Ahmose's blue draconic eyes stare across the cavern (crawling with creepy demonic insects) at the writhing mass that is the Queen.
Gross. Our Wizard have Prestidigitation for after this memorized?
At Sir Tandyn's not at all Lay on Hands, the Blue-scaled Kobold jumps!
Hey! I don't roll that way, good Sir!
Ahmose's blue eyes are laughing.
The Alchemist then states quite sternly at all of them.
Give me those Holy Waters! You guys stick to your thing and allow me to do mine, please.
He looks pointedly at Cecily....
The nearly empty bottle of holy water tossed by Cecily shatters to the ground the droplets sprayed sizzle and burn the fiends like acid would to normal flesh.
Thawm’s gout of flame washes over the abyssal insects, making the chamber a bit warmer, but their innate resistance to magic leaves Thawm’s target unscathed.
The swarms creep up to Thwam and Aroden , some of them take flight on poorly developed wings, their maddening chattering drawing closer and closer drilling into your brain until it's all you can think about. You begin to hear whispers in the gibbering, telling you to do things, awful acts and profane actions.
As the swarms crawl up Aroden and Thawm’s legs they begin to maticate on flesh as well as anything else that might be in your possession. In a matter of moments Aroden’s chain shirt has broken links and frayed leather, while Thawm’s clothing has rips and tears from vicious mandibles.
Round 1
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"EEP!" Thawm explains, as she bats a demon-bug away from her face.
Disgusting! Filthy demonic insects! All over the place! Sir Tandyn, if you could be quick about dispatching the Queen, that would be great!
Ahmose's blue draconic eyes stare at those disgusting birthing balls and intestines, kidneys and demonic insects creeping and crawling about his Wizard and Oracle!
The Blue Whisper then--Stealthily--Strides a bit further away...errr...into the Queen's Chambers (that's right!).
The Alchemist--Swiftly--draws out one of them borrowed Holy Water Flasks and tosses it at the Blue Swarm!
Aroden resists the maddening chatter of the insectile fiends, but he look with concern to his companions.
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2 things:
1) Thawm already beat the save for red, so... just one save? Right?
2) apparently it was obvious enough that it'd be a relatively short dungeon crawl before hopping down the hole. We all have Suppress Charms and Compulsions for a +4 morale on the will save vs gibbering (it's a compulsion); also 4->1 2nd level spells for oracle
Through a heroic effort of will, Dorek manages to avoid going insane. Scowling, he hurls himself at the vescavor queen, a whirlwind of claws and blades. "Oh g-gods, that thing has a lot of l-legs! Let's just s-stab it until it stops m-moving!" Charging forward, he does his best to sink his blade into the creature's insectile flesh.
Having seen a flash of sudden betrayal that was overcome by the power of Destiny, Aroden breathes a sigh of relief.
He moves out of the swarm, activates his Righteous Medal of Clarity as a swift action to gain +2 Int for 1 minute, and then channels the power of his divine will, blasting the fiends with holy power. He casts Burst of Radiance, catching both swarms.
Ahmose tosses another vial of holy water and expertly places it for maximum efficiency, even taking into account a slight breeze, the high humidity, and relatively high temperature. Masses of vescavores recoil at the impact but they are only slightly deterred.
Dorek charges the queen, again resisting the maddening noise emitted. His sword deflects off of her thick chitinous carapace.
Aroden flashes the swarm with a burst of radiance blinding half of them.
The queen begins to fly away from the menacing rogue. Its mouth begins to fill with acid and it spits a tremendous amount at Dorek, burning him badly. Dripping with acid Dorek notices that several of the singular vescavors in the chamber change direction and move towards him.
Round 2
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Slightly alarmed at the queen taking flight Tandyn jogs further into the cave while looking up at it.
"Foul insect... you should have never crawled out of the Abyss! By the will of the inheritor, you shall be purged!"
Tandyn reaches back and throws Radiance up at the queen. As it arrives, it launches into a zealous assault of holy slices and stabs.
"Ew ew ew!" Thawm explains as she bursts into flames and escapes the swarm of demonic insects.
She retreats next to Aroden, a 25' wide dim light in the otherwise pitch black cave.
"Walk through me, and be healed." the roughly human-shaped ball of warm healing light explains to Aroden, while extending an arm away from her loaded crossbow.
Cecily repositions to spread out a bit more, slinks into dragon style, and utters a phrase in draconic, manifesting a defensive screen in front of her.
Radiance cuts into the queen’s chitin, slicing off chunks of foul flesh before returning to Tandyn’s hand. Thawm turns into elemental healing while escaping the swarm. Cecily prepares for the inevitable.
The swarms begin to roil with activity after the vescavor queen’s attack, they ignore their previous targets and move directly towards Dorek.
Round 2
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Ahmose absently scratches his arse as the Alchemist considers the current events.....
Smirking a bit, the Blue-scaled Kobold Flies straight up 15' and towards the nice Queen lady--all Stealth like.
The now flying and hidden Alchemist tosses a Tanglefoot Bomb at the Flat-footed Flying Demon Queen of Disgusting other demon insects!
An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed. Huge or larger creatures are unaffected by a tanglefoot bag. A flying creature is not stuck to the floor, but it must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be unable to fly (assuming it uses its wings to fly) and fall to the ground. A tanglefoot bag does not function underwater.
Aroden will use his Bonded Item to cast another Burst of Radiance at the swarms.
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Sure, Aroden moves through the space of his Life Elemental ally.
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Ahmose tosses his bomb expertly at the demonic queen, covering her in tangling glue. The fragile wings are glued together causing it to crash to the ground.
Aroden’s magic disperses the nearby swarms ending the threat to Dorek.
As the queen takes off, Dorek scowls, shaking his blade menacingly at the retreating fiend. "Just... g-get back down here and f-fight!" He flinches back slightly as the queen crashes to the ground, entangled by Ahmose's bombs, but eagerly steps in to try and finish off the queen with his blades.
As the queen thuds to the ground its maddening noises start to infiltrate Tandyn's mind. It is only by the virtue of his Medal of Clarity and the sludgy tackiness of the regrettable wax clots lodged in his ears that he is spared.
The queen falls, but Cecily barely hears the thud.
Something in that awful drone just bores into her thoughts. It's just. SO.
Ahmose's blue draconic eyes stare at the downward dog demon Queen insect lady. He smiles.
Fly much? That landing looked a bit amateurish. How's your smashed on the hard floor from 15' up face feel?
Dorek slashes at the queen several times but finds that her exoskelton is harder than iron. Luckily he finds a weak point at a joint, sending demonic hemolymph spraying across the cavern floor.
The queen tears off Ahmose’s entangling thread with a quick claw strike and then stands up to menace the party again.
Round 3
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Cecily looks around a bit bemused for a second, but her gaze locks on to the queen, the source of her consternation, and she pushes the bewilderment into anger.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Tandyn blinks with astonishment. The swarms were dispersing. The queen's flight had been cut short. The entire battle had simplified greatly.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, he pushes forward with his gaze locked on the queen. Cautiously watching from behind his shield he finally sees his moment and delivers a quick upward slash.
Thawm takes a step closer to fire her crossbow. She burns slightly brighter as she mends her own wounds and the skin on Dorek's acid-based injuries dissolves in reverse.
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Cecily and Tandyn rip into the queen, tearing and slicing off sections of demonic flesh, spraying its ichor across the chamber. Scores of fetal vescavores wriggle their way out the wounds falling to the floor of the cavern before dying. And yet the queen still lives. From the tunnels you hear the droning of thousands of vescavores massing, responding to their queen’s cries.
Round 3
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Aroden blasts the Vescavor Queen with Magic Missile.
Ahmose's blue draconic wings easily hoover the Alchemist as he decides to play peek-a-boo and truly break that girls heart!
The hovering and hidden Alchemist tosses a Tanglefoot Bomb at the Flat-footed (most likely frustrated) Demon Queen of Disgusting other demon insects!
An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed. Huge or larger creatures are unaffected by a tanglefoot bag. A flying creature is not stuck to the floor, but it must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be unable to fly (assuming it uses its wings to fly) and fall to the ground. A tanglefoot bag does not function underwater.
Feeling good about his situation, circumstances, martial prowess, Ahmose's blue reptilian eyes watch the comings and goings of more Demon Swarms.
As his allies land blows against the monster, Dorek is sprayed with insectile gore and dying larval vescavors - the tiefling frantically bats away those gnawing creatures that happen to land on his armor or skin. "GAH! This t-thing practically is the h-horde!" Dorek continues his attack, glancing at Tandyn as he moves down towards the paladin. "D-don't let it get back off the g-ground!"
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Aroden’s magic overcomes the queen’s natural resistance to magic, slamming four bolts of force into it. A moment later a bomb explodes on impact directly to its gaping mandibles. As the creature begins to slump over, Dorek delivers a fatal blow killing the queen vescavor, ending the threat to your army. Without her motherly (insanity inducing) noise the swarms menacing you begin to dissolve and flee, in search of easier prey, shrieking their maddening song as they do so.
Without the din of combat and the distracting nuisance of the swarms you are able to notice something strange about the southern wall:
A long, rippling crevice of nauseating mauve energy splits the southern wall of this otherwise empty cave, a tear in reality through which roiling clouds of mist churn and twist. The edges of the rift pulse and writhe, widen and contract, almost as if it were an organic thing. The temperature is noticeably hotter here than elsewhere in the caves, and the air carries on it the foul stench of burning flesh. As you watch a few fresh vescavors slip through the strange crack to buzz hungrily.
Tandyn breathes a sigh of relief. "Splendid! They actually dispersed! Impressive performance everyone." His hand slides the hemolymph mixed with sticky bomb residue off Radiance. "That wall over there's... certainly concerning. I suppose we should check it out, but I'd prefer to be ironclad first..." He unpacks his full plate, looks around for help, and begins re-donning it.
When the queen collapses and the other demonic vermin begin to flee, Thawm's fiery glow fades as she lets out a long sigh.
She then puts her crossbow away and gets to work, first healing Aroden and then taking time to mend her own injuries and the ones she absorbed from Dorek.
Blue reptilian eyes watch as the others finish off the sticky situation. Ahmose casually takes out a notebook, scribbles something into it (looks like it's into a few pages), places it away and claps.
Well done! Valiant efforts all around. Blah...blah ...this Good stuff is really more difficult than those Priests make it look.
He glances over to Aroden.
No offense. And nice medal.
Noticing something strange over on the wall, the Alchemist meanders on over for a look-see.
Ahmose is seen boarding up the....
Quick, man! Anyone got any adamantine!
The lingering effects of the Righteous Medal of Clarity are enough to jog Aroden's fractured memory - to a point, anyway.
"Ah, yes, an Abyssal Rift, like... like when... that time..."
He shakes his head.
"I don't have the magic to seal it. Aravashnial or Sosiel might."
Cecily takes a knee and rubs her temples for a few moments while she catches her breath. It takes her a few moments more to realize that the others are talking, and she fishes the wax out of her ears then looks over to the rift they're discussing. After hearing them out, she looks around the rest of the cave.
"If we can't seal it could we block it? Perhaps collapse the cave? Is there anything else here that should help the cause?"
Well done! Valiant efforts all around. Blah...blah ...this Good stuff is really more difficult than those Priests make it look.
"Is it? I'm fairly certain it's just caring about other people mixed with a little discipline to do something about it... And as for how I talk, well, treating others with respect and maintaining a dignified image were part of the training."
"If we can't seal it could we block it? Perhaps collapse the cave?"
"Perhaps an explosion?" Tandyn looks directly at Ahmose while he rolls on the ground trying to hold a plate in the right place while his arms contort to manipulate a buckle.
Thawm eventually takes her wax ear plugs out too.
"A crack in the planes leading to the abyss! I don't think a physical barrier would help much. We need to ask Aravashniel for his expertise." Thawm asserts.
As you talk and consider your options the rift in reality bulges and distorts as if someone or something is pushing through from the other side. Tandyn hasn't been able to don his armor yet.
"Ahmose, I believe that here, here, and there would be the most effective sites for explosives to collapse the cave wall. That could at least delay whatever is coming through that rift."
Thawm clasps her hands together and gives Ahmose her most effective pleading face: puppy-dog eyes.
Ahmose sighs.
The Alchemist stands back from each pointed out surface area before launching Bombs at those locations!
The disgruntled Blue-scaled Kobold mumbles something about bombs not exactly growing on trees.....
Looking back into the recently collapsed chamber, rubbing a bit of debris from his cloak, Ahmose wonders if anyone got out in time....
As the queen falls, Dorek breaths a sigh of relief, shaking the insect guts off his blades as best he can before stowing them in their sheaths. He glances over as his aasimar ally begins to wrestle with his full plate, furrowing his brow. "DID YOU D-DROP SOMETHING, TANDYN?" Realizing himself, he fishes in his ears with a talon and removes the earplugs, stowing them away in a pocket of his clothes. "S-sorry - forgot I had them in. It's a lot q-quieter without all that b-buzzing, isn't it?"
Dorek steps back rather hurriedly as Ahmose and Aroden discuss how to place the explosives to collapse the cave. "W-whatever is coming t-through there - probably more b-bugs, the way our l-luck is going - I'd prefer to see how it h-handles us dropping rocks on it before we try f-fighting it."
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With a crash of falling rocks incited by violent explosions the portal to the Abyss is choked enough that only tiny demons have a chance of squeezing through. The remaining vescavors disperse within 10 minutes allowing your army a clear path to Drezen. As dusk quickly approaches, its sinister darkness falling over you, you are a mere 3 miles away from the citadel which guards the Sword of Valor. Tomorrow you are able to begin the seige.
Ahmose smiles widely, shaking hands, patting backs, kissing babies, handing out Election buttons, and just walking about camp after the company returns from the Darkness that Buzzes.
The Blue Whisper even seemed happy that the others also made it out of there.....
After an hour of snoozing, the Alchemist retires to his tent to blow s@$! up for a bit ...
Moving quietly before the first light, Tandyn performs a comprehensive set of stretches followed by an extended version of his daily prayer for guidance and protection. He carefully repacks his gear and then goes on a slow, thoughtful walk between the tents. After passing each tent at least once, he returns to the center of camp to prepare some breakfast rations and wait.
As they stop to camp, Cecily surveys the short miles to Drezen in the fading light. She expects a quick victory after their recent performance. She flags down a soldier to set up her tent as she cares for Roche and prepares to get a good night's sleep.
Aroden meets up with Aravashnial, and humbly requests access to the Riftwarden's spellbook.
"The spell of Heroism could be most beneficial to our efforts."
He takes the time to decipher Aravashnial's particular style of magical writing, not having prepared Read Magic today.
Then he works to learn the spell.
Aroden learns the spell, and spends several hours into the night writing it into his spellbook.
Marching up the for the last few miles you notice the riverbed rising out of the Ahari gorge, the stink of smoke and grime heavy on the wind. Then you see your goal, the ruins of Drezen. The citadel itself still stands, the thick carved granite walls still formidable against an attacking army, despite it being unfinished by dwarven craftsmen working on it before its capture. Surrounding the citadel and its exterior walls was a city, now ruined and useless, the demons obviously had no desire or reason to restore it, despite the need to house their humanoid allies.
Throughout the collapsed buildings you spy smoke from many campfires. From the drained riverbed of the Sellen you can see several different sorts of figures with bat-like wings darting in and out of some unseen cave or shelter. Above flying overhead you see a large creature with wide white wings and three heads, it roars loudly. The city and citadel is not undefended.
Your advisors approach you. Anevia speaks first, ”We’d, Aron and I, would like to scout out the city and assess their defenses. Better to know what we’re up against, right?” She chuckles nervously.
Aron clears his voice saying something, ”Here’s a map of the citadel , it will be out of date but I know where the Sword of Valor used to be kept. It will be hard to march our army into it and we can’t afford a protracted siege. Our supplies won’t last long enough to force them out, despite master Horgus’ logistical ability."
Irabeth suggest, "We should use the army to take the parts of the surrounding city that we are able to and use an infiltration team,” she looks pointedly at the party, ”for surgical strikes where the army is impractical, which includes the citadel interior by the looks of it.”
Aravashnial adds, ”A demon army can also teleport in to shore up their defenses. The longer we delay the more likely a force will be sent. Perhaps not for a while since the intelligence reports were that the demons were massing for an invasion on the southern border, but it will happen eventually without the Sword’s protection.”
"All excellent ideas. Maybe we should also see if Nurah is feeling any more helpful today. I suspect the horn we confiscated might be for some sort of signal." Knight Commander Uhturj suggests.