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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8656032" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 58: ZARBUGAK, MASTER OF MADNESS AND UNTAMER OF THE WILDS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 19/psychic warrior 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 20</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 2 June 2022</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>It had been an unnerving day, trudging deeper and deeper into the jungle toward the middle of the island as per the directions of Cramer's <em>find the path</em> spell, awaiting to be attacked by the local denizens (many of whom had been warped by chaos energy) - but at least the magic in the tents worked fine, as both Cramer and Marlo affirmed after closely examining them with <em>detect magic</em> spells. Thus, the five adventurers each set up their tent in a close circle and went to sleep. They didn't bother with a guard once it became apparent the local wildlife - and this included many of the plants - didn't like venturing close to the tents, which gave off a very not-friendly-to-chaos vibe most of the chaos-infused creatures could pick up, even if only subconsciously. Plus, Marlo allowed her toad familiar Truffles to sit at the flap of her tent and look out, keeping a wary eye out for danger while she slept. Truffles was already infused with chaos energy directly from the Far Realm, as evidenced by the numerous tentacles growing out from all over his amphibious body. Marlo repeated a warning to her toad not to wander too close to Jhasspok's tent and went readily to sleep, confident that Truffles would alert her to any danger.</p><p></p><p>But danger came anyway, easily bypassing Truffles. One moment Marlo was sleeping in her tent and the next she was wide awake, aware of a strange presence there in the canvas structure with her. Sure enough, there was an illithid looming over her. Marlo scrambled to her feet, trying to get away before the mind flayer could strike, but that was too much to hope for: the illithid bent over her as she tried getting to her feet and its four octopoid tentacles slapped at her head, three of them getting a good grip and pulling her in to allow the mind flayer to try to bite through her skull.</p><p></p><p>Khari woke to a similar sense of unfamiliarity and attacked the form standing over him, grabbing up his dwarven warhammer and striking the illithid as it bent over him, getting ready to feed. Cramer did likewise, striking out with his mace that he had cuddled with in his blanket as if it were a stuffed bear and hitting the mind flayer before it could get a good grip on his skull. Utred also fought his own mind flayer, although he didn't even bother with any weapons (although he had a small arsenal at his disposal, courtesy of his extradimensional <em>weapon locker</em>), opting instead to use his mighty thews to try to pin the illithid. Jhasspok grabbed up his trusty battleaxe when he felt a presence bending over him and a tentacle brushed the top of his head.</p><p></p><p>Marlo was the first to slay her attacker, instinctively striking out with one of her most powerful spells, <em>wail of the banshee</em>, without first considering the nearness of the other tents. As the illithid's body crumpled lifelessly to the floor of the tent the sorceress had a thought, far too late, about the safety of her friends; how foolish would it be for them to be unable to complete their mission because she had accidentally slain them after fighting back after being woken from a deep sleep?</p><p></p><p>Khari kept up the barrage with his dwarven warhammer, keeping the mind flayer reeling and in too much pain to concentrate on getting a good grip on the dwarven fighter's head. The illithid made a feint and tried to get in close but Khari was too fast for him, bringing the hard head of his weapon crashing into the side of the mind flayer's own noggin, crushing it to a pulp. Cramer was having a bit less success fighting off his own foe with his mace, but at least he had thus far prevented it from eating his brain - the little gnome already knew far too well what <em>that</em> felt like and had no desire to repeat the experience! Utred soon realized the foolishness of wrestling with a creature that <em>wanted</em> to get in close to him for a brain-eating attack and hurled the mind flayer away from him, giving him enough time to grab up his trusty greataxe. His foe didn't last long after he got that blade in his hand, for he was ruthlessly efficient with it and managed to carve up his foe in no time flat. Jhasspok did likewise with his own battleaxe and the illithid who had attacked him died before he'd gotten a chance to taste a lizardfolk brain (which was probably for the best, as he'd have no doubt been disappointed in both the taste and the portion size). And Cramer finally clued in to having a bevy of combat spells at the ready, finishing off his foe with a <em>destruction</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>And then, their mind flayer foes defeated, each hero rolled over and fell into a deeper sleep, for the "attacks" had occurred in their individual dreamscapes, as Zarbugak had sent mental images to probe the foes he sensed were heading his way, with intent to undo all of his Master's plans. He had realized the attempts to attack them in their sleep would probably not be enough to slay them, but he had at least gathered some valuable data on their combat strategies and, in the case of the two spellcasters, an idea of a few of their most powerful spells.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, as the heroes grabbed a quick breakfast from their dried stores and Cramer cast the first of the day's <em>magic circle against chaos</em> spells upon them so they could safely fold up their tents and resume their journey, they compared notes about the weird dreams they'd had. As each described their particular mind flayer foe, it became apparent they'd each dreamed of the same individual, for details of its robes were identical in each case. "That's just weird," Khari commented. Then Cramer cast the first <em>find the path</em> spell of the day and they were off again.</p><p></p><p>"We're nearly there," the little gnome told the others from his perch upon Utred's backpack. "It's probably only an hour or two before we get to the Writhing Gate." Jhasspok was in the lead, cutting through vines with his battleaxe and clearing the path when it became too overgrown for easy passage. But two hours or so later, they group found themselves at the edge of a crater with the rift to the Far Realm clearly visible over the rim. It hung in the middle of the air, at the center of the Writhing Gate - and this one had its tentacles still out instead of lying motionlessly on the ground; these were just as motionless but flung out from the rift as if having been blown by a strong wind and then petrified in place. There were also only five tentacles instead of the normal ten; Cramer recalled this was the configuration of the Writhing Gate when they had used it to <em>teleport</em> to the surface during their raids on behalf of their drow masters.</p><p></p><p>Crawling over to the crater's rim on their bellies for reconnaissance, they saw the crater's structure was ever-shifting, sometimes looking like normal dirt, other times like a pile of gravel or like broken-up chunks of granite, or marble, or limestone. Standing in the middle of the Writhing Gate, directly below the rift, stood an enormous mind flayer easily at least half again as large as the standard model, this one breaking apart into chunks and being reconfigured like the mindbender chuul and octopus the group had fought in the ocean on their way to the Unchartable Island. It was like looking at the ulitharid through a kaleidoscope. On either side of the illithid stood a pair of creatures, obviously guardians from the Far Realm of a sort the group had encountered before in Grover's Comb, the site of another rift from the dimension of madness: one had a lupine body and the other that of a great bear, but both had the same kaleidoscopic form-shifting that would have caused a great deal of confusion and headaches to the heroes had they not been protected from such effects by their <em>magic circle against chaos</em> spells. Their bodies seemed to contain entire swirling galaxies inside of them, glittering stars showing as pinpoints of light.</p><p></p><p>Crawling back away from the crater, the spellcasters started casting their pre-combat spells. Marlo used her magic staff to cast a <em>mass enlarge person</em> spell, doubling everyone's size. She then covered everyone in a <em>stoneskin</em> spell and a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell. Cramer cast a <em>shield of law</em> spell on everyone, then buffed himself up with <em>righteous might</em>, <em>divine power</em>, and <em>spell turning</em> spells.</p><p></p><p>Utred activated his <em>winged boots </em>and dashed forward, the first to enter the fray - Cramer had by that time decided not to remain on his standard perch upon the dwarven barbarian's backpack. He went straight for the lupine figure but before he could get within reach the creature's muzzle opened wide and a <em>cold energy bolt</em> erupted from his mouth, impacting on the dwarf's body - and then shattering to ice crystals as it failed to overcome the spell resistance covering Utred as a result of the <em>shield of law</em> spell Cramer had cast upon him. But the Zarbugak targeted the incoming dwarf, blasting him with his powerful mind blast. Unlike the mind blasts he'd experienced before, though, Utred realized this one was different: while in the past, illithids seemed to send out waves of mental energy that stunned its victims into motionlessness, this one actively worked on breaking down the body, hammering into him like a wall of force. Utred imagined it was rather like being hit by a <em>spiritual weapon</em> or <em>blade barrier</em> spell, only one capable of striking every facing surface on the victim's body all at once. However, he merely grunted at the assault and continued his attack upon the Far Realm wolf, sending his greataxe slicing through the side of the creature's head.</p><p></p><p>At the same time, Khari charged forward towards the Far Realm bear, swinging his <em>earthglide warhammer</em> into the great bruin's head, accepting a retaliatory swipe from its massive paw as an acceptable consequence. But then Marlo cast an <em>incendiary cloud</em> spell that completely encompassed the ulitharid and the back half of the bruin. Jhasspok had been running forward to attack Zarbugak but, seeing his foe encompassed in the cloud of smoke and burning embers (or, more appropriately, <em>not</em> seeing him), he altered course and attacked the front half of the Far Realm bear instead. Using the power of his <em>tail-band of the raptor</em>, he went in with a blur of slashing battleaxe strikes and snapping teeth that cut the bear to ribbons. Cramer cast a <em>destruction</em> spell at the Far Realm wolf and obliterated it instantly, its fractal body seeming to fold up into itself like a work of origami until it was no more. The gnome cleric then immediately followed up with a <em>quickened flame strike</em>; not being able to see Zarbugak's actual location but believing him to still be within the <em>incendiary cloud</em>, he dropped his fiery spell down upon on the cloud of burning embers.</p><p></p><p>Parts of his hindquarters on fire, the Far Realm bear moved out of the <em>incendiary cloud</em> and shot an <em>electrical energy bolt</em> at both Jhasspok and Khari, who were conveniently lined up. However, they too were protected by the <em>shield of law</em> spell cast by Cramer and the electrical blast fizzled against their spell resistance.</p><p></p><p>Utred recalled where he had last seen Zarbugak and as he had been towards the outer edge of the <em>incendiary cloud</em>, the dwarf stabbed into the dark cloud with his <em>dimensional branding iron</em>, connecting with the ulitharid's body and preventing him from activating any teleportation magic. The ulitharid retaliated with a wide-beamed mind blast which encompassed all of the group save Marlo, who had stayed further back and was thus out of reach. The blast elicited howls of pain from the heroes but it failed to take any of them out and, knowing the importance of winning this battle, they fought on.</p><p></p><p>Khari continued his attacks upon the Far Realm bear, swinging his warhammer for all he was worth and taking comfort in the fact the bear was looking visibly weakened. Marlo continued bringing the fight to Zarbugak, casting a <em>meteor swarm</em> spell into the <em>incendiary cloud</em> - she was unable to target the meteors directly at her foe so she spread them out in a diamond pattern and hoped for the best. Unseen by her, one of the meteors struck Zarbugak, but he was encompassed in the explosion effects of all four.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok slew the lupine creature with his battleaxe and it too folded up into impossible directions, finally disappearing from view altogether in death. That left only Zarbugak himself and he was still hidden within the burning cloud, so Cramer targeted the whole area with a <em>mass serious wounds</em> spell into the area, confident he'd get the ulitharid that way. But then Utred finished him off by pulling the remains of the three <em>necklaces of fireballs</em> he'd purchased back in Greenvale, and from which he'd expended only a few beads prior in fighting off the swarms of mutant bees that had formed the creature they'd dubbed the Bee-hemoth. He tossed them in an overhead arc that had them falling into the very center of the <em>incendiary cloud</em>, where the explosion to follow would be sure to impact Zarbugak wherever he was within the burning vapors.</p><p></p><p>As the necklaces hit the burning embers and caused a chain-reaction explosion, a mental cry of pain and anguish speared the minds of all five heroes as the biggest explosion they'd ever felt erupted from within the cloud. The instant severing of the mental cry was a good indicator that the ulitharid had been slain by the blast; when the <em>incendiary cloud</em> ran its course and dissipated they saw there was nothing left of Zarbugak - or, indeed, of the nearest Writhing Gate tentacle that had been beside him - but a burned smear of ashes on the ever-shifting ground.</p><p></p><p>"Everybody okay?" Marlo asked as the heroes picked themselves up from the ground where they'd been thrown by the blast. They all acknowledged they were fine, and then the whoops of laughter began as they realized they had just taken out the guardians of the last remaining Writhing Gate. Utred unwrapped the <em>anti-magic</em> cloth protecting the Null Axe and used it to hold its shaft as he started swinging the weapon at the roots of the remaining tentacles. As each was severed, the stump fell through the ground and the hole sealed itself up, shutting down that particular opening to the Far Realm. Cramer unstoppered his protective scroll case and removed the <em>seal portal</em> scroll, reading off the words that permanently closed the rift to the Far Realm hanging in the air above the Writhing Gate.</p><p></p><p>"Is that it?" Khari asked once it was done.</p><p></p><p>Cramer looked down at the now-empty parchment in his hands, the written words having each disappeared as he spoke them aloud. He rolled it up and stuck it back in its case, then stashed that in his belt pouch. "That's it," he answered. "With all ten Writhing Gates out of commission, Uboros has no way of returning to this plane of existence. We did it guys - we saved the world."</p><p></p><p>"This is cause for celebration!" boomed Utred, lifting up a skin of dwarven ale to his lips and then passing it over to Marlo. Jhasspok took out his pouch of dried dung beetles and offered it to the others, once again being rebuffed. Shrugging, he absently nibbled the legs off a beetle as the others offered each other congratulations.</p><p></p><p>There were other decisions to be made, like whether it was now safe to try a <em>teleport</em> spell to return directly home to Greenvale or if the existing chaos energy imbued all around the island would still make it a dangerous proposition, and whether the ring of elementals keeping the island in quarantine would know if it was safe to now allow people to exit the island or if they'd keep up their patrols, but for now it was enough to turn back the way they'd come and start their days-long trek back to the ship on which they'd come to this chaotic land.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Logan informs us that with the rift sealed, there would be no further mutations on the island; while those already mutated could affect others, those who became infected in that manner could not in turn infect others. Thus, over time, the island would one day become completely safe once again.</p><p></p><p>As for our PCs' post-campaign careers, these are the most likely to come about:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cramer intends to devote his life to hunting down and slaying evil drow. Sunborn drow (and those who worship Eilistraee) will be given haven in Greenvale.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Khari and Utred will return to Brunniir on the Plane of Shadows to let the dwarves there know it is safe for the city to return to the Material Plane. Once that's been accomplished and they spend some time with their respective families, they'll likely join Cramer on his evil drow-hunt.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Marlo's undecided; for now she just wants to return to her family after her time as a slave to the drow and then a savior of the world.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Jhasspok, however, really liked the idea of living on an island and having an ocean full of fish all around him. The Unchartable Island offers him no such haven, for the local fish are mutated and eating them would be potentially detrimental. However, it really bothers Marlo that Jhasspok has no ties to his own people and would very likely try to make Jhasspok at least go meet the Lakewood lizardfolk tribe (of which he is their true leader, being the son of the former leader); having done so and Jhasspok getting his very first look at a female lizardfolk, his future would probably be set for him from that point on.</li> </ul><p>A couple other points worth mentioning: Utred's <em>necklaces of fireballs</em> did a whopping 183d6 points of fire damage; not wanting to roll that many dice we had Joe roll a single d6 and multiplied that by 183 - resulting in well over the amount required to slay Zarbugak. Also, Logan had given Zarbugak an ability he never got to use: had either Cramer or Marlo used a summoning spell to bring powerful allies into the fight, they'd have had to make an immediate Will save to counter the effects of the chaos energy (from which the PCs were immune thanks to the <em>magic circle against chaos</em> spells they'd each had cast upon them) and if that save failed, Zarbugak would have been able to mentally <em>dominate</em> them to his will and use them against us (hence the "Master of Madness and Untamer of the Wilds" title).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8656032, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 58: ZARBUGAK, MASTER OF MADNESS AND UNTAMER OF THE WILDS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 14[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 19/psychic warrior 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 20[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 2 June 2022 - - - It had been an unnerving day, trudging deeper and deeper into the jungle toward the middle of the island as per the directions of Cramer's [I]find the path[/I] spell, awaiting to be attacked by the local denizens (many of whom had been warped by chaos energy) - but at least the magic in the tents worked fine, as both Cramer and Marlo affirmed after closely examining them with [I]detect magic[/I] spells. Thus, the five adventurers each set up their tent in a close circle and went to sleep. They didn't bother with a guard once it became apparent the local wildlife - and this included many of the plants - didn't like venturing close to the tents, which gave off a very not-friendly-to-chaos vibe most of the chaos-infused creatures could pick up, even if only subconsciously. Plus, Marlo allowed her toad familiar Truffles to sit at the flap of her tent and look out, keeping a wary eye out for danger while she slept. Truffles was already infused with chaos energy directly from the Far Realm, as evidenced by the numerous tentacles growing out from all over his amphibious body. Marlo repeated a warning to her toad not to wander too close to Jhasspok's tent and went readily to sleep, confident that Truffles would alert her to any danger. But danger came anyway, easily bypassing Truffles. One moment Marlo was sleeping in her tent and the next she was wide awake, aware of a strange presence there in the canvas structure with her. Sure enough, there was an illithid looming over her. Marlo scrambled to her feet, trying to get away before the mind flayer could strike, but that was too much to hope for: the illithid bent over her as she tried getting to her feet and its four octopoid tentacles slapped at her head, three of them getting a good grip and pulling her in to allow the mind flayer to try to bite through her skull. Khari woke to a similar sense of unfamiliarity and attacked the form standing over him, grabbing up his dwarven warhammer and striking the illithid as it bent over him, getting ready to feed. Cramer did likewise, striking out with his mace that he had cuddled with in his blanket as if it were a stuffed bear and hitting the mind flayer before it could get a good grip on his skull. Utred also fought his own mind flayer, although he didn't even bother with any weapons (although he had a small arsenal at his disposal, courtesy of his extradimensional [I]weapon locker[/I]), opting instead to use his mighty thews to try to pin the illithid. Jhasspok grabbed up his trusty battleaxe when he felt a presence bending over him and a tentacle brushed the top of his head. Marlo was the first to slay her attacker, instinctively striking out with one of her most powerful spells, [I]wail of the banshee[/I], without first considering the nearness of the other tents. As the illithid's body crumpled lifelessly to the floor of the tent the sorceress had a thought, far too late, about the safety of her friends; how foolish would it be for them to be unable to complete their mission because she had accidentally slain them after fighting back after being woken from a deep sleep? Khari kept up the barrage with his dwarven warhammer, keeping the mind flayer reeling and in too much pain to concentrate on getting a good grip on the dwarven fighter's head. The illithid made a feint and tried to get in close but Khari was too fast for him, bringing the hard head of his weapon crashing into the side of the mind flayer's own noggin, crushing it to a pulp. Cramer was having a bit less success fighting off his own foe with his mace, but at least he had thus far prevented it from eating his brain - the little gnome already knew far too well what [I]that[/I] felt like and had no desire to repeat the experience! Utred soon realized the foolishness of wrestling with a creature that [I]wanted[/I] to get in close to him for a brain-eating attack and hurled the mind flayer away from him, giving him enough time to grab up his trusty greataxe. His foe didn't last long after he got that blade in his hand, for he was ruthlessly efficient with it and managed to carve up his foe in no time flat. Jhasspok did likewise with his own battleaxe and the illithid who had attacked him died before he'd gotten a chance to taste a lizardfolk brain (which was probably for the best, as he'd have no doubt been disappointed in both the taste and the portion size). And Cramer finally clued in to having a bevy of combat spells at the ready, finishing off his foe with a [I]destruction[/I] spell. And then, their mind flayer foes defeated, each hero rolled over and fell into a deeper sleep, for the "attacks" had occurred in their individual dreamscapes, as Zarbugak had sent mental images to probe the foes he sensed were heading his way, with intent to undo all of his Master's plans. He had realized the attempts to attack them in their sleep would probably not be enough to slay them, but he had at least gathered some valuable data on their combat strategies and, in the case of the two spellcasters, an idea of a few of their most powerful spells. The next morning, as the heroes grabbed a quick breakfast from their dried stores and Cramer cast the first of the day's [I]magic circle against chaos[/I] spells upon them so they could safely fold up their tents and resume their journey, they compared notes about the weird dreams they'd had. As each described their particular mind flayer foe, it became apparent they'd each dreamed of the same individual, for details of its robes were identical in each case. "That's just weird," Khari commented. Then Cramer cast the first [I]find the path[/I] spell of the day and they were off again. "We're nearly there," the little gnome told the others from his perch upon Utred's backpack. "It's probably only an hour or two before we get to the Writhing Gate." Jhasspok was in the lead, cutting through vines with his battleaxe and clearing the path when it became too overgrown for easy passage. But two hours or so later, they group found themselves at the edge of a crater with the rift to the Far Realm clearly visible over the rim. It hung in the middle of the air, at the center of the Writhing Gate - and this one had its tentacles still out instead of lying motionlessly on the ground; these were just as motionless but flung out from the rift as if having been blown by a strong wind and then petrified in place. There were also only five tentacles instead of the normal ten; Cramer recalled this was the configuration of the Writhing Gate when they had used it to [I]teleport[/I] to the surface during their raids on behalf of their drow masters. Crawling over to the crater's rim on their bellies for reconnaissance, they saw the crater's structure was ever-shifting, sometimes looking like normal dirt, other times like a pile of gravel or like broken-up chunks of granite, or marble, or limestone. Standing in the middle of the Writhing Gate, directly below the rift, stood an enormous mind flayer easily at least half again as large as the standard model, this one breaking apart into chunks and being reconfigured like the mindbender chuul and octopus the group had fought in the ocean on their way to the Unchartable Island. It was like looking at the ulitharid through a kaleidoscope. On either side of the illithid stood a pair of creatures, obviously guardians from the Far Realm of a sort the group had encountered before in Grover's Comb, the site of another rift from the dimension of madness: one had a lupine body and the other that of a great bear, but both had the same kaleidoscopic form-shifting that would have caused a great deal of confusion and headaches to the heroes had they not been protected from such effects by their [I]magic circle against chaos[/I] spells. Their bodies seemed to contain entire swirling galaxies inside of them, glittering stars showing as pinpoints of light. Crawling back away from the crater, the spellcasters started casting their pre-combat spells. Marlo used her magic staff to cast a [I]mass enlarge person[/I] spell, doubling everyone's size. She then covered everyone in a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell and a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell. Cramer cast a [I]shield of law[/I] spell on everyone, then buffed himself up with [I]righteous might[/I], [I]divine power[/I], and [I]spell turning[/I] spells. Utred activated his [I]winged boots [/I]and dashed forward, the first to enter the fray - Cramer had by that time decided not to remain on his standard perch upon the dwarven barbarian's backpack. He went straight for the lupine figure but before he could get within reach the creature's muzzle opened wide and a [I]cold energy bolt[/I] erupted from his mouth, impacting on the dwarf's body - and then shattering to ice crystals as it failed to overcome the spell resistance covering Utred as a result of the [I]shield of law[/I] spell Cramer had cast upon him. But the Zarbugak targeted the incoming dwarf, blasting him with his powerful mind blast. Unlike the mind blasts he'd experienced before, though, Utred realized this one was different: while in the past, illithids seemed to send out waves of mental energy that stunned its victims into motionlessness, this one actively worked on breaking down the body, hammering into him like a wall of force. Utred imagined it was rather like being hit by a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] or [I]blade barrier[/I] spell, only one capable of striking every facing surface on the victim's body all at once. However, he merely grunted at the assault and continued his attack upon the Far Realm wolf, sending his greataxe slicing through the side of the creature's head. At the same time, Khari charged forward towards the Far Realm bear, swinging his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] into the great bruin's head, accepting a retaliatory swipe from its massive paw as an acceptable consequence. But then Marlo cast an [I]incendiary cloud[/I] spell that completely encompassed the ulitharid and the back half of the bruin. Jhasspok had been running forward to attack Zarbugak but, seeing his foe encompassed in the cloud of smoke and burning embers (or, more appropriately, [I]not[/I] seeing him), he altered course and attacked the front half of the Far Realm bear instead. Using the power of his [I]tail-band of the raptor[/I], he went in with a blur of slashing battleaxe strikes and snapping teeth that cut the bear to ribbons. Cramer cast a [I]destruction[/I] spell at the Far Realm wolf and obliterated it instantly, its fractal body seeming to fold up into itself like a work of origami until it was no more. The gnome cleric then immediately followed up with a [I]quickened flame strike[/I]; not being able to see Zarbugak's actual location but believing him to still be within the [I]incendiary cloud[/I], he dropped his fiery spell down upon on the cloud of burning embers. Parts of his hindquarters on fire, the Far Realm bear moved out of the [I]incendiary cloud[/I] and shot an [I]electrical energy bolt[/I] at both Jhasspok and Khari, who were conveniently lined up. However, they too were protected by the [I]shield of law[/I] spell cast by Cramer and the electrical blast fizzled against their spell resistance. Utred recalled where he had last seen Zarbugak and as he had been towards the outer edge of the [I]incendiary cloud[/I], the dwarf stabbed into the dark cloud with his [I]dimensional branding iron[/I], connecting with the ulitharid's body and preventing him from activating any teleportation magic. The ulitharid retaliated with a wide-beamed mind blast which encompassed all of the group save Marlo, who had stayed further back and was thus out of reach. The blast elicited howls of pain from the heroes but it failed to take any of them out and, knowing the importance of winning this battle, they fought on. Khari continued his attacks upon the Far Realm bear, swinging his warhammer for all he was worth and taking comfort in the fact the bear was looking visibly weakened. Marlo continued bringing the fight to Zarbugak, casting a [I]meteor swarm[/I] spell into the [I]incendiary cloud[/I] - she was unable to target the meteors directly at her foe so she spread them out in a diamond pattern and hoped for the best. Unseen by her, one of the meteors struck Zarbugak, but he was encompassed in the explosion effects of all four. Jhasspok slew the lupine creature with his battleaxe and it too folded up into impossible directions, finally disappearing from view altogether in death. That left only Zarbugak himself and he was still hidden within the burning cloud, so Cramer targeted the whole area with a [I]mass serious wounds[/I] spell into the area, confident he'd get the ulitharid that way. But then Utred finished him off by pulling the remains of the three [I]necklaces of fireballs[/I] he'd purchased back in Greenvale, and from which he'd expended only a few beads prior in fighting off the swarms of mutant bees that had formed the creature they'd dubbed the Bee-hemoth. He tossed them in an overhead arc that had them falling into the very center of the [I]incendiary cloud[/I], where the explosion to follow would be sure to impact Zarbugak wherever he was within the burning vapors. As the necklaces hit the burning embers and caused a chain-reaction explosion, a mental cry of pain and anguish speared the minds of all five heroes as the biggest explosion they'd ever felt erupted from within the cloud. The instant severing of the mental cry was a good indicator that the ulitharid had been slain by the blast; when the [I]incendiary cloud[/I] ran its course and dissipated they saw there was nothing left of Zarbugak - or, indeed, of the nearest Writhing Gate tentacle that had been beside him - but a burned smear of ashes on the ever-shifting ground. "Everybody okay?" Marlo asked as the heroes picked themselves up from the ground where they'd been thrown by the blast. They all acknowledged they were fine, and then the whoops of laughter began as they realized they had just taken out the guardians of the last remaining Writhing Gate. Utred unwrapped the [I]anti-magic[/I] cloth protecting the Null Axe and used it to hold its shaft as he started swinging the weapon at the roots of the remaining tentacles. As each was severed, the stump fell through the ground and the hole sealed itself up, shutting down that particular opening to the Far Realm. Cramer unstoppered his protective scroll case and removed the [I]seal portal[/I] scroll, reading off the words that permanently closed the rift to the Far Realm hanging in the air above the Writhing Gate. "Is that it?" Khari asked once it was done. Cramer looked down at the now-empty parchment in his hands, the written words having each disappeared as he spoke them aloud. He rolled it up and stuck it back in its case, then stashed that in his belt pouch. "That's it," he answered. "With all ten Writhing Gates out of commission, Uboros has no way of returning to this plane of existence. We did it guys - we saved the world." "This is cause for celebration!" boomed Utred, lifting up a skin of dwarven ale to his lips and then passing it over to Marlo. Jhasspok took out his pouch of dried dung beetles and offered it to the others, once again being rebuffed. Shrugging, he absently nibbled the legs off a beetle as the others offered each other congratulations. There were other decisions to be made, like whether it was now safe to try a [I]teleport[/I] spell to return directly home to Greenvale or if the existing chaos energy imbued all around the island would still make it a dangerous proposition, and whether the ring of elementals keeping the island in quarantine would know if it was safe to now allow people to exit the island or if they'd keep up their patrols, but for now it was enough to turn back the way they'd come and start their days-long trek back to the ship on which they'd come to this chaotic land. - - - Logan informs us that with the rift sealed, there would be no further mutations on the island; while those already mutated could affect others, those who became infected in that manner could not in turn infect others. Thus, over time, the island would one day become completely safe once again. As for our PCs' post-campaign careers, these are the most likely to come about: [LIST] [*]Cramer intends to devote his life to hunting down and slaying evil drow. Sunborn drow (and those who worship Eilistraee) will be given haven in Greenvale. [*]Khari and Utred will return to Brunniir on the Plane of Shadows to let the dwarves there know it is safe for the city to return to the Material Plane. Once that's been accomplished and they spend some time with their respective families, they'll likely join Cramer on his evil drow-hunt. [*]Marlo's undecided; for now she just wants to return to her family after her time as a slave to the drow and then a savior of the world. [*]Jhasspok, however, really liked the idea of living on an island and having an ocean full of fish all around him. The Unchartable Island offers him no such haven, for the local fish are mutated and eating them would be potentially detrimental. However, it really bothers Marlo that Jhasspok has no ties to his own people and would very likely try to make Jhasspok at least go meet the Lakewood lizardfolk tribe (of which he is their true leader, being the son of the former leader); having done so and Jhasspok getting his very first look at a female lizardfolk, his future would probably be set for him from that point on. [/LIST] A couple other points worth mentioning: Utred's [I]necklaces of fireballs[/I] did a whopping 183d6 points of fire damage; not wanting to roll that many dice we had Joe roll a single d6 and multiplied that by 183 - resulting in well over the amount required to slay Zarbugak. Also, Logan had given Zarbugak an ability he never got to use: had either Cramer or Marlo used a summoning spell to bring powerful allies into the fight, they'd have had to make an immediate Will save to counter the effects of the chaos energy (from which the PCs were immune thanks to the [I]magic circle against chaos[/I] spells they'd each had cast upon them) and if that save failed, Zarbugak would have been able to mentally [I]dominate[/I] them to his will and use them against us (hence the "Master of Madness and Untamer of the Wilds" title). [/QUOTE]
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