When the Crusader Knights and their companions had all been healed of their injuries and Asami had joined the rest of the group at the top of the watchtower they had just claimed, they looked toward the other three towers and observed that there appeared to be no one standing watch on them. The outer bailey that stood between the curtain wall and the Citadel also appeared to be empty.
As the group examined the space between the tower and the Citadel and discussed how they would reach the other three watchtowers to disable the remaining catapults, they were interrupted by a loud roar from above. Before they could even look up to discover what had made the sound, a large creature landed on the top of the tower, crushing the catapult beneath it. The party members all recognized that the creature was a chimera, its three heads in the forms of a snow leopard, a red dragon, and a mountain goat. The chimera immediately breathed out a blast of frigid breath filled with shards of piercing ice, engulfing everyone but Asami and Runa in its range. Kirara was hovering next to Asami and was just within the chimera's breath, but the cat evaded the cold and ice splinters.
Zosta realized that this wasn't a typical chimera; it had been tainted by demonic essence. She charged the beast and tried to pummel it with her bladed brass knuckles but her fists failed to connect with the chimera's hide. Sosiel responded to its attack by calling on Shelyn's holy healing for the wounds caused by the chimera's breath. Asami ran to Runa, who had been standing hear the tower battlement with her back to the rest of the group when the chimera appeared, and extended a measure of good fortune to her, expecting her to immediately attack the beast.
Jiro summoned an ancestral spirit to help fight the creature. It appeared in the form of a woman with long black hair, wielding a bladed fan. Jiro had also recognized the chimera's demonic enhancements and warned his comrades that it was likely less vulnerable to wounds dealt by weapons not made of cold iron, as well as immune to electrical or poison damage and resistant to other forms of energy as a result of its demonic taint.
The chimera had landed very close to Shim, and now it snapped the jaws of two of its heads on him, then gripped him between its fangs and savagely ground its teeth on him. Shim what was barely able to withstand the pain of the wounds it inflicted. Then it clawed and snapped at Jiro, who was close by where Shim stood. Runa moved behind the chimera and extended Iomedae's mercy to those who were close enough, healing some of the wounds the chimera had dealt them, but the good fortune Asami had granted her was wasted. Asami was distracted by watching the beast harming her friends and failed to notice when Bohgong jumped on her back and began rummaging in her pouch.
The chimera thrust its heads at Jiro again, knocking him off his feet. Only his quick thinking saved him as he summoned up a shield of stone to block its attacks. Zosta leaped on one of the beast's necks and grappled it, trying unsuccessfully to maintain a choke hold. Despite having saved himself with his shield, Jiro lost consciousness due to the wounds he had absorbed from the rest of the group. Sosiel saw that Shim was on the point of death and moved closer to him to heal him.
Suddenly a large white ape appeared looming over the barely conscious half-elf. The ape began to pound on Shim's chest, growling at him, "Wake up and do something useful!" Only Shim could see that the ape held a strange piece of stone in its hand, and when it slammed its fist on his breastbone the stone somehow became embedded in his chest. But rather than harming him, he felt himself filled with power and he knew that there were new abilities at his command, abilities he had never known before.
The chimera clamped its jaws on Zosta as she struggled to hold onto it, grinding its teeth over her body as it had done to Shim. She was overwhelmed by agony and lost her grip on the monstrous creature. Runa attacked the beast with her longsword, which was not of cold iron but which had been enchanted so that it would harm demons and evil creatures from other planes. The chimera turned around to face her, letting an unconscious Zosta fall to the ground. Asami took out one of her wands and fired three missiles of force at the chimera. The projectiles did little damage but nothing seemed to block their effectiveness.
Sosiel cast a curing spell on Jiro, and much to Shim's surprise the white ape pulled a vial of oil from Jiro's pouch and began to rub its contents on the young man's many injuries. Asami used her divinely-granted power to cast a spell that she didn't have in her spellbooks, in an attempt to prevent the chimera from using its three heads and two clawed forefeet to inflict multiple attacks on her friends. But the beast seemed to resist her magic. Despite that Zosta had collapsed, the creature attacked her again, then turned on Runa and left her staggered by pain. Runa shouted out to Shim, "Strike it again!" and he did so, which Runa followed by slashing it herself despite the intense agony she felt. It tore at her again and left her struggling not to fall. When the monster attempted to gore her with its goat horns it missed her but Runa could no longer remain standing. Now only Asami, Shim, Aron and Sosiel were still on their feet.
Asami cast the same spell a second time, and this time she saw the chimera's movements slow. It could no longer bite and claw repeatedly. She pelted it with three more tiny missiles from her wand. Jiro regained his feet and backed away from the beast. The ape, which was a manifestation of Bohgong, moved to apply a healing oil to Zosta. Shim studied the chimera, looking for an opening, then attacked. But his attack didn't connect. The chimera turned around again and breathed a second time, this time catching Shim, Sosiel, Jiro, Asami, and Kirara with its breath. Kiraa couldn't avoid it this time but her otherworldly protections helped her avoid life-threatening injuries. Asami was able to escape the blast by sidestepping it. Runa got back on her feet and stabbed it with her second sword, having dropped her primary blade when she fell. The chimera exhaled again, and this time Asami couldn't escape. She slumped to the ground, dropping her wooden sword and wand.
Sosiel called on Shelyn's mercy again, granting everyone nearby a measure of healing, but unfortunately that included the chimera. Now Jiro, Zosta, and Runa were all on their feet again. Asami was conscious, but decided to remain on the ground. She picked up her sword and wand. Kirara flew away to hover over the battlement. Jiro summoned another ancestral spirit, closely resembling the first but equipped with long needle darts. The two spirits took up positions on either side of the slow-moving chimera to attack it. Shim attacked the beast and then taunted it. It bit him with its draconic head, leaving him badly wounded again, but he was somehow still able to keep upright. Runa again used her divine ability to grant him a chance to make another attack. The leopard head responded by biting at her. Zosta slammed her fists into the chimera and it collapsed, but that didn't prevent her from stamping on it to make sure it was dead.
With the chimera's death, everyone but Aron and Sosiel suddenly felt themselves filled with new power, just as they had experienced when the Wardstone exploded in the Gray Garrison in Kenabres. Even Shim felt this surge of strength and knowledge fill him, for the stone Bohgong had somehow embedded in his chest was a fragment of that same Wardstone. The Knights all wondered if perhaps the spirit monkey had taken a fragment himself, but when Asami checked her pouch she realized Bohgong had taken her fragment. When she said so, Jiro offered to give her his shard, but she declined, stating that saving Shim's life was a worthwhile use for the stone. Afterward Jiro had to explain to Shim that the white ape was still the monkey he addressed as Uncle, for Bohgong was a spirit that could manifest in the Material Plane in any form it chose. When Shim expressed amazement that the monkey could speak, Asami told him that Kirara could speak as well, which left the half-elf thoroughly bemused. What other wonders would he experience while in the company of the Knights?
Shortly after their success against the tainted chimera, the Knights learned that the paladin army had successfully defeated the demons guarding the prisoners, though not without a cost in lives. But they had freed 200 hundred mercenaries who were now equipped with the arms and armor they had liberated from the demons' allies on the previous day, thus tripling the size of the army that would attempt to wrest control of Drezen from its demonic occupiers.
Party members are now 7th level, 2nd mythic tier.
Wrath of the Righteous will be temporarily on hiatus. We'll be taking a break from gaming for a couple of weeks, after which we'll return to our Mummy's Mask campaign.
Next: part 33, Into the Citadel
No comments:
Post a Comment