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<blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3438773" data-attributes="member: 804"><p><strong>Chapter 11: Fighting for Every Inch, Twice</strong></p><p></p><p>From behind the nearby door came cries for help. The cries were a deep male voice rather than the Ireena, but rescuing a prince inspired Thundina more than rescuing the sister of the burgomaster anyway. Thundina picked the lock on the door and entered into a plush sitting room. Several fine plump chairs and several stuffed bookshelves lined the edges of the room, lit by a trio of barred windows. Thundina padded through the room to the door on the far edge from where sounds of pounding could be heard.</p><p></p><p>Thundina snicked open another lock and opened the door. Immediately inside was a tall, dark, and handsome man with a sturdy breastplate and silver cloak over fine clothes. A pale green flickering everburning swatch of cloth surrounded an upper arm casting dancing shadows across his otherwise gentle face. The dark stranger asked, “Are you here to rescue me?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina replied, “Possibly? Who are you?”</p><p>“I am Jessuf Rezinus, a nobleman from Breland.”</p><p>“Nobleman, like a prince? Is there a reward for your rescue?”</p><p>“No, I’m not a prince, merely noble, and I doubt there’s a reward.”</p><p>“Hmm, unfortunate,” Thundina sighed, “What were you doing here?”</p><p>“I had come to arrange to sell some land to the Baron of Barovia, but negotiations seem to have turned sour and he locked me in here.”</p><p>“That’s what happens when you deal with vampires; you get nicked.”</p><p>“What are you doing here, if I may ask?”</p><p>“We’re rescuing a maiden-fair and slaying the vampire Strahd.”</p><p>“Do you think I may join you, Strahd has impugned my honor.”</p><p>Thundina looked Jessuf’s shaggy black locks over approvingly before stating, “Sure, come along. Um, is there anything of interest in this room?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina cased the sitting room quickly and pulled out a scroll which she handed over to Cyron and prepared to leave. Romann was staring intently at one corner of the room insisting that he had heard a kitten mewing. Cyron swept the room for magic, with most of the room not pinging, but in the same corner Romann was fascinated by, Cyron saw a wriggling fungus, but solely with his magic sight. The fungus did not attack and no one could find it without Cyron’s <em>Detect Magic</em>, Thundina eventually declared that it was time to leave. She locked the door behind once the party had filed out.</p><p></p><p>Thundina lead the adventurers once more up the stairs, carefully checking each step on the way. Thundina spotted a couple of splatters of blue ooze which soon became a trickle rolling down the stairs. Shortly after that Thundina caught a whiff of fresh air, but that was quickly replaced by the odor of vinegar. Thundina made it out to beneath the sky; she felt like she could touch due to the low clouds of the overcast sky. </p><p></p><p>She stood on the open parapet and looked around. The blue slime had collected in pools in a couple places around the parapet with tiny pale slugs crawling from pool to pool leaving streaks of the blue ooze behind them. All around the parapet stood bushes resembling fleshy anthropodal bulbs. A walkway led from the parapet over to another tower which emanated a bloody red glow. Above the parapet loomed an even taller tower.</p><p></p><p>Thundina pointed our her observations, “This looks like where we should find the devil with the Hellheart locket, because over there is the adjoining tower and I bet that glow is the Dayheart. And this,” Thundina slapped the tower by the stairs, “is the tallest tower; we’ll need to make it to the top of this too eventually.”</p><p></p><p>Talor hopped over the railing, drew his bow, and began scanning for enemies. Nothing moved to attack him and he did not move to search out the enemies. Meanwhile, Thundina turned to Romann and Cyron, “Do trees count as statues?”</p><p></p><p>“What?” Romann asked.</p><p>“Do you think these weird trees count as statues? Should we chop them down here and now or are they actually going to remain non-animated?”</p><p></p><p>Jessuf coughed interrupting, “What was that about a devil and a locket?”</p><p>Thundina answered, “Up on the high parapet there is supposed to be a devil wearing a locket. We need the locket to destroy one of Strahd’s protective elements. Maybe its across the way, let’s go.”</p><p></p><p>As the party approached the tower, the glow of Dayheart intensified. The Dayheart looked like a giant uncut ruby floating over a large open pit. The red glow reflected off four eyes up a spiral staircase off to the side of the Dayheart. The blood-red glow of the Dayheart only enhanced the naturally red eyes. Two additional vampires dropped right in front of the party from overhead. Startled, Thundina felt like she was standing back on her heels, but she was still able to make a couple quick, light cuts at each of those vampires. The one that landed next to Thundina slipped past her guard. The claw scrape was not as painful as the tearing of the soul that accompanied the scrape.</p><p></p><p>One more vampire misted into the area, standing right before the Dayheart. He was dressed in a fine chain shirt with a flapping scarlet cloak. He drew a blood-red bastard sword and charged into the fray. One of the vampires had already been forced to revert to a <em>Gaseous Form</em> and begin to retreat up the stairs, but the remaining vampires seemed to grin evilly at the arrival of their commander. Their resurgence was short lived before Cyron flooded the battlefield with holy light and the three minor vampires fled.</p><p></p><p>The scarlet vampire struck at Romann, stabbing him in the shoulder. The sword became a deeper blood-red as energy flared from its tip down the blade and into the vampire. With the vampire concentrating on draining Romann, Thundina snuck behind it and ripped its legs out from beneath it, dropping it face first into the stone floor. When the vampire struggled to its feet, Romann rapped it hard leaving it more vulnerable to everyone else’s attacks. The vampire disorientedly swung at Thundina, but she easily blocked his blade with hers and then ripped its feet out from beneath it again.</p><p></p><p>The vampire stared up at its four attackers and decided not to open itself to another round of free attacks and so stayed down while attempting to flail at Urik. Urik stepped on the sword and brought his gleaming silver blade down on the vampire. The scarlet vampire turned into mist and began drifting directly upwards. Thundina tossed a stake to Romann and both began running up the stairs.</p><p></p><p>Three-quarters of a turn up the stairs, the stairs changed to longer, shallower steps. The glow of the Dayheart no longer clearly illuminated the tower and Romann was forced to stop and begin shouting for Cyron to bring light. Thundina made it a short ways into the darkness and caught side of a crimson cloud sliding under the door past the collection of coffins in the room. She came to a sudden stop though when she spotted a horrifying creature lurking in the room. It was like a pile of skin which had been sloughed off but now had been reanimated and was shuffling about.</p><p></p><p>Thundina stared at the sack of skin, waiting for it to attack. Urik came panting up the stairs with a sunrod out and escorting Romann. Romann stood too close to the side of the stairs and the monster attacked from the landing above. Thundina took a quick swipe at the creature and then sprang up the rest of the steps to get behind it. As she stepped on the top stair, a wave of life-draining energy burst through the entire room. The wave barely paused Thundina as she pushed through unharmed. Glances back at the rest of her compatriots showed they had suffered no harm either.</p><p></p><p>The creature had briefly grabbed Romann, but Romann squirmed free. It then turned on Thundina and snatched her. She had dropped her guard a little thinking that it was paying greater attention to her compatriots below. Thundina held the creature in place long enough for Romann to destroy the creature.</p><p></p><p>No sooner had the animated skin horror been shredded, than three coffins opened. The three vampires that Cyron had forced to turn stood up from their coffins. Thundina kept one distracted while Talor pumped multiple silver-tipped arrows into the vampires. One by one, the vampires were put down and staked. However, while trying to get into position against the last vampire, Jessuf walked too close to the iron door and set off a pit trap. He quickly slid out of view.</p><p></p><p>Foot steps on the stairs from below indicated that someone was coming up. Thundina turned to tease Jessuf for taking her job of finding traps and then missing the end of the vampires, but it was not Jessuf striding up the stairs. Thundina found herself standing face to face with Strahd. He snarled, “I cannot allow you to destroy my treasure.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina defiantly stared back, “If you had just paid us in the first place, we wouldn’t still be having this trouble.” Strahd locked his gaze on Thundina but she stood firm and repulsed his intrusion from her mind.</p><p></p><p>Romann moved from the coffers and began descending the stairs to meet Strahd. Thundina scampered up and over to take a place by the door to gain access to the room with the scarlet vampire. Talor stood by the open hole next to the iron door, glancing down at the hole like he was considering jumping. At the appearance of Strahd, Cyron quickly moved to Romann’s side and laid a <em>Death Ward</em> on the fighter.</p><p></p><p>Strahd began casting a spell, and Cyron shouted, “Fel-draining <em>Magic Missiles</em>! Brace yourselves!”</p><p>With all her concentration on the lock on the iron door while balancing over the pit in front of the door, Thundina muttered, “What in the name of Dol Dorn is fel … augh!” Thundina winced as the <em>Magic Missile</em> tore at her soul. Everyone had been hit by one missile.</p><p></p><p>Jessuf came jogging up the stairs, “I’m alright. That chute dumped me outside, but Strahd never stripped me of my dimensional hop boots, so I was able to pop back inside. Are there any vampires remaining? … Oh.”</p><p></p><p>Romann and Urik advanced on Strahd, each making it past the vampire’s defenses to scratch it. Strahd caught Romann’s glance and overwhelmed his will. “Romann, assist me in killing these intruders.” Strahd’s will so completely <em>Dominated</em> Romann’s will that he moved against his friends. Jessuf was quick to act and immediately reached Romann to slap a <em>Protection from Evil</em> on Romann to hedge out the vampire’s will, at least temporarily.</p><p></p><p>Romann pressed the attack with Strahd retreating down the stairs step by step. Each step down, Strahd fired a spell off at Romann to incapacitate him. Jessuf and Cyron each stayed right behind Romann breaking Strahd’s enchantments. A pair of <em>Scorching Rays</em> from Strahd knocked Romann out, but Cyron caught Romann and healed the wounds. Strahd <em>Blinded</em> Romann, but Jessuf removed that through targeting a <em>Dispel</em> on the magic. Romann’s heavy blade time and again smashed through Strahd’s loamy shields to draw raised red welts on the otherwise pale skin.</p><p></p><p>Thundina popped the lock on the iron door and hopped over the pit and into a small room which had a simple iron coffin with a vent in the top as the only furniture. She began inspecting the coffin and discovered both a lock and a trap. With Thundina in the scarlet vampire’s mausoleum, Strahd called an offer to the party, “If you spare my servant, I will spare your life. Your lives.”</p><p></p><p>Urik immediately charged Strahd, shouting, “Never!”</p><p>Romann closed once more on Strahd and struck while cleverly declaring, “You never said anything about yourself.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina concentrated on the lock first so that if the battle turned sour, she could risk the trap to get at the vampire inside more quickly. Strahd spoke once again, “The deal stands for the rest of you, I must kill these two.” Thundina had heard defensive sounding spells from Jessuf and Cyron, but she couldn’t figure out what Talor was doing. He would bear watching once this battle was resolved.</p><p></p><p>Romann continued roaring defiance, “Strahd, you got another thing coming!” The heroic strike cut Strahd deeply, leaving the vampire very battered. Thundina disabled the trap and threw open the iron coffin. Inside the scarlet vampire lay. It begged, “Please, spare me. Get back.” Thundina raised a stake, smiled malevolently and answered, “Here’s my answer.” The stake struck the heart of the vampire true and it crumbled to dust, leaving behind significant treasure.</p><p></p><p>Strahd limped back five feet to get beyond Romann’s reach and snarled, “I will return in one minute. Enjoy your final breaths.” Strahd vanished in a flash of light.</p><p></p><p>Thundina scooped up the emeralds, blood-red bastard sword, scarlet cloak, chain-shirt, ring, statue of three-headed hound, bag, trio of potions, and even the dirt from the scarlet vampire’s coffin, stuffed it all into her own haversack and various bags and leaped the pit once more. “There was no locket, we need to find that devil and quick. If the Dayheart is still active when Strahd returns, we’ll be trapped and I doubt we’ll be able to penetrate this far again if we can’t confine Strahd to the night.”</p><p></p><p>The party dashed down the stairs and onto the parapet. They began sweeping through the bushes looking for the devil. Hidden in one of the ooze pools, obscured from view at the stairs by the shrubbery, was a dark shape. The party surrounded the pool and Thundina poked at the shape. The shape surged up from the ooze pool: a heavily armored and barbed female, all spiky and radiating malevolence and Talor named it a barbed devil. A small golden locket hung from her neck.</p><p></p><p>Thundina asked the barbed devil, “Hand over the Hellheart Locket, and this can all be over.”</p><p>The devil stepped back and called, “By the terms of our contract, Treena, I summon you.” She got a somewhat far look in her eyes as concentrated.</p><p></p><p>The party responded quickly to the devil’s distraction and attacked ferociously. The onslaught disrupted the barbed devil and she screeched, “You and your do-gooders, ruining my garden! This’ll teach you to be good.” A burst of unholy power spread from the creature causing minor headaches all around. The wriggling slugs ceased their random walks and began converging on the party.</p><p></p><p>Cyron called upon the Sovereign Host to <em>Bless Weapon</em> the arrows of Talor. Thundina, Romann, Jessuf, and, Urik harried the barbed devil to the edge of the parapet while squishing any slugs which got underfoot. The barbed devil vanished and reappeared. The four turned and dashed across the parapet following it. Jessuf arrived first.</p><p></p><p>While he was off balance from the charge, he swept up into an embrace by the barbed devil. She pressed him close, impaling him on her spikes. One of the remaining slugs had crawled up Cyron’s leg and into Cyron’s mouth. Cyron managed to pull it cough it out and throw it to the ground and even stomp on it, but it still lived and managed to crawl its way right back. The barbed devil tightened her grip on Jessuf which produced a loud cracking of bones. The devil dropped Jessuf and he fell limply to the ground. He looked alive, but only barely, and no longer carried the heroic aura he had previously. The barbed devil turned on Romann and Thundina, nicking both and filling their minds with fear.</p><p></p><p>Cyron continued choking on the slug, bent over, and growing blue. Talor dropped his bow, drew a battleaxe and said, “Just hold still a moment. You won’t feel a thing.” He swung the axe with all his might, perfectly skewering the slug while not touching Cyron at all. The slug absolutely exploded from the vicious strike. Talor calmly put away his axe and picked up his bow again.</p><p></p><p>The fear in her own mind overwhelmed her and Thundina dropped her guisarme in a panic and fled from the barbed devil at top speed. She reached the edge of the parapet and gazed down at the dizzying drop below considering if the devil or the drop were more frightening. At her side, Romann seemed to be making the same calculation. From behind came the triple twang of three shots in quick succession followed by the loud crack of a massive form smashing to the ground. Thundina turned to look back and saw the barbed devil down with a trio of arrows which had penetrated deep into its chest. The fear no longer held Thundina and she could see the Hellheart locket ready for the taking and the first real victory against Strahd. They’d have to act rapidly, Strahd was certain to return any second.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ealli, post: 3438773, member: 804"] [b]Chapter 11: Fighting for Every Inch, Twice[/b] From behind the nearby door came cries for help. The cries were a deep male voice rather than the Ireena, but rescuing a prince inspired Thundina more than rescuing the sister of the burgomaster anyway. Thundina picked the lock on the door and entered into a plush sitting room. Several fine plump chairs and several stuffed bookshelves lined the edges of the room, lit by a trio of barred windows. Thundina padded through the room to the door on the far edge from where sounds of pounding could be heard. Thundina snicked open another lock and opened the door. Immediately inside was a tall, dark, and handsome man with a sturdy breastplate and silver cloak over fine clothes. A pale green flickering everburning swatch of cloth surrounded an upper arm casting dancing shadows across his otherwise gentle face. The dark stranger asked, “Are you here to rescue me?” Thundina replied, “Possibly? Who are you?” “I am Jessuf Rezinus, a nobleman from Breland.” “Nobleman, like a prince? Is there a reward for your rescue?” “No, I’m not a prince, merely noble, and I doubt there’s a reward.” “Hmm, unfortunate,” Thundina sighed, “What were you doing here?” “I had come to arrange to sell some land to the Baron of Barovia, but negotiations seem to have turned sour and he locked me in here.” “That’s what happens when you deal with vampires; you get nicked.” “What are you doing here, if I may ask?” “We’re rescuing a maiden-fair and slaying the vampire Strahd.” “Do you think I may join you, Strahd has impugned my honor.” Thundina looked Jessuf’s shaggy black locks over approvingly before stating, “Sure, come along. Um, is there anything of interest in this room?” Thundina cased the sitting room quickly and pulled out a scroll which she handed over to Cyron and prepared to leave. Romann was staring intently at one corner of the room insisting that he had heard a kitten mewing. Cyron swept the room for magic, with most of the room not pinging, but in the same corner Romann was fascinated by, Cyron saw a wriggling fungus, but solely with his magic sight. The fungus did not attack and no one could find it without Cyron’s [i]Detect Magic[/i], Thundina eventually declared that it was time to leave. She locked the door behind once the party had filed out. Thundina lead the adventurers once more up the stairs, carefully checking each step on the way. Thundina spotted a couple of splatters of blue ooze which soon became a trickle rolling down the stairs. Shortly after that Thundina caught a whiff of fresh air, but that was quickly replaced by the odor of vinegar. Thundina made it out to beneath the sky; she felt like she could touch due to the low clouds of the overcast sky. She stood on the open parapet and looked around. The blue slime had collected in pools in a couple places around the parapet with tiny pale slugs crawling from pool to pool leaving streaks of the blue ooze behind them. All around the parapet stood bushes resembling fleshy anthropodal bulbs. A walkway led from the parapet over to another tower which emanated a bloody red glow. Above the parapet loomed an even taller tower. Thundina pointed our her observations, “This looks like where we should find the devil with the Hellheart locket, because over there is the adjoining tower and I bet that glow is the Dayheart. And this,” Thundina slapped the tower by the stairs, “is the tallest tower; we’ll need to make it to the top of this too eventually.” Talor hopped over the railing, drew his bow, and began scanning for enemies. Nothing moved to attack him and he did not move to search out the enemies. Meanwhile, Thundina turned to Romann and Cyron, “Do trees count as statues?” “What?” Romann asked. “Do you think these weird trees count as statues? Should we chop them down here and now or are they actually going to remain non-animated?” Jessuf coughed interrupting, “What was that about a devil and a locket?” Thundina answered, “Up on the high parapet there is supposed to be a devil wearing a locket. We need the locket to destroy one of Strahd’s protective elements. Maybe its across the way, let’s go.” As the party approached the tower, the glow of Dayheart intensified. The Dayheart looked like a giant uncut ruby floating over a large open pit. The red glow reflected off four eyes up a spiral staircase off to the side of the Dayheart. The blood-red glow of the Dayheart only enhanced the naturally red eyes. Two additional vampires dropped right in front of the party from overhead. Startled, Thundina felt like she was standing back on her heels, but she was still able to make a couple quick, light cuts at each of those vampires. The one that landed next to Thundina slipped past her guard. The claw scrape was not as painful as the tearing of the soul that accompanied the scrape. One more vampire misted into the area, standing right before the Dayheart. He was dressed in a fine chain shirt with a flapping scarlet cloak. He drew a blood-red bastard sword and charged into the fray. One of the vampires had already been forced to revert to a [i]Gaseous Form[/i] and begin to retreat up the stairs, but the remaining vampires seemed to grin evilly at the arrival of their commander. Their resurgence was short lived before Cyron flooded the battlefield with holy light and the three minor vampires fled. The scarlet vampire struck at Romann, stabbing him in the shoulder. The sword became a deeper blood-red as energy flared from its tip down the blade and into the vampire. With the vampire concentrating on draining Romann, Thundina snuck behind it and ripped its legs out from beneath it, dropping it face first into the stone floor. When the vampire struggled to its feet, Romann rapped it hard leaving it more vulnerable to everyone else’s attacks. The vampire disorientedly swung at Thundina, but she easily blocked his blade with hers and then ripped its feet out from beneath it again. The vampire stared up at its four attackers and decided not to open itself to another round of free attacks and so stayed down while attempting to flail at Urik. Urik stepped on the sword and brought his gleaming silver blade down on the vampire. The scarlet vampire turned into mist and began drifting directly upwards. Thundina tossed a stake to Romann and both began running up the stairs. Three-quarters of a turn up the stairs, the stairs changed to longer, shallower steps. The glow of the Dayheart no longer clearly illuminated the tower and Romann was forced to stop and begin shouting for Cyron to bring light. Thundina made it a short ways into the darkness and caught side of a crimson cloud sliding under the door past the collection of coffins in the room. She came to a sudden stop though when she spotted a horrifying creature lurking in the room. It was like a pile of skin which had been sloughed off but now had been reanimated and was shuffling about. Thundina stared at the sack of skin, waiting for it to attack. Urik came panting up the stairs with a sunrod out and escorting Romann. Romann stood too close to the side of the stairs and the monster attacked from the landing above. Thundina took a quick swipe at the creature and then sprang up the rest of the steps to get behind it. As she stepped on the top stair, a wave of life-draining energy burst through the entire room. The wave barely paused Thundina as she pushed through unharmed. Glances back at the rest of her compatriots showed they had suffered no harm either. The creature had briefly grabbed Romann, but Romann squirmed free. It then turned on Thundina and snatched her. She had dropped her guard a little thinking that it was paying greater attention to her compatriots below. Thundina held the creature in place long enough for Romann to destroy the creature. No sooner had the animated skin horror been shredded, than three coffins opened. The three vampires that Cyron had forced to turn stood up from their coffins. Thundina kept one distracted while Talor pumped multiple silver-tipped arrows into the vampires. One by one, the vampires were put down and staked. However, while trying to get into position against the last vampire, Jessuf walked too close to the iron door and set off a pit trap. He quickly slid out of view. Foot steps on the stairs from below indicated that someone was coming up. Thundina turned to tease Jessuf for taking her job of finding traps and then missing the end of the vampires, but it was not Jessuf striding up the stairs. Thundina found herself standing face to face with Strahd. He snarled, “I cannot allow you to destroy my treasure.” Thundina defiantly stared back, “If you had just paid us in the first place, we wouldn’t still be having this trouble.” Strahd locked his gaze on Thundina but she stood firm and repulsed his intrusion from her mind. Romann moved from the coffers and began descending the stairs to meet Strahd. Thundina scampered up and over to take a place by the door to gain access to the room with the scarlet vampire. Talor stood by the open hole next to the iron door, glancing down at the hole like he was considering jumping. At the appearance of Strahd, Cyron quickly moved to Romann’s side and laid a [i]Death Ward[/i] on the fighter. Strahd began casting a spell, and Cyron shouted, “Fel-draining [i]Magic Missiles[/i]! Brace yourselves!” With all her concentration on the lock on the iron door while balancing over the pit in front of the door, Thundina muttered, “What in the name of Dol Dorn is fel … augh!” Thundina winced as the [i]Magic Missile[/i] tore at her soul. Everyone had been hit by one missile. Jessuf came jogging up the stairs, “I’m alright. That chute dumped me outside, but Strahd never stripped me of my dimensional hop boots, so I was able to pop back inside. Are there any vampires remaining? … Oh.” Romann and Urik advanced on Strahd, each making it past the vampire’s defenses to scratch it. Strahd caught Romann’s glance and overwhelmed his will. “Romann, assist me in killing these intruders.” Strahd’s will so completely [i]Dominated[/i] Romann’s will that he moved against his friends. Jessuf was quick to act and immediately reached Romann to slap a [i]Protection from Evil[/i] on Romann to hedge out the vampire’s will, at least temporarily. Romann pressed the attack with Strahd retreating down the stairs step by step. Each step down, Strahd fired a spell off at Romann to incapacitate him. Jessuf and Cyron each stayed right behind Romann breaking Strahd’s enchantments. A pair of [i]Scorching Rays[/i] from Strahd knocked Romann out, but Cyron caught Romann and healed the wounds. Strahd [i]Blinded[/i] Romann, but Jessuf removed that through targeting a [i]Dispel[/i] on the magic. Romann’s heavy blade time and again smashed through Strahd’s loamy shields to draw raised red welts on the otherwise pale skin. Thundina popped the lock on the iron door and hopped over the pit and into a small room which had a simple iron coffin with a vent in the top as the only furniture. She began inspecting the coffin and discovered both a lock and a trap. With Thundina in the scarlet vampire’s mausoleum, Strahd called an offer to the party, “If you spare my servant, I will spare your life. Your lives.” Urik immediately charged Strahd, shouting, “Never!” Romann closed once more on Strahd and struck while cleverly declaring, “You never said anything about yourself.” Thundina concentrated on the lock first so that if the battle turned sour, she could risk the trap to get at the vampire inside more quickly. Strahd spoke once again, “The deal stands for the rest of you, I must kill these two.” Thundina had heard defensive sounding spells from Jessuf and Cyron, but she couldn’t figure out what Talor was doing. He would bear watching once this battle was resolved. Romann continued roaring defiance, “Strahd, you got another thing coming!” The heroic strike cut Strahd deeply, leaving the vampire very battered. Thundina disabled the trap and threw open the iron coffin. Inside the scarlet vampire lay. It begged, “Please, spare me. Get back.” Thundina raised a stake, smiled malevolently and answered, “Here’s my answer.” The stake struck the heart of the vampire true and it crumbled to dust, leaving behind significant treasure. Strahd limped back five feet to get beyond Romann’s reach and snarled, “I will return in one minute. Enjoy your final breaths.” Strahd vanished in a flash of light. Thundina scooped up the emeralds, blood-red bastard sword, scarlet cloak, chain-shirt, ring, statue of three-headed hound, bag, trio of potions, and even the dirt from the scarlet vampire’s coffin, stuffed it all into her own haversack and various bags and leaped the pit once more. “There was no locket, we need to find that devil and quick. If the Dayheart is still active when Strahd returns, we’ll be trapped and I doubt we’ll be able to penetrate this far again if we can’t confine Strahd to the night.” The party dashed down the stairs and onto the parapet. They began sweeping through the bushes looking for the devil. Hidden in one of the ooze pools, obscured from view at the stairs by the shrubbery, was a dark shape. The party surrounded the pool and Thundina poked at the shape. The shape surged up from the ooze pool: a heavily armored and barbed female, all spiky and radiating malevolence and Talor named it a barbed devil. A small golden locket hung from her neck. Thundina asked the barbed devil, “Hand over the Hellheart Locket, and this can all be over.” The devil stepped back and called, “By the terms of our contract, Treena, I summon you.” She got a somewhat far look in her eyes as concentrated. The party responded quickly to the devil’s distraction and attacked ferociously. The onslaught disrupted the barbed devil and she screeched, “You and your do-gooders, ruining my garden! This’ll teach you to be good.” A burst of unholy power spread from the creature causing minor headaches all around. The wriggling slugs ceased their random walks and began converging on the party. Cyron called upon the Sovereign Host to [I]Bless Weapon[/i] the arrows of Talor. Thundina, Romann, Jessuf, and, Urik harried the barbed devil to the edge of the parapet while squishing any slugs which got underfoot. The barbed devil vanished and reappeared. The four turned and dashed across the parapet following it. Jessuf arrived first. While he was off balance from the charge, he swept up into an embrace by the barbed devil. She pressed him close, impaling him on her spikes. One of the remaining slugs had crawled up Cyron’s leg and into Cyron’s mouth. Cyron managed to pull it cough it out and throw it to the ground and even stomp on it, but it still lived and managed to crawl its way right back. The barbed devil tightened her grip on Jessuf which produced a loud cracking of bones. The devil dropped Jessuf and he fell limply to the ground. He looked alive, but only barely, and no longer carried the heroic aura he had previously. The barbed devil turned on Romann and Thundina, nicking both and filling their minds with fear. Cyron continued choking on the slug, bent over, and growing blue. Talor dropped his bow, drew a battleaxe and said, “Just hold still a moment. You won’t feel a thing.” He swung the axe with all his might, perfectly skewering the slug while not touching Cyron at all. The slug absolutely exploded from the vicious strike. Talor calmly put away his axe and picked up his bow again. The fear in her own mind overwhelmed her and Thundina dropped her guisarme in a panic and fled from the barbed devil at top speed. She reached the edge of the parapet and gazed down at the dizzying drop below considering if the devil or the drop were more frightening. At her side, Romann seemed to be making the same calculation. From behind came the triple twang of three shots in quick succession followed by the loud crack of a massive form smashing to the ground. Thundina turned to look back and saw the barbed devil down with a trio of arrows which had penetrated deep into its chest. The fear no longer held Thundina and she could see the Hellheart locket ready for the taking and the first real victory against Strahd. They’d have to act rapidly, Strahd was certain to return any second. [/QUOTE]
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The New Adventures of Thundina Seong! Completed May 4
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