A chorus of echoing croaks heralded the tide of the boggard reinforcements. Just like they had drilled, the Boggard nearest the hidden door ran over and pulled the lever, opening the passage wide for it's brethren. They thundered awkwardly into the cavern entrance. On the other side, more made their way into the twisting tunnels near Albrekt.
The Boggards in the water continued their barrage. The two closest to the adventurers popped out of the water enough to lash out with their sticky tongues, attempting to drag the hapless humans into the water. The rest continued to fire their crossbows.
On the other side of the portcullis, a spiked gauntlet scuttled into a slightly closer position.
Xanos' words came relayed by the pair of telepathic Daemons.
Sariana, if they breach the portcullis, it will be time to make your presence known.
Attacks and arrows miss the interlopers:
With a mighty grunt, Yorgun manages to heave the mighty ironworks high enough for the others to scurry under, Hallack and James move to engage the approaching Boggards. The half-elf begins to sing (inspire courage). Marta, the cleric moves under Lastly Yorgun follows under dropping the portcullis once more.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A scuttling, armored hand leaped out of the shadows and hit the priestess, clamping down on her throat with a force that belied it's size.
Stunned (drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against her)
Grappled (Can't move, -4 dex, -2 to all attacks and MD checks other than Grapples. Can't take 2-handed actions. Must make Consentration checks to cast spells)
Strangled (can't speak or cast Verbal spells while grappled)
Total of -10 penalty to attack Lefty (on top of Grappled penalties)
Marta grants Lefty Cover against other foes.
Marta is considered Flanked by any enemy who threatens her.
The Boggard in the watch cage pulled one of the other levers, releasing the crank that started dragging both portcullises back up into the ceiling.
The four boggards who had been on patrol surged out of the murky water and traded their crossbows for spears while they waited for the bars to finish rising.
From the other side, the Boggards coming from the village swarmed James and Halik. The wounded one let out a thunderous croak.
Albrekt, it is time to join the fight.
Haruk watches the combat unfold dispassionately. The adventures, while perhaps a threat to their frog-like allies, posed no such thing to the vampires, or the rest of their group.
He turned to Xanos. "Well, how do you think this has gone so far?"
"As a test of our defenses, mixed. As an information gathering exercise, excellent."
"The boggards and the bear traps are serving their purpose as distractions quite well. I dislike how easy it was for the adventurers to disengage. If not for Sariana's presence I think they may have been able to escape simply by running."
"What are your thoughts?"
"If the concern is them escaping by running away, then perhaps some sort of dead drop door that can be triggered by the boggards that blocks the exit back out would be in order? Something that is fairly easy to lower, but incredibly difficult to raise back up or otherwise overcome. Unless of course you happened to have superior vampiric strength."
The boggard shaman casts Hold Person on Hallack:
One spear hits James
James steps forward and unleashes on a boggard:
It explodes in a cloud of gore,
Marta channels good:
Bianca moves to set up a Flank on Sariana with Yorgun and keeps up her song.
Yorgun attack Sariana:
With unearthly strength, the severed hand clamped down on the priestess' neck with a barbed grip that caused her ears to ring, her vision to swim and her strength to ebb. The almost imperceptible image of a tall man made of shadows with a ripped spiral where his face should have been glared down at her and lent a supernatural weight to the terrible claw.
At Xanos' behest the vampyr stirs moving swiftly through the tight tunnel towards to clamor of battle. The ironclad undead hisses at the boggard's he enocounters, signalling them to clear from his path...
When he arrives at the first portcullis bars, Albrέkt leers a jagged grin, then allows his hulking form to drift into vapours...
The Boggard next to James raised it's morningstar and brought it down on the helpless man's head.
Another Boggard rushed into join in pummeling the hapless man.
Three more swarmed Halak
Behind them, Yorgun was still being assaulted in the gateway. The portcullis continued slowly raising into the ceiling. The boggards on the other side thrust their spears through the bars at the dwarf.
Two crossbow bolts sailed through the bars.
Boggard casts hold person on James:
Marta tries to escape the grapple
Bianca casts cure moderate wounds on Yorgun
Yorgun Atacks Sariana , but misses.
Marta's struggles were in vain. The disembodied hand had a grip like steel.
James gets stabbed.
Hallack, unable to defend himself, gets run through by one of the boggards, much to the dismay of the other adventurers.
James punches a boggard. It doesn't die.
Now materialised Albrέkt moves slowly, drawing his heavy blade methodically as he walks toward the clamour of battle .
As he approaches the vampyr catches the scent of blood and fear, causing him to drool as he spouts the litany of his fell goddess;
"Der grave opens to uz all. I vill haszen der living on zheir inevitable path..."
The flood of boggards swarmed in behind Albrekt hopping and croaking with the anticipation of the fight.
The two in front of him continued to thrust at Yorgun with their spears.
The two with crossbows shifted their aim to Bianca, but again missed horribly due to the churning melee.
The wounded boggard who had just murdered Hallack retreated to Zikomo. The one James had just punched stepped back to make room for his less injured comrades. They swarmed in on James from all sides.
Xanos' disembodied hand continued to throttle Marta.
"I think the issue of a gate in the Maw would be visibility," Xanos mused. "With this exasperating beacon above us drawing attention, every group that comes here will likely spend time scouting before they make their entrance. The wilds around us are thick enough that they will be able to observe the Horn for as long as they wish without much risk of being spotted. Any defenses that are visible from the outside, we must assume will be seen and prepared for."
"My general thoughts on the defense of this place is to make it appear to be as undefended as possible to an outside eye."
His words were somewhat rambling as he spoke and watched the slaughter happening in the caves with passive amusement.
"Your notion has merit though. The portcullises I installed in our ambush point worked admirably. Making them heavier, or somehow securing them to the floor when they fall, is an excellent idea."
"Would control of Hex and Vex be retained if they left the Horn? We should have a contingency in place if one or more invaders end up on the wrong side of the portcullis. We wouldn't want anyone getting away with word of our defenses. Or perhaps a contingent of undead or boggards that remain outside to pick off stragglers."
Yorgun collapses under the assault. James is battered and bloody, but still stands. Seeing Hallack and Yorgun fall, and being surrounded, he throws up his hands.
Bianca panics and makes a run for a side passage.
The cleric struggles feebly, but really can't acomplish much
"I do not believe Hex and Vex will leave the horn. They are it's stewards," Xanos said. "I admit, the exact details of their binding is unknown, and worth asking about. No time like the present."
[b]"Hextor, Vextor, please tell us the exact nature of your binding, and the duties and restrictions it entails," Xanos asked the nearby Daemons, knowing they would telepathically hear him.
The hand retained it's deathgrip on the cleric's throat, holdign her in place for the oncoming horde.
"Albrekt, we want the priestess alive." Xanos reminded the vampire brute.
As he enters the site of battle, the towering vampyr savours the scent of blood and death before acknowledging Xanos' edict;
"Jawohl Old Vun. I vill nicht kill her..."
Albrέkt casts a baleful look toward the grappled priestess before continuing toward the surrendered brawler.
Smiling, he points his heavy blade first at James, then toward the ground;
"Kneel before your betterz."
The half-elf goes sprawling, as Sariana kicks her in the spine.
James drops immediately to his knees, and being grovelling in a rather pathetic manner.
"So we should not expect Hextor and Vextor to wander far from the Sanctum. One of them will always stay in the Sanctum entrance chamber. The other will not wander far from it. The one roving will travel no more than the distance of their telepathy. So, they can range down as far as the first level, but not to the catacombs, and not up to the sanctum itself." Xanos said, analyzing the distances of the Horn in his head. "In theory, in an absolute emergency they could use a thinking mind a telepathic relay, right at the center of their ranges of telepathic distance. One of them could travel to the catacombs or the Sanctum if there was a trustworthy mind bridging the gap between them. I do not find it likely they would trust anyone enough to do such a thing. Perhaps Halthus, as the sole surviving member of the Sons of the Pale Horsemen, but no others that I can think of."
The half-elf, sprawled on the damp cavern floor, looks up giant clacking scorpion and the looming form of Sarianna behind her and throws up her hands in defeat. She yields.
Xanos's hand continues to throttle the priestess until she's thoroughly unconscious.
Ever the workaholic, Xanos didn't wait any longer before going to begin improving the cavern's defenses. "If you have need of me, I will be below," he said to Molsabar and Haruk.
He stepped off the precipice of the third level and drifted gently down to the cavern maw, drifting in just above the ground in with his arms in his wide sleeves.
"Excellent work," he said approvingly. "We learned much watching this play out."
His severed hand finally released the priestess to the ministrations of the Vampires and skittered to it's master.
"Albrekt, in the future, perhaps Golgotha would be a better refuge? In the ceiling. Here." He gestured upward just as his severed hand leapt and twisted, reconnecting itself to his wrist-stump just in time to point to a spot in the stone ceiling just inside the maw.
"Those who enter will find you mounted behind them."
He drifted off to the empty side of the caverns to reset the traps the dwarf had disarmed.
Molasbar follows Xanos off of the balcony, and passes him on the way down. He lands harder than the graceful wizard, but lands of his feet and doesn't seem to have been seriously harmed from the fall.
He listens respectfully as Xanos gives his assessment. Then he adds his own. "Sariana, perhaps you should position yourself closer to the portcullis. If one of the invaders manages to dive under the portcullis while it is dropping, your mist form would make you ideal to run them down before than can escape with tales of what they see here. There is a potion we can procure for you that can protect you if it happens in daylight."
Albrέkt nods at the sound stratagem from the ancient Necromancer and his gesticulating hand.
"Natürlich Old Vun!"
He then returns his baleful gaze toward the scrapper cowed at his armoured feet;
"You haf fallen to uz Herr Raufer . Tell me. Vhat did you know of uz?"
The hulking vampyr lifts James' chin up with a ironclad boot;
"Speak und you may schtill live through zhis."
The would be adventurer meets Albrekt's gaze. "I don't have any idea who you are. We all saw that light show a couple of days ago and that got the whole town talking. Everybody was a-buzz with stories about the old demon temple."
He shifts his gaze to the fallen warrior, "Hallack got to talking about how evil was afoot and what with the army heading off to fight the hoard from the north, it was Farholde's problem to deal with. The dwarf said he knew the way and I figured that there might still be some treasures left unlooted, so I signed up."
It's at this point that Haruk makes his way down into the catacombs, and joins up with his companions. "If treasure and loot are what drives you, I believe we might be able to reach some sort of working agreement." The silver tongued devilish sorcerer offers.