the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

Moonday dawns, and the company assemble in a side street near the temple an hour before dawn. Azrin and Auriel meet the acolytes and pray for their spells, and then the company casts preparatory spells and advances. Lysander drinks the potion of Eagles Splendour and his force of personality visibly increases.
Auriel uses stoneshape to wreck the hinges of the great stone doors into the temple dome, and the party leap into the central atrium. From the middle of the hall, where the altar used to be, a pillar of fire reaches upwards, scorching the roof of the dome overhead. Beyond it can be seen the skeletal fiend.

Azrin casts “consecrate” to dispel the desecration in the temple, and Lysander, assisted by the three acolytes, attempts to pour sacred energy into the gate. Focussed and hyped up on adrenaline, the four of them pray their hearts out and the fiery gate visibly dims. Others launch attacks on the fiendish osyluth, with K’tal being especially successful, blasting a concussion past its spell resistance and wounding it quite badly. The Osyluth responds by creating a wall of ice between the party and the gate, but Azrin whips out his new wand of burning hands, and invoking the name of Asura the consuming fire demolishes the ice wall, turning it into steam.

Next round Lysander and the acolytes continue to pour sacred energy into the gate and Asura hears their petitions and the gate swings shut, snuffing out the infernal fire. The Osyluth roars its rage, and teleports into the midst of them, missing Lysander with its scythe, but impaling one of the acolytes upon its sting; Sheena is flung aside like a lifeless rag doll. As the rest of the company moves to encircle it, the creature teleports to the other side of the dome, shrugging off further attempts at concussion by K’tal which fail to penetrate its spell resistance.

Not willing to allow it to escape or regroup, Ynnsfeardh, Auriel and Lysander charge across to it and continue to press the attack - and as Lysander calls upon Asura to allow him to smite evil, despite his personal failings, he lands a mighty blow which severs the creatures spine, and it collapses into a mass of stinking, festering bones.

The gate is closed. No more fiends will be coming through to the city, although there are plenty that seem to have already entered through the gate. And what about the evil cultists still occupying the temple?

“Enough!” cries Lysander. “This temple needs to be cleansed!”

Azrin runs over to the door into the east wing, and blocks it while covering the opposite door with his crossbow.

Suddenly a great, pointy eared figure with blazing violet eyes appears on one of the balconies overlooking the central atrium and casts a spell at Lysander. "Stay where you are, my friend!" it cries out, and Lysander complies. Another appears, and projects a terrible feeling of despair which is shrugged off by all except for Auriel, who starts to wonder what the point of it all is.

Ynnsfeardh vaults up to the balcony, but fails to land a blow. Crossbows are fired at the creatures, but pass harmlessly through their bodies. What kind of monster are these? Then, hungry for blood and souls the Barghests leap into combat, shifting into their wolf-forms. K'tal launches one more
concussion successfully, then fights with his crossbow, shooting into the various melees.

With the most powerful combatants either charmed or despairing, a hard fight ensues while the remaining party members attempt to fend off the barghests - and Azrin can hear the sound of someone breaking down the door which he is holding closed.

On the far side another hell hound bursts through from the west wing, shrugging off an AoO and lightly wounded by a crossbow as it charges towards Azrin. Both Barghests have taken significant damage by this point, and decide that it isn't worth hanging around, and dimension door away.

The door behind Azrin bursts apart, and the Acolyte Keltar burst in, swinging a great flail at Azrin who runs over to the other side of the chamber. He misses, and receives a brief stab in the kidneys from Crail who had moved into a flanking position in anticipation. As Auriel also moves into the attack Keltar retreats back to lick his wounds and two hell hounds burst past him into the room. One of them engulfs Auriel in flames, but she smiles grimly as they lick harmlessly around her thanks to her spells. One of the hell hounds is downed, then Crail receives a very nasty bite and burn which takes him down.

Keltar appears again and touches one of the severely wounded hell hounds - and as the distant tolling of a bell is heard the hound slumps lifeless and more strength flows through their foes arms. He scores a mighty critical hit on Auriel (rolled 2d10+10 and caused 30 points damage!) Still Keltar is now
outnumbered, and despite causing some serious injuries is soon killed himself.

In the moments hush, the party is quick to rouse Lysander from his stupor. Then they hear a shout from the west wing:

"Lysander! I challenge you to a congress of blades"

 

[Piratecat]

I think people are more likely to read a story hour when the individual posts are shorter. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be the case.

But who cares? I'm having fun catching up. Now, if the old boards would just reopen, so that we can get to our archives....

 

[Plane Sailing]

I know that I am more likely to start reading a storyhour with short segments - I think if I see a smaller bit of text it is easy to think "oh, I can manage that one"

Any idea when the old boards will reopen, PC? I would have been more careful to get everything transferred before open day if I'd realised they were going to spend so long closed

At least I've got my original source document to work from, which is something.

Cheers

 

[Piratecat]

They'll reopen as soon as activity here dies down a bit; with lots of registration, the server will complain about the additional load, even if they're read-only. I'm guessing within two weeks!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Felgar steps into the room, clad in half-plate armour with the other dark-eyed acolyte as her second. She has issued the traditional Jazumai challenge to a duel, a one-on-one fight between Jazumai in which no outside interference is brooked.

Lysander replies "to the death, naturally!"

"Indeed, to the death. You may take a few moments to prepare yourself. I have long looked forward to testing myself against someone of your mettle".

Lysander takes a moment to heal himself and cast a sorcerous magic weapon on his scimitar, then the two Jazumai square off in the centre of the room.

Disconcerted that he cannot cry "my god is better than your god" since they both serve different aspects of Asura, Lysander launches into the attack and draws blood immediately - but is then surprised as Felgar takes two slashes with her scimitar and then spins around and lands a crushing blow with her foot, nearly knocking him over! Dms note: Felgar is a Ftr1/Jazumai5. She is not as strong, dextrous or charismatic as Lysander, but her base attack bonus gives her one extra attack per round and she has two weapon fighting to enable her to use her unarmed attack alongside the scimitar swipes.

The battle rages as standing toe to toe the scimitars whirl. Lysander scores a critical hit! Felgar fails to knock him over with her kick once more. Lysander scores another critical hit! DMs note: I couldn't believe it. It seems clear who Asura really favoured in this battle! Felgar calls upon Asura to heal her wounds and then redoubles her assault on her opponent.

Finally Lysander scores yet another critical hit and cleaves the wounded Felgar in two.

The remaining acolyte charges across the room and attacks Lysander with his great flail, crying out, but Auriel and the others are able to enter the fight now and despite a couple of awesome blows, he is soon cut down. While the injured tend to each other and somebody remembers Daros ability to raise dead so Felgar is decapitated, Azrin moves off into the west wing on his own to search for Alkanar.

yep, you heard that right, he went off on his own into the unexplored area while severely wounded.

Azrin quickly runs round the rooms in the east wing of the temple, looking for Alkanar the high priest. He finds damaged books in the library, and the robing room was clearly used by some of the hell hounds as a nest.

While the fight with the acolyte continues in the main hall, he runs up the stairs, and peeks into Alkanar’s room - in the process of being desecrated by a foul imp. The imp flies at him and he hobbles through the doorway that leads to the balcony - and comes face to face with Daros, armoured and glowing with magic.

Daros sees his badly wounded condition and quickly casts "death knell' and strikes Azrin! Remarkably, Azrin saves (on a 20) and leaps straight past Daros and over the edge of the balcony - a 25' leap, made possible by the potion of jumping which he had imbibed earlier.

Lysander and the others are astounded to see Azrin land amongst them, and all the more astounded when an Unholy Blight explodes amongst them. Auriel is untouched out of range, as is K'tan, Lysander shrugs off the worst of the blast but the others are all mortally injured, and only just save vs dying.
Lysander calls out to Daros

" Either fight or leave now!" - somewhat of a bluff, since the party are in no condition to take on the high priest - but Daros doesn't know that. He airwalks off the balcony and hangs above the party, before booming out

"You have slain my chosen Jazumai. I will have to raise up another. My plans here are ruined, and it seems the voices in my prophetic dreams were mistaken - but I have other eggs a-hatching, and I must tend to them. Beware when we meet again, I may not be so merciful'. He then airwalks out through a hole in the temple dome.

Lysander breathes a sigh of relief - he knew that they were in no condition to take on Daros, and he managed to bluff him out of the picture.

They party quickly tend their wounds, then turn their minds to the other large problems facing Knightsbridge. Apart from the fiendish creatures currently walking the streets, and un-investigated problems in Southspur, it seems clear that the Baron is under some kind of control. Furthermore, it seems likely that that is where Alkanar the priest is being kept captive...

 

[Plane Sailing]

The Baron spends most of his time in the villa rather than the gatehouse, and so the heroes plan their rescue attempt carefully. Crail goes to find the remnants of the old thieves guild once again, and for the price of a platinum ring which Azrin gave him, he procures from them a set of plans for the villa.

Clearly, their best route would be to enter through the top of the tower. Auriel flies up to the top in bird form, and lets down ropes which the others use to assist their climb. The wooden trapdoor at the top of the tower is cunningly locked and barred, but Auriel calls upon magic to shape the wood and makes it openable.
They proceed down the narrow spiral staircase in single file, Crail and Lysander in the lead and the others bringing up the rear. They find the door to the bedroom and carefully swing it open. Inside is a richly appointed bedroom and a tattered figure lying on the bed...

While Crail and Lysander enter the room, Azrin calls upon Asura to reveal thoughts to him, and he scans around the room, attempting to pick up the mental voices of anyone who is hidden. While most of the others enter the room, Azrin completes his scan - and detects some thoughts from another entity in the room - coldly thinking “now I’ve got them”.

Azrin calls out “there’s something else in here!” when suddenly a terrible blast of freezing cold sweeps through the room, and a horned ogre magi appears over at one side. Azrin runs out of the room to cast a prayer, while Lysander, Crail, Ynnsfeardh and Auriel move to attack the ogre. Crail misjudges its reach, and is caught by a mighty two-handed blow, but the others press the attack and the ogre lacks the room to use his full manoeuvrability.

Shocked to find itself near death in a matter of only eighteen seconds, the creature turns gaseous in order to escape and regenerate - a ploy that is foiled as Azrin dashes back into the room and uses his domain spell - burning hands - to destroy the fiend.

Congratulations all round, the party think about seeing to their wounds and checking the frail body on the bed - indeed, it is Alkanar.

Suddenly, they all find their heads filled with an awful, awful screeching sound - mind numbingly painful, all of them reel stunned except for Lysander, who resists it by the grace of Asura - and is horrified to see a creature phase into reality next to Ynnsfeardh and grab him. Lysander launches an attack, slightly wounding the creature that looks at him with pupil-less white eyes and speaks into his mind

“Bull or cow, the cattle shouldn’t raise its hand against the farmer; the world that you knew is doomed. And I will remember YOU in particular”.

Then with mounting horror he sees the hooded creature phase out once more, carrying the stunned Ynnsfeardh with it!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Gradually the company recover from the dreadful results of the mind blast, and wonder what they should do. Can they rescue Ynnsfeardh? Should they retreat from the villa now, in their wounded state, or should they press on and attempt to rescue the Baron from his foul captors before a replacement for the Ogre Mage can be arranged?

Looking to the bed, Lysander checks Alkanar and finds that he has been severely affected by both Devil Chills and Cackle fever, leaving him weak and unable to pray for even the most simple of aid from Asura. Lysander calls upon the power which Asura has granted him to cure disease, and drives the worst of the infection from the high priest. Auriel then picks up the frail old man as they decide to make their exit.

In the meantime, Azrin was checking out documentation on the table, to see if he can find any clues - the only notable thing is that all of the account ledgers haven’t had any entries made in the last three weeks - pretty much since the start of the fair and the start of the troubles in Knightsbridge. Crail on the other hand, was investigating a bureau and found a secret compartment with rubies and sapphires which he surreptitiously pocketed.

Their plan is to continue down into the villa and out through the front - moving down another level they come out onto the villas mezzanine, where they can see some comfy chairs set around a table. In one of the chairs facing them sits the Baron with glazed eyes, another figure is in the chair with his back to them.

Crail sneaks up, intent on sneak attacking the man whose face is obscured - and is taken aback to find Ynnsfeardh slumped in the chair. Worse, he is covered in blood, and there is a gaping hole running from his forehead to the crown of his head. Something terrible has eaten his brain!

 

[Ziggy]

Hi Plane Sailing!

I've read it all, and it's good. I like the plot and the narrative, and I'll try to keep up with it (but reading story hours is putting a serious dent on my spare time these days).

I would like to see a bit more dialogue and "behind-the-scenes", but that's just my personal preferences. Keep up the good work, I know how hard it is.

.Ziggy

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks for taking a look, Ziggy!

A lot of the early stuff was written retrospectively by several months, so I could remember very little dialog by the time I was writing. I'm attempting to write things up fairly soon after the event nowadays, but I'm still a little behind (and the storyhour has quite a way to go before I catch up to the present day)

I'm very glad that you've enjoyed what you've read, and I think it is encouraging for all story-hour writers when readers post anything encouraging at all!

Cheers,

 

[Plane Sailing]

There isn’t time to mourn the loss of their friend, and the party help the passive Baron to his feet, and guide him down the stairs and to the front door. Opening the first set of gates they see two guards who are understandably surprised - Lysander’s attempt to bluff them fails because the guards know that Lysander is a wanted man with a price on his head - and Lysander and Crail find themselves engaged in combat by the halberd - wielding guardsmen.

One of them manages to wind his alarm horn, despite Azrin’s attempt to knock it from his hand by casting his chakram - which ricochets madly around the tiny area but doesn’t injure anyone. One of the guardsmen is severely wounded and slumps down unconscious, but the other is threatening Crail severely so K’tan concentrates hard and launches a concussion - and the guardsman explodes in a gory heap (DMs note: I use concussion as a ranged touch attack - and he got a critical hit and rolled extremely well on the damage).

Although a key to the front gates is quickly found, the sound of alert guards on the outside attempting to get through the portal is worrying - whether or not the party is able to deal with them, they are not willing to decimate the Barons guards who only think that they are doing their job.

Azrin had prayed earlier that day for the ability to locate secret doors, and he now calls upon Asura to honour that prayer - and as he turns and scans the room, he sees a secret doorway hidden within the fireplace! Auriel protects herself from fire and then moves the logs and ashes out of the way and opens the door. Closing the door behind them they follow the narrow passage to a secret opening on the outer wall of the villa, and make their escape into the dark.

They plan to meet at the Bell tower, and split up - Crail is to attempt to borrow some additional clothes from known supporters of the temple (to use as a disguise for the Baron if necessary), while the others travel home. On the way they spot and are spotted by another one of the Mendonnan assassins who escapes from them but starts trailing them. They decide not to return directly to the bell tower but to go to the temple and then use the secret tunnel they had made in the library to duck out...