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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3903962" data-attributes="member: 30035">Azlin's tale, part 11I updated the previous entry slightly. I was mistaken that we'd already returned to Sharn at the end of last session.--sniffles------------------[sblock]Devo: “I should leave a magic mouth behind for the other artificer.”Zora: “How many words is ‘phppptttt!’?”[/sblock]We look around the crypt a little before we leave. Looks like our adversaries opened all the other tombs but one. Conshru’s on watch – he says he heard something. And he found a recent bloodstain on the floor. There’s something down here with us.“Something humanoid!” he yells. I head toward him. Artemis and Sten go that way, too. Something doesn’t like the light. I can see them silhouetted against the torchlight. They’re coming up a narrow passage toward us! Some kind of eyeless creatures in crude leather armor rushes Grix and bowls him over. Conshru sticks to the saddle like a spider on a wall. A second blind creature runs up behind the first and takes a swing at the halfling.  Grix leaps back on his feet and Conshru rolls out of the way of the axe blow, then bursts into flames! The blind thing is scorched. Conshru’s grinning like a madman. The first creature that attacked Conshru is right in front of me now. It swings a huge two-handed axe at me. Ow! It cut right through my armor. They’re all swarming down the passage to get to us. I can’t tell how many there are – the passage is just too narrow. It’s starting to smell of burnt flesh where they’re running into Conshru’s flames.I give the nearest one a couple of whacks with my waraxe, chopping through the ill-fitting chain shirt it wears. Just for good measure I use my enchanted bracers so I can hit him one more time. Suddenly Conshru emits a tremendous roar, like a herd of stampeding dinosaurs. I’m glad I’m not in front of him. I see at least a dozen of the blind creatures flinch from the noise and crumple to the floor. “Ha!” I yell, shaking my axe at the few still standing.But there are still more of them. Artemis and Sten are shooting at them. Gwaenna appears and slashes one with her sword. The passage is full of smoke now. [sblock]Devo: “Why would grimlocks find smoke a problem?”sniffles: “Somebody told them about it.”[/sblock]One of the creatures surges out of the smoke and knocks me off my feet. I fall next to Gwaenna. I start to get back up when I hear her say something arcane and feel a tingle of magic that lifts me to my feet. Conshru blasts two creatures with flames. Both of them fall, cooked like a roast for dinner. [sblock]Zora: “If you’re going to stand next to me you’re going to catch on fire.”Devo: “At the end of your turn.”[/sblock]They’re all dead now. All wearing some kind of ancient hobgoblin armor according to Gwaenna, though they’re not hobgoblins. There’s still some noise from the other end of the passageway. Guess we’ll have to check it out.It opens out into a cavern. My friends precede me into the space. Something’s attacking Sten! I can hear the struggle, but the passage is full of corpses and I can’t get through them quickly.There’s a weird warbling cry from the cave. “Chokers!” Gwaenna yells. I hurry, but it seems like the blind things’ arms and legs are trying to trip me. When I finally make it to the cave entrance, I pause to pray to the Host and extend some of their aid to those of my companions that are close enough to me.My friends are still struggling with something in the cave. Now there’s a disturbing moaning sound coming from somewhere beyond us. Gwaenna yells that there are more of the blind creatures there. We certainly stirred up a hornets’ nest down here.By the time I get all the way into the cave the chokers are dead, but Conshru thinks there are more of the blind creatures coming – and he’s right. Gwaenna moves up to attack them. Two of them grab hold of her but she shrugs them off. Another one grabs Conshru and tries to pluck him off Grix. The halfling and his dinosaur struggle with a big one. I move in, swinging my axe. “Azlin, don’t get too close to Conshru,” Artemis warns as I move past him. Then he brandishes a wand and fills a corner of the cave with flames.[sblock]DH: “Something emerges out of the shadows.”Devo: “I hate those guys.”sniffles: “What the hell is that?”Devo: “One of those guys I hate.”[/sblock]There’s a big, barbaric-looking creature in front of me so I give it a good chop. But now something else emerges into the cavern. It lashes at me and Gwaenna with tentacles. I feel a faint weakness from the tentacle’s touch. [sblock]sniffles: “Stop touching me! Bad touch.”[/sblock]Gwaenna slashes the tentacled thing with her sword, sending a bolt of lightning and a jet of flame through the blade at the same time! The thing’s flesh twitches and burns as it crumples. Then she follows through with a swing at the big creature but can’t quite hit it.I shake off a bit of tentacle still clinging to my arm. The blind creature grabs at Gwaenna again and she slices at him, then shrugs off his grip. She’s awfully strong for a goblin. The creature in front of me slumps at the touch of a spell from Artemis’s wand. I step back toward him and use my healing belt, though I don’t feel like it does much for me. Conshru steps up beside me and wields a wand, which makes me feel a bit better.Sten calls out “There’s something in the shadows down there,” and fires one of his energy bolts at it. Artemis moves over by the warforged. Gwaenna looks kind of odd, like she’s fallen asleep standing up. “I believe the creature is doing something to them,” says Sten. I realize one of the eyeless things is threatening Gwaenna while she’s helpless. I utter a quick prayer to the Host and summon their vengeance to harm the creature.Something swoops over the warforged. Sten slashes it with his purple blade. It’s like a big black cloak wound around his head. I can hear claws or teeth scraping on his metallic hide. He saws at it with his blade and its tattered remains fall away.Grix leaps toward Gwaenna and Conshru strikes out with a blinding blast of flame at the big creature still looming over her.   I realize more creatures have entered the area – something like a cat on two legs and two things that look like brains with tentacles. I smell burning hair and flesh.I feel the stones of the cavern tremble as Artemis sends a shockwave of magical energy at the cat-thing and the two tentacled brains. One of the brains sways and then falls. “Gwaenna’s in trouble!” Artemis shouts over his shoulder at her guards. The big eyeless creature hits her, but it doesn’t wake her from the trance. Someone shouts in a sinister voice. The floating brain that wasn’t dropped by Artemis’s spell surges toward Conshru. Another voice, one of the goblin guards I think, calls out that more blind creatures are coming. I call on the Host to send a moon bolt at the brain-creature, draining a little of its strength. Conshru jumps off Grix, hands moving in a complex gesture. A jet of flame shoots at the tiger creature but washes over it like water over stone. At the same time Artemis points a wand at the brain-thing and surrounds it with lightning, but that doesn’t have any effect either. And someone’s shooting a crossbow from somewhere – I can’t see where it’s coming from. This is looking bad.A goblin appears out of nowhere and slays the blind creature that was menacing Gwaenna. She’s snapped out of the trance, praise the Host. And one of her other guards just made sure the fallen brain-thing stays fallen.Onatar’s hammer! There are tentacles everywhere. The remaining brain-thing is trying to grab everyone at once. A tentacle slaps me. It wraps around me and hangs on. I can see little barbs trying to sink into my flesh but the Host protects me. I wrestle with the tentacle but can’t get free of its grasp.Fire shoots across the cave. The tentacle holding me goes limp and the cat-creature roars with rage. Conshru bounds back astride Grix. Gwaenna produces a wand and sends a small orb flying at the cat-man. It sizzles where it hits his striped fur. Now I realize what the cat-thing is: a rakshasa from Khyber. “Dol Arrah preserve us!” I hiss. I wish I could remember more about them. [sblock]patv: “They all eat Frosted Flakes.”Zora: “And they’re grrreat.”[/sblock] We all start backing toward the passageway to the burial chamber. Sten grabs Xil, who’s still entranced. “I think if we go away and don’t come back he’ll stop chasing us,” Gwaenna calls out. “He was trying to cast a spell on me to encourage me to leave.” I have no problem with following that advice. I’ve used up almost all of the magic the Host have granted me this day. And I’m getting tired of killing those blind creatures. I wish I could destroy this demon from Khyber, but I know I don’t have the power.Praise Dol Arrah, Artemis’s invisible servants cleared most of the corpses out of the passage so we can get through faster this time. I get back into the tomb chamber pretty quickly. Artemis hangs back, and Sten hangs back to look after him. They’ve paused to look at something carved around the end of the passage, some kind of warding. It’s meant to hold the rakshasa there – he can’t pass through into the tomb. Artemis says to the demon, “We did not mean to disturb you.” Gwaenna says, “I don’t think he’s worried about that. I think he wants us to free him.” Then Conshru asks, “Would a spell to dismiss the magic work?” “We don’t want to do that!” I exclaim. “He’s an evil creature.” “I know your dreams and desires,” the rakshasa says. “I know a shortcut to the tomb of Khas.” “So do I,” Artemis answers. I find myself putting my hand in my belt pouch to feel the hammersphere there, just in case one of my friends is tempted. The demon is talking to Gwaenna, trying to tempt her with tales of the goblin empire she seeks. But she’s convinced that she’s fated to find what she seeks. I don’t have to resort to the sphere to stop her from helping him.“Leave this place and do not enter my realm again,” the demon demands. “Leave so that I can recover the bodies of my children.” I think Gwaenna and Artemis are a little disappointed that we can’t loot the bodies of their mithral armor. “There isn’t any gold in the world you need badly enough to deal with a rakshasa,” I tell them. Artemis takes us back to his tower. It’s too quiet. Where are the servants?</blockquote>

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