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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2181712" data-attributes="member: 1210">Many Assassins10/27/370 O.L.G., 10:30 a.m., the hills north of Var“Some devoted take a day, month or even a year blindfolded, to mark their faith in Dexter, the Blind Son of Galador,” Horbin continues.  He’s describing some of the practices that the devotees of his faith use to connect with the divine.  And then the assassin is there, stepping from the shadows... tearing into Chakar over and over with unbelievable speed, quick as mercury.  This time, it is accompanied by four hounds of deepest shadow, which tear at Orbius, trying to drag him down!But this is exactly what our heroes have been waiting for.A blaze of light as bright as the sun bursts all around.  The assassin’s hounds bay in alarm, most of them blinded, but Gerontisu too loses his sight.  Horbin’s sunburst works a little too well!The Eye of Boccob responds first with a lance of disruption, which blasts the strange dogs back and destroys one of them outright.  A chain lightning from Lester dances between the attackers, the main bolt wounding the assassin, as Lillamere launches a maximized seeker missiles at the villain.  Then Chakar and Horbin rush in, crushing the dogs with fist and mace.  Inoke rushes forward at the assassin with a roar even as Lester’s horrid wilting draws the moisture from it.  It staggers, then wilts the rest of the way under a barrage of attacks from the massive warmind.  Orbius finishes the last dog with a volley of magic missiles. “Got him,” breathes Lillamere.  “Hey!  A little help here!” Gerontius exclaims.  “I’m blind!”Horbin restores his sight in moments.  Meanwhile, Lillamere gingerly examines the wavy-bladed dagger.  Its very presence makes Inoke, Horbin and Orbius nervous.  Lillamere performs a legend lore and gets a small bit of doggerel.Killer of man, dressed in blackVicious smile, dagger in backHired to kill, wrapped in greyStriking unseen, night or dayMan-killing knifeEnding his life!“Humph,” says Horbin.  “That’s not exactly an identify, is it?”“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Orbius declares, and casts perfect identify.  Then he whistles.  “That’s... an impressive weapon,” he tells the group.  “It’s a human-killer, and of epic potency- in the right hands.  Otherwise...”  He shrugs.  “It’s of moderate power.”“Figures,” complains Gerontius.  “Still, the dagger is my weapon.  I wouldn’t mind keeping it.”  Lester shrugs.  “Take it as your share, if you care.”“Of course,” Gerontius answers quickly.  He’s only mildly disappointed. ***1:30 p.m., VarIt seems strange that the question of what to do with the afternoon can be of world-shaking importance, but there you have it.  There are a lot of things on the party’s to do list.  One of the most pressing is the protection of Brelana from the worm portal that must be somewhere nearby. ”I can get us to it,” Orbius assures the party.  “We just have to be ready to close it off.”“And to fight off whatever is guarding it,” adds Gerontius.“How can you get us there?  Have you divined its location?” asks Sybele.“No- I’ve acquired a new spell that will take me there.”  Orbius shows a rare grin.  “Even if I don’t know my destination’s location, superior teleport will take us there.”“Wow,” says Jezebel, impressed.  Orbius puffs up a little.The spell takes the party to another underground area, this one near a great pool of seething lava.  Waves of heat emanate from it.  The writhing, churning, egg-like portal is above the lava.  Before our heroes can close on it and attempt to seal the gateway, a quartet of white slaadi engage them.  A furious battle breaks out, with Gerontius tumbling in to attempt to attack- and being counter-tumbled by one of the slaadi!*  Its great claw rends him, but then the slaad winces as Horbin hits it with a lower resistance and a quickened searing light.  Then the two groups are smashing together in a terribly violent melee, with Inoke expanding to huge size and battering one of the slaadi down with a single charge!**But most of the slaadi fade into greater invisibility even as one of them spits a gob of raw Chaos at Baron Lillamere.  The elven sorcerer shrieks as it burns him.  “AGGHH!” he cries, writhing.  Gritting his teeth, he casts a puncture at the one that spit at him- at this point, one of two visible slaadi.The other one hits him with a ruin.This is the first time Lillamere has been the target of an epic spell that is meant to kill him.  And it is almost the first time his spell turning has come into play.  With a sigh of relief, the noble elf sees the ruin return to its sender, who croaks in pain as it blasts through him.  Lillamere grins at him and flies up into the air above the magma. Unforutnately, it’s right about that time when the magma starts to churn and spit, and suddenly a huge worm of red-hot molten rock rears up, glowing so brightly that it blinds Gerontius and Chakar!  Then it belches forth a slew of magmin!  Suddenly the situation has changed.  Inoke bull rushes one of the invisible slaadi into one of its invisible fellows, knocking both of them down like ten pins.  Not for the first time he congratulates himself on his steadfast perception.  Then he leans over and smacks the Mace of St. John into the lava worm!  The mace flares as the hot rock instantly super-heats it, but Inoke’s energy adaptation prevents it from suffering any damage.  The worm rears back and blasts out a chunky rain of molten rock at the warmind, who staggers back a pace.”Miscreant!” cries the mace.“Shut up, stick!” cries Lillamere from above.  He grits his teeth against the Chaos churning through his flesh.  He can see another weird slash of entropy eating at Gerontius now, too.The party and the slaadi and their worm ally are exchaging heavy blows and magical assaults with remarkable speed.  Lillamere in particular hits the worm- and the lava- with maximized cone of cold after maximized cone of cold.  Finally the lava freezes over, and the magmin have perished quickly; and the combined efforts of Veil, Chakar, Horbin, Gerontius and the huge Inoke manage to destroy the remaining slaadi.  Inoke’s incredible charges are so effective that they leave everyone else in awe: this fellow is a match for Thrush, if anyone they have ever met is. Afterward, Lillamere uses a limited wish to ape a seal portal, and then the party departs.  As they leave, Chakar wonders, Is there anything to prevent the slaadi or their master from re-opening the gates?Nobody hears his unspoken question, so he shrugs inwardly.  What will come to pass, will come to pass.***3 p.m., BrelanaThe day is not yet old.  Several more greater teleports, plane shifts and gates are available for travel.  Gerontius suggests another trip to Valonia, to search out this ‘Kryzzo’ who slew the orcish Galadorians and burned down their temple.  “Not that I care about them,” he says dismissively, “but this Kryzzo guy might be a danger to my people!”“Well, if they’re Galadorians, don’t they deserve a chance?” Inoke points out.“They are orcs,” the Mace of St. John exclaims.  “I find it preposterous that they would follow the Light!  Impossible!  It must be a ruse.”“You don’t know everything, that’s for sure,” Horbin the MFKG Holy snaps.  “So why don’t you just stay out of this for now?”The party discusses the idea for a few minutes, then Orbius offers to locate him with a greater scrying.  “Then we can make an informed decision.”  The party agrees, and Orbius casts his spell, using a bowl of water for a focus.  Then he gasps.  “He’s in another Galadorian church, tearing it up right now!”“Let’s go,” Horbin says sharply.Our heroes arrive almost instantly, thanks to the powerful teleportation magic Orbius possesses and his trump of Lester.  Then they move quickly, and within one minute of their arrival they come within sight of their foe.  He appears as a naked man, gleaming with sweat in the light of the fire he has lit in the church behind him, but with the head of a billygoat.  He is covered in blood and appears to be chewing on something suspiciously like an ear.  He spits it out and grins at our heroes.  He is in a state of obvious sexual excitement.“A billyman!” exclaims Horbin.  ”Foul demon!  Servant of Bleak!  Prepare to be cast down!!” he roars.  The party rushes forward, and Kryzzo cries, “Why do you oppose me?  You serve Chaos!  We should be on the same side!”They do not heed the demon’s words.  Instead, Chakar seizes him in a profoundly painful hold that the demon must greater teleport out of.  Then Kryzzo attempts to summon aid from the realms of demons, but Inoke’s harrying prevents him from concentrating sufficiently!“Curse you!” the billyman spits as Chakar grabs him again.  Inoke’s mace swings down on him, and Kryzzo shrieks in pain and terror.“Greetings, demon!” shouts the Mace of St. John.And in one more crushing blow, the billyman is extinguished. ***4 p.m., VarThe day is not over yet.  Part of the party trumps back to Var, in order to pick up their orcish captives to return them to Valonia.  But the orcs get mouthy, and a debate ensues about what to do with them, with Orbius favoring locking them up as enemies of the state and Inoke arguing that they are in the Light, and should be returned to Valonia to do what they will.  Finally his arguments carry the day, and the party returns to Valonia to find Lillamere dead.“Asmodeus, striking from afar again,” Sybele moans.  “We are so screwed.  What do we do about him?”Nobody has a good answer to that one.Next Time: The fey party!  The best commune evar!!  And our heroes realize they overlooked the most important part of the Stinking Pit!!!*We use the counter-tumbling variant from Sword & Fist: if your enemy can beat your Tumble check they can still take an attack of opportunity on you.  **Inoke maxxed out his psionic lions charge, he used his heedless charge maneuver at maximum, and (iirc) he also used his warmind chain of personal superiority.  Thus, he charged; made a full attack; and got to subtract his entire BAB from his AC and add twice that to damage with Power Attack.  All told he dealt 471 hp of damage in that charge.</blockquote>

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