Note that it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we used pirate minis instead of the normal ones, and sometimes said "Yarr!" at the end of our sentences. The combat sequences were way too convoluted to keep up the charade, although we did try to use cutlasses instead of swords and cursed the monsters by calling them scurvy dogs.
And so there we stood, mere seconds having passed. Shamil was knocked out, Biznard was enslaved, and everybody else was hurting. The lizardmen had triumphed over the spider-creatures, but only the caster had survived.
I had Biznard take Shamil in a choke hold while Cahir healed him up. The assassin said he remembers nothing, but that was an obvious lie, so I politely asked the paladin to knock him back out. Cahir hesitated, giving Shamil an opening. He headbutted Biznard, then kicked him in the loins, vaulted over me, drew his poisoned dagger, and stabbed me in the back. Cool.
We fought him again, Cahir bashing him in the face with a wooden table strapped on his arm (a piratical shield). Biznard followed his last command to the letter, jumping on Shamil to pin him down. Cahir went berserk, kneeling and punching with mailed fist and shield.
We explained our behavior to the bewildered lizardman, then took a couple of minutes to rest. I patched up all the wounded, we drank our potions of health and mana. I then told Biznard to "Gather your weapons. We march to war!", which he took literally and ran away. Athosian shot him in the foot, and we got him back under control. Looks like the charm spell put on them is a lot stronger than I initially thought. We had to leave Shamil half-dead, bound in ropes.[1]
After that little fiasco, we marched through the ruins following the witch, only to meet Mr. Rastoph and his leather-bound servant. They seemed frightened and unwilling to talk, backing into the ruins. Cahir had enough of this and charged.
He knocked down the fighter in one go, and we ran after Rastoph down the stairs.
Boss fight!
Two spear-wielding and one archer spider-creature, the enchantress, Rastoph, and a flail snail.
We charged in, although Biznard got knocked out instantly.
The fighty guys fought the spiders, while Athosian and I concentrated on the casters.
A couple of arrows into Rastoph convinced him to take cover behind a pillar (and probably to down a mana potion, given the retching[2]).
The witch sacrificed the man in the cocoon to Orwella, who is an evil goddess. That instantly triggered me! As a priestess of the only righteous pantheon, I can not suffer human sacrifice and vile gods! Also, nobody mind controls my friends. Nobody else other than me, obviously. I kept up a barrage of fire and lightning.
The spider archer targeted Athosian, which meant it became personal - she shot back without mercy. Cahir cut another spider down. The priestess ducked behind the other pillar, but I summoned a cloud of insects to flush her out. I then transferred some of my own life essence to Biznard.
Everything was going well.
And then the leather-clad fighter jumped us and took out Athosian. Kids, always check whether your fallen enemy is dead.
The priestess broke cover, and Cahir found himself in a lightning cage. He downed a health potion and tried to break through, but fell, paralyzed, and wet himself.
Anyway, I had a vendetta to pursue. I ordered Biznard to act as a roadblock (which he did, for an entire half turn) and ran to get the priestess back in line of sight. A hail of fire arrows splattered her up on the wall. Next was Rastoph. We locked eyes and cast - KAME HAME-! - his lightning missed, but my fire struck true.
This left Cahir to battle the flail snail, and me backing up from the fighter.
While Cahir took down the snail, I could not hold until the elemental took out the fighter. A lucky critical hit put me down. It was then "mano a mano!", as Cahir dueled the fighter, finally chopping off a leg and pushing him into the magma elemental. Yumm!
Fortunately nobody was dead-dead, but we were all pretty close. Exhausted, Cahir distributed his remaining health potions, nursing us back to life.
First things first, I had my elemental (I named him Magmi) execute the priestess, and told Biznard to cut off the hands of the warlock with his hammers. Yes, you heard right. I bound up the wounds as I want him alive for questioning, but unable to harm us.
I looted the small coffer, taking pretty clothes, books and a journal to be deciphered later.
All we had left was the runic circle and the chamber behind the wall of fire.
Athosian tried vaulting over the fire, but hit an invisible wall. Biznard demolished some of the rock wall with his hammer, and the lizard cast some of it away, but it looked like the force field enclosed the chamber all around. I tried opening up the ground, but the spell failed.
With Cahir looking into the spirit realm and seeing tens of sacrificed villagers bound in the runic circle, we backed out of the chamber, and I opened a rift right across the runes. The explosion was cataclysmic, lightning arcing across the land, stone shifting and melting. But we know for sure we did something good, as our gods rewarded us on the spot.
We chose to finish the session at another cliffhanger.
[1] His player spent the rest of the evening sidelined, either shooting off witty comments or looking at his phone.
[2] Recovering mana is not easy in this game.
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