After some discussion, we started at the devil’s door as planned. We debated again about whether to spell up. The loose decision was to cast spells that last hours or 10 minutes but not ones that last 10 rounds because we weren’t sure what was immediately behind the door. Plus, we correctly surmised that the devil would want to talk. Brisco, Xeelie and TerStegan (via scroll) cast Tailwind. TerStegan also used Otari’s ring to get Unfettered Movement. Xeelie was declared to have Briscoe’s key and made an Arcana roll before messing with the door. Unfortunately, she had a critical failure and thought this was the wrong door. TerStegan told her to ignore that and get back to work. Once the key was placed in its recess, the whole wall slid away.
To each side were 2 Levaloch guards. We could hear the main devil to the north but she was going to allow the guards to “do their job” i.e. soften us up. Xeelie did her recall knowledge and learned they had the usual devil package of immunities and resistances. She then tried to close the door so we could be better prepared for battle. But it had retracted. So, she threw her knife, hitting one for 19 holy damage. The first guard threw a net at Xeelie but missed. It then switched to trident and threw it at Xeelie. That crit for 16. Urevian, the devil, complained about the fight taking too long but didn’t stop it. The 2nd guard did the same and hit with a net. That caused Clumsy 1 and -10 to speed. And then threw a net at Oakwood for the same. TerStegan entered his stance, moved up and attacked. He crit for 58 plus frightened 1. Clarisa cast a Briny Bolt for 26 plus 1 round of blindness. Oakwood stepped up 5 feet, turned on his Nimbus and missed with reach.
Xeelie switched targets, hit for 16 and then missed. She’d have a -10 MAP to escape the net so she left it and stepped. The first guard drew his trident, giving an AOO to TerStegan who hit for 19. That put him near death but now he got his turn. But he missed the flat check from the blindness and then missed again. The second guard threw a net at TerStegan and critted. That added immobilized. And then created a trident. TerStegan’s key ignores movement penalties but not the immobilize state. He hit and killed it. That dusted Xeelie’s net. He then escaped from the net but took 5 points for his troubles. And moved around the 2nd in hopes of future flanking. Clarisa used Sure Strike and cast another Briny Bolt for 22. Oakwood stepped 5 to get flanking, missed and hit for 14 of cold damage. TerStegan could see that Imp Czek in a cage to the south. Xeelie hit. It missed its attacks due to the blindness. TerStegan hit. Clarisa missed with a lower-level Briny Bolt. Oakwood missed, missed and barely hit for 7 cold. It was still up. Late arriving Briscoe missed and missed again. Xeelie missed and missed again. For her 3rd action, she did her thing on the big devil. Unfortunately, the guard was still up. It crit Oakwood for 62. And then hit TerStegan for 19 and another 21. All our misses weren’t so funny anymore. TerStegan finally finished it off. Combat was ended and talking was started.
The devil had wanted posters for all three Rajani. She said she needed a Rajani soul to leave the dungeon and was willing to take her army of status creatures with her. Oakwood did Dash of Herbs on the wounded while we talked. Briscoe wanted to do Treat Wounds but that took 10 minutes. So, we talked. Since it was a deal with Belcora that was trapping the devil, we offered to kill her instead but the devil wouldn’t go for it. Rose Guard member Val Rajani had some sort of interaction with devils and they put a hit on her and all her descendants. She needed Xeelie’s signature on a contract. Eventually 10 minutes had passed so Briscoe healed Oakwood for 34 and TerStegan for 28. Xeelie continued to play for time, trying to get information about her family history. Finally, Oakwood had had enough and suggested we “do the things we had talked about before we opened the door”. I.e. spell up. TerStegan started to cast Bless and that started initiative.
It turns out, he went first and got to cast it. And then entered his stance. And then she went. She stepped back 5 feet and cast Lighting Bolt. It got TerStegan, Briscoe, Clarisa and the Imp minion in the cage to the south. A whopping DC33 and 43 points. Briscoe and TerStegan took double as did the Imp. Briscoe was dropped and the Imp was vaporized. Oakwood did BFM on Briscoe and then on TerStegan. Xeelie put Life Boost on Briscoe and moved up. Clarisa did a 3 action Force Barrage since she didn’t have to move. That did 39 points.
TerStegan wanted to get past her for flanking but didn’t think a Shove would work. He stepped up so that he might get AOO if she cast again. He hit her despite her 32 AC. That did 32 but 10 bounced. Briscoe stood, used DV to BFM on TerStegan. That did 23. And then did DR on himself. But he moved before that to get out of the line of fire. He crit failed the Medicine roll and used Hobbit Luck. That gave him 36. The Devil took a step back and cast a Fireball. Xeelie still got an AOO and hit but didn’t crit to interrupt it. That did 22. The DC on the Fireball was so high, we were just hoping to not crit fail. Xeelie used a hero point to avoid that. Briscoe rolled a 20 for a crit success and took none. Unfortunately, Oakwood hadn’t had the actions to get his Thermal Nimbus up for some fire resistance. It was heightened to level 5 and did 41. Clarisa went out. Her Eat Fire wouldn’t have helped. Oakwood turned on his Nimbus, used Sure Strike and missed anyway. Xeelie used Acrobatics to maneuver around the desks in the room instead of having to go through her. After much discussion on the DCs needed, she rolled an 18 on the die and got behind her. And then used her Healing Gloves on herself for 15 points. And then missed.
TerStegan hit with the flanking for 19. And then hit again for another 13. Briscoe healed from the Life Boost and somehow was back to unharmed. He did DR on the unconscious Clarisa for 36. He then moved next to TerStegan and gave him 28 with his bonus BFM. Medic is so good, he had an action to spare to try to Demoralize her. That didn’t work. Clarisa didn’t even bother standing and fired more missiles from the ground. That did 38. The Devil missed TerStegan with a 2 on the die. And crit with the next one for 68. That knocked him out. And then rolled a 20 and took out Xeelie for 49. Oakwood did Dash of Herbs on TerStegan for 10 and then missed terribly. Briscoe cast a Heal on TerStegan for 30, moved to Xeelie and did DV BFM for 35. TerStegan grabbed his axe, stood up and rolled a 20. That did 54 and took her out. Her head rolled free. A 3 round fight where 4 of the 5 of us went unconscious. She disappeared in a poof of smoke along with all her books and papers.
Oakwood did a round of Herbs while we searched and found nothing for our troubles. We heard a distant rumbling. We took 10 to refocus and then did Herbs again. There was no obvious way down from here but Oakwood remembered the “rising” room in the training area. TerStegan peeked in the prison room on the way and the intact cells were still intact. The barrier in the training room was gone but there was no “elevator.” Just a shaft. But there was a button. Xeelie pushed it and we heard the same rumbling noise. The platform came up. We found a note in the chains from the Drier. She said that the devil had freed some of the status monsters and bid them to kill us or at least bring Xeelie to her. Evidently once we fled, the Drier had given up and went home.
We debated and decided to go home and get a long rest before going to the next level. And level up to 8th. Brian would allow us to do so and get a long rest but something would happen prior to any down time activities. Like making resilient armor. It was decided that the armor would go to TerStegan since he had the lowest saves and took the most damage. He generously agreed to pay the 25 gold for the formula so Xeelie could make resilient armor for the rest of us. But that’ll take some time, I assume.
