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Wing Three
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6259285" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 79: MESSAGE FROM AKARI</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Desdemona "Dez" Honeytongue, human wizard</p><p></p><p>The adventurers of Wing Three were starting to get worried: they hadn't seen Akari in days, and nobody knew where he was. He had last been seen heading off to his Temple of Hieroneous, to help train a batch of new cadets, so that was the likely place to start in trying to track him down. A brief interview with <strong>Father Justinian</strong>, the head cleric of the Temple of Hieroneous, confirmed that Akari had been there several days ago training the new recruits until sundown, after which time he had talked to Father Justinian about Akari taking on the job of head weapons instructor at the new Temple being built across town. The Temple wouldn't be finished for another half-year or so, but they parted with the understanding that Akari would give Father Justinian his answer by the end of the month. He left after that, and none in the Temple had seen Akari since.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne used the crystal ball they had acquired from Nakariah's lair to try to scry upon the paladin, with no success: the image in the globe was merely a misty, gray-black curtain of shifting shadows, preventing her from making out any details. After several seconds of this, the image abruptly disappeared. The young witch allowed both Telgrane and Feron to attempt it, with the same results.</p><p></p><p>Rale assembled his troops and got them searching the area around the Temple of Hieroneous; his trusted lieutenant, a roguish type going only by <strong>Streetweasel</strong>, assured his boss they'd leave no stone unturned, although couldn't hazard a guess as to how long it would take to track down any information on Akari's whereabouts. Fortunately, with his horned tiefling features, Akari was a rather distinctive-looking individual, not easily forgotten.</p><p></p><p>Galrich and Chalkan gathered up their respective lupine companions, Fang and Toronaus, and allowed them to smell some of Akari's clothing left abandoned in his room at Guild Headquarters. Then, once the wolves had his scent, the adventurers took them to the Temple of Hieroneous (causing a small wave of panic among the passersby at the sight of the massive dire wolf) to pick up the missing paladin's scent. They caught Akari's trail almost at once, despite the several days that had passed since his last sighting. However, after entering the cobblestoned street and taking a lefthand turn (not coincidentally, the way Akari would have gone had he been heading for Guild Headquarters after leaving the Temple of Hieroneous), they suddenly and inexplicably lost the scent a few hundred feet down the street. The two wolves circled the area several times, but were unable to pick up the scent again. It was as if Akari had literally just vanished from the spot.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne continued trying to scry on Akari through her crystal ball each day, with the same frustrating results. On the third day of their investigations, however, Streetweasel reported back that they had unearthed a rather dubious potential eyewitness, in the form of one <strong>Toothless Clara</strong>, a notorious ageing drunkard. She claimed to have seen an "obviously sloshed figure" in armor (matching Akari's description) staggering around and striking around at nothing, before collapsing to the ground. Clara's attention was then diverted to the client she was entertaining in the alleyway, but there was a bright light a few minutes later, and the armor-clad individual was gone. Toothless Clara claimed it looked like he was trying to fight ghosts, except that made no sense, because "everybody knows there's no such thing as ghosts."</p><p></p><p>Feron went to the spot where the homeless drunkard claimed to have seen Akari staggering around and cast a <em>stone tell</em> on the stone wall of a building facing the street. She then asked the stones if they had seen a tiefling paladin acting as Toothless Clara had described. After confessing they didn't know what "tiefling" or "paladin" meant and getting a more helpful description from the druid, the stone wall was able to confirm that it had indeed seen such an individual behaving in such a fashion. Feron asked what happened after he had collapsed, and the stone wall described Akari hovering about three feet above the street, and disappearing into an upright circle of light that disappeared itself several seconds later.</p><p></p><p>Armed with this information, Cal cast a <em>commune</em> spell and asked Kord's intermediaries the following series of questions:</p><p></p><p>"Is Akari still alive?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Is Akari still on the material plane?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he on an Elemental Plane?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he on an Outer Plane?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Is he being held against his will?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Was he captured by an enemy previously known to him?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he being used as bait to try to lure us into a trap by trying to rescue him?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he being held by the forces of Hextor?" This was a logical guess, since the churches of Hextor and Hieroneous were sworn enemies.</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he being held by devils?" Now Cal was just throwing out guesses, but the <em>commune</em> spell required him to continue firing off questions without pause or be cut off.</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Is he being held by demons?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes." <em>Ah,</em> thought Cal. <em>Now we're getting somewhere.</em></p><p></p><p>"Is Grottlepox the Puppeteer still alive?" The adventuring group had read a message, "We killed Grottlepox," scrawled in ashes upon Akari's shield when it was returned to them from the nalfeshnee's Abyssal realm, but you never knew with demons - maybe he had returned to life, or maybe the message had been some sort of demonic hoax of some type.</p><p></p><p>"No." That was a relief.</p><p></p><p>"Is Akari being held on the Muckmire Fens?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"Was he captured specifically because of who he is?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Is a demon lord involved in his capture?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes."</p><p></p><p>"Crap!" added Rale. "I'm out! I'm not going up against a demon lord!"</p><p></p><p>"Sssh!" chided Delphyne, who didn't want Rale breaking Cal's concentration.</p><p></p><p>"Are we likely to be able to rescue Akari from his current location?" asked Cal.</p><p></p><p>This time, there was a delay in the response, as if the responder were calculating the odds. "...No," came the final reply.</p><p></p><p>That was all Cal could think of to ask. He allowed the spell to dissipate, and looked at the other adventurers grouped around him. Their expressions showed fear, horror, and trepidation. There wasn't much more they could do that day, other than hit up their friend Brother Altamaic at the Temple of Boccob and try to get a handle on the various demon lords. It was almost a futile attempt, though - the Abyss was said to be a plane with infinite layers, which meant an infinite number of potential demon lords; even if the number were pared down to 666 layers (as some scholars insisted), that didn't do much to cut the number of potential demon lords responsible for Akari's abduction down to a manageable size. Delphyne vowed to try another scrying attempt the following day - it was all she could think to do.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The next morning, the others surrounded Delphyne in the Wing Three living quarters, looking over her shoulder as she attempted to capture Akari's image in the crystal ball. Even Dez was there, talking nervously to her boss, Rale, in the corner.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne passed her hands over the glass globe, concentrating fiercely on Akari's image. The image appeared as it had before: a shifting, swirling mass of shadows that prevented anything from being seen clearly. This time, however, instead of being shut off after several seconds, a furious, powerful voice boomed out <strong>"ENOUGH!"</strong> Immediately thereafter, the crystal ball shattered into a million shards, cutting the flesh of those in the vicinity. There were shrieks of surprise and pain from those assembled around Delphyne, and then Thunderwolf cried out "Look!" while pointing to their kitchen area.</p><p></p><p>Following the young fighter's pointing finger, the adventurers saw the space in their living quarters leading to the dining room and kitchen area stretch in some unknown way, causing an infinite corridor leading off into the unknown. From the far end of this eternal corridor rode an armored warrior astride a thin, black horse. They came to an abrupt stop in the living quarters, and the armored figure leapt off from his mount. Those closest to the intruders could see hunks of flesh missing from the ebony body of the snorting mount, and maggots writhing through its flesh. Icy mist streamed from its blowing nostrils, and emanated from its mane and hooves; the carpet around where it stood immediately started icing over. Then the horse-thing started fading from view, leaving only a ghostly afterimage that likewise faded from view after a few seconds.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf and Chalkan had notched arrows to their respective bows and pointed them at the intruder, Chalkan jumping up onto the sofa, the better to be able to shoot over the heads of his companions. Aerik hefted his axe and stood protectively between the black-armored man and his liege, Galrich. Dez cast a quick <em>seeming</em> spell that made Rale and her look like insignificant Guild pages, hopefully keeping them from being targeted by this unknown enemy. Nobody attacked directly, waiting to see what the strange intruder would do, and a few of the adventurers looking over at Cal, their unofficial leader, for orders.</p><p></p><p>None of the group recognized the spiked, black armor the man wore, the horned helmet atop his head, the stylized screaming skull on his shield, or the ebony longsword strapped to his hip. However, when he removed his helmet they recognized at once the face of Akari, their erstwhile tiefling companion. He wore a cold expression, his red eyes burning brightly in sharp contrast to the pale ivory of his skin.</p><p></p><p>"Be still!" commanded Akari, raising his black-gauntleted left hand to the group at large. As one, each of the heroes felt their bodies locking up, their minds willed into instant obedience. Even Cal, who prided himself on having a willpower great enough to overcome just about any attempts at domination, felt himself unable to move a muscle against Akari's command.</p><p></p><p>"Your attempts to track me down, to find out where I have gone, are proving to be irritating to my new Master," Akari said, "and he has sent me here to put a stop to it. So stop it I will."</p><p></p><p>Akari looked across the room at each of the heroes in turn, as if making a painful decision. Then he spoke again, his decision apparently made.</p><p></p><p>"Delphyne, come stand before me," he commanded to the young witch.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne took a hesitant first step towards Akari, fear evident on her face. It was perhaps this very fear that gave her the strength to break free from the mass domination effect; instead of meekly complying with Akari's orders, she spoke the words to a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, sending an invisible shield ten feet in all directions from her body that freed her and her companions from Akari's mental sway. Or almost all, anyway - Dez and Cal were both outside the radius of her protection, and thus remained immobile as the others were freed to let loose with their attacks. Arrows clanged off of Akari's shield and armor, as Thunderwolf and Chalkan put their bows to good use. Feron summoned a greater air elemental behind Akari, hoping it would be able to grapple him into submission without harming him. Seeing this, Aerik chose to hold his liege back, not wanting to fight this unknown version of Akari, for the dwarf could see Akari's pale skin hung tightly to his skull, and feared that the former paladin was now some type of undead monstrosity - and he didn't want Galrich to face an undead foe without knowing more about the enemy.</p><p></p><p>Akari saw immediately that his plans of making an example of Delphyne - he had planned to drain her to unconsciousness while the others watched helplessly, before leaving them with a warning to stop seeking him out - were no longer viable. So while dodging the air elemental's blows, he turned to Cal, currently unprotected by Delphyne's <em>magic circle</em>, and commanded him to dispel the witch's spell. Cal moved immediately to obey - fortunately, he had two <em>dispel magic</em> spells currently in his spell inventory - but failed to overcome the witch's magic, and the spell remained in effect.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne came to an immediate decision. She knew that moving forward would leave Chalkan unprotected up on the sofa, but she had come to the inescapable conclusion that they needed Cal, so she pushed forward until the cleric of Kord was encompassed in the radius of her <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell. Just as Chalkan froze back up, Akari's previous orders to "Be still!" taking up residence in his brain once again, Cal found himself able to move and act again.</p><p></p><p>He had several options before him. He could fight, with any of a dozen powerful spells that could do Akari a great deal of harm or with the strength of his Kord-powered muscles wielding his <em>hammer of frost</em>, but instead opted to appeal to reason. "Hold up!" he called to the others, raising his right hand for attention. Those capable of movement did so, looking to see what Cal had in mind.</p><p></p><p>Cal stepped forward towards Akari. "What are your intentions here?" he asked the black-clad warrior.</p><p></p><p>"As I have stated," replied Akari. "To convince you to stop looking for me, as you are irritating my new Master."</p><p></p><p>"You can't have chosen this!" argued Delphyne. "This was done to you against your will! You have to let us find a way to restore you back the way you were!"</p><p></p><p>"The man I once was is no more," responded Akari. "Weep for him if you like...rail against the cruel fates if it makes you feel any better...or cuss...but the Akari you knew is dead forevermore. Seek me out no further. I live now in the vastness of the Outer Planes, and will not return to this mortal world of yours again, if I am given no cause to do so."</p><p></p><p>His red eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at his former companions, letting his gaze focus on Delphyne's bare neck. "Do not give me cause to return to this world."</p><p></p><p>"So you'll leave us alone?" asked Cal for confirmation. "And we'll leave you be?"</p><p></p><p>"No!" Delphyne yelled. "He never would have left us to such a fate, if the roles were reversed! We have to help him!"</p><p></p><p>"I am beyond your help," replied Akari, raising his hand and summoning his undead mount. It remanifested in the same spot in the general living quarters, and the others began to suspect it had been standing right there this whole time, observing events from the Ethereal Plane.</p><p></p><p>Akari the blackguard leapt upon the undead frost nightmare with a single motion, then twisted the mount away from the heroes. The space towards the kitchen expanded away into infinity again, and the blackguard rode down the eternal corridor, becoming a mere speck in the distance until the distance returned to its normal configuration and the kitchen was as it once was.</p><p></p><p>The only physical sign of Akari's visit was a patch of ice on the carpet in the living quarters, already beginning to melt. But that didn't matter; Akari had come to send a message to his former friends, and that message had definitely been sent.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This was a fun mini-adventure to run. I think Vicki figured out it was Akari a mere second or two before he took off his helmet, and almost let out a profanity quite unlike her normal behavior. And the plan was for Akari to have made Delphyne approach him, so he could sink his fangs into her neck and drain her of blood until she slipped into unconsciousness. I had specifically targeted Delphyne because of her background; with both of her parents having been slain by vampires, it just added that extra little bit of creepiness. Of course, giving her a new command also meant giving her a new saving throw, and she rolled a natural 20 exactly when she needed it, which gave her an opportunity to cast that <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell that pretty much ruined all of my plans. (I figured we'd spend about an hour on finding out what happened to Akari and then move of to the "real" adventure I had prepared; instead, we spent two and a half hours of our 6-hour game session on "Message from Akari.")</p><p></p><p>But it was worth it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6259285, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 79: MESSAGE FROM AKARI[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Feron Dru, half-elf druid Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian Rale Bodkin, human rogue Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender Desdemona "Dez" Honeytongue, human wizard[/INDENT] The adventurers of Wing Three were starting to get worried: they hadn't seen Akari in days, and nobody knew where he was. He had last been seen heading off to his Temple of Hieroneous, to help train a batch of new cadets, so that was the likely place to start in trying to track him down. A brief interview with [b]Father Justinian[/b], the head cleric of the Temple of Hieroneous, confirmed that Akari had been there several days ago training the new recruits until sundown, after which time he had talked to Father Justinian about Akari taking on the job of head weapons instructor at the new Temple being built across town. The Temple wouldn't be finished for another half-year or so, but they parted with the understanding that Akari would give Father Justinian his answer by the end of the month. He left after that, and none in the Temple had seen Akari since. Delphyne used the crystal ball they had acquired from Nakariah's lair to try to scry upon the paladin, with no success: the image in the globe was merely a misty, gray-black curtain of shifting shadows, preventing her from making out any details. After several seconds of this, the image abruptly disappeared. The young witch allowed both Telgrane and Feron to attempt it, with the same results. Rale assembled his troops and got them searching the area around the Temple of Hieroneous; his trusted lieutenant, a roguish type going only by [b]Streetweasel[/b], assured his boss they'd leave no stone unturned, although couldn't hazard a guess as to how long it would take to track down any information on Akari's whereabouts. Fortunately, with his horned tiefling features, Akari was a rather distinctive-looking individual, not easily forgotten. Galrich and Chalkan gathered up their respective lupine companions, Fang and Toronaus, and allowed them to smell some of Akari's clothing left abandoned in his room at Guild Headquarters. Then, once the wolves had his scent, the adventurers took them to the Temple of Hieroneous (causing a small wave of panic among the passersby at the sight of the massive dire wolf) to pick up the missing paladin's scent. They caught Akari's trail almost at once, despite the several days that had passed since his last sighting. However, after entering the cobblestoned street and taking a lefthand turn (not coincidentally, the way Akari would have gone had he been heading for Guild Headquarters after leaving the Temple of Hieroneous), they suddenly and inexplicably lost the scent a few hundred feet down the street. The two wolves circled the area several times, but were unable to pick up the scent again. It was as if Akari had literally just vanished from the spot. Delphyne continued trying to scry on Akari through her crystal ball each day, with the same frustrating results. On the third day of their investigations, however, Streetweasel reported back that they had unearthed a rather dubious potential eyewitness, in the form of one [b]Toothless Clara[/b], a notorious ageing drunkard. She claimed to have seen an "obviously sloshed figure" in armor (matching Akari's description) staggering around and striking around at nothing, before collapsing to the ground. Clara's attention was then diverted to the client she was entertaining in the alleyway, but there was a bright light a few minutes later, and the armor-clad individual was gone. Toothless Clara claimed it looked like he was trying to fight ghosts, except that made no sense, because "everybody knows there's no such thing as ghosts." Feron went to the spot where the homeless drunkard claimed to have seen Akari staggering around and cast a [i]stone tell[/i] on the stone wall of a building facing the street. She then asked the stones if they had seen a tiefling paladin acting as Toothless Clara had described. After confessing they didn't know what "tiefling" or "paladin" meant and getting a more helpful description from the druid, the stone wall was able to confirm that it had indeed seen such an individual behaving in such a fashion. Feron asked what happened after he had collapsed, and the stone wall described Akari hovering about three feet above the street, and disappearing into an upright circle of light that disappeared itself several seconds later. Armed with this information, Cal cast a [i]commune[/i] spell and asked Kord's intermediaries the following series of questions: "Is Akari still alive?" "Yes." "Is Akari still on the material plane?" "No." "Is he on an Elemental Plane?" "No." "Is he on an Outer Plane?" "Yes." "Is he being held against his will?" "Yes." "Was he captured by an enemy previously known to him?" "No." "Is he being used as bait to try to lure us into a trap by trying to rescue him?" "No." "Is he being held by the forces of Hextor?" This was a logical guess, since the churches of Hextor and Hieroneous were sworn enemies. "No." "Is he being held by devils?" Now Cal was just throwing out guesses, but the [i]commune[/i] spell required him to continue firing off questions without pause or be cut off. "No." "Is he being held by demons?" "Yes." [i]Ah,[/i] thought Cal. [i]Now we're getting somewhere.[/i] "Is Grottlepox the Puppeteer still alive?" The adventuring group had read a message, "We killed Grottlepox," scrawled in ashes upon Akari's shield when it was returned to them from the nalfeshnee's Abyssal realm, but you never knew with demons - maybe he had returned to life, or maybe the message had been some sort of demonic hoax of some type. "No." That was a relief. "Is Akari being held on the Muckmire Fens?" "No." "Was he captured specifically because of who he is?" "Yes." "Is a demon lord involved in his capture?" "Yes." "Crap!" added Rale. "I'm out! I'm not going up against a demon lord!" "Sssh!" chided Delphyne, who didn't want Rale breaking Cal's concentration. "Are we likely to be able to rescue Akari from his current location?" asked Cal. This time, there was a delay in the response, as if the responder were calculating the odds. "...No," came the final reply. That was all Cal could think of to ask. He allowed the spell to dissipate, and looked at the other adventurers grouped around him. Their expressions showed fear, horror, and trepidation. There wasn't much more they could do that day, other than hit up their friend Brother Altamaic at the Temple of Boccob and try to get a handle on the various demon lords. It was almost a futile attempt, though - the Abyss was said to be a plane with infinite layers, which meant an infinite number of potential demon lords; even if the number were pared down to 666 layers (as some scholars insisted), that didn't do much to cut the number of potential demon lords responsible for Akari's abduction down to a manageable size. Delphyne vowed to try another scrying attempt the following day - it was all she could think to do. - - - The next morning, the others surrounded Delphyne in the Wing Three living quarters, looking over her shoulder as she attempted to capture Akari's image in the crystal ball. Even Dez was there, talking nervously to her boss, Rale, in the corner. Delphyne passed her hands over the glass globe, concentrating fiercely on Akari's image. The image appeared as it had before: a shifting, swirling mass of shadows that prevented anything from being seen clearly. This time, however, instead of being shut off after several seconds, a furious, powerful voice boomed out [b]"ENOUGH!"[/b] Immediately thereafter, the crystal ball shattered into a million shards, cutting the flesh of those in the vicinity. There were shrieks of surprise and pain from those assembled around Delphyne, and then Thunderwolf cried out "Look!" while pointing to their kitchen area. Following the young fighter's pointing finger, the adventurers saw the space in their living quarters leading to the dining room and kitchen area stretch in some unknown way, causing an infinite corridor leading off into the unknown. From the far end of this eternal corridor rode an armored warrior astride a thin, black horse. They came to an abrupt stop in the living quarters, and the armored figure leapt off from his mount. Those closest to the intruders could see hunks of flesh missing from the ebony body of the snorting mount, and maggots writhing through its flesh. Icy mist streamed from its blowing nostrils, and emanated from its mane and hooves; the carpet around where it stood immediately started icing over. Then the horse-thing started fading from view, leaving only a ghostly afterimage that likewise faded from view after a few seconds. Thunderwolf and Chalkan had notched arrows to their respective bows and pointed them at the intruder, Chalkan jumping up onto the sofa, the better to be able to shoot over the heads of his companions. Aerik hefted his axe and stood protectively between the black-armored man and his liege, Galrich. Dez cast a quick [i]seeming[/i] spell that made Rale and her look like insignificant Guild pages, hopefully keeping them from being targeted by this unknown enemy. Nobody attacked directly, waiting to see what the strange intruder would do, and a few of the adventurers looking over at Cal, their unofficial leader, for orders. None of the group recognized the spiked, black armor the man wore, the horned helmet atop his head, the stylized screaming skull on his shield, or the ebony longsword strapped to his hip. However, when he removed his helmet they recognized at once the face of Akari, their erstwhile tiefling companion. He wore a cold expression, his red eyes burning brightly in sharp contrast to the pale ivory of his skin. "Be still!" commanded Akari, raising his black-gauntleted left hand to the group at large. As one, each of the heroes felt their bodies locking up, their minds willed into instant obedience. Even Cal, who prided himself on having a willpower great enough to overcome just about any attempts at domination, felt himself unable to move a muscle against Akari's command. "Your attempts to track me down, to find out where I have gone, are proving to be irritating to my new Master," Akari said, "and he has sent me here to put a stop to it. So stop it I will." Akari looked across the room at each of the heroes in turn, as if making a painful decision. Then he spoke again, his decision apparently made. "Delphyne, come stand before me," he commanded to the young witch. Delphyne took a hesitant first step towards Akari, fear evident on her face. It was perhaps this very fear that gave her the strength to break free from the mass domination effect; instead of meekly complying with Akari's orders, she spoke the words to a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell, sending an invisible shield ten feet in all directions from her body that freed her and her companions from Akari's mental sway. Or almost all, anyway - Dez and Cal were both outside the radius of her protection, and thus remained immobile as the others were freed to let loose with their attacks. Arrows clanged off of Akari's shield and armor, as Thunderwolf and Chalkan put their bows to good use. Feron summoned a greater air elemental behind Akari, hoping it would be able to grapple him into submission without harming him. Seeing this, Aerik chose to hold his liege back, not wanting to fight this unknown version of Akari, for the dwarf could see Akari's pale skin hung tightly to his skull, and feared that the former paladin was now some type of undead monstrosity - and he didn't want Galrich to face an undead foe without knowing more about the enemy. Akari saw immediately that his plans of making an example of Delphyne - he had planned to drain her to unconsciousness while the others watched helplessly, before leaving them with a warning to stop seeking him out - were no longer viable. So while dodging the air elemental's blows, he turned to Cal, currently unprotected by Delphyne's [i]magic circle[/i], and commanded him to dispel the witch's spell. Cal moved immediately to obey - fortunately, he had two [i]dispel magic[/i] spells currently in his spell inventory - but failed to overcome the witch's magic, and the spell remained in effect. Delphyne came to an immediate decision. She knew that moving forward would leave Chalkan unprotected up on the sofa, but she had come to the inescapable conclusion that they needed Cal, so she pushed forward until the cleric of Kord was encompassed in the radius of her [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell. Just as Chalkan froze back up, Akari's previous orders to "Be still!" taking up residence in his brain once again, Cal found himself able to move and act again. He had several options before him. He could fight, with any of a dozen powerful spells that could do Akari a great deal of harm or with the strength of his Kord-powered muscles wielding his [i]hammer of frost[/i], but instead opted to appeal to reason. "Hold up!" he called to the others, raising his right hand for attention. Those capable of movement did so, looking to see what Cal had in mind. Cal stepped forward towards Akari. "What are your intentions here?" he asked the black-clad warrior. "As I have stated," replied Akari. "To convince you to stop looking for me, as you are irritating my new Master." "You can't have chosen this!" argued Delphyne. "This was done to you against your will! You have to let us find a way to restore you back the way you were!" "The man I once was is no more," responded Akari. "Weep for him if you like...rail against the cruel fates if it makes you feel any better...or cuss...but the Akari you knew is dead forevermore. Seek me out no further. I live now in the vastness of the Outer Planes, and will not return to this mortal world of yours again, if I am given no cause to do so." His red eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at his former companions, letting his gaze focus on Delphyne's bare neck. "Do not give me cause to return to this world." "So you'll leave us alone?" asked Cal for confirmation. "And we'll leave you be?" "No!" Delphyne yelled. "He never would have left us to such a fate, if the roles were reversed! We have to help him!" "I am beyond your help," replied Akari, raising his hand and summoning his undead mount. It remanifested in the same spot in the general living quarters, and the others began to suspect it had been standing right there this whole time, observing events from the Ethereal Plane. Akari the blackguard leapt upon the undead frost nightmare with a single motion, then twisted the mount away from the heroes. The space towards the kitchen expanded away into infinity again, and the blackguard rode down the eternal corridor, becoming a mere speck in the distance until the distance returned to its normal configuration and the kitchen was as it once was. The only physical sign of Akari's visit was a patch of ice on the carpet in the living quarters, already beginning to melt. But that didn't matter; Akari had come to send a message to his former friends, and that message had definitely been sent. - - - This was a fun mini-adventure to run. I think Vicki figured out it was Akari a mere second or two before he took off his helmet, and almost let out a profanity quite unlike her normal behavior. And the plan was for Akari to have made Delphyne approach him, so he could sink his fangs into her neck and drain her of blood until she slipped into unconsciousness. I had specifically targeted Delphyne because of her background; with both of her parents having been slain by vampires, it just added that extra little bit of creepiness. Of course, giving her a new command also meant giving her a new saving throw, and she rolled a natural 20 exactly when she needed it, which gave her an opportunity to cast that [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell that pretty much ruined all of my plans. (I figured we'd spend about an hour on finding out what happened to Akari and then move of to the "real" adventure I had prepared; instead, we spent two and a half hours of our 6-hour game session on "Message from Akari.") But it was worth it. 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