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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Renfield" data-source="post: 1124118" data-attributes="member: 13493">Victory Comes at a PriceSession: ThreeThey planned as best they could, but their lack of knowledge of the inner layout of the temple was scarce, the fact that they had been provided with information on a secret entrance was the best they could have hoped for. They leftmid-day, the sun was high in the sky though everything about the land seemed muted, The Green that had once seemed lush and fertile seemed but a husk of it's former self. Amarbie had tried hunting earlier that morning and discovered that not even small game was to be found. The animals new that something dark was paying close attention to this part of the land and it frightened them.Once more Nym and Delver flew through the air towards their destination as Amarbie rode Nanaki along the winding trail, they made good time even keeping to a speed that allowed them to keep up with the True Elf and her ride. Then, peaking through the treetops around a large hill Delver then Nym saw two large stones, even at the distance they were they could make out the ghastly semblance of skulls.Nym swooped down and ot Amarbie to stop long enough for him to turn into a human and direct her towards the odd stones, shifting back into an eagle he spread his wings and took back to the air. Eventually the three arrived at the odd stones.They were odd indeed, both atop small hills on opposite sides of a path, about fifty yards from one another, and both facing the other. The one on the left side of the rode held a more skull-like appearance whereas the one off the right seemed more like a dried husk of a persons head than an outright skull. These stones stood about twently feet high and had room enough at the top to hold a small group of men should they stick close. The trio inspected the skulls but found nothing amiss about them, though Delver sensed some odd form of magic about them, finally they decided they had wasted enough of their time and began to move off again. Nym, in an odd mood and in his dire eagle form, decided to target the skull on the left and relieved himself. To his shock his droppings simply faded from view and he let out a screach and circled back to the stone shifting back to normal his dark puzzled face looking over the stone."What is it?" Amarbie asked as she returned leaping off Nanaki with an agile spring. "The stone... Somethings odd..." he said and spit at the smooth black surface and they all watched as the spit faded away.They all shared puzzled looks and renewed their investigation of the stone eventually Amarbie got up the nerve to cut her finger and touched the crimson droplets of blood to the surface and noticed the life liquid sizziled away instead of simply fading. They continued their investigation but when they could only determine that blood sizziled and any other liquid faded away they decided to continue on with their mission.*****There was the waterfall, tall and majestic as it poured over the mountain side, however somehow even that powerful beauty seemed muted by the supressing evil of Talisar's gaze. The cave behind the waterfall would hold the secret entrance into the prison that held the children... well... the secret entrance to the temple that held that prison. Amarbie easily skirted the edge of the cliff leading to the landing behind the waterfall, the spray soaking the clothing over her lithe body as the water roared overhead, she finally made it and awaited Nym and Delver. As they arrived they surveyed the cave they were in, a tunnel went off to the left and there were some dried old bones scattered around the area. Some animal... some obviously humanoid. There was an odd noise on the edge of her hearing, a melodic noise, but the roar of the waterfall drowned it out."Down that tunnel!" Nym shouted to be heard over the din. Amarbie nodded and moved with her two odd companions. Whoever thought she'd be travelling with a Dark Elf and a human Druid... both males at that. Regardless the children had to be saved and such missions made for the strangest of bedfellows... granted should either of them try to share her bed she'd castrate them.They moved down the tunner and the melodic noise became much more clear, it was a haunting and beautiful melody, it was so beautiful, unlike anything any of her tribeswomen sang... She had to find the source of this melody! She started down the tunnel, around a bend came an orange light, she knew the owners of the beautiful voices she heard were at the source of the light! She moved forward and felt something odd grip her wrist. She looked to see a skeletal hand holding her wrist... when did Delver raise a skeleton... It didn't matter though, it was keeping her from reaching the voices! She pulled away and struggled against his grip. She saw Nym rush ahead and continued to struggle "Let me go this instant!" she cried. But it was to no avail. Then... the music stopped.Nym grinned, a feral glint in his eye as his falcatta took the head of one of the wretched Harpies. The other two moved in to engage him and he fended their claws and clubs easily enough getting a small scratch for his efforts. He parried a few more blows with his blade striking at one of them and cutting them hearing their screech interrupt their song. He growled and wished Nanaki hadn't been to big to follow after, however the small ledge they had to skirt would have been too much for the wolf and the angle of the mountain would have made jumping far to risky. He got scratched again before seeing a skeleton barrel into one of the harpies. Distracting it long enough for him to finish the one he had started cutting open the hagish birds belly. He frowned and moved towards the last one as another skeleton moved in to engage it. He went in and swung at the wounded thing covered in scratch marks from the two bags of bones. Another harpy head hit the ground.Amarbie came in soon after however seeing the battle was over she frowned. They had toyed with her mind and she wanted to make them pay personally. "Let's get a move on... we can't waste our time here." Nym said rather annoyed. He cast a look to Amarbie before stalking out of the small cave and continued back down the tunnel."Wait." Delver said causing Nym to halt. "Let me send one of these down to scout... I can see through their eyes." he said motioning to one of his skeletons. Nym nodded and one of the grinning minions headed down the stone tunnel at it's masters bidding. The other he released his control of, it was missing a leg which would prove to be useless.They continued down sending the skeleton out ahead of them, they pasued when they arrived at a fork in the tunnel and waited as Delver sent it down the left fork. After a few minutes he paused "A dead end, the tunnel seemed to collapse here." he said and Nym and Amarbie sighed as they waited for the skeleton to move back down the tunnel to take the right fork. Delver paused and lifted a brow. "A cave... there's something in-" he was cut off and his eyes went wide for a moment and he frowned."What is it?" Nym asked."Stirges..." he said.Nym cursed "How many bloodsuckers are there?" he said referring to bat winged pirds with long thin beaks that fed off blood. No hard in a few, but a big enough swarm could drain an elephant in minutes."About 30... I think." Delver responded. Nym let out a sigh "Anything you can do or will we have to fight them?" he asked.Delver smiled and nodded. The thought of losing a skeleton wasn't something that appealed to him but it was for the best... besides, if things went well enoug in the temple he'd have many more skeletons soon enough. He began the mutterings and motions of a spell, Nym nodded as he noticed what the spell was and smiled grimly at the resounding blast as a fireball exploded in the cavern immolating Delver's skeleton along with the numerous stirges that had been swarming the thing."Let's move on." he said and the group did.*****Horien paused and nodded as his fellow Son of Talisar approached him. "Good eve brother." he said nodding to the man as he approached. "Heading to eveningfeast?" he asked. The hour was late but Talisarans tended to start late in the day and work til early morning. Horien had just exited his bedchambers after some meditation and was heading towards the messhall when he saw his brother heading towards him.The other robed figure nodded "Aye that I am... let us hope those Black Fist bastards haven't consumed everything." the other man said with a laugh. The brothers had had to share the dormitories with the Blackfists who had become an integral part of Temple operations since the Talisarans had inhabited the abandoned temple. Then a slam echoed through the hall. Both brethren paused and looked towards the door at the far end of the hall curiously as that had been the one slammed. They both began the castings of a defensive spell just in case when the door flew open and a dark robed man with an odd staff stepped through muttering something. Just then another robed figure, this one in green to the others black, along with a sleight framed female in studded leathers rushed forward. The Dark Elf in the black robes cursed as the to quickly dispatched Horians friend. His eyes went wide as he brandished his mace in what would be a foolish attempt to defend himself. He didn't know what killed him... the Falcatta, the great club... or the spell that sent the chill of death through his body cast by the Dark Elf.*****Jonovon sat ther in his cell, he had long ago drained his eyes of tears and the clean streaks down his otherwise dirty cheeks showed that, he sat there with many things on his mind. Hatred of the horrid man whose nose he bit, fear for his sister who the man said he'd watch be killed, and this thing, this thing called oblivion that seemed to hold a ominous portent to his young mind. All these worries and more were rushing through his head until he heard the shouting. There was something going on outside his small ten by ten cell, he tried to stand on the cot and see what was going on but he couldn't tell, lot's of shouting and metal clanging against metal. Eventually he heard a blast and flinched as the bright light of fire flashed through the small window in his cell. He saw smoke rise from the door for a moment before he sat down upon the cot in the room.All he could do was wait, and that's what he did, there were more shouts and more odd sounds of energy and the familiar clang of blade against blade. He waited still, finally the last scream died away and he heard the sounds of metal rattling and a door being unlocked. The sound of a weeping child half crying half laughing as they were rescued. This is when he smiled slowly to himself. They were actually being rescued. The voice he heard soothing the crying child was a females voice, he had heard very few females amongst his captors and none of them soothed like this woman did. He smiled tightly and waited some more... his turn would come.Soon the door open, the torch light his his eyes and caused him to squint. The other children had had light but they removed the torch from his room after he had set alight an acolytes robes around feeding time. He smiled at the memory as he was herded towards the other children then looked up and gasped. The men surrounding them were Black Fists! The children all whimpered and shied away from an odd dark skinned elf with long black hair. Then he noticed that the Black Fists stared into nothingness... they stood there stiffly and didn't have the rythmic movement of a living breathing human. He frowned for a moment wondering if the new protectors were perhaps something worse than the previous ones. *****Nym looked back at the children and nodded, Amarbie was now comforting after their scare of being surrounded by numerous Black Fist zombies, he shook his head and continued down the hall. Their battle with the Black Fists and the acolytes had been easy to say the least but that didn't mean getting out of the temple would be. He advanced slowly down the hall as the scout zombie turned the corner. He paused and waited for Delver to give the okay when the Zombie flew back against the wall as shimmering bursts of energy slammed into it's chest. The druid moved forward preparing to engage the caster of the spell when bursts of the energy slammed into him as well. He snarled and turned the corner to see a robed man frantically casting another spell. Nym lashed out at the man with his Falcatta, and noticed Delvers Zombies comming down the hall to his aid. He lashed out at the man again interrupting a spell as he dodged aside and began the intricate weaving of yet another arcane spell. That's when he was hit. Not from the mage, there had been a door behind him and on his left that he hadn't taken much notice of when he had moved to engage the mage, not that he could have at any rate. He had missed the warning cry from Amarbie as he felt the blade plunge into his side. He  let out a primal scream of pain and turned to lash at his assailant as the man jerked the blade out of his gut. That was when the Black Fist zombies Delver had summoned swarmed the man. Nym turned and focused on his original assailant hoping he could heal his own wound after the battle. The mage was frantically casting yet another spell and had taken advantage of Nyms distraction to get it off. Seeing the numerous zombies packing in behind the enraged dark skinned druid had been too much and he cast a spell well known to Nym now, a fireball. The blast was point blank, Nym smelled the stench of burning flesh as it roasted the zombie and the backstabbing rogue alike, and he grinned in satisfaction as it roasted it's caster even as he felt the heat and flames wash over him. He roared in pain for the moment that the flames filled the hallway then lunged for the smoldering mage... only to be shocked to find he wasn't holding his Falcatta anymore!Nym's eyes widened as his fist swung right through the mage though noted with a subconcious level of satisfaction that the man slumped to the floor in a charred heap. That was when he noticed another form laying prone upon the floor... a form in smoldering green robes, with a horribly burned face, clutching a falcatta. He stepped back, shocked at seeing his own body laying there and looked down the hall to Delver who's eyes widened and even though the Dark Elven mage muttered the words Nym knew what he said "Oh no."*****Nym was dead, and his spirit had lingered behind for some reason, he didn't know why but the fact remained he was dead. Nym made use of this though for Delver could see him and now that physical things like walls now didn't really offer any sort of barrier to him he decided to make use of his incorporeal state and scout for an exit. They were two levels below the main temple level and they needed to find the way out. The stairs in the room that the mage had come from were locked behind an old chain which was little trouble to the ghostly druid. He floated through the door and up the stairs and through another door and laughed inwardly as he noticed they were indeed right back where they had started when they had entered the temple. An abdandoned storage room with the secret door leading to the waterfall tunnel. Quickly he floated back and relayed the information to Delver who made short work of the chain with a nice spell and the assistance of Amarbies club and the True Elf and the Dark Elf began leading the children up the stairs and out the tunnel. Eventually they heard the roar of the waterfalls and knew they had made it out of the Temple however they knew their escape wasn't over yet, they still had to make it to the village in safety....End of Session #3</blockquote>

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