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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7864263" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 246, Part TwoLegion CommandLeon hurriedly negotiated with Etiotek Ekiokiet.   The tiny, winged plant-like sprite had done as he was asked, and made sure that he and the Huldregarl had returned to the appointed spot.  But both he and the forest spirit he served/controlled (it was never clear which) were loath to accompany Leon onto a ‘metal world’ unless it was absolutely necessary and their presence would not be required for very long. Impatience would achieve nothing, so Leon had to take pains to reassure them.Meanwhile, the others were making for the staircase, with Quratulain picking off as many interceding devils as she could – clearing a path through the covered part of the flight deck.  No matter how many devils she killed, though, they still kept coming: succubi portal opened all around her, and more legionnaires poured through.Just then, Leon returned.  With him, the surging volatile mass of the Huldregarl, and the tiny iridescent green form of Etiotek.  At once, Leon opened a dimension door between them and the stairs, and they got there ahead of the others.  By now, many, many devils were in pursuit.They began the long run up the spiral stairs.   Most of them had means to propel themselves that did not cause them undue exertion, but climbing them did take a very long time.  They could hear the legionnaires clattering up behind them.  Leon asked the Huldregarl to prevent the legionnaires from following them, and the creature obliged by lurking on the staircase – ably supported by both Etiotek and Quratulain, who would pick off any stragglers that managed to get past the vengeful forest spirit.Elite guards awaited them at the top, guarding a closed set of double-doors.  Uriel summoned a swarm of insects to assail all their foes; Leon added the last drops of powerful Colossus oil to the Wayfarer Lantern;  Rumdoom and Thisraldion carved through the elites; empowered by the lantern, Uru knocked the locked doors off their hinges with a single kick.To bamboozle the occupants of the chamber beyond, and afford himself a vantage, Leon created an angled portal right next to them, with the other end looking into the room from the opposite corner of the chamber:The throne room of Legion Command was dominated by an extremely long, narrow table, flanked by seats of different sizes.  At the table sat succubi, horned devils and two pit fiends, only now motivated to action, as if whatever business had previously engaged them was more pressing than the invasion of Egalitrix.  Seated in a raised throne at the far end was the rail-thin form of Paelyrion XVIII.  Twin rivers of lava bridged by six iron grates, ran through channels down the length of the room, fed by the caldera and pouring out down the side of the mountain on either side of the huge window which overlooked the brand towers and the dog-fight in the sky.Taking the direct route through the broken doors, or stepping through Leon’s portal, brought the unit into combat with elite guards and the horned devils, who – along with the succubi – had surged forward to intercept them. Rumdoom, Uru and Gupta cut them down with ease, while Thisraldion dealt with the elites.Paelyrion and the pit fiends did not move, remaining at the far end of the chamber.  The burning pits of Paelyrion’s eyes flared, and the river of lava closest to the door, rose up and reached for Korrigan and Gupta. Gupta, catlike, threw herself clear.  Korrigan was grabbed and held – though his brass skin potion kept him from burning.  Paelyrion then barked an order in infernal: “Bring them to the mirrors!” A company of elites teleported close to Rumdoom and grabbed him with their gearlances; then they teleported with him back across the room and subjected him to the influence of a mirror of opposition, just like the one they had uncovered on Mavisha.  Rumdoom pronounced a fiat to escape being drawn in, and the mirror darkened.  But there were many of these mirrors lining the throne room:The succubi moved to stand alongside the mirrors and cast spells to switch places with the unit members.  Leon and Uriel shrugged off their influence; Gupta was not so lucky, but she was able to resist the power of the mirror, which duly darkened.  The remaining succubi surrounded her and stabbed at her with their golden daggers. She fought back with her huge claws.Rumdoom issued another blast of cold; it fizzled out harmlessly, whereupon Uriel cast his powerful undo spell, and Rumdoom’s cold burst destroyed the elites that had grabbed him.Korrigan transformed into a Bolt of Avilona and took up a central position in the chamber, able to influence everything around him.  Uriel used magic to leap across the room to stand beneath him, where he too could help support the rest of the unit.“Snickersnack! Snickersnack!” went the vorpal sword, and more devil-heads rolled across the floor.Uru was under the table by now, scuttling beneath it to get close to Paelyrion and the pit fiends.  The fiends’ fiery auras caused him to quail, but he levelled his crossbow and got off a shot before he withdrew – ghost-stepping to hide beneath the huge window.  Up close, he could see that there was some sort of mechanical design to Paelyrion’s throne, which he was keen to investigate further.  (Also, he could see the heavily chained figure of an elderly monk, who must have been Master Chyak, standing just beside the throne, motionless.)Leon succumbed to the succubi now, and was yanked across the room to stand before a mirror. It failed to dominate him and grew dark.  Leon then cast a nightmare spell on one of the pit fiends, causing it to see its own allies as a threat.  It lashed out at the other fiend with its golden mace; the other fiend roared in pain and hit it back!Paelyrion ordered the remaining elites to attack Uriel; he fended them off as best he could.“Such might,” said Paelyrion. He clapped lightly in mock applause. “Do I sense a king among you? Let us see whose treasury is superior.” From the air above Korrigan and Uriel, tonnes of golden treasure crashed down. The elites bampfed away in the nick of time; Uriel leapt clear too.  But Korrigan was caught by the avalanche and buried.All six of succubi were now attacking Gupta, hissing maliciously.  Could it be that they sensed the female divine?  That they wished to slay a goddess?  But their daggers failed to strike. For the first time in months, Gupta resorted to an old trick: she took out Mother’s Rabana and used it to perform docker’s jank.  In her place now stood Thisraldion, who took great delight in decapitating the succubi.  Only two escaped his vorpal blade.Rumdoom leapt onto the table and struck one of the pit fiends with the Stone of Not.  The fiend was too powerful to be destroyed by the stone, but the blow was still a sound one.  From his new vantage, Rumdoom saw another arc of flame from the brand tower, as it cut uselessly through an encroaching bank of fog.  The waning arc illuminated the dark shape of Doverspike as he returned to dragon form, crashed into the middle section of the tower and spiralled up towards the top.Another version of Korrigan appeared in the air above the heap of treasure where his other self was trapped.  “There are many things that are worth more than gold,” he declaimed.Leon maintained the nightmarish confusion with which he had afflicted the pit fiend, and it continued to attack its comrade.  The other pit fiend realised what was happening and turned its attention to Rumdoom, who parried its blow with the haft of his weapon.Paelyrion was still seated – just a few feet away from Rumdoom now.  He did not appear to regard the situation as particularly urgent or dire, despite the decimation of his henchmen.  He raised a casual hand and flicked his fingers as if summoning a waiter.  At that, Master Chyak San-Cho sprang into action.Master Chyak was bound by many, many chains.   He whirled one round his head, hurled it at Rumdoom, caught him by the leg and – despite his sizable bulk – yanked him bodily into the closest river of lava. Rumdoom gave a growl of pain and struggled to get up, when Master Chyak struck the back of his knee with an artful wing chop, and caused the dwarf to fall back, unable to move.For the first time in a long time, Rumdoom become conscious of his own mortality.End of Session</blockquote>

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