The Temple of Nergal, Part One:
Undead Everywhere
Undead Everywhere
Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
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
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 3, 480, Gnoll Hills
We spent about five hours in the morning sorting through the gnoll camp, looking for anything useful. Taryn randomly flew off while we were sorting and KlikKlik followed. Xara and I shrugged and kept working, I knew if they needed us, we'd know.
Taryn had spotted a figure on one of the hills a few hundred feet away and went to investigate. It was a kid who had been traveling with a merchant caravan, and came to investigate the noises they'd heard- Taryn and KlikKlik's gunshots during the battle. They brought the kid back to camp, with the plan that the party would bring the kid with them to Lakeview, where he could catch up with his caravan.
The kid that Taryn and Klik brought back to camp was very helpful, and shaved some time off of our search of the gnoll's belongings. When we finished up, we took the kid to Lakeview as promised, and met up with his merchant, who was pretty dang awesome.
We departed for Crossroads after meeting with the merchant, taking five hyenas with us- the ones Klik had managed to tame. She dropped them off at Kelani's barn for training when we arrived.
That evening Taryn emerged in her "Madame" guise for the stupid circus, Paerus Al'Kai.
***** Thrimidge 4, Crossroads
We were summoned to the Mage Guild in the morning to discuss what transpired in the Gnoll Hills. Major General Mavha Trak'len, the leader of the Special Forces, met us in the memory room where we'd had our trials so they could review our memories of the battle. She thanked us for our service to the country, and said that even though we're not part of the military we're still doing good things for the realm. Trak'len said the military was impressed by us and they paid us a decent reward for our service.
After our meeting, we discussed our plan for what to do next, and decided we'd check out the ruins in the Demonsclaw Mountains next. We'd head out in the morning.
***** Thrimidge 5, Bandit Woods
We traveled through the Bandit Woods on our way to Silverton, so that KlikKlik could look for the herbs I need to make healing potions. It took a little extra time, but she found a decent amount of ingredients for me. Along the way we were attacked by a group of wolves, which we had to kill; Klik couldn't dominate them.
When we arrived in Silverton, KlikKlik headed straight for the Temple of Apsu, while the rest of us went to the tavern to get more info. In the tavern we learned the general location of these ruins from a group of rangers, who said one of their hunters was already out in that vicinity. Finding him would be our best bet to find these ruins.
After flying through the mountains for a couple of hours we found the hunter we'd heard about in the tavern; Fred was his name. He said he could lead us to the ruins, and Klik loaned him her broom so we wouldn't be stuck walking. As we flew, we saw a large form in the distance- a giant eagle. Klik went to talk to it, and it was looking at Tick as if he was food; I hoped we wouldn't have to kill this eagle for going after TickTick. KlikKlik asked it about the ruins, offering it Apsu's blessing in exchange for information... it cocked its head at her and gave her a blank look. We flew for a few more hours before setting up camp.
During KlikKlik and Taryn's watch, they caught a lone wolf trying to sneak into camp, it looked starving. They scared the beast off.
***** Thrimidge 6, Demonsclaw Mountains
Fred told us he could probably get us to the ruins by the end of the day, but his estimate was way off. A couple of hours into our travel, he realized we were on the wrong side of the fucking mountain, and by the time he got us to the right area, it was nearly dark and we had to set up camp.
While sitting at our campfire that night, Xara asked Fred if he'd ever seen any duckbears before. He seemed confused at first, until Klik elaborated on the duckbear search of Xara's... then he seemed to understand the joke and joined in. Xara is now completely convinced that duckbears are real, and I just don't have the heart to tell her they're probably not. I'm curious to see how long Klik can keep this gag running.
Wolves approached their camp again tonight, and Taryn attempted to scare them off on her own, but she fucked up her intimidation attempt and they attacked her instead. KlikKlik helped her scare them off.
***** Thrimidge 7, Demonsclaw Mountains
Fred found the correct path for us this time, and got us almost to the ruins, showing us the landmark that would get us the rest of the way. He didn't want to come with us to the ruins, so he left to resume his hunt; Klik was nice enough to let him borrow her broom.
We reached the ruins just before dark, and camped down the hill from them. We set up traps along the path to make sure we'd have warning if anything came out of them during the night. There were no animals here, and I didn't hear a single noise that would indicate wildlife. It was quite unsettling and downright spooky.
***** Thrimidge 8, Demonsclaw Mountains
There was an eerie fog blanketing the area when everyone was got up in the morning, made even spookier by the dead silence of the forest around us. Not a single bird could be heard, nor could we hear animals rustling in the brush beyond our camp. This was also the first night we hadn't had wolves approach in the night. I had a bad feeling about this place.
We followed what remained of a path until our way was barred by berry bushes. Taryn started hacking at the bushes to no avail, then shot them in frustration. KlikKlik stepped in at that and had them cleared in about half an hour. On the opposite side of the bramble was a large stone door with some odd markings on it. To my surprise, Xara recognized the symbols as having to do with the dead gods of Unther, and told us the head of the pantheon was Gilgeam. I have no idea how she knew this, but I was impressed she did.
Taryn found a trap on the door, but couldn't tell what it would do, so she gently pushed on the door. A few projectiles flew out, but they all hit KlikKlik's shield, leaving us all untouched. We walked into the ruins with caution, going down a gentle slope that eventually opened up into a room with four stone statues of men in armor with weapons, and a large set of double doors. We figured the statues were probably a trap, and prepared for a battle Taryn pushed a button on the door.
The moment Taryn pressed the button, the walls to our left and right began to lower, revealing zombies; then the statues animated. Great. Xara moved to square off with one of the statues, while three of the zombies came at me. Taryn and Klik began shooting the zombies, and splorted a few right away, and I destroyed about half of them with the ability granted to me by Eilistraee that turns zombies to dust. Then the statues lunged for Taryn, TickTick, KlikKlik, and Xara. Everyone but Xara went for the zombies, but we couldn't get rekill them quickly enough. Four of the undead ripped into me, hurting me badly- Taryn killed two of them, and Klik killed the other two, though she also hit me in the process. There was only one zombie left and all four of the statues.
We continued exchanging blows with them, while I frantically tried to keep my party alive, having Thea ready to deliver potions as needed. Klik went down twice and Tick once in the battle, but I revived them as soon as they fell. Taryn killed two of the statues, KlikKlik killed one, and Xara dusted the final one.
As the final statue crumbled, the gears on the doors began to spin, and they sprung open, revealing a long, dark, creepy hallway that had another set of double doors at the end. We barricaded ourselves in the room we were in to take a brief rest before proceeding into whatever waited in that hallway.
There were a bunch of side passages down the hallway, so we decided to check them as we went; we didn't want anything to get the drop on us. Since Xara and I aren't great at being stealthy, Klik and Taryn went down the hallway first, we waited at the mouth of it to assist if need be.
Zombies greeted them in the first room, and as Xara and I got there to help them more zombies poured out of the other rooms in that passage. I heard a crackle of lightning as Klik tossed her javelin at a group of them, but then I felt the pain of zombies hitting me, and blacked out. I came to to Thea pulling a potion vial from my lips, and Tick was standing over me, protecting me from the zombies. Since I could shoot at them from under Tick, I stayed where I was and blasted at the zombies. These zombies were different than others we've fought, they seemed to have retained some of the abilities they had when they died. I've never seen anything like it. We beat them, of course, but it certainly wasn't easy by any means.
After that battle, we decided that Klik and Taryn would check the hallways on their own, with silence cast on themselves, so they could just kill the zombies quickly. I had Thea go with them, since she can communicate with me telepathically, so that Xara and I would know if they needed help. For some reason, Taryn and KlikKlik decided to instead of zigzag the passage, they would just go down the right side, then the left. It turns out that was a big mistake.
At the first passage on the left side we checked- which was the one closest to the double doors we hadn't touched yet- we found some zombies that were even more supercharged. These zombies had some sort of holy power, like clerical or possibly paladin. Taryn and Klik took out the first one, with some difficulty, but they did it, but before it went down, the others in its hallway were alerted. Xara and I saw other zombies coming out, and thankfully I'd had the foresight to send Thea with Taryn, she was able to telepathically alter her to the danger.
We surrounded the next paladin zombie to come at us, while their cleric had to back out of the silence before he could touch us. I think this may have been the first time I was grateful that there were no clerical spells that didn't require some sort of prayer. The paladin hit Taryn hard before going down, but we did manage to drop him before the cleric got up to us. He had set up a huge Spirit Guardian circle, and had summoned a spectral Shield- Nergal's favorite weapon. Great. Once the paladin was down, we all backed away from the cleric as quickly as possible, but doing so kept me in the silence, and therefore pretty much useless.
Taryn dropped his Spirit Guardians quickly, and Xara rushed into melee with him, managed to strike him, and then bolted. Glad she had the foresight to stay out of melee with the fucker, I really don't want her to die. Tick and I were hit with a pillar of radiant fire- a Flamestrike- and it burned. Taryn shot him with a silence bullet, the idea was to keep the silence pinned to him, and it was pretty fucking genius. Xara and I both zapped the cleric and backed off- I stayed on Tick's back, since he could move a little faster than me. Then the priest set his sights on the drow who'd shot him with silence, and Taryn went down.
To make matters even worse, another cluster of paladin zombies came pouring out of the next hallway we passed. Great. This was just fan-fucking-tastic. I saw KlikKlik revive Taryn, and we all began a strategic retreat to get behind the barricade we'd made earlier- glad we'd made that thing. Taryn shot at them as she ran, and as soon as we were all behind the barricade, Klik breathed ice breath at them, fucking up a bunch of them. Taryn kept shooting the cleric, while KlikKlik breathed acid next; I followed up by dropping a fireball on the cluster, but I only managed to drop one of them. I heard Xara grumbling about being stuck behind a barricade instead of being up in their faces, but I was glad she was being sensible and staying behind the damned barricade. I really don't want to lose her.
KlikKlik and TickTick coordinated attacks and dropped that fucking cleric, and if that wasn't enough, Klik then dropped one of the paladins. That kobold is fucking formidable, I'd hate to get on her bad side. One of the paladins struck Taryn over the barricade, and she went down again; I took a little pleasure in reviving her, since I know she hates accepting the healing magics of Eilistraee. Klik, Taryn, and I dropped one more paladin each, and we collectively took out the final zombie. Whew, that was a trying battle.
We decided to make a second barricade about halfway down the long hallway, using the bodies of the zombies we'd just killed as the material for the barrier. It was short enough for us to get over quickly, but not so short that the zombies could follow. Taryn found a secret door in one of the small corridors that contained an altar and a shield amulet, which appeared to be the key to the next set of large double doors.
After that fight we were tired, so we settled down to take a rest. During the night, wolves showed up, and we had to scare them away again.
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