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Two days later, the company were sitting around the table in the Renders' HQ eating, when there was a knock at the door. One of the apprentice Renders answered it, and shortly came to Hildraft and told him there was a visitor to see him. The dwarf indicated he would see the visitor, and the youth ushered a man up to his table. Plainly dressed, he was clearly a townsman of the working class. Hildraft remembered his face; he'd been one of the congregation at the Temple the other day. He introduced himself as one Ponic Darren, and explained that he was one of several people who'd felt drawn to return to the Temple, only to find it closed again, and unpleasant events occurring outside. He was unclear on details, but was quite convinced that the Kin City-lord Skufrus had levelled another attack at the Temple; "a sorcerer" was working magic outside. |
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Reaching the Temple, the group found, on the square in front of the doors - where they had fought Kramfer and his men - a circular design had been drawn; a pentagram. The lines that comprised it - which appeared deeply etched into the stone - throbbed and pulsed with an unwholesome light. Standing inside was a human woman, apparently giving instructions to the seven creatures looming on the other side, and gesturing at the Temple as she did so. Five of them were a hideous, lean, grey combination of man and vulture, eight feet high; four were huge, black, fifteen-foot-tall muscular creatures with the heads of dogs and four arms, two ending in cruel pincers. All were listening attentively to the woman, though they seemed "twitchy" as if longing to be about some other activity. Hildraft was pretty sure these were demons, possibly Glabrezu, but he couldn't be sure - no-one he'd ever met was of a habit of summoning demons. Lined up on the Temple steps were a dozen or so of the townsfolk who answered the Call of Kord, armed with makeshift weapons, preparing to defend the temple but staring at the monsters they faced in pure terror. Surya worked around the far side, and moved to join the frightened townsfolk defending the temple. Hildraft and Kobort approached at a slanting angle from the left, and Sack - using all his concealment and his Chaemelon ring - ghosted up behind the arc of demons. Casually, Surya reached down and picked up a couple of stones. Grinning, he threw one at the woman, striking her in the back. Jolted, she paused with one controlling hand raised towards the demons, and looked around at the temple's defenders, pausing and frowning when she saw the armoured man in the middle of the line. "What do you think you're doing?" asked the Tellaran. At that moment several things happened at once. Hildraft called on his powers and created a Wall of Stone, shaping it with a true Dwarf's eye as a horizontal slab, which dropped with a slight thud! onto the stone paving. Covering the pentagram completely... Kobort unleashed his Lightning Bolt spell, but something went wrong and it didn't go off. The woman, glaring in horror at the destroyed protective circle, backed up, desperately trying to complete a spell. Slipping between the watching demons, Sack came at her completely by surprise, slashed once with the Bloodfang, and carried on past her, turning as he reached the bottom of the temple steps and Surya passed him heading down, sword and shield raised. He charged forward, slashing at her and inflicting some wounds as she desperately tried to dodge and complete her magic at ths same time. Kobort tried again, this time with Chain Lightning, and smiled as the massive discharge blasted the woman back a couple of steps, breaking her concentration and wrecking her spell. His smile slipped as the bold leaped from demon to demon, bouncing off in every case without effect. A couple of deep grating chuckles came from the larger ones. There was a brief scream from the woman as one of the large Glabrezu lashed out its' pincers and siezed her, dying to a horrible gurgle as it gripped her beautiful face with its' hands and - slowly - pulled her head off. It flung her body to the ground in a shower of blood and roared in triumph. Sack swung back to face it, drawing the Blade of the Sun and flooding the scene with light, and hacked at it. Where the blazing weapon struck, the wounds sizzled and steamed, and the creature screamed with agony, distracted; Sack hacked its' head off. Hildraft levelled a finger at one of the smaller demons and Commanded it "Sleep!". Instantly, it dropped to the ground. Next to it, another made a quick gesture - and suddenly there were four more just the same added to the battle! Surya found himself gripped in a Glabrezu's mighty pincers. In an awesome feat of strength, he tore himself free, ducked inside its' guard and hammered at it with the Sword of the Dead Legions, scoring several good solid strikes; to his amazement it didn't go down. Kobort, balked by the demons' resistance to electricty, tried cold; an Ice Storm erupted around the demons. While the simple impact of the hailstones striking them seemed to have some effect, the cold they shrugged off. Damn things seemed resistant to all his magic! The demons' attention had been attracted to him and Hildraft, however, and several of them turned to attack; Hildraft heard them muttering things like "do what we want now" and "we'll have some fun" in their awful guttral language. He attempted a Dismissal, and one of the smaller ones - he recognized now as probably a Vrock - popped out of existence. The demon Sack was fighting gestured and grinned - and the half-orc found himself in the air, rising vertically higher and higher as he was Levitated above the square. It didn't take a genius to work out what would happen next; Sack wasn't keen on being splattered, so he dug out his Potion of Levitation and swigged it back. Then he calmly sheathed his swords and readied his bow, before beginning to pepper his foe with arrows. |
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Kobort abandoned spellcasting in the face of the oncoming demons, and drew the Dyvka; laying about him two-handed, he wounded one of the Glabrezu. Beside him, Ponic, who had stood by Hildraft all this time, threw himself into the combat with his makeshift weapons, slashing bravely at the demons, and was instantly ripped in half. Back at the Temple steps, Surya was becoming desperate at his inability to fell his foe. He decided the time had come. Shaking his shield off his left arm, he reached across and took the irrevocable step. He drew the damned sword Tormentor. Hildraft, watching uneasily from the other side of the battle, could see its' aura clearly. The sword of the Dead Legions was dark and evil; this was terrible. With both blades the Tellaran renewed his attack on the Glabrezu. Where Tormentor cut the creature, the edges of the wound seemed to shrivel and crumble, leaving bigger areas of damage than the size of the blade; the monster bellowed in pain, and went down. Power thrummed through the sword and up Surya's arm. It felt good... Kobort invoked the Web power of his cloak, ensnaring three demons in the sticky mass. Pinned and almost helpless, the Glabrezu was easy prey, and he finished it without diffculty; he then went invisible. Beside him, Hildraft Dismissed another Vrock. Above, Sack was still loosing arrows into the battle. Abruptly, he found himself falling; he'd shot the Vrock that'd lifted him. Using the effects of his potion, he lowered himself safely to the ground. Surya's last opponent was a Vrock, and he launched himself at it in an all-out attack. The two dark blades flashed in glittering arcs, biting deep and doing terrible damage; the creature was cut down almost immediately, but the onslaught did not stop; the Tellaran continued to hack and slash at his fallen foe, sending spatters of dark stinking blood in all directions, until the demon's body was no longer recognisable. The last two Vrock, realizing they were in trouble, spread their wings and started to fly swiftly away. Sack brought one down almost immediately, but the last invoked Darkness and flew out of the radius of the Blade of the Sun's light. Kobort, casting Fly, went after it, easily overtaking it but baffled by the Darkness couldn't find it. Unaware of his presence, Sack and Surya let fly with a storm of arrows, missing the demon but wounding their comrade. Kobort cast Daylight to cancel the Darkness and veered away, and the archers brought the demon down. Returning, Kobort took out his irritation by dropping a Fireball onto the webbed demons. It didn't harm them at all, in fact it made them smile, but it burned away the webs and the whole party converged on them. The fight was over.
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