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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 5259183" data-attributes="member: 99">The PC's arrived safely back inside the depths of Karak Tor and got an update indicating that the Dwarven defenses were holding and no tunneling by the Arcanon Confederacy had been detected thus far.  They shared with the elders the information they'd gotten from Mayaheine that Mikel was on the way from Opkhar.  This was greeted with cautious optimism by the Dwarves but clearly they'd believe it when they saw it.  Nobody had ever come to help them before.The group set about performing the ritual handed down to them by Mikel.[sblock]Righteous Crusade of PelorThe power granted to you by the Mace of Pelor's Aspect of Valor is realized.Component Cost: N/A Requires the sacrifice of the Mace of ValorMarket Price: N/AKey Skill: ArcanaLevel: 12Time: 8 hoursDuration: PermanentYou dedicate yourself and your weapon to a Crusade against the forces of chaos and destruction that beset the world.  While in pursuit of those goals a weapon you dedicate to this cause is imbued with powerful magic.  It gains the following properties:Enhancement Bonus of +3Against one type of enemy (i.e. Dragons, Undead, Mist Demons, etc.) all criticals by this weapon do an additional 3d12 instead of 3d6.As a Move Action, you may shatter the weapon.  All enemies in a Close Burst 5 take 5d12+12 damage, are knocked Prone and are Dazed until the end of your next turn.  When this takes place you heal Hit Points as though you had spend 2 Healing Surges and any allies within the Burst may spend a Healing Surge.If, at any time, the bearer wavers from this cause or behaves in a cowardly or evil manner, these properties will be lost.[/sblock]The four weapons chosen to receive this blessing were the pair of Adamantite Axes (one battle axe and one greataxe) that they had found in the depths of Old Karak Tor as well as the Dragonbone Greatsword and one of Eshik's scimitars.  The axes were blessed with Undead Slaying and the swords with Mist Demon slaying.  These would all be in possession of Astavian (greataxe/greatsword) and Eshik (battle axe and scimitar) since they were most likely to be attacking the Dracolich close up where the "retributive strike" would be most effective.  Also, by their nature, the Adamantite axes were already Dragon Slaying.Among their other assets Mialain still had the large crystal that they had drawn out of the head of Hygeius.  They still didn't know exactly what it was capable of but only that it had absorbed the essence of healing magic from Melora's Aspect of Healing.There was some debate over their immediate course of action.  After all they had done for the party, Zanne and Mialain were in favor of staying to help Mikel break the siege of Karak Tor.  Astavian and Eshik were both more in favor of going after the Dracolich right away.  They argued that Mayaheine had informed them that the Dracolich was performing some kind of bad ritual and that needed to be stopped as soon as possible.  The ladies agreed grudgingly that the Dracolich too precedence and with that the heroes settled down for a good night's rest and prepared to depart in the morning.They awoke to a good bit of activity.  In the early hours of the dawn the contingent from Opkhar had arrived!  A motley flotilla of airships indicated that King Klo had commandeered anything that could fly (included among them was Tornear the Goblin's ship).  In addition there was a flight of gryphons that Mikel had rounded up from among the remnants of the Cult of the Black Moon that worshiped him.  This group, with Mikel at the forefront, had fallen upon the AC fleet and forced them to retreat from right outside the inner gate of Karak Tor.  The Dwarves seized the opportunity to sally forth and join the battle.  The battle against the Arcanon Confederacy was certainly not over but the front lines had been pushed off of the Dwarves doorstep.The PC's took this opportunity to hail Llyra from where she'd been keeping station miles off to the south and she brought their ship in to pick them up.  Wishing the Dwarves a hearty good luck and promise to return to help them as soon as they were able, the group set off to the northwest in the general direction of Opkhar and Semma.********The most notable thing here was the debate about helping the Dwarves against the AC vs. going as soon as possible toward the Dracolich and Isle of Wyrms.  Both sides had valid points.  The Arcanon Confederacy had been a thorn in the side of the party for a long time and Zanne in particular was really itching for a chance to smite some Wizard butt.  Mialain was mostly in it for a chance to aid the Dwarves as well as give them a more favorable disposition toward Melora.There was also the fact that she had a strong vested interest in the Arcanon Confederacy being pushed back or at least halt their forward advance toward Opkhar and Semma.  By virtue of the location of the Tree of Life atop the plateau that held the Prison Mines of Pelor, if the AC continued their westward annexation of other plateaus she'd find that the high temple of her deity was inside enemy territory.In the end however there were two compelling arguments for getting on with the Dracolich assault.  First of course was the whole ritual thing.  Although I think that in the actual dialog with Mayaheine it was implied that what he was doing was major and would take a long time to do so in theory they'd have a day or two to spare helping the Dwarves.  But Astavian was also strongly motivated because his god, Ryukaar, was still trapped in the Elemental Plane of Fire and would remain there until such time as they could liberate the Nexus from the Dracolich.Finally there was a big metagame consideration:  Christmas.  We only had a couple weeks before the week of Christmas at this point.  If they helped out with the Dwarves then we'd need to spend at least a session or two on that.  If they went right for the Dracolich then we could finish before the holidays took us out of action for a couple of weeks or so.  Everybody seemed to want to go ahead and finish the game up rather than have to wait a couple extra weeks for the grand finale.  So ultimately that trumped the other pro-dwarven motives and they got on with things.Up Next:  The Isle of Wyrms!</blockquote>

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