The Tower of Corbies Part 1:
A Shitty Situation
Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Osaw, Tali's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Halftaur" Wererat Berserker; who sees magic where there is none
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud's "Momma"
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Osaw, Tali's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Halftaur" Wererat Berserker; who sees magic where there is none
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud's "Momma"
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who really likes killing things
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild
Medic Stonebandage, the Deep Gnome Priest of Smoothhands from the Stoneheart Enclave
Smoothpalm, the Deep Gnome Monk of Smoothhands
Terrik Stoneshot, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger from the Bounty Hunter's Guild
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Commoner
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Commoner
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who really likes killing things
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild
Medic Stonebandage, the Deep Gnome Priest of Smoothhands from the Stoneheart Enclave
Smoothpalm, the Deep Gnome Monk of Smoothhands
Terrik Stoneshot, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger from the Bounty Hunter's Guild
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Commoner
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Commoner
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Stool, the Myconid Child- unwilling dance partner to drunk stone giant
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Friendly fire overall: 146
Party members killed: 22
Overall party members lost: 31
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Highharvestide Holiday, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
As we assessed the situation below us, two vrocks flew out of the tower, dove and grabbed a mane each, and shredded the shit out of them. They then flipped around and flew back to the tower, vanishing as they reached it. Weird... Screams began to echo through the cavern, the sound made it feel like my brain was peeling from the noise, and the manes and dretches retreated. Most of our group fell over stunned at the sound.
Once everyone had their wits about them, we decided who should go to the tower and who should stay behind at the caravan. It ended up being Lily, Rosebud, Tali, Flimflam, Medic, and myself that would go to the tower, the others would stay behind to protect the caravan. We had to go down a cliff to reach the level the tower was on, so Lily cast Featherfall on all of us so we could just jump off the ledge.
There was a huge chasm that we would have to cross to get to the door of the tower, and there was no bridge, of course. Lily grabbed Flimflam and used a portal thingy that put them on the opposite side of the chasm. Flimflam then proceeded to blow the door open, announcing our presence before all of us were there and ready to battle. Tali shifted, grabbed Medic and leapt across. I downed a potion of gaseous form to get across, and Tali called back to Rosebud she'd hop back over in a moment to help him- the boy paced anxiously.
Lily summoned a large, green spectral hand to block the doorway, keeping the corbies in so we could cross safely. Flimflam shot two fireballs over Lily's Hand, and as they erupted manacles appeared on his wrists, and Medic was outlined in faerie fire. Twenty-three corbies were slain by Flimflam's blast. Smoke began billowing out of the doorway, making my stomach do cartwheels, but I was able to keep my breakfast down. Poor Medic on the other hand was puking violently, he swayed as if stunned, and his eyes began watering. Flimflam somehow managed to turn the manacles that had appeared on his wrists invisible while struggling to get them off, I don't know how he manages to do such odd things with his magic, but I've never seen spells do such things at random before. I suppose he just isn't as disciplined- or sane- as the War Wizards in Cormyr.
When Medic had his wits about him again, Lily moved his Hand so we could enter the building. The poor priest was again violently ill, but this time so was Tali and Yklwa. It turned out that the corbies had pretty much coated the room in shit, and Flimflam's fireballs turned the shit into a horrible, noxious gas. I couldn't even get an idea of what this room used to look like, there was no furniture, no artwork, nothing, just a room painted in shit- that was now smoldering.
We could hear movement in the adjoining room, and could vaguely make out shapes moving in the smoky haze. Lily used his magic to light up the room, but we still couldn't really make out any details. As we began to approach that room, Medic and Yklwa were sickened anew- there couldn't be much left for them to upchuck at this point.
Rosebud charged into the room and cleaved through two of the corbies, killing them instantly. Tali bounded in after him and sunk her teeth into one- that couldn't have tasted good- and I followed her, activated my Rod's spear function, and finished that one off. The final corby in this room took a swipe at Rosebud, and completely biffed it. Rosebud responded with a mule kick to the head, killing it.
Medic was still completely miserable, and pretty much useless, so as soon as we finished off the corbies, he said he wanted to go back to the caravan. Lily used her dimensional doorway spell again, and swapped Medic out for Mezzem. After we swapped those two out, we headed for the next room.
When we attempted to quietly open the door to the next room, it squeaked- well, we didn't really have much chance of sneaking up on them anyways after Flimflam's explosion. Rosebud cried out "for momma!" and charged in- corbies swarmed him. They were nasty little fuckers, covered in spikes, their maws dripping acid. The corbies had been hit with a demonic taint, giving them the spikes and acid; they weren't just dire corbies anymore, they were fiendish dire corbies now. Flimflam shot a lightning bolt into the room, which didn't seem to affect them much, and their eyes began glowing red- I'll admit, it was fucking creepy.
One of the corbies climbed the shit-coated wall and lashed out at Rosebud; another climbed and hit Flimflam, hard enough to drop him unconscious- Lily rushed to his aid and revived him. Tali, having boots that allowed her to climb, walked up the wall and shot at two of them. This little hallway room was getting crowded quickly. Three more of the disgusting creatures attempted to climb the wall, and slipped in their own shit, falling. I suppose that's karma. Mezzem came up and summoned her spirit guardians, and completely blocked the doorway so I couldn't do anything.
Rosebud dropped two more of them, and opened up a path for me to get in. I dashed in and dropped one with my Rod while Rosebud swung at another one, and I saw one fall from Tali's arrow. Flimflam released a ray of frost at them, which did seem to hurt them, but none fell. Lily stabbed one and announced to us that they seemed to be raging- like what Rosebud does in battle. Joy.
A spectral weapon appeared and swung at one of the corbies- Mezzem's doing- while I plunged my blade into one, killing it. Two of the corbies struck me in return, as Mezzem's spirit guards dropped one, and Rosebud beat the hell out of one- killing it. Mezzem jumped onto Rosebud's back and struck down the final one in this room. Everything went eerily silent and still. The only things in the room were a couple of eggs, which Rosebud smashed.
The doorway at the end of the hall we were in was so caked in filth that it was basically glued shut, and Rosebud had to wrestle with it a little to open the damned thing. Loyal Torm, this place is disgusting. Flimflam strode into the room and unleashed a wave of thunder at them. Rosebud, of course, charged in, but this time Mezzem was on his back. One of the corbies was a slightly different color than the others, and was draped in some rags- it saw Mezzem's spirit guards and ended the spell. Great, they have mages, that's fucking fantastic.
Corbies swarmed Rosebud, since he's such a large target; I hurried in and dropped one of the ones attempting to surround the boy. Tali climbed the wall in the room and killed the mage- thankfully that one seemed easy to kill. Mezzem began slashing at the corbies around Rosebud, since she was still riding him, and dropped one. They all seemed to be interested only in Rosebud, which was making them a little easier to contain. We all began just stabbing the fiends, and made short work of the ones in that room- even Yklwa was getting some hits in.
We were at the base of a staircase, which Rosebud wanted to charge up blindly, but Lily stopped him. Lily had seen some traps in the walls- though I'm not sure how he spotted them through the fecal wall paint. Before we went up, Mezzem took a moment to heal us all. The traps didn't go off as we went up the stairs, so they were either too caked with shit to work, or the corbies had already set them off on themselves. The door at the top of the stairs was locked, but fortunately Mezzem had a spell that would temporarily cleanse it, allowing us to get the stupid door unlocked.
The door made a sickening sucking-squishy noise as Rosebud forced it open- this place is fucking disgusting. On the other side of the door was what appeared to have been a small sitting room at some point in its life. There were remnants of couches in it, but they were also decorated in shit, just like everything else in the damned tower thus far- though unlike every other room we've entered, this one was completely void of corbies.
As we opened the door to the next room, Rosebud convinced Mezzem to toss out a card from his Deck of Illusions, to summon something to aid us. She did, and it produced a fire giant that seemed to give the corbies pause. I stepped in behind it and saw what was once four beds, that had been turned into nests, and six pairs of eyes were facing me and the fire giant. Flimflam came in the room behind me, said he was sorry, and released another wave of thunder into the room- it only stung me, but damn he's reckless.
Tali strode into the room on the wall again, showoff, and shot one. A black beam hit me square in the chest and pain coursed through me- wonderful, they have more mages. The corbies began swarming Rosebud's fire giants, while a completely white corby with red eyes struck me with a mace, pain lanced through my body as they began swarming me; I bolted back to the stairwell so I could heal a little. They had quite seriously injured me.
The giant hurt a couple of them as they continued beating on the illusion. Rosebud charged in and attacked the beasts, and I saw a radiant bolt fly from Mezzem right into the albino corby. Flimflam sent a ball of acid at one of the corbies, and Lily insulted the albino; it almost fell off the ceiling. The red corby in the room appeared to mutter something and Rosebud's giant vanished. Rosebud kept slashing at the corbies surrounding him, while Mezzem released another bolt of radiant light, killing the albino. Tali was shooting at the red- the mage- as corbies continued to surround Rosebud, and a few even lunged at her. Feeling a little better now, I went back into the fray, and jabbed my spear in between Rosebud and Flimflam to hit one of the corbies. Flimflam unleashed another wave of thunder, killing eight of them, and hitting both Rosebud and Mezzem.
Another black beam came streaking across the room and hit Rosebud, as two spectral weapons- that were definitely not Mezzem's- popped up on either side of the halftaur, striking both him and the priestess on his back. Lily summoned her giant green hand again, and it pummeled one of the fiends. I saw another one fall from Tali's arrow, at the same time that the warmth and pain of Bahamut's healing light coarsed through me, my flesh beginning to knit closed. I squeezed into the room and hacked at one of them- there really seemed to be no end to these fucking things. Both my target and its spectral weapon retaliated against me.
Flimflam sent another ball of acid at one, and tried some sort of mind magic on me- I don't know what in the Hells he was thinking. Flimflam's wild magic surge had caused Claire to believe she'd been hit with mind magic, but really nothing of the sort had occurred. Lily insulted one of the red corbies and it dropped. Rosebud dropped another one, and one came up and landed a nasty blow on Lily- I dropped that one before it could hurt her further. Lily's hand grabbed one and literally squeezed it to death, and she insulted the last corby to death.
Our mages were low on their magical energies, we were all injured and in desperate need of a rest. We barricaded the doors and Lily dropped her magic Hut on us.We should be safe enough while we get a rest.
***** Marpenoth 1, the caravan
Roswyn, Medic, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Smoothpalm, and Terrik were waiting back at the caravan for the rest of the party to return. They'd been gone overnight, and the group was a little concerned about them, but they had seen the others in action, and had faith they'd make it out of the tower in one piece.
Roswyn spotted a small, six-legged serpent go into the rocks around them. She got the group's attention and pointed it out, but only Seluna was able to see it. The druid said it wasn't a natural creature, and tossed faerie fire at it to illuminate it for the rest of the group, which it dodged easily. The beast took flight, and it looked like a tiny dragon- it was a dracolisk, half dragon and half basilisk.
Smoothpalm chucked his basalt sphere at the dracolisk and hit it square in the face. Terrik opened fire on it, and Twyla took a shot with her bow- which she missed horribly. It turned its petrifying gaze on Seluna, and the priestess was suddenly a statue. She was the best equipped to fight the beast, so without her, this fight could get bumpy.
Roswyn unleashed three arrows on the dracolisk, but only one struck home. Medic unleashed his sacred flame on it, and it was unable to avoid his holy strike. Smoothpalm and Terrik both stuck it again, and poor Twyla fumbled another arrow. The beast breathed a purple mist at everyone except Roswyn, who was slightly away from the rest of the group. Medic and Twyla were dazed from the mist, and Niles, Smoothpalm, and Terrik were ordered by it to attack each other; they all saw one another as the dracolisk and didn't realize it was an illusion to hurt their friends.
The charm was over quickly, though not before Smoothpalm beat poor Niles to a bloody pulp. Roswyn peppered it with more arrows, and Terrik somehow shook off the charm and blasted it- it was bleeding profusely at this point. The petrifying gaze turned to Terrik now, and the gunslinger was turned to stone; it then moved to flee, but Medic was slightly faster. The priest hit it with another sacred flame and then sent his spiritual weapon after it- dealing the final blow.
Roswyn revived Niles, but there was nothing she or Medic could do to help Seluna and Terrik; they just didn't have strong enough magic to help them.
As we assessed the situation below us, two vrocks flew out of the tower, dove and grabbed a mane each, and shredded the shit out of them. They then flipped around and flew back to the tower, vanishing as they reached it. Weird... Screams began to echo through the cavern, the sound made it feel like my brain was peeling from the noise, and the manes and dretches retreated. Most of our group fell over stunned at the sound.
Once everyone had their wits about them, we decided who should go to the tower and who should stay behind at the caravan. It ended up being Lily, Rosebud, Tali, Flimflam, Medic, and myself that would go to the tower, the others would stay behind to protect the caravan. We had to go down a cliff to reach the level the tower was on, so Lily cast Featherfall on all of us so we could just jump off the ledge.
There was a huge chasm that we would have to cross to get to the door of the tower, and there was no bridge, of course. Lily grabbed Flimflam and used a portal thingy that put them on the opposite side of the chasm. Flimflam then proceeded to blow the door open, announcing our presence before all of us were there and ready to battle. Tali shifted, grabbed Medic and leapt across. I downed a potion of gaseous form to get across, and Tali called back to Rosebud she'd hop back over in a moment to help him- the boy paced anxiously.
Lily summoned a large, green spectral hand to block the doorway, keeping the corbies in so we could cross safely. Flimflam shot two fireballs over Lily's Hand, and as they erupted manacles appeared on his wrists, and Medic was outlined in faerie fire. Twenty-three corbies were slain by Flimflam's blast. Smoke began billowing out of the doorway, making my stomach do cartwheels, but I was able to keep my breakfast down. Poor Medic on the other hand was puking violently, he swayed as if stunned, and his eyes began watering. Flimflam somehow managed to turn the manacles that had appeared on his wrists invisible while struggling to get them off, I don't know how he manages to do such odd things with his magic, but I've never seen spells do such things at random before. I suppose he just isn't as disciplined- or sane- as the War Wizards in Cormyr.
When Medic had his wits about him again, Lily moved his Hand so we could enter the building. The poor priest was again violently ill, but this time so was Tali and Yklwa. It turned out that the corbies had pretty much coated the room in shit, and Flimflam's fireballs turned the shit into a horrible, noxious gas. I couldn't even get an idea of what this room used to look like, there was no furniture, no artwork, nothing, just a room painted in shit- that was now smoldering.
We could hear movement in the adjoining room, and could vaguely make out shapes moving in the smoky haze. Lily used his magic to light up the room, but we still couldn't really make out any details. As we began to approach that room, Medic and Yklwa were sickened anew- there couldn't be much left for them to upchuck at this point.
Rosebud charged into the room and cleaved through two of the corbies, killing them instantly. Tali bounded in after him and sunk her teeth into one- that couldn't have tasted good- and I followed her, activated my Rod's spear function, and finished that one off. The final corby in this room took a swipe at Rosebud, and completely biffed it. Rosebud responded with a mule kick to the head, killing it.
Medic was still completely miserable, and pretty much useless, so as soon as we finished off the corbies, he said he wanted to go back to the caravan. Lily used her dimensional doorway spell again, and swapped Medic out for Mezzem. After we swapped those two out, we headed for the next room.
When we attempted to quietly open the door to the next room, it squeaked- well, we didn't really have much chance of sneaking up on them anyways after Flimflam's explosion. Rosebud cried out "for momma!" and charged in- corbies swarmed him. They were nasty little fuckers, covered in spikes, their maws dripping acid. The corbies had been hit with a demonic taint, giving them the spikes and acid; they weren't just dire corbies anymore, they were fiendish dire corbies now. Flimflam shot a lightning bolt into the room, which didn't seem to affect them much, and their eyes began glowing red- I'll admit, it was fucking creepy.
One of the corbies climbed the shit-coated wall and lashed out at Rosebud; another climbed and hit Flimflam, hard enough to drop him unconscious- Lily rushed to his aid and revived him. Tali, having boots that allowed her to climb, walked up the wall and shot at two of them. This little hallway room was getting crowded quickly. Three more of the disgusting creatures attempted to climb the wall, and slipped in their own shit, falling. I suppose that's karma. Mezzem came up and summoned her spirit guardians, and completely blocked the doorway so I couldn't do anything.
Rosebud dropped two more of them, and opened up a path for me to get in. I dashed in and dropped one with my Rod while Rosebud swung at another one, and I saw one fall from Tali's arrow. Flimflam released a ray of frost at them, which did seem to hurt them, but none fell. Lily stabbed one and announced to us that they seemed to be raging- like what Rosebud does in battle. Joy.
A spectral weapon appeared and swung at one of the corbies- Mezzem's doing- while I plunged my blade into one, killing it. Two of the corbies struck me in return, as Mezzem's spirit guards dropped one, and Rosebud beat the hell out of one- killing it. Mezzem jumped onto Rosebud's back and struck down the final one in this room. Everything went eerily silent and still. The only things in the room were a couple of eggs, which Rosebud smashed.
The doorway at the end of the hall we were in was so caked in filth that it was basically glued shut, and Rosebud had to wrestle with it a little to open the damned thing. Loyal Torm, this place is disgusting. Flimflam strode into the room and unleashed a wave of thunder at them. Rosebud, of course, charged in, but this time Mezzem was on his back. One of the corbies was a slightly different color than the others, and was draped in some rags- it saw Mezzem's spirit guards and ended the spell. Great, they have mages, that's fucking fantastic.
Corbies swarmed Rosebud, since he's such a large target; I hurried in and dropped one of the ones attempting to surround the boy. Tali climbed the wall in the room and killed the mage- thankfully that one seemed easy to kill. Mezzem began slashing at the corbies around Rosebud, since she was still riding him, and dropped one. They all seemed to be interested only in Rosebud, which was making them a little easier to contain. We all began just stabbing the fiends, and made short work of the ones in that room- even Yklwa was getting some hits in.
We were at the base of a staircase, which Rosebud wanted to charge up blindly, but Lily stopped him. Lily had seen some traps in the walls- though I'm not sure how he spotted them through the fecal wall paint. Before we went up, Mezzem took a moment to heal us all. The traps didn't go off as we went up the stairs, so they were either too caked with shit to work, or the corbies had already set them off on themselves. The door at the top of the stairs was locked, but fortunately Mezzem had a spell that would temporarily cleanse it, allowing us to get the stupid door unlocked.
The door made a sickening sucking-squishy noise as Rosebud forced it open- this place is fucking disgusting. On the other side of the door was what appeared to have been a small sitting room at some point in its life. There were remnants of couches in it, but they were also decorated in shit, just like everything else in the damned tower thus far- though unlike every other room we've entered, this one was completely void of corbies.
As we opened the door to the next room, Rosebud convinced Mezzem to toss out a card from his Deck of Illusions, to summon something to aid us. She did, and it produced a fire giant that seemed to give the corbies pause. I stepped in behind it and saw what was once four beds, that had been turned into nests, and six pairs of eyes were facing me and the fire giant. Flimflam came in the room behind me, said he was sorry, and released another wave of thunder into the room- it only stung me, but damn he's reckless.
Tali strode into the room on the wall again, showoff, and shot one. A black beam hit me square in the chest and pain coursed through me- wonderful, they have more mages. The corbies began swarming Rosebud's fire giants, while a completely white corby with red eyes struck me with a mace, pain lanced through my body as they began swarming me; I bolted back to the stairwell so I could heal a little. They had quite seriously injured me.
The giant hurt a couple of them as they continued beating on the illusion. Rosebud charged in and attacked the beasts, and I saw a radiant bolt fly from Mezzem right into the albino corby. Flimflam sent a ball of acid at one of the corbies, and Lily insulted the albino; it almost fell off the ceiling. The red corby in the room appeared to mutter something and Rosebud's giant vanished. Rosebud kept slashing at the corbies surrounding him, while Mezzem released another bolt of radiant light, killing the albino. Tali was shooting at the red- the mage- as corbies continued to surround Rosebud, and a few even lunged at her. Feeling a little better now, I went back into the fray, and jabbed my spear in between Rosebud and Flimflam to hit one of the corbies. Flimflam unleashed another wave of thunder, killing eight of them, and hitting both Rosebud and Mezzem.
Another black beam came streaking across the room and hit Rosebud, as two spectral weapons- that were definitely not Mezzem's- popped up on either side of the halftaur, striking both him and the priestess on his back. Lily summoned her giant green hand again, and it pummeled one of the fiends. I saw another one fall from Tali's arrow, at the same time that the warmth and pain of Bahamut's healing light coarsed through me, my flesh beginning to knit closed. I squeezed into the room and hacked at one of them- there really seemed to be no end to these fucking things. Both my target and its spectral weapon retaliated against me.
Flimflam sent another ball of acid at one, and tried some sort of mind magic on me- I don't know what in the Hells he was thinking. Flimflam's wild magic surge had caused Claire to believe she'd been hit with mind magic, but really nothing of the sort had occurred. Lily insulted one of the red corbies and it dropped. Rosebud dropped another one, and one came up and landed a nasty blow on Lily- I dropped that one before it could hurt her further. Lily's hand grabbed one and literally squeezed it to death, and she insulted the last corby to death.
Our mages were low on their magical energies, we were all injured and in desperate need of a rest. We barricaded the doors and Lily dropped her magic Hut on us.We should be safe enough while we get a rest.
***** Marpenoth 1, the caravan
Roswyn, Medic, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Smoothpalm, and Terrik were waiting back at the caravan for the rest of the party to return. They'd been gone overnight, and the group was a little concerned about them, but they had seen the others in action, and had faith they'd make it out of the tower in one piece.
Roswyn spotted a small, six-legged serpent go into the rocks around them. She got the group's attention and pointed it out, but only Seluna was able to see it. The druid said it wasn't a natural creature, and tossed faerie fire at it to illuminate it for the rest of the group, which it dodged easily. The beast took flight, and it looked like a tiny dragon- it was a dracolisk, half dragon and half basilisk.
Smoothpalm chucked his basalt sphere at the dracolisk and hit it square in the face. Terrik opened fire on it, and Twyla took a shot with her bow- which she missed horribly. It turned its petrifying gaze on Seluna, and the priestess was suddenly a statue. She was the best equipped to fight the beast, so without her, this fight could get bumpy.
Roswyn unleashed three arrows on the dracolisk, but only one struck home. Medic unleashed his sacred flame on it, and it was unable to avoid his holy strike. Smoothpalm and Terrik both stuck it again, and poor Twyla fumbled another arrow. The beast breathed a purple mist at everyone except Roswyn, who was slightly away from the rest of the group. Medic and Twyla were dazed from the mist, and Niles, Smoothpalm, and Terrik were ordered by it to attack each other; they all saw one another as the dracolisk and didn't realize it was an illusion to hurt their friends.
The charm was over quickly, though not before Smoothpalm beat poor Niles to a bloody pulp. Roswyn peppered it with more arrows, and Terrik somehow shook off the charm and blasted it- it was bleeding profusely at this point. The petrifying gaze turned to Terrik now, and the gunslinger was turned to stone; it then moved to flee, but Medic was slightly faster. The priest hit it with another sacred flame and then sent his spiritual weapon after it- dealing the final blow.
Roswyn revived Niles, but there was nothing she or Medic could do to help Seluna and Terrik; they just didn't have strong enough magic to help them.
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| The first two levels of the tower |
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