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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2290173" data-attributes="member: 143">Ah, that's 20 minutes of life I'll never get back...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> I haven't written in his return as of yet, but anything's possible; I keep a list of "loose ends" that I can dig up later when things start to get better for the heroes. Of course, that won't be the case this week.   <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> * * * * * Chapter 402At the moment, it looked as though the Cagewrights rapidly approaching the burning roadhouse would find only their corpses of their enemies in the ruins.  Pleased with the sudden cessation of resistance following its blasphemy, the balor turned back to the dwarf knight with the holy sword.  He was double incapacitated now, both stunned and paralyzed, but having felt the bite of the holy avenger, Ndulu wasn’t going to take any chances.  “Your skull will make a fine vessel for my blood wine,” the balor said, as it reached for him. Another bite of stabbing pain interrupted him.  Annoyed now, the demon turned to see that another archer had appeared around the far side of the building, a corner that still stood, toward the front of the structure.  The man was invisible, or at least he thought he was; the shroud of greater invisibility he wore was nothing to the supernatural senses of the demon lord.  Its annoyance was instantly replaced by eager anticipation as it recognized the attacker. Ah, there you are…The balor ignored a second stab of pain as another missile lodged in its arm.  The tiefling was using holy arrows too, and fired from a bow designed to destroy creatures such as the balor to boot, but Ndulu was focused more on how he could use this enemy as a lever to win favor—and power—from his master.  Spreading its wings, the balor leapt at its target, moving with a speed and ferocity far beyond that of any mortal creature.  The look on the tiefling’s face at its onrushing doom was quite satisfying. The archer ducked back behind the corner of the building, which a moment later exploded outward as the balor swept his sword through it, sending shards of shattered masonry and wood flying out in a wide arc.  The archer was falling back but really had nowhere to go.  There were others in the clearing in front of the roadhouse, mostly civilians who screamed at the demon’s sudden appearance, rushing to get out of the way.  But one did not flee; a woman who lifted her hand at the balor, calling forth a blast of searing light that unfortunately faded as it struck the demon’s unholy aura. “Dana!” the tiefling called out, warning the woman, as if it wasn’t obvious that she was flirting with her own destruction.  Ndulu had recognized her even before the tiefling’s words, however, and the demon leapt, covering half the distance that separated them even as its whip lashed out, wrapping around her torso.  She screamed—gratifyingly—as the balor drew her in, immersing her in the aura of fire that surrounded it.  Its pleasure at her suffering was cut short, however, as she dimension doored out of its grasp.  Angry, it turned to the tiefling, but before it could act he too transported himself away. “Cowards… you cannot run from me,” the demon snarled.  It had a good idea where the two had gone, however, and it summoned its own power to teleport back to where it had left its other helpless foes. * * * * * “I… I can’t, uncle Cal,” Mole said, a miserable ball of fear, huddling in the ruins of The Lucky Monkey, what was still left intact of the interior wreathed in thick smoke, watching helplessly as the demon engaged her friends. “Nothing we do hurts it, and none of them could resist it!”  Her own heart had felt like it would freeze when the demon had spoken its blasphemy, although she’d been just far enough away that the sensation had passed, and she’d been able to react a few moments later.  Inwardly, Cal could not disagree with her niece’s pessimistic assessment.  The balor was a deadly foe, and it possessed magic that could not be dodged or resisted.  And even if he hadn’t already burned many of his most powerful spells in their earlier engagements at Shatterhorn, he did not have much in his arsenal that would even inconvenience the demon lord.  Thus far the buffs he’d placed upon his allies had done little to protect them against the demon’s power.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, a loud crash nearby was a reminder that the entire building was on fire, and was going to collapse down upon them before too long.  But he masked those feelings, knowing that his niece tottered on a precipice of self-doubt that could cost all of them.  “We’ll do what we can,” he told her.  “Our friends deserve no less.” He began a complex spell, but before he could complete it the demon turned and charged out of the rubble toward the front of the building.  “Where’s it going?” Mole whispered, curious despite her fear.Cal completed his spell, giving shape to shadowstuff that he drew across the ether, forming it into the outline of a bralani eladrin that he gave substance through his magic.  As it took solid form, awaiting commands, Cal caught sight of a wisp of white moving through the building nearby, accompanied by a familiar clank of heavy metal. Jenya, and Beorna! The pair were moving toward the ruined quarter of the building where their friends lay helpless, perhaps unaware that the battle had already shifted to the front of the building where Dana and Benzan had circled around to flank the demon. “It’s got Dana!” came Mole’s voice, confirming his suspicions a moment later. If it comes to this, so be it… we’ve given it a good run, the gnome thought.  He turned to his shadow conjured eladrin.  The creature had been good enough to drive away the smoke in their immediate vicinity, and Cal nodded gratefully as he took a clean breath before speaking. “Go out the back of this structure, and gain altitude.  There is a balor in front; I want you to distract it using your holy arrows.  Do not engage it in melee unless  you have no other option.”The shadow-creature nodded, and in a rush of wind darted out toward the ruined rear entry. Cal moved to the front entry to join Mole, when a loud crash from behind suggested that the battle had again shifted to their rear. * * * * * “Well, do we engage?” Viirdran asked, his rapiers balanced easily in his slender hands.  The Cagewrights were still in the wood, having come off the road to approach the roadhouse from behind, though they were now close enough now to clearly see the rear of the building.  Even from here they could feel the roar of the flames and taste the acrid smell of smoke thick on the air. Even though they were not the targets of the creature, the veterans started as the balor suddenly reappeared in the midst of the ruins it had created, announcing its return with a loud roar. “Mayhap we let the beast finish its assault,” Thifirane suggested, a feral grin on her features.  “Then we go in and pick up the pieces.  All of the pieces.”“Their hearts will make interesting additions to my collection,” the armored warrior, Alurad Sorizan, said with a chuckle.  The furry mound at his side, a massive dire badger, let out an accompanying growl. “Await my signal to start the attack,” Thifirane continued.  “Destroy the balor quickly… and then any others that remain.”Cautiously, spreading out, they slowly approached the battlefield. * * * * * Ndulu materialized to find its two foes, the priestess and the tiefling, indeed where it had thought to find them, trying to aid their helpless companions.  There were others here as well, another armored dwarf and a woman clad in the raiment of a high cleric of the god Helm.  That last one Ndulu did not know, but it could instantly sense the power within her, as well as the fear that shone in her eyes as she looked up from where she knelt over that useless paladin. But the Helmite’s companions did not hesitate, immediately launching a violent all-out assault upon the balor.  The tiefling archer fired another one of those damnable holy arrows into the demon’s shoulder, but he’d already been luckier than he’d had a right to be, and his follow-up shot was more properly deflected by the still-coruscating potency of the unholy aura.  The other woman, the servant of Selûne, tried to dismiss it in a gesture that was almost amusing in its futility. The dwarf woman likewise gave her best effort, trying to smite him with an adamantine sword that the balor recognized (with some alarm, though it would never consciously admit such) had been infused with holy power.  But her assault was equally useless, even the legendary hardness of the rare metal insufficient against its hide, infused with the essence of the darkest pits in the Abyss. As she continued hacking at it in a foolish display of mulish persistence, the demon’s eyes focused on the high priestess.  Something plinked against its shoulder, and the demon distantly noticed and dismissed the pathetic shadow-creation that hovered above, out of easy range.Smiling, the demon uttered another blasphemy.</blockquote>

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