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The Stepchildren of Fate (Updated 6/3)
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<blockquote data-quote="htetickrt" data-source="post: 2274840" data-attributes="member: 16534"><p style="text-align: center">Infernal Raiders</p><p></p><p>Trella stares at the dead body of the unicorn, Earl. “You know,” she growls, “the Underdark is really starting to cheese me off.” Then she notes her burned and torn flesh. “Anyone going to bring the healing?”</p><p></p><p>Rhien activates his gloves and lets potent curative magic wash over the crew. Smiling despite the situation, the monk moves off into the darkness as all wounds heal, searching out evil with his artificial torch.</p><p></p><p>“Much better,” Trella comments, before conjuring a hemispherical wall of stone to minimize the area from which the party could be attacked.</p><p></p><p>A cruel laugh arises from the darkness then, followed closely by the detonation of another pair of fireballs within the stone structure. Expecting this, the party quickly dives to the ground to put out any incipient blazes, minimizing the damage of the blasts.</p><p></p><p>Kai rolls to her feet with a snarl, magically quickening her motions before launching a storm of acid at a point some thirty feet past the speck of light that signifies Rhien’s position. The unmistakable hiss of acid on flesh brings a fierce grin to her lips, though it does little to sate her rising bloodlust.</p><p></p><p>Khail advances to the fore, taking a position in the center of the stone arch. The paladin enacts a magic circle against evil, and gestures for Kyree to join him. The elf approaches, but is soon doubled over with the rest of the party, pummeled by waves of law and evil that send Kai to the ground with massive internal bleeding.</p><p></p><p>Quid, barely conscious and fighting back intense nausea with every breath, silently curses as the potent word she was to speak dies on her lips. Instead, knowing that it would not take much to end her business career at this point, the Waukeenar invokes both her boots and her most potent healing magic, returning the group to the status it enjoyed only moments before. Under her prayer, wounds mend and sickness flees, leaving the band once again ready to do battle with what most of them have come to know as utter evil.</p><p></p><p>Rhien grimaces at the injuries to his friends and advances further. Another thirty feet brings him into visual range of the baatezu, and he calls back his findings to the party.</p><p></p><p>Trella screeches, “Get off this plane!” and drops a storm of ice upon their location. Hailstones the size of a child’s head smash into tough infernal skin, and the grunts of the hamatula as they are hit are music to the druid’s ears.</p><p></p><p>Unseen by most of the party, the two cornugons raise arms and fly at Rhien in an ordered charge. The monk is surprised as the two horned devils fly to the edge of his light, lashing out once each with their brutal spiked chains. Rhien suffers two powerful blows that leave great gaping wounds across his torso, and the monk reels backward, stunned into insensibility. The two baatezu leaders smile cruelly and prepare to feast upon man-flesh.</p><p></p><p>Kai grimaces as her untrained ears hear only an indeterminate scuffle, and she acts with the alacrity born of familiar desperation. Chanted words and a light touch grant Kyree the ability to see into the darkness, and suddenly the cornugons are revealed to him, along with an insensate Rhien. A storm of arrows accompanies Kai’s own of caustic acid, and both cornugon and hamatula are made to suffer.</p><p></p><p>Khail notes Rhien’s struggle as well, and deals with it in his more direct fashion. A charge closes the distance to a cornugon in seconds, and his holy blade cleaves through evil flesh with aplomb. “Back to Baator with you, foul thing!” the paladin cries.</p><p></p><p>The baatezu roars his displeasure, and turns to regard a new, more lively foe. “You will regret that, mortal,” he snarls in perfect common.</p><p></p><p>“I regret nothing!” Khail exclaims in response.</p><p></p><p>The six hamatula relocate, some to provide support for their leaders, while others assault those within the stone wall. The latter group fares poorly. Mr. Flopsy reacts instantly to the new presence and rakes the first to appear, sending its essence spiraling back to its home plane. The remaining three join it upon Quid’s utterance of a single holy word.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, Mr. Flopsy does not share Quid’s moral strictures, and finds himself both blinded and deafened, much to his vocal displeasure. Trella groans. “Great, now he’ll be inconsolable.” As if to illustrate, the dire bear roars and slams his paws into the stone wall.</p><p></p><p>Quid apologizes. “Sorry, but would you rather we still had the baatezu around?”</p><p></p><p>“I’d rather they were all a pulpy mess.”</p><p></p><p>“I’ll take us over there shortly, okay?”</p><p></p><p>“Then I’m happy.”</p><p></p><p>Khail, on the other hand, is not, as he is battered with a pair of spiked chains until the paladin is bleeding heavily and stunned into inaction. Kai, guessing what the thumping sounds off in the darkness are, enhances her own vision. Thus aided, she and Kyree are able to eliminate the last two hamatula with missiles both magical and mundane.</p><p></p><p>That leaves the two cornugon, and Quid transports herself and Trella over to them with a word. Once there, the druid smashes her staff into a baatezu’s scaly chest, while Quid unsuccessfully attempts to banish it back to Baator. Gulping audibly after her failure, the Waukeenar backs off a step and lays hands upon Rhien, healing his wounds and restoring his senses.</p><p></p><p>The monk immediately goes on the offensive, stepping in front of Quid to engage the uninjured baatezu. His first strike is designed not to injure, but to paralyze, and is dead-on. The cornugon starts in surprise before losing the ability to move, and resorts to making his displeasure known telepathically.</p><p></p><p><You have only earned yourself an eternity of torture, mortal.></p><p></p><p>Rhien ignores him and lands a pair of solid kicks.</p><p></p><p>The paralyzed cornugon turns his telepathic attention to his comrade. <Attack the bald one.></p><p></p><p>The monk nimbly dances out of the way of the second’s spiked chain. <He is too fast.></p><p></p><p><Achsre will hear about your failure.></p><p></p><p>The second snarls. <Both our failures, it would seem. These are more resilient than we were led to believe. Perhaps Razorus was not solely at fault.></p><p></p><p>Kai cannot hear the exchange, but in the presence of her hated enemy her anger mounts nonetheless. The sorceress fires two greenish rays of light at the cornugons, but neither has the desired effect. Kai’s hands clench into fists reflexively, and the sorceress flirts with the idea of charging and attempting to rip them apart with her bare hands.</p><p></p><p>Kyree is oblivious to this, concentrating only on planting his arrows in the locations in which they can do the most good. Unfortunately, only one makes its way through the cornugon’s layers of hide and magic to hit home, a rare occurrence which has a deleterious effect on the archer’s morale.</p><p></p><p>Khail snaps out of his daze then and returns to the fray, ignoring the blood falling liberally from his still-bleeding wounds. The paladin’s holy blade cleaves infernal flesh once, and again, nearly splitting the baatezu in twain. Trella, guessing that the cornugon can’t take much more abuse, alters her form into that of a dire bear, manifests her staff, and winds up for a single blow. With the aid of her enhanced strength the blow connects, and indeed proves sufficient to send the infernal creature to the earth.</p><p></p><p>Quid advances on the last foe, palm extended to deliver fell magic. Again the cornugon’s nature denies her action, and it is not harmed by her spell. Frustrated, the priest rebukes the baatezu, attempting to cause it pain with a stern admonishment, cast in terms of her beliefs. At last she succeeds, and, though the paralyzed cornugon does not move in response, minor wounds open up across its form.</p><p></p><p>The priest has little time to savor her small victory, however, as Rhien leaps upon the devil in a blur of fist and foot. Without its preternatural dexterity, the baatezu cannot escape the monk’s assault, and blow after blow rips into its infernal flesh. Nearly every strike lands where it was intended, and by the time Rhien returns to his ready position, the cornugon is a mess of torn flesh and broken bones, barely alive.</p><p></p><p>Unable to act, the baatezu’s life ends as ten magic missiles blast it into oblivion. Quid’s touch ends Khail’s continued bleeding, and the battle is over.</p><p></p><p>Afterward, within the safety of Kai’s opulent lodgings, Quid queries the sorceress about the group’s greater-than-normal rage at the presence of the baatezu.</p><p></p><p>Kai’s hands again close into fists, an apparently automatic response to their mention. Her nails dig into her palms as she whispers, “I don’t want to talk about it.”</p><p></p><p>Quid presses on, heedlessly. “It has to do with that pit fiend you mentioned to Morn, right?”</p><p></p><p>“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Kai snarls, and slams the door of her bedroom behind her. Trella storms past the priest to enter her own room, glaring at Quid as she passes.</p><p></p><p>Quid turns to Rhien, confused. “I don’t get it. It’s not like everyone we’ve met so far hasn’t wanted to see us dead.”</p><p></p><p>Rhien’s voice is gentle, but tinged with sorrow and buried anger. “Have you ever been hunted, Quid? For no other reason than the pleasure of the hunter?”</p><p></p><p>Quid blanches. “No, of course not.”</p><p></p><p>The monk’s voice catches. “It draws away one’s humanity.” Then he too takes his leave to meditate in the corner, leaving Quid alone with her thoughts.</p><p></p><p>***********</p><p></p><p>Time has a way of—if not healing all wounds—dampening ardor, and by the next evening passion has been replaced by the tense wariness that characterizes all successful travel through the Underdark. Despite an even greater degree of alertness, however, the only beings encountered during the previous day were a group of kobolds who ran screaming in fear from Khail after he manifested his holy blade. This uninterrupted travel carried the party to the edge of the lake, and there they halted, to prepare for what lies there, and beyond.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="htetickrt, post: 2274840, member: 16534"] [CENTER]Infernal Raiders[/CENTER] Trella stares at the dead body of the unicorn, Earl. “You know,” she growls, “the Underdark is really starting to cheese me off.” Then she notes her burned and torn flesh. “Anyone going to bring the healing?” Rhien activates his gloves and lets potent curative magic wash over the crew. Smiling despite the situation, the monk moves off into the darkness as all wounds heal, searching out evil with his artificial torch. “Much better,” Trella comments, before conjuring a hemispherical wall of stone to minimize the area from which the party could be attacked. A cruel laugh arises from the darkness then, followed closely by the detonation of another pair of fireballs within the stone structure. Expecting this, the party quickly dives to the ground to put out any incipient blazes, minimizing the damage of the blasts. Kai rolls to her feet with a snarl, magically quickening her motions before launching a storm of acid at a point some thirty feet past the speck of light that signifies Rhien’s position. The unmistakable hiss of acid on flesh brings a fierce grin to her lips, though it does little to sate her rising bloodlust. Khail advances to the fore, taking a position in the center of the stone arch. The paladin enacts a magic circle against evil, and gestures for Kyree to join him. The elf approaches, but is soon doubled over with the rest of the party, pummeled by waves of law and evil that send Kai to the ground with massive internal bleeding. Quid, barely conscious and fighting back intense nausea with every breath, silently curses as the potent word she was to speak dies on her lips. Instead, knowing that it would not take much to end her business career at this point, the Waukeenar invokes both her boots and her most potent healing magic, returning the group to the status it enjoyed only moments before. Under her prayer, wounds mend and sickness flees, leaving the band once again ready to do battle with what most of them have come to know as utter evil. Rhien grimaces at the injuries to his friends and advances further. Another thirty feet brings him into visual range of the baatezu, and he calls back his findings to the party. Trella screeches, “Get off this plane!” and drops a storm of ice upon their location. Hailstones the size of a child’s head smash into tough infernal skin, and the grunts of the hamatula as they are hit are music to the druid’s ears. Unseen by most of the party, the two cornugons raise arms and fly at Rhien in an ordered charge. The monk is surprised as the two horned devils fly to the edge of his light, lashing out once each with their brutal spiked chains. Rhien suffers two powerful blows that leave great gaping wounds across his torso, and the monk reels backward, stunned into insensibility. The two baatezu leaders smile cruelly and prepare to feast upon man-flesh. Kai grimaces as her untrained ears hear only an indeterminate scuffle, and she acts with the alacrity born of familiar desperation. Chanted words and a light touch grant Kyree the ability to see into the darkness, and suddenly the cornugons are revealed to him, along with an insensate Rhien. A storm of arrows accompanies Kai’s own of caustic acid, and both cornugon and hamatula are made to suffer. Khail notes Rhien’s struggle as well, and deals with it in his more direct fashion. A charge closes the distance to a cornugon in seconds, and his holy blade cleaves through evil flesh with aplomb. “Back to Baator with you, foul thing!” the paladin cries. The baatezu roars his displeasure, and turns to regard a new, more lively foe. “You will regret that, mortal,” he snarls in perfect common. “I regret nothing!” Khail exclaims in response. The six hamatula relocate, some to provide support for their leaders, while others assault those within the stone wall. The latter group fares poorly. Mr. Flopsy reacts instantly to the new presence and rakes the first to appear, sending its essence spiraling back to its home plane. The remaining three join it upon Quid’s utterance of a single holy word. Unfortunately, Mr. Flopsy does not share Quid’s moral strictures, and finds himself both blinded and deafened, much to his vocal displeasure. Trella groans. “Great, now he’ll be inconsolable.” As if to illustrate, the dire bear roars and slams his paws into the stone wall. Quid apologizes. “Sorry, but would you rather we still had the baatezu around?” “I’d rather they were all a pulpy mess.” “I’ll take us over there shortly, okay?” “Then I’m happy.” Khail, on the other hand, is not, as he is battered with a pair of spiked chains until the paladin is bleeding heavily and stunned into inaction. Kai, guessing what the thumping sounds off in the darkness are, enhances her own vision. Thus aided, she and Kyree are able to eliminate the last two hamatula with missiles both magical and mundane. That leaves the two cornugon, and Quid transports herself and Trella over to them with a word. Once there, the druid smashes her staff into a baatezu’s scaly chest, while Quid unsuccessfully attempts to banish it back to Baator. Gulping audibly after her failure, the Waukeenar backs off a step and lays hands upon Rhien, healing his wounds and restoring his senses. The monk immediately goes on the offensive, stepping in front of Quid to engage the uninjured baatezu. His first strike is designed not to injure, but to paralyze, and is dead-on. The cornugon starts in surprise before losing the ability to move, and resorts to making his displeasure known telepathically. <You have only earned yourself an eternity of torture, mortal.> Rhien ignores him and lands a pair of solid kicks. The paralyzed cornugon turns his telepathic attention to his comrade. <Attack the bald one.> The monk nimbly dances out of the way of the second’s spiked chain. <He is too fast.> <Achsre will hear about your failure.> The second snarls. <Both our failures, it would seem. These are more resilient than we were led to believe. Perhaps Razorus was not solely at fault.> Kai cannot hear the exchange, but in the presence of her hated enemy her anger mounts nonetheless. The sorceress fires two greenish rays of light at the cornugons, but neither has the desired effect. Kai’s hands clench into fists reflexively, and the sorceress flirts with the idea of charging and attempting to rip them apart with her bare hands. Kyree is oblivious to this, concentrating only on planting his arrows in the locations in which they can do the most good. Unfortunately, only one makes its way through the cornugon’s layers of hide and magic to hit home, a rare occurrence which has a deleterious effect on the archer’s morale. Khail snaps out of his daze then and returns to the fray, ignoring the blood falling liberally from his still-bleeding wounds. The paladin’s holy blade cleaves infernal flesh once, and again, nearly splitting the baatezu in twain. Trella, guessing that the cornugon can’t take much more abuse, alters her form into that of a dire bear, manifests her staff, and winds up for a single blow. With the aid of her enhanced strength the blow connects, and indeed proves sufficient to send the infernal creature to the earth. Quid advances on the last foe, palm extended to deliver fell magic. Again the cornugon’s nature denies her action, and it is not harmed by her spell. Frustrated, the priest rebukes the baatezu, attempting to cause it pain with a stern admonishment, cast in terms of her beliefs. At last she succeeds, and, though the paralyzed cornugon does not move in response, minor wounds open up across its form. The priest has little time to savor her small victory, however, as Rhien leaps upon the devil in a blur of fist and foot. Without its preternatural dexterity, the baatezu cannot escape the monk’s assault, and blow after blow rips into its infernal flesh. Nearly every strike lands where it was intended, and by the time Rhien returns to his ready position, the cornugon is a mess of torn flesh and broken bones, barely alive. Unable to act, the baatezu’s life ends as ten magic missiles blast it into oblivion. Quid’s touch ends Khail’s continued bleeding, and the battle is over. Afterward, within the safety of Kai’s opulent lodgings, Quid queries the sorceress about the group’s greater-than-normal rage at the presence of the baatezu. Kai’s hands again close into fists, an apparently automatic response to their mention. Her nails dig into her palms as she whispers, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Quid presses on, heedlessly. “It has to do with that pit fiend you mentioned to Morn, right?” “I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Kai snarls, and slams the door of her bedroom behind her. Trella storms past the priest to enter her own room, glaring at Quid as she passes. Quid turns to Rhien, confused. “I don’t get it. It’s not like everyone we’ve met so far hasn’t wanted to see us dead.” Rhien’s voice is gentle, but tinged with sorrow and buried anger. “Have you ever been hunted, Quid? For no other reason than the pleasure of the hunter?” Quid blanches. “No, of course not.” The monk’s voice catches. “It draws away one’s humanity.” Then he too takes his leave to meditate in the corner, leaving Quid alone with her thoughts. *********** Time has a way of—if not healing all wounds—dampening ardor, and by the next evening passion has been replaced by the tense wariness that characterizes all successful travel through the Underdark. Despite an even greater degree of alertness, however, the only beings encountered during the previous day were a group of kobolds who ran screaming in fear from Khail after he manifested his holy blade. This uninterrupted travel carried the party to the edge of the lake, and there they halted, to prepare for what lies there, and beyond. [/QUOTE]
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