SESSION 43C: THE BATTLE OF THE BANEWARRENS
October 25th, 2009
The 23rd Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty
Kalerecent insisted on coming with them as they headed down the excavated tunnel into the Banewarrens themselves. Tee stayed ahead of the light pressing at her back (trusting to her elven sight to guide her), but as she passed into the first chamber of the Banewarrens she discovered a stygian, magical darkness blotting out the passage leading into the generator room.
She waited for the light to catch up and still the darkness didn’t budge. Not knowing what else to do – and fearing what the Pactlords might be doing at the sealed door – they plunged into the darkness.
Hidden in the darkness, the giant spider they had fought before tried to drop on top of them. Fortunately, Tee’s sharp ears heard it coming and she rolled quickly to one side. It scuttled after her, but instead found itself skewered upon the blades of Agnarr and Tor.
The spider collapsed in a spray of ichor. (Tor licked his lips: “Is that ichor?”) But even as it fell, the party found themselves attacked from above by vicious claws and the quiet beating of wings. They guessed that it was the winged lamia, but it was subtler and craftier than the spider and they were forced to fall back.
But as they did so, more of the magical darkness was laid down – extruding itself into the outer chamber and leading to a confused melee where only Tor’s blind-folded training leant an edge against their unseen foes.
Slowly, with Tor’s guidance, they managed to surround the lamia. Once they were in position, the tide of battle turned drastically.
“Nissentar!” the lamia cried out. “I don’t care how hurt you are! They’re forcing me back!”
“Fine, Wiver!” a bitter, inhuman voice called out from beyond the darkness. “I’m coming! I’m—BATS!”
Elestra had gathered the bats to her through the Spirit of the City and sent them into the chamber beyond the darkness. Nissentar had been caught in a tornado of frenetic flying fur. A moment later, Ranthir followed suit – summoning a faithful hound of pure energy.
Tor, hanging close to the lamia in an effort to keep her under control, was taking a terrible beating. He called out for help. Nasira, still standing outside the area of magical darkness, shook her head. “I don’t want to go in there.”
But she plunged in anyway. They needed her, after all.
They had pushed the lamia back into the generator chamber itself, but discovered that the darkness extended even here. Almost simultaneously, the unseen Nissentar managed to skitter far enough away from Elestra’s bats that the swarm turned their ire against Ranthir’s hound and the flank of the front line.
Agnarr had been holding back in the outer chamber in an effort to protect the spellcasters. But, feeling that the front line had moved into a position where the risk of the Pactlords circling around unseen was minimal, Agnarr charged forward—
And ran into the wall.
Nasira called out to him: “Agnarr! The door is over here!”
Agnarr adjusted himself, charged forward—
And ran straight into the bats.
“BATS!”
But they were completely out of Elestra’s control.
Ranthir, planning to follow close on Agnarr’s heels (without quite following his example), decided to even his odds in the darkness somewhat by turning himself invisible. He did so, leaving only Kalerecent in the outer chamber… just as an ogre came lumbering up the other hallway and dropped another blot of darkness over the knight.
Kalerecent cried out. “The foe is upon us!” The ogre was upon him only a moment later, pounding him with grievous blows (although Kalerecent gave several in return).
Agnarr turned and ran back… out of the shadow and right past the unseen ogre, who hit him hard in the shoulder as he passed. But Agnarr planted his foot, turned hard, and swung his sword. The force of his blow knocked the ogre back across the length of the chamber. It fell hard in the corner… and the darkness fell with it.
As the full length of the generator chamber became visible they saw the spidery Nissentar crouched high upon the wall near the far end of it. And the flayer standing proudly resplendent before the sealed door. (Which, they thankfully saw, was still sealed.)
Both Nissentar and Matha withdrew towards the flayer. They were clearly planning to escape again by means of the flayer’s teleportation.
But Ranthir, with a desperate effort, hurled himself forward and cast forth a dimensional anchor: A beam of green energy shot from his finger—
And struck the wall uselessly.
But Ranthir dragged the beam across the wall, sustaining it through the sheer force of his will, and then forced it to affect the unnatural, purplish flesh of the flayer.
As the green bands of force locked down around the mind flayer’s form, the enemy formation burst apart again. Tor, who had raced across the room towards the spiral staircase leading to the catwalk and the sealed door, attracted the flayer’s ire. Struck by a blast of pure mental force he was left twitching on the floor.
Nissentar, already badly injured, fled in a panic, disappearing into one of the side chambers.
It felt as if the battle were turning their way, but as they took a moment to regroup, the flayer – circling the catwalk – hit them with a second mind blast and then escaped down a side passage, leaving Tee and Agnarr on the floor.
Ranthir ran back into the outer chamber where Seeaeti had been abandoned (forgotten in the confusion of the darkness) and dropped a web across the hall leading to the iron cauldron (hoping to seal the flayer into the inner complex and preventing him from circling around behind them and escaping).
It was a lucky thing that Ranthir did, because it gave him a chance to spot that the wounds on the ogre were beginning to rapidly heal of their own accord. Drawing his dragon pistol he fired once into the corpse, and then (with a fair degree of effort) managed to convince Seeaeti to continue ripping the ogre apart in a perpetual fight against his regeneration.
But this left only Elestra and Kalerecent in the generator chamber. Wiver the winged lamia flew down at them in a savage, full-flighted charge. Elestra screamed in panic, feeling herself little match for the lamia’s leonid fury. But Kalerecent pushed her behind himself and bravely stepped forward to meet the lamia in mid-flight.
A furious melee broke out between the two, with Kalerecent dealing blows as severe as he received. But the winged lamia slowly rose into the air, maneuvering on its wings to gain an indomitable aerial advantage over Kalerecent—
At which point Elestra shot a hole through its wings.
The lamia crashed to the ground and Kalerecent finished it off.
That’s when Nissentar reappeared. It shot a glob of web from its mouth, catching Elestra fully around the torso and then hauling her off her feet to leave her hanging ten feet off the ground. Then it leapt down to attack Kalerecent, but the knight raised his arm to catch the vicious bite intended for his neck and chopped the spider-creature’s head off.
The others began to stir, slowly recovering from their mind blasts. Once they had fully recovered, they quickly searched the corpses (finding a tantalizing key on Wiver in addition to a plethora of expensive equipment), cut off the heads of Wiver and Nissentar, and then organized a manhunt for the flayer (leaving Seeaeti to continue mauling the still regenerating ogre).
Running the Campaign: Running Darkness – Campaign Journal: Session 43D
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index
