Chapter 10

[Last we ventured we lost Zert, a warrior that had been with us from the beginning. He died at the hands of the orc commander whose base we razed along with the others that were with him. What we didn’t realize was that bodies of the fallen decompose and sometime during the long trip back and the couple of nights we rested at the Welcome Wench tavern in Hommlet his spirit must have slipped away to the great beyond. After his burial we returned to the inn and fortuitously stumbled upon a dwarf by the name of Thorin Pax. As we drowned our sorrows and got to know the new party member we also looked at this curious book we discovered in the smith’s chest aptly named ‘The Book of Heroes’. We gathered our party and read on…]

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Thorin Pax woke up in a puddle of his own drool accompanied by a splitting headache, something the dwarf was used to. The others were gathering their supplies together and readying themselves for the trip back to Nulb as that’s where the adventure would take us next. We had been there before, and felt a little overwhelmed with the experience of ourselves but having just finished up this side-campaign of raising the orc stronghold, we felt better prepared for this part of the adventure. Just as we were about to leave the inn, Stallen asked Xiamaru what he uncovered in the great tome he was reading. Xiamaru replied, ‘It’s a great work of art indeed this book. It talks about the tales of a great adventuring party thrust into an arena and I sensed a great magical nature about it as well.’

‘Interesting, let’s have a look at that, ‘ replied the bard. Xiamaru brought the huge leather-bound tome out and handed it over where Stallen began to read some of it…

And then suddenly…. SHAZZZZAAMMM!!!

“What foul sorcery is this?!” growled the dwarf as he fell down into a heap on the ground along with the rest of the group. We slowly got up and looked around at our new surroundings. We were in a giant arena, much like the one we just read about and there was a hooded figure standing in front of us.

Seeing as we were all set and ready to begin our trip to Nulb, we couldn’t be more prepared. We all agreed in compliance and unsheathed our weapons. This didn’t make much sense, but then not much did since we got back from the Hickory Branch. All we knew is that some great reward awaits us for defeating some challenges….how hard can it be? And these were always the famous last words…

No sooner did we agree to stay and fight than the gates on the far side of the arena opened up and three great owlbears came loping out. These beasts were the size of great grizzly bears with the ferocious head of an owl, they say created by some demented wizards. One is a challenge to the uninitiated, two is a difficult encounter and one you may not walk away from and three is a likely death sentence. This fight would prove our mettle.

‘Let them come to us! Prepare for their assault!’ Shouted Stallen as he began singing the tune the party knew so well to help them fight and defend. Thorin Pax, the new addition to the group, readied himself along with the others.

The owlbears charged and we were ready for them. We weren’t sure about the remaining challenges and so saved our spells in case we really got into trouble later, so no area effect spells were cast – this would be a pure battle royal with our dead allies to be used as meat—er–bone-shields. The first attack of the fight began as Thorin swung back his new axe with amazing skill and cleaved deep into the side of one of the bears drawing a huge mix of blood and feathers in a powerful gash.

Eldiritch let an arrow fly that found its mark as the shaft sunk deep into the large beast.

Until now, only one of the owlbears had advanced, now the other two charged in and seeing as how tough these were, we decided to use the spells. The air crackled with powerful energy and summoned pets appeared to help our cause just as a grease spell went off and the owlbears tumbled to the ground.

Thorin and Karish slashed the fallen magical beasts as the dead allies provided some targets for the enemies attacks along with the summoned pets. Kumari summoned the red scythe that floated above the grease and also struck at the owlbears as they tried to get up.

[Look above at the critical hit the scythe did to one of the owlbears killing it instantly. Also, Thorin Pax did amazingly well this first fight, almost outperforming Zert as a warrior even though he was only level 1. Above are just some of the hits and damage he caused. As always Karish helped take mighty chunks out of their health as well.]

Only two owlbears remained and as Karish swung back his mighty two-handed sword and almost split open one owlbear he was facing off against, there would be only one left.

Xiamaru was becoming more powerful, he could feel the energies just bursting at the seams during battle as he wanted to show off some of his new arsenal of spells. The improved magic missile would have to suffice for now though as three of the orbs flew through the air unerringly aimed for and striking the last owlbear leaving burnt tuffs of fur and flesh where they hit.

These owlbears were known for their strength and Pishella aimed to help the group with this last one so she cast her memorized spell known as ‘Ray of Enfeeblement’. The spell hit with success and you could physically see the beast get weaker as muscles shrunk and the thing was just about to attack when it became fascinated with Stallen’s playing.

The warriors gathered around the weakened and fascinated owlbear that had no idea what was coming. It looked on with glazed-over eyes at the party trying to make out some sort of thought, no matter how simple, when a great awash of pain swept over it and then nothing. The beast crumpled to the ground as Karish, Thorin, and Eldiritch all either unstuck or pulled-out their weapons from the dead beast and all that could be heard was the heavy panting of or party.

Karish looked around for more, ‘Is that all you got!?’ The barbarian roared and you were almost waiting for him to pound his chest. As if on queue, the hooded figure appeared from the shadows and congratulated us. He asked if we wanted to return from whence we came and rest or continue the battle. We unanimously voted to return to the inn and rest where we enjoyed a festive night together as the new group.

Thorin Pax woke up in a puddle of his own drool accompanied by a splitting headache, something the dwarf was used to. The rest of the group was ready to continue on and Stallen had the book in his hands all at the ready for some continued ‘education’. Once the dwarf assembled himself, the bard began reading again…

We appeared back at the arena as expected and again with the hooded figure.

The master of the arena gave us some riddle about the next opponents and we expected the worst. Our fears came true as far from the south came two large giants…

‘Fezra Kendle Aluuva RAH!’ Shouted Xiamaru from the rear of the party before anyone moved and the air became hot. The party ducked as a searing ball of hot fire no larger than a teapot shot from the wizards hands at the incoming giants and just as it landed between them exploded in a great ball of fire, wounding them both. ‘YEA! Now that’s what I’m talking about! Shouted the wildly happy wizard.

The giants hadn’t seen us yet, but now it was on, and since we knew we could rest after these battles, we let loose with all the magic we could. Grease, web, summoned pets, you name it, were all thrown at the two giants as they meant to kill and likely eat all of us.

We fired our ranged weapons from afar and kept up the assault eventually almost killing one of them.

It almost wasn’t fair, but then whoever made the rules for combat surely would have given the giants the upper hand if they ever got within range. That was the whole trick of it. Keep the beasts far out of range and tangled up in webs and grease spells and fighting beasts that we summoned to do them harm while we shot at them from a long range. Speaking of which, Pishella, with a mastercraft light crossbow, just let a quarrel loose and struck the near dead hill giant square in the head, a critical hit, which was just enough to kill the beast where it stood and now fell.

We kept up the assault, far out of range…

And with this strategy, easily dispatched the last giant this way. Once he fell, the party looked around for more and cheered amongst themselves just as the hooded figure, the master of the arena, came back into existence.

This time he didn’t ask us if we wanted to rest and sent us off back to the inn where we had another rousing night of excess and carousing. We had just one fight left, and with this last one easier than the first, we all secretly hoped the trend to continue.

Thorin Pax woke up in a puddle of his own drool accompanied by a splitting headache, something the dwarf was used to. The rest of the group was ready to continue on and Stallen had to book in his hands all at the ready for some continued ‘education’. Once the dwarf assembled himself, the bard began reading again…

This time it was night. Dark clouds loomed above and there was an evil in the air, a pit in the stomach and almost fear we could all sense but couldn’t quite put our finger on why. [What is about to transpire will be the most edge of the seat battle to date. As a player, more than once I saw the end and figured this would be the great battle that finished it all. I can remember my blood pumping and literally had to pull out all stops and as I write this and describe it, know that it will not do it justice.]

‘Let the games Begin!’ shouted the master of the arena and just as he vanished, two separate waves of undead appeared. Like small armies of the walking dead, they were made up of skeletons, zombies, lacedons and more and each one commanded by a wizard, one dressed in a blue robe and another in red. We unsheathed our weapons and the mages hands began to pulse with magical energy. The battle commenced…

We actually like these odds. We had Kumari on our side, drow priestess of evil and one that relished growing her army. We actually felt good about these odds as we started our attack. Stallen began singing as we heard a shout from the rear of the party once more. ‘Fezra Kendle Aluuva RAH!’ shouted Xiamaru again as a fireball exploded in their ranks and decimated many of them.

Stallen cast a silence spell at the blue-robed undead mage which disrupted its spells.

Eldiritch knocked an arrow and aimed at the red undead wizard prepared to loose an arrow if it were to cast a spell just as the undead ranks on the south side charged us and swarmed Pishella wounding her in the process. The undead mage began casting and Eldiritch loosed his arrow hitting the mage and disrupting his spell.

Now it was Kumari’s turn to act and of course she brought out her unholy symbol and commanded the dead to obey. Many of them did and joined our side which thankfully bought some time for Pishella to down a clw potion. We weren’t out of the woods yet and Thorin was busy hacking at the undead but his axe did little damage to the skeletons. He remembered next time to have the group buy him a mastercraft flail or mace for the next time they fought these undead. Just as the battle was looking good and going our way with many of the undead commanded or truly dead and only the two undead casters standing still it turned to the worse.

Kumari had brought two of her slave zombies with her and with Lareth’s mace of striking blasted the blue-robed wizard to a mere pile of bones. Just then a loud boom shook the ground and a new surprise wave of undead appeared at our rear. From out of the smoke two giant undead hill giants, likely the bones of the two we defeated earlier appeared along with 4 ghouls or ghasts and a black-robed wizard that looked more than powerful. Let that sit in for a moment. You had used almost all of your spells from the previous battle, most of your priests turnings and were near exhausted from battle when this appeared….

Karish looked behind him at the new threat and shouted to the group, ‘Stay together people! Thorin, keep the undead at bay below us and everyone else brace yourselves!’ Kumari immediately used one of her few remaining turns and the ghasts and even the black-robed wizard cowered in fear, but not the giants. Karish took out his mastercraft heavy flail and prepared to melee one of the hill giants, surely his toughest foe to date. Meanwhile, Raimol switched his bow out to a heavy mace and shield and with Eldiritch and Stallen prepared to face off against the other hill giant.

Raimols hunkered down, using all of his skill to turtle and go total defense against the hill giant’s attack and it seemed to work as the first two swings missed. The ghasts were cowering as Stallen slashed at them and Xiamaru greased the ground causing some to slip. A spiritual scythe came into existence and helped with the hill giant Karish was now pounding on as the undead hill giant methodically took out the commanded undead each turn. Thorin was working the whole southern flank almost alone taking out the few remaining undead that weren’t commanded or had regained their evil independence.

Karish took a mighty blow from the giant and he swore later it broke his arm. [Karish took a mighty blow or two from the undead giant and went from 58 to 19 to give an idea of the strength of these foes] Raimol too took a blow from the giant that almost crumpled him to the ground.

Stallen used the horn he found earlier to be magical and fascinated one of the giants that Raimol and the others were fighting to buy some time to heal. What made the horn magical was it’s ability once per day to summon a magical field of mist which would obscure opponents and give them almost total concealment. This worked for the opponents though as well so it’s placement was important and with that in mind, Stallen blew the mighty horn as the ground shook and a dense fog swirled into existence.

It was placed in such a way to obscure us as we fought the undead and giants and could likely be attributed with something else that saved us that day. Thorin was now facing off against the red-robed undead wizard and his axe was hardly doing damage but still disrupting spells and keeping him busy. Kumari moved in behind Karish and cast a spell of cure moderate wounds on the barbarian as he almost solely faced-off against the undead giant. ‘We’ve killed you once, we will do it again!’ shouted the barbarian as he kept wailing on the giant with his mighty two-handed flail but unfortunately missed many of his strikes. Thankfully, the giant did as well. Also to our benefit was the fascination of the other giant by Stallen as Raimol and Eldiritch healed themselves and dispatched the cowering ghasts.

‘I neva’ liked magic, ye bag o’ bones!’ screamed the dwarf just as a critical hit destroyed the red-robed mage and secured the southern flank of all enemies. Thorin began running back to help the rest of the group in the thick fog. Finally, Karish’s swings began to land and with one final blow dispatched the undead giant he almost solely took down. We had one left and things were looking good when the black-robed wizard, no longer fearing Kumari, came back to life as much as an undead wizard can. Bony hands crackled with static electricity and two fierce bright blue globes that were its eyes pierced its hood as he singled out Xiamaru.

**SCCHHWWWAAAAAAOOOOCCCKKKKKKKKkkkkk!!!!**

A lightning bolt shot out from the black-wizards skeletal hands and flew by Xiamaru turning his skin instantly black and singed and burning some of his robes as it continued by at amazing speed. [This happened so fast I couldn’t get a screenshot but you can imagine my surprise]. ‘I want that spell!’ Xiamaru laughed manically, and just then we all remembered how unstable our wild mage party member was.

The remaining undead giant finally broke its fascination of our bard and began its attack once more as the black-robed skeleton wizard moved to the safety behind it. Eldiritch wasn’t’t having any of it and using his supreme agility tumbled through the melees of ghasts and the undead giant to face-off against the wizard. This was a critical move to hopefully break-up future lightning bolts or spells.

Raimol, Karish, and now Thorin squared-off against the undead giant and Eldiritch, using a mace now, slammed the undead wizard as it tried to cast another spell as Xiamaru downed a potion of healing. Kumari stayed behind the front ranks to heal any damage the giant caused and the other ghasts were all disposed of. This was it, we were close to victory and we were all out of spells and running on empty. Just as the undead wizard began another spell, Eldirtch came down hard with an overhead swing and slammed the skeletons skull down so hard that for a second it stood like some headless robed figure before crumpling into a pile of bones.

All that was now left was the giant…

Karish swung his great flail around and in a wide arc, just over the head of the dwarf, slammed into the giant and removed half of its ribs just as Thorin hacked and took out its fibula and tibia, the lower leg, as it too crumpled to the ground in a giant heap of bones.

‘What have I gotten meself into? Are these the battles I can expect? Hahahaha!’ shouted the dwarf at the end of it all just as the hooded figure appeared once more.

We all felt wiser from the experience and how we must have surely looked right then at the end of that fight must have been quite the sight. Likely, one couldn’t tell the dead from the living as we were all so covered in blood, dirt, grime, soot and debris that we relished the moment the figure would send us away and that he did…

We appeared back in Hommlet with a cloud of smoke to the startled surprise of some villagers. We all searched through our packs for the trophy we rightfully earned which didn’t take long for at our feet was a great tower shield with etched runes and obviously magical. Stallen, through his ability of lore and bardic knowledge, knew of this shield from tales of old and it was known as the Hero’s Shield, a defensive shield so powerful, legends were born about its existence. The only logical candidate for it which made sense was our new party member, an so was born the ‘tank dwarf’.

We all stumbled back to the inn and began the long downtime that would surely come to nurse ourselves back to health and discover what we’ve learned.

[Ding! Time to level up and here’s the honest rolls as they came:

Stallen 33hp to 38hp Huge!

Karish 56hp to 70hp WOW, this was great. A true tank now and one that could take on more punishment

Eldiritch 30hp to 36hp a great roll

Thorin Pax 14hp – 27hp AWESOME! Being only level 2, this worked our well

Kumari 23hp to 28hp likely the best she could have got

Xiamaru 19hp to 23hp again nice!

Awesome rolls, probably the best ‘group rolls’ to date, even better than before. After these rolls I felt like going to the casino and continuing my luck…

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[Next time…Will we continue on to Nulb? Is there anything else that will prevent that trip because now we’re about as good to go as ever and I fear our hubris may be our downfall. Only time will tell as next we set out on the long journey to the grimy harbor town of decadence and discover what adventures await us there as long as they don’t involve fish heads … Stay tuned for Chapter 11!]