the Jester
Legend
9 A.M.
Nine in the morning finds the party ready. They've already cast all their spells that last for at least ten minutes, and they've decided that their best bet is to try to split the enemy forces. Though most of them are confident, all of them are concerned. This could be a very tough fight. And who knows how the Bile Lords might stack the odds against our heroes? They are, after all, extremely powerful... and if this is just a probing first strike...
"We need to find my daughter," Sybele murmurs to herself.
Then the enemy arrives, teleporting in with a puff of the stink of bile that had grown so familiar during the party's time in Bile Mountain, and the fight begins with startling speed.
There are four of them, as foretold by the party's divinations previously. The giant Thrush knows all too well from his time in Bile Mountain: Lamballo. Lamballo stands nearly twenty feet tall; his thick barrel chest is embraced by an inch thick breastplate. He holds the longest blade any of the party has ever seen loosely in his hand, a greatsword with an 18' long blade. His skin is milky white. His other hand holds a 5' diameter rock. Lester's expert knowledge of the elements tells him it's a pretty hard and dense mineral.
The demon is about 15' tall. It's covered in mottled red and brown skin, with four dangerous-looking, powerful arms- one pair ends in claws, the other in pincers. The thing is topped off by the head of a nasty dog (think a Doberman pincer here) with swollen red eyes. It doesn't look very friendly.
The psurlon is a strange worm-like creature, with a tubular body marked by pale rings like an earthworm. It's about twelve feet high. It looks boneless, but it has four wormy limbs that seem to simulate arms and legs. Its head is really just a nubby end of the creature's body, the tip being a mouth surrounded by strange cilia.
And, allegedly the most dangerous of the four, the deathbringer- a fierce looking undead warrior, garbed in full plate armor with military ornamentation upon it. His grey-skinned, earless bald head is horrifying, for both his eyes and his mouth have been sewn shut.
As fast as the servants of the Bile Lord appear, Horbin's summoned planar ally, Lionel, is faster. He casts a blade barrier directly on two of them even as they appear. However, the giant manages to throw himself back out of the way, and the glabrezu weathers the blades without harm, scorn on his face.
Sheva casts righteous might, desperate to get as many buffing spells in as possible- this may be a tough fight. As she does so, Orbius casts mass haste on the entire party, then cries, "This'll keep you tied up!" and encloses the deathbringer in a maze. With a snarl the demon howls for aid from his Abyssal allies, but for some reason none respond to him. (Perhaps they somehow know the caliber of the adventurers the glabrezu fights, or maybe the glabrezu didn't answer them last time- or maybe they're just drunk. Who knows.)
Red glares at the giant, readying an attack, and calls out. "That's right, boy, come and get some!" He glares, trying to intimidate the giant, but Lambollar only grins at him and hurls that big ole rock. Red flings himself to the side and the stone smashes into the back wall, leaving a pair of crossing cracks.
Angelfire's moving extremely quickly with the mass haste in effect. He manifests displacement and then dimension doors right in front of the demon, falchion in hand. The bestial creature barks at him, disdain in its voice. The worm-like psurlon gestures with one of its flaccid arms, and a pale green ray shoots out at Angel. He gives a cry as he shudders, resisting disintegration but still suffering damage. Still, our heroes seem to be in a good place so far, with the deathbringer out of the fight-
Then it reappears- must've dispelled the maze, thinks Orbius bitterly- and turns its sightless head to stare at the Eye.
Lionel is casting spells quickly, dropping a flame strike on the psurlon and the demon. Although the glabrezu doesn't seem harmed by the fire, the holy damage burns it in a special way and it yips at the celestial giant. The planetar grins as he casts a righteous might of his own. Sheva seems to have sprouted an extra pair of arms. She tumbles in, one of her many magical greatswords slicing into the worm-like creature. It hisses as browning fluid sluices out of it.
The deathbringer looks the most dangerous to Orbius, so he tries to take it out. His polymorph fails. Curse it, the Eye thinks, I need to hit it with something that allows no resistance! He smiles to himself and encloses the deathbringer in a solid forcecage. "There we go!" he cries. "That ought to hold him!" Unless the psurlon can use it's disintegrate ability again!* he adds mentally.
Red and Thrush both grow thanks to Zeebo's magic. Thrush moves in on Lambollar, the giant, his greatsword held firmly in his hands. He moves like a lethal warrior. Red springs in, slicing at the giant with his greatsword, and leaving a deep slash on it before springing away. The giant growls and moves after the quick swordsman, crashing his own blade down on Red for terrific damage.
The demon has created a half dozen mirror images of itself, and now Angelfire's practicing the art of culling images with his falchion. Suddenly the ground below the monsters (and Angelfire, but he's okay with fire) turns to magma, transmuted by Lester's paraelemental mastery! But the psurlon lurches free; the deathbringer's trapped in the forcecage anyhow; the giant's already moved away from the area in pursuing Red; and the demon isn't concerned.
The giant suddenly rocks as Lester strikes it several times from afar thanks to a far strike that Orbius cast on his blade previously. The psurlon tries- remarkably unsuccessfully- to confuse the party, then moves away from the red-hot magma. Horbin fires a searing light at the giant, but misses, and then casts righteous might to be like all the other high-level clerics present.
Lionel trys to send the glabrezu back to its home plane, but it resists his power with a growl of disdain. Then he strikes at the demon with his shining sword, somewhat smaller than Lambollar's, taking out several images and actually scoring a hit on the real deal. It yelps. Sheva finishes the psurlon with an amazing display of swordsmanship and tumbles in to flank the glabrezu. Orbius unleashes a double volley of seeker missiles that pound in at it, blasting it again and again. Zeebo follows up with double volleys of magic missiles, and this time not only are the last images destroyed, the demon itself drops. The Mayor whoops- "We've just got the giant left!" he shouts.
And Thrush is toe-to-toe with the giant, slashing it across the belly, stabbing its thigh. It roars and swipes at him, but he ducks under it's arm and jabs his greatsword in under its armpit, severing the artery.
"You always were a punk," he shouts at the giant.
Lambollar collapses. Blood is pouring from its armpit in copious amounts, and it groans weakly. He tries to stand once more and then falls prone, weakly moaning only once more before expiring.
"We did it!" cries Lester.
"Now all we have to do is wait for the forcecage to expire and kill the deathbringer," says Orbius. "It's going to last about a day and a half."
The party ponders and decides to wait it out and kill the deathbringer when the cage vanishes. "After all," Lester points out, "we know when it's going to end, so we can get ready for it- buff up and stuff right before. And that way we can see whatever it does, if anything."
Things go wrong at noon.
*As a matter of fact, it couldn't- it's only once per day.
Next Time: Axon, Axel and Chemnu disrupt the party's plan rather badly!
Nine in the morning finds the party ready. They've already cast all their spells that last for at least ten minutes, and they've decided that their best bet is to try to split the enemy forces. Though most of them are confident, all of them are concerned. This could be a very tough fight. And who knows how the Bile Lords might stack the odds against our heroes? They are, after all, extremely powerful... and if this is just a probing first strike...
"We need to find my daughter," Sybele murmurs to herself.
Then the enemy arrives, teleporting in with a puff of the stink of bile that had grown so familiar during the party's time in Bile Mountain, and the fight begins with startling speed.
There are four of them, as foretold by the party's divinations previously. The giant Thrush knows all too well from his time in Bile Mountain: Lamballo. Lamballo stands nearly twenty feet tall; his thick barrel chest is embraced by an inch thick breastplate. He holds the longest blade any of the party has ever seen loosely in his hand, a greatsword with an 18' long blade. His skin is milky white. His other hand holds a 5' diameter rock. Lester's expert knowledge of the elements tells him it's a pretty hard and dense mineral.
The demon is about 15' tall. It's covered in mottled red and brown skin, with four dangerous-looking, powerful arms- one pair ends in claws, the other in pincers. The thing is topped off by the head of a nasty dog (think a Doberman pincer here) with swollen red eyes. It doesn't look very friendly.
The psurlon is a strange worm-like creature, with a tubular body marked by pale rings like an earthworm. It's about twelve feet high. It looks boneless, but it has four wormy limbs that seem to simulate arms and legs. Its head is really just a nubby end of the creature's body, the tip being a mouth surrounded by strange cilia.
And, allegedly the most dangerous of the four, the deathbringer- a fierce looking undead warrior, garbed in full plate armor with military ornamentation upon it. His grey-skinned, earless bald head is horrifying, for both his eyes and his mouth have been sewn shut.
As fast as the servants of the Bile Lord appear, Horbin's summoned planar ally, Lionel, is faster. He casts a blade barrier directly on two of them even as they appear. However, the giant manages to throw himself back out of the way, and the glabrezu weathers the blades without harm, scorn on his face.
Sheva casts righteous might, desperate to get as many buffing spells in as possible- this may be a tough fight. As she does so, Orbius casts mass haste on the entire party, then cries, "This'll keep you tied up!" and encloses the deathbringer in a maze. With a snarl the demon howls for aid from his Abyssal allies, but for some reason none respond to him. (Perhaps they somehow know the caliber of the adventurers the glabrezu fights, or maybe the glabrezu didn't answer them last time- or maybe they're just drunk. Who knows.)
Red glares at the giant, readying an attack, and calls out. "That's right, boy, come and get some!" He glares, trying to intimidate the giant, but Lambollar only grins at him and hurls that big ole rock. Red flings himself to the side and the stone smashes into the back wall, leaving a pair of crossing cracks.
Angelfire's moving extremely quickly with the mass haste in effect. He manifests displacement and then dimension doors right in front of the demon, falchion in hand. The bestial creature barks at him, disdain in its voice. The worm-like psurlon gestures with one of its flaccid arms, and a pale green ray shoots out at Angel. He gives a cry as he shudders, resisting disintegration but still suffering damage. Still, our heroes seem to be in a good place so far, with the deathbringer out of the fight-
Then it reappears- must've dispelled the maze, thinks Orbius bitterly- and turns its sightless head to stare at the Eye.
Lionel is casting spells quickly, dropping a flame strike on the psurlon and the demon. Although the glabrezu doesn't seem harmed by the fire, the holy damage burns it in a special way and it yips at the celestial giant. The planetar grins as he casts a righteous might of his own. Sheva seems to have sprouted an extra pair of arms. She tumbles in, one of her many magical greatswords slicing into the worm-like creature. It hisses as browning fluid sluices out of it.
The deathbringer looks the most dangerous to Orbius, so he tries to take it out. His polymorph fails. Curse it, the Eye thinks, I need to hit it with something that allows no resistance! He smiles to himself and encloses the deathbringer in a solid forcecage. "There we go!" he cries. "That ought to hold him!" Unless the psurlon can use it's disintegrate ability again!* he adds mentally.
Red and Thrush both grow thanks to Zeebo's magic. Thrush moves in on Lambollar, the giant, his greatsword held firmly in his hands. He moves like a lethal warrior. Red springs in, slicing at the giant with his greatsword, and leaving a deep slash on it before springing away. The giant growls and moves after the quick swordsman, crashing his own blade down on Red for terrific damage.
The demon has created a half dozen mirror images of itself, and now Angelfire's practicing the art of culling images with his falchion. Suddenly the ground below the monsters (and Angelfire, but he's okay with fire) turns to magma, transmuted by Lester's paraelemental mastery! But the psurlon lurches free; the deathbringer's trapped in the forcecage anyhow; the giant's already moved away from the area in pursuing Red; and the demon isn't concerned.
The giant suddenly rocks as Lester strikes it several times from afar thanks to a far strike that Orbius cast on his blade previously. The psurlon tries- remarkably unsuccessfully- to confuse the party, then moves away from the red-hot magma. Horbin fires a searing light at the giant, but misses, and then casts righteous might to be like all the other high-level clerics present.
Lionel trys to send the glabrezu back to its home plane, but it resists his power with a growl of disdain. Then he strikes at the demon with his shining sword, somewhat smaller than Lambollar's, taking out several images and actually scoring a hit on the real deal. It yelps. Sheva finishes the psurlon with an amazing display of swordsmanship and tumbles in to flank the glabrezu. Orbius unleashes a double volley of seeker missiles that pound in at it, blasting it again and again. Zeebo follows up with double volleys of magic missiles, and this time not only are the last images destroyed, the demon itself drops. The Mayor whoops- "We've just got the giant left!" he shouts.
And Thrush is toe-to-toe with the giant, slashing it across the belly, stabbing its thigh. It roars and swipes at him, but he ducks under it's arm and jabs his greatsword in under its armpit, severing the artery.
"You always were a punk," he shouts at the giant.
Lambollar collapses. Blood is pouring from its armpit in copious amounts, and it groans weakly. He tries to stand once more and then falls prone, weakly moaning only once more before expiring.
"We did it!" cries Lester.
"Now all we have to do is wait for the forcecage to expire and kill the deathbringer," says Orbius. "It's going to last about a day and a half."
The party ponders and decides to wait it out and kill the deathbringer when the cage vanishes. "After all," Lester points out, "we know when it's going to end, so we can get ready for it- buff up and stuff right before. And that way we can see whatever it does, if anything."
Things go wrong at noon.
*As a matter of fact, it couldn't- it's only once per day.
Next Time: Axon, Axel and Chemnu disrupt the party's plan rather badly!
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