly relieved themselves of a few choice gems. This seemed to appease the dragon and allow the party some respite against violence. Elias: “I am curious as to what kind of dragon you are.” Dragon (with a chuckle): “You mean what breed don’t you? Well I’m sure that I could teach you a thing or two about Dragon Lore, but I must say that I am a…costly tutor.” Bandar: “Which elemental temple rules now?” Dragon: “The fire temple of course.” Everyone agreed that traveling towards the dragon was a mistake, so they took a tunnel that traveled in the opposite direction. The roughly hewn stone began to show growth as the party continued onward until the Band found themselves in a veritable underground fungal forest. Some mushrooms were as tall as a man; the Band gave those a wide berth as they traveled forward. The tunnel began to descend rapidly, until the party came across a narrow staircase. At the base of the stairs was the maggot-ridden body of a decapitated umber hulk. No one in the party had ever had any experience with the creature, but everyone was sure from Aramek’s stories that it was a monster not to be trifled with. The group huddled closer and pressed on cautiously, some of the members having second thoughts about continuing. These doubts proved to be well founded as the party rounded the bend of a rather narrow tunnel and found themselves in another cavern. The cavern was fairly sparse, save a huge pit in its center filled with bones and feces…but this wasn’t what attracted everyone’s attention. The sight of two giant scaly humanoids with razor-sharp claws and daggers for teeth was enough to cause the Band to forget their own names. The trolls charged screaming into the party’s ranks. Aramek barely had time to raise his shield in defense as one of the troll’s claws ripped through his dragonscales, tearing bone and flesh indiscriminately. The sturdy dwarf retaliated by introducing his warhammer to the troll’s face, smashing its jaw into thousands of pieces. Elias attempted to burn the troll’s companion with a rolling ball of flame, but the creature proved to be too quick for his spell. Bandar’s powers shook the earth and knocked one of the trolls to the ground, buying time for the rest of the party to gain position. Arrows from Elias and a Color Spray from Stacy wore away at the troll’s resolve. Just when victory seemed eminent, the battle was joined by another troll wearing armor decorated in the religious symbols of Tharizdun. This creature carried a massive double-bladed sword that stretched nearly twenty feet in length! The confrontation became more desperate as the Band adjusted their strategy for this new enemy. Both sides spilled much blood, but the trolls seemed to have the advantage as their flesh instantly restored itself after every blow. Daggers and arrows protruded from all the trolls, but somehow it didn’t seem to faze them. Attempts by Bandar to scramble the troll’s molecules did show results, but it was not enough to destroy the creature. Eventually the Band was able to win the encounter by the sheer physical trauma they inflicted upon the enemy, but at the cost of a mortally wounded priest of Pelor. While some of the members cut the trolls into pieces, others doused the remains in oil and set them aflame. The armored troll; however, did not burn like the rest so the solution was to sever the head and chop the body into a fine paste. Bandar called a retreat knowing the situation the party was in: Bandar and Stacy had expended most of their powers, Aramek was exhausted after his berserker rage, and Lathander was unconscious. The plan was to allow Stacy to scout ahead, while Elias and Bandar covered Aramek as he transported Lathander. Stacy knew that he was all but invisible and silent as he ascended the stairs past the dead umber hulk body, but it didn’t seem to matter. As he moved away from the top of the stairs, the wall behind him exploded in a shower of rock. The halfling reacted quickly by flowing with the force of the impact and rolling beyond the reach of the umber hulk that had now made its presence known. Yelling a warning to the other members of the party, Stacy ran, attempting to draw the umber hulk away from the party. The plan did not work as the umber hulk was interested in weakened prey. The colossal creature shambled forth, its mandibles clicking menacingly.Elias reacted quickly, calling for both Bandar and Aramek to run past it while he would keep it busy.  Aramek understood the gravity of the situation and did not argue with Elias on this point; tossing Tresh’s spear to Bandar, he heaved Lathander’s body over his shoulder and ran towards the stairs.  Bandar followed him, but more slowly as he became fascinated with the lights that had begun to illuminate the haft of the spear.  What is this?  When both men reached the stairs; however, they simply stopped dead in their tracks.  Neither dwarf seemed to care that a battle raged between Elias and the umber hulk.Stacy came back to the party only to find Elias in single combat with the umber hulk and the dwarves essentially paralyzed in a stupor by the stairs.  The halfling watched the elf dance about the umber hulk’s claws and land blow after blow in the creases of the monster’s carapace.  Blood was streaming down the man’s arm and leg, but he didn’t seem to notice as he moved graceful from one stance to the next.  Frustrated by the skill its prey showed, the umber hulk lashed out more furiously at Elias.  The elf nimbly dodged both claws, but had not anticipated the speed of its mandibles.  Stacy watched in horror as he saw the pincers rip through his new companion.  Elias dropped his weapons in shock and attempted to free himself of the creature’s grasp, but it was too late…a massive claw ended the elf’s agony by tearing out his throat.Stacy: “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”The umber hulk had just enough time to turn so that it could see the dagger imbed itself into its compound eye.  Stacy wasn’t sure if it was his scream that awoke Aramek from his stupor, but frankly he didn’t care.  It was one of the greatest sights he had ever witnessed when the dwarf dropped Lathander’s body to the ground and swung his warhammer into the unprepared umber hulk’s back.  He could hear the crunch of its armor even from where he stood.  That pleasure was short-lived; with a casual swipe, the umber hulk dropped the great dwarven warrior to the earth.  The monster grabbed Bandar’s still motionless form and proceeded to walk towards Stacy; it paid him no mind whatsoever, even as the halfling peppered the umber hulk with his remaining daggers.  The umber hulk was about to enter its layer when the halfling managed to strike the creature in a particular sensitive area at the base of the head.  The umber hulk dropped Bandar and rounded on the terrified halfling.  A single swipe from its claw was enough tear into Stacy’s torso and fling him nearly ten feet into the air, but the halfling just laughed as his body rebounded from the ground.  In its anger, the umber hulk had made a tactical miscalculation: it had presumed that there was only one enemy remaining, when there were actually two.  Coming to this realization to late, the umber hulk only shuddered as Bandar’s new spear impaled it through the chest.Both wounded men took some time to check on everyone’s status before hauling the bodies back to a secluded cave.  Neither Stacy nor Bandar slept that night to ensure that nothing got the drop on them.  Bandar wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating from sleep deprivation, but during the night he thought he saw Stacy weeping.  Whatever the facts, Bandar was not about to inform anyone of this, so he simply waited until Lathander awoke before he passed out from exhaustion.  By the time the dwarf opened his eyes, the rest of the party (saved Elias) was restored.  No one talked as they marched Elias’ body back to the grove where they had buried Strider.  Only one person had dared to interrupt their procession through Rastor, a strong-looking bald human man with strange tattoos covering his body.  The man had asked to speak with the party, but Lathander informed him that they would be indisposed for the rest of the day and asked him to meet them tomorrow morning.  The strange man obviously did posses some form of tact as he bowed his head with understanding and left the Band to bury its fallen comrade.  Although Lathander was the only ordained priest in the party, Merk vehemently asked to give Elias the last rights herself in an elven tradition.  Aramek relieved Elias of Shatterspike and his signet ring and sword were given to Merk to give to the Elven Nation of Celene along with his ashes.  The Band had lost another valued member, but no one had lost the will to continue…in fact, Elias’ heroic death only hardened their resolve against Cult of Thazidun.</blockquote>

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