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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 4884276" data-attributes="member: 8951">Sessions 77-79: Confronting Quethos1st of Reaping (continued). Once the party members were convinced that the four mysterious Watchers would not return, the party members began speaking among themselves, strategizing. They surmised that the lightning strike indicated that Darl Quethos's team was currently attempting to Harvest the Living Feather of the Roc King. They had no idea how many other of the trials that they might have already completed. But they reasoned that, either way, they would have to deal with Quethos's team sooner or later. So it might as well be sooner. Consequently, they all resolved to head in the direction of the lightning bolt, hoping to intercept Quethos.After a few hours of marching, Alees seemed troubled. She quietly announced to the party that they were being stalked by large beasts. As the party members began looking back to see what was following them, the stalkers launched their attack, charging at the party from behind. They recognized the stalkers as Displacer Beast Packlords, the same kind of magical beast that had once felled Thorash within the Temple of the Dark Sun. However, rather than only one Packlord surrounded by a pack of normal displacer beasts, all of the half-dozen beasts had the size and bearing of a Packlord. As had become her recent custom, Alees dove into the grass and hid while the rest of the party dealt with the threat, deaf to their exhortations and pleas for assistance. The Packlords coordinated their attacks, focusing on one of the party's clerics. One of their number successfully grabbed him and tried to make off with him, but the party was too powerful. They were able to slay the creatures faster than they could get away. When half their number (including the one that had been carrying Norvelle) were slain, the rest of the displacer beasts fled. The party killed another of their number before deciding to break off the pursuit. The party quickly healed up from the damage that the displacer beasts had dealt and then continued on.Eventually, the party made it into the foothills before the mountain where they had seen the lightning strike. They continued to march for hours. Eventually, they realized that the sky was no darker now than when they had first arrived. Killick explained that the light that was diffused in the overcast sky was a magical effect that was not caused by the rising or setting of any sun. As a result, there would be no night in this place. The party would have to rely on their internal clocks in order to decide when to rest and when to pray. Once the party members had made it deep into the foothills and were nearing the base of the mountain, they started feeling tired and began scouting around for a defensible campsite. However, before the party could find a place to rest, they felt a strange rumbling beneath their feet. Moments later, an enormous set of jaws erupted from the earth. The landshark clamped its jaws on Katawan and maintained a firm grip on him. The party members tried to force the creature to release him, but in a very short time, Katawan was unconscious and near death. Sensing the opportunity a greater meal, it released Katawan in order to take a bite out of Tarric. However, the party had quickly recognized what a brutally efficient opponent the land shark was, and so they had found ways to get everyone in the air. While Tarric lured the beast away, Killick flew in to pick up Katawan's unconscious form. Then Tarric himself took to the air. The land shark bellowed in anger for having lost the meal it had earned. But once it realized that the party members weren't going to land any time soon and that they could continue damaging it from the air, it reluctantly burrowed back into the earth and did not re-emerge. The party flew a safe distance away, and Killick used spells to create a treetop refuge that would keep them safe from any further land shark attacks.2nd of Reaping. When the party members awoke the next day, they saw that Alexander and Tarric were bleary-eyed. They both admitted to having strange nightmares all night long that had apparently prevented them from gaining the benefits of a normal night's rest. They wondered if the nightmares might have something to do with the tasks that the Wild Watchers had given them. But before they had time to consider this prospect further, Alexander was contacted mentally by Darl Quethos. He relayed Quethos's message to the party. Quethos had challenged them to mortal combat for control of the island's secrets. The two parties were to face one another at the site in the grassy plain where they had entered the demiplane. The party did not relish the idea of backtracking, but they decided it was best to take Quethos and his team out as soon as possible. This time they cast flight spells on everyone in the group and flew back towards their point of origin in a fraction of the time that it had taken them to hike the same distance. As they got close, they wondered whether Quethos's invitation had been merely a ruse to lead them away from Quethos's real target, but in the distance they could see that Quethos's team was indeed assembled and prepared for battle. The most spectacular of the enemy combatants was an efreet astride a snorting fiendish horse (called a Nightmare). There were also two identical-seeming combatants in hooded red satin robes. Near Quethos stood a hulking minotaur bodyguard as well as the kenku spy that the party had briefly pursued back on Tilagos island before transporting themselves to this demiplane. Out in front was a horned devil who seemed eager for battle. It quickly became clear that all the combatants on both sides were airborn, using either wings or spells.As the two parties closed for combat, Alees dove to the ground to find cover in the tall grass. She had made it clear before that she would no longer be risking herself in combats, and she was acting true to her word. From long range, Alexander tried launching a fireball at a grouping of opponents, but predictably, the attack had little effect. As the two parties drew nearer, the efreet called out a warcry in some language that the party didn't know and charged Tarric waving his immense scimitar. As he rode by, he sliced a gaping wound in the fighter. The two hooded red-cloaked figures flew up to Alexander and Talon. As they moved closer, it became clear to the party that these robed figures were twin tiefling monks who had had Silence cast on them. However, Alexander was able to tumble away from his silenced monk and turned his attention to the efreet who had just wounded Tarric so grievously. He trained a Cone of Cold on the fiery efreet who screamed out in agony. Killick followed this up with an Ice Storm centered on the efreet. Suddenly, it was the efreet who was in very bad shape. He was no longer making any warcries. He rode back toward Quethos who had healing energy crackling on his hand, but he was felled before he could reach his master by a volley of Alexander's maximized magic missiles. Quethos reluctantly bestowed his prepared healing spell on the nightmare and spoke to it in an infernal language that no one in the party understood. After hearing what Quethos had to say, the fiendish horse turned to face the party without a rider. Tarric focused his energies on the horned devil, Grimlock and Killick were being attacked by the Nightmare, Talon and Alexander seemed to have little difficulty avoiding their tiefling monk pursuers, but Katawan was aiding them just for good measure. Norvelle did what he could to provide healing to those in need. On the other team, the kenku looked for opportunities for flank attacks against the party, focusing mostly on Talon and doing significant damage to her. It also eventually dawned on the party that Quethos's minotaur bodyguard was only an illusion and could take no part in the fight. Once Tarric felled the horned devil, he tried to approach Quethos but found that some spell effect made it impossible for him to approach the cleric of Vecna - who made no secret of wielding the Hand of Vecna. Alexander tried to cast a magic missile spell on him from afar, but it was turned back on him, dispersing harmlessly on Alexander's Shield spell. The party could also see that Quethos had cast a Stoneskin spell on himself. It was clear to the party that the Hand of the Lich Lord was well-protected. He would be a tough nut to crack.Becoming annoyed with the tiefling monk who kept following him and putting him in a zone of Silence, Alexander cast a spell on him that compelled him to attack his master. The monk turned and began to charge Quethos! Quethos ordered his brother, whom he called "Jalagar" to protect him from the other monk, whom he called "Sabir." Jalagar reluctantly withdrew from Talon to try to hold his brother back. However, it turned out that Sabir was unable to approach Quethos beyond a certain point. So Alexander ordered him instead to attack his brother who was now right next to him. This order caused Sabir to shake off Alexander's influence. However, by this point, the tide had turned decisively in the party's favor. Killick had successfully turned the nightmare to stone, Tarric had dispatched the horned devil back to the Nine Hells, and the kenku was badly wounded and trying to withdraw. So now the party focused their attacks on the two monk brothers, standing side by side. The party's withering attacks caused Sabir to fall to the ground unconscious. Jalagar moved to stabilize his brother, but the party's attacks were unrelenting. The brothers died side by side amid the waving tall grasses of Last Resort under a hail of spell power and melee attacks. This left only Quethos. The party used all the Dispel power it could muster to bring down as many of Quethos's defensive spells as possible. When they had dispelled as much as they could, Tarric and Killick found that they were able to charge in and stand toe-to-toe with the wielder of the Hand of Vecna. Both felt the Hand's cold embrace, but they took only minimal damage from its touch. Although the cleric was able to heal himself many times, it soon became clear that without help or a place to hide, Quethos's time was limited. So when his healing power was exhausted and he realized that his end was imminent, he screamed to the heavens, "Vecna, why have you forsaken me, your most devoted servant? With my last breath, I command you to show these heathens your true power!" As an impressive column of fire fell out of the sky directly onto his position, Quethos just closed his eyes and held his arms aloft, as if waiting to be lifted up. The flames incinerated his flesh (along with the immense Roc feather he had in his possession) and did a significant amount of damage to Tarric and Killick as well, but the Hand of Vecna was none the worse for wear. The party searched for Quethos's kenku rogue with no luck. Even Alees could find no trace of him. The bird man was apparently highly skilled at avoiding capture. Convinced that they would not be able to locate the kenku without serious magically-aided effort, the party consoled themselves by looting the bodies of their enemies, making sure to take and stow the Hand of Vecna, to keep it away from those who might wish to use it. Having exhausted much of their spell power, the party made camp once again, using Killick's treetop refuge.</blockquote>

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