carborundum said:
I hadn't DM's in about 8 years til I finally found a group in my new home in the Netherlands (and learnt enough Dutch to do it properly.) Most of the words you need aren't in the textbooks!
Learning Dutch to DM? That's hardcore - and dedicated!
I always wrote my own stuff, had my own world, cast of hundreds etc - but I didn't want to learn 3e and try and wing it simultaneously - hence we're doing the Savage Tide. It'll be a year before we finish it, so I'll just have to live vicariously til then!
I'm playing in a Savage Tide PbP game, and we just got to Here There Be Monsters. I quite like that AP, and it's better than Age of Worms and Shackled City, in my estimation.
Glad I found your story
Glad you're enjoying it. Have some more...
* * * * * * * * * *
Powerful blows from a number of invisible enemies smash Nameless, Six and Gareth off their feet and to the ground. Reacting swiftly, the alienist rolls over and casts a
glitterdust in the air above him, the rain of golden particles outlining a huge amorphous figure. Luckily, the spell also blinds the creature, which roars and flails wildly around, while he rolls aside. “Invisible stalkers!” Nameless shouts.
Gareth’s and Six’s attackers continue to hammer into them, but the paladin calls on his newly gained powers and a nimbus of light surrounds him. As a large fist smashes into him, the light erupts in a burst and this attacker too is blinded by the holy energy. Six, conversely, turns to darkness rather than light for protection. His harness springs into life and covers him with an armor of shadows. The warforged immediately activates one of its many abilities, disappearing in a puff of shadow and reappearing fifty feet away.
Luna, though tempted to attain a more powerful shape and jump into physical combat, restrains herself and casts a swift
faerie fire, illuminating the two invisible creatures with lavender light. Now that all three enemies are visible, she immediately sends an empowered
arc of lightning through all three of the huge creatures. Korm’s own spell follows suit, though each of the druids finds that at least one creature is unaffected, displaying some form of resistance to magic.
Despite their size and resistance, with two of them blinded and their enemies able to see them, the invisible stalkers quickly go down under a hail of spells and weapons. “Well, that was certainly bracing!” grins Korm, cleaning his sword, ignoring the large bruise already purpling on the side of his face, and then looks at Nameless, who is looking all around him. “What’s with you?”
“I just cast a
See Invisibility,” explains the alienist, eyes roving all around the area.
“So? Are there more of those things around us?”
“No. But a
see invisibility lets me see into the ethereal plane. And it’s crowded.
Very crowded.” Nameless looks at the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of translucent figures around them, covering the Mournland as far as he can see. The ghosts do not move, but simply hang motionlessly in mid-air, staring blankly ahead of themselves with expressions of intermingled tiredness, sorrow and ennui. Except for a select group. A thick crowd of ghosts form a hemisphere extending sixty feet away from the Angels, all watching them with intent expressions.
Nameless explains exactly what he sees. “I think we just found the explanation to why no corpse from the Mournland can be raised. If everyone who died here has been turned into a ghost, then neither a
raise dead, nor a
reincarnate, nor even a
resurrection, would be able to bring them back.”
“Can you talk to them?” asks Luna, intrigued at the news.
Nameless addresses the ghosts, but there is no response. “They don’t reply, or show any signs of having heard. But they can see us. That’s why there’s a crowd around us, I’m sure. On the ethereal plane one can see only to a distance of sixty feet, so all those that can see us have gathered around to watch, until there is no space. Fascinating!”
“I’m sure it is,” says Gareth, “But can you put up a
rope trick? I need some healing.”
Six, who has moved a little distance away and been studying the portal and the creatures around it, says, “Good idea. I think we attracted some attention. Let’s get healed and pull back.”
Nameless complies and the Angels quickly enter the
rope trick and tend to their wounds. As they climb out and prepare to leave, the alienist shouts a warning. “Look out!”
Approximately a hundred feet from the Angels, seven creatures suddenly appear,
teleporting in invisibly – or at least invisible to anyone except Nameless’ enhanced sight – and hovering a short distance off the ground.
Four of them are illithids, but they are of two distinct types. Three of them have had most of their facial tentacles amputated, with small gems attached to the ends of what remains, resembling the mind flayer spellcaster that the Angels had faced at Yarkuun Draal. The fourth is a little taller and paler, with an unusual symbol etched into its forehead. The non-illithids are a trio of creatures that look like
four-legged spiders with a pair of tentacles each.
The tall mind flayer flies upwards, gesturing at the Angels and shouting in daelkyr, “They are the ones we were warned of. Take them down. The alienist first!”
Great! Fame at last! Nameless swiftly conjures a
shield to protect himself and calls forth a field of tentacles to ensnare the attackers. Two of the illithid spellcasters respond immediately, transporting themselves and as many of their allies as they can reach. One of the spider-like creatures is left behind and though it struggles vainly, the tentacles pin it down and begin to crush it.
As soon as they reappear, one of the mind flayers hurls a swift trio of
scorching rays at Nameless. In the split second before they hit, the alienist’s
contingency activates, bringing a
protection from energy into effect. The
rays hit harmlessly, as does the maximized
fireball which blossoms around him next. His allies, however, are not so lucky, except for Six, who darts out of the way.
While Gareth, Korm and Luna stagger at the searing pain, the two spider-like creatures fly forward to strike at the two druids. As they come within range, their tentacles lash out to touch Korm and Luna, and the targets each cry out in surprise, feeling a fogginess settle over their minds.
“Aaarrgh!” shouts Luna, as the attacking creature appears, growing drastically as she expands into a huge tendriculos. “What the hell is this?!”
“Mindshredders,” snaps Nameless. “They’re a rare kind of aberration. These are zenthals – the most powerful kind. Their touch can sap your will.”
“Tell us something we don’t know!” growls Korm, hacking at the one before him and finding it very difficult to hit.
“They have magical protection?”
“Forget them – focus on the mind flayers!” shouts Gareth, calling on the Endless Blade to fly forward and smite one of the spellcasters with all his might.
Nameless’ attention is on the illithid leader, who is in turn watching him intently as if awaiting an action. Presuming that it is waiting to disrupt his spells, the alienist begins a weaker spell and the illithid says, “You cannot halt Xoriat!” And promptly drops an area of
silence around him.
Nameless just grins back as the spell ends and flies upwards, his
arcane sight letting him see the smallest distance he has to cover. As soon as he emerges outside the area, he begins the spell he intended to cast all along. “Xoriat? I’ll show you Xoriat!”
The mind flayer’s brow furrows and then it turns, to find itself face-to-face with Kha’tvan’ga. Before it can respond, the eldritch horror’s four tentacles slam down, battering and writhing around it. There is a faint popping sound, and then both horror and its target disappear.
With their leader suddenly gone and the numbers now evened, the Angels quickly turn the tide, but the aberrations put up a desperate fight. More
fireballs,
sound lances and
scorching rays, all maximized for effect, hammer the Angels, and the zenthals continue to drain the druids’ minds. But, while seriously hurt, all of the Angels have an incredible ability to soak up damage, and an even greater ability to inflict it.
Though no longer able to cast his most powerful spells, Korm settles for taking apart one of the zenthals with his sword, its meteoric blade inflicting especial damage to the aberration. As it staggers under the assault, a swift
arc of lightning sends it down in a smoking heap.
The other end of the
arc of lightning extends to the second zenthal, which is actually sticking out of Luna’s giant maw at this moment. “Yaaargh!” shouts the tendriculos as the
arc extends into her mouth, “Watch where you throw that, idiot!” Infuriated, she bites down viciously and swallows, causing the feebly twitching zenthal to disappear from sight. And then spits out a piece of it. “Oh, yuck! How do you eat that crap, Korm?”
Across the battlefield, Six and Gareth make short work of the illithid spellcasters, especially since Nameless
feebleminds one and renders it helpless.
By the time Kha’tvan’ga reappears with its prey, the battle is almost over. As soon as it does so, the mind flayer leader shrieks and flees, its mind having been broken by the experience, despite its experience of Xoriat. Before it can get a hundred feet away, a couple more spells cause it literally explode in mid-air.
With the enemies disposed of, Nameless snaps, “Everyone get in the
rope trick and get healed – fast. We’re likely to have more company very soon. Six – you don’t need to get in there to repair yourself. Could you check what’s going on there?”
“Sure.”
Despite Nameless’ concerns, another attack does not materialize, though it is clear that there is a certain degree of alarm and excitement among the aberrations at the portal. After a couple of minutes, the Angels see another creature appear through the planar gate, this one a giant more than a dozen feet tall, carrying a proportionately large maul, and borne on leathery wings. It is followed swiftly by a pair of dolgaunts.
“So what do we do now?” asks Luna. “Do we go down there and kill them all?”
Nameless, who has borrowed Six’s spyglass to get a better look, shakes his head. “We don’t have enough firepower. So far, I see two beholders, four gauths, seven mind flayers, over a dozen dolgaunts, two of the big winged giants (including the one we just saw come through), four mindshredder zenthals, three nagas, a five-headed shrieking terror and two dozen runehounds. The runehounds make things even more complicated, since they have blindsight to a distance of 500 feet. And even if they weren’t there and we could surprise them, we couldn’t take them all. Just those mindflayers and zenthals nearly took us out. With beholders present, we’d be dead as soon they got us in their anti-magic cones.” He scratches his chin thoughtfully with his tentacle. “Of course, we could play guerilla and just stay nearby. With all the Mournland monstrosities that we seem to attract, we might be able to lure something to attack their forces.”
Six shakes his head. “That’s too risky. We’re on a scouting mission. Let’s get the rate of arrival of the enemy and the maximum size of creature that can get through, and we can leave.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s a fixed speed,” says Korm. “Nothing came through for a few minutes and then that giant and the dolgaunts in less than a minute of each other. And that gate’s what, 20 feet wide and 30 feet high? Something very big could come through, especially if it can be squeezed through.”
“As usual, good news abounds.” Six turns to Nameless. “Tell me, could a daelkyr lord add any abilities to a creature to make existence in the Mournland viable? If so, how easy do you think it might be? And what could a daelkyr lord do if he got hold of a creation forge? I’m wondering because the warforged camp is only a few miles from here. The forge is far too large to be moved, and even though we’ve hidden it well, I don’t know how safe it is.”
Nameless replies, “I can’t see the forge helping them, since it is built for a specific task and has a unique form of activation. The daelkyr are incredibly good at remaking creatures into new forms, and most of the aberration types are their creation, so with enough effort they could likely come up with creatures that would have an easier time surviving in the Mournland. But even they probably wouldn’t be able to create something which could heal in the Mournland, because that is simply the way this place works. And creating specific species takes time. It would take years, and more likely decades or centuries to create such new species. Incidentally, that’s probably another reason the daelkyr like Eberron. Work done here is ten times as fast as work done on Xoriat.”
“So this is their preferred laboratory?” says Six. “How reassuring! You and Korm know the most about aberrations. Do these look like beachhead troops to you? Do you think they are preparing for scouting, or defense, or anything else? They don’t seem to be putting together another strike team, from what I can see.”
“Beachhead troops?” asks Korm.
“It’s a military term. I’ve been reading more about the Last War while you sleep,” explains Six.
“Definitely ‘beachhead troops,’” says Nameless. “Even the daelkyr armies don’t consist primarily of such powerful creatures. I’m certain these are the ones sent through to hold the area until a larger number of troops can come through.” He smiles thinly. “It looks like there’s a lot of discussion among the mind flayers, beholders and zenthals, so we probably do have them worried since the others didn’t return.”
Six emits a metallic laugh. “You are all low on spells, we are outnumbered, with the enemy able to detect our approach and nullify any magic we do have. Since they’re worried, let’s attack. Either we can draw out some of their forces, by moving in slowly, and then swiftly circle on the stags to attack the remainder. Or do Nameless’ plan for finding some Mournland creatures and send them their way.”
“That sounds like fun,” says Korm, and Luna says, “And I can hit them from a long way away.” Six turns and stares at the two, before saying heavily, “My mistake! I had forgotten that you two do not understand sarcasm well. I. Was. Kidding.”
Nameless nods. “We need to get to the dragons. For a little space we may triumph on the field, but against the power of Xoriat there is no victory. What we see here is not even the smallest nail of a finger of its hand. I still hope for victory, but not simply by force of arms.* Only with the aid of the dragons can we once again sunder Xoriat from Eberron. We need to get to Argonnessen. We can use
sendings to stay in contact with the Keeper and
teleport back when the conference is to occur.” He waves a hand at the portal. “The mounts do give us an incredible movement advantage over the forces at the gate, but that is all.
Dimension locking the gate is pointless, unless we can kill all of the creatures that can
dispel magic. Neither can we destroy it. So there is no point of attacking, unless someone has a brilliant plan for wiping out all the forces there. It might be worth destroying the domes, whatever they are, but again we would need to get through the defenders first.”
Luna suggest, “I could go
invisible and fly over and
dispel the gate so no more stuff comes out of it. Also, maybe we could go in separate groups to the dragons and the Keeper and maybe to Mordain also, since we could use his magic?”
Nameless shakes his head. “With the dolgaunts and hounds present, they would detect you long before you get in range, and you’re not powerful enough to be able to
dispel the gate anyway.”
“Hey! How do you know?”
“I do. As for the other things, with my teleportation, it’s actually much faster if we travel together than if we split up. And since Jaela had asked us to investigate the gate and return and tell her what we found, we might as well do so together.”
Gareth says thoughtfully, “Well, we can’t close the hole, but how about blowing it up? We have a couple of
bags
of holding and we have a
portable hole. See what I’m saying?”
After a second, Nameless begins to grin. “Yes, yes – I do!”
Gareth grins too. “We go ethereal and then come out of it, drop the two and then go ethereal again. BAM!”
Korm begins to laugh, followed by Luna. “I like it!”
Six says, more thoughtfully, “Interesting! I would like to speak to some artificers about other such possibilities, but of course we don’t have time for that now.”
After some discussion and argument about the risks involved, the Angels finally decide that Gareth and Six should be the ones to try it. The choice is built around the presence of the hundreds of watching ghosts, since Gareth can best protect himself from them and resist if they are inimical, and Six is the next most likely to do so.
Gareth layers a large number of spells on both Six and himself, running through almost everything remaining in his armament. Then both of them mount their steeds and prepare themselves. “Ready? Go!”
As soon as they appear on the ethereal plane, the ghosts’ expressions of hopelessness and apathy disappear. With shrieks of what seem to be mingled pain, anger and hope, they surge forward. Since they are all solid here, only the front rank can reach Six and Gareth, but they swarm around them – especially since they can move in all dimensions here – trying to attack. Most are unable to do so due to the
sanctuary spells Gareth had cast, but some manage to touch them. Those that attempt to drain their energy fail due to more protective spells, but a couple of others hammer at them with their fists, inflicting a little damage.
Other ghosts behind the front line unleash terrifying howls, sending waves of panic washing over the two targets. These have no effect on Gareth and Six resists most, but the volume of the attacks finally overwhelms him. The faces of other ghosts shift strangely, causing more magical effects, some of which penetrate the protective spells, scouring both human flesh and warforged metal. A few of the ghosts also gesture and Gareth and Six feel bands of mental energy seizing them, and while they fight off most they cannot resist them all.
Unfortunately, someone else has even bigger problems. Nameless is watching the entire thing, and all of the gaze attacks and other effects that bounce off Six’s and Gareth’s protections affect him, even though such effects should be unable to affect someone on the material plane. Badly.**
The alienist staggers back, but seeing Six cower in fear and realizing that the warforged has nowhere to flee to and will be overwhelmed in seconds, he casts a
greater dispel magic, manipulating the magic so that it functions on the ethereal plane. As Six reappears on the material plane, Nameless quickly closes his eyes and shouts, “I need a
death ward! And someone grab Six!”
Not having seen what Nameless has but clearly noting the effects on him, Korm quickly casts a
death ward, while Luna wraps her huge tentacles around Six. Gareth reappears a second later, shaking his head. “So much for that attempt! Thank the Flame for all those spells we put up. Nameless, you okay?”
“Yes. Barely.” Nameless dismisses the
see invisibility to be on the safe side and then opens his eyes, before quickly casting a
break enchantment to end the effect on Six. The warforged climbs to his feet. “That was not pleasant!”
After they explain to the two druids what just occurred, Gareth asks, “Is it possible to force someone into the ethereal? Could one of your stags run up to an aberration, touch him and take him to the ethereal and leave him there?”
“No,” says Nameless, “You can’t force someone to go ethereal. Or at least not using
etherealness, which is what the stags use. You can cast
plane shift offensively and send someone to the ethereal, but you appear anywhere from five to five hundred miles from your intended destination. Which means using it to get someone mugged by ghosts here might not work, but if they appear anywhere within the borders of the Mournland, they’re probably screwed. So it’s not really an option. No, after what just happened, I think we should leave. Now!”
Luna says, “Wait! Would they want to live at our house and haunt our backyard? It seems like they would help keep out the riff-raff.”
Korm sighs. “Do you feel like turning ethereal and talking to them?”
“Unfortunately I can’t turn into something ghost-proof? But maybe we can talk from a safe distance?”
“Let it go, Luna,” says Nameless. “This is
not a good idea.”
“What he said,” nods Six. “This is why we don’t talk to anything in the Mournland. Let’s go.”
After a little arguing, Luna desists, and the Angels mount up and depart. They make a stop at the warforged camp, which the Cannith expedition members are now exploring. Nameless finds Lamaan and explains in short, “A portal to Xoriat has opened up nearby. You need to get out. Right now.”
Lamaan frowns in confusion. “Planar matters are not my forte, but I do know that you can’t get a portal to Xoriat.”
“Right,” says Nameless dryly. “And you can’t get a magical wasteland where one of the Five Nations used to be.” He looks around. “Oh, wait.”
Lamaan reddens, but admits, “Point taken. You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. If you want to live, get out.”
“All right. We’ve got most of what we need to know. Thank you.”
While Lamaan begins to gather the other members of the expedition together, the Angels leave. As soon as they are out of sight of the camp, they circle around so that Six can ride to the warforged, who are watching the camp from some nearby hills. When he reaches them, he quickly explains to Preacher what has occurred and why they need to leave.
Preacher, who seems to know nothing about Xoriat, takes some persuasion but finally agrees to remove his people from the area. “We will not leave the Mournland,” he says, “But we will consider temporarily leaving the camp. I will send scouts to check on what you have said.”
“All right,” says Six, “But tell them to be very careful. And best of luck. I hope to meet you again.” As he rides away, he wonders whether that will actually occur or not.
* Yes, Rackhir is stealing from LotR. Imitation, flattery, and all that jazz.
** At the end of that round, the PCs had taken the following effects – Gareth (50 hp damage, telekinetically grappled by 1), Six (20 hp damage, telekinetically grappled by 1, panicked for 5 rounds and cowering), and Nameless (18 hp damage, 5 pts Cha damage, 5 pts Str damage, 7 pts Con damage, 4 pts Dex damage). If it weren’t for the piles of protections on Gareth and Six, they’d have been dead.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
