We're all tanned, toned and... er.. At any rate, done for the semester and back from GenCon SoCal. So it must be time for...
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Part the Eighteenth
In which: Boom.
The party rushes to the window, just in time to see a giant column of fire shooting out of the ground—engulfing the administration building and one of the two dormitories.
From sewer grates surrounding the academy, shadowy figures come pouring out onto the streets, converging on the school.
Lira licks her lips, which have gone suddenly dry. "So that’s what ‘cleansing the city with holy might’ meant."
Shouting to Professor Davis to stay inside and to somehow let them know if there's someplace they're urgently needed, the party runs for the stairs, sprinting across the quad towards the dormitories.
The Academy is in chaos.
The night is eerily well lit from the flaming buildings. In the flickering shadows, Anvil can see the Watch and Pillars of Kettenek engaging the foes rushing up from the sewers. The only thing louder than the roar of the flames and the clash of metal against metal is the sound of hundreds of students, screaming.
The dormitories are two long buildings, parallel to each other and running east-west on the grounds. The South Dormitory has not yet caught fire, and the doors at the west end are open with students pouring out. Most of them are in a huge knot, turned inward, everyone flinging spells at something no one in the party can see.
The east quarter of the North Dormitory is already engulfed in flames, but the doors at the opposite end remain shut and bolted. Standing by them are five men, all armed.
Anvil suddenly hears Professor Alexandra’s voice echoing in his head. "You must keep the fire from the alchemy building. If the fire reaches the spell components, who knows what could happen. I’ve got some items that might help, but I don’t know if I can get to them. Dammit, the students are supposed to be helping with this. Where the hell are they?”
He looks over at the School of Alchemy. Although it is next to the burning administration building, it is not yet on fire. A student runs out of the South Dormitory, coughing up smoke. Anvil grabs the coughing student’s arm. He points to the young man's fleeing classmates. "Take these people," Anvil tells him, "make a bucket brigade and start fighting the fire at the North Dormitory." It's the sort of tone that brooks no argument.
Even in his panic, the young student listens. After a second he nods, and begins moving through the other students, with purpose this time, waving for attention. Anvil hears him shout hoarsely, "Everybody, find a bucket!" Slowly, but surely, a wavering line of students bearing bowls, cups and the occasional ray of frost begins to form.
Thatch, Dennis, and Reyu, joined by several Pillars, have already run through the crowd of fleeing students to engage the five fighters in front of the still mysteriously sealed North Dormitory. As they get closer, they can see flames licking across the roof, as students desperately claw at the barred windows, screaming and trying to get out. Thatch grits his teeth, takes out his sword and starts swinging at the nearest enemy he can hit.
Reyu braces her short-spear and stabs at a ranger-type wearing an unmarked holy symbol of Alliria. She scores a glancing blow, but he quickly retaliates, raising a short-sword and making a vicious slash right at the elf’s gut. Reyu tries to dodge the blow, but she is unable to move away in time. The stroke is just about to hit home when suddenly… a FOOT comes flying in from the side, knocking aside both the stroke and the swordsman.
Reyu whirls to see Essela—from Immobile’s temple in Dar Aego—bring her foot back and fall into a ready stance. Her voice contains not a hint of irony as she says, "I heard you might need some help."
Lira has not gone charging into melee. Her role in battle has become a mantra. "Stay at the back. Keep out of range. If you see a bad guy, hit him with a magic missile. Stay at the back. Keep out of range..." In front of her, the knot of students from the South Dormitory has begun to unravel. Lira comes forward, looking for what was at the center.
She finds two creatures unlike anything she has ever seen: beasts of pure shadow. The flickering firelight slides off sleek forms, and when the things move, they leave lingering trails of inky mist that hang in the air for an instant before boiling away into nothing.
One beast crouches atop a grown man, once a professor, now a corpse, ripped apart by the beast's all-too-solid claws. The other pounces on a student, who screams in agony.
"If you see a bad guy, hit him with a magic missile." Thought becomes deed as Lira casts, blue bolt flying from her index finger straight into the haunch of the second shadow beast. And then, just as it hits the misty flank, the bolt... falters, and with a small "pfft" vanishes.
Lira stands, shock rooting her to the spot. The beast turns atop the student, fixing the young sorcerer in its gaze. Still staring at her, the creature makes a casual twist of its claws, ripping out the throat of the student lying beneath it.
The creature sniffs the air once, snarls... and leaps.
to be continued…
