A stout canine torso topping a slimy mass resembling an earthworm appeared near the crate. Disgusting veins dangled from its face. Worse there were six creatures all together tightly packed in the space before the crate. Ursina, Ciprian and Erevel felt the gaze of the creature and quickly averted their eyes narrowly avoiding whatever evil was thrown toward them.
Ciprian yelled out a distress call which Gavril responded to by entering the room and becoming shaken. He still moved up toward the creature and threw a flask of Alchemist's Fire toward it which missed but splashed the outsider from behind.
Ursina moved out of the doorway to be out of sight attack, Erevel moved up and attacked the monster but found that his weapon did not deal the damage she thought it should. Armania moved to the door and fired magic missiles which of course found their target. Paullus fired an arrow which appeared to hit the creature but did not damage it.
Ciprian meanwhile identified the creature as an Esipil which could that had a look of fear and the innate ability of mirror image. It attacked with its dangling veins.
Erevel then felt the attack of the dangling veins first hand, taking critical damage and becoming confused. Gavril moved up to possibly attain flanking and destroyed one of the images. Armania let loose more magic missiles and Paullus let fly an arrow taking out another image. Ciprian moved forward and attacked with his mace which also did less damage than expected. Ursina was meanwhile waiting in the hall for the monster to emerge or to respond to a cry for healing.
The confused Erevel nonetheless moved up to flank the creature with Gavril and destroyed another image. All the party attacking were generally shaken as they did not try to avert their eyes, being already hampered by the images and wishing to target the creature directly. A few more attacks left Erevel, Gavril and Ciprian bloodied but they managed to destroy the last two images and then Erevel managed to kill the beast even with her reduced damage.
Clean up was done quickly as Ciprian found something magic in one of the crates. Searching he found the body of an orderly with a broken padded club, three vials of Antitoxin, a silver necklace with Shelyn's holy symbol and a magical Heavy Wooden Shield. The other two crates held the bodies of patients bereft of all except their gowns. The man manacled to the bed had his neck torn open as he died screaming.
Wondering whether there could be Oneirogen any where else the group determined to return to talk with Doctor Elbourne further. As they passed through the kitchen the Haunt of a thin mans sobbing face filled the area around the third fireplace but seemed to do no harm.
Doctor Elbourne was pleased to see the group ushering them into his infirmary at Ciprian's request. "Did you see the Oneirogen? What occurred then?" he pleaded with them.
The party related how they found the Oneirogen, destroyed it and the fact that the fog/mist had lessened outside the area of the tower. They were anxious to find and destroy more before going upstairs. They also explained about killing several ghouls and a couple of strange creatures never seen before. The party asked what the Apostle's were doing in the large hall.
"They are guarding the barricade in case ghouls break through. We have had couple of incidents where ghouls broke in and the Apostle's had to fight them off and then re-enforce the barricade." responded Elbourne.
"What is outside the barricade?" queried Gavril.
"There was a courtyard out there. It is overrun with ghouls we believe," said Elbourne.
"Are there any other doors to the courtyard?" Gavril continued his questioning.
The Doctor then said that there were two doors, barricaded in the food preparation area. Ivory and the Apostle's keep the ghouls at bay inside the food area. They bring food out twice a day and take some upstairs. We are not allowed upstairs where Ulver's handpicked guards are stationed along with Aggra Loomis, who you heard of before. There are two doors on the west side of the courtyard also.
The party then asked Wren for some healing which he provided along with a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, a potion of Remove Disease and a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. The party then retraced their steps to the doors they knew of on the west side of the courtyard.
Stationing themselves to attack any ghoul that came in the door, Gavril opened the south door and peered out into the dense, sour mist which filled this spacious courtyard. Eddies in the fog created phantom shapes among the shadows of bent trees and wilted foliage. Not seeing any ghoul, Gavril retreated into the entry and tried to lure the ghouls with Ciprian's help.
Erevel, annoyed by the slow pace stepped out into the courtyard a few steps, the expanse opened up and she could see a ghoul to her northeast, facing away and apparently not noticing the party at all. Strange noises still filled the air of the courtyard and instead of rain a hail of wet batter fell from the sky, landing on Erevel's head and shoulders splattering across the ground.
Seeing no evidence of another Oneirogen, she turned to retreat into the hallway. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a white unicorn prance toward her from the south and just as it closed to within ten feet, it disappeared in a poof.
When Erevel rejoined the group, Armania noted that she was covered in a sickeningly sweet smelling batter, no one was brave enough to taste it though. Gavril now decided it was time to attack the upper levels of the Asylum, so the group headed once more to the large hall and the stairway up.
Ciprian stuck his head around the last bend in the stairwell and saw a chamber that had almost entirely collapsed upon itself. Shattered pieces of wall and ceiling timbers, knotted like broken fingers, slumped
precariously. Despite the chamber’s near ruin, a number of tables, chairs, and bedrolls lay about the room. A hall choked with fog lies through a gap in the wall to the north. At a the table four Apostle's sat entertained by something on the table. Only one faced in Ciprian's direction but none seemed to notice the intrusion.
Stepping back Ciprian whispered that he would try to fascinate the four guards with a Bardic performance. He then strode to the top of the stairs with Erevel, Gavril, and Paullus in close formation. Armania and Ursina waited lower on the staircase. As the group topped the staircase, three of the guards stood and demanded that the intruders leave.
Seeing that only one guard seemed fascinated, Ciprian stopped his chanting, Gavril shot into the room at one of the Apostles. The two Apostles in the rear started firing arrows at the party and Paullus returned the favor. Armania stated to cast Summon Monster while Ursina blessed the group. She moved up and noted that a body lay on a dirty mattress at the rear of the room.
Erevel charged into the room to attack another Apostle as the two other guards attacked back with crowbars. Armania's Giant Eagle appeared in the room before two of the guards. Just as the group thought they might have the situation under control, the body stood up from the bed. This was a woman in a ragged jacket and gown with heavy boots. She appeared to be at least 70 years old but with agile and limber moves quickly toward Erevel shouting "keep it down".
More arrows flew back and forth, Armania cast a Flame Strike on the woman who was assumed to be Aggra the "Bag Lady". Aggra attacked Erevel with her bare hands, grasping with surprising strength, around the neck and squeezed, shouting "Death to the unbelievers". Erevel was now in Aggra's grip and loosing her breath quickly. Gavril killed the guard in front of him and circled to the back to flank with Erevel on Aggra. The Eagle kept attacking and Ciprian and Ursina joined in the battle. Erevel was having trouble breathing as Aggra applied more pressure, adding addition damage to Erevel who was woozy on her feet. Another guard fell from Ursina's mace and Gavril hit Aggra hard from behind as more arrows flew between the guards and Paullus.
Erevel managed to break Aggra's grip on her throat just as Ciprian applied some healing to her. Aggra turned and flashed a staggering fist at Gavril who took damage but managed to avoid being staggered. The flame strike actually did damage on the second chance and Armania fired magic missiles at Aggra. Gavril again attacked with fury and dropped Aggra to the floor.
The final two Apostles were easy pickings at this point as the party finished the battle. The group rested for a moment. Gavril moved to the west toward the breach in the wall and saw a room filled with yellow fog and he saw the deeper saffron of the cloud around a Oneirogen.
DM's Notes: The party earned 800 XP for the night's work. The group now have 7697 XP and need 1303 additional to reach 4th level.
No comments:
Post a Comment