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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 128333" data-attributes="member: 726">Here's some more:Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 141b Kibi decides that this is the perfect place for his newly-learned confusion spell.  He casts it down into the pit, targeting an area that encompasses the priests in the center of the lower circle.  Unfortunately, the spell is blocked by some kind of force barrier covering the pit like a lid, which glows as it blocks the magic of Kibi’s spell.  Damn!  Kay strikes out at the enemy fighter, but without sight, her swings go wide despite the helpful whispers of Oa Lyanna.  The halfling wizard then casts another spell near the entry door, catching the slow-footed Once Certain Step.  A large rectangle of wispy white fog appears around him, and Step feels it seeping into his mind, addling his thoughts.  He shakes his head and exits the fog cloud (which stays hanging in the air around the door), and even though he finds it hard to concentrate, he moves over in position to attack the bespectacled cleric the following round.Dranko flies across the room until he’s directly above Mokad (and above the two magic hemispheres.)  He takes careful aim and snaps his magical whip down hard on Mokad’s arm.   Mokad is still in the process of casting some full-round spell with a staff, but now his arm is jerked out of its pattern, and there is a brief, dim flash.  Whatever he was casting has clearly been disrupted! >> …and a good thing, too!  Mokad was about to finishing casting a Summon Monster VI that would have added a Barbezu to the fight.His spell ruined, Mokad looks up and sees Dranko (now visible) hovering above him.  Dranko flips him off and grins.  Mokad glares back – and casts a targeted dispel magic.  Suddenly Dranko is stripped of almost all of his spells: the fly, cat’s grace, bless and bull’s strength are all gone, and only his endurance remains.  And with the fly spell gone, Dranko drops five feet, hits the downward curve of the white hemisphere (now revealed as an anti-life shell), and slides down to land on his feet at the hemisphere’s base.Back nearer to the room’s entrance, Morningstar casts chill seeds (the Ellish version of fire seeds) and flips a frozen acorn at the cleric.  Whoom!  There is a blast of frozen energy, and the cleric’s expression goes from smug to concerned.   In return, he casts circle of doom, dealing out inflicted damage to several nearby party-members.  Then he points at Morningstar and casts searing light.  A beam of bright energy springs from his fingers – and just misses, shooting past Morningstar’s ear.  Whew!Kibi, still flying overhead, decides to ready himself for the cleric’s next move.  Specifically, he readies a fireball on the condition of the cleric making any move to cast another spell.  Meanwhile Ernie draws Beryn Sur and swings at the cleric, landing a damaging blow.  Still the enemy is standing.  Flicker is still running (while avoiding the blue force lines) over to where Kay and the enemy fighter are exchanging blows.Kay takes a full round of blind swings at her foe, and with Oa Lyanna continuing to whisper advice ("she’s feinting right… sword up…now,  swing low!…) manages to land a couple of hits.  But the armored woman is protected by her own stoneskin that absorbs almost all of the damage.  The halfling woman casts another spell across the room that has no immediate or obvious effect.  But a moment later it becomes clear what she did; One Certain Step strides forward to where Ernie is battling the bespectacled cleric, and hacks at Ernie with his greatsword!  Ernie wheels in surprise, and when he sees Step finishing his back-swing, he angrily shouts  "what were you thinking?!" But then he sees the terrible sight of Step’s face, contorted in horror and shame, as he struggles futilely against a dominate person spell.  His mind, dulled by the mind fog, is unable to overcome the halfling woman’s control.  Ernie realizes what has happened, and casts magic circle against evil on the paladin.  Step feels the enemy wizard's mind forcibly denied control by Ernie’s spell.  Dranko, standing 10 feet from Mokad, smirks and says "If the Black Circle is all about knowledge, how come you didn’t know to wear water-proof clothes today?"  Then he sets the decanter of endless water on "geyser" and sprays Mokad with it.  It knocks Mokad down, but the Black Circle cleric manages to stand again, and concentrate enough to hit Dranko with an enervation spell.  Dranko feels the negative levels settle like evil gravity on his soul, and two of his few remaining spells vanish from his mind.Flicker glugs a healing potion and keeps running, almost reaching the enemy fighter, who is in the process of butchering Kay even through the stoneskin.  Her glinting broadsword is moving almost too fast to see, and an inordinate number of her hits are criticals.  After another flurry of swings, Kay is badly wounded, and her stoneskin left with but a single point of protection.The bespectacled cleric begins to cast another spell, but never gets a chance to finish.  Kibi, flying above him, sees the casting begin and nails him with a fireball from Aravis’s wand.   When the flames clear, the foe has fallen, the lenses of his glasses melted into slag.  There is much rejoicing.One thing that has puzzled the party is a phrase from the last letter from Califax, that the ritual must take place "beneath the open noon sky, and yet not beneath the direct watch of the sun."   That particular puzzle is now answered, as a loud grinding noise comes from somewhere above.  The party glances up to the dark ceiling in the center of the room, and sees now that, above the circular pit in the floor, is a cylindrical hole in the ceiling, extending upward a good forty feet.   And at its top, at ground level, two sliding panels are slowly retracting, exposing the 20-odd Black Circle priests in the pit to the twilight afternoon sky above Kallor.   And the World Spheres move closer, so close now that they’re surely less than a minute away from touching.   The black energy is flowing up the side of the pit like a solid wave, and the beat of the loud thrumming, timed to the pulsing of the huge black circle beneath the Spheres, gets faster and faster……to be continued…</blockquote>

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