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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Droid101" data-source="post: 1747296" data-attributes="member: 942">The large party arrives in Gelvain, the trade town north of Canticus.  The rain is pretty heavy, and the Heroes are glad to get indoors.  They go to the Bruised Bullywug, the tavern they visited before.  They all have a few drinks before heading upstairs and to sleep.  The thunder and rain make sleeping difficult.  Ogrim snores through it.Groggy eyed and still rather sleepy, everybody slowly emerges from their rooms in the morning.  Two familiar figures approach.Both are wearing the spiked armor and shields, with the altered Xvim symbol.  They charge immediately, before the party can ready their weapons, and before most of them are even awake.Grog and Ogrim take the charge, both dodging deftly while trying to produce weapons.  Eltharion comes out of a room from behind them, and closes in.  Ogrim readies his Orc-Killer axe and shield.  Grog produces his long gleaming katana.  Eltharion draws his scimitar and sickle.  They all attack.  Eltharion takes advantage of his position and slides his scimitar between bands on the spiked splint mail, drawing a trail of blood.  His sickle works in with similar ease, jabbing under one of the soldiers’ arms.  Ogrim uses less grace than force, and overpowers the same soldier, blasting his axe past his shield and drawing blood from the arm.  Grog uses a similar approach.  His eyes glaze over red and his muscles bulge.  The spittle flies.  Grog performs a powerful overhead chop, forgoing accuracy for pure strength.  His efforts aren’t wasted, he smashes one of their spiked helmets in, the blood pours over his face and gets into his eyes.The two soldiers strike back with precision.  Leading each other’s attacks, one lands a deep slice on Ogrim’s leg, and the other chops directly into his Orc-Killer, nearly severing the haft of the axe in one swipe.  This draws a furrowed brow from Ogrim, who retorts with another two powerful axe chops, weakening the soldier considerably.  Eltharion finishes him with two cuts with the scimitar, and his sickle flies out and cuts the other injured soldier in the shoulder.  Grog, screaming in rage, once again forgoes all skill for strength, chopping wildly.  It connects, crashes through his shield, destroys his armor, and cleaves entirely through his torso.  Grog walks back in his room and falls onto his bed; his katana clanging to the floor.“What are these guys?” Eltharion examines the bodies.“Must be elite templars of Xvim or something.” Ogrim reasons.  The rest of the party has emerged from their rooms and gathered around the dead Xvim soldiers’ bodies.“Does that goblin use a katana?” Enzonito asks.“Yeah, don’t ask.  Doesn’t he look ridiculous?” Eltharion answers.“He can use whatever he’s comfortable with.” Bink adds, swinging his falchion defiantly.Ogrim and Eltharion heal their wounds and everybody heads downstairs to get some breakfast.  They get some pork and eggs before heading out into the rain.  The storm is so strong that the marketplace has been deserted.  Some carts have been abandoned.  A couple of youths are seen looting one of them.  Across the street they see… Senman and Damaré.  Thinking fast, Senman diverts Damaré’s attention away from the party, surreptitiously motioning for the Heroes to get moving away from them.  Senman keeps Damaré busy long enough for the party to continue to the stable unnoticed.  The stable is a horrible sight.  A huge 15 foot winged form inside, along with a smaller, decaying one, are killing the Heroes’ horses.  Trakker is nowhere to be seen.  The two forms turn and see the Heroes.  The decayed humanoid looks like Zhentil… but… more dead.  He opens his mouth to speak, but receives a hard kick to the gullet before he can.Enzonito flew in at incredible speed, drawing his katana at the same time he delivers the hard kick to Zhentil.  Gryrtag, the pit fiend, lowers his face and his eyes set on Bink’s shield guardian.  He charges toward it, ripping into it with a claw.  The shield guardian fights back, pounding into Gryrtag’s heavily muscled and leather chest.  Eltharion and Ogrim charge Zhentil as well, surrounding him and harrying him, not allowing him to get a good spell off.  Grog charges in as well.  Zhentil, while effectively evading, mouths a spell.  Colored rainbow lights fill the air.  Enzonito, Eltharion and Robert find themselves entranced by the colors.  Grog and Jezda close in.  Ogrim bashes Zhentil with his shield.Gryrtag unleashes a furious round of attacks, clawing twice, biting and wing-buffeting the shield guardian.  Pieces of metal and wood fly off in different directions.  Bink stands back and pelts Gryrtag with magic missiles.  The guardian fights back, punching Gryrtag in the stomach.Zhentil then turns, motions a spell and touches Ogrim; his finger covered with strange crackling blue energy, who tries to duck.  Ogrim falls to the ground, completely paralyzed.  This doesn’t stop Grog and Jezda, who come in from either size and pour it on.  Two high horizontal cuts from Jezda, and two low horizontal cuts from Grog leave little room for dodging, and Zhentil’s flesh is peeled from his bones.Two huge explosions nearby send Jezda to his knees.  Two new creatures appear, about 20 feet away.  One is a ten foot humanoid with spikes all over its body.  The other is a shapely human looking woman, although she has black eyes and large feathery wings.  The spiky thing fires a volley into Grog who winces at the many spines sticking into his arms and chest.The woman, however, merely looks at Bink.  She begins to walk toward a building across the street, and Bink follows closely after.  They both enter.Grog disengages Zhentil and charges the spiny devil creature.  He lands a powerful blow, but the creature doesn’t seem too affected by it.  Jezda lands another hit on Zhentil.“Enough, let us go…” Zhentil says, as he mouths a final spell and vanishes from view.  Gryrtag punches the shield guardian one last time, shattering it completely, before he likewise vanishes.  The hypnotic rainbow lights vanish and everybody comes to.  Except for Ogrim.Enzonito flies at the spiky devil and lands two fast chops that level the creature to the ground, its body slowly melting away in a blob of flesh.“Is he… dead?” Grog asks, peering down at Ogrim’s body.“No, but he’s paralyzed.  I wonder for how long…” Bink responds, in deep thought.  He approached them from behind, unnoticed.“Hey, are you really Bink?” Eltharion asks.“Yeah it’s me.  She showed me a few tricks, that’s all.  Nothing to be worried about.” His eyes looked… different.  Wiser, perhaps.The party, without horses, continues south on foot; the one remaining horse carrying Ogrim’s motionless body.  Bink grabs a piece of his shield guardian as a memento.  And perhaps to rebuild…Is Ogrim frozen forever?  How pretty are those rainbow lights?  Does Gryrtag have a thing against constructs?  What power does Bink control now?  This and more, next update!</blockquote>

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