3 - 126: The Third Piece

[K Man]

Krysta, Caelith, Girud, Mordrock, Galdren, and Garor - Krysta fires at the huge beast, over the head of her compatriots. [Attack Rolls = 24/7] One arrow strikes the gullet of the worm-beast. [Damage Roll = 10]

Caelith remains focused. (No post)

Mordrock takes two shots as well, firing through the fray. [Attack Rolls = 20/20] Both arrows strike, landing in the flank of the worm as it spins about the cramped quarters. [Damage Rolls = 3/2] The worm looks injured, surely it cannot take many more assaults like this.

Girud shakes the head-pounding effect of the blow, gathers his things and moves to the Southern edge of the creatures, ready to dish it some pain...

Galdren, with a bone-piercing warcry, lets the Remorhaz have it with both blades alight. {No, I don't believe hasted anymore} [Attack Rolls = 17/13, 21] The last strike is the only one to land, offering the Samurai a good chunk of flesh shorn from bone. [Damage Roll = 9]

The worm, damaged now and nearly surrounded, tries to free itself by scattering a few enemies with it's bulk. It lashes out at Brother Hingar, landing a resounding blow to his chest. The paladin is sent flying, much in the same direction as Girud and in much the same condition.

Michuth, double-handed blade swinging wildly, retorts for the prone Brother Hingar. He lands solid blows each time, sending a spray of the super-heated blood of the creature flying. His blade remains intact, though the worm appears to be nearing death.

Callian remains focused. (No Post)

Garor swings his maul overhead, calling upon his god for strength. [Attack Rolls = 36/30, Damage Rolls = 24/23] With the fury of his diety itself, Garor literally caves in one side of the worm with his maul head.

With a howl and a shudder, the worm staggers about, trying to regain it's form. With a sickening crunch and sounds of its innards crushing, it collapses to the ground - dead...

Brushing himself off, Brother Hingar is helped to his feet by the mighty Michuth and both paladins cast a glance at the dead Remorhaz. Brother Hingar shakes the mighty blow and gathers his wits, his breath coming in short gasps.



"One more door...and we're there..."

Undaunted, the palaldins move to the next door - allowing Mordrock to ply his trades. [Listen, Search checks] The Goblin finds nothing so the Paladins open the door. (Room 5, next to "To Malbolge" map-markings)

The first thing to assault you is the sound. Like a thousand wailing babes your ears feel as though they bleed when exposed to it. It's the obelisks again...two of them, ebony and ominous, flank this doorway. If your experience from the first room taught you anything, it's that these obelisks are evil - pure an undiluted.

The next thing to assault you is your vision. Immediately to your left, you see a hallway cluttered with chaos. The tunnel itself is carved from rough rock and a little over five feet wide - barely big enough to fit all the creatures in it. The claws, leathery wings and talons of countless devils all cram into the tunnel trying to squeeze past one obstacle...

...a ghostly armored spirit with longsword holding them all back.

Karn... this can only be the holy warrior of light to which this temple was dedicated. He stands, looking as regal as he must have in life, holding what seems like an entire plane of devils back from flooding the temple. He lashes out here, bashes with his shield and holds incorporeal fingers around a holy symbol - keeping the devils at bay.

Despite the howling obelisks and the hordes of evil, the paladins take a knee and bow low to Karn, respecting him for what he was. Brother Hingar is the first to speak, shouting above the wailing stone obelisks.



"Forgive me m'lord....we could not escape this hellish plane on the path we chose. We did meet these good souls and they have proven the goodness in their hearts. They requested to see you..."

Brother Hingar bows his head low and, despite the epic tide of evil he holds back, Karn manages to address you.



"...Why do you seek an old holy warrior?"

100 out of 200 Restoration points earned.

COUNTDOWN - 01:15 Hours to Apocalypse Clock Chime...
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Yuri and Romar - The man listens, rather impatiently, to your tale as you spin it - trying to dull the blow of what has happened. When you mention the duty of the bells, the priest scowls.



"That duty is reserved for the priests of neutrality. For as long as those bells ring, the precious balances of life, time and other necessities cannot be broken..."

As you go on, introducing yourselves and your intentions, the man seems to melt a bit. When you mention the oddities of the city, the man does not head to the ramparts, but rather ushers you to the temple entrance - to the city streets. He opens the doors and is immediately greeted by the chaos.

Wails from clerics roaming the streets - calling for companions, cries of bloodied bodies being discovered, clerics seeing the claw marks the demon left behind...the whole city is on the verge of chaos.

Ever so slowly, the man turns around and looks you both dead in the eyes...



"What has happened here..."

He takes a step backwards, nearly tripping over himself as he stumbles into the street outside.

"Is this your doing?..."

The priests clumsy avoidance of you both has garnered some attention and a trio of clerics approaches, eager to uncover what is happening here with two people that are clearly not members of a faith.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[Japic]

Not being one of the leaders for his group Girud does not immediately speak up, but his eyes track along the room, counting the four wailing obelisks. Since they do not feel good to the ears and could not be helping the Spirit of Karn to fight the devils, Girud decides that they could probably use a few less distractions. With a few words he passes the responsibility of a speach onto another more capable of it.

"One of the others can explain; Garor, will you help me shut these things up? I'm getting an awful headache."

Without hesitation Girud goes to work at destroying the stone obelisks, hopefully aided by the big ass dwarf and his nasty maul of destruction.

[VemuKhaham]

Romar humbly begins to explain all that he knows to the best of his ability, never hiding the truth or manipulating it. To the newcomers, he recaps:

"I am Romar Belamor, and with me is Yuri Brotter. Together we have traveled far across the continent, and our most recent destination was the Hidden City.

We came here without knowledge of anything, even if the place existed, and before heading into the City, we underwent the tests that guard this place from intruders and that prove the goodwill of visitors.

We passed, but little did we know that these tests would prove trivial to what we were to come accross in the city itself: time had stopped, and the people of this place stood frozen.

We knew nothing of what had happened here, but allow me to show how we slowly discovered the truth..."

Romar checks if the priests don't mind and if they don't he walks over to the place where they found the first claw marks of the demon.

"As you can see, these claws could hardly have been left by me or my companion, now could they..?" Almost Romar smiles, but manages to suppress it as he remembers how serious clerics can be at times.

"We went ahead and investigated, and what we found was a monster that appeared like a shadow of a huge demon. It froze us in place like it did to you, and we could not resist. The demon then made us listen to his demands: it wished us to free the demon that was captured by the clerics of the Hidden City that was his mate.

We agreed, if only to be left alive and able to foil its plans. Inside the temple, we met with a young acolyte, Daniel." Romar's eyes shoot fire as he speaks his name.

"He guided us to the prison of the demon, but once in there we found her dead on the ground, having killed herself. It was not until then that I realized the greatest demon was at my side: Daniel, who betrayed us and proved to be loyal to the Master himself. He was a spy who sought knowledge of the fabrics of hell itself and to that end tortured your prisoner and unleashed the fury of one of its kin; the monster that took control of time within these walls to force one of your people to release its mate.

We brought down Daniel, but alive we turned him in to the demon in turn for release of the City. Indeed he dissapeared, and then we heard again the bells, but not until we rang the bell of time ourselves was all restored again."

He looks at Yuri, trying to remember if he has skipped anything by accident, but he thinks not.

"Now we stand here before you, and mourn with you the losses of this place. I can do no more."

[BluSpecs]

"Aye"

Garor moves over and helps Girud smash the wailing oblisks....

[GeneralMHB]

Yuri listens to Romar's tale, recounting everything that has happened and trying to remember if anything else happened that he has not mentioned. Yuri can think of nothing. He finally speeks up.

Romar speeks the truth good priest. The demon, named Gfarlex, was the one responsible for these actions, but Daniel, whom I assume was one with a "Council of the Nine" according to Maycera's last words, was responsible for the demon being here in the first place. Both problems have been dispatched with, the demon taking Daniel with him. We are not your enemies. We came to seek your aid, but instead found that you needed ours to unfreeze the delicate balance of time. We appoligize that we could not find a priest to ring the bell, but we had little choice.

He awaits a reply.

[Fangor the Fierce]

Adelia goes to aid in the matter at hand. She will do what she can to help smash the obelisks as well, letting the party leaders talk with Karn.
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Krysta, knowing that the others might not be up to the task, speaks up to Karn. She bows low, immitating the respect f the others, and looks over to Karn. "We have come to return the temple to its rightful place. It seems a cruel one called The Master has plans for this temple, and he is our sworn enemy. He is the enemy to all that is good or living. His troops are vile creatures, mostly of the walking dead and even our own fallen troops, now under his control as mindless pawns in his plan to take over the world."

"Your devoted subjects of the forest have asked us to aid in this matter. It seems as though the Master has want and need of the crystal shard that is said to be housed in this temple. Our goal is to keep the shards from the Master, and use them for the good of the world."

"It seems as though this temple has been tainted by these vile obelisks and other creatures of this place. We are here to aid in its cleanup and restoration to its proper place. And to let you lie in peace, as a great warrior should be."

She then looks at the onslaught of the creatures, trying to get ther way into the temple. "We can help in keeping them at bay, if that is needed."
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Mordrock, sensing he would be a better smasher than a talker, goes to aid his new girl. He keeps close to her, smiling all the way to the same obelisk that she goes to destroy.

Flexing his muscles, while striking the obelisk, the little one does what he can to show off for his new girl, and to destroy that wretched screaming. Small roars of a goblin immitating a great blow interrupt Krysta's speach, but she continues....

[Jevva]

Galdren watches as his companions go to work on the obelisks, and looks down at his swords. "Probably won't do very much good against those towers of hellish noise..." he mutters, and sheathes them, listening to the conversation between Karn and Krysta with great interest.