Buried Alive!

“Seriously?” Sawyer cursed. “More frickin’ hobgoblins?” He parried an incoming morningstar with Suishen, and blocked another blow with his shield. The third hobgoblin warrior’s attack slipped past his defenses, but glanced harmlessly off his thick plate armor. “I’m really getting sick of you guys!” he bellowed, as he switched from defense to offense, and sent Suishen slicing through the center attacker’s leather armor is if it were old cheese.

The group was still deep beneath the House of Withered Blossoms, exploring the oni domain now known as Munasukaru’s Penance. They’d fought their way through countless hobgoblin minions of various shapes and sizes, and had just killed off another batch, these accompanied by a pair of Stone Giants. Following a passage from that chamber, they’d found their way blocked by a rushing underground river, it’s current frothing over the remains of a fallen stone bridge. Sawyer had long ago lost patience with this place; he missed the sun and open sky, and was sick to death of the stench of hobgoblins. Unwilling to wait for the rest of the group to waste time coming up with a “plan” for crossing, he’d simply wrapped his arm around Bella’s waist and Air Walked across the stream. Unfortunately, the moment they touched down on the other side they were surrounded by more of the stinking hobgoblins, and two more Stone Giants were lumbering forward out of the darkness.

Another man might have had second thoughts about the wisdom of flying into an unknown room alone and cut off from the rest of his team, but Sawyer was not one for thoughtful reflection. Neither was Bella – she saw lots of targets for her blades, and that was enough for her. She stabbed the nearest hobgoblin in the thigh, then ducked under the massive club that the giant behind him aimed at her. Sawyer was not so lucky, and the other giant’s club came down squarely on his fancy helmet.

Marie heard Sawyer’s cursing and the clash of metal, and knew things had suddenly gone south. “Come on!” she cried, grabbing Shinjiro by the arm. She unfurled her angelic wings, and flew across the rushing river, dropping Shinjiro next to Bella on the far bank. The giant saw her coming, and wound up to take a mighty swing with his club, but an instant before it would have connected, she Teleported out of its way, reappearing directly behind the unsuspecting giant. As the giant twisted to see where she had gone, Shinjiro unloaded a Flurry of Blows on him.

Zhustin was near the back of the group, and was hopping on tip-toe to try to see what was going on up ahead. He could see the dim form of a giant swinging a club at Sawyer, and decided to take a risk. He waved his arms and dropped a Fireball in the back corner of the distant room, hoping to catch the giant and any nearby hobgoblins while missing his friend. He succeeded on two counts: the giant got his rear end scorched, and Sawyer was just outside the blast radius, but the two hobgoblins beside the giant used their uncanny reflexes to evade any damage from the flames. Nicki added a trio of Scorching Rays, and the huge giant was giving off the smell of overcooked pork.

The Withered Blossom Warriors were surrounding Sawyer and Bella, and were pressing their attack. A morningstar glanced off Bella’s skull, and she was left seeing stars of her own. The others focused on Sawyer, but he continued to evade their attacks. A pair of quick slices from Suishen send one crumpling to the floor, and Sawyer spun and thrust the blade into its partner. Bella slipped past the hobgoblin to stand directly between it and the giant, unafraid of the danger that posed. This allowed her to gain flanking on her hobgoblin opponent, and within seconds his blood was gushing out across the floor, and it stood wobbling on its feet. Marie swung her mace at the giant, but missed badly. The giant laughed at her feeble attempt, and decided she was no threat. It turned its attention to Shinjiro, and wound up to deliver a ferocious two-handed blow with its tree-sized club. But Sandoval had rushed to the bank of the stream, and he cast Grease on the club. The giant swung forward, and the club suddenly went flying out of its hands, sailing over Shinjiro’s head to land with a splash in the stream. Shinjiro took advantage of the giant’s momentary confusion to pummel it with another flurry. A ferocious kick snapped the giant’s knee, and as it fell forward, he followed up with a fast chop to its throat. The giant’s eyes rolled up into its head and it collapsed lifeless to the floor. Shinjiro wasn’t finished; continuing the same motion, he whirled around and delivered a spin kick to the nearest hobgoblin’s head, and its body slid across the bloody floor.

Nicki blasted the remaining giant with a volley of Magic Missiles as Sawyer cleaved the skull of the last hobgoblin warrior. Bella Pounced on the giant, coming up behind him and sinking her rapier and short sword deep into his back. With a roar of pain, it spun and swung at her, but she nimbly dodged the blow. Zhustin, still on the far side, was wary of casting any powerful spells with so many allies surrounding his target, so he popped of a simple Acid Splash. The blob of magical acid flew through the air and barely grazed the huge giant. Under normal circumstances, it would not have even noticed the wound, but it had been fried and stabbed and bled to within an inch of its life – and a drop of acid was all that was needed to push it that last inch. The giant toppled like a falling tree, and the battle was over.

As Marie doled out healing, they took in their surroundings for the first time. They were in a magnificent arched corridor, vanishing into darkness to the east. Rows of columns supported the ceiling, carved with images of writhing oni feasting on fleeing peasants. Once they were healthy enough to travel, they moved cautiously down this underground highway. It seemed to stretch on and on without end, continuing for hundreds and hundreds of feet. As they progressed, they noticed that the stonework was in increasing disrepair: more of the support columns were cracked or collapsed altogether, and the floor was frequently littered with broken stone that had fallen from the ceiling.

The silence was oppressive, and with a nod to the rest of the group, Bella moved out in front, stepping carefully over the fallen stones to scout out what was ahead. She was using all her stealthy skills, but no one is perfect. A scattering of pebbles ground under her foot, and the soft scraping sound echoed down the corridor. Suddenly a figure appeared from behind one of the columns ahead of her. It was a huge reptilian thing, with a long tail lashing behind it. But what chilled Bella was its face – or rather, its lack of face. It seemed to have no eyes, and no nose, only a gaping maw of a mouth that filled the whole front of its head. It opened its mouth even wider (and Bella would not have thought that was possible) and took a deep breath.

Bella was hit with a wall of sound. It was louder than anything she’d ever heard, and seemed to consist of the lowest bass notes and painfully screeching high notes simultaneously. It rattled her teeth and threatened to liquefy her organs. The wall of sound continued down the corridor, catching the rest of the group in its blast and hammering them with a wave of sonic energy. A stream of dust and falling pebbles rained down from the ceiling, and everyone suddenly had a pretty good idea of what had been causing the damage they’d seen.

Destrachan

It was a Destrachan, and more of the creatures stepped out from behind other columns or began advancing from the far end of the passageway. One opened its mouth and bellowed at the party, but its call was different. The rumbling bass notes were gone, and all the energy was focused on high-pitched frequencies at the extreme range of human hearing. But not beyond the limits of pain; everyone clutched their heads in agony, and when it had passed, Shinjiro and Nicki stood glassy-eyed and Stunned, with blood running from their ears.

A third Destrachan opened its maw, and bellowed out the same destructive cry that the first had made. But this one raised its head and directed its sonic attack at the ceiling above the party’s heads. With a rumbling crash, tons of broken stone came hurtling down, filling the corridor with a choking cloud of dust. People dodged as best they could, but when the dust cleared, everyone was battered and bloodied, and Marie and Sandoval were nowhere to be seen, buried under several feet of rubble.

An instant later, Marie reappeared, covered with dirt and blood, but alive and free. She’d used her Teleport ability to escape from beneath the tons of rock that had entombed her. Knowing that they couldn’t take many more of these attacks, she cast Silence on her mace and stood atop the pile of rock, protecting the party from the Destrachan’s sonic attacks with her bubble of quiet.

Unfortunately, Sandoval was still buried alive. He’d been about to cast a Dimension Door to free himself when the world suddenly went silent. Cursing (silently), he began to struggle against the tons of rock, trying to dig himself out.

Zhustin saw two more Destrachans approaching from the far edge of visibility. The creatures seemed to be in no hurry to close with the party; it seemed as if they enjoyed toying with their prey before finishing them off. He took stock of their situation, and it wasn’t good. Nicki and Shinjiro were out of action – who knew for how long. Sandoval was buried and possibly dead, and the weakened ceiling above them could give way again with another sonic blast. Sawyer and Bella could charge and attack, but with five of the creatures, it was unlikely they’d kill them before they could get off several more sonic attacks. It was up to Zhustin to save them. He dashed forward over the crumbled rock, sliding to a stop as soon as he came out of the area of Silence. Tracing intricate runes in the air, he called forth a Wall of Force to completely seal off the corridor just ahead of the Destrachans. The Destrachan that had attacked first drew in his breath and bellowed again, but the invisible wall blocked the sound waves, causing them to rebound back on the gathered Destrachans. Unfortunately, their innate resistance to sonic energy prevented them from taking any damage, but Zhustin was pleased to see dust drifting down from the ceiling; maybe they’d bury themselves. Another Destrachan bellowed, to the same effect, but then they realized the futility of continuing, and began to press against the invisible wall, looking for a way around it.

Zhustin knew he’d bought them perhaps a minute’s respite, no more. Sawyer and Bella, seeing that the Destrachans were no longer a threat (for the moment), rushed back to the pile of rubble and began furiously digging and moving rocks, trying to free Sandoval, but it was clear that if he was buried very deep, it would take much longer than they had to dig him out. Marie looked at everyone’s bruised and bloody forms, and decided to do some healing while she had the chance. She tossed the Silenced mace forward down the corridor a ways, so that she could cast a Channel Divinity on the assembled group.

Suddenly Sandoval reappeared behind pile of rubble; as soon as the Silence had gone away, he’d wasted no time using Dimension Door to free himself. Nicki and Shinjiro began to shake their heads groggily, reviving from their stupor. They had little time before both Zhustin’s Wall and Marie’s Silence would expire – they needed to take action now.

Sandoval moved forward and picked up Marie’s mace, tucking it into his belt so that he could fight without fear of sonic attacks. Bella used her Terra Cotta Warrior  to summon a Spiritual Ally then she and Shinjiro moved to stand with Sawyer. Sandoval cast Good Hope on the party, then began a vigorous Riverdance; his comrades in the area of Silence wouldn’t benefit from his Inspire Courage if he was singing, but if he was dancing …

By now, all the Destrachans were gathered at the Wall of Force, snarling at the enemies just out of reach. With everyone in position and ready to move, Zhustin dismissed the Wall of Force and chopped his hand down in the ‘go’ signal. Nicki had his spell primed and ready to go, and cast it the instant Zhustin signaled. Pointing his metamagic rod, he cast a Maximized, Empowered Fireball onto the clustered Destrachans. The resulting blast was truly spectacular, and the Destrachans’ cries of pain were deafening. All but one of the beasts were immediately incinerated. The lone survivor stood defiant for a moment – until the roof came crashing down on him, its already-weakened stones dislodged by the concussive blast of Nicki’s massive Fireball.

Coughing, the party made their way through the thick cloud of dust that surrounded the Destachans’ burial mound. After a few dozen more yards, the long corridor at last came to an end. It opened out into a broad stone platform overlooking a series of rough stone ledges leading down. The open area was littered with the rotting corpses of dozens of hobgoblins: the Destrachans’ prey and playthings. Water cascaded from cracks in the walls, and spilled down the rough steps leading steeply down. Far below, at the bottom, the party could just make out a black hole into which the water drained. As far as they could see, it was the only exit.

The PCs gained 8,686 XP for the night, putting them at 233,034 XP, with 315,000 required for level 13. We’ll be back at Leo’s next week, in case we have technical difficulties again.