Still waist-deep in the murky sludge of the
shop’s cellar, Bob examined the necklace he’d found. It was wrought from fine
gold, and featured an emerald pendant. Bob took a closer look at the emerald,
which had been cut in the shape of a flask’s stopper. Before he could investigate further he
heard the floorboards above him creak. “Trevelyan!” Siegfried called. “Yes?” Bob replied. “Has a zombie dragged you down there to
become his sex slave?” Bob grit his teeth. “No, Siegfried.” “So, you’ve found some treasure, then?”
Siegfried asked expectantly. Bob sighed heavily, placing the necklace
back in its box and slipping it into his bag
of holding . “I found the necklace we were looking for.” “Well then,” Siegfried’s arm shot out from
the hole in the floor above Bob. “Need any help?” With a squelching sound, Bob climbed the
ladder, ignoring Siegfried’s oustretched arm. He got to his feet behind the
counter, Siegfried taking half a step back to avoid getting any muck on him.
“Let’s move,” Bob said. Outside, Erwen-Bear was pawing the ground
and snorting with impatience. Varien attempted to sneak past a petrified
ghast, but was rewarded with the crackling sound of splitting ash. Shrugging,
the paladin swung his sword in two sharp arcs, opening grievous wounds on the
struggling undead creature. Undaunted, the ghast leapt towards Varien, who
managed to raise his shield in time to block the creature’s gnashing teeth and
grasping claws. The copse of dead trees behind Erwen-Bear
shook with a dry rattling sound as a giant spider skittered out from the
underbrush and sank its fangs deep into the druid’s posterior. Erwen-Bear
roared in surprise and pain as the spider’s mandibles pumped venom into his
body. The injured Erwen dropped out of wildshape, wild-eyed. The giant spider aimed its spinneret at
Radegast, who was already moving to aid the druid. Radegast caught a blast of
sticky webbing square in the torso and was immobilized. Radegast tested her bonds, found them
resilient, shrugged and realized she had enough mobility to cast toll the dead , which she dead, ringing
the spider’s bell and causing it to stagger under the necrotic attack. “Bob!” She shouted. “There’s something out
here you really need to firebolt!” Bob brushed past Siegfried and peered out
the door, the colour draining from his face as he saw the giant spider with its
fangs deep inside Erwen. Steadying himself, he stretched out a finger and cast firebolt , which drove deep into the
creature’s web sac before detonating. The spider shuddered as a geyser of
webbing, followed by a second geyser of cooked innards, spurted out in a shower
of gore. Radegast closed her eyes as the wave of foul ichor splattered her
anew. Erwen looked at Bob’s smoking index finger
in appreciation. “Whoa,” the druid said, before conjuring a pair of giant
spiders himself. “I’ll call you Itsy and Bitsy,” he said with a smile. The fey spiders worked their mouthparts,
which sounded like wind chimes. An eerie keening sound drowned out the
noise made by Erwen’s arachnid allies. It seemed to come from all around them,
and was made up of the overlapping sounds of hungry ghasts anticipating a
particularly delicious meal. “I told you we’d come for you,” a singsong
voice echoed above the approaching moans. “We’re going to catch you, and we’re
going to. Eat. You!” Siegfried exited the Dendrar Herbalist shop
and moved towards his allies, alerting a petrified ghast that had stood in the
shadow of the ruined building for who knows how long. Thinking quickly, the
rogue tackled the creature before it could fully emerge from its ashen prison,
bopping it twice on the head with Lightbringer as he put it in a headlock. “Are you going to make a sound too,
friend?” He hissed at the thrashing ghast, who had begun to belch smoke from
his wounds. Varien squared off against his opponent and
made two contemptuous swings, finishing the creature off with a backhanded
slash. He rushed forwards and slammed Siegfried’s ghast with his shield,
knocking the creature prone. Seething, the ghast got to its feet and
clawed at Siegfried, who had to cast shield
to avoid being slashed to the bone. “Not today, friend,” Siegfried said in a
tone that caused the ghast to shrink back in fright. With a grunt, Radegast burst free of her
sticky bonds. She looked about and at the edge of her vision caught site of a
sturdy-looking structure that was in better shape than most of the other
buildings in Thundertree, including the sad ruin that was little more than a
square of fieldstones that she had to walk through in order to get a better
look at the building. Its walls were intact and its shuttered
were reinforced and locked closed. Except for the front door, which looked to
have been caved inward, the building was in terrific shape. “Let’s head north, then!” Radegast shouted,
walking eastward. The billowing clouds of ash ahead of the
adventurers parted to reveal an onrushing horde of ghasts, some running on all
fours in utterly inhuman loping strides, while others rushed with their clawed
hands extended outwards, oversized tongues lolling sickeningly. “Itsy, Bitsy,” Erwen said to his animal
friends. “Do your thing.” The spiders obliged, skittering towards the
approaching ghasts and thrashing at them with their sharp mandibles. Bob cast a twinned toll the dead spell on two of the ghasts. Erwen looked at the open space between the
dead trees and ruined buildings and pursed his lips in thought. He nodded to
himself and cast erupting earth
beneath the feet of the approaching undead. In an instant, the ash-covered ground began
to churn, swallowing ghasts and trapping them in upended terrain. Siegfried cast booming blade and kicked the ghast before him into the churned
earth beyond. He turned and followed Radegast, ignoring the wriggling ghasts
for the moment. “I say there, Radegast, I believe there’s
an intact building to the east.” He called to the bard. “I saw it first!” Radegast shouted back. Varien leapt to the roof of the herbalist
shop, which creaked worryingly beneath his booted feet, conjured a longbow and
grabbed for his quiver of arrows. He took two shots, sinking arrows deep into
the struggling forms of the ghasts inside Erwen’s zone of erupted earth.
From the cackles of glee emanating from the ash clouds, there were more undead
approaching. Sure enough, more than half a dozen creatures emerged from the
gloom, eyeing the adventurers hungrily. Alec stepped up and met them head-on,
slashing one ghast to ribbons with his family greatsword. Bob twinned another firebolt and zapped a pair of ghasts. Erwen stretched out his hands and cast wall of fire , creating a 20-foot tall
blazing barrier that enveloped four ghasts, immolating them. Siegfried turned to Radegast. “Your friends
appear to have business in the north. Come along then!” Radegast, who had charged her lightning bow
as she reconnoitered the structure to the east, followed Siegfried’s lead. Siegfried cast eldritch blast and burned down one of the ghasts for good. His
second bolt of eldritch energy knocked another ghast back. There was a screech as a burning ghast ran
through Erwen’s wall of fire and leaped onto Itsy’s back. The spider shuddered
as the burning creature pounded his fists on its abdomen, opening horrible
wounds. The fey spider flopped to the ground, dead. “No!” Erwen shouted. Two more ghasts threw themselves towards
Bob but got tangled up in the webbing surrounding the giant spiders’ nest.
Heedless of their bonds, they thrashed and wriggled, their eyes never leaving
Bob. Radegast took note of the ghast’s grouping
and loosed her lightning arrow, which detonated on its target, blowing it
apart, which dealing additional lightning damage to a number of creatures
within range. Alec moved to support his brother, slashing
at one of the ghasts until it was in pieces at his feet. Breathing heavily, he
tightened his grip on the family sword. Bitsy shot a strand of webbing at a ghast
who had escaped Erwen’s wall of fire, rooting it to the spot. Bob cast a twinned spiritual weapon , conjuring two holy flails which began whirling
about in an attempt to scourge the webbed ghasts. “Watch this!” Varien shouted, springing
from the roof and launching himself over Erwen’s wall of fire. In an instant he
realized his miscalculation, barely getting his shield into position before
barreling through the blazing barrier. He landed, trailing smoke, and fired two
more shots from his longbow. From his new position, he looked about.
Before him was a steep hill, up which wended a narrow path. At the top of the
hill, obscured by the ashen clouds, was a tall tower with an outbuilding
nestled near its base. On the eastern flank of the hillside he could make out
burial mounds and the remains of a town cemetery. The eerie quiet that blanketed
Thundertree seemed even more oppressive in this part of town. Even through his
ghast mask, Varien’s eyes watered and his nose began to run in response to the
strange, acrid smell that filled the air. Further up the hill were the corpses of
two hideous giant spiders sprawled near the edge of the pathway. Their bodies were
puckered and blistered, and appeared to have been mauled by a large animal. Siegfried threw himself into the fray,
swinging Lightbringer with practiced brutality, shattering the skulls of two
ghasts. A ghast lunged at Bob and bit him on the
neck as its compatriots flailed fruitlessly against Alec. There were more moans and cackles as a
second wave of ghasts, accompanied by shambling zombies, emerged from the
western part of town, relentlessly closing in on the party. Erwen moved his wall of fire to the west, encircling the vanguard of the undead
horde, catching several ghasts and zombies within a fiery ring that immediately
immolated a zombie, turning it to ash. Radegast cast shatter on another mob of undead creatures, sending them sprawling. Siegfried cast a wrathful smite and slashed at a ghast, which began to burn from
within. He leaped towards another creature, grabbing it up and piledriving it
into the earth, smashing its head to smithereens. Bitsy blinked back into the Feywild, his
work done. Erwen cast erupting earth again, churning up a fountain of stone and soil that
obliterated three zombies in an instant. Screeching ghasts, their bodies aflame,
rushed out from Erwen’s ring of fire and fled blindly into Varien’s blade
range. With two skillful slashes, he slaughtered two ghasts. Smiling horribly, the ghast before
Siegfried exhaled its ember breath, catching the rogue squarely while Bob and
Alec tried to avoid the worst of the fire attack. Radegast cast thunderwave and knocked the approaching ghasts back a few steps.
More and more undead creatures seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork from
all sides, threatening to surround the party. Bob’s spiritual
weapons continued to flail at the nearest undead, and a ghast toppled over
dead, its skull staved in. Erwen cast moonbeam and lit up a ghast with pale moonlight, which scorched the
creature. Siegfried bashed the immolating ghast with
Lightbringer, but the creature dodged his second attack easily. “Delightful,”
the rogue said, disgusted. There were more hoots and groans as ghast
and zombie alike slipped around the barriers thrown up by Erwen, doggedly approaching
Varien as the paladin readied himself for the onslaught. Varien tried not to think about Lorelei as
the horde, nearly a dozen strong, advanced towards him, a roiling mass of
snapping jaws and clacking claws.
0
0
1
1732
9878
University of Waterloo
82
23
11587
14.0
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
Varien raised his sword.