Janga paused for a few minutes after healing the rest of us and preparing for what was to come next. I could see his lips moved as he communed with Fahrlanghan. A few minutes later, as his eyes snapped open, he looked at Flynne and I despondently.
“Not good?”
“Not at all. I think there’s a vengeful deity waiting for us just up these stairs, and he’s rather looking forward to talking to us, it seems.”
“Is there anything we should do,” asked Flynne.
“Not really,” replied the gnome. “He’s a deity. He’ll be immune to almost everything we can throw at him, except perhaps fire and sound blasts. Anything he wants to do he can pretty much will into being. It’s a whole world of bad news, I’m afraid.”
There was a pattering of tiny feet nearby.
“Oh,” added Janga. “And Bob’s got all worried and run off. So there’s only the three of us.”
.oOo.
The air split asunder as a strange rift opened up. Amidst the sound of heavy footsteps, there rode forth a mounted figure – a heavy set half orc figure riding a towering rhinoceros. The rider raised his ugly visor, and saluted.
“Thogg, paladin of Hieronious, here to help, master bard.”
I shrugged. These things kept seeming to happen to me.
.oOo.
Reading a massively powerful scroll given to me by the archmage Manzorian, we were instantly refreshed and prepared as though rested for a full night. Further fortified with spells and songs and accompanied by a towering summoned earth elemental, we climbed the stairs to the floor above, where we reached a 60 foot wide platform. We split up, forming around the black writhing form of an obelisk in the centre of the platform. The obelisk looked to be made of black stone under whose surface writhed thousands of dark green worms, giving us all a strange feeling of déjà vu and foreboding.
The clouds turned green, and a long sinuous tentacle of clouds reached down from the heavens towards the spire on which we stood. With a ripple of tremendous energy, two torrents of Kyuss worms spewed forth from the side of the obelisk, rapidly forming into the shape of two titanic fists, one of which clutched a blade-edged executioner’s mace.
Instinctively, Flynne started to fire his bow – and every shot simply struck some powerful wardings on the large figure.
I snatched up a square of material from my bag, and flung it to the floor where it unfolded to reveal a deep pit. Snatching the talisman of control from its wrist sheathe, I urged the Sphere of Annihilation out of the Portable Hole, and flung it at the still-emerging face of the evil god.
Amidst a tremendous noise of vacuum and screaming, Kyuss seemed somehow to withdraw on himself and then explode outwards in an anguished burst of energy. Abuptly, the Sphere winked out, and Kyuss was reformed, though somehow lessened in the massive onslaught – and his titanically powerful magical cowl had been destroyed. I then wove a wall of fire over the angry god, but was worried to see that he was almost entirely unconcerned by the inferno he was standing in.
Janga wove two spells, one of counter-magic which seemed to have no effect, and then followed this with a burst of sunlight, which was simply sucked into Kyuss’ black soul.
Both the summoned elemental’s stony fists and Thogg’s enchanted lance-point missed their targets, before Flynne managed to land a couple of serious shots, leaving arrows sticking into the deity’s form like pins in a normal man.
Worried, I used my dwindling reserves of powerful scrolls to bring time to a halt, and then wished for a Staff of Power, which was torn from the aether and filled with magic torn from my very soul.
Summoning a lesser angel, I passed it the Staff and instructed it to break the item as soon as time was restored. I then layered more and more walls of fire over Kyuss, ready for time to flow once more.
The instant the flames began to move, Kyuss roared in pain as flames licked over his body, and then there was a massive explosion which rocked the tower. There was a powerful wash of magic as the Staff was broken, and yet more of Kyuss was shattered.
I screamed a last spell swiftly, calling on the power of a Rod of Quickening to allow me to scream; but the magic washed over Kyuss even as Janga cast spells of his own. A pillar of holy fire washed down from the heavens, simply parting over Kyuss to no ill effect, and then Janga dashed across the tower.
Spinning into action, Kyuss flung a tiny green worm towards me, which stuck instantly onto my neck like a leech, and began to bite sharply at my throat. Kyuss then turned towards the paladin and gestured – a rush of worms burst forth and slammed into Thogg’s chest. The half orc bellowed in pain, and then kept on shouting as black wormy flames erupted from the ground under him.
Gritting his tusks, the orc levelled his lance and charged in – the lance missed its target, and the orc received a vicious blow from the executioner’s mace for his troubles.
Only one of Flynne’s arrows struck home, whilst the others glanced off the many enchantments warding Kyuss. Meanwhile, Janga prayed deeply and I could hear his words “let me penetrate the wards and affect this creature with your magics, oh mighty Fahrlanghan!”