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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2266113" data-attributes="member: 1210">This is the beginning of a very special game.   Expect another update prolly tomorrow.  This one takes you only through one person's action in the first round of the fight, but it also adds some backstory involving some events the pcs are participating in in the game I'm running in about half an hour.That said, the 'other party' consists of:Albin, 24th level rogue Kyrion, 24th level clericJared, 24th level rangerBennodel Thiyr, 24th level elven monkGrimdim, 3rd level dwarven paragon/21st level fighterLazenby, 24th level wizardThough they are outnumbered, they have a number of other things going for them: a more consistent level and a higher level on average, plus a fair amount of backup that they weren't even aware of.  As to how it all works out... let's take a look.***On the Material Plane- on two Material Planes- the stars are aligned.  A rare and powerful conjunction is occurring, right now, ***Seclaidra watches through her lashes as the heroes travel along the blood-clogged streets of Hell, moving amongst stalls and tents staffed by fiends of myriad descriptions.  She keeps her distance.  Though it is unlikely that even Orbius, servant of Boccob, could pierce her insrutability, she takes no chances.  She has survived for eons; she will not make a foolish mistake and allow a mortal to slay her easily now!For she recognizes the threat these mortals pose.  Some of them, she has watched for years.  Horbin the Holy, for one, and he is ripe for a fall; arrogant in his belief that his wisdom outweighs that of the entire heirarchy of his church.  Sybele, the warrior of Chaos, now stricken with an inability to remember peoples’ names.  That is surely the most amusing thing of all.  Lester- she has watched him for more than a century, ever since he fell in with Dexter.  In a way, she wonders if she might have seen him billions of years ago, when he went back.  But his travels changed the events that came after; would that even be the same Seclaidra?  Obviously not, for she remembers him not- and she forgets nothing. The time is nigh!  The thought comes from the fool who thinks himself Asmodeus’ chief assassin- Zavael the Cruel.  He has to scream telepathically to be heard above the roar of the huge arena next to them.  Seclaidra does not answer him; she already knows.  She can see the other group coming closer.  Her wings flex lazily as she spirals above the streets our heroes walk through.  The din of the games shakes the ground momentarily as something spectacular happens within the walls of the arena.  Zavael, fool that he is, is no doubt shouting for Seclaidra to act.  She knows it is time.  The two groups are about to come into view of one another.  She draws forth a relic of a lost reality, a thin tapering glass wand.  She directs it at the party that contains Lester, Horbin and Sybele, and just as the other group rounds the corner, the veil draping our heroes falls apart.Instantly Seclaidra shifts to a better location.  She has no interest in being there when the sparks fly- any of the sparks that will come out of this.  She has now discharged her half of the arrangement.  She appears far away, over two hundred miles distant across the blasted surface of Avernus.  There, she receives her payment in larvae from an obsequious bone devil.From there, she returns to the Abyss and her Halls of Black Silk to watch the results.  As she reclines on a cushion, she wonders if Asmodeus’ plan will work.***Zavael, Asmodeus’ chief assassin (or so he believes) watches cautiously from the fiendish crowd.  The enemy is approaching the corner, just as are the Erathian force.  With a malicious grin, Zavael watches as the veil that has been hiding our heroes is dispelled just as the mortals wearing the fist clutching a ruby rod come round the corner.Between the winged Lester and the large Sybele, the heroes stand out in the throng around them; but Zavael looks essentially the same as any other bearded devil around him.  He remains unnoticed.Heh heh, he chuckles to himself.  Fools!  You may have survived my attack, but now... now you face the killers of Bel!  Then he issues a telepathic command to the squad of ice devils awaiting his command, screaming telepathically to be heard over the tumult of the arena.  ***It’s them! Lazenby thinks with a shock.  He recognizes them instantly, from their description: the blue halfling... the “celestial” and the winged half-elf... the cat-helmed warrior.  They outnumber us, he realizes, but can they possibly outpower us?It takes his mind only an instant to calculate the best opening move; but it is an instant he does not have.***It’s them! Orbius thinks with a shock.  He recognizes them instantly by the badges they sport: the sign of a fist clutching a ruby rod.   We outnumber them- but they’re the best Asmodeus has to offer.  In an instant his mind calculates his best possible opening move, and then he casts time stop,A frozen tableau, all around him.  He greater teleports near the enemy group, flits up above them and establishes a prismatic sphere in mid-air.  To finish the combination off he casts reverse gravity amongst the enemy.This is going to be ugly, he thinks, as time begins flowing again.  Next Time: Pc vs. pc goodness in all its glory!</blockquote>

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