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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 4180186" data-attributes="member: 198">And, like clockwork, I have an update for you <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* * * * * * * * * *The Guardian Angels soar through the air above the Shadowland, the broken tundra unrolling swiftly beneath them. The area is superficially similar to the Mournland with a sky full of low-hanging storm clouds, which makes visibility poor, but otherwise there are significant differences. The random rocky peaks which break up the landscape, for one, and, more importantly for the Angels, the knowledge that all their magic should work here. The magical mounts certainly function as normal, bearing the riders at tremendous speed above the barren landscape. As they ride, the Angels watch for the landmarks which Elabenna had listed for them as indicating proximity to Khesavuthir, especially a lone mountain which is supposed to be carved with the visage of a red dragon, resembling the giant monoliths off Totem Beach.A couple of hours pass, with the Angels seeing nothing that matches the landmarks they are looking for, even though they have covered over a hundred miles. The one thing they do discover is that the landscape in the Shadowland shifts slowly but constantly. Areas which seem to be near each other turn out to be much further apart, and on the odd occasion when they retrace their steps to ascertain their positions and directions, the areas they have passed over seem slightly different now. And when they head towards a particular landmark, they slowly seem to drift off-course in the process, regularly having to turn their steeds slightly to maintain the same direction. “Maybe it’s these damn mountains which are shifting around?” asks Luna, looking irritably at the clouds as if they personally offended her. “Without being able to see the sun it’s hard to be sure about direction, but it always seems off by a bit when we do.”“Who knows?” shrugs Gareth. He glances at Nameless. “You said there’s no magic at work, right?”“Correct,” replies the alienist. “These effects are all natural to the place. Of course, given that Elabenna said this area is a result of the dragon-demon wars, natural goes only thus far. Luckily, we have many more hours in the day, so we can cover a lot more ground before having to rest. I suggest…”“Heads up!” Six calls a warning, pointing ahead. “We’ve got company coming right for us.” He peers at the swiftly approaching shapes with his lidless eyes. “They’re some sort of … X-wing?”The response is appropriate, given the weird shape of the approaching creatures. Each has a sinuous, snakelike body with a long neck and tail. Most of the body is covered with iridescent blue scales, with tufts of yellow feathers at the base of the neck and tail. The head has four eyes, one pair above the black, toothed beak and the other pair below. But the most unusual feature is the two pairs of feathered wings extending from the body, one pair above and one below, each wing at a right angle to the ones closest to it and forming an X-shape.Nameless takes a quick look at the strange beasts and calls, “Arrowhawks! We’re too fast for them, so just fly around them.” His phantom steed responds immediately to the command, peeling away at a sharp angle and speeding away. The rest of the Angels comply, not wanting to waste time with these creatures. Or at least most of them do. Seconds later, they look back to see Korm urging his stag at the creatures. “Korm!” yells Gareth, “What are you doing?” The answer is swift. “Enjoying myself!”With the combined speed of his stag and the arrowhawks, Korm rockets into them in seconds, yelling with excitement. As he gets within fifty feet, each arrowhawk whips its tail towards him, sending a crackling blue ray at the Gatekeeper. All four hit unerringly, and Korm’s yells take on a surprised tone as his hair stands on end from the electrical discharges. He responds with a two-handed chop that lays open one creature’s side, and then turns his mount so that he can attack again. The arrowhawks promptly wheel around with perfect precision and spin around him in elliptical orbits, continuing to fire their electrical rays, almost all of them hitting. Within seconds, Korm realizes that this is getting far more dangerous than he’d expected. A swift resist energy takes care of the electrical attacks, but, to his disgust, the arrowhawks switch to vicious bites which are almost as effective. “Aaah! Damn it!” Irritated, the Gatekeeper calls on another of his innate powers and fixes one of the arrowhawks with a baleful gaze. To his own mild surprise, his version of the evil eye actually takes effect. Without a sound, the target shuts its four eyes and plummets towards the ground five hundred feet below. “Yes!” exults Korm, a second before two slashing beaks bite into him. “Sh*t!” He quickly commands his stag and it obediently shoots away, leaving the three pursuing creatures behind.When he rejoins the others, who had stopped a long distance away and were watching with a mixture of amusement and irritation, Six asks, “What was that about?”“Just enjoying myself,” grins Korm, chest heaving with his exertions, “Since I needed a little exercise.” He looks down at the scorch marks on his body. “Ow! Seriously – who creates a four-winged creature which can shoot lightning bolts from its ass?”“Don’t look at me,” says Nameless dryly. “You can’t blame even the daelkyr for that weird monstrosity. Now we’ve wasted enough time. Come on!”* * *Another hour later, it is Luna who spots the mountain the Angels have been looking for, standing alone miles from any others and its summit visibly carved in the shape of a dragon. The adventurers arrow towards it, looking around for other landmarks that Elabenna mentioned. When they are approximately three miles from it, they spot something on the ground, or more precisely, in it. About half a mile away are two draconic skeletons, both of them seemingly rearing up to fight, each stretching over a hundred feet in length. A quick study reveals that, just as Elabenna had mentioned, their lower sections are partly buried within the ground, and they seem to have been petrified.“I wonder if these are real skeletons or created by someone,” wonders Gareth aloud. “From the detail, I’d guess they are real, but we’d have to go down and check to be sure,” says Nameless. “Which we don’t need to waste time on.”“Maybe we could take them with us to decorate the new house,” suggests Luna.“Really?” Korm rolls his eyes. “They’d be bigger than the entire house! And how would we transport them?”“I don’t know!” Luna gestures at Nameless. “He’s always saying how much of a genius he is, so ask him! I just suggest the decorations. You guys are the ones who need to work out how it should happen.” “No, we don’t actually need to…”As usual, Six is more focused on the group’s target than his companions, so he is again the one to interrupt. “Pay attention, people. Look at the dragon head.”The others focus their attention on the giant carving and see what the warforged already has, slow and massive movement above it. A huge figure pulls itself laboriously onto the crown of the stone dragon’s head and stares at the oncoming Angels. Then it rises clumsily into the air and heads for them.This creature is clearly draconic too, but its movements are slow and sluggish, and its scaly green hide sports gaping holes and tears. Though the wings are clearly functional and carry it at a good speed, they are ragged and torn, and it seems extremely clumsy in the air. “Zombie!” Nameless says succinctly.“I thought so,” says Six. “Do zombies retain any of their original abilities?”“No,” says Gareth.“In that case, I’ll deal with this,” says Six. “Stay away from it and conserve your spells, please.” The warforged promptly dives his mount towards the ground.Due as much to curiosity as anything else, the others comply and fly in a wide circle, which the undead dragon has no chance of closing. Six, meanwhile, hops off his steed, grabs up a boulder weighing nearly a hundred pounds, and climbs back on. The magical mount uncomplainingly shoots upwards under his command, rising well above the dragon. The warforged flies a good hundred feet above the zombie dragon, studies its movements and releases the missile. Though the creature attempts to dodge, it is too clumsy to do so and the rock slams into its side, ripping away undead flesh and clearly breaking bones. But it does not react in any way to the blow, simply attempting again to reach Six.The warforged ignores the attempts and simply drops quickly to the ground again, picking up another rock and then repeating the process. Once, twice and thrice, he batters the hapless undead with more rocks. Though heavily damaged, the zombie continues to follow him, to little effect. Only once, when he happens to fly closer than he planned, passing within fifty feet, does it manage to slightly incommode Six. The zombie belches forth a cone of corrosive acid. Surprised by the unexpected attack, Six quickly flies away with only some minor damage to his superstructure, and then resumes his attacks. Two more are all it takes, and the zombie tumbles from the sky. The huge body smashes into the rocky ground below, raising dust and cracking the tundra surface, and lies still.As Six descends beside it, the others rejoin him. “Nice work,” says Korm, before turning to Gareth. “I thought you said zombies lost the original body’s abilities.”“They do,” confirms the paladin. “Whoever created this one had some unusual skills.”“I think,” points out Luna, “It’s pretty obvious that anyone who can kill a huge dragon and turn it into a zombie has unusual skills! This thing was big.” She points down at the cracks around the body, and then frowns. “Is it my imagination or is that crack growing?”Gareth looks down at the area near his feet, feeling it begin to tremble, and opens his mouth to agree. But before he can say a word, the ground crumbles away beneath him. With a startled yell, the paladin disappears as a circle approximately a dozen feet wide caves in, rocks and earth tumbling in above his falling form to hide him from view. Not that his companions have time to worry about him, as the source of the cave-in appears in his stead, bursting from the ground right beside the spot where Gareth just stood. The creature is almost as large as the zombie dragon was, and is also clearly draconic in form, though it lacks any wings. Its thick and muscular body is covered in dirty ivory scales whose color blends well with that of the earth it emerged from. Backswept horns decorate either side of the thick head and overly large fangs fill its large mouth. With a barking roar, the landwyrm throws itself at the nearest target, which turns out to be Korm.Before the surprised Gatekeeper can respond, the creature sinks its claws into his chest and side. Its tremendous weight bears him to the ground, and as he struggles to raise his sword, it latches onto his arm. The huge jaws allow it to grasp the entire upper arm, shoulder and half of his chest and back, the sharp fangs biting deep and literally stapling his arm in place. As Korm cries out in agony, Nameless takes to the air, shouting, “Luna – elemental! Get Gareth out!” The alienist summons a pair of elementals himself, flanking the landwyrm and hammering at it with flaming fists, but it simply growls and shows no signs of releasing its prey. Six’s chain, slashing into a soft spot amidst the hard scales, has no greater success either, and Korm himself is in no position to do anything, pinned in place by his enemy.The Gatekeeper struggles desperately and feels the jaws relinquish his arm. But even as he feels a surge of hope, Korm realizes that it was intentional, as the landwyrm again bites down, having shifted position slightly so as to be able to literally swallow his entire head. The fangs bite partly into Korm’s head and partly his chest and back, only sheer luck saving his head from being bitten clear off his body. Not that it much improves Korm’s situation. Amidst the excruciating pain and the stifling darkness and stench within the landwyrm’s mouth, he feels its thick tongue flapping wetly against his head and chest, followed by a draconic gurgle of pleasure. To his horror, Korm realizes that he can hear and feel the creature actually lapping up his life-blood as it holds him in its mouth. Then the jaws tighten and bite deeper and everything goes black.*Luckily Korm, even as he collapses, only seconds from dying permanently even with Mordain’s augmentations, does have something in hand. To the landwyrm’s surprise, a bubble of force appears around the Gatekeeper, forcing its jaws apart and rendering his unconscious body safe from any further damage.Meanwhile, under the ground, Gareth is both blessing the fact that his necklace of adaptation keeps him from suffocating under the earth and rock covering his face, and cursing the fact that he’s stuck fast. “Hey, Blade!” he calls, trying – somewhat unsuccessfully – to avoid swallowing any dirt, “Can you get me out?”“Are you kidding me?” comes an aggrieved – and muffled – voice from nearby. “I can help you fly, but not through the earth.” After a second, the Blade adds, with some satisfaction, “Unless someone digs you out, I’m going to be okay, but I think you’re f*cked!”“Thanks!” mumbles Gareth. Then, to his inordinate surprise, though he can see nothing, what feels like a giant hand grabs him. And then pulls him inexorably, and painfully, through the ground. The paladin grits his teeth as he feels flesh being stripped away, though the heavy armor protects against the worst of the effect, and then suddenly emerges above the ground. The large earth elemental which brought him to the surface relinquishes him and, at a word from Luna, rushes at the landywrm.Gareth throws one look around the area, seeing Korm within a cocoon and Six in the grasp of a huge creature, which is being assaulted by two huge fire elementals and spells from Nameless and Luna. No explanation is needed and the paladin hurls himself forward. The landwyrm, scorched and bruised by the elementals but still full of fight, bites down on the new creature that it has seized. But its teeth clash together uselessly as Six neatly vanishes in a swirl of shadows and reappears similarly thirty feet away. The confused creature looks around and then screams in agony as the Endless Blade slashes down, driven by all the gifts of the Silver Flame, biting deep into the base of the landwyrm’s tail and almost severing its spine. As the landwyrm spins around towards Gareth, the elementals redouble their attacks, and more spells from Luna and Nameless hit home. Six leaps forward too, shadows coiling around his chain. The landwyrm turns reflexively at the motion, just in time to see the chain leap towards and through its right eye, punching neatly into the brain beyond. Without a sound, the huge beast collapses, Korm’s blood still red on its fangs.As his cocoon disappears, the rejuvenated Gatekeeper emerges, shaking his head irritably. “That was nasty! I’m just glad it didn’t have friends.”“And I’m just wondering why we’re here looking for this damn place again,” complains Luna. “That’s the third time today one of you has almost got killed. We’re going to run out of luck sooner or later.”“We’re here because it’s the best…” begin Gareth and Nameless simultaneously, and then pause to look at each other with a combination of confusion and amusement.“You two stop agreeing!” growls Luna. “It’s creepy! And an even better indication that you idiots will get us killed.”“Maybe they will,” shrugs Korm fatalistically, “But it’s interesting to see you this worried. Shouldn’t you be enjoying all the chances to blow things up that they’re giving you?”“I’m the first person to admit that I like blasting things, but I only do that in self defense or for things that need blasting. I don’t go looking for it, especially not in a place like this.” She waves her arms disgustedly at the trio and looks up at Six, who has flown his stag to the carved dragon’s head and is perched atop it. “See anything?”“Yes.” Six points in the direction opposite to the one the Angels arrived here from. “There’s a semi-circle of mountains some five-six miles away, just like Elabenna described. But I don’t see the three archways she mentioned as marking the entrance to Khesavuthir.”“That’s not too surprising,” says Nameless, “And considering that we might be on the verge of discovering a location which has apparently been lost to an entire continent of dragons for ages, I’m not about to complain. Let’s mount up and head there.”As the Angels fly in, they see that there are actually five mountains forming an arc. When they are about two miles from them, Luna rises slightly in her seat and points at a spot right in the center of the arc. “There! I see some sort of structures. But they’re not fifty feet high archways like she said.”As they fly closer, the others see what she noticed. There are three broken structures, each about a dozen feet high and perhaps twice as wide, which form a triangle. They surround a large, perfectly circular hole, like the opening of a shaft leading into the ground. The Angels are too far away to make out any more details or where the shaft leads. What they do make out, however, are the three huge creatures which emerge from the nearest of the mounts and wing towards them. Despite the distance, the ungainly shapes and especially the large tails held scorpion-like over their heads identify them clearly as the wyvern guardians the Angels were warned of. Korm studies their movement and says, “They’re as fast as the stags in a straight line and faster than your steed, Nameless. Do we fight?”“No,” says the alienist. “Head for the shaft. We’ll take a quick look and if need be, pull back. We’ve got far more maneuverability.”The Angels urge their mounts to maximum speed, while the wyverns also race forward on their powerful wings from the opposite side. The magical mounts win the race by a few seconds, and as they swoop down their riders can see that the shaft leads perpendicularly down into darkness beyond the range of their vision. Nameless throws a quick look at the wyverns, charging in with gaping mouths, and makes a snap decision. “Down the hole!”As his steed spins over and dives in, the others follow, with Luna grumbling, “If there’s a wall at the end, we’re all going to look really stupid!”* Tundra landwyrms (Draconomicon) do Con damage with each grapple check and have Improved Grab. This one was making four checks per turn and doing 1d6 Con damage and 2d8+13 hp with each check.</blockquote>

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