The Terrace of Doom
Dramatis Personae:
Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer
"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct
Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Werewolf Sea Sorceress
Steve, Quinn's Octopus familiar
Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin
Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once.
***** Tarsakh 19, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), White Plume Mountain
After scouting our surroundings, we retreated into the secret ambush room to sleep. We were all exhausted, and Bumbersnoot was in dire need of repairs.
When we were all up and moving the next morning- technically afternoon- Oskar had a full black beard on his face... until he lit the fire to make our breakfast, when it caught fire and disintegrated. Moradin is definitely fucking with that dwarf.
Once we'd finished eating we began searching the walls for the secret door the captain guy escaped through. Quinn said his name was Sir Balto and there was a 10,000 gold bounty on his head, so we really wanted to find him. While Oskar and I searched the stone walls, Jak bundled up all of the plate armor the other dicks had been wearing when we killed them, into nets, so he could just pull everything around. The armor wouldn't fit in my bag, and even if Quinn had a proper sized bag, she wouldn't be willing to let us use it because of her fucking octopus.
Oskar found a section of the wall that seemed like it should be a passage, but there was no seam or anything that would open it. As Oskar searched the stone, I began looking around the rest of the room for some sort of mechanism that opened it, to no avail. At that point, Jak decided that the best course of action was to break the wall down... by ramming his head into it over and over. I pointed out that we could just go around, but the insane minotaur ignored me, so I sat down and tinkered while watching Jak try to knock himself out. It took the boys a half hour to break the stupid wall down. A few minutes into it, Oskar remembered he had a pick and sped up the process. Honestly, I was hella shocked that Jak was conscious after that, and didn't seem dizzy or anything. Dude's got a hella hard head apparently.
On the other side of the wall was a narrow passageway. The path eventually sloped down a little, and revealed a short side passage with a door that was ajar. Inside was a bedchamber. The oil lamp on the table was almost completely burned out, at the end table near the bed was another almost burnt out lamp; sitting on the bed was the plate armor that Sir Balto had worn during our fight. The wardrobe was wide open and empty, save for an armor mannequin, which was naked. Oskar decided to take the armor, since it was better than what he currently had on, so while he changed, I rifled through the open chest, which was boring aside from one health potion. That'd come in handy later.
Once Oskar was changed and the room thoroughly searched we continued down the other passage, until we reached a dead end. Oskar said it intersected with another corridor, and Jak thought it was the main one that had freaked him out last night from the single loose stone. Apparently he didn't feel like beating his head against the wall again, because Jak decided to turn around and go out the normal passage.
The loose stone that had freaked Jak out really was just a loose stone. Oskar lifted it up, shifted some dust around, and it laid down flat- the exasperated look he gave Jak was fucking hilarious. After moving a little further down the passage, Jak found where he thought the hidden passage intersected with this one, and Oskar confirmed it. At the end of this hall was another closed door- surprise, surprise.
Beyond the door was the most peculiar room we'd seen yet. We were looking out and down into a huge chamber with terraced steps that ring the entire area and descend to a central enclosure. Water was lapping at the floor just a few feet in front of us. Looking closer at the room, we saw that the terrace water a 10 foot deep ring of water, enclosed in glass, and another one was two steps down from it. In between these water steps were dry ones, but they were also still ringed in glass. The first ring had giant crayfish in it, the second had giant scorpions, there were sea lions in the third, and waiting at the bottom were three fucking manticores.
The manticores all launched tail spikes at us- hitting Jak and Oskar, and the third one hit the glass wall of one of the terraces below us, cracking the glass. Jak ran right into the water terrace below us with the giant crayfish, and hurled one up to our level. I hit it with my beetle and Critical Bumbersnoot chopped onto it, killing the fish thing. Below us the crayfish had begun surrounding Jak and he was quickly snatched into the claw of one of them. Oskar chucked his hammer at Jak to heal him... and hit the crayfish with healing instead. Then Quinn got the fucking brilliant idea to electrocute the water, with a badly injured Jak in it. I don't know what in the Nine she was fucking thinking.
The crayfish didn't appreciate being electrocuted either, and one reached up to snap its claws at her from the water- and they seemed to hurt her hella bad. Another crayfish climbed out of its tank and advanced on us, as I saw Jak kill the one holding him- though he also accidentally punched the side of the tank, making it crack and begin leaking. Bumbersnoot bit the crayfish that was coming at us and I shot it with my Daring Sir after giving Quinn a butterfly to heal her. Oskar chucked another hammer at Jak, and Quinn misty stepped away from me, out of the crayfish's grasp, flanking the one Bumbersnoot and I were fighting. In doing so, Quinn left Oskar's flank open, and the crayfish that had been gripping her turned toward the dwarf- a second one climbed out and went for him too; they grappled him with ease.
The manticores sent another volley of spike at us, narrowly missing Bumbersnoot and I, but hitting Quinn again. Those things just do not like her. Then, because Quinn has the greatest luck ever, the crayfish she was flanking decided she was a better target than Bumbersnoot and I, and it turned around and caught her in its claw. Bumbersnoot bit it, and I hit it with my quickrazor, but really Oskar needed more help than Quinn, so I chucked an exploding mouse at the two crayfish attacking him- and managed to not his Oskar in the explosion. Oskar was struggling to break free of the crayfish's grasp, but he couldn't quite break clear; the crayfish squeezed squeezed him and he cried out in pain. Quinn managed to wriggle free of the one holding her, only to be grabbed by it a second later; and then she was hit by another volley of manticore spikes. The second one that had been attacking Oskar jumped back in the water and grabbed Jak instead- so now there were two on him again, but he took care of that right away, killing the one that wasn't holding him before turning to his captor.
Bumbersnoot bit the one holding Quinn again, and I finished it off with my quickrazor, then I shot the one holding Oskar with my weird gun. Oskar struggled against his captor, but he just wasn't able to get free. Quinn, now free finally, sent a spell at Oskar's captor and missed completely. Then fucking sea lions from two terraces down began jumping up to us- two of them ganged up on Jak, who was still in a crayfish's claw, and they seemed to hurt him hella bad. Jak was still holding his own though, beating the hell out of one of the beasts surrounding him... and then a third sea lion went after him and dropped him.
I barely suppressed a cry of pain as the manticores managed to hit me- I think that was the first time none of them hit Quinn in this entire battle. Bumbersnoot's jaws snapped against the open air right in front of the crayfish holding Oskar, and I guess I was a little distracted from the pain of the manticore's stingers because I missed with my quickrazor- though I did get a good shot in with my weird gun. Oskar's spiritual weapon missed the crayfish, that fucker is hard to hit, and he revived Jak.
Quinn killed the crayfish holding Oskar, only for a damn sea lion to take its place and smacked me. Bumbersnoot bit the sea lion, knocking it off balance, and it fell back into the water; my puppy got another bite in as it went down, and Oskar smacked it. Jak began beating the crap out of the sea lions near him, before he finally got out of the damned water- unfortunately the sea lion followed him and started beating the crap out of him. I hurried to heal him, worried that Oskar may not be able to heal him before more things strike.
The sea lion that was in the water stood upright and beat on Oskar and Jak, who were the closest to it. Thankfully Oskar sent out a healing wave at everyone, right before another sea lion jumped up and started hitting him; and then the fucking manticores launched spikes at both him and Jak again. I had Bumbersnoot trip the one on our level who'd hit Oskar. Jak pounded one of them before tossing it back into the level below us. I dropped an acid beetle on the one Bumbersnoot had just tripped, and scored a hit with my quickrazor; Oskar's spirit weapon finished it off. As another lion went for Oskar, his spirit guardians activated, that would make this fight a little easier- Quinn stabbed that sea lion.
The fucking manticores sent more spikes at us, and Jak went down again, I revived him right away. We continued exchanging blows with the sea lions while trying to avoid the damn manticores. Jak went down one more time before we'd finished off the damn sea lions. All that was left now was the scorpions and the manticores.
We started working on breaking the glass in the first water level, though it didn't feel like we were making much progress until Quinn jumped in and used a thunderwave to break the glass... Which caused Jak to be swept out along with the water and right into the waiting pinchers of the scorpions. Of course he got away, and once Quinn shattered the glass on the last two levels, we flooded the scorpions and manticores. For the most part, they drowned and we didn't have to do too much more to finish them off. Most of us were okay at the end of the battle, but Oskar had expended most of his healing magic, so rest was definitely needed, and I needed to give Bumbersnoot some repairs.
The bottom level where the manticores were had a door, but there was a force field of some kind over it. Oskar noticed a safe in to wall, and once I disabled the trap I got it open with ease, claiming a hella nice necklace for us, along with some silver. I had put detect magic up before disabling the safe's trap, so with that on I could now clearly see the magic blocking us from the door. Oskar was able to dispel it and the water rushed out of the room. We gave it a few minutes before opening the door, to let the water (hopefully) drain, though I'm not entirely sure why we did that, since Quinn had given us all water breathing.
On the other side of the door was a fifty foot long hallway with another door at the other end. We all suggested that we just lock the door to the aquarium to rest and deal with whatever was on the other side of it later, but Oskar insisted that we investigate whatever was on the other side first. He's not normally this insistent, but since he's hella stubborn, we went to see what was beyond that door.
I picked the lock to the door, and on the other side was a comfy looking, well furnished room. The room was filled with lavish furnishings and decorations with rugs and cushions all over the floor, and tapestries covering the walls. A hookah the size of a human was in one corner, some glaives in another, and the biggest piece of furniture was a sumptuous divan that had a lump under the covers.
Oskar crept forward and yanked the blanket off the form, and we heard a yelp from the halfling that had been under the blanket. He was in heavy armor and told us that he'd been trapped here by an evil wizard. He might have convinced us too, if Oskar hadn't recognized the glaive as one that had belonged to one of the knights we fought in that douchey water tunnel area. Oskar confronted him, and a fucking greatsword appeared in his hand, as the illusion dropped and he became Sir Balto, the knight who'd escaped us. He growled at Oskar, and Oskar growled right back. It was hella funny.
Oskar muttered a prayer to Moradin, asking for a boon, and based on the divine light that covered the dwarf, I'd say it worked. Balto's sword spoke aloud, demanding that Quinn give it Wave, her trident, and of course she said "never." Then Wave started singing out loud... Balto slashed at her with the sword, but she turned into water and hid behind Oskar. Bumbersnoot snapped at Balto, but his jaws ending up getting nothing but empty air. Jak got on Balto's flank and hit him a couple times, but not nearly as many of his hits landed as normal. This fucker was hella hard to hit. Quinn shot a chaos bolt at him, and then he attacked Jak, Bumbersnoot, and I- it hurt, a lot.
Bumbersnoot was able to land a hit, though he couldn't trip him, and I couldn't touch him with my acid beetle or my quickrazor. Then Jak wrapped his arms around Balto and he started dragging him away, giving Bumbersnoot and I an opportunity to hit him again- and Critical Bumbersnoot bit him hella hard. I even scored a hit with my weird gun. Quinn shot another chaos bolt at him, and then Oskar's spirit guardians and spirit weapon appeared. The weapon missed, but the guardians seemed to hurt Balto a little bit.
Balto squirmed in Jak's grasp, but didn't break free- though he still somehow managed to parry Bumbersnoot and I. Jak pinned him and speared him with a horn, allowing Quinn to come up and stab him with Wave, and Oskar to pound on him. Somehow, even though he was pinned, he managed to stab Jak with that greatsword and drop him. Bumbersnoot, Quinn, and I all missed with our attacks, but Oskar managed to disarm him, scooping up the sword before Balto could. He held his shield out, trying to block Balto from getting to him.
Since Balto couldn't get to his sword, he grabbed the glaive out of the corner of the room and hit Oskar twice with it. Bumbersnoot sunk his teeth into Balto, but again couldn't trip him, and I hit him with an acid beetle, but my quickrazor just zoomed through empty air. Quinn had Wave block Balto off from Oskar with a cube of force, and then Oskar did something hella weird. He stabbed Jak with Balto's sword- apparently the sword sucks out the souls of people it kills- and attempted to put the soul back into Jak's body. I blurred Oskar to make it harder for Balto to hit him, and Bumbersnoot tried, but couldn't score a hit. This guy fucking sucks.
Quinn launched a chaos bolt at Balto, and missed horribly. Oskar was able to rip Jak's soul out of the sword, and as it returned to his body the sword screamed in rage. Balto lunged and got the sword back from Oskar, tossing him glaive aside, and turned to bolt from the room. Jak, Bumbersnoot, and I all missed our attempted attacks against Balto as he fled. Bumbersnoot and I followed him, and found him standing at the other end of the hallway, with his back toward us. He was just standing there, it was hella weird.
Some people might think it's dishonorable to shoot a man in the back, but I'm not one of them. I shot the fucker right in the back with my daring sir. Jak tossed some darts at him, an he turned to glare at us- but something felt a little off about him. Quinn missed him with a chaos bolt- sometimes I think that's the only fucking spell she knows that can actually damage a person. Oskar chucked his hammer at Balto's arm, trying to get the sword dropped, but it seemed to just lightly tap him hand. He glared, and announced that he was the sword, Blackrazor- evidently it had dominated him.
Blackrazor-Balto slashed Oskar several times, before I hit it hella hard with my weird gun and my daring sir; Bumbersnoot's jaws closed on open air again. Jak began pounding on him, and Quinn missed with another chaos bolt. Oskar kept trying to disarm Balto, but it just wasn't working. Then Balto jabbed the sword at me, and I was impaled...
Critical Bumbersnoot bit Balto with a fury that only a pup trying to protect their alpha would feel. Jak decided to try to talk to Blackrazor, but failed, and found himself killed as well. Quinn jabbed at him with Wave and missed. Oskar finally succeeded at disarming Balto, and scooped up the sword. Balto lunged for Oskar, and tripped over Jak, then Critical Bumbersnoot made another nasty bite attack on Balto.
Oskar stabbed Winry with Blackrazor- and Bumbersnoot thankfully, realized what the dwarf was doing, so he didn't attack to protect his mistress- and managed to restore her soul!
I came to as Oskar was pulling the greatsword out of me, I'm not gonna lie, it hurt hella bad. Balto was still up, unfortunately, and he lunged at Oskar, getting Oskar to drop the sword; Balto scooped it up and seemed to be stunned. Bumbersnoot bit Balto, and I hit him hella hard with my daring sir- it seemed to be extra daring tonight- then I healed myself. Oskar revived Jak again and Jak stood up, put Balto in a headlock, and dumped four pinches of dust of dryness down his throat, killing and mummifying him. Oskar stuffed Balto in one of the stasis balls, the dude was still worth ten thousand gold.
We barricaded ourselves in the cushy room, and reset the wall of force that prevented the door in the aquarium room to be accessed. We were drained, but we'd defeated Balto, and gotten Blackrazor; Jak decided to claim the weapon as his, he was the only one who could really use it anyways. We only had one more weapon to find now.
Wave wouldn't stop singing out loud all fucking night. I don't like that trident.
After scouting our surroundings, we retreated into the secret ambush room to sleep. We were all exhausted, and Bumbersnoot was in dire need of repairs.
When we were all up and moving the next morning- technically afternoon- Oskar had a full black beard on his face... until he lit the fire to make our breakfast, when it caught fire and disintegrated. Moradin is definitely fucking with that dwarf.
Once we'd finished eating we began searching the walls for the secret door the captain guy escaped through. Quinn said his name was Sir Balto and there was a 10,000 gold bounty on his head, so we really wanted to find him. While Oskar and I searched the stone walls, Jak bundled up all of the plate armor the other dicks had been wearing when we killed them, into nets, so he could just pull everything around. The armor wouldn't fit in my bag, and even if Quinn had a proper sized bag, she wouldn't be willing to let us use it because of her fucking octopus.
Oskar found a section of the wall that seemed like it should be a passage, but there was no seam or anything that would open it. As Oskar searched the stone, I began looking around the rest of the room for some sort of mechanism that opened it, to no avail. At that point, Jak decided that the best course of action was to break the wall down... by ramming his head into it over and over. I pointed out that we could just go around, but the insane minotaur ignored me, so I sat down and tinkered while watching Jak try to knock himself out. It took the boys a half hour to break the stupid wall down. A few minutes into it, Oskar remembered he had a pick and sped up the process. Honestly, I was hella shocked that Jak was conscious after that, and didn't seem dizzy or anything. Dude's got a hella hard head apparently.
On the other side of the wall was a narrow passageway. The path eventually sloped down a little, and revealed a short side passage with a door that was ajar. Inside was a bedchamber. The oil lamp on the table was almost completely burned out, at the end table near the bed was another almost burnt out lamp; sitting on the bed was the plate armor that Sir Balto had worn during our fight. The wardrobe was wide open and empty, save for an armor mannequin, which was naked. Oskar decided to take the armor, since it was better than what he currently had on, so while he changed, I rifled through the open chest, which was boring aside from one health potion. That'd come in handy later.
Once Oskar was changed and the room thoroughly searched we continued down the other passage, until we reached a dead end. Oskar said it intersected with another corridor, and Jak thought it was the main one that had freaked him out last night from the single loose stone. Apparently he didn't feel like beating his head against the wall again, because Jak decided to turn around and go out the normal passage.
The loose stone that had freaked Jak out really was just a loose stone. Oskar lifted it up, shifted some dust around, and it laid down flat- the exasperated look he gave Jak was fucking hilarious. After moving a little further down the passage, Jak found where he thought the hidden passage intersected with this one, and Oskar confirmed it. At the end of this hall was another closed door- surprise, surprise.
Beyond the door was the most peculiar room we'd seen yet. We were looking out and down into a huge chamber with terraced steps that ring the entire area and descend to a central enclosure. Water was lapping at the floor just a few feet in front of us. Looking closer at the room, we saw that the terrace water a 10 foot deep ring of water, enclosed in glass, and another one was two steps down from it. In between these water steps were dry ones, but they were also still ringed in glass. The first ring had giant crayfish in it, the second had giant scorpions, there were sea lions in the third, and waiting at the bottom were three fucking manticores.
The manticores all launched tail spikes at us- hitting Jak and Oskar, and the third one hit the glass wall of one of the terraces below us, cracking the glass. Jak ran right into the water terrace below us with the giant crayfish, and hurled one up to our level. I hit it with my beetle and Critical Bumbersnoot chopped onto it, killing the fish thing. Below us the crayfish had begun surrounding Jak and he was quickly snatched into the claw of one of them. Oskar chucked his hammer at Jak to heal him... and hit the crayfish with healing instead. Then Quinn got the fucking brilliant idea to electrocute the water, with a badly injured Jak in it. I don't know what in the Nine she was fucking thinking.
The crayfish didn't appreciate being electrocuted either, and one reached up to snap its claws at her from the water- and they seemed to hurt her hella bad. Another crayfish climbed out of its tank and advanced on us, as I saw Jak kill the one holding him- though he also accidentally punched the side of the tank, making it crack and begin leaking. Bumbersnoot bit the crayfish that was coming at us and I shot it with my Daring Sir after giving Quinn a butterfly to heal her. Oskar chucked another hammer at Jak, and Quinn misty stepped away from me, out of the crayfish's grasp, flanking the one Bumbersnoot and I were fighting. In doing so, Quinn left Oskar's flank open, and the crayfish that had been gripping her turned toward the dwarf- a second one climbed out and went for him too; they grappled him with ease.
The manticores sent another volley of spike at us, narrowly missing Bumbersnoot and I, but hitting Quinn again. Those things just do not like her. Then, because Quinn has the greatest luck ever, the crayfish she was flanking decided she was a better target than Bumbersnoot and I, and it turned around and caught her in its claw. Bumbersnoot bit it, and I hit it with my quickrazor, but really Oskar needed more help than Quinn, so I chucked an exploding mouse at the two crayfish attacking him- and managed to not his Oskar in the explosion. Oskar was struggling to break free of the crayfish's grasp, but he couldn't quite break clear; the crayfish squeezed squeezed him and he cried out in pain. Quinn managed to wriggle free of the one holding her, only to be grabbed by it a second later; and then she was hit by another volley of manticore spikes. The second one that had been attacking Oskar jumped back in the water and grabbed Jak instead- so now there were two on him again, but he took care of that right away, killing the one that wasn't holding him before turning to his captor.
Bumbersnoot bit the one holding Quinn again, and I finished it off with my quickrazor, then I shot the one holding Oskar with my weird gun. Oskar struggled against his captor, but he just wasn't able to get free. Quinn, now free finally, sent a spell at Oskar's captor and missed completely. Then fucking sea lions from two terraces down began jumping up to us- two of them ganged up on Jak, who was still in a crayfish's claw, and they seemed to hurt him hella bad. Jak was still holding his own though, beating the hell out of one of the beasts surrounding him... and then a third sea lion went after him and dropped him.
I barely suppressed a cry of pain as the manticores managed to hit me- I think that was the first time none of them hit Quinn in this entire battle. Bumbersnoot's jaws snapped against the open air right in front of the crayfish holding Oskar, and I guess I was a little distracted from the pain of the manticore's stingers because I missed with my quickrazor- though I did get a good shot in with my weird gun. Oskar's spiritual weapon missed the crayfish, that fucker is hard to hit, and he revived Jak.
Quinn killed the crayfish holding Oskar, only for a damn sea lion to take its place and smacked me. Bumbersnoot bit the sea lion, knocking it off balance, and it fell back into the water; my puppy got another bite in as it went down, and Oskar smacked it. Jak began beating the crap out of the sea lions near him, before he finally got out of the damned water- unfortunately the sea lion followed him and started beating the crap out of him. I hurried to heal him, worried that Oskar may not be able to heal him before more things strike.
The sea lion that was in the water stood upright and beat on Oskar and Jak, who were the closest to it. Thankfully Oskar sent out a healing wave at everyone, right before another sea lion jumped up and started hitting him; and then the fucking manticores launched spikes at both him and Jak again. I had Bumbersnoot trip the one on our level who'd hit Oskar. Jak pounded one of them before tossing it back into the level below us. I dropped an acid beetle on the one Bumbersnoot had just tripped, and scored a hit with my quickrazor; Oskar's spirit weapon finished it off. As another lion went for Oskar, his spirit guardians activated, that would make this fight a little easier- Quinn stabbed that sea lion.
The fucking manticores sent more spikes at us, and Jak went down again, I revived him right away. We continued exchanging blows with the sea lions while trying to avoid the damn manticores. Jak went down one more time before we'd finished off the damn sea lions. All that was left now was the scorpions and the manticores.
We started working on breaking the glass in the first water level, though it didn't feel like we were making much progress until Quinn jumped in and used a thunderwave to break the glass... Which caused Jak to be swept out along with the water and right into the waiting pinchers of the scorpions. Of course he got away, and once Quinn shattered the glass on the last two levels, we flooded the scorpions and manticores. For the most part, they drowned and we didn't have to do too much more to finish them off. Most of us were okay at the end of the battle, but Oskar had expended most of his healing magic, so rest was definitely needed, and I needed to give Bumbersnoot some repairs.
The bottom level where the manticores were had a door, but there was a force field of some kind over it. Oskar noticed a safe in to wall, and once I disabled the trap I got it open with ease, claiming a hella nice necklace for us, along with some silver. I had put detect magic up before disabling the safe's trap, so with that on I could now clearly see the magic blocking us from the door. Oskar was able to dispel it and the water rushed out of the room. We gave it a few minutes before opening the door, to let the water (hopefully) drain, though I'm not entirely sure why we did that, since Quinn had given us all water breathing.
On the other side of the door was a fifty foot long hallway with another door at the other end. We all suggested that we just lock the door to the aquarium to rest and deal with whatever was on the other side of it later, but Oskar insisted that we investigate whatever was on the other side first. He's not normally this insistent, but since he's hella stubborn, we went to see what was beyond that door.
I picked the lock to the door, and on the other side was a comfy looking, well furnished room. The room was filled with lavish furnishings and decorations with rugs and cushions all over the floor, and tapestries covering the walls. A hookah the size of a human was in one corner, some glaives in another, and the biggest piece of furniture was a sumptuous divan that had a lump under the covers.
Oskar crept forward and yanked the blanket off the form, and we heard a yelp from the halfling that had been under the blanket. He was in heavy armor and told us that he'd been trapped here by an evil wizard. He might have convinced us too, if Oskar hadn't recognized the glaive as one that had belonged to one of the knights we fought in that douchey water tunnel area. Oskar confronted him, and a fucking greatsword appeared in his hand, as the illusion dropped and he became Sir Balto, the knight who'd escaped us. He growled at Oskar, and Oskar growled right back. It was hella funny.
Oskar muttered a prayer to Moradin, asking for a boon, and based on the divine light that covered the dwarf, I'd say it worked. Balto's sword spoke aloud, demanding that Quinn give it Wave, her trident, and of course she said "never." Then Wave started singing out loud... Balto slashed at her with the sword, but she turned into water and hid behind Oskar. Bumbersnoot snapped at Balto, but his jaws ending up getting nothing but empty air. Jak got on Balto's flank and hit him a couple times, but not nearly as many of his hits landed as normal. This fucker was hella hard to hit. Quinn shot a chaos bolt at him, and then he attacked Jak, Bumbersnoot, and I- it hurt, a lot.
Bumbersnoot was able to land a hit, though he couldn't trip him, and I couldn't touch him with my acid beetle or my quickrazor. Then Jak wrapped his arms around Balto and he started dragging him away, giving Bumbersnoot and I an opportunity to hit him again- and Critical Bumbersnoot bit him hella hard. I even scored a hit with my weird gun. Quinn shot another chaos bolt at him, and then Oskar's spirit guardians and spirit weapon appeared. The weapon missed, but the guardians seemed to hurt Balto a little bit.
Balto squirmed in Jak's grasp, but didn't break free- though he still somehow managed to parry Bumbersnoot and I. Jak pinned him and speared him with a horn, allowing Quinn to come up and stab him with Wave, and Oskar to pound on him. Somehow, even though he was pinned, he managed to stab Jak with that greatsword and drop him. Bumbersnoot, Quinn, and I all missed with our attacks, but Oskar managed to disarm him, scooping up the sword before Balto could. He held his shield out, trying to block Balto from getting to him.
Since Balto couldn't get to his sword, he grabbed the glaive out of the corner of the room and hit Oskar twice with it. Bumbersnoot sunk his teeth into Balto, but again couldn't trip him, and I hit him with an acid beetle, but my quickrazor just zoomed through empty air. Quinn had Wave block Balto off from Oskar with a cube of force, and then Oskar did something hella weird. He stabbed Jak with Balto's sword- apparently the sword sucks out the souls of people it kills- and attempted to put the soul back into Jak's body. I blurred Oskar to make it harder for Balto to hit him, and Bumbersnoot tried, but couldn't score a hit. This guy fucking sucks.
Quinn launched a chaos bolt at Balto, and missed horribly. Oskar was able to rip Jak's soul out of the sword, and as it returned to his body the sword screamed in rage. Balto lunged and got the sword back from Oskar, tossing him glaive aside, and turned to bolt from the room. Jak, Bumbersnoot, and I all missed our attempted attacks against Balto as he fled. Bumbersnoot and I followed him, and found him standing at the other end of the hallway, with his back toward us. He was just standing there, it was hella weird.
Some people might think it's dishonorable to shoot a man in the back, but I'm not one of them. I shot the fucker right in the back with my daring sir. Jak tossed some darts at him, an he turned to glare at us- but something felt a little off about him. Quinn missed him with a chaos bolt- sometimes I think that's the only fucking spell she knows that can actually damage a person. Oskar chucked his hammer at Balto's arm, trying to get the sword dropped, but it seemed to just lightly tap him hand. He glared, and announced that he was the sword, Blackrazor- evidently it had dominated him.
Blackrazor-Balto slashed Oskar several times, before I hit it hella hard with my weird gun and my daring sir; Bumbersnoot's jaws closed on open air again. Jak began pounding on him, and Quinn missed with another chaos bolt. Oskar kept trying to disarm Balto, but it just wasn't working. Then Balto jabbed the sword at me, and I was impaled...
Critical Bumbersnoot bit Balto with a fury that only a pup trying to protect their alpha would feel. Jak decided to try to talk to Blackrazor, but failed, and found himself killed as well. Quinn jabbed at him with Wave and missed. Oskar finally succeeded at disarming Balto, and scooped up the sword. Balto lunged for Oskar, and tripped over Jak, then Critical Bumbersnoot made another nasty bite attack on Balto.
Oskar stabbed Winry with Blackrazor- and Bumbersnoot thankfully, realized what the dwarf was doing, so he didn't attack to protect his mistress- and managed to restore her soul!
I came to as Oskar was pulling the greatsword out of me, I'm not gonna lie, it hurt hella bad. Balto was still up, unfortunately, and he lunged at Oskar, getting Oskar to drop the sword; Balto scooped it up and seemed to be stunned. Bumbersnoot bit Balto, and I hit him hella hard with my daring sir- it seemed to be extra daring tonight- then I healed myself. Oskar revived Jak again and Jak stood up, put Balto in a headlock, and dumped four pinches of dust of dryness down his throat, killing and mummifying him. Oskar stuffed Balto in one of the stasis balls, the dude was still worth ten thousand gold.
We barricaded ourselves in the cushy room, and reset the wall of force that prevented the door in the aquarium room to be accessed. We were drained, but we'd defeated Balto, and gotten Blackrazor; Jak decided to claim the weapon as his, he was the only one who could really use it anyways. We only had one more weapon to find now.
Wave wouldn't stop singing out loud all fucking night. I don't like that trident.
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| Map from "Tales from the Yawning Portal" by Wizards of the Coast |
