Avora will draw forth the serpentine owl and give the command words that transform it to a giant owl. The beast is a magnificent snowy white creature 16 feet tall with a wingspan that reaches easily 30 feet. "Hello, Aurora. We need your services, if you don't mind."
Greta, listening to the planning, snorts in derision. (Skald)"I think I have had my fill of being carried in the air, into strange castles like some birds chick. I believe I will hunt and sample this world's exciting new delicacies while you have your little adventure. I will see you back at Grandmother's house; farewell my love." the worg growls at Sven. She begins to lope away into the mountains, her white fur quickly masking her presence in the snowy fields.
The heroes and company wait for their opportunity. When the thick groups of dragonkin-riding swarms pass, leaving behind only the smaller patrols, the moment is seized and the group dives down from their mountain perch and towards the fortress walls, the army below flying by beneath them.
Tik nods nervously at the moment of truth approaches. Ulp, here goes nothing! he thinks.
As he begins to fly, he initially tries to hide in the cover of the dragon, but is sure he feels hot breath on his back. He considers hiding beneath the wings of the bird of prey...but its gaze looks rather like the sort that would see a ratfolk as a tasty morsel.
Not wanting to be a target by himself, he sighs and flies as close as he's able to Shanya, hoping that if they're pursued the investigator's rapier might keep him safe.
Just remember, Old Rat, He thinks to himself, Where else could you be learning so much. You're on another world, investigating the trail of the Queen of Witches...so buck up!
The heroes appear dive across the yawning gap at tremendous speed; it's almost a full minute and a half before the besieging army realizes what is happening and scrambles to responds, and another minute before the monstrous creatures from below can reach the heroes. Still, some small slice of the army finds its way into the air to intercept the group: three shaggy-furred beasts with heads of maniacal horned apes, and a triaxan mounted upon a dragonkin.
The most commonly summoned of daemons - ceustodaemons - these creatures have resistance to all but good and silver, immunity to acid, death effects, disease, spells that attack the mind, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, and are resistant to cold, electricity and fire as well.
This particular drake both breathes fire, and is immune to damage of the same type.
(+2 in cold, mountains, underground from Kalt)
Avora Teremocles (+4 in cold)
Greta
Kalt Ìsson (+6 cold, +4 underground; +2 mountain and forest)
Lana Shahakh
Shanya
Sven Bjornson
Tiknesr Th'th'th'th'slifp
As the monstrous soldiers near, Kalt quickly channels the power of nature in the for lead blades upon his greatsword.
He quickly pulls his sword and lunges for the closest of the daemons.
Power Attack
Tiknesr squeaks: "Those shaggy ones are ceustodaemons. Hard to hurt with weapons that aren't Good or silver. Immune to damn near everything--acid, poison, mind-effects, you name it.
"The drake--well, it's likely to make things toasty real soon...and I suspect using fire against it would be foolish."
He purses his lips as he sees their pursuers approach. While they're still quite distant, he places a beneficial hex upon Efrixes and Shanya, boosting their fortunes. As he does so he laughs fitfully. "Heheheheh HO HO HO HO ha ha ha ha ha ha hee hee hee hee hoo..."
Just before taking to the air, Avora smashes the elemental gem that she carries, summoning a large air elemental. [b]"Protect us,"[b] she commands. As the drake approaches, she points to it and commands the elemental to attack.
Shanya chugs a shield extract and her extract of stoneskin.
Kalt doesn't seem to take well to flying, careening through the air.- perhaps that is why his blade misses its mark and bounces off the thick daemon skin.
Meanwhile, the sky begins to thunder as the elementals are summoned into existence. The creatures lash out at the dragon kin, wounding it. The dragon kin's bite wounds one of the elementals in turn.
The sorcerer astride the dragon kin shouts a warcry of joy as he gestures towards the party. A cone of cold, biting snow envelops the the heroes - and the ceustodaemons, which also seem as effed
Lana directs her mount to hold while she links with Kalt, buoying him with her strength of spirit.
Avora, in the form of a great snowy owl, shivers as the wave of cold washes over her and responds by doubling her flight speed in an effort to reach the tower.
Tiknesr takes the full brunt of the icy breath. For a moment his lungs, ears, nose, fingers, and toes burn and ache, and then they're too numb even to feel.
Gasping for breath, he begins to panic, glancing in all directions frenetically. "Damn the gods, what am I doing out here? What was I thinking? I'm going to DIE!
"Look at those dragons, they're huge, they'll eat me! Ack. Ack. I shouldn't be exposed up here, hanging in the sky. I should be in a little hole somewhere, safe and damp." He shivers with a look of abject panic on his face.
One of the daemons flies closer to the rear of the group utters dark incantations.
The seconds sails past Kalt, lazily reaching out with one claw to swipe at the warrior, missing. The third breathes a belch of sulfuric-smelling fire that washes over the warriors.
The sorcer laughs in glee from atop his mount at the devastation caused by his ice magics.
Kalt zips a little closer to the nearest dragon and strikes at it twice!
Shanya uncorks another extract--this one of Cat's Grace--and starts to fly over to Kalt to help him fight.
Kalt comes nearer to the daemon and cuts deeply into the creatures flesh, although it's magical defenses stop much of the damage. The second strike misses entirely...
Tik easily sloughs off the attempt to slow him. He gathers his wits about him as best he can, and incants "Goose's neck and Piggie's hind / poor old you, you're going blind
Ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho hee hee hee hee hee!" He cackles as he flies into a better position, hoping to protect himself with distance and the bodies of his fellows, while keeping his foes near enough still hex them.
The dragon kin and triaxian sorcerer close the gap. Below, hisses and screams of fury indicate the invading armies approval at the battle - while the men on the walls seem to yell in support of the small group of heroes trying to make their way through.
The dragon-kin slams a halberd into Kalt, leaving a gaping wound. . The sorcerer seizes the moment to call upon necromantic energies and unleash them upon Kalt and Sven.
The daemon heading towards Lana suddenly stops in mid air and begins grasping about wildly - it is clear that Tiknesr's blindness spell has taken hold.
The distant sun shines down for a moment - suddenly diving from the blinding light come Efrixes and Bescaylie, screaming a warrior's cry with abandon! Too much abandon, perhaps - Bescaylie impressive charge barely misses, although (perhaps thanks to a certain ratfolk) Efrixes halberd slices open a the flesh of the opposing dragon-kin.
Avora, realizing that her friends are still in danger, flies back to the scene of the battle.
Sven's first strike misses the demon, but the next lands well, taking a bloody chunk from the daemon - although, perhaps less effective then he might wish, as the creatures evil origins seem to dissipate some of the warriors fierce strike.
The air elemental continues its assault against the dragonkin.
Shanya swoops into position...
...and looks the daemon over.
Kalt's done a number on it already. Aim for its already wounded spots.
She then stabs it...
Lana directs her mount over to the rat, keeping a tight rein on it in case it considers a snack, and reaches out to heal some of Tiknesr's wounds.
The air elemental strikes at the dragonkin, yet fails to harm the well armored beast.
Shanya, meanwhile, quickly confirms that normal weapons are less than effective against the otherwordly creatures, as her blade fails to pierce the creatures mystical hide.
The creature fighting Sven swipes at the warrior, but is unable to control its flight and veers away from the warrior.
The creature facing Shanya and Kalt happily continues to lash out with claw and tooth, slicing into Kalt with barbed claw
Meanwhile the blind daemon, furiously howling in abyssal, retreats from the fight using it's natural teleporation magic.
Kalt deftly maintains his position by the daemon, flying as if he were born to it. He cuts twice at the creature with his extra-heavy greatsword!
Tiknesr sighs with visible relief as Lana's magic mends some of the worst of his frozen flesh. "Thank you, dearie! I was feeling a bit worries there."
With that he turns his attention to the off-balance daemon veering away from Sven. "Ready to go for a ride, Bjornson?", the Old Rat asks while weaving a shadowy slingshot that propels the paladin straight toward the daemon.
"Ha ho hee hee ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
______________
Persistence pays off for Kalt, his great strength overcoming the Daemon's defenses and sending it spiraling to Triaxus' below. Tiknesr, meanwhile offers a most undignified form of transport to the flying warrior.
The opposing dragon Kin seems distracted by the arrival and Efrixes; it slices at Efrixes, deeply wounding the noble dragon-kin before flying clumsily forward. Efrixes seizes the moment to opportunistically attack his opposite, as does Bescaylie. The sorcerer has different mischief in mind - another cone of cold leaps from his hand.
Kant nimbly dodges the brunt of the icy cone's effect, and his well-honed resistance to cold allows him to ignore all but a little of the freezing blast.
Back at the scene of the combat, Avora ponders what she can do to help her friends. With a shriek of defiance, she casts flame strike on the opposing dragon kin and his rider.
(Ref DC 18 for half) half fire damage/half divine
The air elemental, though staggered by the spell, continues its assault on the opposing dragonkin.
No sooner has Lana healed the flying rat that he takes another blast of ice square in the face. He ends up almost encased in ice, with blackened flesh sticking out in places.
"Gaaaaaacckkkkk!!!! I'm dying. Am I already dead?!"
Shanya barely manages to dip low enough to escape the worst of the biting cold. Unfortunately, even so, the spell manages to sear her.
"AAGH!"
Shanya pulls out of the action, at once irritated that her rapier didn't make a scratch and clearly frightened of dying to the cold on an unknown planet. She starts flying towards Lana.
Lana directs her mount closer to the fray, despite her intuition screaming stay away! This is what happened last time! Pausing to focus, she shatters her spirit and sends it outward, to wash across her comrades and draw away their wounds.
Lana attempts to combat the terrible cold unleashed by the sorcerer, to less effect than she and the gravely wounded Tiknesr and Shanya might hope. Sven, however, has more luck, landing all of his strikes and terribly wounding the twisted ceustodaemon.
The creature turns and howls in a strange, grating mix of Infernal and Abyssal - and then attemtps to strip Sven of his flight magic! . Luckily for the warrior, the daemon's rage is greater than his efficacy with magic.
The sorcerer and the dragon make a lucky twist and avoid most of the heavenly flames. Bescaylie takes the opportunity to charge the unbalance pair - this time, he skewers the dragon through the heart with his lance. Seizing the opportunity, Efrixes seizes the sorcerer in his great scaled hands, rather than let him fall to his death.
Kalt quickly finishes off the wounded daemon, and no other of the foes below seems to have the courage - or the speed - to hinder the heroes in their path. The aerie of Spurhorn looms large as the group finishes their frenzied flight.
As the group approaches the wall, harried defenders raise their crossbows and begin shouting - in Draconic, and in the strange nasal language of the locals.
Their threatening shouts quiet and they hold their crossbows high, though, after Bescaylie cries out a passphrase in Draconic. (Draconic)"One head looks to the future, the other the past! The eagle flies proud."
The heroes fly over the walls and find themselves surrounded by tired looking soldiers and dragon-kin, huddled around magical fires with the Triaxians wielding crossbows. They tactfully keep their weapons pointed down, but close at hand - these soldiers are clearly no fools. They quickly bind the struggling sorcerer and haul the man away.
A particularly powerfully build Triaxian soldier strides up among the soldiers - his is clearly the posture of command. He looks up and down over the heroes before interrogating Bescaylie.
(Triaxian)"And what have you brought us today Bescaylie? I ask you to scout, and instead you bring back stragglers
Bescaylie answers. (Triaxian)"They claim to be lost, and unaffiliated. I brought them here for you to interview them."
Efrixes hisses. (Draconic)"Bescaylie! You left out the best part. They're from another world! Isn't that amazing. Oh, and you best use wyrmtongue - they don't seem to speak Triaxian"
The commander turns to the group and looks over the group. (Draconic)"So you claim to be strangers in a strange land. All right, I'll humor you. I am Pharamol, Commander Pharamol to most here. What are you really here for?"
of resistance +2, ring of protection +1
v. 21
x3
x3
Shanya translates for Sven.
As usual, Kalt is content to let Sven do the talking.
Always seems to work out better than when I open my mouth.