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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1974381" data-attributes="member: 9626">Dragovigis Destruction?: The Final CountdownThe journey to the top of the statue was a long and difficult one.  Despite what the success of the Bas forces might suggest, the dragons were very concerned with the security of the statue, and lined the only route to the weapon that they thought the enemy could take (since they figured any flying enemy would be in the open and easily defeated by the city’s citizens) with traps, guardians, and gates.  As the elevator ascended, this became obvious when a half-dozen of the wheeled sheens that they had fought long ago in their earlier explorations of the continent dropped onto the elevator via chutes.  They weren’t too much of a challenge by themselves, but as the party fought them off, weaponry periodically emerged from the walls around the elevator and attacked the party with beams or swords of pure energy, which cut through their armor as they struck.    Finally, the elevator stopped, but it was only another challenge.  The way above was blocked by a metal door, and the elevator stopped next to a room which apparently included the puzzle to unlock it.  The room was circular, and contained three grooves in the floor which formed concentric circles.  A number of light generating columns were attached to the circles, and the lights seemed to be linked to light-sensitive receptacles attached to the walls.  To solve the puzzle and unlock the door, the party had to move the columns so that one of them was focused on each receptacle, while making sure that one column wasn’t blocking the way of another column’s light.  Because the lights themselves were so bright and intense that they physically burned anyone who got caught in the way of a light, and all the columns attached to one circle were physically linked so moving one would move all of the columns in that circle, it wasn’t an easy task.  But they completed it quickly enough, and were again on their way.    The journey proceeded like this for a while, and stopped twice for more puzzles of the same nature, but that got more complicated each time.  In addition, besides more energy traps and swarms of sheens, more threats challenged the party during their trip.  The traps from the walls included cables with electrified the floor of the elevator, shocking everyone who was standing on it, and technological traps that emulate common magical effects, from Magic Missiles to Disintegration rays and Prismatic Sprays!  The party also had to deal with a flock of flying fiends that Danae defined as Nycaloths.  Here, Xalem at last proved his worth, for he was able to use his divine power to drive away the creatures, just like most clerics can do to undead.  This way, he was able to defend the party without causing actual damage to their enemies.    Finally, the elevator reached the top of the statue, and only one room stood between the party and the statue’s head, where the weapon was kept.  Of course, as the elevator reached its peak at this floor, the party learned that it too was well-guarded, as can be expected.  Among the guards were two of the massive roller sheens, similar to the ones that guarded the Ancient “Dungeon” the party had explored long ago, three more of the shadowy hounds, and what looked like a giant earthworm with arms, bat wings, and glowing red eyes!  However, none of them were little more than a speed bump to the party at this point.  Thinking that its guards might protect him for a while, the worm creature began a very long spell, but Wong and Bath cut through the dogs in a matter of seconds, Danae and Tal easily destroyed the machines with their magic, and Robin was able to fire at the worm and disrupt his spell just moments before it could finish it.  Now surrounded, the worm was quickly put to death, and the party pushed onward.      They found themselves in the dragons’ head, which was enormous (about 150 feet in diameter,) and completely hollow.  At the bottom, a shaft which apparently ran parallel to the elevator all the way to the floor opened up, and the only places to safely stand in the entire room are a ledge right next to the door they just went through, a stairway that rose to the front of the statue, and a disc-shaped platform at the front.  The bomb itself was attached to the wall, where led directly the front of the statue’s mouth.  There also were a few small ledges near the top of the head, which were barely large enough to be a dragon’s perch, which presumably was what they were originally for.    However, the ledges were now empty, save one, which contained a plain-looking man in black clothing and with a short goatee.  He looked at the party and sighed.  “Well, I didn’t think we would be able to retrieve the bomb.  This should be just as satisfying and helpful, however.”  So saying, he took out a small mechanical device and pushed a button on it.  Suddenly, the bomb, which a red-robed figure was trying to disarm at the moment, activated and began beeping.  An emotionless, mechanical voice suddenly reverberated throughout the statue, “Warning, bomb is armed.  Auto-destruct sequence engaged.  Detonation will occur in one minute…”    Realizing they had to hurry now, the party quickly sized up what they had to get through to reach the bomb and disarm it in time.  Besides the leader, who didn’t seem especially interested in stopping them anyway, there were two massive sheens that were, except for their size, identical to the one guarding the Ancient Dungeon.  There were two red-robed cultists, plus the one disarming the bomb.  There were two gigantic tigers, but they had a dark, evil look to them.  Most ominously, there was a third mechanical creature, but it was a different variety than they had seen before.      Wong and Tal took the lead up the stairs while the dark-haired leader merely shrugged and began to watch the fight from his ledge.  Their first challenge came from the two tigers.  However, Xalem again used his divine powers to drive one away, and it spent the fight cowering in the corner while Wong began to attack the other and Robin fired on it from a distance.    Bath, however, had no interest in wasting time on the lesser foes, and simply flew to the disc, where most of the guards were gathered.  With almost chilling speed, she killed one of the cultists, and began to work on the second.  Meanwhile, Danae had noticed that the leader wasn’t actively getting involved, but didn’t want to take a chance on that.  She fired a swarm of flaming meteors at him, only for him to react as if prepared for such an attack.  Another strange machine extended from his arm, though it was hard to tell if it was just hidden in his clothing or literally rose out of his flesh, and it apparently projected some sort of force field a few feet from Danae!  The shots harmlessly burst on impact, and Danae sighed with frustration, but also was relieved that she didn’t use a fireball or a similar spell that would have created an explosion with her in the blast radius!    Meanwhile, the red-robed figure stood up from her position next to the bomb, and got a look at the party for the first time.  As she did so, it was obvious that she was at least twice as tall as the other cultists.  When she saw the party, she flinched as if shocked, and drew back her hood, revealing the face of an ugly, purple, horned woman.  “You!” She screeched.  “I remember you!  You killed my sister!”  Tal and Robin realized they remembered her as well.  She was the night hag druid that the party had fought back when they went after The Lady of Blood!    Meanwhile, the two Render Sheens, the normal robots encountered earlier, rose to meet the threat on the stairway and from Bath.  Both responded by firing a blast of searing plasma energy.  One struck Bath, lightly injuring her, but the other flew down the stairway and struck at Wong and Tal.  Wong effortlessly danced out of the way, but the blast caught Tal directly, searing some of the skin from his body!  Finally, the last robot responded by, surprisingly, casting a spell!  It suddenly rose into the air, as the leader of the enemy forces smirked.  “You really should thank your friend Joddark for his contribution to our latest servant.  He really gave so much to make it what it is today.”  As he said that, he pointed to a dome on the robot’s body that was filled with blood and other vile things, and Tal was almost sick when he realized that the remains of the Avatar of Magic was being used to power the creature!    While Wong easily finished the second tiger, Tal was enraged and charged up to deal with Joddark’s killers not with magic, but with weaponry.  He didn’t get far, however, before one of the Render sheens blocked his way.  He angrily attacked it with his sword, doing some reasonable damage to it, but it was no where near enough to bring down the massive creature.  In response, the creature tore into Tal, slicing him with its massive saw blade mouth and a half-dozen tentacle blades!  Robin and Danae ran up to help him, while Xalem prepared to heal him if he could only get close enough to be saved.    While the rest of the group was dealing with Tal, Bath was making mincemeat out of the remainder of the defenders.  She sliced through the second cultist effortlessly, and then turned to begin cleaving into the arcanosheen.  The night hag druid and the sheen both tried bringing her down with magic, only to learn that it was very hard to stop an avenging angel, even a young one, with magic.  Energy blasts like chained lighting harmlessly bounced off her, lesser spells simply failed to penetrate her natural resistance to magic, and when the arcanosheen tried to ravage her mind with magical insanity, it learned that her constant angelic aura protected her from mind control as well!    Tal, meanwhile, had come to his senses after being so brutally pummeled by the render, desperately tried to escape with his life.  However, the creature was huge and its tentacles were very long, making it hard to escape unscathed.  And after all the blood he lost, even one scratch could kill him.  Desperately, he did a quick summersault backwards, then changed directly mid-roll to make a leap from the disc to the stairway where Xalem and his salvation awaited.  He made it by inches, and clung to the side of the stairway with all of his might while Xalem dashed over to help him.  However, it still might have been too late, for the render was already moving to follow Tal to the stairs, where it could devastate both Tal and Xalem!    Just before it could make the leap, though, unexpected help arrived.  Roaring from the shaft below, a familiar purple, scaly figure rose up.  It was Tal’s cousin Zuriden!  It quickly interposed itself between Tal and the render, and began to slash at it while Wong distracted the other and Robin and Danae fired on both using arrows and magic.    Things were going well, but time was running out, with less than thirty seconds before the bomb went off!  The group at the head of the stairway finally finished off the renders, and arrived to help Bath finish off the arcanosheen and night hag.  However, these enemies knew a lost cause when they saw one.  The arcanosheen simply teleported away and the Night Hag shimmered as her body became ethereal.  Screaming threats of vengeance, she fled out of sight.    That left only the leader, who watched the entire battle as if it was nothing more than a phenomenon to be observed.  Zuriden was the first one to reach him.  The man expected his arrival, however, and produced yet another machine which seemed to freeze the very flow of time around Zuriden!  Zuriden managed to resist the effect and began to tear into the man, but he merely shrugged and vanished, leading Zuriden and the others to wonder what this man was, and how he could produce such power without any effort.      Everyone except Danae wondered, actually, for she broke into a run towards the bomb as soon as the enemies fled.  Quickly but carefully, she manipulated the device the dragons gave her, and everyone sighed with relief when the mechanical voice, which had been counting down methodically the whole time, said “Bomb has been disarmed.  Situation normal.”    And so the heroes saved the town of Dragovigis from destruction, but the party wondered what their next adventure was.  Perhaps it was time to finally find Bas?  After all, they now had the relic that TIE gave them to find one of her servants.  If they can capture her, they can finally destroy the evil goddess!  Tal, however, had other concerns.  Mostly, now that he helped save the city, will he finally get the redemption from Facetous he so desires?</blockquote>

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