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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3866555" data-attributes="member: 1210">Hey guys, what do we do? Sybele sends across the permanent telepathic bond that connects our heroes. Her pain bleeds, sharp-edged and raw, through her mental voice. Blood is pouring from her ankle, where her foot was just a moment before, right before the leshay stalking her shot her foot off.Shot my foot off, she thinks, amazed. With an arrow. She can hardly believe it; she’s an amazing archer herself, but this fellow- she has to admire his skills, despite the fact that he is hunting her.Then another arrow rips into her side, a shaft of utter pain that makes her scream like a little girl, rather than the eleven foot woman that she is.Everything is happening at once. Pasha Amhari Ifroobil, pretender to the throne of the Archomental of Evil Fire, and his hunters are charging into the fray. The strange, mechanical thing known as an omega horror continues to fire blasts of force, of heat, of electricity; it continues to launch huge explosive missiles. The leshay is a blur, teleporting from its initial hiding place to a new, unseen vantage from which it can fire at Sybele. Meanwhile, the tiny horror swarms continue to assail the party; they distract, slicing at skin and flesh, sizzling with electricity. They are so small that they appear to be motes of dust in the air, but they move with horrible purpose.JJ grimaces at the swarms. He furrows his brow as he concentrates, bringing forth a wild surge, and he unleashes a blast of mind-generated electricity. It fries the swarm on him, and he quickly ducks through one of the portals, the same one that Baron Lillamere just went through. There is a large pool on the other side; in the center of it is an island, atop which is a fortress. Behind him, a wobbly Sybele, trailing a flood of blood, flies in after him. (After all, the leshay can’t shoot at her without following her in!) Outside, Gerontius and the Pasha continue their duel. Thrush joins in the fun, hacking and slashing at the evil fire genie with a bellow of challenge. The Pasha parries, spins, slashes; fire licks out over our heroes. His mount rears, kicking and biting. White-hot flames burst from it whenever one of our heroes wounds it. The battle is tremendous, running hotter with every passing second. Thrush and Gerontius throw themselves aside as the omega horror’s terrific weaponry blow chunks of the surrounding rubble into, well, more rubble, narrowly missing them- at least, mostly. Thrush, at least, suffers several searing hits, blasting his flesh and inflicting horrific burns on him. He falls back for a moment, gritting his teeth; behind him, Wankerman slips into another of the gates.Good! thinks Gerontius. We have to get the keys, then despoil the Pool of Law- and then this will be over! But then, he is forced to amend, Once we defeat all the Arrows of Law, at least...Then Pan Lo steps in between them, unleashing a tremendous flurry of blows! The Pasha howls as Gerontius slips his knife between the efreeti’s ribs. He slashes out with his blades, explodes fireballs around them all, but he cannot stand up to the amazing damage dealt by Gerontius and the Perfect Master. A final kick from Pan Lo snaps his neck, to a collective gasp from the efreeti hunters. They scream in rage, and all twenty launch fireballs at Pan Lo!There is a massive whoomph as twenty overlapping explosions rip through the area at which Pan Lo, Thrush and Gerontius stand (or fly). Fire blossoms like flowers, red, orange, white, yellow. Thrush screams again. The heat makes the air ripple. For a moment, smoke obscures the scene, and then, as it clears, Pan Lo becomes visible. He is untouched. The Pasha’s hunters, elite servants of the now-dead Amhari Ifroobil, would-have-been Prince of Elemental Evil Fire, flee like whipped dogs. Fortunately for our heroes, the mighty overlapping blasts of flame have destroyed the swarming micro horrors. The omega horror, however, is still in the game. Pan Lo finds himself the target of a massive burst of firepower, including missiles. He manages to twist away from the majority of the blasts, but even he cannot avoid it all. ***Inside the portal, Lillamere flies over the top of the fortress, and within the courtyard he can see a huge amount of gold. Unfortunately, he finds that he cannot approach it. Examining the area with magically-augmented senses, he quickly ascertains that the magic guarding the place is highly lawful. In fact, he thinks it is some sort of variant- and very powerful- spell based on forbiddance.We need someone lawful in here! he sends out on the link. Chakar, are you available?A few moments later, the dwarven monk enters the portal, then swiftly moves into the fortress. It is no trouble for him to do so; he simply walks in, whereas Baron Lillamere is unable to so much as approach. Chakar searches quickly, and then-“Got it!” he announces. ***At the ruins of the Bastion, Mabrack points at one of the two remaining towers that still stand. “There are only five of the portals here! I will bet you that the others are in these two towers.”The omega horror is flying in for another pass; the heroes scatter as the blasts of energy lance out from it, turning a section of stone and metal into molten slag. Mabrack fires a disintegrate at it, and with a flash, its force field dissipates. Then a quick volley of attacks via spell, power and missile force the horror to withdraw several hundred yards, at least for the moment.No sign of that leshay, or of the remaining Arrows, thinks Thrush. Veil/Graz’zt has returned from her momentary spatio-temporal suspension, and everyone has drawn back into one or the other of the towers. There is indeed a single portal in each of them. Rapidly, all too aware that they must press their advantage while they have it, while Law is too confused to respond to their furious assault, our heroes proceed through the portals.***The Tomb of Levistus, Sygia, the Fifth HellThe icy prison of the ancient archdevil Levistus is placid, moving only with the currents of the River Styx. Entombed in an iceberg of Stygian water, the archdevil has been held helpless for millenia. Even when Asmodeus, the Lord of Hell, returned unto him control of his layer from that upstart Geryon, Levistus was left frozen in impotent rage.Not for much longer, he thinks in his ancient, glacial way. Soon we Ancient shall arise again. The telepathic contact was gentle, teasing... familiar. Levistus knows of recent events, of course; he is all too aware that Lucifer has returned and thrown down Asmodeus. And he is well aware to whom he now owes any hope of freedom. When the Hidden Minister, Glaisig, contacted him, hope kindled for the first time in cruel eons. Levistus will be free again. Not long from now, his prison shall be rent asunder by his old ally, long since banished from power and chained in the depths of the oceans of Hell. Long forgotten things will rise again, and soon.On some level, Levistus is worried by the risks involved. The demons could make incredible inroads in the Hells. The Blood War could be compromised. But on another level, he knows all too well that the Blood War is a contrivance of the yugoloths, and that even the loss of several layers of Hell will be, in the end, inconsequential.It was his eternal loyalty to Lucifer that caused Asmodeus to depose Levistus so long ago, and to imprison him in the iceberg. But soon, soon, all the waiting will be rewarded at last. Soon Lucifer’s plans will become apparent to the entire multiverse.***The ruins of the Bastion of Law“SEVEN!” whoops Wankerman. More quietly- telepathically, in fact- he adds, We have all the keys! Now we just need to find the pool!Thrush frowns. Yeah, are we in good enough shape to keep going?Lillamere ‘speaks’ up. Remember, time is not on our side. Any time we wait could be almost infinitely extended by Marius for them.JJ points out, They’ve already had plenty of time, then.The party quickly decides that they will vanish back to Limbo for a few minutes, long enough for some quick healing and re-buffing. Some of the party spends a few minutes in JJ’s portable den o’ immortal sin, given to him by Froth. But it’s only a few short moments, before they plane shift back to Cydra. Using a wish, Lillamere apes a find the path spell, seeking the Pool of Law. Then they superior teleport to the ruins of the Bastion, and follow the path that the spell paints for them. Though there are some dazed and wounded members of the army of order around, they are in no shape to oppose the champions of Chaos, and they give way fearfully before the party. As they begin moving back into the center of the ruin- following Lillamere’s spell- Gerontius zips up into the sky far enough to see the huge battlefield not far away. For the first time ever, it is not a stalemate. Chaos is pressing the forces of Law back.The air halfling grins proudly. That’s our handiwork! he thinks, and descends to rejoin the others in time to hear Graz’zt say, “A secret door!” And, it soon develops, one that requries seven keys to open...And then they are in the pool chamber. Many pillars line the place; in the center- the exact center, naturally- is what can only be the Pool of Law.Unfortunately, there are also Prayzose, Marius, the Judge of Worlds- and Inoke.Next Time: Could any more crazy powerful entities get involved before this is over?? Yes- but let’s just say that they’re running out of time! The Pool of Law, Glaisig’s “distraction” and the ultimate desperate measures!!</blockquote>

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