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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1606908" data-attributes="member: 1210">Against Ogremoch!Ogremoch, the Elemental Prince of Evil Earth, is a massive unformed statue of granite.  Vaguely humanoid, his long arms strike with terrible force.  Even as Horbin casts divine power, the Prince of Evil Earth lands a solid blow upon the cleric.“We’re taking you down!” cries Thrush, and he strikes, again and again and again, landing punishing blows on Ogremoch.  Stone flies everywhere as the large fighter hews mightily at him.  Horbin leans in with his mace, and the battle rages wildly.  Wham!  Crack!  Clang!  Metal and stone connect!  Chips fly!  Ogremoch breaks Thrush’s nose with a blow to the face that leaves the man shaking his head for a moment.Horbin takes a moment to cast a mass heal, and our heroes press the attack.  Ogremoch pound on Thrush, dealing incredible damage again and again, but Thrush was just almost completely healed, so he cries, “I have you now!” and returns the favor!Drelvin first attempts to slay the Elemental Prince of Evil outright with his mask of death, then fires a carefully-aimed deadly shot at him.  Jezebel bestows a greater invisibility on Sir Maxwell as he joins the battle, and then another on Drelvin, via Smacky, her pseudodragon familiar.  Trying nervously to stay out of Ogremoch’s focus, she casts another on Sybele, who is firing her bow as well.Ogremoch, suffering under a tremendous attack by heroes such as ours, cannot last long, and he knows it.  So, after a few last blows, he calls out, ”Stop!  I will yield to you.”Thrush snarls but draws back.  He glances at the others.“What do you think?” Sybele murmurs tensely to Horbin. “We can dismiss him or something,” suggests Horbin.  “Yeah, from the sounds of what’s happening with the fire elementals, there will be an Elemental Prince of Evil Earth; why not have it be one that already knows we can kick his ass?”  Drelvin grins.  His sword, Shastruth, chuckles.“All right,” Horbin tells Ogremoch.  “Here’s the deal!  We’re gonna banish you back to your home plane, and then you’re not coming back, all right?”“If you come back, we will be forced to slay you,” Sir Maxwell intones severely.  “You may have heard of us,” Drelvin says sharply.  “We’re the folks who killed Imix.  So keep that in mind if you get any funny ideas.” ”I agree,” Ogremoch rumbles in an unhappy voice.“Maybe we should make him serve us for a year and a day,” Sybele suggests.“No!” Sir Maxwell exclaims.  “He is an abomination.  Evil outsiders need to go home.  We don’t want him here.”“Okay,” she shrugs.***Our heroes are forced to wait for hours until Horbin regains his spells.  Ogremoch makes no trouble; he has been cowed by his near-death at the hands of the same adventurers who destroyed Imix.  Inwardly he trembles.  If word of this defeat gets out- But of course, he can change it from a defeat to an escape in the telling.Though he is the slowest of the Elemental Princes, even Ogremoch knows that he cannot appear weak and survive as the Prince of Evil. The banishment goes perfectly, and then our heroes return to Var.  A long session in the Three Rubies leads our heroes to a night of drunken excess.  Once again, they have triumphed over power of almost cosmic proportion.  Imix, Ogremoch, Felenga, Fuligin, Acererak, E-Krektor- for some of them it is a long list indeed.Over the next few days our heroes realize that they presently have no pressing matters.***Orbius cannot bring himself to believe that things are finished quite so cleanly.  So he determines to check, via commune.Are the Bile Lords actively plotting versus us? Uncertain.Am I communing with Boccob? Yes.Oh Boccob, I open my mind to you.  Take all I have learned and all that I know within yourself.Is Felenga forever destroyed? Yes.Is Acererak forever destroyed? Yes.Are there more than two Bile Lords remaining? Possibly.Has the Bile Lord found a Bile Queen? No.Will Marius allow us to negotiate for time in his Citadel? No.If we went to the Temple of Elemental Evil and tried to excavate for loot, would it work? Eventually.Would it take more than seven days? Yes.2 weeks? Yes.2 months? Yes.Was Fedifensor in the Earth Temple?* No.Air? No.Water? No.Fire? No.The lowest level, the Greater Temple? Yes.Is it locked within a box? No.Is it stuck within the earth? No.Will I ever get Jezebel to marry me? Yes.Orbius is content.***Prayzose is deep in prayer in an ancient temple to the Light.  He is at the center of things, on Forinthia, yet he cannot reveal himself.  So he has gone to a ruined city, broken centuries ago by the Tarrasques, and reconsecrated an old hall of worship.  His Eagles stand guard at a discrete distance.  They are always with him.I must return, thinks Prayzose.  The Empire will collapse otherwise.  I may have already waited too long.  He sighs.  Even if it costs me my queen.Slowly, he turns the devil’s offer over in his mind.  If he can free her, I can reveal myself.  I can take my place at the head of the forces of Law.  But will I be compromising myself by dealing with him? And yet, I’m not dealing with him.  I refused his offer, but I suspect he’s still going to try to free her.  To what extent am I being compromised by this?  He frowns, then heaves a great sigh.  He must do what he must do.   He must start making preparations, now, before hearing word from the devil again.  Regardless of the cost, he must return.Has he not told himself that before?  Love is a powerful actor in changing his course.Prayzose opens a gate directly to the interior of his tent, where he collapses into a chair.  He rubs at his chin, pondering how best to begin readying his force to travel to Forinthia.Something moves in his bed.  Prayzose gasps as the Tiger Empress calls softly, “My lord, I have returned.”***Over the next few months, the party takes care of various bits of personal business.  They visit Fandral, the foul-tempered dwarven mage-smith who has made them several items in the past.  He scorns them at first, but eventually is swayed by their honeyed tongues.  He agrees to allow his apprentice to work on a sword for Lester.  He also agrees to begin work on a suit of light armor for Sybele after he’s done with the urgrosh he’s presently forging.  “Come back in a year,” he snaps.Angelfire supervises the building of her temple on Tirchond and her center and store in Var.  She spends some money trying to assist Tirchond’s defenses and to increase the amount of food available; though not quite a famine yet, the island is increasingly on short rations.Sybele stays at the old house bought years ago by her then-companions, the Swords of Assistance.  Staying there brings back memories- the forest fire started by the halflings, the Hatching Cave, Firestorm Peak- many an adventure has passed since then, but her old companions are still dear to her, when she sees them.  Those that survived, that is.  Thinking of Liana’s terrible death, she still shudders.Thrush proposes.Sybele is hesitant.  “I can’t marry you- I’ve never even met your family!  And you’ve never met mine!  Besides, we still need to defeat the Bile Lords.”“That’s true,” Thrush nods.  “Well, let’s do it!  We’ll finish the Bile Lords this fall, and then we’ll plan a trip to Forinthia in the spring.”“Okay,” Sybele agrees. Orbius tries valiantly to restore his simulacrum to animation, but it is not to be.  So he makes a new one.***After some months spent dredging the mud and rock filling the Temple of Elemental Evil, Lester takes a break to return to Fandral’s apprentice.  His new sword is finally ready.  He is very pleased with it.  It is crafted of adamantine and flames on command.  Moreover, it can emit a gust of wind and an ice storm once per day each- thereby representing all the elements.  “Well done!” Lester commends the dwarf with a grin.***And so the days slip by, our heroes eating and drinking and loving, enjoying this rare period between action for them. Horbin, meanwhile, turns his attention to a matter that he’s let slip by for far too long: Till. Till was Horbin’s shield boy, afflicted with hero worship if anyone ever was.  He picked him up years ago on Dorla**, and poor Till was kidnapped by Marius a while back.  Marius, Horbin curses silently. Well, it’s time to take care of business.  Marius isn’t answering sendings, but someone else has come to lend a hand.Next Time: Rescuing Till!*Fedifensor was indicated as the best loot in the ToEE by a previous divination.**See The Jester's Old Story Hour.</blockquote>

Verification