Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[Ozzy_G]

Both Rego and the mule visibly relax, and now the mule is no longer panicking, Rego manages to push into a canter, and he runs alongside up the slope. As well as your magical light, you think you can see a light coming from somewhere ahead as well.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina has not problem keeping pace; her footsteps carry her with easy speed in the wake of the mule. Every now and again she glances back, to make sure no angry cultists are in view...

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae Misallo

No, uh, I think I'll be alright, says Rego as he pulls the panicking mule up the slight slope. He doesn't sound alright, he sounds terrified.
A voice rings out from below. They will pay for this! Get them, capture them, we'll torture them for months before we let them die!

"And you will pay for what you did to me, sinners!" LM turns and slings another fireball down the shaft and resumes her sprint.

[Ozzy_G]

Her fireball shoots down the corridor, and explodes at the top of the stairs, just as two robed men run out of the top. Screams rip from their throats as their flesh is incinerated.
But then another man steps out of the top, not a burn mark on him or his clothes. He wears a green mail shirt that looks like it is made of snake scales, and a helm that's stylised to look like a snake's head. He carries a wicked-looking scourge in his right hand, and a large shield with a picture of a coiled snake in his left. He snarls. You will pay for this, unbelievers! He swings his scourge at you, and chants something in the language you heard Kizima speak in earlier.
Silarthis il'thila seras sharik!

Spoiler

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Silarthis, smite your foes!

[Lycar]

Akim still needs to concentrate on his spell, lest it would chease to work. Yet even in his distracted state it's hard to miss an angry cleric shouting after you.

"Not to sound alarmist, but AAARGHHH !"

Akim falls down to the ground, writhing, as some evil force assaults his very being.

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

All of you are suddenly struck by incredible pain, torturous agony. The mule makes a scream-like sound, and gallops away up the corridor, while Livina, Kizima, Lucci and Akim fall to the floor writhing in pain. Krashnix feels the pain too, but is able to keep his feet and mostly ignore it.

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix mutters a few words of power. All of a sudden his eyes blaze with fire and his muscles bulge. With a look of fury on his face he advances on the man, shield and flaming mace in hand.

You will regret what you have done this day. I will make you with you had never set foot on this ground. I will send your soul, ablaze with flame, screaming back to the Grey Watcher. Your life is at an end.

[Ozzy_G]

The pain recedes, leaving you gasping for breath. Akim is the first to recover his senses.

[Lycar]

While still being wracked by the afterimage of the agony he just went through, Akim's keen self-preservation instinct nonetheless urges him to scramble to his feet.

Taking a moment to asess the situation, Akim decides that Sir Krashnix is best suited to deal with this menace.

Instead he goes to help his nearest companion back to her feet.

Which happens to be Kizima.

"Come on, no time to rest, seems like we didn't get the head priest after all..."

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Lifting herself off the ground, Livina glares at the priest with hateful eyes. Noting his armor, however, she elects to let Krashnix close with the fiend first.

[Ozzy_G]

The Cleric holds up his arms, and chants.
Silarthis iskalia seratis shem!

Spoiler

Show

Silarthis send me your servant to rescue me!

There is a flash, and instead of the Cleric, the tunnel is filled by a massive black, hooded snake. It snarls, revealing massive fangs dripping with poison.

Rego has by now recovered, and starts running up the passage after his mule.

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Whenceforth by fortune Lucci recovers - noble lady casts Dimension Door to appear yonder, a full canter and several steps ahead of the mule.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima shakes off Akim's grasp as soon as she's standing.

"An astute observation! It's a wonder I ever doubted your scholarliness!" Her voice drips with sarcasm heavier than the poison on the serpent's fangs.

A cobra...can't outrun those if they're bent on chasing you down, not even the regular-sized ones. Probably has too thick a hide for me to do anything about it. But maybe I can distract it.

Kizima breaks into an odd zig-zagging run, ducking around the serpent's gaze. She positions herself as best she can on the opposite side of it, harrying it with her rapier, once again going more for a distraction than true damage.

[Ozzy_G]

Krashnix is faster than Kizima, and reaches the beast first, clunking it on the nose with his mighty mace. Flame flickers from it, but the serpent is completely unaffected by the fear. It does, however, rear back at being smashed on the nose with a mace. So Krashnix bashes it around the neck. Kizima runs past him, leaping and rolling over and around the beast's thrashing coils. As she skims past its head, her rapier jabs forward, going straight through the back of its skull. The great snake freezes for a moment, gives one last thrash, and then vanishes. The cleric appears again, where the serpent was, stumbling, a bit of blood running down the back of his head from the same place as Kizima stabbed the serpent.
He immediately raises his shield and scourge to defend himself from Krashnix in front of him and Kizima behind him.

[Ozzy_G]

As soon as the cleric reappear, Livina runs forward, leaps, and her outstretched leg goes flying into the man's face with a sickening crunch. He stops himself from stumbling backwards into Kizima, only to meet Livina's fist instead, swinging straight into his throat, crushing his windpipe. He falls to his knees, choking, and Livina's other fist swings around into his temple, crushing it. He collapses twitching, bits of blood splattered on Livina's left hand.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
The Mokai woman wipes her hand off absently on the sleeve of the cleric's coat, and then kicks him once more lightly in the head.
"Bastard."
Trying to listen as best she can for other sounds of pursuit, Livina gathers up the fallen cleric's scourge and searches him briefly for valuables.

[Lycar]

Akim can just blink as the others dispatch the cleric with frightening efficiency. Glancing back over his shoulder, he can see Rego and the mule disappear up the corridor.

Torn between following them and staying with the others, he can't quite make up his mind and stays put instead.

"That was... oh... "

Lycar

[Regwon]

Krashnix

More dead serpent scum. he says as he cleans the gore from his mace. I wonder if this was their leader. No matter.

He walks to the body and starts to check it for valuables.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima bends over the body along with Krashnix.

"Load this armor up onto the mule. It's probably worth almost as much as anything from the tomb we can sell." She removes the helmet and begins work on unfastening the armor. "Help me out, there'll be more any minute now."

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Lucci alternates her options carefully. She tries to stop the mule if it is possible. But if it looks like a task she will fail she kills it with a magic missile. It'd make the others angry, but they wouldn't appreciate losing all that money. Maybe they'd even turn back to civilization with the load-carrying critter dead. Regardless Lucci does her best to stop the beast from fleeing, hopefully it'd understand the violence was over about now.

[Lycar]

"Then you better help catch that damned beast, else you will have to carry your loot all by yourself."

Akim is still torn between running after Rego and the mule or sticking around. Not that his companions should have much trouble mopping up any remaining cultists, but still....

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

Appearing in front of the Mule, Lucci causes it to rear back in shock. It prances back, then stops, and snorts in a nervous fashion. Rego catches up to it and starts trying to calm it down.

Meanwhile, Krashnix and Kizima start searching the dead cleric's possessions. Besides his green scale and helmet, he has the scourge, a belt pouch with 17 Davethran Gold Crowns, a golden amulet of a serpent on a string around his neck, and a black obsidian ring on his finger.

Akim and Livina can hear the sound of running feet, quite a distance away back down the stairs. It's hard to pinpoint how far away it is or how many people, but it's quite quiet, so probably far away or only a couple of people.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina hurriedly takes the ring from his finger and adds the scourge to the ever-growing collection of weaponry strapped to her pack. Probably Kizima and the Cleric would want their share, so they could take what they wanted...
"Someone's coming," she whispers shortly, straightening up.
"We need to get out of here!"

Livina begins jogging towards the exit with large leaps and bounds, stopping every now and again to make sure the others are following.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima does her best to fasten the armor onto the mule's pack saddle, then does her best to keep up with Livina.

[Lycar]

Tapping his foot impatiently while the others go about strapping the armour off the corpse of the cleric, he urges them on "Make haste with the looting, i doubt that that were all of the cultists." making no effort at concealing his disgust.

When they are finished he breathes a sigh of relief and starts running to catch up with Lucidae, Rego and the mule.

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

While the others catch up with them Lucci casts invisibility on herself. Then she does her best to keep up with the quick Mokai.

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix follows behind. Occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if he can see anyone.

[Ozzy_G]

The party runs up the stairs, but Krashnix is weighed down by his armour, and Kizima's legs are smaller than the rest.
Lucci, Livina, Rego, the mule and Akim reach a sudden hole of light, and step out into the light. It's late afternoon by the looks of it. You are standing in the middle of a sunken, collapsed Illithid city which seems similar to the one that all but Lucci walked into this morning. But this city is not in a valley, it's over a large hill, and you can see grasslands spreading out towards mountains in the north-east and south-east, with a gap in the middle where the green grass kisses the blue sky on the horizon. On the other side, green prairie leads away as far as you can see to the west.
Krashnix and Kizima are about 20 foot back, when they hear shouts behind them, and crossbow bolts whip past them, one clattering off Krashnix's armour. If he hadn't had that, it would have gone straight through his left lung.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Hearing the clank of metal on metal, Livina glances back and flinches as the rebounding bolt pinwheels by. Thinking quickly, she examines the structure that houses the underground portal with a cat-burglar's eye. Shouldn't be too hard. With uncanny speed, Livina begins hauling herself up above the arch of the doorway, sinking into a crouch as she waits in ambush for any pursuers foolish enough to try a fight on the open meadows.

Spoiler

Show

Climbing above the doorway arch, and then waiting for Krashnix and Kizima to pass by. With her superior speed, Livina plans to wait and see if anyone tries to engage the party from behind now that we've made it outside.
Climb Check - (1d20+7)[22]
If Possible, Livina will take 10 on that check instead.

[Lycar]

Upon exiting the tunnel, Akim slows down and peers behind him to see where the others are. A passing crossbow bolt convinces him to grant the incoming missiles right-of-way and he quickly seeks cover beside the tunnel entrance.

Lycar