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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2433141" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks, Richard! I'm off to a long weekend vacation in the natural splendor of Yosemite, but of course I have to leave you guys with a cliffhanger first!  I'll be back late Monday, when things really start to get intense...* * * * * Chapter 429Mole looked up at the huge, six-armed monstrosity that towered over her, and felt a tingle of anticipation.  There’s been a moment of uncertainty before, when she’d leapt off of Beorna’s shoulder and rushed up the stairs, using the steep stone banister rather than the actual steps.  The wave of fear from the kelubar had awakened a familiar gnawing pit of doubt in her gut, bringing back all the terrors and uncertainties that she’d felt in the wake of Zenna’s loss and her own trip Beyond.  Her will was not as strong as Arun’s or Uncle Cal’s or even Dannel’s, and she’d often fallen prey to enchantments that clouded the mind, leaving her looking like a fool while her friends dealt with the threat.  But this time an unfamiliar surge of anger had flooded through her on the heels of the fear, banishing it, and as it departed she felt a burst of energy as she rushed up to the arch, darting through it without even a thought of hesitation.  She saw the farastu step into her path, and leapt into an attack that left it dead, her rapier stuck for good in its skull. She could not help but be astounded at the sight that greeted her, even with the giant kelubar dominating the chamber directly in front of her.  The interior of Skullrot was dominated by a vast open shaft that ran up the full height of the structure, hundreds of feet above.  The lower tiers of the asylum contained side wings that ultimately opened onto the shaft, with low balconies at uneven intervals in all four directions.  The sound was almost overpowering, the cacophony of mad cries from the cell blocks of the prison filling and rebounding in this central space.  The whole was a heady insanity that was really quite intense. But Mole’s attention was quickly drawn back to the kelubar, which apparently decided it had had enough of running.  It moved with a speed surprising for a creature of its size and bulk, and the ground shook—or was that just her heart pounding in her chest?—at its coming.  Its smell preceded it, making her want to gag, but she fought off the reflex.  It opened its jaws and a gob of acid shot out at her; well, that was something she could deal with, anyway, as she smoothly side-stepped the acid arrow.  She leapt over the first sweeping fist that slammed into the ground where she’d been standing, but as she came down another clipped her solidly on the side, knocking her flying.  She was able to land on her feet, ignoring the sizzling pain where the acidic slime covering its body had contacted her flesh, but quickly had to leap back as another fist pounded into the ground.  It followed her, keeping up a violent all-out assault.  She didn’t even bother to try an attack, putting all of her effort into keeping it busy, staying in one piece.  She knew that her friends would be coming, but she’d seen how the floor in the last room had made even walking a struggle even for her stronger companions.  An arrow emerged from the archway, buzzing as it stabbed into one of the kelubar’s arms, but it did not even appear to notice the attack.  Mole smiled, but quickly had to contort her body to avoid another powerful attack.  Her face burned as something sharp just clipped her on the forehead, and she staggered back, hot blood pouring down her face.  Before she could recover another fist slammed solidly into her with the force of a battering ram, and she was knocked back roughly, landing on her chest and sliding several feet more before she came to a stop. “Ouch, good one,” she muttered.  The kelubar started toward her, but it stopped as a green beam struck it in the chest, blasting away a great swath of rancid flesh.  She heard a clank of metal behind her, and didn’t have to turn to recognize the familiar sound of Beorna joining the fray.  Lok and Arun would not be far behind, she knew.   But even as the demodand roared in pain from the power of Cal’s disintegrate spell, Mole caught a hint of movement that drew her attention behind the creature.  Emerging from a shadowed stairwell came a gray skinned, muscled hag, easily eight feet tall.  And behind her, making her seem puny in comparison, came a pair of massive, shuffling monstrosities, humanoid things that looked, to her horror, to have been stitched together from the hides of other creatures. “Well, well, what have we here,” Slouva hissed.</blockquote>

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