#41 - The Bone Storm

As told by Rendar d'Torrn, a bounty hunter of House Tharashk

Drix's half-elf "Drivinia" form

And so we waited and tended to our wounds.  Drix, back in her half-elven form, came into our room to bestow healing blessings from the Shadow, which only I needed and accepted.  She also brought our weapons, which for this fight we were allowed to use.  I set about slinging my bow, swords, and clipping axes and hamers to my belt while she explained the scale of what we would be joining next: the Bonestorm.  Many combatants, all fighting each other to win.  It would be in our best interest to let these others fight amongst themselves.  Winning would be nice, but it was not our goal. Defeating—ideally, killing—the oni who had taken Trug’s soul was our chief goal. 

Drix asked us what names we would provide, for announcing and wagers.  While Doongal, Magnus and I gave simple titles and names, Xoma and Cypher seemed to want to outdo each other with grandiose names. Xoma gave his title as "Xoma, Lord of the Vulkoor of Xen’drik, Slayer of Fireshazz the Troll, Slayer of Vegg the Flesh-Cutter." While Cypher was "Cypher, First Sergeant, Brelish Engineers Brigade, Retired, Master Manipulator of the Mystic Matrix."

Drix left, and we began the procession to the arena.  One after another we entered the arena, Magnus first.  He struck claim to a corner of the floor, enough for us to see most everything happening.  We stood by him, for blessings from Doongul and infusions from Cypher and his Mystical Matrixes or what have you. Fire spewed from an open pit and massive braziers lit the corners.

On a column in the center of the arena was a harpy in finer attire than most. She announced those who entered, of whom we had a good view.  It seemed a never-ending stream of creatures came to participate with names and titles as endless: a goblin trio, a hobgoblin sorcerer, another hobgoblin, an orc warrior, an ogre, and then the "Mockery’s Avenger," Zurin Souldrinker. Tall, green-hued skin, he resembled the other ogre mage we'd met only vaguely—not as powerfully built, but three times as sinister.

After him a half-orc, a sickly armored human (perhaps a prisoner, desperate for his freedom?)/ Then in came another old friend—the Karrn keeper of Grapnel the Warforged.  It seemed we were in for a bit of a grudge match in more ways than one! The monstrous crowds murmured, cheered, and roared at different times.

Then another human entered, in priestly robes.  He was a strange sight to see, weapons in each hand—a gleaming warhammer, and a well-worn axe—with the symbol of the Sovereign Host on his armor, but damaged.  Any thoughts on him not belonging vanished as a wind whipped at the hem of his robes and kicked up dust. He stood by the pillar with the harpy on it, glaring at the orc. The entire battle, he was fixated on that orc! 

Next in was Grapnel, who took his familiar place by the Karrn.  The final two combatants were a dagger-wielding woman ("Seera Arees, the Deceiver of Sharn") and a drow in simple robes—the first drow we've seen since Xoma!  The harpy then said there was only one rule—do not leave the arena. To leave is to forfeit your possessions.  I had no intention of giving anyone the pleasure of my blades, unless it was running them through!

The harpy announcer called out, “Welcome, residents of Graywall...to the Bone Storm!” She sung out in a lovely, powerful voice. The crowds roared their elation. “There is but a single rule: If you exit the arena, you have lost, and you surrender all your possessions to Salan immediately. It is the only way to exit with your life.” Salan appeared to be a lycanthrope, a dark-furred rat-like humanoid in black leather armor and a bow in hand. “The Storm ends when all but one remains, or when Xorchyllic deems it ended.”

The harpy then flew off, and the pillar began to descend, then slid into the rock, revealing a pit of spikes in the center. While no one moved yet, perhaps awaiting a signal, Cypher bestowed magical infusions to my sword and armor, and to Magnus’s dragon-bone weapon and himself, while Doongul bestowed the power of Onatar on us. The other combatants began shifting positions, and so it was time to act!  Wisely the human cleric—"Kard of Cyre" they'd named him—moved from between us and Zurin Souldrinker and went for the goblin trio, skirting around whatever was in the pit.  He delivered a crushing blow to the chest of one of the goblins.

I stepped forward from the group, now with a clear shot at the oni.  He was huge, towering over me, and as much as I wanted him dead, I also wanted to not fall into the spiked pit. I chucked a hand axe at him, hoping to goad him into a reckless charge. But the oni had a powerful magic—my axe hit true, but in the blink of an eye the oni and swapped places with the hobgoblin, which my axe hit instead. Glad I didn’t charge, I stepped back, waiting.

Doongul called on the power of his god’s thunder to smite the oni.  One of the goblins was killed in the blast, but Zurin took a hit as well.  Magnus moved to fight our foe after chucking a spear, while my new hobgoblin friend charged me.

It was decending into a brawl, with Kard sparring with the goblins daggers, and Grapnel and his Karrn commander teaming up on whoever they could.  A flaming sphere materialized near Kard, who was probably regretting standing in the midst of the fray. 

The hobgoblin who charged me would regret that—with a swing of my longsword I cut him nearly in twain. The byeshk scimitar did the rest of the job in a second swing.  Then I was aware of an arrow, slick with some sort of poison bouncing off my armor as Cypher’s overcharged frost ray shot wildly. Fortunately it fizzled before hitting the crowd! 

Xoma set to duel with his fellow drow—a monk of the Mockery!?—while the sickly human warrior tried to hit me with his sword. I had hoped to leave him alone—he was possibly a mistreated prisoner—but he left me with little choice. I struck him down with strikes from both my swords, to see Magnus again on his feet against Zurin. The oni then enveloped Magnus, Doongul, Cypher and myself in a strange green cloud, which he'd spew from his open mouth.  Cypher and I withstood it, but Magnus and Doongul dropped, seeming unconscious. This did not feel like poison, but it was certainly debilitating. 

Sounds of combat continued all around us. Kard was pushing the hobgoblin sorcerer off into a corner with the woman, having a measure of success though the sorcerer had sent the human slipping to the ground more than once with a grease spell—an old trick of Halbazar's....  Meanwhile, Xoma seemed a blur around the arena, often seeming to fade in and out of existence on the power of one of his spells. Fortunately, Doongul and Magnus were not out for long, they woke just in time for the oni to transform into a noxious green cloud and pass over Magnus and I and away from us.

I was then parrying a blow from our Karrn friend, who was bidding Grapnel to aid him. Grapnel moved to flank me but did not attack—perhaps we were getting through to him after all. My final words to the Karrn were “Fight your own battles,” while Magnus crushed him with a blow from the dragon-bone mace.  Grapnel seemed to be worried, perhaps uncertain, as his commander went crashing to the ground. Maybe for the first time he considered a choice his own to make?

But we weren't done. Zurin Souldrinker rematerialized from his cloud form as Xoma blinked back into existence. Xoma quickly maneuvered so that with a single spell, he knocked the oni  out over the edge of the arena. He vanished into the currents of powder. Just then Kard killed the hobgoblin mage he had been squaring off with.  It seemed all was under control, until a vapor rose up from the shriveling corpse of the sickly man. It quickly became a tall figure in ornate Dhakaani armor. Cypher was quick to fire a ray of frost at this figure, which seemed to be our vampire, hobgoblin friend from underground—the one who'd followed us from those Khyber-like depths beneath Paluur Draal.  At this time, a medusa walked up the entrance tunnel and tossed a white object over the fire toward the pit, saying simple “the prize.” It appeared to be some sort of ivory wand. I didn't really pay attention to it beyond that moment.

Unfortunately I was in no position deal with either the "prize" or the vampire with an ogre in my face.  I implored Grapnel to help, careful to ask and not order him.  I then move to work with Magnus on taking down the Ogre but before I have a chance a cold wind slashes at me. I parry while the figure in the goblin armor glares intently at me, glowing red eyes focused on me.

Magnus was quick to bring down the ogre, before Grapnel was even able to swing. Instead Grapnel then stepped back, pointed his weapon at the vampire and asked, “Who is this?” My tongue was quick with the response “An enemy,” and began to shuffle the byeshk scimitar to my right hand to properly swing at this creature.

But my mind began to slow. Looking into the eyes of the vampire, I am sorry to say, somehow convinced me that this foul, undead creature was a trust worthyindividual. Somehow...I had been wrong about him. He reached his scimitar out and said, “Trade with me.” I simply could not come up with a good reason why not … it would be like Magnus asking for my sword. Clearly he needed it or he wouldn’t be asking, and I still had the longsword Cypher infused for me. So I traded.

But if only that were the end of it! I actively tried to hold back others that would harm the vampire. I tried to grapple Magnus to keep him away, I asked why we were attacking this noble warrior...I was thoroughly confused. Magnus turned his rage on the Dhakaani vampire. A fearsome blow from his dragon-bone maul caved in a portion of the plate armor and wounded the vampire, though it was clear he had regenerative powers. By the time I snapped out of it, it was too late—the vampire transformed into mist, and floated off the arena's edge and away…still with my byeshk scimitar. Doongul ran forward and called on Onatar to turn it back further, and the divine power seemed to disperse the mist. What became of it then none of us knew. Fortunately, my confusion regarding the vampire washed away soon after.

But Magnus was still angry, so he waded back into what remained of the fray. I looked toward where the "prize" had been tossed just in time to see a drow female—was this the woman, the "Deceiver of Sharn"—fall from a blow from the barbarian's great maul. It might have been an illusion, she seemed able to change forms at least as easily as a changeling. At this time, she could have been Xoma's twin sister. Exotic and beautiful, with long white hair. But now she was crumpled to the ground.

I also saw the lower half of the orc—the one Kard was fixated on—with his upper half obscured by a sphere of magical darkness, the origin of which I assume was Xoma. Cypher and Doongul had been fighting the orc, with Kard coming in from behind, and soon the orc dropped to the ground. Kard, heeding nothing else in the arena, kneeled on the dying warrior's chest, said something I took to be quite serious, then killed him savagely, sinking his hand axe deep in the orc's head.

I saw the human cleric then enact a spell, not anything I'd seen before, and it seemed he then began to speak to the orc's corpse...

Then the mind flayer, Xorchyllic—the ruler of this city—spoke a command which it seemed everyone could hear in their minds: One more must die. All who remained now were our group, the warrior-priest Kard, and the warforged Grapnel. It was apparent that an ally might have to go down now in order to end this fight.

Magnus, still in his rage, decided for us. He moved right over to Grapnel and dented his frame badly with a mighty swing of his maul. I can only imagine that Grapnel's confusion was as great as that wound. His master had fallen and we had been sympathetic to him, had tried to ally with him, and now Magnus had made him an opponent again.

Just then a green vapor rose from the sides of the arena and took shape. It seemed Zurin Souldrinker, was not finished yet! As the oni reformed, he looked up to the mind flayer and said “Just one more? How about six?” Clearly we were the six Zurin had in mind. With a foul prayer to the Mockery, he even summoned a pair of massive, ugly dogs who barked fire from their gullets. Hell hounds!

Battle was renewed. Kard reluctantly set aside his "conversation" with the dead orc—what was that all about?—and helped us against a common foe. Even Grapnel lent us his aid, wielding a halberd to good effect. We wounded Zurin Souldrinker repeatedly and slew the two hell hounds, who barked fire, as quickly as possible. Though he regenerated his wounds almost as swiftly as the vampire had, it was clear we were wearing him down.

Zurin belched another sleep-inducing cloud over us, and Magnus dropped like a rag doll. The oni loomed over him and started to breath in disturbingly...energy from Magnus's unconscious form seemed to leech up and out of him.

Grapnel regarded the helpless form of the barbarian, raised his weapon, but moved away from him and turned his attention fully on the oni. At last, before Zurin could drink Magnus's soul, we brought him down with spells and blades. As the oni died, disturbing screams and strange smokes roiled from his body, dispersing in the air. We could only hope Trug's was in there somewhere, and had been freed.

Waiting for no one, Kard immediately turned back to the dead orc and resumed his...interrogation. Only later could I piece together what was spoken. The human had enacted a divine spell to speak with the dead, and he'd been seeking information from the orc.

These were the orc's answers, spoken from a damaged, freshly-dead throat. I did not hear all the questions, but I was able to piece together the orc's answers.

• “I was ordered to transport a unique construct to Eston.”
• “Heldran d’Cannith."
• “I do not know.”
• “The construct was designed by Baron Merrix; its purpose I do not know.”
• "I was dismissed. My commander said I would not be able to find the warforged Claviger.”

Whatever any of that meant—and whatever the cleric's questions had been about—we were all left standing, exhausted but seemingly victorious. The crowds, while largely dismayed by our survival and the defeat of many monsters, seemed to have been entertained and were somewhat satisfied.

Now what?