ADVENTURE 47: A FATEFUL INVITATION
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 29 May 2019
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Syngaard came crashing through the front door of the Enchanted Flagon, out of breath from running across the town in his full combat gear. "What the Hell's up?" he demanded. "You said the fate of the kingdom was at stake!"
The others were already around the main table, looking at Skevros's crystal ball. Syngaard shouldered his way between Kaspar and Daleth and took a look for himself. It was a group of Ossirnan Elites setting up what looked to be a massive catapult. Due to the muted colors, the event seemed to be occurring on the Ethereal Plane. "Is that--?" Syngaard began, looking at the large boulder sitting on the ground near the catapult's basket, seemingly engraved with runes.
"Yes," said Skevros, his mouth tight in a frown. "It's a meteor stone - likely the one stolen from the Diviner's Vault in the Azure Glades."
"Do we know for sure it's being set up to attack Durnhill?" Syngaard pressed. "All fuzzy like that, it could be anywhere."
"Read this," Daleth said, passing a sheet of parchment over to the bald fighter. "We've already seen it." Syngaard took up the paper and started reading, his lips moving silently as he did so. The seriousness of the situation was punctuated by the fact that Orion wasn't giving him a hard time for his sub-par reading skills. He read:
"...the Hell?" asked Syngaard, throwing the message onto the table before him. "I never rubbed him off! I know better than to touch that lich - I don't wanna end up a chunk of mithral!"
"By the looks of it, we have an hour before the catapult is complete," Skevros observed, ignoring Syngaard's outburst entirely. He passed a rolled-up scroll to Daleth, his fellow wizard. "This is a scroll of plane shift," he told the elf. "You will use it to return to the Material Plane upon the success of your mission. After that, Kaspar can get you back here using his ring of return."
"The mission what I think it is? Kill them Ossirnans, prevent them from destroying the city?"
"Yes, of course, Syngaard - what other possible mission could it be?" He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. "And before you ask, I am certain His Majesty will open his coffers to those who prevent the obliteration of his city, so yes, this is undoubtedly a paying mission." Syngaard, who had opened his mouth to ask that very question, closed it in satisfaction. It looked like he was finally getting the king's adviser properly trained!
Skevros ushered the conscripts out of the tavern and led them to the southern gate of the city. "I will need to cast a gate spell outside the city's confines," he explained. "But it will drop you at the periphery of the catapult so you can deal with the attackers." As he spoke, the spellcasters made their normal preparations: Daleth cast stoneskin, resist fire, and Rary's telepathic bond spells while Galen cast the spells bless weapon and magic circle against evil. Orion passed a scroll of her own to the elven wizard and Daleth cast a second stoneskin spell upon the halfling. "Thanks!" she said, whistling for her ghost-dog. By the time Carl manifested at her side, she had unstoppered a potion of mage armor for him to slurp down.
"You still got that crystal ball handy?" Syngaard asked before they stepped outside the city gate. Skevros wordlessly removed it from a cloak pocket and brought the image of the partially assembled catapult and its crew into focus. There were seven warriors in what looked to be hellsteel armor, each with a longsword containing a blade of the same material, assembling the catapult. Two archers, a man and a woman, stood further back by the meteor stone keeping an eye out for trouble, while a wizard stood before them as if supervising the entire operation.
"Set us down right here," Syngaard commanded, pointing to an area behind the archers. "We'll take them and the wizard out first."
"Is there any danger of the meteor stone going off?" asked Orion from the saddle of her ghost-dog. "Daleth blew up the last one with one of his weakest spells."
"The meteor stone does not look to be primed," answered Skevros. "It would take the wizard's touch to prepare it for detonation. I agree with Syngaard: take the wizard out first."
"Let us line up behind Daleth," suggested Galen, calling across the planes for his dire lion, Burt, and climbing onto his broad back once he manifested. "You'll make the first attack, Wizard-Pants. Make it as powerful of a spell as you have; we don't want the wizard to survive the initial assault."
"And let's get our reinforcements out now," suggested Syngaard, pulling the bronze griffon from his pocket and activating it with a quick rub of his hand. Instantly, Dick took form and the scarred fighter climbed into position between the beast's feathered wings. Kaspar followed suit by summoning forth the spirit of a giant stag beetle from his amber amulet of vermin. Once John had taken form by the elven monk's side, Skevros cast his gate spell, causing a vertical, swirling pool of colors, ten feet wide, to appear directly before the elven wizard. "Good luck!" called Skevros as the conscripts and their various animals surged forward into battle on the Ethereal Plane.
Daleth cast a prismatic spray spell in a wide cone that engulfed the wizard, both archers, and the nearest three of the armored warriors. The female archer gasped as a surge of electricity suffused through her body, causing her long hair to stand out in all directions. At the same time, the other archer faded away as he fell through a rift into another plane of existence entirely. One of the fighters immediately petrified into solid rock, while another choked on a virulent poison which suddenly filled his body, causing him to fall lifelessly to the ground. The third fighter - the Captain of the Guard - staggered under another electrical barrage. Of the six targets, only the wizard seemed unaffected, and Daleth swore silently under his breath - that was the one target he needed to take down, quick!
But quick was the elven wizard's watch-word of the moment; taking advantage of his enhanced understanding of arcane spell energy, he cast a quickened magic missile through his metamagic rod, striking the wizard unerringly, while Todd stabbed out at the same target with his tail-stinger. <Weird,> the pseudodragon said telepathically to the others. <I think I hit him, but if felt...funny.> If he had indeed hit the wizard it didn't seem as if his sleep venom had any effect upon him, in any case.
<I don't think that wizard's really there!> Daleth advised over the mind-link.
<Then he can't activate the meteor stone!> rejoiced Orion as she led Carl forward to attack the female ranger before she even knew the halfling - who had approached silently from behind her - was even there. Orion's nightflame short sword cut her down with one rapid strike between the shoulder blades.
<That don't make no sense!> complained Syngaard as Dick flapped over to the Captain of the Guard, biting him with his sharp beak while Syngaard sent his human bane scimitar crashing down through his armor, shoulder, and collarbone. Blood gushed from the wound as Syngaard pulled his blade out, and the Captain staggered to stay on his feet. <If there ain't no real wizard here, there ain't no threat, neither! There's gotta be an invisible wizard here or somethin', or this setup don't make no sense!>
<I concur,> said Kaspar over the link as he finished off the Captain with a rapid blow to the back of his head. The fighter crumpled instantly. <Daleth, can you see anyone else hiding around here?> As he thought his query, he was also straining his elven ears to try to pick up the sounds of anyone who might be lurking unseen in the vicinity.
Burt and Galen moved forward to attack the wizard with John skittering in their wake, and while their claws, teeth, mandibles, and blade all struck true, the wizard seemed unaffected. Concentrating upon the spellcaster, Galen announced, <He's definitely a fake - an illusion spell of some sort, I gather. So where's the real spellcaster?>
By now, the magical gate behind them had closed; Skevros hadn't wanted an escape route back to the city walls of Durnhill to remain as an avenue of attack for the assembled Ossirnans. But the fighters had barely had time to even recognize they were under attack as the conscripts surged forward. Daleth cast a true seeing spell from his azurewood staff of divination, using it to acknowledge that the meteor stone was in fact exactly what it appeared to be. Looking all about him with the spell still active, he found the missing wizard floating about a hundred feet above the battleground.
<He's up there!> Daleth called out over the link, pointing up at the robed wizard only he could see. <It's Alexandros!>
Orion didn't spend any time worrying about what that might mean - she had sent Carl forward to the rightmost fighter, whose back was still temptingly turned in her direction. She send her blade deep into his torso, causing him to cry out in a choking scream filled with blood. Then, to make matters worse, when he turned to face this unforeseen threat, there was Kaspar suddenly standing before him, sending a tenryutsume-covered fist smashing into his face, breaking his nose while fire and electricity coursed across the rest of his face. The stunning blow caused the fighter to drop both his shield and his longsword as he staggered, trying to remain on his feet.
Dick, in the meantime, flew forward to attack another fighter, screaming his war-shriek to freeze his prey momentarily - just long enough to clamp down on the man's arm. But by then, Syngaard was no longer on the griffon's back; the bald fighter had leaped from the griffon and raced over to engage the only other armored foe not otherwise engaged in combat. The warriors fought back with their hellsteel longswords, to limited success.
Alexandros flew down from his aerial vantage and headed straight for the meteor stone, one hand outstretched as if to prime it for explosion, the other one holding up a finger to his lips in a shushing motion aimed at Daleth. A dozen thoughts flooded the elf's brain: he had to stop the Mithral Mage from priming the meteor stone or it could easily kill them all! But Alexandros had recently slain the gods of Mikito's homeland and absorbed their power - just how powerful of a lich was he, anyway? And how was Daleth, the one person among the conscripts who could even see Alexandros while he was cloaked in an invisibility spell, supposed to stop him? He had several attack spells readied, but he doubted if any of them would be able to halt the Mithral Mage in his tracks, let alone kill him outright.
In the scant second or two it took for Daleth to examine each of these thoughts, he selected a course of action - the one course of action most likely to end in an outcome favorable to Durnhill and those out here on the front lines, protecting it from harm. Daleth said the words of arcane power, pointed his finger--
--and a thin, black beam hit the meteor stone, causing it to dissolve into nothingness, the victim of Daleth's disintegrate spell.
"NO!" cried Alexandros in true anguish - he'd had plans for the meteor stone!
While her enemy was facing Kaspar warily, ready to avoid another punch from the monk's hand and that metal-mesh glove-thing he wore over it, Orion got in a good backstab that slew him instantly. She then spurred Carl over to help Dick take out the fighter he was currently battling. There were bloodstains soaking the griffon's feathers and fur, testament to the fighter's skill in combat. Kaspar followed, striking the enemy but failing to put him into a walking stupor like he had done with his previous foe.
Syngaard was demonstrating his own skill in combat to the hapless enemy he was fighting, but it was a lesson the Ossirnan would never get to put into practice on his own. He retaliated against Syngaard as best he could, but the bald fighter caught the man's blows on his shield and then stabbed forward again with his human bane scimitar.
The Ossirnan warrior battling Dick, Kaspar, and Orion opted to try to take down the halfling first, perhaps seeing her as the easiest to slay. That was a mistake, for she easily ducked beneath his sword-strike and then cut a line of pain across his sword-arm for his troubles. He then tried striking at Kaspar, but the nimble monk dodged the incoming blow with minimal effort, smiling infuriatingly the whole time.
With a snarl of hated, Alexandros flew straight up for about 60 feet or so and then hovered in place, casting a meteor swarm spell down at the meddling conscripts. The first flaming rock just missed Galen, but the paladin was caught in the ensuing explosion of fire. Burt managed to back away in the nick of time, as did Daleth and Todd, but the fiery blast caught Syngaard unexpectedly from behind. The second meteor had been targeted directly at Syngaard, but it too missed, and then to make matters worse landed with a slight "puff" of flames that had the scarred fighter looking up at the Mithral Mage with a scoff of disbelief and a look that said, "Is that all you got?" But it at least singed Galen somewhat, even if once again Burt managed to avoid the worst of its effects. The fighter battling Syngaard was also only slightly singed, but his unbelieving expression said he felt the attack - which encompassed him as well as the conscripts - was a betrayal from the wizard who was supposed to be helping them destroy Durnhill's main city. The third meteor struck Kaspar full on, but its explosion was also somewhat minimal, although the blast managed to encompass Syngaard, John, Dick, Orion, and Carl as well. Orion escaped from that volley unscathed, the fire damage being absorbed into her magical bracelet, but she felt Carl discorporate once again as the blast tore apart his ghost-body. With a sad whine, he was once again gone from the field of battle and the halfling floated slowly to the ground, courtesy of her ring of feather falling. As she landed, she saw Dick was also no longer present; he had reverted back to statuette form and fallen to the ground. The fourth and final meteor had been aimed at the griffon and likely would have hit him straight on, had he not already been collapsed back into his figurine form; it struck the ground and exploded, catching Kaspar and Orion in the blast - but each of them used their respective combat training to successfully avoid the effects of the fiery explosion. John wasn't as lucky; overcome by the searing flames, he also vanished from view and the amber amulet Kaspar wore around his neck once more contained a stag beetle imprisoned within it.
"That's it?" cried Alexandros in dismay. "I only managed to kill a few stray animals?"
Galen responded wordlessly by pulling the illumium scabbard from his belt, pointing it at the Mithral Mage, and channeling a blast of Hieroneous's healing energy at the floating lich.
<We fightin' him?> Syngaard called over the link. <I thought we wasn't supposed to be fightin' him!>
<I do not know that we have the power to destroy him,> Kaspar pointed out.
<No, not permanently,> agreed Galen. <And if we do kill him, he'll only reform in a couple of days.> He sent another blast at the lich for good measure. <But it's good to see him suffer for a change!>
Daleth pulled the plane shift scroll from an inner pocket of his robes. <I should like to point out that our mission - to save Durnhill from the meteor stone - has been accomplished. I suggest we leave as quickly as possible, before he slays one of us!>
<Agreed!> said Galen, sending another blast at Alexandros. <Form up by Daleth!>
<Hey!> called Syngaard suddenly as the conscripts started heading towards Daleth and he spent a quick moment to slash his scimitar at the Ossirnan warrior he'd been fighting, catching him in the throat and dropping him lifelessly to the ground. <Somebody grab my Dick!>
Orion narrowed her eyes at the bald fighter, then bent down and picked up his figurine of wondrous power from the ground. <I will pick up your bronze griffon,> she emphasized as she ran to join the group. Kaspar tried his quivering palm attack on the other Ossirnan fighter but failed to connect and raced to get into position with the others.
"How nice to line up for me!" Alexandros chuckled, sending a chain lightning spell down at Syngaard and arcing to everyone else within range - including the two remaining Ossirnan fighters. Everyone survived the arcane assault, but some only by the barest of margins.
Galen and Burt raced forward to join the others and then, once everyone was in place (Orion stabbing one of the Ossirnans who tried to follow), Daleth read the words from the scroll and they all vanished from the Ethereal Plane, leaving a frustrated Alexandros hovering over a partially-assembled catapult with two bewildered Ossirnan fighters remaining among the corpses of their allies. The fighters, looking up at a furious Alexandros who had already targeted them with his spells, devoutly wished they had been able to plane shift away with the Durnhill forces.
The group reappeared in a random forest, sturdy oaks towering above them. <Let's see if he follows,> suggested Galen. <If he doesn't, it should be safe to return to Durnhill.> After several minutes, it appeared as if the Mithral Mage wasn't going to show. Kaspar pulled the ring of return from his robes and used it to teleport everyone to the southern gate of the city of Durnhill. They made their way back to the Enchanted Flagon just in time to see a gate open up in the air high above the front door - and for two screaming fighters clad in hellsteel armor to plummet a full 200 feet to their deaths.
Calmed by the murder of his two dupes, Alexandros mused on the fact that Skevros's pawns obviously feared him and fled before his might. That, he decided, would be good enough - for now....
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Logan was rolling like crap again during this session - he was particularly upset at the low damage rolls on Alexandros's meteor swarm spell. And he let it slip that Alexandros has a CR 27 (Wizard 20/Archmage 5, +2 for the lich template) - something WAY above our ability to successfully fight, so "bugging out" at the end of this adventure was definitely the right thing to do. Logan's said Alexandros realized we're trying to find a way to destroy the osteovox cloud (and thus his phylactery) and as a result his days of treating us as amusing diversions is at an end.
PC Roster:
Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 14
Galen Thorne, human paladin 15
Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 15
Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 15
Syngaard, human fighter 15
Galen Thorne, human paladin 15
Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 15
Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 15
Syngaard, human fighter 15
Game Session Date: 29 May 2019
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Syngaard came crashing through the front door of the Enchanted Flagon, out of breath from running across the town in his full combat gear. "What the Hell's up?" he demanded. "You said the fate of the kingdom was at stake!"
The others were already around the main table, looking at Skevros's crystal ball. Syngaard shouldered his way between Kaspar and Daleth and took a look for himself. It was a group of Ossirnan Elites setting up what looked to be a massive catapult. Due to the muted colors, the event seemed to be occurring on the Ethereal Plane. "Is that--?" Syngaard began, looking at the large boulder sitting on the ground near the catapult's basket, seemingly engraved with runes.
"Yes," said Skevros, his mouth tight in a frown. "It's a meteor stone - likely the one stolen from the Diviner's Vault in the Azure Glades."
"Do we know for sure it's being set up to attack Durnhill?" Syngaard pressed. "All fuzzy like that, it could be anywhere."
"Read this," Daleth said, passing a sheet of parchment over to the bald fighter. "We've already seen it." Syngaard took up the paper and started reading, his lips moving silently as he did so. The seriousness of the situation was punctuated by the fact that Orion wasn't giving him a hard time for his sub-par reading skills. He read:
Dear Skevros, and his chosen "heroes",
The Ossirnans come bearing a gift. I am sure you would like to take their meteor stone for yourselves rather than let them "deliver" it properly to your city. You will find them cleverly hiding just south of your city's walls, although only your dog and its pet halfling will be able to do anything about them without a gate spell. You'd better hurry, though - a couple more hours and I won't have to worry about Durnhill anymore.
Alexandros
PS: In all honesty, though, I don't care what happens. Either you fail and I watch your city burn or you succeed and use the meteor stone against them and I watch their pitiful, whiny, needy asses burn. Either way I get some enjoyment out of it. Just thought I'd give you a fighting chance with this little warning.
PPS: Maybe Syngaard is on to something - it is rather cathartic to pick on halflings. Or maybe he's just rubbing off on me? Actually, that's a rather disturbing image; I'd rather he keeps his hands on his griffon.
"...the Hell?" asked Syngaard, throwing the message onto the table before him. "I never rubbed him off! I know better than to touch that lich - I don't wanna end up a chunk of mithral!"
"By the looks of it, we have an hour before the catapult is complete," Skevros observed, ignoring Syngaard's outburst entirely. He passed a rolled-up scroll to Daleth, his fellow wizard. "This is a scroll of plane shift," he told the elf. "You will use it to return to the Material Plane upon the success of your mission. After that, Kaspar can get you back here using his ring of return."
"The mission what I think it is? Kill them Ossirnans, prevent them from destroying the city?"
"Yes, of course, Syngaard - what other possible mission could it be?" He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. "And before you ask, I am certain His Majesty will open his coffers to those who prevent the obliteration of his city, so yes, this is undoubtedly a paying mission." Syngaard, who had opened his mouth to ask that very question, closed it in satisfaction. It looked like he was finally getting the king's adviser properly trained!
Skevros ushered the conscripts out of the tavern and led them to the southern gate of the city. "I will need to cast a gate spell outside the city's confines," he explained. "But it will drop you at the periphery of the catapult so you can deal with the attackers." As he spoke, the spellcasters made their normal preparations: Daleth cast stoneskin, resist fire, and Rary's telepathic bond spells while Galen cast the spells bless weapon and magic circle against evil. Orion passed a scroll of her own to the elven wizard and Daleth cast a second stoneskin spell upon the halfling. "Thanks!" she said, whistling for her ghost-dog. By the time Carl manifested at her side, she had unstoppered a potion of mage armor for him to slurp down.
"You still got that crystal ball handy?" Syngaard asked before they stepped outside the city gate. Skevros wordlessly removed it from a cloak pocket and brought the image of the partially assembled catapult and its crew into focus. There were seven warriors in what looked to be hellsteel armor, each with a longsword containing a blade of the same material, assembling the catapult. Two archers, a man and a woman, stood further back by the meteor stone keeping an eye out for trouble, while a wizard stood before them as if supervising the entire operation.
"Set us down right here," Syngaard commanded, pointing to an area behind the archers. "We'll take them and the wizard out first."
"Is there any danger of the meteor stone going off?" asked Orion from the saddle of her ghost-dog. "Daleth blew up the last one with one of his weakest spells."
"The meteor stone does not look to be primed," answered Skevros. "It would take the wizard's touch to prepare it for detonation. I agree with Syngaard: take the wizard out first."
"Let us line up behind Daleth," suggested Galen, calling across the planes for his dire lion, Burt, and climbing onto his broad back once he manifested. "You'll make the first attack, Wizard-Pants. Make it as powerful of a spell as you have; we don't want the wizard to survive the initial assault."
"And let's get our reinforcements out now," suggested Syngaard, pulling the bronze griffon from his pocket and activating it with a quick rub of his hand. Instantly, Dick took form and the scarred fighter climbed into position between the beast's feathered wings. Kaspar followed suit by summoning forth the spirit of a giant stag beetle from his amber amulet of vermin. Once John had taken form by the elven monk's side, Skevros cast his gate spell, causing a vertical, swirling pool of colors, ten feet wide, to appear directly before the elven wizard. "Good luck!" called Skevros as the conscripts and their various animals surged forward into battle on the Ethereal Plane.
Daleth cast a prismatic spray spell in a wide cone that engulfed the wizard, both archers, and the nearest three of the armored warriors. The female archer gasped as a surge of electricity suffused through her body, causing her long hair to stand out in all directions. At the same time, the other archer faded away as he fell through a rift into another plane of existence entirely. One of the fighters immediately petrified into solid rock, while another choked on a virulent poison which suddenly filled his body, causing him to fall lifelessly to the ground. The third fighter - the Captain of the Guard - staggered under another electrical barrage. Of the six targets, only the wizard seemed unaffected, and Daleth swore silently under his breath - that was the one target he needed to take down, quick!
But quick was the elven wizard's watch-word of the moment; taking advantage of his enhanced understanding of arcane spell energy, he cast a quickened magic missile through his metamagic rod, striking the wizard unerringly, while Todd stabbed out at the same target with his tail-stinger. <Weird,> the pseudodragon said telepathically to the others. <I think I hit him, but if felt...funny.> If he had indeed hit the wizard it didn't seem as if his sleep venom had any effect upon him, in any case.
<I don't think that wizard's really there!> Daleth advised over the mind-link.
<Then he can't activate the meteor stone!> rejoiced Orion as she led Carl forward to attack the female ranger before she even knew the halfling - who had approached silently from behind her - was even there. Orion's nightflame short sword cut her down with one rapid strike between the shoulder blades.
<That don't make no sense!> complained Syngaard as Dick flapped over to the Captain of the Guard, biting him with his sharp beak while Syngaard sent his human bane scimitar crashing down through his armor, shoulder, and collarbone. Blood gushed from the wound as Syngaard pulled his blade out, and the Captain staggered to stay on his feet. <If there ain't no real wizard here, there ain't no threat, neither! There's gotta be an invisible wizard here or somethin', or this setup don't make no sense!>
<I concur,> said Kaspar over the link as he finished off the Captain with a rapid blow to the back of his head. The fighter crumpled instantly. <Daleth, can you see anyone else hiding around here?> As he thought his query, he was also straining his elven ears to try to pick up the sounds of anyone who might be lurking unseen in the vicinity.
Burt and Galen moved forward to attack the wizard with John skittering in their wake, and while their claws, teeth, mandibles, and blade all struck true, the wizard seemed unaffected. Concentrating upon the spellcaster, Galen announced, <He's definitely a fake - an illusion spell of some sort, I gather. So where's the real spellcaster?>
By now, the magical gate behind them had closed; Skevros hadn't wanted an escape route back to the city walls of Durnhill to remain as an avenue of attack for the assembled Ossirnans. But the fighters had barely had time to even recognize they were under attack as the conscripts surged forward. Daleth cast a true seeing spell from his azurewood staff of divination, using it to acknowledge that the meteor stone was in fact exactly what it appeared to be. Looking all about him with the spell still active, he found the missing wizard floating about a hundred feet above the battleground.
<He's up there!> Daleth called out over the link, pointing up at the robed wizard only he could see. <It's Alexandros!>
Orion didn't spend any time worrying about what that might mean - she had sent Carl forward to the rightmost fighter, whose back was still temptingly turned in her direction. She send her blade deep into his torso, causing him to cry out in a choking scream filled with blood. Then, to make matters worse, when he turned to face this unforeseen threat, there was Kaspar suddenly standing before him, sending a tenryutsume-covered fist smashing into his face, breaking his nose while fire and electricity coursed across the rest of his face. The stunning blow caused the fighter to drop both his shield and his longsword as he staggered, trying to remain on his feet.
Dick, in the meantime, flew forward to attack another fighter, screaming his war-shriek to freeze his prey momentarily - just long enough to clamp down on the man's arm. But by then, Syngaard was no longer on the griffon's back; the bald fighter had leaped from the griffon and raced over to engage the only other armored foe not otherwise engaged in combat. The warriors fought back with their hellsteel longswords, to limited success.
Alexandros flew down from his aerial vantage and headed straight for the meteor stone, one hand outstretched as if to prime it for explosion, the other one holding up a finger to his lips in a shushing motion aimed at Daleth. A dozen thoughts flooded the elf's brain: he had to stop the Mithral Mage from priming the meteor stone or it could easily kill them all! But Alexandros had recently slain the gods of Mikito's homeland and absorbed their power - just how powerful of a lich was he, anyway? And how was Daleth, the one person among the conscripts who could even see Alexandros while he was cloaked in an invisibility spell, supposed to stop him? He had several attack spells readied, but he doubted if any of them would be able to halt the Mithral Mage in his tracks, let alone kill him outright.
In the scant second or two it took for Daleth to examine each of these thoughts, he selected a course of action - the one course of action most likely to end in an outcome favorable to Durnhill and those out here on the front lines, protecting it from harm. Daleth said the words of arcane power, pointed his finger--
--and a thin, black beam hit the meteor stone, causing it to dissolve into nothingness, the victim of Daleth's disintegrate spell.
"NO!" cried Alexandros in true anguish - he'd had plans for the meteor stone!
While her enemy was facing Kaspar warily, ready to avoid another punch from the monk's hand and that metal-mesh glove-thing he wore over it, Orion got in a good backstab that slew him instantly. She then spurred Carl over to help Dick take out the fighter he was currently battling. There were bloodstains soaking the griffon's feathers and fur, testament to the fighter's skill in combat. Kaspar followed, striking the enemy but failing to put him into a walking stupor like he had done with his previous foe.
Syngaard was demonstrating his own skill in combat to the hapless enemy he was fighting, but it was a lesson the Ossirnan would never get to put into practice on his own. He retaliated against Syngaard as best he could, but the bald fighter caught the man's blows on his shield and then stabbed forward again with his human bane scimitar.
The Ossirnan warrior battling Dick, Kaspar, and Orion opted to try to take down the halfling first, perhaps seeing her as the easiest to slay. That was a mistake, for she easily ducked beneath his sword-strike and then cut a line of pain across his sword-arm for his troubles. He then tried striking at Kaspar, but the nimble monk dodged the incoming blow with minimal effort, smiling infuriatingly the whole time.
With a snarl of hated, Alexandros flew straight up for about 60 feet or so and then hovered in place, casting a meteor swarm spell down at the meddling conscripts. The first flaming rock just missed Galen, but the paladin was caught in the ensuing explosion of fire. Burt managed to back away in the nick of time, as did Daleth and Todd, but the fiery blast caught Syngaard unexpectedly from behind. The second meteor had been targeted directly at Syngaard, but it too missed, and then to make matters worse landed with a slight "puff" of flames that had the scarred fighter looking up at the Mithral Mage with a scoff of disbelief and a look that said, "Is that all you got?" But it at least singed Galen somewhat, even if once again Burt managed to avoid the worst of its effects. The fighter battling Syngaard was also only slightly singed, but his unbelieving expression said he felt the attack - which encompassed him as well as the conscripts - was a betrayal from the wizard who was supposed to be helping them destroy Durnhill's main city. The third meteor struck Kaspar full on, but its explosion was also somewhat minimal, although the blast managed to encompass Syngaard, John, Dick, Orion, and Carl as well. Orion escaped from that volley unscathed, the fire damage being absorbed into her magical bracelet, but she felt Carl discorporate once again as the blast tore apart his ghost-body. With a sad whine, he was once again gone from the field of battle and the halfling floated slowly to the ground, courtesy of her ring of feather falling. As she landed, she saw Dick was also no longer present; he had reverted back to statuette form and fallen to the ground. The fourth and final meteor had been aimed at the griffon and likely would have hit him straight on, had he not already been collapsed back into his figurine form; it struck the ground and exploded, catching Kaspar and Orion in the blast - but each of them used their respective combat training to successfully avoid the effects of the fiery explosion. John wasn't as lucky; overcome by the searing flames, he also vanished from view and the amber amulet Kaspar wore around his neck once more contained a stag beetle imprisoned within it.
"That's it?" cried Alexandros in dismay. "I only managed to kill a few stray animals?"
Galen responded wordlessly by pulling the illumium scabbard from his belt, pointing it at the Mithral Mage, and channeling a blast of Hieroneous's healing energy at the floating lich.
<We fightin' him?> Syngaard called over the link. <I thought we wasn't supposed to be fightin' him!>
<I do not know that we have the power to destroy him,> Kaspar pointed out.
<No, not permanently,> agreed Galen. <And if we do kill him, he'll only reform in a couple of days.> He sent another blast at the lich for good measure. <But it's good to see him suffer for a change!>
Daleth pulled the plane shift scroll from an inner pocket of his robes. <I should like to point out that our mission - to save Durnhill from the meteor stone - has been accomplished. I suggest we leave as quickly as possible, before he slays one of us!>
<Agreed!> said Galen, sending another blast at Alexandros. <Form up by Daleth!>
<Hey!> called Syngaard suddenly as the conscripts started heading towards Daleth and he spent a quick moment to slash his scimitar at the Ossirnan warrior he'd been fighting, catching him in the throat and dropping him lifelessly to the ground. <Somebody grab my Dick!>
Orion narrowed her eyes at the bald fighter, then bent down and picked up his figurine of wondrous power from the ground. <I will pick up your bronze griffon,> she emphasized as she ran to join the group. Kaspar tried his quivering palm attack on the other Ossirnan fighter but failed to connect and raced to get into position with the others.
"How nice to line up for me!" Alexandros chuckled, sending a chain lightning spell down at Syngaard and arcing to everyone else within range - including the two remaining Ossirnan fighters. Everyone survived the arcane assault, but some only by the barest of margins.
Galen and Burt raced forward to join the others and then, once everyone was in place (Orion stabbing one of the Ossirnans who tried to follow), Daleth read the words from the scroll and they all vanished from the Ethereal Plane, leaving a frustrated Alexandros hovering over a partially-assembled catapult with two bewildered Ossirnan fighters remaining among the corpses of their allies. The fighters, looking up at a furious Alexandros who had already targeted them with his spells, devoutly wished they had been able to plane shift away with the Durnhill forces.
The group reappeared in a random forest, sturdy oaks towering above them. <Let's see if he follows,> suggested Galen. <If he doesn't, it should be safe to return to Durnhill.> After several minutes, it appeared as if the Mithral Mage wasn't going to show. Kaspar pulled the ring of return from his robes and used it to teleport everyone to the southern gate of the city of Durnhill. They made their way back to the Enchanted Flagon just in time to see a gate open up in the air high above the front door - and for two screaming fighters clad in hellsteel armor to plummet a full 200 feet to their deaths.
Calmed by the murder of his two dupes, Alexandros mused on the fact that Skevros's pawns obviously feared him and fled before his might. That, he decided, would be good enough - for now....
- - -
Logan was rolling like crap again during this session - he was particularly upset at the low damage rolls on Alexandros's meteor swarm spell. And he let it slip that Alexandros has a CR 27 (Wizard 20/Archmage 5, +2 for the lich template) - something WAY above our ability to successfully fight, so "bugging out" at the end of this adventure was definitely the right thing to do. Logan's said Alexandros realized we're trying to find a way to destroy the osteovox cloud (and thus his phylactery) and as a result his days of treating us as amusing diversions is at an end.
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