Esther stepped back from the grizzly scene, careful not to get blood on her, still in shock from the incredible strength of her friend. As Delly turned toward Vulder, Esther moved to follow when Gracie arrested her. {Jace says he wants you to get Ahbid’s mace,} the operator said.
“What for?” Esther asked, eyeing a potential path through the crimson lake to the dead paladin. “He can’t use it. Besides, you don’t loot in the middle of a fight.”
{He probably has a plan he isn’t telling me,} Gracie said.
Esther shrugged, knowing that Jace usually had good reasons for what he wanted. The rogue danced around the pooling blood as she approached the fallen knight. With her unique skills, she only needed to touch the magical weapon with her foot to snatch it into her inventory. Still, the move had cost her time, and when she turned to help Delly, the barbarian was already engaged with the fighters protecting Vulder.
Ferrick and Dreller had stepped forward from their flanking positions and dared to engage the enraged woman. They each glowed with a soft light, and Delly’s powerful axe strikes didn’t do nearly as much damage as they had against Ahbid. Most of her hits bounced off their shields.
{It looks like Protection from Slashing,} Gracie said. {It isn’t as good as Immunity, only reducing the damage and strikes by half, but they can move around and attack.}
Esther winced as the two men struck back, one with a sword and the other with the scorpion flail. From what Jace had said, Esther understood that these characters, who had aligned themselves with the plague’s dark magic, would have reduced effectiveness against Delly with the power of the desert flowing through her, and their strikes reflected this. Ferrick barely did more than ten damage with each hit, and Dreller did even less, the poison in his weapon ineffective against the enraged woman.
Tenesta was the least magical in the group, so her attacks were affected the least, and she peppered the female barbarian with arrows. Still, Delly’s rage-induced Damage Reduction was so high that each shaft did less than ten damage, although they apparently caused significant pain as Delly winced continuously.
Esther was still looking for an opening when she saw a pair of hammers fly in and then a wicked dagger. She turned to see Odalga and her blacksmith dwarf joining the fight. The rogue thought that would be an excellent choice to help but saw Jace, Draya, and Psycho take them on. {If you want to help, take out the priest casting the slashing protection,} Gracie said.
Esther nodded and turned toward the rest of the characters. Paltine and Pok were attempting to cast spells against Delly but failing. They eventually turned to the rest of the crowd, and Esther instinctively rolled to the side to get out of their deadly sights. She hated being mind-controlled. Paltine could obviously have her do anything he wanted, and as a necromancer, Pok would have bonuses for controlling a vampire. They might have seen her, but it didn’t matter as a cloud of dark smoke enveloped them, and lighting flashed through it, producing screams of pain from the two magic users.
The rogue looked over her shoulder and saw Gromphy pulling another bomb from his vest and running toward the two powerful characters. This left Kelrick and Jaheed. The alchemist kept feeding the priest potions, and the former associate of Ahbid continued to cast protection spells and buffs on the fighters engaging Delly. Esther raced toward the pair and was tripped up when an orange blur intersected her path and kicked her behind the knee.
Esther avoided cutting herself on her blades and rolled back to her feet to look at one of Ahbid’s monks. The rogue remembered the two of them being thrown in opposite directions and that one had hit the two magic users who now fought through Gromphy’s attack. She must have escaped the cloud. “Do you really think you can take me by yourself?” Esther asked, turning to face the lone woman and sheathing one of her blades so she could more effectively Grapple if need be.
“No,” the monk said through her face covering, “but I can distract you for a moment.”
Esther realized her mistake too late and turned back toward her original targets to see a black vial finish its flight toward her and explode around her feet. Because of the distraction, there was no time to evade the throw, and she made eye contact with the alchemist a moment before a ten-foot circle turned to slick oil around her feet. Still, she tried to scramble away but slipped and fell hard against the floor. “Not again,” she cursed. “I hate oil.” As soon as the memory of battling the squid with Psycho came back to her, tentacles emerged from the black patch, and Grappled the rogue.
Esther cut the first one off at the base and easily wrestled herself free of the second, but then two grabbed her at once, one around a leg and the other around the free arm that didn’t hold a weapon. She managed to slice one more off before her other arm was secured tight. She struggled just enough to know she was stuck. The rogue sensed she had the skill to possibly escape, except the slick floor meant any bonus she got to her Athletic skill from her Dexterity was reduced to nothing.
“At least they aren’t hurting me,” Esther said. As if mocking her statement, she heard sounds from her left and turned her head to see three poisonous snakes slithering toward her.
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Jace watched the fight unfold while casting his regular defensive spells and buffs, waiting for the right time to enter the battle. Delly had just taken two hammers to her back and one knife. Though the blade was small, it struck the back of the woman’s neck, and she froze for a moment as her barbarian rage forced a success on a Death Save. Odalga was level 21 and probably had many of the same skills as Psycho. A Death Shot ability with knives from close range was a real possibility, and he didn’t know how many more of those Delly could absorb.
“Psycho, Draya,” he said. “Take out that group!” He pointed toward Odalga, her dwarf, and the desert wizard.
Psycho acted first and leveled his bow at the trio. Odalga looked hesitant about what to do, but the dwarf already had two more hammers magically appear in his hands and was cocked back, ready to throw. The archer’s arrow took him through the temple, and his weapons fell to the floor, followed a second later by his dead body. The wizard had cast a few buff spells on his companions and was now preparing an attack when the shot came in. He turned his attention from the barbarian to the group on his left. Before he released his spell, he took a face full of dragonfire in a six-second-long stream. He fell next to the dwarf, burnt to a crisp.
Odalga had ducked out of the way of the fire and now came up, having changed targets and let her deadly dagger fly toward Jace’s group. The large orc stepped in front of his more vulnerable companions. The dagger shattered the entirety of the Stone Skin spell he had cast, which he had expected. Psycho stepped around his leader to fire an arrow at the rogue sniper. The woman smiled and casually reached up to catch the shaft inches from her chest, shaking her head. This, Jace hadn’t expected.
Draya wasn’t fazed and leveled her staff at the woman. “Catch this!” she quipped but then screamed out in pain and danced about as she looked down at her feet. A snake had just bit her, and half a dozen more gathered around the trio, ready to strike. Psycho-changed targets and used Rapid Fire to nail three snakes to the wooden floor.
“Watch out for the local fauna,” Odalga laughed as she drew another knife and summoned the power to make a killing throw. “They can attack when you least . . .” her voice cut off in a surprised scream as a giant anaconda wrapped around her legs and dragged her to the floor. Within seconds, Snowy entrapped her entire body and started to squeeze.
Jace trusted his familiar to take care of business with the deadly woman and turned to his group. Psycho had killed three more snakes, and Draya flamed another before the rest decided to find easier targets. “Where’s Gromphy?” Jace asked. The small goblin was easy to lose. An explosion to his right stole his attention for a moment, and he saw a small storm cloud inside the throne room with Gromphy running toward it. Jace chose to trust him. Before they had entered the room, the orc Shaman had told his crafter to focus on the magic users if a battle broke out. One hit from any of the warriors would likely kill the goblin, but he had a chance against Paltine, Pok, and Kelrick. Gromphy’s Magic Defense was the best on Jace’s team, and he had told the crafter to buff it further with potions, spells, and items if he could.
He turned back to Draya to see the woman in pain and turning blue. He looked down at her swollen ankle, where the snake had bitten her. “I need a potion,” she gasped. Gromphy had designed pockets in all their clothes so they could retrieve certain items without entering their inventory, but it still took a round to drink it. Jace and Psycho turned their back on the mage to ward off any attacker that might take advantage of the momentarily vulnerable woman.
Jace found Chago waiting for him, both swords drawn and smiling. “I’ve wanted to fight you for a long time,” he said and swung his blades in a dizzying array. Jace had Diamond Etcher in his hands, and his foot sought out a line of marble in the floor to stand on. He felt a connection to his Armor totem a moment before the first sword attack hit home. Jace parried just in time, barely got a second block up for the other blade, and then stabbed back between them.
The quick fighter jumped out of the way and then swept back in, low and high simultaneously. Jace realized too late that he should have turned his parrying to automatic in order to block the two attacks and failed to parry the low one. With a strike strong enough to sever most character’s legs, Chago’s blade bounced off the thick quad muscles of the orc, with all of the damage going to his totem nearby. Even without harming Jace, the strength of the blow knocked him back a step, and he lost contact with his totem.
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Jace didn’t manage to block either of the following two attacks but put up a strong enough defense to prevent any critical strikes. Without a connection to his totems, he took over 100 damage, and his opponent smiled. “Seems your vaunted skill was all hype,” Chago laughed, dodging another counterattack from Jace and pressing hard the next round.
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Psycho didn’t have an obvious enemy waiting for him, so he contemplated taking a shot at the half-orc archer across the room. Tenesta wasn’t doing much damage to Delly, but if she ever changed targets, she could kill Draya or Gromphy with one shot. Before he fired, the elf heard the sound of broken glass behind him. Did Draya just drop her potion? He turned to see the vial on the floor, the spilled antidote wasted, and Draya not readily visible. A flash of orange caught his peripheral, and he spun to see a female monk pulling Draya toward the side of the room. Though the young mage was slightly taller than the robed figure, and the shorter fighter stood behind her, leaving barely anything for Psycho to shoot at, it was enough.
The skilled archer let fly, and the arrow should have pierced the monk’s shoulder, but instead, it seemed to get caught up in her orange clothing, like he was shooting a banner flapping in the breeze. With her dragon staff in her hands, Draya had supernatural strength running through her, and it was just enough to resist the monk and keep her from acquiring a secure hold. However, the smaller fighter changed tactics, and instead of trying to lock her up, she performed a disarming attack, and the weapon clattered to the floor.
Instantly, Draya felt herself weaken, even more so with the poison still racing through her body. She knew better than to struggle against the superior character behind her. Training with Esther had taught her that. Still, she was Securly Grappled with her arms pinned to her side and limited to activities that took only one action. She dropped a minor fireball at her feet. The monk screamed in surprise more than pain, but she did let go.
Draya collapsed on her staff, picked it up, and rolled to her back, lacking the strength to stand. As she turned, she held her weapon at one end and swept at the Monk. The woman’s robes glowed with red lines from the fire attack, and she was already scrambling back toward Draya. The blunt weapon pushed through her flapping robes and struck hard on her left side. She stumbled to the right, crashing into an empty snake holder.
Psycho understood instantly. “Right,” he said to himself. “Blunt attacks to get through those magical clothes.” He pulled special hammer arrows Gromphy had crafted for him and let three of them fly in rapid succession. The monk had just righted herself from Draya’s attack and looked warily down at the weekend mage, ready to dodge the next staff strike. She took a step toward the fallen woman and then reeled back as the three arrows hit her in the shoulder, head, and stomach like the rapid combo from a heavyweight boxer. Each arrow did 50 damage, and she was close to half-health. She dropped to a knee and looked up at Psycho as he prepared more arrows. The archer thought he saw a smile in her eyes and wondered why when two orange-clad arms wrapped around his torso and threw him to the ground.
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Gromphy watched the magic users as the battle around him grew to a fevered pitch. Paltine tried two different spells against Delly, and the barbarian never flinched. The goblin shook his head in disappointment. The last few minutes had been a detailed discussion about how their magic and abilities would be useless against the woman, and that was when she had worn the choker. Still, the powerful mage wasted two spells and lots of mana against her.
Pok only wasted one, and when it failed, he turned his eyes away from the woman to look for a different target. His face broadened to a sickening grin when he saw the dead paladin on the floor. A round later, the knight’s arms and legs began to twitch and jitter as the necromancer filled it with undead magic. Raising a level 22 character wasn’t as simple as summoning skeletons, and it would take a while, giving Gromphy a chance to stop it.
At eye level with the snakes who had all crawled off their poles, the goblin looked vulnerable, but he had a natural quickness to evade them. They attacked in the blink of an eye, but they moved laterally across the floor much slower, and as long as he stayed at least three feet from them, they didn’t have a chance to attack. He took a long route around Ahbid’s body, not wanting Pok to see him, and closed to throwing distance.
The storm bomb was a new invention of his, and he wished he had thought of it back in his module days when he was the weapon smith for the defenders of the Torrintank Keep. Tossing those from the top of the wall at the invading army would have been fun. It worked reasonably well here, too, and caused enough damage to the two mages to disrupt Pok’s spell, and the dead paladin lay suddenly still. He doubled down with a second bomb for good measure.
Gromphy pulled a monocle out of his vest and put it on before running headlong into the cloud. He could see clearly through the eyepiece and, as the caster of the spell, the lightning ignored him. After drawing a weapon, he came upon Pok’s legs quickly. His tiny dagger could barely produce enough damage to rise above the necromancer’s measly Damage Reduction, but the poison he had coated it with rivaled that of a king cobra, and the dark mage howled in agony as his leg went rigid with pain.
The goblin hoped the man would confuse him for a snake bite and spun around to find Paltine. The other mage had already stepped out of the cloud and prepared a spell aimed toward Jace. Gromphy stabbed hard at his calf, and the knife bounced off a magical barrier harmlessly. Still, it grabbed Paltine’s attention, and instead of releasing the spell toward the player, he hurled it down at the goblin.
Gromphy’s entire existence was suddenly pain and despair. Even with his Magic Defense as high as he had ever made it, that spell attack had forced itself through. As the goblin dropped his dagger and stumbled back, Paltine cried out in astonishment. “How are you still standing, you rat-faced gnome? You should be a shriveled dead prune.”
Gromphy almost wished he was dead and understood he must have saved against half the spell’s strength. What would it have done to Jace? As the mage turned to regard him fully, the crafter staggered back into the storm cloud and dropped another bomb at Paltine’s feet. A column of ice rose straight up around the mage, encasing him in a solid block. Gromphy didn’t think it would hold him for long and hastily pulled a few more vials out of his vest while he stood in the cloud cover. It took two potions for him to shake off the aftereffects of whatever deathly spell the mage had cast, and he drank a third to edge his Magic Defense even higher.
Cracks were already forming in the icy prison around Paltine, and Gromphy reached into his bag of tricks and pulled a feline figurine to summon a panther. The black cat swirled into existence just as the last bits of ice cracked and popped off the powerful mage. The cat didn’t have Gromphy’s ability to see in the storm cloud, so the goblin had to shove it in the right direction. Once it left the fog, it found Paltine shaking the last bits of ice out of his robe.
The panther’s first attack with its claws bounced off the mage’s magical defense, but it could attack much faster than Gromphy and the crafter knew it would break through in short order. He left his pet to do its work and turned to locate Pok. The necromancer was dragging himself out of the cloud, his left leg useless and in pain while lightning still struck him once every round. Once free from the fog, he could see more clearly and rose to limp toward Kelrick and Jaheed.
Gromphy chased after him through the cloud and then approached the three powerful characters carefully, knowing any of them could kill him even though they weren’t warriors. The priest had cast a sanctuary spell on himself, making him invulnerable to all attacks and unable to do anything offensive. That was fine since he was only aiding his side with healing and protection spells.
The alchemist kept him at full strength with potions to augment his mana regeneration, increase the effectiveness of his spells, and raise his key abilities. Kelrick wasn’t skilled enough to produce the mana restoration potions Gromphy could make, so he needed several different concoctions to achieve the same result. The alchemist took a break to craft an antidote potion for Pok, and Gropmhy ran up behind the pair to stab the necromancer in the other leg with a second dagger coated with an entirely different poison.
Pok screamed out in pain again, and before Kelrick could figure out why, the elusive goblin stabbed him too.
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Delly grew tired. At first, the strength that filled her seemed limitless. She was used to growing fatigued after several rounds, but this new power lasted much longer. Her usual barbarian rage granted her agility, finesse, and precision, and the fatigue it left her with was manageable. She still felt those same attributes flow through her, but now they combined with Sonan’s tremendous strength, and she was a killing machine. Or, she should have been.
She had taken Ahbid down in one shot, but these other fighters were sturdier. As a barbarian, she wasn’t as attuned to magic as Leah, Tami, and Esther, and it took her a while to realize Ferrick and Dreller were receiving help. Five successful attacks from her were enough to drain them to almost nothing, but then they always healed back up to maximum. Also, her attacks weren’t doing nearly enough damage. And half of her attacks bounced harmlessly off their shields. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t break through their defenses to get at Vulder, standing ten feet behind them.
At first, the Vice-Regent looked on in horror at the rage-filled woman intent on killing him, but as his fighters stood fast against the onslaught and Delly’s health slowly ticked down, he grew more confident. “You can’t hope to kill us all,” he boasted. “The land’s power is no match for the plague.”
It was the implication that she was fighting them all that made her look around and see the priest casting spells in her direction. He was the one responsible for healing the men and protecting them from her attacks. Jaheed wasn’t united to the dark power of the plague like Vulder’s crew was. In fact, he was a Child of the Desert, and his spells weren’t vulnerable to her power.
She took a few steps back and caught her breath, trying to search out how much strength she had left. Taking a moment, she saw the faint glimmers of protective energy around the two fighters that stood their ground at the base of the throne. She looked up at Vulder and saw no protection. If she could only get past the men . . .
To her left, she saw Tenesta still firing the ineffective arrows at her. If only Delly had a ranged weapon, then she could strike a blow at Lord Vulder. An idea crept into her mind, and she dropped her shield to hold her axe with two hands and hoist it high on her left side, bracing as if she were going to charge recklessly forward. Dreller, on her left, held his scorpion shield out wide, preparing for the attack.
With a terrific shout of rage, she ran forward several steps, and Dreller raised his defense. At the last moment, she shifted her weapon directly over her head and heaved forward, releasing the handle just as it cleared her forehead. Dreller was out of position, and Ferrick desperately tried to get his shield up to block, but it was too late.
Lord Vulder’s continuous boasts stuck in his throat as he saw the mighty axe flipping over in the air. He had no time to dodge as it traveled fifteen feet in a blink of an eye and sliced deep into his sternum, nearly punching through his spine. Thunder roared in the room, and the pleasant breeze flowing in through the open walls grew instantly cold. Vulder opened his mouth in a silent scream as the weapon’s momentum threw him back into his throne, which toppled over off the raised dias and out of view.
Everyone tied to Lord Vulder staggered as if they, too, had been struck. Delly didn’t wait for them to recover and ran away from the armed fighters and toward the magic users, who were partially obscured by a tiny storm cloud.