The portals were... Interesting. Thus far they had uncovered three of them, one each for air, earth and fire elementals. The portals had spat out ten elementals before seeming to refuse to spit out more. Damiondred used them largely for practice, and the party had settled down near one of them to eat some lunch and patch their wounds. Xzar dithered about for a moment, before sitting down and rubbing his temples.
"You're worried about drawing on me, aren't you. Because of what Irenicus said."
The necromancer's head came up as he glanced over, before hunkering down once more and nodding slowly. "Will it hasten your end? What far-reaching consequences will this have on you, now lacking your divine soul? We already determined that utilizing it to heal you is more a matter of simply re-distributing your own energy, and that thus - while it will heal you - tires you after a period of time. Dare I draw repeatedly while we are in the Underdark, as the only one with healing capabilities applicable to others? Hexxat is fine, she recovers on her own and we have a singular ring of regeneration to share, but for the rest of us? A conjurer, a necromancer and half-baked priest, a blade and a catatonic girl-child. These are all things that must be considered."
"Use it. If someone is dying, use it. If you are dying, use it. I don't care if it makes me tired, you are all useless to me dead and there are only so many charges of the rod left." Damiondred sighed, before rubbing his temples. "Now then. The gnome we freed, they said they had a home nearby that we could collect a reward at? Maybe this gesture of good will we did for them can help us find where we need to go."
The gnomes were indeed willing to help them, on the condition that they were helped first. Considering the description of the problem he found he couldn't fault them, considering the sheer number of lives being lost on a regular basis to this creature in the pit. They stood outside the stone doors as the gnome guarding it scampered back before the archer rubbed his temples once more. The world around him froze, and everything felt particularly heavy before the world around him started moving smoothly once more.
"Did... Anyone else feel that?"
"(Great, now the monkey is going crazy.) No, Great Leader." Edwin sneered, before folding his arms. "What is the plan? You usually make one."
"Standard tactics, really. Xzar is on dispel and counter duty, you light it up and hit it as hard as you can with your spells, Hexxat will ambush while Haer'Dalis goes into a defensive spin. I'll provide cover and distract as needed." The archer tested the bowstring, grunting slightly before drawing an arrow and nocking it. "Everyone ready?"
They nodded, those of them that could at least. Imoen was left out in the hall as the rest stepped through and into the small room. Damiondred glanced back at her before he his head over the edge of the pit. Glowing red eyes met his own, before a creature of fire and scales hauled itself out. Twelve feet tall, with forward curving horns and bat-like wings, it was wreathed in fire and rumbled out a chuckle as it drew a flaming sword from its side and teased the whip off of its other hip.
"Oh, how quaint, the little sausages sent taller, meatier prospects to try their hand at banishing me."
The whip cracked through the air, before it was upon them.
"Scatter!" The Bhaalspawn watched the world flicker grey, taking a moment to study the demon (devil?) and mentally lining up his first shot. Haer'Dalis had gotten a head start, moving in even as it started to talk, and he had a fairly solid defense. Hexxat was perched on the ceiling, lined up for where she could jump down. He knew the two casters behind him were already prepared, in fact Edwin had already launched into his first spell. Satisfied, he relaxed and let the world around him begin moving once more and fired his first shot. It scraped off of the scales and clattered against the wall.
Haer'Dalis caught the first blow of the creatures sword, and was almost crushed under the weight behind it for all that he managed to slide it to the side. It hit the ground with a heavy thud before he dropped abruptly to the ground as the sword came sweeping across and on an upwards angle. It clipped the tiefling and sent him sprawling to the side where he rolled and regained his feet, grinning viciously as he brandished both daggers and shouted.
"Ahhh, mayhap THIS will be the end!"
His cry drew another rumbled chuckle from the creature as it lashed back without looking, catching Hexxat by surprise and about the waist with the whip and hurling her towards the archer and two casters. Xzar stepped forward, catching her with a grunt to try and prevent her from slamming into Edwin and ruining his spell as it went off. The fire elemental he had conjured turned towards the creature only to catch the now flaming sword across the chest, staggering against the wall where it smouldered fitfully and recovered. Frowning, the archer fired off a second arrow and hit the creature dead center in the chest, and stared blankly as it bounced off and clattered against the floor.
"Ohh, I like that look." It grinned at the bhaalspawn, red lips pulling back to reveal yellowish, jagged teeth before looking down at the blade and almost casually driving its sword down through his torso. "The first step to despair! You cannot hurt me, no more than the little sausages could, the biting of gnats against the hide of a god!"
Hexxat hit it in the side, driving the short sword up and blinking as it sank deep before it was wrenched from her grasp, the creature having turned and back handed her into the wall. It ignored the fire elemental and the ineffective way it slammed its fists against its hide in favour of advancing on the archer and the two casters. One caster, the archer realized as the fire elemental went berserk and started lashing out at everything and anything that was close to it, and he glanced back in time to see only thin air where Edwin had been. Xzar looked at him and gave him a slight shove, smiling softly.
"Run."
The whip coiled about the necromancer's waist before plucking him from where he stood and slamming him against the ground. Damiondred took two steps and saw his sister was also gone. Closing his eyes, he thought that if he could feel such, he would likely have been thankful that at least the Thavian had snagged her before bolting before he turned back to the creature as it brought its sword to bear. It wouldn't be much time, but he would buy what time he could.
"Did... Anyone else feel that?"
"(Great, now the monkey is going crazy.) No, Great Leader." Edwin sneered, before folding his arms. "What is the plan? You usually make one."
"Standard tacti-" Damiondred paused, only to turn and study the conjurer for a long moment. "... Say there was something twelve feet tall, with forward sweeping horns in there. Red scaled hide, wreathed in fire. Flaming sword in one hand, burning whip in the other. Would you say the appropriate course of action would be to call up a fire elemental, hope that its inherent fire resistance protected it from the elemental damage before running for your life?"
The Thavian pondered for a moment before nodding. "If it was what you described? Very much so."
"Why? What fits that description?"
"(As if I would stay to fight such a thing!) A type six demon. I would have said it had the possibility of being a pit fiend, but no. The weapons you describe are unique to the Balor." He adjusted his robes somewhat, before his eyes darted to the doorway. "... Though sometimes they wield swords made of lightning. Why? You have a supernatural knack for calling a situation. Do you think there is one in there?"
"... Leader?" Xzar peered at him, frowning as he was waved away.
"Edwin, how would you kill something like that, with what we have?" Damiondred refocused on the Thavian as he frowned.
"The only weapons we have that might scratch it would be Hexxat's sword, and the daggers you gave to Haer'Dalis."
"So my arrows would bounce off of it?"
"Yes, Damiondred. They would be ineffective. (Is that not what I just implied?)" Edwin's upper lip curled into a sneer once more before glancing towards the doorway and then down the halls.
"Right." The bhaalspawn started to strip down, carefully laying his weapons aside before his shirt and pants joined them. "Everyone stays out here for a minute."
"Leader-" The necromancer hissed the word out, reaching forward to clutch at his shoulder even as he stepped closer. "You cannot be seriously-"
"I can understand your worry. I know how to control it, and I have about fourty seconds once a day if I really push it before I start risking death." The archer reached out to gently remove Xzar's hand from him, patting it and turning to face the doorway. "Remember. One minute. Haer'Dalis, Hexxat, if it's still up by the end of that, there shouldn't be much left for you to finish off. Xzar, you're in charge of dragging me out of there after that amount of time and Edwin... I'd appreciate it if you didn't run away until at least two people were dead. We still have a chance otherwise."
"B-but..." His priest curled slightly, shoulders hunching as an ugly, miserable look crossed his face. "... I will count. On the fourty fifth measure I enter."
"I suppose I'll have to accept that then. Just make sure you start after I change."
Damiondred peered down into the pit, and glowing red eyes met his own before a creature of fire and scales hauled itself out. Twelve feet tall, with forward curving horns and bat-like wings, it was wreathed in fire and rumbled out a chuckle as it drew a flaming sword from its side and teased the whip off of its other hip.
"Oh, how quaint, the little sausages sent a taller, meatier prospect to try their hand at banishing me." It paused, squinting down at him. "... Are you naked?"
"Very naked." Damiondred agreed as he tucked his hands on his hips, puffing his cheeks out. "I have to ask, you -are- a Balor, right? A type six demon? One of the ones powerful enough to send conjurers fleeing at the very prospect?"
It threw back its head and laughed. "In all my millennia, I have never been faced down by a naked man before. You've -tickled- me, mortal, so i'll humour your last request of a question. I am. Are those your companions, hiding outside by the door?"
"In all my years, I've never faced down a demon naked before, so I'll humour your last request of a question. They are."
It threw back its head as it laughed, wheezing for a moment as the crackle of twisting bones and tearing flesh drew its attention. Burning red eyes met pools of black, slitted black irises contracting as two points of white met them. It looked down at the Slayer, a mere two feet shorter and all sinuous muscle lined with spikes as the bhaalspawn looked up at it before the balor bellowed and brought the sword up.
It wasn't fast enough, as the Slayer bound forward and abruptly skittered aside to dodge, claws raking across to tear deep furrows across the demons chest and then grunting as the whip was abandoned in favour of a straight punch that rocketed into the Slayers stomach. Damiondred staggered back, dropping one clawed hand to touch his stomach gently before looking back up to the demon. Black and red mottled scales shifted as he grinned before flexing his tail behind him. Two experimental steps taught him how it altered his balance, and he lowered his head before charging.
The balor stepped forward, slashing the sword across and scraping it across the bhaalspawn's scales, sending fragments scattering across the ground with the faintest splatter of blood before it brought it down once more, snarling. Damiondred sidestepped the blade, before turning slightly and catching the demon with his shoulder, driving it back against the wall. It reversed its grip before snarling as the Slayer trapped one hand against the wall and clawing with its free hand, trying to pry the bhaalspaawn off of it. It managed to gain the slightest bit of space, only to stiffen as fanged jaws closed about its throat, bit deep, and then tore back.
It dropped the sword to its other hand before trying to slam the blade down and through Damiondred's back, catching it across the spines that deflected the majority of the blow, spoiling the aim so that it scraped down across the flank and side instead as the Slayer lurched forward, teeth snapping about the bloodied mess that was the demons neck and tearing the gasping, wheezing balor's head off. The body shuddered, before red lines began to suffuse the skin, growing brighter rapidly.
Xzar watched from the doorway, eyes wide as the demon exploded in a burst of concussive force and flame, throwing the Slayer back and causing him to skitter and slide as he fought to keep his feet. Wisps of smoke curled off of him before he looked back to note the necromancer and lifted one hand up, fingers folded with the thumb pointed towards the ceiling. The hand lowered as Damiondred went down onto all fours and focused through the impending pain of the transformation back.
That quicksave though.
I've been waiting to kill Saemon simply because I aaabsolutely dislike him, for so long now. You're also right, Nimloth! Except it's not so specific as people having individual colours but the standard alignment colours. Green for good, blue for neutral and red for evil, and then darker to lighter for chaotic to orderly. Red also colours people along their hands and arms dependent on how much they've killed and why, because rampant murderhoboing (like Xzar) tends to be evil while in self defense and infrequent murderhoboing in the name of continued survival (like Haer'Dalis) is more seen as a neutral thing. Haer'dalis is a chaotic one, but the silvery isn't white, it's a shiny (because the man radiates a flashy sort of flare - okay, maybe there's room for a little personalization) grey versus Xzar's darker grey of rampant cannibalism and indiscriminate tenancy to just... Kill random people. Damion's had a bit of an influence on that, so it's not as dark as it used to be but it's still pretty dark.
Regarding the balor, I was surprised that such a powerful demon was in a pit but when I did a bit of research that's... Actually what it seemed to be, minus the fire aoe. I did a test of how many hits it took to kill it with the Slayer form and it was four, because somehow in my run I crit twice and it made me pause at just how powerful the Slayer form seems to be. And while I don't think it explodes in game, it certainly does via the statblock.
I'm all caught up for once to my game, so I'll have to play a bit further and then write the next chapter.
Questions? Comments? Consistency issues?
Leave a message after the tone,
-KD