The Gaming Den

...can I use my other hand?

Taotie, with the amulet wrapped around his arm, punches at the horrible frog-snake slime abomination.

The tentacled snake-like spawn thrashes about in agitation, crushing the remaining undead to powdered bone.

Once more, Kamoses invokes his deadly power, and now his (left) hand goes black. It touches it to the slimy scales of the beast, but again it seems to have no effect.

Velasco's blade continues to lop off bits of the small tentacles, doing some damage.

Taotie strikes the spawn's side; as the Elder Sign wrapped around his wrist nears, it glows, and the creature almost seems to flinch away as the blow strikes - the sign brushes the dark scales, leaving a black, burning welt.

Neb slithers forward, hissing a challenge, but finds it difficult to grapple with the larger creature.

Isandro, standing apart from the carnage for the moment, notices that in destroying the skeletons and scattering their bones, the hand of Karanthes - still bearing his Ibis-stick - has come to rest against the eastern wall not far from where he stands.

The punching's working, so Taotie continues to punch it!
(If there's any allies I can flank with I'll do that too)

Neb. doubles down on attempting to grapple (If the monster is actually Colossal or larger then Neb. tries to bite instead). His snake gets in on the act as well, with the intention of one or both helping set up flanking.

Velasco will move into a flanking position if he isn't already in one and continue attacking with his sword and dagger.

Kam will take the eyed-pentacle amulet from his neck attempt to channel his touch through it.

Isandro shouts "Kamoses! The staff of Ibis!" and gestures with his sword before charging the beast.

The battle now is a full melee, as you close in on the horror from every side. Isandro and Velasco's blades flash in the light of the lamps, spilling black ichor onto the floorstones; The Elder Signs on Taotie and Kamoses' amulets flash and burn as they contact the strange, scaled flesh, which seems to melt and bubble at their touch; and Neb continues to try and grapple the tentacled beast.

With an insensate howl, the creature let's loose with a furious, spastic attack, tentacles forming and unforming seemingly at random, difficult to defend against - striking Taotie, Kamoses, Isandro, and Velasco with dire wounds (-10 hit points each), though Neb manages to slither out of harms way of the assault.

With his lat bit of strength, Kamoses refleixvely looses his Defensive Blast, those near him will soon be in Set's clutches anyway, and a priest of Set is carefully taught to care for nothing but his own power.

There's a lot of turn over in the priest hood.

24d6 cold damage in a 10' radius.

Assuming Neb started/got outside the defensive blast radius in time, or didn't die from the resultant cold damage, then he ends his snakeshift, prostrates himself, and starts praising Tsatha as eloquently as knowledge checks allow him, whilst crawling towards wherever he dropped his staff along the stairs. While making said obeisance he'll be mentally beseeching Ishiti to ignore his lip-service, and ready herself to grant unto him a boon.

(Neb is not outside the defensive blast radius.)

(then ignore the previous)

No burst of light or crack of thunder accompanies the discharge, and yet its effects are sudden and terrible. At once Kamoses' companions fall down, their bodies frozen, the creeping chill shocking them to their core, and as they lay on the earth the darkness seems to close in on them at last; the nearest lamps are extinguished, the flame seemingly sucked out of them.

As for the strange spawn, it too is frozen as a statue...and as Kamoses stands there, and breathes heavily, he hears as much as sees the cracks that suddenly form on its skin, the pieces that break off and strike the cold stone. Moments pass, and more pieces break off...and Kamoses' eyes narrow as the black statue seems to rock unexpectedly, and the cracks continue to spread across its surface, and finally the great serpentine neck with that terrible, toad-like head falls off, and from the stump emerges a grasping, seeking human hand...

Kamoses draws his dagger with one hand and offers the other, ready to pull the person into the blade if, when, it is necessary.

The blind, grasping hand clings to your own, and using it as an anchor flexes; there is a great crack, and finally the naked form of Katsetshutset lurches free from the ruin of the spawn, eyes wide, pupils dilated, gasping great lungfuls of air. He stares about unseeing, mumbling to himself and shivering in the cold and the dark.

Kamoses throws him to the ground, placing a foot on his chest and holding the knife point to his throat. "Can you conjure any reason I shouldn't end this now?"

The wide-eyed Stygian continues to sputter and shiver, his eyes staring past Kamoses. He seems to be trying to whisper something.

Kamoses pushes the dagger down and stabs it through the treacherous sorcerer's larynx until the tip finds his spine and leans on it to sever the disks.

With a sputter, and a gurgle, the Stygian sorcerer dies. Kamoses will be forever haunted by the strange smile on his face in those last moments.

The battle done, there is little left but to see to the dead and the wounded. From the shadows comes a line of ghoulish dog-skulled priests, who haul away the bones of soldiers and skeletons, were-women and Karanthes, even the black fragments of the spawn, which begin to melt into a viscous goo as they thaw. Neb's corpse is carried away in state, and is buried with the full honors of a Stygian priest.

Kamoses can do little but keep out of their way, but within the hour there is the sound of a tumbling stones, and sunlight streams in from the top of the stairs - followers of Ibis working to clear the entranceway, temple acolytes coming down with water, unguents, potions, and healing herbs and incense.

On the plain, Kamoses finds Karlus seated atop a mound of bodies like a makeshift thrown, their severed heads piled up at his feat. Bloody and exhausted, none of the Ibis-followers have dared come near him. The others recover, in time. There is gold, as Karanthes promised, and sullen camels to haul it.

Isandro and Velasco speak of a ship of their own, to sail the great Western sea and prey on the shipping, and some say they were last seen sailing for strange lands over the horizon, or else died in the flesh-pits of Shadazar at a ripe old age, their hearts finally giving out as their pleasured six whores at once.

Taotieh cast his gaze frequently back east, though the Ibis-priests stare at the sigils in his skin and seem worried, haunting his every move. He too disappears into legend, though some say they strive to keep track of him still.

Kamoses and Neb in time return to Kheshatta. The priesthood of Set is much changed by the surprising rise and more surprising absence of Katemshetsut, but the two roguish priests present the staff of Ibis and claim their part in the destruction of Karanthes, earning them much regard. Kamoses is given Katetsetshut's old tower and all the magics therein, and in time he joins the Black Circle.

Karlus became a reaver and slaver, and with his gold leader of his own army of mercenaries, finally carving out a kingdom of his own to the north, far from Stygia. Some claim that a pale giant of a woman accompanies him.

...and beneath the cracked stones, the blood of Katsetshut slowly drips down to dampen the flesh of a long-sleeping horror. But that is not the tale of these heroes, for they have finally come to THE END.