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.
Nat was used to Tomas’s dazzling bow
work, and paid it little attention; he was more concerned about the spellcaster
he knew was lurking somewhere on the far side of the Stinking Cloud that obscured most of the throne room. Taking a deep
breath, he zipped forward into the cloud, flying as near the ceiling as he
could while staying low enough to spot anything hiding within. Sure enough,
crouched in the far corner of the room, just outside the limit of the Cloud, he spotted the robed woman he’d
seen in his scrying. He was still invisible, and she gave no indication that
she was aware of his presence. He reversed direction, gasping as he let out his
held breath once he was out of the Stinking
Cloud. Then he turned, and fired off
a stream of piercing icicles back in the direction where she was. “She’s right
around the corner from you!” he hissed to Jax, who was waiting in the reception
room just off the throne room.
Jax didn’t have a chance to act on that
information as the door on the far side of his room flew open and more Gray Maidens began streaming out. Erin was fighting her way into the throne
room; she’d just cut down one of the Nessian Warhounds (who, to be fair, had
done nothing but vomit since the Stinking
Cloud descended). The Gray Maiden behind the hound stepped up and delivered
a mighty swing that should have removed Erin’s head, but she deftly deflected
it with her shield. Now the newcomers descended on her, surrounding her as much
as they could without venturing into the Cloud’s
horrible vapors. The fourth, seeing no room around Erin, diverted into the
antechamber where she all but collided with Tomas (who blended into the
background due to his Chameleon Stride).
The last in line was set to follow her – until Jax stabbed her violently in the
back as she passed. She spun, sword at the ready, but could see no foe to
attack.
Shadow, who’d been hanging back to
provide cover for the others, now advanced far enough to be able to see several
of the new attackers, and unleashed a branching bolt of Chain Lightning that leaped from Maiden to Maiden, leaving smoke
rising from the seams of their armor. Jax slashed at the confused Gray Maiden
in front of him again, leaving her swaying on her feet, but she blindly swung
back at the seemingly empty space in front of her, and was rewarded with a
spray of blood.
Wren wanted to contribute to the fight,
so she flew into the throne room, staying tight against the ceiling to be well
out of reach. She pulled a bundle of small sticks of wood out of her pack, and
tossed them down onto the floor below, then cast Snake Staff to transform the sticks into venomous snakes.
Unfortunately most of the snakes appeared inside the Stinking Cloud, and did nothing but convulse; those that were
unaffected followed Wren’s directions to attack, but had little luck against
the heavily-armored Maidens or the hound from Hell.
Tomas continued firing at everything in
plate armor, and two more Gray Maidens fell to his arrows. Erin concentrated on
her devotion to Iomedae, and a burst of brilliant white light blazed forth from
her body. The surviving Maidens staggered from its impact, and the hellhound
let out a yelp, but her friends all felt inspired by her presence, and their
wounds begin to heal.
Nat was beginning to worry: he hadn’t
heard anything from the hidden spellcaster in a while. What was she up to? He
buzzed back over the Cloud, only to
find that she was no longer there. Hoping she’d decided to abandon the fight,
he flew back out of the Cloud again,
and fired off a Lightning Bolt that
electrified a couple of Gray Maidens, the Warhound, and several of Wren’s
snakes. Shadow moved farther into the room, and conjured a Lightning Arc that leapt between a pair of Gray Maidens, and both
fell to the floor, convulsing. The Warhound finally shook off the nauseating effects
of the Stinking Cloud. Surrounded by
venomous snakes, it breathed out a blast of fire that incinerated several;
unfortunately, one of the Gray Maidens who’d stumbled out of the Cloud was still retching beside the
throne, and she was also scorched. Jax finished off the hapless Maiden he’d
ambushed, but stayed where he was: Nat had told him the caster was hiding just
around the corner from him, and he expected her to try to sneak out of the Cloud at any moment.
Tomas was looking for his next target when he heard a woman’s voice ringing in his head: ‘You must kill these filthy rebels!’ His mind was still fuzzy from
the effects of the Mind Fog, and the power
of the command was overwhelming; he was filled with a sudden determination to
rid Castle Korvosa of all who opposed the Queen. He turned, took careful aim,
and fired a volley of deadly arrows directly into Erin’s back! The paladin
screamed in pain as the shafts pierced her celestial armor, and she spun to see
who had attacked her. She met Tomas’s eyes, and they were filled with
incomprehensible anger. Erin hesitated – why was her friend trying to kill her?
Nat had seen the whole thing from his perch near the ceiling, but unlike Erin,
he had a pretty good idea what had happened to Tomas. Crossing his fingers that
he was right, he cast Break Enchantment on
the ranger. Tomas’s head spun; he could still hear the imperative of his master’s
voice, demanding death for the intruders. But this was Erin! They had fought
together, been through so much together. By the gods! What had he done? Tears
sprang to his eyes, and he held up his bow, arms outstretched. “I’m sorry!” he
cried.
For a moment, Erin debated whether she
could believe him. But only for a moment. Without a word, she turned her back
on him again and flew (courtesy of her Celestial Armor) to attack the last
surviving Gray Maiden, who’d finally stopped puking on the Crimson Throne. But
her sword thrust had barely landed when a Fireball
suddenly exploded out of the Stinking
Cloud, catching Erin and Wren (and several more snakes).
The battle was all but over. The
Warhound snatched one of the snakes in its jaws, then gulped it down, but Nat
conjured an Elemental Wall of ice
that ran from the Warhound to the last Gray Maiden. It finished off the Maiden,
and the hellhound yowled in agony as the ice encased it. Erin slid along the Wall and stabbed the Warhound in the
throat, and the fight was over.
As everyone tried to recover, Nat
approached the Crimson Throne. Nothing remained of Queen Ileosa but a pool of
blood and her possessions, including a gem-encrusted gold crown adorned with a
ring of huge ivory fangs. But Nat kicked it disdainfully. “That’s not the Crown
of Fangs – it’s a fake. It’s not even magical.” He examined the pool of blood thoughtfully.
“I think she must have been a Simulacrum
– a magical copy of the Queen. But I’ve never heard of a Simulacrum made from
blood.” His expression grew dark. “I wonder … all that blood that the Queen’s
Physicians collected for Ileosa during the plague – we never did figure out
what they were using it for. Could she have used it for this thing?” No one had
any answers.
Jax had confirmed that the room that the
extra Maidens had emerged from was just part of the gatehouse overlooking the
main entrance to Castle Korvosa. They returned to the anteroom to find Shadow
kneeling beside the dead spellcaster’s body. “I think I know why she looks so
familiar,” he said. The others also had a nagging feeling that they’d seen her
features before. “Don’t you see it?” Shadow asked. “Her nose, her mouth, those
eyebrows – she looks just like Ishani Dhatri!” Once he’d pointed it out, the
resemblance was hard to miss.
“Cressida told us Ishani had gone
missing,” Wren said worriedly. “Do you think this is really him? Did he turn
into this woman?”
Shadow shook his head. “No, that’s not
it. I think it’s much simpler. I think they’re related – maybe she’s his
sister.”
“Shit!” Tomas said suddenly. “Shit! Why
didn’t I see it before?” The others turned to him. “Remember all those records
we found in Deathhead Vault, about the Gray Maidens’ recruitment and
indoctrination rituals? They mentioned someone who was their 'Arbiter of Allegiance’,
the person responsible for the training and torment of new Gray Maidens – and her
name was Vavana Dhatri. I didn’t make the connection at the time, and we
haven’t seen Ishani since.”
“Do you think here’s still here in the
Castle?” Wren asked. “Cressida said he was last seen heading this direction.
Maybe his sister lured him here for some reason.” But again, these were
questions no one could answer.
There was a door ajar at the far end of
the anteroom, in the direction the caster had been creeping from, and they
checked it next. It was a bedroom, and they immediately recognized the
geometric designs on the tapestries and the exotic, foreign-looking carpet on
the floor: these furnishings had been in one of the empty rooms they’d found in
Deathhead Vault. A desk was covered with papers and spellbooks, confirming that
the dead woman was in fact Vavana Dhatri. But they left no clue as to her
brother’s fate.
“Where next?” Tomas asked as Jax upended
Vavana’s mattress looking for hidden loot. “Do we stay here in the Castle, or
head back?”
“If that wasn’t really her, then where
the hell is the Queen?” Jax asked gruffly. “I’m betting she’s holed up somewhere
with her troops, ready to defend herself.
“She could be in Domina’s Tower,” Erin
offered. “That seems like a pretty secure spot, from the way Neolandus
described it.”
“I think we should check out Sabina
Merrin’s room,” Nat suggested. “Neolandus said there was a secret passage from
it to the Queen’s bedroom. We might be able to surprise her.”
“I kind of doubt if she’s just laying
around in bed,” Jax countered, but really didn’t have a better idea. So they
filed off to the bodyguard’s room. It was austere, barely furnished. With
Neolandus’s maps to help, Jax had no trouble locating the secret door concealed
in the wall’s paneling. A narrow passage through the stone walls led to the
back side of another secret door. Making sure everyone was ready, Jax eased it
open.
The royal bedroom was paneled with
darkwood planks and decorated with elaborate tapestries and hanging silks. A
huge canopied bed was on the right hand wall, opposite stained-glass windows
featuring complex patterns of swirling reds, fiery oranges, and bright yellows.
The only door into the room was opposite the secret panel they’d opened, and
Jax and Tomas hurried to listen at it, as the others filed into the bedroom.
The air in front of the bed seemed to
waver, like a mirage, and something materialized, as if it had been there all
along, but somehow just out of reach of this plane of existence. It was an
enormous leech-like creature, with a humanoid torso at one end, topped by three
heads with impossibly long, lashing tongues. It’s very existence in this world was
a Blasphemy, and everyone felt their
strength flag in its presence.
“Look out!” Tomas shouted, and he
invoked his Hunter’s Bond to extend his
hatred of evil outsiders to his comrades. He fired at the thing, but despite it’s
immense size and close range, only one arrow struck home, and it barely seemed
to pierce the thing’s defenses. The creature spoke, its voice a grating chorus
from three throats. “Six against one is hardly fair – I think you should only
fight me one at a time.” Most of the party looked at each other in amazement at
the ridiculous idea, but Erin and Tomas thought it was a very reasonable Suggestion.
Nat knew what this was – he’d seen
sketches of it all over Togomor’s papers and spellbooks. It was a belier devil,
and the sooner they dispatched it, the better. He flung an Orb of Light at it, singing it with photons, and then immediately
followed up with a Quickened, Empowered,
Maximized Orb of Light, expecting an early finish to the combat. But the
devil seemed to somehow anticipate his move, and immediately counterspelled Nat’s
magic. Nat found himself standing open-mouthed – how the hell had he done that?
Shadow didn’t waste time wondering about
questions he couldn’t answer. He wanted to weaken this thing as much as
possible, so he cast Enervation. The
devil howled in rage as it felt its very essence being sapped away from it. “Hey!
Guys!” Tomas yelled indignantly. “One at a time!”
Erin stepped forward, Serithtial gripped
tightly and glowing with holy light. Calling upon Iomedae to Smite this evil, she swung. The blade
bit, but even Serithtial’s holy might didn’t seem to be able to fully penetrate
the creature’s protections. “You’re not following the rules!” Tomas shouted
again, but Erin was having none of it. “Yes I am! I was here first, and I’ll go
first!”
Jax thought Shadow might have the right
idea, and pulled out his Wand of Enervation.
But as he activated the wand, the devil moved almost quicker than thought, and
countered that spell as well, leaving Nat even more dumbfounded.
Wren knew they were in the presence of
the most unholy being they’d yet encountered, and knew she had to level the
playing field. “Shine your light upon us, Pharasma!” she cried, and every
member of the party began to shine with a brilliant, divine radiance. The devil
squinted against the holy glare, and the Holy
Aura burned away the enchantment clouding Erin and Tomas’s minds. Realizing
there was no need to hold back, Tomas pulled out a sheaf of adamantine arrows
from his quiver and began firing at the devil. One arrow sank deep into its
hellish flesh, but even the adamantine arrows seemed unable to inflict full
damage.
The belier devil bellowed in rage, and its
tongues lashed out at Erin, Wren, and Nat. Wren managed to duck under hers, but
Nat and Erin felt the horrid appendages wrap around their throats and begin to
constrict. But then they heard Zellara’s voice, singing, and the whisper of
spirits around them, and suddenly, somehow, the tongues had missed, and were
hanging loose from the devil’s jaws. Furious, it snapped at Erin with the
tooth-filled mouth on its tail, but again Zellara’s mystical protections
somehow, impossibly, prevented Erin from taking damage.
“He
can’t counter all my spells, right?” Nat thought to himself. He
fired off an Empowered Cold Ice Strike and
discovered he was apparently wrong, as the devil countered the spell easily. He
followed up with a Cone of Cold, but
it, too, failed; it wasn’t countered, but the magic simply seemed to fail in
the presence of the devil.
Shadow saw Nat’s frustration, and stuck
with what had worked so far. The devil had been hit by holy swords and arrows,
and at least one of Nat’s spells had gotten through. Maybe if he just nudged
him a little bit more. Shadow cast one more Enervation,
and breathed a sigh of relief when the devil didn’t Counterspell it. The devil roared in pain and fury. Nearly half of
its lifeforce had been sapped by Shadow’s spells, and combined with the
physical damage it had taken, it was too much. The devil’s cry weakened to a
strangled gasp, and then it collapsed into a lifeless, blubbery heap.
The PCs earned a whopping 35,733 XP,
putting them at 492,835 XP, with 600,000 required for Level 16.
No comments:
Post a Comment