The Tower of Corbies Part 2:
Harpies
Harpies
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 who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
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 "Centaur" 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 who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
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 "Centaur" 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, thinks he has powerful enemies out to get him that are telling him what to do, he has a voice giving him directions in his head, and is enamored with every beautiful voice he hears
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 Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who really likes killing things, thinks he has powerful enemies out to get him that are telling him what to do, he has a voice giving him directions in his head, and is enamored with every beautiful voice he hears
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 Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
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
Friendly fire overall: 150
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.
***** Marpenoth 1, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), the caravan
A couple of hours after the party defeated the dracolisk- at the cost of Seluna and Terrik being turned to stone- Roswyn heard some stones falling near where they were camped. Twyla happened to be looking in that direction and saw some movement in the debris. The moon elf raised her bow and shot at the movement, and the arrow vanished. A kuo-toa appeared in the spot she had been firing at, and announced he came in peace. He said that his friend- who was still invisible- was something that was normally considered bad, but he assured everyone that this guy wasn't.
The friend in question was an illithid, which gave everyone pause. The kuo-toa introduced himself as Sloopidoop, and the illithid was Grazilaxx. They were from the Society of Brilliance, which was apparently a group of people who felt their intelligence and pursuit of knowledge was above that of others. Sloopidoop told the party that he believed they could help one another.
The pair had been inspecting a faerzress cavern nearby when they were attacked by shadow demons. Sloopidoop said that something was controlling the demons, they weren't acting on their own accord. Before he could say much more than that, they heard a dull whine akin to whistling coming from the direction the pair had come from. It seemed the demons had followed them. When it sounded like the whistling noise was almost at them, it suddenly went silent.
Shadows began to form around Smoothpalm and Medic, trying and failing to possess them. Smoothpalm turned and began wailing on the one that was swirling around him, and Medic summoned his spirit guardians and weapon. Grazilaxx turned invisible at the sight of the demons. Roswyn whirled her scimitars through the one on Medic, completely destroying it. Sloopidoop's rod began emitting an odd light, and Medic's wounds began to close.
An armored figure levitated up the ledge, and exhaled a shadowy cloud at Medic and Roswyn, then followed up by swinging a shadowy sword at Medic. Twyla shot at the demonic knight, and though she hit it, it didn't seem to really hurt the fiend. Niles destroyed the shadow demon that was attacking Smoothpalm, freeing the monk up to go pummel the demon knight. A lightning bolt lanced toward the knight from the direction Grazilaxx had been standing when he turned invisible. Sloopidoop's robes began to flash with bright colors as he healed some of Medic's wounds again.
Shadows began pouring out of the demonic knight's armor again, and the whistling wail began anew as three shadow demons flowed out of the knight's armor. Medic and Smoothpalm were possessed by two of them, and the demon knight devoured the third to heal its wounds. The shadow in Smoothpalm held a blade to his throat, but the moment the blade was at his throat, the shadow began vacating his body. Medic's dagger was also brought to his throat by the demon possessing him, but this one didn't leave.
Roswyn ignored the threat- she could heal Medic if need be- and hacked at the knight, her blades a blur of steel. The knight responded by stabbing Medic and exhaling another shadow at Medic, Roswyn, and Smoothpalm- Medic went down, forcing the shadow possessing him out. The knight devoured another shadow demon, while the one who left Medic attempted and failed to possess Roswyn. Arrows flew into the knight from Niles and Twyla, but without magic weapons their shots were useless.
Smoothpalm unleashed a flurry of blows on the knight, and seemed to do some harm to it. Medic was healed by Sloopidoop and sent his spirit blade at the knight... and somehow he completely missed and hit Grazilaxx instead. Grazilaxx sent a column of fire at the knight and it easily dodged out of the way- though it likely wouldn't have done much to it anyways, since demons are usually immune to fire. The knight exhaled again, and this time Roswyn and Smoothpalm went down. Another lightning bolt went streaking over to the knight from Grazilaxx, and this time his aim was true. Medic revived Smoothpalm and Roswyn just in time for the knight to make blocks of ice spring up from the ground; Smoothpalm went down again, as did Medic. The knight ate the final shadow that was whirling around the cavern, and leapt off the cliff. It seemed the fight was over, for now at least.
Grazilaxx and Sloopidoop thanked the group for their help, and said they would stay the night with them at their little campsite. Roswyn asked if they could do anything for Seluna and Terrik, since both were still statues; they smeared some disgusting smelling goop on both of their stoned companions, and said it would take some time for it to work. Smoothpalm set about putting up stone walls around their campsite to help protect them a little better next time.
***** The Tower
We were nearing the end of our rest, when suddenly Mezzem began screaming in her sleep. We tried to wake her, but she was in a catatonic state, and couldn't be roused. Since there was no way we could just carry around a catatonic Mezzem in a tower surrounded by disgusting enemies, Lily and Rosebud decided to take her back to the caravan and get Medic. I hoped he'd be more useful this time.
***** The Caravan
Lily and Rosebud delivered the catatonic cleric to the caravan, and met their guests. After some convincing, Lily got Grazilaxx to agree to use his illithid tentacle mind-fuck on him, so he could get the new knowledge- Lily passed out from the pain. When the bard came to, he asked to join the Society of Brilliance, but they told him he wasn't quite ready yet. Rosebud then asked Grazilaxx to do the same to him, to see if he could join... the halftaur passed out for five minutes, and was definitely not intelligent enough to join them.
While that was happening, Medic examined Mezzem, and said she had taken some sort of psychic trauma, and there was no way he could bring her out of it. He reluctantly agreed to come back with Lily and Rosebud, knowing they needed a priest.
***** The Tower
The moment Lily and Rosebud left, a wall of water appeared, which instantly froze over, and the floor was so slick that all of us fell over. When Lily, Rosebud, and Medic reappeared, they joined us on the floor. Flimflam announced that he could remove the ice with dragon breath, but in such a tight space, that sounded like a recipe for disaster- or at least more noxious shit fumes. Rosebud decided to attack the wall of ice with a sword, which snapped in half and hit Lily... He means well.
Out of ideas, we decided to let Flimflam melt the wall with his magic, but we all cleared out of the room first. His spell melted most of the wall, but it seemed to be thicker than we had anticipated, so he had to do it again. The second spell still didn't fully melt the wall, but we could now vaguely make out figures on the other side chipping away at the wall. We decided to just stand back and wait for them to bust through the wall, that way we could spring on them.
The second that wall went down Lily opened a portal and two of them were dropped in the chasm; Rosebud tossed out one of his cards and called forth a bugbear- I didn't think that one would last long. One of the corbies clawed the hell out of Flimflam and he dropped. A scream came from down the hall- Tali had been hit with a fear spell of some kind. Medic activated his spirit guardians and hurriedly revived Flimflam. Lily calmed Tali and broke the fear spell, while Rosebud called out his silly battle cry of "for momma!" and stabbed at one of the disgusting fiends.
Flimflam threw up a sphere of force and almost killed Medic- then he misty stepped away from the corbies; Medic's ribs were badly broken from the spell, and his spirit guardian spell ended. Since Tali was no longer afraid, she was able to pepper several of the corbies with her arrows. I cut one down and moved up to the front line next to Rosebud. One of them moved to attack me and tripped, giving me the opportunity to stab it instead.
Lily summoned his giant hand again and began slapping corbies on the other end of the room. Flimflam's wild magic placed a GPS type voice in his head that was giving him directions. Rosebud shot at the corbies around me, while Flimflam chucked hunks of ice at them. I saw more of Tali's arrows flying in the room as I cut another one down- then somehow I hit myself on my next swing, I suppose it's probably from fighting in such tight quarters. We continued exchanging blows with them, until I dropped one that let out a high pitched shriek, terrifying Medic. There were only three left at this point, and we made short work of them.
We could hear more corbies in the next room, and as Flimflam moved forward he told us he there was a hallway full of the fuckers beyond. He made the room shake for a moment, causing three of them to fall over. Lily moved his Hand into the doorway to block them off so that we could get healed up without interruption. Since the corbies were pretty much trapped in this little hall, the mages started throwing spells at them. A couple of the corbies managed to climb over Lily's hand, attacking Medic and Flimflam; Medic went down, and Flimflam became paralyzed and started meowing. Lily slammed his hand into the corbies, killing nine of them. Flimflam went even more insane and is now convinced that he has powerful enemies hunting him that tell him where to go- the GPS voice is now how the enemies are influencing his actions. I dropped one of the fuckers who climbed the hand, while Tali rushed to heal Flimflam and Medic. Lily's hand burst and we all worked to quickly finish them off. In the process Yklwa went down and got infected with rot, but Lily took care of him quickly.
Tali moved to open the next door, which was of course glued shut by shit. I stayed just outside the door, and cut one down as it rushed in. Lily lit up the room, making the corbies screech from the sudden glare of light. I got hit with that ray again that made me feel weaker, and Rosebud charged in, ready to slaughter the corbies- but instead of corbies, he found a harpy who opened its mouth and began singing. The sound of the harpy's voice wriggled into Flimflam's cracking brain, making him permanently enamored with every beautiful voice he hears.
I dropped one corby as I entered, and Rosebud and I turned in sync toward the next one. Tali was charmed by the harpy. One of the harpies struck Medic and I- it definitely seemed do harm poor Medic. Lily realized something was amiss with Tali and bitch-slapped her, breaking the hold the harpy had on her. The harpy turned to flee, and Rosebud stabbed it as it went by. Before it could get up the stairs, as it was trying to do, Tali peppered it with arrows and it dropped.
As we looked around the shit coated room at one another, we decided that Flimflam and Medic needed to get back to the caravan. Flimflam was paralyzed, and clearly deranged, and poor Medic seemed to be at death's door.
***** The Caravan
Mezzem had been suffering from a nightmare where she slaughtered everyone, and her sanity was no longer in tact when she awoke. With homicide on her brain, she now is always plotting the murder of anyone who slights her.
As soon as Mezzem awoke, Grazilaxx used his new psychic connection with Lily to tell him she was up.
***** The Tower
We decided that Tali would be our best bet to get our fallen friends back to the caravan, As we began preparing to tie Flimflam to her, Lily announced that someone called Grazilaxx was telepathically telling him that Mezzem was awake. After a few moments, Lily told us that Grazilaxx could literally swap people out, so we'd be able to send Medic and Flimflam back, and instantly get two in their place- but we had to make it a completely even trade. We decide since Mezzem was up to get her and Smoothpalm over here; we needed our healer.
With a flash of light, Flimflam and Medic were gone, and Mezzem and Smoothpalm were standing in their place. Whoever this Grazilaxx is, he's certainly powerful.
Since I had a clairvoyance potion, we decided I'd use that to see what was on the other side of the door to the next room before going in. Walking in blindly was getting a little annoying. Another harpy, an albino, and two reds were in that room, and as Rosebud jerked on the shit glued door, they noticed- the albino vanished. His second try at the door opened it with that disgusting sploshing noise, and Mezzem hurled a bead of force into the door. The harpy and one of the reds were trapped in the room, and the other red was smashed between the bead and the wall. We couldn't get in the room to attack, and we couldn't send most attacks through the bead, but Lily began insulting it and it writhed in pain. By the time the bubble was gone, the reds and harpy were dead. The albino appeared as the bubble burst, and Rosebud and I pounced on it- between the two of us it died instantly.
That worked so well we decided to do it in the next room too. This time we caught two harpies and a dread corby- the offspring of a harpy and a corby. Once Lily finished insulting the three of them, we moved to the next room and repeated, catching two reds, a dread corby, and one of the weaker type corbies we'd killed earlier. The next room had three fiendish dire corbies, and Lily was only able to kill one before the bubble burst; the rest of us shredded the fuckers before they could do anything.
When we had finished off that floor we decided I'd use my last clairvoyance potion to see what awaited us on the next floor. Inside was a half-eaten dretch corpse, and signs the corbies had been here recently, the shit was literally oozing off the walls. The debris in the room looked like it had once been a study, what seemed to have once been bookshelves lined the walls, and there were some overturned tables that could have been desks.
Rosebud yanked on the door a couple of times to no avail, until he went into rage- then the door popped open easily, with a disgusting splooch. Lily stepped into the room behind his boy and noticed some corbies my potion hadn't seen- he chucked a bead at them. I saw two reds, three blacks, and one green corby. A horrible scream rang out when he threw the bead- but nothing happened. The shriek turned into a crooning melody meant to charm us, and it succeeded with Rosebud. The halftaur began yelling about titties and attempting to climb the wall to reach the damn harpy. It sang again, charming Smoothpalm.
Mezzem tried smacking sense into Rosebud, but it didn't work- she probably didn't hit the dolt hard enough. Before I could do anything another scream rang out... and nothing happened. A second scream peeled through the air, and I felt myself freeze in terror- I had to get away from these things now; Lily was also stricken with terror from the harpy's shriek. Two corbies struck me, and damn did it hurt, but that didn't matter, nothing mattered but getting away from the harpy. Lily and I turned and ran toward the stairs, the need to escape pounding through our veins.
Tali burst into song and hit Lily upside the head to break the charm, and it worked; turns out the therinthrope has a hidden musical talent. She sent Yklwa after Claire to do the same thing, but the dinosaur was no singer, and the knight was still frightened to her core. Yklwa had me pinned somehow, preventing me from escaping the harpy in the other room. I wasn't even this terrified by the wyvern that had been illusioned to look like Thauglorimorgorus attacked Suzail in the Year of the Nether Mountain Scrolls. Somehow that harpy was more terrifying than the Purple Dragon.
Smoothpalm managed to shimmy up the wall to reach the harpy, while Rosebud kept trying to climb and failing. The harpy smacked Smoothpalm as he reached it, and shoved him off the wall. Tali shot arrows at the harpy, while Lily summoned his Hand and smashed one of the harpies with it. Smoothpalm shimmied up the wall again, and jumped on the bubble left by the bead of force, punching the harpy who had charmed him right in the face. Mezzem took a nasty hit and went down, but Rosebud revived her by smashing a health potion on her- he didn't want to take the time to pour it down her throat.
I suddenly felt like myself again, and Yklwa and I ran back up the stairs to help our friends. The harpies were gone when we got there, but Yklwa tackled an albino and killed it! I rarely saw him in action, so I was proud of the little guy. With the harpies out of the way we were able to finish off the corbies in the room.
Our mages were completely drained of magical energy, and we were all badly injured and wiped out. We decided to have Lily put up his Hut again so we could rest and recharge.
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: 150
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.
***** Marpenoth 1, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), the caravan
A couple of hours after the party defeated the dracolisk- at the cost of Seluna and Terrik being turned to stone- Roswyn heard some stones falling near where they were camped. Twyla happened to be looking in that direction and saw some movement in the debris. The moon elf raised her bow and shot at the movement, and the arrow vanished. A kuo-toa appeared in the spot she had been firing at, and announced he came in peace. He said that his friend- who was still invisible- was something that was normally considered bad, but he assured everyone that this guy wasn't.
The friend in question was an illithid, which gave everyone pause. The kuo-toa introduced himself as Sloopidoop, and the illithid was Grazilaxx. They were from the Society of Brilliance, which was apparently a group of people who felt their intelligence and pursuit of knowledge was above that of others. Sloopidoop told the party that he believed they could help one another.
The pair had been inspecting a faerzress cavern nearby when they were attacked by shadow demons. Sloopidoop said that something was controlling the demons, they weren't acting on their own accord. Before he could say much more than that, they heard a dull whine akin to whistling coming from the direction the pair had come from. It seemed the demons had followed them. When it sounded like the whistling noise was almost at them, it suddenly went silent.
Shadows began to form around Smoothpalm and Medic, trying and failing to possess them. Smoothpalm turned and began wailing on the one that was swirling around him, and Medic summoned his spirit guardians and weapon. Grazilaxx turned invisible at the sight of the demons. Roswyn whirled her scimitars through the one on Medic, completely destroying it. Sloopidoop's rod began emitting an odd light, and Medic's wounds began to close.
An armored figure levitated up the ledge, and exhaled a shadowy cloud at Medic and Roswyn, then followed up by swinging a shadowy sword at Medic. Twyla shot at the demonic knight, and though she hit it, it didn't seem to really hurt the fiend. Niles destroyed the shadow demon that was attacking Smoothpalm, freeing the monk up to go pummel the demon knight. A lightning bolt lanced toward the knight from the direction Grazilaxx had been standing when he turned invisible. Sloopidoop's robes began to flash with bright colors as he healed some of Medic's wounds again.
Shadows began pouring out of the demonic knight's armor again, and the whistling wail began anew as three shadow demons flowed out of the knight's armor. Medic and Smoothpalm were possessed by two of them, and the demon knight devoured the third to heal its wounds. The shadow in Smoothpalm held a blade to his throat, but the moment the blade was at his throat, the shadow began vacating his body. Medic's dagger was also brought to his throat by the demon possessing him, but this one didn't leave.
Roswyn ignored the threat- she could heal Medic if need be- and hacked at the knight, her blades a blur of steel. The knight responded by stabbing Medic and exhaling another shadow at Medic, Roswyn, and Smoothpalm- Medic went down, forcing the shadow possessing him out. The knight devoured another shadow demon, while the one who left Medic attempted and failed to possess Roswyn. Arrows flew into the knight from Niles and Twyla, but without magic weapons their shots were useless.
Smoothpalm unleashed a flurry of blows on the knight, and seemed to do some harm to it. Medic was healed by Sloopidoop and sent his spirit blade at the knight... and somehow he completely missed and hit Grazilaxx instead. Grazilaxx sent a column of fire at the knight and it easily dodged out of the way- though it likely wouldn't have done much to it anyways, since demons are usually immune to fire. The knight exhaled again, and this time Roswyn and Smoothpalm went down. Another lightning bolt went streaking over to the knight from Grazilaxx, and this time his aim was true. Medic revived Smoothpalm and Roswyn just in time for the knight to make blocks of ice spring up from the ground; Smoothpalm went down again, as did Medic. The knight ate the final shadow that was whirling around the cavern, and leapt off the cliff. It seemed the fight was over, for now at least.
Grazilaxx and Sloopidoop thanked the group for their help, and said they would stay the night with them at their little campsite. Roswyn asked if they could do anything for Seluna and Terrik, since both were still statues; they smeared some disgusting smelling goop on both of their stoned companions, and said it would take some time for it to work. Smoothpalm set about putting up stone walls around their campsite to help protect them a little better next time.
***** The Tower
We were nearing the end of our rest, when suddenly Mezzem began screaming in her sleep. We tried to wake her, but she was in a catatonic state, and couldn't be roused. Since there was no way we could just carry around a catatonic Mezzem in a tower surrounded by disgusting enemies, Lily and Rosebud decided to take her back to the caravan and get Medic. I hoped he'd be more useful this time.
***** The Caravan
Lily and Rosebud delivered the catatonic cleric to the caravan, and met their guests. After some convincing, Lily got Grazilaxx to agree to use his illithid tentacle mind-fuck on him, so he could get the new knowledge- Lily passed out from the pain. When the bard came to, he asked to join the Society of Brilliance, but they told him he wasn't quite ready yet. Rosebud then asked Grazilaxx to do the same to him, to see if he could join... the halftaur passed out for five minutes, and was definitely not intelligent enough to join them.
While that was happening, Medic examined Mezzem, and said she had taken some sort of psychic trauma, and there was no way he could bring her out of it. He reluctantly agreed to come back with Lily and Rosebud, knowing they needed a priest.
***** The Tower
The moment Lily and Rosebud left, a wall of water appeared, which instantly froze over, and the floor was so slick that all of us fell over. When Lily, Rosebud, and Medic reappeared, they joined us on the floor. Flimflam announced that he could remove the ice with dragon breath, but in such a tight space, that sounded like a recipe for disaster- or at least more noxious shit fumes. Rosebud decided to attack the wall of ice with a sword, which snapped in half and hit Lily... He means well.
Out of ideas, we decided to let Flimflam melt the wall with his magic, but we all cleared out of the room first. His spell melted most of the wall, but it seemed to be thicker than we had anticipated, so he had to do it again. The second spell still didn't fully melt the wall, but we could now vaguely make out figures on the other side chipping away at the wall. We decided to just stand back and wait for them to bust through the wall, that way we could spring on them.
The second that wall went down Lily opened a portal and two of them were dropped in the chasm; Rosebud tossed out one of his cards and called forth a bugbear- I didn't think that one would last long. One of the corbies clawed the hell out of Flimflam and he dropped. A scream came from down the hall- Tali had been hit with a fear spell of some kind. Medic activated his spirit guardians and hurriedly revived Flimflam. Lily calmed Tali and broke the fear spell, while Rosebud called out his silly battle cry of "for momma!" and stabbed at one of the disgusting fiends.
Flimflam threw up a sphere of force and almost killed Medic- then he misty stepped away from the corbies; Medic's ribs were badly broken from the spell, and his spirit guardian spell ended. Since Tali was no longer afraid, she was able to pepper several of the corbies with her arrows. I cut one down and moved up to the front line next to Rosebud. One of them moved to attack me and tripped, giving me the opportunity to stab it instead.
Lily summoned his giant hand again and began slapping corbies on the other end of the room. Flimflam's wild magic placed a GPS type voice in his head that was giving him directions. Rosebud shot at the corbies around me, while Flimflam chucked hunks of ice at them. I saw more of Tali's arrows flying in the room as I cut another one down- then somehow I hit myself on my next swing, I suppose it's probably from fighting in such tight quarters. We continued exchanging blows with them, until I dropped one that let out a high pitched shriek, terrifying Medic. There were only three left at this point, and we made short work of them.
We could hear more corbies in the next room, and as Flimflam moved forward he told us he there was a hallway full of the fuckers beyond. He made the room shake for a moment, causing three of them to fall over. Lily moved his Hand into the doorway to block them off so that we could get healed up without interruption. Since the corbies were pretty much trapped in this little hall, the mages started throwing spells at them. A couple of the corbies managed to climb over Lily's hand, attacking Medic and Flimflam; Medic went down, and Flimflam became paralyzed and started meowing. Lily slammed his hand into the corbies, killing nine of them. Flimflam went even more insane and is now convinced that he has powerful enemies hunting him that tell him where to go- the GPS voice is now how the enemies are influencing his actions. I dropped one of the fuckers who climbed the hand, while Tali rushed to heal Flimflam and Medic. Lily's hand burst and we all worked to quickly finish them off. In the process Yklwa went down and got infected with rot, but Lily took care of him quickly.
Tali moved to open the next door, which was of course glued shut by shit. I stayed just outside the door, and cut one down as it rushed in. Lily lit up the room, making the corbies screech from the sudden glare of light. I got hit with that ray again that made me feel weaker, and Rosebud charged in, ready to slaughter the corbies- but instead of corbies, he found a harpy who opened its mouth and began singing. The sound of the harpy's voice wriggled into Flimflam's cracking brain, making him permanently enamored with every beautiful voice he hears.
I dropped one corby as I entered, and Rosebud and I turned in sync toward the next one. Tali was charmed by the harpy. One of the harpies struck Medic and I- it definitely seemed do harm poor Medic. Lily realized something was amiss with Tali and bitch-slapped her, breaking the hold the harpy had on her. The harpy turned to flee, and Rosebud stabbed it as it went by. Before it could get up the stairs, as it was trying to do, Tali peppered it with arrows and it dropped.
As we looked around the shit coated room at one another, we decided that Flimflam and Medic needed to get back to the caravan. Flimflam was paralyzed, and clearly deranged, and poor Medic seemed to be at death's door.
***** The Caravan
Mezzem had been suffering from a nightmare where she slaughtered everyone, and her sanity was no longer in tact when she awoke. With homicide on her brain, she now is always plotting the murder of anyone who slights her.
As soon as Mezzem awoke, Grazilaxx used his new psychic connection with Lily to tell him she was up.
***** The Tower
We decided that Tali would be our best bet to get our fallen friends back to the caravan, As we began preparing to tie Flimflam to her, Lily announced that someone called Grazilaxx was telepathically telling him that Mezzem was awake. After a few moments, Lily told us that Grazilaxx could literally swap people out, so we'd be able to send Medic and Flimflam back, and instantly get two in their place- but we had to make it a completely even trade. We decide since Mezzem was up to get her and Smoothpalm over here; we needed our healer.
With a flash of light, Flimflam and Medic were gone, and Mezzem and Smoothpalm were standing in their place. Whoever this Grazilaxx is, he's certainly powerful.
Since I had a clairvoyance potion, we decided I'd use that to see what was on the other side of the door to the next room before going in. Walking in blindly was getting a little annoying. Another harpy, an albino, and two reds were in that room, and as Rosebud jerked on the shit glued door, they noticed- the albino vanished. His second try at the door opened it with that disgusting sploshing noise, and Mezzem hurled a bead of force into the door. The harpy and one of the reds were trapped in the room, and the other red was smashed between the bead and the wall. We couldn't get in the room to attack, and we couldn't send most attacks through the bead, but Lily began insulting it and it writhed in pain. By the time the bubble was gone, the reds and harpy were dead. The albino appeared as the bubble burst, and Rosebud and I pounced on it- between the two of us it died instantly.
That worked so well we decided to do it in the next room too. This time we caught two harpies and a dread corby- the offspring of a harpy and a corby. Once Lily finished insulting the three of them, we moved to the next room and repeated, catching two reds, a dread corby, and one of the weaker type corbies we'd killed earlier. The next room had three fiendish dire corbies, and Lily was only able to kill one before the bubble burst; the rest of us shredded the fuckers before they could do anything.
When we had finished off that floor we decided I'd use my last clairvoyance potion to see what awaited us on the next floor. Inside was a half-eaten dretch corpse, and signs the corbies had been here recently, the shit was literally oozing off the walls. The debris in the room looked like it had once been a study, what seemed to have once been bookshelves lined the walls, and there were some overturned tables that could have been desks.
Rosebud yanked on the door a couple of times to no avail, until he went into rage- then the door popped open easily, with a disgusting splooch. Lily stepped into the room behind his boy and noticed some corbies my potion hadn't seen- he chucked a bead at them. I saw two reds, three blacks, and one green corby. A horrible scream rang out when he threw the bead- but nothing happened. The shriek turned into a crooning melody meant to charm us, and it succeeded with Rosebud. The halftaur began yelling about titties and attempting to climb the wall to reach the damn harpy. It sang again, charming Smoothpalm.
Mezzem tried smacking sense into Rosebud, but it didn't work- she probably didn't hit the dolt hard enough. Before I could do anything another scream rang out... and nothing happened. A second scream peeled through the air, and I felt myself freeze in terror- I had to get away from these things now; Lily was also stricken with terror from the harpy's shriek. Two corbies struck me, and damn did it hurt, but that didn't matter, nothing mattered but getting away from the harpy. Lily and I turned and ran toward the stairs, the need to escape pounding through our veins.
Tali burst into song and hit Lily upside the head to break the charm, and it worked; turns out the therinthrope has a hidden musical talent. She sent Yklwa after Claire to do the same thing, but the dinosaur was no singer, and the knight was still frightened to her core. Yklwa had me pinned somehow, preventing me from escaping the harpy in the other room. I wasn't even this terrified by the wyvern that had been illusioned to look like Thauglorimorgorus attacked Suzail in the Year of the Nether Mountain Scrolls. Somehow that harpy was more terrifying than the Purple Dragon.
Smoothpalm managed to shimmy up the wall to reach the harpy, while Rosebud kept trying to climb and failing. The harpy smacked Smoothpalm as he reached it, and shoved him off the wall. Tali shot arrows at the harpy, while Lily summoned his Hand and smashed one of the harpies with it. Smoothpalm shimmied up the wall again, and jumped on the bubble left by the bead of force, punching the harpy who had charmed him right in the face. Mezzem took a nasty hit and went down, but Rosebud revived her by smashing a health potion on her- he didn't want to take the time to pour it down her throat.
I suddenly felt like myself again, and Yklwa and I ran back up the stairs to help our friends. The harpies were gone when we got there, but Yklwa tackled an albino and killed it! I rarely saw him in action, so I was proud of the little guy. With the harpies out of the way we were able to finish off the corbies in the room.
Our mages were completely drained of magical energy, and we were all badly injured and wiped out. We decided to have Lily put up his Hut again so we could rest and recharge.
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| The first two levels of the tower |
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| The second two levels of the tower |
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