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!
Nat, seeing that the others were having
no trouble with the Maidens, crept to the opposite end of the hallway, counting
on the protection of his Greater
Invisibility to risk a peek into
the hellish room beyond. Neolandus’s sketch of the Castle had labled it a ‘Mess
Hall’, and it probably had once been that – four long tables stretched between
the stone columns supporting the ceiling, lined with high-backed chairs. But
the chairs were slashed and savaged, many either broken to splinters or burnt
to ash. And the room was now a miniature image of hell. Bubbling pools of lava
dotted the floor, including one immediately in front of where Nat stood. Pits
belched smoke and flame, while curtains of fire danced across the floor. Just
to Nat’s right, a stone staircase curved down into shadows and flames, with
anguished screams echoing up from far below. In the center of the room, a
giant, bloodshot eyeball gazed up from the floor. Nat’s skin stretched from the
heat of the magma and flames, and his nose stung with the smell of sulfur. But
he could see an aura of magic that suffused the room, and he nodded knowingly
to himself – all was not as it appeared. However, three very real Barbed Devils
cavorted in the room, singing some incomprehensible song in Infernal. One stood
in front of a large fireplace, roasting the mostly plucked and skinned body of
a hippogriff on a large spit. Thankfully, they didn’t appear to notice Nat, and
he backed carefully away.
In the opposite room, the last of the
Gray Maidens didn’t stand a chance. Jax, still invisible, finished off the
bewildered fighter in front of him, and turned to help Erin with the pair she
was fighting. But before either could swing, a flight of arrows whistled in
from the hallway, sending both Maidens tumbling to the ground. The room was still
engulfed in the Silence spell Nat had
cast on a coin he’d flung into the room, so they couldn’t discuss what to do
next, but Erin made her intentions clear: she whirled around, dashed past Tomas
in the hallway, and ran into the hell-room to the north. She leaped over the
pool of lava in front of the entrance, then made for the devil roasting the
poor hippogriff. As she entered, the devils erupted into a chorus of yelps. “Yallops!
They’re here!” the cook shouted as he spotted Erin. “Yallops! Kill her!” cried
another, and “Yallops! Bring help!” the third.
 |
| Yallops |
Wren had followed Erin into the room,
although she wasn’t quite sure why – she was running very low on spells, and could do little beyond healing. But
when she spotted the devils she had a flash of inspiration, and called upon
Pharasma to cast one of the few spells remaining to her. A Blade Barrier sprang up diagonally across the room; Wren left
enough room to maneuver around the nearest corner, but otherwise cut the room
in half, catching two of the Barbed Devils. Or so she thought. The farthest
devil skipped nimbly away from the barrier as it appeared; the other stood
squarely within it, but its innate resistance to magic prevented the blades of
force from harming it.
Nat cast True Seeing and confirmed that the hellish aspects of the room
were, in fact, illusions. “None of that fire and stuff is real!” he called to
his friends. Jax had no reason to doubt Nat’s word, but nonetheless he jumped
over the pool of lava in front of the door and jumped up on one of the long
tables to avoid the wall of fire to his left. He ran along the table, and
jumped down past the roasting devil, breathing a sigh of relief as it didn’t
seem to be able to see through his Invisibility.
Tomas was a little more trusting, and ran straight through the lava before
stopping to fire an adamantine arrow into the devil in the far corner. Shadow
was right behind him, and popped the devil at the grill with a set of Magic Missiles.
Erin brought the full fury of Serithtial
to bear on the Barbed Devil before her, hitting it again and again and again.
With each strike, the devil’s sharp barbs pierced her flesh, but she ignored
the pain. “Yallops!” it cried, “we needs help!” It swung its wicked claws back
at Erin, but she easily parried its blows. The devil caught in the Blade Barrier skipped out, and leaped up
on the table next to Wren, but she was also able to duck out of its way. The
one in the far corner tried to summon another of its kind to reinforce them,
but the summoning failed.
But help of another kind arrived instead.
With a rush of air, a new devil suddenly materialized in the room, only a few
feet away from Wren. It was easily twice the size of the others, although it,
too, bristled with terrible spines. It was crowned with a pair of deadly horns,
and whirled a barbed chain above its head that cut the air with an unholy
sound. Wren, knowing she dared not go toe-to-toe with this thing, took a step
back, and cast Searing Light at the
newcomer. The blast of sacred light blistered its skin where it hit, but if it
hurt, the devil took no notice.
Nat had considered going back to
retrieve his Silenced coin, but
hearing cries of surprise from his friends he changed his mind. He rushed into
the room, assessed the situation, and fired off a blast of Chain Lightning, dropping the Barbed Devil by the fire as it
flashed around the room. Before the lightning had even stopped crackling, he
followed up with a Quickened, Empowered
Orb of Light that hit the Horned Devil square in the chest. This one he did notice, staggering as he let
out a bellow of pain and rage.
Jax hopped onto another table and
charged the Barbed Devil in the far corner, and it literally never saw him
coming. His blade stabbed into its throat, and he ripped it out, nearly
severing the thing’s head as it fell. Tomas fired off a volley of adamantine
arrows at the Horned Devil, but it managed to bat most of them aside, although a
pair did find their mark. The Barbed Devil that had gone after Wren now had a
stone column between it and his former victim, so he jumped down off the table
and went after Tomas instead. Its claws sank into him, but he managed to
wriggle free before it could impale him in a deadly embrace.
As if they didn’t have enough to deal
with already, a squad of Gray Maidens suddenly came charging out of a hallway
leading to the west. They ran right past the invisible Jax, who managed to slash
the leader as she ran past. She didn’t slow down, and her squad followed her to
surround the nearest enemy they could see: Erin. That was a really bad
decision; Erin cut down the leader and badly bloodied the next in line with her
backswing. “I’m getting really sick of you bitches,” she growled.
Shadow remembered the strategy that had
worked against the Belier Devil earlier that morning, and pulled his Staff of Necromancy off his back,
leveling it at the Horned Devil and firing off a ray of black energy that
sapped away its lifeforce. And not a moment too soon. Its face seething with
hatred, the Horned Devil took a step forward and unleashed its unholy spiked
chain at Wren. But it was less skillful than it had been just a moment before,
and misjudged the room’s dimensions. Instead of taking off Wren’s head, the
chain wrapped itself around one of the stone columns. As it fought to disengage
its weapon, it stabbed at Wren with its tail, but only succeeded in gouging a
groove in the stone floor.
Wren couldn’t believe her good luck.
Ignoring the seemingly incompetent Horned Devil, she turned instead on the
Barbed Devil now attacking Tomas. She smashed it in the chest with her mace;
she took a nasty slash in her arm from one of its barbs, but her weapon
rebounded off its thick skin without seeming to hurt the thing. Nat slipped in
behind her, standing atop the illusionary stairway to Hell. He could see that
the Horned Devil’s wounds were healing before their eyes, and wanted to finish
it off quickly. He leveled his finger at the Horned Devil, and fired off a Polar Ray that blasted through it with a
stream of ice. Despite its innate resistance to cold, the Horned Devil was
barely standing, and Nat knew he could finish him off. He searched his repertoire
for a spell he could cast quickly, and came up with a Quickened Lesser Orb of Light. It didn’t have nearly the oomph of the one he’d thrown a few
seconds ago, but it was enough; the Horned Devils eyes rolled back in its head,
and he slowly fell backwards.
With that, the fight was all but over.
Tomas had been prepared to take down the Horned devil, but now he turned his
bow on the Yallops beside him, splitting its skull with an adamantine arrow.
Jax came up behind one of the Gray Maidens, stabbing it quickly in both
kidneys. She spun, swinging blindly at the spot where Jax stood, but he bobbed
and weaved around her ineffectual blows. Her squad mates had no better luck
trying to hit Erin, even though she was plainly visible in front of them. Erin
took one down, and Shadow felled another with Magic Missiles. Erin turned to the final Gray Maiden, flicking the
blood off Serithtial’s blade. But before she could strike, Wren pushed past,
and slammed the palace guard with her mace. As the Maiden fell, Wren felt a
rush of health flow into her, courtesy of the Harrow card she’d drawn.
The group barely even needed any
healing. They searched the bodies, finding a magical ring on the Horned Devil’s
finger. The hall from which the Gray Maidens had emerged led to a barracks, now
empty. Proceeding with caution, they finished their search of the Castle’s 2nd
floor; they found the Castle’s kitchens and pantry, as well as the armory, its
walls lined with all manner of mundane weapons. There was also a long ladder
beneath a table in the armory, and they recalled that Neolandus’s sketches
showed a secret back way into the castle here. Sure enough, they discovered a
secret door that led to the outside, although there was at least a ten-foot
drop to the ground below.
“So what now?” Jax asked when they were
sure they had explored this entire floor. “Do we head back?”
“I’m almost out of spells – I’ll be
useless going forward,” Wren said sadly. “I think we need to head back and rest
up, come back tomorrow if we think we need to.”
“Cressida Kroft needs us to make sure the Castle
is clear before Grau’s men attack,” Erin reminded them. “If there are any more
devils like the ones we’ve fought – or worse – those men won’t stand a chance
against them.”
“I’m with Wren,” Jax countered. “I think
we need rest first. If we get ourselves killed, then where will Kroft and the
others be?”
“There is another option,” Wren said thoughtfully. “I still have a Nap Stack I could cast. We could rest up
for a couple of hours, and then go on down to the first floor.” The group
quickly agreed that was their best option, and that the Seneschal’s quarters
would be the best place to rest. They made their way back and settled in. Wren
took a few minutes to clear out the worst of the rancid meat and rotting fruit
rinds before she cast her spell and they all fell into a restful slumber.
They awoke feeling refreshed and
reinvigorated two hours later. The primary way down to the first floor would be
the Epochal Tower stair, and they’d seen another staircase leading down in the
break room where they’d encountered the first group of Gray Maidens, but they
didn’t want to take any obvious route. Instead, they went back to the secret
stair that led to the vaults. One floor down, they’d seen another secret door
leading to the first floor, and that’s what they took. The door opened into a storage
room full of stacks of firewood, kegs of candle tallow, and flasks of lamp oil.
Beyond that was a short right-angle hallway, with doors at either end. Jax
pressed his ear to the door to the right, but while he heard nothing there, he
thought he heard sounds from the opposite end of the hallway. Motioning for
silence, he slipped down the hall and listened at the other door; sure enough,
he could make out muffled voices on the other side.
He rejoined the others in the wood
storage room and reported what he’d heard. “Hang on a second,” Nat said,
sorting through his collection of wands and rods until he found his Wand of Clairvoyance. “Let’s just see
what’s in there.” He waved the wand and closed his eyes. He stood still for a
moment and they watched the color drain out of his face. “Hoo boy,” he
whispered when he opened his eyes. “Erinyes devils. Lots of them.”
With that intelligence, people began to
cast preparatory spells: Invisibility,
Bless, Haste and the like. When everyone was ready, they gathered in the
hallway. Jax looked back for confirmation, and Tomas nodded grimly, bowstring
taut. Jax crouched, to give Tomas a clear line of fire, and threw the door
open.
The room inside had been one of the
Castle’s guardrooms, but it was now the lair of more of Ileosa’s Infernal
allies. Nine Erinyes lounged about the room, their scanty clothing barely
covering their pale flesh. Bloodstains spattered the floor and walls, evidence
of the devils’ penchant for amusing themselves. But they hadn’t had a plaything
in days, and were dangerously bored. That was about to change. As soon as the
door opened, Tomas began firing, and within seconds one of the Erinyes was
dead. Nevertheless, he cursed; broad stone pillars supporting the roof blocked
his line of fire to any of the others.
Shadow pushed past Tomas and Jax,
skipping into the room gleefully, confident his Greater Invisibility would allow him to catch these devils by
surprise as easily as he had the last set. To his shock, as he turned into the room,
an Erinyes standing beside the door glared at him, and lashed out with its
longsword. Shadow barely managed to dodge the blow as he stumbled away. “They
can see us, guys!” he yelled
to warn his friends, then did what he’d originally intended: he cast Chain Lightning to dance from devil to
devil around the room. Erin followed him, hacking at the Erinyes who’d attacked
Shadow. Nat slipped past her; his Mind
Blank prevented the Erinyes from seeing through his own Greater Invisibility, and he wove past
the devils unmolested. Seeing how well Shadow’s spell had worked, he cast a Chain Lightning of his own – except that
he Empowered his. The blast of electricity
rebounded around the room, and when the sparks settled, four of the Erinyes
were dead.
The surviving Erinyes were on the other
side of the room, and they were all armed with bows. Arrows filled the air,
aimed at Erin or Shadow. Erin caught most of them on her shield while Shadow
somehow avoided every shot. Seeing her brood-mate’s arrows bouncing harmless
off the walls or armor, the last Erinyes cast Unholy Blight on the group still clustered around the doorway.
Shaking off the unholy pain, Jax pushed his way into the room, and finished off
the devil still fighting Erin. Wren followed. She strode confidently into the
center of the room, holy symbol held high. “In the name of Pharasma, I Banish thee!” she cried. The Erinyes
screeched in fury, and one vanished from sight, dismissed back to Hell. That
left only two, badly wounded.
The PCs earned 30,933 XP, putting them
at 564,118 XP, with 600,000 required for Level 16. You’re actually getting
pretty close now, so start getting your 16th level characters ready.
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