Session 72: Geysers and Chains
General Summary
Trislee and Lins caught Nemara up as they retraced their way through the golem room and up into a passage with a one-way turnstile. Uncomfortable with the realization that coming back would be difficult, Lins tried to search the stonework for an alternate path.
"It's a shame we don't have Sigvurd here," she mused, "His dwarven stone-cunning would see more."
"You used to be friends with a dwarf?" Wave asked, and when Lins confirmed, reflected that it was a shame Whelm wouldn't get to meet their dwarven friend, but if they were dwarf-friends themselves, the hammer would probably like them just as well.
Finding no secret doors however, they had to return to the turnstile. Lins stepped through first, and found herself immediately confronted by three hell-hounds. She opened the battle by clanging the swords of Aqaa and Lightning together and devastating two of them with a line of sonic energy, but the hell-hounds answered with hellfire breath attacks, and the fight was on!
One by one the party members stepped through and joined the fray. The entire battle, Blackrazor casually spoke, mostly to Nemara, about how much more effective he could be than her eldritch blasts, with Wave piping up quickly each time to remind the party that they were peers and that he was a pretty capable - and much more trustworthy - weapon, himself.
"Listen," Nemara answered in her head, recalling the reaction Celestia had had to the weapon while she was in the book, "My dad would be so upset."
"Your 'dad' doesn't have a leg to stand on if he's going to lecture you about ending lives," Blazrazor replied easily, "He's a war angel, sweetie, his hands aren't clean. And besides, these are Hell hounds - they're evil creatures anyway."
Nemara ignored the sword, but her will was weakening.
They made their way down the passage after healing up a bit, and found themselves in an enormous cavern. The bottom, fifty feet down, roiled with boiling mud. The air was full of steam, and the only surfaces between their position and the exit over a hundred feet away were some disks suspended by metal chains attached to the ceiling.
Trislee activated her Boots and flew out into the space, where she was immediately attacked by flocks of flaming bats who had been hovering nearer the ceiling. Lins and Nemara attacked from range, but as more appeared, this became less effective.
Nemara cast the Fly spell on herself to get closer. The sentient weapon sensed her trepidition as she stepped over the edge, and whispered to her that, in addition to the benefits he'd already mentioned, he could make her immune to fear.
Nemara flashed back to all the times magical fear had forced her to run away from her friends who were getting hurt - Blackrazor could make sure that never happened again.
She drew the sword, and it immediately cast Haste upon her with an excited shout. She zoomed into the air and struck down a good number of the bats, feeling their vitality flow into her as Blackrazor gave a satisfied sigh.
There were more, always more, bats, though, and the party had to hurry to fly across, getting singed by steaming geysers along the way. Trislee realized the sheer numbers of the beasts could do damage over time, and flung open the door on the opposite ledge, urging her friends through.
When they entered, they saw only darkness. Nemara made her way cautiously forward; with Blackrazor in her hand she was keenly aware of the presence of each bat in the room behind them, but detected nothing here.
Lins, realizing their vulnerability, cast Dispel Magic and lifted the veil of darkness.
With the shroud lifted, the party beheld a room - dim to their darkvision eyes. Its only furnishing was a coffin on the opposite wall. Nemara felt a presence above her, and looked up just in time for the Nosferatu to drop down on her, grappling her with one hand, raking her with the other, and sinking its fanged teeth deep into her throat!
Report Date
22 May 2023
Primary Location
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