Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)

[LordVyreth]

TIE's Trap: Sanity's Requiem

The terrors that were attacking Roivas manor were dead, but at a heavy cost; every servant in the house had been killed and briefly turned into an undead abomination by the creatures while the party rested for the night. The party was understandably horrified by the result, but some of their reactions beyond that were surprising.

“Those poor people,” Robin said. Wong, who was forced to fight them during much of the last battle, nodded his head in agreement.

However, Tal shrugged. “I’m sorry it came to this, but there wasn’t that much we could do. We had no idea what we were up against here, and we already read the reports by the house’s former owner that some of them were really monsters inhabiting corpses.”

“Yeah, but the man who wrote that was a committed madman!” Robin retorted. “How can you trivialize the deaths of so many people like that?”

“Well, how many servants were there, exactly?” Danae spoke up as she entered the conversation.

“Well,” Robin thought carefully, “About twenty, I think.”

“And how many of them were undead out there?”

“About fifteen,” Robin replied. He then realized what Danae meant. “You don’t think the others…”

“Were the monsters, precisely. And we have to stay on our guard, because there’s no guarantee that the monsters we just killed didn’t know that. If they spared the monster-servants, they could be still hiding here somewhere, ready to strike when we least suspect it!”

Concern for the immediate danger they were in settled the issue for now, as the party carefully descended the ladder, leading to a balcony at the top of a massive spiral staircase. They climbed down the hundreds of steps, until the stairway finally opened to the gateway that led to the ruins of what might have been a great city. However, much of the city now looked ripped away or buried with stone a very unnatural way. “This must be near the edge of the cliffside at the end of the manor,” Tal commented, caused Err to sob just thinking about it. “Only a bit of the city was brought along, it looks like, so whatever the disturbance was, it has to be here somewhere.”

Before they could enter the city, though, they had to deal with the gatekeepers. As they neared the gate, they could see two more unusual creatures waiting for them. The first mostly closely resembled a blue manta-ray, but it had the usual number of bizarre limbs and features that a creature of this realm has, including an uncanny ability to fly a few feet off the ground. The other creature looked like a bipedal bird creature, but it was emaciated to the point of being literally nothing more than skin and bones. It had thick wings, however, that seemed as sharp as steel.

Nonetheless, the party wasted no time on their new enemies. Err charged at them, with Scythe and Wong close behind, and Danae and Tal fired at them from a distance. However, both creatures died before even Err could close on them. Tal simply disintegrated the bird-creature with one attack, while Robin managed to wound the ray creature, which changed to a ball of light for some reason when struck. It floated a distance away, making odd “coughing” noises all the while, before returning to its normal form. However, it only remained in this form for a matter of seconds before Danae finished it with a ball of fire. It seemed like the fight was already over at first, but that changed abruptly when a rumbling began under them and a wall of stone suddenly rose in the middle of the field, separating Err, Wong and Scythe from Robin, Danae, and Tal!

Soon, the threat emerged behind the wall. The creature looked vaguely like a turtle, except it had a huge gaping maw where a head should be and four thorny tentacles. It also had the typical blue, deformed skin of all the creatures of this realm. Robin took one look at it and again felt his mind being pummeled. This time, however, it was too much for him to stand and he began to get wracked with living nightmares. He imagined he was on a different world entirely, or a different person, or that he was suddenly dying of a strange disease, and worse. He always quickly shook off the effect, realizing that it wasn’t really happening, but the nightmares came again almost as soon as they ended.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group fought the creature. After a few of her best spells failed against the creature’s magic-resistant hide and she received a number of wounds that sucked some of her magical power away, Danae realized she couldn’t face this beast, and protected herself with a wall of force. Tal didn’t fair any better. He was grabbed by one of the creature’s tentacles, and it immediately through him into the Ethereal plane, hoping to trap its meal there. However, something was wrong, and as soon as he entered the plane, he was assaulted with incredibly painful forces and then thrust back into the material plane, barely conscious from the ordeal.

Fortunately, the rest of the party wasn’t idle during this. Wong scaled the wall while Err and Scythe simply burst through it, and while the creature tried to hide in the ground, when it emerged moments later to ambush the party, it was the party who was prepared to ambush it. Its thick armor was able to absorb incredibly punishment, but the creature still fell regardless.

Once the gatekeepers were dead, the party was able to enter the city itself, or what was left of it after so much of the city was left behind in the home’s original dimension. The only remaining landmark of note was a cave that led deeper into the rocks that surrounded the city. In only a few moments of travel, the party reached what must have been the disturbance. They appeared to be in a massive circular cavern, which appeared to be made of a different material than the rest of the tunnel. Inside were three familiar creatures, which appeared to be twisted by their exposure to this place.

Two of them were horribly scarred demons, and resembled Prince Khaspar’s many-mouthed pet, but with blue skin. Indeed, as the creatures saw the party, their scars again opened to reveal the horribly mouths and human-length barbed tongues that served as their major weaponry. The third creature, however, was even worse. It was a sphere of corpses, just like the one that attacked Dragovigis when they were there earlier. However, all the corpses were blue, as always, and were bloated and rotting, and looked like they were victims of drowning. The party came to an important realization as one: if all of the creatures of this realm could suck a creature’s sanity with a look, what if the sphere-creature released dozens of the monster?

The party sprang into action, with Tal again leading with his favorite new spell, the disintegration ray. He targeted one of the Canor Factums, and luck was again on his side, as the unfortunate creature dissolved immediately into dust! Robin and Wong focused on the second Canor while Danae hurled magic at the other creature, which her research told her was a Granfaloon. However, the hideous creature survived her onslaught, and then floated towards the group, raining screaming zombies as it flew. Robin was almost struck by the plummeting creatures, and while he also had to deal with the suddenly-charging, his first fear was still being around when those zombies recovered from the fall and got a chance to look around!

Fortunately, they didn’t get that chance, because Scythe and Err were there to help. Scythe quickly dashed towards the undead, then shut his eyes and shouted out to his god, using the strength of his faith to destroy the undead. It seemed to kill them, but the bodies didn’t fall immediately. Just like in the pocket plane, they instead began to grown out the word “Layton,” and Robin soon knew was would happen!

Meanwhile, Err and Tal focused on the sphere creature, and soon began to rip whole chunks out of the shield, scattering a few more zombies around the battlefield but giving them access to the true creature beneath it, which appeared to be a floating brain-like ball of flesh with a number of writhing tentacles dangling from it. Robin meanwhile tried to hold back the surviving Canor Factum, only to face the full force of the creature’s retaliation. Almost a dozen of the bladed tongues struck at the unfortunate ranger, and each attack drained away at more of his intelligence, just as the creature’s gaze drained away his sanity. Again Robin fell into a catatonic stupor while Wong ran over to help his friend.

Danae used a fireball to wipe out the remaining zombies that fell out as the shield was getting destroyed, just as the granfaloon got revenge on Err by firing a ray of light out of one of its tentacles at him. The light struck him, searing his flesh with the intense heat while simultaneously draining Err’s intellect. And since the power of the fountain had long since drained, there was little left of his intellect to spare. He wailed on the shield like an enraged animal as Scythe helped Robin and Wong.

But it was Tal who finally brought down the barely-injured creature. Once again, he used his disintegration beam, and mighty as the creature was, it couldn’t withstand the strength of the spell. It quickly dissolved away, letting the remains of the shield fall apart and splatter on the floor in a sickening mess. Meanwhile, Wong and Scythe distracted the Canor Factum away from the easy meal of Robin, and then finally cut the creature down.

After the last of the creatures died, only one item of note could be found in the remains. A strange book, which appeared to be made out of some creature’s skin and was titled the Tome of Eternal Darkness, was found among the ashes of the granfaloon. Realizing the threat such a book could present, Danae refrained from touching it with her bare skin as she collected it, but still she was suddenly assaulted with strange visual images as she put the book away. She saw images of the books previous owners, who all seemed to suffer horrible, grisly deaths or worse, but she also saw a useful image among the terrors, of a secret passageway back at the manor, which the book was once placed. Realizing the book must go back there for the balance to be obtained, she quickly gathered the party and dashed out of the city. By the time they reached the manor, it was obvious they overstayed their welcome, as the surviving “servants” charged at them, weapons drawn! Realizing what was really inside these servants, the party thought it would be best not to provoke them, and instead dashed past them as quickly as possibly, finding the passageway in a matter of moments. Once there, Danae carefully returned the book, and soon the entire world around them began to fade away…

When they came to, they found themselves inside a room made entirely of wood. An occasional creaking noise could be heard, and Tal realized where he heard it before. “It sounds like we’re in a ship of some sort! TIE’s test must not be over yet!”

As the party planned their next move, however, Wong removed the steel hatch by one of the porthole windows, and took a look outside. His eyes went wide at what he saw, and he gravely turned to the party. “I don’t think we’re on a normal ship,” he said. “There’s nothing but fire outside this window. We might be sailing on a tour through the Hells themselves!”

 

[Alrik Valentin]

So this was definitely challenging as a player having played the game Eternal Darkness not to use outside knowledge. It was entertaining and was very well adapted from the game, i thought, and enjoyed the sanity rules immensely. Stay tuned for the next chapter... it just gets better!

 

[LordVyreth]

TIE's Trap: Pyrodessy

As the party tried to figure out exactly where they were, there was a knock at the door. An unfamiliar female voice called to them, “If everyone is decent and prepared, I would like to address my new crew.”

After exchanging panicked looks, Tal called back, “Just one moment!” He then looked at the condition of his friends. A few of them still nursed injuries from the battle, but they weren’t so bad as to be suspicious. More troubling was Robin’s continued insane mumblings and Err acting more like a confused animal than normal for even him. He silently waved to Scythe, pointing out that he should deal with it, then continued speaking to their unknown apparently captain to keep her from hearing. “Sorry about the delay. We’re still getting used to travel by boat.”

Once the spells were cast and Robin and Err were restored to near-normality, Tal quickly opened the door and saw a very strange woman waiting for them. She looked like a mostly ordinary human from the waist up, and by her dress, she was likely extremely wealthy and important, yet was interested in keeping her clothing practical no matter how extravagant it looked. However, the lower half of her body was much different, as it appeared to be a snake tail. Danae audibly gulped behind him, as this reminded her too much of a demon she had researched, but the woman was smaller and lacked the many arms of that creature. If the woman found the party’s looks suspicious, she didn’t show it as she immediately took command of the situation. “Ah, that’s better. And you shouldn’t have been so worried about a few cuts and scrapes,” she said dismissively as she inspected their injuries, “I’ve seen far worse than that in my days, and I’m sure that we’ll have you all ready to go by the time we reach our objective. Now, I trust your guild master has already described the situation to you in the general level at least?”

Tal hesitated. Appearing too ignorant at this stage of the game might be a mistake, but if they were going into danger, they can’t be ignorant of the risks either. “Actually, our…guild master didn’t have the chance to tell us much of anything about this assignment, Miss…?” he paused, hoping she’d get the hint.

For the first time, the woman frowned and looked troubled. “When I spoke to your guild master, she assured me that you would be more than capable of handling this assignment. Your credentials aren’t lacking, certainly. Yet you don’t even know who I am?”

“I...I apologize, madam,” Tal stuttered, desperate to save the situation. “We have been gone from civilization for a very long time, and even at our best, we have never really been aware of the upper class of citizens.”

This made the woman laugh. “Heh, the upper class? I haven’t heard that one before.” She then sighed pleasantly, making the entire party sigh quietly with relief. “Well, it will be a few days before we reach our objective. There’s time enough for a few introductions.” After glancing carefully at her gloved hand, she extended it. “My name’s Silrine, and I’m the captain of the Volatile, the most feared pirate ship to sail the seas of Pyrodessy. And we’re about to perform the biggest heist the Salamander Empire ever saw!”

However, the mention of the word “pirate” made Scythe and Wong exchange a worried glance, and Wong spoke up with concern. “I don’t know if I can perform this mission, after all. I have made a solemn vow to work with the forces of law in all things, and I don’t think an act of piracy really fits the definition.”

Silrine made a dismissive gesture. “Don’t worry. I’m no enemy of law either. Hell, I have a fellow follower of law among my ship’s officers, and he has had no complaints. Yes, we are enemies of the Salamander Empire, but I have been given papers to make my actions legal and valid to all of the humanoid nations. I am, to use a less exciting term for it, a privateer, not a pirate.”

This made Wong relax, and he and Scythe willingly followed Silrine to her briefing room. However, Tal’s curiosity got the better of him as they walked, and he asked Silrine one more question. “Um, if I may ask one more question, I confess I have never seen a creature like you before. May I ask what you are?”

Silrine shrugged. “Oh, I’m just a lamia. Don’t worry, I’m of the noble variant, so I have far more control over my emotions than the more common variety.”

Eventually, Silrine led them to the briefing room, where she received formal introductions from the entire party and she introduced them to her senior officers: Tul-Wel, an Avoral Guardinal that serves as her second in command, Wellby, the ship’s Halfling cleric, Torgith a half-orc monk that Silrine mentioned earlier, and Hanim, a human sorcerer. She then went over the complicated plan she had worked out.

“Now,” she began, “To understand the plan, you first have to understand where the Pyrodessy seas came from. In recent years, adventurers discovered their origin comes from dozens of permanent gates to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Now, there’s not much we can do to the portals, as they’re within the boundaries of the Salamander Empire and created using magic beyond what mortals can control, but we can still use them to our advantage. You see, the Salamanders had discovered centuries ago that they can use these portals to their advantage. They’ve been using magic to temporarily control the opening and closing of certain smaller portals, and then lodged tons of base rocks and metals inside them before closing them. The heat and pressure has a powerful alchemic effect on the metals, turning them into a molten river of precious metals and fire-worked gemstones. They then open the portal, let the molten metal cool in the relatively low-temperature heat of the Pyodessy seas, and make a fortune. In fact, we believe that many of their most powerful magic items and recruits from outside the plane are hired or made using these materials. If we can get to one of these gates before its scheduled eruption time, it might give us a less than optimal yield, but the results should still be staggering. It will make all of us very rich, and devastate the Salamander economy for years!”

The premise explained, Silrine then explained what the actual plan was. “Now, the gate itself is in the middle of a massive, hollow, stone cluster. The interior of the rock is made of a metal much stronger than stone, however, and it has a number of other enchantments placed upon it, including the portal open/close controls themselves and a system designed to alter the gravity inside the spherical interior to set the “down” direction in any of six different directions. This is necessary, because the molten metal hardens after only about twenty seconds of exposure to the relatively low temperature of the Pyrodessy fire seas. The salamanders normally operate the portal by opening it, letting the molten river pour down one of the six drainage tubes and into a waiting collection ship outside. When the metal is almost in danger of hardening, they close the portal, move the gravity until a fresh drainage tube is under the portal, and open it again and again until all six tubes have been used. You’ll have to operate the system yourselves when we get there, while I fly the ship under each tube to collect the treasure. Of course it won’t be that easy, since the Salamanders will definitely have powerful guards inside the sphere itself, and we believe they have other guards waiting on the other side of the portal, and they’ll attack immediately when they get through the portal. You’ll have to fight them off while making sure the portal is open and closed when needed and that the gravity is set correctly. And I don’t think I have to tell you what would happen if things went wrong. If you keep the portal open after the molten river has hardened in a drainage tube, it won’t have anywhere to go, and will fill up the entire bottom of the sphere in a matter of seconds. Even if you could survive the heat a molten river creates, you would be entombed almost instantly! And make sure the portal is closed when you switch the gravity direction. Otherwise, part of the river will splash into the room as the drainage tubes switch, and while that won’t be as bad as the entire lower half of the sphere overflowing, merely getting splashed with that much molten rock and metal will be very painful.”

With the plan explained, the group prepared their attack strategy, healing their remaining wounds from the last battle, and just relaxing and getting to know the crew a little better. Wong in particular enjoyed cooking for the crew again, after feeling he wasn’t earning his keep in the job he wanted to do since Tal hired him. Speaking of Tal, he and Danae spent the time trying to learn as much about this bizarre and fascinating plane as they could without being really obvious that they didn’t even know basic and common information about it. Scythe, however, spent most of the time in a shocked stupor. Despite his initial assertion that he would tirelessly seek the truth, he didn’t expect anything as surreal as the last two places he’s visited. Robin, meanwhile, spent most of the time just relaxing, grateful to finally be rid of the nightmares that have been plaguing him since his encounters with the monsters of Roivas Manor and the city under it. Err, of course, just sat around waiting for them arrive so he got to hit something.

A few days later, as scheduled, the party reached the target. As far as they knew, the party was prepared. Aware that the greatest danger the group could face was the intense heat and fire of the salamanders’ guardians, the molten metal, and the plane itself, Danae had prepared a spell capable of making the receiver immune to all fire and heat energy for each of her allies. However, as soon as they burst into the sphere, they realized that even this might not be enough. The room itself was just as Silrine described it. There was a shimmering, almost liquid disc of rippling energy at the center, which was surrounded by a lot of machinery, including a switch that presumably would open and close the gate. Six buttons were found around the room. One was on the bottom of the spherical floor, one on the ceiling, and the other four were set at equidistant points on the walls. Obviously, pressing each one will cause the room to shift, making that the new direction of gravity. This wasn’t the party’s main concern, since they agreed to have Silrine wait under the starting floor at first, and thus they won’t have to worry about adjusting the gravity. Their first concern was the room’s guardian, which appeared to be a statue made entirely of mithril!

None of them were surprised when the statue animated after the group entered the room, but none of them were prepared for just how powerful it would be. For one thing, it was much faster than they anticipated, as if it was magically accelerated. It also was stronger than they anticipated, as it pummeled the normally indestructible Err half to death before they could even respond! Err immediately returned the favor, of course, but while he did some damage, almost nothing else even scratched the creature. Danae and Tal’s magic seemingly had no effect, Robin’s arrows barely penetrated the creature’s extremely thick armor, Wong evaded around the fight so he could open the gate and start the process, and Scythe was busy healing Err. After the fight went on for almost half a minute, however, it was becoming obvious that they couldn’t really destroy this creature. Err was doing some damage, but it took Scythe’s most powerful healing magic to restore Err every time it took a few punches from the massive creature, and Scythe was already running out. Finally, Danae hit upon a desperate plan. Remembering that many creatures immune to magic are still affected by more environmental magic like walls of force, she erected a force field around the creature, giving the party a chance to breathe and focus on their actual mission.

With the guardian taken care of, the missions became much easier for a while. Every time the gate opened, more enemies that the Salamanders had waiting on the other side burst out, but none of them were of the same caliber as the golem. They included swarms of fire insects, but they were easily dispersed with electric spheres Tal rolled around the molten showers. Dozens of flame snakes also poured out of the portal by the end, but while their size varied from tiny to many times larger than one of the party members, only one of them was as large as the last size, and the rest of them were destroyed almost immediately after arriving. Even the one large one was unlucky enough to land right next to Err, who was more than eager to get rid of some of his frustration after his near-loss to the golem. The only other enemies were some easily-defeated fire lizards, or at least until the end.

At last, when the treasure was almost entirely drained, a pair of worthy foes flew out of the portal. They appeared to be spirits made of fire. As soon as they entered the room, they sunk into the floor, only to burst out a few seconds later at the party. Each one physically tried to enter one of the party members. One made the mistake trying to enter Scythe, and when it failed, it was destroyed by the combined power of Err, Scythe, and Danae. The other, however, was lucky enough to enter Robin, who lacked the mental defenses to resist the effect. Robin soon was possessed by the creature, and while the creature slowly cooked him from the inside and sucked out his life force, Robin was forced to attack his own party members. Unluckily for him, he first attacked Err, but luckily for him, he missed. Err responded by merely pummeling Robin within an inch of his life instead of striking to kill as a result. However, by now, the creature realized where it was and what was going on, and with a smile, it dashed towards the portal, intent on moving to a new gravity, or failing that, diving into the molten river, which will certainly kill its host body but will let it escape safely. However, as he fled, Err managed to get in one last party shot, which knocked Robin unconscious, forcing the creature to flee the body. Danae and Tal easily finished it off with magic, and Wong finished the last portal closing.

But before they left, they had one bit of unfinished business left to complete. The golem still lived, and none of them wanted such a powerful creature to still serve the Salamanders. Besides, after what it did to Err, it was personal, and maybe much of the golem could be salvaged for materials as well. Of course, if they released the golem to kill it, it posed a threat to the party. It was a dilemma, but Danae finally came up with a solution. If she used magic to conjure something extremely heavy, like a stone block, on top of the field, then she could just dispel the wall and let it crush the creature! The plan, once figured out, succeeded easily enough, but very little of the golem’s body survived the attack. Still, the party realized, considering how much the rest of their adventure made, it was hard to be disappointed by the results overall.

However, as they began their journey out of Salamander territories and back to a safe harbor and a chance to divvy up the loot, it became obvious that the worst was yet to come. A couple days after the raid of the portal, a panicked crewman summoned the party from their room to Silrine’s as quickly as possible. When they arrived, they found Silrine to be more grim and worried than they had ever seen her. She quickly explained the situation. “I’m afraid we have a serious crisis. We’ve been spotted by the enemy, and they sent a massive fleet after us. I don’t know how many soldiers they’re bringing, but our lookout spotted a number of smaller craft, a flagship, and even at least one dragon! We will not have a chance to escape them, so if we want to survive, we’ll have to fight an army.”

OOC Notes: In case you’re wondering, Pyrodessy was one of my entries for the old “Campaign Setting” contest that Eberron eventually won. I didn’t make it past the first phase with any of my ideas, though I can’t say I’m surprised now. After all, considering how people got so upset about lightning rails, entire oceans made of fire was probably a little extreme! Nevertheless, I wanted to get some use from my campaign setting idea, which almost became the official title for this adventure!

 

[LordVyreth]

TIE's Trap: The Battle of the Salamander Armada

The party, who Danae had wisely chosen to keep enchanting with fire immunity as long as they were in this plane, quickly dashed to the deck, to see what they were up against. It looked bad. Among the fleet, from what they could see, there were four smaller scout ships, two strange floating creatures with a number of tentacles and red scales, a dragon that appeared to be made out of pure fire, an older red dragon, and a massive battleship that seemed to lead the fleet, but mercifully was also the farthest ship away from the group.

Silrine, who had followed the party up to the deck, gasped. “Our ship will be destroyed!”

Tal, however, suddenly looked up, and had a big grin on his face. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said, and dashed back to his room. Half a minute later, he found what he was looking for: his Lyre of Building, which worked fine for protecting his last ship, so it should be fine here! One strum of its strings later, the Volatile was safe from any damage from this battle.

Of course, the crew, including the party, was another story, and they sprang into action to deal with it. While Tal dashed below deck, Wong prepared to lead the charge on the nearest scout ship. He used a pair of magic wings and took off. Robin began to follow, but he paused a little way in. You know, he thought, those ships aren’t that far away. Maybe it would be better to just shoot from here…

Meanwhile, Danae used her magic to become a silver dragon, and took off to begin raining magical destruction on the ships. Err also took off, but he was going no where near the enemies! Instead he flew towards a cluster of floating, formerly molten rocks, and began to push one towards one of the ships, apparently hoping he could make it crash into the rock. “That boy has no sense of distance, does he?” Scythe muttered, bitterly. He was apparently a little jealous, however, since he lacked both flying ability and a long-range attack, and had to wait on the deck and prepare for the enemy to reach him.

Robin, meanwhile, was having the best luck at the start. The scout ships weren’t very big nor, and as he soon learned, very durable. In fact, the first arrow he fired at a ship went through the front of the ship, and then crashed through the back as well, leaving potent acid along the entire hull! Three arrows later, and the first scout ship had a massive hole through it, and began to crack apart! Robin smiled, and began to work on the second ship.

However, though the ship was destroyed, its crew wasn’t done. Before the ship could be totally destroyed, three Salamander officers drank potions, and then flew out the hole and right at the ship. This didn’t help the remaining Salamander crew, who plummeted screaming into the endless flames below, but a few seconds later, after Robin finished off the second ship, the officers in that ship also took flight, but they grabbed a few of the Salamander crew to save them before their ship and the remaining crew were lost as well. The small unit of flying Salamanders continued flying towards the ship, and though Danae was able to take out a few of them, the rest were relentlessly flying towards the ship, with nothing but Wong to stop them!

Of course, Wong laughed at this threat. He flew towards the group, causing two of them to break off and confront him while the rest flew on. His laughing was abruptly cut short, however, as the two immediately flanked him while keeping him at bay with his massive, super-hot spears. He wasn’t able to get near one of them without having the other one poking him at his back, and both seemed to be experts at attacking vulnerable spots. Before long, though he managed to get a few good hits in, he was bleeding from a number of serious wounds, and realized he had to escape. He channeled his inner ki, summoning his inherent knowledge that space is illusion, and shifted his personal reality back into the ship for some healing!

Meanwhile, Tal had returned to the ship’s deck, and decided to deal with the odd, red-scaled masses of tentacles and eyes. Considering the odd environment, he realized he had the perfect spell to deal with these freaks. He pointed a finger at the nearest creature, and channeled his magical energies into the creature’s body, numbing its nerves and locking its muscles into one held position. The creature suddenly stopped, and was unable to continue flying. It plummeted downward, and whether it finally crashed into dry land or it finally recovered from the spell miles later was irrelevant. It was out of this fight either way. Tal, shocked at how well that went, tried it again on the second creature, and this one also immediately froze up and free-fell into the depths of the plane!

However, about this point, things got tricky, for both the surviving Salamanders and dragons were about to reach the Volatile and her crew! Realizing the danger, Danae landed on the group and asked, “Does anyone want to come with me?” Tal nodded in agreement, but Scythe and Robin chose to stay behind and fight the invaders with Silrine’s crew. Danae nodded and took off, only for the red dragon to see the enemy dragon, and fly right at her! Meanwhile, Err finally gave up on the rock thing and flew towards the ship again, causing the fire elemental dragon to fly towards him!

Meanwhile, Wong healed himself a bit using his ki, and then set off to look for a more specialized healer to finish the job. He remembered that Silrine had an official cleric among her crew, and sought out Wellby. When he found the Halfling cleric, however, Wong found him stuffing as much of the hard-earned treasure party stole from the Salamanders into an escape ship! “What are you doing?” a shocked Wong asked.

Without any seeming regret or concern, Wellby replied, “I’m getting the hell out of here, what does it look?”

“How dare you? How could you betray your captain just when I-she needs you most?”

Wellby shrugged slightly, “I never cared about her or her ship. I was just waiting for her to make a big and bold enough score that I can use it to rat her out to the Salamanders, get money from them, steal as much of the haul as I can, and be set for life!” He then turned to Wong. “And I won’t let you ruin things so close to my victory!” Unaware or uncaring that a few of the less experienced crew have heard the shouting and got close enough to hear his whole confession, he prepared to engage Wong, starting with a spells designed to suck the very life force out of him.

Wong, however, had his righteous fury raised at this violation of oaths and breaking of trusts, and his ki negated the spell easily. He was so furious at this false priest that he prepared to utilize one of the secret arts only the masters of his combat form have learned. He slammed an open palm straight at Wellby’s heart, striking with so much force that it not only went through his armor, but crushed the crucial veins and arteries around the heart. Wellby looked down with a shocked look on face, uttered only one surprised squeak, and then fell over, dead!

Meanwhile, despite a valiant effort, the fight on the deck was a lost cause. Even with the help of Torgith the monk and Hanim the sorcerer, Robin, Scythe and the crew couldn’t disperse the advancing hordes of Salamanders, especially now that the other two scout ships were nearing as well. They dashed underground, relying on the currently indestructible doorways and hoping that the enemy would be repelled well before the power of Tal’s Lyre ended. As they dashed down the stairs, they met a triumphant-looking Wong waiting for them. Before Scythe could heal Wong, however, another threat appeared. A small fountain of magma poured into the ship from a small hole, and soon formed into a massive hill of lava with the image of a glowing, dead sailor in the center. Hanim gasped, “It’s a Molten, one of the deadliest spirits to haunt the fire seas!”

Back outside of the ship, Err had managed to make short work of the elemental dragon, while Danae was holding off the red dragon with Tal’s help. Once Err finished off the fire dragon, he flew in to help Danae deal with the other dragon, and not even the might wyrm could withstand Err’s mighty attacks. Full of confidence, Err flew on while Danae focused on the remaining scout ships. Err knew that there was only one place he could go to find a worthy challenge: the Salamander’s flagship, where the admiral of this fleet would be waiting!

Meanwhile, the Molten had set its sights on Wong and Robin. Growing massive blades of lava and magma tentacles, it oozed towards them, while spewing a cone of magma. Of course, it had no effect on the group due to Danae’s magic, and meanwhile, Scythe moved up to the creature. He quickly summoned the strength of his god to create a spell of ultimate holy healing, which would of course be almost deadly to an undead monstrosity like this. Sure enough, the merest touch of Scythe’s hand caused the creature to scream in pain, and Hanim finished off the beast with a few magic missiles. The group then prepared for the final part of this long battle. “I can take you to the main battleship of the Salamanders if you want,” Hanim offered, and Wong nodded his agreement.

However, Scythe and Robin had another idea. “I think we can take this ship back now,” Scythe suggested, “Once I heal us up. You go ahead, and we’ll liberate the deck.” They prepared for another battle on top of the ship, while Hanim was about to cast his spell.

Before he could leave, Silrine burst in. “I had Tul-Wel take the wheel. I want to go to. I want to see the admiral myself!” Hanim agreed, and soon he, Wong, and Silrine were ready to join the fight on the battleship.

Before they arrived, however, Err managed to reach the ship, where both the admiral, a Noble Salamander trained to deal with both the wilds of the fire seas and to specifically hunt humanoids named Kral-Geath, and his head officers were waiting for him. No sooner did Err land than he was surrounded by Kral, a strange three-headed, three-armed, and three-legged demon of fire, and more of the Salamanders of the same rank as the once that attacked Wong! Danae, having finished off the ships, flew in to help, and soon Silrine’s group was there as well. But it was too late. As both groups arrived, they both witnessed Err being beaten down by the admiral’s twin blades, two of the demon’s swords, and the swords of the officers. Finally, unable to stand after so many wounds, Err finally collapsed to the floor, dead!

Back on the Volatile, things were going just as badly. Scythe and Robin didn’t know that the survivors of the remaining two scout ships arrived while they were under the deck, and by the time they realized it, it was too late. They were surrounded by dozens of powerful Salamanders. Soon a worn Scythe was too slow to dodge from the killing thrust of a spear longer than he was tall, and he was impaled right through the chest, and casually flung into the mast!

However, after watching the brutal death of their comrade, Err’s comrades struck back with a vengeance. While Kral bound off to do battle with Silrine as soon as he recognized her, Wong charged the fire demon, and after a few brutal and enraged punches, Wong had crushed its tri-facial skull, stopping it forever. Meanwhile, Danae and Tal flooded the other officers and the ship’s wizard backups with magic and even Danae’s new dragon breath weapon, which frozen the fiery creatures easily, killing many of them.

However, they still had to defeat the admiral, and soon, for not only was Robin still in danger back on the Volatile, but Silrine was losing badly against her opponent. In the end, though, it was Kral’s single-minded determination to defeat the pirate that humiliated his empire so often that was his undoing. For while pursed the evasive lamia across the deck, he was quickly surrounded by Wong, Tal, Danae, and Hanim, and after being beaten almost to death, he finally accepted the inevitable. His fleet was destroyed, his beasts of war and dragons were dead or at least lost, and his first mate and officers were all slain. “Very well,” he said sadly. “I surrender.”

Seconds later, the flag of surrender was raised on the flagship, and as soon as they saw it, the invaders of the Volatile hissed one last time, and fled back to the battleship, leaving a panting and barely alive Robin counting his blessings.

An agreement was soon made with Kral and his surviving crew. They would have their lives spared, but they will lose all of their magical gear, almost all of their weapons, and can only retain enough supplies to reach the nearest port. Kral was clearly enraged to the point of madness by all of this, but he was a Salamander of his word, and did not betray the Silrine or the party further as they gathered his equipment and left as quickly as they could. After all, even if Kral remains honest, reinforcements could always arrive, including those creepy eye/tentacle creatures!

However, the rest of the trip home to a safe port was uneventful. The party reached the port, a massive floating rock capable of supporting a small country and possessing its own safe atmosphere and water supply, and then split up the treasure earned both from the portal and taken from Kral and his minions. After resting for a few days and giving a friendly farewell to Silrine and her crew, they prepared, knowing that TIE would soon be ready for their next, and hopefully their last, test. As they rested, though something strange happened. They couldn’t put a finger on what happened exactly, but Danae said she sensed a slight change to the magic weave, and Robin in particular began to behave slightly differently. It was as if the very fabric of the universe changed.

OOC Notes: And that’s my subtle way of saying that I finally incorporated 3.5 rules into the game! Well, it was closer to 3.25, since I kept some stuff from 3.0, but if you take a look of the last few games and noticed how much heal and disintegrate, not to mention the omnipresent haste, affected the game, I can’t say I can complain too much.

Ugh, I was hoping I could do all of this update over the past week, since I was off the whole time, but I got sick last Monday and am still in recovery. Sorry about that, but sometimes real life interferes with these things.

Anyway, this was the longest battle we had to date, and it took up the entirety of two game sessions! It was pretty nuts, and after the first session (about when Wong had to retreat,) I was afraid I made this one too hard. I did end up killing 1/3 of the party anyway, and it could have been more if the admiral didn’t surrender when he did. Still, it felt good to know that I could still threaten the party when I had to.

 

[Neurotic]

Excellent update! And fight didn't seem that long when reading

Hope you get better soon.

 

[LordVyreth]

TIE's Trap: TIE's Final Trap

It was about this time that the party was given another present by TIE, and a welcome one at that. It was a block of purest gold, similar to the copper they received earlier, though this was slightly smaller. Even stranger, it looked like about 1/3 of it had been cleanly cut off, as if TIE reduced the reward it felt they earned. It didn’t matter really, since between it and the reward from the pirates the party had easily earned over a million gold on this trip, but still they wondered what happened to the rest of the money…

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, one of the strangest but most powerful inhabitants of this plane received a very strange gift. His name was Xalem Goodspotter, and despite a history of fighting off hordes of demons, sending Moltens and other great undead monstrosities to their final peace, and holding back entire armies of Salamanders, he carried no weapon, or any magical items or gear of any sort for that matter. In fact, even if he had a weapon, he would refuse to use it, for he had also made a vow to do no harm to any living being. For example, as he was on his way to meet some of the new local heroes, on the instruction of the higher powers he regularly communed with, a solid gold plate appeared out of no where in front of him, with a message addressed to him by someone named TIE, telling him he can do what he wanted with it. After confirming that the gold wasn’t recently lost or stolen and was indeed his, he took the gold, which was worth a couple hundred thousand gold and could supply the average adventurer with unimaginable artifacts, and used it to begin construction on a new building. “Wow,” he thought, “Imagine how great this orphanage is going to be!”

At the same time, another, ever stranger figure was wandering the city in search of the heroes. Her name was Bath Qol, and she was an astral deva from the plane of Mount Celestia, or at least an apprentice astal deva who was nearing her final ascension to the ranks of the celestials. However, before she could reach this point, her superiors had called her in for a special assignment. “Bath, I’m afraid things have gotten worse on the Forbidden Plane,” he explained ominously, as he gestured at a globe indicating the party’s home world! “It pertains to one of our own, or at least he belonged to our order millennia ago. However, things have greatly changed since then. He succumbed to the temptation of an evil god, and it corrupted him into an evil, twisted shell of his original form. When this god’s power was lost, my former compatriot was lost as well, trapped in the labyrinthine outer planes. However, the god is regaining its power, and my companion has been allowed to return. I know little of his current plans, just that he is again traveling on the surface of this plane. He must be stopped. Now, normally I would send one of my own to do it, but because we’re talking about the Forbidden Plane here…” he hesitated, as if afraid to continue.

Bath merely nodded. “I understand. You can’t send one of your own, because who go to this plane are not likely to return. I am not afraid to do my duty!” she shouted. “Shall I leave immediately?”

The superior angel shook his head. “No, not alone. Instead, you should seek help. A party of heroes from that very plane has somehow managed to temporarily escape it, but are planning to return soon. Their virtue has been confirmed, and we know that they are fighting the forces of evil on this plane as we speak. You are to find them on the plane of Pyroddessy, and try to join them on their quest, until you can find our fallen enemy.”

“And what should I do then?” Bath eagerly asked.

“Well, I want you to assassinate him,” the solar replied.

“I see…” Bath replied, with some hesitation. It was rare that her superiors were so direct about such subjects. They must really hate this fallen guy, she thought.

And so, she was in the same city as heroes, seeking them out, when a block of gold appeared before her as well. After reading the personalized message to her, she eagerly took it, and continued her journey. She did have one other unusual meeting before she reached the party, however.

A strange, white, metal box on wheels was roaring towards her. It was huge, larger than the largest horse by quite a bit, in fact, but it has a very strange, pleasant call. It was almost like it was singing as it moved, and it wasn’t moving very fast. The box stopped next to her, and her opinion of the box’s hostility changed when she saw that it had apparently swallowed a minotaur!

However, before she could attack the strange metal beast, the minotaur leaned out of the creature through some sort of glass eye socket, and in a fearless and cheerful voice said, “Ah, hello there! You look like you’d like some ice cream!”

This puzzled Bath to no end, but the minotaur was neither hostile nor apparently being harmed by the box-beast, so maybe they had some sort of symbiotic relationship. She graciously accepted, despite not knowing what ice cream was, and the minotaur reached into the back of the creature and pulled out a strange globe of some cold frozen liquid on top of a brown cone. Despite the fact that she might have been eating food the box creature had already eaten and that her kind don’t ever need to eat, she gave the ice cream a try.

It was the best thing she’d ever tasted. This wasn’t hard, admittedly, since she never ate food before, but it was still very good. She turned to thank the minotaur and box beast, but before she could, the minotaur simply nodded, and the box beast rolled off and disappeared without a trace.

The material planes are very strange, she thought as she walked to the inn the heroes were supposed to be staying at, while eating her ice cream.

Eventually, both Xalem and Bath found the party, and after the initial confusion, both were eager to join the party, Xalem to spread his message of peace and love to other planes, and Bath to defeat her enemy. There were some rough patches at first, especially when the naïve proudly declared herself to be an assassin to a mostly good party, but once that misunderstanding was worked out, the group accepted to duo, and then prepared to deal with TIE. All of them (except for Xalem, of course,) purchased new magical items, and meanwhile explained the situation to their new allies. Finally, mere seconds after they finished re-supplying, they once again were involuntarily forced form the plane, and in a new dimension.

It appeared that the only physical land in the entire dimension was a cylinder made of a strange metal, and set on its side, so the party was standing on the curved part. After wandering for a few seconds, they quickly discovered that the entire curved part had its own specific gravity, letting them circumnavigate it safely. Suddenly, a woman appeared before them. She had dark brown skin, black hair, and was wearing a form of simple leather armor, which looked like it was designed for neither protection nor physical appeal, but just to make wearer comfortable. But the most notable item the woman had was what looked like a whip that appeared to be made out of pure energy, just like the dragon form that TIE previously took had for a tale, suggesting that this was just another one of TIE’s forms.

“Well, it’s about time you’re ready,” she commented as she appeared. “It took you weeks to finish getting your equipment improved.”

“Yeah, we get it, TIE. Now, do you have anything of value to say to us or not?” Tal gruffly replied, upset that this game of hers cost him two of his friends.

TIE looked hurt. “Of course I have information for you. And this was more than just a game, you realize. I had to make sure you were prepared and worthy for what’s about to happen. The task that you may be forced to do to save your world has never been done before in the long history of this dimension.”

“But what is it?” Danae, who had never met TIE before, asked in a way that barely contained the millions of other questions she’d like to ask a creature of this power.

“Oh, but I’m afraid I can’t say yet. You see, there’s still one more test you must accomplish,” she said, as she rose into the air and drew her weapon.

Robin and Tal nodded to each other, grimly. They saw this coming. “Same conditions as last time,” Tal asked. “We don’t have to physically defeat you; we just have to weaken your shield enough to make you feel like we earned it, right?”

“That’s right,” TIE replied, and Xalem sighed with relief. “However, at this point, your group is so strong that such a fight would be a little unbalanced. After all, six against one is hardly fair. So I decided to bring along just a bit more support.” As she said this, the whip’s end extended and formed a circle in the air, creating a portal. Out of it, a massive creature crashed onto the cylinder. The strange beast was about sixty feet tall, and it had a humanoid upper body, though its hands were closer to cat-like claws. In addition, it had the head of an alligator, horns like some great elk or stag, and its lower body was like the body of a gigantic wolf. The whole thing was like some sort of colossal, bestial, abominable centaur. “This is an Instant Murdean, a particularly nasty creature from another dimension that I visited. It was a terrifying beast there, similar to a creature from your realm that you call a Tarrasque, though they’re not unique creatures there and they are just a little bit weaker. I’ve trained this one to assist me in combat, and you’ll have to deal with it as well as me this time!”

Wong was the first to react to the dual threat. He charged right towards the instant, tumbled expertly out of range of its snapping teeth, and pummeled its massive legs with far more force than one can expect from such a small warrior. Meanwhile, however, TIE was almost as quick, and she spiraled her whip before slamming it into the ground. From where it struck, waves of energy flew at the party, slamming into any of them too slow to dodge between the waves. Xalem starting healing those who were struck by the waves, while Tal released a ray of disintegration at the giant Instant. It shrieked as the ray created a gaping hole in its flesh, but the wound was still too small for a great beast to worry much about it.

However, it was ready to retaliate. It looked at the tiny figure punching at its legs and with incredible quickness for its size, it snatched him up in his gigantic reptilian jaws. He began to struggle in a desperate attempt to escape the creature’s jaws while the rest of the party moved to help him. Bath flew up to begin slashing at the creature’s massive torso with her own great sword, while Robin fired at him with magically acid-coated arrows, and Danae blasted both him and TIE with a chained bolt of lightning. However, while all the physical attacks hurt it a little, the energy damage seemed to do more harm than good. The acid did nothing to it and the lightning barely affected it, but the attacks apparently caused its horns, hooves, and claws to glow with electrical energy and drip acid, as if the energy got transferred to its attacks. Meanwhile, TIE cracked her whip towards Robin, but instead of actually striking him with it, she instead wrapped it around his legs, and with no effort, raised her hand and sent Robin flying skyward! She slammed him into the ground a few times, and then sent him flying at the airborne Bath! Because she was too focused on the Murdean, she didn’t see her own ally being hurled towards her as a missile, and Robin slammed right into her. Fortunately, she was quick enough to react to grab his hair before he fell back to the ground, since he didn’t get the chance to activate his magical wings yet.

Meanwhile, the Murdean managed to pin Wong against the top of its mouth long enough to gulp him down, then turned its attention to Bath. Her thick angelically armored skin, regular armor, and incredibly agility let her avoid some of the attacks, but a few managed to penetrate and give her a number of wounds. The rest of the party continued to slash at or fire upon the creature, save Danae, who realized this would a good time to fight defensively and created a barrier of scintillating colors around her. Meanwhile, after trying to fire at the Murdean while being held up by his hair in vain, and after hearing Bath threaten to drop him if he didn’t start flying under his own power, Robin activated his wings and got out of Bath’s way.

Meanwhile, inside the Murdean, Wong realized that this was not an ideal position to fight in, and used his ki abilities to alter his position in reality again. This time, he decided to appear in the one place that the Murdean can’t bite him from, on the top of his head! However, the Murdean was too busy to realize its meal just dislocated himself out of its stomach. With a roar, it decided to trample Tal, Xalem, and Danae, who were all still on the ground and easily clumped together. Of course, while this was a reasonably good tactic to crush the fairly weak Tal and Xalem, Danae’s prismatic sphere wasn’t a very wise thing to run over, but the Murdean didn’t appear smart enough to know that. It stepped on Tal and Xalem, wounding both of them, but when it stepped on Danae’s sphere, ribbons of fire, acid, and electricity coursed through him, and at the same time it gave a gurgling, insane cry as the sphere shredded his sanity instantly. Of course, all of this proved to be irrelevant an instant later (no pun intended,) as the creature vanished, forcing it to run madly throughout the Plane of Shadow until TIE bothered to pick it up.

This was quite the victory for everybody in the party, save for Wong, who was still on the creature’s head. His excited woops as he struggled to hold onto the running creature was replaced by a scream of terror as the creature vanished underneath him, and plummeted into and right through the sphere! Fortunately, his training as a monk made him well-prepared for such an effect. His agility let him avoid the flames and other energies that emitted as he neared it, his body has long since resisted any form of poison that could infect him, and he was able to turn his body and mind into a fortress, blocking off the other effects, and letting him land safely (if you ignore the damage a 60 foot causes,) inside the sphere.

With their first threat dealt with, the party could focus on TIE herself, but even this was by no means an easy task. For one thing, she was still in the air, and had been firing incredibly powerful orbs of energy out of her whip ever since she flung Robin into Bath. In addition, the whip was proving a powerful defensive tool, as Robin soon learned. It twirled around her constantly, and she was using it to block and even completely reflect his arrows. At the same time, while she didn’t seem to have any resistance to magic, she was fast enough to completely evade the fireballs and other large spells that Tal was hurling at her. Only Bath, with her strong melee attacks that struck her force field like thunderbolts, was doing any serious damage to her. Wong used his ki powers to become immaterial, letting him safely pass under the sphere to help his new friend, while Xalem desperately tried to keep up with healing everybody.

Danae, meanwhile, decided to try her most powerful offensive spell on her threat. She carefully stepped out of the sphere, and while preparing to dash back in as soon as she was done, she hurled four flaming meteors at TIE. They all went straight at her, and one was a perfect shot, but when TIE began to catch even these with her whip, the horror of what she just did struck Danae. As did the perfectly fired meteor, which TIE caught and hurled back at her with equal accuracy! The meteor struck and exploded right on Danae’s head, sending her flying and leaving her sprawled on the ground, slowly bleeding and dying!

Xalem was horrified at how things were going, until he had an idea. What if he could disrupt TIE’s powers, even if it meant sacrificing some of their power? He dashed under TIE, and then created a field around the area that nullified all magic! However, his plan’s follow was soon revealed, for while it looked like TIE’s power was slightly disrupted, she was still able to fly, project her force field, and attack with almost as much strength! However, his friends in the area, including the magically Robin, were not so lucky. Robin became the second party member to plummet screaming to the ground this fight as a weakened Bath nonetheless pressed on against TIE.

Robin quickly dashed out of the field, and began to fire again at TIE again, even though the arrows were once again deflected. Desperate to at least contribute something to the fight, Robin decided to draw her fire, and began taunting TIE. TIE, however, just smiled at him and asked, “You think you’re so smart, do you?”

Robin, not sure where this was leading, reluctantly replied, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, let’s see how smart you are,” TIE said, and fired a portal at him out of her whip. Unable to dodge out of the way of the instantaneous attack, Robin found himself sucked into a strange labyrinth. He began to explore this strange land while the fight raged on without him.

Finally realizing his mistake, Xalem cancelled his own field, and left to tend to the dying Danae, letting Wong activate his own flying magic, and he joined a renewed Bath in attacking TIE in close combat. Finally, their combined strength satisfied TIE, who suddenly announced a few attacks later, “Okay, that’s it. You have proved your worth. This battle is over. Let me take you to more pleasant accommodations.”

So saying, she created a portal, and stepped through it. After a healed Danae retrieved Robin from his maze plane, the rest of the party followed, and found themselves in TIE’s familiar home. She began to explain her motives for bringing the party to her a second time.

“For me to explain what’s been going on, I have to tell you a little bit about the history of your dimension. In my millions of years of studying the multiverse, I learned that there is only one true constant. All things must, sooner or later, end. Sometimes it ends in an apocalyptic battle, sometimes in a beautiful utopia, and sometimes things just run out of energy and fall apart, but ever world, universe, and plane must inevitably end at some point. It has been my goal to correct this problem, but I don’t even know if it’s possibly to correct it. However, one attempt to correct it is important in this case. Eons ago, about when I first found your plane, I tried a new tactic to solve it. You see, I discovered that most of these endings involve creatures growing in power until they end up destroying the world in a climactic battle or ascend into a higher being, giving them absolute control over a plane and the ability to shape it into its own personal paradise. However, if I created a system that lets relatively low-powered creatures completely destroy the power structure every few hundred or thousand years, things will never be locked into one final fate like this.

“That was my plan when I created an artifact known as the Quill of Destiny. Every time things get to hectic in this plane, it calls a few moderately powerful heroes and villains, and lets them reorganize the world. As a result, your world has been in existence for countless years, and has hosted everything from magical empires to psionic, alien worlds, to technological super-civilizations. It has included humans, artificial creatures, demons, angels, other outside beings, and other creatures far weirder. It’s a brutal system in ways, since entire civilizations have been lost to time, but at least your world has lived on.

“Or, at least it has so far. Even the Quill is imperfect, and keeping it powered for so long is starting to weaken it. This loss of control is manifesting right now, in the form of Bas. Normally, the lost civilizations have largely been just that. However, from her crater, Bas has been able to discover and gain access to the powers of many different times, mixing powers that should not be mixed. If she is not stopped, her rise to power could disrupt the flow of power the Quill has bestowed upon your world!

“However, if I tried to intervene to stop her, I would be putting my power into the mix, disrupting things further. I can only help indirectly, by aiding those who can stop her, including you.”

“How can you do that?” Danae asked.

TIE smiled. “What, a solid block of gold isn’t considered helping? But I can do more than that as well. The most important thing I can do to help is give you these.” As she said that, she produced a number of strange talismans, which bore a strange marking resembling a wolf with a long, monkey-like tail.

“What are these?” Robin asked.

“These are device that you will soon need to gain the power you need. Let me explain. There’s a natural limit to what level of power mortals can gain, which varies from dimension to dimension. In your dimension, the power limit is relatively low, and while fighting powerful creatures from other dimensions would eventually let you break that limit, it’s too long and risky a process, and requires me to intervene to unbalance things further. The other way to break the limit is through divine power. Gods can break it, obviously, as can avatars, the most powerful servants of gods, and creatures with a spark of the divine within them, like dragons and many of our planar monsters. Your gods, sadly, only have the power to make their own specific avatars break that limit. However, I can grant you the power you’ll need to reach this limit, which I believe your kind calls the “Epic” limit. In addition, I’ll give you one more boon. I believe you still lack knowledge on where exactly Bas is, is that correct?”

After seeing their glum nods, TIE continued, “As I thought. Well, I can’t help you there directly, but I can give you an item that lets you find one of her most powerful servants, the Strife Masters, at any time, even when they’re within the fields of divine protection. Of course, I recommend you use it to wait until they’re on the move, since if they’re in a place that’s protected, they could either be with Bas, or they could be in their sect’s temple or some other place that Bas has a personal interest in. Once you catch one on the move, you can capture him or her, and force the information about Bas out of him or her. All I need is to know which one you want to track.”

After some discussion and a quick explanation for Bath and Xalem about who the Strife Masters are, Tal responds to TIE, “I think we’ll go with the Blade of Minds. We killed the Nightmare Prince and essentially eliminated the Lady of Blood, and we don’t know their replacements yet. And we’d rather not go after Phellus Mune at the moment. Plus, the Blade of Minds is supposed to be the only Strife Master who isn’t evil. She might be easier to persuade than the others.”

TIE nodded, and produced a strange magical device. “And now, if you’re ready, I can take you back to my home on your world. You can go home from there, or visit Dragovigis if you wish. After all, you might want to hurry.”

Tal had to choke back a sob after hearing the name of the city he unintentionally betrayed, but Danae had bigger concerns. “Um, wait, why should we hurry?”

“Well, because it’s currently being attacked by Bas’ forces,” TIE said, almost casually. “They’ll probably have the place destroyed in a matter of hours.”

OOC Notes: That fight with TIE was a lot better, in my opinion, than the last one. The defense-heavy TIE lasted a lot longer than the more offense-based dragon form. This was also a big exposition-heavy game, especially with two character introductions. I especially liked Bath’s, who some of you might recognize as being loosely based on Flonne from the PS2 game Disgaea. The Minotaur Driving An Ice Cream Truck, however, is my own creation, and one of my favorite running jokes!

 

[LordVyreth]

Dragovigis' Destruction: How to Create Nuclear Annihilation Through Pacifism

The party, with the obvious exceptions of Bath and Xalem, were shocked. “It’s what?” they gasped.

TIE shrugged. “Yes, they started a few hours ago, and things aren’t going well.”

“But why would they attack…” Danae started to ask, before stopping as realization came to her. And she simply stared at Tal.

“They must have heard about it from Lancaster,” Tal finished. “This is all my fault. Facetous should have shown me no mercy.”

“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic,” TIE said. “There’s still plenty that you could do. Just get in there and stop them.”

“You don’t understand,” Tal shouted. “I can’t do anything to help! Facetous said that if I ever set foot in that city again, I’ll be killed instantly!”

TIE sighed. “So what? He’s just a god. Look, if you want to help, just ask. I can prevent him from even noticing you until the attack is over, and you can try using your assistance to earn his good favor again. And if you fail to stop the attack, well I doubt re-entering the city will be a big concern for anyone.”

Tal thought about this, and though he didn’t exactly trust TIE, his need for redemption was too great. “Use your power to protect me,” he said. “I’m going in. Can I count on the rest of your support?”

Robin, Danae, and Wong easily pledged their support, but the new additions to the heroes were less reluctant. “I’m not sure I want to get involved in this fight,” Bath said. “I have to look for my assassination target,” she said sweetly. “What could this have to do with it?”

“Well, the Bas forces often use evil outsiders. You might be able to…”

“I’M IN!” Bath shouted, her crusading zeal at the idea of smiting fiends overruling her reluctance.

“What about me, though,” Xalem asked. “I want to try and end conflicts, not take sides in massive warfare.”

Tal shook his head. “If we don’t help, hundreds of creatures will be slaughtered, an entire city will be destroyed, and wholes races of dragons will go extinct on this plane. Even if you are unable to help us actually fight the monsters, can’t you help us prevent a tragedy of that magnitude?”

Xalem pondered this, and then nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

So prepared, TIE returned to the party to their world, and very close to the border of Dragovigis. Quickly they dashed into the city, only to find much of it in ruins. Dragons were flying about, combating what appeared to be armies of the mechanical sheens, but there were far less than the party expected considering how many dragons they saw on their previous visits. Either the dragons were elsewhere, or the casualties were already incomprehensible.

Desperate for answers, the group approached what looked like a medical camp, where injured dragons were healed for the next wave of attacks. Not wanting to attract attention, Tal blended into the back of the group while Danae took over the questioning. She approached what looked like the dragon in charged, and asked, “What’s going on here?”

The dragon looked at them with alarm and panic at first, but quickly calmed once it recognized them. “Oh, it was terrible! The problems started a few hours ago, when a massive dragon was sighted near the city. We first thought that the orc empire had finally found us, until scouts reported that it was one of the outsider dragons.”

“Outsider dragons?” Danae asked.

“Yes, the dragon races so powerful that they have transcended the planes. This one is partially made of pure force, as is her breath weapon. It was coming right at us, so our most powerful warriors left the city to intercept her, and they haven’t returned, at least not yet. Meanwhile, swarms of sheens piled into the city from below. They’ve just been overwhelming us. And that’s not the worst news?”

“What is the worst news?” Danae reluctantly asked.

“That,” the dragon replied, as it pointed at the statue in the center of town. “Their most powerful forces have converged there, including evil humanoids in red robes, demonic creatures, and their leader. He’s a strange one, though. He looks completely ordinary, even plain, and he’s not carrying anything magical or any equipment at all really, but the other attackers have deferred to him without question. I believe the enemies know about the weapon we have stored in the statue, and are either trying to steal it or detonate it!”

“We have no time!” Tal says, forgetting his plan to remain inconspicuous. “We have to get to the top of that statue as quickly as possible.”

“Er, that’s not such a good idea,” Danae replied. She pointed up at the dragon’s head, where three giant creatures were circling it. “It looks like they have guards around the head, and powerful ones too. If we attack from that direction, the whole place will know we’re coming. I suggest we enter the statue from the base, and work our way in. Since they’ve been fighting dragons, they’ll never expect a land-based attack.”

Tal sighed, but agreed. “Oh, very well. But we have to be quick!”

The party agreed, and began to approach the statue’s base. However, as they tried to leave the camp, the dragon officer called out, “Wait!” When they returned, it explained, “If you are really going to try to stop them, you need this.” It dug a strange device out of one of the bags dangling from its body. “This machine can be used to disable the bomb if these monsters have decided to arm it for some reason. Now, it’s not too complicated a piece of technology, but I don’t know if any of you can understand it without any training whatsoever.” Nevertheless, he taught them all how to operate it.

Danae, with her extensive knowledge of nearly any subject and incredible intellect, was the only one who really could understand the device, so the dragon officer gave it to her before sending the party on their way.

As they got closer to the statue, Tal had an idea. “Hey, what if we didn’t charge in from the front door? I can disintegrate a small hole in the statue’s back, and we can sneak in that way and bypass any guards watching the door.”

The group readily agreed, and Tal was able to easily make a hole at the literal foot of the statue that let them access what appeared to be a shaft leading right up the entirety of the statue, and which seemed to contain a strange machine used to help them ascend it. However, from the “elevator” shaft, the party could see the guards at the front door, and overconfidence struck.

“They don’t even know we’re here!” Tal said. A desire for revenge and redemption rose in him, as he said, “I bet we could take them before they even have time to respond!”

“I don’t know about this plan,” Wong said. “I mean, that one guard’s legs are straddling the doorway we have to take! We don’t even know how big, or what, it is!”

Bath, however, was looking at the creatures at the far end of the room. “What are those things?” she asked.

Danae took a closer look. “I think they’re called Yagnoloths, of the Yugoloth race,” she speculated. “They hail from the evil plane of Gehenna mostly…”

That was all Bath needed. “Charge!” she yelled as she flew down the hallway at the creatures, entering the fray so quickly that whatever the large-legged creature was, it had no time to react before she slammed into the first of the fiendish creatures with such force that she nearly killed it with one swing!

The decision made for them, Tal, Danae and Robin moved to enter the fray, while Xalem remained behind to provide curative magic if needed, and Wong, who was never pleased with this attack in the first place. “I’ll…just guard the elevator,” he said nervously.

As it turns out, though, Wong was right on this one. Though momentarily surprised by Bath’s charge, the enemy group recovered quickly, including a half dozen dogs that were surrounded by shadow and an obese demonic creature that they later learned was a demodand. However, as Bath fought the group off, with the occasional assistance of Tal and Danae’s magic, the rest of the group had to confront the massive guardian, which apparently was a massive statue carved out of some strange black stone. The real problem was that it was right at the end of the hallway, and after it was able to recover from the attack, it realized that there were more enemies in the corridor, and with its extremely long arms, it could attack the party if they got anywhere near the end of the hallway. But if they didn’t get near the end of the hallway, they couldn’t see what was happening in the room. Eventually, as the battle between Bath and the fiends got fiercer, Danae and Robin decided to risk getting a little closer. However, no sooner did they choose to close the statue’s half dozen fists shot down the hallway, striking them both repeatedly. The attacks were powerful, but the real danger of the attacks was revealed moments later, when to Danae and Robin’s shock, they felt their bodies slowly solidify, until both were nothing but stone statues!

Finally, Wong realized he had to get involved with the battle, and reluctantly closed with the statue. This proved wise, as his training made his fists as strong as the strongest of metals, and more than powerful enough to cut through the thick skin of the statue. However, the power of the statue was greater than even seen so far, for the statues that were Danae and Robin began to animate, apparently under the statue’s command, and attack Wong!

Xalem also decided to get involved at this point. “I can’t directly harm them, but I have a way to stop them from attacking us!” he said. “I have a spell that will cause anyone who makes an attack on another to suffer retribution. They won’t dare attack you at that point.”

Tal, however, paused when he heard this plan, for he saw a noticeable flaw in this plan. “Um, if the statues of Danae and Robin were to be commanded to still attack us, what would take the retributive damage?”

“Well, they would.”

“And this damage would destroy their statues, and therefore them, right?”

“I suppose, but…”

“And that includes all of their items?”

“Sure…”

“Including the device that we need to disable the potentially-armed ultimate weapon that could go off at any moment?”

Finally, Xalem realized this not the best idea. “I see your point. Never mind.”

Meanwhile, Wong finally destroyed the statue. “At last,” Tal said, “we can finally help…Bath,” he finished lamely, after looking at the state of the room.

The entire room was covered with the remains of fiends and demonic hounds. Only Bath stood, barely injured, around the carnage. “Don’t worry, I’m okay,” she chirped. “Now, can we move on?”

Xalem used his healing powers to restore Danae and Robin to flesh, healed everyone, and the group returned to the elevator, intent on suffering no more distractions in their quest to reach the top of the statue and save the city.

OOC Notes: In case you’re wondering, neither Wong nor Xalem were played by their regular players at the end there. Wong’s player left halfway through the game, and though he told us his character was going to just guard the elevator the whole fight, when things got rough, I took some creative liberties with that decision.

More notably, Xalem was gone the whole game, and the player controlling him didn’t really know much about the Book of Exalted Deeds that he was based on, hence the near apocalyptic mistake that was almost made.

 

[LordVyreth]

Dragovigis Destruction?: The Final Countdown

The journey to the top of the statue was a long and difficult one. Despite what the success of the Bas forces might suggest, the dragons were very concerned with the security of the statue, and lined the only route to the weapon that they thought the enemy could take (since they figured any flying enemy would be in the open and easily defeated by the city’s citizens) with traps, guardians, and gates. As the elevator ascended, this became obvious when a half-dozen of the wheeled sheens that they had fought long ago in their earlier explorations of the continent dropped onto the elevator via chutes. They weren’t too much of a challenge by themselves, but as the party fought them off, weaponry periodically emerged from the walls around the elevator and attacked the party with beams or swords of pure energy, which cut through their armor as they struck.

Finally, the elevator stopped, but it was only another challenge. The way above was blocked by a metal door, and the elevator stopped next to a room which apparently included the puzzle to unlock it. The room was circular, and contained three grooves in the floor which formed concentric circles. A number of light generating columns were attached to the circles, and the lights seemed to be linked to light-sensitive receptacles attached to the walls. To solve the puzzle and unlock the door, the party had to move the columns so that one of them was focused on each receptacle, while making sure that one column wasn’t blocking the way of another column’s light. Because the lights themselves were so bright and intense that they physically burned anyone who got caught in the way of a light, and all the columns attached to one circle were physically linked so moving one would move all of the columns in that circle, it wasn’t an easy task. But they completed it quickly enough, and were again on their way.

The journey proceeded like this for a while, and stopped twice for more puzzles of the same nature, but that got more complicated each time. In addition, besides more energy traps and swarms of sheens, more threats challenged the party during their trip. The traps from the walls included cables with electrified the floor of the elevator, shocking everyone who was standing on it, and technological traps that emulate common magical effects, from Magic Missiles to Disintegration rays and Prismatic Sprays! The party also had to deal with a flock of flying fiends that Danae defined as Nycaloths. Here, Xalem at last proved his worth, for he was able to use his divine power to drive away the creatures, just like most clerics can do to undead. This way, he was able to defend the party without causing actual damage to their enemies.

Finally, the elevator reached the top of the statue, and only one room stood between the party and the statue’s head, where the weapon was kept. Of course, as the elevator reached its peak at this floor, the party learned that it too was well-guarded, as can be expected. Among the guards were two of the massive roller sheens, similar to the ones that guarded the Ancient “Dungeon” the party had explored long ago, three more of the shadowy hounds, and what looked like a giant earthworm with arms, bat wings, and glowing red eyes! However, none of them were little more than a speed bump to the party at this point. Thinking that its guards might protect him for a while, the worm creature began a very long spell, but Wong and Bath cut through the dogs in a matter of seconds, Danae and Tal easily destroyed the machines with their magic, and Robin was able to fire at the worm and disrupt his spell just moments before it could finish it. Now surrounded, the worm was quickly put to death, and the party pushed onward.

They found themselves in the dragons’ head, which was enormous (about 150 feet in diameter,) and completely hollow. At the bottom, a shaft which apparently ran parallel to the elevator all the way to the floor opened up, and the only places to safely stand in the entire room are a ledge right next to the door they just went through, a stairway that rose to the front of the statue, and a disc-shaped platform at the front. The bomb itself was attached to the wall, where led directly the front of the statue’s mouth. There also were a few small ledges near the top of the head, which were barely large enough to be a dragon’s perch, which presumably was what they were originally for.

However, the ledges were now empty, save one, which contained a plain-looking man in black clothing and with a short goatee. He looked at the party and sighed. “Well, I didn’t think we would be able to retrieve the bomb. This should be just as satisfying and helpful, however.” So saying, he took out a small mechanical device and pushed a button on it. Suddenly, the bomb, which a red-robed figure was trying to disarm at the moment, activated and began beeping. An emotionless, mechanical voice suddenly reverberated throughout the statue, “Warning, bomb is armed. Auto-destruct sequence engaged. Detonation will occur in one minute…”

Realizing they had to hurry now, the party quickly sized up what they had to get through to reach the bomb and disarm it in time. Besides the leader, who didn’t seem especially interested in stopping them anyway, there were two massive sheens that were, except for their size, identical to the one guarding the Ancient Dungeon. There were two red-robed cultists, plus the one disarming the bomb. There were two gigantic tigers, but they had a dark, evil look to them. Most ominously, there was a third mechanical creature, but it was a different variety than they had seen before.

Wong and Tal took the lead up the stairs while the dark-haired leader merely shrugged and began to watch the fight from his ledge. Their first challenge came from the two tigers. However, Xalem again used his divine powers to drive one away, and it spent the fight cowering in the corner while Wong began to attack the other and Robin fired on it from a distance.

Bath, however, had no interest in wasting time on the lesser foes, and simply flew to the disc, where most of the guards were gathered. With almost chilling speed, she killed one of the cultists, and began to work on the second. Meanwhile, Danae had noticed that the leader wasn’t actively getting involved, but didn’t want to take a chance on that. She fired a swarm of flaming meteors at him, only for him to react as if prepared for such an attack. Another strange machine extended from his arm, though it was hard to tell if it was just hidden in his clothing or literally rose out of his flesh, and it apparently projected some sort of force field a few feet from Danae! The shots harmlessly burst on impact, and Danae sighed with frustration, but also was relieved that she didn’t use a fireball or a similar spell that would have created an explosion with her in the blast radius!

Meanwhile, the red-robed figure stood up from her position next to the bomb, and got a look at the party for the first time. As she did so, it was obvious that she was at least twice as tall as the other cultists. When she saw the party, she flinched as if shocked, and drew back her hood, revealing the face of an ugly, purple, horned woman. “You!” She screeched. “I remember you! You killed my sister!” Tal and Robin realized they remembered her as well. She was the night hag druid that the party had fought back when they went after The Lady of Blood!

Meanwhile, the two Render Sheens, the normal robots encountered earlier, rose to meet the threat on the stairway and from Bath. Both responded by firing a blast of searing plasma energy. One struck Bath, lightly injuring her, but the other flew down the stairway and struck at Wong and Tal. Wong effortlessly danced out of the way, but the blast caught Tal directly, searing some of the skin from his body! Finally, the last robot responded by, surprisingly, casting a spell! It suddenly rose into the air, as the leader of the enemy forces smirked. “You really should thank your friend Joddark for his contribution to our latest servant. He really gave so much to make it what it is today.” As he said that, he pointed to a dome on the robot’s body that was filled with blood and other vile things, and Tal was almost sick when he realized that the remains of the Avatar of Magic was being used to power the creature!

While Wong easily finished the second tiger, Tal was enraged and charged up to deal with Joddark’s killers not with magic, but with weaponry. He didn’t get far, however, before one of the Render sheens blocked his way. He angrily attacked it with his sword, doing some reasonable damage to it, but it was no where near enough to bring down the massive creature. In response, the creature tore into Tal, slicing him with its massive saw blade mouth and a half-dozen tentacle blades! Robin and Danae ran up to help him, while Xalem prepared to heal him if he could only get close enough to be saved.

While the rest of the group was dealing with Tal, Bath was making mincemeat out of the remainder of the defenders. She sliced through the second cultist effortlessly, and then turned to begin cleaving into the arcanosheen. The night hag druid and the sheen both tried bringing her down with magic, only to learn that it was very hard to stop an avenging angel, even a young one, with magic. Energy blasts like chained lighting harmlessly bounced off her, lesser spells simply failed to penetrate her natural resistance to magic, and when the arcanosheen tried to ravage her mind with magical insanity, it learned that her constant angelic aura protected her from mind control as well!

Tal, meanwhile, had come to his senses after being so brutally pummeled by the render, desperately tried to escape with his life. However, the creature was huge and its tentacles were very long, making it hard to escape unscathed. And after all the blood he lost, even one scratch could kill him. Desperately, he did a quick summersault backwards, then changed directly mid-roll to make a leap from the disc to the stairway where Xalem and his salvation awaited. He made it by inches, and clung to the side of the stairway with all of his might while Xalem dashed over to help him. However, it still might have been too late, for the render was already moving to follow Tal to the stairs, where it could devastate both Tal and Xalem!

Just before it could make the leap, though, unexpected help arrived. Roaring from the shaft below, a familiar purple, scaly figure rose up. It was Tal’s cousin Zuriden! It quickly interposed itself between Tal and the render, and began to slash at it while Wong distracted the other and Robin and Danae fired on both using arrows and magic.

Things were going well, but time was running out, with less than thirty seconds before the bomb went off! The group at the head of the stairway finally finished off the renders, and arrived to help Bath finish off the arcanosheen and night hag. However, these enemies knew a lost cause when they saw one. The arcanosheen simply teleported away and the Night Hag shimmered as her body became ethereal. Screaming threats of vengeance, she fled out of sight.

That left only the leader, who watched the entire battle as if it was nothing more than a phenomenon to be observed. Zuriden was the first one to reach him. The man expected his arrival, however, and produced yet another machine which seemed to freeze the very flow of time around Zuriden! Zuriden managed to resist the effect and began to tear into the man, but he merely shrugged and vanished, leading Zuriden and the others to wonder what this man was, and how he could produce such power without any effort.

Everyone except Danae wondered, actually, for she broke into a run towards the bomb as soon as the enemies fled. Quickly but carefully, she manipulated the device the dragons gave her, and everyone sighed with relief when the mechanical voice, which had been counting down methodically the whole time, said “Bomb has been disarmed. Situation normal.”

And so the heroes saved the town of Dragovigis from destruction, but the party wondered what their next adventure was. Perhaps it was time to finally find Bas? After all, they now had the relic that TIE gave them to find one of her servants. If they can capture her, they can finally destroy the evil goddess! Tal, however, had other concerns. Mostly, now that he helped save the city, will he finally get the redemption from Facetous he so desires?

 

[LordVyreth]

Sorry about the lack of updates this weekend. There were issues with relatives, and time was short, and everything. I'll start up the updates again on a regular weekly basis next weekend. However, we're finally closing in on the current events, and I suspect that by the end of March or so, I'll be so close that I'll switch to updates every two weeks instead of every week. Just giving a warning for what's to come.

 

[Neurotic]

That's OK. I had three days fighting computer parasites that somehow penetrated my firewall and anti-spy and anti-virus software, didn't look for more then a week.

Do you know where is Metamorphosis? I can't find it on the list of story hours. Thanks!

Good update. Tense 'till the end. Good you didn't waste too much time on fighting the minions. Didn't PCs know who the master is?