The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
- Thread starter Eccles
- Start date
Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Eccles said:
Disrupted weeks? Very understandable, I'm going through that right now. Sorry if I sounded impatient, I only meant to express encouragement.
And your next-entry foreshadowing leaves me even more anxious!
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Eccles said:
What, he just wandered off?
"No seriously, I just looked away for a minute and he'd gone!"
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
There followed a period of close examination of the heavy machine, covered in levers, dials and inscrutable readouts. Heavy fluids flowed through and under crystalline pipework, and three rune-encrusted pillars of gemwork stood above it, creating a framework in which hovered a sinister black sphere. The sphere was silent, yet even a glance at it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and getting too close was followed by a feeling of weakness and terror. The thing stank of unholy magics and power.
“Negative energy?” I looked to Janga, who nodded once in confirmation.
“Well then this is bad,” I concluded. “As near as I can tell, it seems to be tapping the Plane of Negative Energy and feeding its powers directly here; no doubt it feeds anything undead and saps those of us with any vitality until we join them.”
“So we smash it,” roared Fez as he ran up and brought his blazing sunblade down onto one of the crystalline tubes. It shattered, sending thick black blood-like liquid spattering all over the blade and his arm. He howled and clutched his arm, collapsing to the floor in pain as the thick liquid crawled up the weapon. Even as we moved to help him, several ghostly figures emerged from around the machine’s black central sphere.
Each of the four ghostly creatures had eight long whip-like arms, each ended with a gnashing set of teeth. From behind me, Bob fired a series of enchanted arrows, which sliced through the air and then passed harmlessly through it; only one of the arrows tugged at the creature’s form. Flynne followed suit, and two of his long arrows made the creature ripple in pain.
Janga started casting, and I enthused my comrades with song and a spell of speed; but we weren’t quick enough. Fez was still lying on the floor trembling in pain as the four ghostly monstrosities closed on us. The first lashed out at Flynne, and he trembled as its first long limb passed through his torso, making him momentarily look close to collapse; then the monstrosity unleashed a frenzy of lashing biting attacks on him.
Another pulsed once, and Bob and I could both feel something try to throw us through the air – we both managed to stay on the ground as the other two pulsed as well, but were unable to shift Janga’s armoured form.
The cleric’s summoning spell came to an end, and several angelic forms burst into the air around us. Bob followed this up with a powerful healing spell, but I could see a tidal wave of magic as his healthy positive spell was pulled away into the maelstrom of the unlife vortex like water down a drain.
I cast a spell of my own, slamming a wall of mystical force between us and most of the long-tendrilled ghosts. Only one of the four was on our side, and Flynne (taking another lash as he did so and starting to look distinctly punch-drunk) fired another barrage of arrows at the closest creature. With a wailing noise, it was torn apart by the arrows, and drifted apart.
The other three monsters, however, surged through the wall and ceiling to emerge amongst us, and with a bite from one of them, Flynne collapsed, twitching, to the floor. I looked up, and was alarmed to see Fez on the other side of the Force Wall was still now, covered in the black liquid and moving only in deep shuddering pulses, which were echoed by throbs from the black sphere above him.
Being lashed painfully himself, Bob took aim as well. His arrow struck true but dealt only minimal damage – Bob, however, was quivering on his feet and his face was pale, looking dangerously close to catatonia.
Flynne was down, Bob nearly with him, and Fez’s life force had been nearly entirely leeched away by the evil machine. Janga and I were surrounded by the lashing long-limbed beings, which were spaced equally around us and ready to unleash death upon us.
Trouble.
.oOo.
I muttered some words and snatched at my belt pouch, having summoned one of my more expensive scrolls to the top of the bag’s large extradimensional space. Ducking a lashing blow, I unrolled the scroll and read it, and was rewarded by the sight of a snapping beak hurtling towards my throat.
As the words burned away from the scroll, the savage attack slowed, and then stopped in the air inches away from me. I stepped aside, clutching the Staff of the Magi, which I used to summon wall after wall of roasting, rolling flame, circling Flynne, Bob, Janga and myself and facing outwards. Then I created still more walls of fire a little further away, facing inwards.
I was interrupted in my sixth casting by Janga prodding my side.
“You can stop now,” he said. “I think you got ‘em.”
I could barely hear him above the multiple infernos, and it took me some moments to unweave the spells. By the time I had done so, Janga had healed all of us except Fez. We dashed towards the machine, but as we drew close we could see that all that remained of him was a pile of enchanted weapons and equipment.
Was it possible that the black unlife vortex was a little larger? Or were we imagining it?
.oOo.
As the others scooped up the equipment, I spent my time examining the machine from a careful distance. Eventually, I straightened, my spine popping as I did so.
“I think I’ve got it. I can turn it of, but they’d turn it back on again. I can muck it up, but they could fix it. Or I can make it … well, I can make it blow up. But you’d better get to a safe distance before I do it.”
“How far’s safe,” asked Janga curiously.
“Half a mile? This is hardly precise. It’s not alchemy…”
I could see they were already backing away.
.oOo.
Fifteen minutes later, I was ready. A spectral horse stood motionless behind me, and several spells of protection lay over both it and myself. I rolled up my sleeves and began to manipulate the switches and pull the levers. The machine shuddered, and the unlife vortex began to crackle with black lightning.
I was swinging my leg onto the horse when the building began to shudder, and the horse had surged into motion as the crackling and unstable conduit to the negative energy plane began to shrink in on itself.
I was halfway down the long corridor out of the complex when a terrible rushing wind began to go past me, being sucked into the vortex and it collapsed.
The wind stopped, and then began to hurtle past me. Even as I was thrown off my spectral mount, I summoned all my concentration to cast a spell of teleportation.
The explosion washed over my body.
.oOo.
My next breath was drawn a thousand miles away. I was still underground, but standing before a statue with a dark mouth. I unfolded a square of material and placed it on the ground and then pulled the wire loop of the Talisman of Sphere Control from the special wrist-sheathe I had commissioned for it months ago.
Using it, and focussing my concentration on it rather than trying to bully the artefact to obey me through pure mystical force, guiding the Sphere of Annihilation into the Portable Hole was almost laughably easy.
Then I teleported back to my comrades in the city.
.oOo.
After using a scroll of massive potency to wish that we were rested and ready for what might come, and we set off for the ziggurat which loomed over the town.
.oOo.
The massive structure was easily 300 feet high, topped with a three segmented tower like a massive trident rising from the peak of the pyramidal structure. Lightning leapt from balcony to balcony of the structure.
At the base, there were 4 entrances, which were mirrored at the level above and again in the layer above that. There were further entrances in the tower and we cast the spells to approach it.
Janga’s spell of pathfinding directed us to the top of the tower as the ‘focal point of the energies in the structure’, and then he used an item to summon a flying griffon which preceded us up the tower to make sure than nothing would snatch it out of the air.
Once the griffon was flying around the tower top, we followed it up, and hovering above the tower’s central platform, we could see a pinnacle of black rock, which seemed to writhe under the surface as though filled with the eldritch worms.
The pinnacle was surrounded by four ‘L’ shaped rocks, clearly designed to focus some mystical power.
Flynne went first, touching down on the platform and heading for the stairs down.
.oOo.
The instant the elf’s foot touched the tower, the clouds overhead abruptly went green, and a green tendril of energies, like a tornado, whirled around us. It touched the tower, and a massive sphere of dark necromantic energies burst from the ziggurat, hurtling outwards in all directions slaying hundreds, perhaps thousands, beneath us. It burst over us all, and whilst I was strangely unaffected, my comrades were agonised by its power. Flynne and Bob were both abruptly frozen in place in abject terror; Flynne on the tower itself, and Bob turning gently in the sky, wings on his boots flapping madly.
The entire side of the dark tower rippled strangely, and then two torrents of worms streamed out of it, forming into the form of a tremendously large executioner’s mace. A huge fist clutching the weapon formed out of the stream of worms, and then Kyuss himself simply emerged from the building, towering over us.
As Janga prayed, I could feel the wash of positive energies come from him, freeing the others and protecting us all from Kyuss’ baleful influence; though I couldn’t imagine what it had cost him to channel that much of his deity’s power.
Then Kyuss’ dreadful gaze turned onto us, as tiny undead forms streamed out of the bast of the ziggurat and began to look up, some taking flight to join the combat alongside their deity.
“Uh… Uhh…”
I didn’t know what to say or do – as a vengeful deity prepared to destroy us all, it was hopeless.
We were doomed.
“Uh…”
“Negative energy?” I looked to Janga, who nodded once in confirmation.
“Well then this is bad,” I concluded. “As near as I can tell, it seems to be tapping the Plane of Negative Energy and feeding its powers directly here; no doubt it feeds anything undead and saps those of us with any vitality until we join them.”
“So we smash it,” roared Fez as he ran up and brought his blazing sunblade down onto one of the crystalline tubes. It shattered, sending thick black blood-like liquid spattering all over the blade and his arm. He howled and clutched his arm, collapsing to the floor in pain as the thick liquid crawled up the weapon. Even as we moved to help him, several ghostly figures emerged from around the machine’s black central sphere.
Each of the four ghostly creatures had eight long whip-like arms, each ended with a gnashing set of teeth. From behind me, Bob fired a series of enchanted arrows, which sliced through the air and then passed harmlessly through it; only one of the arrows tugged at the creature’s form. Flynne followed suit, and two of his long arrows made the creature ripple in pain.
Janga started casting, and I enthused my comrades with song and a spell of speed; but we weren’t quick enough. Fez was still lying on the floor trembling in pain as the four ghostly monstrosities closed on us. The first lashed out at Flynne, and he trembled as its first long limb passed through his torso, making him momentarily look close to collapse; then the monstrosity unleashed a frenzy of lashing biting attacks on him.
Another pulsed once, and Bob and I could both feel something try to throw us through the air – we both managed to stay on the ground as the other two pulsed as well, but were unable to shift Janga’s armoured form.
The cleric’s summoning spell came to an end, and several angelic forms burst into the air around us. Bob followed this up with a powerful healing spell, but I could see a tidal wave of magic as his healthy positive spell was pulled away into the maelstrom of the unlife vortex like water down a drain.
I cast a spell of my own, slamming a wall of mystical force between us and most of the long-tendrilled ghosts. Only one of the four was on our side, and Flynne (taking another lash as he did so and starting to look distinctly punch-drunk) fired another barrage of arrows at the closest creature. With a wailing noise, it was torn apart by the arrows, and drifted apart.
The other three monsters, however, surged through the wall and ceiling to emerge amongst us, and with a bite from one of them, Flynne collapsed, twitching, to the floor. I looked up, and was alarmed to see Fez on the other side of the Force Wall was still now, covered in the black liquid and moving only in deep shuddering pulses, which were echoed by throbs from the black sphere above him.
Being lashed painfully himself, Bob took aim as well. His arrow struck true but dealt only minimal damage – Bob, however, was quivering on his feet and his face was pale, looking dangerously close to catatonia.
Flynne was down, Bob nearly with him, and Fez’s life force had been nearly entirely leeched away by the evil machine. Janga and I were surrounded by the lashing long-limbed beings, which were spaced equally around us and ready to unleash death upon us.
Trouble.
.oOo.
I muttered some words and snatched at my belt pouch, having summoned one of my more expensive scrolls to the top of the bag’s large extradimensional space. Ducking a lashing blow, I unrolled the scroll and read it, and was rewarded by the sight of a snapping beak hurtling towards my throat.
As the words burned away from the scroll, the savage attack slowed, and then stopped in the air inches away from me. I stepped aside, clutching the Staff of the Magi, which I used to summon wall after wall of roasting, rolling flame, circling Flynne, Bob, Janga and myself and facing outwards. Then I created still more walls of fire a little further away, facing inwards.
I was interrupted in my sixth casting by Janga prodding my side.
“You can stop now,” he said. “I think you got ‘em.”
I could barely hear him above the multiple infernos, and it took me some moments to unweave the spells. By the time I had done so, Janga had healed all of us except Fez. We dashed towards the machine, but as we drew close we could see that all that remained of him was a pile of enchanted weapons and equipment.
Was it possible that the black unlife vortex was a little larger? Or were we imagining it?
.oOo.
As the others scooped up the equipment, I spent my time examining the machine from a careful distance. Eventually, I straightened, my spine popping as I did so.
“I think I’ve got it. I can turn it of, but they’d turn it back on again. I can muck it up, but they could fix it. Or I can make it … well, I can make it blow up. But you’d better get to a safe distance before I do it.”
“How far’s safe,” asked Janga curiously.
“Half a mile? This is hardly precise. It’s not alchemy…”
I could see they were already backing away.
.oOo.
Fifteen minutes later, I was ready. A spectral horse stood motionless behind me, and several spells of protection lay over both it and myself. I rolled up my sleeves and began to manipulate the switches and pull the levers. The machine shuddered, and the unlife vortex began to crackle with black lightning.
I was swinging my leg onto the horse when the building began to shudder, and the horse had surged into motion as the crackling and unstable conduit to the negative energy plane began to shrink in on itself.
I was halfway down the long corridor out of the complex when a terrible rushing wind began to go past me, being sucked into the vortex and it collapsed.
The wind stopped, and then began to hurtle past me. Even as I was thrown off my spectral mount, I summoned all my concentration to cast a spell of teleportation.
The explosion washed over my body.
.oOo.
My next breath was drawn a thousand miles away. I was still underground, but standing before a statue with a dark mouth. I unfolded a square of material and placed it on the ground and then pulled the wire loop of the Talisman of Sphere Control from the special wrist-sheathe I had commissioned for it months ago.
Using it, and focussing my concentration on it rather than trying to bully the artefact to obey me through pure mystical force, guiding the Sphere of Annihilation into the Portable Hole was almost laughably easy.
Then I teleported back to my comrades in the city.
.oOo.
After using a scroll of massive potency to wish that we were rested and ready for what might come, and we set off for the ziggurat which loomed over the town.
.oOo.
The massive structure was easily 300 feet high, topped with a three segmented tower like a massive trident rising from the peak of the pyramidal structure. Lightning leapt from balcony to balcony of the structure.
At the base, there were 4 entrances, which were mirrored at the level above and again in the layer above that. There were further entrances in the tower and we cast the spells to approach it.
Janga’s spell of pathfinding directed us to the top of the tower as the ‘focal point of the energies in the structure’, and then he used an item to summon a flying griffon which preceded us up the tower to make sure than nothing would snatch it out of the air.
Once the griffon was flying around the tower top, we followed it up, and hovering above the tower’s central platform, we could see a pinnacle of black rock, which seemed to writhe under the surface as though filled with the eldritch worms.
The pinnacle was surrounded by four ‘L’ shaped rocks, clearly designed to focus some mystical power.
Flynne went first, touching down on the platform and heading for the stairs down.
.oOo.
The instant the elf’s foot touched the tower, the clouds overhead abruptly went green, and a green tendril of energies, like a tornado, whirled around us. It touched the tower, and a massive sphere of dark necromantic energies burst from the ziggurat, hurtling outwards in all directions slaying hundreds, perhaps thousands, beneath us. It burst over us all, and whilst I was strangely unaffected, my comrades were agonised by its power. Flynne and Bob were both abruptly frozen in place in abject terror; Flynne on the tower itself, and Bob turning gently in the sky, wings on his boots flapping madly.
The entire side of the dark tower rippled strangely, and then two torrents of worms streamed out of it, forming into the form of a tremendously large executioner’s mace. A huge fist clutching the weapon formed out of the stream of worms, and then Kyuss himself simply emerged from the building, towering over us.
As Janga prayed, I could feel the wash of positive energies come from him, freeing the others and protecting us all from Kyuss’ baleful influence; though I couldn’t imagine what it had cost him to channel that much of his deity’s power.
Then Kyuss’ dreadful gaze turned onto us, as tiny undead forms streamed out of the bast of the ziggurat and began to look up, some taking flight to join the combat alongside their deity.
“Uh… Uhh…”
I didn’t know what to say or do – as a vengeful deity prepared to destroy us all, it was hopeless.
We were doomed.
“Uh…”
carborundum
Adventurer
Eccles said:
At least you got his stuff
Seriously though ... where'd he go? Does he come back? Will he save the day? You can't leave it at "Uh..."
ARGH!
Here's what we'll do. I'm off to bed. When I wake up all will be revealed. Okay?
(please?)
Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Awesome write up, Eccles, glad you could post it
Still, not-so-awesome for the group: K-dawg himself emerged! Was this a good thing, in the sense that it's the best that could've happened, or was there another way to reach the Big Bad Worm?
And what's the DC for disabling a World Destruction Device? 60? 70?
Still, not-so-awesome for the group: K-dawg himself emerged! Was this a good thing, in the sense that it's the best that could've happened, or was there another way to reach the Big Bad Worm?
And what's the DC for disabling a World Destruction Device? 60? 70?
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Eccles said:
I take it the player left the game - a touch of bad form there, to leave so close to the end!
Or are we about to see a last-minute replacement character?
Excellent write up, and excellent work with the Walls of Fire (I presume that was what it was?)
carborundum
Adventurer
I miss Fez already.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Tallarn said:I take it the player left the game - a touch of bad form there, to leave so close to the end!
Or are we about to see a last-minute replacement character?
Excellent write up, and excellent work with the Walls of Fire (I presume that was what it was?)
Yeah - Inconsequenti-Al got a new job and has had to leave us due to the exceedingly late nights.
And it was the classic Time Stop/Wall of Fire combo. Suddenly being surrounded by something like 260hp damage seemed to do the trick. Janga and I were in a heck of a lot of trouble, so it was definitely time to get out the big guns...
carborundum said:
Believe me, so do we! The only character we had with a decent HtH attack, high AC and lots of HP... Those three things seem to be pretty important!
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Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
“Uh… Flynne… Flynne, I wish you hadn’t done that…”
There was a massive rush of air and a blurring of magic, as one of the artefacts I had activated a few hours earlier was triggered. The tiny forms beneath us flowed backwards like a tide into the body of the ziggurat, and Kyuss’ baleful wrath was removed from Flynne. The god formed seamlessly back into the side of the tower as my elven comrade stepped back from the tower-top and into the air.
A vast globe of blackness receded across the city, restoring life to hundreds, perhaps thousands, as it formed back into the ziggurat, and there was another rush of air as we all descended to earth.
.oOo.
Puzzled, we stood there, with an equally confused griffon circling over our heads.
Flynne indicated to head for the roof, and took flight.
“No!” We all yelled, and then wondered why.
“I just have a bad feeling about it,” explained Bob, and we all nodded in agreement, sharing a sinister sense of deja-vu. Then we turned to look at the closest entrance to the ziggurat.
.oOo.
We entered through a 40 foot colonnade into an atrium, where 2 twelve foot high statues of Kyuss stood on either side of a wide archway into a larger chamber beyond.
Alcoves on either side of the atrium held staircases which spiralled upwards.
Janga moved towards the atrium, and a torrent of worms sprayed from the mouths of the two statues to pool and then mass in front of them. The mound of worms began to condense and become taller, taking shape.
Flynne yelled something, and a torrent of flame filled the room, leaving them smoking but largely unaffected; they continued to get taller and form into creatures the size of ogres, with bat-wings; even as they were still forming, Bob was filling one with arrows.
Clutching my Staff of the Magi, I began a spell of summoning, as two vampires simply stepped from the shadows. Yelling shrilly, they unleashed a series of rapid blows with kamas at Bob and Flynne.
Confidently, Janga turned and cast a spell, slapping one of the vampires on the shoulder, and it burst into dust, collapsing instantly.
Not to be out-done, Flynne fired a series of arrows at one of the ogre-beasts, which slammed into its half-formed skull and tore deeply, killing the creature instantly.
To his left, Bob stepped back from the closest opponent, and fired repeatedly into the chest of the surviving vampire, seriously wounding it.
Completing my spell of summoning, I began to sing, as two massive celestial triceratops materialised into the thick of the melee. One smashed into the now fully-formed cornugon devil, whilst the second drove its horn deeply into the wounded vampire’s chest, turning it to dust in an instant.
The cornugon roared, and whirled a tremendous spiked chain around like a dervish, opening a series of terrible wounds across the back and sides of the closer triceratops. Meanwhile, two hidden and worm-covered Kyuss knights leapt from the shadowy side passageways to hack at the injured triceratops and Bob.
The triceratops was nearly destroyed in the onslaught, whilst Bob managed to leap aside from the undead knight’s heavy blade.
Flynne carried on shooting at the cornugon, leaving several arrows deeply embedded in its scaly hide, whilst Bob backed away firing steadily at the newly arrived Kyuss-knight. The triceratops slashed out once again, and then I triggered a magical staff, blasting into the cornugon with powerful daylight (and blinding the recently summoned and heavily injured triceratops which was in my way).
The devil strode past the blinded and heavily injured triceratops, lashing out at Flynne with the chain and firing a tremendous blast of lightning which the black-scaled elf avoided almost contemptuously. He and Bob continued to duck and dodge away from the heavy blades of the knights. Both of them backed away, continuing to pile arrows into the undead; one of them collapsed under the onslaught, and they both switched targets without so much as batting an eyelid. It fell to the ground in turn.
The triceratops got in the way as I scorched the cornugon with a second sunbeam, and then as it launched into another onslaught, the archers systematically shot it to pieces.
.oOo.
Pausing to heal and dismiss the wounded and blind celestials, we moved into the heart of the base of the ziggurat.
In the centre of a huge 30 foot high vaulted chamber was a shrine ringed with candles. Before it stood three large fierce-looking figures which turned their beautiful faces to snarl at us as they unfurled feathered wings. Between them stood Lashonna wearing a green velvet gown. She turned, and smiled a cruel and haughty smile at Flynne who had done his best to sneak into the room ahead of us.
“Ah, Flynne,” she smiled as waves of magic pulsed over us all. Thank you for aiding me in destroying that dusty old dracolich and leaving me to take my place as Kyuss’ greatest servant.
“I have a proposal – have you considered switching sides?”
There was something subtly wrong with her intonation as she spoke, and I was suddenly aware of the mind-protecting Champion’s Belt Flynne wore glowing brightly under a sudden onslaught.
Flynne turned and beckoned us all in.
“Kneel now and submit to the Wormgod,” Lashonna told us. “I promise you that you shall each become a captain in Kyuss’ army, answering only to me. Nothing will be denied to you…”
More magic washed through the room, thwarted only by the layer upon layer of mystical protections we had set upon ourselves.
“Interesting,” I said; trying to buy time for my comrades and insinuating my own words with a power of encouragement to my comrades. “We know you were once a true and noble creature prepared to lay down her life to thwart Dragotha. We saw you deny him his victory a thousand years ago; what were you offered to turn your back on so much… nobility?”
She snarled at me, and began to reply when Flynne became bored. The short-tempered elf ripped arrows from his quiver – and all hell broke loose.
.oOo.
Before the quick-witted elf could so much as aim his bow, Lashonna exploded into action; opening her elven mouth wide and blasting us all with freezing air. I managed to leap aside, but the others were coated with a layer of frost.
Trying to help my comrades, I triggered a rapid spell of hastening and then screaming a powerful spell at the elfin dragon and the three angels. The spell only took effect on one of them, which suddenly looked dazed and confused, whilst feathers were blasted off the others under the sonic onslaught.
Lashonna merely stood there, totally unruffled.
Bob fired at her, and every single one of his six arrows glanced off her preternaturally tough flesh or the thick layers of magical protection around her.
The two moving angels leapt forwards, gliding on their long wings to attack Bob and Janga with glowing longswords. Bob ducked, but Janga was cut deeply with the razor-edged blade I somehow recognized instinctively as a legendary vorpal blade.
Flynne fired arrow after arrow into the stunned angel, leaving it hideously wounded, but still standing, whilst Janga cast a dispelling enchantment onto the elfin figure of Lashonna – the spell failed completely, sparking off some deep and unknown protective spell. He then took to the air, taking another blow from the vorpal sword of the fallen angel as he did so. Once positioned between the many targets, and safely away from the rest of us non-believers, he spoke a tremendous word of power.
Nothing happened.
The diminutive cleric followed up the holy word with a swearword.
Lashonna spat words of her own, ensnaring Flynne and I in a web of energy which dazzled us both. As I blinked away stars, I dimly saw Bob leaping aside and shooting at an angel, which still stood under the onslaught and swung back at him, cutting deeply.
A red-eyed angel narrowly missed Flynne, and the third took flight to land next to me, stabbing my shoulder with a rune-edged weapon. The pain brought me abruptly back to reality, and I saw Janga flying back through the air to heal Bob and then touch his temples and squint as he cast a spell of immense power at the nearest angel.
Which failed totally to implode.
Lashonna, meanwhile, twisted and grew, her gown fluttering to the floor as she swelled to tremendous size as a huge true silver dragon.
Puling my enchanted rapier free from its scabbard, I stabbed at the angel attacking me, triggering its power to leech away the life-force of the fallen celestial being. The damage to it was tremendous, and I could see life fluttering in its greying flesh and dimming eyes, but the creature stood firm and readied for another onslaught.
As Bob’s tiny arrows struck home in his closest angelic target, ‘my’ angel slashed two more deep wounds across my sides. Meanwhile, Flynne ducked and weaved away from his, whilst the third lashed out with its vorpal blade, and abruptly Janga’s head fell free from his still-flying body.
Our cleric was dead, and all our foes still faced us.
.oOo.
Yelling in anger, Flynne shot down one target, and then spun on his feet to slay the angel close to me as well. He spun once again and fired three long arrows into the back of the last angel, which staggered across the wide pool of Janga’s blood.
In her long-necked dragon form, Lashonna stepped away from the altar, and began to lash and snap at the nimble archer, who was unable to dodge the many blows and collapsed heavily to the floor.
Triggering a magic ring I had been wearing for many months, I blazed across the room as a blast of lightning to land by Janga, sprinkling liquids from a specially prepared and massively powerful flask, distilled from the liquid at the centre of the legendary philosopher’s stone to give Janga back his life. Over our heads, Bob fired still more arrows into the angel just 10 feet away, and it collapsed to the floor.
Janga flew back across the room to Flynne and cast a spell of his own, bringing him back from death’s door.
As Flynne struggled back to his feet, Lashonna got angry. She slammed and hacked at Janga, leaving him covered in his own blood and staggering on the spot; at which point she spat out the words to a meagre spell which sent 5 small darts of energy to slam into the armoured cleric. The last slammed through his helmet and skull and he collapsed back onto the floor, mere seconds after I had resurrected him by expending an artefact.
And I didn’t have another one, either.
There was a massive rush of air and a blurring of magic, as one of the artefacts I had activated a few hours earlier was triggered. The tiny forms beneath us flowed backwards like a tide into the body of the ziggurat, and Kyuss’ baleful wrath was removed from Flynne. The god formed seamlessly back into the side of the tower as my elven comrade stepped back from the tower-top and into the air.
A vast globe of blackness receded across the city, restoring life to hundreds, perhaps thousands, as it formed back into the ziggurat, and there was another rush of air as we all descended to earth.
.oOo.
Puzzled, we stood there, with an equally confused griffon circling over our heads.
Flynne indicated to head for the roof, and took flight.
“No!” We all yelled, and then wondered why.
“I just have a bad feeling about it,” explained Bob, and we all nodded in agreement, sharing a sinister sense of deja-vu. Then we turned to look at the closest entrance to the ziggurat.
.oOo.
We entered through a 40 foot colonnade into an atrium, where 2 twelve foot high statues of Kyuss stood on either side of a wide archway into a larger chamber beyond.
Alcoves on either side of the atrium held staircases which spiralled upwards.
Janga moved towards the atrium, and a torrent of worms sprayed from the mouths of the two statues to pool and then mass in front of them. The mound of worms began to condense and become taller, taking shape.
Flynne yelled something, and a torrent of flame filled the room, leaving them smoking but largely unaffected; they continued to get taller and form into creatures the size of ogres, with bat-wings; even as they were still forming, Bob was filling one with arrows.
Clutching my Staff of the Magi, I began a spell of summoning, as two vampires simply stepped from the shadows. Yelling shrilly, they unleashed a series of rapid blows with kamas at Bob and Flynne.
Confidently, Janga turned and cast a spell, slapping one of the vampires on the shoulder, and it burst into dust, collapsing instantly.
Not to be out-done, Flynne fired a series of arrows at one of the ogre-beasts, which slammed into its half-formed skull and tore deeply, killing the creature instantly.
To his left, Bob stepped back from the closest opponent, and fired repeatedly into the chest of the surviving vampire, seriously wounding it.
Completing my spell of summoning, I began to sing, as two massive celestial triceratops materialised into the thick of the melee. One smashed into the now fully-formed cornugon devil, whilst the second drove its horn deeply into the wounded vampire’s chest, turning it to dust in an instant.
The cornugon roared, and whirled a tremendous spiked chain around like a dervish, opening a series of terrible wounds across the back and sides of the closer triceratops. Meanwhile, two hidden and worm-covered Kyuss knights leapt from the shadowy side passageways to hack at the injured triceratops and Bob.
The triceratops was nearly destroyed in the onslaught, whilst Bob managed to leap aside from the undead knight’s heavy blade.
Flynne carried on shooting at the cornugon, leaving several arrows deeply embedded in its scaly hide, whilst Bob backed away firing steadily at the newly arrived Kyuss-knight. The triceratops slashed out once again, and then I triggered a magical staff, blasting into the cornugon with powerful daylight (and blinding the recently summoned and heavily injured triceratops which was in my way).
The devil strode past the blinded and heavily injured triceratops, lashing out at Flynne with the chain and firing a tremendous blast of lightning which the black-scaled elf avoided almost contemptuously. He and Bob continued to duck and dodge away from the heavy blades of the knights. Both of them backed away, continuing to pile arrows into the undead; one of them collapsed under the onslaught, and they both switched targets without so much as batting an eyelid. It fell to the ground in turn.
The triceratops got in the way as I scorched the cornugon with a second sunbeam, and then as it launched into another onslaught, the archers systematically shot it to pieces.
.oOo.
Pausing to heal and dismiss the wounded and blind celestials, we moved into the heart of the base of the ziggurat.
In the centre of a huge 30 foot high vaulted chamber was a shrine ringed with candles. Before it stood three large fierce-looking figures which turned their beautiful faces to snarl at us as they unfurled feathered wings. Between them stood Lashonna wearing a green velvet gown. She turned, and smiled a cruel and haughty smile at Flynne who had done his best to sneak into the room ahead of us.
“Ah, Flynne,” she smiled as waves of magic pulsed over us all. Thank you for aiding me in destroying that dusty old dracolich and leaving me to take my place as Kyuss’ greatest servant.
“I have a proposal – have you considered switching sides?”
There was something subtly wrong with her intonation as she spoke, and I was suddenly aware of the mind-protecting Champion’s Belt Flynne wore glowing brightly under a sudden onslaught.
Flynne turned and beckoned us all in.
“Kneel now and submit to the Wormgod,” Lashonna told us. “I promise you that you shall each become a captain in Kyuss’ army, answering only to me. Nothing will be denied to you…”
More magic washed through the room, thwarted only by the layer upon layer of mystical protections we had set upon ourselves.
“Interesting,” I said; trying to buy time for my comrades and insinuating my own words with a power of encouragement to my comrades. “We know you were once a true and noble creature prepared to lay down her life to thwart Dragotha. We saw you deny him his victory a thousand years ago; what were you offered to turn your back on so much… nobility?”
She snarled at me, and began to reply when Flynne became bored. The short-tempered elf ripped arrows from his quiver – and all hell broke loose.
.oOo.
Before the quick-witted elf could so much as aim his bow, Lashonna exploded into action; opening her elven mouth wide and blasting us all with freezing air. I managed to leap aside, but the others were coated with a layer of frost.
Trying to help my comrades, I triggered a rapid spell of hastening and then screaming a powerful spell at the elfin dragon and the three angels. The spell only took effect on one of them, which suddenly looked dazed and confused, whilst feathers were blasted off the others under the sonic onslaught.
Lashonna merely stood there, totally unruffled.
Bob fired at her, and every single one of his six arrows glanced off her preternaturally tough flesh or the thick layers of magical protection around her.
The two moving angels leapt forwards, gliding on their long wings to attack Bob and Janga with glowing longswords. Bob ducked, but Janga was cut deeply with the razor-edged blade I somehow recognized instinctively as a legendary vorpal blade.
Flynne fired arrow after arrow into the stunned angel, leaving it hideously wounded, but still standing, whilst Janga cast a dispelling enchantment onto the elfin figure of Lashonna – the spell failed completely, sparking off some deep and unknown protective spell. He then took to the air, taking another blow from the vorpal sword of the fallen angel as he did so. Once positioned between the many targets, and safely away from the rest of us non-believers, he spoke a tremendous word of power.
Nothing happened.
The diminutive cleric followed up the holy word with a swearword.
Lashonna spat words of her own, ensnaring Flynne and I in a web of energy which dazzled us both. As I blinked away stars, I dimly saw Bob leaping aside and shooting at an angel, which still stood under the onslaught and swung back at him, cutting deeply.
A red-eyed angel narrowly missed Flynne, and the third took flight to land next to me, stabbing my shoulder with a rune-edged weapon. The pain brought me abruptly back to reality, and I saw Janga flying back through the air to heal Bob and then touch his temples and squint as he cast a spell of immense power at the nearest angel.
Which failed totally to implode.
Lashonna, meanwhile, twisted and grew, her gown fluttering to the floor as she swelled to tremendous size as a huge true silver dragon.
Puling my enchanted rapier free from its scabbard, I stabbed at the angel attacking me, triggering its power to leech away the life-force of the fallen celestial being. The damage to it was tremendous, and I could see life fluttering in its greying flesh and dimming eyes, but the creature stood firm and readied for another onslaught.
As Bob’s tiny arrows struck home in his closest angelic target, ‘my’ angel slashed two more deep wounds across my sides. Meanwhile, Flynne ducked and weaved away from his, whilst the third lashed out with its vorpal blade, and abruptly Janga’s head fell free from his still-flying body.
Our cleric was dead, and all our foes still faced us.
.oOo.
Yelling in anger, Flynne shot down one target, and then spun on his feet to slay the angel close to me as well. He spun once again and fired three long arrows into the back of the last angel, which staggered across the wide pool of Janga’s blood.
In her long-necked dragon form, Lashonna stepped away from the altar, and began to lash and snap at the nimble archer, who was unable to dodge the many blows and collapsed heavily to the floor.
Triggering a magic ring I had been wearing for many months, I blazed across the room as a blast of lightning to land by Janga, sprinkling liquids from a specially prepared and massively powerful flask, distilled from the liquid at the centre of the legendary philosopher’s stone to give Janga back his life. Over our heads, Bob fired still more arrows into the angel just 10 feet away, and it collapsed to the floor.
Janga flew back across the room to Flynne and cast a spell of his own, bringing him back from death’s door.
As Flynne struggled back to his feet, Lashonna got angry. She slammed and hacked at Janga, leaving him covered in his own blood and staggering on the spot; at which point she spat out the words to a meagre spell which sent 5 small darts of energy to slam into the armoured cleric. The last slammed through his helmet and skull and he collapsed back onto the floor, mere seconds after I had resurrected him by expending an artefact.
And I didn’t have another one, either.
Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Sweet Pelor, that fight is simply brutal! How are you guys supposed to beat Lashonna without Fez? :s
I sure hope Morrus adjusted the battle
I sure hope Morrus adjusted the battle
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
You've not met Morrus, have you?
He's a great believer in fights which go down to the wire!
Still - by this stage the fight's looking manageable. I mean, it's only the bard and two archers facing off against an AC60 undispellable dragon-vampire. With little or no healing available...
What could possibly go wrong?
He's a great believer in fights which go down to the wire!
Still - by this stage the fight's looking manageable. I mean, it's only the bard and two archers facing off against an AC60 undispellable dragon-vampire. With little or no healing available...
What could possibly go wrong?
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Eccles said:
What ELSE could go wrong, anyway...
I can't believe he managed to kill Janga twice in one round - I shudder to think how many hp of damage that adds up to. This is a seriously hardcore end to the campaign.
Can you give us some details of what you did in the very first part of that report, by the way? I take it that it was some sort of Wish effect?
NarlethDrider
First Post
wow, fun battle----from the DMs point of view, is it a pain to run high level antagonists?
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
As Janga lay bleeding on the dark stone floor and Lashonna towered over Flynne, I began to get worried. I snatched a scroll from my belt and read it, and the blazing power of the enchanted item simply stopped time for me for almost half a minute. During that time, I called on the powers of the Staff of the Magi to summon a towering spider-like demon and then layer several towering walls of fire over the dragon and the dark altar.
When time rushed back me, Lashonna roared in pain, but the altar was completely unscathed. My summoned bebilith spat webs towards the dragon, aiming to trap her in the fires, but the sticky substance missed completely. I spat curses, as Bob began to swing his sunblade overhead. Flynne joined him, and they both approached her, hemming her into a blazing globe of sunlight from both sides.
There was a sensation as though I’d blinked, and then I looked around. The silver dragon still stood in the flames, but seemed not to be concerned about the heat any longer. Rapidly quaffing a potion of True Seeing, I scanned the room and could see her – the dragoness had cast an illusion and moved.
She was stood within inches of me, silent and breathless; but definitely smiling in triumph.
.oOo.
Yelling in alarm, I dived away from her, shouting out warnings in two languages, one of which caused the bebilith to spray more webs across the wall near the dragon, then triggering the powers of my staff of sunbeams, spraying light across her hide which burned her badly.
My comrades dashed to flank her, light spreading from their whirling sunblades, and she leapt into the air, landing heavily on me. I felt my spine protest and something go in my shoulder as I was smashed to the floor. Despite my agony, I had already cast the blazing light spell, and so I triggered it once again and blasted her once again. Bob closed to encompass her in the still spreading light, whilst Flynne sopped swinging his and fired at her writhing form.
“Drop the sword, or I slay the bard in 2 seconds,” threatened the dragoness, glaring daggers at Bob. To emphasise her point, she ground one bony heel down on my leg causing me to scream and then cast a powerful spell which wrenched away practically all of my energy, leaving me gasping and in pain.
I screamed, and as I prepared to sell my life dearly I triggered the burning spell once again. Lashonna screamed in rage as more of her dry flesh was burned off her bones, and then a second spell was triggered – the contingent Freedom of Movement I had prepared from a scroll a few days earlier.
I slipped easily from Lashonna’s heavy grasp, and leapt away from her reach, grabbing a powerful potion of healing as I did so.
Frustrated, and still caught in the sunlight which was slowly sapping her powers, the dragon spewed lethal ice-like air at us. Lethal, that is, but for the layers of mystical protections Janga had cast over us before his untimely deaths.
Once again, the bebilith’s sticky spray missed its intended target, and I burned her with tremendously powerful sunlight whilst gulping down the healing potion and my wounds all but disappeared. Bob tried to keep her locked in place with the sunblade, whilst Flynne continued his steady flow of powerful undead-bane arrows.
Then she cast a spell, and the sunlight flooding from the long blade abruptly winked out. Lashonna growled in triumph.
Frustrated, I blasted her with another of the sunbeams, at which point the bebilith’s long stabbing arms slashed deeply into the altar’s stone and tore the profane thing into two pieces. The sinuous form of the silver dragon raised her neck un the air and screamed in rage. She turned, and breathed in deeply, ready to freeze us all with icy breath again.
Flynne and Bob both spun, and as Bob’s arrows peppered her neck, and then Flynne shot. Every arrow missed, except one which flew in between her gaping jaws, spearing through the roof of her mouth and into her brain.
Instantly dead, Lashonna crashed to the floor.
.oOo.
I took some time to read a scroll of True Resurrection, and recharge the Staff of the Magi by exhausting a weak wand’s magic. We healed, prepared, and climbed a flight of stairs to the next chamber.
We emerged into the corner of a 30 foot high domed chamber whose walls were lined with carvings which showed scenes of a world ruled by worms. The entire chamber was lit with an eerie green glow, and in the centre of the room a beautiful woman stood alone. She turned, revealing a hideous mis-aligned face, leering with one hunched shoulder and half-sized wings sprouting from her twisted back.
“Hemriss,” I mouthed in recognition of Prince Zeech’s daughter even as she raised her bow and began to pull an arrow from her quiver.
There was a strange hesitance, and a look of horror in her eye as something forced her to attack her.
Flynne, however, didn’t hesitate. His first arrow took her in the forearm, lancing up through her arm from the wrist to the elbow and making her spill her quiver to the floor. The next arrow struck her in the hip and she spun through the air with the force of the blow. As she twisted, the black-scaled elf kept drawing and firing, his arms blurring.
When Hemriss felled to the floor, arrows protruded from her eye socket, transfixed her throat and pierced her chest from back to front and across the side, crossing at the point of her heart. To add insult to injury, a sixth arrow had contemptuously cut through the tendons of her right wrist, as though the misshapen archer’s bow had ever been a threat to Flynne.
“I think…,” I began. “Ah, never mind. Too late…”
.oOo.
Sweeping the room, we learned that the dark energies swirling in the room were focussed onto the destroyed altar in the room below. Unable to change the flow, we moved through a side passage and onto a balcony which went around the edge of the ziggurat. Studded around the balcony were a large number of egg-like sacs, torn open from within and reeking of decay.
We moved onwards and upwards, onto another balcony on the level above, again studded with the same 8 foot tall towering and reeking egg-like things.
.oOo.
On this new level, we re-entered the ziggurat, into yet another towering room lined with sinister reliefs – this time showing Kyuss’ armies triumphant. Prowling around the room were three tall creatures which seemed like a strange amalgam of worm, lizard, ape and bat.
Flynne opened up on the closest, and Bob joined in – within seconds arrows peppered its large hide. Janga and I cast spells; his one of summoning whilst mine sealed the creatures into a huge mass of rolling fog which would slow down and trap the two to the rear.
Some eldritch power of the creatures’ own burst out, and my fog spell was soon streaked with bursts of greenish vapour, whilst the free creature lumbered towards us and exhaled a cone of grey/brown acid, which sizzled and burned around us. We all either avoided the caustic spray, or were once again protected by Janga’s spellcasting.
Bob fired into the rapidly-emerging fog cloud around the closest creature, whilst Janga’s summoning spell was concluded; a towering air elemental swiftly whisked away the fog cloud around the closer creature, allowing Flynne to blast down a column of fire with the power of his cloak.
I tossed a fireball into the solid fog, which boomed damply and flared for an instant, and one of the two creatures burst out of the fog to breathe more acid over us. I was burned somewhat as Janga’s protective spell failed.
Flynne ignored the fog and fired a series of arrows into the closest creature, rewarded with a series of meaty thunks of solid impact and a crash as it collapsed.
Curing and protecting himself, Janga dashed around the corner into the room, whilst I walled away one of the two surviving creatures with a wall of force. The other lashed out at Flynne with a series of long claw-tipped tentacles. He swore; slurring the words due to some strange draining power of the bites, but kept up his steady stream of arrows – I noticed he was using silver edged arrows now, which bit deeply.
Janga ran back, and cured Flynne with a wand and a word, then they were swallowed into the fog of the approaching monstrosity. I flung a fireball into the fogged area, and a few moments later heard a yell of alarm from Flynne. Bob’s fire tailed off as there was a roar from the other side of the ziggurat, signifying that the last creature had escaped the fog and the force wall to approach us from the other side.
Chants of healing came from within the fog, and then the sounds of bowfire and another solid crash. The fog cleared over Flynne and Janga.
The last creature emerged, flying around the outside of the ziggurat and breathed. We leapt away from the caustic spray, and returned fire – Bob’s arrows pinning the creature’s wings and then Flynne emerged from a hiding place to add his accurate shots to vulnerable parts of its anatomy.
The beast, stabbed with a full dozen arrows, died under the assault, and crashed out of the sky, bouncing off the ziggurat as it rolled down the slope.
When time rushed back me, Lashonna roared in pain, but the altar was completely unscathed. My summoned bebilith spat webs towards the dragon, aiming to trap her in the fires, but the sticky substance missed completely. I spat curses, as Bob began to swing his sunblade overhead. Flynne joined him, and they both approached her, hemming her into a blazing globe of sunlight from both sides.
There was a sensation as though I’d blinked, and then I looked around. The silver dragon still stood in the flames, but seemed not to be concerned about the heat any longer. Rapidly quaffing a potion of True Seeing, I scanned the room and could see her – the dragoness had cast an illusion and moved.
She was stood within inches of me, silent and breathless; but definitely smiling in triumph.
.oOo.
Yelling in alarm, I dived away from her, shouting out warnings in two languages, one of which caused the bebilith to spray more webs across the wall near the dragon, then triggering the powers of my staff of sunbeams, spraying light across her hide which burned her badly.
My comrades dashed to flank her, light spreading from their whirling sunblades, and she leapt into the air, landing heavily on me. I felt my spine protest and something go in my shoulder as I was smashed to the floor. Despite my agony, I had already cast the blazing light spell, and so I triggered it once again and blasted her once again. Bob closed to encompass her in the still spreading light, whilst Flynne sopped swinging his and fired at her writhing form.
“Drop the sword, or I slay the bard in 2 seconds,” threatened the dragoness, glaring daggers at Bob. To emphasise her point, she ground one bony heel down on my leg causing me to scream and then cast a powerful spell which wrenched away practically all of my energy, leaving me gasping and in pain.
I screamed, and as I prepared to sell my life dearly I triggered the burning spell once again. Lashonna screamed in rage as more of her dry flesh was burned off her bones, and then a second spell was triggered – the contingent Freedom of Movement I had prepared from a scroll a few days earlier.
I slipped easily from Lashonna’s heavy grasp, and leapt away from her reach, grabbing a powerful potion of healing as I did so.
Frustrated, and still caught in the sunlight which was slowly sapping her powers, the dragon spewed lethal ice-like air at us. Lethal, that is, but for the layers of mystical protections Janga had cast over us before his untimely deaths.
Once again, the bebilith’s sticky spray missed its intended target, and I burned her with tremendously powerful sunlight whilst gulping down the healing potion and my wounds all but disappeared. Bob tried to keep her locked in place with the sunblade, whilst Flynne continued his steady flow of powerful undead-bane arrows.
Then she cast a spell, and the sunlight flooding from the long blade abruptly winked out. Lashonna growled in triumph.
Frustrated, I blasted her with another of the sunbeams, at which point the bebilith’s long stabbing arms slashed deeply into the altar’s stone and tore the profane thing into two pieces. The sinuous form of the silver dragon raised her neck un the air and screamed in rage. She turned, and breathed in deeply, ready to freeze us all with icy breath again.
Flynne and Bob both spun, and as Bob’s arrows peppered her neck, and then Flynne shot. Every arrow missed, except one which flew in between her gaping jaws, spearing through the roof of her mouth and into her brain.
Instantly dead, Lashonna crashed to the floor.
.oOo.
I took some time to read a scroll of True Resurrection, and recharge the Staff of the Magi by exhausting a weak wand’s magic. We healed, prepared, and climbed a flight of stairs to the next chamber.
We emerged into the corner of a 30 foot high domed chamber whose walls were lined with carvings which showed scenes of a world ruled by worms. The entire chamber was lit with an eerie green glow, and in the centre of the room a beautiful woman stood alone. She turned, revealing a hideous mis-aligned face, leering with one hunched shoulder and half-sized wings sprouting from her twisted back.
“Hemriss,” I mouthed in recognition of Prince Zeech’s daughter even as she raised her bow and began to pull an arrow from her quiver.
There was a strange hesitance, and a look of horror in her eye as something forced her to attack her.
Flynne, however, didn’t hesitate. His first arrow took her in the forearm, lancing up through her arm from the wrist to the elbow and making her spill her quiver to the floor. The next arrow struck her in the hip and she spun through the air with the force of the blow. As she twisted, the black-scaled elf kept drawing and firing, his arms blurring.
When Hemriss felled to the floor, arrows protruded from her eye socket, transfixed her throat and pierced her chest from back to front and across the side, crossing at the point of her heart. To add insult to injury, a sixth arrow had contemptuously cut through the tendons of her right wrist, as though the misshapen archer’s bow had ever been a threat to Flynne.
“I think…,” I began. “Ah, never mind. Too late…”
.oOo.
Sweeping the room, we learned that the dark energies swirling in the room were focussed onto the destroyed altar in the room below. Unable to change the flow, we moved through a side passage and onto a balcony which went around the edge of the ziggurat. Studded around the balcony were a large number of egg-like sacs, torn open from within and reeking of decay.
We moved onwards and upwards, onto another balcony on the level above, again studded with the same 8 foot tall towering and reeking egg-like things.
.oOo.
On this new level, we re-entered the ziggurat, into yet another towering room lined with sinister reliefs – this time showing Kyuss’ armies triumphant. Prowling around the room were three tall creatures which seemed like a strange amalgam of worm, lizard, ape and bat.
Flynne opened up on the closest, and Bob joined in – within seconds arrows peppered its large hide. Janga and I cast spells; his one of summoning whilst mine sealed the creatures into a huge mass of rolling fog which would slow down and trap the two to the rear.
Some eldritch power of the creatures’ own burst out, and my fog spell was soon streaked with bursts of greenish vapour, whilst the free creature lumbered towards us and exhaled a cone of grey/brown acid, which sizzled and burned around us. We all either avoided the caustic spray, or were once again protected by Janga’s spellcasting.
Bob fired into the rapidly-emerging fog cloud around the closest creature, whilst Janga’s summoning spell was concluded; a towering air elemental swiftly whisked away the fog cloud around the closer creature, allowing Flynne to blast down a column of fire with the power of his cloak.
I tossed a fireball into the solid fog, which boomed damply and flared for an instant, and one of the two creatures burst out of the fog to breathe more acid over us. I was burned somewhat as Janga’s protective spell failed.
Flynne ignored the fog and fired a series of arrows into the closest creature, rewarded with a series of meaty thunks of solid impact and a crash as it collapsed.
Curing and protecting himself, Janga dashed around the corner into the room, whilst I walled away one of the two surviving creatures with a wall of force. The other lashed out at Flynne with a series of long claw-tipped tentacles. He swore; slurring the words due to some strange draining power of the bites, but kept up his steady stream of arrows – I noticed he was using silver edged arrows now, which bit deeply.
Janga ran back, and cured Flynne with a wand and a word, then they were swallowed into the fog of the approaching monstrosity. I flung a fireball into the fogged area, and a few moments later heard a yell of alarm from Flynne. Bob’s fire tailed off as there was a roar from the other side of the ziggurat, signifying that the last creature had escaped the fog and the force wall to approach us from the other side.
Chants of healing came from within the fog, and then the sounds of bowfire and another solid crash. The fog cleared over Flynne and Janga.
The last creature emerged, flying around the outside of the ziggurat and breathed. We leapt away from the caustic spray, and returned fire – Bob’s arrows pinning the creature’s wings and then Flynne emerged from a hiding place to add his accurate shots to vulnerable parts of its anatomy.
The beast, stabbed with a full dozen arrows, died under the assault, and crashed out of the sky, bouncing off the ziggurat as it rolled down the slope.
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