Agents of Chaos (Final Update!)

[the Jester]

Attack on the Elder Brain, pt. 2

With the petrification of the elder brain, Sybele and Alcar are both freed from its domination. There's a lot of opposition left, but none of it can really stand up to our heroes. Sybele peppers the illithid with arrows. Horbin blasts Lord Ryce (the half-orc barbarian) with a searing light and is surprised at how much damage it does, so he does it again and the barbarian turns to mist as well. "Some of them are vampires!" he shouts. Zeebo tries to blast the mist before it can escape, but his attempts fail to harm it. The mind flayer drops as a volley of seeker missiles blasts into him; all in all, things are working well for the party.

Alcar, Sybele, Horbin and Lester lay into the golems. Angelfire slices at Alcar even as the celestial of Galador strikes the golem! Then the red-skinned cleric of Coila vanishes into the timestream.
Lester's blows drop one of the brain golems. He cleaves onto another, and it drops, as well! Sybele finishes off the last one. Sheva, meanwhile, lays the undead creature low and drops the last remaining human- who looks like he is, indeed, a human- with a spiritual weapon.

Alcar heals himself, regaining his full strength and looking around with wide eyes. "St. Vitus!" he shouts. "Where are you?!" Orbius decides that a better question is where are the vampires' coffins, so he casts greater scrying to track them down. He can see the misty form going through what looks like a secret door in a hallway.

The only possible enemy still staanding is Alcar. Angelfire reappears and assesses the situation instantly: Alcar's fully healed, but there are no more distractions. "Are you ready to die?"

"I'll tell you what," says Alcar. "I'll duel you. Tomorrow at noon."

"Why not now?"

"Forcecage deathmatch!" someone shouts. "We should advertise- we could make some money that way!"

"Deep inside Bile Mountain isn't the place," Sheva interjects cooly. "Settle this now. From where I stand, you owe us an apology- especially since we just saved you from the mind flayers."

"You didn't save me," Alcar protests.

"Whatever," snorts Sheva. "Then go off on your own and get killed. We won't save you next time."

"I don't need saving."

Horbin casts calm emotions and tries to talk out a settlement. Several party members push for a promoted fight in Pesh City with expensive tickets, but neither Alcar nor Angelfire are in the mood for that kind of crap. Finally, when it becomes apparent that Angelfire is not going to be mollified by anything less than an apology and Alcar isn't going to apologize, the celestial says, "I don't have time for this! I have to find St. Vitus!"


He finds a secret door where the mist went through the wall. On the other side is a room with a pair of dark altars- and in front of one of the altars, mounted on a spike, is the head of St. Vitus. Worse, it's empty. They took his brain. Alcar sheds a tear for him, then plane shifts away in despondancy.

Orbius maintains concentration on his scrying spell until the party can find the vampires and stake them in their coffins. Then the party loots. They find a number of magic items- they'll identify them when they have a moment with Sybele's dorje of identify. They also find a strange-looking orichalcum key in the pool of tadpoles that still twitch around the elder brain. It's end is about the size of the last knuckle of Horbin's thumb, and it's strangely shaped.

"Well, we should probably go figure out what to do next," says Lester. "We've probably stirred up a hornet's nest here. Let's trump to Var, then we can teleport back here later." The party agrees and they trump away.


Next Time: Strange things are afoot in Var! If Lester doesn't have a brother, who's the one-armed man looking for him? And one of Lester's favorite old stories- how he's responsible for Boccob's existence!

 

[the Jester]

In Var

The party trumps in to Var in the middle of the day. There's plenty of time for them to do stuff, so they split up to take care of business.

Orbius uses a crystal ball of exceptional power that he made after reading the libram and tries to scry both Angelfire's father and Sybele's daughter, but for some reason he can see neither. "They are obscured somehow," he muses to himself. Then he decides to spy on the Champion of Elemental Evil, Lareth. What he sees shakes him to his core. "I saw him in the middle of a human sacrifice," he reports. "And he saw me. He said he would destroy me, and he killed the man in front of me and tore out his guts and waved them at me!"

"Come on, Orbius," says Lester, "to the Temple of Elemental Good!"

Established in Var by Lester as a response to the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Temple of Elemental Good holds many of his followers. He checks in with the head adept, Unger.

"Has your brother gotten ahold of you?" his follower asks.

"Brother?" Lester exclaims. "I don't have a brother! What's this guy look like?"

"Like you, pretty much," Unger says. "One arm, similar features... older than you, though."

"Well, if he comes back you haven't seen us, all right?" Lester shuffles out his trumps of two old buddies who live in Var, Malford and Thimbleton. However, neither one responds to him. "I wonder what they're up to?" he mutters to himself. Then Lester and the Eye go to the local temple of Boccob, where there's a new high priest, Polis. He tells them that he's replacing the old high priestess, who recently died.

The L tells Polis the tale of his greatest adventure: traveling back in time to another, previous universe, where he and some other adventurers- "King Malford was there, and Thimbleton, and even Dexter himself was with us on that one! In fact, that's where Dexter became the Harvester of Water, but that's another story"- retrieved the objects required to recreate nature and defeat Fuligin, the powerful evil being who had destroyed almost all non-evil life on Dorhaus. He brags on, "And Boccob and Froth and some of those other gods came back with us in this little thing. And when we got back to Cydra, it popped out of Thimbleton's head. Everyone else wanted to destroy it, but I stopped them. So you see, without me, there wouldn't even be a Boccob here!"

They make a substantial donation, and then Orbius prays to his deity in front of the altar and communes.

Who am I speaking with? Boccob.
I ask for protection for Lester and open my mind to you.
How did the old high priestess of Boccob die? Not your concern.
Which side is ahead in the Great War of Ethics? The battle is just beginning.
Does Boccob side with Law or Chaos? No.
Does the Ethic of Chaos overall lean towards Good or Evil? No.
Where are Thimbleton and Malford? Goldstone.
What is the purpose of their visit? Expansion.
What is the best way for us to serve Boccob? Penetrate the hidden secrets.
Where can one begin to look for the hidden secrets? Upper Bile Mountain.
What will be the biggest danger we face in upper Bile Mountain? Unknown.
May I have the name of a weak-willed creature in upper Bile Mountain so I may scry? Unknown
If we penetrate the hidden secrets will you reward us with a personal visit? No.
What can we do to earn an audience with you? Get for me the Codex of the Infinite Planes.

"Darn," says the Eye.



Next time: Horbin gets chastised! Is that guy crazy, or is he seeing something that we can't? Then- back to the mountain!

 

[Talix]

Wow. Jester, you are the most post-crazy DM I know, and that's without even the usual multitude of encouragements posts! I'm very impressed.

You should know that I am avidly reading and enjoying this story hour, and I hope you continue it (especially at this fast pace!). I just can't get to it as often as I would like.

Keep up the great work!

 

[the Jester]

Wow. Jester, you are the most post-crazy DM I know, and that's without even the usual multitude of encouragements posts! I'm very impressed.

You should know that I am avidly reading and enjoying this story hour, and I hope you continue it (especially at this fast pace!). I just can't get to it as often as I would like.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the kind words, Talix! As far as the quick pace of my updates- well, let's just say that I'm still about four to five game sessions behind and I really want to catch up...

Hope you continue to enjoy it as things get really outrageous- the party is rapidly approaching epic levels, and I can't wait! They're actually in the middle of their second epic-level fight already- we had to wrap up last weekend's game without finishing the battle- and when you're fighting CR 21 monsters with a party of 12th-17th level characters the xp rate is tremendous (especially since I use the FRCS xp system).

By the way, if you haven't already checked it out you might be interested in my [players stay out!] rogues gallery thread- most recently I posted the stats for Red-Eye...

 

[Greybar]

especially since I use the FRCS xp system

Okay, I'll bite. I've seen this referenced before, but I assume this is a pre-3E thing that I missed during my absence from D&D.

Does anyone mind clarifying for me, by post or email?

thanks,
John

 

[the Jester]

Okay, I'll bite. I've seen this referenced before, but I assume this is a pre-3E thing that I missed during my absence from D&D.

Does anyone mind clarifying for me, by post or email?

thanks,
John

Actually it's in the 3e FRCS hardback.

Basically, instead of figuring the average party level and awarding xp accordingly, you figure each pc's xp based on their individual level instead. It's more time consuming, but imho well worth it. It helps to close the gap between the high and low level pcs.

 

[Greybar]

(slaps forehead)
Doh!, I have the FRCS. My bad. That is a good idea.

I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of Bile Mountain. It is bother wonderful and annoying when players manage to take down the opposition cleverly (lower water, for instance). We're still talking about how one of my players managed to the BBEG in a recent game. She came in fully buffed after the heroes were worn down, one turned to stone, the wizard almost out of spells. With a little slap she delivered a harm to the lead warrior-type ... then she died without anyone touching her or casting a spell on her.

*sigh* dammnable PCs.

She was standing on top of a crushing trap the heroes had disabled earlier. He simply reached in, pulled out the wedges that were holding the mechanism, and smash one failed reflex save later the evil high priestess was a gooey paste.

Beautiful. Probably would have been a TPK otherwise.

John

 

[the Jester]

Metron's Visions

Horbin goes to a local church of Dexter. He's been here before; it was here that he was given the holy mace he bears by the church's high priest. And, as that high priest, named Metron, reminds him, he was given it for a purpose.

"Have you overthrown the Temple of Elemental Evil yet?" Metron demands.

"No, it's on the list..."

"It must be attended to! It is a dangerous boil on the world," Metron insists.

"I know," Horbin replies. "We're in the middle of something right now, but that's next. And I think Lester's already hired some adventurers to go attack it, too."

Metron paws at the air. "You must hurry," he insists. He seems to be watching something that isn't there move through the air. Something funny's going on here. Horbin frowns, watching. Metron swats at something unseen again, then shakes his head.

"Is everything all right?" Horbin asks.

Metron looks at the adventurer. He shudders. "I see things," he whispers low. "I... I don't know if they're real or not, nobody else can see them. Things like eels, swimming through space. I..." He swallows. "I cannot cure it, if it is a disease... or a curse. I fear I am going mad."

Horbin isn't quite sure what to say. He offers to help if he can, but there's no real answer as to how. After all, Metron's a cleric of some power himself. On his way out, Horbin speaks to a street preacher amed Faindar and asks him to watch over Metron. Horbin's definitely concerned.

Sybele, meanwhile goes to the church of the Sea Queen and prays for her daughter, Jezebel. She's not particularly religious, but in times of stress, she asks for help from everywhere that she can.

Then the party reassembles and prepares to return to the elder brain chamber to continue their explorations.




Next Time: More mind flayers! And a monster I got from ENWorld- the wasp golem!

 

[the Jester]

The Wasp Golem

The party returns to the elder brain chamber. Sheva's imp cohort scampers to the dead and dying tadpoles in the pool and starts gorging itself on them, smacking its lips in delight. The party searches for a few moments, then finds the trigger to the secret door that Alcar had previously gone through. "Don't forget that key we found," says Sybele, but the secret door doesn't require it. They find a room with two disgusting altars of evil aspect, one squirmous and wormy and the other shaped to accomodate a head, with a brain atop it.

"Foul evil altar!" cries the L, drawing Felix Optima Maxima and swinging wildly at the squirmous altar. Both he and his sword cry out as one as they strike, and the elementalist groans as a dark and terrible curse settles over him, lowering his wisdom. He staggers away. "I don't think that was such a good idea," he moans.

The party passes by the altars without further tampering. They enter another room- and find themselves in battle! There are a dozen ogre zombies and four illithids! The battle is fast and furious, and despite stunning most of the party initially, the illithids and undead drop before the combination of Sybele's rapid shots and Orbius' devastating magical prowess. When it's over the two of them exchange a look of proud triumph- not bad, for the two of them. Lester grabs Norman, who now has some fuzz growing back on his previously shaved head, and cries out, "We won!" -to which Norman replies, "Don't pick me up." Lester also apologizes to Felix Optima Maxima for dropping her when he was stunned, and fashions a loop that ties her to his wrist so it won't happen again. She seems mollified by this.

Exploring further, the party stumbles into a room with one end cut off by a glowing green wall of energy- they've seen this before, from the other side, when they found the books! But on this side, there's some sort of swarm of wasps forming a vaguely humanoid shape- coming at them! Norman throws a dagger but misses it; Sybele fires a shot and Lester swings his sword at it. Then it's on Lester, and it engulfs him! Wasps surround him, stinging and biting everywhere! "I've got it distracted!" he shouts, "Kill it!" He can feel the stinging of their poison on him, but his powerful system is fighting it off so far.

Sybele pours on a steady rain of arrows, some hitting but many missing. Norman keeps hucking daggers at it until it swoops him up as well, and now he and Lester are tumbled together inside the thing. Horbin hits it with a searing light but it doesn't seem to harm the thing. The creature moves towards him, buzzing angrily, and drops Norman as it grabs Horbin. With a gruntthe halfling scrambles back and hurls a dagger, hitting the wasp golem. Sybele's backing away from it frantically, continuing to fire arrows even as it smashes at her with its terrible fists. Her arrows are inflicting telling wounds on it, and as it turns to drop the already-wounded Norman unconscious with a mighty blow the archer's bow sings again as it fires a trio of arrows at the golem, all of which hit. The wasp golem stops buzzing and all the wasps fall to the ground, dead, as one.

"This is the other side of the wall," Sheva says. "Reth died on the other side. Maybe she made it?"

"Or someone else did, to keep her out?" suggests Lester, dusting himself off.

"What do we do now?" wonders Orbius. "We don't really need to explore all this area, we may know enough to be able to get where we need to go once I can teleport us again tomorrow."

"Where do we need to go?" asks Horbin.

"Up," says the Eye. "To penetrate the hidden secrets." He frowns. "Where's the highest point we've been? We're on the mind flayer level, but we went up from the other side of that glowing wall before to the beholder level, so that's where we should be. We'll [/i]teleport without error[/i] up there tomorrow."

"Well, for now, let's keep exploring," says Lester. "I haven't turned any bad guys to stone today yet."


Next Time: What will Lester turn to stone next?

 

[Talix]

Re: The Wasp Golem

"Well, for now, let's keep exploring," says Lester. "I haven't turned any bad guys to stone today yet."

LOL