The party stared up the cliff-face. Gregory Halfstep, the halfling who had legitimately claimed to be decended from the royal blood of the Dwarven Zollstock kingdom, indicated that this marked the halfway point of their journey to the hidden entrance to the Mountain Homes. The party needs an Adamantium egg for an experimental spell that might be able to bring the fallen back from Death's Kingdom, and suspect if they place Gregory back in power he'll see that they get one from the Dwarven royal coffers. Or they can hand him over to the ruling body as a pretender and ask for a reward - they're playing it by ear, mostly using him to find the entrance to the underworld. The party is :
Duramarth, a half-elven Fighter who owes his life to Death and can channel the powers of the negative planes to suck the life from his foes.
Edward, a half-elven Templar seeking to avenge his father against the half-demon and his cult who slayed him. He has been prophesied by a swamp hag to be the slayer of rulers.
Fiona, a Tiefling swordmage bonded to the intelligent sword Caliburn, who thinks she is a human. She has been prophesied by the same swamp hag to become a great ruler. And Gregory, the maybe-heir to the Dwarven kingdoms, is in love with her.
(The 'prophesy' is not going to be forced, but left hanging to be self-fullfilled or ignored as the players like.)
Soveliss, a wood-elf Ranger / Bounty Hunter who considers humans to be lower lifeforms. (The player was not in attendance this particular week - his character is off somewhere doing something else)
Fiona, her player forgetting momentarily she could teleport (*BLINK*), rolls 6- to climb the cliff. She gets partway up, followed closely by Gregory who is right behind her, enjoying himself, before realizing she won't make it past the next bit. She can teleport though, so she lowers herself down and starts taking in the area making a mental map so she can BLINK around. However, the gargoyle, before now invisibly pressed belly-first into the cliff, grabs Gregory and begins to fly off.
Fiona's the only one (besides Soveliss) with any kind of ranged attack, and she reaches out with her magic lasso to yank Gregory back down to the party. A 7-9 means she got him alright, but the gargoyle takes the momentum and comes crashing down into the party. A brief fight takes place - the Templar and Fighter are damage-creating monsters, and while I like to give them the opportunity to show it off they don't take much risk from anything in a straight toe-to-toe fight.
The gargoyle dead, Fiona *BLINKS* to the top of the cliff and starts pulling people up with the magic lasso, which is faster than using a rope would be. But, another 7-9 on Edward's pull, the last member of the party to be pulled up the cliff-face, sees HIM taken by a gargoyle. A mid-air engagement begins, Edward using his templar-trained tenacity to shrug off the paralyzing effects of the gargoyle's magic claws and stabbing upward.
Duramarth sighs and looks at his magnificent but currently useless axe.
Fiona reaches out with the whip to pull Edward back. The nature of the whip, however, is that it pulls human-sized and below creatures toward the caster. Larger creatures pull the caster towards them. And Edward, in full kit, with a gargoyle attached to him by rows of talons embedded in his armor, constitute a larger-than-man-sized creature. Fiona goes flying off the ledge and lands on the creature's back. Stabbing with Caliburn commences.
The gargoyle is wounded on a 7-9 by Edward and he is released to fall to the earth. A very well rolled prayer for divine intervention (a Templar class move) sees the rock of the mountain momentarily turn to mud. A very well rolled set of (reduced) damage dice see Edward crawling out of an Edward-shaped hole in the mountain unscratched. Meanwhile, Fiona's gargoyle flies above the clouds (6- on an attack roll), foiling her BLINK ability.
She jumps, a skydiver without a chute, and gets the chance to BLINK on her way to the ground. She gets sub-six and can't focus adequately with all the wind tearing up her eyes. Edward runs under her, ready to catch her. (Note that Edward has dedicated his life to hunting/killing demons and is about to risk it to try to save someone he doesn't know is part-demon! And who he has kind of been told he would eventually kill.) Duramarth grabs Gregory in an embrace, making the two of them one-and-a-half humans. Fiona gets it, and reaches out with her whip. 7-9 - Duramarth must make a defy danger STR roll to avoid releasing Gregory. Which he is likely to make, since his strength is 18.
Unless he rolls a one and a two.
Gregory, heir to the Dwarven Kingdoms, goes flying off the edge of the cliff towards the rapidly decending Fiona. Edward makes a CON check to partially absorb the blow - an 8 in total. Gregory is squashed between the two of them and somewhat jellified. 6d8 arbitrary fall damage (enough to usually-but-not-always kill anyone) gets reduced to 4d8 (still likely to be lethal) to be divided between the two however they feel appropriate (pre-rolling). Fiona and Edward both survive, coated in Halfling (royalty?) blood and guts. Duramarth hews a rough grave into the path above the cliff, but (rolling a 7) the mighty blows of his axe draw the ire of the entire gargoyle colony living on the cliff.....