2013-02-04
Tyrus draws his Earthbind Wand and yells "Come here!" as the ray hits the dragon in the chest, desperate to pull his attention away from Ulfgar. The wand has it's effect and the dragon immediately begins to decend, screaming in rage.
Imthaikalus screams "HOW DARE YOU!?!" and pounces down onto Tyrus in a flurry of teeth, wings and whip-like tail. Tyrus falls under the vicious assault He is knocked unconscious and is now dying.
Kahaan steels himself to charge, instructing Sero to remove the belt he has on and to wear it, ready to act the moment Sero complies.
Juxhil takes a shot but the dragon is moving about so much as it savages Tyrus that she misses, just as Sero unfastens Kahaan's belt and puts it on himself.
At this point Kahaan runs towards the dragon, its claws raking his chest as he gets into range. He begins to laugh maniacally as his rage kicks in, slashing wildly at the beast but the attacks glance off the scaly hide, much like the arrow sent streaking from Charles' bow.
Ulfgar fumbles the Darkness ensourcelled arrow into his pants, attempting to do so without Imthaikalus seeing, then casts Haste on those he can (Tyrus, Kahaan and himself).
Tyrus fails to stabilise, even as his Ring of Blades cuts into the tough hide of the dragon.
Imthaikalus whips around to Kahaan and says "You are all going to die." as it attacks him, tearing at his flesh and sending blood spattering across the floor. While Kahaan's axe flashes in response, it has no more effect than Juxhil's' crossbow bolt which is smacked out of the air by one swing. Charles makes another attempt with his bow but fails to hit the mark.
Ulfgar stands himself up and fires a Scorching Ray, wreathing the would-be god it in arcane fire and causing it to scream in pain. It lashes out, biting Sero, before turning to focus its fury on Kahaan, knocking him savagely to the ground. Kahaan fails to stabilise and is left unconscious and dying.
Juxhil braves the whirling Ring of Blades whipping around Tyrus to pull a potion from his Handy Haversack and force-feed it to him, causing him to regain some colour and stabilise as she turns to Imthaikalus and says something in Draconic, who turns to her, looking even more furious.
Sero assisted Kahaan to stabilise as Charles rattles off some draconic of his own and takes a shot which once again pings off the armoured hide.
Imthaikalus screams at Juxhil "You will die for your insolence!"
Ulfgar casts Scorching Ray again, one missing the dragon and causing a section of wall to glow red-hot, the other striking true and engulfing the beast in eldritch flame.
As it screams, Tyrus' blades cut into its flesh again, also badly lacerating Juxhil. The great black beast responds by taking a step away from Tyrus. Juxhil summons all of her fortitude and staggers towards Imthaikalus, dropping her crossbow and hefting her pickaxe as projectiles loosed by Sero & Charles rebound from the great black flanks and skitter into opposite corners of the room.
Ulfgar once again draws upon the eldritch well of power he commands and booms "BY FIRE BE PURGED!" as deadly rays shoot from his hands once again, however this time the flames sputter and die as they hit, absorbed by the dragon.
It turns to snaps its mighty jaws at him, narrowly missing as it is somewhat more involved in the evisceration of the exhausted Kobold before it, shredding her small body with powerful limbs and tearing her almost in two. She doesn't give it the satisfaction of crying out as she dies.
Charles says something in draconic and Imthaikalus sneers at him, replying "This fight is already over".
Meanwhile, Sero sneaks around the bottom of the dias to get closer to Tyrus and summons Winifred. He commands her to fetch him the other potion of Cure Light Wounds he has in his Handy Haversack.
Ulfgar tries once again to pierce the magical defenses of the draconic tyrant but fails, his magical energies dissipating as they hit the blistered hide. He then turns and reluctantly jumps down from the dias, away from the dragon, only to have it dart its jaws forth with blurring speed, snapping bones and dropping the smooth-tongued sorcerer to the floor close to death.
The great black beast stalks towards Charles, mockingly addressing him.
"Well, I seem to have levelled your party. I don't think there's any chance they'll get back up. So, then there's you, standing at the back throwing arrows at me... what will you do? Will you run? Shall I chase you? So many questions..."
With characteristic glibness the elf replies. "I don't think it's a hard question at all. Clearly, the best course of action open to me is to negotiate."
A foul wave of breath washes over Charles as the beast incredulously roars "NEGOTIATE WITH WHAT?"
"Whatever you need, I am a man of resources.""
"I think in this case, what I 'really' need, is no survivors."
During this exchange, Ulfgar's dwarven fortitude kicks in and he stabilises, his breathing becoming less ragged. On the other side of the room, Sero is frantically pouring the potion Winifred obtained into Tyrus' mouth, dropping prone immediately after in the hope of avoiding the whirring blades surrounding the unconscious Cleric as his eyes flick open.
Not betraying a flicker of interest in these developments, Charles asserts "Well, interesting opinion you have there, but you should not be so confident. I am about to leave this room and activate my back-up plan. Have you ever heard of Otyughs?"
The dragon, growing bored, bares it's teeth at Charles and says "I've decided I don't have time to play with my food."
"I thought you might say that. You leave me no other choice. NOW!", and putting his whistle to his lips blows a loud blast, turns and struts 30ft towards the room with the Otyughs. This gives Imthaikalus some pause, and he cocks his head to the side, rather confused, just as Tyrus lunges towards Kahaan, his outstretched fingertips glowing with positive energy.
Even as Kahaan's wounds close, Imthaikalus screams with furious frustration and spins around, lashing out at the barbarian before he can even stand. Kahaan staggers to his feet and throws his greatsword mightily at Imthaikalus, but sees it clatter off the horny hide as he draws his bow.
Charles steps forward and screams "DON'T IGNORE YOUR GOD!" (35 bluff) as he fires his bow, the arrow ricocheting off an armoured plate just as Tyrus graps Kahaan's ankle, channeling another, larger burst of divine healing into him before dragging himself away so as to leave Kahaan out of the range of the whirring blades surrounding him.
Imthaikalus gives Charles a bemused look over one winged shoulder, then spins and lunges at him, needle-sharp fangs clamping down hard. Kahaan looses three arrows at Imthaikalus in a blur of practiced motion, yet they all thud into the thick back-plates at the base of the blood-slick neck, none of them doing any damage. Sero considers his own crossbow which needs loading, looks at Kahaan and decides that the barbarian has a greater chance of felling the beast, so casts Cat's Grace on him.
Charles grimly takes a 5 foot step back and shoots at the monstrous creature looming over him, not saying anything for once and fumbling the shot, sending it whistling past the head of his target as he hears Tyrus intoning a prayer to Nephe. The cleric stands himself up as he finishes his supplication and raises his arm, palm outward as a burst of brilliant white light shoots forth, piercing through the back of the beast and bursting out through his chest. The moment the beam of light disappears, Imthaikalus topples over to the ground, dead.
Retrieving his greatsword, Kahaan beheads Imthaikalus with mighty strokes and a grim resolve, a feral grin slowly creeping onto his face as he anticipates slamming it down onto the bar of any number of ale-houses in Eathe as proof of the battle.
Sero walks over to Juxhil's corpse and nudges it with his foot. He muses "This relationship has grown stale." and blows a kiss into the air, before wandering over towards the huge chests which line the back wall of the room.
Ulfgar begins to assess the alchemical properties of the cadaver, taking a shiny black scale as a keepsake as Sero and Tyrus start checking the chests and Charles searches around the statue.
In the chests, the party finds the following: Chest 1 Sero's Rapier and Whip. Chest 2 Two small sacks. One contains 150 platinum pieces (1500 gold pieces), the other a selection of gemstones which Sero appraises, identifying 3 obsidians (10gp each) an emerald worth around 900gp, 2 garnets worth around 90gp each, 2 red spinels worth 70gp each. Chest 3 A mountain of gold, more gold than any of them have ever seen in one place in their lives. To be precise 40,963 gold pieces. Which is something like 1.36 Galleys. Chest 4 Magic aura. Conjuration (Strong), Charles searched for traps. A +2 Light Mace of Disruption inlaid with bands of gold, good as the day it was forged.
