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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1547601" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Azzgrat, Part One</strong></p><p></p><p>“I hope this time,” Orion grunted towards Pyrion as the frigid world around them started to spin, “your little device is more accurate!” The gnome ignored the monk’s critique, and merely clutched to Siabrey’s leg, his face greenish.</p><p></p><p>The world about them spun, viciously, causing the gnome to finally lose his stomach... again. Siabrey pulled back in the swirling mists in disgust... now nauseous more from Pyrion’s breakfast covering her boots than the swirling of teleportation.</p><p></p><p>The mists around the party ceased their swimming motion, and lifted away, burned by a bright, reddish sun now dominating the sky. The air around the party seemed clear, and while it stank, it was breathable. On the ground there appeared to be grass even.</p><p></p><p>A fact that made Orion snarl.</p><p></p><p>“We’re off course again!” the monk complained as he searched for the supposed sixty-six minarets and towers of Graz’zt’s palace.It didn’t take long... they dominated the horizon to the party’s left... but seemed at least twenty miles away. More importantly, between the party and Azzgrat lay a massive field of white, that seemed to be moving. The air reeked of salt.</p><p></p><p>The monk gingerly walked to the edge of the field of white, and as he neared, he could hear roaring from its expanse. That alone was enough to convince him it would be wise to not cross it by foot. The jagged nature of its ever-changing surface doubly convinced him.</p><p></p><p>“Um,” he asked, returning from his short hike to the party, “is there any way that we can possibly fly to Graz’zt’s palace? There’s something very large and unpleasant down there in the way.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, I can make people <em>levitate,</em> Tess offered... for quite a long time... about18 minutes. However, they won’t be able to move quickly... hey Aeron? Do you have a spell of flying in your spellbooks?”</p><p></p><p>“Just one second,” the wizard grunted, pulling out one of his large spellbooks. “Hmm... here, yes. I just need some time to prepare it, and memorize the proper incantations... half an hour?”</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know if we have that much time,” Shaun offered. “Say... Tess? In your bag of holding, weren’t there some rather neat boots we stole... ahem... I mean ‘liberated’ off of one of the demon corpses back in Holstean?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes,” the bard said guardedly, “why?” Her eyes were unsure what Shaun meant.</p><p></p><p>“Well, I turned them back in because I had some issues with controlling them, y’know?” the rogue continued. “They made me hover and zip, but too fast for me... damn, never thought I would ever say that.”</p><p></p><p>“They... made you fly?” Siabrey asked in shock. “And you <em>didn’t tell us, and merely put them back in Tess’ bag?!</em>” <em>Dammit! I could have used those for training on how to handle my wings!</em></p><p></p><p>“Yeah. Maybe Orion here has fast enough reflexes to handle them,” Shaun offered. Seeing Siabrey’s scowl, he gave her a grin of apology. “No offense, Siabrey, but if they’re too fast for <em>me</em>, they’re definitely too fast for <em>you</em> to handle, at least on this short of notice.”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>“Hey, am I forgiven?” Shaun asked Siabrey some ten minutes later. “Hey, at least you’re flying in a way,” he added with a smirk.</p><p></p><p>“I get those boots when this is all over,” the fighter said, in her most commanding voice. Carefully she went upward as an air current shoved the rogue underneath her. “Orion, more careful with this flying business!”</p><p></p><p>“Sorry,” the monk said from upfront, still dragging the ropes connected to the levitating party members. With his flying impetus, it had taken them a while to get to speed, but now they flashed through the air at great speed. Fast enough Siabrey didn’t want to think of what would happen if one of them hit the ground. </p><p></p><p>“I was looking at the white fields, and just realized what they were,” Orion called back over the rushing air. “Its a river made of salt! If we’d tried to cross it, likely we would’ve ended up crushed after falling through a crack! The roaring I heard was massive blocks breaking and shifting!”</p><p></p><p>“Good call!” Tess shouted from off to the left. “By the looks of it, we’re going to get to that palace with time to spare! Aeron?” she barked off towards the frightened looking wizard zipping along beside her, “Where do we have to put the staff exactly in his palace? The throne room?”</p><p></p><p>“Uh huh,” the wizard mumbled slightly frightenedly. </p><p></p><p>“Well, where’s the throne room at? You know?”</p><p></p><p>“No clue,” the wizard stammered out, his eyes squeezed shut, “though I’m g...guessing it’s in the middle of his palace! Probably big and ornate. T...throne rooms tend to be like that!” A few seconds later, Tess barely caught the wizard’s voice asking for his mother. She gave him the best reassuring grin she could, only to realize his eyes were still closed.</p><p></p><p>The party flew onward, Orion in the lead, towing the others. Ahead, the palace at Azzgrat loomed larger. Its walls seemed to be made from gleaming ivory, the tops of its towers glowed like platinum and adamantine. Orion, at Tess’ urging, selected the largest dome in the center of the complex, and put brakes on his flying. He slowed, allowing the others to fly ahead and him act as a brake, slowing them down.</p><p></p><p>“Um, hey!?” Tess shouted, looking ahead. With a hand she pointed at two reddish shapes lazily rising from by the massive dome.</p><p></p><p>“Balors!” Siabrey and Orion shouted simulatenously.</p><p></p><p>“Two of them!?” Tess called, unnerved. As she watched, the shapes loomed larger from their approach... still lazily drifting upward on a course perpendicular to the party. They’re lazy course continued... it was apparent that the party hadn’t been spotted for the intruders they were. </p><p></p><p>“Alright! On the count of three, everyone load and blast them with whatever you can, ok?!” Tess shouted. “Orion, can you move really fast again, and then stop to snap us forward, so Siabrey and Vin can get close range?”</p><p></p><p>“I’ll see what I can do!” the monk called back, accelerating forward. As he raced, suddenly he stopped, slinging the party forward.</p><p></p><p>As the party passed directly overhead, Tess let loose a shriek, sending her infamous sonic dart assault forward into one of the balors. Even as the beast cringed, twin columns of fire from heaven thundered down, as Hidalas and Grumki happily found their prayers for flamestrike answered yet again. A frigid blast of cold air leapt from Aeron’s fingers, covering both creatures in layers of frigid frost.</p><p></p><p>Near the end of the arc of the party snapping ahead, both Vin and Siabrey drew their swords, and delivered vicious, sharp assaults as they passed by the stunned beasts. As their blades left the right-most balor, the massive beast’s wings crumpled, and it tumbled several hundred feet onto the hard ground below.</p><p></p><p>The other balor still staggered in the air for a few moments, before Geoffrey and Pyrion, both with daggers drawn, flashed towards it. Pyrion did the correct, planned manuever... he stabbed the balor as he went by. Geoffrey misjudged his angles, however, and slammed full bore into the balor’s head. </p><p></p><p>Sickening cracks leapt up, both from Geoffrey’s shoulder and arm, and the balor’s face. The beast tumbled after its partner, crashing to the ground below, while Geoffrey cartwheeled onwards, conscious and screeching in pain.</p><p></p><p>“Hold on!” Orion shouted, as he sped up again to act as a brake once more. As the party continued its drift towards the central dome of the complex, Orion pulled on Geoffrey’s rope, and Hidalas adjusted till he caught the floating, moaning halfling and proceeded to complete his first <em>healing</em> under <em>levitation</em>.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The party set down some two minutes later on the roof of Graz’zt massive palace, and began to consider the problem of their entry.</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know about you, but jumping in the front door would NOT be my preferred method of getting in,” Siabrey grunted. The slope of the dome was shallow enough that walking on it was no problem, but the dome was nearly 300 feet up... and the levitation magic had worn off.</p><p></p><p>A solid <em>wham</em> echoed in the air, and the party turned to see Orion, grinning, looking at a small dent in the roof. “Adamantine,” the monk announced, before taking another swing, making the slight dent even deeper.</p><p></p><p>“Are you nuts!” Shaun shouted. “That’s adamantine! You’ll break your fists before you break through!”</p><p></p><p>“I bet this thing is ten feet thick!” Siabrey chimed in.</p><p></p><p>“Try twenty,” Orion grinned, punching again. Tess then cleared her throat, and motioned for the monk to move aside. “What?”</p><p></p><p>“If you’re going to do that, I should help,” she said with a grin. The same shriek she had called on that turned the Countess to dust was now focused on the same bit of roof Orion had been striking. The metal seemed to bend, to flex, and shuddered into dust that billowed away. </p><p></p><p>When the dust pall cleared, there was a hole, ten feet across, and ten feet deep, into the roof. With a grin, Orion jumped down into the pit, and began pounding again onto the metal (Using his sundering ability on the roof).</p><p></p><p>“Won’t this attract some attention?” Shaun asked as the clangs and bangs of the monk’s fists continued to crack further and further into the roof. “I meant, call me a rogue, but shouldn’t we be going for subtlety... not banging on the roof of the most guarded chamber?”</p><p></p><p>“What would you have us do? Swing through the front door?” Tess rejoined, and the rogue was forced to shrug... before his jaw dropped.</p><p></p><p>“Um... Tess?”</p><p></p><p>“I told you! This might not be a good plan, but its the best we h-“ the bard started to snap at him, until her eyes followed his finger to the party’s left... and her jaw dropped as well.</p><p></p><p>In the skies, high above, were thousands of small forms, each pinprick drawing closer, as a distant rumble bespoke of thousands of wings beating. It looked as if a swarm of beens or locusts was approaching... yet everyone realized that each of those locusts was likely larger than a man. </p><p></p><p>“Um... guys?” Siabrey said nervously, pointing in the opposite direction. The skies there showed much the same... save the closest pinprick on this side looked orangish... as if wreathed in flames.</p><p></p><p>“Dammit! Orion!” Tess leaned into the pit, now far deeper, “Hurry up! We’ve got company! Lots of company!”</p><p></p><p>“How many? We can take ‘em out!” the monk called back between sundering punches.</p><p></p><p>“Try two armies worth!” Tess yelled down.</p><p></p><p>= = = = = = = = = = = = === == = = == = = = == = == = = =</p><p></p><p>The two balors the party faced were basic balors... and the beasts were crushed under a tidal wave of damage before they could respond. I have to say, their decision to fly to the palace and their tactics in the air were quite smart... save poor Geoffrey, who failed his reflex save and became a projectile himself. He took and inflicted 30 points damage, which merely left him with about 15 left, and killed the balor...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1547601, member: 15043"] [b]Azzgrat, Part One[/b] “I hope this time,” Orion grunted towards Pyrion as the frigid world around them started to spin, “your little device is more accurate!” The gnome ignored the monk’s critique, and merely clutched to Siabrey’s leg, his face greenish. The world about them spun, viciously, causing the gnome to finally lose his stomach... again. Siabrey pulled back in the swirling mists in disgust... now nauseous more from Pyrion’s breakfast covering her boots than the swirling of teleportation. The mists around the party ceased their swimming motion, and lifted away, burned by a bright, reddish sun now dominating the sky. The air around the party seemed clear, and while it stank, it was breathable. On the ground there appeared to be grass even. A fact that made Orion snarl. “We’re off course again!” the monk complained as he searched for the supposed sixty-six minarets and towers of Graz’zt’s palace.It didn’t take long... they dominated the horizon to the party’s left... but seemed at least twenty miles away. More importantly, between the party and Azzgrat lay a massive field of white, that seemed to be moving. The air reeked of salt. The monk gingerly walked to the edge of the field of white, and as he neared, he could hear roaring from its expanse. That alone was enough to convince him it would be wise to not cross it by foot. The jagged nature of its ever-changing surface doubly convinced him. “Um,” he asked, returning from his short hike to the party, “is there any way that we can possibly fly to Graz’zt’s palace? There’s something very large and unpleasant down there in the way.” “Well, I can make people [i]levitate,[/i] Tess offered... for quite a long time... about18 minutes. However, they won’t be able to move quickly... hey Aeron? Do you have a spell of flying in your spellbooks?” “Just one second,” the wizard grunted, pulling out one of his large spellbooks. “Hmm... here, yes. I just need some time to prepare it, and memorize the proper incantations... half an hour?” “I don’t know if we have that much time,” Shaun offered. “Say... Tess? In your bag of holding, weren’t there some rather neat boots we stole... ahem... I mean ‘liberated’ off of one of the demon corpses back in Holstean?” “Yes,” the bard said guardedly, “why?” Her eyes were unsure what Shaun meant. “Well, I turned them back in because I had some issues with controlling them, y’know?” the rogue continued. “They made me hover and zip, but too fast for me... damn, never thought I would ever say that.” “They... made you fly?” Siabrey asked in shock. “And you [i]didn’t tell us, and merely put them back in Tess’ bag?![/i]” [i]Dammit! I could have used those for training on how to handle my wings![/i] “Yeah. Maybe Orion here has fast enough reflexes to handle them,” Shaun offered. Seeing Siabrey’s scowl, he gave her a grin of apology. “No offense, Siabrey, but if they’re too fast for [i]me[/i], they’re definitely too fast for [i]you[/i] to handle, at least on this short of notice.” “Hey, am I forgiven?” Shaun asked Siabrey some ten minutes later. “Hey, at least you’re flying in a way,” he added with a smirk. “I get those boots when this is all over,” the fighter said, in her most commanding voice. Carefully she went upward as an air current shoved the rogue underneath her. “Orion, more careful with this flying business!” “Sorry,” the monk said from upfront, still dragging the ropes connected to the levitating party members. With his flying impetus, it had taken them a while to get to speed, but now they flashed through the air at great speed. Fast enough Siabrey didn’t want to think of what would happen if one of them hit the ground. “I was looking at the white fields, and just realized what they were,” Orion called back over the rushing air. “Its a river made of salt! If we’d tried to cross it, likely we would’ve ended up crushed after falling through a crack! The roaring I heard was massive blocks breaking and shifting!” “Good call!” Tess shouted from off to the left. “By the looks of it, we’re going to get to that palace with time to spare! Aeron?” she barked off towards the frightened looking wizard zipping along beside her, “Where do we have to put the staff exactly in his palace? The throne room?” “Uh huh,” the wizard mumbled slightly frightenedly. “Well, where’s the throne room at? You know?” “No clue,” the wizard stammered out, his eyes squeezed shut, “though I’m g...guessing it’s in the middle of his palace! Probably big and ornate. T...throne rooms tend to be like that!” A few seconds later, Tess barely caught the wizard’s voice asking for his mother. She gave him the best reassuring grin she could, only to realize his eyes were still closed. The party flew onward, Orion in the lead, towing the others. Ahead, the palace at Azzgrat loomed larger. Its walls seemed to be made from gleaming ivory, the tops of its towers glowed like platinum and adamantine. Orion, at Tess’ urging, selected the largest dome in the center of the complex, and put brakes on his flying. He slowed, allowing the others to fly ahead and him act as a brake, slowing them down. “Um, hey!?” Tess shouted, looking ahead. With a hand she pointed at two reddish shapes lazily rising from by the massive dome. “Balors!” Siabrey and Orion shouted simulatenously. “Two of them!?” Tess called, unnerved. As she watched, the shapes loomed larger from their approach... still lazily drifting upward on a course perpendicular to the party. They’re lazy course continued... it was apparent that the party hadn’t been spotted for the intruders they were. “Alright! On the count of three, everyone load and blast them with whatever you can, ok?!” Tess shouted. “Orion, can you move really fast again, and then stop to snap us forward, so Siabrey and Vin can get close range?” “I’ll see what I can do!” the monk called back, accelerating forward. As he raced, suddenly he stopped, slinging the party forward. As the party passed directly overhead, Tess let loose a shriek, sending her infamous sonic dart assault forward into one of the balors. Even as the beast cringed, twin columns of fire from heaven thundered down, as Hidalas and Grumki happily found their prayers for flamestrike answered yet again. A frigid blast of cold air leapt from Aeron’s fingers, covering both creatures in layers of frigid frost. Near the end of the arc of the party snapping ahead, both Vin and Siabrey drew their swords, and delivered vicious, sharp assaults as they passed by the stunned beasts. As their blades left the right-most balor, the massive beast’s wings crumpled, and it tumbled several hundred feet onto the hard ground below. The other balor still staggered in the air for a few moments, before Geoffrey and Pyrion, both with daggers drawn, flashed towards it. Pyrion did the correct, planned manuever... he stabbed the balor as he went by. Geoffrey misjudged his angles, however, and slammed full bore into the balor’s head. Sickening cracks leapt up, both from Geoffrey’s shoulder and arm, and the balor’s face. The beast tumbled after its partner, crashing to the ground below, while Geoffrey cartwheeled onwards, conscious and screeching in pain. “Hold on!” Orion shouted, as he sped up again to act as a brake once more. As the party continued its drift towards the central dome of the complex, Orion pulled on Geoffrey’s rope, and Hidalas adjusted till he caught the floating, moaning halfling and proceeded to complete his first [i]healing[/i] under [i]levitation[/i]. The party set down some two minutes later on the roof of Graz’zt massive palace, and began to consider the problem of their entry. “I don’t know about you, but jumping in the front door would NOT be my preferred method of getting in,” Siabrey grunted. The slope of the dome was shallow enough that walking on it was no problem, but the dome was nearly 300 feet up... and the levitation magic had worn off. A solid [i]wham[/i] echoed in the air, and the party turned to see Orion, grinning, looking at a small dent in the roof. “Adamantine,” the monk announced, before taking another swing, making the slight dent even deeper. “Are you nuts!” Shaun shouted. “That’s adamantine! You’ll break your fists before you break through!” “I bet this thing is ten feet thick!” Siabrey chimed in. “Try twenty,” Orion grinned, punching again. Tess then cleared her throat, and motioned for the monk to move aside. “What?” “If you’re going to do that, I should help,” she said with a grin. The same shriek she had called on that turned the Countess to dust was now focused on the same bit of roof Orion had been striking. The metal seemed to bend, to flex, and shuddered into dust that billowed away. When the dust pall cleared, there was a hole, ten feet across, and ten feet deep, into the roof. With a grin, Orion jumped down into the pit, and began pounding again onto the metal (Using his sundering ability on the roof). “Won’t this attract some attention?” Shaun asked as the clangs and bangs of the monk’s fists continued to crack further and further into the roof. “I meant, call me a rogue, but shouldn’t we be going for subtlety... not banging on the roof of the most guarded chamber?” “What would you have us do? Swing through the front door?” Tess rejoined, and the rogue was forced to shrug... before his jaw dropped. “Um... Tess?” “I told you! This might not be a good plan, but its the best we h-“ the bard started to snap at him, until her eyes followed his finger to the party’s left... and her jaw dropped as well. In the skies, high above, were thousands of small forms, each pinprick drawing closer, as a distant rumble bespoke of thousands of wings beating. It looked as if a swarm of beens or locusts was approaching... yet everyone realized that each of those locusts was likely larger than a man. “Um... guys?” Siabrey said nervously, pointing in the opposite direction. The skies there showed much the same... save the closest pinprick on this side looked orangish... as if wreathed in flames. “Dammit! Orion!” Tess leaned into the pit, now far deeper, “Hurry up! We’ve got company! Lots of company!” “How many? We can take ‘em out!” the monk called back between sundering punches. “Try two armies worth!” Tess yelled down. = = = = = = = = = = = = === == = = == = = = == = == = = = The two balors the party faced were basic balors... and the beasts were crushed under a tidal wave of damage before they could respond. I have to say, their decision to fly to the palace and their tactics in the air were quite smart... save poor Geoffrey, who failed his reflex save and became a projectile himself. He took and inflicted 30 points damage, which merely left him with about 15 left, and killed the balor... [/QUOTE]
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