NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1262521" data-attributes="member: 1210">Thrush, dominated, opens Patyn up like a jar of pickles.  His blade deals severe damage, driving the hunter of the dead back a pace and cracking ribs, tearing flesh and armor.  Patyn's tough enough to take Thrush's blows- but barely.  Gritting his teeth, he keeps parrying what he can, but Thrush is perhaps the best swordsman on all of Dorhaus.  There isn't much hope, especially when Horbin shout, "I'm out of dispels!  Anyone else??"Patyn, not wanting to fight Thrush- after all, he's clearly not himself, and he isn't evil- steps away and keeps slashing and poking at the laughing balor.  Fire drizzles from dozens of small wounds, but Nazzgarr's doing well, and now that he's got the fighter under control again-Horbin, brilliant in moments of desperation, dominates Thrush himself.  The fighter jerks to a halt as the two struggle momentarily for control over the puppet, but the balor has too much else to worry about as Patyn lands a stunning blow on it.  Nazzgarr grunts in surprise as he reels back.  Then a horrid wilting sucks the moisture from Nazzgarr- for whom it is painful, but not fatal- and Drake and Ngise, who are not so lucky as they are simultaneously caught in Orbius' chain lightning.*  Lester cries, "Take that, villains!" as he channels the power of elemental Water to slay them.Seeing that the tide has turned severely against her side, Ferranifer screams out a wail of the banshee and then retreats around the corner.  All of our heroes survive her death magick!  But the balor is still there- albeit stunned at the moment- and suddenly the vampire assassin Blaesing reappears, seemingly from nowhere, and tries to murder Thrush!  His blade skitters off the big man's armor.  He's just getting ready to strike again when Sybele scores an incredible blow on Nazzgarr and decapitates him!  There's a bright flash of light and a blast of raw energy that sears almost everyone** badly, but Blaesing manages to duck behind Thrush for cover and evades the blast entirely!  "I know how to take care of you!" cries the L, and he unleashes another earthquake, bringing down as much roof as he can without catching the party in the collapse, letting the sun in.  Even overcast outside, it's enough to cause Blaesing to scream in hideous rasping pain.  Smoke starts to rise from his terrified face and his fingers start to blacken.  Then Azekia steps up."Let the power of Good judge you!" she thunders, casting a heal on the vampire and finishing it off.The crashing of tons of rock just past the group subsides.  It seems that the entrance to the Academy itself is partially blocked, but at least one of the candle-flanked tunnels is open.  "We should retreat to the castle and rest," suggests Sybele."No!" Patyn snaps.  "If we do, we'll be right back where we started- we'll have to fight our way back in.  Best to forge ahead while we can."The group hesitates.  "There is something to what you say," says Orbius."All right," says Sybele with misgivings."What are we doing here again?" Thrush asks, scratching his head."Looking for Felenga's phylactery," Lester tells him.  "Remember?  Somehow this is connected to him..."  He pauses, puzzled.  "But now what do we do?"The party mulls it over for a while.***A solar, thinks Ferranifer grimly as the pain recedes.  Who were they?  It almost looked like the stories of the Elementalist and the Eye, not to mention Malford- but surely not.  Why would they come here?  Then she smiles wryly to herself (if congealing mist can be said to smile).  Of course, what do legendary heroes do but try to overthrow legendary evil?And there is no evil more legendary than the Devourer.Laying in the cool, womb-like darkness of her casket, the vampire necromancer dreams dreams of power and revenge.  And of a solar.  It's the closest thing to a nightmare she's had since she became a vampire.***"Should have let me kill them," Patyn tells the group.  "Kill 'em dead.  They stay dead when I kill 'em.""Right, right," says Lester.  "But what do we do now?""I will ascertain the proper course," Azekia says.  She invokes a miracle to ape a vision spell.  For a few moments it seems as though she's a million miles away, staring disconcertingly at something else, and her face looks at first quizzical, then shocked, then grim.  When she comes out of it, she tells them, "I saw us enter the utterly black maw of a great green face- and be destroyed.  It was as if we had to do something else first, to prepare the way.""Well, let's find this face," Lester suggests, "and then we can do some divinations on it."  The group mutters a general assent, and Azekia attempts to find the path.  "Down this hall," the solar says, gesturing at the candlelit hallway nearest them.  It's half-blocked by rubble, but with a little work our heroes can get by.  It's been a while, now, and there's still no sign of activity from the Academy, but our heroes are nervous.  After all, sundown has to come sometime, and then the vampires will be back on the loose.  So, as quickly as they can, our heroes go into the Tomb of Horrors....*Even making his save, Drake took too much damage to survive the horrid wilting alone!**When a balor dies you get a save to avoid 100 points of damage.  If you make it you take 50.  Ouch!  Fortunately the party had just gotten off a mass heal moments before.Next Time: Oh crap, our heroes are in the Tomb of Horrors!  Watch as they encounter the great green face and a mysterious riddle!</blockquote>

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