Shadowfell Keep, Epic Battle II

Summary:

The party peered down the dark pit. The alter resumed spewing forth viscous blood, rivers streaming down the sides of the dark shrine and weaving across the room until finally draining into the square blackness. Taegahn dropped a sunrod into the pit. It briefly flashed a pool of blood before plopping ominously and sinking. Darkness crept back.

With no obvious way down to the lower level of the blood pool, the party conferred and agreed to backtrack. Double doors, barred with a sign "Closed," still remained unexplored. Queequeg ripped the sign off and Orchid and Taegahn carefully opened the door. A long passage, splitting left and right and the far end. Taegahn crept left, Orchid right. Seconds later, Taegahn reappeared, backtracking quickly. Something seemed to shimmer in his wake and when Taeghan loosed an arrow, it seemed to stick to something in midair. Queequeg barked an order to move and Gilic charged forth, close behind. The two stood shoulder to shoulder, hacking and slashing at the gelatinous cube. Shava commanded it back and the shambling horror jiggled in place as the rest of the party opened up withering melee and ranged attacks. The romping jello abomination exploded, spewing hot goo all over the surrounding floor, walls, and adventurers.

The party scraped the gelatin off them and finished exploring the two hallways. The left dead-ended, but the right opened into a small room, four sarcophagus in each corner. Queegueg moved towards the closest, gripping the bottom of the ancient stone lid and heaving with all his might. Gareth and Gilic joined him and the lid slowly pried loose and then exploded forth along with the other three unattended lids. The closest of the corruption corpses reached into his stomach cavity and pulled forth writhing intestines, glistening with a foul stench that almost bowled the adventurers over. Grinning hideously, he hurled the guts like a grenade, which exploded with nectroic energy that damaged and paralyzed. The four proved tougher than the zombie minions of previous encounters, but the party eventually prevailed. A door and room behind held a chest ripe with treasure, including a magic amulet that proved best suited for Shava.

The party rested briefly, considering their options. There were no parts of the Keep to explore. Unless they had missed some secret door or passage, the only egress to the bottom level under the bloody alter was the ominous pit.

They backtracked once again. Standing over the pit, Queequeg, Gareth, Gilic, and Taegahn marshaled their resolve and slid down the four-corner chains that descended to the blood pool below. They landed smartly, springing into action the moment their feet touched solid ground. The scene before them mirrored that of the floor above them. A high priest worshipped at an alter to the west, intermingled moans and chants breathing pure oblivion into the chamber and past a portal that pulsed a black soupy energy. The high priest could be none other than Kalarel himself, intently weaving some dark ritual. Glyphs in front of the portal glowed an electric turquoise. The undead formed a triangle that surrounded the party and the blood pool, two in front of the high priest and one far across them. Caught momentarily off-guard, the four charged forth and the battle for Shadowfell Keep began.

Meanwhile, Orchid, Cedric, and Shava attempted to descend the chains. Orchid slid down deftly, but Shava lost her grip early on and fell. Though she landed on her feet by virtue of her new magic amulet, the force of the freefall rippled throughout her frame, sending her staggering in pain. Cedric too fell, landing sideways. Snapping bone marked his arrival as he slowly stood up.

As half the party arrived on the scene ungracefully, the other four tore into the priest and his undead force. The far undead was a deathlock wight. From range, he blasted the party with grave bolts, necrotically charged missile that burned the soul and paralyzed the body. At one point, he stopped his barrage and reanimated a skeleton warrior that had been felled by Gilic's sturdy maul.

Early in the battle Kalarel yelled out a commanding word, teleporting himself and his two closet minions to the middle of the blue-tinged floor glyph. Taegahn wasted no time in pivoting ninety degrees and unloading on him, arrows ripping into the high priest with such force, he was pushed back outside the glyph and directly in front of the portal. Taegahn's satisfied grin went slack as he witnessed the portal's sheer surface ripple across, a bony claw bursting out only to be caressed and stroked by Kalarel. The party split their attention between Kalarel and the emerging undead dragon, Shardrexyl and the dreadlock wight. As Gareth and Gilic felled the two skeleton warriors and closed in on Kalarel, Shardrexyl pushed against the portal binding him in some foreign plane of existence and lashed out at the party. Gareth took the brunt of these attacks, ducking a taloned claw as he lashed out at the taunting high priest. The dreadlock wight proved a distracting opponent and it took precious seconds for Shava, Queequeg, Taegahn, and Cedric to finally fell it.

Out of minions, the party closed in on Kalarel. Every time Shardrexyl lashed out and struck, dark energy seeped back into the high priest, restrengthening him. The adventurers steeled themselves, surrounding Kalarel and reigning blows and fire down upon him. Shardrexyl continued to harry the party, at one point attempting to grab Orchid and Gareth and drag them back to his hellish domain. The two narrowly escaped and returned to battle. Finally, Kalarel teetering from multiple wounds, Queequeg observed the high priest lower his guard for a moment. The dragonborn warlord shouted to Gareth to strike! Gareth reacted from pure instinct, sweeping his great axe full into Kalarel. Shuddering for a split second, Kalarel screamed and then warped into a viscous ooze that matched the surface of the portal. Still in the shape of the man, the ooze seemed to try to move away from the portal, but Shardrexyl's claw suddenly burst once more from the portal and with a clenched fist, snapped the high priest into the portal. The claw receded too and the portal and chamber became eerily quiet.

Kalarel was defeated! Shardrexyl's summoning prevented! The legacy of Jerold Qeegan was restored and the nearby sleepy hamlet of Winterhaven saved!

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewt:

Amulet of Something Wing - Shava
Dagger +2 - Vendor

Line(s) of the Night:

"These agents of evil are outstanding housekeepers." - Sean, commenting on the cleanliness of a dungeon hallway. "Shhhh. Why the fuck do you think I'm sneaking!" Blake to Sean, as he tries to sneak down the hallway.

"Do you girls need me to assist?" - Pati, watching Queequeg, Gilic, and Gareth struggle to open a sarcophagus lid.

"No man has seen them all . . . and lived to tell the tale." Pati, about the shurkins equipped on her.

"I want a fire-breathing pony." - Sean.

"Girls pet cute things. One day you'll learn." Simon to Sean, referencing Pocket Dragons.

Baked Good of the Night: Megan's Carrot Cake