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<blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3755314" data-attributes="member: 143"><p>Chapter 248</p><p></p><p>THE FINAL TEMPLE</p><p></p><p></p><p>“All right,” Talen whispered. “This is it.” </p><p></p><p>Allera, Nelan, and Alderis began casting their spells, setting various protective wards over themselves and the other members of the party. Honoratius had already left them, but Letellia refreshed her <em>mage armor</em>, and then layered a <em>shield</em> upon it. </p><p></p><p>Dar crept up to the graven double doors. Talen shot him a warning glance, but the fighter merely took up a ready position near the portals, <em>Valor</em> gleaming blue off the light of their torches. Shay had already listened at the stone doors, but they already knew that they were very thick, and in any case, undead tended to be silent. </p><p></p><p>“Think they know we’re coming?” Dar whispered across to her. </p><p></p><p>Shay did not respond, but her hands tightened around the haft of her spear. </p><p></p><p>Getting here had been easy, almost too easy. They’d had to retrace their steps back up to the upper levels, but the dungeon had been oddly empty. Even the usual background fauna of dire rats and vermin had been absent. It was as if the entire place had been cleansed of life. </p><p></p><p>That was not entirely true, of course. They did encounter an umber hulk in the cavern of the purple worms, but the creature died before it could even get close enough to use its confusing gaze attack. Their long-distance firepower had been greatly augmented by the two arcanists in the group, and given warning, there were few creatures that could stand up against them. Perhaps the other mundane denizens of the dungeon recognized that this group was in no mood to trifle with wandering monsters, and remained hidden until they passed. </p><p></p><p>They had returned to the first level, and once more used divine magic to enable them to walk upon the river that gave access to the level housing the second temple. The last time they had come that way they had been driven to rescue Allera from the hands of the cult of Orcus. They had fought their way through ambushes laid by displacer beasts and minotaurs, but the battle in the temple had cost them the lives of the cleric Marcus Cornelius Valus and the arcanist Theodorus Vitus Zosimos. </p><p></p><p>Each of them felt a sudden surge of magical power, a tingle that accompanied a sense of speed and vitality. That was the signal for their attack, Alderis’s <em>haste</em> spell. They were all heavily protected by multiple magical effects, warded against death magic and surrounded by a <em>magic circle against evil</em> that emanated from Nelan. “All right, move out!” Talen hissed, drawing <em>Beatus Incendia</em> and invoking its flame. </p><p></p><p>Dar and Shay seized the doors and pulled, drawing the heavy stone slabs slowly open. A stale odor of decay greeted them, but other than that, the cavernous temple complex appeared to be empty. Nelan’s <em>daylight</em> drove back the darkness beyond, revealing the interior of the temple all of the way to the massive pentagram etched into the floor in the center of the chamber. They could just see the hazy outline of the stone statue and altar on a raised dais in the center of that unholy design. </p><p></p><p>“Forward,” Talen said. “Watch for another ambush.”</p><p></p><p>The companions moved slowly ahead, checking and double-checking every shadowy corner. Nelan’s brilliant magical light continued to reveal more of the room as they pushed ahead. They could see the scorch marks that still marked spots on the floor and walls where their <em>fireballs</em> had struck, on earlier visits. One corner on the edge of the pentagram still showed the damage where a glabrezu’s claws had clipped it; bits of stone were still scattered about under the deep gauges in the stone. Shay’s eyes lingered on that bit of destruction, and she shuddered, remembering how close they had come to disaster on that day. </p><p></p><p>As they approached the pentagram, they could start to see into the side-wings that extended out to either side of the central altar-space. Great stone pools, almost thirty feet across, were situated in each of those adjacent chambers. They held blood, kept hot and bubbling through some dark magic inherent in this place. Each was ringed by a low stone barrier, crusted with a thick layer of dried crimson. The temple as a whole was shaped like a huge cross, and while it lacked the incredible sense of vastness of the third temple, the second was actually a bit longer, almost three hundred feet from the entrance to the far wall. </p><p></p><p>They had almost reached the outer edge of the unholy circle when the each heard a faint but familiar-sounding clatter. Shay held up her hand in warning, and they all stopped. </p><p></p><p>“Here we go,” Dar muttered.</p><p></p><p>“Show yourselves, servants of the Demon!” Talen yelled. His voice echoed off the walls of the temple. </p><p></p><p>“There!” Mehlaraine said, gesturing with her rapier. The others saw the movement where the elven duelist indicated, as dark figures materialized in the shadows from the far side of the temple, beyond the stone altar and statue of Orcus. The lumbering forms became distinct as they entered the radius of their light. They were skeletons, but it was instantly obvious that their ancestry was not human. Each stood over seven feet tall, and while their bodies were humanoid, their skulls were huge and broad, and mounted with a pair of long, outstretched horns that tapered to sharp points. Their bones were a dull black, like iron, and the ground trembled at their coming. </p><p></p><p>Those among the companions who were veterans of Rappan Athuk recognized the creatures at once. “Black skeletons,” Allera said, her expression one of dismay. The monsters formed two long rows that stretched across the full width of the temple, fifteen of them in all. </p><p></p><p>Talen stepped forward, <em>Beatus Incendia</em> held high above his head, its light reflecting brilliantly off the exposed metal plates of his armor and his magical shield. “Hit them with everything you have!” the knight shouted, his stentorian rally cry echoing through the chamber, bolstering the morale of his companions. </p><p></p><p>Those companions complied with his command, unleashing a barrage of spells and weapons at the closing skeletons. A <em>flame strike</em> blasted down from Nelan, catching three of the skeletons in the burning column. A moment later a pair of explosions rocked the enemy line, as Alderis and Letellia hit them with <em>fireballs</em> from their wands. But the skeletons were widely spaced, their lines stretching across the entire ninety-foot width of the temple, and there was a limit to how many each could engulf in the forty-foot spread of each <em>fireball</em>. The two arcanists spaced their blasts expertly, bracketing the point of impact of Nelan’s <em>flame strike</em>. The ones in the center of the line were hit with a lot of flame, and as the smoke cleared several of the creatures staggered into view, their bones melting from the intense heat. But only one had fallen in that initial barrage, and those at the ends of the lines, approaching along the walls, were not affected at all.</p><p></p><p>Their archers fired several shafts into the enemy ranks, but the skeletons were virtually immune to even magical arrows, and the shots from Selanthas and Shay had little effect. Dar slid <em>Valor</em> into its scabbard and unlimbered his huge greatclub. The fighter would have charged to meet the enemy rush, but Talen forestalled him, indicating Alderis. The elf was casting again, preparing his <em>repulsion</em> spell, to kill the enemy charge before the skeletons could reach them. The undead lines were drawing nearer, but they had been over a hundred feet away when Nelan’s <em>daylight</em> had revealed them, and they were too far yet to get to them before Alderis could finish his spell. </p><p></p><p>It was at that moment that the pincers of the ambush snapped shut around them. </p><p></p><p>Shay was the only one to spot the slight shimmer in the air to their left, beyond one of the huge stone fonts in the deep side-chamber that flanked the great altar. But the scout did not have time to shout a warning as a bolt of twisting black energy flared from beyond the font, arcing across the chamber. It caught Letellia in the side, striking just behind the leading edge of her shield, and forked to hit both Nelan and Alderis. All three of them were caught up like rag dolls and hurled bodily back across the room, bouncing hard on the cold stone floor and rolling to a rough stop some twenty feet from where they had been standing. </p><p></p><p>The attack parted the cloak of invisibility that had concealed Zafir Navev, and the undead warlock stood there with a look of grim satisfaction on his features, tendrils of black energy rising from his fingers. </p><p></p><p>The <em>eldritch blast</em> had one saving grace for its victims; they were spared the second part of the ambush a moment later as the goblin cleric Tribitz stepped out from behind the pool on the opposite side of the chamber, in the other foyer. The goblin cleric looked gaunt and shriveled within his armor; clearly the days since it had last confronted the party in its sanctum had not been kind to the creature. But the monster that had betrayed its own people to gruesome deaths upon the altars of Orcus clearly had not lost any of its terrible power. It croaked an invocation to its dread god, and a <em>flame strike</em> came crashing down, blasting Dar, Talen, and Allera. Only Shay was able to escape the full power of the spell, diving aside as the deadly column poured down upon her friends. The others, caught unawares, were scoured mercilessly by the hungry flames and the unholy energies that infused them. </p><p></p><p>The cleric, heaving with a swell of religious ecstacy, pointed and uttered a command. A hezrou demon, brought to the Prime by Tribtiz’s <em>planar ally</em> spell, materialized on cue, its huge jaws slavering with anticipation as it loomed over the three prone spellcasters, the first course at the buffet. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, with nothing left to oppose them, the fourteen black minotaur skeletons charged forward, sweeping around the huge statue of Orcus to descend upon the burned and battered line, now in disarray, that faced them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lazybones, post: 3755314, member: 143"] Chapter 248 THE FINAL TEMPLE “All right,” Talen whispered. “This is it.” Allera, Nelan, and Alderis began casting their spells, setting various protective wards over themselves and the other members of the party. Honoratius had already left them, but Letellia refreshed her [i]mage armor[/i], and then layered a [i]shield[/i] upon it. Dar crept up to the graven double doors. Talen shot him a warning glance, but the fighter merely took up a ready position near the portals, [i]Valor[/i] gleaming blue off the light of their torches. Shay had already listened at the stone doors, but they already knew that they were very thick, and in any case, undead tended to be silent. “Think they know we’re coming?” Dar whispered across to her. Shay did not respond, but her hands tightened around the haft of her spear. Getting here had been easy, almost too easy. They’d had to retrace their steps back up to the upper levels, but the dungeon had been oddly empty. Even the usual background fauna of dire rats and vermin had been absent. It was as if the entire place had been cleansed of life. That was not entirely true, of course. They did encounter an umber hulk in the cavern of the purple worms, but the creature died before it could even get close enough to use its confusing gaze attack. Their long-distance firepower had been greatly augmented by the two arcanists in the group, and given warning, there were few creatures that could stand up against them. Perhaps the other mundane denizens of the dungeon recognized that this group was in no mood to trifle with wandering monsters, and remained hidden until they passed. They had returned to the first level, and once more used divine magic to enable them to walk upon the river that gave access to the level housing the second temple. The last time they had come that way they had been driven to rescue Allera from the hands of the cult of Orcus. They had fought their way through ambushes laid by displacer beasts and minotaurs, but the battle in the temple had cost them the lives of the cleric Marcus Cornelius Valus and the arcanist Theodorus Vitus Zosimos. Each of them felt a sudden surge of magical power, a tingle that accompanied a sense of speed and vitality. That was the signal for their attack, Alderis’s [i]haste[/i] spell. They were all heavily protected by multiple magical effects, warded against death magic and surrounded by a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] that emanated from Nelan. “All right, move out!” Talen hissed, drawing [i]Beatus Incendia[/i] and invoking its flame. Dar and Shay seized the doors and pulled, drawing the heavy stone slabs slowly open. A stale odor of decay greeted them, but other than that, the cavernous temple complex appeared to be empty. Nelan’s [i]daylight[/i] drove back the darkness beyond, revealing the interior of the temple all of the way to the massive pentagram etched into the floor in the center of the chamber. They could just see the hazy outline of the stone statue and altar on a raised dais in the center of that unholy design. “Forward,” Talen said. “Watch for another ambush.” The companions moved slowly ahead, checking and double-checking every shadowy corner. Nelan’s brilliant magical light continued to reveal more of the room as they pushed ahead. They could see the scorch marks that still marked spots on the floor and walls where their [i]fireballs[/i] had struck, on earlier visits. One corner on the edge of the pentagram still showed the damage where a glabrezu’s claws had clipped it; bits of stone were still scattered about under the deep gauges in the stone. Shay’s eyes lingered on that bit of destruction, and she shuddered, remembering how close they had come to disaster on that day. As they approached the pentagram, they could start to see into the side-wings that extended out to either side of the central altar-space. Great stone pools, almost thirty feet across, were situated in each of those adjacent chambers. They held blood, kept hot and bubbling through some dark magic inherent in this place. Each was ringed by a low stone barrier, crusted with a thick layer of dried crimson. The temple as a whole was shaped like a huge cross, and while it lacked the incredible sense of vastness of the third temple, the second was actually a bit longer, almost three hundred feet from the entrance to the far wall. They had almost reached the outer edge of the unholy circle when the each heard a faint but familiar-sounding clatter. Shay held up her hand in warning, and they all stopped. “Here we go,” Dar muttered. “Show yourselves, servants of the Demon!” Talen yelled. His voice echoed off the walls of the temple. “There!” Mehlaraine said, gesturing with her rapier. The others saw the movement where the elven duelist indicated, as dark figures materialized in the shadows from the far side of the temple, beyond the stone altar and statue of Orcus. The lumbering forms became distinct as they entered the radius of their light. They were skeletons, but it was instantly obvious that their ancestry was not human. Each stood over seven feet tall, and while their bodies were humanoid, their skulls were huge and broad, and mounted with a pair of long, outstretched horns that tapered to sharp points. Their bones were a dull black, like iron, and the ground trembled at their coming. Those among the companions who were veterans of Rappan Athuk recognized the creatures at once. “Black skeletons,” Allera said, her expression one of dismay. The monsters formed two long rows that stretched across the full width of the temple, fifteen of them in all. Talen stepped forward, [i]Beatus Incendia[/i] held high above his head, its light reflecting brilliantly off the exposed metal plates of his armor and his magical shield. “Hit them with everything you have!” the knight shouted, his stentorian rally cry echoing through the chamber, bolstering the morale of his companions. Those companions complied with his command, unleashing a barrage of spells and weapons at the closing skeletons. A [i]flame strike[/i] blasted down from Nelan, catching three of the skeletons in the burning column. A moment later a pair of explosions rocked the enemy line, as Alderis and Letellia hit them with [i]fireballs[/i] from their wands. But the skeletons were widely spaced, their lines stretching across the entire ninety-foot width of the temple, and there was a limit to how many each could engulf in the forty-foot spread of each [i]fireball[/i]. The two arcanists spaced their blasts expertly, bracketing the point of impact of Nelan’s [i]flame strike[/i]. The ones in the center of the line were hit with a lot of flame, and as the smoke cleared several of the creatures staggered into view, their bones melting from the intense heat. But only one had fallen in that initial barrage, and those at the ends of the lines, approaching along the walls, were not affected at all. Their archers fired several shafts into the enemy ranks, but the skeletons were virtually immune to even magical arrows, and the shots from Selanthas and Shay had little effect. Dar slid [i]Valor[/i] into its scabbard and unlimbered his huge greatclub. The fighter would have charged to meet the enemy rush, but Talen forestalled him, indicating Alderis. The elf was casting again, preparing his [i]repulsion[/i] spell, to kill the enemy charge before the skeletons could reach them. The undead lines were drawing nearer, but they had been over a hundred feet away when Nelan’s [i]daylight[/i] had revealed them, and they were too far yet to get to them before Alderis could finish his spell. It was at that moment that the pincers of the ambush snapped shut around them. Shay was the only one to spot the slight shimmer in the air to their left, beyond one of the huge stone fonts in the deep side-chamber that flanked the great altar. But the scout did not have time to shout a warning as a bolt of twisting black energy flared from beyond the font, arcing across the chamber. It caught Letellia in the side, striking just behind the leading edge of her shield, and forked to hit both Nelan and Alderis. All three of them were caught up like rag dolls and hurled bodily back across the room, bouncing hard on the cold stone floor and rolling to a rough stop some twenty feet from where they had been standing. The attack parted the cloak of invisibility that had concealed Zafir Navev, and the undead warlock stood there with a look of grim satisfaction on his features, tendrils of black energy rising from his fingers. The [i]eldritch blast[/i] had one saving grace for its victims; they were spared the second part of the ambush a moment later as the goblin cleric Tribitz stepped out from behind the pool on the opposite side of the chamber, in the other foyer. The goblin cleric looked gaunt and shriveled within his armor; clearly the days since it had last confronted the party in its sanctum had not been kind to the creature. But the monster that had betrayed its own people to gruesome deaths upon the altars of Orcus clearly had not lost any of its terrible power. It croaked an invocation to its dread god, and a [i]flame strike[/i] came crashing down, blasting Dar, Talen, and Allera. Only Shay was able to escape the full power of the spell, diving aside as the deadly column poured down upon her friends. The others, caught unawares, were scoured mercilessly by the hungry flames and the unholy energies that infused them. The cleric, heaving with a swell of religious ecstacy, pointed and uttered a command. A hezrou demon, brought to the Prime by Tribtiz’s [i]planar ally[/i] spell, materialized on cue, its huge jaws slavering with anticipation as it loomed over the three prone spellcasters, the first course at the buffet. Meanwhile, with nothing left to oppose them, the fourteen black minotaur skeletons charged forward, sweeping around the huge statue of Orcus to descend upon the burned and battered line, now in disarray, that faced them. [/QUOTE]
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