What Happened to Lester and Orbius, Anyway?
The Temple of Elemental Good, Dorhaus
Pressed in by tons of stone. Crushed, buried, with limited air. Lester groans. Dragons? he wonders fuzzily.
“Lester!” Orbius groans from beneath him. They are both stuck, entombed in the rubble of the Temple of Elemental Good.
Don’t think about that yet. Got to get out. Got to get free. Lester can taste dust. His wounds heal quickly, but how badly injured is Orbius? No way to tell.
And there is no telepathic chatter.
Don’t think about that yet, Lester tells himself again. “Grab me,” he coughs. He feels Orbius’ hand clutch at his ankle, and then the elementalist triggers his contingency. Which triggers a greater teleport.
Which takes Lester and Orbius to a mountain ledge high above the Temple of Elemental Good. After picking themselves up, the two of them can see the Temple.
“Extensive damage,” Orbius says, his tone controlled, “and I can see multiple bodies.”
Where are you guys? Lester asks over the telepathic link that they all share.
Limbo! Chakar answers.
“We need to get to the others.” Lester pulls out a scroll and opens a gate.
***
Limbo whirls and morphs in the background, changing from one thing to another from instant to instant. The rock that the battle is taking place on and around is subtly shrinking. The remaining Arrows of Law- Lord Alyth, Marius the Chronomancer and God-Emperor Prayzose, High Priest of the Light- are in pitched battle with our heroes, and already one of the Arrows, Cluma, has been slain.
Sybele triggers her wildzone. Heightened by the power of the chaotic realm that they are fighting in, a field of chaos magic extends around the battlefield. Now that time wizard guy should be mostly disabled, Sybele thinks. Hopes.
Alcar attempts a quickened heal but only ends up with a squeaky voice (which Prayzose and Marius note with interest). He then moves in on Alyth, suffering a blow from Prayzose along the way. The angel is under the influence of Marius’ double actions, so he unleashes a tremendous flurry of attacks. Most of them land solidly on the Arrow, and Alcar knocks Execution from his hand! His mace crashes in on Alyth’s shoulder, smashes into his side. Alyth staggers. Alcar swings again, smashing into his foe’s head- and knocks everything above his lower jaw off of his body!* Alyth falls.
Meanwhile, Gerontius tries to fake out Prayzose- but to no avail. The God-Emperor is too wily to be bluffed. With a gulp, the invisible blade tumbles away. He half killed me with that first series of blows, he thinks. He will finish me if he gets his hands on me again!
Then Thrush charges heedlessly through the wall of fire, moving in on Prayzose. “Greetings, Emperor!” he cries. “I am your heir!!” He charges forward, swinging his sword- and Prayzose parries.
Marius grabs Cluma’s body. Coming to Limbo was a bad idea, he thinks ruefully. He steps to the edge of the rock. Over the telepathic link that the Arrows share, he tells Prayzose, We can’t let them take Alyth’s body. They’re soul binding our allies.
Chakar springs forward and grabs Marius by the arm. The chronomancer sidesteps away and vanishes- for the greater anticipate teleport that our heroes have up is still in effect!
Sybele uses control sound to try to muffle Prayzose and stop him from using any spells. Between that and the wildzone, I think we have him pretty well boxed in! she thinks. We could win! But if Marius gets away, it won’t really be over- and he’ll try to kill my daughter by the dragon guy!**
Baron Lillamere shape changes into a beholder, then glares at Prayzose with his central eye. He attempts to cast Marius’ double actions (the party is really enjoying the irony of using Marius’ spells against them), but the wildzone changes his spell into a fiery aura around him that burns him. “Ow!” he snarls through beholder lips.
Mabrack flies up out of the antimagic field that Lillamere the beholder is projecting. Suddenly he grins as a gate opens- and Lester and Orbius fly through!
“Where is Marius?!” Lester shouts.
“He teleported away,” Mabrack says.
Orbius immediately casts limited wish to ape a teleport trace. Mabrack’s eyes widen, and he shouts, “Wait!” But he is a second too late, and Lester and Orbius vanish- only to be caught in the greater anticipate teleport!
Shennanigens.
Prayzose reaches out with one hand to grab Alyth’s body, and Chakar springs in and tries to grab him. The God-Emperor hurls him back, then leaps off the edge of the shrinking island of rock and into the roiling chaos of Limbo. He falls.
Alcar attempts to bring him back with a miracle, to no avail. (Curse that wildzone! In an instant, our heroes pursue.
Mabrack whips out his huge sword. Barrelling after Prayzose at double action speeds, the storm giant roars a great war cry and slashes- not at Prayzose, but at Alyth’s arm, cleaving it asunder! The body spins away, and Alcar snags it. Prayzose draws forth a rod and touches it to Sybele, and there is a sound like a light bulb burning out. Then the God-Emperor gives our heroes a wry smile and psionic plane shifts away.
“Back to the rock!” cries Lillamere. “We can still get Marius!”
Our heroes ascend, and Alcar casts a soul bind on Lord Alyth’s corpse. The gem he holds begins to gleam from within, and our heroes cheer.
Then they prepare, quickly, for Marius to return from the greater anticipate teleport.
Next Time: Will our heroes get Marius?? Will they attack Prayzose again?? Is it down to two Arrows, or will Cluma come back to life?? (The bitch.)
*In one round under Marius’ double actions, Alcar did 348 hp of damage to Alyth. Except for Lester and and completely healed Gerontius, that would have killed any of the pcs!
**Sybele has a half-dragon daughter named Jezebel (fathered by the steel dragon Kel). Marius kidnapped her when she was very young, and kept her for (subjective) years on the Plane of Time (she is now a teenager and an adventurer in her own right). When he gave her back to Sybele, part of the deal was that Sybele would perform 3 tasks for Marius. If she failed to do so when called upon, he would kill Jezebel. There is also some suggestion of a romantic relationship with Marius in the past, but that is a subject both vague and uncomfortable for Sybele (and, presumably, Jezebel).
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
