The scriptorium is found and it is looted and the contents destroyed. Elulyn is sad. He pokes around in the paper pile and convinces the party to spend a bit of time organizing. Eventually they find little of direct value and venture on, seeking the last few doors to pen and rooms to plunder.
They find the chambers of the high priest who is entombed in oily tendrils of rock, with only his crystalline skull free from the rock matrix. They snag the skull and plunder the bookshelves, finding the elusive prayer book of altar cleansing.
They anticipate a pitched battle to enter the altar room and transform the druid into a vaporous bat, ringed in a wall of fire that swoops around the room annihilating the leftover shadows. Of the vampires there is no trace – odd but ok. The crystal skull is placed atop the altar and the purification rite is begun.
Hours later, the rite is completed and the evil is purged from the altar. With that, the golden sun in the floor begins to open, revealing a long, spiraling staircase that leads down into the catacombs where the Oathbreaker lies entombed…or so they think.
A rising shriek of joy is accompanied by the appearance of a beautiful winged woman clad in plate mail and brandishing a sword. She also is accompanied by a quartet of devildemons or some other infernal creatures. She laughs,thanks the party for freeing her and promises them a swift death by way of reward.The group is disinclined to take her up on the offer and the battle is joined.
The flying horrors start launching fiery tail spikes at the party and attacking them with fanged maws and rending claws. The woman pummels the party with blasts of negative energy, grasping tendrils and pools of impenetrable darkness. From time to time she gestures and portions of the tower collapse onto the party, trapping Cosmic at one point. The battle is pitched and Kikko is eviscerated in the opening flurry of attacks. Malchor’s spells seem to have little effect and the barrage of lightning bolts and magical attacks don’t seem to accomplish much either. Elulyn is saved by virtue of his many mirror images and Cosmic is saved by virtue of being trapped underneath the rubble. Mr T. looks for something to attacks, but he devils keep zipping around strafing the party with spikes and the winged lady seems content to pull the tower down around their ears. He lobs a few swords into the air to pass the time.
When the devils are finally defeated (after summoning a few friends to participate in the party sniping), the lady gestures and collapses a portion of the upper floors onto the party members. The deluge of rocks and rubble slay The Justcar and damages many of the remaining party members as she makes her escape. Wooops. The surviving members look at each other. That could be a problem.
The group digs out the dead and trapped and returns to the Tormite mound to seek the gentle care of Kormier, First of Torm. The slain are returned to the land of the living and some time is spent in repose and planning….revenge! Thanks to them reading her personal diary, rummaging around in her bedroom and generally learning intimate details of her life, the mage’s crystal ball locks on with unerring accuracy and the group spends time surveilling the Oathbreaker. She appears to be aboard an airship, staffed by vampires and is somewhere above a large expanse of water. The group maintains crystal ball espionage for a number of days. Once Malchor is satisfied that he has studied the craft well enough to attempt a teleportation, the assault is planned.
The attack is planned for night, for maximum casualties and to prevent the use of the cloaking darkness to defeat their anti-vampire effects. Mr T wields Leora’s Sunblade and the rest of the group unleashes blasts of sunlight or undead killing spells. Kikko’s summons an insect swarm and the crawling mass devours the Oathbreaker, bringing the battle to an abrupt end. The vampires are either slain or have fled the airship and the fallen paladin is truly slain, despite her supposed immortality…maybe the blade had a thing to do with it? Nah, definitely the bugs! Now the proud owners of an airship floating high above unknown waters, the group decides whether or not to abandon ship.
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