(IR) The Imaginary IR

[William Ronald]

If need be, Al'Akbar is prepared to tear down the anti-magic barriers hiding Lady Shadow. (OOC: Assuming that Iuz has not killed her already. Note that claiming Vecna as an ally is pretty much considered a declaration of war against Iuz. The Whispered One is known for his dislike of Iuz.)

Aid is sent to Celene, to help the survivors. (If it was possible to detect the Spelljammer beforehand, Al'Akbar and his spellcasters will hit the spelljammer to bounce it away from Oerth. Kind of like altering the trajectory of a billiard ball with another billiard ball.)

The children, elderly, and refugees in the Baklunish Empire and a small protective force make their way to Ginsei, homeworld of the Greyspace Alliance.

OOC:

I was in chat with Sollir, and decided to set up more IR chats for this weekend.

There will be two scheduled IR chats this weekend. The first will be at Saturday 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time ( 2 A.M. Greenwich Meridian Time) and on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (8 p.m. GMT). Several of the players will be there, so it will be a great chance to learn more about the game.

 

[Rikandur Azebol]

If need be, Al'Akbar is prepared to tear down the anti-magic barriers hiding Lady Shadow. (OOC: Assuming that Iuz has not killed her already. Note that claiming Vecna as an ally is pretty much considered a declaration of war against Iuz. The Whispered One is known for his dislike of Iuz.)

Aid is sent to Celene, to help the survivors. (If it was possible to detect the Spelljammer beforehand, Al'Akbar and his spellcasters will hit the spelljammer to bounce it away from Oerth. Kind of like altering the trajectory of a billiard ball with another billiard ball.)

OOC:
Unfortunately I would be unable to attend on Saturday meeting, it will be around 2 a.m. in Sunday so I wouldn't be too comunicative anyway. :\

As for Sunday meeting, I don't know ... I will be quite busy. Sorry guys if I wouldn't show up.

Al'Akbar could easily find that what remained of Lady Shadow. And those of Dark Drow who were captured. With great aid of Black Elves who were sickened beyond endurance with megalomaniac females.

Those are now zombies working themselves to "death" in working camps of Empi ... echem, United Socialistic States of Iuz. Their souls sacrificed to Iuz ... who is strangely don't present. Only sign of his existence is that he still give spells to those praying in his name and dream image that shielded some of Celene from destruction. Dream Image of Iuz, wich is easy to spot with anyone who know something about magic, is currently dying. I'm not hurrying anyone, demons are known for their vitality ... it may take him several days ti finally die.

Edena, I'm not claiming that all Dark Drow were captured. It would be impossibility ... They could finish Final Resolution as they please. And Pinhead might show up to collect Lady Shadow's soul. If Iuz will be that nice to choke it up first.

And for Lifeproof thinge, You are right. But being Epic Assassin, Grummok surely put up Antimagic Field first.

IC:
Many sacrifices were made to Iuz this day. Thousands of traitorous Drow were murdered ritually along with their friends, families and pets on His bloodstained altars. Free People of USSI enjoyed this celebration and strike against greatest imperialistic tyranical swine, Vecna.

Word was spread wide and far, that this is fate of all who follow Vecna, arch enemy of Free Peoples of Unitet Socialistic States of Iuz.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

There is astonishment among all the elves, in Aliador and the Lendore Isles (not to mention Celene) at what is happening, but the truth is hardly deniable when the evidence is right before their eyes: Iuz has become a de-facto ally.
They don't know what to make of Iuz. He killed many of them with the Howling Death. Now, he just saved the Queen and many other elves in Celene. They do not understand what is going on here.

The elves do not know Iuz is sacrificing Lady Shadow. If they did, however, they would be grateful to him for stopping her. (More than even they know, considering what she was about to do. Iuz just saved millions of lives, elven and otherwise, by stopping her.)

Thanks to the efforts of Al'Akbar, many others, and ... Iuz ... the Dark Drow are finally halted, and effectively cease to exist as a people.

-

The Box of Lament falls into the hands of Iuzs' minions.

Aliadorian clerics resurrect Lord Leathnor, and many other high mages and magistresses slain by the Apparition, Howling Death, and other afflictions Aliador was hit with.
Aliador states that when it obtains 10th level magic, it will see that all those slain by the recent afflictions to their county are returned to life, and to their people and families.
Aliador also states it will resurrect slain Celene. Until it obtains 10th level magic, however, it can do little more than offer refuge to the surviving elves from that nation.

Aliador, the Lendores, Keoland, Veluna, Furyondy, and all the nations affiliated with them issue a joint statement:

Anyone else caught hurling Dwarven Mountainjammers into one of their countries will be attacked by all of them.
It just will not do, say they, for Death From Above to hurl down upon the peoples of Oerth.

 

[Endur]

To EDENA:

The guards at Greysmare fortress are slow to answer the door, and there are many locks to be unclicked, but they eventually admit the youth after they hear he wants to talk to Fionvar the Rude.

None of the guards notice anything unusual about the visitor. They inquire of him about the weather outside and how the roads were. One of the guards, with a rather large book, asks, "Edena, you say? Representing who?" and records the answer in the book.

Regardless of the answer, one of the guards lead Edena to Fionvar's "court."

A laughing group of dwarves sit around a table, eating and drinking.

The guard escorting Edena announces Edena (and gives the answer as to whoever Edena stated he represented). The eating and drinking dwarves totally ignored the guard's announcement, and the laughter gets louder.

The guard walks up to the table, shoves one dwarf to the left, shoves a second dwarf to the right, and then turns to Edena, and says, "your place at the bench". The guard turns to leave.


p.s. I'm quite aware this is imaginary. I purposefully picked Fionvar the Rude after other people picked various Gods.

p.s.s. Highly unlikely that anyone teleported aboard a Dwarven Spelljammer. Dwarves really like the Forbiddance spell and similar magics.

 

[Rikandur Azebol]

There is astonishment among all the elves, in Aliador and the Lendore Isles (not to mention Celene) at what is happening, but the truth is hardly deniable when the evidence is right before their eyes: Iuz has become a de-facto ally.
They don't know what to make of Iuz. He killed many of them with the Howling Death. Now, he just saved the Queen and many other elves in Celene. They do not understand what is going on here.

OOC:
I have plans for "real" IR considering Queen Yolanda and Iuz as married couple.
And elves can easily detect why so many of them died and are dying on Howling Death.
Because Alaidores attacked Empire, none than less. I advice killing all infected with this nasty disease/curse before this affliction spread further. Unless elves are ready to spend loong time in 24h/full week care of those infected, isolating them first from those still healthy. Save DC for catching it is only 15, so most more powerfule elves are almost safe from it. And 10 lvl magic will surely heal it.

Keep in mind that Celene elves aren't enemies of Iuz, they simply didn't exchanged any direct blows. And Knights of the Hart were extremly discreet.

Aliador elves ... aren't in such confortable situation, First Maid died because of their treason. They attacked unprovoked Empire, and slaughtered Dorakaa's citizens. even if it was very short siege, it caused casaulties on both sides ... And C-E people of USSI are currently very, very upset with Aliador elves. Their prayers to Iuz are filled with hate and wishes for vengance.

And, do You remember what I had written about resolution of Deific Duel in "real" IR ? Option that is humilating to Iuz came into work ... but is not Dark Drow who captured weakened demigod.

IC:
There is noone to anserv questions of elves. Black blood of demon-deity formed small pool around his upper torso, while he lays here like broken toy.

Meanwhile ... somewhere else, two figures in dark, ragged robes meet in the middle of wasteland.

"It is still confined within Sarcophagus of Dreams, disciple ?"

"Yess, Master ! But strange red fog is coming from the skyes ... feeding it. When the ritual of unbinding start, if I can ask ?"

"Soon, soon ... when the stars will move in the right positions, Our Lord will be freed with power of this dog at our disposal, and will feed on destruction of this pathetic demonlord. All hail the unspoken name of ..."

"All hail the unspoken name of ..."

Both, beggar looking, humanoids make strange gesture with left hand ... resembling spiral.

The elves do not know Iuz is sacrificing Lady Shadow. If they did, however, they would be grateful to him for stopping her. (More than even they know, considering what she was about to do. Iuz just saved millions of lives, elven and otherwise, by stopping her.)

Thanks to the efforts of Al'Akbar, many others, and ... Iuz ... the Dark Drow are finally halted, and effectively cease to exist as a people.

OOC:
And what with those who managed to escape before Iuz's minions, along with Black Elves make their purge ? Or those wo were in toilet etc. ? Don't rob us of the working of the mad genius of Dark Drow. Iuz's priesthood simply couldn't tolerate those who allied with Vecna. They are taught from early childhood that Vecna is baad.

The Box of Lament falls into the hands of Iuzs' minions.

IC:
Several mutilated bodies were found around it on next day, after someone tried to examine it closer. It was sealed off in protected vault ... for Iuz to decide in free time what to do with this nut.

Aliadorian clerics resurrect Lord Leathnor, and many other high mages and magistresses slain by the Apparition, Howling Death, and other afflictions Aliador was hit with.
Aliador states that when it obtains 10th level magic, it will see that all those slain by the recent afflictions to their county are returned to life, and to their people and families.
Aliador also states it will resurrect slain Celene. Until it obtains 10th level magic, however, it can do little more than offer refuge to the surviving elves from that nation.

OOC:
It isn't that tragic, Edena. Nature will heal itself rather "quickly". Trees will regrow, new animals will migrate etc. And elves could rebuild their cities. Time is all they need, why waste precious High Magic ?

What Yolande will do with Iuz ? She could detect, as accomplished spellcaster that this Iuz is Iuz's dream image. And this perspective should make her shrudder, Iuz is known to prefer direct approach in everything. He belives himself invicible, and his ego would dissalow him to use trick when he can do it straigh and in pleasantly bloody way.

And resurecting souless victims of Howling Death will require BIG effort. Nothing short True Ressurection, Wish or Miracle wouldn't work. For those who suffered from attention of Cenobites ... in all Hellraiser movies that I watched htere was no way of freeing victims of Cenobites from their grasp. Sorry, but unless someone will force Pinhead to do it ... only soul cloning will help. At least this is my humble opinion.

 

[William Ronald]

Al'Akbar will gladly help in hunting down the surviving Dark Drow. He calls upon those who can aid Celene to do so.

OOC: Rikandur, while I am not familiar with the Hellraiser movies, I would argue that D&D's base level of magic levels the playing field considering. Indeed, there are already ways to get rid of vile damage and other vile effects. So, I think Al'Akbar and a few deities can counter your Howling Death -- especially since all the other deities in the IR have much more experience at being deities than Iuz.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Eilistraee personally moves to heal the elves of Aliador of the Howling Death.
She also intervenes to free the souls of the Abomination from his control.
With the help of Eilistraee the demipower, and Al'Akbar and other demipowers and hero-dieties, the Elves of Aliador are able to halt the spread of the Howling Death and other diseases.
And then they begin the work of saving those who yet live, stricken with the illnesses sent by the Empire of Iuz.
Lady Gwyndilyn uses the Ring of Gaax and her other two artifacts to aid in the healing of her people.

King Arden of the League of Athyr, which has acknowledged the overlordship of Aliador, wants to know NOW where Lady Shadow is, and all his attention is bent on this. Along with the attention of the great mages of the League.
The clergy of the League are currently dealing with hundreds of thousands of wounded people from the Dark Raid, and from areas near where Veluna City once stood, who were injured but survived that disaster.
The League also has to deal with hundreds of thousands dead, and hundreds of thousands more wounded, in the Lortmils, when the earthquake from the Mountainjammer hit collapsed whole cities.
King Arden uses his artifacts to help, both in the finding of Lady Shadow and the healing of his people. He asks for help from any demipowers willing to give aid.

King Arden wants Lady Shadow NOW.
And he vows a vow of retribution upon whoever is hiding her, or helping her. He knows SOMEONE is helping her. She could not be standing up against ALL his mages and concealing her presence from their scrying.
SOMEONE out there is in league with Lady Shadow.
Arden doesn't care who it is: that someone will die. If that someone is Vecna himself, then HE will die. Arden swears it upon the hilt of his Holy Sword.

-

Lady Qwyndilyn, in a solemn ceremony, is proclaimed High Queen of Greater Aliador (Aliador, Ratik, the Theocracy of the Pale, the Lendores, what remains of Celene, and all the nations of the League of Athyr (Furyondy, Veluna, Keoland, and others)).
King Arden and Archcleric Hazen solemnly observe this ceremony, and they become Lady Gwyndilyns' advisors and stewards.

There might have been revolt and civil war in the League of Athyr prior to this, over such a matter.
Considering the havoc and chaos occurring now, though (and the complete destruction of Veluna City) nobody dares start further trouble at this time.

From now on, Greater Aliador becomes the terminology used to refer to a huge swath of land extended from the Crystalmists in the southwest to the Rakers in the northwest, anchored by the major countries of Keoland, Gran March, Veluna, Furyondy, the Theocracy of the Pale, Aliador, and Ratik.

The research into 10th level magic is now combined under the authority of Varna, formerly capital of Aliador - now capital of Greater Aliador - and proceeds with redoubled speed.

 

[Rikandur Azebol]

Al'Akbar will gladly help in hunting down the surviving Dark Drow. He calls upon those who can aid Celene to do so.

OOC: Rikandur, while I am not familiar with the Hellraiser movies, I would argue that D&D's base level of magic levels the playing field considering. Indeed, there are already ways to get rid of vile damage and other vile effects. So, I think Al'Akbar and a few deities can counter your Howling Death -- especially since all the other deities in the IR have much more experience at being deities than Iuz.

OOC:
Hellraiser movies are all about Cenobites, sorth of Kytons from D&D in my opinion, dragging souls of those who used Lamentation Box to Hell for eternal torture.
And Howling Death is simply very hard to get rid off on mass scale. I seriously doubt that anyone have these fev millions of Wish spells ready. Cure disease won't work on it, only delay death. And it is not vile, Iuz wasn't working over it with full attention. Simply ... his momma, who wanted to make for her beloved son a birthday gift, devised it in theory. And Iuz spend some time and resouces to safeguard his Godly Realm.
And all who died from it are cursed, that their souls go to Iuz. Iuz is uncousiouness and instinctively eats them. Like baby trying to get to mother's milk.

Do You think that he would make such show of himself given choice ? He must free himself before [censored] will sacrifice him to relase [censored], who will devour the world yadda, yadda. You know, world destroying fanatics are all monotematic.

Besides ... Vile damage is also very hard to heal, I doubt that Al'Akbar have that much holy sities and sufficiently hig level priests to heal it on sclae that was unleashed on Aliador. It would double troubles that Aliadores and Elistraee have with this nasty disease.

Edena, chmm ... and Queen Yolanda let her savior rot there ?
Whatever, whatever ... I just want to know if someone did anything with "Iuz" before it expire from grevious wounds. Iuz's disciples are busy spreading word of his divine ascension, blah, blah, and that he went ot heavens to prepare Well of Reincarnation.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Why you shouldn't like Drow, even if you are Iuz

The Dark Drow are not happy at Iuz, Rikandur.
He betrayed Lady Shadow. Now, Iuz can spin it as something else, but THEY see it as betrayal.
So, they proceed to send one of their own to Al'Akbar, and that Dark Drow surrenders to Al'Akbar.

THAT Dark Drow immediately tells Al'Akbar the truth: that Lady Shadow was using the city of Doraaka as her refuge, and that Iuzs' protections against scrying shielded her.

ANOTHER Dark Drow is sent to King Arden, with the same message. (Arden has her executed, but not until after he confirms the truth of the message.)

OTHER Dark Drow are sent on suicide missions to tell the truth to everyone else on Oerth and in Greyspace.
Thus, EVERYONE knows that Iuz shielded Lady Shadow (and the Dark Drow put the worst spin on the story possible, implicating Iuz in the worst way possible) and thus made her attacks possible.

-

Meanwhile, some of the remaining Dark Drow are powerful wizards, and they carry out Lady Shadows' final command:

The Dark Drow mages and magistresses look at each other, smiling, and they say:

'The Surface Dwellers insist they love the sun. They want all the sun they can get. Well we shall give them the sun! We bequeath to the Surface Dwellers the sun they so desire! We hope they enjoy their beloved sun!'

For Lady Shadow had read the Devilish Blueprints about hydrogen bombs.
She could not comprehend them, but she COULD comprehend the words 'duplicate the explosion going on in the sun' and she could comprehend 'they destroy huge areas when they detonate.' And she could view pictures.

A Gate is opened, using the 9th level Gate spell (the right version, in this case ...)
The Gate is modified using Wish spells to allow material to flow freely from one side to another as it will (and it will ... oh, it will indeed ...)
The Gate is opened with the other end INSIDE Oerths' sun.
Wishes, cast priorhand, are used to make the Gate last as long as physically possible.

Fortunately, the drow do not understand the sun well enough to open a gate to it's core, where the thermonuclear process is occurring.
Instead, the Gate opens on the superheated hydrogen within the surface, but outside the core.

The drow had intended to open this Gate in the midst of the Flanaess, but thanks to Al'Akbar those drow were killed or driven off, and their plans foiled.
But those drow way out on the remote Isle of the Phoenix, succeed in their plan.

The hydrogen in the sun, driven by unearthly pressure, spews through the Gate like the mother of all flamethrowers.
The Gate cannot withstand this force, and instantly collapses.
But ...
The Wish spells kick in, demanding the Gate remain open. It can't, but the Wishes command it to anyway.

A hole is torn in the fabric of reality, and a momentary enormous, miles wide opening is made directly connecting Oerth with it's sun. This opening lasts only an instant, then snaps shut.
In that instant, a colossal flood of superheated hydrogen enters Oerth.

The Isle of the Phoenix is instantly incinerated.
The bedrock under the Isle of the Phoenix melts, the continental plate slumping from the incredible heat, a hole melted through the tectonic cover of the world.
The atmosphere bursts into incandescent glory as a cloud of superheated gas in the tens of thousands of degrees fills thousands of cubic miles of it.

Before the cloud cools, it heats all the ocean for a hundred miles in all direction to the boiling point, then sends vast amounts of the ocean (tens of thousands of cubic miles of water) screaming skyward as steam, while the deeper waters boil furiously.
A hundred thousand cubic miles of ocean is raised in temperature to the boiling point.

By the time the hydrogen has cooled, a GIGANTIC cloud of superheated steam has filled a hundred thousand square miles of Oerths' atmosphere, from the surface to well above the mesosphere.
Below this cloud, a fourty thousand square mile area of ocean continues to boil, right down to the bottom five miles down.

The drow casting the Gate are all killed in this catastrophe. They don't care. They are guaranteed Lolths' good will for this.

-

The superheated steam cloud begins to spread and dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere of Oerth.
The boiling ocean waters around the magma plume that was once the Isle of the Phoenix begin to merge with the surrounding waters, cooling as they do, but heating up those waters.
Rapidly, superheated ocean currents begin to form, while above them the atmosphere is filled with roiling, superheated vapor.

Unless someone does something, whatever season it was somewhere on Oerth, it will soon be summer.
It will be summer from Polaria to Hyperboria, from Anakeris to Aquaria, from Burundi to the Thillronian Peninsula.
It will be a summer the likes of which Oerth has never known.

Average temperatures will hover over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity will be near 100%.
And it will rain, perpetually rain, endlessly rain, as the atmosphere tries and tries to balance out the impossible amount of heat interjected within it.
Hurricanes with winds beyond imagination will hit all the coastlines. Waves hundreds of feet high will come with these hurricanes.
Every snowpack, glacier, and icecap on Oerth will melt. The level of the oceans will rise many hundreds of feet through snowmelt and thermal expansion.

And this summer will go on for years, many many years, without relent, without mercy, without a single pause, as the overheated atmosphere and the overheated oceans attempt to mitigate the colossal overheating they themselves have been subjected to.

Indeed, the Surface Dwellers wanted the sun.

The drow would say the Surface Dwellers got their wish.
The drow would say: Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. Or, in your case, you are getting it. Get it?

-

There is no immediate effect on the Flanaess or other continents from the destruction of the Isle of the Phoenix and the injection of heat into the oceans and atmosphere.
A great light is seen in the east from Oerik, and in the north from Aquaria.

The destruction of the Isle of the Phoenix and the end of all ocean life around it cannot be immediately reversed.
But the long term effects could be reversed. Assuming the demipowers of Oerth do something immediately to mitigate it.

But of course ... Iuz is busy wandering, Eilistraee is overwhelmed trying to stop a complete kill off of the elves by the Howling Death Iuz sent, Al'Akbar and the Shining Lady alone cannot stop the long term effects of the drow handiwork, and Hachiman, Zagyg, and others aren't helping.

Hmmm ... I must wonder if the demipowers of Oerth will choose to stop their feuding, and save their world?
Or they will remain divided, and let the Great Summer come upon them?

I CAN speak for Arden, King of Keoland.
Informed of Iuzs' collaboration with Lady Shadow, his response is:

KILL Iuz first.
ALL other things second.

But, of course, he is a paladin ... and he doesn't know, couldn't know, what has happened and just what it means for him and his people.

 

[Paxus Asclepius]

The Wolf God suggests opening a gateway to the Para-Elemental Plane of Ice. This is a fairly off-handed suggestion, as the matter is of relatively little concern to him; his people live mostly within mountains far too tall and broad to be affected by flooding or hurricanes, and the Pomarj is presently being evacuated to higher ground.

No, not the people of the Pomarj. The entire Pomarj peninsula has been cut free from the rest of the continental shelf, and is being dragged uphill by legions of golems and undead.