"I concur. We can always come back later."
The party heads back and begins to travel up the spiral stairs at the top of the spiral stairs, a wide hall stretches for thirty feet before ending in a large stone double-door. Two alcoves on both sides of the hall hold torches that burn with white light. Each torch illuminates a pedestal, on each of which rests a battered and broken steel helm. Standing at the back of the room his back to the door a large minotaur stands ready to fight with a greataxe in one hand and a horn in the other. His glowing yellow eyes and blood red fur leave little doubt to his abyssal heritage. As you get to the top of the stairs the minotaur blows the horn in his hand.
Ophelia quickly conjures a sparkly cloud of Glitterdust in the minotaur's general area.
The minotaur throws his head back and snorts angrily as Ophelia attempts to blind him with dancing and sparkling motes of light. The effect makes the minotaur almost look comical covered in glowing sparkels if it wasn't for the greataxe in his hand.
"Foul creature!" After seeing the creature resist Ophelia's spell, and also because she wants a real combat, Halara decides to go with the more direct approach, stepping up to the monster and striking at it with her cold iron Fauchard!
!
Val uses spell combat to cast Mirror Image on herself and then she moves up to attack.. She makes her weapon +1 as a swift..
As always, Viktor has a cunning strategy for the combat.
Both Halara's and Valkyrie's strikes seem to do less against the creature as his unholy fur turns their blows partially aside. As Viktor steps up the creature grunts and suddenly swings his axe around trying to cut down the paladin.
But it seems off balance and it's swing goes horribly wide. Luckily it seems like it's wide swing also allowed it to avoid Viktor's own strike as his longsword cuts through thin air. Micah and Telis rush up the stairs with Telis rushing the minotaur and Micah firing an arrow.
Telis and Micah both land their blows but the minotaur doesn't even seem to recognize the fact as it completely shrugs off their attacks. The minotaur then brings his axe around trying to strike Halara and then Valkyrie with his greataxe.
The minotaur is able to land a great blow on Halara, but the multiple Valkyrie's seem to confuse the minotaur and it is left unable to even destroy one of the copies.
Ophelia sighs at her misfortune and just shoots another magic missile at the creature.
"Cursed be the one who strikes at the spirits guardian!"
Halara retaliates with fury, swinging at the creature with all her might, to only then step away from its reach, to possibly heal next round, if she is still alive by then.
Val will 5' step and use spell comabet/spellstrike via arcane mark..
success..
Viktor's swing goes wide as the minotaur reels from the magic missiles fired from Ophelia's wand. Halara and Valkyire both work together to cut the beast down as it falls onto the earth with a thud.
"Heal up and lets push forwards.. My guess is that this guy was a guard."
As she follows Val, a surprised Ophelia remarks, "That went... quicker than I expected."
This circular room’s purpose seems to be a trophy hall of some sort. A low stone pedestal sits on the floor in the middle of the chamber under a domed ceiling. Atop the pedestal is an iron, barbed cage—and within the cage sits a chunk of softly glowing white stone. A twisted woman with a limp looks over at you all as her hands grip a bloodstained scythe. One of her arms seems to have been twisted into an insectoid shape.
Viktor charges headlong into the room, his sword glowing with divine brilliance.
Viktor charges in and slashes the woman deeply on her arm but she twists to the side before he can cause huge amounts of damage.
"Deskart..." She records the name, to summon information about it later, while she moves up to attack.
Val casts bladed dash and charges the woman thing attacking twice.. Arcane Accuracy as a swift.
Having no reason not to use it, Ophelia points her wand at the enemy and fires another barrage of magic missiles at it.
Halara's fauchard cuts the woman deeply as Valkyrie moves forward and slices her once. She reels back when Ophelia blasts her with a barrage of magic missiles and she roars in anger and pain. Suddenly bringer her scythe around to strike at Valkyrie the woman snarls.
"I'll enjoy cutting you all up into pieces!"
Micah then tries to fire an arrow at the woman while Telis moves forward.
Unfortunately Miocah's arrow heads wide and Telis in unable to land a blow on the woman.
"Die evil creature!"
pops an image..
Val 5' steps and uses spell combat/spellstrike with arcane mark for 2 attacks.. Swift for arcane accuracy..
"I hope you enjoy only trying, cause we are all above your league pitiful creature." She also keeps striking at the thing, hoping to bring it down.
Pleased that she will not have to worry about spell resistance, Ophelia continues firing the Wand of Magic Missiles at the party's demonic foe.
The woman scowls as Viktor's blade slices into her side. She grasps her side as Valkyrie's blade comes forward for two quick slices that leave her barley standing. As she reels back from Halara's attack Opehlia's missiles slam into her and she falls to the floor blood spreading across the floor.
Viktor impales the woman's chest for good measure, then looks around. "Is everybody alright? Any healing needed?"
"Im fine.. Let's have a look around"
Detect magic and take 20 for a 29..
The woman has several magical auras coming from her corpse while the overwhelming power that Valkyire can feel comes from glowing white stone behind the iron bars on the pedestal.
"Im betting thats the wardstone fragment.. Now we just need to get it out of that cage and figure out how to destroy it.. A large hammer maybe?"
3 Scrolls of dispel magic
+1 scythe,
Amulet of natural armor +1
Cloak of resistance +2
2 keys
350 gp in onyx gems
32 gp
The cage around the wardstone appears to have been created without any lock or doorway to open it.
"Anyone got an adamantine weapon? Other than that I see no way to get the stone out of the cage.. Perhaps we should just return with it and have Irabeth dispose of it.."
"Or maybe that Chime of Opening will work?"
Val looks for something that the keys might go to..
Valkyrie finds that the first key seems to go for the doorway that they just entered through. There doesn't seem to be anything in this room that the other key goes to.
The stone inside of the cage is reachable with the rod of cancelation that you received otherwise you would have to reach through the cage to attack the stone, or destroy the cage itself and then get the stone to destroy.
Pulling the forgotten rod Val smiles.. "Oh yea, I had forgotten bout this.. Yall might wanna step back a abit.." She then pokes the rod into the cage and touches the stone, activating the rod along the way..
Ophelia nods and ducks behind the nearest secure wall.
Viktor nods, stepping back while remaining in front of the party and plants his tower shield.
When Valkyrie touches the rod to the stone the wardstone fragment is destroyed, it explodes in a blast of golden light and the sound of an angelic choir. Hundreds of razor-sharp shards of stone spray outward, destroying the cage the fragment was inside and dealing to the room around you. It miraculously avoids harming the any of you instead just tearing away at the walls and the corrupt body near you.
A few seconds later an unexpected side effect of the wardstone’s destruction occurs. If the holy energies stored in all of the wardstones were the waters of a vast lake formed by a dam, then the fragment just destroyed was the plug in that dam holding the waters back. Rather than simply diffusing the wardstone’s border as the Eagle Watch theorized, all of the energies of the wardstones along the border rush out of the “hole” caused by the final destruction of the last and largest fragment of the Kenabres stone. The energy of all of these simultaneously draining artifacts infuses the you with incredible power, causing all of you to glow with golden light. All debilitating conditions and wounds are immediately healed as of you are restored in an instant to full health. All expended spells are instantly restored, and all limited use per day abilities recharge.
As all of you are still standing in the afterglow of the holy light you receive a vision of the first wardstone being erected in the Kite here in Kenabres in 4639 AR, in a ritual involving the aid of the Hand of the Inheritor, the herald of Iomedae.
Another visions shows in the year 4665 AR, a 20-year-old Hulrun leading the burning of dozens of supposed “witches” in the courtyard of the Kite before the wardstone.
Traveling to the year 4692 AR, you see a vision of Khorramzadeh the Storm King leading a brazen attack on Kenabres. The Storm King manages to strike a resounding blow with his sword against the wardstone, which suffers only the tiniest of cracks as the balor’s sword shatters. Khorramzadeh is then attacked and forced to flee when the silver dragon Terendelev nearly kills him.
Further along in the year 4712 AR, you see a vision of Irabeth chasing a burly dwarven man into the courtyard containing the wardstone. Both paladins are heavily wounded, and as the dwarven man backs against the wardstone, smoke rises and he screams in pain. He ducks to avoid one of Irabeth’s blows, then manages to smash her knee with his hammer, dropping her to the ground. The dwarven man seems ready to deliver a death blow, but the sound of approaching soldiers forces him instead to back away and summon a fiendish giant wasp that he swiftly mounts and then f lies away to the north, abandoning Kenabres.
You then see a vision a beautiful demonic woman with a long thin tail, clawed hands, and curling horns protruding from where her eyes should be, placing the wardstone fragment in this room and of the woman you fought using a wish granted by the strange demonic woman to create the cage around it before the demon woman teleports away.
Another vision appears of an event you know will now never happen another demonic looking woman using a deep purple crystal the size of a human’s head to corrupt the fragment, causing the entire border to flash with nauseating mauve fire that devastates the border cities and transforms countless crusaders into half-fiend slaves of the Worldwound.
Her mouth agape, Val stares at the show.. When its all over.. "Well that is not what I was expecting. We should return to Irabeth and report at once."
Viktor leans against the wall in a cold sweat after the vision. "Erm...yes. Let us return. I am sure we will have time to think on these visions later."
Still quite shocked about what she saw, Ophelia merely nods in agreement.
As you all speak to one another about your experience a somewhat transparent beautiful demonic woman with batlike wings, a horned brow, and glowing red eyes. She regards you all with a smoldering, furious expression, then says, “This only delays your kind’s extinction. But at least I can take steps to hasten your own.” She then attempts to throw dark magic onto all of you, but only Telis and Micah are affected falling to the ground gasping for air. “The death throes of your wardstone seem to be protecting you from my magic. No matter. They cannot protect you from my slaves!”
With this, she spreads wide her arms and a rift tears open in reality. A half-dozen babaus tumble through into the room, and beyond them you catch glimpses of even greater demons preparing to enter—vrocks, glabrezus, even a marilith—when suddenly the energy infusing them pulses back outward. As this happens, the powerful energy hits the Abyssal rift and slams it shut. The woman screams in pain as the magical feedback tears into her body, breaking bones and shredding her wings. An instant later, her projected image vanishes, but the six babaus that managed to clamber into the Material Plane before the rift closed remain and immediately attack.
• Damage reduction 10/good
• Regeneration 5 (unholy damage or evil spells)
• Resist acid 10 and fire 10
• Each of you glows with bright light that automatically
dispels any 3rd-level or lower darkness effect they enter.
• Each of your attacks are treated as good for the purposes of
overcoming damage reduction, and deals +2d6 points of
damage against creatures with the evil subtype.
• Once per round as an immediate action, you can roll
1d12 and add the result to any d20 roll just made.
Halara steps forward and attacks one of the new demons with her fauchard sweeping at it's chest.
And she lands a telling blow on the demon slicing deeply into its flesh with her blade making it stagger backwards.
Val buffs her sword to +1 keen as a swift and casts defensively for Cat's Grace before attacking..
success.. sucks I had to use that d12 on that..
Ophelia looks at her Wand Of Magic Missiles.
Time to see if this still works.
She quickly aims her arcane instrument and shoots another round of force projectiles at the newest enemy.
Halara and Valkyrie take huge cuts out of the demon in front of them while Ophelia blasts it with her arcane wand.
The demon seems angry while his fellows tries to call upon their foul spells to get rid of the powers infusing you, but they all fail against the light currently guarding you. One final one attempts to call upon darkness to fill the room, but that is also dispeled by the pure light shining forth from all of your bodies. The wounded demon crying out in rage attempts to strike back at Valkyrie with its bloody maw and claws.
The unholy demon manages to land one claw on Valkyrie, but it seems little more than a scratch with the power currently infusing her.
"Foul demons, die by my blade!" Viktor steps forward and brings his weapon down upon the one in front of him! He realizes as he strikes he is filled with the power of the gods, eyes opening wide in shock as his blade cleaved through the demon like butter. What power have we tapped into?
Once again Val weaves and spell to attack twice.. Arcana Accuracy as a swift.
...
As Viktor strikes forward even more surprised as his cuts the demon in half with ease not even feeling the slightest resistance. Valkyrie then steps forward and with two strikes almost takes down a demon on her own which Halara attempts to capitalize on by striking at that same demon.
And with her strike another demon is taken out of the fight, falling to the ground as Halara's holy blade cuts through the maleficent fiend.