Bloodbath

It was not a good night to be a follower of Helm or Khelemvor in Waterdeep. Or, as it turned out, to be a member of the FireKnives. While the vast bulk of most of our gaming sessions are non-combat in nature (Craig much prefers a more cerebral campaign, which is why I play in one of his games), tonight was a four hour long combat session. The final bodycount has yet to be determined, but some of the facts I have already. The Helmite Temple in Waterdeep was decimated, with only the High Cleric surviving... if you can call it that. He's currently a raging madman, the slaughter of his fellow followers at the hands of the FireKnives having driven him at least temporarily around the bend. Likewise, the Khelemvorite Temple has -also- been decimated (also by the FireKnives) with but a single survivor: the head Doomguide. In the process, the entire temple and several of the surrounding shops and warehouses were utterly destroyed in the sinkhole (dig spell) and multiple fireballs unleashed by the gold elf mage in our party ... as -HE- went 'round the bend from rage and grief. Said mage, Asmyerandar, has been remanded into Khelben the Blackstaff's custody... whether we like it or not. The sixteen known FireKnives, including their leader Alimon, now lie dead at the hands of my party. Our priestess, a female Helmite by the name of Indira (from another temple), lies dead after falling in combat against the FireKnives. Her body is currently in repose at the Temple of Mystra Timely intervention (after the battle was over) by the priestesses of Mystra are all that saved Slainé (female halfling rogue), Asmyerandar (male gold elf mage mentioned above), and Andarial (female human bard, me) from the poisons the FireKnives used before we finally crushed them Charsi, our female moon elf ranger (and Megan's character), seems to be developing a definite case of disobeying directo orders from the constabulatory forces of Waterdeep... and may find herself arrested. *grumbles* Why she wants to play a ranger like a thief is beyond me, but it's typical of the types of problems to be had in dealings with her. Kandor, originally a 'standard' human fighter female and recently become a paladin of Khelemvor, is tending to Slainé... who's devastated and lost at the fall of her oldest and closest friend, Indira. Lokkard, Kandor's brother, is with them to keep watch, as they're rather distracted at the moment. With the fall of Indira, Andarial has been shoehorned into de-facto leader of what's left of our party. She's currently working with the Constabulatory officials to try and make sense of the carnage that erupted and devasted two entire temples.

*looks that over and sighs* Losing our mage hurts badly. Losing our cleric is much worse. Considering that we were using Waterdeep as an initial staging area for an attempt to brink down the lich Larlock, this doesn't bode well at -all-; we've lost our only divine caster and the better of our arcane casters. My bard has some arcane spell abilities, but she's not a -mage-... and without someone with undead turning, we're so boned it's not even funny. The paladin in the group only turns undead as a level 4 cleric... the priestess that we lost was level 7, and those three levels are a -vast- difference in power. The priestess was also the only one besides my bard with any sense of tactics. :(