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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1971795" data-attributes="member: 1210">Aggressive Diplomacy7/30/370 O.L.G., 4:00 p.m., at the rear of the Army of Law on the Field of Battle before the Bastion of LawThe negotiations begin suddenly and viciously.  A reverse gravity cast by Proto gets things off to a nice start, but the General of Law and his guards show themselves to be formidable opponents when approached physically and magically.  Thrush cuts down quite a few of the general’s elite guard before things smooth out.  The whole time Horbin is trying to talk sense, and things finally settle into a tense parlay, with weapons sheathed but hands ready.  Horbin attempts to persuade General Strictis- who is clearly Galadorian- to help end the battle once and for all.  “By surrendering?” the General asks, amazed at the cleric’s audacity.  It is out of the question, of course.  All the pleading and persuasion the group can muster avails them not a whit.  None of their reasons seem to hit home with the general; he maintains the strictest devotion to duty.  “I will never surrender to Chaos,” he reiterates again and again.“I don’t serve Chaos, I serve good,” Horbin protests.  “You and your army, on the other hand, are consorting with devils!”“Even devils may serve the Light,” General Strictis responds.  “All things do Galador’s bidding.  And your side consorts with demons.”“Not me,” Horbin retorts emphatically.  “I’m against demons.  In fact, we’d be more likely to kill a demon than talk to it.”“Oh?”“We would even kill a demon for you, as a token of our good nature,” Horbin offers.General Strictis laughs grimly.  “Oh, I’ve a demon for you to kill, all right.  Kill Graz’zt.  He is one of the mightiest of all demons, and he’s caused difficulties for us before and no doubt will again.”“Graz’zt!” exclaims Sybele.”I don’t think that’s a good idea,” intones Proto.  “And what would you do in return?”“Not surrender, surely?” Sybele inquires hopefully.  Indeed not.“It doesn’t really matter,” she grumbles.  “Even if Chaos takes this Bastion of Law here, they’ll just go form a new one somewhere else, right?”  She looks at General Strictis, who says nothing. The negotiations continue for some time, with the Army of Law providing the hospitality prescribed by the rules of parlay.  After a time, our heroes leave, frustrated in their inability to make a change in the attitudes of the servants of Law.“I don’t know how much time we should spend here,” Horbin mutters.  “I don’t see what good we can do.”“My programming tells me,” the warforged wizard named Proto declares in a tinny voice, “that my masters in the Delphinate believe that this battle is pivotal.”“But they fight the same fight every day!” Horbin protests.  “Day after day, the same thing... and it never changes.”“Then we must change it,” Proto replies.“What happens to the bodies?” asks Drelvin.“Good question,” Horbin muses.  “They were gone by morning, but...”“We should search some for loot!” exclaims Gerontius.“Good idea,” Jezebel nods, feeling a genetic disposition towards hoarding even at her young age.*  “Tonight, after the battle is over, let’s take a look.”“You know we aren’t the first to think of this, right?”  Drelvin gives the party a sardonic grin.  “An army always has scavengers.”***8:50 p.m., near the Field of BattleThat night a fog springs up.  With the stars cloaked by the fog, our heroes make their way to the field of battle, soaked in blood and littered with the dead.  As they approach, Gerontius shushes them and cocks his head intently, listening to something.  Then he shrugs.  “Something’s moving out there,” he whispers.The group loosens their weapons, and soon they can see the source of the noise: strange constructs, covered in nasty spikes, moving around the battlefield.  They pick up the bodies and impale them on their spikes.**“Gruesome, but effective,” Inoke comments.  Thrush grunts.  The party loots a few bodies, but nothing of real worth turns up.  They debate whether or not it would be a good idea to attack one of the strange cadaver collectors.  But when Horbin hears a moan from a body on one of them, his decision is made.  Growing pale, he cries, “There’s someone still alive on one of them!”A furious battle ensues.  Several of the constructs, including a really humungous one, join the fray, and they are certainly formidable opponents; but in the end, the combination of Drelvin, Thrush and Inoke is overwhelming.  Somewhere in the middle of the battle, unable to harm the monsters significantly, Gerontius pulls out some rations and starts eating- just like a halfling, wouldn’t you know!Afterwards, the man stuck to the construct proves dead by now, but at least no more mortally wounded men will be stuck to those particular monsters!The group then retires, setting watches and settling down to sleep for the night.Next Time: Graz’zt drops by for a chat!*Remember, Jezebel is a half-dragon- Sybele’s half-dragon love child, to be precise, by way of the steel dragon Kel, in an event from Sybele’s earlier history that has yet to be chronicled (the Hatching Cave episode).  She’s presently about 17-18 years old.**This game was played the day the Monster Manual 3 came out. <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=":)" />  These constructs are a fantastic monster in the MM3- the cadaver collector.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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