With the denizens of the unholy cathedral defeated the only path left for us was to descend into the depths of the dark pit, where we suspected Kalarel was performing the necessary rituals to once again open the Rift into the Shadowfell. However, despite the feeling that urgency was necessary, we couldn't help but hesitate at the thought of climbing down into the deeps. For one thing, all the blood that was coming from the altar where the dark priest was standing before was running into the pit, and as far as we could tell from what little we could see from the bottom, it formed a pool right beneath it. On the other hand, the full length of the pit was about 50ft down, a nasty fall if we slipped...
All hesitations were soon forgotten however, because we really didn't have any other choice... Since there were only four chains, the rest of the party went ahead, while i started my descent after them. Well, that didn't go quite as well as we could expect. When most of the party was almost to the bottom of the pit, which they could now see opened into a larger chamber, and after managing not to make any advancement in my climb down, i slip and failing to grab myself to the chains or one of my companions, i fall to the bottom face-down into the pool of blood... Not quite the entrance i would have hoped for...
Surviving the fall with just a few injuries, since the pool of blood reduced my impact on the ground, i collected my thoughts and took a chance to look around. I emerged from the pit into a very large room, as large as the room above it. Still lying in the ground, i look ahead facing west into a massive altar of bone, surrounded by large pillars. A set of steps led to the altar and at the bottom of the steps, standing guard, were two Skeleton Warriors, clad in armor and wielding sword and shield. Before the altar, a human figure, clad in heavy armor and wielding a skull-capped rod, was chanting some sort of prayer or incantation, keeping his eyes closed and his arms outstretched. To my left there was a massive black portal, constantly in motion as if something was trying to break through. In front of the portal a magical circle had been drawn on the floor in blazing red runes. To the opposite side stood a massive statue of the Demon Prince Orcus, wielding a skull-capped wand and pointing straight into the portal.
My clumsy entrance had the merit of breaking the human's concentration, who at this point could only be our quarry, the evil priest Kalarel himself. His chanting ceased and turned to face me with murderous eyes. Battle was inevitable and thanks to my clumsiness, the advantage was theirs... My party was not to far from reaching the ground however, and within a few moments, all except Sora, who had a little more difficulty descending the pit, were now standing in the pool of blood ready to face our foes. At this point, we notice that to our backs, opposite the altar, stood a Deathlock Wight, attempting to hide behind some pillars. Attempting any conversation was useless as we called Kalarel a few names, he called us a few, and battle began. There we were at last, face to face with Kalarel, the final battle... and i was still lying face-down into a pool of blood... How embarassing..
My first actions in combat were getting up to my feet and healing my wounds by drinking a potion. Afraid to advance, since we didn't know if there were any traps nor did we know the capabilities of our foe, we let the enemy take the initiative, while waiting for Sora to get to our position. We certainly didn't expect their strategy though... Kalarel immediately teleported himself into the circle of blazing runes in front of the black portal, while his two Skeleton guards rushed to his side, covering his flanks. The Wight attacked us from a very long distance with it's Grave Bolt, which could not only damage us but also immobilize us. She attacked one of our frontliners in an attempt to prevent him from reaching Kalarel and succeeded. Soon two of our number were prevented from moving, while the Skeletons and Kalarel held their ground in the circle.
We decided to ignore the Wight for the moment, since it's damage was minimal and the immobilized condition was easily circunvented, and focus on Kalarel. The first to reach into melee range of Kalarel and his guard was Sora, only to find they had a nasty surprise waiting for us... As soon as Sora approached within 15 ft of the portal, a massive clawed arm bridged the rift between dimensions and attacked her. So that was why they had positioned themselves in that place... Some sort of beast from the Shadowfell itself was granting them protection against any foes that approached them. There was no choice however but to have our meleers engage them there, while myself and Ceteribus attempted to attack from beyond the creature's reach. Our first attacks focused on Kalarel, "testing the waters", to attempt to discern what weaknesses he possessed, if any. Well, after seeing all of our attacks fail miserably, we realized we were facing a foe unlike any we had fought before... Kalarel proved extremely hard to hit by any means.
Meanwhile, always supported by his Skeleton Warriors, Kalarel was engaging our melee fighters unleashing powerful attacks with his Rod, which beyond the damage it dealt on each hit, unleashed a necrotic toxin to poison our fighter's bodies. On the other hand, he wasn't definitely sharing our difficulties in striking true with his attacks. The Skeleton Warriors followed his every move, never leaving his side, preventing any possible flanking situations and attacking his target's. Also, to add insult to injury, as our movement capability near the portal was very reduced as our warriors could only make small shifts to avoid attacks from the creature beyond the portal, the Deathlock Wight kept immobilizing the meleers. Furthermore, neither Kalarel nor his guards seemed interested in leaving the blazing circle, which was probably granting them some sort of unknown bonus. Luckily for us, the unknown creature was missing most of it's attacks. However, we were effectively prevented from applying mobility and flanking tactics to try and turn the battle to our favor.
We turned our focus on the Skeleton Warriors, trying to clear Kalarel's flanks, since due to his high defenses, flanking would be a definite must to be able to hit him. From my attacks, we deduced that his only weakness was probably his Reflex defense, but we couldn't get Kralho, who excelled at hitting against Reflex, into flanking position to apply his sneak attack. After some effort and a little help from Ceteribus's radiant damage we managed to down one of the Skeletons. This allowed Kralho to finally flank Kalarel and dish out some pain. He paid for it dearly though, as the attacks he suffered afterwards forced him to use his final healing surges, which meant he had to leave melee combat and start attacking from a distance. We kept attacking the other Skeleton and Chuck even tried to push him into the portal with Tides of Iron, but failed. He would go down eventually though, leaving us more at ease to focus on Kalarel.
Chuck and Sora attacked Kalarel as they could, achieving very few hits, while the rest of us attacked from range. At this time, healing options were becoming scarce and we began noticing that Kalarel's wounds were healing themselves. It was probably the circle's effect, but nothing we tried made him leave that area, where he was still covered by the creature beyond the portal. Even our ranged attacks were having little effect. Ceteribus, tired of not hitting Kalarel, strode off to engage the Deathlock Wight, which was still pestering us with Grave Bolts. He had a special advantage against it, because he was resisting the Wight's necrotic damage due to his magical armor, and his radiant damage was lethal against undead. Thus started a duel between them that lasted for a while, with Ceteribus's being the victor thanks to his unique advantages against such a foe.
Kalarel was the last one standing of his number, and what a fight he was giving, hitting Sora and Chuck mercilessly with his unholy Rod, and taking very few hits in return. The battle was far from won, despite our superior numbers, and it soon turned to desperate as Chuck was hit into unconsciousness by a vicious attack, bleeding profusely on the ground. There was no choice now. Being the only one who could hit Kalarel with some degree of eficiency and even though he had no chance to be healed, Kralho risked his life to flank Kalarel and attempt to kill him or die trying. Sora kept Kalarel busy, while myself and Kralho attacked him relentlessly and Ceteribus kept having difficulties in landing a hit on the evil priest. Finally, after some devastating attacks from Kralho, Kalarel went down. As he fell to the ground, the thing from beyond the portal grabbed his body and pulled him into the Rift and to the Shadowfell itself. After this, the black portal was closed and the evil priest's plan to unleash Orcus's legions into the world was undone. Victory was ours. All that was left was explore this room and go back to town for fame, glory, and hopefully some nice fat loot.
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