The two spheres of fire—one of which struck Clarion
full-on—turned out to be incendiary, hand-thrown missiles launched by a tall,
gangly creature rife with spines up and down the length of its body. It ducked
back around the distant turn in the corridor, and waited behind more of a pair
of the animate suits of armor that the PCs had fought back in the ir’Valishcountry estate. Bodyguards of the Blue Wraith?
The fire-flinger was revealed to be more than just some
creature but an infernal foe of some significance. When the PCs closed the
distance and encountered their enemies at the far end of the hall, it was
revealed to be a devil of some kind—thus did it stink of brimstone and hatred.
Wisps of smoke rose from each of its barbs, its profusion of horns, and tail.
To the eyes of Clarion and Kard, it was clear this fiend was antithetical to
the gods.
When the PCs drew in closer, the barbed devil engaged
Magnus foremost—it even called him by name. The Seren barbarian understood over
the course of this battle that this was a mere denizen of Azohirr, the devil
lord he was bound against from his draw of the Deck of Many Things. Azohirr was
also the name of the devil who evidently governed the outlawed ir’Valish
family. Although the devil favored Magnus as his target, he drew his claws
across both him and Clarion, who he named “slave of the gods” in its own
dialect. Kard, hearing this and knowing the Supernal tongue, discerned both the
words and the devil’s contempt. For devils, according to ancient texts, were
once as angels in their own right and were somehow cast down into their
fiendish states.
 |
| It's not a party until the gnolls show up. |
The battle was hard fought but remained brief. Magnus
brought his nemesis’s minion down at last with a mighty swing of his ice-mace,
but not before the devil grappled and impaled him upon its own spines—which
shot through his body and greatly reduced the amount of blood in his body. At
last, slain, the devil hung from Magnus’s body like a crucified martyr…then
slid down to the ground in puddles of their respective gore.
The armored horrors persisted for longer than the PCs
desired, slashing into Rungo and Cypher and Kard. Kard, in a moment of
surprise, intervened and actually assisted his warforged ally, preventing
further harm to Cypher—before hammering down his foe in turn. Cypher badly
rusted away the other construct with a powerful infusion, allowing Aleae’s
persistent rays of frost to end its animation.
Even as they labored for breath, the sounds of gnolls—and
many of them—warned of the next impending battle. But a secret door was
discovered—the very one Lorsanna, Dar’s friend, told them about, which Governor
Trazzen and his cohorts had allegedly not yet explored. As the PCs opened the
door and stepped through, the gnoll warband howled down the corridor toward
them.
Sahhlesh alone remained behind. “There is someone I must
find,” he told Magnus simply, Seren to Seren, and it was clear he was parting
company with the group for now. Or perhaps he was giving up his life. Magnus
and Cypher saw ice forming around the other Seren even as the gnolls came into
view. Then the door was shut, and the PCs found themselves in a new chamber.
A curious room with a winding stairwell leading tier by
tier high up to a single exit. Every surface—floor, wall, stair—was covered in
a turf of moss and fungus. Many colors and species filled the room, with
rhizomes, stalks, and mushrooms sprouting here and there. Two particularly
large mushrooms occupied two of the landings further up the stairs. When the
PCs ventured too close to the first, it began to vibrate and shriek, a sound
that obviously carried quite far in these echoing chambers.
Only moving back away quieted the mushroom after a few moments. Cypher decided it was an obstacle, and sank a bolt from his armbow into the closest one. It was badly wounded but it didn't keep it from shrieking again. The stalk withered and the whole form seemed to shrivel but it wasn't silenced yet.
Then, mere moments later, a large spherical and disturbingly familiar creature with waving stalks
sprouting from its body, a large open mouth, and a huge, central eye drifted up
from out of the lowest of the two pits—closest to Magnus, Simel, and Kard. Magnus and Simel retreated to a more defensible position.
 |
| Gas spores: D&D's piñatas of doom! |
It floated over to Magnus first and attempted
to try and bite him but he dodged its rather ponderous attack. Magnus chose not
to engage it directly just yet, rolling on the floor and directly under its
buoyant mass. Kard, slipping a bit down the mossy stairs, tossed a vial of holy
water at the spherical beast. The glass shattered but the water didn’t seem to
bother it at all.
Higher up the stairs, Aleae turned and loosed a Ray of Frost at the floating orb-thing, but her aim was off the mark. Kard took her cue with a conjured bolt of Sacred Fire, which struck the floating, beholder-like creature dead-center...
...and revealed it as something other than beholder. Its spherical body ruptured like a gassy bladder, and a cloud of spores exploded even as the spherical frame deflated and dropped harmless to the ground.
Magnus and Simel, the closest to the the thing, fell back, coughing. Magnus recovered quickly but Simel did not. He fell into a fit of coughing, unable to keep from inhaling some of the noxious cloud.
Aleae, meanwhile, decided to proceed up the stairs since the mushrooms—the second triggered by the first—were screaming anyway. But the screaming had called something, and as soon as she gained the final landing a new obstacle leapt out at her from the darkness.
Tall, gaunter than most, green and mottled but with disturbing rhizome-like formations on its body, the troll looked exceptionally eager to tear into the eladrin woman.
