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: 3856996" data-attributes="member: 939">Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Four – Shopping Trip, Astral Tripping, Orc Tipping    Once we were all free of the tree, and once Higgins had removed Nimue from the brink of death, I transported us all all the way back to Cauldron so we could procure supplies and consult Tuvstarr.  The most pressing need was some way to survive without air.  I was covered, as was Larch, but the rest of us had some work in that area.  I got a stone for Higgins that would sustain him in those conditions.  I think Morwen may have gotten a similar stone for Nimue.  There were only two available in the whole Kingdom (and beyond – I checked my extensive spy network and was only able to locate two).  We also located two necklaces that served a similar function.  Though they were cheaper, they would not work with any amulets we already had, so that limited their use to those of us with unadorned necks.      A few polymorph scrolls also seemed prudent, along with a handful of other scrolls Higgins picked up.  I did not ask him what they were, but I assumed they would potentially be handy for the fight ahead.      We all gathered together again at Tuvstarr’s, where she told us that the only way we could destroy the seed’s connection to our plane was to remove it to another plane.  That was all well and good, but that did not quite sound like destroying it.  I informed everyone that my vote was still that we take it to the negative material plane.  Not much could survive there.  Though I suppose the positive material plane could have a similar effect if it just absorbed energy and exploded.  What I did not say was that my vote was the only one that counted, because I did not think anyone else had the means to take it to another plane.  Well, except perhaps Higgins.  But Higgins always gave me his proxy.      After Tuvstarr, we were all back at the entrance to the tree.  It had grown in our absence.  Morwen again suggested we depart to places Astral to rest and rejuvenate.  I did not see why we could not just wait here and do the same thing, but she had concerns about further population disruptions if we did not hurry.  Six of one, half dozen of the other, as my mother always would say.  Or was that my contract’s professor in legal studies?  No matter.      I went to the Astral with everyone save Ee and Nin, who watched the tree to make sure nothing happened for the few seconds we would be absent.  On the Astral, I concentrated and a full day passed.  I activated some of my powers, with the remaining points I had, to last a full 24 hours, straining my brain to the maximum.  Higgins was kind enough to heal the blood pouring from my ears.  I then waited the remaining eight hours of rest before activating a handful of other powers to last a day.  Assuming we complete our mission within 16 hours, I should be ok.  And I should have far more mental reserves to deal with whatever it is deep in the bark of that demon monstrosity.      Thus refreshed, I had Higgins return us to the tree (with that special spell of his that allows us to travel much more directly when changing planes – I’ll have to research a version of that for myself – it would be much more convenient).      We were about to head into the tree when I remembered that I was no longer “feeling the troll”, so to speak.  I looked around for an orc.  “Larch, can you take flight and see if your eagle eyes can spot any of orc stragglers?”      “Sure,” Larch said, and then he took flight.  It did not take long for him to spot about 800 feet away, at another entrance, two orcs apparently “guarding” it.      “Higgins, hide me,” I said and then turned to walk off, my body disappearing within the cloak of Higgins’s magic before I took my second step.  By my third step, I was no longer on the ground, my body flying at high speed toward the orcs.  I wanted to surprise them.      A few seconds later, my unseen blackened finger touched one of the orcs, leaving him in a pile of dust, and revealing myself before him looking rather orcish myself.  I hoped to fool him enough with my appearance to make a quick getaway.  But then the orc attacked.  It was then that I remembered that orcs have not proven much more than an annoyance for many moons.  I got out my mirror and looked at myself.  Horrible.  Horrid.  I looked like an orc, alright.  It was frightening.  I tried to adjust my hair.  I also tried to file down my nails which now looked much longer than was fashionable.      In the meanwhile, the orc continued to try and attack me, its swings bouncing off of my various layers of protection.  Briefly, I wondered if he could ever hope to get through.  Then I remembered that my skin was not only orcish in texture, but was made of iron.  The orc’s puny weapon was not likely to dent it.  My nail filing complete, I turned from the orc and walked back to my companions.  It was not mercy that spared him.  I thought it might be handy to have an orc to absorb for later.  If only I had some means of taking him with me.  I would have to work on that.  As it was, the orc’s departed mate filled me with great strength and power, and would continue to do so for the next hour.  Hopefully, that would be plenty of time to accomplish our mission.  As I approached Ee, I heard his thoughts in my mind.  “Where’s Cordozo!?”  Ee then spoke, “Where’s Cordozo!?”  Ah Ee, were it not for the possibility of separation, I would never need to waste my strength to link up with his mind.  So refreshing.  And such a gift.  If one wishes to know what it feels like to be a telepath, its boons as well as its bane, one need only spend time around Ee.  I assured Ee that the orc was I, and then headed toward his position.  Once I reached my companions, we all grasped hands and then I teleported us to the last room we had occupied.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Five – Moving is a Pain    Apparently, the tree is a restless sort.  The room was no longer where we left it.  We ended up bouncing through bark until we finally found an open corridor within the bowels of the tree.  It hurt somewhat, taking away the temporary vigor granted to us by Larch before our entrance.  Oh well.  At least it saved us some time walking.      We did not have to walk long before finding another chamber.  This chamber was large.  Higgins had protected everyone from acid long before we entered, so we were ready for more of the trees sap, but the chamber was dry.  It was so dry that we all heard rather clearly the scratching of a thousand or more giant feet scraping along the walls and ceilings.  A creature larger than the purple worms came scurrying along the wall at as, like a centipede from hell.  (Later, I determined that this was a ‘Megapede’).      Ee and Morwen jumped forward, surrounding its head, if you can call it that, inflicting great harm on it.  Larch stepped right up to its maw and slammed his elemental fists right into it.  I tried to disintegrate it, but its carapace proved too thick to penetrate, so I left only a small wound on its face.  Then Higgins, having learned from our bout with the worms how clumsy large beasts like this can be, pointed a finger and drained away what little agility the beast had, leaving it a flopping, helpless mountain of insectoid flesh.  We finished it off pretty quickly and then resumed our trek into the tree.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Six – Between a Rock and a Soft Boneless Pile of Flesh    The tree really doesn’t seem to like us.  The next “room” we found was more of a rounded corridor, about 30 feet in width.  The path we walked led into the room, then slowly squeezed itself off, leaving only the way forward open.  Unfortunately, the way forward was filled completely with a large ball of flesh about 30 feet in diameter that perfectly sealed off the width of the room.      Morwen grabbed Nin and used her bracers to transport them both to the other side of the beast.  There, Nin laid into it with his chain, doing massive damage that the beast seemed mostly to ignore.  Then, the beast rolled backward, nearly engulfing Nin and Morwen.  Fortunately, they deftly stepped back out of the way.  Before the beast could roll forward again and engulf the rest of us, I pointed a finger at it and disintegrated it, leaving behind a pile of dust.      Larch later informed us that the beast was a ‘gigantic bone ooze’ and that had we not killed it quickly, it would have rolled over all of us and sucked the bones right out of our bodies, leaving us as soft, fleshy pulps on the walls of the room.  It was fortunate that Nin did so much damage to it, or else there might not have been anyone left to pen this journal.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Seven – We Fight the Tree (or is that Symbolic?)     We came to a seemingly final room, which the tree again was kind enough to close off on us, making only the way forward open.  Or it would have been open had there been any other way out of the room.      Standing at the far end of the room was a huge statue of a treant.  Of course, it animated and attacked us.  But not before two huge umber hulks came up out of the ground and tried to kill us.      One came up on our right, right by the (former) entrance to the room.  It was rather too close to Higgins and I for comfort.  I stepped back and dropped down on it a cylinder of energy from the negative material plane, sucking away some of its precious life force.  My second mind, harking all the way back to my very first days of adventuring, grabbed onto the mind of the beast, found purchase, and then crushed it to a pulp.  A few soft blows from Larch later, the beast was on its back.      That’s when the aforementioned statue animation took place.  It turned out the statue was more of a massively strong and large (huge) stone golem.  Nin, before he could charge it, was swallowed up by the tree.  We could hear him fall and hit something solid before the pit beneath him vanished.  He reappared a few seconds later, complaining about the general lack of courtesy (and air) at the bottom of the pit.      “Feather fall is a very nice sort of thing to have on a ring,” I mentioned to him before he charged back into the fray.      I sent forth another column of negative energy on the statue and on the second umber hulk.  Unfortunately, constructs don’t seem affected by negative energy.  I guess they don’t really accumulate any life experiences to lose.   The umber hulk, however, did not have that luxury.  Still, the hulk was extremely tough, and it looked to be a long struggle to bring it down.  Then Nin stepped up.      Nin jumped between the two hulking, huge beasts and slammed his chain into the skull of the umber hulk.  There was a sickening “snap” and the hulk’s head went soft and spongy.  The creature, who had barely a scratch on him, cluttered to the ground, lifeless.      “That is so Broken!” I thought to myself, looking at the creature’s neck.      Nin then turned his attention to the golem.  Ee, Nin, and Morwen quickly finished off the pseudo-Treant, leaving us yet again alone in the bowels of the tree.  Then the “ground” began to shake.  Another pit opened up, taking Higgins down into a pit much like Nin had been the moment before.  Higgins, however, floated softly to the bottom and then shifted dimensions to return to my side.  Then things got rather grim.      The whole room began to fill with the tree’s foul sap.  Within a minute, the entire room was filled with it, burning us all horrible with its acidic nature.  Or it would have, had we all not been protected.  First, by Higgins, and then later, by the cages of force that surrounded all of us.      Then the floor opened up and we went shooting down a long tube, buffeted around by the journey, but well protected from the acid.  I probably would have been hurt rather badly had my body of iron not absorbed all of the shock.  Higgins’s skin of stone helped him as well.  The mental complaints of my companions suggested that they were not faring quite so well.  After several minutes of this bumpy ride, we were all deposited in a large chamber, free of the boxes of force.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Eight – Now We’re Talking!    The room was covered with all sorts of different, chattering faces.  Once we were arrived and settled, some of the faces turned to us.  It looked like the time for fighting was over and the time for talking had begun.  I cleared my throat.  I looked up at the faces and prepared my best in-court voice.      “Greetings!  I must say, normally our potential employers are just a little more subtle about the fact that they are secretly demons intent on the destruction of our entire plane when they come to us and ask us to do a job for them.  So, what is it we can do for you?”  I beamed at them with my best jury smile.  My eyes sparkled.</blockquote>

Verification