Shall Wik succumb to the Lich's will after all? Will Martonis
fight to keep him from going over to the dark side? Will our heroes have a
moral dilemma scuffling with, and most likely killing, their former party members?
Will the DM ever get these rules and orders straight? A battle to the end… or a
clobbering?
Our illustriously outfitted heroes are in battle; the room
is approximately one-hundred metres across. In the centre sits a smoky obsidian
stone dome, approximately four-metres across, ten-metres tall and a dozen
centimetres thick. (Inside the dome can clearly be discerned the figures of
‘The (mysterious) Lady’, and Ichabod, a odd character who guided our heroes and
aided them saving their butt more than once before being unceremoniously carted
off by a Cloaker – literally over Martonis’s head!) The floor underfoot is
polished ruby, although there are inclusions and cloudy areas, especially that
dark area in the corner (of a round room) in the south side, about 10 metres
east of the top of the staircase, that Wik has identified as dangerous.
Approximately 10 metres in front of our party is a (in any
other circumstance awe inspiring.) pentagram, the lines drawn with crushed
rubies, diamonds, sapphires, topaz, garnets, jade, emeralds, etc… Outlined in a
glowing spectrum of crystal inside the points are the alternating depictions of
a rat and a serpent.
Standing firmly on one of each of the five points is someone
they once knew, some before they had been drawn to and clasped by this lich;
this vampire warlock. This causes a moral dilemma; can they destroy their
friends?
- The wondrous warrior Arrowyn, her presence at the tree instrumental in its fall, possibly the reason she was targeted by the evil lich – or was it her brother who sold her out?
- The fair and flirtatious Tessalia, her naivety and voracious cravings for new and more powerful spells has pulled her to the evil lich, the promise of life-everlasting too tempting; until the truth is known too late…
- Jahlo, his fondness for trinkets and pretty ladies; he is too easily drawn to the old crone and her fancy baubles, his faithful wolf turning his nose at such a disgusting creature, leaving him…
- Lady Triton, her arrogance and weakness for wealth and power leading to her destruction as she followed the tales and entered the Tavern on her own accord…
- Vizier Scribbles, his ambition, his downfall. The promise of elevation far beyond his station in exchange for a small favour…
The ceiling soars high above, and in the lofty space bats
can be both seen, and heard as they fly about in an intricate pattern. Lucy
questions the bats; she knows bats need an egress to feed and get liquid,
unless they are possessed…
The group stands spread approximately in a 3-metre radius
near the dome, preparing their offence.
When Cwytris, the Lich, learned that Wik did not obtained
the staff, she was angered – but was incensed to learn that her hold over him
had been dissolved! In her furious haste, she confused her spells and scarcely
scraped Wik with an icy finger driven into his thigh, barely scratching the
skin.
Cwytris flustered and greatly annoyed at the crowd and
particularly Lucy, for she is the bane of her cursed life! “You, my nemesis,
shall pay dearly for your infernal interference!” As she angrily snorts, from
her fingertips arcs a single blue-white bolt smashing into Lucy, staggering
her, but before anyone can even gasp at the brutality, the bolt jumps and burns
Antoinette, then Martonis, then Ooma, then Morgan, then Wik, then Amaril before
it hits the ruby dome and dissipates. Its carnage complete, the Lich laughs –
an eerie, crawl up your spine kind of laugh – before she disappears! Lucy
suffers massive burns, a lot of her pain being transferred by a previously cast
spell that causes Martonis to inherit one-half of Lucy’s injuries. The others
suffer the same type of carnage, their injuries not nearly as severe and a few
managing to twist and bend out of the way taking even less damage.
As soon as the blast hits Lucy, an animal appears, leaping
between the Lich and Lucy, ready to defend with its life. And the struggle to
free those trapped inside the giant bubble-like dome is underway in earnest…
Martonis, feeling the nasty effects of the Lich’s power,
casts a spell upon himself, “I hope this keeps me alive; ‘cause, without me,
you people have no chance!”
Antoinette rushes forward and engages Scribbles, the nasty
whoreson she remembers from her childhood; now she is grown up, she understands
many things previously a mystery. Her attack is swift and vicious, Scribbles
remembers her well…
Wik, trying on his new mantle of ‘good’ sees a dilemma in
hurting their old friends; Scribbles and Lady Triton, he has no concerns of,
but Tessalia, Jahlo and Arrowyn were former members of their group, he is
having moral questions and tries to be diplomatic, talking to them, attempting
to turn their ideas from evil back to good. It is futile as they could not;
they are no longer their own masters. As Wik tries to talk to them, Morgan
makes a b-line for Scribbles, attacking with his swirling, free-moving scimitar
and succeeding in causing Scribbles much pain.
Then Lucy waved her hands, tried a spell which had little
effect on her victims, while Ooma, shouting at Lady Triton, “We saved your
daughters!?!” swung her mighty axe at Lady Triton, the sharp axe missing its
target.
Lady Triton began to whistle a melodic tune, her gaze
finding Ooma, her song continued, and with great fortitude, Ooma resisted her
hypnotic stare.
Arrowyn moved next, a masterful twirl as she arrived in
front of Morgan and thrust the pointy end of the blood-crusted bastard sword at
his gut driving it deeply …under his arm and missing all flesh, she pulled it
back quickly, before he tried to disarm her.
Jahlo’s laughter echoed against the vast chamber. Waving his
fingers, a swirling ominous cloud, grey with black streaks, circled above.
Suddenly great hailstones began to pelt a six-metre radius circle, and all
within the cylinder; bruising, battering and chilling his victims. The ice
continued fall and movement in the area was slowed considerably by the large
ice chunks.
Tessalia her fangs visible against her bloodied lips, shook
her body sensuously, twirling and gazing about before she pointed her bony
finger forward cackling gleefully as a dark streak hit the smooth surface of
the floor in the centre of the group; instantly ten-black glistening limbs
snaked upward in a six-metre radius snatching at all within three-metres of
their impervious tentacles, entwining her victims in its grasp, squeezing
tightly, ignoring the pounding ice, hugging those in its bruising clutch,
forcing Antoinette, Morgan, Martonis and Wik to grapple with it successfully
for the next eight-rounds; until they are free …or lunch.
Martonis fails to break free of the insidious squeeze, but
Antoinette is successful as is Wik and Morgan, leaving only Martonis struggling
to breathe… Maybe Ooma should check that burning tingle she feels; or is she still carrying the item...?
The group, really annoyed with these creatures now, begin to
tackle them, hitting hard and solidly. Lucy casting the same tentacle environment
back into their area, the thick black rubbery ropes flailing and the battle to
break free and attack these foe escalates, and we see Tessalia and Lady
Triton’s bodies collapsing and, well, if the dead could redie, they’d be
redead!
The battle incomplete, a truce was called, or ordered. A
tenuous truce; quivering and shimmering as resentment clings to the beads of
sweat dripping from the warrior's pores, frozen in a moment until Martonis
breaks the spell… his roll determining the starting gate…
Vampire's with conscious's – who knew?
o0o
XP: March 23, 2016
HEY! You ain't done fighting yet. Talk to me when yer dun.
If ya survive…
o0o
o0o
blood-thirsty Dungeon Mistress,
khrys...
~*~*~*~
No comments:
Post a Comment
Suggestions are appreciated - and may be used against you in a full-on encounter...