Demons Of The Burning Night II: Part Six

General Summary

Though only two of the strange creatures remain, a number of the companions have been seriously injured. Cran’s left arm is useless and he switches to a broadsword, reluctantly sheathing Shieldbreaker. Cherry is also struggling with a broken arm, the venom of the bone discs that the creatures use as weapons is beginning to affect Victor’s breathing and his lungs are rapidly deteriorating. Numal has also been badly battered and shelters, dazed, behind a thorny mass of acacia.
Mustering the last of their remaining resources, Cran and Victor advance on the smaller of the two remaining monsters, Cherry and Sylke head towards the larger, wary of the creatures supernatural lightning bolts that seem to emanate from the monster’s eye sockets. Ugnan hurries over to attend to Numal.
Wielding his double-headed scythe, Victor decapitates the creature he faces and is then overcome by a coughing fit; his lungs are beginning to pool with fluid. Cran switches his attention to the larger creature and attacks, as does Sylke – hand-to-hand! Cherry cleverly disables the creature by entangling the thing in the enchanted whip that she carries and as Ugnan finally reaches Numal and attends to his wounds, the fight begins to turn as the companions slowly batter the creature to the ground. However, the thing is not entirely defenceless and strikes out with its lightning bolts at Victor and Cran but both avoid any real damage.
The monster defeated, the companions are forced to rest as Ugnan courageously absorbs Cherry’s broken arm, the torn muscles and ligaments of Cran’s left shoulder and various other wounds. Cherry has been able to use the macabre vampiric armor to good effect and she has managed to heal some of the damage that she took but her friends cannot help but notice the effect the armor has had and they are clearly worried as the long-term effects of the malevolent armor.
Healed, the party head past the odd stone statues to investigate the “gazebo” they spotted earlier from the air. Victor is the first to approach the green-tiled structure and he is overcome with an sense of dread and great danger. The others approach and study the oddly threatening architecture: a large white-stone slab stands in the centre of the building. Huge stone pillars, possibly sandstone, support a high domed roof that still has the majority of its clay tiles. Five strange pedestals, fashioned out of twisted red, orange and yellow stone sit in front of the slab. A dozen bodies are suspended by invisible forces from the roof, approximately 20 feet above the floor. The figures sag motionless and though they do not move and are ashen-grey, they have not decomposed; they look to be in some sort of stasis.
Cherry and Cran toss the dead body of one of the creatures they defeated onto the stone floor to see if there is any form of reap or hidden danger. As the body hits the floor the weirdly twisted pedestals animate and move towards the body, their pinnacles changing shape so that they resemble serpent heads. At the same time, a horribly discordant “song” of sorts begins to emanate from the large white slap and the suspended bodies above the stone begin to twitch.
At Ugnan’s suggestion, the party agree to retreat. There seems no obvious advantage or benefit in taking on the statues and dealing with the weird song, still … the bodies suspended above the stone are clearly not entirely “dead”, could they be rescued?

Report Date

22 Dec 2019

Primary Location

Aranmor