22 July 2015
As soon as Karox recovered, she struck her assailant down with one mighty blow. The thieves maneuvered behind two of the ghouls that were still ripping at poor Billet Graham, and Rook hid behind Barry the bearer. For his part, Barry recovered from his shock, and threw two vials of holy water at the foul undead, striking one squarely. Though the water burned dead gray flesh like acid, and the thieves slashed at them from behind, the ghouls persisted. Karox cut one down in her one-hit-one-corpse way. But then with ill luck, (a natural 1 followed by a 1 on the d6), she was blinded by a spray of Graham’s blood coming off a ghoul’s claws.
And then, with the two strongest fighters disabled, bugbears slunk in through the secret door. Everyone spotted them, and Rook cast Color Spray at the first four, knocking two unconscious. One of the survivors made a beeline for Barry and cracked him across the head with a morningstar, and Barry was down. The other took a cheap shot at the blinded Karox. Two more bugbears moved in.
Karox was soon surrounded by three bugbears, while the fourth went to attack the most apparent fighter: Anaïs. Rook cast Audible Glamer, mimicking goblins outside the western door, calling for help. He successfully distracted two of the bugbears, giving the party a minute of grace. Karox got her back against a wall, and was quickly surrounded by three bugbears.
And now armed and armored men pushed through the secret door. Panic was rising. Rook made himself invisible and found a corner to hide in. Anaïs was still beset by the bugbear; Karox was still blinded and being thoroughly beaten by the bugbears; Graham was still paralyzed (and would be for at least another five minutes); Kheldar was swinging and missing, being swung at and being missed.
Finally, Karox managed to clear her vision, and she drank the Potion of Heroism that she had been reserving for a special occasion. That revivified and imbued her with twice her former fighting ability. With a roar, she cut down a bugbear with one hit. A foolish man-at-arms filled its place, and they all continued to beat on Karox. Finally, the last of the ghouls went down. But then, the leader of the men grabbed Graham and put a knife to his throat.
“We have your cleric!” he shouted. “Surrender or I’ll kill him!”
The leader waited for a reaction, but went unsatisfied. Anaïs whipped out her Ribbon of Darkness and tried to deploy it. Technically she succeeded: she let go of both ends, and it sailed into the far corner, covering the dying Barry. Karox kept looking for an opening while she tried to defend herself against three attackers. Kheldar picked up the Ribbon, and tossed it along the wall, covering Anaïs and her attackers, and she took the opportunity to jump clear. That netted the desired result: one of the panicked men swung blindly, and killed the bugbear. The other stumbled out of the darkness, into the leader.
Then, before the leader could make good on his threat, Cuthbert intervened: the good Billet Graham felt his paralysis end. He slumped, as if falling unconscious, and the leader foolishly dropped the knife and grabbed him under the arms. Graham smashed the evil bastard in the face with his mace, and turned to confront him.
Kheldar, too, attacked the leader, who then pulled his sword, turned and swung at the invisible gnome. Of course, he missed. Kheldar ran away to try backstabbing one of the bugbears on Karox. With the leader thoroughly distracted, Graham was able to cast Hold Person, freezing the fighter attacking Karox, and the two stationed at the secret door. None of them managed to resist, and were frozen in place. He and Kheldar did the trick again, with Kheldar attacking the leader, allowing Graham to cast Hold Person again, freezing the leader and one of his remaining men. Karox, still being beaten with the bugbears’ morningstars, felled one of the bugbears.
A different leader of the men looked in from the secret door, and called “Retreat!” He pulled the two Held men through the secret door. Kheldar quickly beheaded the dead leader and—still made invisible by his cloak—“floated” the head in front of the secret door.
“Depart or die!” Kheldar cried.
When none of his other soldiers responded, the new leader closed the door. The battle was over quickly after that. Rook finally came out of hiding, grabbed a hammer from the dead leader, and killed one of the Held men.
Wasting no movement, the survivors—as it turned out, everyone but poor Barry the bearer—looted the bodies and set them ablaze. Graham said that was the quickest way to ensure the bodies couldn’t be reanimated by a necromancer. That was enough fun: before their enemies could return, the party limped out via the main stairs (conveniently free of green slime). As a parting gift, the thieves rigged up a crossbow trap on the secret door, using all three captured crossbows.
On the way back to Hommlet, Kheldar encouraged Rook to study the enemy leader’s head, which he still carried (with the thought that Rook could use Change Self to impersonate the man).
Kheldar stopped by the tower to talk with Burne, while the others continued into the village. He found that the mage was in Verbobonc, but Rufus received the gnome. He agreed that it would be a good idea to retrieve the supplies that the party had discovered in the storage rooms. Since the party was in no shape to go back, he told Kheldar he would take a couple of wagons and some of “the Badgers” to take care of that. He asked how many enemies remained, and was visibly dismayed that they didn’t know. At the same time, he reiterated what Viscount Wilfrick had told Kheldar: there was too much going on in the north, and Wilfrick was most unlikely to spare any troops for the Hommlet situation.
Anaïs got an introduction to the Druid of the Grove, Jaroo Ashstaff, thanks to her buddy Kheldar. Jaroo gladly healed her (two Cure Light Wounds castings, at 10 gp each, giving her 5 more hit points).
Although Graham wanted to ask for immediate help from Canon Terjon, at least for healing, and hopefully for a volunteer, Rook convinced him to wait until the next day, until his brother, a Canon of Cuthbert, would arrive. Graham agreed.
587 CY, Third Day of the Festival Week of Richfest
The next morning, Graham healed Karox completely, leaving himself at 4 hit points, and Anaïs at 6.This campaign is going on hiatus for a few months, while we boldly go back to Rhonda’s paused USS Newton campaign!
No comments:
Post a Comment