....and into the fire
Oct 30, 2019 15:53:56 GMT
Grimes, Varis/G'Lorth/Sundilar, and 7 more like this
Post by Sunday on Oct 30, 2019 15:53:56 GMT
Having signed a deal with The Sanguine Rose (a fey-fiend warlord of Avernus) to restore Daisy’s mind and secure them entry to the Burning Keep, the party left her encampment to track down and eliminate her rival - L'zeth, also known as the Bitter Breath.
Following The Sanguine Rose’s directions, Varis, Daisy, Taffeta, Ghesh, Traav, Baine, and Sunday made their way stealthily to the outskirts of L'zeth’s camp, a ruined gothic city. Training with the Crimson Fist had served Baine well as he was able to observe the enemy troops’ comings and goings, providing crucial information on their tactics, skills, and movements. Using this knowledge, the group decided to create a diversion in the north-east corner of the abandoned city and circle round to the southwest where a large factory building formed the centrepiece of L'zeth’s stronghold.
Sunday, in the guise of one of the many hobgoblin soldiers in service to Bitter Breath, approached riding eLk-in-Nightmare form with Taffeta ‘tied’ to the saddle of Tuevel: just another scout returning with a captive to feed to the infernal fires driving the production of L'zeth‘s infernal war machine. Approaching through the perimeter lines as far as they dared, the pair began their distraction: Taffeta unleashed an Earth elemental, while eLk and Tuevel charged around creating noise and mayhem. In response, alarms sounding and horns blowing, hobgoblin soldiers began streaming towards their position. Confident they had created enough chaos to mask the group’s infiltration, Sunday and Taffeta ducked into an abandoned house and teleported across the city to rejoin the rest of the party.
Sneaking inside the giant factory structure, the group made their way to the central hall, where a number of hobgoblins guarded a huge mechanical device of unknown design and use. With Traav scouting the area and declaring Bitter Breath nowhere in sight, the group decided to wreck the machine, reasoning that this would hamper L'zeth‘s activities enough to satisfy their bargain with The Sanguine Rose.
However, before they could reach the device, their cover was blown and a bitter fight with the minions of L'zeth began. Luckily, their distraction at the far reaches of the camp had drawn away significant numbers of the enemy; but the hobgoblins were proving adept at keeping the group from reaching their goal.
Frustration and recklessness driving her actions, Sunday roared out a challenge to the unseen Bitter Breath, commanding him to show himself or be branded a craven coward throughout the Nine Hells. In response, a monstrous figure clad in wrought-iron armour and born aloft on sickly green wings arose from the depths of the facility.
Seeing her prey and driven by an almost feral need to fight, Sunday strode through the ranks of hobgoblins, crushing them with swings of her glowing hammers.
Baine and Ghesh broke from cover hoping to draw away some of the enemy blocking Sunday’s path and soon found themselves surrounded. Varis, commanding and directing the party from a central position on the battlefield, sewed fear and terror in the ranks of the enemies, causing some to quit the battle in fright and leaving others shaking - or slain - in his wake. Taffeta used her familiarity with the Ethereal Plane to dart in and out of view, sniping down targets from the edges of the fray; Daisy threw up living walls of thorns and brambles to impede and shred the advancing ranks, keeping the numbers arrayed against them from reaching overwhelming quantities. Traav, off to one side, was his usual ghostly self and the group soon lost sight of him amid the serried ranks of enemy soldiers.
Baine and Ghesh, concerned for Traav’s welfare, assaulted a huge group of soldiers and began to thin their numbers with relentless fury - Baine’s rage for once matching the frenzied anger of his dragonborn friend. Alas, the canny hobgoblins ganged up on the half-orc fighter and drove him to his knees, hacking the life from him with cruel stroke after cruel stroke. As Ghesh battled to win free and aid his friend, he was forced to watch as the life drained from Baine’s eyes and his body fell to the floor. But as a hobgoblin captain raised his sword to decapitate Baine, a nimbus of silver stars burst from the half-orc’s body, turning aside the blow and forcing him back to his feet to continue the fight. The warding gift of Selûne, bestowed mere hours ago by her High Priest, had paid dividends once again.
In the midst of the chaos, the diminutive paladin of Corellon and the gargantuan warlord of Avernus came face-to-face and traded grievous blows - unmindful of the battle swirling around them. At first, the tiefling held her ground against the chthonic avatar and his bodyguard, absorbing and ignoring wounds designed to cripple and maim: hefting her hammers aloft, she created a circle of destruction and death around her, landing three mighty impacts on L'zeth himself, splintering bones and immolating flesh. But numbers began to tell, and her enemies closed in.
Seeing Sunday cut off and isolated, Varis attempted to fight his way through the throng and reach her side. Despite his righteous aura and well-wrought equipment rendering him nigh-on impervious to attack, he could only reach his friend in time to watch helplessly as L'zeth and several minions buffeted Sunday to the ground and began to hack at her prone body, inflicting horrendous damage. As the life drained from her, a burst of gold-green light erupted from her body, pushing her spirit back into the fight. But, mere moments later, L'zeth‘s gigantic glaive pierced wholly through her body and pinned her to the floor. Daisy, keeping Baine and Ghesh in the fight with healing energy, sensed more than heard her companion fall for a second time, and drawing on the rocky surroundings transmuted her dwarven form into that of a being of pure rock and stone, and began crashing her way through to the epicentre of the fight.
For a third time, Sunday fell before the onslaught of blades; but as her eyes closed for a third time, she called on deep wells of inner strength and, roaring her defiance in the face of inevitable death, drove one of her radiant hammers deep into the chest of L'zeth, cracking ribs and knocking his helmet aside. But it wasn’t enough, and the fiend’s laugh resounded gleefully through the room as multiple weapons struck deep and the tiefling finally collapsed motionless and lifeless to the floor, enemies continuing to hack away at her flesh.
On the far side of the room, almost in sympathetic concert with his friend, Baine dropped to his knees, spear-hafts and sword blades clubbing and biting into him, rendering him unconscious. Only drastic intervention from Ghesh, standing over the fighter’s fallen body, and creating a lethal wall of whirling steel kept a more-fatal fate from befalling him.
With no time to tend to Sunday, Varis and Daisy turned aside from their friend’s battered corpse and renewed their assault on L’zeth, hoping to strike him down and end this battle. But the devilish creature’s armour turned aside blow after blow, and only a conjured barrage of projectiles from Taffeta seemed to cause any harm. Snarling in fury, L'zeth began to rise above the fight on sickeningly pallid wings - to flee or to unleash some unknown spell, it wasn’t clear. Knocked to the floor herself, Taffeta saw him ascend and, unleashing a stream of invective halfling, drew a bead on his now-uncovered head and sent two bolts of pure light through the fiend’s eyes, finally snuffing the unholy life from his foul form.
As his body fall apart like ash on the wind, and his troops capitulated in surrender and confusion, Varis dropped to one knee beside Sunday’s ruined form and, plunging a diamond clasped in one gauntleted fist deep into the most hideous of her wounds, let his own energy flow into her body, calling her back from the brink and restoring her spirit to her body once more. Seeing her chest rise and fall with a shallow semblance of life, Varis immediately rushed to Baine’s side and called upon the unshakeable power of his Oath to bring his subordinate back to consciousness.
Pleased with their efforts, The Sanguine Rose transported them to the Burning Keep and Heilesna's unprotected body. There, Varis drove his sword through the creature's mewling form - ending the threat to himself and to Daring with one swift stroke. With alarms ringing around them, Daisy bade everyone gather close and whisked them away from the Hells and to the questionable safety of Daring Heights...
Following The Sanguine Rose’s directions, Varis, Daisy, Taffeta, Ghesh, Traav, Baine, and Sunday made their way stealthily to the outskirts of L'zeth’s camp, a ruined gothic city. Training with the Crimson Fist had served Baine well as he was able to observe the enemy troops’ comings and goings, providing crucial information on their tactics, skills, and movements. Using this knowledge, the group decided to create a diversion in the north-east corner of the abandoned city and circle round to the southwest where a large factory building formed the centrepiece of L'zeth’s stronghold.
Sunday, in the guise of one of the many hobgoblin soldiers in service to Bitter Breath, approached riding eLk-in-Nightmare form with Taffeta ‘tied’ to the saddle of Tuevel: just another scout returning with a captive to feed to the infernal fires driving the production of L'zeth‘s infernal war machine. Approaching through the perimeter lines as far as they dared, the pair began their distraction: Taffeta unleashed an Earth elemental, while eLk and Tuevel charged around creating noise and mayhem. In response, alarms sounding and horns blowing, hobgoblin soldiers began streaming towards their position. Confident they had created enough chaos to mask the group’s infiltration, Sunday and Taffeta ducked into an abandoned house and teleported across the city to rejoin the rest of the party.
Sneaking inside the giant factory structure, the group made their way to the central hall, where a number of hobgoblins guarded a huge mechanical device of unknown design and use. With Traav scouting the area and declaring Bitter Breath nowhere in sight, the group decided to wreck the machine, reasoning that this would hamper L'zeth‘s activities enough to satisfy their bargain with The Sanguine Rose.
However, before they could reach the device, their cover was blown and a bitter fight with the minions of L'zeth began. Luckily, their distraction at the far reaches of the camp had drawn away significant numbers of the enemy; but the hobgoblins were proving adept at keeping the group from reaching their goal.
Frustration and recklessness driving her actions, Sunday roared out a challenge to the unseen Bitter Breath, commanding him to show himself or be branded a craven coward throughout the Nine Hells. In response, a monstrous figure clad in wrought-iron armour and born aloft on sickly green wings arose from the depths of the facility.
Seeing her prey and driven by an almost feral need to fight, Sunday strode through the ranks of hobgoblins, crushing them with swings of her glowing hammers.
Baine and Ghesh broke from cover hoping to draw away some of the enemy blocking Sunday’s path and soon found themselves surrounded. Varis, commanding and directing the party from a central position on the battlefield, sewed fear and terror in the ranks of the enemies, causing some to quit the battle in fright and leaving others shaking - or slain - in his wake. Taffeta used her familiarity with the Ethereal Plane to dart in and out of view, sniping down targets from the edges of the fray; Daisy threw up living walls of thorns and brambles to impede and shred the advancing ranks, keeping the numbers arrayed against them from reaching overwhelming quantities. Traav, off to one side, was his usual ghostly self and the group soon lost sight of him amid the serried ranks of enemy soldiers.
Baine and Ghesh, concerned for Traav’s welfare, assaulted a huge group of soldiers and began to thin their numbers with relentless fury - Baine’s rage for once matching the frenzied anger of his dragonborn friend. Alas, the canny hobgoblins ganged up on the half-orc fighter and drove him to his knees, hacking the life from him with cruel stroke after cruel stroke. As Ghesh battled to win free and aid his friend, he was forced to watch as the life drained from Baine’s eyes and his body fell to the floor. But as a hobgoblin captain raised his sword to decapitate Baine, a nimbus of silver stars burst from the half-orc’s body, turning aside the blow and forcing him back to his feet to continue the fight. The warding gift of Selûne, bestowed mere hours ago by her High Priest, had paid dividends once again.
In the midst of the chaos, the diminutive paladin of Corellon and the gargantuan warlord of Avernus came face-to-face and traded grievous blows - unmindful of the battle swirling around them. At first, the tiefling held her ground against the chthonic avatar and his bodyguard, absorbing and ignoring wounds designed to cripple and maim: hefting her hammers aloft, she created a circle of destruction and death around her, landing three mighty impacts on L'zeth himself, splintering bones and immolating flesh. But numbers began to tell, and her enemies closed in.
Seeing Sunday cut off and isolated, Varis attempted to fight his way through the throng and reach her side. Despite his righteous aura and well-wrought equipment rendering him nigh-on impervious to attack, he could only reach his friend in time to watch helplessly as L'zeth and several minions buffeted Sunday to the ground and began to hack at her prone body, inflicting horrendous damage. As the life drained from her, a burst of gold-green light erupted from her body, pushing her spirit back into the fight. But, mere moments later, L'zeth‘s gigantic glaive pierced wholly through her body and pinned her to the floor. Daisy, keeping Baine and Ghesh in the fight with healing energy, sensed more than heard her companion fall for a second time, and drawing on the rocky surroundings transmuted her dwarven form into that of a being of pure rock and stone, and began crashing her way through to the epicentre of the fight.
For a third time, Sunday fell before the onslaught of blades; but as her eyes closed for a third time, she called on deep wells of inner strength and, roaring her defiance in the face of inevitable death, drove one of her radiant hammers deep into the chest of L'zeth, cracking ribs and knocking his helmet aside. But it wasn’t enough, and the fiend’s laugh resounded gleefully through the room as multiple weapons struck deep and the tiefling finally collapsed motionless and lifeless to the floor, enemies continuing to hack away at her flesh.
On the far side of the room, almost in sympathetic concert with his friend, Baine dropped to his knees, spear-hafts and sword blades clubbing and biting into him, rendering him unconscious. Only drastic intervention from Ghesh, standing over the fighter’s fallen body, and creating a lethal wall of whirling steel kept a more-fatal fate from befalling him.
With no time to tend to Sunday, Varis and Daisy turned aside from their friend’s battered corpse and renewed their assault on L’zeth, hoping to strike him down and end this battle. But the devilish creature’s armour turned aside blow after blow, and only a conjured barrage of projectiles from Taffeta seemed to cause any harm. Snarling in fury, L'zeth began to rise above the fight on sickeningly pallid wings - to flee or to unleash some unknown spell, it wasn’t clear. Knocked to the floor herself, Taffeta saw him ascend and, unleashing a stream of invective halfling, drew a bead on his now-uncovered head and sent two bolts of pure light through the fiend’s eyes, finally snuffing the unholy life from his foul form.
As his body fall apart like ash on the wind, and his troops capitulated in surrender and confusion, Varis dropped to one knee beside Sunday’s ruined form and, plunging a diamond clasped in one gauntleted fist deep into the most hideous of her wounds, let his own energy flow into her body, calling her back from the brink and restoring her spirit to her body once more. Seeing her chest rise and fall with a shallow semblance of life, Varis immediately rushed to Baine’s side and called upon the unshakeable power of his Oath to bring his subordinate back to consciousness.
Pleased with their efforts, The Sanguine Rose transported them to the Burning Keep and Heilesna's unprotected body. There, Varis drove his sword through the creature's mewling form - ending the threat to himself and to Daring with one swift stroke. With alarms ringing around them, Daisy bade everyone gather close and whisked them away from the Hells and to the questionable safety of Daring Heights...
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I confused him with skull info sigil guy.
