Session Start: Sat Jan 10 18:21:09 2009 Session Ident: #castlevania [The party has just run down the central shaft of The Well where the staff is attempting to halt a breach of the wall from just below street level. Dozens of mechanical spiders and two large golems have broken through, but Biff's magic should slow reinforcements.] [The defenders have found themselves swamped with the sudden attack and Nyyx has run into the fray.] * Nyyx braces herself and rushes one of the golems, aiming to shove the thing over the edge of the platform, but despite her momentum, the two of them go nowhere. * Biff aims carefully and launches a sonic barrage at the stairs beneath Nyyx and the Golem, sending a shiver of dust down from beneath them, but otherwise not doing a hell of a lot. * Biff curses loudly. * Charlotte rushes back and fires a few arrows at the golems. * Charlotte lands two of them, causing serious damage. * Olivia clucks her tongue as she watches the spiders swarm, and then half-smiles as she says, "I don't think you should go down there." She then gestures twice with her wand, quickly, sending small pulses of sonic energy to explode against the masses of spiders, killing many of them! Hooraye. * Olivia finishes, still smiling slightly, "Lots of dangerous stuff down there. Wouldn't want you to get hurt." * Skip charges into the battle, joining Nyyx in her fight against one of the golems. Bringing his wrists together, the symbols on his wristguards begin to shift. Two quick slices and one hit later, Skip takes up a defensive posture. * Theo leans his flabby ass (well, head, really) out dangerously over the edge of the stairs and, with a wave of his hand, seals off most of the way down with a wall of ice, so low that none of the spider crawlers have got there yet. * Skip is now known as SkipAFKforFOOD [The golems lash out at whomever is closest while the spiders remaining on the stairwell lunge at the undead defenders, grabbing hold and slicing into their abdomens. The spiders down below leap onto the ice and make a run for the gap. A rushing sound can be heard through the fog in the breach.] [The golem between Nyyx and Skip turns and strikes Nyyx twice in succession. The defenders lash out with scorching rays and electric grasps, but are on the losing end against the agile spiders.] [Several of the defenders break of from the melee and try to retreat a dozen steps down the stairs to escape the spiders.] * SkipAFKforFOOD has quit IRC (Quit: SkipAFKforFOOD) * Biff leaps down the full thirty feet onto the ice, not even giving a crap about the sheer distance involved. As he lands, he sprouts a huge pair of feathery white wings that spread across the width of the tower, then dissolve into gobs of feathery death, impaling every spider short of the landing itself on dozens of spears of pure force. Ey, I'm a little strapped for things to do to golems, so I'll leave it to you. I'm gonna go see about killing all the prisoners. * seanripley has joined #castlevania * seanripley is now known as Skip * Olivia glances to Biff and yells, "Need some help, tomcat?" as she pulls out a different wand. * Nyyx locates a weak point in the golem's structure and targets it in a decisive strike that sunders its armor and sends fragments of golem flying off the platform. "Leave it to us!" Get Theo to seal that hole! * Nyyx calls up, "Would you mind sealing that hole for us, Theo?" * Theo waves a ham-hand and another wall of ice seals over the hole, over a foot thick. * Olivia lets Nyyx do the commanding as she gestures with her new wand, planting a spray of ice daggers in the golem that ain't dead. Well, one does have to conserve their wit. * Skip rushes in to help Nyyx with the other golem. Another two swings and, again, one hit for moderate success. * Charlotte darts around and fires another pair of arrows at the golem, landing a solid hit with one of them. * Charlotte hurts it, but it isn't quiiiite enough to take it down [The remaining golem continues to rage, bashing in the skull of a nearby guard. Many of the spiders on the stairwell have succumbed to their injuries, but the ones that latched onto the defenders just scant seconds ago have already driven tendrils into their undead flesh. These defenders, stricken, have stopped fighting back. The rushing sound beyond the fog continues to build into a cacophony. It sounds like a river.] * Nyyx drives her sword through the middle of the second golem while it's reeling from Charlotte's arrows, and she slices clean through its metal, carving it into two neat halves. What -is- that funny watery noise? * Biff turns and runs down through the hole in the wall of ice to find the failsafes. [As Biff rushes downstairs under the ice, he spots the first of likely many cell doors on his right. It is a metal door set into the stone with no latch or slot. The stairs continue for hundreds more feet.] * Theo turns and abuses his spontaneous casting again, slamming a -third- wall of ice, this time over the hole that is probably going to start pouring out lava or water or some crazy shit in a couple seconds. * Nyyx shouts up a thank you to Theo. * Olivia presses her lips together thinly as the smile slips from her face, looks up at the sky a moment, and then back forward as she gestures with her big-gun wand twice, a violent symphonies of sound, wrecking the entire melee of spiders and nearly-infected defenders, a neutral expression on her face. [Most of the defenders in the blast fall to the ground smoking and still. Five survive although three of these must brush crushed spiders off of themselves.] Did you get them all, Olivia? [The defenders regroup on the stairs just lower than the now sealed breach. The rushing sound reaches a crescendo as something hits the wall of ice materialized just moments before. The wall holds with a series of creaks and groans. Otherwise, the Well is still.] * Olivia puts away her lesser wand before replying, "Looks pretty dead to me." Damned spiders. * Olivia glances to the ice, then goes, "Should we follow Biff, or try to hold whatever's coming here?" * Nyyx eyes the wall of ice. "Don't know how long that thing's going to hold." She calls down the stairs. "Biff, you need help?" * Biff cannot hear Nyyx through 13 inches of ice, unfortunately. Well, what's coming here? * Nyyx shakes her head. "He probably can't hear me, and he's sealed in. We might as well hold down the fort for now." I'd hate to have something hostile and unknown at our back, anyway. * Olivia peers at the wall for a long moment of thought, and then her eyes widen and she says, lowly, to herself, "Water." She glances to Nyyx and says, with more urgency, "It is _actually_ water. They're going to flood us out." It sounded like water, but that's an unusually simple explanation. Maybe we should get Biff out of there and let the water deal with the prisoners? * Olivia shakes her head. "No guarantee it'll kill every type of thing down there." So what can guarantee it? If we had a priest to bless that water-- * Nyyx smiles wryly and prepares to take to the wall if the ice breaks. [Biff continues to run down the stairs in the ghostly light. He passes more iron doors on his right as he descends, but nothing more complicated yet.] [The party gets itself into position just above the breach on the stairs. The remaining defenders are set up just below the breach, also on the stairs. The sentries in the gondala up above have even taken aim and are watching the breach.] [Several tense seconds pass. The ice creaks and then a low bass thump rattles the stone and the ice wall shatters inward, water trailing in a shoulder high blast. The wave washes over the stairwell, carring more spiders with it.] [At the same moment, three of the defenders turn their wands at the ground and cast. A gout of flame errupts on the lower side of the stairs, consumming the defenders.] Hey! * Olivia frowns slightly and says, "Didn't realize it was so fast." * Theodore sees all the spiders and launches a lightning bolt into the water, frying the everliving hell out of everything in it. [The sentries open up with volleys of electricity on the breach at the same time that Theodore unleashes his gout of lightning.] [The spiders that come flooding through the gap are not moving.] [The water travels over the stairwell and begins to pool on the layer of ice beneath.] * Nyyx breathes a sigh of relief, but she watches the ice at the bottom for signs of Biff. * Olivia is prepped with her wand, murmuring, "That ice isn't going to hold. I just went swimming in this water yesterday." [Biff continues downwards. By his estimate, he is about halfway to the bottom.] * Biff hears commotion from above, even through the ice, and realizes it's time to kick this shit into high gear. He begins bounding from side to side, using the stairs only as landing points, jumping down three stories at a time. [The water continues to rush out of the breach. Out of the darkness beyond, the party can see another swarm of spiders break through and rush toward the edge of the stairs. With them, three figures exit the breach above the water. One is large and spider-like and scitters on the stone walls. One is shadowy and humanoid and merely floats through the gap. The last is a human male in red finery with ashen skin. He runs on the ceiling.] [The trio collects itself on the wall directly above the breach, spread out with ten feet between them. The spider on the left, the dark figure in the center and the red clothed man on the right.] Incoming. Figure in Red: "You know, if you just gave up now, this would be a lot easier on everyone." * Charlotte points her bow. Funny, we could say the same. * Olivia half-smiles and adds, "But since we're all not going to, shall we start the violence?" ( Are you ready for a little of the old... ULTRAVIOLENCE? ) Hey! Up there! * Charlotte points at a spot about 200 feet above the breach, at the top of the tower, near the sentries. * Nyyx looks up and rolls her shoulders. "Might as well." * Nyyx squints a bit. "Doesn't that fellow up there look sort of like Goggles?" * Theodore slaps a meaty hand a little low on Nyyx's back, and frees her from the bonds of gravity. * Theo also races through the incantation a second time, and slaps another hand on Skip's shoulder, since that's as far down as he can bend to reach. * Nyyx leaps off thin air and comes shooting down blade-first at the shadowy figure in the center, and to her relief, her sword actually seems to cut through something. * Charlotte rushes around to find a good shooting spot, firing off a couple arrows in the process. Neither hit. * Olivia flips her wand into the air, pulling out a bit of special dust before catching it in that same hand. The wand glows as she smiles a bit wider, yells up at the guy above, "Don't worry, I'll pay attention to you in a second!" and then gestures at the guy Nyyx is wailing on with the now-sparkling wand. All in one round! Boy, she's inspired. * Skip flies up to the shadowy figure and grabs the far wall. Then, in a cloud of shadow, Skip leaps high above his foe and brings down one swift axe on his shoulder. It cuts deep. Real deep. [More water and more spiders flow out of the breach and over the side. The spiders are rather impotently slicing and chipping at the ice floor.] [The spider thing scurries along the wall and comes around behind Skip. It lashes out with metal claws while screaming from a humanoid face.] [The creature cuts Skip and tries to take hold, but utterly fails as he is just to spry.] [The sentries send blasts of flame and electricity towards the figure the appeared near them, cratering the wall. The figure's movements are too quick to follow.] [The shadowy figure retaliates by striking Nyyx twice. She feels her strength ebb away with the attacks.] [The man in red runs along the wall, transitions to the stairs and charges Olivia.] [He lashes out at Olivia quickly, but it is only once he withdraws for another strike that a wickedly edged short blade can be seen in his hand.] * Olivia twists adroitly as she takes a light hit along her side, the blade grazing her just so, and looks back to the guy with a slight, confident smile as she replies to his strike with, "Almost felt sick there a second. Too bad you didn't land a good hit, isn't it?" * Theo rolls around and shoots a bolt of magic at the guy who shanked Olivia, but it bounces off and turns a passing insect into a toad. [PAUSE] Session Close: Sat Jan 10 23:09:48 2009