Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)
- Thread starter LordVyreth
- Start date
LordVyreth
First Post
Good preparation will get you anywhere. Bad preparation, well....
After learning of their mission, the party took another few hours to prepare their equipment, spend the rest of the money on new items, and so on. Time wasn’t yet a major concern, since Lerissa told them that there would be six days before the army arrived, and she was able to again provide them with teleportation to the front line. However, slightly surprisingly, the party spent all of their new money on magical combat equipment, like better weapons, rings of protection, and so on. Shortly after they teleported to the front line, and began to sneak through the tunnels leading to the city itself, they realized their mistake.
The path they walked on was pitch black, and branched frequently. Fortunately, they were told which paths would lead to the city, but they had no idea where any enemy patrols or guards would be stationed. Of course, they had lights to use, but since they were attacking drow, they realized they would be obvious targets to everyone within sight of them. But they had little choice at this point, and began their journey. It was a surprise to no one when the first enemy patrol ambushed them.
They appeared to have only one drow in the actual patrol, but he was guarded by two evil-looking wolves, and a strange hyena-like creature with a vaguely humanoid stance. Dane charged the hyena monster, though he was more than a little worried after hearing the stories of were-creatures that served the enemy. He nonetheless gave the creature a brutal slash into its back, but the monster responded with a bite of its own. The drow withdrew slightly, sinking into the shadows and out of sight. Quercus and Raz began fighting the wolves, but Raz found that his arrows were having little effect on the creatures. Their wounds were healing as fast as they formed. Quercus was having more luck, but by the time he reached the creatures, he could only get one swing off before the two monsters leapt out of the path of his sword. One was a little slow, and was grazed by Quercus’ sword as it moved. Tal targeted the hyena with magic, only to have his magic orbs vanish right in front of the monster. Rudyard chose to help out Dane, in case it really was a lycanthrope, to make sure it died before it could potentially infect anyone else.
Flix tumbled in behind Quercus, and neatly severed one of the wolf’s leg muscles, leaving it writhing on the floor. Tsine noticed the trouble Tal had with the hyena, and focused his lightning bolt on the wolves, finishing both of them off before they could regain their balance and leap at Quercus. Dane finished off the hyena monster as well, leaving only the drow. For a brief second, the party searched the tunnel apprehensively, wondering if the scout fled or if he was still here. Their question was soon answered when the drow leapt out from the shadows, blade pointed at Dane’s back! He tried to move out of the way in time, but was a second too late, and the drow sent an expertly placed rapier wound right into his back. The wound was agonizing, but the drow’s victory was short lived, and Quercus, Raz, and Rudyard quickly surrounded the villain and ended his life.
The party carefully continued down the path, but before they could reach the city, another patrol just like the last found them. They were able to defeat this one as easily as the last, but this time, the drow leader did not return after disappearing into the darkness. The party waited tensely for a few minutes, but then cautiously continued on when they were not attacked.
Tulivaron almost chuckled to himself. This was too easy. Though his patrol was wiped out, these fools clearly didn’t see him, or even know he was still there. As they began meandering aimlessly towards the city again, he waited for the perfect moment to strike, or perhaps to sneak past them when they were distracted.
Finally, later that day (if the term had any meaning this far underground,) the party neared the city. They were entering a large chamber just in front of the city limits. Once again, the party realized they were at a disadvantage, when chilling howls rose up all around them. Suddenly, they were surrounded. There was a half-dozen scrawny dogs, but the fact that they were able to fly clearly indicated that they were no ordinary dogs. Even worse, they seemed to have a pack leader; a much larger dog-like creature, that was hidden in shadows even more than expected considering the environment.
Flix was the first to realize the danger they were in. He tumbled towards one of the six dogs, and quickly stabbed at it. Surprised that their prey would recover and attack so quickly, the creature couldn’t avoid the blow and yelped in pain. Quercus saw an opportunity and slashed at the same dog, finishing it quickly. Rudyard and Raz double-teamed a second dog, while Dane slashed at a third. A second and third dog fell to their attacks and Tal’s magic, while Tsine wounded a fourth. However, just when things were looking up, all four of the surviving dogs howled, loudly. The effect was terrifying. Flix, Raz, and Dane looked at each other, with panic in their eyes. Surely, these monsters will be the death of them! Guided by little but fear, the three of them panicked and ran back the way they came, with Dane taking a nasty bite for the shadowy dog as he fled. The fight suddenly looked far worse. To make things even worse, while this was going on, a humanoid figure behind them saw his chance, and shimmied his way across the edge of the cavern. He then made a dash for the city, eager to report the party’s arrival, just in case the dogs’ howling wasn’t enough of a warning.
With half the party now gone, Quercus and Rudyard decided to focus on their most dangerous threat, the shadowy dog. They flank the monster, and begin slashing at it. Quercus especially gave the creature a vicious blow that sliced one of the creature’s ears off. Meanwhile, Tsine also realized things were going badly, and used a volley of magic missiles to drop the wounded dog and a fifth one. Tal began to fire at the last of the smaller dogs, but it wasn’t enough to finish the creature. The dog then leapt at Tal, biting him ferociously on the neck, while the shadowy dog bit Rudyard and then dragged him to the ground. Quercus aimed carefully at the distracted dog, and sliced into his back while Rudyard tried to crawl out of the monster’s claws. Tsine made the effort irrelevant, as another volley of magical orbs silenced the dog, and Tal attacked the last dog with his own sword. Though hardly an expert, his blade nonetheless pierced the creature’s heart. As one, the four remaining heroes dashed backwards, trying to find their three friends before they got horribly lost in the dark, or even worse, were discovered by another patrol. Fortunately, the fear of the dogs wore off in only a few moments, and the three stopped on their own volition, letting the party catch them quickly.
Still, the party had little hope of entering the city unnoticed by now, and they knew it. Realizing they had to get an idea of what was up ahead, they sent Flix out to scout. He still couldn’t see, of course, but as they neared the city, they saw some torch fires ahead, so they hoped that would be enough. Flix carefully began to work his way towards the city, unaware that as he did so, a shadowy figure had caught up to him going the other way, and began to trail him as he approached. Flix knew that things were already against him when he was approaching. So when he slipped and fell with a loud and audible clang, he realized it was time to through in the towel.
Fortunately, he was close enough at this point to at least see what was in the torchlight. There was a wooden wall blocking the cavern, and it looked recently built. It was guarded by more wolves, at least one drow on top of the wall, and more of the hyena monsters. However, it sounded like there was a whole army behind the wall. Even worse, he soon saw a drow woman riding a black horse through the sky above the wall. The horse was leaving flaming hoof prints in the air, which Flix just knew was a bad sign. And then, horribly, the dark, spotted-haired man also appeared on top of the wall! Flix couldn’t risk being here any longer, so he fled back to the party. And was being tailed as he did so, though he was unaware of it.
Tulivaron was having the time of his life. He listened with amusement as his quarry was actually briefly considering a frontal assault! Sadly, they came to their senses and began a hasty retreat. Despite their speed, Tulivaron was still able to follow them, and they still didn’t even know he was there! Finally, about halfway back to their camp, they paused for a rest. “You know,” the big stupid fighter with a sword said, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was watching us arrive.”
Tulivaron finally couldn’t contain himself any more. He let out an audible chuckled before catching himself and holding a hand over his mouth. Remarkably, the party responded instantly, looked around intently for a few moments, and then shrugged and continued on! He had to hold both hands over his mouth as he continued trailing the party until they finally reached their camp, and then returned to the city satisfied. It was a shame that he couldn’t have had the party wiped out before they could flee, but at least they were driven off with ease. Let that be a lesson to the traitorous drow who abandoned their principles a millennium ago, and all who serve them!
OOC Notes: No, that really wasn’t embellished. Well, much. I really did try to warn them about the need to treat this as a stealth-based mission, and was amazed that they didn’t use any of their new equipment to that effect. That being said, they really missed a lot of rolls near the end there. Flix’s player rolled a one on his move silently check to reach the wall, and no one was ever coming close to figuring out they were being followed. Well, they had an idea when he laughed at them, but they still couldn’t find them.
Fortunately for them, they did much better the next time through. I was afraid it would take a couple more sessions just for them to get through the front gate for a while!
After learning of their mission, the party took another few hours to prepare their equipment, spend the rest of the money on new items, and so on. Time wasn’t yet a major concern, since Lerissa told them that there would be six days before the army arrived, and she was able to again provide them with teleportation to the front line. However, slightly surprisingly, the party spent all of their new money on magical combat equipment, like better weapons, rings of protection, and so on. Shortly after they teleported to the front line, and began to sneak through the tunnels leading to the city itself, they realized their mistake.
The path they walked on was pitch black, and branched frequently. Fortunately, they were told which paths would lead to the city, but they had no idea where any enemy patrols or guards would be stationed. Of course, they had lights to use, but since they were attacking drow, they realized they would be obvious targets to everyone within sight of them. But they had little choice at this point, and began their journey. It was a surprise to no one when the first enemy patrol ambushed them.
They appeared to have only one drow in the actual patrol, but he was guarded by two evil-looking wolves, and a strange hyena-like creature with a vaguely humanoid stance. Dane charged the hyena monster, though he was more than a little worried after hearing the stories of were-creatures that served the enemy. He nonetheless gave the creature a brutal slash into its back, but the monster responded with a bite of its own. The drow withdrew slightly, sinking into the shadows and out of sight. Quercus and Raz began fighting the wolves, but Raz found that his arrows were having little effect on the creatures. Their wounds were healing as fast as they formed. Quercus was having more luck, but by the time he reached the creatures, he could only get one swing off before the two monsters leapt out of the path of his sword. One was a little slow, and was grazed by Quercus’ sword as it moved. Tal targeted the hyena with magic, only to have his magic orbs vanish right in front of the monster. Rudyard chose to help out Dane, in case it really was a lycanthrope, to make sure it died before it could potentially infect anyone else.
Flix tumbled in behind Quercus, and neatly severed one of the wolf’s leg muscles, leaving it writhing on the floor. Tsine noticed the trouble Tal had with the hyena, and focused his lightning bolt on the wolves, finishing both of them off before they could regain their balance and leap at Quercus. Dane finished off the hyena monster as well, leaving only the drow. For a brief second, the party searched the tunnel apprehensively, wondering if the scout fled or if he was still here. Their question was soon answered when the drow leapt out from the shadows, blade pointed at Dane’s back! He tried to move out of the way in time, but was a second too late, and the drow sent an expertly placed rapier wound right into his back. The wound was agonizing, but the drow’s victory was short lived, and Quercus, Raz, and Rudyard quickly surrounded the villain and ended his life.
The party carefully continued down the path, but before they could reach the city, another patrol just like the last found them. They were able to defeat this one as easily as the last, but this time, the drow leader did not return after disappearing into the darkness. The party waited tensely for a few minutes, but then cautiously continued on when they were not attacked.
Tulivaron almost chuckled to himself. This was too easy. Though his patrol was wiped out, these fools clearly didn’t see him, or even know he was still there. As they began meandering aimlessly towards the city again, he waited for the perfect moment to strike, or perhaps to sneak past them when they were distracted.
Finally, later that day (if the term had any meaning this far underground,) the party neared the city. They were entering a large chamber just in front of the city limits. Once again, the party realized they were at a disadvantage, when chilling howls rose up all around them. Suddenly, they were surrounded. There was a half-dozen scrawny dogs, but the fact that they were able to fly clearly indicated that they were no ordinary dogs. Even worse, they seemed to have a pack leader; a much larger dog-like creature, that was hidden in shadows even more than expected considering the environment.
Flix was the first to realize the danger they were in. He tumbled towards one of the six dogs, and quickly stabbed at it. Surprised that their prey would recover and attack so quickly, the creature couldn’t avoid the blow and yelped in pain. Quercus saw an opportunity and slashed at the same dog, finishing it quickly. Rudyard and Raz double-teamed a second dog, while Dane slashed at a third. A second and third dog fell to their attacks and Tal’s magic, while Tsine wounded a fourth. However, just when things were looking up, all four of the surviving dogs howled, loudly. The effect was terrifying. Flix, Raz, and Dane looked at each other, with panic in their eyes. Surely, these monsters will be the death of them! Guided by little but fear, the three of them panicked and ran back the way they came, with Dane taking a nasty bite for the shadowy dog as he fled. The fight suddenly looked far worse. To make things even worse, while this was going on, a humanoid figure behind them saw his chance, and shimmied his way across the edge of the cavern. He then made a dash for the city, eager to report the party’s arrival, just in case the dogs’ howling wasn’t enough of a warning.
With half the party now gone, Quercus and Rudyard decided to focus on their most dangerous threat, the shadowy dog. They flank the monster, and begin slashing at it. Quercus especially gave the creature a vicious blow that sliced one of the creature’s ears off. Meanwhile, Tsine also realized things were going badly, and used a volley of magic missiles to drop the wounded dog and a fifth one. Tal began to fire at the last of the smaller dogs, but it wasn’t enough to finish the creature. The dog then leapt at Tal, biting him ferociously on the neck, while the shadowy dog bit Rudyard and then dragged him to the ground. Quercus aimed carefully at the distracted dog, and sliced into his back while Rudyard tried to crawl out of the monster’s claws. Tsine made the effort irrelevant, as another volley of magical orbs silenced the dog, and Tal attacked the last dog with his own sword. Though hardly an expert, his blade nonetheless pierced the creature’s heart. As one, the four remaining heroes dashed backwards, trying to find their three friends before they got horribly lost in the dark, or even worse, were discovered by another patrol. Fortunately, the fear of the dogs wore off in only a few moments, and the three stopped on their own volition, letting the party catch them quickly.
Still, the party had little hope of entering the city unnoticed by now, and they knew it. Realizing they had to get an idea of what was up ahead, they sent Flix out to scout. He still couldn’t see, of course, but as they neared the city, they saw some torch fires ahead, so they hoped that would be enough. Flix carefully began to work his way towards the city, unaware that as he did so, a shadowy figure had caught up to him going the other way, and began to trail him as he approached. Flix knew that things were already against him when he was approaching. So when he slipped and fell with a loud and audible clang, he realized it was time to through in the towel.
Fortunately, he was close enough at this point to at least see what was in the torchlight. There was a wooden wall blocking the cavern, and it looked recently built. It was guarded by more wolves, at least one drow on top of the wall, and more of the hyena monsters. However, it sounded like there was a whole army behind the wall. Even worse, he soon saw a drow woman riding a black horse through the sky above the wall. The horse was leaving flaming hoof prints in the air, which Flix just knew was a bad sign. And then, horribly, the dark, spotted-haired man also appeared on top of the wall! Flix couldn’t risk being here any longer, so he fled back to the party. And was being tailed as he did so, though he was unaware of it.
Tulivaron was having the time of his life. He listened with amusement as his quarry was actually briefly considering a frontal assault! Sadly, they came to their senses and began a hasty retreat. Despite their speed, Tulivaron was still able to follow them, and they still didn’t even know he was there! Finally, about halfway back to their camp, they paused for a rest. “You know,” the big stupid fighter with a sword said, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was watching us arrive.”
Tulivaron finally couldn’t contain himself any more. He let out an audible chuckled before catching himself and holding a hand over his mouth. Remarkably, the party responded instantly, looked around intently for a few moments, and then shrugged and continued on! He had to hold both hands over his mouth as he continued trailing the party until they finally reached their camp, and then returned to the city satisfied. It was a shame that he couldn’t have had the party wiped out before they could flee, but at least they were driven off with ease. Let that be a lesson to the traitorous drow who abandoned their principles a millennium ago, and all who serve them!
OOC Notes: No, that really wasn’t embellished. Well, much. I really did try to warn them about the need to treat this as a stealth-based mission, and was amazed that they didn’t use any of their new equipment to that effect. That being said, they really missed a lot of rolls near the end there. Flix’s player rolled a one on his move silently check to reach the wall, and no one was ever coming close to figuring out they were being followed. Well, they had an idea when he laughed at them, but they still couldn’t find them.
Fortunately for them, they did much better the next time through. I was afraid it would take a couple more sessions just for them to get through the front gate for a while!
LordVyreth
First Post
Time to get serious
After returning back to the camp, the party felt defeated, at least at first. However, they knew that they still had a job to do, and quickly began planning for a more intelligent way to sneak in. After a few hours of research (a passing soldier at one point overheard Tsine yell, “Wow, I never knew darkvision lasted that long!” at the tops of his lungs,) the party gave Tal a shopping list of supplies they needed, and he used his natural charm and investigative skills to scrounge up what they needed at the military camp. The next morning, the party began their second attempt.
The main difference this time was that Flix took over scouting duties, after downing a potion of darkvision. Rudyard drank a second, and used it to lead the party through the tunnels without a light. It was terrifying for the rest of the party, who had to stumble through an enemy-infested cavern without even knowing where the walls and hazards on the ground were, but it appeared that it paid off, since they reached the wall again without running across any more patrols.
As they neared the wall, it was time for step two of their plan. Tsine drank a third potion of darkvision, and quietly cast a spell, that shrouded the group in illusion. Meanwhile, Tal used a spell to alter his form, appearing as a dark elf. He put on the red robe they looted off of the dark elf rogue from the first patrol, and quietly led the invisible party to the gate. The gate guards were similar to the ones they saw earlier, and both of the leaders had mercifully left long ago. This left the drow on the wall, another by the gate, two wolves, and two hyenas. However, as the party neared the gate, the drow on the floor asked Tal a question as he raised the gate. Tal, sadly, didn’t speak the language, so he only stood there, uncomfortably. As the drow got suspicious, Tsine realized this ruse lasted as long as it would, and the party sprang into action!
Before any of them could go though, the rogue who realized something was up charged at Tal, catching the unfortunate bard/sorcerer by surprise. His blade pierced deep into his stomach, causing him to wince with pain. Dane screamed with rage and leapt out of the area of the illusion, slashing the rogue. The rest of the group saw this, and easily realized they had been duped. They saw through the false terrain Tsine created, and realized they were under attack by a strong enemy. Tal stumbled around, but gritted his teeth to stand the pain. He knew there was an enemy right in front of him and many around them, but he looked up and saw there was a warning bell by the drow on the wall. “Focus on him!” he croaked, and fired a volley of magical orbs at him. However, they vanished inches from the drow, leaving him unharmed. Rudyard noticed the problem as well, but he decided to let the experts of distant attacks handle it, and instead attacked the rogue. His blade sliced into the enemy easily, and the nimble but fragile dark elf went down. Tsine focused on the drow on the wall, and sent a bolt of lightning at him. The attack easily hit him, but while he staggered from the blow and was shaking spasmodically, he still moved. Quercus decided to let someone else finish him, and flew at the nearest wolf, cutting into it. Flix maneuvered behind the same wolf, and stabbed it in the heart, sending it crumbling to the floor. Raz realized it was up to him to finish the other drow, and since his bow as already how, he fired repeatedly at the wounded dark elf, skewering him and causing him to collapse.
With the element of surprise lost, the three remaining monsters prepared to strike. However, the party was already reacting. Dane and Rudyard double-teamed one hyena, and Tal fired at it with more magical orbs. The three of them easily dropped the monster, while Tsine hurled an arrow of acid at the second hyena and Quercus charged at the remaining wolf. He gave it a light slash across the shoulder, and while the wolf frantically tried to bite at its new opponent, it couldn’t get through Quercus’ armor. The hyena was a little luckier, as it leapt at Tsine, giving him a nasty bite wound on the arm. Tsine looked at it, panicked, and worried that this creature might be a lycanthrope. Flix helped Quercus on the last wolf, and Raz finished the hyena with his arrows. Dane easily gutted the remaining wolf as soon as he got the chance, and the party was free to enter the city without anyone apparently noticing.
The city was almost as dark as the tunnels leading to it, but at least a few fires gave the party members without magical aid some light to see by. At this point, Rudyard and Dane were also dressed in the red robes after taking them from the gate guards, but they knew any patrol would probably see though their disguise easily. Because of this, they continued without light, letting Flix and Rudyard take the lead again. Of course, they had no real idea where to go, so they decided to explore for a while. At one point, the party passed a large, three-story inn, which was heavily guarded, but decided against investigating, and raising an unnecessary alarm. However, when they saw the temple (dedicated to None, the goddess of strength, which is often pictured as a dwarf,) they decided it was time to take action. For one thing, they remembered that one of the leaders Lerissa mentioned was a high priestess. Even if the Lady of Blood was elsewhere, that priestess might be here, and she also might have information about where the other forces were in the city. Even better, maybe the magic item sealing this town from magical aid was here. If nothing else, the temple was likely desecrated, and restoring it was a noble act.
The party charged into the temple as one, preventing any enemies inside from quickly reacting. Four figures, all wearing yellow robes, were waiting in the central room. They looked surprised to see the party, but reacted quickly, and got into defensive positions. However, Tsine and Rudyard were faster, and Tsine sent a volley of magic at one of the robed figures. Rudyard charged at the same one, cleaning slicing off his head before he could even say a word. One of the three remaining figures attacked Tsine, surprisingly striking him with his bare hand! The attack proved far stronger than expected, though, and seemed to strike at a very sensitive part of Tsine’s back. He felt part of his body go numb, but was able to stagger around a bit, and the numbness wore off. Flix entered the room next, and he and Dane charged the monk that attacked Tsine, while Quercus flew at a third cloaked figure. The monk was wounded, but survived Flix and Dane’s attacks, while the robed figure attacked by Quercus managed to avoid the blow entirely. He responded by casting a spell, and then uttering a command at Quercus. “Die!” he yelled at him, but while Quercus felt some force of magic compelling him, he just laughed at the silly order. A volley of magic orbs by Tal helped soften the unlucky cleric up, and Raz finished the job, leaving only two robed figures.
Matkela heard a noise below her. There was fighting going on in her temple! Well, her temporary temple at any rate. She prepared a spell that gave her the might of a bear, and prepared to engage her foes. While she prepared, she called her pet to her side.
Back on the first floor, the last robed figure, which hadn’t entered the fight yet, attacked Quercus with his bare fists, but couldn’t even dent his armor. Tsine turned on the wounded monk that attacked him before, and helped Dane and Flix deal with him by sending a volley of magic missiles at the foe. He was still on his feet, or at least he was until Rudyard turned and finished the job with one stab. Flix and Dane were free to turn their attention on the last robed figure, which was still futilely trying to land a hand on Quercus. Dane gave him a quick cut to the leg, and while he was stumbling forward, Flix darted up behind him and buried his sword into his skull. However, just as they were recovering from the fight, an evil-looking leopard jumped down from the top of the stairs, landing on Flix. He screamed in terror, as the leopard started slashing him apart, all while biting him. Quercus quickly began attacking the creature, while Tal fired another magical volley, but neither dropped the creature. Raz was about to fire at the creature when he heard a noise upstairs, and decided to train his bow on the stairs instead of fire at the leopard and risk hitting his friends. Just then, a drow woman wearing heavy armor walked down the stairs. Raz fired his prepared shot, but it shot bounced off her armor. She responded with a spell. “I call upon the dark powers of Bas. Transform my enemy’s light into endless dark!” Suddenly, Quercus’ eyes turned pure white. He screamed in fear, yelling that he couldn’t see.
Tsine accessed the situation, and realized that the drow was a bigger threat. He fired another volley of magic at her, wounding her slightly. Rudyard focused instead on the leopard, swinging his sword with such force that it broke a bone in its leg. Flix, despite being stuck under the creature, was able to draw a dagger and stab it, but was shocked when the wound healed immediately. Meanwhile, the leopard continued its ferocious assault on him, and Flix’s screams suddenly and horrifyingly ceased. Dane roared in vengeance, tearing into the creature. It was bleeding profusely and stumbling about, but it was still up. Quercus tried to hit it, but missed completely. Finally, Tal finished the creature with his blade. With the first threat gone, Raz continued firing upon the drow cleric, hiding her with two arrows, but only slightly. She countered by casting a spell and touching Rudyard. For a moment, he felt like some sort of disease was entering his body, but he felt his immune system fight it off. Angry at the possible death of his friend, Tsine drew his bow and fired at the drow, but his attacks went wild. Rudyard was more successful, and cut into her side. She screamed in pain, but Dane ran up to her, sword aimed at her head, and ended her screams permanently. Well, so they thought…
OOC Notes: I’m not entirely certain that illusion spells could be used the way it was used here, but I didn’t want to waste time with a long debate about it, and it was a pretty clever idea. Besides, I didn’t want another entire game to be just about getting through the main gate.
The odd bit of foreshadowing at the end there won’t come into play again for a while. Just don’t forget about it.
Oh, and Lela, did you want any more detail for your puzzle, or is what I gave you enough for now?
After returning back to the camp, the party felt defeated, at least at first. However, they knew that they still had a job to do, and quickly began planning for a more intelligent way to sneak in. After a few hours of research (a passing soldier at one point overheard Tsine yell, “Wow, I never knew darkvision lasted that long!” at the tops of his lungs,) the party gave Tal a shopping list of supplies they needed, and he used his natural charm and investigative skills to scrounge up what they needed at the military camp. The next morning, the party began their second attempt.
The main difference this time was that Flix took over scouting duties, after downing a potion of darkvision. Rudyard drank a second, and used it to lead the party through the tunnels without a light. It was terrifying for the rest of the party, who had to stumble through an enemy-infested cavern without even knowing where the walls and hazards on the ground were, but it appeared that it paid off, since they reached the wall again without running across any more patrols.
As they neared the wall, it was time for step two of their plan. Tsine drank a third potion of darkvision, and quietly cast a spell, that shrouded the group in illusion. Meanwhile, Tal used a spell to alter his form, appearing as a dark elf. He put on the red robe they looted off of the dark elf rogue from the first patrol, and quietly led the invisible party to the gate. The gate guards were similar to the ones they saw earlier, and both of the leaders had mercifully left long ago. This left the drow on the wall, another by the gate, two wolves, and two hyenas. However, as the party neared the gate, the drow on the floor asked Tal a question as he raised the gate. Tal, sadly, didn’t speak the language, so he only stood there, uncomfortably. As the drow got suspicious, Tsine realized this ruse lasted as long as it would, and the party sprang into action!
Before any of them could go though, the rogue who realized something was up charged at Tal, catching the unfortunate bard/sorcerer by surprise. His blade pierced deep into his stomach, causing him to wince with pain. Dane screamed with rage and leapt out of the area of the illusion, slashing the rogue. The rest of the group saw this, and easily realized they had been duped. They saw through the false terrain Tsine created, and realized they were under attack by a strong enemy. Tal stumbled around, but gritted his teeth to stand the pain. He knew there was an enemy right in front of him and many around them, but he looked up and saw there was a warning bell by the drow on the wall. “Focus on him!” he croaked, and fired a volley of magical orbs at him. However, they vanished inches from the drow, leaving him unharmed. Rudyard noticed the problem as well, but he decided to let the experts of distant attacks handle it, and instead attacked the rogue. His blade sliced into the enemy easily, and the nimble but fragile dark elf went down. Tsine focused on the drow on the wall, and sent a bolt of lightning at him. The attack easily hit him, but while he staggered from the blow and was shaking spasmodically, he still moved. Quercus decided to let someone else finish him, and flew at the nearest wolf, cutting into it. Flix maneuvered behind the same wolf, and stabbed it in the heart, sending it crumbling to the floor. Raz realized it was up to him to finish the other drow, and since his bow as already how, he fired repeatedly at the wounded dark elf, skewering him and causing him to collapse.
With the element of surprise lost, the three remaining monsters prepared to strike. However, the party was already reacting. Dane and Rudyard double-teamed one hyena, and Tal fired at it with more magical orbs. The three of them easily dropped the monster, while Tsine hurled an arrow of acid at the second hyena and Quercus charged at the remaining wolf. He gave it a light slash across the shoulder, and while the wolf frantically tried to bite at its new opponent, it couldn’t get through Quercus’ armor. The hyena was a little luckier, as it leapt at Tsine, giving him a nasty bite wound on the arm. Tsine looked at it, panicked, and worried that this creature might be a lycanthrope. Flix helped Quercus on the last wolf, and Raz finished the hyena with his arrows. Dane easily gutted the remaining wolf as soon as he got the chance, and the party was free to enter the city without anyone apparently noticing.
The city was almost as dark as the tunnels leading to it, but at least a few fires gave the party members without magical aid some light to see by. At this point, Rudyard and Dane were also dressed in the red robes after taking them from the gate guards, but they knew any patrol would probably see though their disguise easily. Because of this, they continued without light, letting Flix and Rudyard take the lead again. Of course, they had no real idea where to go, so they decided to explore for a while. At one point, the party passed a large, three-story inn, which was heavily guarded, but decided against investigating, and raising an unnecessary alarm. However, when they saw the temple (dedicated to None, the goddess of strength, which is often pictured as a dwarf,) they decided it was time to take action. For one thing, they remembered that one of the leaders Lerissa mentioned was a high priestess. Even if the Lady of Blood was elsewhere, that priestess might be here, and she also might have information about where the other forces were in the city. Even better, maybe the magic item sealing this town from magical aid was here. If nothing else, the temple was likely desecrated, and restoring it was a noble act.
The party charged into the temple as one, preventing any enemies inside from quickly reacting. Four figures, all wearing yellow robes, were waiting in the central room. They looked surprised to see the party, but reacted quickly, and got into defensive positions. However, Tsine and Rudyard were faster, and Tsine sent a volley of magic at one of the robed figures. Rudyard charged at the same one, cleaning slicing off his head before he could even say a word. One of the three remaining figures attacked Tsine, surprisingly striking him with his bare hand! The attack proved far stronger than expected, though, and seemed to strike at a very sensitive part of Tsine’s back. He felt part of his body go numb, but was able to stagger around a bit, and the numbness wore off. Flix entered the room next, and he and Dane charged the monk that attacked Tsine, while Quercus flew at a third cloaked figure. The monk was wounded, but survived Flix and Dane’s attacks, while the robed figure attacked by Quercus managed to avoid the blow entirely. He responded by casting a spell, and then uttering a command at Quercus. “Die!” he yelled at him, but while Quercus felt some force of magic compelling him, he just laughed at the silly order. A volley of magic orbs by Tal helped soften the unlucky cleric up, and Raz finished the job, leaving only two robed figures.
Matkela heard a noise below her. There was fighting going on in her temple! Well, her temporary temple at any rate. She prepared a spell that gave her the might of a bear, and prepared to engage her foes. While she prepared, she called her pet to her side.
Back on the first floor, the last robed figure, which hadn’t entered the fight yet, attacked Quercus with his bare fists, but couldn’t even dent his armor. Tsine turned on the wounded monk that attacked him before, and helped Dane and Flix deal with him by sending a volley of magic missiles at the foe. He was still on his feet, or at least he was until Rudyard turned and finished the job with one stab. Flix and Dane were free to turn their attention on the last robed figure, which was still futilely trying to land a hand on Quercus. Dane gave him a quick cut to the leg, and while he was stumbling forward, Flix darted up behind him and buried his sword into his skull. However, just as they were recovering from the fight, an evil-looking leopard jumped down from the top of the stairs, landing on Flix. He screamed in terror, as the leopard started slashing him apart, all while biting him. Quercus quickly began attacking the creature, while Tal fired another magical volley, but neither dropped the creature. Raz was about to fire at the creature when he heard a noise upstairs, and decided to train his bow on the stairs instead of fire at the leopard and risk hitting his friends. Just then, a drow woman wearing heavy armor walked down the stairs. Raz fired his prepared shot, but it shot bounced off her armor. She responded with a spell. “I call upon the dark powers of Bas. Transform my enemy’s light into endless dark!” Suddenly, Quercus’ eyes turned pure white. He screamed in fear, yelling that he couldn’t see.
Tsine accessed the situation, and realized that the drow was a bigger threat. He fired another volley of magic at her, wounding her slightly. Rudyard focused instead on the leopard, swinging his sword with such force that it broke a bone in its leg. Flix, despite being stuck under the creature, was able to draw a dagger and stab it, but was shocked when the wound healed immediately. Meanwhile, the leopard continued its ferocious assault on him, and Flix’s screams suddenly and horrifyingly ceased. Dane roared in vengeance, tearing into the creature. It was bleeding profusely and stumbling about, but it was still up. Quercus tried to hit it, but missed completely. Finally, Tal finished the creature with his blade. With the first threat gone, Raz continued firing upon the drow cleric, hiding her with two arrows, but only slightly. She countered by casting a spell and touching Rudyard. For a moment, he felt like some sort of disease was entering his body, but he felt his immune system fight it off. Angry at the possible death of his friend, Tsine drew his bow and fired at the drow, but his attacks went wild. Rudyard was more successful, and cut into her side. She screamed in pain, but Dane ran up to her, sword aimed at her head, and ended her screams permanently. Well, so they thought…
OOC Notes: I’m not entirely certain that illusion spells could be used the way it was used here, but I didn’t want to waste time with a long debate about it, and it was a pretty clever idea. Besides, I didn’t want another entire game to be just about getting through the main gate.
The odd bit of foreshadowing at the end there won’t come into play again for a while. Just don’t forget about it.
Oh, and Lela, did you want any more detail for your puzzle, or is what I gave you enough for now?
LordVyreth
First Post
Interlude: Excerpts of the Goddesses Part 1
In order to better capture the nature of the world and the goddesses, I wrote up a bit of the holy texts of each of the eleven sisters and gavet hem to the party. The excerpts told the complete story of the origins of the universe by the goddesses, or at least as it was told by the church. Each excerpt captured the personality and nature of the goddess that the book was based on. The first one they got was of the book of Bha-Ael, the creator goddess that ruled the pantheon. I'll probably post others as I go, usually when I can't post a regular update that day.
The Creation of the Universe
(Excerpt from the Book of Bha-Ael)
And in these times, there was nothing but Bha-Ael
And Bha-Ael, in her all-encompassing wisdom, ordered the creation of the universe.
All the forces of the universe formed as by her wishes
And her will was done.
Then, Bha-Ael knew that the universe was useless unless it was inhabited
So that others may know of the works of Bha-Ael and be glad.
Bha-Ael again spoke to the forces of the universe, and ordered the creation of life.
Again, the forces complied with her will, and life was brought about.
However, Bha-Ael realized that living beings could no fully appreciate her works
For their minds were simple, and lacked advanced thought and emotion.
Bha-Ael, to better maintain the order of the universe, would not give them this herself.
And she knew that a link was needed between her and her people.
Bha-Ael, in her infinite mercy, chose to sacrifice of her own power.
In doing so, she would bring about others who could understand her people better.
These others would watch the people of the world, and bestow upon them gifts
And the first of the Sisters was born.
In order to better capture the nature of the world and the goddesses, I wrote up a bit of the holy texts of each of the eleven sisters and gavet hem to the party. The excerpts told the complete story of the origins of the universe by the goddesses, or at least as it was told by the church. Each excerpt captured the personality and nature of the goddess that the book was based on. The first one they got was of the book of Bha-Ael, the creator goddess that ruled the pantheon. I'll probably post others as I go, usually when I can't post a regular update that day.
The Creation of the Universe
(Excerpt from the Book of Bha-Ael)
And in these times, there was nothing but Bha-Ael
And Bha-Ael, in her all-encompassing wisdom, ordered the creation of the universe.
All the forces of the universe formed as by her wishes
And her will was done.
Then, Bha-Ael knew that the universe was useless unless it was inhabited
So that others may know of the works of Bha-Ael and be glad.
Bha-Ael again spoke to the forces of the universe, and ordered the creation of life.
Again, the forces complied with her will, and life was brought about.
However, Bha-Ael realized that living beings could no fully appreciate her works
For their minds were simple, and lacked advanced thought and emotion.
Bha-Ael, to better maintain the order of the universe, would not give them this herself.
And she knew that a link was needed between her and her people.
Bha-Ael, in her infinite mercy, chose to sacrifice of her own power.
In doing so, she would bring about others who could understand her people better.
These others would watch the people of the world, and bestow upon them gifts
And the first of the Sisters was born.
LordVyreth
First Post
Excerpt Number 2.
Expect an actual update some time tomorrow. It should be a big one, too. I'm already almost finished, but I noticed it wouldn't get done in time tonight, and I didn't want to end today with no updates at all. This is one of my favorite excerpts, actually. It feels very different from the first and pretty much all the other excerpts, and I was able to capture the personality of this goddess better than most. Anyway, this excerpt is from the book of Khrista, the goddess of pleasure, chance, luck, and such.
The First Sisters
(Exerpt from the Book of Khrista, family edition. The uncensored version has been reviewed to be unsuitable for under the age of 17 or the demihumans equivalent.)
Okay, so I was the first of the new Sisters, so I knew there was a buttload of work to get done before life would even be livable. It was a freaking mess, let me tell you. So, I took a few millennia, got to know the locals, worked my way into their tiny brains, that kind of stuff. Eventually, I realized the main problem. Everyone was completely, freaking boring! They never had any fun at all! They didn’t even know what the Goshdarn word meant, and they wouldn’t know a good time if it was stuck up their posterior. I decided the most important thing to add would be fun, pleasure, that stuff. I started with the most obvious place, procreating. I mean, since they had the average life span of a mayfly, they had to be procreating all the procreatin’ time, anyway, so why not make it fun? Then I gave them games, and other things to do in the rare moment when they weren’t eating each other or dying of exposure.
Then, that procreating female dog Ordhari came into existence, and spoiled my fun. “Oh, there must be order,” she said. Never mind that they were procreating happy now, of course. She just reworked the entire universe so that every single thing made perfect logical sense to her weird mutant brain, and insisted that this would eventually make everyone happier. I was just about to kick her posterior so bad that her mouth would get athlete’s foot, but Bha-Ael stopped me. I was glad when Lore came into being, created magic, and spoiled all of that female dog’s fun. She created a system that was based solely on the idea that it can’t be explained, which Number Oned Ordhari off. And, as you might have expected, an epic war broke out between the followers of both of them, resulting in millions of deaths on both sides. Yeah, they’re a lot happier now, you stupid procreating female procreation organs.
Expect an actual update some time tomorrow. It should be a big one, too. I'm already almost finished, but I noticed it wouldn't get done in time tonight, and I didn't want to end today with no updates at all. This is one of my favorite excerpts, actually. It feels very different from the first and pretty much all the other excerpts, and I was able to capture the personality of this goddess better than most. Anyway, this excerpt is from the book of Khrista, the goddess of pleasure, chance, luck, and such.
The First Sisters
(Exerpt from the Book of Khrista, family edition. The uncensored version has been reviewed to be unsuitable for under the age of 17 or the demihumans equivalent.)
Okay, so I was the first of the new Sisters, so I knew there was a buttload of work to get done before life would even be livable. It was a freaking mess, let me tell you. So, I took a few millennia, got to know the locals, worked my way into their tiny brains, that kind of stuff. Eventually, I realized the main problem. Everyone was completely, freaking boring! They never had any fun at all! They didn’t even know what the Goshdarn word meant, and they wouldn’t know a good time if it was stuck up their posterior. I decided the most important thing to add would be fun, pleasure, that stuff. I started with the most obvious place, procreating. I mean, since they had the average life span of a mayfly, they had to be procreating all the procreatin’ time, anyway, so why not make it fun? Then I gave them games, and other things to do in the rare moment when they weren’t eating each other or dying of exposure.
Then, that procreating female dog Ordhari came into existence, and spoiled my fun. “Oh, there must be order,” she said. Never mind that they were procreating happy now, of course. She just reworked the entire universe so that every single thing made perfect logical sense to her weird mutant brain, and insisted that this would eventually make everyone happier. I was just about to kick her posterior so bad that her mouth would get athlete’s foot, but Bha-Ael stopped me. I was glad when Lore came into being, created magic, and spoiled all of that female dog’s fun. She created a system that was based solely on the idea that it can’t be explained, which Number Oned Ordhari off. And, as you might have expected, an epic war broke out between the followers of both of them, resulting in millions of deaths on both sides. Yeah, they’re a lot happier now, you stupid procreating female procreation organs.
LordVyreth
First Post
Battle Royale
After searching the body of the high priestess, the party spent some time exploring the temple. The main altar of the temple has been stained with blood, and all the holy relics and statues of None have been destroyed or replaced with statues of Bas. However, any further information couldn’t be found. Quercus did what he could to clean up the place, and then said a silent prayer to those killed by the cultists, but they had to move on quickly before they were discovered.
Since the temple was on the west side of town, the party turned east in search of anything new. They eventually found a huge metal fence, which was clearly created very recently. However, as they watched it, they saw a patrol of three drow in armor, a yellow-robed figure, and two leopards pass by the fence. Clearly they were guarding whatever was behind the fence, so the party retreated, and conversed in silence about their plan.
“We have to get in there!” Quercus insisted. “They might be hiding the magic item there, or established a base of operations.”
“But how do we get in unseen?” Rudyard asked.
Tsine looked excited. “I have an idea. I’ve been studying a new spell that should come in handy here. It lets multiple people turn invisible at one time.”
The party soon worked out a plan. Quercus drank one of their few remaining potions of darkvision, and then Tsine made the whole group of them vanish. They carefully neared the gate, and then got up right next to it as soon as the patrol passed. Quercus then worked quickly, carrying each of his friends over the wall as quickly as he could. The only exception was Flix, who insisted on climbing it himself, and since this gave everyone else more time to work, they readily agreed. Soon, all of them were over the wall, and they quickly dashed to find a hiding spot. There were a number of houses on this side as well, so they all ducked behind one before the patrol passed by again. After a bit of exploring, they discovered a house that wasn’t abandoned. Carefully, they crept inside, ready for battle, when they discovered they were surrounded by – dwarves. Beardless dwarves, but dwarves.
Before the party could respond, one of them spoke. “Who are you? What do you want with us?”
Tal took over the party’s end of the conversation. As he did, he noticed that all the dwarves looked badly injured and hungry, as if they’ve barely eaten for days. “Are you the inhabitants of this town? We are from Methosilang, sent to rescue you and fight back the enemy.”
The dwarf that spoke the first time responded. “We are, or what’s left of us. Most of our number has already been taken by the drow or those yellow-robed fiends.”
“Can you tell us more about what has happened here?”
The dwarf gave Tal a suspicious look. “Well, mebbe we can, and mebbe we can’t. How do we know that this isn’t another trick?”
In response, Tal began a song. It was “The Strength of the Mighty Ones,” a popular dwarf song often song in None ceremonies. It soon had the desired effect; these beaten people were soon regaining their pride, and learning to trust him.
The first dwarf, who obviously was a leader of this group, began speaking again. “Ah, you are with Methosilang. None of these monsters would know the songs of our kind. Even the yellow-robed ones are all of the tall races; there’s not a dwarf among them.”
The leader gave his name as Gurand, and he was once part of this town’s cabinet. According to him, the assault was focused primarily on the town’s capital building, which is built into the southeastern wall of the town’s main cavern. According to him, the two leaders of the invaders were staying there, and it was where the big flying bat monster slept. It was also were all the “special” prisoners were taken.
“Special?” Quercus asked with dread.
“Yes, our leaders, our elders, are priests, and anyone with the courage to resist them. They take some of us daily to be sacrificed at our own temple, but the demon Lady handles the special cases in the capital building.”
“Can you tell us about these leaders?” Tal asked.
“Well, the demonic Lady is a winged drow that rights a nightmarish horse. She’s crazy. She kills with impunity, but always is always ranting about something. She always is yelling that her archrival is looking for her. Some sort of holy elf or something, from how she describes it. I only wish that one was here to help us. The other guy is dressed really simply. He has black hair with yellow spots in it. He’s actually really polite, at least when speaking. But he’s hiding something. The way he looks at people, it’s like he’s sizing them up for a meal. I think he’s staying at the top floor of the capital building, up on the seventh floor.”
This gave Tsine a shock. “Seventh floor? There’s a seven-story capital building in a town this small?”
Gurand gave Tsine the proudest look he could, considering the circumstances. “Well, we are dwarves after all.”
The party was watching the first floor of the capital building. It was suspiciously sparsely guarded. There were two drow archers watching the area from balconies, a huge leopard in front of the gate and a strange six-legged puma with tentacles growing on his back next to the leopard, but the door itself is open. The party decided to try and sneak in, but they needed a plan how. They had rested inside the slave pens that night, to replenish their magic and heal their wounds.
Tsine had a few suggestions. “I could use the invisibility field again to sneak us in, but I don’t trust that leopard. He could smell us out.”
Tal had a funny look on his face. “I have an idea. What about an illusion to lure it and that puma-thing away?”
No one objected, so a few minutes later, an illusionary pig was sauntering down the street. The Displacer beast gazed at it hungrily, but reason overcame desire, and he remained by the door. The leopard, on the other hand, immediately got up and began to follow the pig down the street. Realizing this was their best chance, the group tried to sneak in through the gap, but when they got within sixty feet, the two drow suddenly looked alert, and began firing near them! The shots didn’t hit near them, but they were clearly discovered. “How did they find us?” Quercus frantically whispered.
He got his answer moments later, as a horrible humanoid monster with a scorpion tail appeared in the doorway, and lunged at Dane. It was identical to the type of monster they fought back at the Bas temple they discovered way back at the beginning of their travels, though of course this one wasn’t injured. With the element of surprise spoiled, the party began one very, very long fight to the top of the building.
Round one. The bone devil, displacer beast, and even the dire leopard (who had returned after Tsine cancelled illusion) surrounded the party, and the two drow began firing at them from above. The bone devil was able to give Dane a light injury with his tail spike at the beginning, but while a strength-sapping poison was injected into him with the attack, he was able to fight off the effects. The party’s vengeance was fast and ferocious. Quercus gave the devil a pair of deadly attacks, and wile the leopard was still returning, Raz and Rudyard killed one of the drow in the balconies, while Tal struck at the displacer beast with another volley of magic. The surviving drow fired at Dane, but couldn’t get past his heavy armor, and while the devil managed to bite Dane one last time, he responded by cutting the monster’s head off, while Tsine finished the second drow off with a volley of magic. The displacer beast pummeled Flix, but he responded with a direct but ferocious assault that cut into the monster’s neck, and Quercus finished the creature off. The leopard finally returned, but only had a chance to swat at Rudyard once before Tal, Rudyard, and Raz finished it. Eager to push their advantage, the seven heroes ran into the tower to prevent their enemy from mobilizing.
First floor. Seven robed figures were waiting for them. But the party had no interest in a length battle. A volley of arrows by Tsine, Raz, and Rudyard, and more of Tal’s magic orbs, took out most of them before they could even respond. Of the four survivors, two of them that were close to the stairs up turned and fled, leaving only the two closest figures from the door. Quercus and Dane easily dealt with one of them, who was unarmed like the ones they encountered back in the temple, while Flix wounded the last. He gave one pathetic attempt to return fire, before being shot by Tsine. Raz and Rudyard gave the room a cursory once-over, finding stairs down to the basement among other things. “Guys, before we finish this place up, maybe we should explore the basement? It’s possible they’re hiding something there.” Raz suggested, but it fell on deaf ears.
Second floor. Sixteen enemy troopers were here: fourteen yellow-robed warrior types, and two drow. Tsine got up the stairs first, and decided it wasn’t even worth bothering with these foes. He tried out another one of his new spells, the infamous fireball. Fifteen of the enemy forces were reduced to ash instantly, leaving only one “lucky” drow whose inherent anti-magic defenses blocked the effect. Of course, his luck lasted as long as it took for Raz to climb the stairs, and fire a single arrow through his neck.
Third floor. Because there was no sign of the two enemies that fled from the first floor, the party realized that their enemy would be prepared for them now, having been warned by those two. As a result, they didn’t climb the stairs until all of them were prepared. At first, it appeared that there was nothing but a quartet of evil-looking leopards on this floor, but as soon as the party climbed the stairs to engage them, they were suddenly caught in a web, as four magic missiles fired at Flix and Raz, the current point men of the party. Three yellow-robed figures materialized, and they looked like wizards based on their possessions. Flix was the only one of those high enough up the stairs to be caught in the web to escape them, but that only made him a target of two of the leopards, while the others prepared to attack once the webs were cleared. No one was willing to put up with being used for target practice by some neophyte wizards, so Tal used magic to set the webs alight, giving Raz and the other leading party members some nasty burns and subjected Raz to the attacks by the remaining leopards, but giving the party room to maneuver. Dane and Rudyard ran up the stairs to give Flix help with the two leopards on him, while Tsine pelted the wizards with magic orbs, killing one and wounding another. Quercus flew at them, killing the remaining undamaged one. The surviving wizard carefully cast a spell, and then pointed a finger at Quercus and ordered him to laugh, but the only laugh Quercus gave was one of smug power. Meanwhile, the two leopards formerly on Flix ceased mauling him to turn their attentions on the new attackers. This proved to be a mistake, as one was immediately stabbed in the back by an angry Flix, and the other was killed by Dane. Rudyard switched to a bow to help attack the leopards on Raz, and Raz had drawn his axe to engage them in melee, for once. Tal and Tsine helped them, so the leopards were easily dispatched, while Quercus slew the last wizard. He and Tal took a few moments to heal themselves, and continued their march.
Fourth floor. This floor was obviously set up to be a shrine to None, but like the town’s main temple, it was desecrated and contained a stained sacrificial altar. Only one yellow-robed cleric was here, but another one of the hyena monsters was also waiting for them. In addition, as the party moved to engage their enemies, a thick cloud of smoke from a sputtering candle in the center of the room suddenly took the form of a hideous monster, and joined in the battle. While the enemy was expecting them, they were clearly shocked to see them so soon, so the entire party (except for the slightly slow-witted Dane,) got up the stairs and ready to attack before they could even get into a fighting position. Tal fired a volley of magic at the cleric, and Flix and Raz surrounded him. The cleric was obviously casting preparation magic for a while; his body was indistinct and blurry, and he had a floating, magical version of his weapon (a scimitar,) waiting next to him. He nonetheless took a few nasty cuts from their two attacks, and a fearsome cut to the chest from Rudyard. Meanwhile, Quercus flew at the hyena monster, and Rudyard joined him. Tsine fired another series of magic missiles at it as they began their attack, but even the might of the two warriors combined wasn’t enough to make the monster drop. It bit Rudyard right in the chest, and the ranger panicked, again afraid of being transformed into one of these monsters. Meanwhile, the smoke monster tried to enter Rudyard’s mouth, but he was able to cough the creature out, where he then set up on by Dane. The cleric tried to attack Raz with his floating sword while casting a spell himself, but while the scimitar did manage to connect slightly, the spell, which would have frozen Raz in place, failed utterly. Tal struck him with another magic missile, and Flix easily finished the unfortunate cleric, while Quercus avenged the attack on his friend by destroying the hyena creature. This left only the smoke creature, which the party easily sliced to smoky ribbons.
Fifth floor. Before entering this floor, the party had to deal with a door that was recently constructed between this floor and the last. It probably could have been broken down, but that could have taken forever, so Flix moved up to pick the lock. Unfortunately, he was too reckless, for he forgot to check for traps first. He was then surprised when a poison needle flew out of the lock, striking him in the face. He staggered around, as he felt the needle’s poison dampen his senses and numb his reflexes, making him clumsier than normal. However, he was able to unlock the door the next chance he got. The fifth floor was largely wrecked, and turned into the next for a giant monster. “This is likely that flying bat-elf monster’s lair,” Tsine surmised. The party gave the area a quick look, but it appeared that the creature was currently out on patrol in the city itself. They hurried to the next floor before it could be called to help its masters.
Sixth floor. The party noticed that the walls for this floor look new, as if they were just moved around to create a new path. This new path was forcing the party into a side room, and then into a corridor. In this corridor, there appeared to be three foes waiting for them: the spiky humanoid that the dark-haired spotted man traveled with, the spotted man himself, and the Lady of Blood! Tal noticed that there was something “odd” about the two leaders, as if they weren’t real, but the others bought into it without any problem. Raz fired at the spotted man, but it looked to him like he got out of the way, and Tsine used up his final powerful spell, a bolt of lightning, to strike the spined monster and the Lady of Blood. The lightning hit the barbed devil right in the chest, hurting it quite a bit, but it seemed to go right through the Lady. Instead, a strange, high-pitched cry suddenly sounded, and it looked like a tiny monster was disintegrated near the ceiling. Tal surmised that there were invisible monsters hiding near the ceiling and creating the illusions, but one was accidentally caught in the bolt’s effect. The others didn’t draw the conclusion, but with the exception of Raz and Dane, the others were able to guess that this wasn’t really the Lady of Blood and spotted-hair man after seeing this. Rudyard charged at the bared monster, giving it another wound, while Dane rather foolishly attacked the spotted-hair main. The surviving Imp realized the trick was mostly ruined, so he canceled the illusion (to Raz’s continuing surprise) and caught Dane in the chest with his stinger. It wounded Dane slightly, but his powerful body barely noticed the venom in the wound. Quercus and Flix surrounded the barbed devil, and sliced him apart, and the surviving Imp easily fell to some of Tal’s magic orbs. The party went down the corridor to enter the main chamber of the floor.
The central chamber’s most notable feature was a pedestal in the middle of the room, with a large black gem placed on top of it. It was filled with a sickening-looking ichor. Tsine looked at it for a moment, and suddenly shouted, “That has to be the magic item! If we destroy it, we should be able to call the reinforcements!”
However, the gem wasn’t the only thing in this room. A woman was chained to the gem. When the party arrived, she was kneeling on the floor, with a mask on her face. Even without seeing her face, party could tell there was a sense of sadness and loss about her just by looking at her. There also were two dark alcoves in the walls, which were blocked by metal grating, and a door to the south. As the party entered the room carefully, a voice boomed at them from above. A voice that Quercus and Tal recognized. “Ah, finally, my bag-boys have arrived,” the voiced taunted them. “I really have to thank you for what you did there. You see, while that was my temple, I wasn’t the one who selected its leader. I needed a way to test her, and unfortunately she failed. Didn’t you, Kessine?” The figure on the floor looked up at this. “But I believe in giving everyone a second chance to be useful to me. Now, Kessine, the people before you are the ones who helped destroy your temple, and caused you to get…punished by me. Now, how does that make you feel? What do you want to do to them?”
The woman stood up, and ripped off her mask. Quercus, Tal, Flix, Tsine, Raz, and Rudyard instantly recognized her as the high priestess that led the temple they rescued Lerissa from. And her face was twisted into a form of pure rage, as her body began to change. At the same time, the two gratings in the walls open up, revealing two pairs of dark, angry, and large eyes.
Fortunately, the party was getting into position as the spotted man was concluding his speech. Tal and Raz closed in on Kessine. Tal tried using a new spell he just discovered, which sent a blade of frigid ice at his target. It struck Kessine right in the chest, leaving multiple cuts while numbing her whole body with the cold. Raz charged up to attack her, relying again on his axe due to the tight quarters of the room. He got one quick hit, and then a second as she finished changing into a werewolf. Meanwhile, Tsine fired a volley at the creature behind the nearest grating, and Rudyard prepared to engage the monster in melee while Dane moved in to keep the second one at bay. As they moved in, however, the two monsters, a pair of huge, demonic leopards, leapt out, knocking both Rudyard and Dane to their floor as they started ripping them apart. Quercus moved to help Dane, while Flix tumbled in behind Kessine, and dug a short sword into one of her kidneys. Tal was running low on magic at this point, so he moved in to help Raz, and the two of them gave her another few nicks. However, despite her many wounds and the blood that was now clotting her fur, she was still standing. It looked like she was receiving magical aid in addition to the strength her now-bestial form granted her. She slashed at Tal with her scimitar, while biting him ferociously on the neck. The bite was a deep one, and she suddenly shifted her weight to make Tal lose his balance. He fell to the floor, while Kessine maintained her bite on top of him. Tsine realized what a threat she was becoming, so he split his next magic missile volley between her and the leopard that was on Rudyard. Rudyard and Dane both struggled to get out from under their attackers, but only Dane was successful. He and Quercus surrounded it and began to attack it, but not before the leopard could get bite another chunk of flesh off of Dane. Meanwhile, Rudyard was still getting ripped apart under his leopard. A pool of blood was expanding out from under him, and his breathing was getting weaker. Tal wasn’t looking too good, either, but Flix saved the day by leaping onto the wolf-woman’s back. She struggled to throw him off, but he held on tight, and with one swift motion, slashed her throat. She gave one last gurgled scream, and then fell to the floor, barely alive.
Tal nodded his thanks, and then he and Raz moved to help Rudyard. Both swung at his leopard’s neck simultaneously, and in one swift motion, decapitated the creature. Tsine, almost out of magic, drew his sword and helped Dane and Quercus finish the second leopard, and then while Quercus and Tal healed the wounded, the party contemplated the gem.
“So, how do we destroy it?” Flix asked.
“Let me examine it for a moment,” Tsine began. “I’m sure there’s some way to reverse the item’s arcane properties.”
“Or,” Dane suggested, after finishing Kessine with one final stab, “We could just hit a lot.” The party agreed to this plan, and soon the gem was shattered, and the black ichors that floated inside it dissolved into a sickening smoke.
After using the scroll that Lerissa gave him to call the reinforcements, the group was ready to climb the final staircase and put an end to the spotted man once and for all.
Seventh floor. Unfortunately, he had apparently already left. The room was full of luxurious furniture, but except for the corpses of the two guards who ran back on the first floor, the room was empty. However, there was a door leading outside to the balcony, and it looked unlocked. After giving the two corpses a quick examination (it looked like their throats were bitten out,) the party threw open the doors to see if the spotted man was still there. He was absent, but they were not totally without an opponent, for floating in front of them was the Lady of Blood and her steed. She looked at them with a barely controlled rage. “You ruined everything!” she yelled. “I will personally see you all dead!”
Before the party could respond, she concentrated, and a thick black cloud of sickening, evil smoke surrounded them. The smoke however, had little effect on Tal and Flix, who were unconcerned with the evil nature of the cloud. The others didn’t handle it so well, though mercifully Raz and Tsine were out of its range. Tal and Dane ran to the front of the party, and fired at the woman, but only Dane’s arrow hit. All the others drew bows and began to fire at her, except for Tsine, who managed to hit her with a magical missile, and Quercus, who flew straight at her, intent on bringing the demonic villainess down with his own blade. She looked at him, and her eyes widened. “You!” she screamed. “You are related to HER, aren’t you? I can tell just by looking at you!” She pulled out her scimitar, and plunged it into Quercus’ shoulder, just as he cut her with his sword.
Just then, the spotted man rode up on what looked like a griffon. He shouted at the Lady of Blood over the sounds of battle below. “Kulstra! Stop this fight for now! The town is lost! Whether or not you kill these whelps, we’d be destroyed as well in the battle!” He then turned his griffon around and fled down a side passage.”
Kulstra looked at Quercus, with hate in her eyes. “Very well, but tell your sister that I will be coming for both of you,” she hissed at him, as she turned her own mount away. But Quercus wasn’t done yet. As she fled, he chased after her, oblivious to the melee around them. However, while he got another few hits in, she was able to surround herself with too many reinforcements, and Quercus couldn’t cut through them all in time. Before he could focus again on the Lady of Blood, she was lost in the smoke and darkness. Quercus cursed his luck, but swore under his breath that he would be the one to destroy her and give her sister a chance at peace.
And, at last, it was over. The reinforcements swept over the surviving enemy forces, taking prisoners as needed and putting the others to the sword. But it was hardly a total victory. Most of the town’s residents were killed or taken into slavery already. The two main leaders of the enemy got away. No evidence of Bas herself has been discovered, though the reinforcements later investigated the basement, and discovered a strange, eye-less lizard had destroyed hundreds of books (Raz would later remark smugly to the party that he told them so.) However, nothing of the books was salvageable. And while the magic item that blocked the town from magical aid was destroyed, the party has no idea how it was made in the first place, though Lerissa would theorize that if Bas truly is one of the goddesses, it’s possible that she could use part of her essence to provide areas with protection, just like the Eleven Sisters block the main cities of Methosilang from invasion by the orc and undead empires. At the very least, the invading force was destroyed, but even it seemed less like an invading force, and more like a test run, to determine the defenses of Methosilang for a real invasion. Lerissa warns, and the party members know in their hearts, that the real danger is just beginning…
OOC Notes: Yes, this was all one game. We ended up gaming until 2 in the morning to finish this one! Which was awkward, as one of the players brought his eleven-year-old stepson to try the game out this time. Surprisingly, he was allowed to play in future games, and didn’t even mind staying up late. Yep, he’s one of ours! He played Raz this time, since his player had essentially left the group by now.
Expect big changes in the next few games. Like I just hinted, we’re losing some characters, but adding two new players, including the above-mentioned stepson. And the party’s level takes a huge leap the next game, so the challenges will get tougher as well. I hope everyone enjoyed the first part of my campaign, and expect the next part as soon as tomorrow, with any luck.
After searching the body of the high priestess, the party spent some time exploring the temple. The main altar of the temple has been stained with blood, and all the holy relics and statues of None have been destroyed or replaced with statues of Bas. However, any further information couldn’t be found. Quercus did what he could to clean up the place, and then said a silent prayer to those killed by the cultists, but they had to move on quickly before they were discovered.
Since the temple was on the west side of town, the party turned east in search of anything new. They eventually found a huge metal fence, which was clearly created very recently. However, as they watched it, they saw a patrol of three drow in armor, a yellow-robed figure, and two leopards pass by the fence. Clearly they were guarding whatever was behind the fence, so the party retreated, and conversed in silence about their plan.
“We have to get in there!” Quercus insisted. “They might be hiding the magic item there, or established a base of operations.”
“But how do we get in unseen?” Rudyard asked.
Tsine looked excited. “I have an idea. I’ve been studying a new spell that should come in handy here. It lets multiple people turn invisible at one time.”
The party soon worked out a plan. Quercus drank one of their few remaining potions of darkvision, and then Tsine made the whole group of them vanish. They carefully neared the gate, and then got up right next to it as soon as the patrol passed. Quercus then worked quickly, carrying each of his friends over the wall as quickly as he could. The only exception was Flix, who insisted on climbing it himself, and since this gave everyone else more time to work, they readily agreed. Soon, all of them were over the wall, and they quickly dashed to find a hiding spot. There were a number of houses on this side as well, so they all ducked behind one before the patrol passed by again. After a bit of exploring, they discovered a house that wasn’t abandoned. Carefully, they crept inside, ready for battle, when they discovered they were surrounded by – dwarves. Beardless dwarves, but dwarves.
Before the party could respond, one of them spoke. “Who are you? What do you want with us?”
Tal took over the party’s end of the conversation. As he did, he noticed that all the dwarves looked badly injured and hungry, as if they’ve barely eaten for days. “Are you the inhabitants of this town? We are from Methosilang, sent to rescue you and fight back the enemy.”
The dwarf that spoke the first time responded. “We are, or what’s left of us. Most of our number has already been taken by the drow or those yellow-robed fiends.”
“Can you tell us more about what has happened here?”
The dwarf gave Tal a suspicious look. “Well, mebbe we can, and mebbe we can’t. How do we know that this isn’t another trick?”
In response, Tal began a song. It was “The Strength of the Mighty Ones,” a popular dwarf song often song in None ceremonies. It soon had the desired effect; these beaten people were soon regaining their pride, and learning to trust him.
The first dwarf, who obviously was a leader of this group, began speaking again. “Ah, you are with Methosilang. None of these monsters would know the songs of our kind. Even the yellow-robed ones are all of the tall races; there’s not a dwarf among them.”
The leader gave his name as Gurand, and he was once part of this town’s cabinet. According to him, the assault was focused primarily on the town’s capital building, which is built into the southeastern wall of the town’s main cavern. According to him, the two leaders of the invaders were staying there, and it was where the big flying bat monster slept. It was also were all the “special” prisoners were taken.
“Special?” Quercus asked with dread.
“Yes, our leaders, our elders, are priests, and anyone with the courage to resist them. They take some of us daily to be sacrificed at our own temple, but the demon Lady handles the special cases in the capital building.”
“Can you tell us about these leaders?” Tal asked.
“Well, the demonic Lady is a winged drow that rights a nightmarish horse. She’s crazy. She kills with impunity, but always is always ranting about something. She always is yelling that her archrival is looking for her. Some sort of holy elf or something, from how she describes it. I only wish that one was here to help us. The other guy is dressed really simply. He has black hair with yellow spots in it. He’s actually really polite, at least when speaking. But he’s hiding something. The way he looks at people, it’s like he’s sizing them up for a meal. I think he’s staying at the top floor of the capital building, up on the seventh floor.”
This gave Tsine a shock. “Seventh floor? There’s a seven-story capital building in a town this small?”
Gurand gave Tsine the proudest look he could, considering the circumstances. “Well, we are dwarves after all.”
The party was watching the first floor of the capital building. It was suspiciously sparsely guarded. There were two drow archers watching the area from balconies, a huge leopard in front of the gate and a strange six-legged puma with tentacles growing on his back next to the leopard, but the door itself is open. The party decided to try and sneak in, but they needed a plan how. They had rested inside the slave pens that night, to replenish their magic and heal their wounds.
Tsine had a few suggestions. “I could use the invisibility field again to sneak us in, but I don’t trust that leopard. He could smell us out.”
Tal had a funny look on his face. “I have an idea. What about an illusion to lure it and that puma-thing away?”
No one objected, so a few minutes later, an illusionary pig was sauntering down the street. The Displacer beast gazed at it hungrily, but reason overcame desire, and he remained by the door. The leopard, on the other hand, immediately got up and began to follow the pig down the street. Realizing this was their best chance, the group tried to sneak in through the gap, but when they got within sixty feet, the two drow suddenly looked alert, and began firing near them! The shots didn’t hit near them, but they were clearly discovered. “How did they find us?” Quercus frantically whispered.
He got his answer moments later, as a horrible humanoid monster with a scorpion tail appeared in the doorway, and lunged at Dane. It was identical to the type of monster they fought back at the Bas temple they discovered way back at the beginning of their travels, though of course this one wasn’t injured. With the element of surprise spoiled, the party began one very, very long fight to the top of the building.
Round one. The bone devil, displacer beast, and even the dire leopard (who had returned after Tsine cancelled illusion) surrounded the party, and the two drow began firing at them from above. The bone devil was able to give Dane a light injury with his tail spike at the beginning, but while a strength-sapping poison was injected into him with the attack, he was able to fight off the effects. The party’s vengeance was fast and ferocious. Quercus gave the devil a pair of deadly attacks, and wile the leopard was still returning, Raz and Rudyard killed one of the drow in the balconies, while Tal struck at the displacer beast with another volley of magic. The surviving drow fired at Dane, but couldn’t get past his heavy armor, and while the devil managed to bite Dane one last time, he responded by cutting the monster’s head off, while Tsine finished the second drow off with a volley of magic. The displacer beast pummeled Flix, but he responded with a direct but ferocious assault that cut into the monster’s neck, and Quercus finished the creature off. The leopard finally returned, but only had a chance to swat at Rudyard once before Tal, Rudyard, and Raz finished it. Eager to push their advantage, the seven heroes ran into the tower to prevent their enemy from mobilizing.
First floor. Seven robed figures were waiting for them. But the party had no interest in a length battle. A volley of arrows by Tsine, Raz, and Rudyard, and more of Tal’s magic orbs, took out most of them before they could even respond. Of the four survivors, two of them that were close to the stairs up turned and fled, leaving only the two closest figures from the door. Quercus and Dane easily dealt with one of them, who was unarmed like the ones they encountered back in the temple, while Flix wounded the last. He gave one pathetic attempt to return fire, before being shot by Tsine. Raz and Rudyard gave the room a cursory once-over, finding stairs down to the basement among other things. “Guys, before we finish this place up, maybe we should explore the basement? It’s possible they’re hiding something there.” Raz suggested, but it fell on deaf ears.
Second floor. Sixteen enemy troopers were here: fourteen yellow-robed warrior types, and two drow. Tsine got up the stairs first, and decided it wasn’t even worth bothering with these foes. He tried out another one of his new spells, the infamous fireball. Fifteen of the enemy forces were reduced to ash instantly, leaving only one “lucky” drow whose inherent anti-magic defenses blocked the effect. Of course, his luck lasted as long as it took for Raz to climb the stairs, and fire a single arrow through his neck.
Third floor. Because there was no sign of the two enemies that fled from the first floor, the party realized that their enemy would be prepared for them now, having been warned by those two. As a result, they didn’t climb the stairs until all of them were prepared. At first, it appeared that there was nothing but a quartet of evil-looking leopards on this floor, but as soon as the party climbed the stairs to engage them, they were suddenly caught in a web, as four magic missiles fired at Flix and Raz, the current point men of the party. Three yellow-robed figures materialized, and they looked like wizards based on their possessions. Flix was the only one of those high enough up the stairs to be caught in the web to escape them, but that only made him a target of two of the leopards, while the others prepared to attack once the webs were cleared. No one was willing to put up with being used for target practice by some neophyte wizards, so Tal used magic to set the webs alight, giving Raz and the other leading party members some nasty burns and subjected Raz to the attacks by the remaining leopards, but giving the party room to maneuver. Dane and Rudyard ran up the stairs to give Flix help with the two leopards on him, while Tsine pelted the wizards with magic orbs, killing one and wounding another. Quercus flew at them, killing the remaining undamaged one. The surviving wizard carefully cast a spell, and then pointed a finger at Quercus and ordered him to laugh, but the only laugh Quercus gave was one of smug power. Meanwhile, the two leopards formerly on Flix ceased mauling him to turn their attentions on the new attackers. This proved to be a mistake, as one was immediately stabbed in the back by an angry Flix, and the other was killed by Dane. Rudyard switched to a bow to help attack the leopards on Raz, and Raz had drawn his axe to engage them in melee, for once. Tal and Tsine helped them, so the leopards were easily dispatched, while Quercus slew the last wizard. He and Tal took a few moments to heal themselves, and continued their march.
Fourth floor. This floor was obviously set up to be a shrine to None, but like the town’s main temple, it was desecrated and contained a stained sacrificial altar. Only one yellow-robed cleric was here, but another one of the hyena monsters was also waiting for them. In addition, as the party moved to engage their enemies, a thick cloud of smoke from a sputtering candle in the center of the room suddenly took the form of a hideous monster, and joined in the battle. While the enemy was expecting them, they were clearly shocked to see them so soon, so the entire party (except for the slightly slow-witted Dane,) got up the stairs and ready to attack before they could even get into a fighting position. Tal fired a volley of magic at the cleric, and Flix and Raz surrounded him. The cleric was obviously casting preparation magic for a while; his body was indistinct and blurry, and he had a floating, magical version of his weapon (a scimitar,) waiting next to him. He nonetheless took a few nasty cuts from their two attacks, and a fearsome cut to the chest from Rudyard. Meanwhile, Quercus flew at the hyena monster, and Rudyard joined him. Tsine fired another series of magic missiles at it as they began their attack, but even the might of the two warriors combined wasn’t enough to make the monster drop. It bit Rudyard right in the chest, and the ranger panicked, again afraid of being transformed into one of these monsters. Meanwhile, the smoke monster tried to enter Rudyard’s mouth, but he was able to cough the creature out, where he then set up on by Dane. The cleric tried to attack Raz with his floating sword while casting a spell himself, but while the scimitar did manage to connect slightly, the spell, which would have frozen Raz in place, failed utterly. Tal struck him with another magic missile, and Flix easily finished the unfortunate cleric, while Quercus avenged the attack on his friend by destroying the hyena creature. This left only the smoke creature, which the party easily sliced to smoky ribbons.
Fifth floor. Before entering this floor, the party had to deal with a door that was recently constructed between this floor and the last. It probably could have been broken down, but that could have taken forever, so Flix moved up to pick the lock. Unfortunately, he was too reckless, for he forgot to check for traps first. He was then surprised when a poison needle flew out of the lock, striking him in the face. He staggered around, as he felt the needle’s poison dampen his senses and numb his reflexes, making him clumsier than normal. However, he was able to unlock the door the next chance he got. The fifth floor was largely wrecked, and turned into the next for a giant monster. “This is likely that flying bat-elf monster’s lair,” Tsine surmised. The party gave the area a quick look, but it appeared that the creature was currently out on patrol in the city itself. They hurried to the next floor before it could be called to help its masters.
Sixth floor. The party noticed that the walls for this floor look new, as if they were just moved around to create a new path. This new path was forcing the party into a side room, and then into a corridor. In this corridor, there appeared to be three foes waiting for them: the spiky humanoid that the dark-haired spotted man traveled with, the spotted man himself, and the Lady of Blood! Tal noticed that there was something “odd” about the two leaders, as if they weren’t real, but the others bought into it without any problem. Raz fired at the spotted man, but it looked to him like he got out of the way, and Tsine used up his final powerful spell, a bolt of lightning, to strike the spined monster and the Lady of Blood. The lightning hit the barbed devil right in the chest, hurting it quite a bit, but it seemed to go right through the Lady. Instead, a strange, high-pitched cry suddenly sounded, and it looked like a tiny monster was disintegrated near the ceiling. Tal surmised that there were invisible monsters hiding near the ceiling and creating the illusions, but one was accidentally caught in the bolt’s effect. The others didn’t draw the conclusion, but with the exception of Raz and Dane, the others were able to guess that this wasn’t really the Lady of Blood and spotted-hair man after seeing this. Rudyard charged at the bared monster, giving it another wound, while Dane rather foolishly attacked the spotted-hair main. The surviving Imp realized the trick was mostly ruined, so he canceled the illusion (to Raz’s continuing surprise) and caught Dane in the chest with his stinger. It wounded Dane slightly, but his powerful body barely noticed the venom in the wound. Quercus and Flix surrounded the barbed devil, and sliced him apart, and the surviving Imp easily fell to some of Tal’s magic orbs. The party went down the corridor to enter the main chamber of the floor.
The central chamber’s most notable feature was a pedestal in the middle of the room, with a large black gem placed on top of it. It was filled with a sickening-looking ichor. Tsine looked at it for a moment, and suddenly shouted, “That has to be the magic item! If we destroy it, we should be able to call the reinforcements!”
However, the gem wasn’t the only thing in this room. A woman was chained to the gem. When the party arrived, she was kneeling on the floor, with a mask on her face. Even without seeing her face, party could tell there was a sense of sadness and loss about her just by looking at her. There also were two dark alcoves in the walls, which were blocked by metal grating, and a door to the south. As the party entered the room carefully, a voice boomed at them from above. A voice that Quercus and Tal recognized. “Ah, finally, my bag-boys have arrived,” the voiced taunted them. “I really have to thank you for what you did there. You see, while that was my temple, I wasn’t the one who selected its leader. I needed a way to test her, and unfortunately she failed. Didn’t you, Kessine?” The figure on the floor looked up at this. “But I believe in giving everyone a second chance to be useful to me. Now, Kessine, the people before you are the ones who helped destroy your temple, and caused you to get…punished by me. Now, how does that make you feel? What do you want to do to them?”
The woman stood up, and ripped off her mask. Quercus, Tal, Flix, Tsine, Raz, and Rudyard instantly recognized her as the high priestess that led the temple they rescued Lerissa from. And her face was twisted into a form of pure rage, as her body began to change. At the same time, the two gratings in the walls open up, revealing two pairs of dark, angry, and large eyes.
Fortunately, the party was getting into position as the spotted man was concluding his speech. Tal and Raz closed in on Kessine. Tal tried using a new spell he just discovered, which sent a blade of frigid ice at his target. It struck Kessine right in the chest, leaving multiple cuts while numbing her whole body with the cold. Raz charged up to attack her, relying again on his axe due to the tight quarters of the room. He got one quick hit, and then a second as she finished changing into a werewolf. Meanwhile, Tsine fired a volley at the creature behind the nearest grating, and Rudyard prepared to engage the monster in melee while Dane moved in to keep the second one at bay. As they moved in, however, the two monsters, a pair of huge, demonic leopards, leapt out, knocking both Rudyard and Dane to their floor as they started ripping them apart. Quercus moved to help Dane, while Flix tumbled in behind Kessine, and dug a short sword into one of her kidneys. Tal was running low on magic at this point, so he moved in to help Raz, and the two of them gave her another few nicks. However, despite her many wounds and the blood that was now clotting her fur, she was still standing. It looked like she was receiving magical aid in addition to the strength her now-bestial form granted her. She slashed at Tal with her scimitar, while biting him ferociously on the neck. The bite was a deep one, and she suddenly shifted her weight to make Tal lose his balance. He fell to the floor, while Kessine maintained her bite on top of him. Tsine realized what a threat she was becoming, so he split his next magic missile volley between her and the leopard that was on Rudyard. Rudyard and Dane both struggled to get out from under their attackers, but only Dane was successful. He and Quercus surrounded it and began to attack it, but not before the leopard could get bite another chunk of flesh off of Dane. Meanwhile, Rudyard was still getting ripped apart under his leopard. A pool of blood was expanding out from under him, and his breathing was getting weaker. Tal wasn’t looking too good, either, but Flix saved the day by leaping onto the wolf-woman’s back. She struggled to throw him off, but he held on tight, and with one swift motion, slashed her throat. She gave one last gurgled scream, and then fell to the floor, barely alive.
Tal nodded his thanks, and then he and Raz moved to help Rudyard. Both swung at his leopard’s neck simultaneously, and in one swift motion, decapitated the creature. Tsine, almost out of magic, drew his sword and helped Dane and Quercus finish the second leopard, and then while Quercus and Tal healed the wounded, the party contemplated the gem.
“So, how do we destroy it?” Flix asked.
“Let me examine it for a moment,” Tsine began. “I’m sure there’s some way to reverse the item’s arcane properties.”
“Or,” Dane suggested, after finishing Kessine with one final stab, “We could just hit a lot.” The party agreed to this plan, and soon the gem was shattered, and the black ichors that floated inside it dissolved into a sickening smoke.
After using the scroll that Lerissa gave him to call the reinforcements, the group was ready to climb the final staircase and put an end to the spotted man once and for all.
Seventh floor. Unfortunately, he had apparently already left. The room was full of luxurious furniture, but except for the corpses of the two guards who ran back on the first floor, the room was empty. However, there was a door leading outside to the balcony, and it looked unlocked. After giving the two corpses a quick examination (it looked like their throats were bitten out,) the party threw open the doors to see if the spotted man was still there. He was absent, but they were not totally without an opponent, for floating in front of them was the Lady of Blood and her steed. She looked at them with a barely controlled rage. “You ruined everything!” she yelled. “I will personally see you all dead!”
Before the party could respond, she concentrated, and a thick black cloud of sickening, evil smoke surrounded them. The smoke however, had little effect on Tal and Flix, who were unconcerned with the evil nature of the cloud. The others didn’t handle it so well, though mercifully Raz and Tsine were out of its range. Tal and Dane ran to the front of the party, and fired at the woman, but only Dane’s arrow hit. All the others drew bows and began to fire at her, except for Tsine, who managed to hit her with a magical missile, and Quercus, who flew straight at her, intent on bringing the demonic villainess down with his own blade. She looked at him, and her eyes widened. “You!” she screamed. “You are related to HER, aren’t you? I can tell just by looking at you!” She pulled out her scimitar, and plunged it into Quercus’ shoulder, just as he cut her with his sword.
Just then, the spotted man rode up on what looked like a griffon. He shouted at the Lady of Blood over the sounds of battle below. “Kulstra! Stop this fight for now! The town is lost! Whether or not you kill these whelps, we’d be destroyed as well in the battle!” He then turned his griffon around and fled down a side passage.”
Kulstra looked at Quercus, with hate in her eyes. “Very well, but tell your sister that I will be coming for both of you,” she hissed at him, as she turned her own mount away. But Quercus wasn’t done yet. As she fled, he chased after her, oblivious to the melee around them. However, while he got another few hits in, she was able to surround herself with too many reinforcements, and Quercus couldn’t cut through them all in time. Before he could focus again on the Lady of Blood, she was lost in the smoke and darkness. Quercus cursed his luck, but swore under his breath that he would be the one to destroy her and give her sister a chance at peace.
And, at last, it was over. The reinforcements swept over the surviving enemy forces, taking prisoners as needed and putting the others to the sword. But it was hardly a total victory. Most of the town’s residents were killed or taken into slavery already. The two main leaders of the enemy got away. No evidence of Bas herself has been discovered, though the reinforcements later investigated the basement, and discovered a strange, eye-less lizard had destroyed hundreds of books (Raz would later remark smugly to the party that he told them so.) However, nothing of the books was salvageable. And while the magic item that blocked the town from magical aid was destroyed, the party has no idea how it was made in the first place, though Lerissa would theorize that if Bas truly is one of the goddesses, it’s possible that she could use part of her essence to provide areas with protection, just like the Eleven Sisters block the main cities of Methosilang from invasion by the orc and undead empires. At the very least, the invading force was destroyed, but even it seemed less like an invading force, and more like a test run, to determine the defenses of Methosilang for a real invasion. Lerissa warns, and the party members know in their hearts, that the real danger is just beginning…
OOC Notes: Yes, this was all one game. We ended up gaming until 2 in the morning to finish this one! Which was awkward, as one of the players brought his eleven-year-old stepson to try the game out this time. Surprisingly, he was allowed to play in future games, and didn’t even mind staying up late. Yep, he’s one of ours! He played Raz this time, since his player had essentially left the group by now.
Expect big changes in the next few games. Like I just hinted, we’re losing some characters, but adding two new players, including the above-mentioned stepson. And the party’s level takes a huge leap the next game, so the challenges will get tougher as well. I hope everyone enjoyed the first part of my campaign, and expect the next part as soon as tomorrow, with any luck.
LordVyreth
First Post
March of Time
“So, what’s our next plan?” Raz asked, after meeting with the party the next morning. He was the last to arrive, after doing some shopping in Methosilang earlier. “I’m thinking we should pursue that avatar angle. If Olivia, or should I save Ordhari, was telling the truth, we could get quite a bit of information about what’s going on with the world or even who Lady Memory is if we find the other avatars.”
The party looked a little uncomfortable, however. Tal cleared his throat, and then said, “Actually, we were planning on staying in town for a while. This whole Bas issue is just too much for us to ignore, so we decided to help the country for a bit.”
Raz looked crushed. “Wait, you plan on sitting here and just waiting? We can’t afford to just stand around. We have to find these avatars before it’s too late!”
Quercus gave him a patronizing look. “And how do you propose we do that? We don’t even have a lead on who any of them are. We could waste months of our time doing nothing, while The Lady of Blood and Bas’ other servants sabotage our entire kingdom. At the very least, we have to find proof.”
Raz was fuming at this point. “Well, fine! Waste your time with politics and pointless battles! We’re talking about the truth of reality here! We’re being contacted by some godlike being, giving us strange instructions, and we don’t even know who she is! We don’t know who this Bas is either, and we’re not going to find out by hacking a few of her servants apart. She might even be our real master, and we’re foolish enough to fight her! And what about the goddesses? After what we read and heard in Delaspie, do we even know if they’re really goddesses? How can you trust them, or their priests, or even the entire nation of Methosilang at this point? Forget it. Do what you want. I’m going to find the truth. Maybe if I’m feeling generous, I’ll share the answers I find with you.” With that, he turned to leave.
The rest of the party spent six months in or helping Methosilang. In addition to just dealing with minor threats in and around the city, they went on raids against the orcs, tried playing politics, and rooted out any Bas spies or temples that they could find. They fought lycanthropes, cultists, and more of the strange half-machine creatures like Tanos. While it was dangerous work, they were well rewarded, earning many priceless treasures (about half of which they immediately sold,) and learning much of their enemies, and how to fight them. Here is a brief summary of the major events of the six months.
Flix disappeared for the first month of so. He said he had “business” elsewhere, but wouldn’t elaborate. Rudyard had his suspicions, though, and warned the party to be extra careful around Flix from now on. He realized that Flix was developing more of his psychic powers, and didn’t know how far he would have to go to do so. What if he was willing to join Bas to gain power?
Meanwhile, it was a difficult period for Methosilang. Despite the party’s best efforts, a number of fairly difficult problems struck. A building in the capital city was “accidentally” destroyed, there was a fire, a plague, and a military revolt that swept across many of their cities (though, fortunately, none of their major cities that were protected by the protection of the goddesses. However, the worst thing that happened in Methosilang was a sudden worsening in relations with Delaspie. Things started when a band of orcs apparently snuck into the city using one of the underground tunnels connecting Delaspie with Methosilang. The Delaspie government blamed Methosilang for their poor security, Methosilang denied involvement, and things worsened from there until the former close allies were merely neutral. It was obvious to the party that this was the work of Bas’ servants, but they still couldn’t prove anything.
But not everything that happened to Methosilang was bad. The most unusual event occurred a few months in, when a band of surface travelers were surrounded by a vastly larger and more powerful undead force. The travelers were ready to fight to the last, but the undead indicated they were ready to parley! One of them gave the group a message, which was delivered to the king and queen after being tested for magic and poison. According to the message, the undead empire was willing to enter into a truce with Methosilang, effective immediately! This strange event, sadly, only lasted a few months, before it ended as mysteriously as it began, but to the party, this meant something significant. It meant Bas’ servants were interfering with the undead empire as well, but that the undead are aware of it as well, and perhaps were even more willing to fight Bas than Methosilang itself!
The other major positive events occurred because of the party directly, and were focused on the orc empire. In between attempts to stop Bas, the party led Methosilang raids into the orc’s territory, sneaking into their weapons development facilities and dragon hatcheries. They managed to recover two very important items as a result. First, they gained some of the guns that the orcs have been able to use, and information about how to make them. The Ordhari temple and its followers were very grateful for the information, and promised that they would have weaponry as advanced as the orcs very soon. Even better, the party raided a special breeding center for the dragons, and came out with dozens of strange eggs that have never been seen before. Some looked tainted with evil magic, but others were as large as a house, and either partially transparent, or radiated many different colors. A few looked like standard dragon eggs, but were multi-colored, and had properties of two different types of dragon eggs. For now, the party handed all of the eggs over to the royal family of Methosilang, until it can be discovered what they are.
However, these setbacks didn’t make the orcs any more cautious. In fact, emboldened by Delaspie separation from Methosilang (and perhaps by a few choice words in the right ears,) they declared all-out war on Delaspie. Though logic would dictate that the undead empire and Methosilang would enter the war on the appropriate sides, both stayed out of it, owing to their brief cessation of attacks and the undead and orc empires having a similar broken alliance. Despite the party’s best efforts, it looks like Bas and her servants were succeeding in wreaking havoc across the continent.
The party had a loss among their own, as well. Near the end of the six months, the party was gathered together, mostly, when Rudyard suddenly ran in. “Guys, come quick!” he yelled. “It’s Flix. Something terrible has happened.”
“What?” a suddenly concerned Tal asked.
“He’s been murdered.”
As the party rushed to follow Rudyard, he explained the story. “Flix was working to improve his social standing in town while earning a reputation in the local ‘guild,’ when he suddenly collapsed. He had been poisoned, and the only one who could have done it was someone with a lot of prestige and power.”
The party arranged for the body to be taken to Necropolis and paid for the costs to have him raised, but it was not a total success. When he returned, he was groggy and confused, even more than one would expect considering the circumstances. The priest who performed the raising took the party to one side and explained. “I’m afraid there were some problems. He came with me back to his body willingly, but at the last moment, he suddenly turned his thoughts back to the realm we were escaping from. His mind became literally locked to that realm, and though I could free him, part of his mind remained there. He lost a lot of his intelligence as a result. I don’t think he’ll ever be as smart as he was before.”
The concerned party rushed to Flix’s side. Though he was glad to see them, he also was obviously trying to say something he didn’t want to say. “Guys, I, uh, know what happened to me. I can’t think as well as I used to, but I think I know one thing. I don’t want to adventure any more. Don’t be upset, it isn’t your fault. It’s just that I can’t take the risk any more. I don’t want something even worse than this to happen to me.” Though the party accepted what he said and understood his reasons, it was nonetheless a tearful goodbye.
Tal and Tsine, on the other hand, did very well over this period. Not only did they help fight back the enemies of Methosilang, but also they let the nobility know how integral the party was in the country’s defenses. They were soon rewarded for their work with official noble titles. Being of noble families but too far down their respective family lines to benefit from it normally, this was a real boon. They pooled their resources to establish a new manor in the noble sector. It wasn’t too impressive, admittedly, and odd that two nobles were forced to share a house, but they were just starting out, after all, so it was no big concern. This manor became the new base of operations for the party. Tal, however, wasn’t satisfied, and he decided that once things clamed down a bit, he would try to become even more important in the city. He even tried to court one of the princesses of the kingdom! Though she barely gave him the time of day.
Finally, the six months ended. With war breaking out, it was becoming obvious to the party that they couldn’t just try to stop the plans of Bas’ servants when they see them. They need to take the fight to her, or at least her main officers. But how to find them? As they pondered this, Quercus realized that with Shedell’s help, they could find at least one of them: her archrival, the Lady of Blood.
OOC Notes: All of this basically happened over the course of one game. I created a system that was fairly complex to let people decide what to do with their time, and then roll on random tables to get the result. These results combined with various other factors to determine the events that occurred in each kingdom over that time. The results, after quite a bit of abridging, were what you see here. I’ll probably take a break and post just an excerpt tomorrow, but I’ll have a full update again on Thursday with any luck.
“So, what’s our next plan?” Raz asked, after meeting with the party the next morning. He was the last to arrive, after doing some shopping in Methosilang earlier. “I’m thinking we should pursue that avatar angle. If Olivia, or should I save Ordhari, was telling the truth, we could get quite a bit of information about what’s going on with the world or even who Lady Memory is if we find the other avatars.”
The party looked a little uncomfortable, however. Tal cleared his throat, and then said, “Actually, we were planning on staying in town for a while. This whole Bas issue is just too much for us to ignore, so we decided to help the country for a bit.”
Raz looked crushed. “Wait, you plan on sitting here and just waiting? We can’t afford to just stand around. We have to find these avatars before it’s too late!”
Quercus gave him a patronizing look. “And how do you propose we do that? We don’t even have a lead on who any of them are. We could waste months of our time doing nothing, while The Lady of Blood and Bas’ other servants sabotage our entire kingdom. At the very least, we have to find proof.”
Raz was fuming at this point. “Well, fine! Waste your time with politics and pointless battles! We’re talking about the truth of reality here! We’re being contacted by some godlike being, giving us strange instructions, and we don’t even know who she is! We don’t know who this Bas is either, and we’re not going to find out by hacking a few of her servants apart. She might even be our real master, and we’re foolish enough to fight her! And what about the goddesses? After what we read and heard in Delaspie, do we even know if they’re really goddesses? How can you trust them, or their priests, or even the entire nation of Methosilang at this point? Forget it. Do what you want. I’m going to find the truth. Maybe if I’m feeling generous, I’ll share the answers I find with you.” With that, he turned to leave.
The rest of the party spent six months in or helping Methosilang. In addition to just dealing with minor threats in and around the city, they went on raids against the orcs, tried playing politics, and rooted out any Bas spies or temples that they could find. They fought lycanthropes, cultists, and more of the strange half-machine creatures like Tanos. While it was dangerous work, they were well rewarded, earning many priceless treasures (about half of which they immediately sold,) and learning much of their enemies, and how to fight them. Here is a brief summary of the major events of the six months.
Flix disappeared for the first month of so. He said he had “business” elsewhere, but wouldn’t elaborate. Rudyard had his suspicions, though, and warned the party to be extra careful around Flix from now on. He realized that Flix was developing more of his psychic powers, and didn’t know how far he would have to go to do so. What if he was willing to join Bas to gain power?
Meanwhile, it was a difficult period for Methosilang. Despite the party’s best efforts, a number of fairly difficult problems struck. A building in the capital city was “accidentally” destroyed, there was a fire, a plague, and a military revolt that swept across many of their cities (though, fortunately, none of their major cities that were protected by the protection of the goddesses. However, the worst thing that happened in Methosilang was a sudden worsening in relations with Delaspie. Things started when a band of orcs apparently snuck into the city using one of the underground tunnels connecting Delaspie with Methosilang. The Delaspie government blamed Methosilang for their poor security, Methosilang denied involvement, and things worsened from there until the former close allies were merely neutral. It was obvious to the party that this was the work of Bas’ servants, but they still couldn’t prove anything.
But not everything that happened to Methosilang was bad. The most unusual event occurred a few months in, when a band of surface travelers were surrounded by a vastly larger and more powerful undead force. The travelers were ready to fight to the last, but the undead indicated they were ready to parley! One of them gave the group a message, which was delivered to the king and queen after being tested for magic and poison. According to the message, the undead empire was willing to enter into a truce with Methosilang, effective immediately! This strange event, sadly, only lasted a few months, before it ended as mysteriously as it began, but to the party, this meant something significant. It meant Bas’ servants were interfering with the undead empire as well, but that the undead are aware of it as well, and perhaps were even more willing to fight Bas than Methosilang itself!
The other major positive events occurred because of the party directly, and were focused on the orc empire. In between attempts to stop Bas, the party led Methosilang raids into the orc’s territory, sneaking into their weapons development facilities and dragon hatcheries. They managed to recover two very important items as a result. First, they gained some of the guns that the orcs have been able to use, and information about how to make them. The Ordhari temple and its followers were very grateful for the information, and promised that they would have weaponry as advanced as the orcs very soon. Even better, the party raided a special breeding center for the dragons, and came out with dozens of strange eggs that have never been seen before. Some looked tainted with evil magic, but others were as large as a house, and either partially transparent, or radiated many different colors. A few looked like standard dragon eggs, but were multi-colored, and had properties of two different types of dragon eggs. For now, the party handed all of the eggs over to the royal family of Methosilang, until it can be discovered what they are.
However, these setbacks didn’t make the orcs any more cautious. In fact, emboldened by Delaspie separation from Methosilang (and perhaps by a few choice words in the right ears,) they declared all-out war on Delaspie. Though logic would dictate that the undead empire and Methosilang would enter the war on the appropriate sides, both stayed out of it, owing to their brief cessation of attacks and the undead and orc empires having a similar broken alliance. Despite the party’s best efforts, it looks like Bas and her servants were succeeding in wreaking havoc across the continent.
The party had a loss among their own, as well. Near the end of the six months, the party was gathered together, mostly, when Rudyard suddenly ran in. “Guys, come quick!” he yelled. “It’s Flix. Something terrible has happened.”
“What?” a suddenly concerned Tal asked.
“He’s been murdered.”
As the party rushed to follow Rudyard, he explained the story. “Flix was working to improve his social standing in town while earning a reputation in the local ‘guild,’ when he suddenly collapsed. He had been poisoned, and the only one who could have done it was someone with a lot of prestige and power.”
The party arranged for the body to be taken to Necropolis and paid for the costs to have him raised, but it was not a total success. When he returned, he was groggy and confused, even more than one would expect considering the circumstances. The priest who performed the raising took the party to one side and explained. “I’m afraid there were some problems. He came with me back to his body willingly, but at the last moment, he suddenly turned his thoughts back to the realm we were escaping from. His mind became literally locked to that realm, and though I could free him, part of his mind remained there. He lost a lot of his intelligence as a result. I don’t think he’ll ever be as smart as he was before.”
The concerned party rushed to Flix’s side. Though he was glad to see them, he also was obviously trying to say something he didn’t want to say. “Guys, I, uh, know what happened to me. I can’t think as well as I used to, but I think I know one thing. I don’t want to adventure any more. Don’t be upset, it isn’t your fault. It’s just that I can’t take the risk any more. I don’t want something even worse than this to happen to me.” Though the party accepted what he said and understood his reasons, it was nonetheless a tearful goodbye.
Tal and Tsine, on the other hand, did very well over this period. Not only did they help fight back the enemies of Methosilang, but also they let the nobility know how integral the party was in the country’s defenses. They were soon rewarded for their work with official noble titles. Being of noble families but too far down their respective family lines to benefit from it normally, this was a real boon. They pooled their resources to establish a new manor in the noble sector. It wasn’t too impressive, admittedly, and odd that two nobles were forced to share a house, but they were just starting out, after all, so it was no big concern. This manor became the new base of operations for the party. Tal, however, wasn’t satisfied, and he decided that once things clamed down a bit, he would try to become even more important in the city. He even tried to court one of the princesses of the kingdom! Though she barely gave him the time of day.
Finally, the six months ended. With war breaking out, it was becoming obvious to the party that they couldn’t just try to stop the plans of Bas’ servants when they see them. They need to take the fight to her, or at least her main officers. But how to find them? As they pondered this, Quercus realized that with Shedell’s help, they could find at least one of them: her archrival, the Lady of Blood.
OOC Notes: All of this basically happened over the course of one game. I created a system that was fairly complex to let people decide what to do with their time, and then roll on random tables to get the result. These results combined with various other factors to determine the events that occurred in each kingdom over that time. The results, after quite a bit of abridging, were what you see here. I’ll probably take a break and post just an excerpt tomorrow, but I’ll have a full update again on Thursday with any luck.
Hjorimir
Adventurer
LordVyreth, just thought I would drop in and give my 2 cents.
From my quick read, I have seen an improvement in your writing. My only writing advice (avoiding the differences we have with DMing style or technique) would to be more liberal in your use of paragraphs. Those huge blocks can be hard on the eyes and uncomfortable to read.
You may also want to commit to either a story or campaign log approach as well. As the writer you seem to be switching between an impartial observer and a performing storyteller.
If you go the way of storyteller (as I did) I’d like to see you slow down a bit and really explain the action. Don’t be in a rush to gloss over the details.
From my quick read, I have seen an improvement in your writing. My only writing advice (avoiding the differences we have with DMing style or technique) would to be more liberal in your use of paragraphs. Those huge blocks can be hard on the eyes and uncomfortable to read.
You may also want to commit to either a story or campaign log approach as well. As the writer you seem to be switching between an impartial observer and a performing storyteller.
If you go the way of storyteller (as I did) I’d like to see you slow down a bit and really explain the action. Don’t be in a rush to gloss over the details.
LordVyreth
First Post
Hjorimir said:
Well, to be fair, a big part of the problem is that I started this campaign over two years ago, so I'm still playing catch up. Hence the slightly rushed pace. And that last adventure had to be a storytelling system, because I basically created an extended-time simulation sequence for that game to get them through six months of advancement in one night. On the other hand, such a large back log to get through means lots of regular updates, plus I can work foreshadowing into earlier plots since I know well in advance what will happen.
Anyway, here's the third of the goddess excerpts for tonight. Tomorrow, with any luck, expect another real update. This, like the last one, was another favorite of mine. Ordhari, the goddess of knowledge, was easy to write for. Just imagine a Vulcan without the emotionless bit but with a lot more arrogance.
The Middle Sisters
(Excerpt from the Book of Ordhari, abridged version. Full version only recommended for advanced readers/mathematicians/theologians/physicists/oh look, you’re not bright enough to read it!)
Lamentably, the ideological conflict progressed for an estimated 3.76 millennia without any indication of respite. Ironically, only the massive depopulation that was a consequence of this constant hostility was successfully in renewing peaceful interactions between the philosophically opposed societies. It was this environment that Nelkiss witnessed after making the transition from a theoretical being to an overt entity. She made the illogical but compassionate decision to exert her divine prerogative by creating an alternate existence for those who have exceeded their biological consciousness. Or, to put it in terms more commonly used by mortals, she created an afterlife to give shelter to the recently deceased. She herself served as judge to the arriving intelligent entities, and transferred their remaining conscious energies to various environments of her own creation, based on their behavior while still biological compounds.
Disappointingly, the next divine entities of the anime nature, or goddesses, were determined to repeat past mistakes. None, the goddess immediately following Nelkiss in sequential order, dedicated her own ambitions to making humanity and its immediate biological relatives progressive species. They were to use both advanced intellectual functions and crude physical prowess to establish an order in the chaos of their overwhelming natural surroundings, and establish dominance over nature. However, Tregfillia, the following goddess, followed in the anarchic footsteps of my immature sibling Lore, and became an advocate for the exact opposite position. She insisted on the importance of the bond of the intellectual beings with nature, and insisted on the maintenance of a symbiotic relationship between the two. Fortunately, near-total warfare was not the end result of this opposition, but a rivalry was developed between these two beings and the acolytes of the positions that they support and encourage.
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