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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3870669" data-attributes="member: 939">Three different “factions” of faces stared down at us.  They were almost all talking at once.  I heard mention of desire for freedom, ruling the plane, and for killing Lazbral’Thull.  I negotiated in good faith, bringing all of the factions together, with a little bit of help from my companions.  After oration that would have acquitted a serial murderer, I sat back, satisfied, as all of the faces smiled down upon us.      “I just want to go back to my home plane,” the demon-tree smoothly lied to me, apparently with the delusion that it could actually fool an epic lawyer such as myself.      “Oh, but of course, I sympathize for your plight and I’ll help you any way I can,” I lied back, confident that the tree would believe every word I said.  “As I said before, we’ve worked for demons before, so working for you is old hat.”      I heard in my mind the loud protests of Morwen’s voice, but I mentally assured her that I knew the demon-tree was full of purple worm dung.  (As it most assuredly was, given past encounters.)      “Enough talking!” the faces all shouted in unison, and then we were all transported (if you can call it that) through the innards of the tree to the final battle with the tree’s current “master.”  The ride was a bit bumpy.  Higgins took the transit time to lay some enchantments on my companions, offering them additional protections and powers for the coming battle.  I waited until the last moment, just before we were dumped into the room, to activate one of my power stones to call an ectoplasmic guardian.  Higgins used that moment to haste us all.  Then our faces met the barky floor.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Nine – Druid from Hell    The room we found ourselves in was of gigantic proportions.  It was divided into two halves by long tentacles that met in the middle of the room just short of a large, glowing seed-shaped object encased behind a box of magical force.  This, apparently, was the seed.      Just to our flanks were two huge Treants.  At the far end of the room was a gargantuan creature that reminded me of a dragon but which was actually a fiendish tyrannosaurus (according to Larch’s mind).  Standing right in front of it was a demonic angel.  Or rather, it was an angel, but my eyes saw through this and instead saw a hag of a druid.  She and her “pet” were standing on a ten foot high plateau at the rear of the chamber.  Flanking her, not on the plateau, but in front of it, were two more Night Walkers, their large hands eager to grab and destroy whatever weapons they could reach.      When I finally was able to act, I felt the stone in my hand complete its magic and then I directed my ectoplasmic friend to appear right in front of the druid.  He lunged at her and wrapped his huge arms around her body, holding her fast.  I hoped he would prevent her from weaving magic against us, but it was not to be.  She walked out of his grasp as if he were made of air, not ectoplasm, and her “pet” began to tear into him.  I decided then that he would need some assistance.      In the meanwhile, the two treants were quickly dispatched by Ee’s Axe, Morwen’s rapier, and Nin’s chain.  Then the druid acted.      I had just finished summoning two of my valkries to surround the tyrannosaur when suddenly my vision was filled with fire.  A wall of flames erupted from the ground in front of us, filling the width of the cavern from floor to ceiling and cutting us off.  Higgins noted in his mind that this would cut the druid off from targeting us as well, but I somehow doubt she expected her wall to last long.  And she was correct, because the second part of my mind, the part not occupied with the valkries, brought down the fire wall.      Just as the wall vanished, more fire arrived, this time from the “heavens,” courtesy of our demonic angel druid friend.  Acting quickly, I dampened the fire and divine energy with my mind down to minimal levels, reducing it from a bang to a whimper.      My main mind focused its attention back on the battle at the far end of the room.  My valkeries were holding their own, even as my ectoplasmic guardian was flanked by the two Night Walkers.  Then Moria was swallowed whole by the dinosaur.  To her credit, she kept her head together well enough to teleport herself free, but just to bolster her, I sent forth two more valkries to further flank the gargantuan beast.      Morwen grabbed Nin and dimensioned them both to flank one of the Night Walkers.  At that moment, the tree began to “help” us.  All of the air was removed from half of the chamber, leaving us in good shape, but not Nin or Morwen, who were now standing in vacuum.  Nin held fast, but Morwen immediately passed out.  Nin, eager for the kill, sighed and transported them back to Higgins.      Ee, eager for a fight, ran straight into the vacuum, right up to the wall of force.  He could not get through, so he flew up and over, landing just on the other side of the box of force.      Morwen, aided by Higgins, sought to return to the fight, but she could not cross the vacuum barrier without risking asphyxia again.  So she and Nimue stayed just at the edge of the air (which was expanded outwards by the tree at their request) and tried to target the druid with ranged magic.      Nin, meanwhile, jumped back to face the druid (who now stood at the back of the platform at the far end of the room) and he managed to slow her down as she tried to escape.  She tripped once, but managed to get to her feet and run down toward the middle of the chamber.      Higgins disintegrated the box of force with a scroll, leaving it open for us to go for the seed, but the druid apparently put it right back up.      As if to emphasize the fact that the only part of the room that still had air in it was the back part where most of us were standing, the druid sent a whirlwind through us, smashing us all around and picking Nimue right up into the air.  She would have been swept away had she not been brought back to the dirt by Larch dispelling the the funnel.      The tyrannosaur was finally brought down by the combined might of four valkries and my astral construct, leaving them all free to pursue the druid.  One of the Night Walkers was sucked down a pit by the tree.  I somehow doubt it can escape.  The second one concealed itself and headed toward Ee, but it ultimately did not last long.      The druid, surrounded and wounded, activated some magic and vanished, leaving us alone with the tree and the seed.  I disintegrated the wall once again and Larch charged for the seed, grabbing it as he was shocked from strange energy discharges.  I ran in after him and grabbed him, instantly transporting us to the negative material plane, then back again, pausing only long enough for Larch to drop the seed.  I then brought us back to the tree chamber, just in time for everything to start to collapse.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty – If a Tree Falls in the Prime Material Plane…    The tree was obviously imploding.  It could not be very happy.  I quickly gathered up my companions for a safe transport outside of the tree.  Morwen balked at first, wanting to loot the bodies, so I gave her a second to verify that there was not much loot to be found.  Then I brought us out some distance from the tree.  We got to sit and watch it slowly collapse over about twenty minutes.  It probably would have hurt had we remained inside.      Thus, the plane saved, we returned to Cauldron.  The King was very happy with us.  Though the tree had not sprouted within the kingdom, it was clear enough that all lands would have been in jeopardy had we not acted.  We were paid close to 100,000 gold in coins, gems, and other valuables.  He also gave us a daern’s instant fortress, a crystal ball, an amulet of second chances, and something just for me, a cognizance crystal of middling power.  I could already hear the words in my mind from Morwen, “Sell sell sell.”  Still, it was a suitable reward.  But that was not the real reward.      “In honor of your service to the realm, and to the world, I bestow upon you all the title of Baron (or Baroness) of the Kingdom, with appropriate land and honors to follow.      Finally!  Finally I am getting my due.  Finally I have a title that will survive me, a real entry into the nobility!  Now I just need to work my way up toward Duke – only four or so levels of nobility to go!    Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-One – A small matter of vampires    As my first act as Baron, I am going to go back to the strange plane of those blood sucking rapier-wielding woman and clean out their tower of evil.  Higgins and I have been stockpiling stones and scrolls specifically for the occasion.  In three weeks time, when the moon is right, we will go back.  And this time, it is they who will be caught off guard.  Oh yes, they are going to pay!    Now I just need to finish sharpening my stakes.</blockquote>

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