Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)

[Reg Dword]

Just popping in to offer my far to infrequent praise of this story hour. Thanks Lazybones for taking the time to write this story hour.

I only have one complaint. I dont like having to wait until after 11:00 AM local time to read your posts. Would you consider moving somewehere on the east coast?

 

[ltclnlbrain]

Woo! I've finally caught up!

I had stumbled upon the story hour a few months ago, but I decided to wait until summer came along when I could read the whole thing. Finally, several weeks after starting from Chapter 1, I've finally reached the latest post.

This is a great story hour, Lazybones. I am currently running through the Shackled City campaign with my players, and while we are further along than you, it is great to see your take on things. I look forward to reading future updates. Keep up the great work!

 

[wolff96]

Mmm... Fire elementals.

Is that Half-Orc barbecue I smell?

Great updates lately, LB, even though I've been too busy to comment much. I have to say, I think I like this crew even better than the last group of your characters -- probably because of Arun and Hodge. I likes me them dwarves.

 

[Lazybones]

Reg: I lived for a year in Georgia, but I'm afraid it only demonstrated to me how deep my CA loyalties lie... Sorry!

ltclnlbrain: welcome, and thanks! If you feel inclined, I have another entirely complete SH that I've "published" as a free PDF (thanks to Padril) on my Web site (link in sig); the characters in this SH are indirectly related to the characters in that one, which I serialized here from 2001-2003.

wolff96: thanks, I think those two have a good dynamic going, it reveals another side of Arun I think to have a more "extreme" dwarf to contrast him to.

Oh, and I have a few interesting ideas for some new characters who may join the party in later modules, as well as some returning old friends. One thing about the Adventure Path, there's lots of good NPCs to mine and bring in as guest stars. And since my core group is a bit understrength, I will likely be using them frequently.

And of course there's still plenty of red shir--um, clerics of Helm to kill off.

* * * * *

Chapter 143

Arun Goldenshield had confronted dozens of terrible creatures in his career as a warrior in service to Moradin. As a paladin of his faith, he was reinforced against fear. That was not to say that he did not feel that emotion at all; a man who stood in the heat of battle and faced death without any trepidation was not of sound mind. But his faith was the bulwark that allowed him to control the instinct that told him to flee for his life, and the fear that came with the hot rush of the flame over him as the elemental turned to face him was washed away beneath an iron skin of hard resolve.

With a roar he lunged at the creature, delivering a powerful overhead blow with his hammer. The heavy iron head splashed into the flaming “body” of the creature, meeting only a partial resistance as it passed through the flames and finally clanged hard against the flagstones beneath. Arun instantly realized that the creature was resistant if not immune to non-magical attacks, but he stood his ground and unleashed another blow, putting more of his strength into a swing that unfortunately passed harmlessly through empty air as the creature flowed and reformed a pace to the side. The thing moved with an uncanny speed and grace, its body surging like a bonfire splashed with oil.

The elemental lashed at Arun with fingers of flame that blasted into him with the force of steel whips. The dwarf lifted his shield to absorb the first blow, feeling the heat that rushed around the edges of the metal barrier like a gust from a blast furnace. A second blow followed the first, and Arun was driven back a step, his arm scorched by the heat passing through the shield, his eyes watering as smoke and ash were driven into them by the ferocity of the creature’s attack.

Arun’s companions, of course, were not idle in those moments, and rushed quickly to the aid of their friend. However, even as Hodge charged, Mole yelled a warning, as a great gout of flame surged out from an upper window, taking form and substance after it crashed to the cobbles in the middle of the courtyard, sprouting arms and legs of eager red fire. It regarded those gathered with contempt in its twin eyes, spots of white-hot anger within the amorphic flames of its body.

The half-orcs had clearly had enough of this situation, and most fled from the scene, some clutching smoldering wounds where they had been stung by the terrible attacks from the elementals. Two of the mercenaries who had been close to the building found their route of escape blocked by the arrival of the second creature, and they turned toward the low wall that separated the courtyard from the property of the adjacent building, yelling in alarm as the elemental surged toward them.

“Bah, savin’ a lot o’ half-orcs... what be the world comin’ to!” Hodge roared, as he lunged at the elemental from behind. The magically-enhanced steel tore through the fabric of the creature, and it instantly turned on the dwarf, driving him back with several powerful blows. One solid blast of flame set the upper body of the dwarf on fire, and he fell to the ground, trying to roll out the burning flames that seared his exposed flesh greedily.

Mole had moved to flank the creature threatening Arun, staying close to the edge of the building despite the heat and tendrils of flame rising from within. As she passed under a window opening onto the common room, however, she heard a cry from within. For a moment she looked with indecision at the two embattled dwarves facing the huge elemental monsters, then finally darted toward the door, disappearing into the thick gouts of smoke issuing from within the dying structure.

Zenna, meanwhile, held her ground twenty paces away at the rear of the courtyard, calmly firing bolt after bolt from her wand of acid arrows. Her first had soundly impacted the one fighting Arun high in its flaming body, the acid unleashing an ugly black cloud as it struck. Upon seeing Hodge get into trouble she fired her second at his foe, drawing its attention from the burning dwarf. The elemental turned from the escaping half-orcs and the injured dwarf and started toward her, crossing the courtyard in a rush of eager flame.

But as it passed, Hodge roared and leapt up once again, tearing through its body with his magical axe. The creature arrested its rush and turned once more on the dwarf, beating him down with powerful blows backed with the rush of hot flame.

Arun, meanwhile, was likewise taking a pounding from his adversary. He’d managed to connect with a powerful attack that had hurt it despite its resistance to mundane weapons, but most of his blows passed through it harmlessly. The dwarf had no such resistance to its assault, although fortunately his magical armor and shield had held up for the most part against the ferocity of its attack. His breaths were coming in agonized gasps of searing air, however, and he was nearly blind from the smoke that poured from the interior of the ravaged inn. A loud crash as part of the inn collapsed sent another blast of heat and smoke into him, and he considered retreat, drawing the elemental after him, to where he could fight it in clearer air.

But things suddenly got worse, as he heard Zenna’s voice cut through the roar of the flames, behind him.

“Mole’s gone in there!”

A moment later, Arun heard a dwarvish cry that drew his attention to his left. There, he saw the second elemental lay a titanic blow into Hodge. The dwarf stumbled back, blinded, his face blackened by the flames that continued to flicker from his burning beard as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

 

[Broccli_Head]

You mean to tell me that Arun doesn't have a magic weapon by now?!

What a stingy DM?

 

[Lazybones]

You mean to tell me that Arun doesn't have a magic weapon by now?!

What a stingy DM?

I admit I'm being a bit sadistic to my characters. They didn't find the secret treasure in the Malachite Fortress, they missed the big treasure in the Kopru Ruins in "Flood Season", and they were too beat up to get most of the good stuff (including a dragon's hoard, a ton of masterwork rapiers and suits of +1 banded mail) in Bhal-Hamatugn. On the other hand, the Stormblades are doing very well picking up the pieces and missed chances left by the party.

I was planning on getting Arun a dwarf-made +1 hammer, but instead he spent his share of the reward for bringing back Zenith to get Hodge raised. Still, magical mithral full plate isn't too shabby.

So the noble paladin will suffer in poverty for now, at least until Zenna's high enough level to cast greater magic weapon.

* * * * *

Chapter 144

Arun did not hesitate. Having just sacrificed greatly to see Hodge returned to life, he was not about to see the dwarf die again while he stood by unable to help. He turned away from his current foe and set out at a full run toward the creature menacing Hodge. The paladin barely felt the blow that slammed down across his back, searing the flesh of his neck and shoulders through his armor. He tossed his shield aside and took up his hammer in both hands, bringing it down in a two-handed strike into the thickest part of the elemental. The blow tore through its resistances, sundering it into wisps of flickering flame that fought to regain cohesion for a moment before whisking out of existence.

Arun turned around just in time to take an all-out pounding from the second elemental.

Mole meanwhile, found herself regarding an interior that to her mind probably had more than a passing resemblance to the Nine Hells. The common room of the inn was a raging inferno, with a river of liquid flame roaring across the ceiling, and the curtains and tablecloths separate pyres around the room’s perimeter. For once she was grateful for her diminutive size, for she was below the worst of the smoke filling the room, but her eyes quickly began to water and sting as smoke filled them.

She heard the cry for help again, faintly, coming from what she guessed was the kitchen. Another person, without her gnomish ears, probably wouldn’t have heard it at all... but at the moment, Mole’s racial pride was overshone by a much more practical and immediate concern of finding whoever it was before the building collapsed onto her.

She started quickly toward the kitchen, but hesitated as the ceiling over the bar—very near to the kitchen door—sagged with an audible groan.

Oh, damn...

As so often occurred with the young gnome, instinctive action trumped deliberate thought, and she leapt forward, her magical boots once again giving her an added boost as she tucked into a roll and dove through the half-open doorway into the kitchen even as the ceiling above buckled and collapsed. Burning timbers and other debris showered down in her wake, narrowly missing the gnome as she continued her roll and recovered her feet, tamping the burning embers that had caught upon her cloak with her soot-stained hands.

So much for the way out, Mole thought, quickly taking in her new surroundings.

The kitchen was even worse off than the common room, with an entire wall already well ablaze and at least a half-dozen other small fires busy around the perimeter. There had already been a partial collapse, she saw, with burning beams blocking a narrow stair that had once led up to the second story of the inn. The collapse not only blocked the stairs, but also the rear exit.

So she was trapped as well. Wonderful. She looked around the room, seeking opportunities, but the only alternative that appeared to be available were a trio of tiny windows set high in the wall above the long table that fronted the entirety of the side wall to her left. The “windows” were really just squares of thick glass barely a pace across that appeared to be set firmly into the surrounding wall, gleaming with the reflected glow of the flames that occupied the chamber.

A sound from the direction of the ruined stair drew her attention back in that direction. She hurried over to find a diminutive figure half-visible under the debris, his lower body trapped under a heavy beam. In the thick smoke it took her a moment to realize that the poor unfortunate was a gnome, younger even than she was by the look of it. He was clad in the simple tunic of a stableboy or kitchen helper, and as she approached, he looked up at her with eyes that were wide with fear.

“Help me!” he said, choking as smoke filled his lungs at the effort of speaking.

Mole quickly darted to the boy’s side. He tried to speak again, but the effort was too great, and he sagged down, gasping for breath.

“Don’t try to move,” Mole said, examining the collapse with an expert eye.

She quickly saw that dragging him out was going to require brute strength; the debris around him could be pulled free, but the heavy beam pinning his legs would have to be lifted in order for the boy to squirm out of the wreckage. She gave it a test push only to confirm her suspicions; it was well and securely wedged. She could have sawed through it, if she’d had a saw and ten minutes of uninterrupted time.

“I have to get someone to help,” she told the boy. “I’ll be right back.”

With surprising strength, he reached out and grabbed onto her jacket. “Please don’t leave me!” he sobbed.

“I’ll be back,” she said. “I promise. My name’s Mole. What’s yours?”

“Bally,” the boy said.

Mole felt a stab of feeling in her gut. Ballander. A common enough gnomish name, but meaningful to her for a more specific reason, for it was also the name of her uncle, the man whose life had inspired her to the career of the adventurer. Hearing the name made her realize how much she missed him, and (albeit to a lesser degree) the other members of her family. Forcing aside memories inappropriate to this circumstance, she forced a smile at the scared youngster. “All right, Bally, I need you to be brave. I have a friend who can lift that beam and get you out, but I need to go get him. He’s right outside, I’ll just go get him and be right back, okay?”

The boy nodded, but his fear was clear in his eyes as he released her. With what she hoped was a reassuring smile she drew back and turned toward the windows.

Okay, this’ll be tricky...

She looked around and quickly found what she wanted. She grabbed the heavy iron pot, and without hesitation charged across the room. She felt a rush of heat as she ran past a fire raging through a wooden storage locker, then she leapt onto a chair, and with a mighty boost from her magical boots jumped through one of the windows, using the pot as a battering ram to smash it clear from its mountings. Her arms jarred painfully with the impact, and she felt a sharp stab of pain as a shard of glass cut the back of her hand, but her momentum carried her through and she flipped to land on her feet—awkwardly, but intact—on the packed earth outside the side of the inn.

She had barely regained her balance before she was off and running toward the front of the inn.

She rounded the edge of the building and emerged into the courtyard just in time to see the remaining elemental lay into Arun with a mighty blow that knocked him backward to stumble to his knees.

 

[Black Bard]

Poor Bally!!!

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 145

Arun thought he could feel his skin crisping from the heat of the fire elemental as he was knocked back roughly off his feet, stumbling back a pace before staggering to his knees. For a moment, all he could sense was the roar of flames, and his vision swam as his grasp on consciousness wavered. He knew, however, that if he faltered, then his friends were lost.

Not bloody likely! he thought, forcing himself to his feet and calling upon the divine energies of his patron at the same time. Healing power flowed through him, although his movements still brought pain where the eager flames had scorched his flesh.

“Come on then!” he roared in challenge at the elemental. But rather than rushing forward to match strength with the creature—a strategy that had already proven faulty—he slowly paced to the side, drawing it after him, and away from Hodge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zenna was moving to help the fallen dwarf, and nodded to himself in satisfaction.

But as the elemental’s assault slammed into him again, hitting with the force of a battering ram against his shield, he knew that the situation was still grim; one more solid hit that got through his defenses would be enough to end it.

Mole did not hesitate, drawing her sword and rushing to Arun’s aid. Her normal tactic in this situation would be to flank the foe, using its distraction to find a vulnerable spot to strike. But against a blazing, roughly humanoid-shaped sheet of fire, she had no idea where to begin. Blindly she lashed out at the thickest part of the flames that comprised its “body”, but as her sword passed through its form she felt hot pain sear her fingers and rush up her arm. Drawing back, she lost her grip on her sword, which fell through the creature to land in the scorched earth of the courtyard.

Well, duh, it burns, it’s made of fire you fool! she berated herself. The creature had not even bothered to turn, focusing its attention on the more dangerous dwarf that confronted it.

As she tried to think of something that she could do to it, she spotted a tall figure moving into the courtyard. At first she thought it was one of the mercenaries, having finally found some courage to return, but then she saw that while this half-orc was armed and armored, its raiment was distinctly different than that of the mercenary guardsmen. He wore a surcoat over his breastplate that bore the sigil of a flaming sword, and while the hilt of a monstrous two-handed sword jutted up from above one shoulder, he wielded instead a slender wand, which he pointed not at the elemental, but at the softly surging waters of the lake at the far edge of the street.

Mole quickly realized what the wand was—she should know, they’d sacrificed a lot to find several of them—and her guess was confirmed a moment later as a wave of solid water rose up above the edge of the lake, spilling out in a broad wedge that swept across the street and into the courtyard. Zenna, holding the injured Hodge in her lap, lowered her body to protect the dwarf as the wave crested over her, leaving her sodden but doing no serious damage. The wave continued into Arun, who held his ground, and then hit the elemental in an explosion of steam that rose with an angry hiss into the air. Mole, lacking Arun’s solidity, was driven backward by the force of the onrushing water in a jumble until she hit the wall of the inn with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. The wave lacked enough force or height to actually penetrate far into the inn, but the smoldering flames around the perimeter of the courtyard were instantly drenched by the surge of water.

As the wave retreated, Mole was able to regain her footing with some difficulty. There was still at least two feet of water gathered in the courtyard, held there by the magical power wielded by the half-orc cleric through the wand of control water. The wave had broken around the looming structure of the inn, and steam rose from within the structure as water found its way into the building and met the flames burning within. The whole made for a powerful tableau, with water, steam, and flames forming a single union of elemental chaos.

The elemental, its body wreathed in steam, made a final swipe at Arun, but it was clear that the wave had devastated the creature and sundered its fragile connection to this plane. The dwarf struck low with his hammer, creating a surge of water that splashed over the upper body of the elemental, and with one last eruption of steam that hissed into the night air it collapsed and dissolved.

Arun turned to help Zenna, who was lifting Hodge’s head above the level of the water with some difficulty. Mole had to fight through the swirling water to reach them, but determination drove her quickly even as she stumbled awkwardly on debris hidden under the surface of the water.

“Arun! You have to help me... there’s someone trapped inside, a boy...”

The dwarf glanced over his shoulder and nodded, giving Hodge a final boost to his feet before turning back toward the inn. Hodge was conscious now, bolstered by Zenna’s healing, but it was clear that the dwarf was in no condition to contribute more to this crisis. The waters were beginning to retreat now, and Mole found herself unable to progress toward the front opening wreathed in a mix of black smoke and white steam. Arun finally reached her and pulled her up, and the two pushed against the water tugging at their legs with insistency as they rushed to the aid of the trapped boy inside the inn.

But before they could reach the door, there was a loud crash, and as Mole watched in wide-eyed horror, the second story of the inn sagged and came crashing down onto the weakened common room and kitchen below. Flames roared into the sky, and smoke and burning embers billowed out into the courtyard, threatening to blind the heroes still struggling there. Instinctively Mole started forward again, although there was clearly no chance of hope. Arun held her back, his own face grim as they watched what was left of Minuta’s Board consume itself in flames.

Behind them, the cleric of Tempus and others started tending to the injured, and worked to keep the fire contained to the stricken inn. Once it was clear that Mole wasn’t going to go rushing into the building, Arun released her, and turned to offer assistance. Through it all, the gnome just stood there, watching the burning inn through tears that filled her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Bally,” she whispered.

 

[Broccli_Head]

You were right, BB. Poor Bally. Knowing LB and his twistedness, the little gnome will come back as a spirit to haunt Mole....

 

[ltclnlbrain]

Gah, don't give him ideas! It's sad enough already.