Session Start: Sat Feb 09 17:56:34 2008
Session Ident: #castlevania
<Holmes> [The party is at the bottom of the pit in the middle of
Stavograd with the Seven Temples militia.  His Emminent Remains has
just pulled a large skull out of the far wall of the pit by what
appears to be a tongue.]
<Holmes> [Twisted, silent ghouls are rushing in to surround the
militia as H.E.R. stumbles forward, pulling the beast behind him out
of the wall further.]
<Roland> We need to kill these ghouls before that thing is finished
getting out of the wall!
* Nyyx grits her teeth. "There's so many of them."
* Charlotte takes out her bow. "Let's thin their ranks., then."
* Nyyx nods grimly.
* Roland spins to look at the advancing ghouls, raises one hand to
the Eye of Boccob, and lets out a flash of holy light.
* Charlotte points her bow and fires a couple arrows at the crowd of
ghouls to try to thin their ranks
* Nyyx swings her sword and cleaves most of the way through one, but
it barely manages to stay standing.
* Skip leaps at the nearest creature and slashes wildly. Three hits
land, creating a rather bloody, motionless mess.
<Holmes> [The militia continues to try to hold off the advancing
horde of corpses and do a fairly good job.  But they are giving
ground and given the presence of three remaining eagles and one dying
one in the center of the pit, there is no room to spare.]
<Holmes> [His Emminent Remains continues to push toward the party,
anchoring himself with the staff.  The cord linking him to the wall
continues to pull, finally wrenching a large reptilian head free of
the wall.  Rough earth begins to shower out from the wall and the pit
begins to shake.]
<Holmes> [With a swift gesture, His Emminent Remains lifts the staff
and spins it over and behind his head, cutting the cord.]
<Roland> ...this is a bad sign.
* Nyyx turns her attention to H.E.R. and the newly unearthed bony
reptile.
<Holmes> [The skeletal dragon begins to pull itself from the wall,
spine trailing behind the skull.  Earth begins to shift throughout
the walls of the pit.  The beast appears to be spiraled down around
the pit walls.  A collapse is very likely.]
<Roland> Everybody out of the pit!
<Roland> Priests first, then soldiers!
<Nyyx> Hurry, get out!
<Holmes> Soldier: "We don't have enough eagles!"
<Holmes> [Several of the priests and soldiers start to prep for
takeoff.]
<Roland> Do what you can, then!
<Roland> Stay calm, make it happen.  Things will work out.
* Nyyx stands ready and focuses on the dragon. "Roland, if your team
has any ideas just about now, just give me the word."
<Holmes> Cleric of Nerull: "We need to get topside now and fight this
thing in the city."
<Roland> I agree.  How's work coming on that whole shadow vortex
thing?
<Roland> Anybody have a good way to get us all topside in a hurry?
* Nyyx shakes her head. "I'm afraid that rope ladder was about all I
had."
<Holmes> Cleric of Boccob: "Well, it's clearly feeding on everyone
down here.  We need to get it away from it's food."
<Holmes> Cleric of Wee Jas: "There is one way.  But it's a bad idea."
<Roland> That's okay, let's hear it.
<Holmes> Cleric of Wee Jas: "I can get us up there.  It's dangerous.
If I botch it, we'll die, but it should work."
<Roland> Does it require the sacrifice of babies?
<Holmes> Cleric of Wee Jas: "We should send everyone up on the birds
that can go."
<Holmes> Cleric: "What?"
<Holmes> [The wall continue to shake and the soldiers give up more
ground...]
<Roland> I'm asking if it's horrifically evil.  If it's not, then get
ready to do it.
<Roland> Everybody up on the birds that can!
<Roland> MOVE IT, PEOPLE!
<Holmes> [The dragon begins to stream out of the wall and up into the
air heading out of the pit.  Earth is raining down now.]
* Roland turns to the cleric of Wee-Jas. "It's time. Do it now or
we're all dead anyway."
<Holmes> [His Emminent Remains laughs maniacally, grabs onto the body
of the creature and rides it skyward.]
<Charlotte> R-right...
<Nyyx> Do it!
<Holmes> Cleric of Wee Jas: "Alright."
<Holmes> [The Cleric exhales sharply and begins to chant.  Those with
the proper training catch bits and pieces of litany in infernal about
an ancient crime and a debt to be paid and shadow envelops the
crowd.]
<Holmes> [Everything goes dark.  Then everything goes silent.]
* Nyyx gropes around in the darkness. "What--?"
<Holmes> [Suddenly, a woman screams.]
<Holmes> Alexander du Pre: "You are going to die and strand all of
these people here.  You screwed it up, didn't you?"
<Holmes> Alexander du Pre: "There is a way for you to get out of
this, but you have to agree."
<Holmes> Alexander dup Pre: "Say the words or you are going to die."
<Holmes> [The world rushes back in at full volume, stunning everyone
with its sound and light.  The party and militia are aboveground near
the center of Stavograd.  A cloud of dust is rising from the pit.
The Cleric of Wee Jas is unconscious on the ground and Alexander du
Pre is nowhere to be seen.]
<Roland> Sweet search engine of Boccob, what in all the varied worlds
of existence was that?
<Charlotte> Ugh... what happened? 
* Nyyx casts around alertly. "What happened?"
<Holmes> [The eagles are still nearby and the members of the militia
that did not enter the pit are running toward you, pointing into the
sky.]
* Charlotte glances up
* Nyyx looks up accordingly.
<Holmes> [The bone dragon is careening through the sky wildly perhaps
fifty feet in the air.]
* Skip is now known as SkipAFK
<Roland> I'm not sure exactly how we're going to kill that thing now.
<Charlotte> How'd it get up there that fast?
<Roland> It's a dragon, I expect it flew.
* Nyyx is now known as NyyxFUD
<Holmes> Soldier: "Well, we still have the eagles."
* SkipAFK has quit IRC (Ping timeout)
* NyyxFUD is now known as Nyyx
<Nyyx> Right you are.
* Nyyx runs up and vaults onto the back of one of the remaining
eagles.
* Roland makes for one of the eagles. "I'm not so mobile as the lot
of you, but I'll support you all as best I can."
* Nyyx urges the eagle upward toward the bone dragon.
* Roland mounts up and asks politely for the eagle to go up.
* Charlotte gets her bow ready to do somet tricky shots
<Holmes> [The two mounted eagles take to the air as the soldiers
scramble.]
* Skip leaps high into the air and disappears in a puff of shadow. He
reappears an instant later inches above the spine of the bone dragon.
With spider-like ability, he grabs hold and begins to ponder what to
do next.
<Holmes> [As Skip lands on the spine, he notices that the surface is
not smoothe like normal bone, but set with an endless number of
faces.]
* Skip looks down into the spinal faces and immediately wishes he
hadn't.
<Holmes> [The monster continues to careen above the city with His
Emminent Remains lashing out at its spine wildly while trying to hold
on.  As Nyyx and Roland climb into the sky, they spot several other
airborne forms fast approaching.]
* Nyyx waits for the eagle to come alongside the dragon, then hops
nimbly onto its spinal column.
* Charlotte fires apair of arrows into the air at it. One manages to
strike, splashing acidic goodness
* Skip keeps a tight hold with his left hand while he swiftly
retrieves a throwing dagger with his right. Looking at the backbone
of the damned, Skip takes no comfort in the squishy popping noise
that greets the point of his dagger. Removing the poisoned blade
yields a deflated eyeball. Yuck.
<Holmes> [The dragon howls in rage and slams against a nearby
building as it dives, sending dirt and stone flying, but failing to
dislodge its passengers.  It has begun to put some distance between
itself and the pit.]
<Holmes> [The forms in the sky approach and resolve as more Temple
members on eagles.  It looks like the Nerull clergy raised several of
the poor creatures and are using them as impromtu mounts.]
* Nyyx begins making her way toward the creature's head.
* Skip attempts to stab the beast with a second poisoned dagger, but
is unable to steady himself properly; the dragon's dive left a
horrible, hollow feeling in the pit of the halfling's pint-sized
stomach.
<Holmes> [The dragon arcs toward the sky and starts to rise.]
* Charlotte fires another pair of arrows, which miss
<Holmes> [His Emminent Remains follows Nyyx's lead and slams the end
of his staff into the base of the creature's skull.]
* Nyyx runs up the spine and springs into the air, burying her sword
point-first to the hilt in the dragon's skull as she lands.
* Roland motions to his giant eagle and it swoops down in front of
the dragon, giving Roland JUST long enough to unload a shotgun blast
of positive energy into the dragon's face.
<Holmes> [The dragon takes the blast of positive energy full in the
face, rears before the cleric and breathes shards of bone from its
gaping maw.  The shrapnel lances through the eagle, killing it
instantly.  Roland begins to fall.]
<Holmes> [As the positive energy courses through the monster,
sections of bone corrode and splinter as the creature's form breaks
down.]
<Holmes> [Roland falls and slams into the a nearby rooftop heavily.]
<Roland> AUGOOOOOOOOF
<Holmes> [The faces on the creature's body begin to recede into the
bone and vanish.]
<Holmes> [END OF SESSION]
Session Close: Sat Feb 09 22:29:53 2008