The Big Fight...
Dala scouts invisibly, flying around the tower and scanning it with a detect magic spell. There is clearly some abjuration magic around the door on the top of the tower, and he deduces that it is most likely an alarm spell. They plan their assault accordingly, and Dala grants everyone the ability to fly, then they head off for the tower.
Arriving at the top, Dala dispels the alarm. They carefully open the door and descend into a foul laboratory. While quietly looking around, a flask of alchematical acid is flung across the room towards them, narrowly missing Trajan. Arilyn invokes her prepared See Invisibility and spots a foul little imp pulling obscene faces at the party while it edges around towards the stairs. She shouts to Anne-Marie who attempts to head it off – and at the same time Dala decides to blast its location with lightning. Anne-Marie is caught off guard, and is quite seriously wounded by her friends lightning as the imp tumbles down the stairs.
They quickly follow it down into the main library. The walls are lined with books and Dyson is sitting reading at a table, with a barbed devil standing by his shoulder.
Trajan charges in and swings at the figure standing behind the table but swinging wildly. The barbed devil responds with an almost completely ineffectual unholy blight (4pts!). Arilyn has learnt from her experiences on the stairwell of Fear, steps forth and launches a fearsome Phantasmal Killer - but it doesn’t seem to faze Dyson at all. Anne Marie races in around the edge of the room and launches a perfect stunning blow across the bridge of his nose - and finds her fist passes straight through his illusory head!
From across the room a thin blue beam lances out towards Arilyn, missing her and striking the wall next to her - which disintegrates in a puff of dust! This is followed up by a cone of cold which catches all the other heroes - Anne Marie nimbly skips aside, Trajan avoids the worst of the blast, but poor Dala catches it full-on and slumps frozen to the ground, dying.
Arilyn has her wits about her, and she can now see the sparkling outline of the invisible Dyson - so she conjures a glitterdust cloud on him, covering him with the sparkling particles so that everyone can see him. Anne Marie moves past him to block his escape before striking, and catches an AoO in the process from the wand which he holds; to her horror she feels some of her vitality drawn from her and pass into the wicked old wizard. The barbed devil makes further attempts to magically paralyse Trajan, but is completely ineffective against the Jazumai’s steel-hard will.
Trajan rushes across and joins in the attack against Dyson, cutting his arm with a slice of his scimitar. Dyson responds by detonating an empowered fireball in the midst of the room, which seriously injures Trajan although Anne Marie manages to dodge the worst of the blast again. Arilyn is thrown backwards like a rag doll and lies still, and the frozen form of Dala explodes into flames under the punishing heat. Dyson grunts and curses as his imp dies in flames, and the soul-ties with his familiar cost him one of his most powerful remaining spells.
The barbed devil charges Trajan and catches him with its fearsome claws, dragging him in and impaling him on some of its body spikes. Anne Marie lands another blow on Dyson despite his tremendous magical protections, and the wizard decides it is time for some repositioning. Casting defensively, he dimension doors across the room, then launches a burst of glowing magic missiles at Anne-Marie. The battered swordswoman was staggering on her last legs when the missiles slam into her body and she collapses by the top of the stairs.
With a roar, Trajan breaks free of the barbed devil and charges at Dyson, catching another glancing blow from it on the way but wriggling free from its grasp. He lands another critical blow on the wizard, cutting his shoulder deeply. Dyson responds by casting invisibility defensively and stepping away from his attacker. Trajan thinks he hears the footsteps, but his blows cut naught but air. The barbed devil, meanwhile, has made another two attempts to capture Trajan with a hold person, so the sword saint decides to deal with that threat, and presses an attack against the barbed devil.
Seeing him thus occupied, Dyson creeps in and attacks him with the vampiric touch wand once more, to regain some much-needed hit points. This proves his undoing as Trajan spins around quick as thought and lands two lightning fast blows across Dyson’s midsection. He hears a thump as Dyson’s body invisibly collapses to the ground and the wand skitters away to one side. Trajan turns to the barbed devil “You’ve not got a reason to hang around now, right?”. The devil grins. “I’ve just got a soul to collect for torment at our feast… come ‘master’ ” then it vanishes with a sulphurous swirl of smoke.
Trajan quickly hurries to each of his prone friends. Anne Marie is barely alive and he calls upon Asura, pouring healing power into her until her breathing stabilizes. Then he runs across to Dala but sees the Borderlander sorcerers body burnt beyond recognition. He then turns to the third member of the party, Arilyn, and finds the young Mendonnan woman still barely clinging to life, despite the awful burns she received from the fireball. Once again he calls upon Asura and the healing power stabilizes his friend.
On the stairwell below, the wizards lover and bodyguard Tully realises that she has arrived too late, and the fight is over. Using her shadowdancer powers she fades into the shadows and makes her exit from Waterfang tower. Trajan and Anne Marie make a very cautious investigation of the remaining rooms of the tower, but find only sleeping quarters, storage and a guardroom occupied by a pair of zombie ogres which are no match for even wounded heroes.
A secret door is detected in the library, they decide to wait until they are recovered.
