Thursday, October 02, 2008

Session Notes Continued 42-43

Session 42

Rhapsody keeps watch for the spider thingies should they mosey upwards. Ten minutes go by as Muller is watching over the unconscious pair. Muller manages to bring Daniel back to consciousness. Rhapsody notices kobolids moving into position, one with a rifle of some sort. Rhapsody gets the rifle and starts to take aim at the one with the rifle. Muller catches Daniel up on events.

Muller uses her mental abilities to make the kobalid with the gun stand up and scream, holding his head. Rhapsody fires and wings the kobalid, Connel fires and drops it. Another kobalid dives for the gun. Rhapsody fires as does Connel, while the other two take off through the trees to get around the house. Rhapsody drops one and Connel manages to hit cover on the other as it flees through the trees.

They notice that the zombies are congregating at the side that the group is mostly seen. The other side is clear.

Connel tries to force a vision to see what would happen with the group getting off the roof, towards the woods to the back. He sees Rhapsody carrying Daniel and Sheri, running through the woods with everyone else.

As the group climbs down the ladder, Rhapsody throws shingles at the zombies to keep them interested in one side. After hopping down with Sheri, she picks up Daniel and they get moving. After a few moments Daniel tries to cast his essence shield and as he gets it up, there is a huge clap of thunder. Rhapsody covers him and Sheri, thinking it gunshots, but it was 3 lightning hits in a single location from what they see. Daniel gets himself healed back up to full. But he goes to try to heal endurance damage on Sheri and comes back to consciousness.

Connel is watching the woods and gets flashes in his head, seeing several of the spider demons probing the woods. They keep going and head south, parallel to the shoreline. Another thunderbolt strikes.

Rhapsody is somewhat leading and finds a dirt road. The continue south and Rhapsody notices as they cross a ravine. There is movement, something through the tall grass. They keep going and three spider demons spring out and attack.

Rhapsody steps in after the one on Daniel and knocks it down. She goes after the one on Sheri and it dodges, then attacks Rhapsody and hits both times and Rhapsody is down and unconscious. Demon attacks Connel who gets out of the way of the first one but is hit with the second attack makes Connel go down as well. Sheri calls for holy fire on the one that attacked Connel. Muller goes to one knee and takes shots at the one on Rhapsody. She hits both times and knocks it off the unconscious tiger. Daniel pops a soulfire at the same demon, hits and fries it, blowing it up from the inside out.
The one remaining demon spins around and lunges at Daniel, but doesn't penetrate his armor. Sheri doubletaps and it dodges the first shot, then the second shot is also avoided. Muller aims and also doubletaps, winging it with one bullet. Daniel tosses off another soulfire and hits it with a glancing blow.

The spider heads to stab at Daniel and he dives out of the way. Sheri doubletaps, and hits, dropping it. After healing and getting folks mobile. They got the top of the hill and see warehouse buildings, docks at the waterline, but no shambling hordes of zombies.

They hunker down and get healed up and energies restored before going invisible with Daniel's hideaway spell. As the go towards the buildings, two fengral demons walk past them. They go further and Daniel gets Connel fully healed, endurance and health before shielding himself and renewing the hideaway.

A fengral demon climbs down the building and lands about 10 feet from the group and keeps going. Rhaps opens the door to the warehouse and they head in. They turn to the left and Rhaps peeks in a door and it's the main warehouse. There is a faint glow and the walls seem to be covered in a fleshy substance. Rhaps reports and the hideaway fades. They decide to wait till Daniel is full and then go in with a new hideaway.

They head in and find the sac, that appears to be around the node they are looking for. Connel mindviews inside the sac and sees layers, and layers, of eggs.

They head back and Daniel tells of his idea for using a truck or something to be driven through the door to hopefully explode. They go out and find a truck, they find desiel fuel and load up the truck, then try to figure out who was going to go in
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Session 43

The group is on the dock, with a truck loaded with barrels of fuel as the storm rises in force. It was determined that both Rhapsody and Sheri would have to push the vehicle up the hill and someone (Daniel) would go in and open the roll gate.

Daniel starts to work on getting an invisible spell going but as he does so, Connell grabs his head and starts to scream. Rhapsody pounces him and claps a hand over his mouth, then knocks him out. She tucks him under a tarp and Daniel casts his hideaway on the group then on himself.

Sheri invokes the strength of ten as she and Rhapsody push the truck towards the building. Daniel heads into the side doors into the overpowering reek of the critters inside. He cuts through the hall and makes his way carefully towards the door. There is a close call where a spider demon skittles by, but takes no notice of him. He makes his way to the main room and sees the egg sack. He finds the lock and kicks it loose.

The door starts to open up as the truck crests the hill and they shove the truck in. Muller dives out of the truck, Daniel dives out of the building. The lighter is blown out a couple times before it catches and follows the line.

There are mild explosions as the cans go up and a large wall of flame that steadily eating up the egg sack. Spider demons try to tip the truck and get it away as others are trying to put it out. The group gets to the dock and they hear the mother of all spider demons scream.

Several demons scurry out of the building and they are clutching spores of some sort. They scurry by the group and jump into the water. They hear a cry and they see the biggest spider demon dragging itself and the egg sack body behind it as flaming eggs fall off.

Sheri throws Connell over her shoulder and scuttle runs as the others follow. They charge the demon and they move to the side. Daniel sees one of the demons close to the build turn and start scuttling towards the visible part of the group.

Rhapsody kills the demon as it runs by her. She looks over and nothing else seemed to have seen her. The mother spider is still dragging itself. It gets one claw into the water and the pillar of fire from Sheri finishes it. It collapses.

Daniel puts out another hideaway after it is determined to leave the unconscious Connell where he is, and under cover. They get to the burning building and Daniel can sense the nexus. They can make out swirling smoke and energy.

Daniel gathers up energy and launches a soul fire. The blue line of energy flies through and hits the nexus. It puts out the fire from wave in a circle. They retreat back over to where Connell was as he's coming to. He tells of the vision with the zombies and the circle and the hooded figure enveloped in power.

He tries to get a sense of where the last nexus is. They pull out a map and figure out the general area. They head out after a few moments. As they get to the chain linked fence, Sheri sees along the back of the gate house, and there are a few bicycles on a bike stand.

"Hey guys, I found transportation."

Twenty minutes later they are getting into Dickinson lane. At the end, towards the square, where the eye of the storm is located, is a wall of zombies. As Daniel cant' get a read with the eclipsing power of the square, they head towards Champlin Square and get up to the steps of a bed and breakfast. Suddenly, all the essence from the town square vanishes and they can then sense the essence in the house.

Connell takes a step up and falls to his knees, coughing up blood. "I can't do this, guys. Dammit." He goes and sits on the corner of the porch.

The group sticks together and head up, searching the house. There are signs of violence and in the basement there is a bedroom, like that for a caretaker, and the single bed in the center has been torn apart. There is a putrescent corpse with a fleshy flower sticking out of the torso of the corpse. There is the same yellowish goop dripping out of the flower.

Daniel starts to channel. The flower rises up and there is stalk that heads from it to the hole. It expands and explodes all over the room, sending mold everywhere, covering the group. Muller, Sheri and Daniel start to go into horrible, wracking coughs. The goop burns and Rhapsody is not in uncontrolled fits.

Rhapsody goes to hit the nexus and whacks at it with the club. The blow crumples the flower and some yellowish sappy goo starts pumping from the stock as the feral and the others are blown away.

Sheri's eyes are bleeding and Daniel is breaking out in sores, retching some, but in control. Rhapsody attacks the nexus again. Arcane energy rocks the room and the hole is destroyed. They get into a bathroom and hit the shower to get the stuff off with water. They get into borrowed clothes and when they get outside, Connell is gone.

After a few minutes while Sheri and Daniel gathers essence and does some healing, the group gets on their bikes and heads to the square. There are bodies lying over the ground, some two deep. Sixty feet into the zombies, Connell is crawling towards the bodies. The group heads over the bodies and pass Connell who is struggling forward.

The fire is still smoldering from the bonfire. There is a figure in ash grey robes stumbling out from behind the fire, appearing to be crying.

"I came so close to it!" He tears off his hood and it's Priest. He's anguishing and tearing at his hair.

Daniel goes into the circle, followed by the others. Muller steps in and there is a sound like a rubber band strumming. "So glad you could make it."

Sheri sees the flaming elemental that is the bonfire. The ground rumbles and four 12 foot golems stand up. Smaller rocks tumble through their skull like heads. The elementals attack.

Rhapsody summons five tigers. Sheri invokes her holy strength. Daniel sees that Priest as one hell of a shield on him. He says something to the elementals, one arm looks bluish-shiny like metal, and the other is blue, but more like it's partially ethereal. He has a line of power, making him glow. Daniel starts to channel and he uses the shotgun on the lead elemental. Muller panics and runs, hitting the barrier of the circle and flying back about 12 feet. The fire elemental rises to 30 feet and shrieks and Priest speaks. The four earth elementals attacks, one for each of the party members. One reaches down and bear hugs Sheri. It sinks partially into the ground with her as it squeezes. Daniel and Rhapsody dodge their attacks. Muller is squeezed into the ground and is half buried. She screams.

Rhapsody has the tigers attack Priest to try and wear down the shield. She goes after the elemental holding Sheri. Clawing and punching has little to no effect. The cats pounce and some manage to get in through the shield but not to Priest. Sheri tries to break out and does not break free, though the showing is impressive. Priest mutters an incantation and the winds pick up around him and the tigers get spun like a roulette ball. Daniel heads over to soulfire the elemental holding Sheri. The shoulder is hit and knocks out some of the material that makes up hits body. Muller screams some more. Connell is at the outside of the circle and he bounces off. The two earth golems attack. One gets Daniel, the shield holds, but he feels a strain on his shoulder as he's encased up to his neck. Rhapsody dodges. Priest points at Rhapsody and the fire elemental rushes at the feral, screaming and launches two jets of flame at her. Rhapsody is not fast enough to avoid the blasts.

Rhapsody attacks Priest and staggers him with the first blow, and then the second is blocked with his metallic arm. Sheri prays for holy fire on Priest and a pillar of fire strikes out at him, bowing him down, then he stands up as it washes off him, but more of his shield is dissipated. He says something and earth closes over Sheri's face, and she begins to suffocate. Priest tries to punch Rhapsody and she dodges. Daniel glares at Priest. The earth elemental gets up behind Rhapsody and envelops her and sinks almost fully into the ground.

Priest laughs and the elemental cries out that it wants Sheri, sliding over towards her, but backs off when Priest calls it off. The elementals shift for the group to face the fire. Air is let into Sheri's prison to let her breathe.

"Try anything and I will not release you before you die. You will be crushed."

Priest steps around the other side of the fire, incanting, the rashes start to itch furiously. Rhapsody tries to shift and escape, but doesn't work. Sheri calls holy fire on her elemental. It shifts and doesn't free Sheri, but squeezes her.

Sheri can see a bit of dark tendril shadow start making its way along the ground coming towards her. She loses sight of it and then sees a smoky tendril come over the edge of the view port and the tendril slides into Sheri's mouth and nose. Her awareness is drawn out and she is in a grey black void. On the 'floor' is a hunched over, naked figure, crouching. He's emaciated and wounded, but somewhat familiar. He raises his face that is disfigured and in pain. It's Willard.

Willard screams and a piece of flesh rips away from his arm. "Chereshe found out it was me that was helping you out. He either finally caught on or knew all along." More if his flesh is rent away in a sizzling line. He knew Priest stole the key, he wanted to see how the world would react to an arcane catastrophe so he can summon the other two thirds of the Balial of the triumvirate. The pyramid corrupted Priest. To prevent the spread, the flower must be destroyed. The bodies must be burned. You would have to have deep magic healing. I'll give you the energy of shadow for a little while. The key is in his chest. Cheresche has Lascitide's key…. Early has Sin's. Find Lord Voliss! Heresche is in Chalmers."

He touches Sheri and she is back in the elemental, the wills herself out as she sees things in shadow. Sheri's shadowy face looks at Daniel. After trying to make him shadowy, she goes over to Priest. Kneeling next to him is a blue kobalid ogre thing, conversing with him. Sheri goes up Priest's robes. She sees runes along his body, at his chakra at his chest, there is the pyramid that is Cheresche's key.

Priest screams as the pyramid is yanked out. Sheri flows out of the circle with the pyramid. The fire elemental and the earth elementals head for Priest as he rips at his robes. The blue kobalid leaps over the fire after Sheri.

Sheri is taking on solid form as she moves. Rhapsody leaps over the fire and moves to shoulder check the ogre. She doesn't knock him away, but is right with it. Priest is between a rock and a hot place. Daniel channels and gets Muller to drag her away. Ogre grabs a corpse and throws it at Sheri. It hits solidly and Sheri goes down. Rhapsody leaps upon the ogre's back and tries to dig for the heart, but the claws don't go throw. She's thrown off and the ogre shifts and turns into the lawyer from hell. The elementals continue to paste Priest. Daniel keeps channeling and fleeing with Muller, who does have a pulse. Lawyer boy tries to grab Rhapsody but she dodges out of the way.

Rhapsody dodges and heads for where Sheri fell. She grabs Sheri and leaps way, but gets her foot caught and falls, rolling, though she manages to protect Sheri. The earth elementals look around and go back to earth. The fire elemental incinerates Priest and then goes after Sheri. Daniel puts Muller down, takes note of where she was left, and channels, then launches a soulfire at the elemental. It's knocked sideways, shrieking and falls a sheet of flames as it diminishes in size. It rears up and turns into a jet of flame that eats its way towards Daniel. Lawyer leaps at Rhaps and she dodges.

Rhaps manages to get on her feet again and away from Lawyer. She rummages in the backpack for the whistle. The fire elemental tries to bite Daniel's head, it hits but doesn't penetrate the shield, though it does eat away at some of it. Daniel launches another soulfire at the fire elemental and it hits. It shrinks a bit more, almost human sized, landing amongst bodies and flees to the bonfire. "This isn't over!" and dissipates into the fire.

Rhapsody comes up with the whistle as she leaps up into the roof of a building. Lawyer leaps up and Rhaps blows the whistle that just sounds everywhere. He falls off the roof. Daniel goes back to Muller The storm is dissipating.

Rhapsody looks for Lawyer boy and he is gone. Rhaps gets Sheri and heads back towards the square, whistle in the corner of her mouth. She finds Connell and picks him up as he is out asleep or unconscious and heads towards Daniel. Rhaps stands watch for Lawyer boy as Daniel heals. Sheri is still out. Landline of a nearby house has no favorable results.

Daniel heals Sheri further, she wakes and pukes. She fills in folks about what Willard said, at least the bullet points. Rhaps goes to find the pyramid. It's gone. Daniel heals Muller. Rhaps asks if Daniel can summon Adelita. Rhaps does a small shrine to the kittes. Then she starts lobbing propane on fire to get things exploding.

There is a light in the sky swooping in low, is a fire eagle with Pukwudji riding on her back. Adelita turns to human form. They take off to get help. A helicopter arrives. After talking with Ramirez, Daniel calls Ashley. Ramirez gets a cutter to act as a floating quarantine. After a couple hours Meriden arrives and gets to healing. As he is healing, he bursts out where he is seeing to Connell and everyone goes outside.

At the island, a sheet of pure fire coats over the area. Meriden is displeased that Hashunka was summoned, but is startled to find out that Adelita likes Daniel and was the one the summoned her mother. Still, he warns that having such an entity drawn out into the mortal realm will have consequences. At this time, most of the party is too exhausted to give more than a token grunt of caring.

Once everyone is healed, Meridan and Ramirez are filled in on everything.

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