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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Broccli_Head" data-source="post: 1152448" data-attributes="member: 105">The Heroes vs. The Colossus!West of the Fork near Deadsnows, Early Fall, 1378, Year of the CauldronIt was huge, larger than Benito Moltos had imagined. "We can't defeat this! How are we going to damage it?" he exclaimed. The Companions of the Quest had been summoned once again to do the bidding of Lady Alustriel and the Silver Marches. She had asked/ordered them to investigate reports of a large iron golem that Crimson Patrol outriders had seen rubbling towards the Silver Marches down the Fork Road. They had failed to mention that the "golem" was nearly 200 feet tall. The rest of the companions shook their heads or shrugged their shoulders, except for the usually taciturn Ellysidel who was scanning the feet of the thing as it trudged towards the village of Deadsnows. A few farms and the heroes stood in between. He spotted movement at the construct's feet and took off in that direction while the others continued to argue. "We should be taking care of the situation in Iriaebor!" yelled Aris."No, we should be looking for the rest of the Gatekeeper's Crystal. These odd jobs for the queen distract us from our divine task," responded Benito. "Actually, I think we should protect Twillight Hollow," interjected Ivan"We could use some artillery," mentioned Aris. "Yeah, too bad, Nosr is in love with Silverymoon," added Ivan. Grim had already silently slinked away after Ellysidell. Kyros pointed as the gigantic Iron Golem raised one of its arms and levelled it in their direction. Across the vale they heard the cranking of gears as it rose. Ellysidell looked up as the long shadow of the iron giant crossed his bounding path. His destination was the half-dozen large hairy goblinoids running near the feet of the giant,chasing some villagers and their sheep in these upland pastures. He heard a THWACK! that also echoed off the nearby mountains and saw a huge spear sail way over his head. On the hill where the rest of the companions were discussing options, Kyros was hit square on with a ballista spear. He tumbled down the ridge. "Well, I guess they're  serious," said the cleric. He was about to fly over to where he saw Ellysidell alone clashing with some large humanoids, but then remembered that he had lost his cape in the Ruins of Hellgate Keep. He thought about windwalking, but then realized it would take many precious heartbeats to go in and out of "cloud" form. So he and Aris began to jog towards the feet of the giant golem. Ivan jumped down the hill to check on Kyros who had already broken the shaft and pulled it from his abdomen. "It is a good thing that I am tough," mused the psychic warrior as Ivan helped him to his feet. Then they too were heading towards the metal monstrosity. **In the shadow of the walking hulk, Ellysidell, Chosen of Fenmaril Mestarin clashed with the bugbears. By the time Aris and Benito had arrived, dodging another ballista shot from one giant arm and two volleys of arrows from the other, Ellysidell and Grim had felled two of the six bugbears. "Stormhammers smash puny elf!" one had cried. Ellysidell had nearly decapitated him with Golden-Fire. Grim finished the job. The other one had taken two slashes to the abdomen and a stab in the back from Grim before he fell. Ellysidell engaged the last and together with Aris and his slashing scimitar, Blue Destiny made short work of the goblinoid. The other three, were a bit smarter. Using one of the giant's legs for cover they tossed a thunderstone and two flasks of alchemist's fire at the heroes. It was only an inconvenience. When Benito saw that his targets were clear of Ellysidell and the shadowy halfling, he lay down a flamestrike. One Stormhammer was blown to smithereens while the other two dove and suffered, but not mortally. Aris closed and took off his head. Benito sent a beam of searing light right between its eyes.  Grim began to look for an opening into the Colossus. There, he sent to Ellysidell. The feet have gratings. I am going to try and enter through them."Wait!" cried Ellysidell, but Grim ran forward and tried to squeeze between the bars. Sticking his head in, he saw a gnome. The gnome squealed then ran through and archway. Grim heard a "Whoosh!" and the gnome disappeared. The hafling tried to wriggle through, but impossibly, he became stuck. Ellysidell had followed and tried to wrench him away, but then the giant foot rose. A twenty foot diameter shadow cut off the sun from the wild elf and the iron foot came down with a wet "Smack!"  Grim was thrown free and somersaulted through the pasture. The halfling shook his head, stunned from the impact and saw through his daze that Benito and Aris were running towards the leg that had thrown him clear and were hacking away...ineffectually. Where was Ellysidell? A horror crept over him and he ran forward to see if anything remainedFortunately, for Ellysidell, the ground was wet and muddy. As the giant's foot lifted, Ell raised his head and spat out muck and mud. The foot looked like it was coming down again. He heard Aris yell, "Scatter!" and he clambered to his feet and tried to run away out from under the shadow. So did Benito and Aris. All three were clipped by the massive foot of the colossus and thrown to the ground. Grim slipping and sliding in the mud was caught underneath. However, Tymora favored the ghostwise halfling and his seemingly uncharateristic clumsiness led him into a mudhole. The stomp had been considerably softened, though it still hurt the halfling. Down, but not out yet, he began to dig. Ellysidell ran around to the front of the foot and saw the grating that Grim had tried to writhe through. Before the creature could act he pulled at the bars, tearing two loose from their mountings. Another volley of arrows struck at Kyros and Ivan as they attempted to catch up to the rest. Several spells also came flying out of the hands of the iron colossus or from out of nowhere. A ball of fire landed near Benito and Aris, and the pair were also assaulted by icy painful stones. An unholy flamstrike blasted Ivan and Kyros on their final approach. Grim popped out near the back of the foot, and heard Aris give another command. "Everybody inside! We cannot take too much of this pounding!"Benito added, "This hulk has drivers, and we're going to stop them!" The heroes piled in just as the thing lifted its foot for another massive stomp. "Now what?" questioned Ivan. All the companions were bloody, muddy and dirty and some had burn scars from fire and ice. Grim pointed towards the archway and fumbled with the some levers near the door activating some levitation disks. "Let's go up, then and put and end to this craziness," declared Benito. Ivan and Kyros stayed below while the rest of the group began to rise what they guessed to be the leg of the golem. Halfway up the Benito saw a point of light that came hurtling towards them. "Fire in the hole!" he cried.An explosion rocked their world. Then the disk cut out and the four began to fall back down...</blockquote>

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