Battle Royale

Wren was casting healing spells on Erin and Tomas, helping them to recover after the ambush outside the elevator doors, while Jax gulped healing potions he was looting from the dead cultists’ bodies. The enemy had clearly been expecting their arrival, and this was just the beginning. In the room to the north, which looked like some sort of Queen’s Physicians’ locker room, Nat pulled down one of the bird-like masks hanging from a peg on the wall, and clumsily pulled it over his head. “That’s a good look for you!” Girrigz said with a laugh, but Nat wasn’t dissuaded. “These things make you immune to Blood Veil,” Nat said seriously. “I’ve got a feeling that could come in handy before this is all done.” Grizz cocked his head in thought, then shrugged and pulled on a mask of his own. Better safe (and silly looking) than sorry.

In the entry hall, everyone was eyeing the huge double doors suspiciously. The entire room was painted as an enormous mural of the city of Korvosa, overrun by undead, and these doors appeared in the mural as massive doors into the pyramid beneath Castle Korvosa. A painted scythe-wielding skeleton stood guard before each door as if defying entry. “There’s another door leading east in the other room,” Tomas said, nodding towards the locker room. “I think we should see where that goes before we mess with those.” He headed into the other room, leaving Erin and Wren alone in the entry hall.

“Come on – let’s go,” Wren said, turning to follow Tomas. But Erin wasn’t ready to leave just yet. She wasn’t going to open the doors, but she wanted to see if she could hear anything on the other side. Stepping up to the doors, she cocked her head and pressed her ear against their wooden surface.

As soon as her skin touched the doors, the painted skeletons came to life, swinging their scythes in a vicious arc that slashed Erin to the bone. At the same instant, a cloud of dust exploded from the doors, completely filling the room with some sort of poison. Wren managed to hold her breath, and she dashed for the empty storeroom they’d found to the south, hoping to escape the poison. Erin, still gasping from the pain of her wound, breathed in the dust, and felt herself growing less inspired. She followed Wren, and the two managed to escape the cloud of dust – but they were cut off from the rest of the party. Deeper within the temple complex, everyone could hear the reverberations of a distant gong; apparently Erin had just rung the doorbell.

“We can’t stay here,” Wren whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering – by this time, everyone in the underground temple certainly knew they were here. Erin nodded, and the pair of them took a deep breath, then dashed back through the entry hall to join the others. They managed to make it without taking another breath, and Tomas slammed the door shut behind them.

Nat was looking worried. “Someone who heard that alarm might come through those doors to get us! Is there any way we can lock this door?” Tomas shook his head. “Then we need to block it!” Nat said, and began to push one of the standing cupboards in front of the doorway. After an exhausting minute of fruitless pushing and shoving, he had managed to move the cabinet a full inch. Most of the others were happy to watch Nat’s little show, but Erin took pity on him. “Here – let me give you a hand.” She leaned her shoulder against the cupboard, and easily slid it in front of the door leading back to the entry hall.

While Nat and Erin protected their rear, Jax was carefully examining the other exit from this room, a door leading to the west. After the fiasco with the other doors, he was being extra careful to look for any traps, but found nothing. Ensuring everyone was ready for action, he pushed the door open.

It opened into a dormitory of sorts. Black-sheeted cots filled the room, their satin coverings and overstuffed pillows seeming more akin to funerary trappings than the resting places of the living. Numerous skulls were set evenly within the room’s stone walls. Candles inside them caused them to glow like morbid jack-o’-lanterns and cast dim light across the room. A footlocker sat beside each bed, and tables at either end of the room held goblets and decanters of wine. But other than its furnishings, the room was ominously empty.

Two more doors led to the south; whether into the same room or different rooms was impossible to say. As Nat scanned the room for magic, Jax and Tomas were already examining those doors. Once they were certain they were not trapped, they pressed their ears to the doors, listening intently. They each heard odd muffled scraping and thumping sounds “What do you think?” Jax asked softly. “Should we try both doors at once, or should we block one and only open the other?”

“If both doors lead to the same room, I won’t have a good line of fire if we only open one,” Tomas replied. “If we do both, I can shoot from here, while you guys go in over there.” That was more of a plan than anyone in the group was used to, so they agreed eagerly. With a silent three-count, Jax and Tomas threw their doors open.

The chamber beyond was a horror show. Behind thick panes of glass, fragments and even whole bodies of the living dead lined the walls and floor. Their rotting faces sneered and broken fingers clawed at each other as the shattered forms twitched in vain, their splintered appendages grasping hopelessly. Yet rather than some massive, nightmarish grave, the entire room seemed instead to be a stomach-churning attempt at art.

Eight skeletons and zombies shuffled aimlessly around the room, but their attention focused on the doors as they opened. A skeleton stood directly in front of Tomas’s door. Instead of dried and desiccated bones, this creature still dripped with fresh gore. Tomas took a step back and fired a pair of arrows, and it collapsed to the ground. A zombie stood in front of Jax’s door. Wren cried out in shock as the door opened – she recognized the zombie as the animated corpse of Bhrunlida Torthus, the former receptionist of the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. Jax had never had the pleasure of Bhrunlida’s acquaintance, and he cut her down without a thought.

As the first pair of undead fell, the others began to converge on the doors. Grizz rushed to interpose himself between Tomas and the dead, to give the ranger freedom to fire at will. The first zombie to arrive clawed him viciously, but the others were bottlenecked behind it, clawing mindlessly but unable to reach a target. On Jax’s side of the room, Nat popped a bloody skeleton with a Magic Missile from his wand. Erin stepped in behind Jax, and Channeled the holy power of Iomedae. As the wave of righteous power swept through the room, two of the zombies collapsed, and most of the undead trapped behind glass stopped moving.

Shadow used a wand to hit one bloody skeleton with an Acid Splash, while Erin conjured a Spiritual Weapon behind the skeleton threatening Jax, but its blow went wide. Jax’s blow did not, and the creature fell. Nat blasted another zombie with a Magic Missile from his wand, and it collapsed. Tomas fired a volley of arrows at the zombie facing Grizz, and blasted him into nuggets of rotting flesh. Grizz stepped into the room, and finished off the final bloody skeleton with a sneer.

“What is this place?” Wren whispered at the party ventured cautiously onto the glass floor of the room. Scattered undead still writhed and clutched behind the glass, snapping with brown teeth in a vain attempt to feed their undying hunger. Almost all showed unmistakable signs of Blood Veil, and Wren shuddered as she remembered the empty cots in the Hospice above them.

“They call it the Princess’s Bacchanal,” Nat said in a hushed voice. The others looked at him in surprise. “I’ve been reading up on Urgathoa since we found that book in the shipwreck,” he explained. “Urgathoa is also known as “The Pallid Princess”, and this sort of display is intended as sort of a perverse tribute from her followers, a physical prayer saying ‘In the end, may we all be undead’.” The group gave a collective shudder; was this the sort of fanatics were they up against here?

Back to the west they could see the reverse side of the huge double doors that led back into the entry hall. Opposite them, on the eastern wall of the glass-lined room were a another pair of double doors, although these were unadorned with any paintings. Another single door led to the south. “Which way next?” Nat asked, his head swiveling between the door to the south and those to the east.

“I’m betting there’s more trouble to the east,” Jax said quietly as he began to examine the double doors for traps, “so I say we go this way.” Everyone moved into position as Jax completed his checks. He gave them the all-clear signal, then silently counted down before pushing the doors open with a violent shove.

The stinging scent of harsh chemicals choked the high-ceilinged chamber on the other side. Three huge metal vats bubbled in the rear of the room, each more than six feet tall. A sturdy series of catwalks ten feet off the ground stretched over and around the vats, allowing those above to attend whatever slurry produced the foul green-brown mist emanating from each gigantic vessel. Circling the upper portion of the room was an elaborate mosaic of white, black, and green stone that depicted a giant half-skeletal woman in black veils dancing among fields of the dead, undead, and dying.

And the room was far from empty. A mob of Queen’s Physicians and cultists were deployed around the room and on the catwalks, obviously expecting the party’s entrance. On a platform above the vats at the very back of the room, Dr. Davaulus stood imperiously, obviously commanding the operation. Near him on the catwalk stood a man with long greasy hair and an insane look in his eyes. Wren and Jax gasped aloud as they saw him; he bore an uncanny resemblance to a younger Gaedren Lamm.

Nat was behind the rest of the group, his finger cocked and loaded. As the doors opened, he quickly took in the layout of the room, then unleashed a Fireball that engulfed the rear half of the room in roaring flame. As the flames died down, Tomas unleashed a volley of arrows. The first took one of the Physicians that had been caught in the blast, sending him staggering backwards then down, while the second slammed into one of the cultists. Jax stepped into the doorway and pointed his hands at another Physician and a cultist, sending a gout of Burning Hands from his splayed fingers. The nimble Physician evaded his blast, but the cultist caught its full fury.

On the platform, Dr. Davaulus shook off the effects of Nat’s Fireball. “This is the time when our dedication is put to the test!” he shouted to his minions. “We cannot let all our efforts be in vain! For the honor of the Red Mantis and for the glory of your goddess Urgathoa – fight!” His oratory seemed to inspire his troops, and they launched into furious attack. A pair of Physicians faced off against Jax and Grizz in the doorway, their rapiers a blur and blood flying from the wounds they inflicted. One of their comrades moved into position behind them and lobbed a bomb over their heads; it hit Erin squarely and exploded with a burst of fire that also singed Tomas. The cultists of Urgathoa began casting spells. Grizz felt his muscles begin to seize, but was able to shake off the attempt to Hold Person. Another cultist cast Bane, and a blanket of unholy lethargy seemed to settle over the party, but they also shook off its effects. But nothing they could do would shake off the next spell, as an ear-popping Silence filled the entire room the party was in, extending into the doorway into the room with the vats.

The other man on the platform could only be one person: the mysterious Rolth Lamm, the serial killer son of their nemesis whose path they had been crossing for weeks. He was shouting something at them, but his words were lost in the magical Silence that surrounded them. He pointed a finger a Grizz, and the wererat felt a presence in his mind, a voice that was trying to command him. The attempted Domination infuriated Girrigz, and he reasserted his will with a silent snarl.

The group’s spellcasters found their options suddenly limited. Wren moved up behind the front-line fighters, and lobbed a Thunderstone over their heads; Shadow realized her intent and did the same. Both exploded in thunderclaps that left one of the cultists and some of the Physicians deafened; it didn’t physically harm them, but they lost the benefits of the Doctor’s inspiring oratory. Nat swore (silently) as he realized he wouldn’t be able to cast his planned follow-up Fireball. He turned and dashed back to the western double doors. He paused for a moment, remembering how the trapped doors had attacked Erin on the other side, but then he steeled himself and pushed them open. Nothing happened, and the poisonous dust on the other side seemed to have dissipated, so he dashed into the entry hall and around the corner, out of sight (and targeting) from the far room.

Tomas slid into a better firing position and nocked a pair of arrows on his bow. Taking careful aim, he fired at Dr. Davaulus through the crowd in front of him. The arrows struck home, and an instant later a third arrow followed them. Coughing blood, the doctor made some arcane motions and disappeared from sight.

Jax swung at the Physician facing him, but the slippery rogue dodged his blow. Jax stepped back, around into the corner of the room, hoping to draw his foe in after him. Grizz, seeing his intent, slashed his opponent and did the same. But the Physicians were wily and didn’t fall for the trap. Instead, they too stepped back, inviting the party to come to them. Erin stepped forward, but instead of chasing them, threw a flask of Alchemsit’s Fire. It struck a cultist, and the flames splashed onto his neighbors, but did minimal damage. One of the Physician Alchemists responded in kind, tossing a bomb at Wren that struck and exploded in acid that burned not only her, but Tomas, Jax, and Shadow as well.

The cultists were still casting spells. Another Bane left Wren feeling less hopeful. Three successive followers of Urgathoa attempted to cast Hold Person on the bowman who was doing so much damage, and three times Tomas resisted their magic. Rolth Lamm pointed a finger at Tomas with an evil smile, and the ranger felt the air violently sucked out of his lungs. For a moment, he feared he had breathed his last, but then with a rasping gasp, he managed to pull air back in. He glared in defiance at the son of the man who had murdered his brother, and drew more arrows from his quiver. Wren loaded one of the Screaming Bolts into her crossbow, and fired it into Rolth’s gut. Her friends were protected from the bolt’s harrowing scream by the silence, as were the enemies she’d deafened a few seconds ago, but several others along its path were badly shaken by the terrifying sound it made.

Shadow had seen Nat retreat into the entry hall. Hoping that the wizard hadn’t succumbed to lingering poison but seeing no better options, he followed him. He reached the doors just as Nat reappeared from behind them, a look of grim concentration on his face. Standing just outside the reach of the Silence spell, he lit up the far room with another Fireball. Four of the cultists fell, smouldering. Shadow punched Nat in the arm, making the wizard wince. “Way to go!” he cried, then conjured his own Flaming Sphere under the feet of one of the surviving cultists, laughing as he watched him dance amid its flames. But his laughter was quickly silenced – by a new Silence spell from another of the survivors.

Tomas began picking off the remaining cultists, and two fell in quick succession. Their enemy’s ranks thinned, Jax and Grizz accepted the Physicians’ invitation to enter the room, each facing off against one opponent and preventing the rogues from ganging up on either of them. A rat, unseen in the near corner of the room before now, darted between the Physician’s feet and scratched at Jax. Jax sensed some magic in the thing’s paws, but it was also shaken from Wren’s bolt, and wasn’t able to hit Jax with its touch attack.

When Nat had fired his spell into the room, he’d realized that Dr. Davaulus was nowhere to be seen. Now he dashed into the storeroom to the south, trying to escape the area of magical Silence. As soon as he did, he cast See Invisibility on himself, then reversed direction. Shadow was unable to cast any new spells, so he contented himself with directing his Flaming Sphere towards new enemies as he made his way back toward the rest of the group. It didn’t hurt anyone, but damn it was fun!

One of the Physician alchemists quaffed a flask, and fungal blisters broke out all over his body. Tomas fired an arrow that sent one of the cultists on the catwalk tumbling off and into one of the vats with a splash. Then he spun and fired at the blistered Physician. His blisters burst as he died, but no one was close enough for the spores to infect.

Jax stabbed at the Physician in front of him, drawing fresh blood. But before he could follow up, a deafening burst of sound exploded around him, making his ears bleed and leaving him and both of the surviving Physician rogues stunned. At the same moment, Dr. Davaulus appeared on the catwalk in the farthest corner of the room, looking healthier than the last time they’d seen him. Grizz finished off the stunned Physician in front of him, then dashed to take cover from the doctor’s spells behind the nearest vat.

Erin charged into the room and dashed up the northern stairway, closing with Dr. Davalus. Wren followed her in, and headed for the opposite stairway leading to the catwalks. Now that they were out of the Silence, they could hear Rolth’s ranting. “You’re the bastards who killed my father! You robbed me of killing him! After all these years, he’d finally come crawling to me! Oh, the things I planned to do to him! But you had to come and spoil it all!” Spittle was flying from his lips and flecks of foam dotted the corners of his mouth. He pointed a shaking finger at Erin, and a black ray of negative energy shot forth. As the Enervation engulfed her, she felt her vitality and vitality drain away.

Tomas stepped forward, a pair of arrows on his bowstring, and fired at Dr. Davaulus. A third arrow was in the air almost before the first to hit. The arrows threw him back against the wall, then he slowly slid down, leaving a smear of blood on the wall behind him.

All the focus was now on Rolth. Erin charged him, imbuing her strike with Iomedae’s Smite Evil, but Rolth nimbly dodged her swing. Grizz had dashed up the stairs and was hot on Erin’s heels, and Wren was closing fast from the opposite side. Surrounded, Rolth took a step back, hurled one last invective at the party, and disappeared. Wren swung at the place he had just been, almost falling over as her mace failed to connect with anything. Shadow bounced his Flaming Sphere up onto the catwalk, but it didn’t ignite anything. Grizz searched the air, nose sniffing furiously, but only found the necromancer’s lingering scent still hanging in the air.

There was one Queen’s Physician left alive, and he recovered from the doctor’s stunning Sound Burst before Jax did. He hit the disabled rogue hard, and reared back to swing again. Nat had returned to the room just as the doctor had died. As he scanned the room for the missing Rolth with his See Invisibility, he absently cast Magic Missiles at the lone survivor, and he was sent sliding across the floor, dead.

As Rolth had disappeared, the rat who’d been nipping at the party gave a squeak and fled back through the double doors into the glass-floored room. Tomas and Shadow, still in that room, saw him run past them, and on into the entry hall. Jax, confident that Rolth was no longer in the room, slammed the double doors shut; he didn’t want the necromancer sneaking up behind them. Shadow ran to the doors, and got Jax to let him through by giving the secret password: “Open the freaking doors!” Tomas hesitated, looking between the closed doors to the room with the rest of the party and the fleeing rat. Hoping the rat might lead him to Rolth, he gave chase. His legs were longer than the rat’s, and he caught up with him in the entry hall. The rat headed for the door to the north, leading into the locker room, but found it closed against him; he squeaked and reversed direction, heading south.

Back in the vat room, the party tried to decide what to do next. They hadn’t even examined the vats themselves yet, but their focus was divided among the several exits from the room. On the lower level, there were two doors in the south wall and two more on the eastern wall. On the upper level, there was a door off the catwalks  on the north wall, right behind Wren. She pressed her ear to the door; on the other side, she could hear low muttering, like someone talking to themselves. It didn’t sound like Rolth’s voice, but she raised a finger to her lips to motion for the others to be quiet.

The PCs earned 3,467 XP for a battle that turned out to be far easier for you than I ever expected. You’re now at 23,677 XP, enough to reach Level 7. Have your 7^th level characters ready for next week, although I’ll have to decide exactly when to allow you to level up. You’ll need 34,000 XP to reach Level 8.