Eldritch Storm Ambush

After defeating the Larva creatures the group took a short rest, looked around, and decided the only interesting place to head toward was the ruins in the distance with a storm obscuring their view.  So they headed toward the fortress ruins.  They slowly approached the pile of ruins a towering skull of debris and ice emerged from the mist.  Melisana recognized that the head was of the dead God Nerull.


Tongues of white fire swirled and flickered throughout the area.  A mound of shattered black ice fragments rose a hundred feet or more.  The eternal image of Nerull formed from the rubble of a great fortress, stood with its open mouth framed by great walls of rubble and black ice.  Entering through the mouth led to an open area with some enormous shards of ice towering above the heroes.

A thunderclap sounded amongst the group and several heroes were injured and pushed away from the sound just as a half dozen devil came running out from behind the ice shards.  Three other large devils emerged from the area also.  Sight was limited inside the white swirling storm and the party moved to attack on sight.  As Demin fired his crossbow he found himself at the center of a burst of energy taking fire damage and being dazed.  Several of his nearby compatriots also suffered the same fate.

Pretis planted the standard, Melisana cast written in fire and Mara attacked as best she could against a large devil who knocked her prone and pulled her close.  Each time the party attacked they found themselves being victimized by the storm.  Melisana learned quickly that the enemy took no damage from her fire, and Pretis use of the standard availed the party as some of the devils inflicted fire damage.

The smaller devils were soon found to be minions, but they were very difficult to actually hit.  The party was variously dazed, slowed or immobilized as the devils surrounded them.  Another thunderclap exploded among the group whereupon the heroes attempted to separate themselves from one another.  Two large Ice Devils focused on Mara but Gofin found herself taking a dirt nap. Soon after Melisana also fell but Pretis invoked Exhorted Counterattack to raise her back up.  

A Storm Devil was using a Trident to attack Pretis while Lythandar used Magic Missiles to deplete the ranks of the minions.  Alhellara healed Gofin who crawled away from the Ice Devil and ice shard she was near.  Meanwhile a lightning bolt flashed from the sky and Melisana traced the affect to the northwest corner but up maybe 30 feet in the air.  She used one of her flying abilities to move within sight and found another Storm Devil hovering in the sky (apparently the enemy was not hampered by the swirling storm mists.)  Pretis slew the first Storm Devil, and the War Devil was dispatched by the efforts of many party members even with Gofin riding along inside the Devil.  Mara slew both Ice Devils in one fell swoop as the last minion also fell.

This left Melisana alone with the Storm Devil who had flown to the ground to attack her.  The rest of the party converged, even thought they still were attacked each time the used a power or weapon by the white storm.  The last Devil fell to the ministrations of the entire group and the sat down for a rest.

Scorecard:  The group earned 5779 XP for the battle with the Devils and the Eldritch Storm.  They now have 160555 XP and need 14445 additional XP to reach 21st level.