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Die Sanctum, Die - Mission Progression: Sanctum Cay
Wyrm
- 25 Jun 2007
Now
reinforced with the Scepter of Orr, the Shining Blade decides it's time to take
the offensive even further by giving the scepter to Vizier Khilbron in hopes that
he might do... something with it to help them in their fight. They left for the
peninsula his hermitage was on immediately following their escape from Riverside
Province. When they arrived on the beach it was day again and Evennia handed them
the scepter saying she would meet them at the docks on the other side once they
made contact with the vizier. If only they knew how much agony they were about
to endure. Things
started out simple enough, they pushed on through the first batch of enemies easily
enough; they were fire imps, fire imps were no problem. Then they see a bunch
of Lightning Drakes. While these guys could potentially be a problem, they turned
out to be creampuffs to the superior smartness of the group. Oddly enough, once
past the drakes they found a wandering soul that was mumbling something about
finding his grave. Once the scepter was brought near him he was entranced by it
and started following it everywhere it went. Shrugging off the following dead
guy, the team realized they had taken a wrong turn, so they went back to a river
they skipped past and started following it. The
river turned out to be the right way to go. They didn't realize this because of
any roadmaps or signs or whatever, but because that's where the undead were and,
if they had learned anything at this point, it was that if they ran into undead
they were going the right way. And so they pressured on through the undead who
had become slightly more formidable than the last time they met, but not enough
to worry the team as it wasn't anything too bad. Their only real snag came from
the casters, specifically the necromancers and elementalists that hexed and zapped
the team a bit more than they would have preferred. Even so, they were no match
for Arty's enemy-smackdown meteors, which he had grown quite fond of at this point. Thinking
they had this in the bag, like most other missions they went through, they soon
found themselves in a swamp. A poisonous swamp. A poisonous swamp with bone dragons
in it. At first, the bone dragons were not really anything to worry about as they
had little in the way of directly hurting the team. That all changed when the
team came across their boss, the really big Bone Dragon. You
might want to stop reading right now for a few seconds to add to the ominous effect
that's supposed to create. This
Bone Dragon boss would also have been an easy foe to defeat were it not for a
few things. First, he was accompanied by another group of undead. Secondly, he
employed a spirit of Primal Echoes that made signets harder to use. Since Stargazer
had grown quite dependent on signets, this alone was almost enough to make her
scream in horror. But it didn't stop there. Remember that swamp they were in?
Well, in order to get to this bigger, badder Bone Dragon they had to cross said
swamp and deal with the poison they would be infected with by the time they got
across. Determined not to let any of those deter them, they made their way across
the swamp and began their attack. A few seconds later they were running away. Once
the boss and his lackeys stopped chasing them, they worked out a new plan. They
would go in, take out an undead lackey or two, and then run away again; thereby
gradually cutting the numbers down until it was just them and the boss. With a
brief hurrah, they decided to give it a go. Much to their surprise, it worked.
Soon it was just them and Mr. Big Meanie. This battle took all of their cunning
and hard work, along with a few well timed, or lucky, interrupts. Finally, though,
the jerk went down and that was that. The hard part was over, or so they thought.
Going through the gate to the vizier's hermitage, and wondering why the lever
to open said gate was on the outside, they had only a few more fire imps and a
couple giants to deal with before they were face to face with Vizier Khilbron
himself. He
accepted the gift of the scepter with gratitude but said that there was no time
to rest. The Mantle had discovered them thanks to the betrayal of Markis, and
rained down on them like a hailstorm. Amidst all the undead the party had fought
on their way to the vizier, they had completely forgotten the Mantle they had
to go through. Evennia had been captured; the boats that were supposed to bring
them away and to safety were destroyed. Things were once again looking grim for
the heroes, but the vizier gave them a bit of hope when he said he could summon
a new boat and take them to the Crystal Desert, a place where they really would
be safe since the Mantle were unable to get there. All they had to do was make
their way to the docks by going through a ton of Mantle and then guard the vizier
as he summoned a boat out of the waters to carry them. It sounded simple enough. They
made their way down to the beach along with some undead the vizier had summoned
for them. Fighting alongside undead creeped them out a bit, but the extra help
was welcomed as it made the work that much easier for the team. Things were going
rather swimmingly until they reached the docks and the vizier began summoning
the boat for them. Then, things went downhill. Very fast. Faster than one would
have thought possible. The team was unprepared for the massive swarm of Mantle
that seemed to never end. Because of this, the vizier was unable to concentrate
and had to retreat by teleporting away. The team also retreated, only their version
consisted of running like crazy to safety. They
needed a new gameplan to try and compete with that pressure. They thought they
came up with one. They were wrong. They retreated again. This process repeated
itself a few times until it had completely exhausted them out. Every time they
tried something new they Mantle wound up chasing them out and the vizier would
have to retreat to safety. Just
when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, Sanskirt revealed that she
had to leave due to a calling she had received. They were now down a monk. That
was a problem, but they were determined not to give up. They sat around the outpost
trying to figure out what to do next. Sooner or later the Mantle would catch up
with them and they would be out of options, so time was definitely not on their
side. Luckily, there was a fellow Shining Blade monk sitting on the beach passing
the time. He seemed lost in thought. They asked him if he wanted to help them
out, and he agreed, saying his name was Vortigern, or Vort as most people called
him. Now
back to full strength, the team went back in with another new game plan and a
fresh monk. And again the team was forced back out. This was beginning to get
tiresome, and to top it all off, the lost Vort. They weren't really sure what
happened to him or where he was, but he was gone. They were back where they started
once again. They
really needed a new gameplan and it was decided that they would hold off having
the vizier try to summon the boat until they were able to dwindle the Mantle's
numbers a bit, employing the same tactics they did against the big bad Bone Dragon
they faced earlier and who now seemed like a cream-puff in comparison. All they
needed now was another monk to help reinforce the idea. Enter Drellan, their latest
recruit. Also, at some point along the way they lost Buffy, and they weren't really
sure where she went either. They were able to find another elementalist, however,
so things worked out on that end. With
a fresh team and a fresh idea they went back in and started executing their latest
plan. Miracle of miracles it was working. They would snipe a few Mantle at a time
and slowly, but surely, the numbers began to diminish. Things were once again
starting to look up for the team. That is, until the Mantle caught on to their
plan and started to swarm them again. Fortunately, at this point, their numbers
were dwindled enough that they could be taken care of easily enough, which was
something the team was grateful for. Finally, after what seemed like months of
work, the team was able to take the Mantle down and secure the dock for the vizier.
That was probably their proudest achievement to date. They even felt so good at
that point that they helped the dead guy find his grave. All was good for them
for the time being as they sailed across the sea to the Crystal Desert. 
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