... he's really starting to annoy me, now ...
Our band continues to be...
Kalik, halfling initiate of Avoreen;
Vesper, (NPC) human fighter, henchman of Kalik;
Milik, halfling sorcerer;
Kendradell, female half-elf bard & initiate of Lydia <absent
this week>;
Marcus, half-elf acolyte of Hieroneous;
Tarqualan, high elf mystic <absent this week>;
Nubo, gnome thief-psionicist;
Piotr, suloise human mercenary;
and finally;
Talon, dwur initiate of Clangeddin.
[4th of Planting, 579]
Returning once more to the battle for Vastan Keep, we left our heroes preparing to break into the tower they hoped was their final goal, with Marcus preparing to force open the door and Piotr bracing himself to pull Tarqualan down from his uncomfortable perch. Once through the door, Marcus nimbly dodged between the soldiers protecting the sorcerer, only to find his axe cutting the illusion that stood there mocking him. The guards which had surrounded the illusion now surrounded Marcus, who was hard pressed to parry them all...
With the door open, Talon rushed inside to join Marcus, while Piotr struggled to free Tarqualan. In the courtyard below, hobgoblin soldiers began flowing out of the doors of the main keep, raining arrows as best they could upon the party, as those trapped on the walls hid behind crenelations or made their way to the door. Ferrite, Milik's familiar, flew out across the courtyard and began casting spells on the beams that protruded from the castle's walls, causing them to flex and twist, throwing shards of broken stone on the hobgoblins crowding below.
Shortly after Talon entered the melee inside the tower, the unseen sorcerer
unleashed a spell upon Marcus, Talon, and Piotr that increased the weight
of their equipment and slowed them somewhat, to greater or lesser degrees
depending upon their individual loads. When that failed to cripple them,
he turned Talon into a python one moment, and then he and his familiar
began blasting Marcus with lightning from opposite sides of the room as
the soldiers surrounding him continued to fall to his axe. Tarqualan, once
he regained his footing, cast a spell that allowed him to locate them both
(the sorcerer and his familiar) and communicated their locations; Marcus
set off after the sorcerer while Kalik, who had slipped inside a round
or so before went to engage the
familiar.
Unknown to Marcus, the sorcerer had time to teleport away before he could bring his axe to bear, but the familiar was not quite so lucky. Kalik struck it true, and it's life force was trapped within the Eye of Argoreth (his most potent magic sword). Outside, Milik and Nubo were targeted by the sorcerer, who had teleported across to the fourth floor of the main keep; Milik was knocked unconscious and Nubo mildly hurt, which drove those still lurking outside inwards, dragging their injured companions along to safety.
As the soldiers in the tower room began to thin, Marcus turned and made
his way upstairs, facing in rapid succession a shade (darkness elemental)
and a wraith; as he reached the pinnacle of the tower he was face to face
with yet another horned devil, which he quickly dispatched. While those
below administered healing to one another, Ferrite (who had returned when
his master was knocked unconscious to heal him) flew over the heads of
all in time to see that the sorcerer now stood upon the
pinnacle of the opposite tower, and that a heavy wooden chest now floated
in mid air where a blood-soaked robed figure had just released it...
As Marcus and Kalik began to make their way towards the door leading to the ledge outside, yet another shade dropped from the ceiling to envelope them, trapping Kalik in it's icy grip. While Ferrite flew out and landed on the slowly drifting chest and attempted to shape itself into a tool to pry it open, Nubo slipped back outside and used his psionics to lengthen his limbs enough to permit him to jump up and grab one of the chest's handles; all this added weight slowed the chest even more, to the sorcerer's obvious consternation.
After slaying the shade, Marcus made his way outside to engage the robed figure (who was recognized by now as a priest of Nerull). Just as Marcus's blade clove the priest's ribcage, that worthy croaked out a spell that nearly ripped Marcus' soul from his body, but instead merely damaged him a bit more. Setting aside his axe to draw a bead on the sorcerer several yards away, Marcus was taken unawares by the disease spirit that arose from the priest's corpse, but even wounded Marcus managed to hold it off long enough for Kalik and Milik to destroy it. While this was going on, Kendradell and Piotr sent arrows and crossbow bolts flying towards the sorcerer, and were rewarded when their arrows finally overcame his defensive spells and struck him down.
As Tarqualan moved among the group casting flight spells, Milik paused and used his to loot the body of the sorcerer, obtaining a number of matrices and bindings. The floating chest proved to contain the gems they had sought, and so they quickly fled the keep for the town below, and quickly put miles behind them, arriving back in Critwall after several days of hard riding. After a brief respite to train, plans were made to return south to Urnst, so that Kalik could attend the coming holidays in his home temple...
[15th of Planting, 579]