Cor knew that trying to meet these creatures head on was not a good idea. Reluctantly he called for a new plan. "Everyone fall back but guard yourself! Head down the stairs. Sirene, get behind me and cast a cloudkill. I will go last and protect you while you cast lass." Cor hoped the others could make the retreat. With axe ready Cor waited to serve as a shield.

The ground bubbled as if alive. A seething, red-hot mass of liquid stone that spat fragments of molten rock into the air above until it too ignited in flame. The fire grew impossibly large; a wild, chaotic untamed thing. It could feel and it could think. It was an elemental. It was no longer simple fire, but fire as it dreamt it could be, white hot at the indignity of being in a world that wasn’t also burning.

But as the fire elemental appeared, the fragile peace was suddenly broken.

Sirène could only watch from above, cloaked safely from view, as the foul insects barrelled into her companions, ripping through armour and steel as if it was paper.

“My fault,”* she whispered pitifully, seeing the thin line of her companions first waver, then buckle and then collapse completely.

“Everyone fall back!” Cor shouted to all that would listen, but Sirène was beyond listening to simple words. Pity had turned to anger, and the rage she felt was now as hot as the fire elemental’s core.

‘Burn them!” she mentally communicated to the elemental she had summoned, before falling into some more intricate spell-casting.


OOC: Sirene is going to give people a chance to fall back, before casting clodkill at the end of the round just north of the stairs and roughly where Althena is currently standing (leaving the stairs cloud-free) and designed to capture as many bugs as possible. The fire elemental will attack critter No. 9.

Ulthok had returned to his place as a flaming entity appeared. This sight of fire broke the stalemate, the roach creature rushed forward and into the party. As a creature passed, its massive appendages hit hard enough to knocked Ulthok around. The pain angered him. “These creatures still fear fire!. Well I’ll give them something to fear.”

The creature that past him was headed toward Althena and still another was following and coming toward Ulthok. He positioned himself behind the creature that had pasthit him. Now standing with it (#5) on his right and the other (#6 ) to his left he pulled from their protective place two flasks of Oil of Fiery Burning.
("When this oil is exposed to air, it immediately bursts into flame, inflicting 5d6 points of damage to any creature directly exposed to the substance If hurled, the flask will always break. Any creature within 10 feet of the point of impact (up to a maximum of six creatures) will be affected." )
With one in each hand he throws both so one hits the one that past (5) him from behind (backstab bonus) and other(6) hits head on. With the same proficiency he has with throwing knives he releases the flasks. As they fly from his hands toward their evil targets the Mage heard Cor calling to retreat to the stairs. Willing his ring he once more Ulthok vanished from view. His boots of Striding would enable him to reach and down the stairs in a few quick bounds.

As he moved a new idea grew. If the glow was indeed the sword they seek he could take Athena’s hand and guide her right to the pedestal through a dimensional door. Perhaps then she could take the glowing blade and vanquish these deformed terrors.

Rayne had stood ready waiting as others began there actions. Her bow was already loaded with a notched arrow and at half draw. When the creatures moved she was ready. THe arrow streaked away form the released string straight towards her chosen target She knew the arrows would strike as pure bolts of energy. She hope that that form would penetrated to a greater degree than just a physical arrow. She was more that surprised when the arrow totally failed to penetrate their carapace at all. The bolts of energy reflected off them and away.

Kenji, had also been ready watching and waiting for the creatures to move. So when they did he struck with his two swords. She watched as his attempts failed as well to penetrate their armored skin. And so it went for others who used physical weapons. The worst was then that the creatures attacks and seemed to have no trouble hitting the members of the party as they choose. Everyone attacked was hit and wounded. some more some less.

Hearing Cor's words, Rayne backed towards the steps,slowly her bow readied for another round of shot to provide cover. for the others as they. While reluctant to give up the ground they had taken so far, if the creatures could attack them as if they stood totally defenseless, they had to protect themselves from that sort of attack until they figure out how to handle them. "Fighters provide cover and keep Althena protected." She called out as she moved.

Rayne angled her withdrawal to provide and protective circle to be formed around Althena and the less well armored party members. Not that the armor of the fighters seemed to provide them with the protection what one would expect.

(I am not sure if 2nd ed has this but she is ready to fight defensively.)

The team had decided the best plan would be to retreat back to the safety of the stairs while Sirene used cloudkill and her fire elemental would also attack. Haila raced to the stairs and making sure all of her allies were out of reach she cast fireball "Watch out Sirene I am casting fireball"

"Everyone fall back but guard yourself! Head down the stairs” Cor shouted
Kenji hesitated only a fraction of a second; retreat? It seemed wrong. Yet he had seen how his sword struck home on the beast but did not penetrate, and how easily the beast had struck him back as if he had been wearing no armor. It was indeed wise to retreat to a place of safety and regroup and come at these things again better prepared.

Kenji knew retreating from a dangerous opponent would be difficult; he had to act wisely. Taking a deep breath he let out a Great ‘KIAI’ Shout which reverberated within the chamber. It was a favored ability of his advanced training that would not only increase his strength to his maximum potential. His extreme projection of his KI also has a tendency to instill a paralyzing fear in opponents around him; he hoped that these things could feel fear. It might hold the creatures long enough so that some of his companions could withdraw in safety.

After his shout, he kicked in his sandals of speed and still facing his opponent he would move backwards as fast as he could and weaving his swords before him in a defensive pattern to attempt to ward off any strikes that might come his way. He would head for the stairs attempting to keep anyone behind him safe.

If he made it to the stairs he would hold there for a moment to make sure that Althena and any of the other females made it to safety before he would back down the stairs keeping up a defensive posture.

Conall rose, shaking his head, fighting to get back in control of his body. He had not anticipated such evil, yet despite that, he still had to fight strong, and fight well. Looking at the creatures though, they had not even moved while he had been incapacitated... Strange... Why had they not taken the opportunity?

However, as soon as he thought that, things changed. He felt a flash of warmth, as a fire elemental blinked in to existence. And suddenly, the onslaught was upon them, with the beasts surging forward in an effort to spill the blood of those who would invade their resting place. Caught completely off guard, Conall could do nothing but watch as Kenji was assaulted, yet fought back. The beasts seemed to have some impenetrable chitin however, and the blows of the stalwart samurai bounced off as though they were nothing.

With Cor's call to retreat, Conall thought it to be the best idea as well. There was little hope right now for them to be able to defeat all of these foul creatures. Even if they were pursued, at least holding them up in the stairway would provide the best option rather than facing them out in the open.

Conall, brandishing his Holy Avenger and his shield, carefully retreated back, making sure that he moved back, yet making sure that those who were less physically protected were behind him, so that they would not be exposed. His goal was to get to the staircase, but make sure the others were protected, and lash out against the beasts should they attack.

With the ease of the Roach/Scorpions ability to attack and score hits, and their apparent immunity to magical weapons, the party consensus was to retreat down the stairs under the cover of area effecting spells. However, though this plan would succeed in allowing the party to retreat down the stair's, it would also fail and result in a party member’s death.....................

The first to act this real first combat round for the party was its nominal leader Cor. seeing how easily the creature’s attacks penetrated armor and how magical weapons seemed to have no effect against them, he called for a retreat back down the stairs. Knowing the creatures were too large to follow, the cunning Dwarf Knight Cleric would use their size against them.

"Everyone fall back but guard yourselves! Head down the stairs. Sirene, get behind me and cast a Cloudkill. I will go last and protect you while you cast lass."
Quickly moving to the attack he struck at #10 as it closed with him and though his axe did no damage to it yet the strength of his blows was enough to halt it’s charge, leaving the stairs behind Cor for the moment open. However it’s return attacks were again deadly as Cor was hit by both claws and its bite taking heavy damage.

The next to act was the Halfling Thief/Mage Ulthok, having witnessed the creature’s apparent fear of fire as the cause of the sudden attack he grabbed for two of three flasks of Oil of Fiery Burning. With one in each hand, he quickly threw the left towards #6 and the right one towards #5 and was greeted with the flasks immediately breaking and the magical oils contact with air bursting them into flame, covering both creatures. In an attempt to escape the flames, surrounding them both the creatures retreated backwards causing them to group together in front of Alasdair and Conall, thus allowing Ulthok to retreat to the stairs untouched.

Though the creature’s fear of fire had caused them to attack and now retreat, the magical fire itself had yet to cause any damage. With the continued urging of the sword the two creatures, #5 & #6 slowly began to fear the fire less and respond once more to the sword’s commands.

Rayne having fallen back before #4’s previous attack once more fired two arrows of energy at it as she attempted a retreat back to the stairs. As they had before they seemed to bounce off the shell of the creature as it closed with her and attacked. Rayne hit by 4 out of 6 attacks(Claw, Leg, Leg, Tail) was slammed to the ground dazed and found herself pinned to it by the creature now above her. Her retreat to the stairs stopped cold, but her save vs. poison successful.

For Maggot, however the situation was much, much worse. Caught between the creature’s mandibles he did not have many choices in what course of action to take. Having inadvertently dropped both long sword and dagger, he had no way to stab at the creature holding him, so spells were his only way out. However, spells take time to cast and in this case, as he attempted to cast Teleport his time and luck ran out. The Roach/Scorpion easily grabbing him with its two claws sank them deep into the Ranger/Bard’s body and without hesitation ripped Maggot in two, killing him instantly!

However Maggot’s death was a gift for Cynil as the smell of the Half-Elves blood was like catnip to the Roach/Scorpion before her (#2) causing it to forget the Druid and turn to get its share of the Ranger/Bard’s body. As the two creature’s feasted on Maggot’s remains Cynil, as much as she hated to see the old man devoured in such a way, turned to race past Haila, signaling for her to follow to the stairs.

Haila herself not in direct combat with one of the giant Roach/Scorpion creatures was already in the process of retreating back to the stairs, however seeing the closet one to her turn to feed on Maggot, gave an involuntary scream of rage at his fate, seeing no other party members or herself in danger of being hurt by it released a Fireball spell directly at the two giant creatures eating his dead body. She was further enraged as she continued to move towards the stairs when she saw that the spell had no effect against the two creature’s at all! Like the parties magical weapons, like Ulthok’s flasks of magical oil, her spell too had no effect, other then to destroy to ash, the remains of Maggot not yet eaten. Tears in her eyes as the creatures focused on her, their meal forgotten, she turned and ran towards the stairs and down them to safety.

With Maggot dead for the second time since they had met, and now his remains nothing but ashes Sirene was in no mood for games. With the rest of the party attempting to retreat towards the stairs she commanded the Fire Elemental to attack, then readied the spell of Cloudkill. As the Fire Elemental moved to the attack #9 the creature fell back in fear to group with #’s 7, & #8, and the three creatures continued attempt to escape caused them to further group with #’s 5, and #6 who were once more moving forward.

The three mutated creatures under the Elemental’s attack for the moment forgetting about Althena, Alasdair and Conall, their fear of fire greater then the urge to attack, met the two creatures yet on fire but moving forward, to group together in a large mass, thus gave the three party members time enough to disengage and retreat to the stairs untouched.

During the casting time for the Cloudkill, Kenji was able to act knowing retreating from these dangerous creatures would be difficult he had to act wisely. Taking a deep breath he let out for the perhaps only the second time since his joining of the party and it’s quest a Great ‘KIAI’ Shout which reverberated within the chamber. With that shout, suddenly all of the attacking/retreating Roach/Scorpions halted dead in their tracks stunned into immobility.

Moving quickly, his strength now at 18(00), he moved to where Rayne lay pinned under a now stunned #4 and grabbing her up, carried her to the stairs and past Cor to safety. With his leaving, the only two members left on the second floor were Cor by the entrance to the stairs and Sirene to his front right side and above him.

Her spell of Cloudkill ready and with a grouping of five Roach/Scorpions together as her target, she cast the ball of death towards them. Stunned the creature’s seemed to take no notice of the cloud of toxic yellowish green vapors headed towards them, however the Fire Elemental did. Commanded to attack it continued to do so even though like the parties magical weapons and spells so far it’s attacks against the creatures were having no effect.
However, even with it’s low intelligence it knew what was coming next as toxic magical cloud combined with super hot magical fire.

BOOMMMM!!!!
The massive concussion from the combining of two magical elements hit Cor and Sirene at the same time…..

Throwing the dwarf through the entrance of the stairs and down them to hit the floor of the first level hard, knocking him for the moment out cold.

Slamming the airborne Enchantress into the rear wall to fall to the ground next to the stairs also stunned, unmoving, yet still invisible.

As for the Fire Elemental, it simply ceased to be its life having been exhausted in the explosion and its remains having returned to its own plane

The creatures themselves were thrown away from each other to land all over the room, and like the Elf Mage/Druid lay stunned but incredibly or insanely somehow still unharmed by the magical explosion. As they slowly came around, all ten once more gathered together and silently once again took up a defensive position in front of the stairs.

The creatures crouch expressionless
All ten impassive and alone
Unmoved by their victory
And the seeds of death they’ve sown.
With spells now revealed to be of little or no use against the Roach/Scorpions and magical weapons also useless. With one member of the party dead and partially eaten, the rest of his remains cremated and two others heavily stunned. The question for the surviving party members now clearly had become what would it take to kill the swords mutated guardians and allow Althena to claim it.

(DM OOC: Ok sorry for the delay but I needed to know for sure that Sirene was still casting the Cloudkill at the largest mass of bugs. Ok you’re out of combat rounds for the time being even though Sirene is still on the 2nd floor but due to her still being invisible from the bugs they are not attacking her or attempting to follow you all down the stairs. Keeper, Ginafae, though Cor and Sirene are stunned as we are no longer in combat rounds but back to turns you both can still post normally.
Flirt, Haila is starting to cramp really bad with pain spasms and is getting really nauseous.
Ok then Next Post, Next Sunday the 18th)

“MAGGOT!”

Kenji shouted seeing his companion torn apart and the pieces hurled to be attacked by the other blood crazy beasts; it took all of his self composure to restrain himself from hurling himself at the creatures. But the man was dead, and his own death would do nothing to return him to life.

“KIAI”
Kenji shouted and amazingly the creatures froze, he moved backwards towards the stairs moving defensively and on his way he spotted Lady Rayne pinned down by one of the immobilized creatures. He moved over to her, sheathed his swords in a fluid motion, and using his superior strength he extricated her and lifting her easily in his arms and hurried to the stairwell and down the steps.

BOOMMMM!!!!
About half way down he heard a great explosion above him and managed to maintain his feet while carrying Rayne, he turned to look up and saw a armored form flying down the stairs. Pressing himself against the wall he watched as Cor flew past him and crashed to the floor on the level below. The Dwarf’s armor sure was taking a beating in this battle; he wondered how much more the little man could endure.

Hurrying on down to the lower level he lay Rayne down and looked at her wonderingly; “Are you ok, Lady Rayne?” He asked in that impassive tone that he often used. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel emotions, he felt them, but he suppressed them and tried to only use them when necessary. Rage and anger were two he used often when in battle; the battle is over for now so his rage and helplessness at not being able to help his companion above was pressed deep beneath the surface, for now.

Cor watched the death of Maggot, the failure of anything to harm the creatures, Kenji use a technique that many might call magic (but not to the warriors face) and then the cloudkill gas creep towards the frightened creatures and the fire elemental. 'aww s***, not again!' Cor thought to himself just moments before the gas exploded upon contact with the fire. The impact on thr wall was bad but then the tumble down the stairs finnaly caused Cor to fade to black.

"Well that did not go quite as planned but more of us are safe than otherwise would have been. Who is injured? Does anyone have a anti-poison spell handy? Seems one is in order." After a bit of thought, "Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps retry the cloudkill without the fire elemental?" Cor thought a moment more. "None of the creatures actually attacked Althena. Perhaps the non-detection spell worked. It was only because of the fire elemental the creatures attacked. Should we have her try alone? The answer to my augery was a bit vague because it did not really answer what would happen to her alone as Odin saw the spells would occur before that attempt."

Soft eyelids fluttered open, the bright blues of the eyes beneath momentarily dulled as they struggled to find their focus in the dark. And, when they did re-adjust, not to the visual spectrum but to various hues of heat, the eyelids closed once more. The sudden, burning bright light that assaulted the aquamarine eyes awoke a deeper, more enduring pain.

‘Maggot,’ Sirène remembered, choking back a sob at the memory of seeing all that he had been disappear in the explosion she had inadvertently caused. Her face fell into her hands, her hands tugged at her hair and even the blood – her own blood – that she found there could not dull the pain of losing a friend.

“U-reniathach i amar galen, i reniad lín ne mór, nuithannen,” she whispered, partly as lament, partly out of guilt and partly out of fear that she too would share the old half-elf’s fate.

That fear was only heightened as through the tears that clouded her eyes, she spied that their enemy – the nightmareish, insect-like creatures – were still alive and unharmed.

“Crap,” she added.


OOC: The Elvish translates as: “No more will you wander the green fields of this earth, your journey has ended in darkness.”

Sirene will cast a cure mod. on herself and will stay put for now.

I am alive, thank your Kenji. Living is good. Now to heal us up and them we need to rethink our plans.

Rayne is still a bit woozy but struggles to sit up. Healers even wounded healers can't do their job on the ground. She realized that her decisions to change out some of her higher level healing spells was not proving to be a great decision. She had mostly just cure light wounds and only one or two other healing spells. She hadn't even taken Raise Dead.

Rayne knew she had be hit numerous times by just the one creature, She had felt ever hit acutely. She cast one CLW on herself and then braced herself to stand up. Call out if you are injured. I don't have much but I will use it all. If you have any potions now is the time to fetch them out.

As she goes to each of the wounded she take a mental head count.

"Where is Maggot and Sirene?"

Haila`s body was shutting itself down with spasms of pain from the poison that was now running through her veins from the hit of the first beast. Her moves became sluggish, as she moved down a few stairs and using the wall to help her she lowered herself down to a sitting position. Closing her eyes she spoke out:

"the poison is now running deep into my veins. Does anyone have a cure poison? I have a couple potions of extra healing should anyone need anything."

Haila could feel the poison taking a toll on her body and stayed sitting on the stairs as she waited to find out if she fared better than their fallen companion.

Ulthok scampered down the stair and waited at the bottom as his party retreated t o safety. Nearly all had limped down when the roar of the explosion above sent Cor tumbling down the stair. As Cor lay motionless Ulthok surveyed the damage done to his friends and his heart burned for them. With Cor out cold someone need to rally the team.

“Friends, we need to quickly heal our friends and again find a way to get Lady Althena to that sword. Alasdair if you heal Cynil then she cast on Haila and stop the poison from the viel creature. Conall can you see to Cor and revive him so our leadership can be renewed. I have a potion of extra healing that Rayne can have to get her strength back. As we all get our wits back we can then better apply our skills to heal.”

“ When we are strong again I will cast a dimensional door and lead Althena right to the stand. I can take Sirene, Haila or Cynil through too. With an invisibility spell cast on the others and I using my ring we will arrive but not appear. Althena can then judge if this is the sword we seek and take it to defeat these creatures. Kenji, if perhaps you taunted these bugs from the stairs they might stay close and give us a better chance when we step out of the door with them still across the room. I would hope that whoever would come through with us will have a teleport ready to get the Lady Althena safely away if this plan should also crumble.”

“Alasdair, do you think that maybe a Psionic Blast might scramble at least one of those ugly bugs.”

With that the small Mage pulled two potions of extra healing from his pack in preparation to help his friends.

The party having fled the above floor after their first costly encounter with the swords defenders, slowly began to gather themselves once more into some semblance of order. Then only moments after reaching the first floor a large explosion was heard and due to the impact force of it, they were quickly joined by Cor as he fell to lay unconscious beside them.

Rayne having been carried to safety by Kenji cast Cure Light Wounds first on herself then in turn moving to Kenji and the rest used up all of her spells of curing, 4 Cure Lights and a Cure Serious then realized two of the party were missing

“Where is Maggot and Sirene?"
The question of Sirene was easily answered as the Elvin enchantress glided to a landing close to her just as her spell of Improved Invisibility expired. She as Cor looked ragged from the large explosion above and upon landing she did as Rayne had done and cast Cure Moderate Wounds on herself. While this was taking place the cramping and pain had become too much for Haila, who fell to her knee’s barely managing to speak, the poison dangerously close to killing her.

Haila "The poison is now running deep into my veins, please does anyone have a cure poison? I have a couple potions of extra healing should anyone need anything."
With Cor out of commission for the first few minutes and Haila on the verge of death, Ulthok stepped in to give each surviving member something to do.

“Friends, we need to quickly heal our friends and again find a way to get Lady Althena to that sword. Alasdair if you may heal Cynil so she can then cast Neutralize Poison on Haila and stop the poison from the vile creature. Conall can you see to Cor and revive him so our leadership can be renewed. I have a potion of healing that Rayne can have to get her strength back. As we all get our wits back we can then better apply our skills to heal.”
With that, suggestion voiced the healers healed, Cor was revived to once more assume command, Haila was cured of the poison killing her, and Rayne was told of Maggot’s death. It was here that Cor proceeding to brush the dirt and grime from his clothes & armor came upon a gruesome, though heartening discovery. A human looking right hand, thumb and pinkie slightly chewed, its middle finger extended, the hand ragged and torn as if eaten but not yet swallowed was lodged between his armor and tunic. A quick check of the survivors showing each to have all of theirs, Cor concluded correctly, that thanks to the explosion of gas and fire that this piece of Maggot had somehow landed upon him and been lodged within his clothing to fall with him to this floor.

As Cor showed the rest what he had found it became clear to all if not for the explosion no remains of Maggot would there have been to find by the time the party reentered the upper floor, and the Ranger/Bard would have been gone forever. Now with the remains of his hand Cor could at least attempt to resurrect the crazy old Half-Elf. Holding the hand close Cor spoke to the party before him.

“Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps retry the cloudkill without the fire elemental? None of the creatures actually attacked Althena. Perhaps the non-detection spell worked. It was only because of the fire elemental the creatures attacked. Should we have her try alone? The answer to my augury was a bit vague because it did not really answer what would happen to her alone as Odin saw the spells would occur before that attempt."
Ulthok “When we are strong again I will cast a dimensional door and lead Althena right to the stand. I can take Sirene, Haila or Cynil through too. With an invisibility spell cast on the others and I using my ring we will arrive but not appear. Althena can then judge if this is the sword, we seek and take it to defeat these creatures. Kenji, if perhaps you taunted these bugs from the stairs they might stay close and give us a better chance when we step out of the door with them still across the room. I would hope that whoever would come through with us would have a teleport ready to get the Lady Althena safely away if this plan should also crumble. Alasdair, do you think that maybe a Psionic Blast might scramble at least one of those ugly bugs.”
Alasdair “Perhaps, however I think not as they are of very low intelligence, if they have any at all. I think it is more the sword and basic insect instinct that controls them.”
With this stated the party as a group, minus for the moment Maggot, were left to ponder what to do next......

(DM OOC: Ok here’s my delayed post, next post Jan 8th 2012. Ok Spellcasters check your sheets to see what spells have been used and may need to be replaced.
On a side note please see my post in the Q/A.
Thanks to you all for being a part of Trilogy and until next year have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)