Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 49
Adventurers
| Character | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Orda | Fighter level 3 | Very lawful and very goodly Karakan warrior from far east with bushy red mane and beard. |
| Fra Nevjest | Cleric level 1 | A rather clumsy devotee of Kodeus, the gnarly God of Dexterity and Patron Deity of Thieves. |
| Harker | Fighter level 1 | Top heavy hunk with skinny legs, wielding a massive great-axe with rose-motifs. |
Later...
| Character | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rashomon | Elf level 1 | A dangerous looking elf. |
| Haleth | Elf level 2 | An albino elf with bright red eyes. |
Sunstrong 19th, Fireday
“Agh!”
Fra Nevjest was cupping his bleeding wound. Mere moments ago a disgusting mole-like humanoid create had gouged out his eye.
“Stay calm.” Tamren healed the wound, but alas, from now on Fra Nevjest will be an one-eyed cleric.
The party briefly explored other narrow corridors, finding nothing but empty, dusty chambers. They returned to the main corridor...
“Who goes there?”
“Harker!”
“I'm Orda, a great warrior! We are here to purge this temple of all evil! Do you want to join us!”
“Yes!”
And so the party grew by adding another great warrior. They traversed the wide corridor, deeper into the desecrated temple.
Soon they encountered a T-shaped junction. The path to the left was much rougher hewn-stone tunnel. The ground was covered in ash and soot, with many footprints leading in and out.
“Tamren, Brent Goose, could you stand guard here while we explore the dark tunnel?”
“Yes.”
Orda took the front, Fra Nevjest with torch right behind him, Harker watching the one-eyed cleric's back, and Fitzedward watching his back.
The quarter carefully advanced. The tunnel was winding and twisting. The deeper they went, the more did ash and soot cover every surface visible. Ground, walls, ceiling. Everything.
“Might it be something explosive?”
Another split. Ash and soot to the left, nothing up ahead. A clean tunnel—not even a single sooty footstep.
“Let's keep following the ash trail.”
And so they went deeper, following the twisting pathway. It was getting narrower and narrower by each step, forcing the party to advance in a single file formation with little space to navigate.
“Stop!”
Orda could see the tunnel turning sharply to left. The turn was almost at the right angle.
“Pass me the torch, and I'll take a peek.”
Leaning around the corner, Orda could see the following:
An irregular chamber, approximately fifteen by fifteen feet, dominated by a tall white marble statue in north-west corner. Thousands of coins laid at its feet.
Several ash clouds ash floating around a human-shaped creature. It had only one leg, black skin, burning red eyes, and was levitating just by the broken statue.
Three black stone statues similar to the one that had attacked Fra Nevjest earlier.
One of the statues lunged at peeking Orda.
“Charge!”
The quartet forced their way into the small chamber, each facing one opponent. Karakan warrior went for the red-eyed demon, while the others focused on stone statues.
It was a brief, but brutal skirmish.
Ash demon was navigating clouds of ash, using them to attack Orda. The warrior managed to cut off the monster's arm, only to be rewarded by a huge cloud of ash and soot.
Black mass was alive, crawling up his skin and forcing itself into his mouth, nostrils, eyes, and all other orifices. Orda endured it heroically, although none of his subsequent attacks connected.
Fra Nevjest's turning attempt were as impotent as his melee attacks.
Harker's attacks often landed, but failed to do much.
Fitzedward was the true star of this battle, for he felled stone statue one by one. This in turn made the ash demon focus on him. Remembering his dead brother Doud, Fitzedward took a swing and beheaded the demonic creature.
The monster imploded into a black ball, inhaled all the ash and soot, and then billowed it out in great explosion. When everything settled, the party found themselves knee deep in ash.
“This was for you brother. Rest in peace.” Fitzedward shook his sword and cleaned it of remaining soot.
“Wow, look at this statue.”
A tall, bearded man holding a sphere, made of white marble. Gaping hole in his chest revealed a pommel of a large sword. A medallion was resting on the hilt. Three creatures were engraved on it: a horse, a phoenix, and a dragon.
More than six thousand coins were resting at the foot of the statue; now covered in ash and soot.
Orda and Fra Nevjest started sorting through it, Fitzedward wasn't too interested but was helping out anyway, and Harker went back to report to the guarding party of Tamren and Brent Goose.
“Oh my!”
Tamren stood at the centre of T-junction, a pile of bones and skeletal remains under his feet. Brent Goose was just behind him, brandishing his weapon and holy symbol.
“What's happening?”
Harker ran up to them. And then he found his answer before any of the two had the chance to speak.
A tunnel to his left was full of deformed humans, each covered in dried blood, excrement, and other filth. Their claws suggested these creatures might be less human than they appear.
“Fall back! Fall back!”
The trio ran down the wide corridor they had entered through. Harker yelled insults at the monsters, hoping to attract some of them.
Alas, they all ignored him and went into the ash covered tunnel.
Orda, Fra Nevjest, and Fitzedward were woefully unaware of any of this.
“Ignore this!”
Harker ran back and chucked a burning oil flask straight into one of the monstrous human. It fell down to the ground, a mix of crispy and charred. Other horrors immediately begun feasting on its warm corpse.
“Here's more!”
Downing a second one was enough to get the attention of those that still hadn't gone into the ash-laden tunnel. They went for Harker instead.
“Uh-oh.”
The sole warrior took care of them.
Orda dropped a sack filled with coins. He heard their footsteps before he could see or smell them. He took out his Phoenix blade just in time for one of the deformed humans to run straight into it.
Fra Nevjest smashed the head of yet another one. Orda cleaved another one in half.
“Go for the leader!” Orda roared, seeing how a squat, monstrous mole-man seemingly pushing other deformed humans right in front of it.
But his words fell on deaf ears.
Cannibals swarmed the chamber. Two wrestled Fitzedward, while the third ripped out his throat. Another jumped on Fra Nevjest and gouged out his other eye. Screaming, the cleric was forced to the ground. His suffering was ended by blunt force trauma.
Orda, tired and injured from previous encounter with ash demon, took his last stand in the centre of the chamber. His red mane swung as wildly as his sword. Blood gushed wherever the blade went.
Alas. Alas. The sea of hateful flesh surrounding him was too much. Squat mole-man delivered a blow which forced the Karakan warrior to his knees. He could feel the sword trembling in his hand. It wasn't his dying body abandoning him. No. The sword was actually trembling more and more by the second. The phoenix on it started to get bright red.
Orda turned the sword around and stabbed it straight into the ground.
“I must go back!”
A huge explosion threw Harker down to the ground. The whole dungeon shook with great intensity, and a ball of flame roared out of the ash-laden tunnel.
“Orda! Fra! Fitz!”
Harker ran into the tunnel, despite the explosions moments ago. He ignored all the charred corpses and pulverized remains. Dozens of them.
“No! No...”
Marble statue still stood.
Melted Karakan splint mail covered charred remains of kneeling warrior.
Everything else was unrecognisable.
“Purge.”
“Huh?”
Harker heard a trio of voices. But there was no one present?
“Here.”
The hole in the statue was bigger than before—surely a side effect of the explosion. The giant two-handed sword was now truly visible in all its glory.
Amazed, Harker approached it. He put his rose-covered great battle axe on his back, and took out the sword.
“You will purge this temple.” a masculine voice boomed.
“You will cleanse it of evil.” a deep voice commanded.
“You will restore it to its former glory.” a stern voice ordered.
“I will.” Harker answered.
And he did.
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