The World of Telvar

PART TWO

Faranyn approached the double doors and opened them while Ceydric entered
the foyer. The entryway was empty and nothing stirred except for the
strange shadows. Letier entered next and started his _Find Traps_ spell.
The party then, noting no immediate traps other than the arrow slits,
pressed on into the large open area before them. If I remember correctly,
some rooms in the old Ogre area had this weird construction designed to
throw shadows strangely from ambient light. Likewise, here the shadows
shifted and moved in an eerie way. I took courage knowing that not even the
shadow of dusk could harm us with Phaulkon's will with us.

In a fit of brilliance, someone had Letier turn around to check out the door
before we moved on, and lo, it was trapped magically on the inside when it
was not trapped on the outside. An archway stretched forth and we followed
into a huge, vaulted room (ignoring the side passages ending in doors) with
balconies (magically trapped) accessible only from the second floor, two
sets of double doors in each wall (all mechanically trapped) and four
statues in alcoves in the four corners (all hybrid trapped). We advanced to
the archway ahead and noticed a huge ten-foot section of passageway was
glyphed. Not wishing to waste a _Dispel Magic_ just yet, we backed up and
Faranyn picked the first door on the left to explore. Ludo disarmed the
trap, and we entered the room that had arrow slits in abundance. Double
doors on the south wall were trapped (left), but to the north (right), the
double doors had been ripped off their hinges and were lying on the ground
in this room. After briefly examining this room, we headed north.

This room contained more arrow slits and the weird corner that faced the
cliff. Arrow slits faced us from the cliff face. Seeing that the other
passageway with the glyph, must have led into the cliff face, we voted, and
went up the stairs that were here to look for other entrances. We rigged a
rope bridge system with Jerem and Aria, everyone was able to avoid the glyph
on the stairs. Similarly, the next room above had some double doors and
stairs leading up. These were also glyphed. There was no obvious
projection to tie a rope bridge to, and so we sent Ludo over the glyph to
examine the other side. As he reached the top of the stairs he turned and
looked into the room and gestured wildly at us. From our point of view on
the bottom part of the stairs, a pair a huge swords shot out with fluid ease
and cut Ludo up pretty badly. He collapsed in a heap on the stairs.

PART THREE

At that moment, Ludo lying motionless on the stairs, we shot up to where the
next glyph was and stopped to think. Letier decided to dispel the glyph.
Instantly, Ceydric was a snake. At this point, Faranyn charged up the
stairs and told Letier to dispel Ceydric instead. Faranyn was badly hurt by
the glyph but broke into melee with whatever creature therein lived.

>From comments made from above, it became apparent that we were indeed facing
a "Great" One. The creature was huge and snakelike, with a large coiled
tail and a forawrdly thrust body, with two huge human arms wielding massive
swords. Having prepared my attack previously, I stopped and carefully
recited the unfamiliar spell. In the insuing madness, several people were
turned into snakes and darkness spells abounded, but Phaulkon's light, in
the form of the _Continual Lights_ he had granted to me, his humble servant,
offset the power of the Evil One and allowed the non-blinded members a
renewed sight.

The battle was looking grim, as we had a hard time getting anyone into the
room without them being effectively taken out of the battle. Ceydric was
thrust back into human form and advanced, only to be blinded by darkness.
Cassana got into the room and attacked the thing, much to its chagrin.

My spell finished and I thrust forth a Holy cry, trying to incite a Movanic
Deva to come and assist in the battle against Evil. In my obvious
unworthiness, I was not loud enough to capture its attention. Alas, one
more potential weapon was removed from our disposal.

Cassana was down and the other healers and I were having a hard time getting
past the warriors to heal the injured. As I tried one last attempt to
stabilize him with an immediate cure from Phaulkon, he died. I closed his
eyes lightly and watched as Star cured Ludo, who got to his feet and threw
the grenade at the beast. Letier has warned us about his impending dispel
magic, and so, I retrieved Cassana's potion of Heroism and ran to the
stairs. The grenade exploded nearby to Cassana, spattering vitrioli, not
damaging the Evil One, but injuring me instead.

As I reached the stairs and I hastily thrust the potion into Claude's hands.
He drank it as I moved away, not paying attention to what was going on
there. Eli obviously did not look happy at not being able to use his
spells, but he looked patiently waiting for an opportunity, thoughtful.
At this point the beast was badly injured and used some ability of his to
COMPLETELY heal himself as we watched in disbelief.

The Koralgeshians at this point were at least as heavily involved in the
melee as we were, despite bad luck in hitting. Some time later, the
creature was again injured somewhat, but we were taking it hard. Eli turned
invisible and Xavier and rest of us worked to heal people. Jerem and
Darkeye had been shooting it relentlessly. An escape plan was being looked at.

PART FOUR AND FINAL

At this point, the situation grim, Letier's wife (who we never know whether
she is with the party or not due to her perpetual invisibility), Marilyn,
appeared. Raised crossbow pointed at the spot where, moments before, her
bolt had found its mark. Through the back of the head into the front, the
"Great One" slumped over, unconscious and bleeding. We hacked at and cut
off its head in a matter of moments, all thanking Marilyn's resourcefulness.
A strange whistling began which I silenced with a spell very quickly, but
not quickly enough to avoid a commotion arising around and above us. Dari
grabbed the strange bag it held hung around its arms. Ceydric grabbed a
sword and Pap looked for rings on its fingers and grabbed any. Aria bagged
snakes (Faranyn, Claude, Bluebear). Someone, I don't remember who, grabbed
Cassana's body.

The party then beat a hasty retreat down the stairs. As darts turned a
corner and shot Duke in the back, Ceydric charged over the glyph below and
headed for the door we came in through, the inner double doors we had
propped open to avoid a trap. The door was closed, and seeing no other
options in the face of the pursuit, Ceydric pushed the handle anyway. A
huge blazing trap tore at his armor and flesh, but he withstood it and tried
the door. It was sealed in some way. Ludo was ordered to the front and
worked on popping it open. Meanwhile, I cast a huge wall of precipitation
behind us, extending 120 feet up, and Dari obscured the area behind.

As doors popped open, we darted out. To the right a portcullis closed. To
the left, Speedy metal men, like the coat holder at Tyner's tower, came
forth to attack us. Ceydric bent back the portcullis and sent as many
people through as possible. Meanwhile, Ceydric parried off the attacks of
the metal guardians, and even a level three arrow could not affect them.
The resulting retreat was confusing, but Eli lightning bolted two of the
metal men, destroying one instantly, and damaging another severely.
Nonetheless, Ceydric staved off the attack with Darkeye, Letier, and Blann,
and I led the group forward to the outside doors. Razor-siding snake
creatures dropped from the ceiling and injured some of us. Ludo was taken
down by some of them and we helped him to get to the door.

Star dispelled the trap on the door with a scroll, and the S.S. moved as
quickly as possible to the door.

At the portcullis, Ceydric and the rest were confronted by a distant
lightning bolting creature of their own. They were able to avoid most of
them as they retreated. The cavaliers that were functioning at levels
usually impossible for humans to function at (all of them), were brought to
a stable level as they slammed through the doors. The party retreated
hastily through the bailey.

For good measure, since I knew the castle had been alerted, I threw an
_Insect Plague_ at it. Even if I never live to see all the Evil Ones dead,
killing other evil creatures in the castle, no matter the type, will help
advance the cause of Phaulkon -- of that I am sure! Of course, I would
rather use a spell any day than risk having my friends taken out by ruthless
evil spawn.

At the double doors into the bailey, transporter side, we stumbled through
to escape in the confusion, and slammed the bar into place.

THIS ENDS THE ATTACK ON THE FIRST GREAT ONE

Alegra