Back at the Horn, Xanos spent long hours stirring alchemical cookpots with prestidigitation while one hand hand worked with Molsabar on making a magical harp and the other explored the forest around the Horn, looking for any particularly dangerous creatures.
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Meanwhile back at the Horne...
Lefty's prowling brings back a report of a group of elves scouting in the area. They are a party of 7 and are led by a stunningly beautiful black-haired elven woman. They appear to be looking for someone names 'Jurak'. They are moving in a general direction towards the Horne of Abbadon.
"We need to prepare for the possibility of engagement with enemy forces. There is a group of elves in the area looking for someone named Jurak." Xanos told the members of the Knot who were still at the Horn.
"I think stealth is the best option. We should not seek to engage the enemy unless we are at full strength and ready for the possibility that our work here may be discovered."
"My suggestions are to instruct the Boggards to stay in the water and hide if the elves come upon them. The rest of our forces pull up to the second level and lay low. Molsabar, I'd like you to engage in counter-tracking. Obscure all traces of us outside the Horn. Erase the battle site with the treant and the trail we left getting here. Perhaps leave a false trail if you have time."
"I will attempt to gather information on these elves, and get a message to the rest of our group."
"Wouldn't it make sense for me to go out and speak to them? I can claim I'm a lost traveler or something similarly helpless and vulnerable." Haruk offers.
"Also, I could summon my accuser devil to scout them and report back their conversations."
"Sending your scout is an excellent idea. I would not recommend speaking to them until after we have an assessment of their capabilities."
"I'll leave immediately."
On his way out, Molasbar stops by the boggard caves. He asks for those best at tracking and brings them with him.
He'll rush to the scene of the battle with the treant, minions in tow. He'll start by obscuring the scene of the battle. If possible, he'll try to make it look like the treant never made it to the site (by erasing tracks back to a river or pond the treant crossed) or fake tracks moving on from the battle scene to a nearby river or pond.
After that, he'll obscure tracks heading back to the Horn.
Once back at the Horn, he'll obscure their movements outside of the horn.
In each case, he won't be too concerned about boggard tracks; I'm assuming those are pretty normal in this region.
If he can take 20 at the battle site, he will.
Survival
Survival
Survival
Hopefully he'll get some plusses for aid anothers and passage of time.
After figuring out the Treant was Jurak, Xanos had the Boggards, his non-burning skeletal minions, and Albrekt's undead steed haul the treant corpse up the stairs to the first level of the horn where it could be safely hidden inside.
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The devil is able to spy for a bit and return. It witnesses minimal conversation. One unusual thing it does observe is that at one point, the black-haired woman stopped and appeared to converse at length with a old an gnarled tree.
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And just as suddenly, the elves appear to lose interest and wander off back into the wilds away from the Horn, never to be seen again.
Some time later, the away team returns from town with the items and equipment requested.
"Excellent." Xanos said as they rifled through the supplies the away team had brought back.
"I will begin preparation for the rituals in the caverns below."
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"Babysit?" Sariana asks, dropping a pile of goods considerably larger than Rose's onto the floor. "Without us you'd still be dragging all these things back from the city. Besides... if Mein Bruder really wanted to get into trouble you'd have a hard time stopping him." She bares her teeth, but its more of a teasing grin than a threat, at least in vampiric terms.
At the words of his fellow vampyr Albrέkt merely emits his death-rattle chuckle before addressing those who remained behind;
"Ja. Ve haf been busy - az haf you drei?"
Molasbar rifles through the supplies they brought without any ceremony.
"Yes, yes, perfect!"
He barely registers Rose's perfect comment about their usefulness. On his way out the door to start his crafting, he pauses long enough to say "Let me know when you are ready to enter the chapel."
Xanos went down to the caverns with Haruk and began setting up for the first ritual.
Albrέkt seeks out Halthus, keen to learn what has been occurring within the Horn since the vampyr took his sojourn.
Xanos blinked, looked down at the summoning supplies in his arms, then set them back down on the table.
"Fine."
Haruk sighs, "I guess we should probably go deal with that lightning elemental first." He was looking forward to the fiendish rituals, but this was kind of important too.
The infernalist then girds himself with hellish looking armor, preparing for battle.
Molasbar is ready to lead the way with Sariana once the others are done spell casting. Or, should I say, Molasbars.
At the prospect of combat, Albrέkt halts and invokes fell magicks before drawing his blade with a toothy grin;
"Ready und villing also."
Again you make the grueling climb up the spiral staircase until you reach the antechamber where you first encountered Hexor and Vexor, the Horn's daemons. With the amulets obtained from from the Dread Wraith's treasure cache, they bow to your wishes and you continue to the top, coming upon the Inner Sanctum of Vetra-Kali for the first time.
This large domed chamber is baroquely decorated and everywhere adorned with jagged daemonic iconography and visions of spreading pestilence and mortal suffering. It is a grand chamber: eighty feet across at its widest, ninety feet long and rising at its apex to a dome fifty feet high. Low partition walls section off two ritual preparation chambers and dominating the chamber is the statue of Vetra-Kali himself carved
from hard green alabaster. He holds three knives and three bowls and leers eyeless over the altar before him. He presents a figure of brutal alien malice.
The green stone of the altar is stained black in many places, doubtless from the countless victims who met their end upon its block. There is a
basin at the base of the statue that is currently empty.
Completely out of place is the heavy silver chains that bind the altar and connect to a heavy argent seal pressed with the holy sunburst of blessed Mitra -- the Silver Seal.
Circling the dome in perpetual motion is a huge creature of living energy. It crackles with malice at your appearance
Combat round 1
26 Sariana
18+ elemental
18- Rose
16 Molasbar
15 Albrekt
10 Haruk
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Xanos reached out and brushed Sariana's shoulder just before she crests the top of the stairs. A surge of necrotic energy runs through her.
Girded for battle, the tall necromancer was an unsettling sight. He wore spiked gauntlets, each of his hands twitching slightly at the ends of his wrists. Four other hands crawled along the floor as his vanguard, also armored in spikes, each chained to a wide belt Xanos wore, like terrible pets on leashes.
He lifted off the ground rather than climb the stairs and simply hovered gently into the antechamber.
He'd left the rest of his undead force behind. They would only get in the way in the tight quarters at the top of the Horn.
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Sariana, after receiving the various dark gifts from her companions, runs easily up the wall almost as though she was still on the floor. She thus enters the room upside-down and quite near to the elemental's height - making her immediate assault a lot easier!
Racing along the ceiling Sari charges the creature.
Sariana slams into the being of pure energy.
The creature swoops down to strike at Albrekt before moving back to the ceiling.
+
AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 10 (+8 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural,
–2 size)
hp 79/85
Fort +10, Ref +15, Will +5
DR 5/—; Immune electricity, elemental traits
Xanos glanced over his shoulder. Behind them was a balcony and a long drop. Lighting elementals were well known for pushing their enemies about.
"Don't get near the balcony. Try to get out of this central corridor. It may try to push you off the edge."
The tall Necromancer dragged the spikes of his gauntlets down his cheeks below his eyes. The blood flowed upward into his eyes, staining them red with gathered power.
Haruk hurls a pair of fiery rays at the elemental.
Molasbar goes into Kirin stance, and flings a single shuriken at the elemental. He holds his falcata in his other hand, in case the elemental decides to swoop at him.
Swift action for stance, standard for attack.
To hit
Damage
The crackling elemental swoops and slams into Albrέkt, causing him to take a step back. The vampyric brute laughs to himself as the creature's energy courses through his cold flesh;
:
One of Haruk's rays sizzles in, but Molasbar's missile misses.
The elemental swoops down again this time taking a swipe at Haruk.
plus
AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 10 (+8 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural,
–2 size)
hp 65/85
Fort +10, Ref +15, Will +5
DR 5/—; Immune electricity, elemental traits
Xanos reached out and tapped Albrekt on the back.
Five Molasbars look up at the elemental, studying it as he spins another throwing blade at it.
Swift action to study. Knowledge (planes)
Edit: Unless the CR of the elemental is 1, that's a miss. He can try again next round.
Shuriken attack,
To hit
Damage