Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3803002" data-attributes="member: 939">Book XXIII    Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Fifty-Eight – We Are All Doomed    My plans for enoblement were once again rudely interrupted, this time by a rather sniveling little creature who came to my door and bothered me (after an appropriate ten minute wait).  The creature turned out to be a Kobold who claimed to be named Meepos.  He was almost pathetic in stature, probably from a great deal of practice at having to deal with being one of the weaker and less-regarded of the sentient races.  He bore a message.      The message stated, in ornate script, “Doomed.  You are all Doomed Doomed DOOMED!  Muwahahahahaha!”    Apparently I was not the only one to get this message.  Tuvstarr, Posiedon, and Morwen also received an identical message from an identical Kobold.      Tuvstarr and Posiedon had already started on tracking down the mysterious author of our notes.  Tuvstarr determined through various divinations and scrying that the kobold received the notes from a black cloaked figure in a cavern with red glowing walls.  It was very familiar.  It was the area we cleared out for the soul pillars.  The figure was also familiar, but no one could quite place him.      Next to him was a watermelon sized sphere of many colors that appeared to contain something else.  We had to get in to look for ourselves to determine what it was.  Apparently, it was why we were “doomed.”  (As we later found out).  Posiedon, always cautious, decided that we should teleport down in his cylinder as opposed to on our own, so we’d have refuge from the lava.  We made our preparations and then transported 800 feet down below the streets of Cauldron.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Fifty-Nine – We Meet Our Doom-Maker    Posiedon tried to have his vessel appear such that the “watermelon” would be inside of it, but it ended up on the outside, not that it ultimately mattered.  He opened the door so we could listen to the black cloaked figure give a rather long-winded speech.      “So, at last, the ‘mighty’ Posiedon and his ilk have come to challenge me!  You who were so arrogant you would not let me challenge you in your so-called games, and whose rules kept my ‘pets’ from participating, effectively banning me from my rightful place as victor, by the King’s side!  You are all pathetic.  You, Tuvstarr, your synchophantic ‘winners’ who lowered themselves to play your ‘games’ are all beneath me!  And now, you are beneath everyone in Cauldron, where you will meet your doom!  Minions!  Ready the attack!”      Tuvstarr by now had studied the “watermelon” carefully and determined that the eight colored spheres surrounding it were linked to like-colored pendants around the necks of various creatures we now saw surrounding us.  Two white dragons, gargantuan in size, flanked us, along with a mindflayer, a vampire, a beholder, a drow, a lich-queen, and an orc.  Posiedon was about to strike at the cloaked figure, who despite our close proximity, we still could not identify, when suddenly the white dragon standing behind him lowered her head and swallowed the black cloaked figure whole, snuffing out his life in an instant.  Anger flared in the dragon’s eyes, and some resignation as well.  Despite her snack, she still was going to attack us.      Any thought of escape (which was not present with Posiedon in any case) vanished as Tuvstarr quickly told us that the magical artifact inside the spheres (which were immobile and impenetrable) was slowly unraveling the fabric of the epic spell that kept the volcano from erupting and erasing Cauldron.  We had days, hours, or perhaps minutes before that happened.  We needed to get to it as soon as we could or else we’d be risking the loss of some rather expensive (and hard won) real estate.      Morwen bravely jumped out into the fray, along with Tuvstarr.  Magic flared, blades danced, and dead flesh fell from the lich queen, though she did not fall.  The orc was spared by the anti-magic eye of the beholder.  Unfortunately, the next instant found the beholder surrounded by not one but FIVE huge astral constructs, courtesy of Posiedon and two of his cohorts, apparently aided by a stoppage of time.  They quickly cut down the eye tyrant, sparing us its eyes.  It was disappointing to me, since I had never faced a beholder before, though I had conversed with a rather jovial one in a village that I was not supposed to remember (and now would never ever forget).      The two white dragons positioned themselves around the five constructs and quickly cut them down, first with their frosty breath, and then with their razor sharp claws, teeth, and tails.  Butthey were quickly replaced by more.  The drow dodged and weaved his way toward Posiedon’s craft and then inside, where he with a few quick slashes of his double blades, nearly killed one of Posiedon’s cohorts.  Meanwhile, the lich queen sent off some dark magic of her own and dusted several more constructs.      Tuvstarr shed some light on the situation, casting a powerful magic that should have instantly blinded all creatures of evil within the cave, regardless of whatever protections they might have had.  Unfortunately, not every foe was evil, though the mindflayer spent the remainder of the fight wandering around, feeling for the walls before it was struck down by Posiedon (who had changed his form to that of a huge mountain troll).      The lich queen and vampire were also quickly vanquished.  As fate would have it, the orc was grappled by a giant hand of magic created by Tuvstarr, and he lasted to the bitter end.      The two dragons were mighty in size, but they simply could not stand up to the punishment of the constructs, Posiedon, and the combined magic of Tuvstarr, Nimue, and Higgins.      Late to the fray was our “friend” Meepos, who was not what he appeared.  His real name we may never know.  He fought with the speed of the most epic of martial arts masters, his open-handed blows having the force of a dragon’s tail.  I took careful aim at his small form and threw the entire might of my brain into a disintegration ray.  The kobold, untouched by anything to that point, vanished into a pile of dust.      The opponents vanquished, we freed the artifact from the spheres of force, but then were left with the problem of what to do about it.  Tuvstarr quickly determined that the only way to destroy it was to use a magical disjunction on it, but she had not prepared that powerful enchantment.  Unsure of the time we had left, she shifted to the astral plane and rested there a day to prepare before returning to our own plane a moment later.  After a quick weaving (and subsequent unweaving) of magic, the artifact was no more.  Cauldron was saved, yet again.  Only one question remained one which will forever be left unanswered, even by the gods:    “Just who the heck was that guy?”</blockquote>

Verification