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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1826228" data-attributes="member: 1210">In Battle with Fnogghi Chaos-Hand!7/15/370 O.L.G., 1:45 p.m., the ruins of OstraghanFnogghi Chaos-Hand has seen enough.A number of his giants have been slain lately, and all signs, including his divinations, point to one group of little ones.  Obviously, these little ones are much more dangerous than your average human or elven adventurers.  They have even killed Fnogghi’s little brother.  Sorrow and rage are blossoming in his heart like a burning rose.  A curtain of blood seems to have descended on his heart.  No, these are no average adventurers.Well, so be it.  Fnogghi is no average giant, either.Angrily, he turns to his surviving guards.  The great thing that has emerged from his terrible calling has destroyed or driven mad almost his entire assembled group; and Fnogghi’s hand throbs and tingles, the sure sign that he has been surrounded by sheer entropy, raw Chaos unadulterated by form or shape.  Xurkrischis... Fnogghi shudders, then shakes off the malaise he feels and addresses the survivors.  “There are those who would oppose what we have done, who have killed our friends and brothers!” he snarls.  He gestures at the giant corpses on the ground before them.  “Many others of our folk perished to bring this moment to pass, but their sacrifice will be for naught if these adventurers have their way!  We must take our revenge, and the adventurers must die!”***2:40 p.m.Fnogghi and his giants spot our heroes at a distance of around 600’; and immediately, Andre and Pierre open fire on the party.Andre and Pierre look perhaps the least deadly of the quintet of giants.  They are much smaller, for one thing; they are only fire giants, standing around ten feet in height.  The other three are all fomorians, deformed and twisted in body.  But Andre and Pierre immediately change the perception that they can be disregarded, hurling polished, throwing-shaped shots of rounded stone and metal at the group.  And they’re fast.*  Worse, the giants are standing in the shell of a ruined, roofless building; so they have considerable cover from the party by the ruined walls.  Fnogghi’s two fomorian guards unlimber humungous bows and start shooting, too; though eager to get the group into longspear range, they are happy to soften the group of adventurers up first.  Fnogghi sneers to himself.  This should be easy.Our heroes start diving for cover themselves, trying to move up while staying behind ruined buildings.  A few of them fire off arrows, but they are fairly ineffectual.  Fnogghi smiles with savage satisfaction.  Everything is going smoothly; the adventurers will certainly not be able to withstand his forces!  He casts several spells to benefit his giants- first a mass bull’s strength, then a mass spell resistance, then two shield others.  His hurlers, meanwhile, have pummeled N’Sari fairly heavily with boulders, dazing her and leaving her temporarily insensate.  Maxwell, rushing forward, feels a boulder crash into his chest with crushing force as well, but he keeps going.  Blood leaks from his armor.  Lillamere flies up to get a better vantage point.  Grimly, he begins incanting, and in moments a terrible whirlwind of teeth forms, ripping into the giants.  He glances down at his wounded sister and is gladdened to see Inoke stepping in front of her and expanding to huge size.  They’ve adventured together long enough that Lillamere is confident that Inoke will protect N’Sari.  Inoke has also manifested a concealing amorpha, which saves him from several shots from the hurlers.  He takes a few to the body, too, but he shrugs the punishment off.  He hands tighten on his great club.Sybele has landed a number of arrows in the giants, but finally- as she scampers from wall to crumbled wall- she lands a deadly shot that really counts.  One of the boulder-throwers gives an inarticulate cry as the arrow shatters its front teeth.  “Aargh!” cries Andre, spitting shards of tooth.Speaking of teeth, Lillamere forms a second whirlwind of teeth around the giants, and this time it chews into almost the entire group.  They shout in dismay and scatter out from under cover; by now some members of the party, such as Jezebel (who is, however, invisible) are only 250’ away.Fnogghi resists both whirlwinds of teeth thanks to his spell resistance.  He frowns, though, as all four of his guards are forced out into the open.  Well, he’s had time to cast almost all of his preparatory spells already; though the bastard little ones have seen him, they haven’t been able to tell what he’s doing.  That’s about to change.Fnogghi Chaos-Hand strides forth and calls on Na’Rat’s grace.  And he grows to gargantuan size as he is filled with righteous might.Next Time: A battle this fun must be told in two parts!*Andre and Pierre were hulking hurlers.  With the combination of Rapid Shot, Quick Draw and a high base attack they would throw 5 boulders per round.  Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OWW!!!</blockquote>

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