Welcome back my friends!
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When last we met, the party consisting of just Lyra and Cornan, were stood waiting for Dorian inside the second room on floor three, after having just finished off a small group of bat-demons on their own.
After a while, Dorian manages to catch them both up, and rejoins the long journey.
Spotting the barrels within the room, he opted to break them open, to see if anything was inside, and so began smashing them open one by one.
Meanwhile, Lyra decided to inspect the nearby lectern, and read the tome that sat atop it, which gave her valuable insight into the situation they have so blindly walked into – a battle ground like no other, between warring Angels and Demons, for total control over all creation.
Cornan decided to sit for a moment, and inspect his bow, as knowing his equipment well, he felt the string was beginning to weaken during his loosing of arrows, and he could ill-afford another incident like he had before, when facing the Butcher.
He refused to go into a battle with unchecked weaponry, and so stayed sat down, tending to his bow.
As for Lyra and Dorian, when they were both ready, they headed off without Cornan for the moment – down a long and dark connecting corridor.
Along the way, they both could hear a faint male voice, coming from what seemed to be a slightly open door, about halfway down the passageway.
As they got closer to inspect it, they realized that the voice was recognizable… Throwing open the door more to enter the room behind it, they saw it was none other than Arthas – and he was surrounded by undead, struggling to keep them all at bay.
Dorian rushed to his aid, followed by Lyra, and together, all three of them managed to wipe out the enemy group, but NOT without issue, as during the struggle, Arthas was paralyzed by a Ghoul’s vile touch, and was infected with a Zombie bite curse.
The battle took a good amount of time to finish, but eventually the room fell to stillness.
Arthas feeling sickly and weakened, shut the door to the room tightly and they all searched the area whilst also taking a moment to recover any wounds they may have sustained during the battle.
The search revealed a small chest on one side of the room, but the group decided to wait for Cornan to get it open, as he was definitely the man for the job.
Exiting the room then, the party headed further along the passageway, with Dorian and Arthas taking the lead, with Lyra following behind.
They scouted ahead and found the passage branched in two directions, and the direction they chose had a closed and locked, moderately braced door on a side wall, which after some discussion, it was decided to be left for Cornan to open, as with luck on his side, and his trusty lock-picking skills, the door shouldn’t cause him any issue.
However, just as the party turned from the locked door, Dorian slashed at the nearby barrels, which caused a chain reaction as his axe blade collided with the metal ring around the barrel, causing a few sparks which ignited the black powder within it – As a result of this, a large explosion occurred – which caught Arthas in the blast.
Heading back along the passageway, the party took the other branch, and sighted a group of Flesh Clan goat demons at the furthest point of the passageway, where it split into two more directions.
Before the enemy could even have a chance to detect the party, our adventurers had already launched a full out attack on them, taking them by surprise.
This instantly gave them the upper hand, but, undeterred, the group of creatures reacted and charged headlong toward the three of them… Battle once more took place.
As a side note: during the battle, Lyra managed to miss-cast one of her spells, and the magic she dabbles in, became very unstable.
As a result of this, there was no helpful unicorn summoned to her side from the fey dimension, no, this time, she grew a large fluffy beard, made entirely of white bird feathers.
Magic in this world can be HIGHLY unpredictable… and sometimes funny.
Another interesting moment in the battle, was when Dorian fumbled his own axe, and tried to wrestle the blade from the enemy in front of him, only to fail miserably.
With little choice, he tried to get away from the imposing enemies, and grab his weapon, but was hurt in the process as the Goatman-Demon drove home his axe blade into the back of Dorian, as he tried to slip past.
The battle was tough and a grueling one, with many things going wrong for the party, but, with the aid of Arthas being steadfast, Lyra’s precise magical attacks – (when she’s not failing to cast them properly), and the brawn of Dorian – (when he can hold onto his weapon tightly) – They managed to take down the group of Flesh Clan demons.
Searching the bodies and the area around them, the party managed to locate a rare potion, recognizing it’s purple liquid inside the glass bottle it sits in – They knew that this was a fortuitous finding, as this was exactly the thing they needed to cure Arthas’s zombie affliction.
Lyra handed him the potion immediately, but Arthas was reluctant to drink it, at least for now, opting to save it instead for if a more dire situation was to arise.
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The Present Scene:
In the short space of time they had, the party have decided to resurface to Tristram, and as they sit around a large corner table, inside the Rising Sun tavern – Cornan from nowhere tells the others that he will be leaving the party immediately, and is returning to the temple where all the orphaned children are looked after by the holy sisters there.
The orphanage happens to be situated between Khanduras and Westmarch, and the journey is long.
He stands and bids Arthas, Dorian, and Lyra, farewell and exits the tavern before they could respond, not looking back.
Dorian, now with a heavy heart, decides that he has had enough trudging through crypts and tombs, and seeks what he is owed gold wise, at Leorics Castle, atop the highlands.
So, he too, gets up from his chair, and wishes Lyra and Arthas luck in their searching of the cathedral depths, and walks out the tavern, with only a side glance as he steps through the doorway.
Soon after both Dorian and Cornan had exited, surprisingly, a few new faces enter the tavern.
It’s here my friends, where we begin our next session of … Adventure in Sanctuary.
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