Pathfinders of the New World- Knights of the Cross(roads), the Next Generation: Book Two, Chapter Six

Ending the Siege

Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the Kobold Platinum pint-sized Dragonborn Beastmaster and Priestess of Apsu
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight

Comrades we have lost:
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.

***** Astron 12, 480, battlefield outside the Red Keep

       We took a quick moment to get ourselves healed a little bit, and I wiped the blood from my face, before we began to run to the front lines. I was concerned about the next wave of the battle, red spots had begun to creep into the edges of my vision, signaling that I was nearing the ends of my magical reserves and would only have cantrips at my disposal.

       About 500 feet away, I saw tons of undead pouring out of huts, and at least sixty of them were coming right for us. As usual, KlikKlik began shooting at them as soon as they got into range, but unlike the demons, the skeleton archers could shoot back. She had TickTick grab Taryn to go help with the archers, leaving Xara and I to deal with the ghouls and zombies running toward us. I fucking hate undead.

       TickTick and Taryn swooped down and took out a couple of skeletons, but when TickTick went to take off again, he did a weird swooping thing and his saddle swiveled around, leaving Taryn hanging from his belly. TickTick and Taryn got swarmed by the undead, and poor TickTick got paralyzed by a ghoul's claw. KlikKlik cast a sanctuary spell on the two of them, yelling to Taryn that she couldn't attack the undead in order to stay protected.

       Xara and I were slinging spells at the zombies and ghouls coming toward us, and as soon as the zombies got close enough I destroyed a shit load of the fuckers. I am so grateful for the blessings Eilistraee has laid upon me.

       TickTick tried to take off again, spun in a circle, and went back to the ground. I heard KlikKlik swear as she placed sanctuary on the two of them again.

       The soldiers with Xara and I were taking out the ghouls quite quickly- I was impressed. A few of them were injured, but overall they were holding their own. I used the blessings of Eilistraee to dust another large group of the zombies, taking as much heat off of our troops as I could.

       TickTick and Taryn killed both ghouls that were attacking them, then attempted to fly again... but TickTick got tangled in the saddle and broke his wing. KlikKlik flew over to her bat and healed his wing- that poor bat just was not having an easy time in this fight.

       We mopped up the last couple of ghouls and zombies quickly, and ended up only losing a single soldier in the battle. Thankfully we did not lose TickTick too- or Taryn, I suppose.

       We moved toward a cluster of small huts, that we thought had goblins in them. There was no movement at the huts, and it was eerily quiet; they were probably hiding from us. Taryn decided to sneak in and see what was going on with them. Goblins emerged from one of the huts, and KlikKlik yelled that she'd save them in the name of Apsu- they started shooting at her instead. Evidently these goblins didn't want redemption. The kobold yelled "if you keep shooting, I'll kill you all!" Of course they didn't heed her warning.

       Taryn tossed a flask of alchemical fire into one of the huts, killing all of the goblins inside- then she stepped into a trap and hurt her arm. She continued on, tossing another flask into a hut to take out that group. Xara decided to copy Taryn, but stepped into a trap instead and almost went down from it. This didn't seem to be going well. Our people kept getting dropped from the stupid traps, and I couldn't get to them fast enough to save everyone, we were just spread too thin. This didn't even seem like a proper battle, their traps were doing move damage to us than the goblins were, and the others were mostly setting the huts on fire, not attacking them directly. I kept as many of the soldiers alive as I could, and eventually all but one of the goblins was dead- we kept that one as a prisoner.

       We got some healing from another cleric before moving on, and Pinkerton told us that all we had left were orcs before we'd reach the cult itself. At least we'd have reinforcements for the final piece of the fight, if we all made it there alive.

       The orcs were in six huts, and when we got close to them they began pouring out of them. Apparently they weren't as cowardly as the damn goblins were. We began exchanging blows with them right away, and they went down pretty fast- though poor Xara took some heavy injuries during the fight. Unfortunately my magical reserves were almost completely tapped. I knew I had enough left for one more spell, but I had to save it in case I had to bring someone back from the dead. My head was pounding and those red spots were dancing along the edges of my vision more rapidly. I prayed we'd survive the final showdown.

       We met up with Pinkerton and the others, and saw up ahead of us a massive sea of people. There was a circle beyond them, with some sort of ritual happening. I could see ghasts in the group, but they were currently sheltered by the people. Taryn hurled a bomb at the crowd, but it didn't do as much as she seemed to have hoped it would. As we began exchanging blows with the sea of people, TickTick picked up Seipora and carried her toward the circle so she could unleash hell on the people in it. All around me people were hurling spells, bombs, and weapons around, and the undead kept paralyzing our people. I was moving as quickly as I could to stabilize the fallen so we wouldn't lose them.

       Someone in the circle hit TickTick hard, and I saw the poor bat go down. Thankfully Silifrey revived him right away. Taryn charged the guy in the circle and ripped into him; the revived TickTick finished him off. Once the cult leader was down we were able to mop up the rest of the cultists easily. We had won and ended the siege!

       Once we were  done, all five of us turned and headed to Stormageddon Mach II, leaving for Crossroads right away.

***** Astron 13, Crossroads

       We reported in in the morning, and Pinkerton told us our services were still needed if we wished to continue working for the military. None of us committed to anything, we wanted to relax and blow off some steam before we made any sort of choice.

       Sonitri decided she was done with adventuring and wanted to go home to Riverside.

Pathfinders of the New World- Knights of the Cross(roads), the Next Generation: Book Two, Chapter Five

Taking the Fight to Them

Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the Kobold Platinum pint-sized Dragonborn Beastmaster and Priestess of Apsu
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
Stormageddon Mach II, Taryn's elephant
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight

Comrades we have lost:
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.

***** Astron 11, 480, Crossroads

       When we arrived at the base this morning, it was filled with about 150 different adventurers. Major General Mavha Trak'len told everyone that the land had been mostly cleared of the undead threat and the cities were safe again; but there was still a lot to do in this war. She said the Scourge had attacked the Keep again, and that it was under siege. We were going to the Red Keep and taking the fight to them, hopefully we'd turn the tide in this war.

       All of the normal mounts had been sold, so we decided to buy an elephant to ride. Xara was thrilled when she found out what we were doing. The elephant was old and not in the best shape, but she would get us there; Taryn bought her and we all pitched in for the gondola to ride her. Taryn named her Stormageddon Mach II, after the horse Ralliakkan had ridden into battle so many times.

       Tarhun, a dragonborn druid who had been recruited into the military, saw the party purchasing the elephant and decided he wanted to join them. Instead of approaching the group, he decided to wild shape into a mouse, climb the elephant, and hitch a ride with them. 

       Our procession was slow, and I doubt the road out of town has ever been this crowded. As we were getting out of Crossroads, a dragonborn randomly appeared in our gondola. Taryn reacted instantly, getting to the stranger and holding a dagger to his throat. He said his name was Tarhun, he was another recruit in the military, and that he could help Stormageddon. That convinced Taryn to let him stay with us.

       There were literally heaps of undead bodies around the outer wall of Crossroads. As we traveled, a couple of zombies started to come near us, and we easily dispatched of them. True to his word, Tarhun talked to Stormageddon, found out what was wrong with her, and healed the elephant.

        Sixteen hours later we finally reached the camp outside of the Keep. There were thousands of people in this makeshift camp, and it was kind of disorganized. I thought military was supposed to be structured, but this is war, and they did hire a shit load of sellswords. In the distance, from our excellent view, we could see orcs, trolls, goblins, ogres, and who knows what else surrounding the Keep. Pinkerton told us the fail safes had been activated, and the shield around the Keep would fail soon; likely within the next two or three days.

***** Astron 12, camp outside of the Red Keep

       Pinkerton told us we were going to try to break down the waves of enemies surrounding the Keep, and hopefully we'd be keeping the front defenses from getting broken. We were assigned to a section of the wall to keep the defenses from getting decimated, and we'd hopefully be able to push forward.

       We were going to be teleported to our section of the battlefield, and were met by some terrified soldiers. We set up on the palisades and in the trench for some defensive cover, and could do nothing but wait for the hoarde of demons to reach us. Great. This was just fucking wonderful. I was a little worried about the size of the battle, but I knew Eilistraee would protect me, and aid me in cleansing this land of demons.

       KlikKlik could begin shooting at the demons long before they were in range for the rest of us, so I granted her the blessings of Eilistraee to aid her; I gave it to all of us, but I felt the magic slide off of Taryn- that was likely Lolth's doing. When they got closer, Sonitri threw a fireball at a cluster of them, dropping a couple, and I began slinging sacred flames at the lot of them.

       The hellwasps made a bunch of our soldiers pass out, and the vrock's spores knocked out a few more. Fucking demons. We began exchanging fire with them, and I saw Taryn take a nasty hit. A hellwasp pinned Xara and began pumping her innards out through her stomach. Before I could get to her, KlikKlik killed the hellwasp, and Xara was able to heal herself enough to keep going. We took out the first wave relatively quickly, and only lost one guard in the process, though a bunch of them were poisoned from the vrocks. In the distance we could see glabrezu coming toward us, and I hurried to stabilize the poisoned guards before the next group of demons arrived.

       KlikKlik was able to kill two of the glabrezu before they could reach us, but the last one scooped up Taryn and began beating on her pretty badly. A ton of quasits appeared in front of us- jackasses must have been invisible. I saw Taryn empty a water skin onto the glabrezu- from its reaction I think it was holy water. Sonitri tossed a fireball at the quasits and took out a decent amount of them, before they all turned invisible again. Xara finished off the glabrezu easily, making several quasits appear in the process. With the glabrezu down, mopping up the last of the quasits was easy enough.

       The next wave was dretches, with large gaps between them as if there were invisible foes between them. Great, more invisible demons, just what we fucking need. Two fireballs blossomed on the dretches, taking a few of them out- thanks to Sonitri. Eight bar-lguras appeared as four of our guards dropped- evidently those were the invisible things we'd spotted earlier. KlikKlik dropped a net on one of the bar-lguras, holding it still long enough for TickTick and Taryn to drop it. Sonitri tossed another fireball at the demons, doing some damage to them. We continued exchanging blows with them, while I attempted to keep as many guards stable as possible. These guys weren't nearly as easy to handle as the other demons had been. By the time we'd killed them and the dretches, quite a few guards had gone down, but not nearly as many as would have if I hadn't been able to keep them stable.