Agents of Chaos (Final Update!)

[the Jester]

Turning bad guys to stone

A little more poking around and our heroes burst through a thoroughly locked door and into a chamber holding several undead crawling with worms, a dozen melancholy-looking bare-headed ogres and another human-looking individual (but between the wormy guy and the vampires, the party's not buying that any more).

The group bursts into fast and furious action. The ogres stumble away from the fight, huddling together. Almost instantly the whumph of a flame strike blasts down from Horbin. Several of the ogres drop. The human stiffens and turns to stone in seconds, having only had time to fire out a volley of magic missiles and a flaming sphere. Lester cries out with glee, "It happens every time- so evil bad guy gets turned to stone!" Then he turns his attention on the undead, Felix Optima Maxima thrumming in his hand.

The worms crawling on the undead are leaping for party members, reminding Sheva, Sybele and Zeebo of previous experiences they had in Firestorm Peak years ago. The L cries out in disgust as one of the fat green worms lands on his arm, but it explodes in a cloud of greenish-black fluid as Orbius targets it with another volly of magic missiles. Lester cries out, "In the name of the elements, I cleanse you!!", and unleashes a fireball on the hapless ogres. Several fall, and only a few remain, screaming and crying out for mercy (though only a few party members can understand it).

Lester hesitates. "They aren't fighting back," Horbin points out.

"And they're asking for mercy," Sybele reports.

The party hesitates briefly, trying to decide what to do with them, and ultimately they decide to try to recruit them. "I'll take them to the Temple of Elemental Good," says Lester. "They'll serve the elements there." He ponders. "Let's turn statue boy back to flesh there, too. That way he won't have anywhere to run."

The party agrees, and then they trump back to Var, ogres and all. The steward of King Malford's castle looks askance at the ogres as the party parades them through the halls, but as long as they behave he doesn't appear interested in starting trouble. After all, the King and his companions have many odd friends... much odder than that.

"So tomorrow we'll turn this guy back," Lester says of the statue.

"And we'll try to get as high in Bile Mountain as we can," adds Orbius. "To pierce the hidden secrets."



Next Time: Turning that guy back to flesh, and a stern warning about spying! Don't miss the assassination of a party member!

 

[the Jester]

Warnings

The ogres are ushered away once they reach the Temple of Elemental Good; hopefully, Lester's head acolyte will be able to put them to good use and keep them out of trouble. Lester puts them out of his mind for now.

The next morning, the party is walking down the streets of Var, en route to do some shopping, when the assassination happens. It seemingly comes out of nowhere, and right before their eyes, Orbius is murdered. They group is talking about turning the captured and petrified fellow back to flesh when something unseen slips from a hiding place and attacks him. The Eye cries out as he suffers grievous damage, and then something else unseen attacks him from the other side. He tries to evade their attacks by casting a mirror image and now that they aren't hiding anymore, Lester can see them- they're some kind of air elemental creatures- but there's nothing he can do in time.

There's a terrible snap as one of the aerial assassins grabs Orbius by the neck and kills him. Then it drops a note and both of the elemental creatures ascend into the sky, flying away fast.

"NO! MY EYE!!!" Lester screams, and shoots a fireball after them, wounding one of them a little. He flies after them on his wings, but they're far quicker than he, and he can only cast one more fireball at them before they're out of range. The rest of the party is still trying to figure out what just happened, and the only thing they're sure of is that Orbius lays in the street, his eyes glazed and open, staring at nothing, head at an unnatural angle.

Lester returns, angry. "Damn it! Who were those guys? And why'd they do it?? I need my Eye back!" He snatches the note from the Eye's chest.

Do not trifle with or spy on us, it reads. It's unsigned, but Lester curses. "It was the Temple of Elemental Evil, I'll bet! Ooh, we gotta get those guys!"



Next Time: Lester's quest for a scroll of true resurrection! Will this change the party's direction? And coming soon- Alcar's return!

 

[the Jester]

The party goes about their shopping, though Lester's priorities have changed somewhat. After talking with Horbin, he's decided to seek a true resurrection for Orbius, since he doesn't want him to lose some of his life energy to death. He expects it to be expensive, so he's selling rather than buying. After some deep contemplation, he decides to sell his frost brand, but first he asks his intelligent sword, "What do you think of me selling this?"

"You don't need it," Felix Optima Maxima's feminine voice snorts. "You have me."

"You really should give me another wish sometime," Lester mutters. The sword, had it face, would smirk at that. It granted Lester a single wish many years before, in fighting its true enemies- the clockwork horrors. But Lester and his old group, including King Malford, Hobbes the tabaxi, Thimbleton and many others defeated them at the source- drove off Master Control and turned off the horrors. The sword doesn't anticipate any more trouble from them.*

After selling some valuable items, Lester combs the city for a scroll of true resurrection but there just doesn't seem to be one to be found. He curses to himself, long and loud, and then goes to Boccob's temple. Orbius was a devout worshiper of Boccob and had donated many thousands of gold pieces to him here in Var; so Lester appeals to the priests for help. They offer to raise the Eye from the dead, but cannot perform a miracle of the magnitude he seeks.

Frustrated, Lester prays, making a large sacrifice. He implores Boccob for aid, and he meditates and prays for almost an hour. Then, perhaps because of the level of power of Orbius as a worshiper of Boccob, perhaps because he's doing Boccob's work, perhaps because of the value of all the sacrifices that the L and Orbius have made for Boccob, Lester is granted a vision.

He sees a ruined church in a ruined city that stretches all along a huge dirty lake. There are burn scars and entire neighborhoods that look like they've burned away; walls in ruins everywhere, with few rooftops still intact. It's a huge city, or at least the corpse of one.

Lester comes out of the vision, but the image of the church and the ruined city is a starting point. He asks the priests about ruined cities around a lake and is told he should speak to Brother Nelly, who is apparently the historian and geographer of the church of Boccob. When the L finally speaks to Brother Nelly, working in the gardens, Nelly tells him that the city is likely to be Makon, once the largest metropolis known to exist, the capital of Imperial Wotan- a country that vanished with the coming of Fuligin. It's far away, but Brother Nelly offers to blindfold Lester and Angelfire and get them there along a secret way, and they accede.



*Astute readers may note that the band of adventurers that Horbin was with about five years ago traveled on a ship covered in clockwork horrors and reactivated them. Whether or not this will have any long-term or large-scale repercussions has not yet been revealed.




Next Time: What price must Lester pay for Orbius' true resurrection?

 

[the Jester]

The Price For Orbius

Blindfolded, Lester and Angelfire are led along a long path. For a time they can hear their footsteps echoing all around- it seems that they pass through a long cavern- and then they can smell fresh air and hear birdsong again. Soon after, Brother Nelly removes the blindfolds.

Our heroes look around. They're at the edge of a massive ruin that spreads as far as the eye can see. Buildings are burnt or simply abandoned, almost intact or cast down entirely. There is a huge lakeshore that stretches out along the left hand side.

"Excellent," breathes the L. This is definitely the place he saw in his vision. He thanks Nelly and tells the Boccobite that they can get back to Var on their own.

"Good luck to you," says Nelly. He turns and walks off, apparently to whatever secret path he led them here by. Lester and Angelfire turn their attention to the task of finding the church. Lester takes to the air on his bat-like wings, and soon enough he spots the church from his vision, but it's in much worse shape than he'd thought.

The two approach it quickly. The roof has collapsed over most of the temple and little of the place remains in any kind of easily-searched shape. Lester looks on with despair. If he'd only taken Horbin here, he could talk him into casting find the path or something...

Frustrated, the elementalist kneels down before the altar. "Galador," he prays, "I helped watch over your son, Dexter, and helped deliver him from Bleak. I've never prayed to you before- never asked you for anything- but I need my cohort back at his full power if we're to succeed at overthrowing Bile Mountain- which I'm sure you want to see happen as well! Please, guide me here!"

Lester and Angelfire begin searching, and almost immediately the L finds himself drawn to a crack in the altar. There's a secret compartment in it- and within that, a scroll.

As the L picks up the delicate, rolled-up parchment, he feels a sense of heavy obligation fall onto him. "Oh no," he moans, "not a geas!"





Next Time: Too bad Lester doesn't even know what his geas is, huh? Orbius returns from the dead- and the party returns to Bile Mountain! Can Alcar be far behind?

 

[the Jester]

A shaken Orbius is brought back to life. He's angry that someone came after him, and it makes him very nervous about scrying enemies a lot. Lester tells him not to worry- "Death's just a temporary thing. I've been dead before; I came back too. Heck, I'll bet most of us have been dead before!" -but Orbius just shakes his head. Horbin frowns; his recent death left him profoundly shaken.

The party spends ten days taking care of various forms of business. Lester fasts and meditates, trying to ascertain the nature of his geas, but to no avail. Various items are bought, dents are hammered out of the party's armor and shields, commissioned items are procured. And then the party's ready to return to Bile Mountain.

"I'm really worried about my daughter," says Sybele mournfully.

Angelfire shrugs. "I'll worry about my father when I'm not busy."

The party decides to mass teleport in to the beholder duel chamber. They'll explore from there. They cast their various power-up spells and then they're off. In an instant, the Temple of Elemental Good disappears from around them and is replaced by the strange beholder architecture. There are verticle tubes leading both up from the ceiling and down from the floor, but most seems to be merely places for beholders to retreat. A cursory search turns up one that actually exits, however.

"You know," Lester says, "we could really use Alcar's help. He and I used to adventure together, and he's really tough. And he packs a lot of healing, which is always good."

"But he's my enemy," says Angelfire flatly. "He's already attacked us."

"Well, yeah, but I bet I can talk him into behaving."

"I don't believe I'm hearing this," mutters Sheva, but Horbin looks like he's intrigued by the idea- after all, Alcar is an angel of his god.

"Look," Lester continues, "I'm for peace in the party. I'll just make it very clear to him how things are, and we know he's trying to overthrow this place too- we're bound to run into him again sometime anyhow, right?"

"If he starts anything, I'll kill him," warns Angelfire.

"And if it comes to that, we'll all help you. But it won't," Lester assures him.

And he shuffles out a trump of Alcar.



Next Time: Alcar rejoins the party? How long can that last??

 

[the Jester]

Alcar Returns (Again)

Alcar has a strange puzzled look on his face when Lester contacts him. "Lester!" he exclaims. "But you look younger again!"

"What? No, never mind- the important thing is, we're back in Bile Mountain, and I know you want to destroy it too, and we should work together."

"Who are you with?" Alcar asks suspiciously.

It takes a few minutes for Lester to persuade the angel, but finally Alcar agrees to keep the peace as long as Angelfire doesn't start anything. The L sternly warns him that "I'm on the side of peace, you understand? So whoever starts it, I'm against them."

And Alcar rejoins our heroes.

The tension's palpable. Angelfire and he exchange a glare, and the party advances. Lester's got a plan to keep them from each others' throats- keep moving. The group ascends the tube in the beholder chamber in a variety of ways- sticking to the walls or flying- and soon they find themselves in an hall with holes all through the walls, almost like swiss cheese. "What's all this?" wonders Orbius.

He's answered, although he almost wishes he wasn't. There's a crackling hiss and a ray shoots out from one of the holes. The Eye's face drains as he realizes what they've walked into. There are beholders in the halls here! Several more beams shoot out from the holes- from somewhere behind the walls! "This is a bad situation!" he yells. "Those are beholder rays!" Even as he speaks, a green ray hits Alcar, and the blast deals severe damage to him (though he isn't disintegrated). Worse, there's no way for the party to attack back- they can't see the beholders at all!



Next Time: The beholder nest! Will the party's weak alliance with Alcar hold? And where do they use that key from the elder brain pool? The answers are coming soon!

 

[the Jester]

*Astute readers may note that the band of adventurers that Horbin was with about five years ago traveled on a ship covered in clockwork horrors and reactivated them. Whether or not this will have any long-term or large-scale repercussions has not yet been revealed.

Just thought I'd post the link to the part of the old story hour where that happened, just for the sake of 'the big picture.'

 

[Talix]

Wow, great updates!

I am honestly astonished that they are working with Alcar again after what happened last time. It seems to be working, and I'd guess that it will continue to work as long as they are facing mutual bad guys - these beholders should do the trick. After that, though...

Don't you start weakening and generally not doing well if you don't work on your geis? Isn't the L generally doomed in that case, since he doesn't know what his geis is the for the moment? Ouch!

In other words, great fun!

 

[the Jester]

Don't you start weakening and generally not doing well if you don't work on your geis? Isn't the L generally doomed in that case, since he doesn't know what his geis is the for the moment? Ouch!

Lester finds out what his geas is soon enough, and in this case it's a prohibitive geas to stop him from doing the wrong thing... heh heh...

 

[the Jester]

Eye Ray Boogie

There's a flurry of eye blasts through the holes in the walls. Several strike various party members, slowing or wounding them. Lester, Alcar and Angelfire immediately rush down the various passages to find their enemies- they know they have to find them and kill them fast- while much of the rest of the party begins a retreat.

Alcar reaches one beholder and rushes it. The two battle for a moment, but the angel is puissant and mighty, and the beholder falls before him quickly. Lester and Angelfire find the other beholder and come at it from both sides; and though they're both hit by eye beams, they both manage to shrug off the effects. The second beholder dies as well.

The party regroups, then searches around. This area, its walls swiss cheesed with holes, yields another passage. They advance. After only a few dozen feet the smooth-bored passage opens into a large chamber. The room holds a beholder and two weird monstrous creatures that combine the features of a bull, a man and a beetle are there with it.

"By Galador!" Alcar cries, invoking his holy aura, and then the battle is joined.



Next Time: The final beholder battle!