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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
JollyDoc's Shackled City
- Thread starter JollyDoc
- Start date
Some more relevant details:
1) One PC died before the actual encounter with the Lich Cleric. This PC died in a very humiliating and ironic way. Amusement guaranteed*.
2) One PC died in combat with the Lich thanks to a slay living.
3) One PC nearly died in combat with the Lich thanks to harm followed by an AoO that sent him into negatives.
*Amusement not guaranteed.
1) One PC died before the actual encounter with the Lich Cleric. This PC died in a very humiliating and ironic way. Amusement guaranteed*.
2) One PC died in combat with the Lich thanks to a slay living.
3) One PC nearly died in combat with the Lich thanks to harm followed by an AoO that sent him into negatives.
*Amusement not guaranteed.
JollyDoc
Explorer
Yes, friends and neighbors, the fun never stops in the Abyss. BTW, everyone is neglecting to mention the addition of a NEW PC, and no, he's not being introduced because an old PC died. This an actual bonafide new player which has joined our group. His character will be intro'd very soon. Stay tuned.
Neverwinter Knight
First Post
Well, those are some good news!!! I'll guess the new PC is more or less of a fighting class.
Lela
First Post
I'm betting Monk. And not because of the Anime. When he got there you already had a healer, a tank, an arcanist, and a rogue-type. He was free to branch out into the Other catagory.
Now, I'm wondering how comfortable/familiar/accepting of the BoED he is. Because, with this group, Vow of Poverty isn't a bad move, especially for a Monk. Combine with Vow of Peace and the nonlethal Monk would get along with Caine very well.
I can just see them getting close together. Suddenly their auras interact and they look around for the other. It's Highlander without swords.
Now, I'm wondering how comfortable/familiar/accepting of the BoED he is. Because, with this group, Vow of Poverty isn't a bad move, especially for a Monk. Combine with Vow of Peace and the nonlethal Monk would get along with Caine very well.
I can just see them getting close together. Suddenly their auras interact and they look around for the other. It's Highlander without swords.
Last edited:
Joachim
First Post
WELCOME TO THE CATHEDRAL OF FEATHERS
With a flash of light, Jules appeared within sight of a large, crumbling structure, obviously a large temple of some sort. The lantern archon drifted slowly to the ground, depositing Kauraphon’s Bag of Holding onto the ground. The bag opened, and Kauraphon, Rusty, Wathros, and Tilly exited from the bag. “Wait here,” the archon intoned, “and I shall return with my master and the half-ogre.” The archon flashed, and disappeared with the bag. Less than twenty seconds later, he reappeared with the bag, and Grimm and Caine climbed out.
Kauraphon chuckled. “We should have been using that trick all along. It is remarkable, Caine, that you have such a creature as your servant.” Caine, without any hesitation, responded, “He is not my servant…he is my companion and my friend. His company has given me much solace as we have walked the earth together.” The half-fiend shook his head and smirked in amused bewilderment. Jules had certainly made returning Grimm and Tilly to the group much easier. Why Caine would not admit to the obviousness of the archon’s willing servitude was astounding.
The group assembled into a defensible marching order, and proceeded towards the remnants of what Kauraphon had referred to as the Cathedral of Feathers. The massive structure had seen better days. Its marble walls were crumbling, and gaping holes riddled the exterior. Shards of what were once brilliant stained glass windows lay all around the temple. The only apparent entrance was a set of gargantuan iron double doors.
As the Bright Axes approached, each of them noticed their spirits raised somewhat, as if the inescapable gloom and dread of Occipitus was shielded from this place. Caine sighed as relief washed over him. Of all of the members of the Bright Axes, Caine’s moral beliefs were the most opposed with this dark plane of evil and chaos, and around the Cathedral of Feathers the Apostle of Peace felt whole once again.
As they approached the doors, Wathros’ elven form shimmered, grew, and coalesced into the form of a massive rhinoceros whose white hair was flecked with streaks of pure silver and gold. Since pledging himself to the Exalted Lords of Good, Wathros’ ability to assume animal forms had been augmented by the power of the Guardinals themselves. Now, when he changed his shape into that of a beast it was not just a natural creature, but combined with the essence of Elysium.
The rhinoceros-elf approached the doors, and inserted his horn inside one of the thick metal pull rings. Grunting and snorting, the beast struggled mightily, but the door would not budge. Grimm, draping his spiked chain around his neck like a scarf, grabbed the hind-quarters of the rhino and began to tug with the druid. After considerable amounts of time and effort, the two managed to slide the door open with the earsplitting grind of metal on metal.
Rusty grimaced, “So much fer subtlety. Every stinkin’ demon within ten miles probably heard that!”
---------------------------------------------------------
Takarit fumed with anger. The hezrou could not find his quarry. Every one of them had escaped. He didn’t even manage to slay the puny halfling or the common human dressed in rags! His gnawing hunger, the need to kill, fueled his search. He teleported at random, searching, seething at himself, and cursing the creatures that had denied him his pleasure. He had not stopped looking through the last day.
Occipitus itself must have found pity on the demon. Takarit had just teleported near to one of the only blights on the Abyssal layer, when his keen ears detected the unmistakable scraping of metal. Standing before the ‘blight’, a ruined celestial church, stood a small crowd of humanoids. Takarit’s eyes narrowed to slits as he realized that he had finally found his prey.
The hezrou watched, more than one hundred yards away, as the group entered the building. He would not enter that place. The church’s stink of righteousness was more than he could handle. He would wait. When they left, when they least expect it, the demon would return, and his hunger would be sated.
---------------------------------------------------------
The entry hall to the Cathedral was dark. Tilly, unable to see in the pitch black without a source of light, pulled out a sunrod and snapped it on. Peering inside, the halfling saw much of the ruin that characterized the exterior of the structure. Torn tapestries, piles of debris, and several broken statues covered the floor. A large pit, festooned with rusty iron spikes, opened just past the church entrance. In the far corners of the room Tilly had just happened to notice two impossible large mats of cobwebbing when he heard something large scraping and clicking along the walls and ceiling.
Before the halfling could shout a warning, the unmistakable sounds of spell casting erupted from both corners, and the group was suddenly covered in a large mat of thick, sticky webbing. Tilly managed to dodge outside the spell’s area, and drew his swords with a look of bloodlust in his eyes.
Out of the webbing came two of the strangest creatures the halfling had ever seen. From the waist up, the monsters had the body of a black-skinned elf, topped with locks of white hair. Below their waist each of the creatures were attached to the abdomen of a massive hairy spider. Tilly remembered his Uncle Hoon’s stories about drow and their love of spiders, but he never would have thought that the dark elves would be so wicked as to mate with giant arachnids! As they approached, one of the ‘things’ finished casting its spell and vanished from view. Tilly’s sensitive ears told him that the creature had not left, but was just hidden to sight.
Kauraphon struggled amidst the webbing, and with great effort managed to cast a spell that cancelled magical effects. The webbing disappeared as quickly as it has appeared. Wathros grunted into the room and his eyes caught sight of the one visible aberration before them. Something deep within the elf erupted as he recognized the drider before him for what ‘it’ was. Once drow elf priests or arcanists of the dark god Lloth, these pitiful creatures had been cursed by the Queen of Spiders for some major failing. The curse, worse than death, had resulted in their transformation.
With a snort and a bestial bellow, Wathros charged at the creature. As he lowered his head, his massive horn began to glow with a golden radiance. Empowered with celestial might, Wathros impaled the drider through the chest. With a powerful swing of his neck, the rhino flung the drow-thing’s corpse across the room.
To the surprise of all in the room, the Cathedral itself instantly underwent the most glorious of changes. The torn tapestries, debris, and broken statues all disappeared. The room was filled with bright light, and the walls and ceiling were composed of gleaming white marble. The broken windows were restored, and instead of seeing the reddish gloom over the wasteland of Occipitus, the Bright Axes were treated to the sight of blue skies overlooking a calm lake spanning from horizon to horizon. In the distance loomed a single colossal snow-capped peak. This glimpse of Heaven lasted less than the length of one breath, and then the cathedral returned to its dilapidated state.
Caine began casting, and targeted Rusty with a spell of enlargement. The dwarf began to grow until his height almost matched Grimm’s. Thumbing his axe, Rusty rushed into the room. Swinging wildly, the Mystran hoped to connect with the invisible drider. Not surprisingly, all he managed to hit was air. Far more cautious, the half-ogre stalked into the room, listening intently. Locating what he thought was the hidden drider’s location, Grimm maneuvered close to that area.
The drider began casting a spell, and upon completion it became visible. A line of electricity streaked from his hand and headed towards Tilly, Wathros, and Rusty. Tilly dodged the bolt entirely. Thanks to his celestial nature, the lightning bolt merely washed over the rhino, causing no harm. Rusty was not so lucky and the bolt tore through him. The dwarf clenched his jaw, fighting off the pain, and bellowed as he charged the now-visible opponent. Rusty’s axe struck true, severing one of the creature’s eight arachnid legs. The drider shrieked in pain, and squealed even louder as Tilly somersaulted behind him and buried his tiny blade in the creature’s abdomen.
With a quick snap of his wrist, Grimm’s spiked chain spun forward and struck the drider solidly in the face. With a sickening splatter, the decapitated arachnid hit the ground and fell still. With the death of the last drider, the pit in front of the door disappeared, obviously an illusory spell.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tilly searched the drider corpses, and cursed when he found nothing of any real value. The antechamber to the cathedral bore another pair of large oaken doors, which Rusty and Wathros struggled to open. As they worked together, the cathedral shifted between its former celestial self and its current abyssal reality. Each time the halcyonic vision shifted away Caine groaned, obviously pained by the cost of Celestial Pride.
The door finally creaked open, and the Bright Axes walked into what had to be the largest temple sanctuary area that any of them had ever seen. Fully one-hundred yards long, the temple could have seated many thousands in its heyday. Sadly, the ruins were as bad (if not worse) here than anywhere else in the building.
At the far end of the sanctuary, a gigantic undamaged granite statue was visible. The portrayal was definitely not of a celestial. The statue had thick muscled goat legs, and the torso and arms of a bloated humanoid. Large bat-wings spread back like a large cape. The creature’s facial structure was decidedly inhuman, and thick ram’s horns sprouted from its forehead. In the statue’s right hand it clutched a large rod capped with what appeared to be some sort of faceted gem. The base of the monolith was surrounded by a sheet of flames. The statue was of flawless workmanship, and sent a shudder through each of the onlookers. Only Grimm, somewhat schooled in the outer planar lore, recognized the depiction. In Abyssal, the half-ogre whispered, “Orcus.”
----------------------------------------------------------
Cinaraa stood behind one of the massive goat legs of the statue, hiding from view. The succubus had been given explicit orders to kill anything that approached the Test of Resolve, and she intended to garner intense pleasure from this latest bunch. She knelt down, and looked down seductively at her consort. The noble salamander, completely concealed behind the statue’s base, looked back at Cinaraa. The salamander was grinning at the promise of violence. The she-demon whispered into his ears.
“Burn them, my precious, but leave the halfling for me. I have not tasted the soul of one of his kind in centuries.”
With a flash of light, Jules appeared within sight of a large, crumbling structure, obviously a large temple of some sort. The lantern archon drifted slowly to the ground, depositing Kauraphon’s Bag of Holding onto the ground. The bag opened, and Kauraphon, Rusty, Wathros, and Tilly exited from the bag. “Wait here,” the archon intoned, “and I shall return with my master and the half-ogre.” The archon flashed, and disappeared with the bag. Less than twenty seconds later, he reappeared with the bag, and Grimm and Caine climbed out.
Kauraphon chuckled. “We should have been using that trick all along. It is remarkable, Caine, that you have such a creature as your servant.” Caine, without any hesitation, responded, “He is not my servant…he is my companion and my friend. His company has given me much solace as we have walked the earth together.” The half-fiend shook his head and smirked in amused bewilderment. Jules had certainly made returning Grimm and Tilly to the group much easier. Why Caine would not admit to the obviousness of the archon’s willing servitude was astounding.
The group assembled into a defensible marching order, and proceeded towards the remnants of what Kauraphon had referred to as the Cathedral of Feathers. The massive structure had seen better days. Its marble walls were crumbling, and gaping holes riddled the exterior. Shards of what were once brilliant stained glass windows lay all around the temple. The only apparent entrance was a set of gargantuan iron double doors.
As the Bright Axes approached, each of them noticed their spirits raised somewhat, as if the inescapable gloom and dread of Occipitus was shielded from this place. Caine sighed as relief washed over him. Of all of the members of the Bright Axes, Caine’s moral beliefs were the most opposed with this dark plane of evil and chaos, and around the Cathedral of Feathers the Apostle of Peace felt whole once again.
As they approached the doors, Wathros’ elven form shimmered, grew, and coalesced into the form of a massive rhinoceros whose white hair was flecked with streaks of pure silver and gold. Since pledging himself to the Exalted Lords of Good, Wathros’ ability to assume animal forms had been augmented by the power of the Guardinals themselves. Now, when he changed his shape into that of a beast it was not just a natural creature, but combined with the essence of Elysium.
The rhinoceros-elf approached the doors, and inserted his horn inside one of the thick metal pull rings. Grunting and snorting, the beast struggled mightily, but the door would not budge. Grimm, draping his spiked chain around his neck like a scarf, grabbed the hind-quarters of the rhino and began to tug with the druid. After considerable amounts of time and effort, the two managed to slide the door open with the earsplitting grind of metal on metal.
Rusty grimaced, “So much fer subtlety. Every stinkin’ demon within ten miles probably heard that!”
---------------------------------------------------------
Takarit fumed with anger. The hezrou could not find his quarry. Every one of them had escaped. He didn’t even manage to slay the puny halfling or the common human dressed in rags! His gnawing hunger, the need to kill, fueled his search. He teleported at random, searching, seething at himself, and cursing the creatures that had denied him his pleasure. He had not stopped looking through the last day.
Occipitus itself must have found pity on the demon. Takarit had just teleported near to one of the only blights on the Abyssal layer, when his keen ears detected the unmistakable scraping of metal. Standing before the ‘blight’, a ruined celestial church, stood a small crowd of humanoids. Takarit’s eyes narrowed to slits as he realized that he had finally found his prey.
The hezrou watched, more than one hundred yards away, as the group entered the building. He would not enter that place. The church’s stink of righteousness was more than he could handle. He would wait. When they left, when they least expect it, the demon would return, and his hunger would be sated.
---------------------------------------------------------
The entry hall to the Cathedral was dark. Tilly, unable to see in the pitch black without a source of light, pulled out a sunrod and snapped it on. Peering inside, the halfling saw much of the ruin that characterized the exterior of the structure. Torn tapestries, piles of debris, and several broken statues covered the floor. A large pit, festooned with rusty iron spikes, opened just past the church entrance. In the far corners of the room Tilly had just happened to notice two impossible large mats of cobwebbing when he heard something large scraping and clicking along the walls and ceiling.
Before the halfling could shout a warning, the unmistakable sounds of spell casting erupted from both corners, and the group was suddenly covered in a large mat of thick, sticky webbing. Tilly managed to dodge outside the spell’s area, and drew his swords with a look of bloodlust in his eyes.
Out of the webbing came two of the strangest creatures the halfling had ever seen. From the waist up, the monsters had the body of a black-skinned elf, topped with locks of white hair. Below their waist each of the creatures were attached to the abdomen of a massive hairy spider. Tilly remembered his Uncle Hoon’s stories about drow and their love of spiders, but he never would have thought that the dark elves would be so wicked as to mate with giant arachnids! As they approached, one of the ‘things’ finished casting its spell and vanished from view. Tilly’s sensitive ears told him that the creature had not left, but was just hidden to sight.
Kauraphon struggled amidst the webbing, and with great effort managed to cast a spell that cancelled magical effects. The webbing disappeared as quickly as it has appeared. Wathros grunted into the room and his eyes caught sight of the one visible aberration before them. Something deep within the elf erupted as he recognized the drider before him for what ‘it’ was. Once drow elf priests or arcanists of the dark god Lloth, these pitiful creatures had been cursed by the Queen of Spiders for some major failing. The curse, worse than death, had resulted in their transformation.
With a snort and a bestial bellow, Wathros charged at the creature. As he lowered his head, his massive horn began to glow with a golden radiance. Empowered with celestial might, Wathros impaled the drider through the chest. With a powerful swing of his neck, the rhino flung the drow-thing’s corpse across the room.
To the surprise of all in the room, the Cathedral itself instantly underwent the most glorious of changes. The torn tapestries, debris, and broken statues all disappeared. The room was filled with bright light, and the walls and ceiling were composed of gleaming white marble. The broken windows were restored, and instead of seeing the reddish gloom over the wasteland of Occipitus, the Bright Axes were treated to the sight of blue skies overlooking a calm lake spanning from horizon to horizon. In the distance loomed a single colossal snow-capped peak. This glimpse of Heaven lasted less than the length of one breath, and then the cathedral returned to its dilapidated state.
Caine began casting, and targeted Rusty with a spell of enlargement. The dwarf began to grow until his height almost matched Grimm’s. Thumbing his axe, Rusty rushed into the room. Swinging wildly, the Mystran hoped to connect with the invisible drider. Not surprisingly, all he managed to hit was air. Far more cautious, the half-ogre stalked into the room, listening intently. Locating what he thought was the hidden drider’s location, Grimm maneuvered close to that area.
The drider began casting a spell, and upon completion it became visible. A line of electricity streaked from his hand and headed towards Tilly, Wathros, and Rusty. Tilly dodged the bolt entirely. Thanks to his celestial nature, the lightning bolt merely washed over the rhino, causing no harm. Rusty was not so lucky and the bolt tore through him. The dwarf clenched his jaw, fighting off the pain, and bellowed as he charged the now-visible opponent. Rusty’s axe struck true, severing one of the creature’s eight arachnid legs. The drider shrieked in pain, and squealed even louder as Tilly somersaulted behind him and buried his tiny blade in the creature’s abdomen.
With a quick snap of his wrist, Grimm’s spiked chain spun forward and struck the drider solidly in the face. With a sickening splatter, the decapitated arachnid hit the ground and fell still. With the death of the last drider, the pit in front of the door disappeared, obviously an illusory spell.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tilly searched the drider corpses, and cursed when he found nothing of any real value. The antechamber to the cathedral bore another pair of large oaken doors, which Rusty and Wathros struggled to open. As they worked together, the cathedral shifted between its former celestial self and its current abyssal reality. Each time the halcyonic vision shifted away Caine groaned, obviously pained by the cost of Celestial Pride.
The door finally creaked open, and the Bright Axes walked into what had to be the largest temple sanctuary area that any of them had ever seen. Fully one-hundred yards long, the temple could have seated many thousands in its heyday. Sadly, the ruins were as bad (if not worse) here than anywhere else in the building.
At the far end of the sanctuary, a gigantic undamaged granite statue was visible. The portrayal was definitely not of a celestial. The statue had thick muscled goat legs, and the torso and arms of a bloated humanoid. Large bat-wings spread back like a large cape. The creature’s facial structure was decidedly inhuman, and thick ram’s horns sprouted from its forehead. In the statue’s right hand it clutched a large rod capped with what appeared to be some sort of faceted gem. The base of the monolith was surrounded by a sheet of flames. The statue was of flawless workmanship, and sent a shudder through each of the onlookers. Only Grimm, somewhat schooled in the outer planar lore, recognized the depiction. In Abyssal, the half-ogre whispered, “Orcus.”
----------------------------------------------------------
Cinaraa stood behind one of the massive goat legs of the statue, hiding from view. The succubus had been given explicit orders to kill anything that approached the Test of Resolve, and she intended to garner intense pleasure from this latest bunch. She knelt down, and looked down seductively at her consort. The noble salamander, completely concealed behind the statue’s base, looked back at Cinaraa. The salamander was grinning at the promise of violence. The she-demon whispered into his ears.
“Burn them, my precious, but leave the halfling for me. I have not tasted the soul of one of his kind in centuries.”
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