Session 22: Face Off

Riya returned from the side tunnel and reported that it sloped upward and apparently across the top of the chasm, suggesting that it was being used by the duergar to connect to the main dwarven citadel. She also reported the the duergar were preparing extensive defenses in a large cavern at the peak of the tunnel.

After some conversation with Commander Tomi, it was decided that while the dwarves kept the duergar busy in the tunnel, the heroes would use their dingy to sail across the chasm and hit the duergar from behind. As Tomi and her troops headed down the tunnel, the party prepared for the harrowing voyage across the lava flows. With Terlis as the helm, the dingy rose to nearly the peak of the cavern to stay as far out of range of the ballista as possible. Nonetheless, the duergar manning the ballista did manage to hit the dingy once on its passage over the lava, rattling the nerves of everyone, although it stayed in one piece. Terlis piloted it directly over the guard tower of duergar. Kiki, PPP, Torg, and Zhang combat-dropped onto the duergar from above. As they dove over the side, PPP spoke in an arcane tongue and they drifted down as light as feathers. The duergar attacked them with crossbows as they descended, managing to land a few shots, while the heroes fired back with their own weapon. When they finally hit the ground, they made short work of the remaining duergar, throwing a couple over into the lava.

The heroes regrouped at the top of the guard tower, but there was no further immediate resistance. Two ladders led down into the darkness. Carefully heading down, they came into a large dwarven hall, sixty feet wide with giant pillars running down each side. It continued into the darkness. They could see that many of the pillars had been damaged. A large hole was also apparent on the far side of the hall revealing a newly excavated tunnel. Suspecting that this would tunnel would lead them to the duergar, the party moved in that direction.

As they moved, shadows came out of the darkened hall ahead of them. Slowly, the members of the Grevious Wound sauntered into view. They was no sign of Gruzza or Ulkoris, but the other members were accompanied by a duergar male wearing a crown and his three personal duergar bodyguards.

Shajyre addressed the party, sarcastically asking after their interest in dresium. Rather than respond, Clancy began to cast a spell. The whole chamber exploded into action as everyone moved.

Shajyre was the first to act. He played strange music from his lyre that almost befused and muddled the minds of serval of the party, although they were all able to shake it off without further affect. Once more during the battle, Shajyre would try the same trick only to fail again.

Clancy was able to get his spell off, which hasted the already formidable talents of Kiki and Zhang. As he ducked behind cover, there was a sudden change of the light from above. Gruzza had been hidden in a crevice in the wall above and jumped down to strike at Terlis who she judged to be the most dangerous due to his spellcasting abilities. [Terlis] just saw her out of the corner of his eye, and raised an arcane shield that deflected her blows away. Gruzza cursed and retreated to the safety of her comrades, although she took a blow from Riya as she left.

Terlis then turned and demonstrated Gruzza’s good judgement, raising a wall of arcane flame that cut off most of the foes from the duergar king who had advanced on Zhang and burned several of them.

The wall of fire did not last long however as Zalmo dispelled it with a flick of his fingers, before advancing on Kiki. Meanwhile Zhang single-handedly faced off against the duergar warlord and his guards. Torg rained down death from his longbow on Gruzza as she fled back to safety, as well as any others that entered his line of sight. Riya advanced on Shajyre. She would have been hard-pressed as Ebrut came to assist Shajyre and get his first kill. However, an eldritch blast from Clancy pushed Ebrut back down the hallway.

The first to fall was the duergar warlord, his head smashed by Zhang’s vicious maul. As he fell, Terlis let loose a fireball that caught Ebrut and Gruzza. Gruzza already severely wounded stumbles and falls to the ground to lie still. Ebrut stumbles, shaken and singed by Terlis’s fire magic, but charges forward to do battle with Zhang.

On the other side of the hall, PPP uses strange dissonant whispers to muddle and warp Zalmo’s mind. Kiki pressing her advantage bashes him to the floor with her shield and then impales him with her longsword. She then turns her sword on the remaining duergar guards, making short work of them.

As it appears that the the party is gaining the upper hand, Ulkoris suddenly stumbles out of the dark. he makes strange and alien hand gestures accompanied by foul demonic language, and a huge hulking ape-demon suddenly appears near Zhang. Zhang realizing that he is better off destroying the conjurer than the conjured risks the blows othe ape-demon as he rushes toward Ulkoris and strikes out, hurting him severely. Coming up from behind, Torg unleashes and arrow that takes Ulkoris in the heart. As his life ebbs, Ulkoris giggles and says “now you will see the true evil!”

A gigantic roar explodes from the darkened hall and a huge bulk suddenly begins to rapidly move toward the fight. Emerging from the shadows, the party sees a huge and demonic creature, looking something like a giant minotaur but with features twisted in demonic fashion. The best bellows, clearly in a rage beyond reason and moves to engage the closest combatants.

Ilozaren who to this point has been rather ineffective in the fight, casts a spell that surrounds many of the pary members with a green miasma, causing them to choke. Then Ilozaren moved closer to Shajyre as he hoped to escape this foul demonic beast before the party could. Meanwhile, the ape-demon goes berserk and starts attacking all parties. The closest to it is Ebrut. It punches him twice and then reaches down and literally bites his head off.

Riya finishes off Shajyre and the rest of the party gangs up on Ilozaren. It is [Clancy] (/characters/clancy/) who deals the final blow. As Ilozaren falls, the green miasma evaporates. Everyone beings rushing back to the dingy to escape the gigantic demon-bull now advancing on them. Riya is the most exposed but, Terlis casts invisibility on her and she makes her escape, running along walls and ceilings. Several members of the party are lightly injured by debris from a rock that the demon hurls at them from the walls.

As the heroes quickly cross the chasm in the dingy, the demon reaches the edge of the chasm. Screaming in rage, it picks up a large chunk of debris and hurls it at them. PPP casts fog cloud to make its aim more difficult and Terlis dodges with the dingy and the boulder flies past them and disappears into the lava below.

The party reaches the safety of the other side. They turn back to see the demon howl at them once more before heading back into the dark of the citadel. They all pause to catch their breath, now realizing that they have accomplished their mission of eliminating the Grevious Wound.