Session 17 (part 2): Showdown With the Dark Priestess

The stairs were slanted slightly to the west, and of a different construction than the chambers the group had just explored. They led about fifty feet down to an empty room that had a fair amount of stone and tile debris all over the floor. A oil lamp sitting on the floor provided illumination. A single door led to the east, and a search revealed nothing save the lamp. Larissa listened at the door, and hearing nothing, entered.

Beyond the door was a corridor leading east, lined with semicircular alcoves. In each alcove was a stone statue of a robed man holding a glaive. At the end of the corridor were doors heading north and south. As Larissa quietly walked down the hallway to scout ahead, she heard a disconcerting "click." Without time for thought, she sprang backward just astwo steel portcullises dropped on either side of where she had stood, falling with a loud clang! Safely on the party's side of the metal gate, she watched the stone statues in the alcoves inside this newly-formed cage animate and begin to sweep the area between them with their glaives. After a few seconds of that, the statues recessed into their alcoves, just as a trap door in the floor dropped away, revealing a spiked pit. After a few more seconds, the trap door closed again, but the portcullises did not retract. Halfred and Charrone managed to lift one portcullis and spike it open. Larissa found the pressure plate and disabled it, then they opened the far gate.

At the end of the corridor, Charrone threw open the door to the north. Upon touching the door, a previously-unseen glyph glowed brightly and then exploded in fire, burning the paladin badly. She threw open the door and stepped inside. The room was round and lined with bookshelves. A single candle provided dim illumination. A fountain of normal-seeming water bubbled soothingly at the far wall. "Ah, the Sandpoint Heroes. I've been expecting you," said a sultry female voice. From the shadows stepped a silver-haired woman with unearthly beautiful features and violet eyes. She was armored in a breastplate and greaves, but the plate that should have been covering her abdomen was missing, and her midriff was bare. Her abdomen was terribly scarred, as if something had clawed its way out of her womb. She held a falchion in her right hand-- a hand that was a red and scaly, with three fingers that each ended in a razor-sharp talon. Her entire right arm was likewise demonic. Her left hand held a potion bottle, which she quaffed, and there were then four duplicates of her standing side-by-side. Charrone couldn't tell the real one from the illusion. "Nualia," said Charrone, "you shall pay dearly for your crimes," and the paladin drew her sword.

Halfred charged her with his ranseur, but only managed to strike one of the illusions, which winked out. She sidestepped and presented an unholy symbol, calling out to Lamashtu. A wave of crackling black energy shot from the symbol, weakening all of the heroes. Charrone repositioned so as to strike her, but suddenly felt a stabbing pain in the back of her leg. Whirling, she saw the black-cloaked half-orc female from the previous day, her face half-hidden behind a black veil. She drew another dagger, and even in the dim light, Charrone could tell that there was a sticky substance clinging to the blade. Larissa entered the room and aimed an arrow at the priestess, but another of the demon dogs seemed to appear out of nowhere and bit her arm, spoiling the shot. Ted cast a spell to strengthen Halfred, and McGregor cast a magic jet of flame at the half-orc, singeing her badly.

"Lamashtu will feast on your souls, and Malfeshnakor shall gnaw your bones!" shouted Nualia, as she slashed at Halfred with her falchion, slicing into his arm. Declan moved into the room, holding forth his symbol of Sarenrae. "No, you shall feel the cleansing fire of the Dawnflower!" he replied, and a fan of flame shot from his outstretched symbol, immolating both the half-orc and the priestess. At that McGregor used the sorceress' skull-tipped wand to cast a ray of crackling black necromantic energy at the half-orc. The ray struck her right in the head, and she collapsed.

"In the name of Iomedae the Inheritor, the Lady of Justice, I smite thee!" shouted Charrone. Holy energy enveloped her, and she swung her sword at Nualia. This blow struck true, cutting a nasty-looking gash across the evil priestess' demonic arm. Scarlet blood gushed from the wound. Halfred turned and skewered the demonic dog, killing it in one mighty blow. Ted cast magic missile at Nualia, striking her once and dispelling one of her illusions. Nualia stepped back again, and invoked Lamashtu again; this time a ray of brilliant energy struck Charrone, wounding her gravely. Larissa fired arrows at the priestess, striking her once, and winking out another of the illusions. McGregor used the wand to cast another ray of necromantic energy at her, and dispelled the last of her illusions. Charrone feinted with her sword, and Nualia fell for it. The paladin then lunged at the off-balance priestess, running her through. As the life left the fallen asimar's eyes, she whispered, "Damn... you... all..." as her final words.

With the main threat defeated, the party decided to take the bodies of Nualia and her conspirators back to Sandpoint. They also put togehter a dossier from the many documents found throughout Thistletop and its dungeons that fully documented Nualia's crimes and her now-dead companions' complicity in the Goblin Day raid. Returning to the surface, they found the newly-liberated Marla Forsythe (to whom they gave a spare set of clean womens' clothes from the half-orc), and the warhorse, which seemed to be in much better spirits.

The journey back to Sandpoint was brief and uneventful, and they returned a little before dusk. After giving Deverin and Hemlock a full briefing, the bodies of the fallen were gathered and burned in a pyre on the beach below the Sandpoint Boneyard,in a funeral ceremony for fallen enemies presided by Brother Zantus.

[Continued next week!]