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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 427581" data-attributes="member: 41">What's bad for the gander is bad for the rest of the farm animals, too.Seventeen:  Life is a swirling, gurgling eddy of despair, punctuated by moments of fleeting hope.(or, “So, how’re we doing?”)After Anton’s remains are reverently scraped together, Jespo attempts to defend himself from the accusatory glares of his party members by commenting, “Well, D - - is very well respected in wizardly circles, you know.  What kind of accursed egotist uses his own name as a command word, for the love of Boccob?” The party examines an antechamber off of Zuggtomoy’s temple that contains a map of the area.  The Temple compound is in the center of a series of expanding rings, drawn over the countryside, each with a date.  The largest ring encompasses the vast majority of Furyondy and is dated for two days hence!  Worse yet, arrows that seem to depict troop movements branch out from the Lands of Iuz into Crystalreach, and from the Temple into Verbobonc, Veluna, and Furyondy.  If our heroes needed proof that the temple was spearheading an invasion into the lands of Good, this is it.  The date of Lady Anne’s coronation in Verbobonc is also scrawled on the map, lending credence to the party’s suspicion that she has, in fact, been replaced by the Succubus who impersonated the Lady Marie of Knulb.Jespo announces that he must fly to Greyhawk to retrieve his duplicate spellbooks.  The party decides to accompany him part of the way, but are quickly shocked to find themselves on the heels of  a large army, led by priests of Iuz.  Getting ahead of the blundering morass of evil humanoids, humans and giants should prove no trouble, but the loss of Anton rankles in Egil’s soul.  “What’s good for the gander is good for the goose,” he decides, and with arcane assistance in the form of loaned-out magic items, Egil plans a one-fighter commando assault on the army’s leadership.  He creeps into the midst of the evil priests and activates the iron fortress.  Two of the three priests are instantly killed, but one is thrown free, and survives.  The surviving priest commands his giants to assault the fortress, and they do.  Oh, but they do.  Egil calmly activates his figurine of wondrous power - - stone horse, uses a ring of spell storing to become invisible again, and reduces the iron fortress.  A blast from his suit of plate mail of fear clears a path, and he rides for all he is worth.To quote Scooby Doo:  “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids”.  The surviving priest directs the fire of the assembled giants and humanoids and negates the element of surprise.  An element, it turns out, completely crucial to the success of Egil’s plan.  Egil is pelted with a withering rain of missile fire, and cannot survive the barrage.   Once again, the party is forced to flee before a massed horde of Evil, although apparently practice does make perfect - - this time they don’t get split up.They arrive at the Gnomish stronghold in the Kron Hills in time to warn the Gnomes about the Temple’s army marching through their territory.   At the mention of Giants, the Gnomish war leaders perk up.  They promise that if any army of Evil  reaches Verbobonc, it will be so badly mauled as to be unrecognizable.  A Gnomish delegate offers to accompany Jespo to Verbobonc, where he can warn the people of the coming assault, and perhaps petition Prisantha’s Master to teleport him to Greyhawk.Jespo and his Gnomish companions are, of course, greeted with all proper urgency and taken directly into the presence of the Lady Anne, Verbobonc’s new Viscountess.  Remembering the party’s tales of the Lady Marie, and cannily recalling their suspicions, Jespo forms a plan.  His gnomish associates don’t know him well enough to recoil in horror from the thought, and as it sounds like a kind of practical joke, agree.  The delegates from Wonderville contrive to ‘spill’ a little holy water on the Viscountess.Her flesh immediately burns, and the much-loved ruler of the Land cries out and accuses the group of being assassins sent to kill her.   Now Jespo too, will get to know the rare experience of being trapped inside a stronghold full of angry, charmed soldiers and hunted by a Demon with the abilities to both read his mind and teleport without error.But first, cut to . . .</blockquote>

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