Session #23 - Buzz Off

They made it to the outcrop without incident, parking the Demon Grinder at an angle near the rock wall to create at least a bit of sheltered space.  The vehicle and wall made up two sides of a triangle, with the third face somewhat exposed.  It was the best they could do given the circumstances.  

 

While the others made camp, Almont knelt beside one of the Grinder’s massive tires.  He placed his warhammer on the ground, head down, put his holy symbol upon it, and began to pray.  The heat of Avernus surrounded him in a sticky layer of sweat and grime.  He hoped that Kiri-Jolith would take him back to that cool chamber of previous divinations, even if just for a minute of respite.

 

But it was not to be.

 

“What information do you seek, my son?”  The voice boomed in his head like a church bell, but the sweltering heat of Avernus remained.

 

“Lord, we have learned there is a prize upon the head of our friend Donyxn.  We would know who put this bounty on him.”

 

Almont knelt in silence, waiting, a bead of sweat tickling at his nose as it slowly made its way to the tip, hung there for a moment, then dropped to the sand below.

 

The response came in the form of a vision.  The creature was a cross between a tiger and a man, its stature human-like but all of its features and fur that of the beast.  The fingers of its paw-like hands curved backwards and ended with sharp claws.  But more important was how it was dressed.  It looked as if it had walked into Madhi’s closet and emerged with an outfit like something the trader would wear.  Almont clenched his fists.  While he hardly expected any loyalty from Madhi, the cleric despised duplicity.  

 Almont told the others of his vision.  

 

“That bastard will taste my scimitar when we next meet,” said Kent through gritted teeth.  Donyxn simply shrugged.  

 

The conversation was interrupted by howling.  “They’re getting closer, whatever they are,” mused Donyxn.  The ranger stood and picked up his bow.  “We best go see what the noise is about.”

 

The four adventurers walked around the front of the Demon Grinder and stepped out onto the plan.  A pair of mutated wolf-like creatures stood a few hundred feet distant, separated from one another by eighty feet.  Even from this distance it was clear they were huge, definitely taller than a man.

 

Donyxn notched a pair of arrows.  “Let’s make quick work of this so we can get on with our rest.”

 

The beasts both charged forward into walls of arrows and magic energy.  Kent, who had climbed aboard the Demon Grinder, was firing harpoons from the vehicle with undisguised glee.  It looked as though they might take the creatures down before they could get in close enough to attack.

 

“What are these two doing here by themselves?” Lola asked no one in particular, her question telepathically entering into all of their minds.  “Where is their master?”

 

A crossbow bolt appeared from the space between the onrushing howlers and slammed Donyxn in the left shoulder, knocking him backwards.  Almont turned to the ranger and could see the blood vessels in his extremities turning black.  That was more than just a simple bolt.

 

Turning back to the unfolding battle Almont saw the source of the bolt materialize, a nine-foot-tall slab of brownish flesh holding a heavy crossbow in one hand as if it were a toy, a jagged saw-tooth blade in the other.  A pair of sharp curved horns protruded from the sides of its face.

 

“Oh, there’s their master,” said Lola.

 

The creature pointed at Donyxn.  “That one,” it shouted.  “Kill that one.”

 

One of the howlers emitted a mournful wail that seemed to stun and terrify both Katla and Donyxn.  Almont was unaffected, but could see that things were quickly going from bad to worse.

 

What he hadn’t noticed however, was Kent racing to the cockpit of the Demon Grinder and flooring the accelerator.  The machine lurched forward, barely missing the three of them, the dwarf turning it hard to the left and pointing it at the baying howler.  The beast was standing still, finishing it’s infernal song, and in its trance-like state it failed to notice the massive machine until the last moment.  It turned to the right with wide eyes and attempted to sprint forward but it was too slow, it’s back half crushed under the right front tire of the Grinder. 

 

The death of the howler broke the fear effect it had on Donyxn and Katla, just in time for the second monstrosity to reach them and dive upon the tiefling.  Its master continued to stride forward, firing crossbow bolts at Donyxn.  “Kill the leader!” it shouted as it advanced.  

 

The battle with the howler was close, personal, and bloody as magic and weapons and claws swirled, flinging sprays of red blood and black ichor across the sands.  Somehow a second bolt made it through the tangle of bodies and hit Donyxn.  His skin was graying, the blackness in his veins even more pronounced as he struggled to stay in the fight against the howler.

 

Meanwhile Kent was trying to get an angle on the crossbow-wielding master, but geometry and physics were not on his side.  He’d get close, but not close enough to run it over, and he couldn’t risk leaving the wheel to man one of the harpoon launchers.  However, a black circular shadow caught the corner of his eye and he remembered the wrecking ball hanging from a chain at the back of the Grinder.  

 

It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was the only one he had.  Kent swung the Grinder around to the right as hard as he could.  He passed behind the master, which paid him no notice, from right to left, barely getting within ten feet of it.  As he continued forward he looked back over his shoulder and was rewarded by seeing the metal ball swing to the vehicle’s right and land a glancing, but still incredibly hard, blow on the master, knocking it to the ground.

 

“Ha!  Got you, you bastard!” he shouted as he continued pulling the Grinder to the right.  Looking ahead he could see the others were finishing off the howler.  Donyxn looked terrible, but Kent was sure Almont could fix him up once the creature was killed.

 

A magic chromatic orb from Katla struck the final blow on the howler, punching a fist-sized hole in its side before exploding with a thunderclap.  The sorceress looked at Donyxn as the creature died.  He was in bad shape, but still on his feet.

 

Or at least he was until the third crossbow bolt struck him in the chest and knocked him back ten feet.  As the tiefling lay on his back, spectral whiffs of energy began to emerge from his wounds.  His soul was leaving his dead body.

 

“No!” Katla shouted, turning back to the master.  

 

The thing stood there, about fifty feet away, it’s arms raised in the air as it shouted with delight.  “It was I!  I killed the leader!”  And with that the master exploded, chunks of its body raining down upon everything in a hundred foot radius.  

 

Almont was already rushing to Donyxn’s side, his left hand pulling his holy symbol medallion out from under his breastplate, his right reaching for a scroll tube on his belt.  Kent brought the Grinder to an abrupt halt, leaping from the vehicle and running toward them with all the speed his magic boots could muster.

 

“We only have moments,” Almont said.  “Get the bolts out of him while I start the spell!”

 

Kent and Katla looked at one another and back at the cleric.

 

“It doesn’t matter how much damage you do now!  If I bring him back with those things still in him, he’ll die again!  Do it!”  The priest had the scroll out of the tube and held it open.

 

Kent and Katla pushed the bolts through their friend roughly, the wet sounds almost too much for them to bear.

 

Almont took off his medallion and held it against Donyxn’s chest with his left hand.  With his right he held the scroll aloft and spoke the incantation.  As soon as the last syllable escaped his lips, the medallion flashed brightly and the tiefling partially sat up, taking in a noisy gasp as the soul-stuff that had been leaving his body was immediately sucked back inside.  With that he fell back to the ground, his breath shallow and raspy.

 

Kent fell back and sat on the ground, his arms wrapped around his knees.  The kneeling Katla put her hands on the ground, her head dropping as she wept quietly.  Almont cast aside the now blank scroll and looked at the ranger has he prepared some additional healing spells.  Donyxn was alive, but just barely.

 

“Remind me…” Donyxn rasped.  “Remind me not to do that again.”  He started to chuckle but coughed up blood.

 

 

Almont worked his healing magic on the group, expending the last of his reserves.  He knew after a rest he’d be able to cast spells again, but the feeling of depletion made him anxious.  If anything else were to come calling, he knew they would be in a lot of trouble.

 

Fortunately the next half day passed uneventfully and everyone found themselves back at more-or-less full strength.  As they packed up their gear, Almont reached into the bag of holding and tossed something to Donyxn.  “Here, you might want to start using this.”

 

Donyxn caught the item.  It was the magical Hat of Disguises they’d been given by Red Ruth.  

 

“He’s right, boy,” said Kent.  “Seems that everybody in hell is on the lookout for you.  Might be best to change your appearance a bit.”

 

Donyxn nodded and put on the hat.  After a few minutes his appearance had definitely changed.  Sure, he still looked like a tiefling.  But now his coloring was blue instead of red, and he horns had a different shape.  He also looked a bit shorter.

 

Kent gave him the once over and shrugged.   “It’ll do.  I guess it can’t fix ugly.”

 

 

They drove south toward the fortress.  Lola became more and more animated the closer they got, her incessant chatting starting to get on everyone’s nerves a bit.  “We’re so close now!” she said both out loud and in their minds.

 

When they arrived it was hard to rectify Lola’s obvious excitement with what confronted them.

 

“This is what you were looking forward to getting to?”  Kent asked, his nose crinkling from the stench.

 

“Yes!  This is the fortress I created!”

 

They were on the edge of a swamp of sorts, but instead of water and muck coming up around their feet, the liquid that emerged was blood.  In the center was what looked like a gruesome scab emerging from the ground and rising in a mound about forty feet across and other forty high.  Emerging from the top of it like a splinter was a ten-foot tall alabaster tower.  It was as if the fortress was a wound on the surface and Avernus was trying to heal over it.

 

The less said about the smell the better.

 

Lola left the party and rose in the hot, putrid air, slowly circling the edifice.  She hovered at a point near the top before turning back to the group.  “There’s a hole in the scab up here we can use to get inside.”

 

Kent looked at the blood squishing around his boots.  “Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.”

 

They opted to leave the vehicles on solid ground, tying themselves to one another with rope to make sure no one got stuck as they walked to the scab.  Lola set a grappling hook into the hole and they scampered up and inside.

 

“The main door should be down at the bottom.  I can feel it!  C’mon, let’s go!”  Lola began to head down the curved tunnel.

 

Kent eyed the walls as they began to walk.  “Something clearly made these,” he said to no one in particular.

 

It quickly became apparent that these tunnels ran along the outside of the temple.  At some intersections they had to decide if they wanted to continue forward and down, or backtrack down a tube that went below the one they’d just emerged from.  The entire thing was maddening, though in reality they shouldn’t have too far to go.

 

At one point they came upon a chamber, and in it a pair of demons fought over the body of a dead devil.  After one killed the other, Kent snuck in and slashed the wounded survivor with his scimitar, Katla finishing it off with a blast of Eldritch energy.  “Almont too easy,” Kent muttered as he wiped the ichor from his blade.

 

As they continued down, a buzzing sound began to rise from the path ahead, getting louder and louder with each step.  When it became apparent the tunnel was going to open up into a chamber they crouched along the wall as Kent crept forward to take a peek.

 

The ceiling here was about fifteen feet high, and chained to it was a barbed devil.  Three huge flies, each the size of a halfling, buzzed about, biting away chunks of the devil as it howled in pain.  The path continued via another tunnel across the room.

 

Kent turned back.  “The good news is there are only three of them.”  He turned to Katla.  “The bad news is they’re flying.”  Katla’s hatred of flying things was well established at this point.

 

“They seem pretty pre-occupied.  I say we just try to casually walk through,” Kent suggested.

 

That seemed a bit optimistic, but they’d be ready to do battle with the flies if need be, so that’s the plan they went with.  The plan worked for about two seconds, until the flies saw them and attacked.

 

The battle was both harsh and brief.  As always seem to be the case with flying things Katla took more than her share of injuries, the sorceress diverting some of her attack spells to help Almont and leaving herself exposed.  Having just watched Donyxn die for however brief a moment left them all a bit anxious when they saw the magnitude of Katla’s wounds.  They had come close to having a second death on their hands, and they hadn’t even reached the entrance to the temple yet.

 

Kent delivered the killing blow on the last of the remaining flies, his newfound death ritual this time yielding up a piece of volcanic rock that remained warm to the touch.  He stashed it inside his robe with his other death trinkets.  

 

As they surveyed the carnage and Almont approached Katla to work some healing magic, their attention was diverted back to the ceiling.  

 

“Get me down from here!  Get me down, damn you all!” shouted the devil.