Jubilee
First Post
So tonight our party of 4 (14th level Dragon Shaman/Outcast Champion, 14th level Fighter, 14th level Warmage, 14th level Archivist/Combat Medic) stormed Orcus's home on the plane of Thanatos. We had learned that he was preparing a ritual that would kill us upon completion, so we rather urgently had to prevent it. Also, we had this sort of weird magic dagger that needed to be bathed in the waters of a fountain in his throne room that would let us defeat some big bad in our world.
Anyway, we had to fight some monkey-demons followed by some tentacle/fungus demon chicks before we got to him, so the archivist was down about 1/2 of her spells, and the warmage down about 1/4.
The fighter entered first and was immediately commanded by Orcus's rod of commandiness to kneel, and he failed his save and knelt. The warmage, a valenar elf with a very big ego, stepped into the doorway and began to introduce himself. Orcus attempted to force him to kneel, and the warmage resisted, declaring that he knelt to no creature! Well, Orcus was mighty pissed at us by then when the dragon shaman charged, followed by the fighter! *boggle* *sigh* The archivist began to study the ritual-in-progress to disrupt it without killing them all, but before she could finish the preparations, the fighter failed his fortitude save (Orcus's hammer forced fortitude saves or you were instantly dead - otherwise you took 6d6 +15 damage. Joy!), so I had to run over and revify him. Then he had the audacity to fail his save again when he got up and provoked an attack of opportunity!
At this point, the warmage had created a delayed-blasted fireball over the altar, the dragonshaman had mocked Orcus and run towards the entrance, and the archivist began to drag the fighter to the entrance. The fireball goes off, and the warmage runs through the door and closes it. Much hilarity ensued as Orcus realized he had never stood from his throne and had a 20 move - so it took two rounds for him to cross the room. Then the warmaged slowed him down with a few acid fogs (they drop movement to 5" and obscure vision). Luckily, Orcus forgot he could dispel all fog on his plane as a move action for a round, and we were almost to the door.
Then he did his banshee wail thing, and the warmage failed his save. The dragon shaman is now dragging both of them while the archivist prepares to get them through the exit (there was this portal of souls you had to disperse with lobs of lava and move past quickly). Orcus flies up into the air somewhere behind them and they get through. The archivist burns 10 charges on a rod of flame extinquishing to create a temporary bridge over the lava. The two pause to heal the dragon shaman and take stock of the situation - not good.
The archivist has 1 plane-shift, but we knew there was a 1-mile teleport block on the tower, and we were pretty sure by this point Orcus had made plane shifting out of his realm impossible. The dead warmage's player points out that I could make a rope trick and we could get inside and plane shift from there - but we aren't likely to be able to load our dead friends in before Orcus catches up to us, and we'd have to leave our bags of holding behind (the archivist in particular carries ALOT of wands and scrolls she would hate to lose..).
Then the archivist remember we have been carrying around a trapped deity in a very large sapphire. All the archivist really knows is that she's neutral good and that knowledge is one of her portofolios. Previous attempts to communicate with her had been fruitless. However, the situation is now pretty dire, so in a last desperate attempted before Orcus flies down to kill us, the archivist pulls out the sapphire, begs it to open a path for them to flee this place, and promises to do anything if the goddess will save her and her friends.
As Orcus is sweeping down on us, the archivist has a sudden urge to throw the sapphire up in the air. After she does so, the two living party members have to make fortitude saves and fall unconcious. When we wake up later, our two friends are still dead, and we both have one hitpoint. We're still in Thanatos, but the land is totally blasted and there's nothing around. All we find is a mace, which we later learn was Orcus's rod of commandiness.
Evidently, the goddess decided to sacrifice herself and killed Orcus and leveled the area of Thanatos we were in. Anyway, we plane shifted home as quickly as possible)..
It was pretty intense and not a little scary at the end. I didn't really think the goddess-sapphire thing would work.
/ali
ps. I still think 3/4 of the party lost their minds. I mean, who attacks Orcus in his throne room?
Anyway, we had to fight some monkey-demons followed by some tentacle/fungus demon chicks before we got to him, so the archivist was down about 1/2 of her spells, and the warmage down about 1/4.
The fighter entered first and was immediately commanded by Orcus's rod of commandiness to kneel, and he failed his save and knelt. The warmage, a valenar elf with a very big ego, stepped into the doorway and began to introduce himself. Orcus attempted to force him to kneel, and the warmage resisted, declaring that he knelt to no creature! Well, Orcus was mighty pissed at us by then when the dragon shaman charged, followed by the fighter! *boggle* *sigh* The archivist began to study the ritual-in-progress to disrupt it without killing them all, but before she could finish the preparations, the fighter failed his fortitude save (Orcus's hammer forced fortitude saves or you were instantly dead - otherwise you took 6d6 +15 damage. Joy!), so I had to run over and revify him. Then he had the audacity to fail his save again when he got up and provoked an attack of opportunity!
At this point, the warmage had created a delayed-blasted fireball over the altar, the dragonshaman had mocked Orcus and run towards the entrance, and the archivist began to drag the fighter to the entrance. The fireball goes off, and the warmage runs through the door and closes it. Much hilarity ensued as Orcus realized he had never stood from his throne and had a 20 move - so it took two rounds for him to cross the room. Then the warmaged slowed him down with a few acid fogs (they drop movement to 5" and obscure vision). Luckily, Orcus forgot he could dispel all fog on his plane as a move action for a round, and we were almost to the door.
Then he did his banshee wail thing, and the warmage failed his save. The dragon shaman is now dragging both of them while the archivist prepares to get them through the exit (there was this portal of souls you had to disperse with lobs of lava and move past quickly). Orcus flies up into the air somewhere behind them and they get through. The archivist burns 10 charges on a rod of flame extinquishing to create a temporary bridge over the lava. The two pause to heal the dragon shaman and take stock of the situation - not good.
The archivist has 1 plane-shift, but we knew there was a 1-mile teleport block on the tower, and we were pretty sure by this point Orcus had made plane shifting out of his realm impossible. The dead warmage's player points out that I could make a rope trick and we could get inside and plane shift from there - but we aren't likely to be able to load our dead friends in before Orcus catches up to us, and we'd have to leave our bags of holding behind (the archivist in particular carries ALOT of wands and scrolls she would hate to lose..).
Then the archivist remember we have been carrying around a trapped deity in a very large sapphire. All the archivist really knows is that she's neutral good and that knowledge is one of her portofolios. Previous attempts to communicate with her had been fruitless. However, the situation is now pretty dire, so in a last desperate attempted before Orcus flies down to kill us, the archivist pulls out the sapphire, begs it to open a path for them to flee this place, and promises to do anything if the goddess will save her and her friends.
As Orcus is sweeping down on us, the archivist has a sudden urge to throw the sapphire up in the air. After she does so, the two living party members have to make fortitude saves and fall unconcious. When we wake up later, our two friends are still dead, and we both have one hitpoint. We're still in Thanatos, but the land is totally blasted and there's nothing around. All we find is a mace, which we later learn was Orcus's rod of commandiness.
Evidently, the goddess decided to sacrifice herself and killed Orcus and leveled the area of Thanatos we were in. Anyway, we plane shifted home as quickly as possible)..
It was pretty intense and not a little scary at the end. I didn't really think the goddess-sapphire thing would work.
/ali
ps. I still think 3/4 of the party lost their minds. I mean, who attacks Orcus in his throne room?
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
