Falathar’s tirade directed at Agrent was rudely interrupted by a deeper darkness rising up the cliff very rapidly. As the unnatural darkness reached Falathar he could see a mouth filled with gleaming teeth. Then he was bitten by this new creature. Down below he could
hear the purple elves casting. Agrent was the first to reach and grabbed Falathar and started running inland. Behind them the darkness followed with a dome shape about forty feet in diameter.
As Rain raced back to the party at the crater, she was startled to hear a crack of something moving behind her. A giant bird like creature came into view with its eyes focused on her. Rain quickly turned and fired two arrows at the creature scoring one hit. This did not seem to slow or hinder the bird, which seemed to be looking at her like an owl stalking a mouse. She shrieked at the top of her lungs as she pulled two more arrows from her quiver.
Unknown to Rain the party at the crater had started following the trail some time ago. They were close enough for Strabo and Erlig to hear her cry for help. The bird closed in and reached out with its long neck trying to bite Rain. She used her training to dodge its attempts. Justice ran up to within forty feet, while Parlay was able to reach twenty feet
behind. Parlay sent an arrow into the beast. Erlig was about one-hundred feet back and used his wand to send a magic missile into the bird. Strabo having been the nearest closed to thirty feet. Even Bron got to within twenty feet. Rain launched two more arrows with one scoring a critical hit. It passed right through the beast’s heart. The bird wavered and keeled over with its legs kicking in death’s throes. Cameo came running up out of breath, “Oh, I see you handled it without us.” “No time. Agrent and Falathar need help now,” exclaimed Rain.
Agrent and Falathar were both running trying to keep ahead of creature in the darkness. As the darkness overtook them the sound of flapping wings appeared above them. It attacked the Bard again missing with its bite and one claw. However, the second claw ripped the poor elf dropping Falathar dead on the spot. It then turned to attack Agrent missing with the bite and first claw, but landing a lessor rake with the second.
Agrent dove off to the side tumbling into the brush and trees. The beast crashed through the trees trying to follow him. Back down the trail the rest of the party heard the sounds of something crashing about. They raced down hoping their companions were alright. Their
hopes took a downturn as they came upon the bloody body of Falathar.
Parlay looked off to his side and saw a black shadow like thing crashing through the trees. It saw the party and quickly turned towards them. It speed to within one-hundred and ten feet. Parlay sent an arrow solidly into it. Rain unnerved at the sight missed with both arrows. Bron tried with his cross bow, but missed the fast moving creature. Justice cast protection from chaos as Erlig used the wand to hit it with a magic missile. Agrent pulled out his spear and circled behind the shadow. Cameo sent a magic missile from memory into it.
It rapidly closed through the brush and trees to thirty feet. Parlay tossed a couple of bottles of oil at it, but missed with a low throw. He then pulled his magical long sword as he jumped behind the paladin. Justice moved up and swung missing. Rain sent out two arrow
with the second scoring a lite hit. Bron ran up next to Parlay as Justice cast protection from evil. Erlig cast an orb of protection as Agrent continued to close from behind. Cameo started casting a scorching ray.
The creature closed its attention directed solely at the Paladin. His “goodness” shone like a beacon to its chaotic-evil nature. It tried desperately to bite and claw Justice, but its
teeth and claws just slid across his armor. Parlay swung and hit the creature with a decent blow, but did not seem to inflict less damage than usual. He then switched to his adamantite sword. Rain scored a critical hit with one arrow. Bron used a cleave attack with his magical war axe landed two hits. Both of which seemed to do much less damage than usual.
Our paladin used smite evil landing two hits on a cleave attack. Strabo reached over and cast true strike on Justice for his next attack. Erlig started casting dispel magic as
Cameo finished casting scorching ray. He sent this at the creature but missed it in the shadows of the trees.
The shadow creature went for Justice again with shadows forming about it in the trees. Suddenly, there were four more of the creatures attacking us. Parlay swung at what he thought was the creature and seemed to hit it doing normal damage with this sword. Rain scored a critical hit on one of the shadows. The arrow seemed to pass right through it. Justice swung and hit the creature, but it turned out to be one of the shadows. Agrent attacked the actual creature from behind. Cameo wasn’t sure which was the real creature and spread his magic missiles between three of the shadows.
The creature managed to hit the paladin twice. Different shadows attacked Parlay, Strabo and Rain missing all. Parlay was sure he had the creature in front of him, but ended up with a massive hit on a shadow. That shadow dissolved away. Rain sent out two arrows
with one hitting a shadow. Justice used his cleave attack and greater cleave to deal serious damage to the creature, which hissed in anger or pain. Agrent missed with the spear as Erlig finished with dispel magic. Cameo actually hit the creature with three magic missiles. Erlig’s spell did not seem to have any effect on the creature or its duplicates.
Suddenly, there was a sub-sonic pop and the shadow creature and its duplicates vanished. Now that Erlig had time to think he realized that we had been fighting a Shadow Demon. The two Shoanti wanted to burn Falathar’s body to send his spirit on. Erlig and Justice finally convinced them to wrap up the bard’s body. They would carry it back to Riddleport and hope that someone can raise Falathar from the dead. Strabo didn’t think we should linger about and asked where we should spend the night. It was decided that the Witch’s
Tower was the closest. The party moved off quickly carrying Falathar’s body.
darksasha 