The Temple of Nergal, Part Four:
The Prophecy
The Prophecy
Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Klak, KlikKlik's Flying Snake construct
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Thea, Dax's red Faerie Dragon familiar
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight and Abjurationist Wizard
Baxter, Xara's red Faerie Dragon familiar
Comrades we have lost:
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer- went home
Nyneve, the Water Genasi Druid of the Fountain- eaten by zombies
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Dax's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the priestess can't be everywhere at once.
***** Thrimidge 15, 480, Crossroads
In the morning we went to the barracks to meet our teams. Captain Falenas Yllalen met us there She thanked us for joining the cause, and said the scouts had just gotten back from the Temple. Captain Yllalen told us that it didn't look like anything had escaped, but there was probably a back door. With that many troops, they wouldn't have wanted to go through that many tunnels to get out, creating a bottle neck in the process. We needed to find lore on the damn Temple, which would not be easy, since most of our resources had only been on this continent for about twenty years. Captain Yllalen told us that our troops would be helping us deal with the undead in there, and told us where to meet our people.
It was weird having seventy-two people waiting for orders from each of us. We all were given two 2nd Lieutenants and four teams of four. Taryn showed them the memory stone that contained all of our battles in the Temple, and the size of the troops there. She spent a couple of hours going over everything with them, before we sent them off on errands to prepare. We gave them money and sent them all to buy potions, potion ingredients, holy water, traps, scrolls, and explosives.
I went to commune with Eilistraee about the Temple, knowing she would guide me. First I tried using a spell called Legend Lore, but I couldn't get anything useful from it- just a bunch of crap we already know. Then I contacted my Goddess, asking how to find a back door into the Temple. The Dark Maiden told me "to find the answer within seven days, inside the doors you'd have to appraise." So it sounded like we needed to go back into the Temple, which we were hoping not to do.
***** Thrimidge 16, Crossroads
KlikKlik had to wait for Kibbik to get back from the Savage Lands in order to access the history and lore books they had brought back from the plateau so many years ago. I stayed with her, because I have a spell that would grant us fluency. We also kept Anastrianna, Aseir, Lonehunter, and Torbera because of their knowledge of history, since six heads are better than two. Taryn and Xara took the rest of our troops to the Temple to begin work, while we hunkered down to read ancient books.
***** Thrimidge 17, Crossroads
Toward the end of the day, Torbera unearthed a prophecy that we think is about our current situation. "When the red tide washes over the Keep, the undead will rise, the mountains will rumble and rend, and the army of Nergal shall pour from the hills." I did a Sending to Taryn, telling her the prophecy and that we'd head out in the morning. I prayed we'd be able to keep the rest of the prophecy from coming true- supposedly they can be rewritten, since the future hasn't been set in stone yet.
Taryn sent groups out in the morning to begin looking for a back door into the Temple, while leaving anyone who could make potions back at camp to work on that. The clerics under Dax's command worked tirelessly to make holy water for the group. While scouting on her own, Taryn ran into Fred again, and learned he was betrothed to a lovely half-elf seamstress Ralliakkan had introduced him to when he went to the Underhearth in Crossroads.
A group of scouts came across trolls, and Westra Starag managed to talk the trolls down, scaring them away.
***** Thrimidge 18, Demonsclaw Mountains
Klik and I got to the camp around midday, and learned that our scouts had possibly found the exits from the tombs. They'd found three odd looking clefts in the hillside that seemed to line up with where the tombs had been. Taryn had sent out dwarves to look them over and start coming up with fortifications.
That night we decided to go troll hunting, taking Westra Starag with us, since she'd been in the scouting party that came across the trolls the day before. We came up empty.
***** Thrimidge 19, Demonsclaw Mountains
In the morning we received reports of scraping noises at the Temple's doors- like the undead were trying to pick the lock. I prayed it would hold.
Our groups were sent to set up little camps at each of the three exits we'd found, and to begin fortifying them in hopes it would keep the undead from getting out. Or at the very least delay them. We also sent a couple more scouting parties out to see if there were anymore doors.
Once that was in place Taryn, Xara, Westra Starag, and I went troll hunting. The last thing we needed was for the trolls to hit us from behind while we were facing down the undead.
Trolls attacked two of the fortification camps, but they beat the trolls with ease.
We found a cave, and since Xara and I suck at stealth, Taryn and Westra snuck ahead, with Thea and Baxter, while Xara and I stayed about 100 feet behind them- just barely in range of our telepathy with our faerie dragons. Taryn found a large chamber with seven trolls inside, blew one's head off, and bolted. She was drawing the trolls out. Westra shot them and ran too, but she wasn't as fast as Taryn. We ran toward the exit, shooting them whenever they came in sight around the bend, and eventually found ourselves stuck between two groups of trolls. Great.
Westra moved a lot slower than us, and we ended up losing sight of her, but there wasn't time to turn back and look for her. Taryn rushed forward and stabbed one of the trolls coming at us from the other end, to which it responded by stabbing her in return. Xara shot it with a firebolt and it dropped. Then I dropped a flaming sphere between two of the trolls, and Taryn finished off the one whose ass was now burning. With those two taken care of, we could now stop to look for Westra. Xara and Taryn rushed back, while I moved a bit more slowly, rolling my flaming sphere down the hallway behind me.
Xara rounded a corner and stumbled right into a troll, who hit her pretty hard- she set him on fire in response, and Westra appeared and finished him off. Xara sent her green fire spell at them and Taryn finished that one off. I shot one with an eldritch blast, and hit Taryn in the back instead... she declared she was proud to see I was still keeping to my drow heritage. Someday she'll embrace Eilistraee and understand.
The fight raged on for what felt like hours, even though it wasn't even a minute. Xara and Taryn were working well together at dropping them, and Westra was pretty helpful too. We thought we were nearing the end of the trolls when I noticed one behind me, so I rolled my fire sphere right up to it and blocked its path- then I missed again with fucking eldritch blast. Xara and Westra kept working on the ones coming from behind us, while Taryn moved up to help me with the other troll- by chucking alchemist fire at it. I bumped it with my flaming sphere again, and managed to hit the fucker this time with my eldritch blast! Taryn finished it off and disappeared down the hallway to see if there were any others coming from that direction. I turned around in time to see Xara land the killing blow on the final troll from that direction.
Once we made sure there weren't any other trolls lurking in the tunnels, we found what little loot we could, checked in with the fortification teams, and headed back to camp.
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