Tales of Faerun

[mythicdawnmaster]

Xallistine stood still in shock as he caught sight of the witch, the same who had murdered two of their companions and been cast down to the hells, for what he had assumed to be eternal damnation... Clearly from the immense magical intensity he could feel within her, damnation was not what she found.

 

His eyes were averted when a spell hit his body, the wizard spun around and let loose a huge thunderbolt, disintegrating the wizard who attempted to attack him.

 

-----

 

"Oh i will, just after this is finished." Ravenna smiled wide as she retorted, spinning on her heel she grinned as Azuris charged recklessly towards her, sword raised high. Smirking as she caught the blade between her palms, Ravenna looked deep at the battle-hardened features of the man before her.

 

"Well well, another Doomguide? Isn't that quaint. Although, I should remind you, your doctrine's fight isn't with me, It's with... them." Ravenna took a number of steps back and gestured to a pair of shuffling dead behind Azuris, who reeled up to attack with heavy limbs.

 

Gazing up at Valthanarax Ravenna looked over the tide the battle was taking- as quickly as they rose the undead were put down, but equally as fast more and more living opponents poured into the room... this would certainly be a long battle, but it was clear enough that even at their current level of ability, Rhaine and her companions would die, eventually become overwhelmed...

 

Once again disappearing behind the shadows, Ravenna continued to watch from afar, keeping closest to Rhaine from the shadows she watched with intent as she fought in a manner she had not before- It was like her body had been controlled by a force outside the vicinity of the prime, her form was godly, as were her attacks.

[josh900]

Ravenna's strength surprised Azuris enough that the two undead managed to grab him before he was able to react. Quickly realizing what was going on he twisted his way out of their grasp and took both their heads in one swing. He paused for a minute to catch his breath, wouldn't be long until he tired out. He wasn't used to this many undead at once. And the dracolich raining fire down on them was only making things worse.

---------------------------

 

How many had Tannin put down now? He had lost count in the flurry of limbs, heads, and screams. He never was one for keeping count of those things. As fast as he was moving and as soaked in blood as he was he must have looked like a red tornado of death, slicing apart anything that was near him. While to some it might have been harder to kill the cultist than the undead Tannin had no such issue. Instead he saw arteries, openings in defenses, the occasional swing from a weapon or limb. None of it really mattered to him though, it was all "hit this, dodge that, what am I gonna eat after this? Hopefully the kitchens will have some quality beef." to the half-drow.

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we felt the weight of the undead on him decrease some, but couldn't tell who was helping him. It didn't matter though; it was just enough for him. The thri'kreen managed to rise to his feet, tossing shambling corpses everywhere. The barbarian rose just in time to see his new clutchmate Maydiira disappear in the giant bone-lizard's fiery breathe. "WINGED POINTY-EAR!"

 

A terrible rage consumed the warrior's mind as he brought his gythka to bear. He hissed in frustration and anger as the winged abomination flew up out of even his reach. More foul softskins came however, and so he focused his fury on them. Unleashing an ear-piercing shriek that echoed throughout the cavern, Tak'we leaped over the heads of many of the bones-that-walked directly into the ranks of the fresh cultists, and began cleaving them left and right.

 

 

Kalin saw the two drow simply vanish as the dracolich's breathe incinerated them. The elan felt his hatred and anger growing out of control, yet did nothing to resist it. Instead, he let it build up. Using the raw emotions flooding through his mind, he focused them inside, then released them. The soulknife let loose a loud, unnatural scream laced with pain, anger, hatred, and sorrow... and disappeared in a sudden inferno.

 

The conflagration spread out to nearly thirty feet, incinerating all caught in the blast. The lucky ones were those who died instantly. Those that didn't were left writhing in agony on the cavern floor, their bodies left severely charred.

 

Where Kalin once stood, there was a burning effigy, two flaming blades held in his hands, eyes glowing a bright purple. Kalin was not there anymore; this was the Burning Ronin, and with a terrible warcry, he charged towards the cultists, burning a path through them towards Valthanarax.

[nethgros]

Othos moved with well trained precision, his two hands moving his blade around his body as though it were another limb. He moved fluidly, each movement making contact to parry or cut, each movement like a dance of death. His foes fell before him as wheat to the scythe, the wizard's martial prowess could not even remotely match that of Othos. While he moved he also got a mildly good look at the battlefield, seeing many of his allies, and the enemies that mattered. He could see that Kowolj had missed his mark, the great undead dragon, and that now one who was likely his ally (though he couldn't tell since he didn't remember who in his group was a great warrior of flame) was making his way to the dragon. Othos decided it would be a good time for him too to make his move, as the dragon seemed to be the main force behind both these cultists and their undead counterparts.

 

Othos finished his blade-dance with a jump onto the head of a cultist and straight into the air. He flipped off the man, and just as his body had made it to a horizontal position in the air with his head facing the direction of both Kowolj on the ground and the dragon on the ceiling, he extended his legs as though he was about to jump off of something. Instead, a small explosion went off at Othos' feet, tossing him over the heads of the cultists and toward Kowolj.

 

The dragon's divergence led to an influx of cultists at Kowolj's location, sating his bloodlust, if only temporarily. Kowolj let out a grand roar befitting a king of the plains, bringing his 7ft blade down on any who would be so bold as to enter the 7ft radius around him that acted as a dead-zone. The nature of the keen adamantine blade, in addition to Kowolj's strength, led to a circle of bodies and blood to pool up around the wemic's four feet.

[Deleted6317247User]

With a somewhat swift move Nawen swung her blade and nearly beheaded the cultist. As she turned to fight another foe the drow saw Valthanarax unleashing yet another fiery breath. This time in her direction.

 

There was no way for her to out-run the fire, there was no way for her to move at all only... down! Quickly, Nawen fell to the ground near some dead cultists to avoid the scorching flames. She felt someone falling on her and she smelled the stench of burning flesh.

 

Once she was sure that there were no more flames heading her way, Nawen crawled out from beneath whoever lay on top of her while praying that it wasn't any of her companions. It was only yet another cultist. "When will this hell end?!" She thought to herself as she stood up.

[AurianaValoria1]

The ranks of the cultists were thinning, but not enough. Rhaine knew that her companions couldn't hold up for much longer...not without some sort of respite. Whirling towards the entrance of the cavern, she cast a Silence spell...so that any wizards or cultists relying on verbal components would no longer be able to complete their incantations.

 

Valthanarax roared again, this time bringing forth undead from the rear of the chamber. These were the zombies of Sel Sreen'aur...the former kinsmen of Maydiira. Rhaine was stone-faced as she channeled power from her god and sent it crashing over the undead, stealing the negative energy that animated them and converting it to healing magic that washed over her companions in a soothing wave of golden light.

 

The dracolich took great exception to the decimation of his undead horde. He leapt from his perch towards the Doomguide, batting at her with a gigantic paw. So fast was his movement that she could not dodge his blow, and he sent her tumbling across the chamber. The force tore half the tassets and the cuisse of her left leg completely from her body, his claws leaving bloody trails on her thigh. She hissed as she healed the wound, scrambling back to her feet to meet Valthanarax head-on. She called a Bond of Fatal Touch just as he whipped his tail at her. The bastard sword easily cleaved through the bone, leaving half of the appendage on the floor.

[mythicdawnmaster]

Xallistine had sent volleys of various destructive spells hurling across the chamber in wondrous light, wheeshing, whirling, crackling, burning across the air and decimating the foes they hit, but still the cultists kept piling on in- How many had he killed now? Fifty? A hundred? A hundred and fifty? That was only counting each foe once, not mentioning their return from death seconds later.

As the golden rush of healing energy washed over his Body, Xallistines wounds closed themselves and his supply of magical energies was replenished, the battle had begun to take it's toll, but he wouldn't falter now. As a large group of wizards poured in through a narrow opening, Xallistine saw an opportunity to take out a large bulk of this force he was faced with.

His entire body was engulfed in dark magics as a large ball of nothingness began to grow from his wand, seemingly pulling in the very air as it spun faster and faster, larger and larger. Making sure that his companions were well out of reach, Xallistine let loose the giant Orb of Annihilation, the great ball of negative energy flew silently through the air until it reached the entry way the wizards had come piling through, expanding they were each utterly destroyed as it coursed violently down the tunnel, eating up a large force as their matter was warped into nothingness and fed into the very voids of the multiverse. Once it had runs it's course down the tunnel, the orb would dissipate.

Significantly weakened Xallistine dropped to a knee and erected a prismatic sphere to protect him from attack as he recovered.

Edited April 21, 2013 by mythicdawnmaster

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we was beginning to lag in his movements. In his reckless charge, he had managed to bring down several softskins, but there were several holes in his armor and chitin now, one in particular bleeding profusely. Can't stop... the thri'kreen thought, his mind barely clear. He looked around and saw the winged bone lizard launch Rhaine across the room and then pursue her. *KIR'TAK"TCK!* "STAY AWAY FROM CLUTCHMATES!" he screeched in thri'kreen, and began to move to flank Valthanarax.

However, before he could reach the dragon, he felt a rumbling sound behind him and turned in time to see what looked like a giant stone softskin swinging a massive fist at him. The thri'kreen tried to dodge but was too weakened from his fresh wounds, and so the stone golem's fist connected with a sickening crunch, sending Tak'we flying through the air and into the cavern wall.

He felt something crack inside when he impacted with the wall, and instinctively knew he was dying. Tak'we tried to raise himself up but couldn't, his back broken in his landing. No... must get up... he thought, fighting against the darkness encroaching in his sight. Clutchmates... need... me... He looked up, clutching weakly at the amulet Mother Moon had given him. Mother Moon... he prayed, please, let me help... my friends... please... just this once... let me save my family...

He saw the stone softskin appoaching to finish him and tried to reach his gythka but couldn't, his body feeling so very weary and weak, when the amulet began to glow with the light of a full moon. His wounds disappeared, the holes in his exoskeleton sealing themselves miraculously.

Feeling strength returning to his body, the thri'kreen rose with a moonlit aura and seemed to have grown by several feet now. Tak'we grabbed his gythka, the mithril blades glowing as well, and with all his terrible strength cleaved the stone golem in half. "For Mother Moon!" he screamed, and waded through cultist and undead alike to leap at Valthanarax's back.

Edited April 21, 2013 by GrueMaster

[nethgros]

As Othos 'flew' through the air he noticed several wizards attempt to cast what would've been super-effective spells, but to no avail. It seemed as though one of his allies had silenced the lot of them, which luckily gave him the time to arrive at his destination. Sadly, the dragon had moved once again by the time he landed on top of a pile of corpses next to Kowolj.

 

"Old friend! I'd say it's about time you and I made our move, and took out that undead dragon. Stop wasting time with these insignificants, and let's get over there!"

 

With that, Othos led the charge, moving through the crowd with lethal proficiency, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Kowolj followed behind, but only for a moment. He ended up moving at a much faster pace than Othos, rushing head-long into the cultists with his greatsword cutting down as many as he could, and his front two paws raking those who got too close for comfort.

 

Kowolj was the first of the two to make it to Rhaine's side, just as she was making her next charge on the dragon. Taking a moment to decide whether to wait for Othos or move in with Rhaine, he decided it would be best to attack now so that Rhaine might have a better chance at a successful attack, and that he might have a chance to decapitate this monster sooner rather than later.

 

Kowolj raised his greatsword and made a charge for the dragon, hoping that either he or Rhaine could use this opportunity to their benefit.

[AurianaValoria1]

Weyland, Amendale, and Arland had easily handled the unarmored spellcasters who had been unfortunately trapped in Rhaine's Silenced zone. But there were still others who managed to make it farther into the chamber to avoid both her incantation and Xallistine's - at least fifteen heavily-armored blackguards and priests.

 

Valthanarax felt something heavy jump onto his back. In reaction, he reared back on his hind legs, twisting violently in an attempt to shake it off. Rhaine saw a silvery-glowing Tak'we clinging to the ancient red's spines...but she was only able to catch a small glimpse, as one of the dracolich's paws came smacking at her again. The Doomguide was thrown towards the back of the chamber, her side and leg stinging from where Valthanarax's claws had punctured her other cuisse and the bottom of her breastplate, leaving Othos and Kowolj to face another bout of yellow-orange flame from the dragon's terrible maw.

 

As she healed herself, however, something caught her eye. There was a small tunnel in the very back of the chamber, disappearing into darkness beyond. An idea in mind, she cast Ethereal Jaunt and disappeared from sight. Luckily for her, Valthanarax was too preoccupied with Tak'we, Othos, and Kowolj to notice...and so she was able to sprint for the tunnel unhindered.

 

The small passageway wound down and around for several breaths before opening into a treasure horde. There was a positive mountain of gold, chests, and treasures that reached nearly to the ceiling. There, sitting on a pedestal in the midst of all of it, was Valthanarax's phylactery. Without hesitation, Rhaine clambered up the piles of gold coins, seized the glowing crystal in her hands, and dashed it against the wall of the cave.

 

Back in the dragon's complex, the surviving Cultists and any remaining Red Wizards suddenly dropped dead - every one of their number having been magically bound to the protection of the phylactery. At its destruction, their lives were taken as the price for failing to keep it safe. The dracolich's roar resonated throughout the Underdark, the sound vibrating the floors and ceiling.

 

"NOOO! I AM VALTHANARAX OF THE NINE LIVES! YOU CANNOT HOPE TO DESTROY ME, MORTALS!"

 

The dracolich's form was now completely vulnerable...or so Rhaine had thought. Yet, even down in his treasure horde, his message was clear: this was not the sole phylactery in Valthanarax's possession. Even when her companions destroyed this particular dragon skeleton, he would be able to find another - either here, or far across Faerun...

 

...wherever his eight other phylacteries had been hidden.

 

Rhaine's invisibility had been dispelled the moment she destroyed the crystal, and so she ran back up the tunnel to witness the last moments of Valthanarax's current form. Without any wizards or Dragon Cultists remaining to distract her companions, they would surely make quick work of the dracolich.