strangetrip | Inn-world Combat: The Dread Reign

At the crest of the mountain, Coc'zac sat atop Nazu's head looking through a glass that Hotor held to his eye. Vokva sat beside them, little more than a pile of bones atop a pile of rocks, and Hafur paced behind them, holding the troops in check. They milled in the pre-dawn gloom, skeletons, wights, zombies, wraiths, and all manner of undead creatures. Periodically, Nazu swept the space behind them with their tail bowling over anyone who'd gotten too close.

The first pinpoint of light had Coc'zac's teeth chattering with excitement in his disembodied head. Today was the day he'd been planning for. Soon, soon the Inn and its occupants would be his. Nazu unleashed a heavy sigh tinged with poison and necrosis. Fortunately the troops were all dead already, and Coc'zac didn't have anything in the way of arms to hit them with.

It fell to Hafur to gesture the troops forward as punctuation to Coc'zac's 'rousing' speech, and together they crept through the portal, avoiding its fizzing and popping edges demarcated in what would be neon blue, if they could still see in color. They couldn't properly hear either, but they were aware of the noise and the danger it marked.

Once they were all through, the advance scouts, four bands of skeleton archers swept quietly as they could through the shadows to take up position around the main buildings, prepared to pick off anyone who exited--for example for a pre-sun jog. And once they'd settled into wary, silent waiting, occasionally interrupted by the pop of a joint or the clatter of toe bones on stone, the next wave rolled in finding shadows to hide in until the residents emerged with the wights taking point.The bone naga and three flameskulls slipped through the lobby doors and stealthed toward the offices, assuming to find the command center there.

It wasn't long before the invaders caught the notice of the residents, and then shouts began to echo through the grey light and journals filled with messages and reminders of siege plans. Several strongly worded messages urged the kids and those without weapons or fighting skills to head for the Temple where the Hallow spell would protect them from unholy undead things.

And so the battle for the Madonna Inn began...

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While they dressed, Kash had cast Death Wards on Z and the babies, and he'd stuck a couple of healing potions in a satchel that he handed to Z in case he went down. Ordinarily, he'd be caustic and bossy, but today he had a greater concern than a battle against more undead than he'd seen in one place ever: two children on the way, his soulmate, and the knowledge that if things from their world were here, they could expect more at any moment.

When they emerged from the Inn to see two Mummy Giants, he and Z shared a grim smile. "Like the Thordak fight all over again. Piece of cake." If you didn't mind your cake bloody and battered. One of them had magic junk hanging about it, and there was no telling how many other casters the army had brought. He flung out a Silence spell to encompass the Giants and anything else he could catch without cutting off his or Z's ability to cast, and took up his spear, ready for whatever came.

What followed was a small crowd of zombies, each one ‘bleeding’ odd purple energy, shambling directly into the cloud of insects, trying to disperse them somewhat. The same purple energy rolled around the feet of Dorian as he joined the pregnant tiefling (that was the word, Yes?) and the fellow with the spear. “Don’t get too close,” he warned. “I’m draining anything that comes near me at this point. I can offer a speed boost by way of apology, though.”

Hafur's eyes narrowed in irritation and he turned his face away from the light, but if the devil-woman wanted to put herself on the wrong side of her wall, that was perfectly fine. Of more concern were the necromancer and the... priest, he thought, though the man's magic stank of a strange god. Hafur took a few steps to get out of the silent zone and summoned lightning. Best to be done with it.

Zahra braced for the lighting, cursing as she managed to move out of the way a little, but feeling the electricity rush through her. She narrowed her eyes. "Your friends are certainly interesting." Zahra meant Dorians undead.

Annoyed at Hafur, she raised her staff and called for Evard's Black Tentacles. Long black tentacles Rose from the ground to try and grapple the monster.

The summoned undead reminded Kash of Lillith, but there was no time to wonder what Zahra's cousin was getting up to with lightning slicing through a space Zahra currently occupied.

Making best use of the speed boost, Kash first called a Sacred Flame down on the damned thing, then flung up a Shield of Faith around Z as he closed to flank with the "friendly" undead and the necromancer who controlled them.

"I'm amazingly good at making friends." About half of his zombies had been eaten by bugs; a good use of them, but it left Dorian with fewer minions than he really wanted. Most of his magic use in the Inn had been research-based. Subtle. Quiet. Intellectually stimulating.

It was relaxing to call up the dead and burn down the enemy. Quite probably that meant there was something wrong with him, but it didn't bother him.

Dorian spun his staff to point at a group of skeletons trying to take aim. Like the zombies, they started to bleed purple energy, and then the whole pack turned to start running at the mummy mage, the faster among them moving to support the spear-fellow. "Especially in situations like this! New friends are simply everywhere."

Hafur kicked his way free of the tentacles at the cost of being unable to avoid the holy fire; his shriek of pain modulated into a strident command to the other mindless fodder, and more skeletons came forward to engage the ones the necromancer had suborned. As for the necromancer himself, Hafur called down the lightning once again.

"A stubborn one, isn't he?" She muttered. Her pupiless eyes narrowed toward the monster. She extended her hand, pointed a finger at him, muttered a few words in Infernal as she cast finger of death.

If Kash knew anything about primary spellcasters, it was that they tended to be weak in close quarters combat. He wasn't Vax to make a dozen dagger strikes in an eyeblink, but if he got close with his Shadow spear, he could make this undead ignoramus regret his afterlife choices.

So, knowing he wouldn't get into range before the mummy had a chance to make an attack, Kash called down another Sacred Flame and then moved quickly into position. He held his shield up and between them ready to deflect any blow that the mummy mage might direct at him.

“And not terribly creative,” Dorian replied to the woman as electricity gathered around him. Another mummy lightning strike. Taking the time to comment meant he didn’t Fade Step away quite soon enough, so when he rematerialized after the blink, he did so singed and with his hair far less tidy than he liked.

Because of course monsters ruined his style. Of course they did. It deserved revenge, so he gathered up his own power and threw out his arms to releas an energy barrage, a mass of fiery bolts that would each seek the mummy no matter how it moved.

Inn-world Combat: The Dread Reign

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Re: Hafur - Boss Fight

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Re: Hafur - Boss Fight

Re: Hafur - Boss Fight

Re: Hafur - Boss Fight