Lord Ruin
"We have to take the book with us," Angelfire tells them. "It can guide us through the Far Realms. But it isn't like a map..." He trails off, shakes his head. He looks exhausted. "We have to take it with us," he repeats.
They head north, towards the Dragon's Gap. Zonzor is angry, roaring from time to time at the abandonment of his followers. Only one remains, and he looks nervous about the whole thing, what with traveling with bat-winged Lester and huge Sybele. Zonzor is a dangerous storm cloud.
Chairo, the man from the plane of Perisophis, is so relieved to have a chance to leave, that he has wept. To have his magic back-!
Our heroes move on, into an area of shallow gulleys and rocky rises. "Are you pregnant, my lady?" Chairo politely asks Sybele. She nods and smiles. His face remains blank.
The second morning of their trek, they meet up with Turdlin, who Malford seems to know, as evidenced by his falling to one knee before him. "My Lord!" he cries, bowing his head. Malford greets him with utmost dignity and introduces him as Turdlin, his high priest. "But how do you come to be here, Turdlin?" he asks.
"It was a wizard, my Lord!" Turdlin exclaims. He sent me with a message for you- and for one named Sybele.
"Describe this wizard," Malford says, even as Sybele states, "I am Sybele."
And so Turdlin delivers a scroll to Sybele, who opens it to find a message from Marius, and the deduction most members of the group had already made is verified. She is sworn to obey him thrice; this shall be the first time. And he invites her friends to come, offering to pay well.
A warning, too, to beware simulacra. And Turdlin tells Malford what Marius told him to: "Don't, under any circumstances, empower simulacra." A warning that sets Malford's and Orbius' heads both spinning with its implications. "That fool," Malford whispers to himself.
The second evening of their journey north, the party finds a camp of soldiers. There are a number of tents; it looks as though there are a half-dozen men or so down there. They fly a flag that Zonzor points out as Lord Ruin's- an iron fist breaking a shield.
Then he rushes in and strikes. He's looking for a fight, and unfortunately so are Lord Ruin's people. There's an exchange of blows and everyone's raging, tumbling in and flanking and there are blades everywhere. Blood flies as one of Ruin's men slices open Zonzor's lackey's belly; his guts fall out to tangle around his feet and he topples over dead. Zonzor shouts in anger.
Thrush is moving in, and the rest of the group is just starting to realize that something's going on here when the central tent opens and a towering human emerges from it. "I AM LORD RUIN!" he roars. "I KILL FOR PLEASURE! WHO DISTURBS MY SLEEP?"
He's immense- about 6’8”- with a shaved head. He wears a thick fur cloak- the skin of a polar bear- over his armor, and is criss-crossed with a horrible density of scars. His dark brows loom over small black eyes, and his lips have been entirely removed, leaving his speech slurred and hard to understand. He is extremely frightening to behold, except, of course, for seasoned adventurers.
Orbius doesn't really want to be picking random fights, so he's backing away, but he fires a crossbow bolt nonetheless. The group is moving into action, but it's too late to get the drop on their enemy, as Lord Ruin rages and charges Zonzor, critting him for 101 points of damage (after Zonzor's damage reduction)! The power of this blow is enough to make the entire party gulp. Not good! But the melee is on, and in this place called Arba there isn't much else. Ruin's six henchmen are tumbling all around, doing amazing things with flanking, inflicting telling wounds again and again on Zonzor, and now one of them knocks him prone! Angel finds himself beset by one, its razor-sharp scimitar slicing again and again at him. Horbin, too, is assaulted.
Turdlin screeches in fear but nervously stands his ground, jabbing with his shortsword at the lackeys. The party fights back against the fierce assault- none of these guys are amateurs, that's for sure! They're slicing and dicing to terrible effect, good at getting into flanking and better from it than without it.
Thrush, as always, demonstrates why exactly he's the man with his greatsword. He drops the first of Lord Ruin's henchman, then plows into the next. Sybele fires a ton of arrows into the mix, each landing home to punishing effect, staggering the man. A feeble seeker missiles zips in on Lord Ruin, but he sneers as they blast him. Still, he gives a brief look to Orbius, one that is very speculative.
Lester flies in like a demon on his wings, but Lord Ruin's men keep fighting as if they'd seen such things before.
The whole group's mixing it up, now; blows are being traded. The villains of this piece are tumbling around like circus acrobats, but several of our heroes know just where to put their blades,* and Malford and Turdlin both jab one of the henchmen as he attempts to somersault past them. Angelfire's surrounded as Zonzor tumbles away himself, and the scarlet Coilite is slashed across the belly like Zonzor's lackey, though to less effect. Blood gushes, but Angel's innate toughness lets her grimace and keep fighting.
Everyone's bloody, except for Orbius. He reloads the crossbow, cursing the uselessness of combat spells here, then cheers as Thrush slices another of the lackeys cleanly in two with his gleaming greatsword and keeps relentlessly coming on, smacking the next one up time after time after time, driving him back, breaking ribs, leaving the man a glaring bloody mess- still standing, but shakily. Thrush grins at him.
Lord Ruin is foaming at the mouth, growling gutterally and swinging his deadly-looking greataxe wildly at Turdlin, slicing him only once, but for a telling wound. Staggering, Turdlin shakes his head, and for a moment it looks like he's done for- but then Angelfire gets a clear shot and grins, unleashing a mind blast at Lord Ruin.
The man rocks back, giving out a garbled cry, and his axe drops from his nerveless fingers. He's shaking, stunned. And our heroes pile on, Angelfire unleashing a deadly blow from his falchion, Malford firing off an arrow of acid, Zonzor and Lester rushing in to join the attack on him, Turdlin poking him in the groin. Thrush keeps mowing down the lackeys, and Sybele peppers one til he falls, and now its everyone on the main guy. Angelfire's the one who lands the killing blow, even as the last of his men-at-arms is slain by a relentless Thrush.
Breathing heavily, they stop hewing and only then do they realize that they've won. That Ruin- he was tough! And so were his henchmen! But they weren't unbeatable. They divide up the loot, and just for kicks Orbius checks it for magic. To his surprise, there seems to be some residual magic in the axe- or, more properly, on an oil that's been worked into the axe. This is quite a surprise, given the nature of the plane they're on, but it's a pleasant one. Lord Ruin also has a pouch of a strange substance, and when they divide the loot Thrush takes it. This turns out to be a drug called luhix, according to Malford. The party travels on for a while; when they halt for the evening, Turdlin gives a sermon about the glories of Malford, and Lester testifies, then pleads with Malford to let him, the L, be his angel of adventure. "Aw, c'mon," he begs, but Malford puts him off for the time being. After all, Lester does have a certain... reputation.
That night first Thrush and then Sybele try the luhix. While they do so, Jezebel- now 17- leads Orbius away and talks to him. He becomes uncomfortable- it's clear she's coming on to him a little- and he tries to lead the conversation in other directions. "Tell me about your dealings with Marius," he asks.
"You remind me of him," she tells him. They end up looking at the stars and talking late into the night, but there's no hanky-panky.
They travel onward the next day, now through the snow...
*I use the countertumbling variant in Sword and Fist- basically an opposed tumble check to take your attack of opportunity.
Next Time: Icewater and the Dragon's Gap!
