Done, finally.
After a harsh discussion on the end of day #2, mostly caused due to the sheer size of our group, 7 players, 1 dungeon master and the in my eyes “lack of respect” when my players don’t listen to each other but have 3 different discussions ongoing most of the time, wondering why they don’t know what just happened… They changed this with commendable determination and efficiency on day #3. This was probably the base of a very nice third day. It was only a small fracture of time that passed when a special secret was revealed. The second of the elves, the former captive of Izrador’s forces, a so far well trusted and valued advisor to the ambassador herself revealed his otherworldly powers and features as an she-devil, a so called Erynnie. This made several changes in their tactics possible and only a few hours later they arrived on top of the Obsidian temple, a huge flame lit on top of it, feeding on the life-force of four paralyzed captives and mutineers alike. It took them combined forces to break the draining spell, though they had no option to lift the paralysis – the huge fire immedately dropped when the four captives were moved. It was then that some realized an army of thousands was approaching from the south. When the Erynnie finally managed to get all of them on top, the few remaining forces in the camp where already alert to their presence, which did exactly nothing to slow down the dwarves in their battlelust. Hardo merely fell down the rope and regained his feet surrounded by five orks inmidst of the 15 feet high doorframe of the entrance to the temple. Brandal was dropped as dwarvengrapplebomb onto one of the legates in the camp, the endless spikes of his armor tearing deep into the flesh of the human. It didn’t take Kater, Hardo’s brother long to disable some of the orcs that clearly focussed onto his brother, Hardo himself did not so much as bother to let one of them close-in onto him.
On top of the building it was Dorion focussing on the remaining inner strength, channeling arcane powers despite the immediate vinicinty and physical closeness of the Blood mirror. While he grasped and held the powers, reassuring himself not to let loose, nor to loose the spell into the mirror’s ever-longing drain, it slowly but certainly took the shape of a disaster for those in the camp. A hideous and terrible storm raged around the tower, leaving only very few spots of safety. A blizzard formed slowly and it’s pure vileness cost many their lives that were not already engaged in the battle.
It was the pirate captain that was facing one of the soldiers when her mind was caught flat-footed against the spell of on of the legates, pressing onto her inner calmth and taking the power from her limbs. She stood there with an expression of shock in her eyes, looking in the immediate face of death when a soldier approached. It was then that the ambassador Ewen, hours ago still handicapped by snowblindness, struck hard, failed to hit the soldier in front of chantea and left and opening in her side that Ewen’s own opponent used the drive a sword into her ribcage. Ewen did not falter, she had distracted the second soldier from killing Chantea and it would not take long for her and the others to take these creatures of darkness down. If only the cut would not hurt that bad…
Hardo finally had retreated into the tunnel killing all of the orcs together with his brother, when finally Dorion and Mirae descended from the Obsidian tower to join the ongoing battle in front of it. Many of the soldiers fell, Mirae herself took certain satisfaction when she cleaved the she-legate with her sword into many pieces. Dorion, still a bit clouded by the sheer might of the spell and concentration he needed to cast that, drive one of his precise bolts into the eye of Ewen’s direct opponent – dropping that one to his knees and disabling in within seconds. A slaughter had broken loose and it was only moments later that all of them had retreated into the building.
With Mirae and Kater taking the front, it was merely luck that kept Mirae’s sanity when she triggered a spell already announced as magical trap by the cunning dwarven thief. Several meters behind that one some of the stones were triggering a weird mechanism, again kater could not tell which one but warned them not to give this a try. On the far end of the temple Mirae did spot it first – a huge mirror, 45 feet tall and 15 feet wide with a disgusting pool of blood, unholy water and body parts. It did cost them dearly when some of the dwarves realized one of the heads in the pool was from a relative…
Moments later when Hardo was the first to try his rage with the mirror, he was the first to disappear to the other side. One-by-one they were sucked into a plane behind the mirror – facing some of the mightiest souls that were previously sacrifized to the dark god. Most of them simply faced themselves, a cunning mirror-image without an obvious mirror – just the more or less exact double in a distance of several feet. Dorion was not fooled by his mirror image, he did cast a spell onto it and befriended, asking it politely to take him out and there they were… The others faced themselves with utter determination and a lot of bloody force.
A few riddles and ideas later it was Brandal who managed to crack the mirror, while the mirror was sucking into it whoever touched it, at the same time he was vulnerable to ranged and thrown weapons. The expertly thrown weapons of the tough dwarf left a few scraps in the incredible hard mirror – turning it suddenly completely black before an explosion wiped out more than just the temple and the surrounding camp and blasted everything into oblivion.