Theater of Death

As Marie doled out healing, Ameiko hurried to reassure the frightened servants who had taken cover behind the ovens during the battle in the dining hall. “Is there a way up from here?” she asked in Minkaian, and one of the cooks nodded. He pointed to a door in the north. “That way, Princess,” he whispered. “The stairs to the throne room are through there. But the way is guarded.” Everyone exchanged looks – were they ever going to catch a break? Ameiko looked at the cowering servants. “Can you tell us what we’re up against?”

Food for Thought

Bella was still peppering Teikono with questions as the others dragged her out of the inner vault, hoping the Imperial Dragon guardian would give them some loophole they could exploit to get at the other Imperial Seals. “Wait a minute – I just thought of something else!” she exclaimed as they were climbing the stairs, but Sawyer blocked her path back down. Sighing, she resigned herself to moving on, still confident she could have found a way around the dragon’s vow if she had just had a little more time.

Down to the Vaults

Sandoval’s ears popped as the Silence spell that had been plaguing them suddenly expired. Barely pausing for a breath, he resumed singing, even as he charged forward to attack the last surviving Iron Tempest monk, and he was pleased to feel the vibrations of his echoblade’s sonic attack working once again. Zhustin hammered the monk with a volley of Magic Missiles, throwing him off balance so his attempts to hit the elusive Bella went wide. Nicki’s oni skeletons lumbered in behind the monk, and as he turned to defend himself from them, Bella slipped behind him. He never even felt the blade that pierced his heart.

Monk-y Business

“So far, so good,” Sandoval thought as he stepped over the body of the dead guard. They’d managed to infiltrate the Imperial Palace without having to fight their way in, and so far they’d silently dispatched all the guards they’d encountered without raising any alarms. Now they were crowded into the ground floor of one of the Palace’s towers. Bella had already opened both doors, revealing passages leading north and east, each ending in closed doors. Marie passed Bella the coin on which she’d cast Silence and the rogue scurried off to the east. Sandoval felt his ears pop as the oppressive silence suddenly went away. He heard Nicki mutter some words, and then he vanished from sight, leaving only his two new bodyguards, the animated skeletons of two of the Typhoon Guards they’d killed upstairs. Sandoval shuddered; Nicki was getting more and more unpredictable, and Sandoval was worried that his necromantic fetish was getting out of hand.

Assault on the Palace

Staring up at the massive Imperial Palace from their hiding spot in Isao’s wagon, Zhustin felt his mouth go dry. “So … what’s the plan?” he finally asked, his voice cracking. There was a long silence. Then the silence broke like a dam, and everyone started talking at once.

Ancestral Blessings

The group woke feeling stiff and sore from the previous day’s battles, and those who had lost levels were especially grumpy. Marie reordered her spell inventory, discarded some usual spells to make room for more Restorations, and set about bringing everyone to full strength. As she worked, Bella rummaged through her pack and came out with the Wand of Dimensional Anchor they’d liberated from the oni inquisitor who was about to execute Hatsue. “I’m sick of these guys teleporting away just as we’re about to kill them,” she complained, remembering the way the Thanadaemons had escaped to regenerate. “Does anyone know how to use this thing?” she asked, waving the wand about. Nicki quickly took it away from her before she poked someone’s eye out.

A Draining Experience

“So now what?” Zhustin was looking over the bodies of the dead hydrodaemons, and staring out over the dark waters of the subterranean lake. Much of this level of the Well of Demons was still unexplored, and every new cave seemed to hold new terrors. They could see a cave mouth in the wall of the cavern opposite them, and another atop some cliffs just to their south. Far to the south, beyond another pair of islands, they could see a broad beach with a large open area beyond it, but any more detail was lost in the darkness.