Hi all,
Last session was pretty much just 1 big battle. The lancers of the (undead) Order of the Vengeful Word (not Golden Lance as I said before; different thing) charged you. Boamund evoked a wall of flame around you, and Ciddar conjured darkness in front of him to obscure his location, but just as the knights closed in, there was a dull flash and the magics vanished, leaving you exposed to the piercing bone spears! Maugis took a horrible wound, whereas the others emerged safely with minimal wounds. Boamund struck a horse in the leg but it barely stumbled; Ciddar's sword clanged off a knight's shield, while the others were closely targeted by the lances and had to dive clear. Ahappi was enraged not to be able to face Sir Not, who charged Boamund, and the Captain was cut off trying to maneuver to attack his hated foe. You tried to espy the nature of these knights, but it was hidden behind their corroded plate armour. There seemed to be worms there, as were abundant in the zombified flesh of the horses, but there seemed to be more to those knights, too. Yet you had precious little time to inspect them.
As the lancers circled back, it was revealed that their charge covered the advance of a second group of horrors that had previously been hidden in magical shadows and cover. Seven misshapen monstrosities, combining bodies of humans with warped body parts and squirming vile flesh-eating worms, lumbered forth. Maugis let loose his most powerful Palsy spell and three of them fell crippled, but the four others kept coming. One was a woman half-consumed and replaced by a giant worm-like tentacle, which oozed worms and acted as a terrible lash. It soon faced Maugis, and dealt him wicked wounds about his face that left him blinded and barely alive. Another was two bodies fused together at their heads, with a third torso/head perched atop them and wielding a barbed whip. Ahappi faced this, and soon wore it down. The third was a legless thing walking on its hands and having a gruesome maw ringed with fangs and sporting a giant, worm-infested tongue. Ciddar battled it and was bitten/clawed to near-death- he was saved from having his guts devoured by it when Ahappi ran over and speared it. The fourth was the worst. It was a giant obese man, double the normal size and limbs, with brutal apelike strength. Boamund fought it, and soon Cyroosta too, and it dealt powerful blows with fists and gripping strangulation. But together you brought it down, pulverisizing its great face. Once these four monstrosities were felled, you easily dispatched the crippled ones.
But Inyana cried in sadness and horror as she saw Maugis and Ciddar suffering from worm infestations in their wounds that threatened to kill them (1 party Luck Point had been used in the process-you're down to your last 1). She cried in desperation and woe-and somehow, the magic of the quest seemed to answer The Queen! There was a bright light that sprang from her, and you were bathed in its healing glow. The worms were burned away, and your wounds healed (+1HP all locations). Wow! You were reminded of her similar outburst during your confrontation with the riverside ghost early in the quest, when she washed it away with a similar cry. Was it her power alone, or something broader you could call upon as a questing group? You did not know. Another cry of anguish, though, came from the Captain and came unanswered. As you fought the horde, the knights and the two mysterious figures who had stood in the distance throughout the battle simply had trotted off. Ahappi's vengeance on Sir Not remained unresolved! Inyana, in turn, was left shaken by the encounter, growing more and more uncertain of the quest and her place in it, or in the world. Her demeanor was no longer bright and chipper, and she seldom spoke but kept her attention firmly on the dolesome burden she carried in the wheelbarrow.
You regrouped and limped onwards, still disturbed and wounded from this fight. And a second one soon loomed, as once again the knights and their 2 other companions blocked the desolate road ahead. Would Ahappi get his chance now?
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