Back from Texas! My work went really well, but the coolest thing was that I got a chance to hang out with “~D” of Talon Comics and buy out half his stock of gaming books. Consider this my gratuitous plug for him; if you need gaming stuff mail order, he’s absolutely the guy to get it from. Sorry I didn’t post before I left, but the server was hiccupping when I tried, and I was already late leaving for the airport.
So where were we?
The sea elf fighter swings his weapon at Malachite, and Shara leaps at her chance. Her
telekinesis seizes his wrist; he tries to resist, but is inexorably flung forwards out of the
anti-magic field. Both Malachite and Mara slash at him as he flies past them towards the seagulls.
The air elemental that Nolin had just
summoned as support for Tao can’t reach the seagulls in time, so Nolin reaches inside himself and calls on the power of the phoenix. As he does so, a flaming pillar of holy energy slams down like a juggernaut, badly frying both
polymorphed rust monsters and the sea elf. TomTom follows this up with a
greater biocurrent arcing from one creature to the next, and both seagulls transform back into rust monsters as the energy kills them. The sea elf isn’t looking especially good either, bleeding and smoking as he struggles against the telekinetic force. Malachite and Mara both turn on him, and he drops into the shallow water, dead once again. Whether he goes to the elven or the lizardfolk heaven, no one is sure.
Unfortunately, Nolin was summoning when he should have been worrying about the green slime eating into his chest. He takes six points of constitution damage, ensuring that his next action will be setting his entire body on fire in an attempt to burn away the slime.
TomTom uses his hasted action to
dimension slide to the other side of the
field, right next to Tao and Nolin’s summoned elemental. Tao has a moment of surprise as she tries to figure out if the invisible creature next to her is her friend or not, but the mental link helps immensely, and she hammers her sword into the kobold. He screams, and spins to try and defend himself. The halfling and minotaur turn as well, but Tao gets six attacks with her weapons, and the kobold isn’t well armored. The results is messy, and the tide of battle turns.
As the halfling and the bullywug both drop, Nolin begins to taunt the half-orc barbarian. Nolin’s voice is rough due to the constitution damage, but he calls the half-orc every name in the book, inventing amazingly inventive insults about his parentage and just-killed mate. Frothing with anger, the barbarian snaps and charges out of the
anti-magic field at Nolin. Unfortunately, he takes three steps – and vanishes completely. The Defenders are mystified.
On her way to attacking the sea elf wizard, Tao steps forward and grabs the older woman in an iron grip. With a casual twist of her body, Tao flings the woman behind her, directly into the vaporous arms of Nolin's air elemental. Tao then steps forward and attacks the sea elf wizard, blades cutting above and below the baby he is carrying. Within seconds she kills the elf and leaves the baby unharmed, almost cutting the wizard in two despite non-magical weapons.
Trapped by the air elemental, the older woman watches her companion cut down, and she finally decides enough is enough, what with five members of her group dead or missing. Ignoring the elemental as best she can, she musters her concentration and casts a spell. She - and the baby strapped to her chest - vanish completely.
The rest of the Dockside Royals panic. The minotaur and the doppelganger both rush forward to where the minotaur went and likewise disappear, taking the third baby with them. The rat psion is already dead, killed by Kiri and Shara, and the Defenders realize that the only creatures left alive are their allies. “Where did they disappear to?” asks Malachite.
Shara thinks to the group, “Be careful where you stand! There must be a
teleport circle inscribed under the water there, perhaps meant as a trap for us. We’re water walking, so we didn’t set it off.”
“A
teleport circle? Isn’t that a little… powerful?” asks Velendo, but Shara just shrugs. Velendo continues, “We’ve got to follow them, now! Otherwise they’ll just try this again.” Quickly healing those who need it most, Velendo and the others look down at the unremarkable patch of watery ground.
Tao takes off her
slippers of water walking. “Well, lets hope they don’t have a trap set!” she says, and takes a step forward… and disappears. Still linked to the group mentally, her first thought is, “
Glub.. auggh.. underwater! Can’t breath!”
To be continued….
Tomorrow! A guest player, a deadly underwater trap, giant grappled lobster-things, and the amazing iron missile!