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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 587223" data-attributes="member: 150">The Battle for the Herald of AshardalonFirst, there was a surprise. The Goonies were sitting around the Mangy Pup, an Inn that Solen had selected for its economy and proximity to the Dyvers halls of government.  Before them was a map of the countryside, a string of small towns marked with black X’s, tracing the path of the flying ship as it raised dead in droves and destroyed one village after another, making it’s slow way to Dyvers.   The Goonies had been at this for days – trying to find a strategy that would cut down on the danger that they were facing.  There were various ideas being bandied about – some of them more crackpot that others, but in the end it seemed that they had a workable plan – and with the Giant Owls get them to the ship it seemed like it just might work.   While they were chewing their fingernails, waiting for it to become time to attack the ship, news started to trickle in to the tavern of a man who had walked right out of the harbor – walked out of the water and up onto the quay, then in to the city.  He was supposed to be bronze-skinned – not like he had a tan, but a very metallic cast to his skin.   And, shortly, after they heard about this, the bronze man walked into the tavern.  Pah, Eli, Irk, and Uri recognized him immediately, despite the changes he had gone through.  It was Norham, their old adventuring companion.  Still a bit damp, and with skin that looked like Bronze that needed a bit of a polish, he walked into the tavern common room and approached the table where the Goonies were standing.  “But you’re dead!” said Pah.Norham smiled enigmatically.  “Nope.”Irk looked at Norham mistrustfully.  “How?”Norham beamed.  “Mystery and magic.  Mystery and magic.”“Bollocks,” said Irk.  Oathbreaker, his talking axe, agreed with him.  Uri tried to get him to spill.  “Really, Norham, how can you be here?“Norham.  Yes, that’s what I was called.  That was my name.”Uri grimaced.  “This all sounds vaguely familiar . . . “Norham went on.  “I come to you now, at the turn of the tide . . .”“I don’t know,” said Uri.  “I still say I’ve heard all this before . . .”Norham’s story was an odd one indeed – when he fell from the blue dragon’s maw into the Nyr Dyv he was rescued, underwater, by a Bronze dragon named Ham El Ton.  Ham the dragon took him to an underwater lair, where he infused Norham with some of his own essence – Norham became Half dragon.  Then Norham was taken to a council of Metallic Dragons.  At least that’s what he said.  The Goonies didn’t believe much of what he was saying, despite the bronze cast to his skin.  He claimed that the Metallic dragons were watching them – that they were aware of the rise of the chromatic dragons, the dragonfaith, and the one called Sear especially.  They were waiting for heroes to arise – as they have always done in ages past – and all of the portents point to the Goonies – but that left the Dragons very confused.  The Goonies didn’t act much like the heroes of times past, and the dragons found that troubling.  They needed an emissary to go to the party – one who would be familiar to the party, who could get their attention and convince them that they had an important role to play in the world.  But, as it turned out, the new, Bronze-skinned Norham was no more convincing and evocative than the previous one – perhaps the infusion of Dragon essence did not include any sort of diplomatic ability.    Still, the band of pseudo-heroes were happy to have another cleric along for the ride when they faced off with a flying ship full of Undead, and accepted Norham for his willingness to fight at their side, even if they didn’t want to listen to him preach much about heroism and the struggle against the elements of evil rising in the world.  They returned to their scheming, and planned their attack.The BattleThe day finally came, and the Goonies suited up, most mounted up on the Giant Owls that had arrived to carry them to battle, while Ulric shapechanged into an eagle, and Crys polymorphed into a sparrow.  They were as ready as they were going to get.They elected to attack by day, and managed to catch most of the undead on the ship hiding away from the sun.  The Goonies were joined by the five Fangs of the Dragon, the elite dragon-riders of the Dragon Faith.  The five dragonfaith warrior priests, on their red dragon mounts, were an intimidating sight, until they came into view of the Herald, and its escort of two white dragons, both older and larger than the small reds that the Fangs rode into battle.  Still, the Fangs peeled off and engaged the two whites in an aerial battle that took them away from the Herald, leaving the slow-moving ship without escort.The Goonies climbed high, and them approached the ship with the sun at their backs, using the bright light to hide their approach – a tactic that prevented the figures on deck from spotting the approach of the Goonies until they were right on top of the ship.  Then the battle began in earnest.  The plan was to take over the Spelljammer chair and the control of the ship – and to that end they concentrated their boarding on the stern of the ship, where a lone figure paced back and forth behind Anathe himself, who was at the helm. As they closed with the ship the figure on the poop deck disappeared (Redbone, the Wight assassin from Nightfang Spire, cast Improved Invisibility on herself). But there wasn’t time for Anathe to do more than yell for help as the Goonies hit the deck and went to work.  Uri and his new cohort, a halfing cleric named Geiger, stayed on an Owl, circling the ship and casting spells to support the fighting on the ship.  Eli and the new Bronze Norham did the same, providing their support for those who boarded the ship and engaged the enemy. The boarding party moved quickly to isolate Anathe.  The foredeck was the nest and post of the handful of Girallons that traveled with Gulthias – and on the main deck stood Mr. Stitches, the half-dragon flesh golem, two normal golems, and the Tombstone golem.  Golems and Girallons moved quickly to try to move to protect Anathe, but quick spellcasting blocked their path – a potent mix of Web, Wall of Thorns, and then Evard’s Black tentacles slowed things down considerably.  Irk jumped down from his Giant Owl mount and moved quickly to stand before Anathe, who was torn between his desire to stay in the chair and pilot the ship, although it meant taking terrible risks.  Irk pounded on him mercilessly, and Anathe finally had to give up the chair and try to protect himself, only to be jumped from behind by Pah, who attacked him from the poop deck, above and behind him, slipping a locking garrote around his neck.  Anathe failed to cast a spell in time to save himself, and collapsed.  Redbone, the invisible Wight assassin, had been holding back, studying Irk so that she could make her death attack when she had an opening, but when Anathe was clearly in such great trouble, attacked by the halfling from behind and the dwarf  in front, she stepped up and delivered a devastating sneak attack to Pah.  Pah turned, and tried to defend herself, but would not have lasted long had Ulric not saved the day.  Ulric, himself invisible, shape shifted again from half-elven form into his polar bear shape, and then started to sweep his great paws about, looking for the Assassin.  A few lucky blows dragged the struggling Wight into a painful bear hug – a hug that threatened Ulric with the Wight’s energy drain every round, but eliminated his advantage for being invisible.While Ulric was doing that, the little sparrow that was Crys shaped changed back into her natural form and took Anathe’s place in the Spelljammer chair.  Once there she put the Goonie’s secret plan into effect.She started a laborious roll, turning the ship over slowly, while disabling the magic that would keep passengers from falling off the ship. The heavy golems started to slide a bit, while the girallons used their extra limbs to grab for handholds as the ship turned.  Further forward, a pair of night hags had stepped out of the forecastle and had taken an interest in the Goonies that were circling the Herald offering ranged spell and bow support to the boarding party.   Their best effort was a pair of ray of enfeeblement spells that they cast on the Giant Owl that was bearing Bronze Norham.  The spells robbed the Owl of almost all of its strength, and it could no longer carry Norham and stay airborne.  The two began to fall.  Norham, hoping someone would get to him soon, jumped off the falling Owl, which was then able to slip into a slide that would allow it to land safely.  But Norham was still falling.Eli, seeing Norham in trouble, tucked his Owl into a power dive, and managed to catch up to Norham before he picked up too much falling speed.  His owl snatched him out of the air, a claw on each upper arm, and the now-laden owl began the long climb up towards the Herald’s elevation. As they flew up, creatures began to fall past them, some screaming.  On Deck.The Deck of the Herald was a mess – the combined effects of the Web, Evard’s Tentacles, and the Wall of Thorns, made it difficult for the Golems and Girallons to get to the heroes who had taken over the Poop Deck and the Spelljammer Chair.  A few of the girallons managed to push through the mess and get to the party, but Irk handled them quickly.  Mr. Stitches, frustrated with his inability to fight through the web and thorns faster, used his dragon breath weapon to try to burn a path – it cleared a lot of the web and the last few tentacles, but the wall of thorns was made of sterner stuff.One Girallon was in the rigging, swinging from mast to mast to get to the stern of the ship while avoiding the spells on deck.  Then Crys’s roll started to happen, and things got interesting quickly.  Pah and Ulric were still on the poop deck, behind the Spelljammer Chair, trying to do something about Redbone.  Just as Crys turned the ship into it’s roll, Ulric, in Bear form, managed to get a grapple on the Wight – which threatened to drain him levels each round – then took advantage of the shifting deck, and leapt overboard into the open sky, still holding Redbone.  Redbone swore a blue streak in undercommon.  Ulric let go, pushed away from the Wight and shapeshifted into an Eagle, but was not able to get himself oriented in time to avoid a clumsy crash into the ground, where he landed with a terrible crash, just a few seconds after Redbone landed.The Herald continue to turn, shifting until had turned completely upside down.  The Girallons, all six limbs grasping at rail and rope and the last shreds of web and thorn, were mostly able to cling to the ship, but the less agile Golems were not able to get a grip and hold on, and started falling.  The tombstone Golem in particular was having trouble.  When the deck had started to shift, it had moved to the mast and held on for dear life.  But by the time the ship was inverted the massive stone construct was sliding towards the top of the mast, breaking away ropes and stays that had never been designed to hold its weight.  Then, with a final snap of one last line, it was falling. Irk did not waste any time worrying about the ship’s orientation.  Wearing his slippers of spider climb, he had moved to the side of the ship – over the rail and actually stood on the underside of the ship while it was on it’s side – and put Oathbreaker to work in a way the axe had never really been intended.  He started to chop wood like mad.The surviving Girallons and Flesh Golems were clinging to the side rails of the ship, where they had slipped when the ship had started to turn.  Irk moved along the rail, chopping it away with powerful axe strokes.  The first victim of his woodcraft was Mr. Stitches, who screamed “NOT AGAIN” as his last handhold was chopped away and he, too, fell to the earth.  Irk moved down the rail, cutting it away, sending the surviving Girallons and Flesh Golems after Mr. Stitches.  Ulric, on the ground, had been nearly killed by the fall.  He struggled to catch his breath, thankful that the improved invisibility he was wearing kept him relatively safe from the badly wounded Golems that were shuffling around where they had fallen, looking for something to bash.  As more Golems and Girallons fell, those on the ground were hard pressed to avoid being struck by falling monsters.Crys continued to turn the ship as fast as she could, turning it up on it’s end, in a power climb, trying to shake the last few of the creatures on the outside of the ship off.  Geiger, the hapless halfling cleric who had recently signed on to Uri’s service, was desperately clinging to ropes and rails, holding on for dear life as the ship turned and cavorted.  While the ship was tying it self in knots, Eli, Uri and Norham were having their own bit of fun with the night hags.  The hags shapeshifted into gargoyles when the ship started to turn over, then took off and started chasing Eli and Uri’s Owls around, while Uri and Eli tried to defend themselves.  The Hags peppered Uri with Magic Missiles – nearly killing him.  Uri was forced to allow himself to fall from his mount, playing dead, and count in his feather fall to save him once he hit the ground.   He had made a good accounting of himself against the hags, though, and that made it possible for Eli to finish them – Eli had been shooting at the Hags for all he was work, needing to score criticals to actually do damage because of the Hags’ damage resistance.  In the end, though, Eli managed to evade the Hags long enough to shoot them out of the air.  While the Hags and Eli and Uri were swirling around each other, poor Norham was still clutched in the Owl’s claws.  Norham was caught up in such a way that he was unable to move his arms to cast spells, so he wasn’t able to do more than shout encouragement to Eli.  Eli offered several times to drop Norham off on the ship, but Norham refused.But, once the Hags were dealt with, Norham reconsidered.  The ship was still flying straight up into the sky, and the decks had been cleared.  Irk and Pah were moving towards the open hatch to the lower decks, where the undead who were sensitive to sunlight were hiding – the vampires, including Gulthias.  Norham, finally seeing the chance to join the fight against the great undead, ordered Eli and Eli’s owl to drop him off at the hatch – an order which amounted to having Norham tossed into the hatch, as the Owl had to do it while flying by.  Norham was tossed into the hatch, and he fell to the end of the main hold compartment that was oriented down at that moment.  There, in the hold, he found himself surrounded by a half-dozen Morghs.On the ground, Ulric patched himself a up a bit, and work on finishing off the golems and Girallons that were not killed by the fall.  When Uri arrived, falling the last few feet as gently as a feather, he Joined Ulric in that effort.Pah and Irk, seeing Norham tossed unceremoniously into the hold, yelled for Crys to return the ship to it’s normal orientation and entered the hold to try to help Norham.  Once the ship was level again, Geiger shrugged his way out of the ropes and raced forward to help.Floating in the center of the hold was the heart, a huge black flaming organ the size of a wagon.  Its oppressive power seemed to dim the sunlight that drifted into the hold from above.Once in the hold, they found things had gone very badly for Norham – there were bits of him all over the hold, blood streaking the walls in odd patterns as the ship had turned and twisted back to level.  The remaining morghs and vampire spawn turned to face Pah and Irk.  As Irk and Pah started to go to work, Geiger stuck his head into the hold from above, turning undead for all he was worth, but the power of the heart bolstered the strength of the Morghs, and they were not turned.  As the fight in the hold moved on, Irk slashing Oathbreaker through the Morghs like so much wheat, Gulthias himself emerged from the Heart, and made a quick movement towards Pah.  He gazed into her eyes, batten an eyelash, and in a heartbeat she was his to command. He sent her into a back room, then engaged Irk.  Gulthias’s toe to toe fight with Irk lasted a few rounds.  Oathbreaker was singing some obscure dwarven battle aria while Irk slash and feinted at the vampire, forcing him back a step at a time.  Finally, it became clear to Gulthias that he could not continue the fight – and, as much as he hated to give up on centuries of work on the heart, he would have to leave it behind if he were to survive.  But he wouldn’t leave open handed.  He ducked into the back room a few steps ahead of Irk, called Pah into his arms, and the two teleported out of the ship.  Irk charged into the room after Gulthias in time to see the vampire and his halfling thrall disappear in a wink.  Irk slumped to one knee.  Oathbreaker spoke for both of the.  “Pussy.”AftermathWhat was left was a little mopping up.  Uri and Ulric had finished of those that fell to the ground and returned to the ship.  Irk and Oathbreaker returned to the main part of the hold and saw the heart.  A few rounds after Gulthias made his getaway the flame on the heart winked out for some reason none could fathom, but Irk took it as the opportunity he needed to vent his frustrations on the heart itself, hacking it into tiny bits.  As the Goonies gathered on deck, and everyone got up to speed on Norham’s death and the abduction of Pah, they saw a lone red dragon, bearing the two surviving Fangs of the Dragon, limping back towards Dyvers after their battle with the White Dragons.  The ship itself was a mess – bits of web and thorn remained, much of the deck had been badly burned by Mr. Stitches’ breath weapon, and then there was the rail and spars that Irk had hacked away to cut Girallons and golems loose.  The ship would take a lot of repair before it would be the Mystery Machine again.</blockquote>

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