The cloaked figure dashed off south and out of view. Nash and Finder rushed down an alley to get on the other side of the building, while Farooq and Bronn rushed the other side to try and head off the suspicious figure there. The spying sorcerer was not to be found on the roof of the building and before long she appeared across the street on a completely different roof top, wisps of long blonde hair escaping around the edges of her cowl. It was definitely a woman, and before anyone could react she summoned another huge worm creature directly in the middle of a crowd of citizens.
She paused only a moment to admire the chaos that was starting to erupt and then she ran off south across the rooftop. The PCs were heavily wounded, low on spells and definitely did not want to have to deal with another one of these creatures, but there were so many city folk in the area they had to do something.
Nash and Finder backed off to get some distance, while Bronn cast sacred flame and moved his ethereal war hammer down the street to attack the creature. Farooq charged down the street, disregarding danger to himself, to try and get the creature to focus on him rather than the other people there. The monster snatched up several citizens in its clawed tentacles and grappled Farooq as well.
Arrows flew out of Nash's bow with unerring accuracy as Finder crawled up onto the roof of a nearby building to begin blasting his agonizing blasts down upon the worm. Bronn continued his assault with his spells and his spiritual weapon from down the road. Farooq tried desperately to attacked the tentacles of the creature in the attempt to free some of the Neverwintans from its clutches, disregarding the fact that the worm was trying to push him into it's toothy maw. He was only partially successful as at least one elven man died screaming as he was pushed into its mouth. Some of the less hearty folk died from the pincer attacks and being picked up.
It was a tense few moments as most of the party held back and used ranged weapons and spells while Farooq took the severe damage from the creature. He was squeezed, slashed and bitten, all the while stabbing over and over again with his magic spear. Just as the creature turned to slowly slosh up the alley towards Nash and his deadly arrows, more arrows began raining in from the east, down the street beyond Bronn. It was a contingent of the Neverwinter Guard. Soon Nash delivered the final killing shot, straight through the roof of its mouth as it prepared to roar its psychic attack. It fell against one of the buildings, staving in it's roof and tearing down a wall as it collapsed to the ground and began withering and wasting away as the other one did upon death.
Farooq bent over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath and fight off the pain and Bronn moved to see if he was alright. His armor was in rough shape as it was pierced in many places by the huge teeth of the monster and some of it was slightly crushed. Bronn only had minor healing magic left for the day and it was decided that he would not heal Farooq until the situation was most dire.
As the guardsmen moved down the street to investigate, Nash and Finder began searching for clues as to where the Sorceress had escaped to. Bronn and Farooq explained the situation to the guardsmen and showed their writ as they began dealing with the dead and dying Neverwintan's on the street. No clue could be found as to where the enemy had gone and soon Nash and Finder returned to the rest of the group. Farooq had learned from citizens gathered nearby that a paladin name Alein was usually very quick to respond to any situations in this area and they wondered where she could be.
Soon everyone had caught their breath and stepped aside to discuss their course of action. They were in no shape to track down the book shop and take on a cabal of sorcerers. They needed at least a short rest. They asked around and decided to go for dinner at the nearest tavern, which was called "The Board Laid Bare" and it was located just inside the north gate of the city.
The Board Laid Bare served no alcohol or spirits, but did have a wide assortment of unique dishes at very reasonable rates. The group enjoyed a good meal of fish and vegetables and after an hour or so, they felt much better physically, if not mentally. They were healthy, but still remained low on spells. They would need a full nights sleep to gain their full power back.
They decided that rather than just calling it a day, they would check out the potential clue about the Paladin Alein, rather than specifically looking deeper into the book store until tomorrow.
They asked directions to the shrine of the Red Knight and soon were approaching an unnatural obscuring mist that seemed to envelop the area where the shrine should be. From within the mist they heard shouts of alarm from a female voice. They quickly moved into the fog that was so dense they could barely discern their comrades at their sides and anything beyond 5 feet was completely obscured. Bronn led the way as he picked up the sounds of the struggle most clearly.
Before long they stood before 2 or three shadowed figures. One, a woman with dark hair and chainmail armor, was struggling fiercely and a hooded figure seemed to be holding on to her. Beyond her could barely be made out the slight indication of another figure pulling on her. Farooq and Nash wasted no time bolting forward into uncertainty and fighting to subdue the hooded figures and correctly identifying the woman as not being an enemy combatant. The Hooded men seemed to be sorcerers as they used magical shocking grasp attacks against the PCs. Unfortunately the casters were no match for the group and soon were subdued and the obscuring mist was soon dissipated.
The story from the woman, Torea, was that she was an acolyte of the Red Knight (a demi-god in service to Tempus). Her Mistress Alein had just been abducted. They had heard a cry outside and Alein went to investigate, telling Torea to remain inside. After her mistress did not return, she went outside to investigate, encountered the mist and was grabbed by the cloaked figures. She was desperate to find out what had happened to Alein.
She recognized the face of one of her attackers and mentioned that there was an incident at a book shop called the Reality Wrinkle a few days ago. There had been a death - according to witnesses the fellow had fallen down a flight of stairs, but the look of the body suggested otherwise. The PCs immediately reacted to this news. A book shop tied directly to these hooded sorcerers! This was just what they were hoping for, and Torea knew where it was.
They were rightly concerned about trying to storm a book shop full of sorcerers without having all of their powers fully refreshed. So the decision was made to go and have a look at the book shop tonight and see what they could learn, and form a plan of attack for the next morning. Staying out of sight down the street from the shop they send Nash forward invisibly to investigate. He could hear voices and could catch a glimpse of a form moving around the second story. He snuck into the Tea shop which abutted directly up against one wall of the book shop. Listening, he could hear fragments of conversation coming through the wall. They seemed to be discussing some ritual and that it would not be happening tonight, but soon.
The PCs decided that with that knowledge they could try and get a good nights sleep and come back in the morning to rescue the paladin Alein. The group went and stayed at the Jester's Pipe inn for the night while Farooq vowed to watch the Reality Wrinkle all through the night as he did not require any abilities to refresh. His night passed with strange visions and omens entering his dreams as he found himself falling asleep twice throughout his watch. These dreams were nausea inducing and alarming visions of the very fabric of reality seeming to bend and defy logic.
When morning finally did come, Farooq regrouped with his comrades and they finalized their plan. Torea would try and clear the area of civilians, Especially the old lady who ran the Tea Shop next door (Nash had taken a liking to her). The rest of the group would sneak around to the back and enter the rear door there as quietly as they could. Listening carefully they could hear someone in the front shop area moving around. Nash picked the lock and soon they all crept into the room.
The room was a large storage area filled with book shelves full of books and some crates of books. There was a curving stair case heading up, flanked by doors. Separating the front store area from the back was a colorful brocaded curtain(It's design depicting an alien landscape filled with tentacled creatures of unimaginable monstrosity. As soon as the group entered they were assaulted by the sense of distortion in this area. It was slightly nauseating as the angles formed by walls, bookshelves, floors and ceilings seems all wrong, as if space itself were warped here.
Listening up the stairs revealed nothing. Listening at the doors revealed the sound of mumbled voices at the south door, and of course they could hear someone in the front room beyond the curtain. Now was the time to decide what to do next......
Commentaires