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Sagiro's Story Hour: The FINAL Adventures of Abernathy's Company (FINISHED 7/3/14)
- Thread starter Sagiro
- Start date
carborundum
Adventurer
Argh! Typical Sagiro -
Interesting, tense fight - check!
Quarry not where expected - check!
Surprise extras - check!
End on a cliffhanger - check!
Now I'm just as hungry for an update as I was last week
Interesting, tense fight - check!
Quarry not where expected - check!
Surprise extras - check!
End on a cliffhanger - check!
Now I'm just as hungry for an update as I was last week
Mathew_Freeman
First Post
Right now I have Unexpected Story Hour Update Glee.
Thanks, Sagiro! And best wishes for the game release, too.
Thanks, Sagiro! And best wishes for the game release, too.
KainG
Explorer
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 342
All the Stops
The dragon’s sudden assault triggers a flurry of activity among the Company. Morningstar dismisses their wind walk and quickens divine favor. Kibi then casts a wall of force across most of the tunnel mouth, leaving only a gap large enough to allow him to summon something on the far side of it – which he begins to do. Various other buffs are hastily cast: fly spells, protections spells and invisibility purge among others. Flicker slathers himself in oil of slipperiness, just in case.
Aravis shapechanges into a xorn and moves through the wall so that he can poke an eyeball out the side of the mountain, to see what Azhant is up to. The mighty purple dragon is wheeling around up near the mountain’s peak. A bright sun has burned off the cloud layer, allowing for nearly unlimited visibility in all directions.
A celestial roc appears and goes flapping up toward the dragon.
Reaching an unspoken agreement, the party decides that they’re going to bet everything on a quick and decisive battle, right now. They pull out the big magic guns. “I wish,” says Kibi, “that the dragon who just attacked us has its spell resistance suppressed to the greatest extent this spell allows, for as long as is possible.” A massive ripple of magic blasts outward down the tunnel and into the air, rocking everyone a bit on their feet. Azhant flinches, feeling his innate protections lessen. He stops, hovering, and glares down at the little humanoids below.
Emboldened, Dranko sticks a hand through the gap between Kibi’s wall of force and the wall, and casts an ice storm on the hovering dragon. Chunks of ice bounce harmlessly from its plated hide.
“You can surrender now!” calls Dranko.
“Okay, sure,” growls Azhant. “I’ll be right down.”
“Yeah, you will be,” laughs Dranko.
Ernie unleashes the next mega-salvo, casting a miracle “Yondalla, you’ve recently given me much greater power, and I hope I’m about to use it wisely. I’d like the dragon out there to lose its ability to fly for the next hour.”
Another wave of magical power bursts outward and into the air outside the mountain. Aravis sees the dragon lurch downward, and flap its wings futilely for a few seconds before going into a controlled downward glide. Knowing now that Azhant cannot fly, and should be much less resistant to his magic, Aravis leaps from the side of the mountain, changing form from xorn to yellow dragon in midair. He pursues Azhant downward. When he gets close enough, he pegs the fleeing dragon with energy drain. Thanks to Kibi’s wish the spell bypasses Azhant’s spell resistance. Luck is with him, too; the spell has its maximum possible effect, stripping away spells, life force and fighting capacity from Azhant.
Azhant casts a spell – Aravis is not sure what – and then goes into a steep dive down the mountain’s nearly-sheer slope. The celestial roc, suffused with holy golden light, shrieks and pursues. It is nearly as large as Azhant, but being much lighter, it fails to grapple the descending dragon and flaps away, frustrated. Aravis also catches up with Azhant, getting close enough to catch his prey in a maximized cone of cold. The magic of his spell peels away as it reaches Azhant, leaving the purple dragon entirely untouched.
“Anti-magic field,” mutters Aravis. He’s pleased that the field is not negating the ongoing effects of the wish and miracle, but he understands that the party’s options will be quite limited for a while. He could try a disjunction, but while that might strip away the anti-magic, it would be much more likely to eliminate the effects of Kibi’s and Ernie’s magics. Still, he knows that the party has some tricks up its collective sleeve.
Azhant swoops away, banking sharply around a spur of the mountain and disappearing behind tree-covered rocks.
At the behest of his friends, and entirely against his better judgment, Kibi activates his Ioun Stone of tongues.
“Hey roc,” he shouts. “Will you please carry us and pursue the dragon?”
“Whatever you say!” answers the roc. It starts to wheel upward toward them, and when it’s close enough Kibi orders it to hover, at which point he dimension doors himself and everyone else except for Aravis and Ernie onto the roc’s back. The roc tips slightly at the sudden weight, and has some trouble flying with so many passengers, but soon it steadies itself and begins to give chase to Azhant. (Ernie, meanwhile, has boarded his flying carpet. It’s not as fast as a roc, but seems much safer, and reduces the extent to which they’re all in dragon-breath formation.)
Dranko sinks into the soft golden feathers of the celestial roc’s back, and lights a cigar. The smoke streams away behind them, but Kibi is pretty sure it would have spelled “Kibi is insane,” or something similar. He clutches for dear life and laments his decision more and more with each passing airborne second.
Farazil takes possession of Flicker just long enough to comment, “I know I told you I wouldn’t take over Flicker without permission, but I have to say, this is fantastic!”
Dranko nods. “We really have the best job in the world. We’re fighting an ancient evil dragon while riding on a celestial roc, and I have 180,000 gold pieces worth of gems in my pouch. Does life get any better than this?”
“Yes!” squeaks Kibi, his eyes shut tight. “I hope so!”
Aravis swoops around the rocky out-jutting, and there’s no sign of Azhant. The Company carefully scans the mountain side, while Aravis wheels and flies to the last place they saw their quarry, but Azhant the Ancient has vanished. He has almost certainly dropped his anti-magic field and teleported or dimension doored away.
With no better lead on the dragon, the party continues to find the path towards the large concentration of silver mentioned by the stones. This leads them down the mountain, and around it clockwise.
Twenty seconds later there is a massive wave of powerful magic that coruscates through the air and makes all the party’s skin crawl. It’s just like what they experienced when Kibi cast his wish and Ernie his miracle. Azhant has effected similar magic, most likely to rid itself of its negative levels, to reestablish its ability to fly, or to restore its spell resistance.
A minute later the find the path has led them to a well-concealed tunnel into the mountain, cleverly concealed beneath a large overhang, but otherwise similar to the one a thousand feet above them. It bores its way into the mountain, and is easily wide enough for Azhant.
Kibi’s celestial roc drops them off in the tunnel mouth, and after thanking it for its service, they fly down the tunnel. Aravis changes form to a housefly and rides on Dranko’s shoulder. The find the path spell indicates a greater dispelling screen across the tunnel a couple of hundred feet in, masked by an illusion. Aravis changes form to a Digger and tunnels around the trap.
After that, the passage takes a series of downward banked hairpins, and the smell of dragon grows increasingly strong. They can see up ahead that this latest stretch of tunnel empties out into some wide, dark space…and from somewhere below the level of the tunnel mouth, Azhant flies upward, breathes a blast of sonic force upon them, and continues to rise until he’s out of sight again. Well, that answers the question of which debilitating effect Azhant chose to dismiss. It also hurts!
(In fact, Azhant, horrified at losing his greatest tactical advantage, teleported back to his lair. It was his last teleport, as the energy drain has stripped him of the ability to cast more. Among his hoard’s many magic items was an ancient crystalline idol that would grant a wish, and from among the likely options, he wished that his ability to fly be restored.)
In for a penny thinks Morningstar. “Dark Lady, please remove the dragon’s ability to fly for the next hour… again!” The power of her miracle floods the cavern. Kibi, with tongues still active, hears some draconic profanity roared out in the darkness. Grey Wolf rushes to the tunnel mouth and looks down, but the dragon is already too far away to spot. Looking up, he finds that the roof isn’t much higher than they are, no more than fifty feet away. There is a gorgeous mural carved into the ceiling of this vast cave, depicting dwarves in their multitudes, smithing and crafting weapons. Hundreds of dwarves must have worked for years on the mural, but it has already been smashed and defaced in dozens of places, probably by Azhant in his younger days.
Dranko sprints to the end of the tunnel and leaps out into space, flying downward, hoping to discover specifically where the dragon is. Even before he spies Azhant he hears the futile flapping of wings, steadily moving ground-ward. He smiles.
Ernie heals Morningstar and then quickens another heal (on Kibi) using his quickscroll tube. Somewhat restored from the blast of dragon breath, the whole party flies downward, descending nearly five hundred feet before discovering Azhant, who has landed on the floor of his cavern. Azhant is deeply troubled that these pesky humanoids have now twice stripped him of his ability to fly, but he’s still has hope that he can turn this around. After all, he has a trump card that has never failed him in these sorts of encounters.
Aravis manifests a bigby’s clenched fist above the dragon, but it winks out as it comes into contact with the dragon. Azhant has remanifested his anit-magic field.
“Oh, please,” growls Azhant. “Now, who among you is going to come down and fight me honestly?”
“Oh, please,” mocks Ernie, “You think we’re going to fall for that old trick?” His mockery is somewhat undercut by Dranko simultaneously volunteering. “I will!” says the half-orc.
“Okay then,” says Azhant, glaring upward.
But Dranko doesn’t come down, and neither does anyone else. It’s an impasse. Azhant won’t lower his anti-magic field, but unless he does, he cannot breath on the party or cast the spells he has remaining. The heroes know that the dragon can’t fly (and so they’re safe in the air), but if they descend to ground level to attack, their magic items will be useless, and the dragon can savage them with physical attacks.
Seemingly bereft of better options, Dranko starts to pee on Azhant’s head. Azhant lumbers out of the way, but Dranko follows.
“Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working,” growls Azhant, disgusted.
“It’s working pretty well, actually,” says Dranko. “I’ve had to go for a while.”
But Dranko is soon finished his business, and the détente continues. Azhant squats on the floor of the cavern, his tail lashing to and fro like a cat’s. His hide is crusted layers of jagged amethyst scales. All he wants is for one of those morsels to come within reach.
“So,” calls down Morningstar. “How do you feel about prophecy?”
“Are you suggesting that you are prophesied to defeat me here?” scoffs Azhant. In a more thoughtful voice he adds, “I must say that your collected magics are impressive. Too bad, then, that they will have no further effect on this encounter. Now, I ask again, who is going to come and fight me?”
“Are you going to stop running like a coward?” asks Morningstar.
Azhant laughs. “You think you are going to goad me into some unwise action with your silly little insults?”
“I was hoping that was what peeing on you would do,” Dranko admits.
“No, I simply found that was disgusting.”
“You’re not the only one,” says Ernie.
“But I would expect no less from a half-orc,” sneers Azhant.
Dranko sighs, makes eye-contact with Ernie, and nods. Time to end this impasse. The most important thing is that Ernie and Morningstar not be grappled, so Dranko takes that upon himself. He swoops down, and Azhant, cat-quick, grabs him out of the air in an enormous claw.
“At least I’ll bite off one of your heads today. Any more piss you want to get out before the end?”
Dranko smiles confidently, which makes Azhant suspicious.
Ernie moves in and transforms into the warrior aspect granted by the Honor of Nemmin. “For Yondalla!” he yells, and ripples of golden light play over his armored body. He feels something akin to rage, but more controlled – a righteous aggression.
“Very impressive,” says Azhant, “but I don’t….AAAAAARRRR!”
Ernie swings his blade, and it bites into Azhant’s hide, shearing away a swath of purple scales. Azhant looks down aghast; his anti-magic field is still active, but the little sword seemed not to care.
“Excuse me,” says Azhant to Dranko. “I think you may no longer be relevant.” The dragon flings Dranko away. “Don’t go anywhere,” he admonishes the half-orc, and then he unleashes his full physical fury upon Ernie.
Ernie would be dead, well and truly, if Azhant had not been energy drained earlier by Aravis. Even weakened, Azhant nearly tears Ernie to pieces with his massive jaws, razor claws and smashing tail. But Azhant fails to connect with one of his wing barbs (unthinkable!) and so Ernie is left a bloody mess, but (barely) conscious.
“You got anymore?” Ernie manages, spitting out blood.
“Oh, I have plenty more,” says Azhant, leering. “Why don’t we keep trading blows for a while and see how it turns out?”
“You really are underestimating us,” says Morningstar. She moves in, winds up, and lets fly with Ell’s Will. As with Ernie’s blade, the sovereign magic in the Morningstar is unaffected by the anti-magic, and gouges a bloody furrow into Azhant’s flank.
“You’re next,” glowers Azhant. “I just need to finish off the midget first.”
Flicker tries a flurry of short-sword attacks, but even while flanking the dragon he is unable to land a single strike. “My sword gets heavier right before it hits him,” he grumbles.
Dranko has more luck. Even bereft of its enchantment, his whip does impressive to the dragon, ripping away purple scales and scoring deep gashes.
Kibi seethes for a moment, frustrated that all of his magical arsenal is useless, and settles for summoning a huge earth elemental. “You can’t touch the dragon,” Kibi warns it. “Try hitting it with something else.” The elemental lumbers off to find a piece of masonry it can swing.
Having finished lashing with his whip, Dranko holds it up so Azhant can get a good look. “See this? Magic or not, I’m going to use it to take out one of your eyes.”
Azhant looks meaningfully at Ernie, still clutched in one of his mighty claws. “So, no negotiation, then? No ‘I agree not to kill some of you before you kill me, and you let me go instead?’”
Dranko shakes his head.
Ernie has been counting on using his quickscroll tube to heal himself, but too late remembers that invoking the Glory of Nemmin has removed his ability to use spell-completion items. His sword arm is still free, so he carves some gashes into Azhant’s wrist.
“Any last words, little man?” growls Azhant. Ernie can’t think of anything, and besides, Azhant means it only rhetorically. He opens his jaws wide and bites off a quarter of Ernie’s head, along with a good chunk of shoulder and torso.
“Mmmmm,” he says, chewing. “Moist.” He drops the remains of Ernie’s corpse and turns to Morningstar. “You’re next.”
He savages Morningstar with the remainder of his attacks, though Morningstar is protected by a stoneskin, and much of the damage is blunted. “You’re a little tougher than the little guy,” remarks Azhant, flexing his jaw a bit. “But now you’ve got the classic dilemma on your hand. You can damage me, but you also will need to start healing yourself.”
He laughs a deep, unkind laugh. “But while I’m grinding you down, human, what exactly brought you here in the first place? Was is just the loot?”
Dranko answers. “We have been sent by the rulers of Mirj, who want to see you destroyed.”
“Mirj?” Azhant sounds skeptical. “The House of Law doesn’t have the balls. You’re lying. But you know what? I don’t blame you a bit for trying to trick me into attacking that cesspool. What a rotten pile of human depravity that place is.”
Morningstar lands another hit with Ell’s Will and quickens a cure spell on herself.
“You know, that’s starting to hurt,” says Azhant. “I’m getting seriously annoyed. Though I’m also impressed. 9th-level spells. Epic weapons. Why have I never heard of you before? Are you from what’s-it-called… Charagan?”
All of this time, Aravis has been digging, in the form of a Digger, beneath the dragon. He’s been preparing a pit, leaving a surface crust thick enough that the dragon won’t fall through until Aravis weakens it. He’s starting to realize that his progress just isn’t fast enough, but with little else to do, he continues to dig.
Flicker finally lands a sword-hit on Azhant. The sneak-attack damage he does while flanking with Dranko is not diminished at all by Azhant’s anti-magic, and takes a huge bloody chunk out of the dragon’s tail.
“Hey! Watch it!” growls Azhant. In his mind he’s starting to wonder if he’s going to win this war of attrition. Anti-magic field is typically a trump card against adventuring sorts, but these guys have all sorts of tricks up their puny humanoid sleeves. He can’t teleport, and he can’t fly, and there’s no ground-level exit from this cavern he can fit through. For the first time in centuries, honest-to-evil fear creeps into his draconic heart.
Dranko savages him with more whip strikes, the last of which nearly does take out his left eye.
“I told you,” says the half-orc. “I’m going to rip that eye out of your head.”
Kibi’s elemental has found a long broken pillar, but the creature isn’t much used to attacking with anything but its fists, and its swings bounce harmlessly from the dragon’s scales. Azhant glances briefly at the elemental before returning its focus to Morningstar. He savages her with all of his attacks, but the stoneskin absorbs nearly half the damage, and he chips a fang.
“Don’t think I don’t feel what you’re doing down there, by the way,” he calls down to Aravis. He sidesteps away from the pit being dug beneath his feet.
Morningstar quickens a revenance on Ernie’s body. The dead halfling coughs and gets to his feet. He’s a ghastly sight, with large parts of his upper body missing. “Man, that hurt!” he exclaims. “Oh. I see. Still dead. Well, I’ll do what I can.”
“Neat trick,” grumbles Azhant. “Now I can kill him again!”
Grey Wolf casts lucubration to restore an indomitability, which he immediately casts upon Morningstar. Kibi uses limited wish to cast stoneskin on the newly-animated Ernie. Flicker attacks but fails to land any damaging blows. Dranko has more luck. He lashes with his whip and does massive damage to Azhant.
“One! Piece! At! A! Time!” he calls, while systematically gouging out pieces of the dragon.
“Fine,” says Azhant. “Forget the stone girl. You’re the primary target now.” He grabs Dranko, claws the half-orc's body, lashes his face with his wings and tail, and then stuffs Dranko into his massive jaws. In a voice made mushy by the adventurer in his mouth, he asks, “So, are you ready to bargain, or should I keep chewing?”
“Don’t bargain!” calls Dranko, even though he’s a bloody mess and won’t survive another attack. “Just kill him!”
“You’re not really in a good position to threaten me,” says Azhant. He chews a bit. “Mmmm, was that your ankle?”
Morningstar would like to cast mass heal, but it won’t affect Dranko who’s inside the mouth of the anti-magicked dragon.
“Just get ready to cast it,” says Kibi. “I’m going to try something.” He flies up toward the cavern ceiling and casts earthquake, wincing at the thought of wreaking more destruction upon the ancient mural. Huge chunks of rock fall from the darkness, cascading around Azhant. Normally this wouldn’t bother him any more than a mild hailstorm would bother a rhino, but because of his negative levels, an unlucky crack on the head from a large boulder causes him to cough Dranko about half out of his mouth. This leaves the half-orc’s leg dangling outside of the anti-magic field! Morningstar casts her mass heal, and Aravis (who has given up his pit and returned to dragon-form himself) casts dimension door on Dranko, evacuating him from the dragon-maw grapple.
That’s enough for Azhant. Despite his bluster, he is nearly dead from all the attacks that have landed upon him. His only hope, he decides, is to flee, drop the anti-magic, and breathe on his enemies. With luck, these pesky adventurers will then try spells instead of physical attacks, and his spell resistance might save him. If only he could fly!
His plan never gets past the first stage. He starts to flee, and endures a battery of parting shots. Flicker and Dranko land devastating sneak attacks, but Azhant is still barely alive.
Morningstar brings down Ell’s Will and crushes Azhant’s spine. The dragon drops. “You’ll… see me… again…” gasps Azhant dramatically, before flopping dead onto the hard stones of the cavern floor.
Soon after, the revenance expires, and Ernie likewise drops dead.
…to be continued…
All the Stops
The dragon’s sudden assault triggers a flurry of activity among the Company. Morningstar dismisses their wind walk and quickens divine favor. Kibi then casts a wall of force across most of the tunnel mouth, leaving only a gap large enough to allow him to summon something on the far side of it – which he begins to do. Various other buffs are hastily cast: fly spells, protections spells and invisibility purge among others. Flicker slathers himself in oil of slipperiness, just in case.
Aravis shapechanges into a xorn and moves through the wall so that he can poke an eyeball out the side of the mountain, to see what Azhant is up to. The mighty purple dragon is wheeling around up near the mountain’s peak. A bright sun has burned off the cloud layer, allowing for nearly unlimited visibility in all directions.
A celestial roc appears and goes flapping up toward the dragon.
Reaching an unspoken agreement, the party decides that they’re going to bet everything on a quick and decisive battle, right now. They pull out the big magic guns. “I wish,” says Kibi, “that the dragon who just attacked us has its spell resistance suppressed to the greatest extent this spell allows, for as long as is possible.” A massive ripple of magic blasts outward down the tunnel and into the air, rocking everyone a bit on their feet. Azhant flinches, feeling his innate protections lessen. He stops, hovering, and glares down at the little humanoids below.
Emboldened, Dranko sticks a hand through the gap between Kibi’s wall of force and the wall, and casts an ice storm on the hovering dragon. Chunks of ice bounce harmlessly from its plated hide.
“You can surrender now!” calls Dranko.
“Okay, sure,” growls Azhant. “I’ll be right down.”
“Yeah, you will be,” laughs Dranko.
Ernie unleashes the next mega-salvo, casting a miracle “Yondalla, you’ve recently given me much greater power, and I hope I’m about to use it wisely. I’d like the dragon out there to lose its ability to fly for the next hour.”
Another wave of magical power bursts outward and into the air outside the mountain. Aravis sees the dragon lurch downward, and flap its wings futilely for a few seconds before going into a controlled downward glide. Knowing now that Azhant cannot fly, and should be much less resistant to his magic, Aravis leaps from the side of the mountain, changing form from xorn to yellow dragon in midair. He pursues Azhant downward. When he gets close enough, he pegs the fleeing dragon with energy drain. Thanks to Kibi’s wish the spell bypasses Azhant’s spell resistance. Luck is with him, too; the spell has its maximum possible effect, stripping away spells, life force and fighting capacity from Azhant.
Azhant casts a spell – Aravis is not sure what – and then goes into a steep dive down the mountain’s nearly-sheer slope. The celestial roc, suffused with holy golden light, shrieks and pursues. It is nearly as large as Azhant, but being much lighter, it fails to grapple the descending dragon and flaps away, frustrated. Aravis also catches up with Azhant, getting close enough to catch his prey in a maximized cone of cold. The magic of his spell peels away as it reaches Azhant, leaving the purple dragon entirely untouched.
“Anti-magic field,” mutters Aravis. He’s pleased that the field is not negating the ongoing effects of the wish and miracle, but he understands that the party’s options will be quite limited for a while. He could try a disjunction, but while that might strip away the anti-magic, it would be much more likely to eliminate the effects of Kibi’s and Ernie’s magics. Still, he knows that the party has some tricks up its collective sleeve.
Azhant swoops away, banking sharply around a spur of the mountain and disappearing behind tree-covered rocks.
At the behest of his friends, and entirely against his better judgment, Kibi activates his Ioun Stone of tongues.
“Hey roc,” he shouts. “Will you please carry us and pursue the dragon?”
“Whatever you say!” answers the roc. It starts to wheel upward toward them, and when it’s close enough Kibi orders it to hover, at which point he dimension doors himself and everyone else except for Aravis and Ernie onto the roc’s back. The roc tips slightly at the sudden weight, and has some trouble flying with so many passengers, but soon it steadies itself and begins to give chase to Azhant. (Ernie, meanwhile, has boarded his flying carpet. It’s not as fast as a roc, but seems much safer, and reduces the extent to which they’re all in dragon-breath formation.)
Dranko sinks into the soft golden feathers of the celestial roc’s back, and lights a cigar. The smoke streams away behind them, but Kibi is pretty sure it would have spelled “Kibi is insane,” or something similar. He clutches for dear life and laments his decision more and more with each passing airborne second.
Farazil takes possession of Flicker just long enough to comment, “I know I told you I wouldn’t take over Flicker without permission, but I have to say, this is fantastic!”
Dranko nods. “We really have the best job in the world. We’re fighting an ancient evil dragon while riding on a celestial roc, and I have 180,000 gold pieces worth of gems in my pouch. Does life get any better than this?”
“Yes!” squeaks Kibi, his eyes shut tight. “I hope so!”
Aravis swoops around the rocky out-jutting, and there’s no sign of Azhant. The Company carefully scans the mountain side, while Aravis wheels and flies to the last place they saw their quarry, but Azhant the Ancient has vanished. He has almost certainly dropped his anti-magic field and teleported or dimension doored away.
With no better lead on the dragon, the party continues to find the path towards the large concentration of silver mentioned by the stones. This leads them down the mountain, and around it clockwise.
Twenty seconds later there is a massive wave of powerful magic that coruscates through the air and makes all the party’s skin crawl. It’s just like what they experienced when Kibi cast his wish and Ernie his miracle. Azhant has effected similar magic, most likely to rid itself of its negative levels, to reestablish its ability to fly, or to restore its spell resistance.
A minute later the find the path has led them to a well-concealed tunnel into the mountain, cleverly concealed beneath a large overhang, but otherwise similar to the one a thousand feet above them. It bores its way into the mountain, and is easily wide enough for Azhant.
Kibi’s celestial roc drops them off in the tunnel mouth, and after thanking it for its service, they fly down the tunnel. Aravis changes form to a housefly and rides on Dranko’s shoulder. The find the path spell indicates a greater dispelling screen across the tunnel a couple of hundred feet in, masked by an illusion. Aravis changes form to a Digger and tunnels around the trap.
After that, the passage takes a series of downward banked hairpins, and the smell of dragon grows increasingly strong. They can see up ahead that this latest stretch of tunnel empties out into some wide, dark space…and from somewhere below the level of the tunnel mouth, Azhant flies upward, breathes a blast of sonic force upon them, and continues to rise until he’s out of sight again. Well, that answers the question of which debilitating effect Azhant chose to dismiss. It also hurts!
(In fact, Azhant, horrified at losing his greatest tactical advantage, teleported back to his lair. It was his last teleport, as the energy drain has stripped him of the ability to cast more. Among his hoard’s many magic items was an ancient crystalline idol that would grant a wish, and from among the likely options, he wished that his ability to fly be restored.)
In for a penny thinks Morningstar. “Dark Lady, please remove the dragon’s ability to fly for the next hour… again!” The power of her miracle floods the cavern. Kibi, with tongues still active, hears some draconic profanity roared out in the darkness. Grey Wolf rushes to the tunnel mouth and looks down, but the dragon is already too far away to spot. Looking up, he finds that the roof isn’t much higher than they are, no more than fifty feet away. There is a gorgeous mural carved into the ceiling of this vast cave, depicting dwarves in their multitudes, smithing and crafting weapons. Hundreds of dwarves must have worked for years on the mural, but it has already been smashed and defaced in dozens of places, probably by Azhant in his younger days.
Dranko sprints to the end of the tunnel and leaps out into space, flying downward, hoping to discover specifically where the dragon is. Even before he spies Azhant he hears the futile flapping of wings, steadily moving ground-ward. He smiles.
Ernie heals Morningstar and then quickens another heal (on Kibi) using his quickscroll tube. Somewhat restored from the blast of dragon breath, the whole party flies downward, descending nearly five hundred feet before discovering Azhant, who has landed on the floor of his cavern. Azhant is deeply troubled that these pesky humanoids have now twice stripped him of his ability to fly, but he’s still has hope that he can turn this around. After all, he has a trump card that has never failed him in these sorts of encounters.
Aravis manifests a bigby’s clenched fist above the dragon, but it winks out as it comes into contact with the dragon. Azhant has remanifested his anit-magic field.
“Oh, please,” growls Azhant. “Now, who among you is going to come down and fight me honestly?”
“Oh, please,” mocks Ernie, “You think we’re going to fall for that old trick?” His mockery is somewhat undercut by Dranko simultaneously volunteering. “I will!” says the half-orc.
“Okay then,” says Azhant, glaring upward.
But Dranko doesn’t come down, and neither does anyone else. It’s an impasse. Azhant won’t lower his anti-magic field, but unless he does, he cannot breath on the party or cast the spells he has remaining. The heroes know that the dragon can’t fly (and so they’re safe in the air), but if they descend to ground level to attack, their magic items will be useless, and the dragon can savage them with physical attacks.
Seemingly bereft of better options, Dranko starts to pee on Azhant’s head. Azhant lumbers out of the way, but Dranko follows.
“Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working,” growls Azhant, disgusted.
“It’s working pretty well, actually,” says Dranko. “I’ve had to go for a while.”
But Dranko is soon finished his business, and the détente continues. Azhant squats on the floor of the cavern, his tail lashing to and fro like a cat’s. His hide is crusted layers of jagged amethyst scales. All he wants is for one of those morsels to come within reach.
“So,” calls down Morningstar. “How do you feel about prophecy?”
“Are you suggesting that you are prophesied to defeat me here?” scoffs Azhant. In a more thoughtful voice he adds, “I must say that your collected magics are impressive. Too bad, then, that they will have no further effect on this encounter. Now, I ask again, who is going to come and fight me?”
“Are you going to stop running like a coward?” asks Morningstar.
Azhant laughs. “You think you are going to goad me into some unwise action with your silly little insults?”
“I was hoping that was what peeing on you would do,” Dranko admits.
“No, I simply found that was disgusting.”
“You’re not the only one,” says Ernie.
“But I would expect no less from a half-orc,” sneers Azhant.
Dranko sighs, makes eye-contact with Ernie, and nods. Time to end this impasse. The most important thing is that Ernie and Morningstar not be grappled, so Dranko takes that upon himself. He swoops down, and Azhant, cat-quick, grabs him out of the air in an enormous claw.
“At least I’ll bite off one of your heads today. Any more piss you want to get out before the end?”
Dranko smiles confidently, which makes Azhant suspicious.
Ernie moves in and transforms into the warrior aspect granted by the Honor of Nemmin. “For Yondalla!” he yells, and ripples of golden light play over his armored body. He feels something akin to rage, but more controlled – a righteous aggression.
“Very impressive,” says Azhant, “but I don’t….AAAAAARRRR!”
Ernie swings his blade, and it bites into Azhant’s hide, shearing away a swath of purple scales. Azhant looks down aghast; his anti-magic field is still active, but the little sword seemed not to care.
“Excuse me,” says Azhant to Dranko. “I think you may no longer be relevant.” The dragon flings Dranko away. “Don’t go anywhere,” he admonishes the half-orc, and then he unleashes his full physical fury upon Ernie.
Ernie would be dead, well and truly, if Azhant had not been energy drained earlier by Aravis. Even weakened, Azhant nearly tears Ernie to pieces with his massive jaws, razor claws and smashing tail. But Azhant fails to connect with one of his wing barbs (unthinkable!) and so Ernie is left a bloody mess, but (barely) conscious.
“You got anymore?” Ernie manages, spitting out blood.
“Oh, I have plenty more,” says Azhant, leering. “Why don’t we keep trading blows for a while and see how it turns out?”
“You really are underestimating us,” says Morningstar. She moves in, winds up, and lets fly with Ell’s Will. As with Ernie’s blade, the sovereign magic in the Morningstar is unaffected by the anti-magic, and gouges a bloody furrow into Azhant’s flank.
“You’re next,” glowers Azhant. “I just need to finish off the midget first.”
Flicker tries a flurry of short-sword attacks, but even while flanking the dragon he is unable to land a single strike. “My sword gets heavier right before it hits him,” he grumbles.
Dranko has more luck. Even bereft of its enchantment, his whip does impressive to the dragon, ripping away purple scales and scoring deep gashes.
Kibi seethes for a moment, frustrated that all of his magical arsenal is useless, and settles for summoning a huge earth elemental. “You can’t touch the dragon,” Kibi warns it. “Try hitting it with something else.” The elemental lumbers off to find a piece of masonry it can swing.
Having finished lashing with his whip, Dranko holds it up so Azhant can get a good look. “See this? Magic or not, I’m going to use it to take out one of your eyes.”
Azhant looks meaningfully at Ernie, still clutched in one of his mighty claws. “So, no negotiation, then? No ‘I agree not to kill some of you before you kill me, and you let me go instead?’”
Dranko shakes his head.
Ernie has been counting on using his quickscroll tube to heal himself, but too late remembers that invoking the Glory of Nemmin has removed his ability to use spell-completion items. His sword arm is still free, so he carves some gashes into Azhant’s wrist.
“Any last words, little man?” growls Azhant. Ernie can’t think of anything, and besides, Azhant means it only rhetorically. He opens his jaws wide and bites off a quarter of Ernie’s head, along with a good chunk of shoulder and torso.
“Mmmmm,” he says, chewing. “Moist.” He drops the remains of Ernie’s corpse and turns to Morningstar. “You’re next.”
He savages Morningstar with the remainder of his attacks, though Morningstar is protected by a stoneskin, and much of the damage is blunted. “You’re a little tougher than the little guy,” remarks Azhant, flexing his jaw a bit. “But now you’ve got the classic dilemma on your hand. You can damage me, but you also will need to start healing yourself.”
He laughs a deep, unkind laugh. “But while I’m grinding you down, human, what exactly brought you here in the first place? Was is just the loot?”
Dranko answers. “We have been sent by the rulers of Mirj, who want to see you destroyed.”
“Mirj?” Azhant sounds skeptical. “The House of Law doesn’t have the balls. You’re lying. But you know what? I don’t blame you a bit for trying to trick me into attacking that cesspool. What a rotten pile of human depravity that place is.”
Morningstar lands another hit with Ell’s Will and quickens a cure spell on herself.
“You know, that’s starting to hurt,” says Azhant. “I’m getting seriously annoyed. Though I’m also impressed. 9th-level spells. Epic weapons. Why have I never heard of you before? Are you from what’s-it-called… Charagan?”
All of this time, Aravis has been digging, in the form of a Digger, beneath the dragon. He’s been preparing a pit, leaving a surface crust thick enough that the dragon won’t fall through until Aravis weakens it. He’s starting to realize that his progress just isn’t fast enough, but with little else to do, he continues to dig.
Flicker finally lands a sword-hit on Azhant. The sneak-attack damage he does while flanking with Dranko is not diminished at all by Azhant’s anti-magic, and takes a huge bloody chunk out of the dragon’s tail.
“Hey! Watch it!” growls Azhant. In his mind he’s starting to wonder if he’s going to win this war of attrition. Anti-magic field is typically a trump card against adventuring sorts, but these guys have all sorts of tricks up their puny humanoid sleeves. He can’t teleport, and he can’t fly, and there’s no ground-level exit from this cavern he can fit through. For the first time in centuries, honest-to-evil fear creeps into his draconic heart.
Dranko savages him with more whip strikes, the last of which nearly does take out his left eye.
“I told you,” says the half-orc. “I’m going to rip that eye out of your head.”
Kibi’s elemental has found a long broken pillar, but the creature isn’t much used to attacking with anything but its fists, and its swings bounce harmlessly from the dragon’s scales. Azhant glances briefly at the elemental before returning its focus to Morningstar. He savages her with all of his attacks, but the stoneskin absorbs nearly half the damage, and he chips a fang.
“Don’t think I don’t feel what you’re doing down there, by the way,” he calls down to Aravis. He sidesteps away from the pit being dug beneath his feet.
Morningstar quickens a revenance on Ernie’s body. The dead halfling coughs and gets to his feet. He’s a ghastly sight, with large parts of his upper body missing. “Man, that hurt!” he exclaims. “Oh. I see. Still dead. Well, I’ll do what I can.”
“Neat trick,” grumbles Azhant. “Now I can kill him again!”
Grey Wolf casts lucubration to restore an indomitability, which he immediately casts upon Morningstar. Kibi uses limited wish to cast stoneskin on the newly-animated Ernie. Flicker attacks but fails to land any damaging blows. Dranko has more luck. He lashes with his whip and does massive damage to Azhant.
“One! Piece! At! A! Time!” he calls, while systematically gouging out pieces of the dragon.
“Fine,” says Azhant. “Forget the stone girl. You’re the primary target now.” He grabs Dranko, claws the half-orc's body, lashes his face with his wings and tail, and then stuffs Dranko into his massive jaws. In a voice made mushy by the adventurer in his mouth, he asks, “So, are you ready to bargain, or should I keep chewing?”
“Don’t bargain!” calls Dranko, even though he’s a bloody mess and won’t survive another attack. “Just kill him!”
“You’re not really in a good position to threaten me,” says Azhant. He chews a bit. “Mmmm, was that your ankle?”
Morningstar would like to cast mass heal, but it won’t affect Dranko who’s inside the mouth of the anti-magicked dragon.
“Just get ready to cast it,” says Kibi. “I’m going to try something.” He flies up toward the cavern ceiling and casts earthquake, wincing at the thought of wreaking more destruction upon the ancient mural. Huge chunks of rock fall from the darkness, cascading around Azhant. Normally this wouldn’t bother him any more than a mild hailstorm would bother a rhino, but because of his negative levels, an unlucky crack on the head from a large boulder causes him to cough Dranko about half out of his mouth. This leaves the half-orc’s leg dangling outside of the anti-magic field! Morningstar casts her mass heal, and Aravis (who has given up his pit and returned to dragon-form himself) casts dimension door on Dranko, evacuating him from the dragon-maw grapple.
That’s enough for Azhant. Despite his bluster, he is nearly dead from all the attacks that have landed upon him. His only hope, he decides, is to flee, drop the anti-magic, and breathe on his enemies. With luck, these pesky adventurers will then try spells instead of physical attacks, and his spell resistance might save him. If only he could fly!
His plan never gets past the first stage. He starts to flee, and endures a battery of parting shots. Flicker and Dranko land devastating sneak attacks, but Azhant is still barely alive.
Morningstar brings down Ell’s Will and crushes Azhant’s spine. The dragon drops. “You’ll… see me… again…” gasps Azhant dramatically, before flopping dead onto the hard stones of the cavern floor.
Soon after, the revenance expires, and Ernie likewise drops dead.
…to be continued…
Last edited:
carborundum
Adventurer
wow. just wow.
AHHHH! NOT ERNIE!!!!
<breathe. breathe> Ok. Morningstar'll fix him all up...right? RIGHT?!?!
<breathe. breathe> Ok. Morningstar'll fix him all up...right? RIGHT?!?!
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 343
Knowledge
“Will you be staying, Ernest, or do you feel like you still have more to do?”
Dolly bustles about the Inn Between, and talks to Ernie over her shoulder. She seems more businesslike than Ernie remembers her, a trifle less warm.
“I like staying here,” admits Ernie, reaching down to pet one of the resident cats, “but there’s so much more left on our plate. There’s still that world-saving thing.”
“Well, stay as long as you’d like,” Dolly shrugs.
“Ah, don’t be so hard on the kid,” calls Barnabas from his customary table at the back. “Ernie, come and sit with me until your friends call you back. I want to see that fancy sword of yours…”
/*/
In the land of the living, Aravis removes Azhant’s head by disintegrating the neck; the party figures it will serve as proof that they’ve finished the job. But more importantly, the Company discovers Azhant’s true hoard hidden behind an illusionary wall at the far side of the cavern. Unsurprisingly, a majority of the loot seems to have once been the property of the dwarven Empire of Gurund -- non-magical weapons and armor of dwarvish design and size, coins and bars stamped with dwarven likenesses and symbols, and many pieces of jewelry obviously of dwarf-make. Mixed in with the dwarven plunder is plenty of stuff from other parts of Kivia -- Azhant the Ancient has been building his hoard for centuries.
Morningstar casts a sending to High Priestess Rhiavonne in Kallor, requesting that the temple there be readied for a true resurrection. Then the rest of the day and evening are spent shoveling as much of the dragon’s treasure as possible into the Lucent Tower, which seems like the fastest way to transport such vast quantities. There are a number of highly-magical objects mixed in, the identification of which will be first on the agenda after Ernie’s resurrection, though one in particular inspires particular reverent interest. It is a closed and sealed book that they discover resting at the very apex of the largest hill of treasure. The book is thin but weighty, made of dark grey leather and embossed with a fancy “L” on the front cover, overlaying the symbol of Leantha, one-time Kivian Goddess of Knowledge.
/*/
This time around, with souls moving properly between this world and the next, Morningstar’s true resurrection runs properly from midnight to dawn.
The ceremony has been fast-tracked, and the chapel is only half-full. The Priestess Anhaya Sunblossom, leader of the church of Yondalla on Charagan, is in attendance with two under-priests; they watch attentively as their faith’s greatest living hero is brought back to life. If Morningstar hears some murmurs from the crowd wondering why Rhiavonne herself isn’t performing the ritual, and that perhaps Morningstar is likely to be Rhiavonne’s successor, she pretends to take no notice. As the muted sun crests the horizon beyond the eternal twilight of Kallor, Ernie’s eyes flutter open. His last memory of the Inn Between is of Dolly, hands on her hips, telling him that as much as she enjoys his company, she’d rather not see him quite so often.
/*/
Having taken care of that order of business, the Company moves on to the more enjoyable fallout from the battle with Azhant – combing through the loot. They open the Lucent Tower in the yard behind the Greenhouse and coins spill out onto the grass.
Given many hours to sift through the monetary and artistic pieces, Flicker estimates that the coinage, bars, gems, jewelry and objects d'art are worth in total about 200,000 GP. There are also dozens of minor magical items (rings of protection, weapons, armor, shields and ability-boosters of the +1 and +2 varieties, and misc. stuff of minimal use to near-epic adventurers like the Company), worth an additional 70,000 GP.
After dinner, they set about divvying up the best of the magic items. Two are set aside immediately – a war-hammer and suit of plate-mail both heavily enchanted for dwarven fighters. None in the party can make good use of them, but surely they can find a dwarven hero who can. The remainder of the most potent items are distributed among the Company.
Kibi gets the Pulse of Abernia, a deep purple gem infused with Earth Magic. Kibi has seen similar gems in the work-shops of his grandfather Cranchus. This one, according to their divinations, was made by an earth mage named Golquan, who long ago served the First Dwarf of Gurund as his court wizard. He was killed by Azhant’s sire in the midst of the ogre war. When held by an Earth Mage, the Pulse of Abernia has a chance of augmenting every spell he casts, in a variety of possible ways. It also increases Kibi’s natural armor bonus.
Dranko claims Alazar's Tongue, a black leather weighted whip. It is a +5 weapon once used by the infamous mercenary Alazar, killed by Azhant about 150 years ago. It can cast dimensional anchor or dismissal on a creature struck, each once per day. Also once per day, it can inflict a -4 penalty to saving throws to a creature struck, with the effect lasting until the end of the encounter. Finally, on a critical hit, the victim moves at half speed on its next turn. Dranko also takes the Unshakable Boots, the wearer of which cannot be knocked down, gains a bonus to grapple checks, and will never run in fear from compulsory magic.
In addition to taking a +5 ring of protection, Grey Wolf is the natural claimant to the Sheath of Blessed Honor, a sword sheath inscribed with prayers to Palamir, Kivian God of loyalty, duty and honor. When identified, the result is that it "bestows blessings upon blades of Palamir." Its effect upon Bostock, one-time paladin of that God and current longsword in Grey Wolf's possession, is that it allows it to lay on hands. Once per round, as a move-equivalent action by its wielder, it can heal someone within 5', up to 80 points per day.
Ernie doesn’t feel as entitled to the best loot as some of the others, having recently acquired an epic blade, but he is still pleased to don Laramon’s Favored Shirt. (Laramon is the Kivian Demigod of Luck.) It’s a silver and green silk shirt, emblazoned on the front with Laramon's coin-and-bolt symbol. When the wearer is at half of his maximum hit points (or lower), it grants a +4 luck bonus to AC.
Flicker takes a matching pair of straight silver daggers; they are returning daggers, +5, and there is no penalty for throwing them up to 100’ distant. They also return to the thrower after each attack.
Morningstar gets Tokma’s Radiant Barrier, an iridescent breastplate that reflects subtle rainbow hues in any light. It had been worn for years by Tokma, a female paladin of the Kivian goddess Heros, until she was slain by Azhant's breath weapon. It is a breastplate +6, and grants the wearer Resistance 10 vs. all five energy types. She also pockets Laramon’s Jade Clover, a small four-leaf clover carved from jade, with each leaf etched with the coin-and-bolt symbol of Laramon. While the Clover is in her possession, once per day, Morningstar can decide to roll 3 times on a d20 and then take the most desired result. Lastly, Morningstar takes a +6 belt of strength, more appropriate for her now that she wields Ell’s Will.
Aravis takes the Gloves of the Displaced Source, which allows any spell shaped as a line, cone, or burst, and that normally originates at the caster, to instead originate from any square within 10’ of the caster, and to which the caster has line of effect. He also claims the Battlestone of St. Jenniver, a smooth, flat gray oval stone. Once per day the user can trade away damage dice on any area-of-effect spell and heal all allies in the area by the number of dice removed. Any allies so healed do not take any damage from the spell. When used, at least one and no more than half the spell's damage dice can be traded off.
But all of those things, while useful and powerful, are sidelights to the main attraction of the dragon hoard. While in Naslund, Aravis asked Leantha for the answer to his most pressing question: “How do we defeat the Adversary?” Now he holds the gray leather book, which only he can open, and hopes to find his answer.
Inside are a series of beautiful child's drawings – as if an artistic genius had been tasked to create the works in the style of a toddler. Slowly Aravis turns each page, committing each drawing to memory.
The first page shows a map of the known world, with Charagan at the western edge, Kivia at the eastern edge, and the Uncrossable Sea between them. Not far from the center, but somewhat to the north, is a small island.
On the second page there is a great castle. In the doorway of the castle, a huge, dark male figure is being stabbed in the back by a smaller female figure with a long golden sword. The sword is shattering from the blow. Outside the castle seven others are fleeing, as are hundreds of tiny figures at their feet.
The third page pictures a fissure in the side of an immense cliff. Two stones with embedded Divination Sinks, like the ones the party found at Het Branoi, sit on the ground outside of the fissure.
Across the next two pages is a drawing of a Sharshun woman, her face a hidden shadow, holding aloft a long, serrated golden dagger. It is clear from the coloring and artistic style that this golden dagger and the shattering golden sword are, at very least, made from the same metal.
The sixth page shows a dwarf with a well-groomed beard, and a pile of rocks at his feet. The dwarf holds aloft that same golden dagger. He is smiling.
On the seventh page is drawn an ambiguous humanoid figure, wearing the distinctive uniform of the Spire Guard, lying dead, the golden dagger clutched in one hand.
Drawn large on the eighth page is an image of a Ward of Drosh, hanging from its necklace.
The ninth page shows a scarred man with protruding tusks and white priestly robes. He is shouting as if in great pain, while blood runs from his eyes.
And on the tenth and final page is shown a silver coin emblazoned with a lightning bolt – Laramon’s holy symbol.
/*/
The party talks at great length about the pictures in Leantha’s book. They all agree that the dark figure being stabbed with the golden sword is the Adversary, and that the stabber is Uthol Inga. The other seven figures must be the remaining Travelers: Brechen, Delioch, Ell, Werthis and Corilayna, as well as the deceased Caba and Aranod.
The fissure with the divination sinks is a mystery, though the most popular theory is that it’s the entrance to the Sharshun headquarters hidden in the Greatwood. They’re more certain that the Sharshun woman holding the golden dagger is Darkeye, and Farazil confirms that Darkeye is rumored to possess a powerful dagger known as the Watcher’s Kiss.
The exultant dwarf holding the dagger is obviously Kibi, and the half-orc bleeding from the eyes is clearly Dranko. (“Ugh,” Dranko grumbles. “Kibi gets to smile, and I get to scream while my head explodes. Great.”)
As for the dead figure wearing the raiment of the Spire Guard – who knows? It could be one of the Company, though Dranko is inclined (with no real evidence, admittedly) to think it’s Rosetta.
The picture of the Ward of Drosh is a dead-on match for the one given to the party by Viersk in Naslund. As for the silver coin, it’s the symbol of Laramon, Kivian Demigod of Luck. With Corilayna having fled with the coming of the Adversary, it makes sense that Laramon may be extending his influence throughout the world. As for its meaning, the Company agrees that Leantha is telling them that to defeat the Adversary, they’re going to need good luck, and lots of it.
…to be continued…
Knowledge
“Will you be staying, Ernest, or do you feel like you still have more to do?”
Dolly bustles about the Inn Between, and talks to Ernie over her shoulder. She seems more businesslike than Ernie remembers her, a trifle less warm.
“I like staying here,” admits Ernie, reaching down to pet one of the resident cats, “but there’s so much more left on our plate. There’s still that world-saving thing.”
“Well, stay as long as you’d like,” Dolly shrugs.
“Ah, don’t be so hard on the kid,” calls Barnabas from his customary table at the back. “Ernie, come and sit with me until your friends call you back. I want to see that fancy sword of yours…”
/*/
In the land of the living, Aravis removes Azhant’s head by disintegrating the neck; the party figures it will serve as proof that they’ve finished the job. But more importantly, the Company discovers Azhant’s true hoard hidden behind an illusionary wall at the far side of the cavern. Unsurprisingly, a majority of the loot seems to have once been the property of the dwarven Empire of Gurund -- non-magical weapons and armor of dwarvish design and size, coins and bars stamped with dwarven likenesses and symbols, and many pieces of jewelry obviously of dwarf-make. Mixed in with the dwarven plunder is plenty of stuff from other parts of Kivia -- Azhant the Ancient has been building his hoard for centuries.
Morningstar casts a sending to High Priestess Rhiavonne in Kallor, requesting that the temple there be readied for a true resurrection. Then the rest of the day and evening are spent shoveling as much of the dragon’s treasure as possible into the Lucent Tower, which seems like the fastest way to transport such vast quantities. There are a number of highly-magical objects mixed in, the identification of which will be first on the agenda after Ernie’s resurrection, though one in particular inspires particular reverent interest. It is a closed and sealed book that they discover resting at the very apex of the largest hill of treasure. The book is thin but weighty, made of dark grey leather and embossed with a fancy “L” on the front cover, overlaying the symbol of Leantha, one-time Kivian Goddess of Knowledge.
/*/
This time around, with souls moving properly between this world and the next, Morningstar’s true resurrection runs properly from midnight to dawn.
The ceremony has been fast-tracked, and the chapel is only half-full. The Priestess Anhaya Sunblossom, leader of the church of Yondalla on Charagan, is in attendance with two under-priests; they watch attentively as their faith’s greatest living hero is brought back to life. If Morningstar hears some murmurs from the crowd wondering why Rhiavonne herself isn’t performing the ritual, and that perhaps Morningstar is likely to be Rhiavonne’s successor, she pretends to take no notice. As the muted sun crests the horizon beyond the eternal twilight of Kallor, Ernie’s eyes flutter open. His last memory of the Inn Between is of Dolly, hands on her hips, telling him that as much as she enjoys his company, she’d rather not see him quite so often.
/*/
Having taken care of that order of business, the Company moves on to the more enjoyable fallout from the battle with Azhant – combing through the loot. They open the Lucent Tower in the yard behind the Greenhouse and coins spill out onto the grass.
Given many hours to sift through the monetary and artistic pieces, Flicker estimates that the coinage, bars, gems, jewelry and objects d'art are worth in total about 200,000 GP. There are also dozens of minor magical items (rings of protection, weapons, armor, shields and ability-boosters of the +1 and +2 varieties, and misc. stuff of minimal use to near-epic adventurers like the Company), worth an additional 70,000 GP.
After dinner, they set about divvying up the best of the magic items. Two are set aside immediately – a war-hammer and suit of plate-mail both heavily enchanted for dwarven fighters. None in the party can make good use of them, but surely they can find a dwarven hero who can. The remainder of the most potent items are distributed among the Company.
Kibi gets the Pulse of Abernia, a deep purple gem infused with Earth Magic. Kibi has seen similar gems in the work-shops of his grandfather Cranchus. This one, according to their divinations, was made by an earth mage named Golquan, who long ago served the First Dwarf of Gurund as his court wizard. He was killed by Azhant’s sire in the midst of the ogre war. When held by an Earth Mage, the Pulse of Abernia has a chance of augmenting every spell he casts, in a variety of possible ways. It also increases Kibi’s natural armor bonus.
Dranko claims Alazar's Tongue, a black leather weighted whip. It is a +5 weapon once used by the infamous mercenary Alazar, killed by Azhant about 150 years ago. It can cast dimensional anchor or dismissal on a creature struck, each once per day. Also once per day, it can inflict a -4 penalty to saving throws to a creature struck, with the effect lasting until the end of the encounter. Finally, on a critical hit, the victim moves at half speed on its next turn. Dranko also takes the Unshakable Boots, the wearer of which cannot be knocked down, gains a bonus to grapple checks, and will never run in fear from compulsory magic.
In addition to taking a +5 ring of protection, Grey Wolf is the natural claimant to the Sheath of Blessed Honor, a sword sheath inscribed with prayers to Palamir, Kivian God of loyalty, duty and honor. When identified, the result is that it "bestows blessings upon blades of Palamir." Its effect upon Bostock, one-time paladin of that God and current longsword in Grey Wolf's possession, is that it allows it to lay on hands. Once per round, as a move-equivalent action by its wielder, it can heal someone within 5', up to 80 points per day.
Ernie doesn’t feel as entitled to the best loot as some of the others, having recently acquired an epic blade, but he is still pleased to don Laramon’s Favored Shirt. (Laramon is the Kivian Demigod of Luck.) It’s a silver and green silk shirt, emblazoned on the front with Laramon's coin-and-bolt symbol. When the wearer is at half of his maximum hit points (or lower), it grants a +4 luck bonus to AC.
Flicker takes a matching pair of straight silver daggers; they are returning daggers, +5, and there is no penalty for throwing them up to 100’ distant. They also return to the thrower after each attack.
Morningstar gets Tokma’s Radiant Barrier, an iridescent breastplate that reflects subtle rainbow hues in any light. It had been worn for years by Tokma, a female paladin of the Kivian goddess Heros, until she was slain by Azhant's breath weapon. It is a breastplate +6, and grants the wearer Resistance 10 vs. all five energy types. She also pockets Laramon’s Jade Clover, a small four-leaf clover carved from jade, with each leaf etched with the coin-and-bolt symbol of Laramon. While the Clover is in her possession, once per day, Morningstar can decide to roll 3 times on a d20 and then take the most desired result. Lastly, Morningstar takes a +6 belt of strength, more appropriate for her now that she wields Ell’s Will.
Aravis takes the Gloves of the Displaced Source, which allows any spell shaped as a line, cone, or burst, and that normally originates at the caster, to instead originate from any square within 10’ of the caster, and to which the caster has line of effect. He also claims the Battlestone of St. Jenniver, a smooth, flat gray oval stone. Once per day the user can trade away damage dice on any area-of-effect spell and heal all allies in the area by the number of dice removed. Any allies so healed do not take any damage from the spell. When used, at least one and no more than half the spell's damage dice can be traded off.
But all of those things, while useful and powerful, are sidelights to the main attraction of the dragon hoard. While in Naslund, Aravis asked Leantha for the answer to his most pressing question: “How do we defeat the Adversary?” Now he holds the gray leather book, which only he can open, and hopes to find his answer.
Inside are a series of beautiful child's drawings – as if an artistic genius had been tasked to create the works in the style of a toddler. Slowly Aravis turns each page, committing each drawing to memory.
The first page shows a map of the known world, with Charagan at the western edge, Kivia at the eastern edge, and the Uncrossable Sea between them. Not far from the center, but somewhat to the north, is a small island.
On the second page there is a great castle. In the doorway of the castle, a huge, dark male figure is being stabbed in the back by a smaller female figure with a long golden sword. The sword is shattering from the blow. Outside the castle seven others are fleeing, as are hundreds of tiny figures at their feet.
The third page pictures a fissure in the side of an immense cliff. Two stones with embedded Divination Sinks, like the ones the party found at Het Branoi, sit on the ground outside of the fissure.
Across the next two pages is a drawing of a Sharshun woman, her face a hidden shadow, holding aloft a long, serrated golden dagger. It is clear from the coloring and artistic style that this golden dagger and the shattering golden sword are, at very least, made from the same metal.
The sixth page shows a dwarf with a well-groomed beard, and a pile of rocks at his feet. The dwarf holds aloft that same golden dagger. He is smiling.
On the seventh page is drawn an ambiguous humanoid figure, wearing the distinctive uniform of the Spire Guard, lying dead, the golden dagger clutched in one hand.
Drawn large on the eighth page is an image of a Ward of Drosh, hanging from its necklace.
The ninth page shows a scarred man with protruding tusks and white priestly robes. He is shouting as if in great pain, while blood runs from his eyes.
And on the tenth and final page is shown a silver coin emblazoned with a lightning bolt – Laramon’s holy symbol.
/*/
The party talks at great length about the pictures in Leantha’s book. They all agree that the dark figure being stabbed with the golden sword is the Adversary, and that the stabber is Uthol Inga. The other seven figures must be the remaining Travelers: Brechen, Delioch, Ell, Werthis and Corilayna, as well as the deceased Caba and Aranod.
The fissure with the divination sinks is a mystery, though the most popular theory is that it’s the entrance to the Sharshun headquarters hidden in the Greatwood. They’re more certain that the Sharshun woman holding the golden dagger is Darkeye, and Farazil confirms that Darkeye is rumored to possess a powerful dagger known as the Watcher’s Kiss.
The exultant dwarf holding the dagger is obviously Kibi, and the half-orc bleeding from the eyes is clearly Dranko. (“Ugh,” Dranko grumbles. “Kibi gets to smile, and I get to scream while my head explodes. Great.”)
As for the dead figure wearing the raiment of the Spire Guard – who knows? It could be one of the Company, though Dranko is inclined (with no real evidence, admittedly) to think it’s Rosetta.
The picture of the Ward of Drosh is a dead-on match for the one given to the party by Viersk in Naslund. As for the silver coin, it’s the symbol of Laramon, Kivian Demigod of Luck. With Corilayna having fled with the coming of the Adversary, it makes sense that Laramon may be extending his influence throughout the world. As for its meaning, the Company agrees that Leantha is telling them that to defeat the Adversary, they’re going to need good luck, and lots of it.
…to be continued…
Duncan Haldane
Explorer
I'm lost!
Hi all,
Hoping someone might be able to help me.
I lost the permalink of where I was up to in the story, and now I've no idea how far back I am.
When I was reading last the party were in the burial chamber of the gods. If someone could message me with a permalink or page number for those posts, I'd be greatful. At over 90 pages long, and really slow load, it's very hard to work out where I was.
Thanks. Been reading this since it was first up on Enworld.
Hi all,
Hoping someone might be able to help me.
I lost the permalink of where I was up to in the story, and now I've no idea how far back I am.
When I was reading last the party were in the burial chamber of the gods. If someone could message me with a permalink or page number for those posts, I'd be greatful. At over 90 pages long, and really slow load, it's very hard to work out where I was.
Thanks. Been reading this since it was first up on Enworld.
