Session Start: Sat Mar 14 17:13:38 2009
Session Ident: #castlevania
* Logging for #castlevania started
<Holmes> [The party is presently divided.  Skip, Nyyx, Roland and
Charlotte are at the top of the central tower in Lifebreak with the
remains of the Nerull and Boccobite forces.  The Damacine is no more
than half of a minute away from scaling the tower and claiming the
Boccobite Contact.  At the same time, Theodore, Biff and Olivia are
in the process of negotiating the Red Stone from the Pelorian Contact
in Stavograd.]
<Holmes> [The defenders are arrayed along the outside of the tower
ready to drop arcane torment down on the invaders.  Within, the
party, His Emminent Remains and Lydia stand guard over the stricken
Boccobite Contact.  Lydia has a new demonic cast and large black
wings since the party traveled to stop the attack on the Well.]
<Charlotte> What've we got?
<Holmes> Lydia: "I thought your friends were bringing help?"
<Nyyx> They are, but I don't know how long they'll be.
* Nyyx grits her teeth.
<Holmes> [One of the nearby clerics waves her hands in a wide arc and
puts a hand to her forehead.]  "They'll be here soon."
<Roland> Two minutes.  Give or take.
* Roland whistles.
<Holmes> Lydia: "Fine.  Any other ideas?  The casters outside will
slow them down, but we cannot do too much without risking dropping
the tower."
<Roland> ...why don't we?
<Roland> Drop the tower, I mean.  On top of it.
<Charlotte> Any.... special resources? Tricks?
<Holmes> Lydia: "It's no guarantee that the Golem will die and we
could lose track of the idiot Contact over there."
<Roland> Can't we just kill him?
<Nyyx> Will it be safer to - please excuse me, since I don't know how
to put it delicately - kill him before the Golem gets here?
<Holmes> H.E.R.: "I can try.  It could go very badly though.  It's
packed full of magic and curses at this point."
<Holmes> [The rush of wind and explosions echo in from outside.]
<Holmes> Lydia: "Everyone get ready!  Final preparatory and
augentation spells!  Boccobites ring the Contact.  Same as the roof.
No step past the second.  No Call.  Wall of Force."
<Holmes> [Everyone in the room tenses up as the clerics and mages
hastily finish their spellcasting.  The party feels the rush of
numerous enhancing spells run over them.  The surviving Boccobites
ring H.E.R. and the Contact and begin a group spell.]
* Roland begins to glow with a holy light.
<Holmes> Contact (strained): "It's my own fault.  I was ...
compelled... kill the bastard.  He knows he can claim the monk with
or without me.  I just made it faster.  He knows everything I know
now.  He knows whats coming and he's going to stop it... and you will
all die..."
<Roland> well that's awfully pessimistic of you.
<Roland> You should leave the fortune telling to me.
<Roland> You may as well kill him.  What's the worst it can do,
explode and kill everything in a thousand mile radius?
<Holmes> [Screams erupt from outside as stone shatters.  Metal on
metal scraping can be heard beyond the great metal doors.]
<Nyyx> I'm sorry, sir. I'm standing with Roland on this.
<Holmes> H.E.R.: "DONE."
<Charlotte> I guess there was no other way
* Nyyx bows her head.
<Roland> and my plan to become the new Contact nears fruitition.
Just as planned.
<Holmes> [Without a moment's hesitation, His Emminent Remains brings
the Bloody Smile up and then down into the Contact's head.  The
impact whistles with static electricity and whatever anarchic miasma
His Emminent Remains controls or simply is.]
<Holmes> [The scratching and screams continue.  With a deafening
crunch, the Damacine Golem shoulders through the doors, sending them
spinning off of their hinges and crushing a hapless horned cleric of
Nerull.  Behind him, more of the mechanical spiders swarm forward,
still fighting with the defenders.]
<Roland> Howdy!
* Nyyx falls immediately into a battle stance, her sword held ready.
"What took you so long?"
* Charlotte runs and starts firing arrows
* Charlotte dives for cover and manages to land one of them in it. It
rapidly bursts into acid
<Roland> Aa, Skip... if you happen to be feeling lucky, in theory,
there's a phylaactery of some sort inside that thing.  Somewhere.
<Skip> What's a phylaactery!?
<Roland> Um... could be anything, really.  It's an object with some
dude's soul bound inside.
<Roland> There's not even a guarantee that there's one in there,
though, so.
<Charlotte> Then where could it be?
<Roland> Pretty much anywhere.
<Skip> But that thing needs a soul, right?
<Roland> Maybe?
* Skip sheaths his axes and swallows hard, "Well, here goes nothing."
He vanishes, secretly maneuvering forward about forty feet and a just
off the golem's path.
* Nyyx dashes forward and takes a vampirically enhanced leap that
takes her 60' forward and right in range of the Golem's torso. She
brings her sword down against the construct as she falls, cutting a
deep furrow in its chest and sending a spray of sparks flying.
<Holmes> [The Golem ignores Nyyx and crouches down, hefting one of
the battered doors in both hands.  It strides forward and brings the
great metal sheet down, trying to crush the closest chanting
Boccobite flat.]
<Holmes> [Ah the Golem passes, Nyyx clips at his heels, but can't
land an attack.]
<Holmes> [The door comes down on the wall of force and instantly
bends back along the barrier.  Sparks fly as the Golem's swing brings
the door along the wall and crashing into the chamber floor.  The
target Boccobite is crying while he chants but the wall is holding.]
<Holmes> [Lydia and the defenders spring into combat, buring out
spiders with a glut of magical force.  Lydia herself carves out a
swath with a storm of obsidian feathers.]
<Holmes> [It looks like the Contact is trying to speak through the
scythe blade pinning his mouth.  His Emminent Remains stands rigid as
voltage grounds out through him into the stone beneath.]
* Charlotte continues darting in and out of cover, trying to stay out
of sight andfiring arrows when she getsthe chance. Not much luck...
* Skip invisibly charges the giant golem monster and unleashes a
flurry of attacks. Many strike true and cut deep, like, real deep.
* Nyyx pivots to face the golem behind her and springs the 20' to
meet it, the edge of her sword rending through more of the Golem's
armor as she lands.
<Holmes> [The Golem turns and throws a flurry of missles at Skip,
wounding him badly and then smashes Nyyx against the wall of force
with the remains of the door.  The glowing wall is now spattered with
much of the fighter's blood hanging in midair.]
* Roland sends his own missiles darting into Nyyx and Skip, undoing
almost all the golem's damage.
<Holmes> [The battle between the clerics and spiders continues to
rage with more spiders breaking through all the time and the
defenders felling them with equal speed.  His Emminent Remains' cloak
begins to smoke as the Contact starts to swell.]
* Charlotte launches a few more arrows that can't effecitvely
penetrate the golem's carapace, but one manages to slip through and
do some damage.
* Skip recovers quickly from his wounds (Thanks, Roland!) and gets
back to work. With a swift crouch and split-second planning, Skip
soars into the air and land a solid, deep strike on the golem's belly
region.
* Nyyx strikes at the Golem, misses entirely, recovers quickly enough
to take a second swing, and again fails to connect.
<Holmes> [[Replace that.  Nyyx connects on the first shot and doesn't
have time to take a second.]]
<Holmes> [The Golem smashes Nyyx into the wall of force again and
then turns to the nearest cleric beyond the wall.]
<Holmes> Golem: "DIE!"
<Holmes> [A vague shadow passes between the Golem and the cleric and
the cleric falls to the ground clutching his chest.  Instantly, the
wall begins to flicker as the other chanters try to compensate.]
<Holmes> [The battle continues to rage and the defenders begin to get
desperate, summoning in devils and their own beasts to balance out
the spiders' numbers.  The Contact bursts open with ropes of metal
and flesh waving into the air and disintegrating.  Lightning arcs
between the wisps of alchemical tissue.  His Emminent Remains has
started to smolder in places from the contact.]
* Charlotte fires off another three arrows, and of those, another
manages to land in a crucial point
* Skip lands softly and uses the momentum from the landing to spring
back up again. With a monstrous leap, Skip soars over the creatures
shoulder, cutting into the thick hide as he goes. Passing the
creatures head, Skip shouts, "We will never yield!"
* Nyyx , back on her feet and refreshed from Roland's ministrations,
retaliates by chipping another two cuts into Golem's body.
<Holmes> Golem: "And neither shall I.  As it was the Contact's, it is
my destiny to witness this world end.  I WILL NOT BE DENIED!"
<Roland> You're a golem.  I'm a seer.  Wanna bet?
<Holmes> [The Golem turns toward Roland and releases two torrents of
electricity.  The blasts arc between Roland and all of the nearby
defenders in turn, putting several on the ground.  Among that group,
Roland bursts into flames and falls over.  Near the end of its pass,
the lightning careens along the wall of force, skipping across in
places and incinerating two more chanters.]
<Holmes> [The Contact starts to glow as even more of its form is
pulled apart.  Dozens of masks can be seen in the web of tendrils
rising into the air.]
* Charlotte dashes around rubble and sends more arrows flying at the
golem. One sinks in hard.
* Skip watches as Roland is no-mored. "NO!" Skip vanishes in a puff
of shadow and reappears directly in front of Golem's left eye. "Damn
you!" Skip stabs the eye, then clings to the villain's nose.
* Nyyx eyes one of the rifts she's cut into the Golem and drives her
blade deeply into one of them.
<Holmes> [The Golem rears back, scraping its head on the ceiling.]
<Holmes> Golem: "NO!  NO!  NO!  THE WALL'S DOWN!  NO!"
<Holmes> [The Golem stumbles backward under the weight of its
injuries.  A dozen or more deep wounds cover its form and one eye is
ruined.  It is clearly badly hurt.]
<Holmes> [At the same time, the wall of force is in full failure with
nearly half of the chanters dead and the others beyond their limit,
the wall begins to flicker out completely.]
<Holmes> [The defenders, scoured by the Golem's desperation attack,
are losing ground to the spiders who could claim the Contact for the
Golem themselves.]
<Holmes> [If they had any time left.  The Contact burns in a
conflagration of metal and chaos that consumes His Emminent Remains
and the chanters as well.  The wall will not hold the impending blast
back for long.]
* Charlotte shields her eyes.
* Nyyx sees the impending explosion and searches for cover.
<Holmes> [Lydia takes one look at the center of the room and runs for
Nyyx.]
<Holmes> [END OF SESSION.]
Session Close: Sat Mar 14 22:44:05 2009