The Air Temple Assault

The halfling Descritad leads the heroes through the Fire Temple, and then pauses at the entrance to the crypts. She turns back to Aldoroc, “Which way?”

Aldoroc points to the left. Descritad pulls the cloak tighter, grips the scalpel, and moves in that direction. Once in the Earth Bridge Complex, it becomes evident that she is in unfamiliar territory. Aldoroc moves to the front and leads the party to the Water Temple. They exit from the mining tunnels, pushing one of the ore carts out of the way against the wall. Aldoroc peeks curiously into the first side room for scorpions, but none are found.

As they walk down the wide hallway, Kadiss and his remaining guards step out, swords drawn and spells prepared. Kadiss declares, “State your business or die, scum!” Recognizing his benefactors, however, he says, “Oh, it’s you!” He orders his troops, “Weapons down!”

Kadiss and the guards look very ragged, dirty, and even injured, contrary to their normal life in the Water Temple and specifically in their new location at the North Bridge Complex. Kale comments on their appearance and asks, “What happened to you, Kadiss?”

Kadiss motions them to the tables and chairs outside his quarters so that he can update them in relative comfort. He sends the human guard to get a small keg of beer and some loaves of bread from the depleted storeroom. “I was in the mess hall when Lorthian here spotted an ogre crossing the bridge. Those ogres from the Outer Fane are tough critters, so we decided to just see what it wants and hope we didn’t get into a row. Besides, you gave us instructions to try and maintain normal operations, though I suppose killing the ogre could also be considered normal operations, if you know what I mean. Anyway, it asked for Oamarthis, so I told him ‘Oamarthis is busy at the moment’ and he instead gave me a letter to pass on to the Captain of the Air Bridge.”

The guard returns with the keg, tapping it and filling up cups for everyone except Sylvan and Aramil. Verrick gulps his down quickly. The former halfling has either developed a new taste for ale or it’s a side effect of his new dwarven body. Kadiss grabs a pewter cup and continues his report. “It’s was a letter written to Oamarthis from Varachan. I’m not sure who Varachan is, but I think he’s pretty powerful, almost as powerful as Hedrack himself. The letters warns Oamarthis that a strike force was sent from the Air Temple to wipe him out.

Verrick says, “Why would this Varachan warn the leader of the Air Bridge about an attack from the Air Temple? I thought the Outer Fane stayed out of the crater politics?”

Kadiss nods, “That’s true, sir.” He then looks quizzically at the dwarf. “Um, who are you?”

Verricks shrugs his shoulders and gestures at his companions, “No one of consequence, just a new ally of theirs.”

Kadiss looks suspiciously at the druid. “Hm. Anyway, if it were a force strong enough to defeat Oamarthis, then it would easily destroy us. Hell, even the ape with the white stripe almost wiped us out. So, we decided to flee. We came here because we were familiar with the layout, and we could easily continue fleeing if necessary. We ran into a troll, though, and had some trouble. Fortunately, we managed to kill it.”

Aramil stands up, “Wise decision to flee. Now, however, you are back with us.”

Aldoroc confidently grips his battleaxe. “Let’s retake the complex.”

The heroes and their troops approach the Northern Bridge Complex cautiously, but they find it empty. Indeed, it is somewhat of a mess with the chimera dead by a combination of arrows and bludgeoning weapons. Its bloody corpse lies in the bridge entrance. The tables are overturned and the kitchen is in ruins. Almost all of the supplies in the storeroom are gone. They search the area for a half hour, but find nothing and decide to retreat to Rastor.

Descritad complains about the delay, but perks up when Verrick hands her a short sword, short bow, and some halfling-sized leather armor. Sylvan teleports to Khorasan for some buying and selling and takes some time to identify items. Verrick decides to keep the demon statue from the fetal chest, which the wizard identified as a luckstone.

Shangor casts detect evil, looking at the tentacle rod, Descritad, and even Kadiss and the guards. Finding the rod faintly evil, they give it to Rerrid to destroy or to sanctify. Descritad checks out okay, but the evil taint around Kadiss and the guards disappoints the heroes. Kadiss and the guards are dismissed from service and told to find work somewhere else, hopefully outside of Rastor.

Don’t let them leave. Kill them!

Verrick turns around, looking for the source of the whisper. No one else seems to hear it. Nor do they notice Verrick grabbing the statue and caressing it, smoothing it, wearing it down. Lovingly. He picks up the scalpel that Descritad carelessly discarded and puts it away.

Bash in their skulls!

The Arrival of Infinitus

The mighty conquerors of the Temple of All Consumption reenter the crater ridge mines from the main gate. Again. Once more they plan to travel clockwise around the crater to reach the east side of the South Gate. They expect that this approach would be unexpected and give them the added advantage of surprise. Of course, this is the previous route they took when they had killed the cloakers, but who knows, maybe the Air Temple forgot.

This time is different, however. Soon after they enter in through the giant double doors, Sylvan hears a voice in his mind, an obvious telepathic connection from an unseen and somewhat unwelcome source. Azzalin. Or, should I say Sylvan? I have a proposition for you. Interested?

Sylvan thinks his response, not speaking out loud. That depends on who this is.

My name is Infinitus, the voice continues. I offer you whatever you wish in return for a small favor.

Sylvan considers carefully the implication of the intonation from the voice. What is the favor?

Infinitus suggests simply, Lead your ‘friends’ into a trap.

Sylvan quickly answers. No, that is unfair and cheating.

Aren’t you one who prefers to alter fate? Indeed, isn’t that one of the overriding principles you hold? The voice proclaims in a stern and commanding tone. Let me assure you, the cards are stacked against you.

Sylvan seems irritated as he replies. This is not cheating at cards. The forces of evil are too powerful now and need to be reduced to achieve balance. The answer is no.

Infinitus persists. This is not an idle proposition. Do you understand that I can offer you a wish?

The elf still denies the offer, growing impatient at the badgering. Yes, I understand. Some favors come with too high a price.

They are not your friends, Sylvan. If I restore your memories, you will realize who your true friends really are.

I know enough about my past to realize I don’t want to be that person again. On a whim, Sylvan asks, Are you a Doomdreamer?

Infinitus gruffly responds. No. I am something more. But, what I am is not pertinent. Your quest is futile. This is your last chance. You can have a wish, perhaps wishing for a magical staff and have longevity, or you can die, or worse.

Sylvan answers with finality. I will play the game with the hand I was dealt. He then shuts Infinitus out of his mind.

While Sylvan analyzes the voice and thinks about what was said, the heroes have almost reached the Northern Bridge Complex. The voice then insinuates itself in Verrick’s mind. Verilia, for I know your true name, are you willing to listen to a proposal?

Verrick responds similarly. That depends on who this is.

My name is Infinitus. I can give you whatever you wish for. All I ask is a small favor.

Verricks then asks, And the favor is?

Infinitus answers. Lead your ‘friends’ into a trap for me. For that, you alone will live and I can give you a wish.

Verrick responds negatively. Sorry, no. I don’t betray my friends.

Ignore them. Do you not understand what I offer? I can grow the Nulb forest in a single afternoon. The loss of five companions is a small price to pay for such a miraculous event. Obad-Hai would be pleased.

Verrick firmly states, No. Then, once the being has broken off telepathic communication, he mumbles, “Bastard.”

The Infinitus Ambush

Sylvan mentions the voice in his head and Verrick offers a similar report. Everyone else then notes that they, too, got a quick offer to betray the rest of the party for a huge reward. No takers, though, so they continue the journey, pausing momentarily at Gouquog’s pool in order to cross on boats. Verrick rides his animal companion Bucky, who is outfitted with horseshoes of the zephyr and can walk on the water.

Once the party reaches the halfway point, a huge, demonic shape steps out of the darkened left passageway. The demon stands almost fifteen feet tall and has two large pincer claws, with penetrating violet eyes and pitch black skin. Two more arms extend from its torso and it points one of them at the group. “So be it. You have made your decision; now it is time to die.”

Sylvan immediately recognizes the monster as a glabrezu, an extremely powerful demon from the furthest reaches of the abyss. Obviously, this must be Infinitus, who has been contacting them all telepathically. Sylvan recalls that glabrezu demons indeed have the power to grant wishes, so it was not a false offer. The information doesn’t help much here, however, as the wizard’s moment of revelation is cut short when Infinitus casts reverse gravity. The heroes plummet to the ceiling, crashing into the sharp, uneven stone and getting further struck by the heavy boats. Verrick, Shangor, and Aramil all float gently to the ceiling, being protected by rings of featherfalling or the featherfall spell itself.

Verrick reacts first, placing a wall of fire in front of the demon, attempting to cut off its advance and give the party more time to prepare. In response, Infinitus dismisses the reverse gravity and the heroes plunge back down. Only Sylvan manages to miss the boat and hits the water. Shangor activates his prayer bead to bless his allies as Kale and Aldoroc row the boats forward, approaching the wall of fire. Aramil polymorphs into a gold dragon wyrmling and Sylvan struggles to pull out a wand while treading water.

Sylvan calls out to his companions, trying not to swallow the brackish water, “Should we fight? He’s a glabrezu demon, very tough.”

Verrick responds, “He’s blocked in, though. I don’t think he can get us yet.”

Kale utters the fateful words, “We stand and fight! We can’t let a demon stand in our way! Down with evil!”

Shangor agrees, “Aye, lads! We kinna flee from the like o’ ‘im.”

Verrick wildshapes into a shark and dives into the water, swimming towards the secret underwater cavern. Bucky the warhorse retreats back to dry land with a whinny. Even the warhorse realizes that fighting this monster is dangerous. Infinitus nonchalantly steps through the wall of fire, walking atop the water and getting right next to the boats. Verrick’s spell fails to penetrate his spell resistance, so the flames lick harmlessly off the demon’s back.

The demon comments, “Foolish mortals. You have no hope of defeating me.” He then points a clawed finger at Shangor. A thin beam of white light shoots out and hits the dwarf in the face, stunning him. Infinitus chuckles, “I’ll have none of your dismissal, cleric.”

The boat with Aldoroc and Shangor glides through the wall of fire to land on the bank of the right passage. Shangor, stunned and in the back of the boat, remains out of the fire’s effects, but Aldoroc goes all the way through, getting burned badly. The boat with Kale and Aramil is a little slower, but enough to push Kale through the fire as well and to bring Aramil into striking distance of the demon. Sylvan nervously recognizes the demon’s spell as power word stun, hoping that it has no more of those. He activates his wand of levitation and floats up out of the water, putting the wand away. Aramil attempts to dive off the side of the boat away from the demon, but it manages to grab him in one of its pincer claws, digging deep into the dragon disciple’s body and seizing him in the air despite not putting much effort into the hold. Aramil quickly escapes, however, and drops into the pool, leaving a thin trail of blood in the water as he swims away to safety.

Verrick begins casting summon nature’s ally, spontaneously converting a cure critical wounds spell. Infinitus keeps up his taunts, looking at the levitating elven wizard, “Azzalin, this is your last chance. Clearly, even you now realize that resistance is futile. Join us. Betrayal is your only hope of survival.”

Having no more ready opponents, the demon steps over the first rowboat and viciously attacks the stunned dwarf. Infinitus eschews his accuracy in favor of concentrating on using his full power. The attack shocks the remaining heroes as Shangor is nearly torn asunder in a bloody frenzy. On the other side of the wall of fire, Aldoroc draws his battleaxe and moves to the opposite passage, skirting the flames just enough to get singed again. He doesn’t find the demon, however, and instead takes a few moments to quaff some curative potions. Kale is also there and the ranger pulls out his wand of cure light wounds, likewise applying it to Aldoroc. Hopefully, they can heal the powerful fighter enough that he can withstand melee combat with the glabrezu. It is a slim hope, and probably late in coming.

Sylvan angrily says, “My name is Sylvan!” He then casts mirror image and swims up to Shangor, hoping to pull him to safety if the dwarf still lives. Unfortunately, Sylvan fails to remember that glabrezu demons cannot be fooled by mere illusionary spells. Moreover, the pool does not even provide cover as Infinitus reaches through the water with its huge pincer claw and hoists Sylvan above the boat, crushing him fiercely. The ease at which it attacked through the surface must only mean that it has freedom of movement.

Aramil casts magic missile, but fails to overcome the demon’s spell resistance. Verrick finishes the summoning, but only brings in one huge shark, which cannot even attack the demon due to its apparent magic circle of protection. He grumbles in frustration and then casts faerie fire, making sure Infinitus cannot turn invisible. Fortunately, Verrick overcomes the spell resistance for the first and only time.

Infinitus ignore the violet faerie fire and glares down at the hapless wizard in his grasp. “You should have heeded my advice.” He squeezes his claw, almost cutting the elf in half, then picks up Shangor in the other claw. “Fools.” Infinitus turns to the sharks as an afterthought and rips the summoned one apart with his remaining two claws and bared teeth. “Blast. I thought you were Verilia.” The demon almost shrugs as he spits out chunks of shark flesh, turns, and steps through the wall of fire to the right hand passageway leading to the Water Temple proper with the still living form of Sylvan in his grasp. Sylvan cannot withstand the flames, however, and silently perishes.

Aramil yells out, “He’s got Shangor and Sylvan! Aldoroc, Kale, don’t let him get away with their bodies!” The gold dragon then flies through the flames to confront the demon. He attempts a dispel magic on him, but fails to overcome most of its protections. He speaks with an obviously empty threat, hoping against hope that it will work, “Drop the bodies and we’ll let you live.” He is met only by hideous chuckling.

Aldoroc runs around the corner, burning himself again on the flames. He barely makes it up to the demon, and gets hurt from a claw as he moves within its range. The fighter swings his mighty battleaxe and tears a big hole in the creature’s side, the wound immediately filling with pus and sizzling from the holy weapon. Kale remains in the other passageway, using his wand of cure light wounds almost continuously. He thinks to himself, maybe I should get a wand of cure moderate wounds, it’d be quicker.

Verrick charges through the flames, taking damage as well. Not even the original caster is immune to his spells. Not for the first time this combat does Verrick wish wall of fire were dismissible. Infinitus backs away from the dangerous Aldoroc and casts confusion, fortunately affecting only the fighter.

Aldoroc babbles incoherently at Aramil, who continues unsuccessfully threatening the demon and casting another magic missile. Verrick summons a large air elemental to help beat the demon down but it also fails to get any closer than ten feet. Infinitus slowly backs away, squeezing down the ten foot wide passage, and drinks a potion of healing, eliminating the damage from the lone attack by Aldoroc, who continues to babble incoherently.

Eventually, Infinitus manages to withdraw to the wider area containing the twenty-five-foot kuo-toan statue. During his retreat, he confuses Aldoroc again and the air elemental, though Aramil dispels them both, sending the relatively useless air elemental back to its home plane. Aramil would rather face a powerful demon than a confused Aldoroc. Infinitus casts a series of unholy blights and chaos hammers during his retreat, damaging Kale, Aramil, and Verrick.

Verrick wildshapes into a brown bear and moves up to attack the demon, deciding once and for all to rip it to shreds with his bare bear claws. Unfortunately for the druid, Infinitus drops the two bodies and tears him apart, nearly killing him in a few seconds. Verrick does drop unconscious and bloody on the ground, however. Kale and Aramil still refuse to give up and it looks grim when the demon positions a particularly powerful unholy blight in the middle of them, killing Verrick outright and wounding Aramil and Kale badly. They finally decide to flee, though Aramil foolishly taunts the demon some more, watching it depart through the Water Temple carrying the corpses of Shangor and Sylvan, most likely towards the Outer Fane.

The Unexpected Help

The confusion on Aldoroc eventually wears off, and the three remaining companions pick up Verrick’s body. They encourage Bucky to help carry him back to Rastor, where they decide to rest for the night. They are stunned and depressed, still not fully comprehending the absolute ferocity in which they were defeated. They were ambushed by a well-prepared and powerful opponent and were soundly routed. It was only the ulterior motive of the demon which forestalled complete annihilation. However, that doesn’t bring Shangor, Sylvan, and Verrick back.

Rerrid and the dwarves of Rastor offer little advice. The cleric holds a brief and tearful service for the fallen heroes, with most of the townspeople joining in. Seamus gives a brief eulogy to his friend Shangor and, in typical dwarven fashion, drinks until he passes out on a log.

Aramil is woken in the middle of the night by a voice speaking in abyssal. “Hey, wake up. Are you Aramil?” The dragon disciple opens his eyes, peering about. His eye of awareness helps him notice someone invisible nearby, but he does not pinpoint the target. Suddenly, a quasit appears out of nowhere, dismissing its invisibility. The tiny red winged demon drops a leather sack by the golden elf. “I was told to give you this and wait for a response. There’s a note inside.”

Aramil wakes up Kale and Aldoroc, and then opens the sack. The note has a large smear of blood on it, but he reads it to himself.

I had hoped not to have to take such a direct action. Here you will find three greater arrows of slaying humans and some other useful items. The bodies are in the Stalagos near the Air Bridge. Use this note with my blood to scry me if you need to. Do not let the messenger live.

V

Aramil calmly hands the note to Kale, but the ranger cannot read draconic. Aramil then wordlessly tries to grab the quasit, but fails. Before the demon can fly away or turn invisible, however, Aramil blasts it with a magic missile, ending its miserable life.

The next morning, the trio journeys to the Northern Bridge Complex and finds the bloated bodies of their comrades weighed down in the water by the bridge. On the opposite side of the walkway, they find most of their equipment, the remainder apparently having been taken. They gather everything and return to Rastor, sending for Rerrid. They hand him the scroll of raise dead, which he successfully uses to bring Shangor back to the world of the living. The next day, Shangor raises Sylvan. The following day, Sylvan teleports to Khorasan with Shangor and the lifeless body of Verrick.

The grand druid in the capital city of Karacul reincarnates Verrick. Perhaps fate takes hold, or maybe Obad-Hai has a cosmic sense of humor, because Verrick returns in the body of a female halfling, almost identically the same size as Verilia, but with a darker complexion.

Beaten, but not down, the adventurers return to Rastor and prepare to continue their tireless assault on the Temple of All Consumption. They vow not to let the evil cultists get the better of them again.