Dorn's Deep

The battle begins in earnest as arrows and lighting glaive launch towards Malavon. The dark elf chuckles and lifts a hand, creating a glowing lattice of webs that spins in the air. The projectiles hit the magical barrier and are utterly halted in their forward momentum (Malavon casts Shield, deflecting the lightning glaive and Vince's arrows - this means that resources spent to deal extra damage, etc, are refunded, and NOT expended). He raises a white eyebrow.

Then light erupts in the room as Zenithral’s shining arrow pierces the web shield, dispelling its magic and continuing on to slam into Malavon’s chest. The drow archmage gasps and staggers back, sparks flying about him as various magical protections are dispelled by the enchanted arrow (The arrow dispels Malavon's mage armor, and also the contingency spell he had in place).

Then the fight is on in full. The minotaurs bellow and bring their axes to bear. Alalla blocks one with her summoned glaive, but the other batters Reothadh’s armor (Reo takes 18 slashing damage, unless he casts Shield), and then Ug joins the fray, laying into one of the minotaurs with heavy swings.

The drow soldiers cringe against Zenithral’s light, but then react quickly, dropping their crossbows and whipping out slender swords. Or, at least two of them do. The one presumed to be Nym takes another step back and looks about the battlefield, eyes searching out details. The other two dark elves close in on Zenithral as the half-elf tries to gain height, and one of them scores a painful strike on his thigh (Zen takes either 29 damage, or only 16 if he casts Shield. All a mix of piercing and poison). A blur intercepts a second strike as Erevain steps into place, and the surface elf works sword and shield to keep his dark cousins at bay. These opponents are skilled swordsmen, however, and Erevain takes several hits (Erevain takes 36 piercing and poison damage).

Zenithral’s light shines brighter as Ilmater grants him divine power to bless his allies, and one of the drow shies back from the intense brilliance. His foot snags on a loose stone, and he nearly careens over the edge of the lava chasm – and then a short poke from Nym’s rapier sends the soldier to his fiery, agonized doom (Drow Warrior 1 dies).

The spellsword on the right balcony waves a purple blade down at the party, unleashing a bolt of lightning that crackles into the party’s front rank. Alalla and Ug, their reflexes finely honed by the last half-year of adventuring, cleverly use the bulk of their minotaur foes as a bulwark against the lightning blast (Al and Ug each take 14 lightning damage). Reothadh, deep in his own spellcasting, takes the brunt of the spell (Reo takes 28 lightning damage, or just 14 if he casts Absorb Elements).

Ras weaves a spell of his own, unleashing druidic magic that compels the spellsword above to freeze in place. The drow feels the spell begin to take hold, and raises a hand crossbow towards Ras. The bolt goes wide as Ras’ spell settles into place, paralyzing the spellsword.

Working as a team, Alalla and Ug finish off one of the minotaurs. As it dies, Ug’s eyes flash an icy blue as he seizes control of the corpse even before it hits the ground. It turns about on hooved feet to deliver one last blow of its axe against the other minotaur before collapsing to the ground. A last rattling breath leaves its chest, and the animated corpse lies still.

Reothadh, Hero of Dorn’s Deep and Scion of Frost Giants, looms larger as he works his spell. With mighty hands further strengthened by magic, he grasps Ug and tosses the goliath up to Malavon’s balcony, where Ug’s form also begins to swell. With furious, thundering steps, the enlarged yeti barbarian bears down on the slim dark elf wizard before him.

In desperation, Malavon pulls an hourglass from a pocket of his robes. He holds it high, murmurs a complicated incantation, then hurls the hourglass to the floor before Ug. It shatters.

And so does time.

Malavon casts Time Stop. Basically he gets to take a couple extra turns. He casts Delayed Blast Fireball, and then Blink.The sound of glass clattering across the stones seems to echo on and on, an interminable length. And yet, no time has passed at all when the combatants blink and find the wizard vanished. But something has changed. Inexplicably, there is nestled between Alalla, Reo, Ras, and Vincent a glowing bead of fire. Much like the precursor to a fireball spell, but immobile in the air. The sphere quivers, then compacts to a smaller size. Then it explodes, searing the air and lungs with power far more potent than any mere fireball (Basically it got 1 turn to grow more potent, then Malavon steps into the Ethereal Plane and simply ceases his concentration, triggering the detonation).

As the group staggers about, trying to recover from the devastating magic, another crash sounds from the corridor behind them as two hideous, bug-headed monstrosities (Umber Hulks) burst from the walls near Vincent. With chittering mandibles and maddening eyes, they bear down on the party from behind.

Round 2 Player Phase!!

Vincent blinks his eyes and stares with eldritch sight at the umber hulks bearing down on him. Their own multifaceted eyes threaten to overwhelm the warlock’s mind, but he is no stranger to such magic. During his planar exile his mind was shattered and put back together a number of times. He easily maintains control of his senses, and correctly identifies for Ras which of the umber hulks has an aura of transmutation magic about it. There is no reply to the warlock’s telepathic communication, except a snarl of primeval rage. Perhaps this rival of Malavon’s has been transformed so long that it has lost any semblance of humanity it had. Vincent twists and dodges to the best of his ability, but even still each umber hulk manages to seize a limb with shredding mandibles (Vince takes 25 damage unless he casts Shield). They begin to pull…

And then Allala is there, beating back one of the creatures with her flaming sword, all the while turning her head aside so as to not meet the creatures’ gaze. Even blinded this way, her sword strikes true, cracking chitinous plates and burning the flesh beneath. The umber hulk draws back, obviously wary of this dangerous warrior (Umber Hulk 1 is frightened of Alalla for 1 round).

With his polymorphed target pointed out to him, Ras begins trying to dispel the magic affecting it. He summons his mystical strength as best he can, but this is no easy task. Still, the gnome thinks he can feel something there, like a web of magical strands entangling the umber hulk. And one loose thread… But it is slippery, in a strange, way that he finds difficult to describe (Btw, Ras forgot to roll his dex save against the fireball. I rolled it for him, and he failed :( so he takes 46 fire damage).

Meanwhile, Erevain continues his duel with the drow warrior on the other side of the bridge. This dark elf is no meager opponent. Erevain spies an opening and moves forward with an overhead slash, but the dark elf sidesteps just as a spray of lava spurts up from below. Bits of molten rock scatter across Erevain’s face, and he backsteps furiously, trying to clean his face of the stinging stuff.

With his opponent distracted, the drow warrior moves in for the kill – but Ug’s sudden arrival sends him back on his heels. The horned barbarian swings his frozen axe back and forth, but the drow manages to stay just ahead of the blade, biding his time. One of Ug’s swings goes too wide, and the drow darts in, twin blades flashing as they score several hits on the barbarian’s body. Ug’s recovery is faster than the drow would believe, however, and the barbarian spins around to clip the drow before he can back away fast enough. The injured dark elf mutters a curse as he backs away, but Ug feels the burn of poison lacing the wounds he just received (After resistance, Ug takes 12 piercing damage and 32 poison damage).

Burning with divine light, Zenithral spies an easy target. He flaps over to the paralyzed spellsword and drags the unfortunate drow over the edge of the lava chasm. As the figure drops down into the lava, Zenithral feels an intense magical attack on his mind. He is nearly overwhelmed as the force bludgeons his brain like a strike of Ug’s racist maul, but barely manages to keep his mind straight (Zenithral passed his save against Feeblemind, but still takes 17 psychic damage). As his vision clears, he sees that Malavon has appeared on the other side of the room. The archmage grimaces as his spell fails, and begins to cast another even as his form starts to fade away.

Nym, however, has waited for this moment. The disguised drow quickly turns and tosses a ball of metal towards Malavon, and in midair the object expends and twists, becoming a writhing net of metal bands that wrap around the archmage and bind him tight (Malavon is restrained by some Iron Bands of Binding). A moment later, the archmage is gone, and with him the metal bindings.Ras finally manages to grasp the magical thread and pulls, unraveling the polymorph spell. The umber hulk falls to its knees, letting out a shrill screech that turns suddenly into a reptilian hiss. The creature’s body expands much like Reothadh did moments ago, but rather than the entire thing growing larger the creature mostly seems to be getting longer. And bluer. Scales replace the chitinous plates, and far too many lizard-like legs sprout from its side. And still it grows longer. The mandibles fall out and its face expands into a crocodilian snout. A long tail trails further down the corridor, further lengthening this creature’s body.

When the transformation is complete, an enormous blue lizard with twelve legs stands in the corridor, crowding over the heroes and remaining umber hulk there. Well, towering over all but one. Its eyes focus on the most obvious threat before it: the massive dwarf sorcerer coated in armor of ice. Reothadh is taller than this creature, but its full length sprawled out behind it is longer still. Its long jaws open to reveal razor-sharp teeth and a crackle of lightning.

Only Ug and Zenithral are close enough to hear Nym mutter to himself. "There you are, beautiful."

Round 3 Player Phase!!!

Reothadh has heard of these giant lizards and their origin, how they were created by storm giants of old in the war against dragonkind. His voice rumbles out in Giant, attempting to command the behir to serve him, but the lightning lizard recoils at the sound. The behir rears up, several pairs of legs reaching out to the corridor walls to bring its head level with Reothadh’s. It opens its crocodilian maw wide and unleashes a torrent of crackling lightning on the giant sorcerer’s face, blistering Reothadh’s skin and making his hair and beard stick straight out (Reo takes 62 lightning damage).

Meanwhile, Ug and Erevain still combat the tricky drow warrior on the far side of the bridge. The dark elf strikes as quickly as a serpent, poisoned blades carving grievous wounds up and down Ug’s side (Ug takes 18 piercing damage and 45 poison damage). The drow should have known better than to press the attack against this fierce mountain warrior, however. Between his own innnate toughness and Zenithral’s magical healing, Ug takes every injury in stride and pushes through, axe blade sweeping his opponent’s feet from beneath him. One final swing ends the drow, and then Ug charges the behir, axe blade cutting deeply into the enormous lizard.

Zenithral, Alalla, and Vincent keep their eyes peeled and their weapons ready for Malavon’s return. When the archmage appears, still bound by Nym’s contraption, he is met with arrows and hurled glaive. As life leaves his eyes, the arcane master calls down one more devastating spell, one that blasts the entire chamber and corridor with cold so deep that even those most inured against frigid weather feel its bite (Vince, Ras, Reo, Zen, and the behir take 39 cold damage. Due to either resistance or passing the save Al, Ug, Erevain, the specter, and Nym only take 19 cold damage. Umber Hulk dies).

Malavon collapses, dead. Nym steps carefully over to the body and bends down to inspect it, first with a poke of his rapier and then with a gloved hand. The body ripples slightly. Nym lifts his hand from the body and lets fall some kind of white powder. The merchant curses, then straightens and turns toward the party. "Not what I was expecting, and this whole endeavor has been for naught. Good luck with the behir! Try not to get eaten."

Nym pulls his hood up over his head and vanishes, and then so, too, does Zenithral’s bow (Nym summons the bow back to hand with a bonus action).

The behir’s snarl rumbles through the corridor, accompanied by the cracking of ice as it flexes its snakelike bulk to brush off the remainder of Malavon’s last spell (Anyone who knows Draconic would hear some words included in that snarl. Let me know if you know the language).