Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
The party spent the night resting in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and then gathered up with the other party and headed deep into the cave complex. Passing through billowing clouds of the same sort of diseased mist that had been on the surface, the party entered into a large, flat cavern. In the middle of the cavern, a strange intestine-like tube bellowed forth clouds of the blight-causing gases. An ugly hag stood alongside the intestine, and several large and mutated insects crawled around the room. Clearly, this was the source of the blight.
Rain and Snow jumped forward and stabbed a snake. Garlen charged at the old hag and stabbed her several times, but she seemed to absorb serious blows while taking little injury. Marta flew into a rage and attacked a spider. Amber dropped a Sunburst on several of the insects, blinding most of them. Grokk charged and killed another snake. Roland let the party know what we were up against: the Empress of Rot. Knowing what a nasty foe this was, particularly due to her ability to present aspects of pestilence, night, sludge, and swarm, and to cast certain dangerous spells, Roland cast a quickened Duelward and then used Chain Lightning to weaken all foes in the room. The Empress used her pestilence form to infect Garlen with some sort of nasty disease. Obsidian cast a spell and was suddenly holding a scorpion's heart in his hand. Horkina killed a spider in a more conventional way.
A woman who looked remarkably like Snow stepped into the room, calling out "I'm sorry I'm late, I was busy reading a book about plagues at the library." She wore a long, silky blue dress with matching boots and gloves, and had an icy crystal in the place of one eye. She tossed a fireball into a far-off pack of insects and kept babbling about how fascinated she was by the material she'd been reading. Thorko drunkenly stumbled forward and swung at another insect, cutting it in half. A few of the insects injured Snow and Grilka, but not very badly. Rain tumbled behind the Empress while the wounds he'd caused finished off the snake he'd been fighting, and Snow turned to finish off another snake. Garlen pounded on the Empress, and Amber used Mass Heal to close up most of Garlen's wounds. Grokk jumped right past the Empress, smiting the ground with his Holy Cow Axe. Roland's empowered Arc Lightning fried a few more bugs, but his Ray of Dizziness did nothing to the hag. She switched into her Swarm form, becoming a lithe woman surrounded by hundreds of little bugs. Amber set off the Fire Seeds Rain had been holding, and Grokk, Rain, and Garlen all managed to avoid the swarming insects.
Horkina killed a pair of spiders with a critical strike and follow-through, and Grilka thrashed another. Rain, Garlen, and Grokk all focused their attacks on the Empress, doing significant damage and leaving the Empress in a desperate situation. Roland's Polar Ray made things even tougher for the Empress, who tried to slay Rain with a beam of darkness. Amber countered with a Sunbeam, and Horkina finished off the Empress with a swing of her axe.
The woman in blue walked up behind Roland, and Snow made introductions. "This is my sister, Ice." Ice responded "you know not to call me that. Call me by my full title; it's written on my shoulder." Ice pointed to a complex rune on her shoulder which Roland was able to translate as "the artist formerly known as Ice". The two bickered for a few more moments as they stood on opposite sides of Roland, and then Ice cast an Antimagic Field. This brought down all of Roland's defenses, and revealed both Ice and Snow to be shapechanged Succubi. Snow stabbed Roland with her rapier, but he managed to resist the life-draining poison.
Garlen reacted first, and decided he'd held back long enough. He charged directly at Marta and cut her to bits, discovering from her corpse that she, too, was a shapechanged Succubus. Rain started crying as he stabbed Snow over and over again, killing her. Horkina pounded on Thorko, discovering he was actually a Marilith as (s)he fell to the ground dead. Amber's Holy Word had no effect, but a pair of Lucent Lances left Obsidian reeling. Obsidian, sensing the battle had turned, filled the room with Damning Darkness and used an Earthquake to pin everyone under several feet of rubble. Grokk broke free while Grilka teleported to the top of the rubble pile. Roland used a quickened Dimension Door to escape to the edge of the area, used a Wish to gather up the Rubble Rousers next to him, and then hasted the whole group. Grokk and Grilka immediately moved into melee with each other, but before either did much damage, Amber used another Holy Word to paralyze Grilka and send her to her home plane. Obsidian and Blackbones continued struggling through the rock, eventually finding their way to the surface where the Rubble Rousers were waiting. Rain, Grokk, and Horkina smashed Blackbones into little pieces, while Garlen stabbed right between two of its ribs. Obsidian's head popped up to the surface, and Roland immediately grabbed him with Bigby's Crushing Hand, following that with a lecture about attacking the Rubble Rousers. Obsidian died in a most grisly way as the party converged, and then Roland used a Wish to bring Grilka back into range so the party could collect her equipment. Grokk took her out with a single blow to the head.
The party headed back to the demons' camp, where they found a journal with detailed plans for the ambush. A bit of study revealed these demons had been in the service of Grazz't, who was upset about the Rubble Rousers' invasion of Skullrot and killing of his prized prisoner. Grazz't had tricked Orcus into sending this blight in order to bait the Rubble Rousers into a position where they'd be weak from combat, with the hope that his highly trained assassins would be able to finish off the party. And thus, the Rubble Rousers were yet again underestimated by a Demon Prince.
The party reached level 23.
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