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="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7853989" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 243, Part ThreeKill a QueenTheir plan worked a treat, as they stole past the complacent (though substantial) guards placed by the legion to protect their major asset.  As they entered the spindle, they saw close up signs that a great civilisation had risen and crumbled here, as worked and carved stone was packed into the walls of the hive.Deep into the structure, they came to the chamber of the queen – a vast sessile blob sporting clawed forelimbs, leathery wings, tentacles, hooves, mandibles, antennae, in chaotic profusion, all entwined with enough chains of gold that the mass looked like a ball of twine.On one side of the entrance to this chamber was a statue of an alien creature, its forearms raised in supplication. As the group stole past it, it revealed itself in a blaze of light - a Supplicant of Elofasp!  It struck out at Leon with its mantis-like forelimbs.  He gave a yell of agony and teleported away, responding with an instinctive blaze of tiefling fire which failed to harm the creature. Not so Uru’s shuriken, which almost felled it, but not quite.  Still alive, it flooded the area with dizzying illusions of praying statuary.  Leon, Uru and Calily fell, blinded.  Quratulain’s mask allowed her to see through these illusions, and she took aim at the supplicant and… missed! Missed?  Inconceivable!Uriel had gotten close enough to the sessile queen to reach out and transmute a whole area of golden chains, causing them to fall away from it, but it did no good.  Then the queen lashed out with a serrated limb and grabbed him.  Despite the pain, Uriel closed his eyes and transformed into something more than human, became entirely spirit and drifted out of its clutches.Uru gave a cry of warning.  Though blind, he could sense the defenders they had bypassed now rushing down the passageways to confront them.  Way out ahead of the others were the terrifying ravants, who charged into their midst and planted themselves, like boulders – virtually invulnerable, waiting for their moment to strike.Behind them – two-dozen elite troopers, two horned devils and a pit fiend.Calily cleansed her Kai, freed herself of all hindrances and floated invisibly to relative safety some distance away.  Leon blindly teleported to anywhere he had seen earlier, hoping it would take him out of the illusions.  It didn’t.Quratulain took out the supplicant and the illusions ceased.  Then she turned and fired on the queen.  It was like hitting a whale with a pea-shooter.  “You need something bigger,” Uriel urged.  “Use the Nok gun!”“I don’t want to end up on my backside again, thank you.  Firing that thing makes me weak at the knees!”Uriel promised he would use healing magic to fix Quratulain up if she did so.  “We need to kill the queen fast, so we can get out of here!”Elite legionnaires worked together to bring to bear an arcanoscientific weapon which they used to fire lightning at Quratulain, Uriel and Leon.  Uriel was immune in his current higher state of existence.  Quratulain was unharmed by it too.  She laughed as if she was being tickled and said the lightning made her feel “yummy in my tummy”.  Leon was hurt and teleported even further away.The horned devils attacked, focusing their fire on Quratulain.  She dodged their attacks and continued to take pot-shots at the queen.  The ravants unfurled and were on her as well.  She defended herself as best she could, not wishing to have any more limbs ripped off.  All this ducking and dodging had exhausted her even before she fired the Nok gun!Then the pit fiend arrived in their midst, radiating terrible fire, and causing even the most stalwart of them to quail.Leon filled the wayfarer lantern with oil of Trail by Fire, bathing them in a light that defended them from the pit fiend’s blaze. Then Calily leapt at the fiend and kicked it back across the room, a distance which barely seemed feasible, given her slight frame.  The pit fiend bellowed in outrage.With the threat of the fiend abated for a moment, Uru joined Quratulain in shooting at the bloated queen.  His shuriken burrowed deep, but the effort felt futile.  Uriel hovered over Quratulain, restored her to health and urged her once again to use the Nok gun.She drew it from her magical robes, shouldered it and fired, blowing a massive chunk out of the queen, and throwing Quratulain onto her backside again.  Immediately, a ravant was on her.  She struggled to fight it off.  The other ravant went for Uru, who flitted away on Little Jack.The pit fiend flew back in, its aura searing all of them, but doing no harm, thanks to the Wayfarer Lantern.  The horned devils tried to ensnare Quratulain again, and again she was able to fend them off.The elite legionnaires threw their gearlances at Quratulain, Calily and Uru.  The women dodged, but Uru was hit, wrapped in chains, pinned and crushed!Calily kicked the pit fiend away again!  The fiend roared in frustration and summoned two dozen more legionnaires to its sideOnce again, Leon turned the battle with a time stop spell.  He set up a dimension door next to Uru, Calily and Uriel, then teleported himself round to the far side of the queen, bringing Quratulain with him (still prone, and clutching the empty Nok Gun).When time resumed, everyone saw the opened portals and leapt through, Uru ghost-stepping out of his chains.  Then he used his ghostly entourage to rapidly reload the Nok Gun.  Quratulain fired again, and this time, her shot saw the hive queen wheeze, whine and sag.At once, the ravants turned on their captors.  They paused to enjoy this moment briefly, before Leon whisked them all away.End of Session</blockquote>

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