On The Offensive

“Erin! Duck!” Tomas shouted at the paladin to try to get out of his line of fire, but she was bobbing and weaving, struggling to avoid all four arms of the Gargoyle Brute attacking her; she couldn’t also worry about Tomas’ position in the three-dimensional combat. Cursing under his breath, Tomas started shooting around her, shifting his own altitude as she and her attacker danced in mid-air. His first two arrows flew wildly over the Brute’s head. The third narrowly missed striking Erin. Taking a deep breath, he fired again, and the arrow sank into the gargoyle’s side. With a screech, its wings stopped flapping, and it tumbled end-over-end to the rocky shoreline below them.

Just beyond Erin, Jax was engaged with another of the flying statues. With a snarl that sounded like a load of gravel being poured out of a bucket, it launched into its attacks. Its stone teeth snapped closed on Jax’s arm, and it shook him like a dog, stabbing him with its short horns as it did so. One after the other, each of its four arms slashed at him, raking his body with their jagged claws. A steady rain of blood fell into the dark waters far below, and Jax knew it wouldn’t be long before the rest of his body followed. He clenched his jaw, and tightened his grip on Blackjack’s rapier. He made a feint, and as the Brute started to dodge he suddenly whipped the blade around and stabbed straight forward. The rapier ground into the creature’s bony eye socket, and the gargoyle went limp, then plummeted down into the cold waters of the tarn.

Another of the gargoyles was fighting one of the Shadowcount’s summoned Air Elementals, while two more chased Laori, who was trying to flee towards the hoped-for safety of the southern shore. One caught up with her, snapping its jaws onto her leg as she flew. The other closed with her, but collided with the invisible Shadow, who was flying beside her. It instinctively snapped at whatever it had run into, and Shadow yelped as its teeth found their mark. Shadow spun to confront it, when suddenly, a roaring wall of flame appeared in front of him, engulfing the two gargoyles. “Get out of there!” Nat’s voice called from somewhere off in the distance. Shadow didn’t need to be told twice, and resumed his headlong flight. Laori did a mid-air pirouette, slammed her spiked chain into the skull of the gargoyle that had bitten her, then kept spinning to fly off to the south; she smiled as she heard the splash of the dead gargoyle’s body hitting the water.

Ignoring his own grievous wounds, Jax charged towards the gargoyle engaged with the Air Elemental, hoping the big bag of wind would provide enough distraction to let him backstab the gargoyle. The Elemental slugged the gargoyle with two gusts of wind, but did very little damage. Then it backed off as the Shadowcount’s other two elementals joined the party. The first flew past in a flash, slamming the gargoyle as it passed, and its mate flew into the spot the first had vacated, giving Jax the distraction he was hoping for. Erin flew down to join them, stabbing her longsword into its stony side. An arrow flashed past her ear and sank into the wound her sword had just opened.

The Gargoyle Brute gave a bellow, and lashed out at the enemies surrounding it. He snapped at the Elemental, but missed, then whipped its head around and buried its horns in Erin’s shoulder. As she tried to pull off of its horns, two of its claws raked her legs. Two more claws lashed out at Jax; he avoided the first, but the second slashed open his throat, sending blood jetting out into the air. Nat hammered the beast with a volley of Empowered, Intensified Magic Missiles that filled the air with chips of stone, but the creature still lived. Jax had one hand pressed against his jugular, trying to staunch the bleeding. With his other, he stabbed Blackjack’s rapier forward, piercing the gargoyle’s spine, and it joined the others in a watery grave.

To the south, the lone surviving gargoyle flew out of the Wall of Fire, and kept chasing Laori. It outpaced her, and flew into a position to intercept the fleeing elf. Shadow, flying backwards, launched a Maximized Fireball that engulfed the waiting gargoyle. Laori, a wild smile on her face, just accelerated her flight, her spiked chain whistling around her head as she flew. The chain wrapped around the gargoyle’s mid-section, tearing out brick-sized chunks of stone, but it bared its teeth and prepared to retaliate. Then its head exploded as something unseen slammed into its skull. “You know I don’t like having to rescue you,” the invisible Shadowcount Sial grumbled. “Now let’s get out of here.”

There were plenty of stone gargoyle statues still decorating the castle’s rooflines, but no more detached to pursue the party. On the eastern parapet above the main gate, a pair of skeletal minotaur guards had been watching the aerial combat. As the party flew back towards the barbican ruins, they fired some half-hearted crossbow bolts in their direction, but they were well out of range and the bolts fell harmlessly into the water below. When they reached the safety of the shore, Wren immediately began dispensing healing. Jax in particular was barely able to stand, and Tomas, Erin, and Laori had all taken plenty of damage during the ambush. Erin was still operating well below her full potential after her encounter with the spectres in the War Tower, and Wren used a Greater Restoration to bring her back, then used the last of her Lesser Restorations to restore the Charisma Tomas had lost to the ghostly jesters.

Tomas built a fire and the group cooked a late lunch beside the wall of the ancient barbican. They felt like they’d been battling the spirits of Castle Scarwall for days, but it had only been a few hours. Tomas sat with his back against the wall, legs stretched out in front of him, gazing at the lengthening shadows of the castle turrets against the lake. “Where do we go next?” he asked to no one in particular. “Risibeth told us about the four Chained Spirits – who do we go after first?”

“Not the lich!” Wren replied quickly.

“He’s in the donjon, right?” Nat asked, stroking his chin where he’d been trying to grow a beard for a few weeks now. “We’re still not sure how to get in there. We know that Passwall doesn’t’ work, and Risibeth said we might just have to batter down the doors. But I wonder if …”

“Not. The. Lich.” Wren repeated emphatically, and Nat let the matter drop.

“We promised the dragon we’d try to set him free.” Shadow reminded them. “Risibeth suggested some spells that might work. If we can cast those, I say that should be what we try first.”

“Let me check,” Nat said, making a show of thumbing through his spellbook. “Oh darn – I don’t seem to know either Wish or Miracle.”

Wren chucked a rock at his head, not trying (very hard) to hit him. “I can try Dispel Evil,” she offered. “And I can try Dispel Law,” Laori added.

“OK – the dragon is a no-brainer,” Tomas said, returning to the subject of strategy. “My question is – who do we go after next?”

Shadowcount Sial turned to Tomas, his expression even more solemn than usual. “Risibeth said that one of them - this ‘Nihil the Ashbringer’ - is an ashmede devil. Such beings are very rarely found outside of Hell. Within Hell, they are known as ‘judgement devils’ and serve as Asmodeus’s enforcers, bringing swift annihilation to any devils who move against him. When they do travel outside of Hell, it is usually to collect the soul of some mortal who has broken an infernal pact. They are especially brutal against those whose hearts are filled with goodness.” He arched an eyebrow in Erin’s direction. “They are not careless combatants; they study their foes, to learn their weaknesses and strengths. When we move against her, we must be equally well prepared.”

Everyone was silent for a moment. “All right then! Then the undead soldier it is!” Jax said, breaking the tension. “She said he was above the castle gatehouse – that’s probably up by where Mr. and Mrs. Bones were shooting at us a little while ago. Those guys aren’t that tough.” Erin rubbed the scars where one of the minotaur skeletons had practically cut her in two with its greataxe, but said nothing. “We can just fly up there, dust those two, and go find this Castothrane fella.”

Having developed more of a plan than usual, the party settled in for the night. The next day dawned cold and gray again, and they stood on the gravel shore of the lake with their breath clouding the air. Nat was willing to cast Mass Fly to get everyone to the castle again, but felt it was a waste of resources to use their Wand of Invisibility to make everyone invisible for the trip. Shadowcount Sial summoned another pair of Air Elementals to accompany them, then began the ritual to summon Asyra. A minute later the kyton reappeared beside him, looking none the worse for wear considering she’d just been killed a day before.

The group lifted off and began flying towards the castle, staying well out over the lake until they drew abreast of the War Tower, when they cut sharply to the west and flew to a landing on the second-floor parapet. They opened the door and climbed down the stairs, back to the dark stable below.

Belshallam crouched in his lair, eyeing them warily as they entered. “Will you keep your word?” the Umbral Dragon rumbled in his deep voice.

“We have spoken to Risibeth,” Wren replied, stepping forward. “We have something we wish to try. It shouldn’t hurt you.” (Truth be told, she had no idea whether casting Dispel Evil on an evil dragon would hurt it or not, but there was no sense bringing that up now.) “If you will allow it, that is. Are you willing to try?”

“Will it break the chains that hold me here?” Belshallam’s voice was but a low whisper.

“Risibeth thinks it might, and she knows far more than we do,” Wren replied.

Belshallam’s low growl made the whole room vibrate, bringing dust drifting down from the rafters. He glared at Wren for a few seconds, then lowered his head. “You may proceed.”

Wren cautiously approached, Laori trailing right behind, ready to cast Dispel Law should Wren’s spell fail. The dragon lay its head on the ground before Wren, and she reached her hands out, laying one on each of the great beast’s brows. She could feel its cold breath on her, stinking of decay. She closed her eyes, saying a brief prayer to Pharasma, then began to chant, her words in an ancient language of the First Gods, passed down by Pharasma to her followers through the ages.

The stable was dark, and the umbral dragon was a shadow within a shadow, an outline of deeper darkness, but now a white light began to glow. Softly at first, it outlined Wren, then flowed down her arms, through her hands, and began to surround Belshallam, growing brighter and brighter. As the light grew, it outlined invisible chains wrapped tightly around the dragon’s neck and legs, stretching off out of sight into the castle walls. The light grew blinding, and the chains began to vibrate. Belshallam let out a bellow of pain as the chains exploded with a flash, throwing Wren backwards onto the stable floor. The light vanished, dropping the stable back into  darkness. Belshallam shook his head as if to clear it, then drew back, his maw opening and ready to breathe out a cloud of deadly shadows. But he stopped. He shook his head again, tentative, testing, and raised first one foot and then another. “I AM FREE!!!” he bellowed. Wren barely had time to roll aside to narrowly avoid being trampled as the dragon rushed to the stable doors. He burst through them, sending splintered wood flying into the courtyard. His mighty wings beat and he rose, flying up out of the courtyard and away from Castle Scarwall.

Their ears heard nothing, but their souls heard a silent scream that reverberated through the very stones of the castle, a scream of fury and helplessness. As the scream faded, Jax carefully approached the broken door, and peered up into the sky (careful to stay out of sight of the arrow slits on the southern wall of the courtyard). “Would it have killed him to say ‘thank you’?” he asked as he watched the dragon’s form dwindle in the distance.

“He did leave his hoard behind,” Wren pointed out, glancing into the storeroom to make sure the pile of riches was still there. That made Jax feel much better.

“One down. Three to go,” Tomas reminded them. Not wanting to waste the spells they still had running, they climbed back up to the second-floor parapet and one by one stepped off the wall. They dropped down below the level of the parapet and began to fly back towards the gatehouse, hugging the castle wall to stay out of sight as much as possible. The castle walls were pierced with arrow slits, but no one paused to try to peer inside.

Not being invisible, the skeletal guards spotted them as soon as they rounded the corner that brought them into view of the gatehouse parapet. They heard a shouted warning, then crossbow bolts flew, and one even managed to hit Laori, but the party charged on. Tomas soared over the guards’ heads, landing on the gatehouse roof where he cast Gravity Bow. Laori landed on the roof of the tower overlooking the parapet, chain out and waiting to see how things would develop. Nat also flew over the pair of minotaur skeletons, then cast Burning Hands straight down onto their horned skulls. Erin simply charged straight in, skimming over the wall to slash the nearest guard with her longsword. Asyra followed, balancing on the crenelated wall as she lashed the same guard with her spiked chain. Shadow flew over to land beside Tomas, and summoned a trio of orbs of Ball Lightning. Both guards danced to avoid the balls of electricity, but both got zapped anyway. As they were dancing, Shadowcount Sial conjured a pit that opened up directly beneath the one farthest to the south; unfortunately, its dance moves carried it away from the yawning pit just as it opened. One of the Shadowcount’s summoned Air Elementals tried to bull rush it back into the pit, but the airy elemental merely bounced off its chest. The other Elemental slammed a cloudy fist into its mate; with all the damage it had already taken, it crumbled into a pile of disjointed bones.

Jax had been waiting for all of his friends to group together around the gatehouse parapet, and now he cast Haste on them. He almost didn’t cast it – by now there was only a single skeletal guard left, and it was badly hurt. But hey – better safe than sorry, right? No sooner had he completed the spell than the door to the gatehouse tower darkened, and a Shadow floated through it. It drifted silently up behind Erin, and clutched at her with misty claws. The claws reached right through her armor, and she felt her strength drain away as it grabbed her heart and squeezed. Another came through the stone wall of the gatehouse loft, and snatched at one of the Air Elementals; its winds suddenly blew with much less strength. A third Shadow stepped through the wall next to the first, and surveyed the scene, looking for targets.

“Shit!” Laori cried from her perch atop the roof. “Those are Greater Shadows!” Wren also recognized the threat. Hovering out of reach just beyond the parapet wall, she Channeled the power of Desna. The minotaur guard collapsed, and all three Shadows let out wails of agony as the holy power washed over them. Tomas raised up to get a good angle, and then fired down onto the Shadow that had it Erin, and it exploded in a burst of darkness.

The door to the guardhouse tower burst open and another minotaur skeleton charged out. It swung its greataxe at Erin’s head, and she barely ducked the blow. Another filled the doorway behind it, ready to join the fray. And they still hadn’t encountered the Chained Spirit, Castothrane.

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The PCs earned 9,600 XP, putting them at 275,502, with 295,000 XP required for Level 14.