Unfortunately for Ashy, he ended up sitting in on the session just
after the final climactic moment of a long story-arc. As such, he got to experience the exhilaration of loot-dispersal and a lot of wind-walking. It was a pleasure having him at the table, though -- a finer gentleman you couldn't hope to meet, and his interpretation of the halfling Yoba was... refreshing.
You'll have to wait a while to learn who Yoba is, though. For now, it's back to the Chaos, and some hostile Slaad...
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 221
Tossed Slaad
It’s not long before things get ugly. Ernie and Morningstar have time to cast some quick healing spells, Aravis casts
endurance on himself, Kibi makes himself
improvedly invisible, and Grey Wolf pulls one of the quills out of his leg. Droplets of blood drip out of the wound, joining the red cloud in the hangar.
“Come on!” urges Dranko. “Let’s move while we’ve still got our combat spells active!”
“We don’t have to try talking to them, do we?” asks Morningstar sarcastically.
“Nah. Just kill ‘em,” says Dranko with a wink.
Snokas, Step and Flicker try concentrating on the holes in the hangar, hoping to seal them up, but none of them can muster the wherewithal. It turns out not to matter.
The hangar vanishes out from around them, replaced by a whirling storm of elements. All in the company are caught in a jumble of shooting flames and tumbling boulders, which they desperately try to dodge.
“Sweet Yondalla’s sticky buns!” yells Ernie, though his exclamation is lost in the din.
Dranko, being Dranko, reacts quickly. Not seeing any slaad through the storm, he concentrates for a second to clear himself some space. Then he adjusts his gravity to fall toward the Slaad’s boarding boulder, and when his feet touch the stone he starts running toward where he remembers seeing the monsters. He sees them, all right – two greenish frog-men, and three with a blueish cast. Invisible himself, he hopes they don’t see him.
Morningstar instantiates a slab of rock under everyone’s feet, and then runs up the boulder herself. Though not following Dranko’s precise line, she also stops when she sees the Slaad.
“They’re up here! Five of them!”
In the midst of everyone else there is a thunderous sound and the elements become even more agitated, as two
chaos hammers go off. Everyone is damaged and some are left staggered. Kibi, still wounded from the previous battle, takes the full brunt of the spells and is in particularly bad shape.
Ernie and Grey Wolf both see two more Slaad, these a sickly grayish color. Ernie shouts a warning, casts a
healing circle on everyone nearby, and then moves out into space away from the others. Kibi, staggered from the
chaos hammers, tries and fails to instantiate a wall for cover against the Slaad, and settles for drinking a healing potion instead. Aravis moves away from the clustered group, casts
shield on himself, and also fails to manifest a covering wall. Snokas goes charging up the boulder, taking a different arc from Morningstar.
Grey Wolf takes aim at one of the Gray Slaad and pegs it directly with a
sonic orb, but to his dismay it seems to have no effect on the frog-beast. It opens its jaws in an evil grin, illuminated by a passing fireball. But this bit of unfortunate immunity is immediately balanced out as the three Blue Slaad all croak spells at Morningstar. She feels her muscles starting to tighten just a bit... but her
ring of freedom of movement quickly overcomes the effect of
hold person spells.
One of the Green Slaad continues the trend. It casts a spell and moves directly at Dranko (whom it can apparently see), enduring a whip-snap in order to cast
dispel law. It entirely fails to affect the non-lawful Dranko’s
invisibility. The other Green Slaad casts more
chaos hammers, striking both Dranko and Morningstar..
Flicker and Step both fall toward one of the Gray Slaad, as if they had just jumped off a building. They end up flanking, which is the idea. Flicker sizes up the creature, waiting for the right moment to strike.
From out in the depths of the Chaos, a loud croak reverberates even above the cacophony. Another Slaad, unseen by any, casts a spell. One Certain Step vanishes, to Flicker’s great unhappiness, but he’s the only one who notices. His warning shouts go unheard, drowned out by the sounds of clashing elements.
Dranko, wanting to take advantage of his invisibility, ignores the Gray Slaad for the moment. He moves a short distance and unloads a full flurry of whip-snaps on the closet Blue Slaad, badly injuring it. With
comprehend languages up, he hears its panicked croaking. “Augh! What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?”
Morningstar casts
darkbeam and sends the first ray at the nearest Green Slaad. It dodges enough to avoid being blinded, as the spell sears its arm.
One of the Gray Slaad lets out a particularly loud croak; Grey Wolf finds himself stunned by the
power word; he reflexively lets go of Bostock, which floats in the chaos next to him. The other Gray Slaad, now facing down only Flicker, tears into the halfling with its sharp claws. Ernie sees Flicker’s predicament, extends
Beryn Sur out in front of himself point first, and uses gravity to fall into the Gray Slaad. The thing’s big froggy eyes go wide as it’s pierced by the sword. Ouch!
Kibi starts to cast a
summoning spell, and as he does so he feels wild magic surging into him, effectively
maximizing its effect. Aravis turns the tables on the Gray Slaad attacking Flicker, administering his own
power word: stun. As the Slaad’s eyes defocus, Aravis shouts: “Ok, Flicker, take him out!”
Snokas falls toward the nearest Blue Slaad and smacks it with his pick. He’s never seen a Slaad before today, but he’s guessing from all the blood that it’s close to death.
Grey Wolf, stunned, thinks it would be nice to sit down, if only there were something to sit upon.
The Blue Slaad victimized by Dranko’s whip croaks out a command to its fellows, which only Dranko understands. “Target me!” it yells. Four
chaos hammers go off, centered on the Slaad. Dranko and the unfortunate Snokas are caught in the area of all four. A Green Slaad follows suit, and when the
hammers clear, both half-orcs are badly wounded. Snokas is staggered and barely conscious.
Flicker figures out just how to best approach the stunned Gray Slaad floating in front of him. Getting a full attack plus another for being
hasted, Flicker carves up the frog-beast like a turkey. But he doesn’t get any time to gloat over his kill; a moment later he is struck by a
power word cast by the still unseen Slaad out in the chaos.
“Ahhhh!” cries Flicker. “I’m blind! I can’t see anything! Help! Help!”
Dranko whips at the Blue Slaad closest to Snokas, and with a clean shot he snaps the creature’s neck. There’s still another one menacing Snokas, so Dranko changes his gravity and falls toward his comrade, bumping him out of the way and making himself the easiest target instead.
Morningstar fires off her second
Darkbeam at another Blue Slaad. This one fails to dodge and gets the blinding ray right in the eyes. It starts croaking a stream of profanities. The surviving Gray Slaad launches a full attack of claws and teeth at Ernie, all of which are foiled by Ernie’s plate mail. The Slaad speaks telepathically into Ernie’s mind.
“Next time, you...”
“I am protected by Yondalla’s righteous shield,” interrupts Ernie. “And you’re an icky disgusting frog thing,” he adds. Then he smacks the Slaad with a solid shot from
Beryn Sur.
“That all you’ve got?” thinks the Slaad into Ernie’s mind. “Heh heh heh...”
Kibi’s
summon spell finishes. He had considered summoning his favorite – an earth elemental – but this seems like the right environment for a type of creature he hasn’t tried before. A rift appears in space near the Slaads, and several tentacles come out. They grab the edges of the rift and pull the body through, a blobby mass of barbs, eyes, mouths, teeth and more tentacles. Because of the wild magic surge on the spell, it’s a particularly large and impressive example of its species – Chaos Beast!
The summoned creature rolls through space toward a Green Slaad. The frog-creature’s eyes go wide with terror. “Chaos Beast!” it shouts at the top of its voice. “CHAOS BEEEEEEEAST!” It flies into a panic. Happy with the results, Kibi pulls out his
deck of illusions and flips the top card out in front of him. It pops and is replaced with an exquisitely realistic ogre. He moves it a few feet toward some of the slaad, and instructs it to act menacing. It raises its club and lets out a roar.
Aravis flies upward to get spell-casting position, though he gets struck in the face by a passing blob of hot mud as he goes. Shaking it off, he casts a
cone of cold, striking four Slaad, and unfortunately the Chaos Beast as well. One Slaad is immediately frozen to death and the other three (including the surviving Grey Slaadi) are badly injured. The ogre, oddly enough, seems unaffected and unfazed.
Snokas, pushed out of harm’s way by Dranko, guzzles a much-needed healing potion. And just in time, too, as the blinded Blue Slaad casts
chaos hammer at its own feet, catching both half-orcs. Neither are staggered, but Dranko is as wounded as he can remember being in a long, long time.
One of the Blue Slaad flees into the maelstrom, yelling “Chaos Beeeeeast!” all the while. A second Blue Slaad follows it. A third launches a vicious flurry of claws and teeth at the ogre. Kibi smiles as the creature croaks confusedly.
Another
chaos hammer – this one from a Green Slaad – strikes Aravis. Flicker, blinded, fumbles out a potion he hopes is
cure serious wounds and quaffs it. (He’s right, fortunately.)
The still-invisible Slaad spellcaster floating out in the chaos has identified a new primary target. It unleashes a massive
chain lightning targeted at the Chaos Beast, and also catching Aravis and the ogre (ha!). To the great relief of the surviving Slaad, the Chaos Beast explodes into a shower of chunks and loose tentacles.
Dranko uses a wand to heal himself, and then moves so that he and Snokas are flanking the blinded Blue Slaad. Morningstar, still with
darkbeams left, pegs and blinds a Green Slaad, which starts cursing in frustration. Things seem to be turning generally in the Company’s favor, until the surviving Gray Slaad, facing down Ernie, floats back five feet and casts
power word: stun on the halfling. Then it instantiates a shell of rock around both itself and Ernie. Aravis points to the rocky sphere and shouts in alarm, “Ernie’s trapped in there with one of the gray ones, and he’s probably stunned!”
Kibi focuses his will on the sphere and concentrates for all he’s worth. His intellect and chaos-savvy overwhelm the mind of the Slaad, and he tears away most of the near half of the rocky sphere, replacing it with air. (He’s now looking through what looks like a stone puppet-theatre box, watching the “Ernie and Slaad” show.) Ernie is clearly stunned; his sword floats next to him. Kibi falls toward Ernie, moves through the hole in the stone sphere, touches both halfling and sword, and casts
dimension door, removing them both to the (relative) safety of the far side of the boarding boulder. Aravis finishes the tide-turning by casting
power word: stun himself on the Gray Slaad.
The battle rages on for a short while longer. Some more
chaos hammers get dropped, another Slaad or two gets cut down by the Company, and some healing spells go off. No one ever catches a glimpse of the Death Slaad casting spells from the edges of the combat. There’s still no sign of One Certain Step. The battle is set up for a stirring conclusion...
...to be continued...
