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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2207602" data-attributes="member: 143">Tonight, students, we have a demonstration of how important initiative is in high-level play. * * * * * Chapter 379At the Tree of Shackled Souls, the demodand aberration Dyr’ryd confronted the Heroes of Cauldron.  Divested of its most powerful allies, without even the ability to summon additional demodand minions due to the interference wrought by the Tree, the shator was nevertheless an imposing foe. “You face an interesting dilemma,” the creature said.  “You cannot stop the ritual now, the backlash would cause an eruption of the volcano, and…”“Yes, we know,” Cal interrupted.  “WASTE IT!” he shouted, punctuating his command by hurling a targeted dispel magic at the shator that dissolved its displacement and revealed it standing a few feet away. Its plan to delay and deceive the intruders ruined, Dyr’ryd snarled and lifted its deadly guisarme Mindbite, calling upon its innate powers to unleash some nasty effect upon the adventurers.  A canny and experienced adversary, mentally and physically ready for battle, the shator was flat footed for barely a second after the gnome’s shouted command. But a lot happened in that second. Dannel and Benzan were both ready, and drew and fired in the same instant even as the echoes of Cal’s words died in the cavern.  They shifted their aim as Dyr’ryd’s displacement was broken, and both holy arrows slammed into the demodand’s baggy torso, vanishing into its corrupt flesh with small white flashes of light.  The shator stumbled back a step, its body wrought with agonies as pure divine energy lanced through it.  The parasitic Ryd screamed as a tiny bolt punctured its malformed body, a gift from Mole’s crossbow.  The shator was a product of the dank pits of Carceri, and no stranger to pain, but Dannel and Benzan both maintained their barrage with an almost insane speed and accuracy, the elf filled with his magical song, the tiefling filled with rage at what had been done to his daughter.  Dana, meanwhile, reached over and touched Lok on the shoulder, filling him with the divine power of Selûne.  The genasi, well-acquainted with the magic she empowered him with, instantly rose off the ground and flew like an arrow toward the demodand. Both of Dyr’ryd’s mouths now exploded with cries and curses, as arrow after arrow slammed into it with the force of a trebuchet stone.  The demodand could not focus its magic quickly enough to respond, but it saw the genasi coming, and with fury it lifted Mindbite to return some of the pain it had thus far withstood.  But even as it started its swing a last pair of white-fletched holy missiles buried themselves, a few inches apart, deep into its throat.  The impacts threw off its aim, and the potent magical weapon sliced harmlessly above Lok as the genasi dove straight in, and at the last instant drove his magical axe with grim fatality into the shator’s ugly throat.  A thunderous retort shook the cavern, and as Lok flew past, his momentum carrying him inexorably forward past his foe, the rest of the companions watched as the monstrous double-head that had carried two unique minds tumbled end over end, and landed with a sizzling splash in the bubbling rivulet of lava. The body stood there upright a moment longer, as if unrecognizing the absence of its driving essence.  But then, inevitably, the fat corpse of the fearsome demodand crumpled into a noxious heap on the uneven stone floor.</blockquote>

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