(Sept. 12, 2004) Chronicler: Isaku
Month 9, Day 20, Year 1562 –
While in the Dragon capital, we have heard rumors of sightings of odd creatures, possibly from the Deep Dark. Some of the locals claim to have seen bat-winged demons, but we don’t know if they are Oni or something else. Ashiko and Hatori did some research, and found references to a race of bat-people called Desmodu that were civilized (like the Nezumi), but not numerous. Humans lost contact with the Desmodu long ago, so not much information was available.
Til’k and Gorvak had some other matters to attend to in the Dragon capital and said they would catch up with us later. The rest of us set off in the direction of the supposed entrance to the Deep Dark, about 40 miles away from the Dragon capital. Soon after we left, some of our party got the feeling that someone is trying to cast magic on us, perhaps trying to scry us or read our minds. Noku verified that no one in the party was under the influence of any but the expected prep spells, and we continued on.
Hatori soon noticed a snake-lady up in a tree, and she seemed to be in the process of casting a spell. Hatori charged towards the tree shouting, "Don’t cast spells on us!" She finished the spell anyway, catching most of us in a Dispel Magic. Birkat charged forward on his horse, but was stopped by an invisible barrier. The barbarians charged towards us, and battle ensued.
The snake-lady turned out to be the Hebi-no-onna who we had fought before. She had gathered 10 barbarians, in addition to the 3 dark nagas and 2 hannyas who survived our previous encounter. Unfortunately, they managed to disable Noku with a Hold Person spell, and Ashiko with a Power Word: Stun spell, depriving us of most of our powerful spells.
Our fighters engaged the barbarians, who all had the Karmic Strike ability. Birkat, Mulan and Raji went down in the fight, and the rest of us were eventually forced to retreat and regroup. Zenako dragged the stunned Ashiko away from the battle, while Isaku did the same with the unconscious Mulan. Saru fed Birkat a healing potion, allowing him to escape the field, and Hatori managed get away via Dimensional Door. Noku, still under the effect of the Hold Person spell, was captured and tied up by the barbarians.
Ashiko eventually shook off the Stun spell, and made her way back to the field to cast Blade Barrier, killing one of the barbarians and keeping some of the other foes at bay. Hatori cast Teleport to land right next to the Hebi-no-onna, who was not at all pleased. She cast Dispel Magic on Hatori, but couldn’t dispel all the Polymorph Self spells he had cast on himself, so he stayed in the form of a Wang-Liang. The Hebi-no-onna again wimped out and disappeared, at which point her remaining minions fled the field, leaving 6 dead barbarians and 1 dead hannya.
We untied Noku and healed everyone up, then discussed what to do next: scry the Hebi-no-onna to see where her new lair is, go after the retreating barbarians, or perhaps go back to the Dragon capital to find Til’k and Gorvak first?