Hello Cthulhu #4

After Nalia and Hellocthul walked back to the fire, she whirled on her toes, and walked off again...

Hellocthul: Nalia? are you ok, you know we really should try to get some rest...

Nalia: I can't sleep...I wish we could make the assault now, not in 6 more hours...I'm sorry, I know trolls have infravision, and only you and Jaheira have infravision, so we would be at a disadvantage if we hit the keep before dawn...and I know we rode the post, and that costed a lot...changing horses every 50 miles, and we are all saddlesore and tired, but even then, I still can't sleep...my father, he could be dying right now...and if we don't get some rest, we will be cut to pieces...

Nalia:(she stretches and rubs her neck) We should get some rest...I still can't sleep just yet, but my muscles are starting to relax...

Hellocthul: Here, turn around...(starts giving Nalia a neck rub) feel better?

Nalia: Do all party members get such nice treatment? Hehehhehe...Hellocthul, I've been meaning to ask you, how is a sorceror different than a mage?

Hellocthul: Well, a mage shapes the weave into spells and stores them in her mind, like memorizing a picture...the actual act of memorization charges it with the energy needed to cast the spell...a sorceror on the other hand....

Nalia: zzzzzz.......

Hellocthul levitated her blankes over, and resting her head on Nalia's shoulder slept....

The next morning, about 3 hours before dawn, Yoshimo, who was on watch woke the party...they moved out using a rope to keep together, with Hellocthul at the lead and Jaheira at the end...they stumbled across the last 3 miles to the keep, keeping to the road as much as they could, the horses led by the half elves in the party...by the time the first rays of false dawn appeared in the sky, they were standing next to the secret entrance into the hold...

Hellocthul: We've gone over the plan every night since we left...Minsc, Nalia, fire arrows???

Minsc and Nalia nodded...Hellocthul pulled out a partly charged cloudkill wand, and gave it to nalia...

Hellocthul: Here, take this, Minsc, you are carrying the extra door blockers???

Minsc: Minsc has those wonderful gnomish inventions...Minsc is looking foward to kicking evil snake butts...urm...do snakes have butts??? Once again Minsc is astonished at how evil is so, so, so, evil!!! once again evil creatures have hidden their butts so Minsc cannot apply the boot of goodness!!!

Nalia: Urm...Hellocthul, is he always like this???

Hellocthul: Oh yes, Minsc is completely dependable, and totally reliable in a bad situation, I want you to stay close to him...here, let me adjust them for you...

Hellocthul had already adjusted her mage robes for battle... as with all mage robes, Nalia's robes of fire resistance, Salamander Robes, had ties and drawstrings built in to allow the fighter mage to tighten the loose sleeves and collar for hand to hand combat...

Hellocthul: Ok, people, warpaint!!!

Hellocthul, Nalia and Jaheira cast ironskin and stoneskin spells, Minsc adjusted his warbow, and closed his visor...Yoshimo adjusted his leather jerkin and adjusted the straps on his copper and leather bracer...

Hellocthul drew her long swords...

Hellocthul: Lets move in!!!

In the first room, the party encountered a troll attacking a castle servant, Jaheira and Hellocthul engaged the troll with twin swords each...Nalia watched in awe as Jaheira and Hellocthul whirled the intricate steps of "The Two Heavens" sword school, each gliding step whirling the swordswomen in spins, the swords effortlessly controlled in their hands, slicing thru the repulsive green slimed flesh of the troll in a spray of greenish blood...she finally shook her daze off, and assisted Minsc in putting fire arrows into each wound the swords inflicted, cauterizing the troll's injuries...

Until the beast went down, with a honk of dumb, beast pain...the servant was sent out the secret passage, to find captain Arat...who they had already ran into while moving into the keep....

Hellocthul: Ok, farsight....Jaheira?

Using her druid powers, Jaheira carefully built up a tactical map of the situation...each of them had studied the maps Nalia drew up during the trip, and they all knew that in a close quarters combat situation, identifying enemy location and numbers will give them a decisive advantage, allowing the party to hit fast and hard, hopefully defeating the enemy in small groups, before organized counterattacks could happen....

Jaheira: Large group in the main dining area, umber hulks and 8 trolls...doors look intact, so let's get one ready...

Hellocthul motioned Nalia to the door, and opened the door to the dining area, and Nalia cast a cloudkill inside the dining room, Hellocthul shut the door, and said to Minsc "in!"

Minsc, being told that the door opened in, had already readied a door blocker, a tube of steel 4 feet long, with many hooks and shackles to allow a adventurer to block just about any type of door, with a powerful "unbreakable" charm built into the tube, had blocked the door...just in time, as the powerful fists of the trolls and umber hulks started pounding on the heavy oaken frame...Minsc readied another door blocker, when the pounding stopped...

Jaheira could detect no sign of life inside the dining room...."clear!"

The party moved in to the rest of the rooms in the first floor,looking for survivors, sweeping with Jaheira or Hellocthul opening the door, the other would rush in, and Minsc with a door blocker ready in case they need to trap the occupant inside...Nalia and Yoshimo with fire arrows ready at all times...

They talked to Daleson, who gave them a better estimate of the troll numbers, and after they found the first piece of the flail of the ages, which Nalia knew her father had hoped to use in the keep defences...

The party moved to the main entrance, and Hellocthul casted a farsight spell this time, and noted about 4 trolls in the central courtyard, and a few yuan ti...

As they moved out into the courtyard, the sluggish trolls quickened themselves, casting haste on themselves, moving with extreme rapidity...matching the speed of the two fighters as they whirled and danced to improved haste, their swords blurring like the wings of a maple seed....the two cut down all the trolls and the oyutga in the courtyard, in a matter of moments...acid despatched the trolls...

The party moved to the battlements, and Minsc released the capstan to let the drawbridge drop...while the party was at the windlass, a small force of trolls had cut the party off from the staircase...Hellocthul gestured, and a incredibly bright spark of red fire flared at her fingertips...the tiny but highly effective minute meteors that rained from her fingers cut down the trolls blocking their exit in a matter of moments...

They ran downstairs to confer with Captain Arat...