Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)

[Lazybones]

Chapter 309

“Intruders!”

The half-orc’s warning was interrupted by a cry of pain as two arrows slammed into its chest, punching through its heavy armor and staggering it. The missiles from Fario and Dannel hurt him, but he managed to get his cumbersome weapon up in a defensive posture to meet the charge of the three dwarves, rushing down the remaining length of the wide hall in a clattering wedge. Behind him, the second half-orc charged through the doorway to the aid of his companion, only to stumble to the side as Mole, appearing out of nowhere, stabbed her rapier through a chink in his armor deep into his thigh. Beyond the doorway, they could hear shouts of alarm as the remaining guards readied themselves for battle.

The injured mercenary roared out a challenge as he slammed his heavy weapon down at Arun, but the paladin took the stroke on his shield, deflecting it harmlessly to the side. Arun’s return stroke clove through the armor links protecting his side, opening a huge gash in the muscled torso beneath. The blow offered an easy opening to Beorna, who smashed her blade down into the mercenary’s head, splitting his helm and laying his face open to the bone. The half-orc crumpled, a bloody mess well on its way to death.

Hodge met the second guard as he kicked out at Mole, nearly falling as his injured leg gave way under his weight. His situation deteriorated further as Hodge brought his magical waraxe around in a broad arc that crushed the greave covering the warrior’s left leg, leaving him with two seriously mangled limbs. But the mercenary was of a durable stock, and despite the obvious pain he suffered he managed to drive his axe into Hodge’s shoulder with enough force to drive him back a step.

Reinforcements arrived as another guard burst through the doorway; however, the half-orc had barely lifted his double axe when he froze, captured by a hold spell from Fellian. The paralyzed mercenary partially blocked the entry into the hall, and the next guard finally just thrust him aside, knocking him prone against the base of the nearest staircase. But the delay cost him, for even as he turned to face the battle a pair of scorching rays from Zenna slammed into his chest with blazing force. Screaming as the flames turned the chain mesh protecting his torso a fierce, cherry red, the half-orc swung his weapon blindly at the nearest foe. He managed to connect with Beorna as she stepped over the body of the warrior she’d just dispatched, but the templar shrugged off the hit. The guard snarled at the dwarf woman as both combatants lifted their weapons to strike, but the mercenary never got to finish his attack. An arrow slammed into his face, sliding neatly through one of the black openings in his helm, driving through his eye into what sufficed as a brain. Deprived of an adversary by Dannel’s masterful shot, Beorna turned and finished off Hodge’s opponent with a powerful two-handed overhand strike.

The battle had lasted all of ten seconds thus far, and already four of the mercenary guards were down or dead. Two more appeared in the doorway, launching immediate attacks that failed to do more than irritate the fierce dwarves. In a clatter of swords and axes, the two were driven back, and it looked as though they would shortly join their companions.

Zenna had moved cautiously into the open space at the foot of the stairs, staying clear of the battle. She knew that the dwarves had matters well in hand; she was more worried about what the din of violence might bring.

Her fears were borne out as a sinister hiss drew her attention up toward the balcony above. There, twined around the slender pillars that flanked the summit of the stairs, was a reptilian horror. It looked like a huge viper, only the face at the end of its twisting body belonged to no snake. That face was humanoid, a visage of malevolence. Its eyes blazed with a dark energy that seemed to bore into Zenna as she met its stare, and she reflexively threw her will against it, knowing that she was under attack. For a moment she felt the danger of that gaze, but then her innate mental discipline asserted itself, and she felt the evil power recede, and the surge of noise and activity around her returned to full intense focus.

None of the others had seen it, she realized, still focused as they were upon the battle with the half-orc guards. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but before she could utter a word, she felt a familiar surge of spellpower behind her, and she altered what she’d been about to say.

“FIREBALL!”

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 310

The explosive fireball filled the grand hall, blasting the decorative woodwork, engulfing tapestries, consuming the carpet to reveal scorched hardwood beneath. The dark woods had apparently been treated to resist fire, for the structure itself did not immediately catch flame, but the fragments of carpet and nearby tapestries continued to burn, threatening the house and shedding a lurid light upon the ongoing battle.

The naga’s spell had been dramatic, but the companions had faced dragon’s breath and potent wizards, and while they had been scorched by the blast, all of them weathered it more or less intact.

“Naga... nagas, up above!” Zenna cried in warning, drawing the attention of her friends to the more serious threat. As she looked up, she saw another pair of the creatures appear around the perimeter of the second-story balcony, moving to block the stairs, shifting under the effects of the all-too-familiar magical displacement.

Well, that I can deal with, she thought, grimly calling up the trigger words of a spell. For the moment, she held off on her dispel, instead conjuring necromantic powers to unleash a series of waves of fatigue that enveloped the nagas. The three creatures unleashed angry shrieks as the spell sapped at their vitality, dulling their reflexes.

Mole, who’d taken the opportunity to finish the held guard, and who’d completely avoided the fireball, looked up at Zenna’s warning. And met the gaze of one of the nagas. Mole lacked Zenna’s strength of mind, and as the creature snared her in its powerful charm, her face cracked into a fascinated grin, and she sat down on the chest of the man she’d just killed, looking up at the creature in bemused admiration.

The gnome was not the only one caught up in the fell power of the nagas. Hodge, turning from a falling half-orc, was likewise snared, and both Dannel and Fario, each drawing their bow to fire, suddenly lowered their weapons, their arrows falling out of suddenly limp hands to clatter harmlessly to the floor.

All in all, it was a devastating and effective attack against her weak-minded friends, Zenna thought. “Don’t look directly at them!” she shouted, wondering if the warning would avail them.

“I’ll deal with them,” Fellian said to her, indicating their charmed friends. “Take those fiends out!”

Beorna and Arun, their wills fortified by their commitment to their respective gods, continued to press the attack. One half-orc still stood, but with a gushing wound in his shoulder, his face blackened from the fireball, he’d clearly had enough of this fight. He turned and ran toward the exit, rushing past the charmed archers unhindered. The dwarves let him go, instead turning to rush up the stairs toward the waiting nagas. One slid down the steps to meet Beorna, while the second blasted Zenna with a quartet of magic missiles. The third creature, the one that had cast the original fireball, took the opportunity to protect itself with its own shifting aura of displacement.

The dwarves clambered noisily up the stairs, their heavy boots sending splinters of flame-scored timber flying with their progress. They reached the division in the staircase and split, with Beorna charging left toward the descending naga, and Arun moving to the right. The naga hissed a challenge at the templar, who responded with a powerful swing that passed harmlessly through its displaced body. A few paces opposite, Arun rushed up at the naga that had blasted Zenna. The gold dwarf attempted to keep his gaze averted, looking at the creature’s sinuous body rather than its face, but as he lifted his sword into readiness his eyes happened to meet those of the naga. The paladin was a steeled veteran, but even his hardened will was not immune to the dark whispers that filled his mind, the treacherous grip of the creature’s evil power.

The naga let out a triumphant keening as it drifted down to meet the paladin, twisting its coils around Arun’s motionless body.

 

[wolff96]

Wow. Failed will saves for everyone! Huzzah!

This could get UGLY.

 

[Lazybones]

Unfortunately for the nagas, they have a low Caster Level...

* * * * *

Chapter 311

With Fario, Dannel, Mole, Hodge, and now Arun ensared by the charming gaze of the nagas, and none of the creatures as yet even slightly injured, the situation looked pretty grim for the companions.

But as tides in the sea both rise and ebb, so to do the tides of battle often turn on the smallest point of fate.

In this case, that point was Fellian’s dispel magic. The half-elf’s spell, centered on the base of the stairs, filled the entire hall with an invisible surge of magical disruption that sundered the spells holding the companions. Or at least most of them; the clashing eddies of power were unpredictable, and both Hodge and Mole remained trapped in the grip of the nagas’ power. But the others were freed from the cloying enchantment, and the auras of displacement protecting the ugly monstrosities likewise shimmered once and faded, revealing their true locations.

Arun roared in anger as he realized what had happened to him. His sword had been knocked from his hand by the enfolding wrap of the creature, but he shook his arms free of its grasp with a violent surge of strength, loosening his grip on his shield to free both hands. The naga turned its head toward him, fat gobs of poison dripping from its jaws as it snarled at its prey. Arun wrapped one arm around its long neck, and as its head snapped inward he cocked his gauntleted fist back and smote it with a powerful blow to the face.

That got its attention.

On the far flank, Beorna’s foe lashed out at her, snapping at the templar’s face with its envenomed bite. But it still suffered from the lingering effects of Zenna’s waves of fatigue spell, and the templar was easily able to avoid its attack.

The same could not be said for the naga, as Beorna unleashed a full attack upon it that left it flapping in three bloody segments upon the stairs.

Arun’s foe drew back in pain, hissing as blood dripped from its shattered face. But the naga still held the dwarf in its grasp, and it lunged at him, sinking its long fangs into the arm he raised to block. Unfortunately for the naga, the chance of a dwarven paladin suffering the full effects of its venom was next to nil, and Arun was quick to tear his arm free, ignoring the pain of the vicious wound. An arrow slammed into the naga’s neck a foot below its head, and even as the creature turned toward this new threat, a second followed, and then even as the first still quivered in the wound, a third. The naga’s head gyrated in pain as blood oozed from the three deep punctures, even as Fario and Dannel kept up their barrage. Finally, its agonized motions drew the head within Arun’s reach, and the paladin reached up, snared its head in his muscled hands, and twisted.

With a snap, the naga’s neck broke, and its body fell limp.

The last naga had not been idle while its companions were being destroyed. Uttering dark syllables in the language of power, it conjured a swarm of angry, fluttering bats at the foot of the stairs, enveloping Zenna and obstructing the aim of Fario and Dannel. It then drew back, intending perhaps to slink away, or shroud itself in a protective cloak of invisibility.

What it got was a pair of scorching rays from Zenna, who stepped forward from the shrieking swarm, her hair in disarray, blood dribbling down the sides of her face from shallow gashes. But her concentration was absolute, and the two blasts struck the naga’s body squarely, the flames flaring out around it in a painful embrace.

Now completely sold on the idea of flight, the naga did finally cast its invisibility spell. But it was too late, for Fellian was ready with his invisibility purge, and when the naga reappeared Beorna was close by, her face an implacable promise that was soon fulfilled by her bloody sword.

With the deaths of the last of the creatures, the lingering charm holding Hodge and Mole snapped, and the two looked around in confusion that quickly changed to abashed embarrassment as they realized what had happened. Hodge’s face twisted into a look of disgust as he stared up at the head of the nearest naga, dangling over the edge of the stairs, as he tried to reconcile the thing’s horrid features with the blind adulation he’d felt for it only moments ago.

“Don’t feel bad,” Dannel told him. “Their magic got most of us.”

“Bah,” Hodge replied, but he gave the thing a wide berth as he cleaned his axe and slid it back into the loops of leather that held it in place across his back.

“So where’s Vhalantru?” Fario asked. “After that battle, I’m sure everything in the house know’s we’re here.”

“Maybe he’s not home,” Mole said, hopefully.

A cloud of steam rose from one of the burning tapestries as Zenna cast a create water cantrip, dousing the flames from the earlier fireball that still burned along the walls. Dannel helped her, stamping out the burning remnants of a tapestry that had fallen beside the door to the guardroom where the half-orcs had been quartered.

“Should just let the place burn,” Hodge suggested. “Better to come back and sift through the rubble later.”

Once she was satisfied that her spell had had the desired effect, Zenna turned toward Hodge. “How many reasons do you want for that being a bad idea? First, it’s unlikely that even if Vhalantru is here, that a fire would kill or even injure him. Second, there may be leads here that we need to find. Third, there’s no guarantee that a fire wouldn’t spread to half the city—that’s all we need, right now. Fourth, those statues—she pointed back down the hall—were once living people, and we may be able to restore them. Fifth—“

“We get it,” Dannel said. “Let’s continue our search.”

“Stay alert,” Arun said, unnecessarily, as they pressed on from the ruin of the once-fine hall.

They elected to remain on the first floor for now, rather than head upstairs. They explored several rooms, including the guardroom where the half-orcs had congregated. Even that room was fairly uncluttered, with just a few trinkets, copper and silver coins, and a couple decks of cards and dice on the long table surrounded by simple wooden benches against the far wall. The whole house seemed static and lifeless, like a museum rather than a place where people lived. Even House Rhiavati had been more vital than this place, with servants and furnishings suitable for use, not just viewing.

They found a wine cellar just off the guardroom, with walls of unadorned stone rather than paneled wood. It was a testament to the authority of Vhalantru that the place was dusty and rather neglected even with the presence of a half-dozen half-orc mercenaries just one room over. Mole took a look at a few bottles as she gave the room a quick once-over. Finally, she returned to the middle of the room, staring at the blank wall to the right of the entry.

“What is it?” Arun asked.

“You don’t see it?” Mole said. When the others shook their heads, she licked a finger and lifted it up. “There’s a slight current of air here. And that wall,” she said, pointing at the blank face of plain stone. “No dust.”

Dannel and Zenna both nodded, but Hodge only shook his head. “So?”

With an exasperated sigh, the gnome walked over to the wall and stuck her hand through it. “So, it’s an illusion, silly.” She stuck her head through the barrier, creating the unnerving appearance of her headless body sticking out from the wall.

“Anything?” Fario asked.

“Just a small room,” she said, stepping entirely through the illusion. Sound was not blocked by the figment, so they could hear her voice as she continued to speak. “Nothing but...”

She was cut off with a startled yell.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 312

“Mole!” Zenna cried, starting toward the wall. Dannel was faster, darting toward the illusory wall, the others only a step behind.

They passed through the illusion to see what Mole had found, an unremarkable, roughly circular room maybe fifteen feet across. There was no obvious sign of the gnome, but her voice came up from below even as they entered the room.

“Don’t come in!” she shrieked. “The floor’s an illusion too!”

Dannel instantly stopped, slashing his hands out to arrest the movement of the others. Hodge quite nearly went over anyway, his foot vanishing through the illusory floor up to his knee before Dannel and Fario were able to grab him and drag him back into the wine cellar.

Fellian was the first to spot the tiny fingers sticking out from the floor, at the edge where illusion and reality met. He reached down and grabbed onto Mole, pulling the gnome back up to where the rest of them waited.

“Well, that was almost an unpleasant journey,” the half-elven cleric commented.

“Where does it lead?” Fario asked, as Hodge shook himself free and regained his footing, muttering something unpleasant about dwarves being rescued by “damned fey elves.”

“It’s dark, so I couldn’t see anything,” Mole said. “But it sounds and feels like it goes quite a ways down. Listen.”

They quieted, and could hear the faint whisper of air moving through the shaft, the tiniest hint of a breeze that Mole had detected earlier. There were some unpleasant smells on that current of air, as well.

“Probably some sort of tunnel complex, below the city,” Beorna suggested.

“We’ve found more than a few of those,” Arun agreed.

“Perfect for a beholder,” Zenna said. At the confused looks of the others, she explained, “They have the ability to levitate their bodies, and can travel straight up, down, or horizontally about.”

“So what you’re saying, is that Vhalantru could appear at any moment, while we’re climbing down there,” Fellian said.

“That’s right.”

“What’sa matter, elf? Scared?” Hodge asked, but his taunt was undermined by the way his eyes kept drifting toward the shaft, and the nervous way he kept worrying the snaps on his belt pouches with the fingers of his free hand.

But the half-elf refused to rise to the bait. “No, just making sure we know what we’re getting into.”

“Trouble,” Hodge muttered under his breath. “Up to our bleedin’ necks in it, as always.”

Mole had taken a lengthy coil of rope out of her bag of holding, and now affixed it to one of the sturdier units of shelving in the adjacent wine cellar. Giving it a few trial tugs to confirm that it was secure, she looped the rest of the coil around her body. “I’ll go first, check it out,” she offered. “Of course, I can’t see in the dark like the dwarves can. Lend me that flaming stick you have, eh Dannel?”

The elf took the brand, enchanted with a continual flame, out from his belt pouch. He handed it to Mole, who stuck it through one of the straps she wore over her armor to keep her pouches close at hand. “Be careful,” Dannel said. “If you hear or see anything, anything at all, give a holler and we’ll draw you back up.”

With a grin and a mock salute, the gnome unraveled about fifteen feet of slack from her rope, then leapt out into the room and vanished through the illusory floor.

“We cannot cover her effectively, with this illusion in the way,” Fario said, an arrow nocked to his bow. “Can we dispel it?”

“Permanent illusions are no simple magic,” Fellian explained, and Zenna nodded in confirmation. “And I think our remaining dispels might be needed,” Zenna added. She didn’t have to elaborate.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Dannel said. Carefully he descended into the shaft, using his slippers of spider climbing to walk along the sheer surface of the cylindrical bore. To the others, it looked as though the floor swallowed him up.

Mole felt a familiar thrill of excitement as she dropped lower into the shaft. The flickering flames of Dannel’s torch showed the shaft descending in a straight line down as far as she could see, at first; but as she descended she could make out an opening below, and a floor maybe fifty feet below the chamber above.

That would have been a nasty fall indeed, she thought.

She rappelled down easily, letting out slack in the rope as she kicked off and descended in bursts of ten to fifteen feet at a time. She drew the rope taut right at the edge of the shaft’s bottom, right where it opened onto a large room, ten feet above the floor below. She expertly slipped the remaining length of rope through one of her belt loops before wrapping it around her left leg and tucking the rest into the strap that she used to hold her crossbow close at hand. Once secure, she inverted herself and leaned down over the rim of the shaft to dangle upside-down over the room, drawing out the torch and shining it about.

The room was dank and unkempt, a bubble of stone blasted from the volcanic stone by the power of Vhalantru’s magic. The chamber was circular and of considerable size, maybe forty feet across. And as she scanned the place, she spotted a shadowy alcove on one side, but her eye was drawn to movement on the opposite side of the room. A humanoid figure shifted in the shadows, lumbering slowly and awkwardly forward into the light. As it drew close enough to clearly distinguish, Mole’s face wrinkled in disgust. A zombie; she could smell the stench of rot rising from its body from here. There was more movement along the wall behind it; two more of the foul creatures.

She must have said something aloud, for she could hear Dannel’s voice from above, drifting down to her as he descended the shaft. “What is it?”

“Just some trash,” she called up, already digging in her magical bag. It was a bit tougher, dangling upside down, but nothing that she couldn’t manage, with her incredible agility.

She found what she’d wanted, a clay flask sealed with beeswax that would have drawn a very disapproving stare from Zenna. Mole didn’t see the big deal; alchemist’s fire was... well, fun wasn’t really the right word, but it was certainly useful, especially in the dangerous situations that they often found themselves in.

The first zombie was drawing nearer, although there was no way it would be able to reach her up in the shaft, unless it suddenly sprouted wings, or its arms grew five feet longer. Mole took careful aim, and hurled the flask in a straight arc that connected solidly with the zombie in the center of its forehead. The flask exploded, showering the creature in a satisfying eruption of orange flame.

“What was that?” Dannel yelled down, and Mole smiled as she heard the voices of her friends from up above echo his concern.

“Just a little fire,” she offered up, “Don’t worry, I got it under control.” She waved her hand as some rancid smoke drifted up from the creature; a minor glitch in her otherwise perfect plan.

A roar from above drew her attention back down to the zombie. The undead creature staggered forward, the flames eagerly eating away at the remains of its flesh. But even as the flames consumed it, its body shuddered and snapped, bones cracking loudly as its torso seemed to come apart from within. As Mole watched in terrible fascination, the zombie’s body split in two, and... something came out from inside its body. Massive claws appeared, followed by arms and a body that were clearly too big to have fit inside the frame of the man-sized undead.

But the presence of the creature offered irrefutable evidence to its apparent contradiction of the laws of nature. It was nearly seven feet tall, lean almost to the point of being skeletal, its head an oblong orb dominated by bulbous eyes and a gaping jaw full of jagged teeth. Its body was covered with a thick, clinging black slime, and it gave off an odor that made the zombie’s stench seem pleasant by comparison. The creature looked up at her, and snarled something in a language that she didn’t understand, but which didn’t sound like a friendly greeting.

“Uh oh...”

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 313

Confronted with the sudden and most unexpected appearance of a faratsu demodand from the ruin of the burning zombie, Mole decided that it would be a very good idea if she returned back up the shaft.

But as she tried to pull herself back up, her leg got tangled momentarily in the rope stretching up into the shaft behind her. It only took her a second to shake free, but that second was all the demodand needed. The creature leapt at her, its long arms extending to snag her body with its claws, the sticky black goo that clung to it adhering to her as she tried in vain to slip free. For a moment the rope held, taut, but the combined weight of the two of them proved too much for her mooring in the wine cellar at the summit of the shaft.

“Mole!” Dannel cried, as the gnome, still clutched tightly in the demodand’s embrace, fell hard to the floor of the room. The fiend tore at her with her claws, and Mole screamed in pain as its sharp nails penetrated her armor and dug painful punctures into her body. It lifted her up to its waiting mouth, trying to jam her feet-first into that jagged orifice, but she managed to spread her legs enough to land her feet on its forehead and chin, narrowly holding her out of reach of the gnashing teeth.

For the moment. But the demodand was both bigger and stronger than she was, and the sticky coating that covered it made getting out of its grasp a tricky business.

The two remaining zombies shambled forward, mindlessly seeking to add their strength to the fray. They did not assault the faratsu, but moved slowly and awkwardly around it, their withered hands already reaching for the fiend’s captive. An arrow slammed into the faratsu’s shoulder, a message from Dannel’s bow, but the hit appeared to do little damage, its otherworldly defenses insulating it from even Dannel’s potent magical arrows.

“Damn it, we have to get down there!” Beorna said, looking at the illusory floor as if considering leaping down into the fifty-foot shaft.

“The gnome was carrying all of the extra rope,” Fario exclaimed.

“Great,” Hodge said. “Whose plan was this, again?”

“I can get us down there, but you’ll have to trust me,” Zenna said.

The half-elves nodded, and after a moment’s hesitation, Arun did as well. The dwarf was averse to heights, Zenna knew, but no one could doubt his courage, especially when a friend was in danger.

Another scream drifted up from below. “If you’re going to do something, do it now,” Beorna said, her blade shining in her fists.

“Everyone, stand at the edge of the shaft, and take hold of the person next to you,” Zenna said. “On my word, step forward, and let yourselves fall.”

“I dunna like this plan,” Hodge said. But he joined the others as they readied their weapons and moved beside the shaft.

“Now!” Zenna said. As one, the companions stepped forward, and started falling. Hodge let out a roar as they disappeared through the illusory floor into the shaft, the ground below rushing rapidly up to reach them. For a moment it looked as though they would collide with Dannel, who was descending more slowly using his magical slippers, but then Zenna spoke a word of magic, triggering her feather fall spell. A heartbeat later their precipitous descent had slowed to a gentle drift. Dannel easily dodged their falling bodies, and a moment later the companions appeared at the base of the shaft, landing softly on the stone floor of the chamber below.

Fario and Fellian were quick to react, leaping to Mole’s aid. Fario darted around the slower zombies and lunged at the faratsu from behind, slashing at its bony torso. He seemed to connect, but again its resistance to mundane weapons protected it, and the half-elf’s blow barely pierced its thick hide. But Fellian quickly came at it from the other side, flanking the creature, forcing it to divide its attention between them.

Arun opted for a more direct approach, stepping straight at the fiend, and the zombie that blocked his path to it. Even as he swung, the still-struggling Mole warned, “Don’t kill the zombies!” But she was too late, for the undead monster was already falling, knocked on its back with its torso rent near in twain by a stroke from Arun’s sword. But before Arun could move to help the gnome, a terrible figure exploded out from the body of the zombie, and a second faratsu appeared to face them.

Hodge held his stroke as he was about to attack the last zombie, dodging back as the creature hit his shield with a powerful slam. “What are we s’posed to do wit’ it then?” he yelled.

“Just keep it busy!” Beorna said, rushing to attack the second faratsu. The creature quickly got its bearings after appearing from the gory remnants of the zombie, but it had no time to mount an attack before the templar slammed her holy blade into its body. Unlike the other attacks thus far, this one clearly was telling, and a great gout of putrid black ichor erupted from the deep gash in its body. But Beorna’s sword was fouled on the adhesive slime that covered its body, and she had to fight just to keep her grip on the weapon as the demodand staggered back from the force of the impact.

“Use the holy weapons and magic!” Zenna said, calling upon a current of divine power to turn the last zombie facing Hodge. The zombie retreated before her, and Hodge turned to help the others, but Zenna forestalled him. “Let me align your axe, so you can better hurt them.”

“Well, get to it, then!” the dwarf replied, holding up his weapon.

Fario and Fellian’s attacks had thus far done little to actually hurt the demodand, but their feints distracted it enough for Mole to finally tear herself free of its grasp. The injured gnome darted back but didn’t go too far, pausing only to rip her rapier from its sheath before rushing back to join the attack.

The fiends, outnumbered now, unleashed waves of icy fear that swept through the room. Both Hodge and Fario were overcome, dropping their weapons and drawing back in shivering terror. But the rest of the companions, bolstered in part by the aura of courage that surrounded Arun, fought on, bringing the attack to the creatures.

Fellian missed with a swing of his sword that glanced off of the first faratsu’s oily hide. But his attack created an opening for Mole, who darted into position behind the demodand and sank the entire length of her rapier into its back. The weapon clung to the creature and was yanked out of her hand by the fiend’s sticky hide, but it was nonetheless hurt, and hurt bad. More arrows from Dannel, who was now perched on the ceiling near the lip of the shaft, slammed down into it, and even though its resistances protected it from most of the damage, the electrical jolts that shot through its body with each hit were clearly having an effect.

Beorna, rather than fighting to recover her sword, simply unleashed a blast of searing light into the chest of the fiend. The creature screamed and fell back, but not far enough to avoid Arun, who swung his holy blade in a glittering arc that intersected its body where its torso met its hips. The sword sang a brilliant note of triumph as it hit, and the faratsu collapsed into two pieces, its ichor steaming as it poured out from both halves onto the stone floor. Beorna reached down and recovered her weapon, her mouth twisting in disgust as she shook off the clinging corpse of the slain demodand from the holy sword.

The second creature tried to escape, calling upon magical invisibility to hide it from the blessed blades of its foes. But Fellian quickly countered with an invisibility purge, and the faratsu found no escape as the holy warriors surrounded it and hacked it to pieces.

“Are you all right?” Zenna asked Mole, while Fellian and Arun tended to their terror-infused friends. Fortunately the fear effect was temporary, and Fario and Hodge were quickly able to recover their weapons and rejoin the group.

“Yeah,” Mole said, a slight sheepish tone to her voice. “Thanks to you guys dropping in.”

“Next time something looks harmless, don’t just assume that it is,” Dannel chided her, as he moved to the wall to join them on the floor of the chamber.

“What about that last zombie?” Fellian asked. The creature, still under the effect of Zenna’s turning, cowered at the far side of the room, near the dark alcove that might be an exit.

“Destroy it,” Beorna said. “If there’s another fiend coming... well, then bring it on.”

“No sense in inviting more unnecessary trouble,” Zenna said. “We can incapacitate it, and leave it here securely bound.”

“If you like leaving a potentially dangerous foe behind us,” Beorna returned. “We can destroy it; let us do so.”

“Yeah, I’d like a chance for a little revenge,” Fario said, still smarting at his failure to resist the mental assault of the faratsu.

Overruled, Zenna frowned in disapproval as the companions gathered in a semicircle around the zombie. Dannel slew it by firing a volley of arrows into its chest and head, and as the faratsu predictably began to burst out of its body, the companions rushed in and destroyed it.

“Now, that wasn’t so bad,” Fario offered, as he cleaned the remnants of slimy gunk off of his blades. The faratsu hadn’t even been given a chance to call upon any of its infernal powers, this time.

“And if a pit fiend had stepped out of that zombie’s corpse...” Zenna mumbled to herself.

The circular chamber had nothing else of note evident to cursory examination, so they made their way to the dark alcove. Mole’s light revealed it to in fact be another shaft, descending into the darkness yet deeper beneath the city.

“Great. Here we go again,” Hodge muttered.

 

[Krafus]

Entertaining as usual, Lazybones... If it matters, I agree with Zenna's companions. Better to destroy a foe when you easily can do so than taking the risk it might attack you when you're distracted.

 

[Lazybones]

Double post time... Friday cliffhanger coming in the second post below:

* * * * *

Chapter 314

After a brief discussion, the companions proceeded carefully down this new shaft. This time Fario and Mole were the first down, with Mole using her own slippers of spider climbing, and Fario rappelling down using rope that Hodge and Arun had securely fastened via several spikes hammered into the chamber walls above. Dannel remained at the top of the shaft this time, with his own feather fall spell ready to bring the rest of the group down, if necessary. This time there was no illusory floor to block the view from above, so the companions could watch the gnome and half-elf as they descended.

The shaft was dark and quiet, with Mole’s burning brand forming a bubble of light as they descended, pushing back the menacing black below. They gone down almost a hundred feet before they encountered their first break in the smooth walls of the shaft: an odd door set into a shallow recess. The shaft continued down into more darkness, well beyond the radius of their flickering light to penetrate.

“Strange,” Mole said, examining the door. The portal was round, and oddly crafted to resemble the visage of a beholder. Carved eyestalks set with gems were positioned around the perimeter of the door, and a clear stone the size of a fist was situated in its center. “It looks like it’s designed to break apart into several segments, which draw back into the threshold.”

“I don’t see a keyhole or other locking mechanism,” Fario said.

“It’s probably operated by some sort of magic, or something to do with these gemstones,” Mole said.

“Trapped?”

“Oh, no doubt.”

A voice drifted down from above, faint. Fario gave the rope a few quick tugs; a symbol they’d agreed upon to indicate that all was well.

“Well? Should we go further down?” Fario asked.

“Hmm... I don’t like the idea of leaving this door behind us. But on the other hand, the coolest stuff is probably deepest down.”

The half-elf grinned. “I’m sure the others would hate to miss that. How much rope is left?”

“I brought four coils, about fifty feet each.”

“There’s not much room here,” Fario said, indicating the slight indentation into which the door was set. The ledge there was tiny, maybe two feet deep, wide enough for maybe three or four people to stand tentatively there.

“If we could get the door open, we could take a quick look at what’s behind, and if it’s danger, we could hurry back up the shaft, with the others covering.”

“Unless something is waiting for us to open it.”

“Well, yes, there’s always that. But look at it this way; there could be something waiting for us below, and with our light, it’ll see us coming a long way off.”

“There is that.”

“Wait here,” Mole said. “I’ll go up and borrow Fellian’s magic chime.”

“I’ll just hang around here then, until you get back.”

The transaction went smoothly, with Mole hurrying to get maximum use out of her slippers. Their magic was not unlimited, and she was very conscious of the down side of their potency suddenly failing while she was hurrying up or down the shaft. But soon she had rejoined Fario with Fellian’s chime of opening in hand, having appraised the others waiting above of what she’d found.

“Okay, ready?” she asked. She was perched above the door, ready to flee if the portal opened to reveal something nasty. Fario hung across from the door, ready to be pulled up quickly by the others at a sudden tug on the rope.

The chime’s clear note echoed through the shaft. The door split into three segments, each sliding back into the threshold, leaving a round opening into a chamber beyond. Nothing immediately jumped out to attack them, so Mole shone her light through the opening.

“Better tell the others to get down here,” Mole said, peering into the darkness.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 315

Ten minutes later found the adventurers reunited in the long hall beyond the beholder door. The portal had started to close automatically shortly after it was opened, but Mole and Fario were quick to jam it open with iron spikes from Mole’s bag of holding jammed into the threshold. The opening left in the partially-closed door was small, but enough for all of them to fit through with a bit of effort.

They left their rope dangling in the shaft behind them, a tenuous avenue of retreat. “Not goin’ get back up as easy as we came down,” Hodge said, the last of them to make the descent. He only spoke what most of them were thinking; if they ran into trouble down here that they couldn’t handle, there were no easy escapes.

The hall broadened as it penetrated deeper into the volcanic rock, forming a wide area maybe twenty feet across halfway down its length. That open space had been used to form a gallery of sorts. Another of the beholder doors was set in the wall to their right, and facing it was a curving wall where a half-dozen stone statues of exquisite detail were carefully arranged. Unlike the statues they’d encountered in Vhalantru’s mansion above, these figures were cut in the shape of terrible monstrosities, fell creatures that had fallen prey to the beholder’s flesh to stone power. They recognized several of them, including a small black dragon, a kuo-toa, and a minotaur, but several others were of creatures none of them had ever seen before.

“These, I don’t think we should restore to life,” Dannel suggested.

Mole shone her light down the far end of the hall, revealing another terminus at a sealed beholder door. But the others were already turning to the portal in the middle of the corridor, the object toward which all of the monster statues were oriented.

“I get a real bad feeling here,” Arun said.

“Everyone, be ready for anything,” Beorna said, taking the opportunity to summon the power of Helm to bolster herself.

“Let me cast my clairvoyance spell,” Zenna suggested. “We’ll know what we’re getting into.”

The templar nodded. They all knew that the spell took time to prepare, so they settled down to wait as Zenna came forward and knelt before the portal, gathering her thoughts to focus upon her casting.

But she’d barely begun her incantation when she slumped back, her expression twisting in pain. They all felt it, a tangible wave of pure evil, hatred and pain sweeping out in an invisible but tangible tide from somewhere beyond the portal.

“What was that?” Fario said, rubbing his head. Fellian looked worse off, clutching his temples.

“Something’s happened,” Beorna said, her sword held before her in a ready position, as if expecting an enemy to materialize from thin air before them. “Open the door.”

“That might not be a good idea...” Zenna began.

“Whatever it was, it wasn’t good, and it can only strengthen our enemies’ position,” the templar said. “We have to strike, and quickly.”

Zenna looked at her friends, but Arun had already turned back to the door, and Dannel shook his head, fitting an arrow to his bow, filling the air with the nearly-silent melody of power that surrounded him in his archery, infusing the missile with potency. Mole shrugged, but Zenna knew her well enough to know that she was far too excited to be worried about whatever it was that was waiting for them behind that door.

So be it, she thought, a grim fatalism drifting over her. As Mole moved toward the door, the magical chime in hand, Zenna took the opportunity to summon her own wards, adding to the magic circle that she’d called upon before. Fellian, likewise, placed shields of faith upon himself and Fario.

Mole reached the door, and glanced back at her companions. They were ready, but Zenna couldn’t shake the black feeling that had settled over her, a certainty that only disaster awaited them behind the beholder portal.

“Do it,” Beorna said.

The chime sounded, and as its clear note reverberated through the hall, the slabs of the door parted and slid back.

Beyond the door was another great chamber, a smooth hemisphere blasted from the surrounding rock by the beholder’s magic, the ceiling rising in a perfect dome above. The chamber was lit, with flickering blue flames in sconces around the perimeter filling the place with a surreal aquamarine glow. There were no furnishings or other mundane details; the only other unique feature of the room was a magical diagram, easily ten paces across, carved with glowing blue runes, set into the center of the floor. The diagram formed a triangle inscribed inside a circle; at each point of the triangle was a dark object, roughly the size of a man.

And hovering above the diagram was the creature they had come to find.

The beholder was turned away from them, quivering within a glowing nimbus of soft gray wisps that surrounded it like a haze of fog. The companions readied weapons and spells, but before they could strike, another surge of power slammed through the room with the force of a physical blow, stunning them. Black tendrils of energy exploded up from the three figures imprisoned on the perimeter of the magic circle, each disintegrating into ash as the power was released from them. Those flares rose up and tore into the beholder, whose form swelled and distended. The gray haze vanished, and even as the companions felt control over their minds and bodies slowly returning, the dark orb slowly began to rotate.

A grim laugh that was too jarringly human came from the beholder. “You’re too late, heroes.”

As it turned to face them, they saw that the beholder had... changed. Its already thick and mottled hide had darkened, cracked and broken with sores that oozed a toxic black putrescence like tar seeping from the earth. As Vhalantru’s huge jaws opened, its mad laughter continuing to roil from within, a great gout of putrid green ooze erupted from its body, landing in a noxious splat on the floor below. And as its large central eye opened, unleashing its potent cone of antimagic upon them, the companions could see the glistening organ ripple and move. For within that eye, quivering as if trying to break free, they could see the face of a trapped fiend...

“By the gods,” Dannel said, his face as white as a burial shroud.

 

[Krafus]

Looks like the party is in for a big battle. Then again, it's only one foe (so far) against the whole party.