Stay of Execution, Part 4

Nyridius’ splitting headaches continue.  Through the pain, he has a vision: he is inside Windsor’s body, looking through his eyes.  Surrounding him, he sees the ruins of the Collective.  Destroyed robots litter the area.  Windsor feels confident that the only organized, disciplined group that could threaten his power is vanquished.  He begins to head south.  Nyridius snaps back to reality.

The party nears the Big Ass Tree, but first, they must cross the river.  A helpful elderly couple advises them to take caution, as they may get confused and disoriented.  When they approach the river crossing, they see a woman made of rocks, who calls out to Little Rock.  Little Rock immediately senses something is wrong.  The woman knows his name, and tells him that she transformed herself into rocks so that they could be together forever.  She suggests that they kill his fleshy friends and start their new lives together.  That’s when Little Rock realizes that the woman is Azkadelia, who apparently survived the explosion but went cray-cray.

Tao Ren initiates combat on his behalf by firing his shuriken-gun at Azkadelia’s main enforcer, a hulking gargoyle.  The party moves into position, but Azkadelia makes things difficult by completely re-arranging the local map.  Clearly, she’s gone off the deep end, and her gravity-manipulating powers allow her to disassemble and reassemble the local environment as she pleases.  Even worse, she’s making a face at Little Rock that resembles “Over Attached Girlfriend.” 

Two additional statues join the fray, shooting ebony beams of energy at the adventurers.  When hit, the beams partly transform the party into statues of themselves, paralyzing various limbs. 

Although they outnumber the enemies, no one on the team can manage to land any hits.  Hand Banana tries to make a timely escape by jumping in a nearby rowboat, but Azkadelia re-orients the map so the terrifying gargoyle is right next to him.  The gargoyle is swift for his size, and severely injures everyone on the team with powerful claw swipes.

Drizzle realizes that she can do more damage to stone enemies with her special ranged attack: a bubble pipe that blows acidic bubbles.  Using this, she defeats one of the statues.  Tao Ren smashes another to bits with a swift strike.  Even outnumbered 6-to-2, though, Azkadelia and the gargoyle make formidable enemies.    Frustrations abound; just as the players run up to an enemy, the earth shifts and they find themselves on the other end of the map.  The gargoyle beats Little Rock to a pulp and eviscerates Tao Ren (although Tao Ren does just fine thanks to a new mutation of redundant organs).  Nyridius and Fitzgerald try to assist, but whiff most of their attacks.

After a protracted slugfest, the team defeats the stone foes.  With the path now clear, the party approaches the Big Ass Tree.