Searching for Baron Tiegel

We turned our attention to the large double doors leading into the manor. I was sure that half the manor had been roused by our little tussle but the doors remained firmly closed. Yvala sauntered up the steps and Rhegar followed ploddingly. “We’re sure there isn’t a back entrance? No kitchen door, nothing?” Vixi asked, note of resignation in her voice. “I haven’t seen one in the time I’ve been here. And, I did lead you around the back so you could see for yourselves.” Yvala said in a bored voice. “The last fight was pretty loud and right on the front porch too. Personally, I’m surprised that no one has come out the door yet.” Markas said. “Well I am an invited guest in this house. No one would take notice if I went inside and took a look around.” Yvala said smoothly. I didn’t particularly like this plan. It would give Yvala a chance to confer with her fellow conspirators without the rest of us breathing down her shoulder. But I didn’t like charging into the unknown either, no matter how fond Rhegar was of that plan. And the others were nodding their heads in agreement with her plan.

We stepped to either side of the doorway. Yvala stepped inside and closed the door behind her to prevent any prying eyes. A few minutes later, two slaves bearing wine came out of the double doors. Their eyes went wide at the sight of us. Garn grabbed one and Markas took a hold of the other, making sure to cover their mouths to keep from screaming. “Keep quiet.” I told the slaves calmly. “We’re here to take care of the Baron. We’ve already released some of your fellow slaves. If you follow the cart path past the onion and wheat fields and into the huge trees, you should be able to catch them.” The slaves nodded enthusiastically and took off at a run when they were released. “Thank you.” One cried over her shoulder.

Yvala appeared on the porch after a few more minutes. “Most of the household is asleep but the front hall will be a bit of a problem. There are three overseers and their hellhounds are mulling about waiting for their shift to start and half a dozen more bone devils on the upper balcony.” “If we crashed in there would be nothing stopping them from going and getting help,” said Markas. “What if we could draw a few out here?” asked Vixi. “We would be able to use the doorway as cover,” added Kyri. Yvala interrupted the debate. “I have an idea. I could order a couple of the bone devils to come out here to beat the slaves for some infraction.” We mulled over this. “It seems like the best idea. And even if one or two run, it’s likely they won’t find anyone who cares. And it is one less that we would need to keep from running away. I’m all for that.” Markas said with a grin.

We arranged ourselves on either side of the door while Yvala splashed some wine across her stomach and thighs. Acting furious, she threw open the door. “You two, leaning on the stairs, a slave spilled wine on me. This cannot be tolerated. How can you accept such insolence?” she snarled. The bone devils in question began moving toward the door. “Their suffering will be long, my liege,” one intoned. They stepped out the door and let out a bloodcurdling howl at the sight of us. One uncoiled a barbed whip and struck at Rhegar. The other fumbled and his whip caught the doorway. Vixi cursed the one in front of her with a nasty little spell. My own flame burst off to the devil’s side and the bone devil laughed as he blocked Garn’s spear thrust. Yvala drew her sword and her strike bit deep into the devil’s side. She used the attack as a diversion to slip through the doorway. After Markas struck the bone devil on the right with a heavy blow to the ribs, Kalena was able to destroy the fiend with a cloud of daggers.

The lesser bone devils unfurled their wings and flew over the balcony, heading toward the doorway. Vixi killed a bone devil hovering in the doorway and my sacred flame hit the devil on the porch this time. Garn moved into a flanking position on the devil and yelled for Yvala to attack, which she did with a flourish. The hounds, sensing that their masters were in danger, rushed the doorway. They growled and snapped their slobbering jaws, but were unable to hit anyone. A second blow from Yvala’s sword brought the other bone devil down.

Kalena dropped a second cloud of daggers in front of the other door in an attempt to block the minions from exiting. Rhegar in front of the doorway and took out two of the lesser bone devils with his icy breath. Enraged at being trapped, three of the bone devils rushed the right hand door. But Markas was able to push back the first two and crushed the skull of the third with his flail. The three dogs on the porch were beset with attacks from Yvala, Vixi, and Garn. With the dogs tied up, I was finally able to move and take out the last overseer. The dogs still had some fight in them, though. Both Yvala and Rhegar suffered nasty bites. Markas finished one dog and Kyri peppered another with arrows. As Kalena’s cloud of daggers faded, Rhegar careened though the doorway and into the entrance hall. “There’s three in here running for help.” He yelled. Yvala ran through the door and skewered a bone devil hovering near the floor. She pulled a dagger from her hair as she turned toward Rhegar. It shot from her hand and thudded into the back of the bone devil beside the paladin. Kyri drew back her bow and killed the last bone devil and the remaining hellhound with an arrow apiece.

Cautiously, the rest of us moved into the entrance way. The devils didn’t have much on them, other than barbed whips and chainmail. Markas exchanged his wooden shield for a steel one carried by the lead bone devil. Though I was loath to abandon my maple quarterstaff, I recognized the need for additional protection in the fights to come. “Markas please pass me your old shield,” I asked. He did, and I adjusted it to fit on my slender arm. I plucked a bastard sword from the corpse of another bone devil and nodded to indicate that I was ready to push onward.
“Now I know some of the spawn like to use a lounge room across from the one I was lodged in.” Yvala informed us. “Easy, we kill them first then,” decided Rhegar. He took the ever-burning torch from his pack and thrust it into his belt. We formed up behind the door to the lounge. Rhegar threw open the door and charged toward the back of the room. He thrust his glaive into the painted window and the glass shattered, opening a beam of light into the vampire’s quarters. It fell over two of the vampires, who froze in place and started to smoke lightly. Yvala, Markas, and I rushed into the room right behind the warlord. Of the three attacks, mine was the only one to hit. As I did, the vampire faded a bit, and then fizzled. “It’s just a blur effect. He’s not actually phasing. He’s still there.” Markas shouted. Kyri followed close behind me and slashed at the blurring vampire with her long sword without hesitation. Kalena stood in the doorway and released two icy beams at the vampires in the sunlight, freezing one to the ground and killing the other. “Tavia, over here!” shouted Markas. As I moved past, I could hear him murmur, “Perfect time for what you do best.” I let the words of encouragement enrich my prayer as I pulled the strands of faith into my holy symbol. When I released the prayer in a storm of searing wind, it did even more damage than usual, hitting and immobilizing all but one within reach.

Irritated by my devastating attack, the one vampire I had missed lunged forward. His long nails left stinging scratches on my skin but I threw him off before he could bite me. Another leapt on Rhegar, biting his shoulder. It was Kyri, however, that came off for the worse. The blurry vampire solidified and locked onto Kyri’s purple eyes with his own deep blue orbs. Swaying under his spell, she didn’t put up any fight when he sunk his canines into her neck. Vixi cursed the vampire feeding on Kyri and it screamed before crumbling to gray dust. Attacks from Rhegar, Garn, and Yvala turned three more vampires into piles of ash. Kyri shook off the vampire’s bite and traded her sword for her longbow. The vicious weapon reflected the elf’s mood and sharp thorns sprung from both the arrow shaft and the curve of the bow. The green fletched arrow punched through the midsection of a fifth vampire.

All in all, the vampire spawn didn’t stand much of a chance against a prepared party of adventures and we soon cleared the room. At the far end of the hallway, there was a set of servants’ quarters and a door set with demonic glyphs. Yvala didn’t know what was behind the imposing door other than that she had been told not to try to open it. We left it for the time being, and moved to the hallway on the other side of the entrance hall. There we found more of the same; a pantry, more servants’ quarters, an empty ballroom and two empty guest rooms. The door below the main staircase proved to hide a staircase that spiraled down. There was no light, but the unpleasant whistling noise coming from below reminded me of the cavernous shaft on Aelerion’s Island. We shut those doors quickly and decided to continue searching for Baron Tiegel upstairs.

There were two rooms on the upper story. Yvala pointed to a set of double doors. “Avaro Tiegel is in there, spending the day resting in the company of his vampire spawn. This,” she said indicating the door of our side, “is something of a pleasure quarters for his personal guard.” “Well that’s an easy choice,” said Rhegar, “we take out the guard first.” We arranged ourselves behind the big dragonborn and he threw open the door with a bang. The room held five female slaves in scant, yet expensive looking robes and three tiefling bodyguards. Unlike the guards on the porch, these three were huge hulking specimens. Muscles bulged across their chest and down their arms and legs. Vestigial wings sprouted from their broad backs, but there was no way the puny appendages would hold their weight. Personally, I was far more worried by the generous amount of razor sharp teeth showing past their narrow lips.

Kyri fired first from the doorway and was rewarded with two dull thunks as the arrows bit into their intended target. Using the arrows as cover, Yvala ducked into the room. She brought her short sword up in a quick swipe but the bodyguard parried easily. He did not, however, parry Garn’s crushing attack that came right behind the rogue.

About that time, the situation turned upside-down on us. Rather than fleeing, the slaves began to laugh as their images flickered. Extravagant bat-like wings sprouted from their backs. Their clothing became briefer. Now we were surrounded by eight, rather than three enemies. One raised its eyes and locked Garn with a glowing blue gaze. She made a beckoning gesture and Garn followed docilely, not even flinching as another succubus ranked her claws across his back. Another succubus ensnared Yvala in her gaze, allowing her partners to reap at the tiefling. With a mighty prayer to the Raven Queen, Markas charged into the room. He slammed into the succubus controlling Yvala, and the rogue shook off the spell. Following his fellow paladin’s lead, Rhegar did the same for Garn, the swing of his blade causing the succubus to lose her concentration on the spell. From the hallway, I wove a healing prayer and sent it toward the injured Yvala.

Attacks flew back and forth between the party and the devilish guards. At one point, Garn brought out his magic hand axe and the resulting lightning sparked to all but two of the fiends on the far end of the room. Kalena launched one of her sleep spells at the far end of the room and was rewarded with the snores of one of the muscled tieflings. Somehow in the middle of things Yvala became dominated again. Under the succubus’s spell, she turned and swung at Markas. He was able to avoid the clumsy attack and she shook off the daze before she was forced to attack anyone else. Vixi ran through the room and struck a blow to the sleeping tiefling that ended his life. I dropped a hovering succubus with a lance of brilliant golden light and Kyri dropped another with a well placed arrow. The tide of battle turned our way and it didn’t take much for the eight of us to batter our way through the guards.

At the end of the brief encounter, Rhegar noticed his armor hanging in disarray. When he attempted to fix it, the whole thing fell apart. The side links had been torn to pieces by a rending blow from one of the succubi. “You’ll need to have that fixed.” Markas said wearily. Rhegar shook his head in agreement. “I’ll take a horse from the stables. I’ll take the path we sent the slaves on and make sure they’re still on the right path to the ship. I’ll be back as soon as possible.” He turned and headed down the stairs. “The sun could very well be down by the time he returns. We attack now or we don’t attack at all.” Garn said to the rest of us. “Well, then, I guess we flambé this guy.” Kalena said, rubbing her hands together with a little smile of anticipation.