March 28, 2009 - The Stormhammers find and confront the leader of the cult, Triel. An epic battle ensues.
The Stormhammers and their mage prisoner Melsa peek out of the storage room and see a long hallway branching off in a few directions. Off in the distance somewhere they can hear the clink of dishes and mugs being used. A set of double doors is nearby, so Cram, since he's in the executioner outfit, says he will open the door and try to bluff whoever is inside that he is looking. The others wait around the corner, ready to jump out at the sounds of combat.
Jamie: Ok so what's the signal for help? DM: An owl hooting? Like before? Cam: A GIANT FIREBALL!
Cam knocks on the door, no response, knocks again, nothing, so he opens it. The stench of sweat and blood immediately wafts out. The room appears to be an interrogation/torture room, with an iron maiden, a bed of nails, and a variety of bloodstained hooks and blades scattered across the floor. Sets of manacles are set into the wall. The party joins Cram and poke around, and find a ritual book containing the Silence ritual. Snake Eyes takes it to study later.
Thunderbomb gruffly demands that Melsa lead them to Triel now. She says that she is, she's taking them right to Triel's quarters. They creep down a few more hallways and come to Triel's room. Yggdrasil pushes the doors open and walks in. Inside the large chamber he sees two ogres with mauls, a tiefling in a shadowy black cloak leaning back in a chair with his feet up on a desk, and standing in the center of a circle of runes carved into the floor, a human red-haired woman in black spiked fullplate - Triel. The runes are glowing faintly red. Four pillars line the walls and a steaming pool of water gurgles at the back of the room, and the two corners of the room closest to the door are curtained off. Small braziers burn brightly atop brass stands, and a huge bookcase is against the east wall, stuffed with loose papers and books.
Yggdrasil asks if they've seen their escaped prisoner, but Triel & company simply draw their weapons. Triel, wielding a bastard sword and heavy steel shield with a red gauntleted fist on the front, shouts at Yggdrasil and demands his death in the name of Bane. Yggdrasil responds by running into one of the curtained-off corners. Out in the hall, someone knocks Melsa out and the fight starts.
Thunderbomb and Yggdrasil rush into the center of the room to take on one of the ogres and Triel, while Bonesaw, Cram, Brigs and Snake Eyes stay near the back to fight the other ogre and the tiefling. The tiefling dashes past Yggdrasil, provoking an attack, so Yggdrasil swings at him only to find himself blinded as motes of shadow leap from the tiefling's dark cloak to blind him. The ogres lumber up and start dishing out heavy blows with their mauls, and Triel shouts a prayer to Bane, infusing herself, the Tiefling and one of the ogres with magical strength. Bonesaw is ambushed suddenly by an invisible attacker who runs out of one of the curtained-off corners (not the one Yggdrasil ran into). The invisible attacker slashes Bonesaw, whose face is obscured with magical shadow, blinding him. The attacker, now visble, is revealed to be a grey-skinned humanoid with black eyes - a Shadar-kai. The tiefling runs up to Bonesaw and takes advantage of his blindness, sneak attacking him.
Thunderbomb starts deflecting both the ogre and Triel's attacks, and the ogre doesn't like that, pulling down the bookcase on Thunderbomb and Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil dodges but Thunderbomb is crushed underneath and knocked prone by the heavy wood shelving. Bonesaw blasts Triel (his oath of enmity target) with a powerful lightning attack, but Triel reflects half the damage back at him. Cram throws a fire blast into the room and burns both ogres and Triel, and backs out of the room, but the Shadar-kai turns invisible and follows him out and attacks him there. The tiefling continues to dance around Yggdrasil, provoking attacks and getting hit by Yggdrasil's pipe, but blinding him again each turn. Yggdrasil and Snake Eyes quickly dip into their Healing Word and Majestic Word powers, healing the heavy damage being dished out by Triel's forces.
Brigs fires a dazzling ray at Triel, but mostly misses her. Thunderbomb infuses himself with the spirit of winter, and heavy frost and cold surrounds him, slowing Triel's band and covering his skin with thick ice. After dealing with this for a round or two, Triel uses her shield to knock Thunderbomb back across the room, and steps back into the rune circle. Bonesaw and Brigs try to identify what the circle does, and deduce that it allows followers of Bane to deal additional damage with their attacks while standing in the circle.
Brigs tries to throw a spell at Triel but it backfires, and magical energy explodes around him, pushing everyone away from him. Triel uses an ability called Crushing Despair and misses, and Thunderbomb taunts her. Enraged, she uses an action point and attacks again...and misses again. Cram blasts her with an acid arrow, but she mutters an oath to Bane and quickly dispels the ongoing acid burn. One of the ogres smashes a brazier with its maul, sending embers and flames hurling into the air around it, but Snake Eyes evades the flames and shouts insults back at it.
DM: Ok, Shaun, Triel is using Crushing Despair on you. Dale: What did it ever do to her? DM: What? Dale: The pear. Why is she crushing dis pear?
Bonesaw switches his oath of enmity target to the tiefling, and severely injures him from behind, causing the Tiefling to stagger to one knee. Bonesaw uses an action point and springboards off the tiefling's upright knee, kicking him in the face with the blade in his boots of kicking, slicing off the tiefling's jaw and killing him. Brigs uses a power and lightning explodes out from under him, shocking one of the ogres and the Shadar-kai, and he goes catapulting across the room. He lands next to Triel and the other ogre, and lightning crackles out underneath him as he lands, shocking them both. The ogre dies from the lightning.
Seeing two of her allies down, Triel shouts at the Shadar-kai before continuing to fight Thunderbomb.
Triel: (to the Shadar-kai) Quit playing around and use them!! Everyone: Oh shit!
The Shadar-kai whips his cloak around and steps into its shadow, emerging from behind one of the pillars at the back of the room. He slides open a panel in the pillar and pulls some levers, and a heavy crossbow trap emerges from one of the other pillars in the room and starts firing at the party, and crits Yggdrasil with its first attack, and Yggdrasil goes down. He is down for a few rounds; however since warforged can't bleed out, he is more impatient waiting for someone to heal him than genuinely worried.. Snake Eyes runs into one of the curtained-off corners and flops prone, hoping to avoid getting shot.
Bonesaw steps up to triple-team Triel, but she responds by calling down a Bane curse on them, dealing necrotic energy to all three of them. She crits Bonesaw and wounds Thunderbomb and Brigs, and curses them that the next time they attack they will take more necrotic damage. She then smites Brigs, which curses him and ruins his aim for his next attack. Bonesaw hits her with a jumping kick to the back of the head, which lets him heal himself and endure the damage then caused by Triel's curse. Thunderbomb holds off from attacking and uses his second wind.
Brigs backs away and uses his second wind, and runs behind the toppled bookcase for cover against the crossbow attack. Meanwhile, the Shadar-kai continues to fiddle with the pillar panel, and a second automated crossbow trap opens up in a different pillar and begins firing.
Triel pauses for a moment to use Lay on Hands and heal herself of most of her injuries, and uses Crushing Despair on Thunderbomb again. She hits him this time, and CRUSHES him. Black, evil energy bursts out of her sword, paralyzing Thunderbomb but making her sword temporarily unusable. Thunderbomb shrugs off the paralysis quickly though due to his indomitable willpower that comes from being a Warden. Triel, unable to use her sword again yet, instead blasts Bonesaw and Thunderbomb with dark energy, causing them to both take ongoing necrotic damage. Thunderbomb reacts by using an item that duplicates the curse onto her before toppling to the ground, mortally injured by the necrotic damage.
Cram gets crunched by the remaining ogre, and is bloodied in a single hit. He shoots back with a powerful enchantment that makes the ogre think it's falling into an endless pit. He and Snake Eyes then finish off the ogre.
Brigs gets attacked by the Shadar-kai, invisible again, and is blinded and nearly killed. He still manages to step back and blast it with a chaos bolt, which splinters off into a secondary bolt which burns Triel. Cram tries to stabilize Yggdrasil and fails. Snake Eyes (still prone) rolls towards Yggdrasil to try to heal him, and narrowly dodges an opportunity attack from the Shadar-kai. He manages to rouse Yggdrasil, who uses his second wind and a healing power and restores himself to almost full health. The Shadar-kai goes back to attack Brigs and critical fumbles, leaving himself open for an attack from Brigs. Brigs slashes out wildly with his dagger and horribly disembowels the surprised Shadar-kai.
Bonesaw unleashes a powerful strike on Triel, but she again reflects half of it back at him, severely injuring him. She then slashes him heavily, bringing him to single-digit hit points. Snake Eyes and Yggdrasil run over and gang up on the battered paladin, and together they manage to knock her out. Yggdrasil quickly stabilizes and revives Thunderbomb, while Snake Eyes ties up Triel. The crossbows are still firing away, so Bonesaw runs back to the pillar panel and sees a multitude of switches and levers. He starts throwing levers wildly, and manages to disable both crossbows.
Everyone heals and after taking away her armor and weapons, they wake Triel. They try to intimidate her to find out more about what else is still in the ruins. She angrily says that Tarkilar will make them pay. However, she stubbornly refuses to reveal anything else, instead cursing and berating them in the name of Bane. The Stormhammers call a vote on what to do, and they decide to kill her since she's way too dangerous to keep alive. It's a close vote though (3-2) as ____ and _____ want to keep her alive (I forget who.) Yggdrasil does the deed, crushing her skull in his hands and then performing some impromptu funeral rites to try to keep Bane from benefitting from her death. Thunderbomb takes her shield, which allows him to throw an enemy back after a successful melee attack.
The party rests and then check out a small side room, which turns out to be Triel's chambers. They ransack it, destroying a small stone statue of Bane resting in a bowl of water in the process. They find some coins and gems and also a rolled up war standard in the corner, one that when planted creates a zone that gives the party a bonus on damage rolls. It is blank, so the Stormhammers decide to get it decorated with their logo once they get back to Cauldron. Yggdrasil takes it.
No comments:
Post a Comment