Session 54 Synopsis

Previously, on Phoenix Rising...
… Our stalwart band was able to overcome the seps without anyone succumbing to their poisonous bites after a few rounds of battle with them. They did have to use significant amounts of restoration magic to heal the damage to their constitutions caused by the poison, but it wasn't a big concern since they were nearly done traveling for the day anyway and rest would replenish their magical abilities. Our heroes only traveled a little distance from this last encounter before settling in for the rest of the night .…

The band of friends continued their trek through the wastelands of the Storval Plateau only resting during the hottest times of the days and the darkest times of the nights. A couple days after the battle with the giant seps they were ambushed by a giant scorpion. It popped out of the sand without warning and promptly grabbed Blackwell, who was in the lead, with both pincers and also landed a tail sting. The creature was able to do severe damage to Blackwell over the next few rounds of combat. He couldn’t escape the mighty pincers of the gargantuan arthropod and without the help of Kel’s and Jobi’s healing magic, he wouldn’t have survived the ordeal. But soon, the battle prowess of Asphodel, Zola, and Kel, along with support from Zerak and Jobi, the beast finally collapsed and let Blackwell go, much to his relief.

In the morning Asphodel was the first to see what looked like a fortress way off in the distance. The group concluded that with no other structures appearing on the horizon that this must either be their destination or at least a place that they could get their bearings. The next couple days were also uneventful until late one night when Zola received another vision-dream. She awoke with a start and after she woke up Blackwell for his watch, she said she needed to go out and relieve herself. Asphodel and Zerak were also awake at this time but did not think much of what Zola was doing – until about fifteen minutes later when Zerak asked if anyone thought Zola was gone for a long time. That’s when they went out of their secure structure and looked around for her. And they didn’t find her anywhere. The only conclusion that came to their minds was that she had decided to head on to the fortress on her own.

So they woke everyone else up and packed up to go after Zola. Once they were ready Asphodel casted a teleport spell and was able to land them within a mile of the fortress without any incident. Then they began walking toward the fortress while keeping an eye out for Zola. And sure enough, a few minutes later they saw her flying overhead speeding directly toward the fortress.

The heroes then saw Zola land in front of the gate to the fortress and started to yell – demanding to see Arrealla. The gates slowly opened and three of the Trox barbarians were inside blocking the way in. They could also see that there were many others working around the fortress, though exactly how many was left unanswered. One of the Trox’s spoke to Zola in a language that the rest of the party did not understand, although it appeared that Zola had no trouble understanding the Trox. Zerak then casted the comprehend languages spell on himself so he could translate for the rest of the group.

The conversation went basically like this: Zola demanded to see Arrealla. The Trox said no. Zola spews forth her entire lineage and demands that Arrealla come out and face her. The Trox said no. Zola continues by repeating herself and then asks to go inside to see Arrealla. The Trox said she couldn’t come in unless she left all her weapons at the gate. She demands that someone go and get Arrealla and tell her that she was here. The Trox sends in a human into the castle.

They wait…..
The human comes and says something to the Trox. The Trox tells Zola that she can come inside but has to leave all weapons at the gate. So she drops her weapons (and, of course, her ancestral weapon just disappears) and then heads inside.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had hung back far enough not to be considered a threat but close enough to hear the entire exchange. Asphodel intently studied the space beyond the castle door when it opened again so that once it closed she would wait some moments and then cast teleport on the group to land just inside the castle door. And it worked perfectly. The party found themselves with their backs against the closed outer castle doors with Zola being lead down the corridor to another set of door some sixty feet away. And they had not been noticed. So they waited until the next set of doors was opened and Zola entered the other room. They waited until what they had feared could be an ambush realized itself. Then they began attacking as well as Zola with her ancestral weapon materializing out of thin air.

It seemed like the enemy was coming out of every door and ganging up on Zola, trying to kill her – and that’s because that is what they were trying to do. However they did not expect the rest of the party to be there as well and so they were forced to split their firepower between the heroes. After several rounds of combat several of our band were hurt, but many more of the enemy were hurt and dead. Spells, arrows, and blades were flying – spraying the blood of friend and foe alike across the walls and floor (mostly foes’ blood, which was a good thing).

Then the castle front door slammed open. And it slammed right into Zerak. He found himself staring at one of the Troxes from outside. So he did what he would normally do – he cast black tentacles in front of the doors and proceeded to capture not one but three Troxes and began hitting them with other spells as well.

We leave our heroes in the heat of battle for this week and will continue the carnage on the next episode of Phoenix Rising …