Agents of Chaos (Final Update!)

[the Jester]

One for the Good Guys

Axel and Axon both turn their heads to look at Sheva, who's approaching them- and Chemnu- grimly, Chronovestis in her hands. She tumbles forward, trying to evade the two nimblewrights' attacks of opportunity, but Axel slices her despite her best interests. With a grunt, she ignores him and aims a mighty slash at Chemnu- a blow that hits despite his images, and draws yellowish bile where a human would bleed. But to her dismay, the wound starts closing immediately and quickly. Habiskis flies at Chemnu and pokes at him with the unicorn dagger, then just keeps moving past, trying hard not to be the center of anyone's attention. The nasty yellowish vapors around the Bile Lord have left the stomachs of everyone who has entered them in a state of rebellion.

Lionel's angelic sword comes free of its sheath as he flies forward, charging the deathbringer. His blade rings with a high, clear tone when it deflects off the undead creature's thick armor. Angelfire and Thrush both step in on it too, though, and both land punishing series of blows on it. It staggers and drops to one knee, black energy crackling around its wounds, and unleashes another burst of negative energy- again repairing itself and wounding our heroes. "Enough!" cries Horbin the Holy, and he fires off a searing light at the sewn-faced monster. The light blasts into its grey face, burning away the entire head, and the cleric brings death to the deathbringer. Then he fires a flame strike at Chemnu, catching Sheva (since she's in melee with it) but figuring correctly that she'll be okay. And the entire party rejoices when not only does it penetrate Chemnu's spell resistance but the Bile Lord is caught off-guard and fails to dodge the worst of it, taking full damage! Still, he seems neither badly wounded nor concerned.

Chemnu swipes at Sheva with his long, yellow fingers, clawing her across the cheek and leaving a greenish burning liquid behind. Sheva cries out in pain as the acid burns her.* Then Chemnu aims yet another finger of death at Angelfire, who manages to throw off the effect yet again. Meanwhile the Bile Lord's unbelievable healing factor brings him almost back to full health.

Then Axon and Axel are tumbling in past Sheva's defenses, flanking her and delivering terrific damage (including a blow to the vitals that threatens to finish her). As they do so, Zeebo casts a slow and counters the haste on Axon. Terribly wounded, Sheva the chain mail bikini-clad red-haired warrior of Coila does the only thing she really can- she timeslips, vanishing into the timestream for a few seconds. Axon and Axel turn to face the wounded Angelfire, but even as they do so the planetar heals him. Then a lightning bolt zots out from Zeebo and catches all the bad guys- wounding only Axon. The weapon master construct staggers. The Mayor then hastes Lionel.

"Not too bad," calls Angelfire's cheerily to Axon and Axel. "The deathbringer's down. You're next."

The two constructs tumble forward.



*She also had to make a Fort save, but she was successful... in fact, everyone was successful in their Fort saves in this fight!



Next Time: Angelfire vs. Axon and Axel!

 

[the Jester]

Angelfire vs. Axon and Axel!

Angelfire tumbles in on Chemnu, but misses him. Habiskis takes a shot with the unicorn dagger as well, but to no avail. As the two nimblewrights somersault and dodge in to flank Angelfire, Thrush charges Axel, cursing as his blade deflects off the construct's metallic surface. The Bile Lord, a rictus smile on his face, casts a new mirror image and then blasts a cone of cold directly at Angelfire, inflicting immense damage to the fiery Coilite even with his magical ring that protects him from cold.

Horbin's using a trick he learned off a scroll he purchased not too long ago: lower resistance. It lowers the target's spell resistance, hopefully making it possible to get more spells in. He manages to get the spell past Chemnu's defenses and then, still sped up by Zeebo's haste, he casts destruction on the Bile Lord! This one fails to kill the Bile Lord but does inflict some damage on him. Everyone has noted that Chemnu's wounds are closing fast by now... he's barely wounded. Horbin cries, "Dexter don't fail me now!" and blasts out with a flame strike. The pillar of golden fire from Heaven erupts down on Chemnu, and the Bile Lord takes full damage from it! "It seems Dexter's got your number!" Horbin crows, then fires a searing light that completely misses.

Zeebo decides it's just about time he got in on this one himself and fires off a volley of magic missiles. They streak in on Chemnu but fizzle when they hit what the Mayor recognizes as a shield spell. Stick to the ones your spells can affect, he tells himself grimly, and touches Horbin. The cleric turns invisible, but almost immediately reappears as he keeps casting spells against the Bile Lord.

Then Thrush is charging with a roar, swinging his gleaming greatsword at Chemnu. He fails to connect, and the Bile Lord snarls, "You will die slowly for your treason, Thrush." Then the Bile Lord fires off a hold person at Angelfire, which he manages to throw off.

Axon and Axel seem to fight incredibly well from flanking and they seem to be incredibly good at flanking. They tumble around Angelfire and aim terrible blows at him, but he's psionically displaced and most of them miss. Every one that Axon lands inflicts horribly damaging wounds, often piercing vital areas. All the worst blows threaten to knock him from his feet, but Angelfire manages to brace himself against it and absorb the worst of them.

Lionel and Habiskis are both there, too, stabbing and slashing at the two nimblewrights from flanking, both hitting Axon and inflicting a small amount of damage, but it's clear that the main event is Anglefire. He's an immensely powerful warrior, and he throws all his puissance into a series of hatchet-like blows with his falchion, landing first one and then another on Axon's head. The second one drops Axon and Angelfire lets the blow carry him around to Axel, dealing a ringing blow to the other construct. Then, as Chemnu gestures, a gigantic hand appears in the air and smacks Angelfire, making his ears ring!

Axel cries out in dismay, moves 5' to flank Angelfire with the Bile Lord, and full attacks. His deadly-accurate blows are wild, probably due to his upset at his 'brother' falling (can constructs cry?), and only one of them lands. And then Habiskis lends a unicorn dagger to Axel's back, and the other nimblewright falls as well!

"Well now," says Angelfire, "that helps."

Chemnu glares....



Next Time: Everyone against Chemnu!!!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

You HAVE to put the stats for these guys up! If I'm right, you have another thread for monster stats and stuff, yes? Does it have the seeker missiles spell on it?

Thanks for continuing this great tale!

 

[Talix]

Wow, what a great battle!

And just because I haven't had time to comment on the other updates yet, I want to say that I really enjoy the commune spells that these guys continually throw out - both what questions they choose to ask and the answers are very enlightening.

Thanks for all the wonderfully-written updates!

 

[the Jester]

You HAVE to put the stats for these guys up! If I'm right, you have another thread for monster stats and stuff, yes? Does it have the seeker missiles spell on it?

Thanks for continuing this great tale!

Check it out (my players, please stay outta here- there's stuff you should not know about) here. Axon, Axel, seeker missiles, it's all there near the end of the thread; a lot of the earlier stuff is from my old story hour.

Thanks for the compliments, glad you guys are enjoying it!

 

[the Jester]

Everyone Against Chemnu!

Chemnu, surrounded by his flickering images, raises a hand to cast a spell- and then, suddenly, Sheva appears from the time stream, unleashing a rain of blows with Chronovestis, the Sword of Time. None hit the Bile Lord himself, but several of his mirror images dissolve under the force of the slashes. Sheva's moving supernaturally fast, so she takes a moment to ready a strike against him if he starts casting that spell. Almost immediately, Chemnu triggers it- blasting a greenish ray of disintegration at Angelfire. Sheva's blow misses and she curses, but Angelfire shrugs off the blast, taking another wound and staggering, almost falling to his knees. Chemnu sneers as he starts another spell, one that he's certain will finish Angelfire off- but before his cone of cold blasts out at the fiery Coilite (and much of the rest of the party) Lionel manages to heal him back to full health! The frigid cone still deals immense damage to Angelfire, who screams in agony, but doesn't slay him. Habiskis, on the other hand, is frozen solid as a block of translucent ice condenses around him- were it not for his diabolic ability to regenerate, he'd be extremely dead.

Lionel and Angelfire both rush in at the Bile Lord, the planetar with a touch spell active that actually hits the real deal despite his images. Unfortunately for the party, Chemnu ignores the spell as it breaks against his immeasurable will. Angelfire throws himself at Chemnu bodily, his hand reaching out to grab at the hideous creature, but he gropes through an image instead, dissolving it. It's like when we fought the inevitable on the moon*, he thinks to himself- we can't really hit him, we have to adapt, to adopt a different approach! Thrush swings again and again, his skill beyond anyone else in the group's- and though he drops two of the last three images around Chemnu, he fails to connect with the Bile Lord. Then the fists of force attacking the two of them swing, missing both Thrush and Angelfire by inches.

The Mayor knows his magic is too weak to penetrate Chemnu's defenses. He knows that his best bet is to aid his allies, so he keeps doing it, casting invisibility on Horbin, then enlarging both Thrush and Angelfire. He's casting some of the same spells on people over and over as they expire or are broken, but he doesn't mind. His arcane prowess is not as intense as a straight wizard or sorcerer; but he's never run out of spells- and today won't be the day it finally happens either. He keeps himself moving around, trying not to be a target. Only his fancy footwork kept him from being in the cone of cold, and he's certain it would've killed him... Why not? he thinks boldly, and aims a targetted dispel magic at Chemnu. That's why not, he thinks wryly as his spell slides off the Bile Lord's vastly powerful magic like water off a duck's back.

Then Horbin ripples into view, losing Zeebo's concealing magic as he strikes at Chemnu from flanking, his holy mace smacking into the last image and destroying it. The Bile Lord frowns at him briefly, then turns to snarl at Thrush. "Traitor," he grits, "you will know no end of agony!"

"I don't think so," says Angelfire.

Chemnu's images are down- surely they'll be able to connect a little now- and Angelfire brings his falchion around in a complex weaving pattern that lands three hits on the Bile Lord!** Chemnu staggers back, shaking his head in a brief moment of surprise, glancing down at the wounds already closing on his abdomen and thighs. "Impressive," he snarls.

"Shut up," Thrush says, and he swings a massive cloud of greatsword blows at the Bile Lord as well! His first blow catches the enemy in the leg, drawing another line of stinking yellow fluid from Chemnu. Then Thrush growls and reverses his blade, hacking down at Chemnu's left foot, and scores a massive hit! The sound of the bones of the Bile Lord's foot breaking is clearly audible, and Chemnu gives a strangled scream. The party cheers!

Chemnu staggers back as the two clenched fists continue to assault Thrush and Angelfire. With a scream of rage he erects a wall of force between the party and himself, and Zeebo and Horbin recognize the spell's gestures and words. Sheva doesn't, but it becomes quite clear to the entire group in just a moment as she swings Chronovestis and it deflects off of the invisible wall. "DAMMIT!!" she roars.

There's a momentary pause. Horbin and Lionel rush to heal at least some of the wounds that both Angelfire and Thrush have taken- and are still taking, as the fists keep swiping at them. Sheva disappears into invisibility with a snarl and a flick of her red hair.

As the party watches and prepares, casting spells to buff themselves up even further, Chemnu is healing rapidly. Unbelievably rapidly. Faster than any natural healing or regeneration anyone in the group has seen. And the Bile Lord casts another set of mirror images. Thrush groans. "Now we'll never get him," he gripes.

And Chemnu sneers from behind the wall, casting another spell. Horbin shouts curses- "He's just put up an antimagic field!" he cries- and backs away, drawing out his crossbow. The crossbow he hasn't fired in a very long time- years, maybe? Zeebo makes Thrush invisible, but with a sinking feeling he knows that as soon as the warrior gets too close to the Bile Lord it'll be suppressed.

Our heroes are weary, low on spells and resources. But the party has a secret weapon- one that nobody has thought of- one that may just save the day.....




*This story is as yet untold- it all ties in to the Hatching Cave where an earlier party guarded the dragon eggs, which has been referred to many times... Perhaps eventually that story will come out here...

**Extremely good luck with the dice graced the party in this round (round 8 of the combat, btw). Add to that, no power attack, flanking, being enlarged... you get the idea.



Next Time: The battle concludes! Who has the secret weapon, what is it, and will it work in the antimagic field??

 

[the Jester]

Chemnu (Finale)

Let's go back for a minute.

If you'll recall, our heroes had captured the deathbringer in a forcecage and were expecting a little more time before they'd have to fight; that's why certain party members haven't been involved in the fight yet.*

When things went horribly awry and Chemnu and his nimblewright lackeys teleported in, fast and furious, Sybele was not far away. She was in the middle of answering one of nature's calls, and it takes a while (find privacy, unstrap the armor, squat and poo, wipe and redon the armor). She's right in the middle of it all when she hears the roar of battle from where the party is, hours early.

With a curse she struggles to move quickly through the light woods and back up the hill to the party's battlefield. She hears terrible screams of pain as spells blast our heroes, the clang of metal on metal. The battle sounds fast and desperate, and she arrives less than fifty seconds after it starts, bursting on the scene just in time to see the masterful series of attacks executed by Angelfire and Thrush. She manifests psionic invisibility and, watching desperately as the Bile Lord erects his wall of force, she pulls out the only trick she can think of that might work: a thick glass sphere full of green slime....

And now we're caught up. Let's move on, shall we?

As the Bile Lord heals rapidly behind the wall of force, our heroes know they have to move fast. Lionel, Horbin's planetar ally, has been using the momentary reprieve to heal various wounded party members, but he knows they can't afford any more time. So he points his finger, invokes the power of Galador, and a green ray shoots out and blasts the force wall to oblivion!

Thrush charges in with a shout, striking the Bile Lord a single mighty blow across the right forearm. Yellow bile splashes out. Angelfire steps in and attacks, the Mayor aiding his blows by distracting the Bile Lord. Sheva swings Chronovestis in a deadly blur, cracking into the enemy's ribs, and Chemnu takes a single step back under the fury of their attacks. With his antimagic field active, he's easier to hit- but our heroes don't have any of their powerful magic and psionic enhancements, so things come out almost even. But he's still healing nearly as fast as they can inflict damage.

Sybele takes careful aim with the globe of slime. She takes a deep breath, thanking the gods that she's good at throwing anything [yes, she has the feat], and waits for the perfect moment. As the party's front line warrior types dance around the master of Bile Mountain, she stands back... and as soon as her opening comes, she throws the globe of slime.

It's the best throw she's ever made with anything.**

The slime globe sails lazily up through the air, landing right in the center of the Bile Lord's chest and bursting open. With a shriek, Chemnu sees the slime starting to consume him. And in a zone of antimagic, he can't respond quickly. "Raah!!" he howls in pain, concentrating to dismiss the antimagic, stepping away from the deadly swarm of attackers that press him. Blows are raining down at him, arrows now fired by Thrush as Lionel, Sheva and Angelfire keep pressing forward with melee attacks. Chemnu backpedals, trying to cast a fireball on himself to slay the slime, but Sheva's ready for him and aims an excruciatingly accurate blow at the Bile Lord's hand, interrupting him.

And with a final scream, Chemnu dissolves into a puddle of green slime.

Panting and drained, almost out of spells and resources, our heroes pause to catch their breath.

"Well, it took slime to beat this guy- but at least we know they have no defense against it," Horbin remarks.

After Sheva's cohort finally thaws, he and Angelfire try to open up Axon and Axel's chests; after several minutes of prying and picking, the imp finally succeeds, finding an incredibly intricate selection of clockwork gears, belts and wiring inside. He happily tears at it, chewing on the wires.

"There are three more of them," Thrush reminds the party.



*That, and the fact that the players weren't there during much of the two games over which this battle spread.

**Yep, natural 20 into an antimagic field that she wasn't in. So she had all her attack bonuses... and it was a touch attack besides!



Next Time: Our heroes meet a sullen dwarven smith and run an errand for him! And where is Sybele's daughter anyway? The answer comes soon!

 

[Technik4]

Wooh!

Great Fight! Chemnu was pretty haughty to cast anti-magic field, but I guess being a bile lord makes you pretty arrogant (although I think he was doing better with all his images!). So what was that globe of green slime?

As far as my game (or lack there-of) Im still working on my homebrew, buying the occasional book, and painting a ton of minis!

Can't wait to hear some of these interesting side-stories (dragon eggs), and still patiently awaiting the wrap-up with Clambake the Pirate. And since Im thinking of it, are you ever going to do a retro-story hour where we get the full backstory on Lester, Dexter, and Hobbes?! Because I have to say, Hobbes is the coolest PC name Ive heard in a good long while (and how come these cat people hardly ever come up?).

Whew, keep up the great work!

Technik

 

[the Jester]

Re: Wooh!

Great Fight! Chemnu was pretty haughty to cast anti-magic field, but I guess being a bile lord makes you pretty arrogant (although I think he was doing better with all his images!). So what was that globe of green slime?

It was a green slime grenade, courtesy of Belmax, a corporation founded by Belmondo the Enhanced (who made a brief appearance a while back with Alcar) and Lucidemax, a long-dead pc. She got a couple of them a while back while in Var.

Can't wait to hear some of these interesting side-stories (dragon eggs), and still patiently awaiting the wrap-up with Clambake the Pirate. And since Im thinking of it, are you ever going to do a retro-story hour where we get the full backstory on Lester, Dexter, and Hobbes?! Because I have to say, Hobbes is the coolest PC name Ive heard in a good long while (and how come these cat people hardly ever come up?)

Yeah, the wrap-up will come... I still need to put together the pivotal conversation about the clockwork horrors from my players' recollections.

As for a retro story hour, maybe a little here and there, but a lot of these characters go back to 1997 so the memory for specifics is a little dusty... maybe I'll do a "Cydra: the Early Years" type thing once in a while if people want, which would help fill in some of the backstory on Dexter, Malford, Lester, Hobbes and many other characters that may or may not have been mentioned in the current thread.

Thanks for the feedback, and look in my rogues' gallery thread for more on Chemnu (you stay out if you're in my game!! )

 

[the Jester]

Search for a Mage-Smith

Our heroes are walking.

Normally they'd fly or wind walk, but nobody's prepared for that right now, and it'll be about 5 in the evening before any of the clerics (namely, Horbin the Holy) can pray for spells. So, at least for a few hours, they're on foot like low-level adventurers on their way back to the Shining City. Along the way, Thrush and Sybele make a lot of small talk. It's clear that he thinks of her as his woman now, and it's equally clear that she's more than willing to go along as long as it suits her purpose- finding Jezebel, her missing daughter.

Once Horbin can cast wind walk on the group they return to the city in less than an hour. They check in with their buddies at the home of the Swords of Assistance, including the Chaos-warped Thorax and Thangor, a huge dark human with apparently limited language skills who serves the ex-Swords of Assistance as a guard. Everyone's glad to see the group alive.

Over the next two weeks the party does some more shopping, seeking magic items of great power, trying to commission some. It rapidly becomes apparent that most of the spellcasters capable of creating such powerful weapons have better things to do, but
Sheva turns up a pair of magical gloves that will poison a weapon as a free action thrice per day through her contacts in the Grey Brotherhood. Unfortunately, the price is high- 30,000 gp. She passes on it.

A little investigation turn up a mage-smith's name for the pcs: Fandral, said to be an outcast dwarf who lives not far from the Shining City in a cave in a sea cliff. Our heroes set out to locate him, and in short order they succeed, once again covering huge distances quickly via wind walk as they search. When they get to his cave, they find it spartan and tidy, and Fandral himself is a balding dwarf with long thick moustaches and a beard that puffs out importantly. He grudgingly invites them in for a bite to eat.

"So what are you doing out here by yourself?" Sybele asks him.

"Bah! My people didn't care for my ways. There are many among us dwarves who don't much hold with magic, ye know. Wasn't so long ago that most people didn't even believe we could do it." He guffaws. "They were wrong." Fandral's face turns sour. "But show someone they're wrong, and do they thank ye? No, they tell ye to air out and kick ye from your home. So I came here to get away from all them bastards, and here I'll remain. And don't go tryin' to get me involved in any crap with them, either!" He spits. "I wash me hands of them."

"Wow, sounds like an old buddy of ours," Sybele says. "Hessian. He led the Swords of Assistance for a while until an ogre killed him." She sighs. "I can understand what you mean about washing your hands of them, though," the psionic archer commisserates. "I used to be in the Forinthian Army, but I got kicked out for not just doing what I was told, for trying to do things differently."

Fandral nods. "Aye, and ta the Abyss with all of them." He pauses, then amends, "Well, not that I wish 'em ill- just have no desire to see any of them again."

"Well," Sheva asks, "is there any chance we could commission some weapons from you?"

The dwarven smith leans back and seems to be considering for a few moments. Then he answers, "Tell ye what. I'm looking for some special metal, called coal steel. Very useful stuff for making good strong weapons from. Ye get me some, and I'll make ye three weapons like ye've never seen before."

"Coal steel," muses Sheva. "Any idea where we could find some of it?"

"Oh, indeed," Fandral replies. "There's a group of fire giants what stole some a while back, I can tell ye exactly where they are."

The party exchanges glances. Another little quest, another distraction... "We need to find my daughter," Sybele says insistently.

"Yeah, but these weapons will help us, right?" Angelfire points out.

"Yeah..." Sybele admits.

"Well, we won't do Jezebel any good if we get killed trying to find her, will we?"

"True... all right, we'll do it," Sybele says. She's easily swayed due to her Chaotic nature; but she won't be swayed for long. What's happening to my daughter? she wonders despairingly. But for now, she allows herself to be talked into going on Fandral's errand.



Next Time: Fandral's Errand!