Heroes at Last

Ajisha was trying to calm the afraid villager using her unmistaken charm and soothing voice. With a little bit of patience and with the use of the lyre, she manages to calm him down and reassure him further. After bandaging and tending to Ahmok’s wounds, he stood up on his feet with some help and assured us that he was stable now, and that all he needed was some rest to recuperate from the fatigue.

After all have somewhat recovered and we all regrouped, we opted to further explorethe temple. The room had been changed into a sacrificial room. On the floor lay scattered pieces of gory flesh. At the side of the room we saw a cot and right next to it fresh food and water lay scattered. All shows that this was were the elf was living. In front of Rashman lay a large pile of butchered beings, what might have once been people? Whilst looking through the elf’s stuff we found a large heavy tome. The tome was bound with a thick hide which looked human after giving it a second glance. Both Elessar and Jarl immediately identified the tome as being a powerful and evil artifact. Together with the tome we find some silver, an elemental coin, an orichalcum coin, firefly chalk and a knife.

Elessar moved close to inspect the victims and he diagnosed that they had all been bled to death with multiple cuts so as to perform multiple blood rituals. Whilst everyone was looking around Ivor examines the structure of the place and quickly comes to the conclusion that the place is surely very sturdy and with some effort it could be reopened.

Elessar started casting some spells of his, so as to recover some of the villagers that were hurt. Whilst doing so Ivor headed towards the blocked corridor and started removing the rock masses blocking the way. It does not take him much to clear the path and after doing so the party headed back to town where they could rest and recover.

The way back seemed longer as our feet were heavy with the fatigue. As soon as we were spot by the villagers in town the people rejoiced in seeing some of their kin and beloved ones return home. But as soon as they have seen that only few came back and after hearing about the death of the others cries o desperation and sadness were heard echoing in the streets.

All of the company moved up to the spokes man named “Darren”, Elessar moves to the front puts a hand into his pocket and draws out the pouch containing the Throalic silver pieces and hands them over to Darren. With shaky hands he opens the pouch slowly as if waiting for something to happen. After seeing what was inside he almost fell in tears thanking us all for the noble gesture. We promptly tell him that we should return to the temple at dawn so as to recover the bodies and bury them duly.

The day comes as the cockerel coco doodle doing is heard and we wake up as the first rays of light strike right thorough some of the cracks present in the village huts. We try to look up every corner of the temple and head out with quite some loot. We had spent the whole day looking here and there and in the afternoon as the sun was descending, we started burying the dead.

There was only one room left unexplored, the room where the gargoyle stood guard. We plan to tackle it there and than but time was against us and a little more rest would not harm, as some bruises were still clearly visible.

Day comes and immediately we make way to the temple as soon as we arrive in front of the gargoyle we freeze on how to act and what actions all should take, when all of a sudden an idea strikes Ivor. As if though driven by a mystical hand Ivor raises his hammer and with one decisive strike he cracks the padlock present on the iron door. He makes a gesture to the rest to keep calm and move back slowly. The party seeing that the gargoyle was not attacking followed Ivor’s trail of thought and did as instructed. The Gargoyle reacted with his animal instincts and flew off out of the temple. After searching the last room we head back to the village bid farewell to the villagers and started off back again on our original mission.

A fight against magic

Right after we brought down the ork, we hurried to the girl stranded in the corner and cut her loose. Right next to her is one of the villagers, who as soon as he sees us starts blabbering frantically. We notice that the man has multiple cuts on his arms probably a means of torture the bastards lurking down here used. Through his blabber we pick up that there is a dark elf using blood for rituals. Elessar’s eyes quickly widen, and tell us that probably this elf is blood to be able to conjure blood magic.

We also come to know that the villager’s name is Michael. Hearing his story we hand him over the ork’s sword and ask him to defend the young girl just until we clear out an escape.

And so with that said we had out the room and continue on through the corridor. Shortly whilst moving through the corridor, we find a large entrance that gives way to a large hall. The architecture of this large hall is highly gothic in style and at the back twelve passion statues stay standing. As soon as we enter we find four Cadaver man waiting for us, whilst we see the dark elf at the back holding hostage a villager. Immediately Elessar throws himself into a mind blasting magic spell with a cadaver man whilst Ivor and Ahmok rush on the right towards two other cadaver men. All of a sudden the air dampens and out of it a fog ghost materializes and charges towards Ahmok. Unfortunately Ahmok was still engaged with the cadaver man, and could not prevent a hard gash given from the back by the ghost. Seeing so Ivor tried his went into frenzy and with a mighty swing with the Hammer managed to hit the cadaver man in his chest sending him lifeless on the floor. Then, immediately both Ahmok and Ivor retreated back into a more strategic location. All of a sudden from the centre of the hall we see the head of a cadaver man exploding surely the effects of the Elessar’s potent spell.

Unfortunately there was still a cadaver man and the fog ghost to take care of. The fog ghost being able to float managed to reach Ivor and pin him to the ground. Fortunately the armor took much of the blows causing little bruises but nothing serious. Since Ahmok was free to act he tried a shot at his luck and tried to engage the dark elf however it was too much for him to bare. As soon as Ahmok stepped on the first step a spell struck him and sent him rolling unconscious on the floor.

Because of the difficulty of the spell the fog ghost couldn’t be sustained and so vanished as it had appeared, we quickly dispatched the last cadaver man and ganged over onto the dark elf. Spells from both Elessar and Jarl flew in with no success and so we opted for hand to hand. Seeing the odds were too much for him the dark elf threatened us with the villager seeing so Jarl opted for a heroic action and tried to trip over the dark elf with a charge unfortunately with short stature he did not manage. See so the Dark elf casts a spell and sends Ivor running afraid away from the elf. Elessar all of a sudden hears a voice telling him that villager was useless and so caught in a spell Elessar attacked the villager. Seeing so Jarl and Ajisha tried to pin down Elessar whilst the dark elf taking advantage of the situation scoured away into the darkness

Treachery & Tragedy

We thought that it would be a fair match for us. There were three cadaver men and a ghost. Each were engaged and the fight was going our way. That was before Ahmok got possessed and turned against us.

The T’Skrang turned on Ivor, who couldn’t believe what was happening. If there was ever any comradely rivalry between them as to who would best who in combat, it was resolved then. Very soon Ivor was on the ground, unconscious. To buy us time I conjured up a fog ghost, engaging it with the cadaver men. Another cadaver man attacked Ahmok, not realizing he was on their side now. That kept Ahmok further distracted. Not that the rest of us could come up with something to turn the situation in our favour.

Meanwhile the ghost decided to exit the stage, or was banished from the damage it took - we will never know. The cadaver men were down and the fog ghost had no one left to attack, and Ahmok turned on me next. With my inability to use Spirit Grip in holy places, such as this shrine to the Twelve was, I was rendered useless in close combat. It took Ahmok two strikes – first I was wounded, then killed.

When I came to it seemed that Ahmok was himself once more. Ivor was badly wounded but conscious again. We decided to head back to the village to regain our strength. On the way Ajisha filled me in on what had happened. In order to delay fighting as much as possible Jarl had withdrawn in the corridor and cast Icy Surface between himself and Ahmok, with the intention of keeping him at bay with ranged spells and the slippery ground. At some point Ahmok willed the possessing spirit out of him and threw down his weapon, as an indication of no hostility. As regards my short trip beyond life and back, it is thanks to the Last Chance Salve that I’m penning these words. I have a spell which enables me to experience death, but this went one step too far. The downside of course is that I have learnt nothing out of it, as I have no recollection of the time between the evil the glint in Ahmok’s eyes as he plunged his blade into me, to when I was eventually resuscitated.

Back at the village we told the inhabitants what we found and why we came back. They were not too happy that we still hadn’t found the missing child, but the fact that we returned at all seemed to escape their notice. We spent one night resting and decided not to linger further, setting off the following morning. Before leaving I prepared my undead struggle spell, now knowing what awaits us.

We retraced our steps into the underground temple. We discovered that it was symmetrical in shape, as another corridor further on from where we left was also submerged in water, though not up til the roof, making the going easier. Ahmok scouted ahead, as it was his element. He saw a dead body ahead, but now that experience was on his side, he attacked the cadaver man and retreated to warn us. Before it surfaced I blasted it with Astral Spear, and when it finally showed itself I held it and chipped away at its will with undead struggle, while the others hacked at it. We made short work of the undead man.

Making our way cautiously we came onto a dormitory like room, with cots lining the walls and a desk at one end. We filed away this information and decided to press on. It was then that we came upon a room with the flickering light of a candle. Inside we saw a girl tied up, being guarded by an undead orc. Immediately Jarl froze the ground all around the orc, while I held him with undead struggle. It is a powerful spell, launching my will against that of my undead opponent. Passions help me if I ever fail this combat of wills, but for now I take the risk willingly, as it gave us the edge we needed. Those who could not shoot from the distance had to stay by the side and watch as we took the orc down.