[Horde] Chapter Three: Session Twenty
Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Caria Felsoul, Halno, Kaelis Sunsoar, Levia Blackflight, Nallorath, Nyxxa, Sadras, Talindra, Vaerux
Appearing Creatures: Water Weird
December 19th
Levia and Nyxxa sit farther away from the party than the others during their short rest. Caria sits, dangling her hooves off the edge of the pool.
Half way through their rest, they hear the water burble. Creatures bubble below the surface-- the party can hear where some of them shift in the water, being able to pinpoint the location of the creatures.
Nyxxa’s turn comes first, she casts see invisibility. She swings, trying to strike at the water weird but she misses.
Caria, too, uses see invisibility. She pulls out her blades and the edges of the blades begin to glow a hot white.
A water weird slurps out of the water and it wraps around Azgadaan. It drags him closer to the water, and drags him down into the water. He’s grappled and restrained. Both of them are now out of sight.
Arthak stares deep into the water, looking to target another water weird. He feels his blade catch on the water, he cuts through, connecting with the creature. Arthak slashes once with Champion’s Forge, he carries the motion forward and plunges down. He kills the water weird in one hit. He then strides over to observe Azgadaan way under the water.
The water weird Nyxxa is dealing with dives back underwater, but Nyxxa is able to hit it for some damage as it escapes.
Azgadaan, still underwater, grabs a pinch of his dust of dryness from his bag of holding. There is a flash of water, and the water around him evaporates, but the water from above him comes flooding down. The water weird takes massive damage and shrivels, allowing Azgadaan to detangle himself and he swims up to the surface.
Azgadaan gives Arthak a thumbs up and Arthak turns to the other water weirds.
Sadras starts to close on the battle as a water weird lashes out at Caria.
Halno reaches out, casting chill touch, but he misses the weird with a swipe of his hand. The skeletons, meanwhile, rain arrows down upon the water. Some miss, but one arrow finds its mark.
Levia steps to the edge of the water, copying Halno with a chill touch. A pulse of magic hits one of the weirds.
Nyxxa, now capable of seeing the weirds, sees that they’re in the water about 10 feet back, only attacking with their tentacles. Nyxxa pulls out her bow. One arrow misses, one hits. The arrow sticks out, now marking the location of the weird she struck.
Levia takes another attack, chill touching again. She connects thanks to Nyxxa’s arrow marking her target.
Caria jumps off the edge, speeding towards another weird. She spins in the water, the tips of her fiery blades emit steam as she hits the water, and the water’s edge splashes up as she completes her attacks.
Halno tries another chill touch, and he is unable to connect.
Sadras holds her action, but she waves her arms in the air, trying to get a weird’s attention.
Halno’s skeletons attack, arrows raining down on the water. Both stick in a water weird, though it continues to survive, despite the odds.
Arthak finally jumps into the water, diving in after a weird. He leaps in, driving his blade down and fells another water weird with no problem.
Arthak’s cannonball soaks Halno to the core, but Nyxxa is able to shake it off. Levia helps Azgadaan out of the water, and Azgadaan removes the water from both of them.
Azgadaan and Halno return to their short rest, the others scout the area and keep an eye out of the pools around them. Halno’s skeletons, too, mend themselves by the very nature of the magic holding them together.
It seems all is calm around them within the current chamber.
Nyxxa and Levia approach Azgadaan as he rests.
Azgadaan offers snacks, and Nyxxa wants to try the book leather.
They share a laugh about satyrs eating just about anything. She volunteers to be Azgadaan’s cooking guinea pig. As they sit, Azgadaan pulls out beads, showing that he now has water contained within them.
They both look towards the derelict golem. As they go, the ten minutes pass quickly. The party notes that the water that Azgadaan took out seems to have replenished itself.
Arthak finds a small stone and skips the stone towards the golem. Nothing happens as the stone gets close. Another stone is thrown with the same result. They debate about what to do.
The shieldless skeleton gets to the front… and… nothing happens. They continue to debate ways to get past the golem. They want to string a rope
Halno approaches and notices a small wall. Facing him, he sees what seems to be a heavy steel lever or wheel. It can be released. There is a twin lever across from him.
While they can see space ahead, they struggle to see what’s ahead. Solution? Halno throws his hand over the gap.
The passageway is open for 10 feet inside, but it seems to come to a stop. He, after that, sees another pool of water. It seems to slope with stairs leading into it.
Arthak surmises that the levers work the golem and the water level.
Caria starts to walk to the golem, walking around Arthak impatiently.
Arthak sighs. Halno ducks into a hallway.
Caria looks, but she keeps going.
Caria raises her eyebrow.
They try to convince Caria to wait. Caria rolls her eyes, as the opts to let the party pass first. She sighs again.
Moving up to the golem, Arthak investigates. He is able to see that they’re sluice levers. They seem to control water levels. The one closest to him lowers water level. The one closer to Azgadaan will raise it.
Azgadaan translates for him to Caria.
The party shuffles forward, ready to make the pass. Caria leans against the edge of the stairs watching the party.
Azgadaan then begins to crank the wheel. With each crank, it takes effort to make a full circle. The water level begins to lower down and down. They can see the hallway begin to empty, but it lowers out of the chamber they’re all in. As it finishes lowering completely, halfway down the stairs is now visible.
In the distance, there is a sparking sound by the golem. A light emits from under the pool. There, too, is a rumble. The limbs of the construct begin to move around.
It pulls itself slightly up, partially broken in half. Giant, arcane, powered fists clench and flex as it powers to life, at least 80 feet wide. The golem is sunken into a pit that was once filled with water. Still, in its core, a crystal sparks with energy.
Nyxxa looks towards the golem. She sprints towards it, trying to jump onto one of the fists. She lands on it, striking down onto the golem. She is able to stun one of the powered fists as it sparks from the blow.
Levia runs back into the room and she throws a knife straight into the golem’s core. She follows the knife up with a firebolt to the core.
Azgadaan continues to crank.
Caria grins wide and she strikes into the golem with a flurry of blows.
The left fist comes swinging forward. It goes to hammer Azgadaan into the ground. Levia is able to shield him from the incoming blow, but still, the slam connects and knocks Azgadaan off of his hooves.
Sadras rushes towards the titanic fist that slammed into Azgadaan to try and draw attention.
Halno’s skeletons pop out from the hallway and launches a perfect arrow at the core of the golem. But what would have been a perfect strike fails, as the arrow snaps in half. The golem’s core is resistant to nonmagical damage.
The right fist cannot move.
Another skeleton takes a turn to launch an arrow at the fist, it still fails.
The core of the golem turns around slowly. Its eyes glow, and the spiritual weapon before it shatters. The magic from the weapon makes the inner core glow brighter, churning with energy. The golem releases the stored energy. A bolt of lightning dances around, hitting most of the party. Azgadaan, Arthak, Levia and Sadras are all blinded by the strike. Two brave skeletons were lost on this round.
Levia, still blinded, begins to cast mass flash of light. Yet, she holds the spell until she can see again.
Arthak is blinded, but he steps forward and increases his size. He surges forward, looking to block Azgadaan. Arthak reaches over to the wheel that Azgadaan fell off of and cranks hard. He then looks to Azgadaan.
Sadras dashes out of the room.
Nyxxa’s eyes flicker, and her See Invisibility is taken from her and dispelled. The golem’s core is charged again and it discharges the spell. Azgadaan is blinded this round.
One skeleton remains.
Levia did not lose concentration, and she releases her healing spell. The heals land on Arthak, Caria, Sadras, and Azgadaan.
Halno casts a chill touch at the core and it strikes true.
Nyxxa goes to try and hit the right fist, still on top of it. She misses, unfortunately, as the armor of the golem is too formidable.
Caria begins to shift her attention to the neglected left fist.
Said left fist comes to again smack down on Azgadaan. Azgadaan’s unconscious body flies away from the hit.
Caria closes with the left fist. While it hits her in turn, she swings, undeterred. She flies up, carves through the fist with arcs of Fel energy. She stuns it successfully. She, also, unleashes a flurry of blows on the stunned hand.
Halno’s skeleton, the champion himself, thrusts forward and unfortunately misses its target.
The right fist tries to shake Nyxxa off of it. It fails. Goats are good at climbing.
Nyxxa step of the winds towards Azgadaan off of the right fist. She makes it to Azgadaan’s unconscious form. She then administers a potion of healing to the eredar.
Halno moves to retreat, as that’s the current party plan.
Azgadaan rights himself, taking a moment to crank the wheel a little more before he disengages from the area and makes it to the hallway within.
The right fist tries to swing at Arthak, and it misses phenomenally.
Caria swings at the left fist. She strikes it twice before flying into the next room with a flourish.
Everyone continues to retreat down the newly unflooded hallway, Arthak included as he ducks into the new chamber.
The protector core doesn’t detect any magic, thus it heals the fists.
Levia and Nyxxa exchange glances and they book it towards the aforementioned hallways. As soon as they run in, the right fist comes at the doorway, rocking the structure slightly. They can hear the golem but as it’s rooted, they’re safe for the moment. Exhaling, the party pushes on.
Needing a moment, Nyxxa, Arthak, Azgadaan and many of the rest of the party take a short rest. They focus on healing up and relaxing for a moment, even as the golem continues to try and detect any threats.
Into the next chamber they wade. The water is up to their mid-waist. The water is cool as they go. Nyxxa casts detect magic only to find that this water, too, is magical. The hallway is long enough that it’d be hard to hold one’s breath all the way through.
Undaunted, it goes up, down, and around. Pillars on the wall show that water can be let in or out of the chamber. Nyxxa is able to detect that magic is found on the ground before them.
She is able to see an acute amount of magic down there, but she’s unable to pinpoint the source. Arthak tries the ‘throw a rock at it’ trick. The rock splashes into the water. Nothing happens. The group risks it and pushes onward in the same formation.
Arthak steps forward, nothing happens. Nyxxa steps forward, a rune glows bright below her. There is a flash and her detect magic and her see invisibility are both dispelled.
As they continue to trek, they are only mildly inconvenienced. They reach stairs and they ascend, soon turning another corner. Around that corner, there’s *another* hallway. After that, though, it opens into another chamber a solid 150 feet away. The hallway has divots on either side.
All the way down, they can hear Thalassian.
Two elves kneel, knocking bows. The other elf has a large tower shield and the winged helmet of a Spellbreaker. They’re 120 feet in front.
Around them, from the long hallway, there is a thrum of sound. A wall of prismatic energy. Individual domes appear, snapped into place Indigo to Red. Each wall between the party and the elves. The walls appear at random intervals down the hallways.
The only skeleton left charges forward like a boss. He moves behind some of the party
Levia dashes forward, using her whole movement. Sadras follows shortly behind.
The Spellbreaker dodges in advance.
Azgadaan tries to dimension door both himself and Arthak and they vanish and reappear.
The room beyond the hallway holds a massive gyroscopic machine. It rotates and whirrs. Also in the room are more elves. They’re wearing pristine, white, robes. One of them faces away from the newly teleported duo. His hand is on some kind of pressure pad.
Nyxxa dashes forward, but casts see invisibility as she goes. She switches her weapons to her war glaives.
One of the guards shoots Caria for a critical hit. He shoots for her wing.
A second guard also aims for Caria, until Azgadaan appears out of nowhere. He draws a shortsword and swings at Azgadaan twice-- but he misses both times.
The House Goldensword Captain draws fire into her hand. The captain launches a Firebolt at the party, along with a Scorching Ray. Most miss, but one bolt connects to Arthak. Arthak is now on fire.
Another of the guards attacks
Arthak rages. He looks towards the Spellbreaker. She’s locked eyes with the Chieftain and he unloads a flurry of attacks on her. While he strives to hit, he fails to connect. Arthak’s sword comes down and connects to her shield with a deafening clang.
Arthak’s second hit is enough to completely fell her in one hit. Seeing as she was going for a fight, he knocks the shield out of her hands. He sinks her blade into her and the light fades from her eyes. Arthak moves on.
Moving to help Azgadaan, Arthak splashes some damage on another guard.
Nyxxa, dashing through, is able to pass two walls. The second wall in front of her activates as she goes. The orange wall flickers enough to graze her. Levia and Sadras are also hit by the wall.
Levia stops, stunned, due to system shock.
Caria, too, slides into a wall. She is unable to dodge, her leg begins to petrify as she is restrained by the wall’s power.
Halno tries to pass through the orange wall, too, he is grazed.
One of the guards disengages by throwing his long sword into Arthak’s face, frightened, and runs into the generator room.
The house Goldensword guard captain sees the Spellbreaker drop and gasps.
Around the party and elves alike, the generator room begins to crackle with more magical energy as power is rerouted.
Nyxxa realizes that if she runs through the hallway too quickly they’ll hit her. Just as this comes about, the walls are no longer a threat.
Levia coughs.
Checking in on Caria, she’s rapidly petrifying. As Nyxxa tries to move her, Caria is gradually, steadily, gaining weight. She’s able to get her into the generator room/
Another of the guards retreats and lobs two arrows at Arthak. Both miss.
Caria is still restrained. She struggles, but both of her legs are stone. It moves up her torso. She’s stuck.
Sadras runs into the room.
Azgadaan beckons Arthak to follow. When Arthak can approach, he’ll cast Dimension Door.
Arthak, still on fire, tries to put himself out-- to no avail. He runs, still burning, to Azgadaan.
Azgadaan casts dimension door and both of them cross the room in a blink, right next to the guard captain. The Captain blinks. Arthak moves in to attack.
Swinging down with his sword, Arthak comes for the Captain and the Captain casts shield. It was a miss momentarily, but Arthak powers through the shield. While he does not crumple immediately, he is significantly stunned.
Lo and behold, Arthak action surges and is, too, able to fell the Captain in two brutal swings.
Arthak looks to another one of the Guards and downs him too, before he can even blink.
Then, Arthak pulls out a javelin and hucks it beyond Azgadaan to the last guard close to the generator. It hits. With the Javelin sticking out of him, he’s able to pin the last guard to the wall behind the generator.
Arthak was on fire the entire time.
The crackle of energy that surrounds the room intensifies. The generator lashes out, but then it shudders and breaks. The metal that secures the gyroscope explodes. The entire room around the party begins to shift.
The entire room flickers violet. The entire room flashes but the warband is able to shield their eyes from the blinding light.
Nyxxa looks confused, then finally up at the generator. It’s 15 feet above her. She shakes her head and instead chooses to focus on the remaining guards. She goes in for a strike, the first misses, and the second drops him down unconscious.
Caria continues to struggle against the stone. She fails, miserably.
Caria is now solid stone.
The Prismatic Field flickers again, orange this time.
The party takes a variety of acid burns. Nyxxa was able to avoid it all, as does Sadras.
Sadras looks to Caria. Caria’s hand is outstretched to Nyxxa, wings flared in a struggle as she does. She then pulls out a dagger and hucks it at the generator. It connects but is resistant to the damage. The generator screeches and Nyxxa is rendered deafened by the noise.
Levia heals herself.
The skeleton tries to ping the generator, and fails.
Arthak, still on fire, tries and finally succeeds to put himself out. He then runs forward, getting larger and larger with each step. He ignites, again, but this time it’s under his control.
Arthak takes a swing at the generator, the adamantine weapon, Traitor’s Gift, connects well but makes another terrible screeching noise. His magical weapon does connect, though, with no sound at all. Arthak is able to grab onto one of the gyroscopic loops. He’s lifted into the air.
Prismatic blasts targets Arthak, Nyxxa, and Azgadaan. Blasts of energy strike through its targets, rocketting elemental energy throughout them
Halno reaches out with a chill touch and he still struggles to hit anything.
Azgadaan looks around the room. He looks to the panel the engineers were at, he places his hand upon it and he begins to understand that one can control the generator with intuition.
Nyxxa’s ears ring, it’s distracting. She is able to strike at one of the last guards standing, keeping him occupied.
The skeleton fails to hit anything, but he continues to fight.
Levia is able to cancel another critical hit towards Nyxxa, but unfortunately, the satyr still drops. She runs to Nyxxa and brings her back up before she hardly hits the ground.
Nyxxa nods.
Sadras nods, yelling as she goes. She tackles the guard off of the bridge, he plummets down and is able to help the guard not be awake anymore.
The Prismatic Generator hits Arthak again, and he soaks the damage.
Azgadaan tries to shut down the generator. He closes his eyes and he can feel his consciousness pooled into the puddle of water within the console. It can be rerouted in certain directions, it can be routed to the rest of the manor-- he knows now that this is what kept the manor shielded. He’s able to be able to shut it down. He begins to roll back its activation.
Arthak is able to drop off, calculates which way to drop down so he’ll take less fall damage. He drinks a potion to catch up, but he then readies himself to dodge in case the generator comes for him again.
Halno, seeing what’s coming, ducks behind a corner.
The Prismatic field goes one more time. It shifts to green. Sadras and Nyxxa fail, Sadras drops from the poison damage the field inflicts.
Nyxxa pours a potion down Sadras’ throat before she dips behind a wall.
The generator slows and slows. Finally, the generator stops completely. The humming comes to an end, leaving an empty silence and ears ringing.
The party takes a short rest, catching their breath after a continued encounter
Azgadaan finds three health potions between the guards. He is able to salvage their weapons and equipment, 130 gold coins, and a very nice set of manacles from the Spellbreaker. They’re dimensional shackles-- they prevent creatures from teleporting, misty stepping, or plane shifting.
Halno took that 10 minutes to melt the flesh off of the guards entirely. What’s left are the skeletons of those who were alive in the room moments ago. His squad of skeletons replenished. The spellbreaker is still clad in her armor.
It’s agreed that Azgadaan can have the manacles. He’s got a collection after all.
Nyxxa goes over to Caria. Her mouth is open, reaching forward. She is completely petrified. She calls Levia over to examine the other demon hunter as well.
The only thing on Caria that is not petrified are her glaives.
In the back of Nyxxa’s mind, Vaerux is laughing.
Nyxxa walks over to Azzy.
Nyxxa sighs.
Nyxxa looks over to Arthak, catching him up on what’s up. Halno comes too.
Mentally, Nyxxa starts to speak with Vaerux.
Nyxxa sighs.
Nyxxa sighs again.
Levia looks concerned as Nyxxa seems to space out while she’s speaking with Vaerux.
Azgadaan raises an eyebrow at Nyxxa.
The guard they kept alive wakes up within a half hour. They debate on hiding the new skeletons versus keeping them hidden. The guard is in the dimensional shackles, he yelps when coming to.
Arthak lurks in the background. Looming. Helping.
The guard looks to the generator and sees the bodies strewn near the ground, their flesh stripped by Halno.
Azgadaan undoes his manacles and introduces himself.
Arthak notes that this man is exceptionally nervous and terrified. He’s withholding information.
The guard looks around, staring at Levia.
The guard swallows and takes a breath.
Levia nods, recognition sparking on her face.
Tears are starting to well in the guard’s eyes.
Azgadaan explains.
Nallorath shakes his head.
They discuss going back to the aquarium and how to get there.
Halno knows what the Abyssal Maw is! The creatures that have been found here? Likely a part of the Maw itself.
Halno responds a good five minutes late to the discussion.
Nallorath nods.
Halno points to the orb they shut down.
Azgadaan looks back to Nallorath.
Nallorath needs to take a deep breath.
The party waffles on what to do. They opt to stay in the generator room where it can be defended and the barrier can be erected if need-be.
In preparing for the evening, the opt to move Caria deeper into the corner. She becomes a small snail by way of polymorph.
They veto that idea for the moment and settle in for the night.
