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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 996368" data-attributes="member: 99">No Laughing Matter Ilrath had entered the top of the ice fortress from a large balcony that occupied nearly half of the upper level. He found himself inside a single, large room with benches hacked into the walls. There were no orcs in sight. In the dim light that made its way through the thick, translucent, ice walls, he could see a sizable hole in the floor across the room. He cautiously approached the hole.Meanwhile, Krase and Speaks had found themselves in a narrow, rounded hallway that seemed to wind its way around the perimeter of the lower level of the ice fortress. It abruptly ended in a large single room. The room had few notable features. Among them was a small alcove chipped into the ice in which rested a metal bottle. Also, in the center of the floor was an area where the faint outline of something rectangular was buried under a foot or more of ice. Lastly, in the far corner of the room was a hole in the ceiling, roughly five feet across.Krase made his way across the room cautiously, avoiding stepping on the rectangular area. He paused to look at the metal bottle when he heard a noise coming from the hole in the ceiling. He drew his other sword and crept near the hole. As he furtively peered up into the hole, he found himself looking into the face of Ilrath.“This place is empty and we are missing the war!”, said Ilrath.“Looks that way, huh.”, replied Krase.Doubtlessly, a fascinating and insightful conversation was about to take place but it was interrupted by the sounds of gales of laughter coming from above. Ilrath and Krase looked quizzically at each other and then realized that it sounded like Rhys. Ilrath offered his hand to Krase and said, “Let’s go see what he’s on about.” Krase easily scrambled up through the hole. Ilrath preceded him out the door and onto the balcony…Where he immediately came under brutal attack by the giant, snake-thing that had shot fire at Speaks when he was an eagle. The snake was moving at blindingly fast speed and it struck Ilrath with its powerful bite. Then, before Ilrath could recover from the first strike, he heard the human-like mouth of the thing mutter some words and energy crackled from the tendrils that hung like a beard from the face of the beast. It lunged at him and he was jolted with the electrical discharge. As it lunged in, Ilrath could see that it wore some kind of circlet that bore the same symbol as on the Amulets of Communication the party had been finding. Additionally, a small, pinkish crystal of some sort orbited its head.(*Note: For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, this thing is a Banelar. It comes from Monsters of Faerun and it is extremely nasty. It has the spellcasting capabilities of a 6th level Wizard AND Cleric and it gets to cast one spell every round as a FREE action. It also has a poisonous bite that does 2d4 Con damage as a primary and secondary effect. It has 10 foot reach, a huge Strength and Con, is extremely smart and is generally hell on wheels. It is listed as CR5.I hadn’t really intended for the party to encounter the thing under these circumstances. I was hoping that it might not come into direct contact with the group until a couple sessions later when they were all 5th level. These things are obviously not always in my control.In order to tone down the astounding capabilities of this beast, I had already nerfed the 10 foot reach. But I had left all the other abilities as they were in the book. At this point, I considered fudging the creature because I was sure it would kill the whole group otherwise [it had already incapacitated Rhys with a Hideous Laughter]. But I decided to just roll with it and let the chips fall where they may since that has been the theme for the campaign so far. In retrospect, I am extremely glad I made that decision.The party had precisely two things going for them: They have really become good at sculpting the battlefield to their advantage. And the Banelar had already used up several of his better spells against the barbarian stronghold before the party arrived on the scene. Here’s what happened…)Ilrath swung his axe for the first time and his heart sank when it glanced off of some kind of mystical force that protected the Banelar. He came close to flying into a rage but he felt he needed to keep his wits about him and try to hold this creature off so his friends could escape.Then Krase flew into the opposite flank of the creature, stabbing with Heartneedle. His attack was also thwarted by the defenses of the beast. Speaks looked up from where he stood on the ground below and saw the fight taking place on the balcony. Having been on the receiving end of some of the creatures magic, he knew that Krase and Ilrath were outmatched and they needed to regroup. “Get out of there!” he yelled.But before his companions could move, the Banelar flew into another series of attacks (it was Hasted, Mage Armored and Entropic Shielded). First, with a wave of its tentacles and some unintelligible words, Krase was struck with absolute panic. He did well to keep his bowels from emptying on the spot and there was no question that he was going to flee at his very first opportunity.Then, the Banelar wheeled on Ilrath and delivered a pair of vicious bites, one of which penetrated the armor of the barbarian. As the blow struck home, Ilrath could feel his vigor draining and he felt sick.He summoned his strength and swung Slashbane with all his might. This time the axe struck true and left a bloody gash on the flank of the snake-beast. For his part, Krase kept true to his earlier conviction and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. As he did so, the Banelar bit him deeply and Krase could feel poison creep into his veins. But at least he made it free of the clutches of this terrible enemy (and he didn’t even slip going down the stairs).The Banelar now only had one foe to worry about and focused the full fury of his jaws on the barbarian. Ilrath again fended off one of the blows but was wounded by the second and again, the poison poured into his body. Then, to add injury to injury, the Banelar sent three magical bolts slamming into the barbarian with unerring accuracy. Ilrath knew that another such attack would kill him. Krase had gotten away and he had no idea where Rhys was (although he suspected that he was dead).Ilrath hurled himself off the balcony onto the ice and snow below. He landed ungracefully, injuring himself further but still conscious and out of the grasp of the Banelar. Krase continued his frantic flight towards the perceived safety of the woods.Speaks with Stone, standing alone in the trampled snow, spear clutched defiantly in hand, called out to the Banelar, “Foul Beast, if you are so powerful, come and face me!” (This character stinks at Bluff – and of course rolls a 20). The Banelar, normally a coldly calculating creature of brutal reason, was taken utterly off guard by the challenge issued from the druid (Rolled a 1 for Sense Motive). Somewhere in his cold, reptilian brain, a spark of fury grew into a conflagration of rage. Seeing the reaction that he had provoked, it was all Speaks with Stone could do to maintain his concentration as he cast Spike Growth on the ground in front of the ice fortress.The Banelar slithered down the ice stairs at top speed and turned to close with the druid. As he did so, he flung a Melf’s Acid Arrow at Speaks, striking him with the acidic missile. But just then, the Banelar encountered the spikes of plant growth as they punctured his scaly belly. Heedless of the damage being inflicted (which wasn’t much), it continued through the field of spines and pursued the object of its hate.About this time, Ilrath had downed all of the healing potions he had so carefully held on to through their raids against the orcs. He picked himself up and prepared to dive back into the fray.Some distance off in the woods, Krase was suddenly free of the terror that had gripped him only moments before. He turned and began to run back along his tracks toward the clearing again.Speaks was contending with the aftereffects of the bolt of acid the Banelar had shot him with. The pain lingered on and it took all of his concentration to cast one of his Entangle spells. This one was roughly centered on the Banelar and Speaks hoped to trap him in the area with the spikes.But the Banelar was extremely strong and broke through the bits of vine and root that attempted to grasp him. The entanglement did slow him down enough to keep him from catching up with Speaks for the moment. In fact, the Banelar made for the closest edge of the entangled area, which put him a considerable distance from the druid.Ilrath was running to aid Speaks and so was Krase but it was very much in question whether either would arrive in time.As the Banelar bore down on him, Speaks once again marshaled his willpower and cast a spell through the pain of the acid. This time, he softened the earth between himself and the Banelar into a muddy mush that would be difficult to cross. Then he retreated and leveled his spear, waiting for the inevitable.As it turned out, he was again safe for the moment. The length of the battle seemed to be taking a toll on the speed of the Banelar (his Haste had worn off). After having to cross the mud, the snake-beast was still not within striking range of the druid.Thus, Ilrath and Krase reached the Banelar before it reached Speaks. The barbarian slashed into one flank as the warrior from Glynden attacked the other. Both attacks found their way through the defenses of the snake but neither inflicted much damage.With his friends engaged against the creature and the last effects of the acid bolt gone, Speaks stepped forward and thrust his spear at the beast. It was deflected by the same force that had stopped the warriors’ blows earlier. Still, Speaks was glad to be doing something that wasn’t a delaying tactic.Nearly surrounded now, having used nearly all his spells and with none of his orcish allies anywhere close, the Banelar began to sense that although he still held the upper hand, it had been rash to charge into the midst of the humans. At this point, he needed to put one of them down and withdraw while its friends tried to save it from his deadly poison. Having already inflicted terrible damage upon the barbarian with bites and spells, he was the obvious choice. The Banelar bit savagely at the barbarian, inflicting another nasty wound. But this time, Ilrath threw off the effects of the poison. Simultaneously, the Banelar cast a spell at Speaks.Speaks was preparing to lunge again at the Banelar when he felt his muscles begin to tense and freeze into place. He focused his willpower, much as he had in overcoming the pain of the acid and managed to fend off the spell. Then he struck a retaliatory blow with his spear, but missed again. Seeing that Ilrath had just suffered another wound, Speaks maneuvered toward the barbarian to offer assistance.At the same time, Ilrath felt the fury rise up inside him and this time he did nothing to staunch the flow. It filled him with righteous rage and restored some of the vigor the poison had robbed him of. Irath swung Slashbane again and this time his axe bit deep into the side of the snake.Krase attacked again with Heartneedle and pierced the defenses of the snake. But the effects of the poison took much of the power from his blow. It was merely a scratch.Having seen the druid ignore his Hold Person spell, and with the barbarian still cheating death, the Banelar was becoming more concerned. He struck once again at Ilrath and landed another powerful bite. The barbarian crumpled to the ground, the poison taking root in his body.Krase grimly gripped Heartneedle in one hand and his grandfather’s sword in the other and prepared to defend against the next attack that would surely come his way now that Ilrath was down. He made a pair of feeble slashes at the snake-beast but neither penetrated its defenses.Speaks knew that Krase could likely defend against the Banelar for a long time. The youth was a master of defensive combat and could dodge and parry for some time. But time was not a luxury they possessed. Ilrath lay dying at their feet and somewhere up on the ice fortress Rhys was unaccounted for but probably dead or dying. Speaks knew that he was not even close to the warrior that Ilrath was. So he shouldered his spear and used the last of their healing magic: A scroll recovered from a dead orcish shaman. Ilrath stirred and stood.Having bought himself enough time to escape, the Banelar took the opportunity. The attack that Krase had been expecting never came and his defensive posture left him unable to effectively attack the Banelar as it retreated. The Banelar breathed a sigh of relief and made for the entangled area. He knew that the weak vines and roots stood little chance of causing him problems. But it would prevent the puny humans from following him. He slithered into the edge of the entanglement.But just as he did so, a cluster of thick roots erupted from the snow and ensnared the snake-beast. They held him tight, leaving his back half exposed outside the entangled area. Looking back at the humans, he saw them coming toward him with weapons drawn and murder in their eyes.Ilrath’s barbarian-bred speed brought him to the Banelar first and with a mighty overhead swing, he sliced through scale, muscle and spine, Slashbane coming to rest with four inches of blade buried in the cold-hardened earth. Blood gushed from the wound and the Banelar fell dead on the ground.Panting with exhaustion, the three companions looked at each other in amazement. They had slain another dragon. But with the condition of Rhys still in question, there was little time for celebration. Krase made his way into the entanglement to retrieve the items the Banelar wore and Speaks and Ilrath limped toward the ice fortress to search for Rhys.They found him easily enough. He lay unconscious and near death at the topmost balcony where Ilrath had last seen him. Speaks cast a handful of minor healing spells that brought the sorcerer barely to consciousness. He was still as white as a bone and it was obvious that the poison of the Banelar had taken a terrible toll on the lad. Ilrath and Speaks helped him to his feet.As they did so, their gaze wandered to the south in the direction of the battle. Their jaws dropped when they found that the orcs were no longer attacking the hill fort.Half a thousand orcs were five hundred yards away, running in the direction of the ice fortress.NEXT: Escape and Return </blockquote>

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