Killing Xandras Ragnars Ultimatum (Session 42)

Summary

They started this session by entering the temple area again. The kids were still down by the table, eating. They searched the temple area but found little of interest there. They went out of that room, North and then West down the hallway to the other end. Oglesby listened at the door leading South out of the hallway. He heard some sort of chanting from the other side of the door. He backed away and let Brandy take the lead. She was still in Ragamuffin Brandy disguise when she opened the door, just a little, and slipped into the room. There were three priest, Bel, Biv, and Devoe. Xandras was there with a boy, waving a dagger around him while chanting something. Further into the room were two Ghasts and on steps leading up to a dais. On the dais above them was a large creature, swaying side to side with it's head down. It was huge. She couldn't tell what it was.

Elenor poked her head into the room. One of the priests caught glimpse of both Ragamuffin Brandy and her. He shouted, "Intruders!". The fight was on. Elenor cast a slow spell catching five creatures in it but only affecting three of them. They included the boy, one of the Ghasts, and one of the Priests. She backed up away from the door after casting the spell. Oglesby charged in, opening the doors fully. Kipp, charged Xandras. Brandy backed up to a corner and fired on Xandras as well. Oglesby started working on the front part of the group of Priests and Ghasts. Audra entered and tried to make her way to Xandras but Sairalinde' wanted the Priests dead and forced her to turn her attention to them.

They killed Xandras and before they could stop it, the Abomination woke and began making his way across the room. One thing they noticed was that this huge creature was wearing the robes of the Priests. They'd guessed that the process he was undergoing changed him from a human Priest into this creature. It stomped the boy as it went by him headed for Kipp. Pyreece made it to the door but being blind, couldn't do much. She was attacked by one of the Ghasts and it paralyzed her. Elenor made it into the room and used a Cone of Cold spell to inflict a lot of damage on the monstrous creature. She thought the boy was dead but if he wasn't, then he was after the Cone of Cold passed over him.

The battle went on for a few more moments. Oglesby fell! Pyreece fell! Audra got a Goodberry into Oglesby while Elenor got one into Pyreece just as the battle ended. They searched everyone and the room. The walls were pulsing and ungulating as though it breathed. It appeared to be alive. The sound it made was gross and it sickened Audra until she could take it no more. She picked a spot that almost seemed alive and put the point of Sairalinde' up against the wall and slowly pushed it in. It penetrated the wall causing a pinkish liquid to flow from it. The wall seemed to feel pain from the intrusion. She kept at it. She pierced it and slashed it, causing it great pain judging by the sounds. She got the pinkish liquid all over Sairalinde' and herself. She thought of it as the blood of whatever this thing was. After about a half hour of this, it finally fell silent. Audra felt as if she'd finally killed whatever it was.

They'd decided that they had pretty much cleared this place out so they left the room and started back to the room with the Brady kids. Brandy used the Hat of Disguise to make herself look like the Priest Devoe. She used that form to move freely through the facility. Quickly searching the place, she found no one else. She returned to the others. When she entered the room with the kids, forgetting her appearance, they grew scared and moved quickly way from her. Audra told them it was just Brandy and Brandy remembered how she must look and removed the hat. The kids calmed down. They spent two nights here, resting and healing. The kids found cloths they could use and stocked up on food. Pyreece cured her blindness and made a couple of more continual light stones, handing them out. They left the place after a couple of days.

The kids asked them to take them home but when they named the cities they were from, no one in the party had heard of any of them and knew not where they were. The kids were surprised by this Kipp explained that they weren't from here and knew nothing about the region. They told them they could take them back to Elredd and from there, they could get the Priests of Saint Cuthbert to find a way to get them home. Brandy gave them 25 gold to split amongst them. They left the facility the same way they'd come in and made it back above ground. There was no sign that anyone was around so they left the area and made it back to the road. They headed back to Elredd.

Along the way, they came to a house just off the road. It had been empty when they'd passed it earlier but this time there were a few people out front with a dog that barked at their arrival. They commented on this passing group. Brandy was loaded for bear commented back. This turned uglier and uglier until the leader of the group, or the person she thought was the leader, asked her to come say something she had said, to his face. She said, "Okay!", and proceeded to march over to him and said it to his face. That's when things really went sideways. The men started talking amongst themselves asking if these were the ones they'd been waiting for. That was an odd turn in the conversation. While asking what they were talking about, a familiar bearded person appeared from around the building.

Ragnar announce that they were under arrest were to be taken to the magistrate. They were told to drop their weapons. When asked why they were being arrested, Ragnar told them it was for killing all those people at the mine. They asked, "What mine?". He told them he had a witness. Out from behind the building came Glyrthiel. They were told to drop their weapons and to surrender. I think the first attack came from Kipp who charged Ragnar. The fight was on! Oglesby used his ring of invisibility to disappear and reappeared behind Glyrthiel and attacked her. He got in a good sneak attack. It was then that many more people appeared behind others of his party and sneaked attacked them. Between a dog and about 20 others, this fight was turning out to be very difficult.

Kipp focused on Ragnar. Seeing that Ragnar was going to be the toughest to defeat and that Kipp had his hands full, Audra joined him. Just about the same time that Ragnar went down, so did Kipp. They didn't kill Kipp though. They just knocked him out. Elenor had used a Mirror Image spell to protect herself but the two on her were whittling those down. She did manage to almost kill one of them before having to bail out using an invisibility spell. Brandy drank a potion of Fire Giant Strength and was definitely making some serious headway on her cluster of baddies. Audra was surrounded and feeling it was only a matter of time before she fell, she teleported next to Pyreece. At least she would have a friend on one side of her. Oglesby was in bad shape and just before he fell, he used the Ring of Invisibility to vanish and found a place to lay low.

They had a mage on their side as well but though he protected himself with a Mirror Image spell, he only made a couple of minor attempts to impact the fight but failed. His last attempt was a Shocking Grasp spell. All five of him lunged out from a place of hiding with sparking hands at Elenor but she had just vanished and he was stuck with nothing to shock. His spell fizzled and he hid in the woods nearby again.

This is where they stopped this session, to be picked up here when next they got together.

Please start the recorder!

No experience points were doled out at this time!