5 Fierdos 1120

Plague on Moorfield

The people of Gross Fell threw a celebration in honor of the heroes' slaying of both the black dragon that had been harrassing their herds and the undead menace Elizar (The Dragon's Tomb). During the feast talk turned to the Fell Armada, and the party learned that some in Gross Fell knew of the Commanders of the Fell Armada and how they managed to evade capture by authorities.

It was all third- and fourth-hand information, but enough for the party to put together a basic idea of the pattern: the Commanders and their henchmen choose a small village with access to water, take strategically-chosen hostages, and use the hostages to compel the rest of the village to harbor the commanders and keep their presence a secret. Then, anywhere from a few weeks to a season later, the Commanders move on to another village. So complete was the general population's fear of the Commanders that security was almost perfect -- no simple villager would risk having their family or friends killed by sending for authorities.

The party quickly decided that while they had achieved their primary goal by rescuing Orin Bronshelm, they and the community at large would be even better served by going after the Commanders as well. Tika visited the nearby mission of Pelor hoping to find a lead to the current hiding place and any general information they might have about the Commanders. The clerics at the mission told her of the village of Moorfield, a day's walk or so to the southwest. A traveler who passed through the mission recently had mentioned seeing new signs posted that warned of a plague in Moorfield. This was a surprise to the clerics because there had been no call for aid, which the mission routinely gave in such cases. They were planning to send a party to Moorfield to help when Tika had arrived. Instead, Tika advised them to hold off until she and her party could scout the village and determine whether the plague was real or a cover to keep strangers away from Moorfield.

Orin had plenty of reason to want a piece of the Commanders, but his fighting skills were nowhere near those of the heroes. Rasmus counseled the young viceroy to stay in Gross Fell for his own safety and volunteered to remain with him until the party returned.

As expected, a few miles out of Moorfield on the main road the party spotted a fresh-looking wooden sign announcing that there was a plague in Moorfield and advising travelers to avoid the village. Another, more urgently worded sign blocked the road another mile or so later. The party ignored both signs and continued on to the village itself.

They found the village surrounded by a high wooden fence that looked both new and hastily constructed. Karu knocked on the gate while Tika presented her holy symbol. A face appeared behind the gap in the gate, looked at the party, and told them to leave. Tika sensed fear in the eye and voice of the man at the gate. She began to say prayer to Pelor while the rest of the group made as if to leave. As Tika prayed the man dropped something small and metallic through the gap and disappeared.

Karu picked up the dropped item and palmed it as the party turned and left the village. As soon as they were out of sight of the gate they stopped to examine it. It was a simple steel badge bearing the legend Sheriff.

As signs go, this one was a bit vague. The party figured it was a cry for help, but could not agree on exactly how to proceed. In the end they circled the walls at a distance and arrived at a wood on the opposite side of the river that ran past town. Ash climbed a tree and used a message spell to relay what she saw to the rest of the party.

The village looked unnervingly quiet. Ash saw an open center area with a large well and a number of buildings clustered around the road. One near the far gate bore a sign with a sheriff's badge; others looked to Ash like an inn, maybe a town meeting hall, some houses, a blacksmith shop ... the usual small-town structures. In the courtyard there was a handful of men apparently practicing with swords, but aside from them the streets seemed deserted. Nobody entered or left the village either.

With the sun high in the sky the party decided on a plan. They circled around to the north end of town, where there were a number of small houses to provide some cover, and climbed the fence. Karu went first and used a rope to help Tika across. As he lowered her down on the rope, a man in peasant clothing came running up from inside a nearby house and motioned frantically for the party to stop and go away before they got people killed.

Tika came down the rest of the way and talked with the man while her comrades joined her. In tense whispers he related to her the situation. Three of the five Commanders were using the town for their hideout. Bartolus, a brutish half-orc with a large contingent of thugs in tow, had taken over the sheriff's office and was holding the sheriff and his family hostage. Vashon, a well-dressed man who led a small group of deadly expert swordsmen, had taken the town hall and held a group of women and children to compel obedience. Sylar, a sly and conniving type, was holed up in the wine cellar of the one inn in town along with the innkeeper's wife and daughters. The other two commanders were not in town and the villager had no idea where they were.

Since they would have to engage the men by the well to reach the inn, and doing so would likely result in alerting the whole village to their presence, the party opted to attack the jail first. They snuck around the inner perimeter and entered the sheriff's home through a ground-floor window. Tika and Ash stayed back to avoid making noise and alerting the thugs prematurely.

Karu found the door to the adjoining sheriff's office and jail slightly ajar and peeked through. He spied six leather-clad men playing cards at a table. A seventh man, a big muscular half-orc in leather, sat with his feet propped on the desk looking bored. The jail cell in the far corner held a man, a woman, and a boy.

Seeing an opportunity to make a strong opening move, Karu detached a bead from the necklace of fireballs they had taken from Elizar and lobbed it into the corner behind the card players. It exploded forcefully and engulfed all six men in the blast, along with Karu himself. The men were taken completely by surprise and struggled to draw weapons and get around the table while their leader grunted and advanced toward the door while flexing his right hand, which was enclosed in a wicked-looking spiked gauntlet.

Karu tumbled into the room to clear the doorway for Vondran, who withstood a passing slice from a sword-wielding thug and drew first blood on Bartolus. Loki charged his psychic strike and joined the melee as well. Ash and Tika hovered by the door, where Ash delivered a magic missile attack against one of the card players.

Bartolus shook off the harpoon hit and grinned at the heroes. With a mighty shove he propelled Karu backward into the wall and then bashed Vondran with his gauntleted fist. His men deployed in the small space and backed him up, landing blows against Karu and Vondran and moving in against Loki and Tika.

Tika, still in the doorway, called on her power from the Strength domain and bull rushed her opponent. The thug was flung backward and into one of his cohorts and both hit the ground hard. Tika advanced with them and took an attack of opportunity when her enemy tried to get up. Loki landed two solid blows, including a psychic strike, and Vondran got in a bite when the other toppled thug tried to rise. Ash spotted an enemy heading for the cell door and dropped him with a scorching ray before he could harm the prisoners.

Vondran's exchange with Bartolus was going badly. The pirate commander had a sickening power in his arm and seemed able to land heavy blows at will against his lightly-armored opponent. Vondran went into total defense and backed away, hoping to keep out of reach while still haranguing Bartolus with the Arm of Telomir.

Tika tried a new spell, holy storm. A heavy rain began falling all over the space. It obscured vision a little but did nothing else to disturb the party or the prisoners. To the pirates, however, it was a deadly rain. One enemy fell dead on the spot from the damaging affect of the holy rain and another ran for the front door. The door was locked, though, and before he could open it he found himself the victim of a baleful transposition from Ash that put him at the far end of the room and Vondran at the door. Loki felled another enemy with a psychic strike and advanced on Bartolus while Karu used an awkward but invisible tumble to get a sudden strike in against another henchman.

Tika, Vondran and Loki converged on Bartolus and focused their efforts on the commander. Their weapons and the holy storm weakened Bartolus enough that Ash was able to divide a magic missile spell between him and an underling to put both down.

Bartolus would not go so simply, though. Amazingly, the pirate's wounds closed and he rose up again almost immediately. Tika put him on the ground again with a deific vengeance spell and Vondran threw his harpoon into the unmoving body to make sure of the kill.

The last of Bartolus's thugs surrendered in the face of obvious defeat but did not give the party any useful information. The secret to Bartolus's surprising vitality turned out to be a ring that he wore underneath the magic gauntlet; when Vondran put on the ring he began healing rapidly. The group passed the ring around for a few minutes, taking turns benefitting from the magic while conserving their own spells, and claimed the rest of the gang's valuables.

As they talked with the grateful sheriff about the situation in town a sharp blow landed against the locked door. They opened the door to find a note pinned to the door with a dagger:

Not bad, the note said. We could get even more blood on the poor sheriff's floors, but how civilized would that be? Instead, I invite you to join us by the well for a real swordfight.

-V

The sheriff warned the heroes that Vashon and his men were deadly swordsmen and not to be underestimated. Understanding this, the group stepped outside and approached the town center, where Vashon and his three underlings waited in a relaxed posture. As the party drew closer the pirates drew blades -- two per man -- and spread out into a loose arc to meet them.

Tika cast silver weapon on her mace and both ends of Loki's mind blade, which he'd formed into his favorite two-bladed sword shape. Ash cast bull's strength on Tika while Loki and Vondran charged forward to engage the enemy, whose features were changing to something resembling panthers.

The swordsmen acted swiftly and in unison. Loki missed his man and took a sword hit in retaliation. Vondran hit Vashon but also paid a penalty. By positioning himself between Vashon and one of his men, Vondran found he had opened himself up for seven sword thrusts. Four of them drew blood and forced Vondran to withdraw and seek healing.

Tika tried countermoon, a spell designed to force lycanthropes into their natural form, but Vashon was not affected. Ash's fireball aimed behind Vashon and his nearest henchman proved more effective, if not by much.

The devastatingly effective swordsmanship of the enemy forced most in the party to change their tactics. Tika used shield of faith for protection, while Karu joined Vondran in total defense. Of the front line only Loki seemed able to hold his own against Vashon's men; he traded blows with an underling and did well.

The enemy shifted and moved as the party did to make optimal use of their multiple attack capability. Vashon himself, seeing Loki's success against one of his men, moved to engage the soulknife himself and sent his underling after Ash and Tika. The other two pursued Karu and Vondran and kept drawing blood.

Tika cast ring of blades to create a moving barrier around herself and began using this offensively by moving in on Vashon's men one at a time. The strategy worked -- the enemy moved away from Tika at every opportunity, and her movement managed to disrupt their neat, clean formations.

Meanwhile, Vondran and Karu continued to move and defend. Vondran used two healing potions before he felt strong enough to risk an attack but then found himself bleeding again and close to death. Tika patched him up with a close wounds spell at range. Karu threw another orb from the necklace of fireballs, which prompted the enemy to take his blood as payback.

Loki battled Vashon one on one, absorbing damage as well as inflicting it. Vashon had the advantage in attack frequency, but Loki's psychic strike ability gave him the edge in dealing damage. Even as Karu's fireball blackened Vashon's fancy red shirt from behind Loki slashed his mind blade across the werepanther's throat for the kill.

Vondran fell back into a common pattern of move-and-throw, move-and-throw that kept him far enough away from his opponent to avoid taking multiple hits. Karu used his ki power to maneuver for sudden strikes against his enemy. Karu killed his while Vondran weakened his enough that Tika was able to move in for the kill with her swirling magical blades. Loki, having dispatched Vashon, moved in on an underling and dealt with him just as efficiently.

The party knew that Sylar and his men were in the wine cellar of the local inn and were eager to get there before hostages could be harmed. They were heavily wounded, however, and running low on spell power. Fortunately, a small girl came running up to her with a wooden box in hand. Tika took the box and found inside it a wand of cure critical wounds. The girl said it belonged to Abigail, the town's cleric, but that Abigail was missing. Tika accepted the wand and used it to bring the party quickly back to full strength.

The public defeat of Bartolus and then Vashon had emboldened the villagers. The innkeeper warned the group that Sylar was expecting them and opened the door to the wine cellar himself. Tika's ring of blades was still operating, so she took the lead down the spiral stair to the cellar.

The enemy was not immediately visible but with no exits the heroes knew they had to be hiding among the wine racks and barrels. This became more obvious when Loki was attacked from ambush by a hidden attacker after he entered the cellar. It was Ash who felt the sting most, however; as she descended the spiral staircase a dagger reached through between the steps and stabbed her in a vital spot. Ash felt the wound, and then something worse -- the magic missile spell vanished from her mind. There was a brief vision of a man running from the stairs into the cellar, and then her magic missiles came back and struck her. Ash nearly lost consciousness but held on long enough to take the fast healing ring from Vondran.

Tika called down another holy storm, knowing its area would cover just about the entire cellar, but it lasted only a few seconds before being dispelled. Loki, with only half of his two-bladed sword silvered, used his psychic strike and killed the first enemy as Karu tossed another bead from the necklace of fireballs. It was less effective in an area filled with wine racks to provide cover but still did some damage.

At the far end of the room Tika went looking for the mage and found him. The mage, however, was prepared with a tanglefoot bag that glued Tika to the floor. Worse yet, she was in a place where barrels of wine and a standing rack blocked most of the effective area of the blades. A pirate thug stood atop the barrels in relative safety and began hacking away at Tika with a spiked chain. Another enemy also switched to a spiked chain and started using trip attacks on Karu to keep him off balance.

Ash called out a movement suggestion to Loki and Vondran to clear the path for a fireball, but they missed her directions and Ash decided against loosing the spell where friends might be hit. Instead she went to assist Tika, who was holding her own against the pirate despite being stuck in place.

Vondran found himself engaged in a cat and mouse game with Sylar and his mage ally. He threw the Arm of Telomir once and missed, then got caught by a ray of enfeeblement that drained his strength to a dangerously low level. A weakened second throw landed for a glancing blow but then Sylar's mage froze Vondarn in place with a halt that allowed Sylar to move around at his leisure for a sneak attack and then duck under cover while the wizard used burning hands on Vondran. The darfellan's rage and frustration gave him the will boost to resist a distract assailant from Sylar and, with the mage now invisible, he managed to avenge himself with a well-placed throw that killed Sylar.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was thinning the ranks of the enemy. Loki took out three of Sylar's gang personally and Ash, after helping to free Tika, killed the last thug with a scorching ray. With Sylar dead and the mage hiding behind invisibility, Tika called down one more holy storm figuring to catch the mage wherever he might be. Ash and Loki blocked the stairway but the mage never appeared.

Sylar's defeat prompted the villagers to come out of their homes and thank the party for their aide. However, Moorfield was not saved yet. The heroes learned that Drago, chief of the Commanders, was holding the town elders hostage at a lumber camp in the woods. Kirella, his lieutenant, had taken over an old monastery and had the town's cleric as her captive.

With their resources spent for the day, however, there was nothing to do but find a place to rest and keep an eye out for the escaped mage.

6 Fierdos 1120

The morning brought with it a choice to be made. Two commanders remained: Kirella, the second-in-command of the organization, who had taken over a small monastery nearby; and Drago, the leader of the entire Fell Armada, who had the town elders as hostages at a lumber camp up in the woods.

After a short debate the party opted to go after the head of the beast. They gathered their gear and headed into the woods toward the lumber camp. Well ahead of the camp clearing the group left the path and kept in the trees. Vondran climbed a tree on the west side of the camp and Loki climbed a tree on the east end, each looking for any clue to the site's defenses and strength.

Clues they got. Loki's clue took the form of an arrow fired from a sentry on top of the site's barn. Vondran saw nobody but the fireball that streaked out of a window into his perch proved that someone saw him.

The party regrouped and circled around to the east, away from the unseen mage. Tika spotted a second sentry on the roof of the mess building. Unable to attack without exposing herself, she cast monster summoning IV and called forth three celestial hippogriffs. One attacked the sentry on the barn, one the sentry on the mess, and the third found and attacked a third sentry on the roof of the camp store. The sentry dodged the blow and the hippogriff found itself under attack when a lightning bolt and a magic missile volley from the upper floor of the men's hall struck it and killed it.

Meanwhile, Ash sent Tak to check out the nearest building. The weasel sniffed around the 20x20 shed and found an opening big enough to squeeze through. Inside was a dark space containing a bunch of tools and a number of people tied and gagged. Vondran and Karu closed around the barn while Ash lobbed a fireball at the sentry on the roof.

The sentry returned fire with an arrow and hit Ash while his partner atop the mess building fought with the hippogriff. From the windows of the men's hall a pair of scorching rays shot out at the hippogriffs. One died and the other was hurt enough for a sentry to finish it off with a swipe of his battleaxe. All three sentries howled and changed to a hybrid form with coarse black hair and tusks.

Vondran and Karu entered the barn and found it empty except for some stacked hay and debris. They climbed to the lofts and looked for a way onto the roof while Ash peppered the roof sentry with magic missiles to keep him occupied. Tika saw her last hippogriff die and responded by summoning a pair of celestial giant bees. Loki moved into the open and tried to taunt the sentry on the barn into coming down to fight him but the pirate showed no inclination to accommodate him.

Tika rounded the corner of the mess lodge and spotted a long rowboat on the other side of the bridge with two men loading a chest on board. From the fine cape and shining gear she figured that one of the men was Drago, and that he would be escaping by boat very soon if not stopped. She cast wind wall just downriver of the boat to block it from moving and directed the bees to attack Drago and his helper.

The bees didn't last long. Each took a scorching ray from the upper floor of the men's lodge and was then felled by Drago's sword and his companion's axe. On the barn roof, Karu and Vondran fared little better as Vondran took two arrows from across the camp and Karu was bull rushed off the roof completely. Vondran also fell to the ground thanks to a gust of wind from one of the unseen mages.

Tika cast another monster summoning iv, this time to call up two small water elementals. They reached out for Drago with slam attacks but missed. Again Drago and his partner lashed out with weapons and slew the summoned creatures easily.

On the rooftops the enemy adjusted. The mess lodge sentry spotted Tika and Loki below and called out a warning to the others. The barn sentry took a running leap and joined him on the roof of the mess lodge while the third sentry atop the store readied an arrow for the first visible target.

The target turned out to be Vondran. He'd had enough of the spellcasters in the men's lodge and ran full speed across the compound to the lodge. He took an arrow in the side as he ran and then, as he reached the building and banged against the locked door, a stinking cloud formed around him. Vondran held his breath long enough to break down the door and dash inside.

Karu also ran for the lodge, but instead of going inside he went around to the back. His ki power of invisibility kept Drago from spotting him immediately but he missed with a hurled shuriken and tipped off his general location. Drago stabbed with his sword but failed to connect.

Ash lobbed a fireball at the thug atop the store and singed his fur severely, earning another arrow shot in payback. The two sentries on the mess lodge shot down at Tika and Loki, prompting them to move around the building and Loki to climb the side. Tika cast a spiritual weapon to attack Drago but the spell went slightly amiss and the weapon winked out immediately.

Inside the men's lodge Vondran bounded up the stairs to the dorm floor and found the two spellcasters, werewolves in hybrid form wearing leather armor -- warmages. The men moved in unison and two fireballs burst around Vondran. He ducked and managed to avoid both. He lurched forward and hurled the Arm of Telomir at one of the warmages, scoring a hit.

Karu tumbled invisibly past Drago and climbed up the side of the lodge while Ash used false life to gain a few much-needed hit points. Loki also climbed, to the roof of the mess lodge, and was greeted with the swinging axes of both sentries. Gravely wounded by the sickening strength of the werebeasts, he dropped back down and got healing from Tika.

The warmages repositioned and went after Vondran with scorching rays. One missed, leaving Vondran still able to fight back. Atop that building Karu landed an attack against the sentry on the roof just as Drago climbed up behind him.

Ash cast dispel magic to scatter the stinking cloud at the front of the men's lodge and clear the way for help to get in to Vondran. Tika ran through the door and up the stairs in time to see Vondran fall to a pair of shocking grasp spells. Loki charged a psychic strike and followed with a burst of speed. Karu jumped across to the shop roof but was hit with a seeking ray from the rooftop he'd just left -- Drago had spells in his arsenal as well as a sword.

Tika cast holy storm to drench the warmages in damaging holy water. The forced them to scramble out of the rain, but they retaliated with scorching ray spells. Tika avoided the one aimed at her but Loki was struck. On the floor, the ring of fast healing Vondran wore brought him back to consciousness. He pulled a healing potion out of his belt pouch and drank it, then glady accepted more healing from Tika.

Outside, Ash killed the sentry on the store with a fireball. Karu took inspiration from that and lobbed the largest orb from his necklace of fireballs in Drago's direction, then turned invisible and hopped to the ground. Drago seemed only mildly hurt, but with his forces scattered he cast a regroup spell and teleported all of his surviving minions to his side. Ash cackled at the opportunity and cast one more fireball at the area, killing a warmage and one of Drago's thugs in the process. The surviving warmage retaliated with a stinking cloud that sent Ash crawling into the bushes, sick and helpless from nausea but at least out of sight.

The rest of the heroes closed on the men's lodge roof. Vondran climbed up from a second-floor window in time to catch a seeking ray from Drago and a pair of arrow hits from the remaining thugs. Loki cut the boat loose after grabbing a small chest out of it, then climbed up behind Drago and was ready to engage him but was tripped by a Bigby's tripping hand and left as Drago closed on Vondran. He traded hits with Vondran and nearly put the darfellan down, but a sonic lance from Tika weakened him enough that Vondran was able to land a fatal blow before getting himself killed.

Drago's final surviving minion, the thug who had been loading the boat, took a running dive off the building and into the rushing river. The party did not see whether he landed safely or not; either way, the fast current of the river took him out of reach.

The heroes took a quick look around the camp and confirmed that there were no other Armada goons on hand. The hostages -- the town elders of Moorfield -- were safe, healthy, and grateful to the group for the rescue.

The party had Drago's chest with his emergency fund, the masterwork weapons from his goons, and Drago's magic sword and cloak of charisma. It was a good haul, but their resources were nearly depleted. There was no question of their trying to tackle Kirella at the monastery that day. They would have to risk waiting another day.

7 Fierdos 1120

The heroes rested at the liberated lumber camp, making liberal use of the wand of cure serious wounds they had been given in town and preparing for the last assault. At daybreak they made for the road and turned north in the direction of the Brotherhood of the Moonlit Vine monastery.

They knew right away that there was little likelihood of gaining surprise -- the monastery sat on high ground in the middle of a mile-wide clearing with nothing resembling cover anywhere near. Kirella would surely have lookouts posted.

A discreet reconnoiter seemed wise, so the party kept to the woods and traced a circle around the clearing. Behind the stone-walled main compound they spied a modest outbuilding set next to a vineyard. A flagstone walk led from that to the rear of the monastery proper. Tika speculated that the outbuilding seemed the perfect end point for an escape tunnel that might lead to the inside, so they popped a shutter and climbed inside to look.

They found no secret passage in the outbuilding; just winemaking tools and supplies and a wine cellar stocked with perhaps a hundred bottles of Moonlit Vine Chardonnay of various ages. Tika put a few bottles into her bag of holding just in case they proved handy and led the party up the path toward the monastery.

On the way Loki spied a head peeping up over the well and announced that they had likely been spotted. They were expecting that and knew that the commanders' retinue had so far been consistently strong fighters, so Tika cast mass shield of faith to increase everyone's protection from weapons. Then, figuring the enemy would be massing at the back door, she took the group around a corner and used stone shape to open the wall.

Karu entered first and crept around the near building, looking for the enemy. Tika took a different angle and spotted a brutish-looking thug with a heavy flail positioned around a corner. As she spied that enemy two snipers fired from the rooftops at her and Ash. Vondran ran into the open to draw any further fire, but instead drew only the attention of the man Tika spotted. The thug took Vondran's legs out from under him with a sweep of his flail and then struck him as he fell.

Thus began a long and frustrating melee for the heroes. A second flail user joined the fray, and the two of them used their heavy weapons to deprive Vondran, Loki, and Karu of movement by repeatedly knocking them down and forcing them to forego attacks in order to regain their feet. Meanwhile the snipers took shots at everyone, particularly Tika and Ash, from the partial cover of the rooftops. Ash returned the sniper fire with volleys of magic missile, scorching ray and the occasional fireball but paid for each spell with a new wound. Tika used spiritual weapon on Vondran's enemy and then cast silver weapon on her mace and every piece of crossbow ammunition she carried, allowing her to return fire from partial cover in the stable.

Vondran and Loki took the worst from the flail-wielders, whose lightest blow held bone-crunching power. The fast healing ring taken from Bartolus kept Vondran in the fight by allowing him to heal a little between blows. Loki had no such assistance and had to seek healing from Tika. That prompted him to change tactics by borrowing her aquatic crossbow and joining her in pelting the other flail user with silvered bolts. Vondran gave up trying to stay on his feet and simply stabbed at his enemy from the ground, counting on the Arm of Telomir to guide his hands.

The strategy paid off. Vondran's enemy fell after a long exchange of blows, allowing him to regain his feet and land a skirmish against the other thug before being knocked to the ground again. Karu circled the compound, speed-climbed up the far roof and finished off one of the snipers with a surprise sudden strike. Ash felled the other sniper with a magic missile and Loki took out the last flail-wielder with a psychic strike.

With only a few minutes of mass shield of faith left the heroes broke out the cure serious wounds wand and quickly restored themselves for the showdown with Kirella herself. The southwest building was shuddered and the door barred; that suggested that Kirella and her remaining followers were holed up there.

Vondran and Loki teamed up to burst through the wooden doors and lead the party inside. Sure enough, in the monks' meditation hall they found Kirella and two more flail-wielding thugs waiting for them. Each thug held a dagger at the throat of a monk.

Kirella offered the party simple terms: stand aside and allow her and her group to leave, or see the monks die. The heroes weighed the options and refused to yield. Loki charged Kirella and landed a psychic strike immediately while Tika called down a holy storm on the thugs. Vondran hurled the Arm of Telomir at Kirella but a shimmering disk of force appeared and blocked the blow.

The thugs hurled the monks at Tika and Vondran and leapt out of the damaging rain with flails drawn. Both Vondran and Tika hit the floor, though Vondran did manage to get his harpoon stuck in his assailant's gut. He added insult to injury by rolling away from the enemy and pulling the weapon free to open the wound further. Ash divided a pair of scorcing rays between the two thugs and scored well against both.

Tika put herself between the thrown monk and the thug before her, seeking to protect the captive from more harm. But to her surprise and disgust, the monk grew fur and fangs and reached out with a bite -- the monks had been turned and were no longer captives but cohorts. She responded with a ring of blades that caught multiple enemies in its deadly path and forced them to back off.

Another unpleasant surprise came the next round, when a pair of snipers who had been hidden atop large cabinets joined the fight with sneak attack shots on Tika and Ash. Ash responded by making a quick dash out the door and then lobbing a fireball in the midst of four were-creatures. One of the flail thugs died instantly and one of the monks was wounded, but the snipers managed to avoid the blast so she followed up with magic missiles and then ducked under cover to avoid their return fire.

By this point the heroes had found remedies to the trip tactic. Vondran felled his thug quickly and turned his attention to the other converted monk. The monk responded with a stunning fist that caught Vondran by surprise and knocked him unconscious.

Meanwhile Kirella and Loki dueled each other. Kirella invoked another psionic power and covered herself in an amorphous shroud that made it very difficult for Loki to land a good blow. Her rapier sliced into him several times and Loki felt the unmistakable sensation of a lurk augment enhancing the power of each blow. That, and Kirella's sonic-powered weapon, took a toll but Loki held firm and did not allow her out of his reach.

Tika's ring of blades finished off Vondran's monk while Karu killed the other, leaving only Kirella and her snipers alive. Kirella reached out to touch Loki and darkened his sight, leaving Loki flailing blindly and forcing him to withdraw into the holy storm area. Vondran came to and crawled into the rain as well while he recovered his wits.

Kirella tried to make her escape through a nearby window, but Tika was ready. She ran to the edge of the window and cast sound lance. The bolt of sonic energy caught Kirella cleanly and killed her.

At the sight of their leader falling, the snipers dropped their bows and ran. Vondran and Ash gave chase but the fast lycanthropes managed to scale the monastery gates and jump to safety. The heroes deemed them not worth pursuing.

The party found the rest of the monks in the basement of the dining hall, along with Abigail, the cleric of Moorefield. None of the other captives had been turned to lycanthropes. The group expressed their regret over the two dead monks and the abbot assured them he would see to their raising. Abigail recognized her wand of cure serious wounds and told the party to keep it as part of the reward for their valor.

The heroes gathered up the pirates' valuables and helped bury the bodies. The people of Moorfield thanked them with an impromptu ox roast and the blessing of their gods.

The next morning the party returned to Gross Fel long enough to collect Orin and say goodbye to the villagers there. They packed their prizes in the Torchwood's hold, tied up the Fell Moon for towing, and headed back to Marhaven.

<MR>
2/21/07