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Crown of Souls: Part 10 - The Fall of Radaga
We figured she'd be in the church, we were gonna listen for that organ music to make sure. So the plan
was this: Sanjian, Chance, and Marcus would be transported to the roof and they would lower themselves
to windows and shoot arrows and spells at Radaga. At the same time, Bolas, Theo, and Taren would come
in the door we came in last time, hoping that all of us would be able to attack at the same time and
she wouldn't know who to concentrate on. It sounded pretty good at the time.
So, they went to the roof and we went through the front door. Of course, we
encountered some obstacles (Bolas, Theo and I) in the form of two big skeletons with glowing green fire
inside their chests. We slew them; one highlight of the battle being when Theo cast web on them, which
immediately burst into flame doing very little harm to them (because of that glowing fire in their
chests). Unfortunately, while we fought them, they started to scream, a very loud high pitched scream,
which ruined our chances for surprise.
The other three of us, at the windows, took that as their cue to attack and
so they attacked the red-robed figures at the front of the sanctuary. The red robed figures, instead
of heading for the door, flew through the walls at them! Theo, Bolas, and Taren arrived just in time
to see the last red robed figure disappear through the wall.
At this point Sanjian, Chance and Marcus began running like crazy.
Taren ,Bolas, and Theo were faced with a sanctuary full of lesser undead type creatures, lots of them.
Theo prepared to cast a fireball but then, seeing Sanjian on the far side of the room, he did not finish
the spell and he cast web instead. We saw Chance caught amidst the webs, but then this transparent
and ghastly creature appeared beside us and we were suddenly aged ten years! Bolas fled, screaming in
fear and Theo turned to strike it and the organ player (who kept playing the organ thus far) with a bolt
of lightning.
I was aged another ten years and then decided it was time to run like
crazy once had Theo blown up the organ. The two of us ran, everybody was running, but then we
remembered that there was that wall of skeletons, standing ten ranks deep and surrounding the entire
village, and then we knew there was no place to run to. More undead things were emerging from the
buildings.
Marcus turned to fight the red robed figures and lost part of his
life force to them for his troubles. One of the red robed figures stopped, threw back its hood
and revealed itself to be Radaga while the other three wraiths continued chasing Sanjian and Marcus. We
lost sight of Chance. Radaga fireballed Sanjian, killing the wraith that was chasing him, and so
Sanjian turned and charged her. She hit him with her staff and he fell to the ground, dropping his
silver sword and no longer moving.
The situation was looking pretty bad. I was sticking around Theo hoping
that either he would teleport them away or that if he falls unconscious maybe she can get his amulet
and turn herself to stone, but then Theo turned himself to stone, forcing me to flee to Marcus.
Marcus turned to attack Radaga, but she teleported to the steps of the
church. That big ghastly creature that aged us was also out there attacking us, among the many
lesser undead things.
Marcus took a moment to rummage in Sanjian's pack to find the crown. He
put it on his head, took the silver sword, and ran through the crowd of undead to attack Radaga.
I, trying to follow Marcus, saw him heading straight for the crowd of undead and decided to give up
on regrouping, so I created a wall of fire around myself. By this point I was severly wounded.
The undead ignored Marcus, once he put the crown on, alling him to get
close to Radaga. He attacked her, and while they battled the crown fell from his head. Still, with a
final sword thrust he slew her.
Then, all the undead fell to the ground, and everything went quiet.
We regrouped, Sanjian and Bolas' body with us, but there was no sign of Chance. Then, the
dead body of Radaga reached for the crown, placed it atop of "her" head, and raised itself into
the air. It skin stretched over its bones in a ghastly way as if it were being pulled tight and it
spoke, proclaiming itself to be Daglan.
It expressed its joy at having been brought back to the world of the
living and ordered us to bow before him. Meanwhile, the entire landscape began to change around us
into graveyards and freshly churned earth. A tower appeared, building itself from bricks that fell from
the sky where before there was just the cyclone. The sky then is torn from the heavens and into the
still whirling cyclone.
After much panicked debate, we convince Theo to try to open a portal
to Tel-Akbar, and this time it works! As we flee to the portal, we see Chance's body, which Marcus and
Bolas grabbed. I picked up Sanjian and fled through the portal with everyone else.
The ghastly environment was leaking through the portal into Tel-Akbar, so
Theo closed the portal quickly. He had taken us directly to the streets in front of the Temple of Arden.
Bolas was unconscious and near to death. Chance and Sanjian somehow had their souls taken. Later, we sent
a message to Kardakast warning him of Daglan and telling him about Radaga's death.
A month passed without word. Then, we were summoned by Kardakast, who wanted
to reward us. He paid to have Sanjian and Chance brought back from the dead and there we remained for a
time, resting and training.
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