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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4215382" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Cannibal Problem“I thought we took care of all of these that were close to Var and Brelana,” remarks Baron Lillamere. “They must move around. They are Chaos phenomena,” Alcar points out.The party is staring at a large worm hole. Some time ago, they fought a band of giants led by Fnogghi Chaos-Hand, who had performed a terrible ritual that opened a plethora of gates to Limbo through which a series of immensely-powerful Chaos Worms had come to Cydra. This was one of Chaos’ methods of waging the Great War of Ethics, and- had our heroes not interfered with it- it could have dealt Law a mighty blow. But our heroes slew some of the worms, closed some of the gates and overthrew Law themselves. Now the worms are only a threat to the people of Dorhaus- and everywhere else, really- with no redeeming features.“Isn’t there some way that we can redirect the worm gates to the plane of Law or something?” Sybele pipes up.“Yeah, we should put that on the list,” JJ says.The party casts a suite of buffing spells and descends into the worm hole. They are several miles outside of Var- and, indeed, in the past they had used Orbius’ divinations to verify that they had closed all the worm gates close to the city.  Clearly, the situation is more fluid than they had counted on.Descending down the hole, the party glows with magical light. They can see the churned earth on all sides. When there are minor obstructions, the party removes them almost effortlessly. After a good half mile, they emerge in a huge cavern with a huge worm curled up in it. Immediately, Thrush, Gerontius Wankerman and Chakar rush to close the distance and engage it.Bahgerah draws out a cube that he has not previously revealed, moves to a better vantage point and presses a face of the cube. Suddenly a force field springs into being around him! Lillamere cocks an eyebrow; he recognizes the device as a cube of force due to his long fascination with, and study of, force effects. I’d love to buy that off of him, the baron thinks, shape changing into a red dragon and breathing a tremendous gout of flame on the colossal worm. Alcar hits the beast with a quickened destruction and then a flame strike. Blaze follows up with a pair of fireballs. It’s a terrific amount of firepower, but the worm just rushes forward at Bahgerah. Fortunately for the tabaxi, his cube of force protects him from its attack. Chakar kicks it as it rebounds-And it splits in two. “Oh no!” shouts Sybele. “We’ve fought these things before! Don’t hit it!! We’ll only make more of them!!”“This might still work, though!” Alcar cries, casting first another destruction and then a quickened destruction! The worm survives his assault.And then it’s a confused mess. Our heroes try to stick to energy attacks, try to watch to see what works against the worms and what doesn’t- and it is a learning experience. Lillamere is sad to discover that force-based attacks, such as his crushing fist of spite, will split them... and soon our heroes are fighting for their lives against four worms. Chakar tries to wrestle one of them down, but it is too big for even his uncanny skills. Fortunately, both Blaze and Baron Lillamere have a wealth of spells that seem to work better- fire, cold and lightning. These don’t seem to split the worms, but they do help kill them. Unfortunately, mistakes are made, and there is yet another split. Things begin to look desperate, but then Sybele drops two of them with a breath of the black dragon, giving the party heart. They redouble their efforts, and manage to put an end to the worm-cum-worms at last. Afterwards, as they heal up and prepare to exit the worm hole, Gerontius remarks, “If one of zese got free somewhere, a group of adventurers zat did not know any better could double their trouble very easily.”“You’re right,” Thrush says. “We need to take care of this.”“Along with everything else,” Sybele nods.***Back to Var, and our heroes check out the area where the radiocrystal golems that attacked Bahgerah came from. The hole they emerged from is pretty much filled in. “No problem,” says Baron Lillamere. His shape change is still in effect; he turns into a xorn and simply swims through the earth to check the passage out. He returns a few moments later and reports, “It’s blocked up for at least 100 yards.”“Put it on the list,” suggests Wankerman.“It’s already there,” replies Blaze.“Well, don’t cross it off just yet.”***Next, our heroes decide to check up on the cannibal situation that Lillamere heard about. They wind walk, first to the west coast of Dorhaus and then further, out to sea. The day is brilliant and clear, with the sun burning bright in the sky above. The blue-green waters of the ocean shimmer and dance below them as the party passes overhead at breakneck speed. Even with their great speed, though, it takes hours before they spot the cannibal fleet- but as it slowly resolves into form as it closes the distance, it becomes apparent that it is huge. There are ships scattered from left to right as far as our heroes can see. There are quite a few of them, JJ says telepathically.Yeah, agrees Lillamere. We should take a prisoner and fight out what has them mobilized like this. It has to be something. There has to be a reason. Nobody would do this just because.The baron’s right, Sybele chimes in over the link.It’s a fairly easy proposition for our heroes to drop back into their solid forms and then grab a hapless native and teleport away with him. Alcar uses his holy magic to induce awe in the cannibal, and Chakar’s ability to speak all tongues proves handy. The cannibal’s story is simple and grim: Hextor has come to the Cannibal Islands, and most of the cannibals have fled. He has a bit more to say, but nothing that Blaze is really interested in. The sorcerer kills the prisoner with a phantasmal killer. Pretty much nobody finds that appropriate. The party has a quick heated discussion about the ethics of handling prisoners, but Blaze justifies his action by pointing out that they would have had to fight the cannibal eventually, and besides, he wasn’t exactly a prisoner; he never surrendered, and the party never offered him terms. It’s a bit of a legalistic approach for a champion of Chaos to take, but it (eventually) mollifies the others, although Chakar insists on paying a weregild for the man’s life when they return the body to the cannibal fleet. The cannibals are left with a puzzle, a corpse and 1000 gp. They aren’t quite sure what to make of this, especially as our heroes make a lightning-swift series of minor attacks on the lead cannibals. But there are too many of them for a wall of fire and some fireballs to really slow down; their vessels extend for many miles.A quick teleport back to Var, and our heroes discuss their options. “We need to get creative,” Blaze says. “There are too many of them for a brute force approach to work.”“At least, to work quickly,” Thrush amends with a grin.  “Bah!” Alcar snorts. “These cannibals are a distraction from our real task- dealing with this Hextor, and his companion. Angels of the Apocalypse are no laughing matter.”“I’ve been giving that some thought,” Baron Lillamere says, “and I think...” He looks at the others meaningfully. “I think we need Inoke.”Next Time: Will our heroes take Inoke back? Will Inoke take our heroes back? Will they kill each other? And what’s the cannibal solution??</blockquote>

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