The Sundered Crown

Wren leapt back from the diseased dragon that had burst out of the Everdawn Pool. Assuming that Ileosa must have summoned this creature, she cast Banishment, hoping to send it back to wherever it was from, but the spell fizzled – whether because her magic wasn’t powerful enough to affect it or whether it wasn’t actually summoned, she couldn’t say. The Astral Deva standing beside her (was it hers? Or one of Nat’s? They all looked alike to her) conjured a Blade Barrier that formed a ring around the huge beast, hoping to contain it. The creature snapped at her with its jaws at the end of its long neck, sinking fangs dripping with diseased saliva into her celestial flesh, but then the magical blades of force appeared, and the dragon roared with pain as a red mist filled the air. Desperate to escape the blades, it flew out of the barrier, flying under the Everdawn Pool and straight for Nat. It sank those fangs into him, and his flesh crawled as he fought to free himself.

The Queen’s Gambit

“Incoming!” Nat cried as he flew behind the Bralani Azatas that were holding several of the Erinyes Devils at bay. Wren’s Bralani ducked her head ever so slightly, as a Lightning Bolt whizzed overhead. The lead devil was sent tumbling limply to the ground while the one behind it struggled to clear its head from the violent blast. It tried to force its way forward against the gale-force Gust of Wind the other Bralani had conjured, but it was too weak, so it settled for casting an Unholy Blight around the Bralanis, Tomas, and Nat, and Tomas and one of the Bralanis were left feeling sickened. Her sister pushed her way forward and stabbed her flaming trident into the Bralani responsible for the wind.

Blood of the Ancients

“Shhh! I heard something up there!” Jax hissed. They’d managed to ascend to the second level of the lost jungle pyramid known as the Sunken Queen, and had finally found a part of the structure that wasn’t totally submerged. But over the sounds of water squishing out of wet boots and rattling armor, Jax was almost certain he’d heard furtive sounds from a room ahead of them. Tomas nodded grimly – he’d heard it too. However, the interior of the pyramid was cloaked in inky darkness, save for the magical lights the group was carrying, and they did little but reveal that the hallway ahead opened into something larger, not what might lurk within. “Put out your lights!” Jax commanded as he slipped on his Red Mantis mask and activated its Darkvision ability. As the lights winked out, he could see others doing the same. He cast Greater Invisibility on himself and could hear other spells being whispered in the growing darkness. When all was black, he crept cautiously down the hallway.

The Sunken Queen

“Blurbble … Help! Blorp … Splutter… thing!” Jax cried. His relaxing swim along the face of the forgotten jungle pyramid known as the Sunken Queen had been interrupted when an enormous creature surfaced beside him. It looked like a frog – except it was the size of a house. And had an eyestalk with three eyes. And four lashing tentacles. And a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. One of those tentacles wrapped around Jax’s chest and began to squeeze, cutting off his cries. Nat rushed forward, and cast Charm Monster, but the thing didn’t appear to get any friendlier. Erin wrapped the rope she had tied to Jax around her wrist, and pulled with all her might, but she might as well have been pulling on an oak tree. Then the thing whipped its tentacle up, Jax still held in it. It waved him overhead for a moment, then opened its maw and shoved the rogue inside. It chewed for a moment, swallowed, and let out a satisfied burp.

Vive la Revolutión

Tomas darted into the room, cursing the pillars that prevented him from getting a clear shot at the two surviving Erinyes devils. As soon as one came into view, he let loose with an arrow. It struck the devil in the chest, throwing her back against the wall. Her eyes glazed over, and she slowly slid down the wall into a sitting position, head lolling. Shadow was right beside Tomas and he pointed his Finger of Death at the final devil. “Back to Hell, lady,” he growled and the Erinyes exploded into a cloud of smoke.

The Devil’s in the Details

As Shadow’s Chain Lightning felled one of the Gray Maidens, he felt a sudden surge of newfound health, as the Theater card he’d drawn from the Harrow deck earlier siphoned off some of the fighter’s hardiness and infused it into Shadow. He grinned, remembering when they had actually been intimidated by the Gray Maidens. What a bunch of wimps!

A Harrowing Experience

“Should we take this stuff back to the Dead Warrens, let Kroft know what we’ve found, and try to decipher this book?” Tomas asked. They were in Domina’s Study, high atop her namesake tower, and they’d apparently found Ileosa’s secret lair, full of incriminating documents and tantalizing clues. But they still hadn’t found the Queen, or, if the Infernal Contract they’d found could be believed, most of her Hellish minions.

“If the Queen’s here, we need to find her,” Nat said emphatically. “I agree,” Jax chimed in. “Now that we’ve stirred things up, she might take off, and I’d hate to miss her by this much.”

“But we’re pretty beat up,” Erin cautioned, trying to wipe some of the dried blood off her shield.

“I’m not!” chirped Nat. “I’ve still got lots of spells!”

Squashing Bugs

Erin finished sawing the third and final head off the corpse of the belier devil. Unlike most of the devils they’d fought (at least the ones who weren’t already in Hell), this one’s body had not vanished when it died. Nat had tried to assure her that this simply meant this devil was on this plane of its own free will, and had not been summoned here, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

The Devil Made Me Do It

Tomas spun to confront the pair of Gray Maiden palace guards who’d just run in to join the battle in the throne room. He ducked under the first one’s sword and, holding his bow sideways, fired a pair of arrows up under her breastplate. As she collapsed, he kept turning, pivoting on one knee. The second guard was drawing back her sword as he continued firing; the first arrow caught her in the thigh and the second slipped under the visor of her helmet. He heard the muffled clank of the arrowhead striking the top of her helmet as she slowly fell backwards.

The Queen is … Dead?

The mood in the room was serious as the party began to gear up. They were going to make their first foray into Castle Korvosa, and who knew what they would find there. Erin tightened the straps on her breastplate as Wren quietly called upon Pharasma to Bless their efforts. But Nat was fairly bouncing on his toes. “Oh man! We’re going to clobber that stupid Bloatmage! He’ll never know what hit him!” Nat’s was still pumped from his encounter with the dragon the day before. “I’ll bet we kill him with one shot, right? Don’t you think? Wham, bam, bye-bye man!” Erin gave an exasperated sigh and refused to make eye contact. Jax grumbled something under his breath. Finally Tomas turned to Nat. “You ever wonder what it was that forced that dragon to submit to the Queen? Maybe it was this guy.” Nat’s enthusiasm flagged just a little, and he began to add his own protective spells to the party’s mix.

The Turn of the Tide

The mob of hostages chained to the city gate screamed in terror as the dragon roared again. They pressed away from the giant beast, threatening to crush those in the back against the gates they’d been forced to block. Shadow, kneeling beside them, could smell their fear as he hurriedly searched the body of one of the dead Gray Maidens. “C’mon … c’mon,” he muttered, then his hand found what he was searching for. He ripped the key off the Maiden’s belt as the dragon let out another screech of rage. There were dozens of hostages, and even with the key it would take time to free them all. All it would take was one blast from the dragon’s acid breath, or a few swipes of its claws or tail, and they’d all be dead. Thinking fast, Shadow conjured an invisible Wall of Force to block the dragon from reaching the captives. Then he spun and grabbed the nearest hostage. The man screamed as invisible hands gripped him, but then there was a click and his manacles fell away. “Here – take this and free the others!” a voice said as someone pressed a key into his hand.

A Hero Reborn

“Remember,” Field Marshall Kroft said as she finished the last of the Heroes’ Feast that Wren had prepared, “the people are frightened and confused. They aren’t sure who is the greater threat to them – us or the Queen. We need to win them over to our side, so you have to minimize any civilian casualties.” Kroft was sending them out to clear the way for the rebel forces to invade the city through North Gate. The rest of the party was already double checking their gear, preparing to head out.

Home Again

Nat was surrounded by chaos. In the doorway in front of him, Shadow and Tomas were in the clutches of a pair of Barbed Devils; Tomas was screaming in pain and terror, and Nat could see the things’ spiny barbs protruding out of Shadow’s back where it had impaled him in its embrace. Worse, another of the monstrosities had teleported out of the room and appeared right next to Nat – he could smell its foul breath on his face as it screeched in fury. He scrabbled away from it, but his back was already against the wall. In desperation, he cast Glitterdust, but still had the presence of mind to use his Selective Spell metamagic rod to protect his friends from its effects. The devils were coated in sparkling motes, and the one holding Shadow bellowed in pain and began clawing at its eyes with its free hand.