The Forgotten City XIII
General Summary
As the battle in the ancient Paruhatpan colliseum continued, La Compagnia squared off against a foe held fast by Theo's steadfast prayers, one tangled in a net of Asbjørn's making, and one, wielding a shield and mace, and wounded from their earlier encounter in the forge room of Re-Khepri-Khamat-Neb. Asbjørn made a mighty attack against the wounded but free ophidian abomination, but it moved deftly to block his every blow with a large kite shield. Riven, now visible and behind the snakeman stabs at him, but was met with much firmer snakeskin than she expected and her blow did not land. La Compagnia heard the rattling of a locked door being forced open.
Kegho's battle ecstasy was aroused at finally meeting enemies who would be a challenge.
As Kegho prepared to stride forward into glorious battle another abomination came into view: with a man's head wrapped in tattered, ancient desert robes and bearing a halberd. The fatigued Theo called for a retreat and began moving away from the battle. Teleptyon pushed past his own limits into the paradoxes of the natural world to draw more energy through his being and strike at the mace-weilding snakeman. The bolts of Ar pummeled into it and he spat blood from internal damage. Teleptyon's sanity fled him for a time, his mind wandering the paths of paradox while his body stumbled on through reality.
Another one ophidian, this one almost entirely serpent with the slender arms of a human woman moved out of the shadows behind Riven.
Alex continued to chip away at the ophidian wearing gladiatorial gear and tangled in Asbjørn's net. While the mace-wielder struck at and missed Asbjørn. Asbjørn after dodging the mace-wielder's attack slipped away to slit the throat of the held ophidian without breaking eye contact with the mace wielder.
Teleptyon attempted to strike at Kegho in his confusion, but missed. Theo came and grabbed him and wrangled him away toward the valley entrance. The creature with the mace strikes Riven with a mighty blow as he lashed out as he neared death. Riven in turn stabbed at the gladiator in the net, wounding him. Kegho striding forward put a bolt in the same enemy.
The snake in the desert robes raised his halberd and intoned dark words from a lost language, an eldritch bolt crackled through the air and Asbjørn's body was wracked with pain as his flesh and bones dissolved and reshaped into that of a constrictor snake. The ophidian mage turned and fled the battlefield. The snake with feminine arms lashed out at Riven, but missed her. Aswyrm, confused and angry lashed out at the mace-wielder who was nearby but was unable to do him harm as he learned how his new body moved. Kegho strode up and slashed but missed in the confusion. Teleptyon slipped out of Theo's grasp and babbled wide-eyed profane falsehoods about the gods being ascended powerful wielder's of the Ar. Theo slapped him dramatically.
The feminine snake landed a bow on Riven. The mace user missed Kegho, but Kegho did not miss in his riposte and utterly destroyed him. The gladiator escaped his net and cut at Kegho who took the grievous strike in stride due to his ecstasy. Aswyrm slithered away from the fallen mace-wielder leaving a slithering trail of gore as he went after the now free gladiator biting his heel. The feminine snake attempts to charm Aswyrm and catches his attention. He struggled to remember his true nature but began to lose himself to snakeness. Alex and Riven began to slip away while Kegho screamed "I cover you escape, go GO!" He took another hit from the gladiator and attempted to scoop up Aswyrm but was unable to get a handle on him. Aswurm was focused on the feminine snake and was led away as Kegho was driven back. As the last of them reached the edge of the valley, the blood curdling scream of someone being murdered rang out through the cavernous ampitheater.
Back inside the cavern system Khufu shook off his golden lotus dreams. He did not recognize the people surrounding him, but sensed no threat from them. They seemed gravely concerned and a cleric was yelling "he was such a nice heathen and he was so close to seeing the light of Ourana, but has died..." but a mage leaning heavily on a staff drawling out "Asbjørn ain't dead, just bespelled, it'd take a mighty powerful mage to remove the spell, or we could always kill the mage with the halberd, that'd undo it." Kegho nodded gravely "Asbjørn like kill mage. We kill mage. Ok." The mage was not exactly pleased with that response, but nodded. "We kill mage." he repeated.
The Keb did not know these people, but knew they needed cheering up and that there was nothing more cheery than facts about the high quality of this cavern system's sandstone. The group ushered him forward across a bridge that was of decent, though not Keb construction and showed signs of recent battle damage. On the other side of the bridge they discussed scuttling the bridge and Khufu piped up that cracking the anchor points in the stone would reasonably weaken the superstructure causing catostrophic failure. Kegho pulled the little man with him and handed him a pickaxe. "Show me" and they destroyed the bridge.
The party sat exhausted and picked at food and sipped water. Theo and Teleptyon slumped against each other in a corner, Theo snoring loudly and Teleptyon muttering occasionally about snersons.
Alex asked Khufu more about the room and found him a quarterstaff in the supplies. Khufu explaiend that the beetle scarab in the room was a reference to Xam the Maker and said he believed the room had once been a shrine or had always been a forge, but the two concepts overlapped somewhat when it came to Xam. He told of his capture and being kept in a tent city between the valley and the mountains. He and his cousin had been forced to fight bugbears in a crude galdiatorial arena and when they had prevailed they had been given a great chalice to drink from. And then he was there in the cave.
"Do you know where my cousin Herk is?"
