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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2833153" data-attributes="member: 1210">1 p.m., the Temple of Elemental GoodLunch at the Temple of Elemental Good: fresh from the gardens, with the meat of some large birds native to the Bendrock Mountains as the centerpiece.  Delicious as always, but perhaps inferior to that served by the halflings of Valonia.  Nonetheless, it is more than satisfactory- and, of course, it is good to see Lester and Orbius. “...yes, administrating the Temple takes a lot of Lester’s time,” Orbius finishes, and the Eye of Boccob takes another sip of his wine.  He usually speaks for Lester when they are speaking aloud, as Lester must rhyme.  However, amongst the party (excepting Sonja), Lester (also called the L or the Angel of Adventure) can communicate telepathically over the permanent Rary’s interplanar telepathic bond that the group shares.  “I like your new hair style,” Sybele compliments Lester.  He now sports corn rows instead of his more traditional afro.  He grins his thanks and sends telepathically, Thanks!  Yeah, afros are really lawful.The party is enjoying the companionship of their old friends.  They step outside and begin to amble along, filling the L and the Eye in on their recent activities and their current plans.  After a few disjointed moments talking about their recent conflict with the orcs, Sybele segues into their plans for the near future.  “We’re going to go attack that place where Law has its big fortress and stuff,” she tells them.*“The Bastion of Law,” Gerontius fills in. The Bastion!  Screw that!  We should just stay out of the whole Great War of Ethics thing completely.  Let’s go attack the folks warring to become the new Prince of Elemental Evil Fire instead, Lester suggests.“That sounds good,” Inoke agrees.  “We certainly shouldn’t-” he switches to the telepathic link- [/i]attack the Bastion, and I am not going to.  Also, we shouldn’t talk about this out loud.[/i]**As the party begins to walk amongst a small grove of apple trees, heading in the general direction of the Temple of Elemental Good Water, Gerontius sends over the telepathic link, You know, Lester, the forces of Law destroyed the Isle of Vuivui.But Lester replies, So what?  Chaos will just have a new one somewhere.  It’s probably a good thing, even; the Isle of Vuivui had been there for a long time.  It was getting kind of Lawful.  He grins and winks.  “Well, didn’t you-” swear an oath to Chaos at the Isle of Vuivui that you’d try to overthrow the Bastion? Baron Lillamere asks.Yeah, but c’mon, they’re Chaotic.  And so am I.  Lester’s swarthy face erupts in a grin again.  What are they going to do, sue me?  The irony is heavy in his mental tone.“I swore an oath, and I’m keeping it,” Lillamere insists.  “You should too.”Orbius shrugs.  “But did you swear when you would do it?”Lillamere retorts, “We can’t give them time to plan.”  This is Law.  If they have time to plan for us, it will be much harder.  We have to hit them hard and fast, when they don’t expect us to, if we’re going to overthrow the Bastion.  Law excells at planning.  If we wait too long, they will be utterly ready for us! There’s another thing, Sybele sends.  She hesitates, then adds, I don’t want big bad warmind guy to fight us on this.“Me?” Inoke exclaims.“Yeah,” she answers.  I mean, you’re Lawful now and all... and I don’t want to fight you.I already said I won’t fight you guys.  I won’t help you storm the Bastion- and I think you’re making a terrible mistake- but you’re my friends.  I won’t fight against you.  But maybe we can do something else first?  Maybe we could do this thing Lester’s talking about with the would-be new Elemental Prince, or go back into Bile Mountain, or-Then an arrow zips out and hits the tree next to Sybele with a meaty thunk!  It sinks deep into the tree, vibrating for a moment as it spends its momentum. “What the hell?” Sybele wonders. There appears to be a note attached.  She plucks the arrow from the tree (not without some difficulty).  She unfastens the note from the shaft and reads it.  “Oh no,” Sybele says, her eyes going wide.  “It’s the leshay.”“The leshay?” asks Chakar.“It’s kind of an uber-fey.  We were at a fey party and I got really drunk and puked on him.”“What does he say?” asks Gerontius, cocking an eyebrow in interest.“He’s hunting me,” Sybele replies unhappily.The group surveys the hillside.  There is a fair amount of shrubbery and small trees that could conceal an archer. “That’s not too wise,” Lester comments.  “I mean, didn’t we kill Asmodeus not too long ago?”“Oh, man,” moans Sybele.“Maybe we can talk to him,” suggests Baron Lillamere.Then the leshay pops up from behind a rock, bow in hand. Instantly, Orbius casts time stop.  He grins to himself as he casts spell turning to protect himself, then summons forth a sphere of ultimate destruction.  He then uses his mastery of shaping to summon a dome of force over the leshay, hoping to trap it.  Then...The leshay teleports out from under the dome and launches a single arrow at Sybele, hitting her in the chest.  “Argh!”  She staggers back, but Orbius is already in action again, using his quickening rod to instantly mass teleport the party to next to the leshay.  Then he casts another time stop and fires off a succession of spells to prepare:[/i]greater invisibility, Orbius’ eldritch penetrations, Marius’ double actions[/i] and summon monster to bring forth a massive fire elemental.But as time starts to move again, the leshay teleports away again with a mocking bow. The party alertly surveys the area, looking for any signs of the leshay (or, frankly, any of their other enemies).  After a few tense moments, they become convinced that the fey is no longer present.  “He’ll be back,” Sybele groans.  “I’m sure of it.”“Like we didn’t have enough trouble already,” grumbles Lillamere.Next Time: Orbius does some divining!  Chakar looks for the Perfect Masters!  And our heroes decide that it’s time to go back to Bile Mountain at last!*Sybele, you will recall, cannot remember names.**Our group, having the telepathic bond, uses a convention where you touch your forehead to indicate that you’re using your link.  Often people start off out loud and then switch to telepathy.  It must be odd to witness a group conversing like this!</blockquote>

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