(Epic Cydra) Empires of Chaos

[the Jester]

Inversion of the Tainted Lands

Meanwhile, about an hour before our heroes destroy the gibbering orb, on the Negative Energy Plane another group of adventurers are making their way to the bottom of the multiverse.

For months, they have been working against a terrible cult devoted to a dead demon prince- Orcus, the erstwhile Lord of the Undead. Once, Orcus was a force to be reckoned with- a rival to mighty Demogorgon himself. But the bloated, ram-headed demon was slain by another entity of comparable power.

No such entity could be simply forgotten, of course.

The cultists of Orcus had crossed this group of adventurers once too often. They had locked themselves in mortal combat as the cultists sought their dead patron’s dreaded Wand, with which to attempt a blasphemous ritual at the bottom of the multiverse. If they succeeded, the cultists would redirect the cosmic levels of energy stirred up in the Negative Energy Plane by the destruction of Acererak the Demilich and his Phylactery of the Apotheosis in order to bring the long-dead demon lord back from oblivion.

The adventurers had come inches from claiming the Wand of Orcus when the head cultist had snatched it from them and fled. Now, they are in hot pursuit. The know where their enemies must go to perform their ritual- the very bottom of the multiverse, the lowest-energy position on the plane of negative energy.

When they transition to it, however, the heroes are shocked.

Normally the plane is placid. Yes, it violently sucks all energy from unprotected visitors; but it is simply trying to maintain its ground state, an even distribution of all energy across the entire Void at its most stable, zero-vibration state, perfect entropy.

Now, though- this time- the entire plane appears to be in turmoil.

Roiling blackness encroaches around the party. The negative energy is violently agitated, seething all around. The very fabric of the plane is a-ripple. Only Thepsa’s ability to adapt herself, and her companions, to the planar environment saves them all from instant annihilation. The planewalker’s eyes widen in shock. Things should not be like this, she thinks. What is happening?

Below them, the Fortress of Conclusion hangs dead black against a dead black background. When the enemy comes forth- creatures of negative energy and shadow- Lady Janis, a knight of the chalice of great renown (and former student, long ago, of Sir Maxwell Norrington) and Toofsy Flapjacks, the halfling barbarian in the party, swoop over to meet them. A brief clash leaves the guardians slain, and the heroes storm the Fortress. In through a great green face, then through the sacked corridors of the place, the five of them rush forward. Kerthrelle, the horizon walker in the group, grips her spear closely. Zarthos, the ardent dilettante, grins madly and whistles softly as the party flies through the fortress. All of them are nervous.

Once, this place had belonged to one of the most powerful undead, anywhere in the planes: Acererak.

***

Meanwhile, perhaps an hour later, on Cydra, our heroes approach the Sargasso of Sludge. It stretches for a considerable distance in all directions. Disgusting sludge clogs the waters below, and fat particles of oily filth rise into the air above it.

“Disgusting,” Alcar snorts, and casts control water. He lowers the water level in a large area, but the sargasso is far larger.

I don’t see any sign of Bile Mountain here, Sybele sends over the link.

You’re right about that, Blaze agrees. Just sludge.

Something is rising into the air. Lillamere gestures. Over there. They’re still a ways off.

I’ve been thinking, Alcar says telepathically. There has always seemed to be some kind of connection between Bile Mountain and the shadow plane. We know we can’t teleport in there, but have we ever tried shadow walking?

We certainly could, Blazier replies, and begins casting a spell. The party transitions to the Plane of Shadow-

An explosion of negative energy floods all around them. “What the hell?” shouts Wankerman in surprise. It is utterly black all around them.

Alcar channels positive energy and manages to hold the encroaching wave of negative energy at bay for the moment. But the fact that the Plane of Shadow is flooding with negative energy is very ominous.

“What could cause this?” wonders Baron Lillamere. “Do you think the Bile Lords did this?”

They have always had ties to the Shadow Plane, Alcar reminds the others telepathically.

The party decides to explore for a time. Only Alcar’s continued channeling stops the negative energy from rushing in over the party, sucking their life from them. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold it back,” he warns his friends. “I think we’d better go back.”

Suddenly the positive energy bubble collapses, and the wave of negative energy cascades in over our heroes, draining their life and vitality at a prodigious rate! There is no time to do anything else; Blaze ends the shadow walk, and the party phases back into the material world, above the Sargasso of Sludge.

Several of the heroes have foresight spells running. Suddenly they begin to scream DANGER louder than they ever have- a nonspecific danger, triggered by- nothing? But coming soon- in a few short minutes.

“Why wait?” JJ laughs, and says, “Follow me!” He opens a shimmering portal to Limbo and dances through. The party follows him, and immediately the sense of impending doom ends.

“The Bile Lords are doing something,” Alcar declares. “Whatever it is, it’s going to take effect soon. We have to stop them!”

“There is a lot of danger coming,” Blaze reminds him.

Alcar shrugs. “We can take them.”

“We need protection,” Lillamere says. Switching to telepathy, he goes on, I know Orbius designed some protective spells. If there were time to find him, we could probably get them from him. Who else knows them?

I do, Alcar replies.

And we can ape them with wishes, limited wishes and miracles, if we have to, Lillamere continues. That’s something, but we need more. We can’t rely on having just one person with the spells. Scrolls, maybe, or something.

We don’t know that the Bile Lords are going to give us the luxury of time to think about it, Gerontius points out.

True. But we’re going off half-cocked. You know what kinds of trouble that causes.

Gerontius only nods.

“We need to be there when whatever it is happens,” Alcar urges the others. “I’m going back. Anyone else who wants to stand with me, come along.”

“What the hell,” Blaze shrugs. “Why not.”

“I’ll go too!” declares Sybele.

They return to the scene, while the others remain in Limbo. They all stay in telepathic contact as the moment of the great danger gets closer and closer.

“Oooh, forget it!” Sybele teleports about a hundred miles away. I don’t know if I’m out of the danger zone or not, but I’ll come back if there’s trouble! she promises.

Meanwhile, Alcar and Lillamere uneasily await- whatever is going to happen.

Now, Lillamere sends. It should happen- now. Whatever it is.

And it does.

Suddenly the ground spasms, almost as if it were gripped by an earthquake. The air ripples with a sickly yellow color and fills with the stink of bile. There is an enormous tearing sound. The air, the water, the earth itself that have already been tainted seem to shudder all around them as the colors of bile run through everything. It is as if the world has suddenly gone all bile. The distant areas that Alcar and Baron Lillamere could see a moment ago that looked untainted have vanished from view. A shuddering sensation of travel shocks through them.

“Oh sh3t!” says Alcar. I think we’ve just transitioned to the demiplane of bile! he announces telepathically.

The only other person on the link is Lillamere.

Quickly, Alcar shuffles out his trump of Lester. It doesn’t seem to work. It is not even cold to the touch, which trumps usually are.

Plane shift? No luck. Shadow walk? No.

All around the two adventurers, the landscape is bile.

Next Time: What now, o mighty adventurers?

 

[Seance]

It was Alcar and Lillamere that were shifted to the plane of bile. Elves in front!!!




Go Summer Team!!

 

[the Jester]

Here are two more maps that might be of interest in the update that I hope to post today.

 

[the Jester]

Lillamere? Alcar? Gerontius calls telepathically.

There is no answer.

“They’re off the link,” Gerontius says. He furrows his brow. “We ‘ave to go ‘elp them.”

“No question,” nods Inoke. The rest of the party concurs. A moment later, a gate opens in the air above Pesh and our heroes fly through (Inoke riding his flying harness). But things are not as they expect.

The bile coloration and sickening stench that had pervaded the bile-tainted lands is gone. Blaze gasps. The party is in mid-air over a horrifying sight. For dozens of miles around, and dozens of miles deep, a huge, filthy shell has been chewed out of the water and earth. One edge of it has shorn away a large chunk of Pesh itself! Inexplicably, the sea water does not rush in to fill it. Instead, the filthy shell remains, rippling on the surface of the deep waters it has exposed. Strange, cartilaginous growths run along the surface of the shell; a moment after he spies them, Blaze realizes with a shock that they are the size of mountains.

“Dexter’s eyes,” exclaims Chakar.

“This is not good,” declares Wankerman.

“Wow, that’s a big hole!” JJ says lasciviously.

***

An hour before, at the bottom of the multiverse in Acererak’s lost Fortress of Conclusion, the adventurers storming the place clean their blades of the head cultist’s blood. Yet they have not yet recovered the dreaded Wand of Orcus, nor have they breached the deepest portions of the lair. They have not yet dealt with the creature behind the cult, and the attempt to resurrect Orcus: the Void Master.

They move swiftly, aware that time is against them. Their protective spells and enhancements are running. Quickly they search their way through the leaden walls of the place until they discover a mad room with strange catwalks arranged in chaotic shapes and patterns. All around the edge of the chamber, huge shards of shattered crystal stand like sentries. These, though the adventurers do not know it, are fragments of the Phylactery of the Apotheosis used by the demilich Acererak in his bid to join his consciousness with that of the Negative Energy Plane itself.* Thepsa recognizes at once that the strange, arcane apparatus assembled here is responsible for the continuation and amplification of the agitation of the Negative Energy Plane.

Ahead, fastened to the end of a long, thin spire that juts away from the paths, is the Wand of Orcus.

Immediately, the heroes move forward, with the halfling barbarian, Toofsy Flapjacks, leading the way. She is flying, and as he leaves the path, he immediately convulses with negative energy. Black necrotic power rips through her, and she gives a great yelp and falls back to the pathway. Immediately, the reaction stops. Gasping, she says, “Let’s stick to the pathway.”

***

Alcar and Lillamere look at each other.

“We’re screwed,” Baron Lillamere says flatly. “Unless-” He digs a scroll out and takes a deep breath and reads.

“I wish that the last five minutes has not yet happened, but that Alcar and I keep the knowledge of what we’ve seen here!”

***

Rewind a minute. Or five.

Several of the heroes have foresight spells running. Suddenly they begin to scream DANGER louder than they ever have- a nonspecific danger, triggered by- nothing? But coming soon- in a few short minutes.

“Why wait?” JJ laughs, and says, “Follow me!” He opens a shimmering portal to Limbo and dances through.

“Wait a sec!” Lillamere shouts, but most of the party follows the demislaad, and immediately the sense of impending doom ends for those that do.

“The Bile Lords are getting ready to rip a big chunk of Pesh away from Cydra,” Alcar declares. “Lillamere and I just got trapped on their demiplane, but a wish reversed time so that we could escape and bring you guys with us!”

“There is a lot of danger coming,” Blaze reminds him.

Alcar shrugs. “We have to track the Bile Lords down to their lair- and kill the Queen of Guts and King of Bile.”

“We only have a couple of minutes to prepare,” Baron Lillamere says. Over the link, he repeats the conversation to the party members in Limbo.

“That’s a lot of danger,” Blaze repeats.

“What else are we here for?” Inoke shrugs.

We’re going off half-cocked. You know what kinds of trouble that causes, Lillamere sends over the link. But they are about to invert part of reality. We don’t know exactly what they are doing or why, but it can’t be good. Look at what they have already done to Pesh! We have to stop them. If we don’t follow them to their lair, who knows if there is another way to reach them?

“We need to be there when it happens,” Alcar urges the others. “I’m going back. Anyone else who wants to stand with me, come along.”

The others, swayed by the words of the angel and the baron, all return to the site.

Now, Lillamere sends. It should happen- now. His stomach clenches as he thinks of the gut-churning event about to occur.

And it does.

Suddenly the ground spasms, almost as if it were gripped by an earthquake. The air ripples with a sickly yellow color and fills with the stink of bile. There is an enormous tearing sound. The air, the water, the earth itself that have already been tainted seem to shudder all around them as the colors of bile run through everything. It is as if the world has suddenly gone all bile. The distant areas that the party could see a moment ago that looked untainted have vanished from view. A shuddering sensation of travel shocks through them.

All around the adventurers, the landscape is bile.

“There!” Alcar shouts eagerly. “There it is!!”

Bile Mountain looms below them. Everyone feels a surge of hope. Here, this is where the enemy should be! The terrain everywhere else around the mountain is a landscape of horrors, including a huge, many-mile wide popped blister on the surface of the very plane.

To the mountain, the party says telepathically as one.

***

At the bottom of the multiverse, hidden in the blackness of the room with the Wand of Orcus within it, the Void Master silently gloats as the party of adventurers gather themselves up and prepare for another attempt to snatch up the dreaded Wand.

Their deaths at its touch shall be the final components necessary. All the energy of the Negative Energy Plane’s turmoil will be gathered, focused through the shards of Acererak’s Phylactery, and channeled to the remote location on the Plane of Shadow where the hulking stone form that is the astral corpse of Orcus lies. It took a great deal of effort to spirit it out of the Astral Plane itself, but the Void Master and his cult of Orcus-worshipping deviants have a long and powerful reach.

That much raw negative energy, along with the focused faith of the thousand cultists who would all be drinking poison at the right moment, all thrown into the Demon Lord of the Undead, would revive him.

The Void Master’s intangible fists closed. Soon, my Lord.

***

Wheels within wheels, plots within plots.

The destruction and utter annihilation of Acererak banished the spirit of the demilich utterly- beyond life, beyond death, he was gone.

And yet... a new discipline, concerned with seals and bindings and pacts, had recently sprung up on Cydra. It had spread like wildfire throughout the planes, though it had only a few hundred practitioners, or less, on any given world. These strange binders contacted the vestiges of the utterly destroyed- including Acererak.

There was nothing of him left, yet the binders touched his spirit nonetheless.

It was enough.

Acererak could make only the subtlest of moves, and only through the actions of others. He was helpless to affect the real world. Yet, when the apparatus began to be constructed using the fragments of his phylactery, he knew that there was yet a slim chance that he could return to existence. From beyond the opaquest veil of all, he might be able to seize some of the negative energy and ride it back to existence.

But he was reliant, completely, on the actions of others that he could not influence. His only hope (he knew) was that events would transpire in such a way that he could act.

That moment, when the flux of negative energy came through, would be critical.

***

At the base of Bile Mountain, our heroes swoop in to the entrance cave. They fly in and meet the first wave of defenders- a cadre of gutling shadow giants. Our heroes tear through them without slowing down and ascend the stairs that run along the interior of the great, bile-filled cavern on the first level of the mountain.

Up, up- to the entryway of the next room. A pair of deathbringers awaits them- mighty undead warriors wielding a flail in each hand. The party rushes in, with Alcar unleashing a sizzling burst of positive energy in the form of a mass cure light wounds.

At first there is a great press, as the two deathbringers keep the party from advancing into the room. There is too much of a mass of people trying to push in, and they are locked down. But this lasts only a moment, as Gerontius tumbles in behind the undead and unleashes an amazing sequence of devastating attacks. JJ flies up and over his friends, but the deathbringers keep the choke point choked up.

Then the equation changes a little- as a large chunk of wall shatters and explodes inwards, as a huge serpentine mass of elephantine bones slithers forward. Ribs and legbones rasp across the stone floor as it rears up like a cobra.

“It’s a boneyard!” Alcar cries. “But it’s a big one!”

Striding forward from behind it comes a mighty-looking dire loxo.

“Zere is more than one of zem, mes amies!” Gerontius warns.

A door at the far end of the room opens, and a red-skinned, bull-horned, foul-looking humanoid thing blinks through rheumy eyes at the party.

That’s a deathdrinker- a type of demon, Alcar warns telepathically. It’s got a negative energy aura- if you end up too close to it... His mental missive trails off. Then, explosively, he resumes, Of course, it will also help heal all these undead! Damn it!

The deathdrinker, meanwhile, laughs malevolently as it cracks its knuckles- and then aims a terrifyingly powerful series of scythe attacks at Wankerman. He cries out in surprise at the amount of damage the demon can deal. Its eyes widen at his survival, and it gives another harsh, malicious laugh.

“I am Zarsh, mortals,” the demon gloats. “I shall drink in your death!”

“You think you have what it takes?” sneers Wankerman.

“We defeated the Arrows of Law,” Chakar informs the demon gravely. For an instant, doubt crosses its face.

“Don’t worry, your bosses are on our list, too,” Inoke adds grimly.

***

The Void Master watches as the party approaches, more cautiously this time, and careful to keep to the walkways.

“You have gone far enough,” it tells them as it emerges from hiding. At its gesture, a cloud of inky blackness drops on them.

“This is it!” shouts Lady Janis of Aris. She pulls Fiendbane free of its scabbard with a ringing sound as the group tries to get out of the murky lightlessness without stumbling off the pathways.

The Void Master points again, and a pale green ray shoots from his outstretched fingertip, disintegrating the walkway under the party! They all start to drop, but most can fly, and after a moment of agonizing negative energy exposure, they regain the catwalks.

“You will die,” the Void Master says calmly.

“I don’t think so!” shouts Toofsy. The halfling charges forward and rams her glaive into the Void Master’s leg! An instant later, Lady Janis is on the other side of the thing, hacking wildly with all of her strength.

It greater teleports to the other side of the chamber and fires an enervation bolt at the Thepsa, the planewalker. Negative energy weights him down like lead, and he groans.

The battle rages hard and hot at the bottom of the multiverse.

Next Time: Our heroes continue their assault on Bile Mountain! The Void Master faces off against its foes! Will Orcus rise from the dead? Will Acererak return??


*Only intervention by the pcs stopped him from succeeding. This was all detailed in To War Against Felenga.

 

[the Jester]

Somewhere atop an ice-sheathed mountain, fluttering the weave of the universe with hands of raw entropy, Kale Curi croons to himself.

Once- long ago- he was human.

Now he wears the yellow robes of an Entropic Legionnaire. Long ago, Sariach Entropy broke his mind and twisted his soul. Even the divine influence in his blood- his grandmother, after she died, was revered as a minor goddess- could not save him.

Without Zelman to oppose him, Entropy won out.

Now Kale’s mind is a fractured, torn curtain that barely covers something much deeper, more primordial than thought. His once-towering intellect is now more like a widespread net, catching many things from all corners while letting all the fine details slip through.

Fine details. Like who he is, who he was, who he would be.

An emerald light suddenly gleams, reflected in the ice on his mountaintop, and his hands snap back into claws.

Kale.

***

“Well, zat could ‘ave been ‘arder,” Gerontius says aloud, pulling his dagger from the deathdrinker.

“I’m sure that it will be,” Baron Lillamere smirks.

The party surveys the devastation all around them. Bones from the great boneyard that attacked them are scattered everywhere, crushed, cut, scorched and broken. The corpses of the deathbringers and the deathdrinker take up a large amount of space. The stench of the undead and the demon fills the air.

Our heroes, of course, have smelled far worse. In fact, the stink of demon and undead is actually less unpleasant than the background aroma of bile.

To one side of the room, the collapsed section of wall that the boneyard busted through leads to a hallway. On the other end, a closed door waits. Another hallway also leads from the area, but it is blocked by a portcullis. After a moment or two of poking around, the party settles on the portcullis as being the most promising avenue of exploration.

Alcar’s arms bulge as he single-handedly lifts it up and out of the way.

“I could have done that,” comments Wankerman.

The party passes through. After only about 20’, the passage turns to the right, but at the elbow of the turn there is a door. However, the passage seems to have large areas molten open into caverns right off of it.

Uh oh, Gerontius sends telepathically. There might be more bile oozes in there.* An instant later, he calls out, Movement!

“It is a bile ooze!” Alcar shouts, and casts a trinity of spells: two destructions and a flame strike! The ooze quivers, but is far from destroyed. And before anyone else can act, it spews out an acidic blast that covers Alcar, Blaze and Inoke! All three of them cry out in pain; both Blazier and Alcar are also stunned. To his horror, Blaze’s cloak of charisma melts and dissolves under the onslaught!

Things suddenly get worse when the shadow spider drops on Blaze from above. A moment later, four shadows of the void- terrible undead creatures of raw negative energy- burst into the conflict, and our heroes are fighting for their lives. JJ blasts them with an energy wave for immense damage, but they keep coming.

As he weathers another round of attacks from one of the bile oozes, Inoke suddenly lights up. “I’ve got it!” he exclaims, and initiates iron body. That ought to protect me from being stunned, he thinks, and grins.

***

Bouncing from one end of infinity to the other, back and forth, the turmoil in the Negative Energy Plane continues. It is reaching a fever pitch. The fabric of reality itself is starting to tear apart. The plane cannot sustain such violent motion for much longer without rupturing utterly.

The negative energy storm, outside the Fortress of Conclusion, rages. Slowly, a panel atop the great edifice slides open, and a long, slender arm of crystal extends, like a lightning rod, into the storm.

***

Fiendbane sings as Lady Janis swings again, cutting desperately into the Void Master’s null-flesh. It screams again, the noise swallowed by the raging negative energy storm that swirls all around them. Overhead- though they cannot tell, as it is black on black in a field of blackness- a great ceiling panel slowly slides open. The crystal arm extends into the storm, and swiftly, the negative energy is drawn forward to it. Like a flood of water racing downhill, it rushes to charge the crystalline rod.

The Void Master’s flailing claws tear flesh and spirit. Lady Janis begins to falter. The negative energy running through the place makes the beast seem to swell with power.

“You cannot defeat me!” Its laughter booms through the halls of the Fortress of Conclusion. “But celebrate, mortals- for you shall be the first souls that lord Orcus consumes upon his return!”

“I don’t think so,” Thepsa snarls. She fires another withering beam of eldritch energy at the creature, and it howls in rage again.

Then Toofsy, the halfling barbarian, charges in, her adamantine glaive striking out as swift as a cobra. She takes the Void Master’s leg out from under her. “DIE, you black-hearted bastard!” she roars.

“And let us help!” adds Lady Janis, wincing from the pain of her wounds. Blood and blackness stain the breastplate of her armor. She swings Fiendbane down again and again, and the Void Master tries desperately to concentrate long enough to dimension door away again.

But it cannot.

With Thepsa firing spells to discourage it from focusing, with Toofsy and Lady Janis brutally hacking at it, the Void Master weakens. Inky fluids fly hissing from its form as the heroes hack and cut at it, until, finally, it gives a last, fading wail- and melts into an oily stain.

Lady Janis lifts her blade high, still dripping with the foul ichor of their foe. “HAIL VANDREU!!” she cries. “His will be done!”

Then the entire Fortress of Conclusion shakes, throwing Zarthos off the edge of one of the walkways even as he tries to heal his friends.

With the strength of a tsunami, the negative energy flows through the ‘lightning rod’ above the room and directly into the Wand of Orcus.

***

Outside the bounds of life and death, the helpless vestige of Acererak the Demilich watches. It feels a rush of exaltation as the crystal rod is invested with much of the power of an entire plane.

Yesss, Acererak thinks. Formlessness will be lost. I shall return. And I shall seek revenge on those upstarts that dared travel to my fortress and destroy my Phylactery! He gloats as the energy runs through the shard of his hopes, and slowly he begins to feed on it, gaining power and form with each passing moment.

***

In the guts of Bile Mountain, our heroes rally. With Inoke immunized against the bile ooze’s acidic attack, he is able to bear the brunt of the bile oozes. Meanwhile the others turn to face the shadows of the void, as well as the spider that is trying to eat Blaze’s face. The gnome manages to squirm away from the spider, then casts a quickened shield and a displacement spell- but he can feel the difference in his potency, without his cloak, and he utters a very colorful curse at the bile oozes.

The spider scrabbles to its feet and begins to pursue Blaze, but JJ intervenes, channeling a cold stun with an anarchic surge. It blasts out, destroying the shadow spider.

Meanwhile, the shadows of the void that remain blast at Alcar with polar rays. It is clear that they view him as their primary target; indeed, the angel-cleric is certainly the best equipped to deal with them. However, when Alcar takes both polar rays full in the chest without even slowing down, they flee through the door at the bend in the hallway, moving right through the door without stopping to open it.**

Then another ooze rushes out at Alcar- but unlike the others, this one is run through with blackness. “Look out!” warns Wankerman with a shout.

The angel turns his attention to the newcomer, even as Inoke finishes off one of the bile oozes and whirls to perform a heedless charge on the next. With a roar, he gives it the so-called ‘Inoke Special’- a psionic lion’s charge, going all out, that utterly destroys another of the oozes!

Just when it looks like things are starting to wind down, however, the shadows of the void dart back into the fray, coming out of the walls, and another figure phases up through the ground. Trilaterally symmetric, it is clearly a xorn- but not just any xorn. Wankerman recognizes it. “Watch out, that’s Bennng!” he cries. “That’s one mean xorn elder- it is an interplanar thief and mercenary!”

“Not anymore,” Baron Lillamere cries. “Look, it’s dripping with bile!”

Bennng leads forward and takes a terrific bite out of Wankerman, dealing shocking amounts of damage.***

But the party has had a few moments to unleash some healing on themselves, and now they rally and strike. It takes Alcar only a single volley of spells to put the two shadows of the void down, and then he and Inoke double-team the xorn. Between them, they are two of the mightiest warriors in the cosmos; Bennng is bound to fall. Instead of letting itself be slain, however, it drops back through the floor, phasing away. Immediately, our heroes turn and focus on the shadegut ooze, the last remaining visible opponent, although some focus on it by drawing back and shouting for healing. Once again, his iron body and energy immunity protecting him, Inoke finishes the monster.

Silence falls, broken only by the sound of the party’s panting breath.

“I ‘ave plenty of ‘ealing scrolls and a wand,” Gerontius says, after a moment.

Alcar nods. “Let’s get healed and then go kick some Bile Lord ass!”

Next Time: What will happen on the Negative Energy Plane? Will the xorn return? Where are the Bile Lords, and how will our heroes perform- the Calling Out?


*During their Revenge on Bile Mountain, the pcs encountered several nasty bile oozes that they quickly learned could destroy their items with an acidic spray effect.

**By this time, our heroes have already discovered that opening and closing doors is a free action to many of the creatures in Bile Mountain, but they have not figured out how they do it. The answer lies on page 108-9 of Dungeonscape, for the record- I wasn’t cheating!

***78 points of damage in a single bite. That was 6d8+20 plus 7d6 sneak attack. Ouch!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Hey Jester - no update for a month? What's up, mate?

 

[the Jester]

Hey Jester - no update for a month? What's up, mate?

August sends shockwaves through my life, between my birthday and Burning Man.

I'll be back to it before too long, though. I'd guess I'll update something before the end of September and be back in full swing sometime in October, though this is just a guess. I am also in the midst of some life changes (about to quit my job and attempt to become self-employed). Who knows? I might be on 'low update mode' for a while, we'll see what happens, but I will write the rest of this, never fear!

 

[Seance]

For Bleak's sweet sake, BUMP Jester Friggin' BUMP!!

 

[Rikandur Azebol]

Excellent as usual Jester !

 

[the Jester]

The Calling Out

Our heroes do not relax their collective guard for an instant. Though no more monsters appear immediately, the party is still alert for trouble. They examine one of the hallways that they fought in; it is devastated from the terrific forces unleashed in the combat that just took place. All of the doors out of it- and there are several- are sheathed in walls of force.

“Interesting,” muses Baron Lillamere.

“They’re probably trying to protect something,” Alcar says.

“Or keep something out, maybe,” suggests Lillamere.

Alcar tries to bust through by main strength, but the wall of force rebuffs him. Lillamere casts xorn movement from a scroll, then uses his powers as an argent savant to unravel the wall of force. He pokes his head through- a large cavern, clearly shaped by the bile oozes. He steps cautiously the rest of the way through the cave.

The bile ooze lurking there sprays a terrific splash of acid over him. He screams, staggering back.

Bennng comes up through the ground beneath Lillamere. The baron doesn’t have enough time to react as the xorn’s huge maw crunches down around his waist. The force is terrific, and Lillamere is stunned as it shakes him bodily.

Fortunately for him, the ooze’s caustic spray also dissolves the door; the rest of the party immediately see the situation.

Gerontius backpedals. “You know what to do!” he calls to Inoke and Alcar.*

“I think I’ll let you handle this one,” Inoke says to the angel.

“My job, huh?” Alcar smiles and invokes a miracle, creating a polar ray, and following it up with a bevy of different quickened attack powers. Jibber Junior, unexpectedly, follows him into the breach, unleashing an energy stun, laughing.

“Oh hell,” sighs Inoke, and expands to huge size before lumbering into the fray.

***

At the bottom of the multiverse, on the Negative Energy Plane, the Fortress of Conclusion strains to contain the incredible forces flowing through it, drawn to the Wand of Orcus like iron filings to a magnet. The entire plane is vibrating, ringing like a bell, in a sense. Never before have such forces been agitated to such a fever pitch. Near the borders of the plane of Water, huge slabs of crystallized salt shatter and begin disintegrating as the anti-winds silently howl, tearing down everything they touch. Elsewhere in the nowhere, a long line of powerful incorporeal undead are torn apart by the very vibrations. Anywhere that standing portals exist, the forces at work tear them to pieces as geometries shift.

Within the Fortress of Conclusion itself, the party of planar adventurers clings together, trying not to be torn apart from each other and whipped out into the blackness of the Void as the walls of the Fortress slowly begin to decay and the negative energy without begins to breach within. Zarthos falls, spinning towards the edge- only to be snatched up at the last moment like Kerthrelle. Both of them are nearly spun free from the Fortress by the tremendous forces roaring all around them.

At the center of it all, drawing those forces like a lightning rod, is the Wand of Orcus. Withering power radiates, stronger and stronger from it, causing the very air to ripple. Merely to look at it makes the heroes’ eyes tear, their vision blur. To approach it is to risk death.

“We have to get out of here!” shouts Kerthrelle.

“We can’t just leave that here!” Lady Janis shouts back.

Behind the Wand, in the raging storm of negative energy, a face seems almost to be coalescing.

Zarthos staggers forward towards the apparatus holding the Wand of Orcus in place. The tempest of power flings him away helplessly. He struggles to his feet. “I think it’s time to go,” he calls to his friends.

“Not with that in there!” Lady Janis cries again. She rushes forward with a bellow, lowering her head and putting all of her strength into it. Pushing her way through the resistance, she reaches the apparatus and swings Fiendbane at it with all her might, but her blade rebounds harmlessly. It sizzles and emits foul, blue-black smoke where it hit the device.

With a strangled cry, she drops her blade and thrusts her hand at the Wand of Orcus, grasping it. In the single instant she has before the Wand slays her, she rips it free and casts it down.

Lady Janis of Aris dies, her soul consumed. Yet there is no more noble sacrifice that anyone could have made, ever.

***

Beyond the veil of existence, the echo that is all that remains of Acererak howls silently, helplessly, as the opening that was starting to dilate at the bottom of the multiverse is abruptly severed shut.

So close! the dark spirit rages. I was so close! Only seconds more, and I would have been free again- and I would have been able to achieve my apotheosis, able to become the entire plane and all undead!

Now something terrible is happening. The Negative Energy Plane cannot remain as it was. It is moving, its orbit changing, and the few portals to it that I might reach will not go with it. Until now, I had hope that I might somehow return. Now, the plane itself may disintegrate, or change so much that I cannot even recognize it.

Now- now there is no hope for me!

***

Inside Bile Mountain, the party spends a few moments healing wounds and tending sore spots before they continue looking for their real enemies- the Bile Lords. Since it seems logical that the areas sealed by walls of force hold something valuable or interesting, the party starts checking them out. A couple only hold rubble and debris, but after disintegrating another of the walls of force, the party finds a chamber that is a little bit more interesting.

Dominating the chamber are huge and disturbing paintings on each wall. They seem to depict some sort of mad, yellow-red eye at the center of a web of mystical runes and glyphs. A great deal of rubble is strewn about the chamber. Some of it appears to be the remains of large stone furnishings, such as a bed and a chair. Little blue beetles crawl over the rubble and even on the painted walls.

“Well, this is certainly interesting,” Chakar says. He motions for some of the more arcane-oriented members of the group to examine things.

After a few moments, Lillamere, Alcar and Blaze all come to a startling conclusion. Despite how locked down Bile Mountain is against such things, the runes and magic symbols in the chamber seem to involve divinations. After some deeper examination, they determine that whoever made the runes and glyphs can probably use them to divine inside the room.

That should be okay, though, Lillamere sends across the telepathic link that the party shares. We’re all [/i]mind blanked, right?

“Hell no,” Alcar snorts. “I want these bastards to see me coming.”

“Crap, here, I’ll cast one on you,” Lillamere offers.

“Were you not listening?” Alcar retorts. “In fact...” He turns to face one of the eyes, and glares directly at it. “YOU COWARDS!!” he hollers. “Yeah, I’m talking to YOU!! Come on out and fight us! We ain’t scared of you! In fact, I think you’re scared of us! We killed you once, we’ll do it again!! I EAT COLE SLAW, BITCHES!! Bring it on!! I’M WAITING FOR YOU!!!!” Spittle flies from his mouth as the angel rants. “We’re going to kill all of you, and your damn King of Bile, and your damn Queen of Guts!! SO QUIT WASTING OUR TIME AND GET DOWN HERE!!!”**

“Whoops,” says Blaze.

Alcar turns to his friends with fire in his eyes. “You probably ought to get ready.”

Next Time: Alcar’s Diplomacy!


*The bile oozes do lots of equipment-destruction and stunning, so the party used Alcar because he was immune to acid and Inoke (with iron body he could be immune to con damage and stunning) to destroy them back.

**In my campaign, some characters gain Wyrd over time. Wyrd reduces the severity of critical hits and fumbles on you, and you can spend a Wyrd to have fate step in and lend a hand. Well, since this was the end game, Alcar did just that. Only he turned it up to 11. In the end, this shortened the entire Beyond Bile Mountain adventure considerably, probably by as much as 12 sessions.