Reptilian Delights

The group follow stairs leading down to water. The stairwell opens into an irregularly shaped flooded room. At certain places, there is a churning of the water. The water is thigh deep. The interior is lit with a dim magical light, as with the rest of the places within the pyramid the party has been to, its source unseen but its effect predominant.

Wading within the room, two upright reptilian hulks wait ready to engage on contact. Quorbin looses with a well aimed arrow followed by another quick shot and connects with both drawing first blood. However, another reptilian biped, obviously a caster of some sort brings forth a cloud of poison gas from deep across the room shrouding the elf and Garrosh, the dragonborn cleric. They are dazed and poisoned. Smaller reptilian skirmishers pop up and make a fighting line just beyond the churning vortex, Quorbin nimbly shoots at the caster who responds with another cloud of poison engulfing everyone.

As Yshven moves, he is sucked into the churning water but holds his footing, continuing his movement to avoid the fighting line and close with the distant reptilian caster. Garrosh is likewise pulled in and with a splash disappears from view. He is spewed out deeper into the room but obscured from view of his friends. He emerges dazed and slowed behind another duo of hulks. One of them senses him and charges trying to slam him with meaty arms, Garrosh ducks, evading the initial onslaught.

Moving On

Returning to the Mages of Saruun with news of their triumph, the heroes — the dwarven warrior Yshven, the elven archer Quorbin, the human wizard Casval, Garrosh, the warrior-priest of Kord, and their leader, the dragonborn Kurgan — much to their dismay, were met, not with gratitude, but further demands. “These papers you recovered from the renegade indicate that he had discovered a source of magical power somewhere up north, a source he was undoubtedly planning to harness, and which we must now have information on,” declared the  Magus Onotor, the representative of the Mages. “Fortunately,” continued the mage with a slight sneer, “you still owe us a service for the many debts your group has incurred during its visit to these halls. Take the map, go to the site, and return to tell us what you discovered.” The magus tossed the map to Kurgan and turned to leave the room.

“But what of our reward?” asked the dragonborn, “We were promised recompense for undertaking the quest against your traitorous brother.”

With a sigh of irritation, Onotor looked back. “Oh very well,” muttered the magus. He made a curt gesture and uttered a few sharp syllables and suddenly, there a flash of light quickly followed by a small explosion of air. On the floor before the adventurers was a bulging cloth sack and a huge, two-handed sword in a scabbard of white leather etched with silver. “Payment in full,” declared Onotor, as he walked out of the room, “I shall expect results on your new ‘assignment’ within a few weeks.”

Kurgan bent to pick up the sack, which he noted was filled with gold coins, while the priest Garrosh took up the sword. The magus suddenly stopped at the door. “Oh, and the sword is called, Hackfrost,” he said before finally stepping out of the room.

The dragonborn drew the blade and saw that the steel was rimed with ice.

Beyond the Veil

The warder swings his axe arm giving Garrosh a bad gash. Darkness closes on his vision but he remains standing. He misses the construct on his turn. Yshven cleaves the warder and the melee norker. A slingers hits the dwarf. The other slingshot sailing ineffectively across the room. The flailer swings for Garrosh but he twists aside. On the floor, Kurgan coughs a gout of blood and lies still.

The warder hits Yshven. Garrosh sees an opening and makes good on a swing, stepping away at the last instant. Yshven takes advantage and connects this time in a shower of sparks and parts. The bronze warder’s reach affords it a swing at the fleeing cleric and Garrosh falls finally, his yelp of pain clipped.  Both swaying Yshven and the warder engage with a flurry, Yshven imbibes a health potion from his belt pouch.

Yshven contends with the Warder, two norker slingers and a flailer. As the situation worsens, he shifts into a more focused form, shrugging off all the pain. This turns the tide. He prevails and end the battle, dropping first the flail norker with a timely hammer strike. Later, another norker slinger is felled with a whopping blow. The bronze warder and the remaining slinger fall before the dwarf’s unyielding constitution.

In the misty room, in a coffer under a bed Yshven finds a hefty amount of coin. A table yields a map of the Nentyr Vale indicating a specific spot as having “Vast power for the taking – Seek Carravacus”; also he finds rituals for Arcane Lock, Brew Potion and Leomund’s Secret. He takes Paldemars’ Staff, as well. He rest til Garrosh and Kurgan come around.

Die, Paldemar, Die!

Paldemar looses a shocksphere once more. Yshven takes the brunt this time, howling in delirious pain. Splash damage is taken by both the bronze warder and Garrosh. Kurgan takes an axe wound from the warder, as Garrosh falls bleeding on the floor. Yshven heals the fallen cleric and swings at the evil mage. The mage sidesteps but misses Yshven with his eyebite. The norkers sling away at Kurgan and he yelps taking a nasty shot in the neck. He roars murder and breathes his dragonbeath at them. They are wreathed in fleeting fire. Breathing labored, the front of his mail sopping wet with blood, he closes against one and connects with a vicious cut killing it.

Yshven lunges against Paldemar, igniting the fiery magic of his hammer. Paldemar burns and shockspheres both Kurgan and Yshven in retaliation, The warder swings and misses Kurgan. Garrosh rises but misses Paldemar, he draws inner power and heals Yshven instead. Yshven heals himself some more but misses Paldemar with his hammer. The flailer norker swings at Kurgan, flail heads digging deep, Kurgan hangs on the verge of unconsciousness but still manages to stand. He mutters introspectively and slashes at the flailer with his sword, wounding it in turn. Yshven slams Paldemar but the evil wizard just won’t die. Casval gives up a rattling cry and expires.

Paldemar, still burning, swings his staff at Yshven and surprisingly, connects with a hard thud. Garrosh maneuvers aside and imbues his allies with divine vigor reconstitute themselves. Yshven harasses Paldemar but the wizard shifts away to blast him. The norkers harry Kurgan mercilessly. Paldemar burns and tries to backstep from Yshven but the fiery distraction proves good enough and the craghammer finds his jaw. He topples over flat, half his face a soggy bag! Yshven zeroes in on the bronze warder. It is pummeling Garrosh with its huge axe. Yshven positions but misses. The warder swipes at Kurgan, joining the norkers in concert. He drops at the relentless barrage. Garrosh and Yshven lash back at the warder in tandem while the sling norkers turn on Yshven. The flailer takes a hit stepping in but still manages to find Garrosh’s flesh.

Only Yshven and Garrosh now, thinks Quorbin to himself. Would they survive this? Would the group prevail in the end? Too tired now. Too tired to look. Cold. Darkness falls. Quorbin breathes his last.

Death Haze

Those norkers are a bane, he thought and the fighters don’t need the added aggravation. If  he was to harry them, he needed to reposition outside of… Suddenly everything was shrouded in a white. Searing white. He was screaming for a time but at some point too everything became distant and unimportant. He was falling alone. He fell for an age.

From floor-level, everyone seemed to look like giants. The heavy shadows of the protagonists obscured what was happening. What was happening? It was important that he knew. Also everything was further dimmed by an overlay of dark red. Motion blurred and everything moved sooo slowly. Blackness edged his vision and he struggled against the encroaching peace to stay aware.

A few steps away, Garrosh glows in a healing haze. He pursues Paldemar and but draws an attack from the bronze warder. He grimaces at the pain, his scale armor trailing blood. The warder draws a swing likewise, from Yshven but it is still a ways off from falling. Paldemar shifts away from the attacking cleric and casts eyebite rendering himself invisible to Garrosh. He laughs at the dragonborn clerics frustration. Undaunted, Garrosh pursues the invisible Paldemar, swinging his sword with a growl. He grins as his quarry cries out in pain, a large spatter of blood evidence of the wound inflicted. Yshven joins the pursuit but his passing attack misses Paldemar and the warder both. The norkers concentrate on Kurgan and he falls to the slings and flails.

Paldemar braces himself, daunted by Garrosh’s attack, and blocks Yshvens hammer-swing with an angled staff parry. The bronze warder gives a mechanical shriek and tramples Kurgan and Yshven, hitting the dwarf on the charge. Garrosh mutters a healing word for the fallen Kurgan, steps aside and swings at Paldemar but misses. Paldemar interrupts Garrosh with his eyebite again and connects drawing a bitter curse from him.

Yshven misses Paldemar and bleeds from the warders attack. The norker slingers miss Kurgan, but one of the flailers connect.