Session Start: Sat Dec 06 17:46:13 2008 Session Ident: #castlevania * Logging for #castlevania started [The intrepid party gathers itself back up at the near end of the reservoir chamber after defeating more of the Cult's agents.] Okay... who's got a few hundred workers to fish that thing out and take it back to the big skeletal guy? Not I. * Olivia murmurs, "Alas, I left them in a box at home." ...right. Well, let's see how prepared our friends back in the city are. * Nyyx nods. Gimme a sec here, this isn't exactly a spell I use often. Of course. * Biff does a little cat dance, then orients his tail in the general direction of lifebreak and says, "Some sort of talking golem destroyed in sewers. Too big to transport. Need you to scry us and send workers or magic." [Next to Biff's ear, the air rustles briefly for a second and then His Emminent Remains can be heard: "Good you are still alive. Come back and describe the site and the Boccobites will work on it. We can not scry you."] Okay, looks like we're going back. Theo, you got the juice to teleport us? Theo? No, I am tapped So... scenic route? * Biff shudders. No thanks, I got the juice. Everybody gather up. * Biff hops up on Nyyx's shoulder * Nyyx looks relieved and walks over. "Thank goodness." * Charlotte head sover * Olivia moves over near the cat and Nyyx as well! * Biff waits for everybody to link hands like good little kiddies and pops everybody back to Lifebreak proper. * Nyyx holds out her hands. * Charlotte holds out her hands * Olivia does as well, blah blah teleportation! [The party blinks out of existence beneath the city of Lifebreak and find themselves in a small stone chamber. The one doorway out is heavy stone and closed.] [As the party materializes, a voice can be heard outside.] Voice: "Those who would teleport into the keep, state you business." Reporting back from destroying the invaders. We're here to see His Eminent Remains. BOy is THAT a puffed up name. * Nyyx allows herself a smile. [A pane on the stone door slides back and the party can see a pair of eyes regard them silently. After several seconds, the pane closes. After several minutes, the door opens and the party is lead out and up into the central tower.] [The party once again climbs up through dour hallways and cold stairwells to the peak of the tower. The large, ornately engraved doors of the audience chamber loom before the party.] [The guards gesture towards the doors.] * Nyyx nods. "Thank you." * Nyyx approaches the doors and raps on one. [The doors silently swing inward. Within, the party can see the same audience chamber as before, with His Emminent Remains standing before a pair of stone thrones in a depression set in the center of the chamber. He is surrounded by undead courtiers and councilors and more Boccobites than before.] * Nyyx steps into the room. "We're back, and we destroyed a large partial construct in the reservoir. We will need some help to retrieve the body." [To the right, a wooden table has been set up with a single chair. A woman in a red dress is sitting in the chair and chewing out the entrails of a buck set on the table. She is making a terrible mess. A body lies at her feet.] * Nyyx eyes the mess with morbid curiosity, the looks back to HER. H.E.R.: "Well done. Any other contacts with the Cult?" Some, but they appeared to be more in the nature of possessed beings, rather than actual members of the cult. H.E.R." "I see. Do you have any sense of their plans?" It seems they're just out to expand their territory and gather bodies, as far as we could tell. Lots and LOTS of bodies. * Olivia looks over at the woman too, with a slight look of distaste, and then back to HER. Yes. They've been making free use of your catacombs. * Biff looks over at the woman and drools at the sight of all that delicious meat. H.E.R.: "That is reasonable. We have surrendered the better part of the city at this point. They would be foolish to not take advantage of that and not build up their forces before hitting our more concentrated defenses.] " H.E.R.: "The catacombs? We know. Please, tell me about the large partial construct, you called it?" Okay, take the biggest squid you can imagine, and then wrap it around a ship. And then make the ship talk and cast spells. And curse. Loudly. That's the gist of it. * Olivia speaks up, saying, "It used magic items inside of it... integrated their abilities with its." H.E.R.: "That sounds like one of the leaders. You killed it?" we killed the squid. Not so sure about the talking ship, but it can't move without the squid. It stopped talking, at any rate. You'd stop talking too if you had a mouth full of sewage, toots. H.E.R.: "I see. Any other unique specimens?" Dunno if you knew, but when you kill their walking corpses, if you wait a few seconds, this little spider golem ting pops outta their head and tries to run off. That's the part that really matters. Half wolf type construct hybrids. Haha. Silly dogs. One particularly feisty one was guarding a set of doors down there. * Nyyx shrugs. Also, have you heard of "The Artificer"? H.E.R.: "No, but it doesn't surprise me given the constructs running around." H.E.R.: "A feisty one?" Looked like it was merged with the body of a child. H.E.R.: "Unique. Maybe another leader. Is it dead?" Yes. H.E.R.: "Excellent. You have done very well step daughter." Thank you. H.E.R.: "You have not only injured the Cult, but also proved that my strategy can work. We have consolidated our remaining forces and taken a defensive posture around the tower and a few other critical locations in the city." H.E.R.: "We cannot defeat the Cult with numbers. They kill and convert too quickly for that. We need to attack with a small number of fighters, resistant to conversion and for whom the numbers are largely irrelevant." You coulda just said "adventurers". H.E.R.: "True enough. Most are not terribly reliable and few are powerful enough, however." H.E.R.: "Do you have anything else to report?" Fraid not. We really need a bath and a decent night's sleep. And to identify some of this loot. That squid-ship thing was rich. But mainly, a bath and a decent night's sleep. Prestidigitation can only go so far, you know? A rest sounds great. * Nyyx nods. "If you can spare some hands, we'd like some help bringing some of that back from the ship." H.E.R.: "Of course. I would recommend melting down anything obtained from the Cult however. Much too risky. That said, please rest up. This is far from over." H.E.R.: "Oh, and Natalia, if you want to say hello to your mother, she seems to be doing better." [He points to the table. She is still eating.] * Nyyx flicks her eyes over to the lady in red and seems to suddenly grow uncomfortable. Hello, Mother. * Olivia licks her lips and rubs the back of her head, murmuring, "Sometimes I think myself better off." [The woman doesn't look up.] * Nyyx doesn't seem particularly inclined to capture her attention. "I...think we'll retire now, if you don't mind." * Biff whispers to Nyyx, "S'ok toots, if I had a feast like that, I wouldn't pay attention to anybody else, either." * Skip lets out a big yawn as he nods his head at Nyyx's statement. * Nyyx smiles. "Me neither. Let's go rest." * Nyyx turns and leaves quietly. Y...eah * Charlotte follows. [The party exits as the conversation around H.E.R. restarts. They are lead several floors down to individual rooms. Meals and hot water for bathing are provided on request. The rooms are spartan, but the beds are soft.] * Nyyx gets cleaned up, fed, and climbs into bed. * Nyyx jots down recent events in her journal. * Charlotte eats, bathes, considers finding a companion for the evening, then thinks better of it and goes to sleep. * Theodore identifies the unidentied loot * Theodore casts contingency on himself [For the record, Theodore's contingency is a casting of haste following a command word.] [Olivia asks for a scroll of greater invisibility. After the gear is identified and distributed, Olivia is given her requested scroll of greater invisibility.] [The room service here is awesome.] [After a little more than nine hours of rest, the party is awakened by the guards and asked to get ready and head back to the audience chamber.] * Olivia totally asked for a scroll. It makes things simpler, if they're just giving it out. * Charlotte wakes up. She's a little disappointed, but gets ready to go There is nothin so good as a nice warm spot to sleep in. I guarantee it. [Once the party is collected up, they are led to the audience chamber once more. His Emminent Remains is surrounded by Boccobites and Clerics of Nerull working on his exposed torso with paintbrushes, ungruents and hooks. Several books stand open on podiums nearby. Nyxx's mother, Lydia, is watching all of this from one of the stone thrones.] H.E.R.: "Come in. We don't have any time to lose." Already? Man, I'm not sure if I can get behind that no-sleeping thing you guys do. H.E.R.: "The Cult has already responded to your attacks and our most recent moves. Show them." [One of the clerics steps forward and waves and hand. An illusion showing the whole of the city of Lifebreak appears in the space between the party and the cleric. The tower the party is in features prominently in the center of the image as it slowly rotates.] H.E.R.: "The Cult controls the perimeter of the city and the underground. We expected them to consolidate their position and attempt to take the rest of the city starting with the tower. That has not happened." * Charlotte frowns. "Why?" H.E.R.: "Instead, they are attacking here." [He points to a smaller tower on the northwest end of the city.] H.E.R.: "This is the Well. It's a prison. We keep political prisoners and undead even Nerull would want sealed away down there." Oh that's just wonderful. Have you preemptively killed all the prisoners to keep the enemy from getting tentacles into them? H.E.R.: "The attack started just before we called for you. We have barely had time for anything. Our purge of the upper floors has started, but the lower floors are an entirely different issue." H.E.R.: "Do we have that prisoner list yet!" [A clerk runs forward from one of the podiums clutching a book.] Clerk: "The prison has just finished projecting the list. It's all here, even the unmarked cells." H.E.R.: "Show them the prison." [He turns to scan the list.] [The cleric waves his hand again and the first illusion is replaced by a second. The Well is a tower with an extensive basement droping straight down into the earth for a dozen or more stories, getting smaller as it goes. It does not seem to link into the underground at any point. It appears that invaders would need to breach the ground level and then fight to the top before dropping into the well.] H.E.R.: "Most of the tenants are not relevant. Morghs, wights and such. Let's see... the restricted cells... What are quells? Alright. NO!" [H.E.R. turns to the clerk.] "When did they put a vestige down there?" H.E.R.: "Why?" A what? H.E.R.: "And a fallen shadow sun?" Clerk: "I doubt that we could have killed it in your absence, my liege." * NyyxFeed is now known as Nyyx H.E.R.: "They have to be stopped. We are out of time. I need all of you to go ahead. I am nearly done here. I will follow once we are done on the roof." * Olivia 's eyes widen a touch, and then she takes a deep breath before saying, "Are we supposed to hold them for you, then?" Hold? fft. * Nyyx glances over at Olivia. "What is it we're up against, exactly?" The gods love adventurers because we kill everything we see. We're gonna do what we do best. H.E.R.: "Hold them if you can. Stop them from reaching the vestige at all costs." How bad are we talking about, here? On a scale of one to the whole world is screwed, I mean. H.E.R.: "Eight." That's... bad * Olivia looks over at the two of them, then explains lowly, "Dream Vestiges destroy nations while being unable to be touched, and Shadow Sun Ninjas are... little known, but can do truly devestating levels of damage when they choose to, and when they fall..." * Biff whistles. * Nyyx frowns. "I'm with Biff on this one. Something like that shouldn't be walking around." Right, then. We'd best get a move on. Everybody remember, charlotte is a ditz. Hey! See? [H.E.R. looks at the mages and clerics working on him.] "Are we done here?" Yes. Let's go. [The clerics nod.] * Olivia smiles faintly, then murmurs, "Never let it be said you make it easy." * Biff hops up on Nyyx's shoulder. * Nyyx heads out, toward the small tower. [H.E.R. and the mages and clerics file out of the chamber through the main doors and make their way towards the roof.] [The party proceeds down the tower and out the main entrance as quickly as possible. The city streets are deserted. Perhaps fortunately, everything that would have attacked the party in the street the night before is likely assaulting the Well.] [Using the map of the city projected in the audience chamber, the party is able to orient themselves from memory and strike out toward the Well in short order.] [As they go, the sky over the central tower begins to darken and a charge can be felt in the air. Otherwise, the streets are quiet.] [As the party approaches the Well, the only sounds that can be heard are the scraping of metal on stone and the occasional crash and crunch of rock.] [The approach to the Well is a region of cleared ground paved over with worn stones. A horde of several hundred undead and spider-like constructs are arrayed on the southeast side of the tower and are attempting to force their way through the stone of the tower with digging implements and metal claws. Some of the creatures are attempting to scale the tower to find a way in.] Shall I announce us? [Occasionally, a spell goes off from within the tower. Sometimes, one of the spiders comes crashing to the ground.] If you think it'd make a good opening. ...fire ALWAYS makes a good opening. * Biff shoots a ball of fire from his eyes. * Nyyx draws her sword and waits. * Charlotte takes out her bow * Olivia pulls out a pair of wands and murmurs to herself, "But is it going to make a good ending." [The fireball streaks toward the horde and explodes, blasting through close to two dozen of the attackers, burning them badly. They continue to assault the tower and tear a gap in the wall. Several dozen of the walking dead turn and rush the party however.] * Olivia gestures out with one of her wands with a faint smile. "Let's find out." * Nyyx switches out her sword in favor of a massive composite longbow. "Not my forte, but let's see if I can knock off a few of these things before they get here." I hope you guys are ready. Me and Theo, we'll channel 'em into a smaller area, so you guys can blast 'em. * Charlotte raises her bow at the crowd. "Targeting." [END OF SESSION] Session Close: Sat Dec 06 21:48:58 2008