Agents of Chaos (Final Update!)

[the Jester]

Into the Spicewoods!

Heading into the Spicewoods the party finds that their visibility is limited by the thick foliage. The heady scents of the place are almost overpowering. The dappled sunlight that penetrates the boughs seems mild and cool, and the air is kept still by the thick branches on all sides. Shrubs and small plants are everywhere and the flowers of summer add splashes of color periodically as the group advances.

The first location they know was attacked is some six miles inside the boundaries of the forest, due north from town. The group heads that direction, alert for signs of trouble. They find themselves at a zone that has been cleared of vegetation. A few stumps remain at ground level, cut evenly. “Stupid Law,” mutters the L. There’s no sign of the formians, however.

“You know,” Angel suggests, “we could try to summon some formians and see if they know anything helpful.”

“Yeah, right,” Lester answers. “And I’ll bet as soon as we did the other ones would know we’re coming.”

The group starts to head towards the other location. They’ve only gone about a half mile when they spot two huge plants that seem oddly symmetrical, with every leaf in a perfect pattern- and they’re moving. Lester turns to the Mayor. “Here,” he says, handing over one of his swords. “As long as this is in your hand, you can fly- it’s the Airsword.” Then he channels the powers of elemental earth and an arm of rock and earth springs into being at his side, where the one he’s missing should be. The party attacks, being suspicious of anything that looks too orderly under the circumstances. Lester’s wings lift him up as he tosses a fireball at the plants, Horbin fires a searing light towards them, and Zeebo takes to the air with the sword, firing a ball of flame from the wand of fireballs that the group looted from Cluma. Angel rushes forward, taking a smashing blow from one of the plants as he does so, and hacks mightily at it.

Lester dives at one of the plants, dodging its attack as he moves through its reach, slashing with Felix Optima Maxima. The discordant sound of his chaotic energy rings around them as he hits his lawful foe. Angel stands his ground and hews at the enemy, batting aside its counterstrikes. Lester isn’t so lucky- the perfect plant creature slams into him and grabs him, trying to draw him into its substance. Horbin fires another blast of light at the plants, then screams, “They’re regenerating!” He follows this with a roaring column of white flame, striking down from above, then invokes Dexter’s favor on himself and moves in with his mace.

Zeebo wobbles up a little higher in the air, unused to the sword’s mode of flight. He casts a slow spell at the thrashing plants, but to no avail- they seem able to resist his magic. He curses inwardly, moves up some more, and hurls magical arrows dripping acid once, twice, thrice... all for naught. His magic can’t penetrate their resistance!

Meanwhile, Lester struggles free of the creature’s maw, cutting at it with Felix Optima Maxima. It grabs him again immediately, and again he manages to fight free. Then he strikes a mighty blow, the familiar sound of his chaotic energy echoing through the woods, and the first plant shudders to a halt- but Horbin can see it’s still moving. Lester swoops in to aid Angel, who is standing stoutly and swinging like a woodcutter with her curved falchion, and even as the warrior of chaos moves in the one on Angel falls. But almost immediately it repairs itself enough to attack again. With a snarl, the fiery Coila-worshiper smashes it down again. “Stay down!” he shouts at it.

Zeebo lands and starts frantically building a fire, then glances at the one that Horbin hit with a flame strike and sees that the fire damage, too, is regenerating. He curses aloud, then notes that where the cleric has joined the fight with his mace he seems to be doing more irreparable damage. Blunt damage, the mayor realizes, and moves in to aid Horbin. Soon the plants are smashed to pieces, destroyed beyond repair.

Wiping the sweat from their brows, the group looks at each other. They have fought their first battle together from start to finish and it bodes well for their success. But by now dusk is falling; it’s time to head back to Ifthonia for a good night’s sleep and to meet back up with Sybele and Orbius.

 

[the Jester]

Enter Sheva

Sybele is meditating.

The archer-psion swore a vow to a powerful slaad years ago, that she would take up the role of a warrior of chaos. The time has come at last. She can feel the pulse of the chaos within her, calling to her.

She’s always stood fairly well in between Law and Chaos, personally; but that changes now as she lets it into her. She feels her perceptions subtly alter, her sense of smell growing stronger and richer. The scent of the Spicewoods is almost intoxicating.

When the party gets back to town it’s fairly late, and they fall into a deep sleep. When the morning comes, they prepare to enter the Spicewoods again. As they are girding their weapons, a pale-skinned, fiery red haired woman wearing a chain mail bikini walks in. There are two greatswords strapped across her back. She is wafer-thin.

“Hey,” says Lester, walking up to her and thoughtfully eyeing her ample blades, “we’re going to go overthrow some formians and claim it as my temple of Elemental Earth. You look like you can handle yourself, unless those are just for show.”

Sheva looks at the L and laughs. “No, they’re not just for show.” Then she catches sight of Angel. “Hello, Angel. Have you found her yet?”

“No, not yet.”

Sheva looks over the rest of the party. “I take it this is the party of adventurers you’ve gathered to help you.”

“Ah- our interests coincide.”

The redhead turns to survey the rest of the group and spies someone she knows well: Zeebo. “And it’s the Mayor!” she exclaims. “I’ve been trying to reach you for months, but I keep getting held up by your secretaries.”

Zeebo chuckles. “There’s always time for you, Sheva.”

Orbius scries out a worker formian. It seems to be carrying wood with a gang of other workers. Since it’s not too interesting, he tries to scry out the queen. Indeed, he succeeds- and sees her with several more large formians and a group of trolls, apparently underground. They aren’t really doing anything, and while he watches that doesn’t seem to change. “I could teleport a few of us in there,” he offers, but the group decides to stay together, at least for now.

“Keep that scrying spell going, though,” Lester tells him.

The group flies, air walks and assumes wind walk form, and then moves at great speed towards the second place in the woods where they know there was a formian attack. It becomes visible over the treetops as a cleared-out circle with only stumps remaining. I wonder what they’re using all the wood for? thinks the Mayor. Landing, the group reassumes their physical forms and starts searching for clues. Sybele can’t help but notice how rich everything smells.

“They’re still just sitting there,” the Eye tells them. His eyes have a faraway look.

Suddenly there’s a strange sound in the distance, a ululating howl. “What was that?” Sybele calls out.

Nearby, something moves through the brush...





Next time: Introducing Jibber, and to the nest!

 

[the Jester]

To The Hive!

The creature is a lot like a frog, but pinkish-white, humanoid and 6’ tall. As it dances through the brush it’s breaking things- in an artful way. “Lululululululu!” it yells.

It stops when it sees them and starts making funny faces. “Blah!” it cries.

Sybele looks at it and smiles. So does Lester. The various members of the group have all encountered things somewhat like this before, and they all recognize it as some sort of slaad- an agent of Chaos from the plane of Limbo. “Hello there!” says the L.

“Hello,” the things responds, sticking its tongue out and pulling at its cheeks with its hands.

“Uh- what are you doing here?” asks Sheva.

“Watching the formians,” says the slaad with great gravity, picking up and breaking a stick.

“The formians!” exclaims Zeebo. “Then you know where they are? Will you show us?”

The creature nods and whoops, then spins in a circle and ululates again. “Sure I’ll show you! My name is Jibber!”

Sheva asks, “Have you seen a woman, scarred by fire?” She is, after all, trying to find this Reth Fire-Scarred person.

The slaad stops and looks at her, its eyes bulging out. It makes a face at her, deeply furrowing its brow. “Yes. She came and left.”

“Came and left!” Sheva exclaims. “Where’d she go?”

The slaad stops, looks thoughtful for a moment, scratching its chin with a long white finger. It opens its mouth as if to speak, then shakes its head and closes its mouth. Then it raises a finger, widens its eyes, and acts as if about to speak again, but stops abruptly and shakes its head forlornly. It looks to be pondering again, then finally says, “Nope, I wasn’t paying attention.”

A disappointed Sheva grits her teeth. Lester says, “So show us to the formians then.”

“This way!” the creature cries, and ululates again. It bounds away into the forest and leads the party to an area sharply demarcated by a lack of vegetation. There is no cover for the last 60’ around the hive, and the hive itself is quite large. There are walls surrounding the place, made of chewed up wood pulp, and there are towers thrusting up into the sky with bugs keeping watch. It’s clear that the party has been spotted. Only seconds from when our heroes reach the tree line, dozens of formians are pouring out of the towers, and the battle is joined. Some sort of strange diabolic wasp things lift off from somewhere within the walls’ confines. The formians are pouring over the walls and Sybele can hear something whinny from within the walls... something that smells of brimstone.


Next installment: We'll see the beginning of a furious battle with formians and their allies, including a death knight!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Good SH Jester! As others have said, focusing on the Law/Chaos axis makes a nice change.

But I'm a little confused...how does story fit in with the previous? And what sort of levels are we looking at here? Thanks!

 

[the Jester]

Good SH Jester! As others have said, focusing on the Law/Chaos axis makes a nice change.

Thanks! I always love feedback, so let me know what you think of the style, the types of stuff they fight, etc...

I may post the stats on some of the more interesting things they deal with in another thread.

But I'm a little confused...how does story fit in with the previous? And what sort of levels are we looking at here? Thanks!

Right... the party's a confusing one. Horbin was a member of the party in the other group, and it touched on the Law-Chaos conflicter peripherally before (the group once stumbled upon a big battle between Chaos and Law... they even had the chance to alter the course of it). Sheva, the Mayor, Angel and Sybele were part of an earlier party that was more directly involved- they guarded this chamber full of dragon eggs for months against attacking forces allied with Law and with a terrible dragon. They had to go to the Court of Law on Nirvana, where the attorneys are modrons. (In fact, Zeebo still has a modron attorney on retainer too...)

At the current time in the SH post above the party consists of:

Angel- pschic warrior 8/cleric of Coila 3
Lester "the L"- elementalist 11/warrior of Chaos 4
Orbius Visionary, "the Eye"- Lester's cohort; diviner 6/divine oracle 7
Horbin- cleric of Dexter 11
Zeebo "the Mayor"- wizard 5/sorcerer 5
Sybele- fighter 8/psion 4/warrior of Chaos 1
Sheva Unseelie- ranger 1/rogue 2/assassin 2/cleric 7/contemplative 2/ monk 1


So as you can see, the levels vary significantly. They've gone up, too, since this was posted, and gained more members (although I suspect they'll be part-timers). One of these new members has had to fight some of them before at the hatching cave, too, so it makes it interesting.

 

[the Jester]

Battle for the Formian Hive (pt. 1)

As the formians and their allies pour out of the nest, our heroes spring into action. Zeebo starts casting haste on everyone, while Orbius stays behind the L and continues to scry the queen. Lester attacks one of the wasp things as it rushes forward. It stinks of smoke and hellfire, but he swings Felix Optima at it and his sword strikes! There’s a clap of chaotic sound as the blow connects, and Lester shouts, “They’re lawful!” Then the wasp is attacking him back, but the frightful armor he wears, Fuligin’s Armor, deflects its sting and bite.

A large, tough-looking gargoyle swoops out, attacking Angel. As he attempts to defend himself from it, a crowd of the ant-like formians moves in around him, stinging at him. Angel is beset on all sides, deflecting blows with his falchion and trying desperately to protect himself. A troll suddenly appears at the top of the wall surrounding the hive, and it’s immediately starting to clamber down to meet them. Almost immediately afterward, some sort of horrifying creature with hooks for hands clacks its way to the top of the wall as well.

Jibber starts blowing snot at the forces rushes out at the adventurers, strangely inspiring confidence in the champions of Chaos. Lester hammers away at the strange wasp-devil with Felix Optima Maxima as it stings and bites at him. Fuligin’s Armor turns all the wasp-thing's blows, however.

As more defenders keep pouring out of the woodwork, Orbius drops his scrying to start hurling spells at them. The bugs move in en masse, and soon everyone is being attacked by something. Angel busts free of the knot of enemies around him and races up the wall as easily as a normal man would run across a floor, stopping at the top to swing a mighty blow at the hook horror, but things only get worse as he’s dominated by something up there! The gargoyle charges towards him, not realizing that Angel has just switched sides. Sybele fires arrow after arrow that bursts into flames at the troll and the formians, dropping one after another. Sheva grows larger through the Mayor’s magical power while Horbin grows through his own spells, and both tear into the surrounding foes. Lester drops the creature he’s fighting with another clap of chaotic power. There’s a tremendous boom of noise as the Eye fires off a lance of disruption, setting off a momentary twinge of jealousy in the L.

Things start looking worse as Lester calls out, “The wasp things are regenerating!” Meanwhile, the hook horror rushes at Sybele, attacking the archer with its terrible hooks, ripping her up and down for terrible damage. She backs away from it, trying to shoot it with her bow, but its reach gives it a deadly advantage. Then Angel charges down the wall and into Horbin, slashing the cleric of Dexter with his terrible flaming falchion...


Next time: The battle continues! Undead, timeslipping, teleportation, and the queen!

 

[the Jester]

Battle for the Formian Hive (pt. 2)

The strange singing slaad Jibber does something that gives our heroes a little help, yelping and thrusting his hands wildly before him; there’s a swirl of random colors and a strange smell, and a large green slaad appears. It surveys the scene and clearly recognizes formians, growling in a strange-sounding way, and unleashes the power of chaos on a group of combatants, blasting the lawful ones- including Sheva- with a hammer of chaotic force. The two slaadi then wade into the battle, their claws slashing, their bites snapping all around.

Lester tosses a fireball to incinerate some of the bugs, then creates a bank of acid fog and starts dragging one of the downed wasps towards it. He’s intercepted by another formian and he strikes it down in a clap of chaotic energy. Sheva’s doing well, slicing the outsider bugs handily; she seems to have grown a second pair of arms and is wielding both of her greatswords at the same time. Orbius dispels the domination on Angel, but also dispels some of her defensive effects. Angel, free of the mind control, glares around for a moment, attacks one of the formians, and then disappears.

Then the death knight arrives, charging in on a barded nightmare, giving off sulphurous fumes and the stench of corruption. It wears a gaudy tabard and wields a lance, charging through the air to charge Lester, but the undead knight’s lance slaps in its grasp and it misses. Quickly, Sheva hastes herself with Chronovestis, one of her swords, and then tears into the nightmare with both greatswords. The nightmare screams and drops, and the death knight cries out in anger as it does. The terrible undead creature lands on its feet, whips out a greatsword and makes three devastating attacks on Lester. The blows smash through the L’s defenses each time, and though they cut open terrible wounds he stands fast in toe-to-toe battle with the creature. It fires a blast of terrible abyssal flame at him and Lester cries out in pain, then grits his teeth and swings Felix Optima at the undead monster again, his bat-wings flapping as he flies above it.

Orbius is shouting something about teleporting to confront the queen, but he’s also still casting attack spells. Zeebo keeps moving about, hasting one person, enlarging the next, and things are starting to look good on the bug front when another wave tops the wall. Some of the formians from the first wave are still standing and are of a different, much hardier and more dangerous strain than the simple warrior formians. These ones are quicker, stronger, and deadlier.

Horbin and the troll are clashing in brutal battle, and Horbin brings the troll down in a pair of tremendous blows that snap its head almost off. Still, he knows it’s bound to be regenerating... He glances at Lester’s acid cloud. Sybele and one of the slaadi are already hauling the twitching, regenerating wasp-devils to the roiling cloud of vapor and throwing them in. There are dead formians everywhere.

Lester strikes another blow, driving the death knight to one knee. The elementalist’s wings are flapping violently as he charges in, and the death knight raises his sword, but Felix Optima Maxima slices in, slashing open the unholy creature’s helm and splitting its skull. An ominous clap of chaotic sound echoes over the field of battle as the death knight falls. Lester draws a shaky breath and flies over towards the formian near Sheva. “Down, Law-abider!” he cries, and Felix Optima bites again with a clap of chaotic thunder.

Again the taskmaster formians try to dominate a number of our heroes, and for a moment they struggle back and forth against the party’s slippery minds and dispel magics, but then all the bugs are engaged and they cannot so easily seize the group’s minds. Sybele falls back, whipping out her bow again and taking shots at the closest bugs. She can smell the stale waxy smell of their hive, and she doesn’t like it at all. Meanwhile, Jibber and the hook horror engage in a terrible bout of hand to hand combat, and finally the hooked beast falls to Jibber’s large claws. Those who glance in the singing slaad’s direction can see his wounds healing moment by moment.

Orbius summons a huge earth elemental. It rises up, striking at the remaining enemies, and then the wizard creates a magical telepathic link between himself, Lester, Sheva and Sybele. “We’re teleporting in to attack the queen!” shouts Orbius. “Come on!” Sheva and Lester cluster close to him.

Suddenly Sybele turns and starts firing shots at Zeebo. Clearly, she’d dominated. “Oh crap,” says Zeebo, as Sybele draws another arrow. There are already two burning shafts in him. Sheva tosses a dispel magic at the archer, but it fails; Lester tries to turn Sybele to stone, but she throws off the effect of his powerful magic. Orbius overcomes the power of the domination with a dispel magic of his own, breaking the taskmaster’s hold on Sybele.

“Hold them here!” Lester shouts to Zeebo and Horbin as Orbius casts a spell. “We’re going to go kill the queen!” And then Orbius, the L and Sheva vanish.

“Uh, okay,” says a very nonplussed Horbin.

The remaining formian defenders are moving in...





Next Time: All right, I guess it's next time we get to the queen... And where'd Angel go anyway? Everything you ever needed to know about the timeslip ability!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Wow that's some fight! How long did all this take, anyway? How many rounds, and how long in real time?

Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[the Jester]

Wow that's some fight! How long did all this take, anyway? How many rounds, and how long in real time?

Can't wait for the next installment!

The fight took everything after the first twenty minutes of a nine-hour game, plus the first hour of the next session.

In game terms this was 23 rounds, a new record for a high-level fight for my campaign. Think about that, though: that's only 138 seconds, just over two minutes. That's some firepower rolling out for chaos!

Right now the story hour is on round forteen...

 

[the Jester]

I have this terrible desire to refer to Angel as a she when I write about him.

This is because he was a female until she was touched by chaos. What can ya do.

So if I ever do let that slip in by accident, please understand it doesn't mean anything...