Enola Yarn – blogpost 24

SHIT! Spite’s gone! We need to wake the rest. We hurry to Zephs’ room to wake him and Farryn. The second Valentine knocks on the door, she is launched in the air and dangles from her ankle, upsidedown. Zeph and Farryn open the door a moment later – both half asleep. We explain our findings of the chest in the Etherial plane and inform them that Spite got out and is currently on the run. Farryn gets Valentine down but demands she answers his question. He set a trap and told us yesterday that he did, but now he doesn’t trust Valentine because she forgot it was there. “How did Peythur get killed?!” Valentine almost answers wrongly and takes a long time to remember who Peythur was. Farryn almost attacks her, but as she sees she is in real danger, she tells the story about the flesh-eating Slaad where she was imprisoned. After this little conundrum, we come to the point: Spite is gone. We need to find the book and have around twelve hours to return it to Hallaster. We believe Spite has the book in his chest to the Etherial plane, so we need to find him.

Near Hallasters’ office, we find Skrianna. We ask her where Spite is. She doesn’t want to answer, but we can see she knows. “Tell us and you’ll be rewarded,” Farryn says. 

“What will be my reward?” 

“You’ll be happy when you receive it.” 

“I know where Spite is, but what will I get if I tell you?”

“We got Cephalossks’ spellbook, that could be something.” 

Skrianna seems interested. “I’ll take you to Spite. But first, give me the book.”

Valentine takes over. “That is not going to happen. We are going to burn the book page by page if you don’t tell us.”

“You can do that, but the price of information is high…” Skrianna says slyly. 

Valentine gets her spellbook out of her pockets. “This one, in exchange for your info.”

Skrianna agrees and takes the book from Valentines’ outstretched hand. “He is waiting for you in the lecture hall. Give my regards.”

We dash to the lecture hall. During the run, I ask Valentine why in the nine hells she gave HER spellbook. She replies that the spellbook will disappear in an hour and respawn in her bag. That is kind of smart, I think. The room is empty when we get there. Valentine and Zeph go inside, but still don’t see Spite or Dumara. We investigate shortly and hear a voice minutes later: “It did not have to end this way. You can still leave. You were so stupid to get caught during your break-in at Hallasters’ office. I cannot let this toll on me be unpunished.” 

“We’ll stay anyway.”

“That is a pity. You guys have too much willpower…”

Suddenly, I see Dumara appear through the doorway and attack Valentine with a knife. I cast fireball in response. I cannot see the Oni anymore, nor Valentine, because darkness fills the area inside. I know I cannot go in, because I won’t be able to see anything, plus, I know I will faint after a couple of hits. “Go away and don’t come back!” I hear Spite yell. No way that THAT’s going to happen. I summon an air elemental and tell it to find Spite, or attack the Oni I know hides in the darkness. Surprisingly, the elemental enlarges. This must be Zephs’ doing – so he is still alive. That’s good. As quick as the air elemental appeared, as fast it is gone again. “That was too easy, do you have more where that came from?” Spite taunts. I hear a fireball in the lecture hall, so I reckon Valentine is still alive and kicking too. Everything turns to ashes and the room explodes almost, but we can still hear: “Ha, you missed me!”

Valentine is still inside, but Zeph, Farryn, and I are outside in the hall. Dumara walks out as well; I stand in a corner, holding my breath to not get noticed by her. She goes to Farryn and Zeph, the latter – times three – swarming around Farryn to protect him. Dumara attacks two Zephs’ but neither is the correct one. Instead, she is covered in two glitter bombs as the illusions disappear. Furthermore, four Spites walk out of the lecture hall.

The enemies are situated in a corner, pretty close to one another, so I see an opportunity to cast wall of force. Spite and Dumara cannot do a thing but taunt us. I cast chill touch a couple of times to find the real Spite between the illusions, and that works out. Now everyone is trapped for 10 minutes, I run off to find Valentine. The darkness has disappeared and I see her lying on the ground, but still breathing. We make sure she is healed, and when she wakes, we quickly explain the situation. She hardly takes note and transforms into a T-rex. We return to the wall of force dome.

Valentine just stands over the dome, waiting for it to disappear. Her T-rex saliva drools in the air, dripping down the invisible wall. I cast chill touch a couple of times more, but it doesn’t do anything. Spite took precautions too. I lift the dome. I attack with magic missile, but it fades with a small poof. The T-rex just bites and flings Spite around in its mouth. “LET GO OF ME, AWFUL BEAST!” Spite yells. “Wormriddle! Hallaster! We’ve got the book!” Zeph yells. Suddenly, with a poof, Valentine the T-rex vanishes. Spite banished her to another plane. SHIT! “VALENTINE!”

Next, everything happens simultaneously. Dumara attacks, but misses me. My fireball is counterspelled by Spite. Spite gets attacked from two angles, and breaks his concentration, bringing the GIANT T-rex back to the material plane. We see Wormriddle on the other end of the hall, and the minute we’re distracted, Spite throws a wall of force too and makes a run for his money. However, while he runs off, he sees us killing his buddy. “NO! DUMARA!” he cries.

Luckily, we can go around the wall of force by going through the lecture hall, and I try to get Valentine to come with me. Farryn knocks out Spite with a trident. Spite falls to the ground face first, and the wall of force disappears. “I got him!” yells Farryn. We all walk to Farryn and Spite. Wormriddle is slow, and a bit disinterested and is not there as we investigate Spite. Valentine still wants to attack Spite. “NO! Valentine, you’re done.” She doesn’t understand, however. I have to stand in front of Spite’s body to prevent her from attacking and killing him. Farryn is behind me, stabilizing Spite. Zeph heals Spite to revive him after another attack from the T-rex, and Spite wakes up. He casts a spell and disappears in the mist – time seems to stand still.

After the effect is gone, I run after him. He is gone. I cannot find him. I return to the party, feeling defeated. “He’s gone.” The T-rex runs in the direction I came from and growls a couple of seconds later. Valentine got the smell of Spite. Zeph growls back and explains he told her NOT to kill him, just hold him. We run after the growls in the hallway, and find Valentine looking like me again, running after Spite. From the common room, we hear a hard BLAM and a scream. Spite has been knocked out by Valentine. We stabilize him and tie him up.

“Now we wait for Wormriddle to come…”