Kenskue and Leroy are playing around with the Bronze discs on the statue when Sethroy (who just followed the carnage) sneaks up on them. Kenskue and Leroy quickly fill Sethroy on what has happened and they go down to see the giant snake hoping to use it against the lizardmen some how. The snake is still sleeping and a quick recon is done of its layer. The party debate endlessly on how to rouse the snake and get it to go into the grand hall with the other Lizard men (who have been silent for about 20 minutes now) and finally decide to chuck rocks at it (yeah that’s what I thought too). After two rocks, and one for good measure, the snake starts to come out of its sleep and slithers towards the entrance to its lair. Leroy draws everyone in with One with Shadows. At about this time 4 lizard men come up the tunnel, two spear men with large shields and two spear men with long spears following behind them. When they come upon the Snake they shake their spears and bang them on shields sending it back into it’s cave. Being even more cautious they pass our heroes then stop almost right besides them it is also at this point that the party hears rhythmic chanting coming from the grand hall. The two shield bearers take up a defensive position and the other two start to move back to a pair of double doors. The party definitely do not want those doors open so they spring to attack. The Lizard men are taken by surprise with all of them failing reaction rolls. Sethroy steps and attacks the nearest Shield bearer and stabs him twice with his poisoned blades (Monster Drool). The fit Lizard Man goes down but is not dead having suffered over 18 points of damage (including one failed HT vs. Poison). Kensuke lays on combination of kicks and punches on one of the spear men (who is currently facing away from him) and knocks his scaly hide to the ground. Leroy in an amazing acrobatic jump leaps to the far side of the fray getting off two attacks only one on a Spear man and the other on the shield bearer inflicting grievous wounds but killing neither. Suffice to say having the initiative the next round the best the lizard men accomplish is blocking Sethroy’s attacks before falling before the might of these master killers. The party regroup by the double doors and become one with shadows.
Having taken out four more the party fail their overconfidence roll and are very sure that they can take out the remaining 20-25 fully armed lizard men. Besides Bob MUST be saved, oh and Aloysius says Leroy. Kensuke all out concentrates on the door for 30 seconds as the chanting and some shuffling continues behind the door. He then unleashes a mighty power blow at the doors. The force of the blow slams the doors open and they rush in to attack. The apprentice shaman fails his reaction roll and stops chanting for a second at the sound of the doors and three demons rushing out, the more experienced shaman continues his chanting. Kensuke spots a large banquet table to the right and jumps over to it while Leroy super jumps. Yet again the tow leaping monkeys leave Sethroy alone, facing bowmen. Seeing no alternative and being quite confident in his abilities Sethroy charges forward and causes a lot of damage with one hit… against a shield.
Another surprise attack over and its their turn. Leroy light steps off of one of the bowmen completing his jump landing right next to the two chanting Lizards. (seriously, he critically rolled his Acrobatics, and was two points off of a crit with Light Walk. I need new dice). Sethroy is not so sure of himself as the shield wall looks quite formidable. He takes a step back and does an all out defensive stance. Kensuke starts to concentrate next to the table. Now the lizardmen get a grip on themselves. the two Warchiefs in the back turn towards Leroy and advance with their great axes but wait just out of range either to assess the situation or not disturb the chanting we don’t know. The shield wall has no such problems moving into a pincer formation around Sethroy. Due to the amount of movement need for the maneuver only half the archers shoot their composite bows with barbed heads. Sethroy tries to block using his large cave bear cloak (giving him a an additional DR 2) The three arrows penetrate both the cloak and his leather armor inflicting horrendous impaling damage knocking him unconscious and dieing. Kensuke unleashes his power blow on the table (and failing miserably) but still manages to push it enough that in knocks into the edge of the shield wall knocking down a shield bearer and an archer and causing the others to move out of the way. Leroy does an all out attack and striking each of the Shamans twice, one parried once and took the second hit, the same for the other. However the final blow on each of them was enough to take their lives (or at least knock them out due to the shock). The War chiefs strike at Leroy but he does an Acrobatic dodge with lightstep landing right on a War chiefs head (strait out of a Wuxia film!). The other Lizardmen try to reform their shield wall while Kensuke does a baseball player slide and kick on the archer under the table and using the rest of his attacks to flip the table up on it’s side. The archers are unwilling to shoot at Leroy while he is standing on their Chief, but that does not stop one from taking a stab at him with his spear (a roll of 16 fails) the Chief tries moving to shake off Leroy but he stays on. Leroy leaps off and over the table while the Kensuke continues his attacks on the two Lizard men getting up from prone only to be knocked right back down again. Meanwhile as Sethroy sinks into oblivion he gets an image of the Obelisk with it’s pulsating violet light and a painfully sweat voice that tells him it does not have to end. Accepting life over death the fighting stops for a moment as the pile of cloak starts jerking around with the sounds of cracking and sickly sucking noises and an eerie moan. Just as a Lizard man is about to stab the pile of cloak Sethroy leaps up with his tentacled hands wrapping them around the lizard man and sucking the life force out of it, healing himself in the process. For the lizard men that is enough. Without the Shamans they have no means to control the spirits that already reside in their home (water elemental for one) not to mention such indestructible flying demons! the remaining members of the tribe flee through an eastern passage. Sethroy makes his blood lust roll and resists giving chase.
It takes an additional 20 minutes to find Aloysius, Bob the Hamster and most of their gear, although one of Aloysius’ mules was slaughtered. They rush out of the place with the chest which holds the book to their salvation. Returning to the slave wagon they load up their spoils and head to the Orc Barracks to check on the freed slaves (I’m shocked they remembered them) where they rest until night fall as Sethroy is useless in the day time. His eyes are completely black now taking in all the light, his skin is now like porcelain, his ears more pointed and he can suck the life force through his tentacled hands. Only Kensuke and Aloysius realizes that he resembles a Dark One with his new hands. In fact Kensuke and Leroy notice their own fingers are more double jointed then they ever where before. What ever happened to Sethroy seems to have sped his transformation up faster than the other two.
Making their way back by night (with one leading the horse) they do not encounter any problems until the third day when an Orc challenges the party as they pass near his campsite. The Orcs name is Genku and a student of the Northern Crane and Ox style. Kensuke responds to his challenge and the two square off. Genku Leap attacks at Kensuke, but Kensuke dodges and returns with three kicks to the chest. The entire fight takes around 12 seconds but during that time a flurry of blows where given and parried by both parties. It was only when Genku switched from Karate to Judo that the tide went against him. Getting even closer Kensuke reverses the grab into an arm lock and does two consecutive strikes on Genku’s throat knocking him out. Kensuke grabs him by the hair tells him to go back to school and slams his head into the ground.
Aloysius and Leroy tend to Genku’s wounds and get him to come around after 45 minutes of administering to his wounds. Genku travels back to town with them to get more professional care. Once back Theodore the acolyte tells them their is a ritual that can speed up or slow the transformation but to cure it they will also need a special chalice which Aloysius and he will research. The preparations will take four days for the ritual. During that time they have Aloysius sell off the dragon bits and set up the manufacture of leather dragon hide armor. Kensuke commissions a Giant Spider Silk outfit and they trade some dragon parts for a stock of health potions (finally) Aloysius also starts designing wrist crossbows for Sethroy. After the ritual is over everyone is brought to their previous stage of transformation with Sethroy regaining his fingers but loosing the life force power. Kensuke and Leroy can now operate again during the day but Sethroy still has a bit of darkvison left. Curiously Leroy who has had the most exposure to the Obelisk is the least affected by the curse, followed by Kensuke and then Sethroy for whom the ritual almost didn’t work for if it wasn’t for some really good rolls.
The group is now going to try to hire some henchmen for the journey ahead and are quite freaked out that they may be turning into Elder Things!
…meanwhile Sethroy hears things