Katiyana's Demise

Having reached the top of the Storm Tower, the party found themselves engaged in a battle royale with Katiyana, disciple of the demon lord Sithhud. She expounded on some nefarious plot to use the power of the Storm Tower, along with the strange monoliths she had scattered across the arctic, to control the morozkos, the Hungry Storms, to send them to batter the warm lands of the south and bring glory to her demon lord. But the party couldn’t really care less about her mad schemes – they just wanted to survive the encounter.

They had managed to destroy her demon bodyguards and most of her Giant Hoarfrost Spirit minions, but Katiyana herself was proving a tougher bird. Shinjiro had managed to climb the wall to her perch high above (using the Claws of the Ice Bear) and Marie had Silenced the area. But Katiyana simply took to the air and flew across the chamber, out of their reach.

While everyone else was fighting Katiyana and her allies, Nicki had been focusing on the strange gems that seemed to be feeding power to the Storm Sphere above the tower’s roof. He’d been focusing his spells on one of the gems, and it was cracked and sparking, but still feeding a steady stream of energy to the Storm Sphere above. He unleashed another Empowered Fireball, catching both the gem and Katiyana in its blast. Katiyana seemed untouched by the flames, but the gem shattered in an explosion of sparks and arcing electricity. Although the spell hadn’t seemed to affect Katiyana, the destruction of the power gem was a different story. She shrieked with pain and fury, and seemed somehow diminished.

Bella had climbed to the platform with the last remaining Hoarfrost Spirit and, in a rage, sent it hurtling lifeless to the floor below. She then turned her attention to the power gem set in the wall above the platform. Being careful not to come in contact with the stream of energy feeding the sphere, she slammed it with her warhammer. Unfortunately, the gem was far harder than she’d anticipated, and her efforts resulted in only some hairline fractures in its surface. Frustrated, she abandoned this tack and began climbing back down to the floor. Similarly Shinjiro, with no target in reach anymore, used Feather Fall to drop lightly to the floor, trying to figure out how he could contribute to the fight.

Seeing Nicki’s success with the gem, Marie decided to follow his lead. She cast Air Walk to become airborne, and tried climbing up to the nearest gem set high in the wall above. Unfortunately, the gale-force winds kept pushing her off course. Finally growing frustrated, she used Teleport to transit directly beneath the gem, counting on the winds blowing out from the center to keep her in place. However Katiyana had other ideas. She seemed keen on protecting the rest of the gems, and called down a Lightning Bolt from the Storm Sphere to blast Marie before she had a chance to swing her mace. This wasn’t the first bolt that had hit Marie, and fearing that another such blast would take her out of action permanently, the cleric hastily retreated to huddle beneath the nearest platform, out of sight of Katiyana and hopefully out of reach of her lightning.

Marie wasn’t the only one struggling with the windstorm inside the chamber. Zhustin Summoned a trio of eagles to attack Katiyana, but they were not even a distraction to her. She cast some healing on herself, then casually flew to the south. As the eagles tried to follow, two were blown into the stream of energy from one of the power gems, and all that remained were a few singed feathers blowing in the wind. The third managed to avoid that fate, only to be caught in the Fireball that Zhustin followed up with. Once again, Katiyana seemed untouched by the flames, but the gem at her side was damaged, and began leaking sparks. Nicki cast yet another Empowered Fireball, this time on the gem on the far north wall, and it too showed signs of damage, but Katiyana retaliated by raining electrical death down on Nicki’s head (causing Bella, who was now standing right next to the sorcerer, to wet herself). Sandoval was casting Soundburst at the flying half-fiend at every opportunity, but while they seemed to do some amount of damage, they weren’t having the stunning effect he’d hoped for.

Sawyer was becoming incredibly frustrated. He’d spent most of the battle cowering against the wall, under the power of Katiyana’s Command to flee her. Now that he’d regained control of himself, he found he could do nothing but helplessly fire off arrows, only to see the winds blow them wildly off target. To make matters worse, Suishen was constantly haranguing him. “Do not be a coward! You must take the battle to her! Use me to defeat her! I can give you Air Walk – use it! Show your honor!” But Sawyer had seen what happened to others who tried to fly in this storm. “How am I supposed to do that?” he demanded of the sword. The sword fairly screamed at him. “Hug the wall! The winds will keep you pressed against it, and you can climb to her platform.” Sure enough, Katiyana had by now retreated to the western platform. Ignoring the stream of curses in Minkaian that now flowed from the ancestral blade, Sawyer gritted his teeth and began to climb.

Unfortunately, by the time he reached it, Katiyana had once again taken to the air. She dipped down to where she could see Marie, pressed against the bottom of the eastern platform desperately using healing on herself. With an evil smile, Katiyana cast Dispel Magic on the cleric, intending to negate her Air Walk and send her plummeting to the floor 50’ below. Fortunately for Marie, the spell failed, and it was Katiyana’s turn to curse (in Abyssal, of course).

Nicki unleashed a volley of Magic Missiles against the northern power gem, and it exploded in a shower of sparks. As its stream stopped feeding the Storm Sphere, Katiaya again screamed in pain. Nicki decided he’d found the formula for success. Unfortunately, his supply of spells was almost exhausted. He strapped on his Claws of the Ice Bear and began climbing to the southern platform, intent on the power gem that Bella had abandoned.

Despite the defeat of her minions, Katiyana still seemed to have the upper hand. She seemed to be able to call down lightning from the Storm Sphere at will, and could fly unhindered through the winds that made it all but impossible for anyone else to close with her for melee combat. And with the spellcasters almost out of spells, it was unlikely they could destroy all the power gems before she had picked them off one by one. Unless …

If only there was some way to cut off the howling winds, even for a few moments. All but unnoticed through the course of the battle, a glowing crystal control panel lay on the floor next to the open shaft in the center of the room. Risking assault from Katiyana’s bolts, Bella now dashed across the room and began trying to figure out its workings. Her first attempt failed, although she did manage to avoid the affects of the Glyph of Warding that Katiyana had placed on it to Curse anyone who tried to use it. She tried again, and to her delight, she not only determined the correct sequence of controls, but saw that there was an “UP” setting. She slammed her fist down onto the final button, and the familiar blue platform of force appeared over the central shaft. Still infused with rage, she leaped onto the elevator platform apparently intending to ride it up.

Amazingly, several other people also thought this was a good idea. Katiyana was hovering above the elevator shaft, so Sandoval leaped on board, hoping it would carry him to within reach of her. Shinjiro did the same, as did Zhustin, and the four of them began rising together as the elevator began its ascent.

Katiyana shook her head in bewilderment at this apparently foolhardy strategy, and calmly flew away from the elevator. As she did, she cast Unholy Blight at the crew now conveniently clustered together on its surface, leaving them injured and sickened. The elevator continued rising towards the roof, where the Storm Sphere seethed and crackled with unimaginable energy. Sandoval, seeing that his idea was a bust, leaped off the elevator midway up, counting on his Blink spell to lessen the damage he took from the fall, and leaving the others to certain death as the elevator pressed them against the bottom surface of the Storm Sphere.

But there had actually been a method to their madness. As the elevator drew even with the northern platform, Shinjiro called upon his ki and, with the howling wind at his back, easily made the 10’ leap to the platform. Zhustin used his Teleport to appear next to him. Bella, eyes wide with mad bloodlust, chugged a Potion of Fly and launched herself off the elevator just before it sealed itself against the roof.

The chamber was filled with deafening silence – the winds had stopped! Not knowing how long the elevator would stay in place, the team flew (literally) into action. Katiyana blasted Sawyer with a Lightning Bolt as he launched, but it was too little, too late. Shinjiro sunk a shuriken deep into her back as Marie flew up to engage her from behind. As Katiyana turned to face her, Sawyer and Bella charged from the other direction. Sawyer, delighted to finally land his first blow of the battle, swung Suishen in a devastating two-handed slice … that missed completely. But Bella was not so unlucky. Her rapier slashed across Katiyana’s throat, and blood gushed from the wound.

Katiyana hung suspended in mid-air and her blue skin blanched as the blood drained from her body. Her form stiffened, as if she were being pulled from above and below. Although her lips didn’t move, a horrifying shriek came from her body as some dark, shadowy essence was seemingly sucked out of her body and up into the Storm Sphere above. The shriek moved upwards as the last of her soul was ripped out and into the Storm Sphere, and then began to fade, as if moving away across a long, long distance.

A moment later the winds came roaring back, slamming everyone airborne back against the walls, as the elevator disappeared. It reminded them that the unnatural storm was a product of the Storm Sphere, and as long as it remained, it would make their travels more difficult and threaten to halt all trade across the Path of Aganhei. They resumed their attacks on the remaining gems, hoping that their destruction would do something to stop the raging storm. Sawyer flew (after some difficulty) to one of the undamaged gems and began hacking at it with Suishen. It was unnaturally hard and difficult to damage, but not impervious. After repeated attacks, it shattered. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion of electrical energy was worse than the fighter had expected. Bella did the same with another gem, but managed to dodge the final explosion. Nicki used repeated attacks with a Flaming Sphere to finish off the one Bella had started on; he was just out of range when it finally exploded.

That left one gem remaining, and no one terribly anxious to take it on, especially since Marie was down to her last Channel Positive Energy. Sawyer whacked it a few times, but didn’t want to finish it off, lest it do the same to him. Nicki and Zhustin hit it with their last remaining spells – Scorching Ray and Magic Missiles, respectively - but that wasn’t enough. Finally Bella flew up and assaulted it with her warhammer, counting on her quickness to allow her to dodge its dying blast.

As the last stream of energy was cut off from the Storm Sphere, it began to implode upon itself, quickly dwindling away to nothingness. Within a minute, it was gone, and with it, the howling winds. Through the opening in the roof above them, the party could see that the clouds had stopped revolving, and already appeared to be breaking up. Marie doled out what little healing she had left, and everyone agreed that this was the safest spot they could spend the night. Bella pulled out the Cube of Frost Resistance she’d found in the control room downstairs and activated it. With a grateful sigh, she stepped into the small area of warmth it created, and stretched out to sleep without shivering for the first time in months.

The PCs earned 2,486 XP for the night, putting them at 72,484 XP with 75,000 required for level 9. We’ll be back at Joette & Rich’s next Sunday, although Roger will be on call.