Struggle and Strife- A scarred lands storyhour

[Lars Frehse]

Ruins of Sky Keep- part 1

Their plan to defeat the ratmen was as simple and effective. Trepat and Ben positioned themselves on the wall,and hiding from the ratmen's sight, they had their opponents' heads and torsos in plain view. When they were ready, Niklas and Torn went to the right side of the wall, and casting a spell Torn had learned in the Guild of Shadows, he turned invisible.

The few seconds the spell lasted were enough for the half-orc to approach the closest of the Slitheren unnoticed, and before the Ratman knew what hit him, Torn's spiked chain shot through his spine, killing him instantly. The gurgling sound of death out of the slitheren's throat worked as a starting signal for the others, and as Ben and Trepat started to fire arrows and bullets at the enemies, Niklas charged around the corner.

It was a quick battle in which the ratmen never truly had a chance. Their ambush had backfired, and in the short moments they had, they weren't able to react or even retreat into the entrance behind them. So, a few hectic moments after the battle had started, it was over again already. Relieved by how smoothly everything had worked out, they hid the bodies of the ratmen behind a rock and entered the keep.

The whole structure looked like it had been shattered even worse originally, but someone seemed to have done some crude repairs to the outerwalls: gaps in the walls had been filled in by loose stacks of haphazardly placed stone. It was obvious that whoever had done the repairs had done so with merely primitive craftmanship.

Going through a short, improvised tunnel, they entered what appeared to be the remnants of the keep's church. Stone pews, cracked and in some cases broken into tiny chunks were littering the dust-covered surface and on those walls that had survived the crash relatively intact, there were fantastic carvings of Chardun and other gods battling unseen foes.

Looking around, they found the rusted remnants of iron brackets in the floor, which had once held something very large. Kicking one of the brackets, Torn said:" Looks like the vault could have been here once".

"Yes," Niklas answered "but I wonder why there are no tracks of the slitheren in the dust. After all, they must have passed through here just minutes before us.".

Trepat made a dismissive gesture and said:" Ah, there is a simple spell called "prestidigation" which is actually among the most basic of arcane magic. It would be no problem to upset the dust sufficiently to settle over your tracks once you have passed through. And since that one Slitheren was even able to communicate to a place as far as Lave, she should be able to do the trick easily...".

Having no clue whether their enemies had passed through the irondoors to the right or through the corridor to the north, which seemed to lead to natural tunnels within the spire itself, they decided on a whim to head north.

After a short corridor, they entered a long and winding tunnel. It seemed to be mostly natural, but unseen hands had apparently widened the passage at some point or hewn steps into the rock when it was too steep. Then, after a few turns, there was one particular long and straight part of the path.

At the end of the tunnel, Trepat noticed the tip of a bow in the light of their lantern. He gestured to his friends, who's eyes weren't as well adapted to the dark as his, and trusting him, they returned around the corner.

"There is at least one archer behind the rubble at the end of the corridor", Trepat told his friends in a low voice.

Torn asked:"How far is the end from here?"

"About a hundred feet, I estimate.".

"If we still got the element of surprise, I could charge down the corridor at full speed, I am certain they wouldn't have the time to shoot many arrows before I stand in front of them. Once I am close, I should be able to see them pretty well."

"Can Slitheren see in the dark?", Ben asked.

"Don't know. But I am sure we will find out soon...".

They agreed, and Trepat and Ben decided to shoot into the enemies direction once Torn would start his sprint. "Once you have gained some ground, I will start a sunrod and come after you. I think I am fast as you are, and I should catch up with you quickly.".

Torn nodded, and then he took three deep breaths. Then, he turned around the corner, and charged at full speed down the corridor. Just as the pile of rubble came in view, he saw two Ratmen getting up on their knees and behind them two more who stood up. Each of them had an arrow cocked, and like one man, they let fly.

 

[Nightfall]

Yes! Fight time!

 

[Lars Frehse]

Ruins of Sky Keep- part 2

In the narrow corridor, all arrows hit the Halforc. Fortunately, three of them got stuck in his armor and only one found a way through the chainshirt. Ignoring the pain for now, he came down upon the Ratmen like a force of nature. While his friends caught up, he kept the ratmen at bay with the chain’s superior range.

Once the Slitheren had lost the advantage of their cover, they were no match for the adventurers, and even though Niklas and Torn got wounded, they never lost control over the situation. By the time when Ben had crossed half of the corridor, looking for openings for him to shoot bullets with his sling, Niklas kicked down another Slitheren, and there was only one ratman left standing. Already, this last slitheren was bleeding badly from the shoulder, where he had been hit by the spiked chain. Darting around with his eyes in desperation, he dropped his sword and ran down the bend of the corridor.

Torn wanted to follow suit, but Trepat layed a hand on his right shoulder:“ Don’t. We should wait for Ben to catch up. There have been too many ambushes so far. He could lead us to just another one.“

„Sure,“ the halforc answered „but I don’t want to take the chance of him telling his boss either. Those ratmen here aren’t exactly a real danger. About as trained as fresh recruits in an army... But I am certain that spellcaster and the big guy are much more of a danger.“.

As Ben had almost reached them, Trepat nodded:“ Sure. But it is not as if we would lose this Ratman, here either“.

And as Torn followed the outstretched finger of his Elven friend, he saw a fresh trail of blood that the fleeing Ratman had left behind, and nodding in acknowledgement, he smiled. Following him would be easy, indeed.

They turned around the corner, and saw that the tunnel split into two. Here, the walls were covered in a slick, translucent slime. As they followed the trail, they were soon happy to have this lead, since the corridors were coming together in various twists and turns, forming a labyrinth.

Then, as they turned yet another corner, they stood in front of the lifeless remnants of the ratman who they had chased. He was laying facedown in a pool of blood, his killers still crouching over him, intent to feast on their victim.

The killers were small goblinoids with four arms and several facetous eyes, and all of the friends recognized them as Spider-Eyed Goblins right away. Yet, something was wrong with them- their flesh was rotting away, they all had wounds which no humanoid should survive, and they were stinking of death and decay. These goblins had ceased living long ago, and had now returned to a state of unlife.

Sensing new flesh, the zombies got up, but before they could even lay a claw on any of the friends, they were all ready chopped and hacked down. Yet, now, something was changing in the corridors. When they had entered, all had been silent here, but now the heroes could hear hectic shuffling of feet, groaning and the sound of bodies bumping into each other in a mindless, frantic run for fresh flesh coming from all directions.

Niklas, Ben and Torn took position at each of the entrances to the intersection where they were standing, and as Trepat cast a spell of mage armor on the monk, they got braced themselves for the upcoming battle, trying to shield the sorceror.

And then they came, each of the zombies throwing themselves forward without any plan, only motivated by their mindless greed for flesh. For everyone who got his head split before he arrived, another zombie made it through, clawing and biting at their opponents. As wave after wave of the undead hit them, the heroes were soon bleeding from too many wounds to count, and their arms got heavy from swinging their weapons.

It seemed like there was no end to the number of spidereyed goblin zombies the corridors around them could spawn, and as the battle raged on, each of the friends fought his own battle against a rising feeling of panic and despair.

The smashed, cut, pierced or burnt remnants of the zombies piled up around them, and still more came. With more and more of the mindless creatures coming, and some of them squeezing through to Trepat who collapsed from the many wounds and the loss of blood, they had to change tactics. For a while, Niklas and Torn fought on alone, as Ben first took care of Trepat, and then made sure that the others would be able to keep on fighting by magically healing them.

They hardly noticed how the flood of zombies coming towards them became weaker and weaker until no new arrived anymore. They were so focused on the automatic movements of striking and dodging that they were surprised by the sudden end of the battle that was marked by Torn splitting the head of a zombie. The corridors were silent again.

For a while none of them spoke a word. They were panting heavily in the middle of the piles of reeking corpses until Torn was the first to come to life. He grunted with disgust as he kicked at the pile in front of them, and when he had made a path without having to resort to touching the dead, he said:“ The ratman headed this way. I guess we will find his boss there.“.

Stepping over the rotting flesh, trying not to touch anything, they headed down the corridor. After the first turn, when the stench had gotten less, Ben took care of their wounds before they moved on. They all had the feeling that they weren’t through the worst just yet...

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Re: Ruins of Sky Keep- part 2

The smashed, cut, pierced or burnt remnants of the zombies piled up around them, and still more came. With more and more of the mindless creatures coming, and some of them squeezing through to Trepat who collapsed from the many wounds and the loss of blood, they had to change tactics. For a while, Niklas and Trepat fought on alone, as Ben first took care of Trepat, and then made sure that the others would be able to keep on fighting by magically healing them.

I think one of the Trepats in that paragraph should be a Torn ;-)

Great story, Lars - any chance we could get a summary of the characters at the moment? Just Race/Class/Level would be good for any newcomers.

Thanks,

Duncan

 

[Lars Frehse]

Thanks for the pointer!
The PCs at the end of that adventure:

Torn: Half-Orc Rogue 3, Barbarian 1, Wizard 1*
Ben: Halfling Druid 4, Incarnate 1
Niklas: Human (Durrover) Monk 5
Trepat: Ranger 1, Sorceror 4

and Jan, who hadn't been in the last few sessions: Human Paladin 4

And I had posted the stats of the characters a while ago, here is a link to it:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27433

As you can see, I have added a fuzzy herald of Denev by now.

 

[Nightfall]

Sounds like the boys are doing well. Can't wait to see them in the mid-upper levels.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Ruins of Sky Keep, part 3 of 4

As they marched on, Trepat was the first to hear sounds of a fight echoing through the corridors. There was the sound of steel hitting steel and occasional shouts and screams of agony. Immediately, he started walking quicker, and as his friends heard it too and they were getting closer to the source of those sounds, they ran ahead as far as they could without losing Ben.

The light of Niklas’ lantern was shining on the walls, as they turned a corner and saw the source of the noises coming from a large cave of about fourty by fifty feet. Near the centre of this cavern, there was a hideous creature. It was an about six foot tall humanoid, who was covered in moist slime from it’s high, pointed ears to it’s long twitching tail, and who’s face was covered with a mass by a disgusting beard that was matted into clumps by the slime.

It was wielding a blood-drenched, toothed polearms against several ratmen. It looked like most of those ratmen were merely trying to distract the diabolical creature, as the huge ratman was wielding two shortswords against it and the sorceress was casting spells.

Meanwhile, several feets to the right of the battle, five other ratmen were studying and fiddling with an enormous steel-box that looked a bit like an upright giant casket, engraved with ancient writings and potent symbols.

„This must be the box!“, Niklas shouted over the noise, and as Trepat was shooting an arrow and Torn and Niklas were charging ahead, intending to stop the ratmen at the vault, something odd happened: One of the ratmen who was fiddling with the door disappeared without warning, leaving behind nothing but the clap of the air as it crashed into the space that the Slitheren had occupied.

Ben remained unaware of this, though, for he felt a part of his past coming alive. For the shortest moment, that felt like an infinity for him, he forgot the world around him and felt the memories of a life lived long ago take hold of him.

Ever since he could remember, he had had the same dreams. In those dreams, he thought, felt and lived like a spider. And never in his sleeping hours had this felt anything but perfectly natural. Of course, he had pushed those dreams aside in the morning again- after all, life in the Heteromony of Virduk hardly allowed for dreams.

So it took him till he was forced to flee from home until he did trust those dreams. By the time Iellena told him that he had alrlived many times before, it merely reconfirmed something he already knew.

Still, the memories of his past lives had been just that: memories. There was nothing Ben could do to actually live like a spider again, since he had been trapped in the body he had been reborn into.

Until now...

His mind was taken over by primal urges, as his body changed. His clothing melted into one substance with his body, and as his body bloated up and grew in size, his arms and legs changed form and four additional appedages grew out. His head got rounder, his mouth was replaced by poison-dripping mandibles and where his eyes had been, thousands of black facetous eyes were now reflecting the light of the torches and lanterns in the cave.

Within moments, he had fully transformed into a deadly, hairy hunting spider the size of a wolf.

Seeing the cave in it’s entirety now, he merely divided those within into what was prey and what was not. Dodging the fight between his friends and the ratmen to his right, and the fight of the devil versus the huge slitheren, he charged directly at the spellcasting Slitheren.

She had been supporting the dual shortsword wielding Slitheren by casting spells, but by now, she had refocused her attention to Trepat, who was attacking her with Magic Missiles. When the Spider attacked here, she was completely taken by surprise.

Ben sank his fangs into the Red Witch’s leg and injected poison into her bloodstream. Weakened and surprised, the Slitheren backed away, and after casting a quick spell she turned invisible. Ben would have lost her, but his newly gained spider senses were far superior to those of his halfling body. Concentrating on the vibrations of the floor, and the subtle shifting of the air, he had an idea to where she had backed up, and so he turned around and thrust his body forward with the full strength of his eight legs.

He saw nothing, but as he smashed into the invisible Ratwoman, he knew that trusting his instincts had been right. She turned visible again, and casting another spell, magic missiles appeared and smashed into Ben’s body. But his senses were focused on his prey, and so he bit at her again, merely missing by an inch.

Meanwhile, Ben’s friends had defeated some of the Ratmen, while the devil had dispatched the others. The woman cast another spell at Ben who bit at her in turn, again, but just then the devil impaled the large ratman with his glaive, and his evil laughter echoed through the cave. This was enough for the woman- she touched a ring on her left hand with her right hand and disappeared, the sound of air clapping indicating that this time she wasn’t merely invisible but had vanished alltogether.

Looking at the devil, he decided that he didn’t want to bite into the fiend, and as easily as he had turned into a spider, he now changed back into his halfling form. As he did, he saw how Trepat’s magic bounced off the devil without showing any effect, Torn held his magical mace in both arms and how Niklas, who was bleeding from several wounds, picked up one of the shortswords of the dead Slitheren.

Then the devil made a dismissive gesture, and the Ratman, who was laying behind Niklas, rose again, oblivious to the many wounds he had received. Ben shouted to Niklas, who turned around just in time to see the newly risen Zombie slamming his fist at him. Niklas dodged the blow, and kicked at the ratman who was almost double his mass, but it wasn’t enough to bring it down, and as the Zombie swung his other fist with brainless efficiency at him, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge, and as he crashed to the floor, everything turned black around him.

Meanwhile, Ben had approached the monk, but now he saw that there was no time for him to heal the monk, and so he summoned a flameblade and got ready to fight the undead opponent. He dodged a clumsy strike and hit the zombie, which didn’t care to defend itself, cutting a nice chunk of dead flesh out of it, and then two magic missiles, cast by Trepat, smashed into the undead’s skull, letting it explode and covering Ben in blood and pieces of brain.

The battle wasn’t over yet, though. The devil looked badly wounded, but so did Torn, who was fighting the fiend. The halforc was swinging at his supernatural opponent with all the fury that the blood of Khadum in his veins instilled in him, but Ben saw that he wouldn’t make it much longer.

Dodging the devil’s glaive, he approached Torn from behind. Trepat, who had seen by now that both his mundane arrows and his arcane spells had remained harmless against the fiend had drawn his magical sword and was now approaching as well. He seemed to be ready to face the devil in hand to hand combat, even though he knew that he wouldn’t last half as long as the halforc.

By now Ben had succeeded in magically closing some of Torn’s wounds, and he fought on relentlessly, and then, just as Trepat had approached, he hit the devil square in the middle of it’s chest, caving it in. The devil screamed with an unearthly voice that seemed to be made of pure hatred, and then he disappeared, leaving behind only his blood and the smell of sulphur.

Torn looked around, the rage that had fueled him slowly being substituted by exhaustion. All their enemies had disappeared or were dead and Ben was taking care of Niklas, who was already regaining conciousness. Glancing warily at the vault, he realized that his work here wasn't done just yet.

 

[Nightfall]

Nice job guys! Especially ben! What kind of spider is he?

 

[LRathbun]

Any update coming soon?

 

[Lars Frehse]

I want to post an update by tomorrow. I have just been to the Netherlands for a week, visiting the Itsman, so there hadn't been any updates during this period. But tomorrow I want to finish the chapter and post the rest during the week. That would sum up the adventure then, as well.