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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3327632" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 98COUNTERSTRIKEDar roared and leapt up, swinging Valor through the golem’s body.  The sword did not thrum with power as it sometimes did when he wielded it against certain foes, but the sheer force of the blow overcame the golem’s resistance to damage, and a considerable gob of its substance went flying as his sword passed through it.  It was like trying to cut through a hill of dirt.He brought his sword around to hit it again on the backswing, but the golem struck before he could launch another attack.  Knowing how hard it hit, he tried to dodge aside, only to take a pulverizing hit as its meaty fist slammed into his thigh.  His greave kept the bone from breaking, but he still felt as though a hot poker had been stuck into the limb.  The golem was following his every move, and if anything, it seemed to be getting faster. Talen did his best to help the embattled fighter, attacking the golem from behind.  His sword passed through its body like the other failed attacks upon it, but he was able to have at least some effect, leaving shallow gouges on its torso where he had hit.  Grunting in frustration, the fighter tried to put more strength into his attacks. Glancing to his left, he saw Shay running up to join them, her sword drawn.  “No, Shay!  You cannot hurt it!” he warned.The scout ignored him, rushing forward to engage.  The golem seemed to sense her coming, and brought down a heavy fist to smash her, but she leapt and tumbled inside its reach, narrowly avoiding being hit.  Her own stroke had no effect, but the creature’s attention had been distracted, letting Dar get in a full attack upon it unimpeded.  The fighter held nothing back.  With the monster distracted, his powerful attacks bit deep into its substance.  Huge chunks of clay went flying, and he tore through one of its legs, unbalancing it.  The golem staggered back a step, trying to recover. The others had not been idle during the violent exchange between the golem and the party’s fighters.  Zosimos clucked in frustration as he failed to dispel the high priest’s magical barrier, but the arcanist immediately began preparing another potent evocation, moving forward to give him a clear shot around the swirling melee.  Valus had spent those seconds filling himself with the divine power of the Shining Father, and calling upon a shield of faith to protect him.  That complete, he too began casting one of his more powerful spells. Varo knew that their enemy was growing stronger on the far side of the barrier, but he knew that there was little that he could do to stop them.  He cast a confusion spell through the barrier, not really expecting it to affect the powerful beings on the far side, but unable to come up with a better alternative.  He made sure that Malerase remained close by him in the chamber’s entry, the elf alternating between arrows and his magical wand.  Neither thus far had managed to have any effect upon their enemies.  There was a hiss and a pop, and the vrock demon materialized on their side of the blade barrier, protected by mirror images.  Varo pointed him out, and Malerase fired an arrow that hit it at the joint where its left arm met the shoulder, striking the real form among the images out of sheer luck.  The vrock, displeased if not seriously hurt, ignored them to dive at the wizard.  Zosimos saw it coming, and shifted his aim upward, blasting the vrock with his cone of cold.  The blast overwhelmed both the demon’s spell resistance and its inherent resistances, and it swooped away.  For a moment it looked like it was about to disengage, but then it opened its beak wide and unleashed a piercing shriek that echoed through the chamber.  Zosimos staggered back, stunned, and Shay, still battling the clay golem, was likewise rendered temporarily overcome by the piercing blast of sound.  Satisfied, the vrock spun back around and dove toward the evoker. As it spread its wings to land, the demon’s attention was drawn about by Valus.  The cleric had grown to a height of twelve feet tall, his stature empowered by the righteous might of his patron god.  The vrock turned to him and hissed, confident as the cleric’s charging blow tore harmlessly through one of its mirror images.  The vrock leapt up to enage the priest, tearing at him with its claws as it released a cloud of spores that swirled around them both, digging into the cracks of Valus’s armor to burrow painfully into his flesh. In the center of the room, the clay golem reared back from another heavy blow from Dar.  Cracks spread across its body and it began to crumble, showering bits of itself upon the floor and upon its enemies.  Talen stood over the stunned Shay, holding his shield over her to protect her as the golem came apart.  Dar ran his gauntlet across his lips, which came away bloody; the golem had managed another hit to his body, and he was once again in pretty bad shape.  He looked up as the blade barrier suddenly and without warning came down, the spinning blades just dissolved into nothing.  None of the underpriests were left standing; one of them had his hands wrapped around the throat of his neighbor, testament that Varo’s confusion spell earlier had not been a complete waste.  But the evil high priest still stood, sheltered in the protective aura of the glowing sphere at the room’s center. And the glabrezu was there as well.  It stepped forward, the ground shaking at its coming. “Talen,” Dar said, but the captain had seen it too.  Helping Shay to her feet, the captain then lifted his sword, turning toward the great and terrible demon. “Come for this?” the demon hissed, its deep voice booming from its chest.  It kicked over one of the slumped figures kneeling on the floor at the edge of the pentagram.  The bloody figure was knocked over, revealing the bloody and lifeless form of Allera.  “You’re a bit late,” it cackled. Dar shouted and charged, but he’d barely managed two steps before the glabrezu gesticulated with one of the small hands that jutted from its chest.  As the demon unleashed its power, Dar, Talen, and Shay went flying upward, slamming hard into the ceiling twenty feet above.</blockquote>

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