The Temple of Nergal, Part Five:
The Mountains Will Rumble and Rend
The Mountains Will Rumble and Rend
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 20, 480, Demonsclaw Mountains
We decided that the best course of action was for us to blow the three tunnels that the undead could escape through. That would slow them down at the very least. We gathered our tinkerers and sent them out to help the dwarves we already had working on fortifications. KlikKlik, TickTick, and Klak were a single group, since Klik was an amazing tinkerer, as we'd seen with her guns. The next group was Taryn, Dagna, and Oda Folkor; and Xara and I took the final tinkerer, Glim Garrick, to his camp.
KlikKlik looked up to see three vrocks flying right toward her, and she killed all three of them before they got anywhere near her.
Taryn's group was also attacked in flight by three vrocks, and Taryn killed them with ease too.
I looked up and saw three fucking vrocks diving toward us. We couldn't do anything but wait for them to get closer, even though we really didn't want to let them get near us. The battle ended up not being too bad, Glim was good in a fight, and between the three of us, we dropped them.
After assessing how much gunpowder we'd need to blow the tunnels- 350 lbs total- we realized how much damage that would do to the mountainside, and Silverton below. Since Klik and Taryn needed to stay to help the others, Xara and I decided to go to Silverton to talk to their mayor about evacuating the mines and the town, and giving us some miners who could help us shape the explosion to not drop the mountain.
The problem with this, was that while I can be decent at dealing with people, I'm drow. I'm used to dealing with other drow, who don't spaz out at me when I tell them about mortal danger. So, I was trying to speak with him like I would a drow, being blunt and direct... bad approach. Xara ended up taking the reigns from me and with some talking, the mayor believed us and gave us three letters, to take to the mines, to get us three miners to help with the explosions.
We needed another broom for the miner at the closest mine, so I did a sending to Klik, telling her I'd send Thea to get her broom for the miner. We got the first guy, bought some powder and explosives, and headed back to camp. The other two guys we'd get in the morning.
***** Thrimidge 21, Demonsclaw Mountains
In the morning, Xara and I were debating how to go about getting the other miners. We bickered about the brooms and who to bring with us for help, and at some point during the bickering we realized we're a thing... at least we bicker like we're a thing. I wanted to borrow Klik and Taryn's brooms, and bring Salleek with us since she has good people skills and can fly. Xara didn't want to bring her because "we're not a freak show," which coming from the self-proclaimed circus freak was hilarious. Every time I'd come up with an idea, Xara would give me three other options that made this way more complicated. At one point she told me to stop questioning my shit, because I do cool shit, so I shouldn't question it. Sometimes my lady can be a bit frustrating. We ended up borrowing Klik and Taryn's brooms, and bringing Urth with us; he's human and would likely be better received than Salleek.
Klik and Taryn continued working on explosives, while Xara, Urth, and I picked up the other two miners, some shaped charges, and other explosives.
***** Thrimidge 22, Demonsclaw Mountains
They got all of the charges set up in the three tunnels today, and the druids gathered some seeds and whatnot to fill in the tunnels- once they were collapsed- with vines and shit, making it harder for the undead to escape. Pretty much everything was ready for the tunnels to be blown tomorrow.
***** Thrimidge 23, Demonsclaw Mountains
Before heading out to blow the tunnels, they placed charges around the front entrance, just in case we needed to block that exit. Most of mine and Xara's people stayed at the front entrance to the Temple, ready for if anything happened.
They could only blow one tunnel at a time, because there just weren't enough druids to blow all three of them. Taryn and Klik thought it would be best to leave the center tunnel for very last.
The first two tunnels caved in nicely, and the druids were able to fill them in really well. We left a group of Taryn's scouts at the two blown up tunnels, and kept the group we'd had fortifying the center tunnel where it was. The middle one would have to wait for morning.
***** Thrimidge 24, Demonsclaw Mountains
We blew the center tunnel today, and nothing happened. We left scouts at all three tunnels, and continued preparing to defend ourselves when the undead broke out.
***** Thrimidge 25, Demonsclaw Mountains
A little past dawn the mountain began rumbling and shaking- it was literally breaking open. Thankfully our walls at the collapsed tunnels held- as I learned by doing sendings to our scouts once the mountains had ceased their shaking. Only one part of the prophecy was left- "the army of Nergal shall pour from the hills." Great.
I did a sending to Mavha reporting in, letting her know what had just happened. She said she'd send us reinforcements, but it would take a couple of days, because they had to get them from the front lines. I prayed our walls would hold that long, but a seed of dread was sitting in the pit of my stomach, I feared we'd be on our own... nearly 80 of us versus 25,000 undead.
Taryn and KlikKlik scouted the rift that had opened right in the center of the mountain once we'd reported in. Undead were milling about at the exits, chipping away at our walls, though they didn't seem to be doing much to it yet; they thought it would take a couple of days for them to break out. The tunnel that was near the room with piles of peasants wasn't doing as well as the two royal tunnels. These zombies were behaving more like normal zombies. They were trying to pile on top of one another to get high enough to climb out... We didn't think that would work as well.
I tasked people to begin doing sendings to pretty much everyone we could think of to get help. We decided to attempt to do a wall of water spell using holy water- we thought that might be doable, but it would take a lot of holy water. I also thought of having my paladins summon steeds that could fly, and having them fly down the clerics in groups, use their destroy undead abilities on the weaker zombies, and fly back out. If nothing else it would get rid of the mooks. The less we had to fight when the walls broke, the better. Taryn and Klik decided to try to get more bombs made too. We were grasping at straws here, but we couldn't do much of anything else yet.
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