You make your way through the gaping doors, you find yourselves finally in the most fortified room in this dwarven realm. The doors have been ripped not from the outside, but from within. The room stretches almost to the edge of your darkvision, and at the end is a stone dais, each step carved from a different stone, the throne stone chased in carved patterns. Even from here, you can see that something has been carved from the throne and the pillars. The walls would have been covered with tapestries, but with the tapestries burned away they are covered in sooty abstract patterns of stone.
The wall behind the throne has been shattered, burned, melted and crushed, and darkness gapes beyond.
Unfortunately, the room is not empty. Three dwarves still stand guard here along with their new master.
The dwarves eyes and mouths burn with dark flame, and their flesh sags under the weight of years of undeath.
The air crackles with energy, and beyond the ruined wall you hear a distant roar like a fire or a waterfall.
Gunnar flattens against the door, ice in his veins. "My skills shall serve well against the Deep One. Master Allknower, which materials shall I use for my bullets?"
He does not look at the dwarves. He could not bear the look of Hilde changed, twisted, taken, and he would not be of use if griefstruck. Instead, he sharpens his hate to a knife's edge, looking for the most vulnerable parts of the target.
"Perhaps Someknower would be a more fitting monkier." Dasur replies to Gunnar as he removes a small shovel from his belt pouch. "For the Deep Ones are unknown to me. Not for long, however. A dissection will tell us much."
The moment foretold within Zhashilgeax's scintillating depth was at hand. They would not fail. They could not fail. When the throne enters the edges of his darkvision, a feeling of pride and conviction surges through his typically calm demeanor, overwhelming the logical thought of his multi-faceted mind.
Dasurdoes not wait.
With a burst of incantation and an outstretched hand, the wizard drops the dwarven thralls of the Black Flame into a pit.
The undead dwarf in the lead jumps forward, dodging the pit for the moment. The dwarf on its flank falls into the pit.
Garnet seizes on the opportunity and steps into the room (5 foot step), hammering the closest undead enemy dwarf with her magic Dwarven Longhammer!
If we get an action before things kick off, Torvi throws down haste on the group.
Garnet smashes the longhammer into the tough dry flesh of the burning dwarf. The dwarf is tough, and the blow rebounds more than she would expect, but still the flesh is torn. From the gaping wound, fire flows like dripping water. This dwarf wears no armor, just simple robes.
Snorri will step in next to Garnet, awaiting the dwarves to come to him.
28 Gunnar
23 Iverna
22 Baddies
22 Garn
16 Erebos
15 Glenda
13 Dasur
11 Torvi
4 Snorri
Gunnar takes aim at the horrific leader. Enhanced by Torvi's magic and Gunnar's wrath, the pelletbow whistles as elastic energy turns into mechanical as metal balls go whistling through the air one after another, all aimed at the Deep One's vitals. Some spirit from the ancient times must have blessed his aim with luck, as four times the blow is true.
If we get an action before things kick off, Torvi throws down haste on the group.
What do I know about them?
The metal balls tear through the strange fish folk, blasting black blood across the throne and broken walls. He falls to the stone floor with a wet thud.
Iverna takes advantage of the advancing dwarven army and slides through them, making her way around the columns and behind the arcade.
The dwarven corpse that Garn attacked ducks forward within the reach of her weapon. He carries no weapon, but that is often no problem.
The other dwarf moves forward toward Snorri . He opens his mouth and black flame boils from its mouth, covering several of you.
Fire sparks off Garnet's magical protection and the fireforged steel of her full plate armor, but none of it is concentrated enough to activate her weapon's own flaming properties .
Stepping back to give herself room to work, Garnet starts her repertoire of massive hammer attacks in retaliation to the beating the black flame monk just gave her!
Garn's hammer crushes her fist fighting opponent, and she turns her hammer to its companion. That blow glances off armor.
Purple is wearing plate mail and wielding a massive, though not long, hammer.
As Garn's foe drops to the ground, the black flame rises out of it like smoke before being drawn backward beyond the broken throneroom wall into whatever is beyond.
Torvi will start her battle song as a move action...
Raging song: +4 STR/CON, +3 Will Save, -1 AC, Cannot use CHA, DEX, or INT based skills except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride), or any ability that requires patience or concentration.
Celestial Totem, Lesser (Su): Cure spells heal CL extra Hp, non spell magical healing does class level extra.
Celestial Totem (Su): While raging, the barbarian shines with a righteous light. This effect bestows upon the barbarian a halo of gleaming light that shines as if it were daylight and triggers an invisibility purge effect in the barbarian’s square and each adjacent square. The invisibility purge only affects nongood creatures. A barbarian must be at least 8th level to select this rage power.
Reckless Abandon (Ex): While raging, the barbarian can take a –3 penalty to AC to gain a +3 bonus on attack rolls.
As a standard action, she will then cast path of glory placing it under her square and the 3 diagonals under her to the SE.
Managing to avoid most of the black flame, Snorri works to return the favor with Dammerhall's Legacy.
Snorri hacks away at the animate dwarven corpse. Where his axe strikes, black flame pours forth.
Glenda conjures a spiritual weapon to aid in the fighting, though it seems likely that the warriors will put an end to this horror quickly.
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Not noticing the state of the fallen foe, Gunnar turns to the one fighting against Snorri and unleashes another volley, aiming the first shot to bounce against the helmet, loudly but harmlessly.
The bow bullets ring off of armor and tear at desiccated flesh, but the terrors continue to fight.
Iverna moves quickly from her cover behind the arcade, sliding up behind the dwarves like a shadow.
What you definitely see is the point of the dagger protruding from the chest of the animated dwarf as the black fire pours from the wound. It pools for a moment on the stone floor before it begins to flow away from you toward the jagged teeth of the broken wall at the back of the throne room.
22 Garn
16 Erebos
15 Glenda
13 Dasur
11 Torvi
4 Snorri
As the paladin just manages to dodge multiple attacks - albeit only barely - he takes a deep breath and takes the offensive.
As a Swift Action, Torvi extends the path of glory to 4 more grid squares. Suns added to the field.
She then moves forward and takes a swing at the yellow creature.
Bludgeon
Do recall to take 10hp of healing, if you take the rage song and end your turn on a starred square. They are physically glowing, so you can see them.
Snorri and Torvi carve limbs from the remaining undead and crush its skull. As the body is left in pieces, the black flame pours from its wounds, again flowing backward into the darkness beyond the broken wall at the back of the throne room.
With the nearby enemies destroyed, Garnet lets the rage flow through her and uses her hasted movement to sep East, then southeast, then straight south until sh draws even with the strange fish creature Iverna attacked (40 feet movement). She then swings her hammer in a powerful but reckless attack at the creature, attempting to pile-drive it into the ground with a single overhead smash!
(Rage, Reckless, Haste)
Garnet moves to smash the icthyoid. His previous wounds are coated with some sort of black goo that his body has extruded, but as the great hammer sinks into its torso, the flame from her hammer licks over the creature's flesh, drying it. The flesh flakes away, and the creature itself begins to melt into a pile of black goo.
Erebos flicker's into substance next to the corpse, "Take care where you swing that thing. This one carries valuable magics..."
Magically hastened, Gunnar steps towards the pit, balancing on the slope and firing at the possessed dwarf downwards. His mind still struggles to maintain denial, to avoid looking at the face of someone at whose side he once fought.
"Are those magics keeping it alive? If so, unweave them, that our task may proceed!"
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Torvi extends the healing floor to include Gunnar. She doesn't feel like moving up to the pit, she'll let Gunnar handle that.
The dwarven undead claws at the walls of the pit, but can't get purchase to climb up.
Snorri keeps himself within Torvi's healing until his wounds completely heal. "As soon as you are able, Oathminder, put an end to the misery of the last one and then we can proceed. I am certain this is only a taste of what we are to face."
Garnet moves back up to stand on a glowing path, her hammer ready should the foe climb out of the pit.