Greppa of Tartwater
First Post
tauton ikhnos, and other readers I should have a new post up Saturday afternoon...depending on what bad things my GM does to my psyche tonight. I'll have the correct clarifications up too. 
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seasong's Light Against the Dark III (Sep 29th)
- Thread starter seasong
- Start date
Indigo Veil
First Post
Since I'm one of Greppa's player's friends, I'll say it so that you guys (the nice audience members who have so kindly followed this story hour so far) don't have to.
Hank! Get to work! Don't make these nice people get all excited about promised updates after a long hiatus just to dash their hopes again! You said Saturday, and it's already Tuesday. Update! <cracks a whip>
Hee. =^,^=
Hank! Get to work! Don't make these nice people get all excited about promised updates after a long hiatus just to dash their hopes again! You said Saturday, and it's already Tuesday. Update! <cracks a whip>
Hee. =^,^=
tauton_ikhnos
First Post
One bump for hope.
Greppa of Tartwater
First Post
Discovering Fame
Sorry it took so long, but I do have a nice long post
I drew myself out of the reverie and walked to the glowing pool of swirling blood. Offerings of food and wine lined the edges of the portal. At my thought, tall, featureless humanoids of the rich blood rose from the pool and began carting the offerings into the portal to Luccas' dimension.
The blood-golems cleared the foodstuffs efficiently, disappearing entirely once done.
I murmured the prayers and blessings the Mother of Light placed in my heart. Completing my duty, I returned to the sarcophagus, resuming my one sided reverie.
_________________________________________
20 Years ago...
When I think about it, Merideth, Athan and I were 15 when we joined the army for our year of mandatory service. The orcs started attacking and it never stopped. We grew up wading through fire and blood, but in our devotion to duty and adventure, we never grew up, it seemed we were perpetually children, running about the countryside doing the bidding of our leaders and our gods. Even when Athan died, the adventure continued, we did as we wee told despite what was happening to Theralis, we never noticed we were growing up. Other people did. One of them was Kyriotes.
It was a gradual process. I think it started when Allas attacked Theralis City. Agina, Phitios and the other council members knew we were patriots, willing to continually risk our lives for State and God. I think Kyriotes...I think Kyriotes, for the first time saw there were other people in Theralis as powerful as he was.
The Battle of Theralis was the beginning. However, the Siege of the Nekromanteia confirmed it.
Before the Annexation of Teoma, Merideth, Urepidas, myself and 20 of my troops made what was to be a largely ceremonial visit to the Temple of Hethas at the Nekromanteia, a system of caves that led directly into the Elemental Plane of Earth and the Realm of the Dead. Merideth and I had arrived there while fleeing from an Allas empowered Athan.
Since Allas' betrayal, we were collecting allies and building our forces. Already, several of the orc tribes fleeing before the Broken Knuckle orcs, had joined with us. Even mighty Armorcat eventually settled in one of the unoccupied valleys bringing their considerable forces into line with ours. Theralis itself had changed. We did not kill everyone we enslaved them, putting them to work in the vineyards. Paradoxically, slavery was an intrinsic part of orc culture. What we were doing, our opponents thought was logical. Many of the tribes we defeated earlier offered to trade slaves with us. Taking back the soldiers we caught and replacing them with more docile tribe members who were more suited to fieldwork. What was thought of as a dangerous experiment turned our to be a cultural turning point and the people of Theralis were free to pursue warfare full time.
The Fallen pantheon was on our side, but we had to wonder about the allegiances of the other Gods. We knew where Xeras and Allas stood. We were so far from the sea that Pelodis' position did not matter. The wild card was Hethas. The Goddess of Earth and the Dead had been an ally on many occasions. We had not heard anything about orcs attacking Her people, however we thought that since we were trying to foster good will, we decided to fly North and discuss an alliance with Hethas and Theralis. After a brief discussion with Luccas and Corvidae, who didn't care, we headed out.
It was a short trip and we were greeted by a formal assemblage of priests and Temple soldiers.
"Welcome back!" The High Priest said, "Hethas told us 'They who Emerged' would return. Welcome back."
I stared at him for a moment and recognition dawned. The last time I saw him, he was under the paw of the skeleton tiger that pursued Merideth and I from the Realm of the Dead. Not thinking, I exclaimed, "You!"
"Yes," he beamed broadly. "Those who Hethas touches are often brought together."
He reached out and touched the spot on my chest where Athan's spear had wounded me at the battle of Theralis. There wasn't a scar there, but the wide eyes and grinning mouth of the order of Hethas. He smiled at me meaningfully and I understood. Although I was starting to wonder how many Gods could have their fingers in my life.
Then we settled in. There was a lot going on in the World and despite, or rather, because it was the High Temple of Hethas, not many people came here. The orc tribes, while not worshippers of Gods, did fear them. However, as we discovered with Clan Armorcat and Broken Knuckle, there were always exceptions to conventional wisdom when it came down to orcs.
Merideth did most of the talking and negotiation. Vampires and lycanthropes were part of Luccas domain, but Corvidae was a Goddess of Death. Not over the afterlife, that was Hethas, but over those that died in battle. Her Ravens delivered the fallen to their just rewards. Corvidae and Hethas were "sisters." Not by parentage, but by Death.
I ordered my troops to mingle with the temple soldiers, while I talked with the "general" who ran things. While not very involved with Xeras' shenanigans, the priests of the death goddess have had...trying periods. Accidents, particularly monsters escaping from the Underworld, have considerably thinned their numbers, however those who had survived had become quite powerful. Hethas had been preparing her people, as Allas and Xeras had before. In spite of what we learned, the trip turned out to be quite uneventful. Merideth concluded negotiations and sent a shadow raven to Theralis. It only took an hour for the thrall of Corvidae to return with the Council's reply. From now on, a platoon of Theralis troops would constantly be on station near the temple. If the tribes attacked, the holdings of Hethas would be protected.
That done, I wanted to go home. I had lots of research to get back too. That's when one of my advanced scouts barged into my tent.
"There are orcs nearby," he said breathlessly, "a whole tribe of them."
"Which tribe?" I asked, while I stood and started to grab my gear.
"Moonshadow," he replied.
"How far away?"
"Three Days."
__________________________________________________ _______________
A flurry of archons and ravens later, we found out that troops from Theralis were already on their way, not because of any spectacular bit of prognostication, but the Council wanted to make sure that we had the troops were in place before something happened. Making promises to a God, regardless of mitigating circumstances, was not something one would want to renege on. They had started marching a day or so after my troops flew out of the city. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be here for another week.
"Two days," I said flatly. "We have to hold out two days before the troops arrive."
The High Priest was calm, "I told you Hethas will provide."
We walked to the mouth of the cave. During this visit we had not ventured into the Nekromanteia itself. We stayed in the temple and support areas that were built around it. This time however, we marched straight into its maw. What we found made me smile.
We saw skeletons, ranks upon ranks of skeletons and at the head of the undead column the reconstituted giant skeleton tiger that Merideth and I fought shortly after we made our escape from Celestial Athan into Hethas' realm. Merideth looked on all of this with some distaste, but she didn't say anything. We were in a tough spot and it wasn't time for any sort of moralizing.
My initial glee at seeing my horde of undead troopers died off quickly. While numerous, they were not very agile and trained orc fighters would eat them alive, pardon the pun.
A few more scouts returned with actual numbers of the orc we would be facing. It was a relatively small tribe, but it was a full tribe with an unusual complement of shamans in addition to the other troops. Even without worrying about the shamans, we did not have enough men to even hold them at bay, so, I fell back on dirty tricks.
Now Merideth did start to berate me (it had been building up all this time and it needed an outlet), "What do you think you're going to do?"
"Well, venoms and poisons do fall under Luccas' purview," I mused.
"No!" Merideth replied.
I rolled my eyes, "How about traps?"
She thought about it, trying to find something un-Theralis in it, "No, that should be okay. Just because we're being attacked by savages doesn't mean we should act like savages."
We worked feverishly over the next two days. The place was surprisingly defendable. The cave was part of a mountain and only a single hillside allowed access. The orcs would have to stage a frontal assault. My sergeant and Merideth coordinated the construction of defensive areas and retreat points. If the outer areas fell, we would retreat to the Nekromanteia itself. I had earth elementals going almost constantly digging a hazard-field of pits connected by underground tunnels. The pits were 30-40 feet deep, it was the hope that the fall would kill whoever fell in. Hope wasn't good enough.
I wanted to put troops in the pits, but there was a problem with them breathing. The pits were deep and were not open to air. With great care the elementals had tunneled under the surface so that the ground still looked solid. A couple of people could even run over it, but when a bunch of people cross, down they go.
To increase the kill rate, I asked the High Priest of Hethas, to order the bulk of the skeleton troopers into the pits.
Merideth was skeptical, but she didn't have any alternatives.
And on the third day, the sun came up and...nothing happened for several hours. Then the sky started getting dark.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________________
I drew on Luccas' power and bathed the hills in warm pink daylight. We turned to the sky with a collective gasp. The moon was moving, or rather it looked like it was moving.
"It's noon!" one of the priests replied, "and an eclispe is not .
I didn't reply. Merideth and I sent out the ravens as the sky faded to darkness. "Kill the shamans," was our command.
Then it was quiet for long while. Half of them returned but they had found and killed four of what they considered the most powerful of the Moonshadow spirit workers.
By then, the sky was night-dark, with a white haloed dark spot where the sun should have been. At full dark, beneath a starless sky, the first volley of thrown spears began.
We were waiting though, Merideth erected walls of Telekinetic force around occupied areas of the battlefield, leaving space at the bottom for men to run through. I followed suit on the opposite side, followed up with repeat castings of Daylight to illuminate the battle field. The spears stopped. I leaped astride Uripedas and joined the shield wall as we advanced to the gap the force walls left. As we advanced, shimmering beams lanced out and struck each wall, which vanished immediately. Uripedas wheeled upward to get a better view as the first assault wave of orcs emerged from the trees.
Driven by anger I bade Uripedas to dive, force balls twirling off of my fingers. The spheres hit and I was rewarded by the gratifying yelps of pain. However, I couldn't see it. I couldn't see anything. We were in an area of absolute blackness, this was beyond darkness. I could hear the battle, feel the wind on my face but I was blind. Alarmed, I willed Uripedas to fly upward. Vertigo, sudden and intense, flooded us, sending my breakfast over my precious saddle. Then he hit something. I held fast to my saddle as he struggled and squawked against something, then I felt something leathery, warm and moist envelop me and I tumbled to the ground.
Teeth grated against my stoneskinned flesh struggling to find purchase while muscular flaps of skin held my arms and smothered me. Even with my orc-strength, I couldn't get free. However I had prepared for this a long time ago. I took a simple spell, Lesser Shadow Killer and Mastered it. I could cast it under any circumstance, except unconsciousness. When I became a Chosen of Allas, the shadows became burning beams of light. With Luccas as my Goddess, the shadows returned, but as ebon blades of blackness. Instead of being drawn from the Plane of Shadow, they came from me through Her. Silently, furiously, I unleashed barrage upon barrage, upon barrage on the mouth of the creature holding me.
It struggled, franticly tightening its jaws and chew me into a more manageable state of capture. The struggling became thrashing, which suddenly stopped.
I pushed my way out of the sticky thing only to be confronted by the same stygian darkness. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the battle and I could hear high pitched screams of terror and cries for help in a strange orcish dialect. They had found my pits.
I Needed to do something other than grope around. There were only a couple of creatures in my repertoire that could function in total darkness. I summoned the Stone Snakes of Kyriotes followed by Blood Elementals which were oozes drawn directly from Luccas' domain.
As they spread out to fight, I partially summoned a single ooze, "Brother," I began quickly, "I have need of your Sight."
The ooze, as far as oozes could, contemplated and then replied, "I wish to join in this battle. In exchange for my eyeless sight, I will require a small bit of your life to sustain me in this battle."
We spoke quickly and I discovered that "a small bit" was a relatively small amount of my vitality. I gladly exchanged and the battlefield resolved itself into view in grim black and white. I looked down and took a step back. A leathery shape lay sprawled on the ground. It was featureless, not that I could see that well processing the ooze's method of seeing.
I saw Uripedas lying unmoving under an undulating layer of the strange leathery creatures. I ran to him, sending barrage, upon barrage of small blades into the creatures covering my friend. I drew my sword and with actual leverage, I was able to pull the creatures off, spitefully cutting them up.
"C'mon Bird," I grimaced, "be...all...right." I put my face against his blood-matted feathers. He was still, so still. I realized I had never seen him not be moving or fidgeting and it scared me. "GET UP!"
The great bulk shivered. His head came up and he uttered a feeble squawk.
I summoned a small group of archons, "Kill anything that comes near him that isn't in a Theralis or temple uniform."
Then I took off searching for Merideth. Logically, I should have just flown, but I was mad. I cast spell after spell, my Will easily channeling the low-level effects. I focused on the things that dealt damage directly, they were far more satisfying as I implacably half stalked, half ran across the battlefield. I found Merideth. She was imprisoned under a dome of force and could not get out. One beam of scintillating force later, she was free and her face was a dark cloud of murderous anger. Merideth hated being helpless. She looked at me, her esper senses clearly compensating for the lack of light, "thanks."
She started to rise into the sky when I caught her hand, "Dispel the darkness, then help Uripedas...I can't get him to move."
She started to retort sharply, then she looked it me, watching the tears running through the blood, feathers and muck. She nodded and rose into the sky.
I followed and Merideth flew over to Uripedas. A few moments later, the darkness peeled back over a large section of the battle field. The Theralis troops had gathered behind their shield wall and there were several leathery bundles were people were being snacked upon by the strange creatures, several of which were flying at me. I faced them eldrich forces gathering around my hands. As they closed, a familiar vertigo hit me. Unable to concentrate, I ran, flying towards the pit area.
Moments later a fireball and then another fire ball exploded in their midst, frying them to cinders and Uripedas, screaming defiantly flew through the ashes Merideth, astride his saddle.
We were doing surprising well, the pits, battlements and shield wall were keeping things under control while the summoned monsters were crippling the infantry that were getting through. We did not know where the remaining shaman were, but I was hoping that getting rid of their precious darkness would bring them into view.
Until then, I summoned Air Elementals which, along with newly summoned stone serpents supplemented the shield wall and drove more orcs towards the field of pits.
Then the rays started flying, peppering me. I felt a variety of strange sensations pull across my mind before I shook them off.
Merideth was already at work "Find them!" She hissed, transforming into a raven crackling with life draining emerald lightning and flying with her covey of shadow ravens. I sent Uripedas to support the ground troops and I teleported to the ground. Flying along the ground and picking off any shaman stupid enough to shoot at me.
"Greppa," Merideth's voice impatiently whispered into my mind, "Get over here."
A short moment later I was standing beside Merideth looking at a tall white-haired orc clad in black and white furs and strange skins. He was standing under a shimmering dome of force.
Merideth was tapping on her chin impatiently with a finger, "I can't get him out." She said tersely.
"Is he that important?" I asked, keeping close watch on his face.
She nodded, "He's the most powerful shaman out here, but apparently he can't teleport. He's stuck there."
"Really?"
"Really," she said stamping a sandled foot. "Tell Sergeant Arkos, to start to regroup," I said.
"What about him?" Merideth replied.
"Does that shield of his extend under the ground?"
Merideth's eyes defocused for a moment. "Why, no it doesn't" she said with genuine surprise.
Smiling viciously, I summoned a small horde of glistening Blood Elementals. The shaman's face was defiant, confident in his protection.
Then the oozes seeped into the earth.
The triumphant look began to fade. It became worry when the when the ground beneath his feat began bleeding. Hastily he cast a spell, disrupting one of my creatures, but the rest swarmed, drowning him.
"That's that," I said then I flew back to the front line.
Sorry it took so long, but I do have a nice long post
I drew myself out of the reverie and walked to the glowing pool of swirling blood. Offerings of food and wine lined the edges of the portal. At my thought, tall, featureless humanoids of the rich blood rose from the pool and began carting the offerings into the portal to Luccas' dimension.
The blood-golems cleared the foodstuffs efficiently, disappearing entirely once done.
I murmured the prayers and blessings the Mother of Light placed in my heart. Completing my duty, I returned to the sarcophagus, resuming my one sided reverie.
_________________________________________
20 Years ago...
When I think about it, Merideth, Athan and I were 15 when we joined the army for our year of mandatory service. The orcs started attacking and it never stopped. We grew up wading through fire and blood, but in our devotion to duty and adventure, we never grew up, it seemed we were perpetually children, running about the countryside doing the bidding of our leaders and our gods. Even when Athan died, the adventure continued, we did as we wee told despite what was happening to Theralis, we never noticed we were growing up. Other people did. One of them was Kyriotes.
It was a gradual process. I think it started when Allas attacked Theralis City. Agina, Phitios and the other council members knew we were patriots, willing to continually risk our lives for State and God. I think Kyriotes...I think Kyriotes, for the first time saw there were other people in Theralis as powerful as he was.
The Battle of Theralis was the beginning. However, the Siege of the Nekromanteia confirmed it.
Before the Annexation of Teoma, Merideth, Urepidas, myself and 20 of my troops made what was to be a largely ceremonial visit to the Temple of Hethas at the Nekromanteia, a system of caves that led directly into the Elemental Plane of Earth and the Realm of the Dead. Merideth and I had arrived there while fleeing from an Allas empowered Athan.
Since Allas' betrayal, we were collecting allies and building our forces. Already, several of the orc tribes fleeing before the Broken Knuckle orcs, had joined with us. Even mighty Armorcat eventually settled in one of the unoccupied valleys bringing their considerable forces into line with ours. Theralis itself had changed. We did not kill everyone we enslaved them, putting them to work in the vineyards. Paradoxically, slavery was an intrinsic part of orc culture. What we were doing, our opponents thought was logical. Many of the tribes we defeated earlier offered to trade slaves with us. Taking back the soldiers we caught and replacing them with more docile tribe members who were more suited to fieldwork. What was thought of as a dangerous experiment turned our to be a cultural turning point and the people of Theralis were free to pursue warfare full time.
The Fallen pantheon was on our side, but we had to wonder about the allegiances of the other Gods. We knew where Xeras and Allas stood. We were so far from the sea that Pelodis' position did not matter. The wild card was Hethas. The Goddess of Earth and the Dead had been an ally on many occasions. We had not heard anything about orcs attacking Her people, however we thought that since we were trying to foster good will, we decided to fly North and discuss an alliance with Hethas and Theralis. After a brief discussion with Luccas and Corvidae, who didn't care, we headed out.
It was a short trip and we were greeted by a formal assemblage of priests and Temple soldiers.
"Welcome back!" The High Priest said, "Hethas told us 'They who Emerged' would return. Welcome back."
I stared at him for a moment and recognition dawned. The last time I saw him, he was under the paw of the skeleton tiger that pursued Merideth and I from the Realm of the Dead. Not thinking, I exclaimed, "You!"
"Yes," he beamed broadly. "Those who Hethas touches are often brought together."
He reached out and touched the spot on my chest where Athan's spear had wounded me at the battle of Theralis. There wasn't a scar there, but the wide eyes and grinning mouth of the order of Hethas. He smiled at me meaningfully and I understood. Although I was starting to wonder how many Gods could have their fingers in my life.
Then we settled in. There was a lot going on in the World and despite, or rather, because it was the High Temple of Hethas, not many people came here. The orc tribes, while not worshippers of Gods, did fear them. However, as we discovered with Clan Armorcat and Broken Knuckle, there were always exceptions to conventional wisdom when it came down to orcs.
Merideth did most of the talking and negotiation. Vampires and lycanthropes were part of Luccas domain, but Corvidae was a Goddess of Death. Not over the afterlife, that was Hethas, but over those that died in battle. Her Ravens delivered the fallen to their just rewards. Corvidae and Hethas were "sisters." Not by parentage, but by Death.
I ordered my troops to mingle with the temple soldiers, while I talked with the "general" who ran things. While not very involved with Xeras' shenanigans, the priests of the death goddess have had...trying periods. Accidents, particularly monsters escaping from the Underworld, have considerably thinned their numbers, however those who had survived had become quite powerful. Hethas had been preparing her people, as Allas and Xeras had before. In spite of what we learned, the trip turned out to be quite uneventful. Merideth concluded negotiations and sent a shadow raven to Theralis. It only took an hour for the thrall of Corvidae to return with the Council's reply. From now on, a platoon of Theralis troops would constantly be on station near the temple. If the tribes attacked, the holdings of Hethas would be protected.
That done, I wanted to go home. I had lots of research to get back too. That's when one of my advanced scouts barged into my tent.
"There are orcs nearby," he said breathlessly, "a whole tribe of them."
"Which tribe?" I asked, while I stood and started to grab my gear.
"Moonshadow," he replied.
"How far away?"
"Three Days."
__________________________________________________ _______________
A flurry of archons and ravens later, we found out that troops from Theralis were already on their way, not because of any spectacular bit of prognostication, but the Council wanted to make sure that we had the troops were in place before something happened. Making promises to a God, regardless of mitigating circumstances, was not something one would want to renege on. They had started marching a day or so after my troops flew out of the city. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be here for another week.
"Two days," I said flatly. "We have to hold out two days before the troops arrive."
The High Priest was calm, "I told you Hethas will provide."
We walked to the mouth of the cave. During this visit we had not ventured into the Nekromanteia itself. We stayed in the temple and support areas that were built around it. This time however, we marched straight into its maw. What we found made me smile.
We saw skeletons, ranks upon ranks of skeletons and at the head of the undead column the reconstituted giant skeleton tiger that Merideth and I fought shortly after we made our escape from Celestial Athan into Hethas' realm. Merideth looked on all of this with some distaste, but she didn't say anything. We were in a tough spot and it wasn't time for any sort of moralizing.
My initial glee at seeing my horde of undead troopers died off quickly. While numerous, they were not very agile and trained orc fighters would eat them alive, pardon the pun.
A few more scouts returned with actual numbers of the orc we would be facing. It was a relatively small tribe, but it was a full tribe with an unusual complement of shamans in addition to the other troops. Even without worrying about the shamans, we did not have enough men to even hold them at bay, so, I fell back on dirty tricks.
Now Merideth did start to berate me (it had been building up all this time and it needed an outlet), "What do you think you're going to do?"
"Well, venoms and poisons do fall under Luccas' purview," I mused.
"No!" Merideth replied.
I rolled my eyes, "How about traps?"
She thought about it, trying to find something un-Theralis in it, "No, that should be okay. Just because we're being attacked by savages doesn't mean we should act like savages."
We worked feverishly over the next two days. The place was surprisingly defendable. The cave was part of a mountain and only a single hillside allowed access. The orcs would have to stage a frontal assault. My sergeant and Merideth coordinated the construction of defensive areas and retreat points. If the outer areas fell, we would retreat to the Nekromanteia itself. I had earth elementals going almost constantly digging a hazard-field of pits connected by underground tunnels. The pits were 30-40 feet deep, it was the hope that the fall would kill whoever fell in. Hope wasn't good enough.
I wanted to put troops in the pits, but there was a problem with them breathing. The pits were deep and were not open to air. With great care the elementals had tunneled under the surface so that the ground still looked solid. A couple of people could even run over it, but when a bunch of people cross, down they go.
To increase the kill rate, I asked the High Priest of Hethas, to order the bulk of the skeleton troopers into the pits.
Merideth was skeptical, but she didn't have any alternatives.
And on the third day, the sun came up and...nothing happened for several hours. Then the sky started getting dark.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________________
I drew on Luccas' power and bathed the hills in warm pink daylight. We turned to the sky with a collective gasp. The moon was moving, or rather it looked like it was moving.
"It's noon!" one of the priests replied, "and an eclispe is not .
I didn't reply. Merideth and I sent out the ravens as the sky faded to darkness. "Kill the shamans," was our command.
Then it was quiet for long while. Half of them returned but they had found and killed four of what they considered the most powerful of the Moonshadow spirit workers.
By then, the sky was night-dark, with a white haloed dark spot where the sun should have been. At full dark, beneath a starless sky, the first volley of thrown spears began.
We were waiting though, Merideth erected walls of Telekinetic force around occupied areas of the battlefield, leaving space at the bottom for men to run through. I followed suit on the opposite side, followed up with repeat castings of Daylight to illuminate the battle field. The spears stopped. I leaped astride Uripedas and joined the shield wall as we advanced to the gap the force walls left. As we advanced, shimmering beams lanced out and struck each wall, which vanished immediately. Uripedas wheeled upward to get a better view as the first assault wave of orcs emerged from the trees.
Driven by anger I bade Uripedas to dive, force balls twirling off of my fingers. The spheres hit and I was rewarded by the gratifying yelps of pain. However, I couldn't see it. I couldn't see anything. We were in an area of absolute blackness, this was beyond darkness. I could hear the battle, feel the wind on my face but I was blind. Alarmed, I willed Uripedas to fly upward. Vertigo, sudden and intense, flooded us, sending my breakfast over my precious saddle. Then he hit something. I held fast to my saddle as he struggled and squawked against something, then I felt something leathery, warm and moist envelop me and I tumbled to the ground.
Teeth grated against my stoneskinned flesh struggling to find purchase while muscular flaps of skin held my arms and smothered me. Even with my orc-strength, I couldn't get free. However I had prepared for this a long time ago. I took a simple spell, Lesser Shadow Killer and Mastered it. I could cast it under any circumstance, except unconsciousness. When I became a Chosen of Allas, the shadows became burning beams of light. With Luccas as my Goddess, the shadows returned, but as ebon blades of blackness. Instead of being drawn from the Plane of Shadow, they came from me through Her. Silently, furiously, I unleashed barrage upon barrage, upon barrage on the mouth of the creature holding me.
It struggled, franticly tightening its jaws and chew me into a more manageable state of capture. The struggling became thrashing, which suddenly stopped.
I pushed my way out of the sticky thing only to be confronted by the same stygian darkness. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the battle and I could hear high pitched screams of terror and cries for help in a strange orcish dialect. They had found my pits.
I Needed to do something other than grope around. There were only a couple of creatures in my repertoire that could function in total darkness. I summoned the Stone Snakes of Kyriotes followed by Blood Elementals which were oozes drawn directly from Luccas' domain.
As they spread out to fight, I partially summoned a single ooze, "Brother," I began quickly, "I have need of your Sight."
The ooze, as far as oozes could, contemplated and then replied, "I wish to join in this battle. In exchange for my eyeless sight, I will require a small bit of your life to sustain me in this battle."
We spoke quickly and I discovered that "a small bit" was a relatively small amount of my vitality. I gladly exchanged and the battlefield resolved itself into view in grim black and white. I looked down and took a step back. A leathery shape lay sprawled on the ground. It was featureless, not that I could see that well processing the ooze's method of seeing.
I saw Uripedas lying unmoving under an undulating layer of the strange leathery creatures. I ran to him, sending barrage, upon barrage of small blades into the creatures covering my friend. I drew my sword and with actual leverage, I was able to pull the creatures off, spitefully cutting them up.
"C'mon Bird," I grimaced, "be...all...right." I put my face against his blood-matted feathers. He was still, so still. I realized I had never seen him not be moving or fidgeting and it scared me. "GET UP!"
The great bulk shivered. His head came up and he uttered a feeble squawk.
I summoned a small group of archons, "Kill anything that comes near him that isn't in a Theralis or temple uniform."
Then I took off searching for Merideth. Logically, I should have just flown, but I was mad. I cast spell after spell, my Will easily channeling the low-level effects. I focused on the things that dealt damage directly, they were far more satisfying as I implacably half stalked, half ran across the battlefield. I found Merideth. She was imprisoned under a dome of force and could not get out. One beam of scintillating force later, she was free and her face was a dark cloud of murderous anger. Merideth hated being helpless. She looked at me, her esper senses clearly compensating for the lack of light, "thanks."
She started to rise into the sky when I caught her hand, "Dispel the darkness, then help Uripedas...I can't get him to move."
She started to retort sharply, then she looked it me, watching the tears running through the blood, feathers and muck. She nodded and rose into the sky.
I followed and Merideth flew over to Uripedas. A few moments later, the darkness peeled back over a large section of the battle field. The Theralis troops had gathered behind their shield wall and there were several leathery bundles were people were being snacked upon by the strange creatures, several of which were flying at me. I faced them eldrich forces gathering around my hands. As they closed, a familiar vertigo hit me. Unable to concentrate, I ran, flying towards the pit area.
Moments later a fireball and then another fire ball exploded in their midst, frying them to cinders and Uripedas, screaming defiantly flew through the ashes Merideth, astride his saddle.
We were doing surprising well, the pits, battlements and shield wall were keeping things under control while the summoned monsters were crippling the infantry that were getting through. We did not know where the remaining shaman were, but I was hoping that getting rid of their precious darkness would bring them into view.
Until then, I summoned Air Elementals which, along with newly summoned stone serpents supplemented the shield wall and drove more orcs towards the field of pits.
Then the rays started flying, peppering me. I felt a variety of strange sensations pull across my mind before I shook them off.
Merideth was already at work "Find them!" She hissed, transforming into a raven crackling with life draining emerald lightning and flying with her covey of shadow ravens. I sent Uripedas to support the ground troops and I teleported to the ground. Flying along the ground and picking off any shaman stupid enough to shoot at me.
"Greppa," Merideth's voice impatiently whispered into my mind, "Get over here."
A short moment later I was standing beside Merideth looking at a tall white-haired orc clad in black and white furs and strange skins. He was standing under a shimmering dome of force.
Merideth was tapping on her chin impatiently with a finger, "I can't get him out." She said tersely.
"Is he that important?" I asked, keeping close watch on his face.
She nodded, "He's the most powerful shaman out here, but apparently he can't teleport. He's stuck there."
"Really?"
"Really," she said stamping a sandled foot. "Tell Sergeant Arkos, to start to regroup," I said.
"What about him?" Merideth replied.
"Does that shield of his extend under the ground?"
Merideth's eyes defocused for a moment. "Why, no it doesn't" she said with genuine surprise.
Smiling viciously, I summoned a small horde of glistening Blood Elementals. The shaman's face was defiant, confident in his protection.
Then the oozes seeped into the earth.
The triumphant look began to fade. It became worry when the when the ground beneath his feat began bleeding. Hastily he cast a spell, disrupting one of my creatures, but the rest swarmed, drowning him.
"That's that," I said then I flew back to the front line.
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tauton_ikhnos
First Post
Comments and thoughts, hopefully better written than usual
1. Really like the fact that mass battles have names, like Siege of Necromanteia. It makes it feel real and historical.
2. Wow. Hethas went from "evil god of necro" to "possible ally"! Not that I doubted her! Seasong's aborted Game of Death showed, Hethas more CN than CE.
3. Awwww.. I remember when Merideth was squawking little girl who wanted to be warrior princess healer. Now she's Death's diplomat.
4. Sorry, system question... Moonshadow orcs employ advanced cloakers, don't they? That + darkness looks nasty.
5. 'Nother system question... Greppa summoned blood oozes? Related to ooze lords in any way? Or just new critter? Love the ooze through ground method. Poor shaman leader.
6. From this
1. Really like the fact that mass battles have names, like Siege of Necromanteia. It makes it feel real and historical.
2. Wow. Hethas went from "evil god of necro" to "possible ally"! Not that I doubted her! Seasong's aborted Game of Death showed, Hethas more CN than CE.
3. Awwww.. I remember when Merideth was squawking little girl who wanted to be warrior princess healer. Now she's Death's diplomat.
4. Sorry, system question... Moonshadow orcs employ advanced cloakers, don't they? That + darkness looks nasty.
5. 'Nother system question... Greppa summoned blood oozes? Related to ooze lords in any way? Or just new critter? Love the ooze through ground method
. Poor shaman leader.6. From this
I confer that Greppa is still the munchkin of Will saves? Heh heh.
Greppa of Tartwater
First Post
tauton_ikhnos said:Comments and thoughts, hopefully better written than usual
1. Really like the fact that mass battles have names, like Siege of Necromanteia. It makes it feel real and historical.
2. Wow. Hethas went from "evil god of necro" to "possible ally"! Not that I doubted her! Seasong's aborted Game of Death showed, Hethas more CN than CE.
3. Awwww.. I remember when Merideth was squawking little girl who wanted to be warrior princess healer. Now she's Death's diplomat.
It was horrible . I didn't even know what was happening when it all hit. What was worse, I couldn't counter the Darkeness with Daylight because the orcs were using a variant of Deeper Darkness. I still haven't read the MM entry for cloakers (I tend to throw out the book when dealing with Seasong's monsters, they always tend to be somewhat...different). All I knew is that they got the surprise on me and took advantage of my weak save. I would have been meat if it wasn't for stoneskin.
5. 'Nother system question... Greppa summoned blood oozes? Related to ooze lords in any way? Or just new critter? Love the ooze through ground method
He initally based it on the Choker and added ooze qualities, but in the description, it became it's own creature. I think it was a CR3 or 4 creature and Greppa was using a 5th or 6th level empowered summoning spell to bring them in by the bushel.
Oh yeah! =)
tauton_ikhnos
First Post
Choker w/ooze qualities... nasty. Almost makes up for cloakers in Deeper Darkness .
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