Chapter 15: Sendai
Imoen panted and dodged a drow's sword that aimed at her neck. She slid just in time to avoid the sharp blade but sacrificed a few strands of her hair, in the process. The drow sneered at her, his red eyes narrowed dangerously as he slashed his weapon at her again, in one graceful move. "A little help here..." Imoen shouted across the battlefield as she ducked another swipe of the dark elf's sword.
Rivian stole a quick glance at her struggling sister and frowned. She returned her attention on the priestess and kicked her in the ribs. The drow fell over and crutched her stomach. The moon elf slashed across her neck and severed the drow's head. She frowned in disgust as the headless torso fell over, pouring blood on the ground.
Turning around, the moon elf ran across the room to Imoen and while the drow was busy attacking the human girl, Rivian slashed him across his back, ending his life.
Imoen panted and let out her breath. "Thanks, sis." She said, wiping her wet brow.
Rivian nodded and pointed at the exit. The girl turned to look and pouted. "Damn. More reinforcements for the enemy? We're already hard-pressed." she grumbled.
"Summon more allies; we need your spells here, Imoen. Seal up that exit." The moon elf advised and moved towards Elhan who was busy fighting two drow fighters.
Elhan flashed a quick smile when he saw her approached and continued singing his bladesong. He twisted his way around one dark elf's defenses and kicked him from the back. The nimble drow quickly got on his feet and counterattacked.
On the other side of the room, Sarevok spat on his latest victim and scanned the battlefield; there were two more dark elves who had engaged the elf prince. He charged towards his new targets.
Imoen conjured a shimmering web and directed it to the exit and sealed it up temporarily. She saw the mindless skeletons got caught in the sticky web. The undead struggled and got more entangled in the web, effectively blocking the entrance and the hordes of skeletons behind could not get past. Satisfied, the girl started to conjure a new spell. Within a few moments, a portal opened and a celestial was summoned and directed to heal her friends.
"Good job, Imoen." Jaheria shouted a distance away, noticing the blockade at the door.
Imoen turned and winked at her. She watched the druid smiled and started her spell casting. The girl smiled as she thought of the perfect spell to eliminate the undead piling up at the entrance. Her web spell would hold them temporarily and provided her allies with some breathing room, but the spell would not sustain very long. She started casting for a Death spell that could sever all links of the summoned undead from the prime plane and sent them back to the negative plane. As her fingers moved and gathered magical energy, a purple orb appeared and the mage directed it onto the struggling skeletons and watched them disappeared.
Behind the mage, Elhan and Rivian each stabbed the last standing drow and watched him gurgled on his own blood.
Rivian wrinkled her nose in disgust at the sight.
"Are you alright, my love?" the elf prince asked.
The moon elf grinned at him and nodded her head. She caught sight of the empty entrance and smiled approvingly at the mage who winked at her. Turning back to the elf prince, the moon sighed. "So, that's only Sendai left, eh?"
"Just a quick rest, Ri." Jaheria said wearily from behind.
The rest of the adventurers gathered and nodded in agreement.
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Rivian stared at the statues in the small room and grimaced. Her eyes widened as she saw one statue came into life; the stone turned into flesh and the statue started to move. "Get that one!" she shouted at her friends and started her incantations to cast a spell.
Behind her, Sarevok and Minsc moved to engage the statue. Two drow priestesses appeared at the entrance and quickly found their targets.
The moon elf dodged defensively as she struggled to continue her spellcasting and avoiding one priestess's menacing whip. Her bladesinger ability allowed her to cast spell while she engaged in melee combat but the moon elf was unable to counterattack. A blade came in between them and slashed at the drow. Rivian gazed up to meet Elhan's amber orbs.
Rivian completed her spell and started casting a second one. A silver light engulfed her body, granting her some protection against magic weapons. Across the room, she watched Anomen's mace land on the statue and saw it broke into pieces. Behind her, the next statue started to turn into flesh. Rivian caught the cleric's eyes and quickly signal him to take the next statue. He nodded and ran towards it.
Before long, the group had managed to destroy all seven statues and their target appeared - a tall, powerful drow priestess.
"So, you've destroyed my statues. Don't get too smug because you won't find me a push-over." The drow leader laughed sardonically, waving her five-headed snake whip menacingly at the group.
The fight was on and the adventurers found that their weapons had no effect on the priestess. One snake on her whip sank its fangs on Anomen's arm; the cleric winced and his body started to become rigid. Soon he ceased to move totally, paralyzed by the poison but otherwise unharmed.
Rivian winced at the cleric's plight and signaled to the mage to take out the drow's protection spells. Imoen nodded and started casting a spell. There was no time to cast a spell to negate the effects on the knight; she would have to undo the poison after the battle.
With each layer of protection removed, Sendai quickly replaced it. The moon elf quickly devised a strategy; she caught Imoen's eye and signed her plan to the mage who grinned and nodded. The sorceress started casting a series of spells to strip off Sendai's protections and with Imoen's help, the drow priestess could not replace her magical armor in time, allowing Minsc and Elhan's weapons to draw blood.
Without the magical protection, the drow priestess fell quickly.
Jaheria turned to the frozen knight and started incarnating a spell to remove paralysis. Within a few breaths, the cleric started to breath and was able to move again. He nodded his thanks at the druid.
The group turned around and saw Rivian disappeared into thin air. Elhan winced; although he knew where the moon elf had been teleported, he did not enjoy the sight of her disappearing from him. It reminded him constantly that he was powerless to prevent that.