Session 62 Synopsis

Previously, on Phoenix Rising...
… Once the door opened, she looked up as our heroes were beginning to enter her bathhouse and said in a serpentine-like voice, “Oh good! Visitors! Fresh meat.” And then she began advancing through the water towards the invading group…

Our heroes took quick stock of the situation and began advancing on the creature. Zola was the first to react and advanced into the room only to find herself attacked by an invisible (but now visible) barbed devil. It drew blood first blood and Zola decided to react in-kind. One bad thing about attacking a barbed devil at melee range is that every time one hits it, its spiny barbs cause the attacker damage as well, and their claw attacks can cause fear. And even worse, if they get a hold of you, then they can repeatedly impale you with their spines on their bodies and tails. This is exactly what happened to Zerak when he moved into the room and found another invisible (not-so-invisible-now) barbed devil that attacked him, grabbed him, and impaled him round after round, nearly killing him. Kel decided that an invisibility purge was in order and sure enough, they saw a third barbed devil pop into their sight.

So now Asphodel had also moved into the room and began attacking the devils. Blackwell, Jobi, and Kel remained in the hallway for a while, with Blackwell using bow attacks, Jobi casting buffing spells like haste and bless, and Kel using her starknife when she had a target. Soon however, through the movements in battle, the one devil that Zola and Asphodel had concentrated on was hurt very badly and teleported to the creature in the pool who healed the devil so it could continue the fight. She was also using her bow against the group and she was very good with it – causing lots of damage every time her aim struck true.

One of the devils then took the fight to the heroes in the hallway by teleporting right next to Kel. Her devotion to Desna was the only thing keeping her from getting grappled and impaled. Then Kel got the inspiration to use her liberation ability to get Zerak free, which was a good thing for the witch would not be able to take much more of the barbed devil’s attacks before succumbing to his injuries. His hexes, cackles, and lightning spells did hurt the devils but not enough to actually get him free (but did help the others damage the devils more often).

At this point, the heroes began to get a handle on the devils when Asphodel was able to kill the one that had been grappling Zerak for most of the time so far. Once that one went down, Asphodel began moving back to help Zola with the one that had been healed by the medusa which had teleported back right next to Kel. Kel up until this time had been mainly focusing on the one that was in the hallway but had since moved into the chamber entrance. That is when the healed devil began delivering some ferocious blows to her and to everyone’s surprise, the cleric fell dead. Asphodel quickly changed her course of action and leapt to Kel’s side, drew out a scroll of a breath of life spell and successfully cast it upon the dead cleric – and Kel was brought back to life.

Meanwhile Zola kept concentrating on the devil that had just killed Kel and was pushing it back into the hallway. Soon, this one too was to fall and die. But in the hallway, Blackwell and Jobi were having troubles of their own with the third barbed devil. It kept advancing on them and pushing back down the hall until it was able to grapple Jobi in its spiky clutches. With Jobi quickly being rendered to a bloody mass in the clutches of the devil, she screamed and Zerak heard. He ran to her side, not caring about the other devil taking a swing at him and damaging him. He needed to get to her as fast as he could for he had a plan to save his love. When he got next to her side he touch only her and casted a teleport spell, bringing the two of them back to the surface of the mausoleum where they could heal themselves without fear of attack. Then they began their descent of the stairs to rejoin their comrades in the fight.

Meanwhile, Asphodel moved into the ‘medusa’ that had not been engaged in battle until this time. She charged at it and went into a voluntary rage condition to try to exact more damage to the foul beast – for, let’s face it, those who cavort with devils need to be put down. The medusa was also more difficult to damage, similarly like the devils were. But the medusa could also use high level spells for just a mere touch by this creature was enough to cause a lot of damage. Their melee engagement only lasted a couple of rounds for the creature had teleported away and even though Asphodel had landed a strike as it disappeared, she was certain that it was not dead yet. She looked around the room and saw no other foe around so she headed out towards the hallway to see who might need some killing out there.

The heavy battles always take a long time and this one is no exception. Come back next week for the exciting conclusion (hopefully) of this battle and more adventure…