A Cornucopia of Trouble

The party was left sitting on opposite sides of the cavern. SD, John Z and Raifer on one and the remainder of the party in the tunnels from which they originally came. The decision was made to regroup on the original side seeing how it was easier to get 3 people across than 16. It was decided to use a Wall of Stone spell to create a pathway across the gap. But it would require 2 castings to get enough of a pathway that would allow them to walk across without too much danger since each strip of stone was reduced to only 9 inches wide due to the distance needed to span the opening. John Z went first and nearly slipped, but caught himself and moved to the far side. Raifer took slower more cautious steps and adeptly crossed. But the bridge swayed under his weight and bobbed up and down quite a bit. SD then crossed. As he neared the center of the bridge, the stone path gave way under the weight and he fell. SD instantly cast a Feather Fall to slow his descent to allow him time to cast a Teleport to arrive at the far side safely, the stone bridge collapsed in front of them. He would have to anchor the path to the ceiling of the cavern for extra strength next time.

Joram arrived just then with additional support troops that had been sent in from the outpost, Warrex the Barbarian and Kayla. These extra folks were brought up to reinforce the party after the heavy losses they had sustained. It was now time to decide how to procede. The decision was to back up away from the opening and make camp for a while, give people a chance to heal and then move on. The group immediately set out praying for Healing spells to end the day and used them once acquired. As the new day came, they healers were once again fully loaded with spells and they employed them. Gauging the injured by severity, the worst injured were healed first and almost all of the healing prayers were used to restore the group to about 75% health across the board. That would have to do for now. The party settled in for watches, more studying, praying and resting.

The rest would not last long. Several of the characters caught a snippet of a sound that reminded them of a cranking noise. The group quickly began to assemble. Kunder checked the party rear only to find that there had been a Wall of Force placed behind them cutting off any chance of retreat. The sound was followed by a slimy dragging sound that was very close. All those with infravision saw nothing approaching, but SD, using his Ultravision, spotted a mass of the cornucopia shaped creatures slithering along the ground closing in on the group. Warrex had one of the copper pieces with a Light spell on it and tossed it forward of the group. As it landed, it illuminated the area, revealing the horde of evil creatures. The group moved in to attack.

It was quickly rediscovered that piercing and slashing weapons do very little damage to these creatures and the party was forced to use the flats of their blades or magic to damage them. John Z set about using his Magic Missiles and downed several of them on 3 attacks. SD, Raifer, Warrex and Yosh met the first onslaught. Turning their weapons to the side, swinging through and smashing several of the smaller creatures. But Raifer was the first struck by a poisonous tendril of the thing. It shot wracking pains through his body, but he was able to resist its' effect. His next move was to slash at the cord where it attached to his body, severing the connection. Agammemnon cast a Bless and Sarsipius cast a Prayer spell to assist the group, and they were needed. Parker cast a Spiritual Hammer to attack from range.

More of the creatures flowed in to fill the gaps left by those dropped. Nord and Jockbar moved in to secure the line. At that moment, another cranking sound was heard by several in the group. It seemed as if the group was cutting through well until Warrex was struck by two of the creatures, and he too, was able to resist the poisons from the attack. He staggered away from the center of the line, dragging one of the things still attached with him as it would not let go. Then a volley of arrows came crashing into the party. More than could be expected in such a small area. SD, Jockbar, Raifer, Yosh, Warrex, Nord, Patrick and Sarsipius were struck. Patrick took the opportunity to fire a humming bulb at the firing source to gauge the distance and found it to be somewhere in his medium range as it struck something solid. Andrya and Duther began blind firing arrows in to the distance.

SD, Yosh and Jockbar were then each now struck by one of the creatures. SD and Yosh were able to shrug it off, but Jockbar was held stiff by the creature. Raifer moved to kill it while Yosh and SD attempted to clear the remaining smaller creatures. John Z decided to use a Fireball. The spell worked too well. It exploded into a larger than wanted ball, killing the last three smaller creatures, but also hitting, Raifer, Yosh, Jockbar and killing Sarsipius.

With the first wave removed, Raifer slipped by the outskirts of the larger creatures in the second wave to investigate down the corridor to find out what had fired the arrows. Up ahead he heard furtive movements and signaled to SD where he thought the sounds originated. Just then, as an opening in the creatures line appeared, Nord charged one with his spear readied. He skewered it, but did not damage it much. He was quickly surrounded by three of the larger beasts. They attacked and Nord was hit 5 times. His body convulsed with pain, but he fought off the effects. John Z used his last Magic Missile on one of them, wounding it badly. PJ raced forward to assist as the rest of the group move in. Patrick now used another humming bulb, this time with flame on it to light the far area. The arrow hit and the flame ignited on the surface to reveal a new figure, one that emmanated an overwhelming feeling of evil, standing in front of some large rectangular wooden block device, which is what the arrow had struck and set fire to.

The creature resembled a Githyanki, only he was taller, heavier, much more solidly built than the typical. His body was covered by a black armour that appeared to be made of Adamantium. The armour was inset with real shrunken skulls. His eyes glowed a dull red and his movements were lithe. PJ announced that this was some form of divine evil creature and it's evil impacted all those in the party with spiritual ties, not just the Paladins.

Now with two fronts to fight, the group moved to quickly destroy the slithering creatures first and were able to kill all but one with their next round of blows. Nord took one more hit from one of the creatures and was left nearly dead. They were able to destroy the last one with one more attack.

Meanwhile, SD attempted to blast the creature with a Lightning Bolt. The Gith made a motion and turned the bolt aside, directing it into the wall next to him, shattering the top layers of stone. Patrick followed with an arrow, which the Gith barely noticed as it was deflected up and away. The Gith then spoke, instructing the party to return from whence they came and never return again or they would all perish. It then began to draw out its' sword. The weapon was one of the Githyanki special silver swords, but this was not an ordinary one. It was a two-handed sword and it glowed magic from every inch. The party knew they had a big problem.

Faced with this large problem, Yosh and Warrex responded as only Barbarians could. They charged to engage the Gith. Raifer moved in cautiously and the rest of the party moved up. Agammemnon decided to try a Dispel Magic on the creature. With that, the fortunes of the group changed. The Gith disappeared, it was only an illusion, but it also revealed that there were 4 Xvarts manning the device that had shot all those arrows and it was now ready to fire again. Yosh and Raifer raced up and leaped on top of the device to swing down on the Xvarts. Warrex moved in to engage the one manning the crank and what he surmised as the firing mechanism. Every one else in the group moved for cover, Agamemnon went to heal Nord and Parker covered his back. But they were a hair too slow and the firing mechanism was triggered. A hail of arrows shot forth and struck several members of the group. Most went harmlessly to the back of the cavern since the group had ducked for cover.

The Xvarts were quickly killed and Raifer was able to knock out one for questioning. It was then that he caught sight of a figure, shapely reminiscent of the illusory creature , springing across a bridge that was now strung across the cavern. He watched closely and saw the hanging bridge, which seemed to be made of stone, raise up into the upper cavern. WIth all the Xvarts neutralized and the area apparently secure, they could once again regroup.

They investigated the arrow launching device. It could fire a great number of arrows at once, but the arrows were special and needed to be made primarily of steel, not just a wooden shaft. It moved easily and very quietly, with a loading crank and firing lever on one end. Raifer decided that this device should come back with them when they left as a defensive mechanism for the outpost.

Next they turned to the Xvart prisoner. SD cast ESP to read his mind. It turns out that this was another slave who was given the choice to either man this device, which they called 'The Porcupine', or dig like the rest. SD would offer him his freedom when this was over. He probed around more for other information and found that there was a bridge for the gap. The lever was on the far side and it lowered a stone work bridge from the ceiling of the cave. The gate the group was seeking was just ahead on the far side and was guarded by Githyanki and Thri-Kreen. The third shift was the least heavily manned and that shift would be on in about 12 hours. The shifts were 4 hours a peice. The creature that was there was the leader of sorts and it lived on the other side of the gate, which lead to the Astral Plane. Which is where the Gith and the Xvart slaves were. He was also able to share that there were several dragons in the caverns and that he large cornucopia worm like creature made its way all through these tunnels and was tended by some other large, horned, winged creature. The Xvart was released and he left quickly.

Next time....

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