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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2805239" data-attributes="member: 143">As a matter of fact, I did do a generic stat block for the grimlocks. I'll add the stats after the update. The one that Arun soloed was an adept; I didn't stat that one out but just add 4 levels or so of adept to the default. * * * * * Chapter 518Cal came awake suddenly.  He was a light sleeper, but there was always still that brief moment of disorientation, when dream had not yet fully faded, and reality had not yet fully settled around him.  But his years as an adventurer had honed his awareness, and within a few seconds he was already gathering his magical items, placing each in its proper place upon his person.As of yet, he wasn’t sure what had awakened him. Taking up a tiny brass lamp invested with a continual flame, he quickly headed up the narrow stairs that connected the tower’s three above-ground and two below-ground levels.  Now that he was fully awake he could better sense what had alerted him, a subtle vibration through the stones of the tower, not really a deep sound, the rumbling of an earthquake, but something else, something that his long experience told him likely equated to trouble.  If it was a direct assault upon the tower, then the many multilayered wards upon the place would have warned him, but that alone did not mean safety.  He paused only momentarily at the top of the stairs; first to cloak himself in greater invisibility, an action that had become almost instinctive to him.  Like his ability to teleport, his advancing talents as an archmage had grown to the point where he could summon that power without preparing the spell in advance, up to four times a day.  Once protected from casual view, he spoke the password to bypass Dana’s glyph, one of many that protected the tower and its inhabitants.  The door itself was of hardened steel set deep into the surrounding stone threshold with sheltered hinges, but the complex lock responded quickly to Cal’s expert hands.  Shuttering the lamp, tucking it into one of his many pockets, he stepped out onto the roof of the tower. The night was warm for the season. Although the moon had set, the stars twinkling high above cast enough light through the thin gauze of cloud cover high above to allow him to at least make out in general the outlines of buildings, walls, and in the distance, the low hills that hovered on the horizon to the north and east.  The landscape clearly showed the work of human hands, the random curves and dips of the land shaped into more regular patterns that resulted from deliberate cultivation.  In the years since Ember Vale had begun around the nucleus started by Cal and his companions, farms had sprung up along the roads to the east, west, and north.  Most of the farmers still lived within the walls of the village itself—this area, still known as the Fields of the Dead, was far from tame—but Cal could see the low forms of at least a half-dozen barns and other compact structures out to about a half-mile beyond the walls, beyond which point the night made everything vague, even to his sharp gnomish eyes. And he could also see the source of what had alerted him. In the near-darkness it looked like a barn itself, a massive oblong shadow cloaked in black that blended with the deep of the night.  But then it moved, skittering—that was the best word he could think of to describe its motion—across the plowed expanse of a field, and as he watched, it crashed into a low barn that stood between the field and the adjacent road.  The barn was a sturdy structure—Lok had helped in the building—but it gave way before the… thing… in a loud crash of shattering wood that carried clearly to him even across the intervening quarter-mile or so that separated him from its location. A few lights appeared in windows in the village below.  Apparently others had heard it as well.  But Cal was already casting, blending shadow and ether to conjure an ally to his side.  The shadow conjuration resolved much faster than a typical summoning spell, and within seconds a bralani stood beside him, hovering on an invisible current of air.  “Go out there and investigate what that thing is, quickly,” he instructed it.  “Do not engage, and report back to me in thirty seconds.”The bralani nodded, transforming itself into a whirlwind that lunged into the air above the tower.  Even as the shadow-creature sped off into the night to obey his commands, his mind was darting nimbly down other paths.  Dana was out, inaccessible on Sigil.  He worried about her; she’d kept to her word in terms of the updates via sending, but those brief reports hadn’t really elaborated on the subtext that Cal could sense was there.  Lok was upon Faerûn, or more precisely under it; and that was the problem.  Cal was all too familiar with the scattering effect upon teleportation magic in the dark places beneath the surface of the world.  Cal was not without other friends, but most of them were protected against casual scrying, and had to be contacted through more complicated processes that he did not have time for at the moment.  That left two options, but either would involve a percentage of failure. The bralani came speeding back exactly upon schedule, but by the end of its appointed thirty seconds Cal had already cast another spell, summoning a quintet of lantern archons, their shining glow dimmed somewhat by the infusion of shadow-stuff that gave them substance.  They hovered around him, awaiting command, as the bralani knifed down and resumed its humanoid form a few feet before him. “The intruder is a gargantuan stag beetle,” the shadow-outsider report.  “It is not alone; there are a number of equally enormous centipedes approaching this settlement from the north and west.”Cal nodded; the information confirmed what he’d already suspected.  “Attempt to distract the beetle away from the village,” he commanded the bralani.  It nodded, and sped off in another whirlwind of focused air.  “Tell the villagers in the structures below this tower that Cal instructs them to take shelter in the cellars, under a heavy table or other such cover,” he said to the archons.  The archons likewise moved quickly to obey, but he was already running toward the door that led back down into the tower.  He could still hear the sounds of destruction coming over the battlements as the beetle continued its swath of destruction.  And he thought he heard something else, a distant buzz or hum that did not improve his feelings about this situation one whit. Wasting no stray movements, he darted swiftly down the stairs, two levels down to his study.  The ornate mirror was where he had left it, and it took only a few seconds to cast the spell.  Fortunately he had not used his greater scrying spell on the previous day, so he still had it burning on the periphery of his memory.  There were a number of spells that he would have chosen differently had he expected combat this day, but such musings were a waste of time at this juncture.  Besides, one of the things that Cal had learned, as he and his friends had ascended to the heights of power, was that they could expect to be attacked at any time. His reflection in the mirror grew cloudy, and then resolved into a new scene.  It was dark, utterly so, but Cal directed a message toward the figure his sensor was focused upon.  The man he’d scryed had been asleep, but a moment later, he got a reply, and the information he needed. “The Traveler’s Rest is under attack.  I will be there in thirty seconds,” he whispered, turning away from the mirror and rushing toward the stairs once more, toward the secured chamber beneath the tower outside of the effect of the dimensional anchor that Dana had bound to the citadel. * * * * * Grimlocks and leader: Grimlock Barbarian 5/Rogue 5Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 6**note: most of the grimlocks are suffering from the effects of the Vanishing and have a lower Cha score.Atk +15/+10 melee (1d8+3, admantine battleaxe)AC 16 (+2 dex, +4 natural), hp 83Fort +9, Ref +10, Will +4SA: blindsight 40’, immunities, scent, fast movement, uncanny dodge, trap sense +2, improved uncanny dodge, rage 2/day, evasion, sneak attack +3d6Feats/Skills: Alertness, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Track, Weapon Focus (battleaxe), Climb +11, Craft (traps) +5, Disable Device +7, Escape Artist +7, Hide +8*, Listen +13, Move Silently +7, Spot +3, Tumble +7Equipment: adamantine battleaxeWhen raging: Atk +17/+12 (1d8+5), AC 14, hp 107The Chosen, Medusa Adept 4/Ranger 3/Rogue 3Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 20**currently at 10 due to the effects of the Vanishing, including robe bonusFort +8, Dex +15, Will +13Atk +17/+12/+7 melee +1 corrosive adamantine rapier (1d6+1+1d6 acid) and +11 melee snakes (1d4 plus poison)AC 18 (+3 dex, +3 natural, +2 amulet), hp 80SA: petrifying gaze (DC 13), poison (DC 14, Str1d6/2d6), evasion, favored enemy (aberration), trap sense +1, sneak attack +2d6Feats/Skills: Endurance, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Track, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Bluff +9, Climb +6, Concentration +8, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +6 (+8 acting), Hide +9**, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (Underdark) +8, Listen +8, Move Silently +15, Search +4, Spot +15, Survival +9** +4 due to the effects of the VanishingSpells (3/3/1): 0/detect magic, 0/ghost sound, 0/light, 1/command, 1/comprehend languages, 1/obscuring mist, 2/invisibilityEquipment: +4 robe of charisma, +1 corrosive adamantine rapier, 2 potions of cure critical wounds, potion of haste, +2 amulet of natural armor, dull gray ioun stone (infected with the Vanishing)</blockquote>

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