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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 6913921" data-attributes="member: 54629">THE CULT STRIKES BACK!Dramatis Personae: Bhára, Berrian, Gil, Karth, TasklarSource: "Temple of Eternal Flame" (Princes of the Apocalypse)NB. This recap is brought to you by Karth (and edited by me).I sat at the bar and looked across the table. My friends were all there. Bhára had come back from spending time with her lover, and Tasklar had seemingly found a cure for his lycanthropy, although it appeared to have cost him his voice, as he wasn't talking at all. Just trying to communicate with weird dance moves or something. We brought them up to speed with our adventure in the lair of the fire cult. It was time to plan our next steps.Before we could really get down to business, though, we were rudely interrupted as a bearded, leather-clad man entered with his entourage: two of the armoured fire cultists and another of the heavily armoured pike wielders that explode when killed. Gariena whispered that it was Elizar himself. The man puffed on his pipe and muttered something that I barely heard as the rage started coming down on me again. Before we could act, however, a wall of fire burst around us, burning Berrian, Gil and me.We were helped by an early action from Tasklar. who could still cast spells. He made Elizar's two guards run away in fear, although two more came in through the back door in the kitchen. A mighty battle then commenced. Gil was forced to flee out a window invisibly to escape the flames, while Bhára slowed down the fresh guards with an ice storm. Elizar puffed on his pipe, conjuring up four smoky imps who tried unsuccessfully to blind us with their ash breath. Berrian and I took the lead again, first forcing the druid to flee out the door, then taking down his large minion, weathering the shrapnel exploding around us as he fell.We were unwilling to let the druid also escape and charged into the darkness, with the orc gods hearing my pleas and striking Elizar down with lightning (OK, it actually was Bhára ...).Unfortunately, we couldn't save the inn. It burned to the ground. A number of the staff and patrons also died. We will avenge them.We were able to capture one of the cult soldiers alive, though. After some cajoling, including a fierce war dance from Tasklar, he agreed to lead us to a back entrance to the temple. It wasn't what we were expecting, though. A deep cave filled with billowing steam. It led to a hole in the ceiling of an underground chamber that, thanks to Gil's bat familiar, we discovered was guarded by a chimera!At first, we were stumped as to how to progress, until I, relying on my keen hunter's sense, recalled a typically cunning orcish tactic. Telling the party to hide, I tied my donkey, Bessie, near the cave entrance, then smacked her flank several times, causing her to bray loudly. Sure enough, the chimera heard the sound and emerged from the steam to capture this easy prey. It quickly killed my faithful companion and settled down to eat, but then we pounced. Gil was the star of the show. shooting the chimera's goat head straight between the eyes [with a critical sneak attack hit that dealt 50 points of damage!]. The chimera abandoned its meal and fled back into the steam.I chased after it, leaping down into the chamber with no concern for my wellbeing. Berrian came floating daintily down after me like the faerie he is. The others followed more slowly, using ropes.I rushed up the chimera's nest of coins and, after a couple of blows, succeeded in slaying the beast! As the rest of the party entered the cave complex, we were surprised when four soldiers and another fire mage came down a stairway.This was a desperate battle with us out of position. Both the bard and rogue had trouble defeating the fighters that targeted them with flaming swords. I, meanwhile, rushed the mage but quickly found myself having to fend off two of the soldiers as well. The mage fled before she could do us much damage. Wrongly suspecting her to be near death, I chased after her. In a strangely-shaped room, the mage stunned me with pretty colors. Berrian managed to resist, however, and pursued the mage and killed her in a hallway, though not before she'd managed to raise the alarm. With the rest of the party finally taking out the soldiers, we retreated up to the cave for a much needed rest.Player's Note: While we effectively only had two battles for the entire session, both were challenging. There is a big step up in the creatures we are fighting with even the basic fighters being AC 17 and having over 40 hp. The mage had well over 100 hp, while my barbarian only has 66 at full health. We are, however, getting better at scouting first and retreating before getting too far into things, and concentrating our attacks. The temple is yet to be cleared!DM Note: The battle at the inn took a lot longer than I'd expected, so we didn't get as far into the temple as I'd have liked. The players used excellent tactics against the chimera. And while Ignatia the fire mage did indeed have more than 100 hp, that didn't help her last more than a few rounds, and because of Karth's aggression, she was on the defensive for most of the fight. Things could have gone much differently for the PCs if she'd been able to pull out her big guns.</blockquote>

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