Session 50 – Lord Varull

[avisarr]

Session 50 – Lord Varull

The party was at a stand off with Lord Varull and his minions among the ancient stone buildings of the underground city. The huge cavern in which they stood had a slight breeze and was absolutely dark except for the light sources the two groups held.

Here, at the center of this dead city, it seemed the party would meet their doom, for they were hopelessly outmatched. Still, this did not deter them. They're HEROES after all. And they weren't about to let a floating fat man with a superiority complex push them around. He wanted Grimnoth but they said No!

Almost as if with a single mind, the minions of Lord Varull attacked. The archers atop the building let loose their arrows together while the warriors on the ground drew their blades.

In an instant, battle was joined.

Grimnoth was violently jerked off the ground by some unseen force and began to float up over their heads.

Rothgar fired arrows at Lord Varull, but with a wave of his hand, each was wrenched out of its flight path and pushed by the power of his mind to curve around in a great arc and strike Callister.

With increasing frustration, Rothgar fired and fired again. Four arrows in a row were redirected by Varull to strike Callister. Rothgar, certain the Varull could not keep it up forever, fired again. The fifth arrow, aimed at a large orgish archer on a rooftop, was NOT redirected. This one flew true and struck him in the eye. The arrow tore through the ogre's brain and exploded out the back of his head. With half his head missing, the ogre collapsed and twitched.

Martin casts a Wall of Fire spell on the archers on the roof, effectively taking them out of commission.

Ugita cast a Miracle spell and attempted to free all the enslaved minds of the minions at once. [An excellent use of the spell]. However, Lord Varull's mental domination of his slaves was strong. Still, the spell worked on about a third of them. Suddnely, a dozen out of about 35 slaves were instantly freed. The fog of sarthak mental control lifted and they found themselves able to do as they will.

Some of the free minds were animals, monsters, used as pack beasts and steeds. These cast off their riders and wandered away, confused at the sudden mental shift. Others, notably the human mercenaries and the skrell (rat men) warriors, were freed. Some fought with Varull's minions still enslaved, switching loyalties almost mid-sword stroke.

Martin was struck down by an enemy arrow. The players did not know if he was dead or merely struck unconscious.

Amidst the fighting, a huge armored orc strode into the battle. Rothgar fired arrows at the monstrous opponent, even as the huge thing swung an enormous blade at him. Arrows were useless. Lord Varull, with his mind, kept telekinetically redirecting the arrows' flight to strike at Rothgar's comrades. And even when an arrow did get through, Rothgar found the beast's armor too thick. Only the joints were vulnerable.

Rothgar positioned himself behind the huge beast so that Varull couldn't see the arrows and would not be able to telekinetically redirect them. This worked for a few seconds, but then the huge orc's eyes began to glow. And the arrows again began to fly off to strike the wrong targets. Varull was accessing the mind (and vision) of the huge orc so that he could see Rothgar!

Ugita advanced into the fray to aid Rothgar. Teelaused her shadow jump skill to jump to the shadows over by the building where the archers (and the Wall of Fire) were.

Ugita fired the Disruption Beam (focused anti-magic beam) from his suit of armor (Holrumna's armor, obtained from the dragon's lair) at a mage which was still fighting for Varull. This blast of anti-magic energy shut down the mage's Mage Armor spell, his protection from missiles and other defensive spells.

Grimnoth, who had been floating above the crowd this whole time (due to Lord Varull's telekinesis) had found himself floating closer and closer to Varull. Obviously, Lord Varull was claiming his prize, Grimnoth. When Grimnoth was in range, he fired his grappling hook and rope (arm mounted) at Lord Varull. Lord Varull's mind was too quick for this though. Again, using his imcredibly powerful telekinesis, he manipulated the rope and wrapped it around Grimnoth tightly.

Callister who had been sword fighting with several of Varull's ground based minions, flung his last 4 Wintershard bullets and froze three minions solid. The fourth struck an enraged berzerking ogre warrior, but only froze one leg to the ground, immobilizing the creature.

The giant orc, battling Rothgar, landed a mighty blow with his huge meat cleaver of a sword. Rothgar had already been hit several times in battle and was weak. This blow was decisive. The immense blade crushed down, cutting through muscle, cartiledge and bone. Rothgar collapsed and his blood poured out of him freely.

Raj, who had been shape shifting and harassing Varull's minions finally attracted the attention of Varull. Varull, angry at the morphian, summoned a great telekinetic force and crushed Raj against the stone wall of a building. The morphian, either unconscious or dead, melted into a shapeless puddle of morphian ooze on the ground.

Ugita sensing that the party could not win this battle as long as Varull was active, called once again on his mightiest spell, the Miracle spell. Calling upon his god Oxalai, Ugita called down the power of the mage Imprisonment spell. With a roar of power, a shimmering globe of energy encased Varull. Varull struggled and howled at the energy bubble, but his telekinesis could not affect it. The energy bubble, with Varull still struggling inside, sunk into the ground and vanished.

Instantly, the mental network that Varull had established with his slaves collapsed. All of the minds of his minions were freed at once.

The ogre berserkers continued to fight, completely mindless and enraged with bloodlust. The rest of the minions, however, lowered their weapons and rubbed their eyes as if waking from a dream.

The party and the minions, killed off the last few berserker ogres. The party eventually gets the large armored orc calmed down and began talking to the minions. The right hand man and lieutenant of Varull was a dark knight and just happened to be a knight of Duthelm. Rather than try to talk to him, they attacked and put him in a stasis sphere.

The party talked to the group and found out where everyone was from. The slaves were now free willed. Some of them might make good allies, the party thought.

The wizard proved to be the best. He was fairly powerful and from Ithria.

The wizard was able to tell them the entire history of this place. How several hundred years ago, an earthquake opened up a fissure and the sarthak, coming up from deeper places, found this place. They found a maze of traps and at the center a great shrine. In this shrine was the god beast thing. They were able to communicate with it. To them, it was biological perfection. They began to worship this thing. The thing gave them pieces of itself and they took these pieces to their cities. Great temples were built. But the original god beast stayed here. The sarthak rebuilt the shrine, the maze of traps and the city. To honor the beast. They now consider this place holy. They come here to worship.

Here ended session 50. The party lost two of its members, but triumphed over superior numbers and strength. The city was theirs now and the way was clear for them.