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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1870721" data-attributes="member: 1210">Xurkrischis, the Horror from the Far Realms!!As the horrendous worm Xurkrischis rumbles forward and coils up to strike, our heroes rush forward into danger’s path.  Rex enlarges himself as he moves in on the horrifying monstrosity, and Veil taunts the worm, “Dexter’s nadlies!  That’s the biggest ball-less <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I’ve ever seen!”  Even as he shouts this out a fireball whoomps overhead from Lillamere, blasting into the Horror from the Far Realms with a terrible stench of burning mucus.  Gerontius, Inoke and Thrush reach the creature at nearly the same time; but as the swift halfling strikes it with a dagger (for considerable damage!*) a spray of acid splatters at him.  With a cry, he dodges the caustic fluid.  Thrush gets sprayed, too, but his blows are considerably harder.  He hacks ruthlessly at the monster’s face, dazing it with pain.  Inoke pummels it, but it attacks him back, both biting and stinging him with a hardened mucus stinger at the end of its tail.  He reels from a burning combination of acid and poison, but continues to press his attack, using his warmind disciplines to ignore the pain.  Sir Maxwell reaches the fray with a mighty smite, and our heroes have quickly inflicted an amazing amount of damage.** The monster squeals in pain, but it is so befuddled by the onslaught that it cannot seem to gather its head together to respond.  And when Gerontius feints and strikes multiple times in only a few short seconds, once again the rest of our heroes are impressed by his skill.  His blade in nearly invisible as he weaves a deadly pattern of bluff and stab into Xurkrischis’ slimy body.Our heroes press their attack.  The worm writhes as more smite evils, another fireball, and several more critical hits finish it off. Our heroes take a few moments to make certain it isn’t regenerating or anything like that, and then they gaze around Xurkrischis’ lair.Corpses everywhere... most of them giants.  But there are representatives of many other races as well.  Our heroes perform a search, but instead of notable amounts of treasure they find a human who is still alive, though unconscious and covered in dried mucus.  Worse, the man has no eyes; there are only gaping holes where they should be.Sybele applies some psionic healing, and the man’s eyes flutter and open.  He gasps, drawing in a sharp breath, and pulls himself to his feet.  Warily, our heroes watch him.  Slowly, he raises his shaking hands to his eyeless face and a look of sorrow crosses his countenance.  He lets out a low groan and shakes his head.“Who are you?” asks Lillamere.Veil already knows.  She has spied the man’s name, and much more, in his mind.  She is not what she appears to be.  She listens as the man speaks, holding her peace for now.“Von Dial,” the man croaks, cocking his head.  He seems somewhat confused.  He coughs.  Sybele hands him some water.  ”What are you doing here, in a place like this?” Rex rumbles.  “Were you intended as a sacrifice?  Was there some ritual going on?”“Ritual...” Von Dial seems to be lost in thought for a moment.  Veil says, “I think he was part of the ritual...”Von Dial cries, “Ritual!  The calling!  The worm!  Oh, Chaos!  It comes, it comes... aye, the ritual.  Fnogghi, all of us together... and so terrible, so far beyond... ahhh...”  He trails off.  Our heroes exchange glances.“Von Dial, who do you worship?” Sybele inquires gently.“The Chaos-Bringer, Na’Rat!  Ah, what else?  And why not!  Now the worms come.  The obelisk!  Ahh, the obelisk...”“I think he wants us to take him to an obelisk of Na’Rat,” Sybele murmurs.“What’s that?” asks Veil.“Oh, it’s a chaos-thing... there’s this god, Na’Rat, and he has these obelisks that are devoted to him, and if you touch one of them you gain some sort of Chaos attribute.”“Really,” Veil muses.Unnoticed, Gerontius cocks his head.  He couldn’t help but overhear...***Our heroes decide to conduct the clearly-insane Von Dial to Drelvin’s town until Horbin can tend him.  It seems unwise, at this point, to take him to an obelisk of Na’Rat; who knows what would happen!  And certainly, though Von Dial has every right to touch the obelisk (if that’s what he wants), it might be better to wait until Horbin the MFKG Holy can heal him to make sure he wants to do it once he’s sane.Next Time: What’s Von Dial have to say once he’s sane?  Will Horbin succeed in making him sane?  And what cool magic item will the Delphinate send to our heroes?*42 points of damage.  Ow!!  Quit sneak attacking everyone!!**According to my notes, Inoke hit twice for 43 and Thrush hit once and critted twice (one crit alone dealt 88 hp of damage).  Sir Maxwell’s smite evil was also a crit dealing 75 hp of damage.</blockquote>

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