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The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
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<blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 3909638" data-attributes="member: 5675"><p>“Is the kenku still on the demiplane?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>It was two days later, and we were still casting divination spells with a view to deciding what to do next. They weren’t helping, and several of us (particularly Fez and Flynne) were becoming restless. Flynne had stormed out of the <em>Mansion</em> the day before, yelling in frustration about wanting to do something.</p><p></p><p>“Is she back on the island on the Prime Material?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Is she the only one from her group there?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Are they all there?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Would they know of our arrival in advance of our getting to the island?”</p><p><strong><em>POTENTIALLY</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Is Darl on the Island?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Do those on the island intend to ambush us?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Have they set traps for our arrival?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Is the devil on the island?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Is the efreeti on the island?”</p><p><strong><em>YES</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Are both monks on the island?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Would they have prior knowledge of our arrival should we teleport to the island through some kind of magic?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Does Darl’s resistance to magic come from an item he has?”</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>“Is there anybody waiting for us in the corner between the two walls where Evan rested before opening the portal to the demiplane for the first time?” – We had chosen that location as it looked over the portal with some decent cover, though there were many such sites ranged around the entranceway.</p><p><strong><em>NO</em></strong></p><p></p><p>.oOo.</p><p></p><p>Running out of patience and questions, we decided that the time was ripe to mount an ambush of our own, although we still didn’t know where Flynne was. Concerned that Zuethos might realise what we were up to, we dashed into Mage Point and recruited the first likely archer we came across to assist us – a crossbow equipped Halfling named Bob. He seemed very confident in his abilities, but explained that he had recently traded almost all of his equipment in for a single awesomely powerful crossbow and a huge collection of bolts for it. He was therefore keen to find work as soon as possible. </p><p></p><p>Enlisting Bob, we retired to the <em>mansion</em> to prepare for the fight. A huge series of songs and spells were laid down, layering carefully across one another to make each of us as effective as possible. Confident that we were as ready as we would ever be (as long as Flynne continued to be absent), we stepped out and teleported to a different spot on a wall overlooking the portal. </p><p></p><p>Across the gap we could see a wall of smoke from the efreeti’s massive nightmare steed, but nothing else was in front of me. Then I glanced to my left, and my jaw dropped open. Perhaps ten feet away from me, and slowly turning to stare down at the group of impetuous adventurers who had just dropped in on it stood the devil, 14 feet of barbs and horns wrapped in a pair of leathery wings and trailing its colossal spiked chain like some vicious tail. </p><p></p><p>Yelping in alarm, I dashed away from it, casting a spell setting up a moving image of myself in the small area of open ground between myself (cloaked in invisibility), and the flaming efreeti. </p><p></p><p>Disguised as a wizard, Fez took flight and streaked across the ground towards the efreeti, swinging his scythe heavily across its torso as he arrived. Both it and the cauchemar launched into a counterattack; whilst the flaming smoke-wreathed mount missed, Fez was injured from a single strike from the burning falchion which slipped past all the magical defences we had layered onto him. </p><p></p><p>In the centre-ground, a monk dashed around a corner yelling a battlecry before launching a leaping attack, foot-first, onto and then through my image of myself. I forced the image to grin in the monk’s direction and yell “Displacement spell, stupid!”</p><p></p><p>As Endo started casting his spell ‘<em>Endo’s Dirge of Deathly Drums</em>’, I could hear the mystical sound of the phantom drummers he was channelling. Although he was invisible, I could hear as he flung the spell towards the otherwordly attackers. The spell failed, however; no doubt thwarted by their innate resistances to all but the most powerful spells. </p><p></p><p>Taking his first chance to show us what he was capable of, Bob dived away from the devil in his turn, slapping a series of bolts into his tiny crossbow and firing three of them in phenomenally quick succession into the efreeti. As they struck, I could see them flaring with fire and crackling with lightning; and each slammed home with a blast of sound.</p><p></p><p>Janga, however, wasn’t as fast. He looked around and saw all of us either diving away from him or fading from sight, and he was left alone; a single tiny armoured form practically at the feet of the horned devil. He opened his mouth to exclaim something, but got no further than “oh, Bu….” When his voice was drowned out by the rage of the devil. The massive clanking chain flailed around; foot long blades scything around it as it whipped through the air; interspersed by savage bites from the devil’s toothy maw and a slap from its barbed tail. Despite the savagery, Janga was unaffected by the devil’s mystical stunning effect; the gnome staggered away from the vast devil. </p><p></p><p>On the other side of the field of combat, I could see Darl Zuethos stepping out from behind a wall. He approached the area where Fez was fighting the efreeti, and healed the beast completely of all the wounds Bob and Fez had inflicted. </p><p></p><p>At this point, I flung a bardic spell of sound manipulation towards the efreeti, cauchemar and Zuethos. The cleric managed to shake off the spell, but suddenly the efreeti and his mount paused before a peal of bells sounded out. Every movement that they made, and every time that they opened their mouths, the only noise which could be heard was that of cowbells.</p><p></p><p>The ringing sound got a great deal louder as the cauchemar-mounted efreeti charged across the end of the island to slash at Endo with his mighty flaming falchion; clearly the creature was able to see through the powerful invisibility spells I have woven over the half-orc mage and myself.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the monk had clearly decided that he was unable to strike my image, and dashed across to where Bob stood; already threatened by the vast hulking devil which had stalked forwards, the miniscule Halfling was swiftly surrounded by these two foes. </p><p></p><p>Endo, meanwhile, was being made to look equally small in front of the tremendously large smoke-breathing cauchemar. He stared up at it, and from a few yards away I could hear his teeth grinding together. Then he began to chant in a deep voice; the syllables ground together like two falling tombstones. He completed his spell with a bellow of vengeance, and his magic manifested as a wreathe of small ghosts, each streaming from where the mage was standing to swarm around the head of the efreeti. They swirled around it, cackling, before dipping their tiny clawed hands into its head. The flaming outsider stiffened, and then fell from the cauchemar amidst a tremendous jangling sound of cowbells. </p><p></p><p>To follow up, Endo yelled a word of power, and the monk abruptly went blind.</p><p></p><p>.oOo.</p><p></p><p>Bob was quick to capitalise on this, and shot the monk twice before leaping and spinning away from the situation. He was acrobatic enough even to leave the devil standing still. The Halfling dashed away down a narrow gap between two walls where the devil would struggle to follow him.</p><p></p><p>The vast devil charged instead towards Endo, screaming imprecations as it went before slashing a terrible blow across his side with the huge barbed chain. There was a huge flash of eldritch power which threatened to surround the mage, but was then suppressed by an even greater flash of divine power as Fahrlanghan’s blessing (laid on Endo that morning by Janga) saved him from being dazed.</p><p></p><p>Darl, meanwhile, cast an awesome spell of divine power, which wracked Fez in tremendous pain. His back twisted in agony, but Zuethos was already moving away; as he did so he invoked a second spell with just a word, and Endo and I immediately became visible as he closed on us.</p><p></p><p>I responded by dashing out of the area of Zuethos’ spell, and was relieved to see myself disappear once again. Then I pulled a bone wand from my belt and triggered it. A dark ray shot into the side of Zuethos’ head, and he yelled in pain and alarm as some of his most powerful magics were simply pulled from his mind. I grinned to myself and tucked the wand of <em>enervation</em> we had claimed from the true ghoul Moretto back into my belt.</p><p></p><p>Amidst the ringing of cowbells, the cauchemar then dashed over to slash at Fez, and a crossbow bolt glanced off the Jangahty warrior’s armour from somewhere unseen. </p><p></p><p>Endo cast a spell of his own upon Darl Zuethos, and the cleric screamed in pain, clutching at his temples with the grey-skinned <em>Hand of Vecna</em> as Endo’s spell tore away much of his ability to cast spells.</p><p></p><p>From behind the wall, Bob’s pinpoint-accurate crossbow fire slammed again and again into the monk, and the tiefling collapsed onto the floor, pierced through with enchanted bolts. </p><p></p><p>At this point, the demon’s chain-weapon tore into Janga, and the gnome cleric was simply torn limb from limb; massive spikes and barbs gouging his flesh and rending his bone and the grisly mess of a gnome was spattered across the floor to lie dead on the ground.</p><p></p><p>Darl, meanwhile, took his vengeance. Speaking words of power, he reached out and backhanded Fez across the face with the grisly <em>Hand of Vecna</em>. The barbarian was enveloped in dark shadows as the <em>Hand</em> and the spell took effect and tore away much of his life force. </p><p></p><p>Focussing, I used my projected image to unleashed a tremendous bellow across the field of battle. The yell washed over Janga’s broken body, blasting through several foes. Blood began to leak from the ears of the kenku who I could suddenly see in the centre of the battlefield, and Zuethos’ nose began to bleed freely. Both of them clutched their hands to their ears as they yelled in pain and agony. </p><p></p><p>A massive blast of lightning then shot from Endo’s position, slamming into Zuethos’ stunned form and then ricocheting into the other villains around him. Zuethos’ yell was incoherent in his deafness, and he died there, in the blast of lightning and stench of ozone.</p><p></p><p>“Surrender or die,” demanded Endo of the horned devil, as Bob’s crossbow bolts slammed into its flank. “No,” he then shouted. “Leave the devil alone – I wish to compact with it!”</p><p></p><p>Severely wounded, the devil responded by simply vanishing amidst a storm of brimstone smoke.</p><p></p><p>.oOo.</p><p></p><p>I ran across the battlefield to Fez, passing him a flask and healing some of his wounds to a point that I could no longer see his lung through one of the slashes. He quaffed the flask’s contents which healed many of the rest of his grievous injuries before slashing the cauchemar down to size.</p><p></p><p>Endo and I then proceeded to simply cover the area of our combat with spells of <em>glitterdust</em>, until the glowing form of the kenku assassin was revealed. The second we could see her, she was transfixed by spells, sonic blasts and crossbow bolts before Fez’ enraged form arrived to slash at her remains with his massive and terrible scythe.</p><p></p><p>The battle was over, and we had won.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Eccles, post: 3909638, member: 5675"] “Is the kenku still on the demiplane?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] It was two days later, and we were still casting divination spells with a view to deciding what to do next. They weren’t helping, and several of us (particularly Fez and Flynne) were becoming restless. Flynne had stormed out of the [i]Mansion[/i] the day before, yelling in frustration about wanting to do something. “Is she back on the island on the Prime Material?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Is she the only one from her group there?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] “Are they all there?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] “Would they know of our arrival in advance of our getting to the island?” [b][i]POTENTIALLY[/i][/b] “Is Darl on the Island?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Do those on the island intend to ambush us?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Have they set traps for our arrival?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Is the devil on the island?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Is the efreeti on the island?” [b][i]YES[/i][/b] “Are both monks on the island?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] “Would they have prior knowledge of our arrival should we teleport to the island through some kind of magic?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] “Does Darl’s resistance to magic come from an item he has?” [b][i]NO[/i][/b] “Is there anybody waiting for us in the corner between the two walls where Evan rested before opening the portal to the demiplane for the first time?” – We had chosen that location as it looked over the portal with some decent cover, though there were many such sites ranged around the entranceway. [b][i]NO[/i][/b] .oOo. Running out of patience and questions, we decided that the time was ripe to mount an ambush of our own, although we still didn’t know where Flynne was. Concerned that Zuethos might realise what we were up to, we dashed into Mage Point and recruited the first likely archer we came across to assist us – a crossbow equipped Halfling named Bob. He seemed very confident in his abilities, but explained that he had recently traded almost all of his equipment in for a single awesomely powerful crossbow and a huge collection of bolts for it. He was therefore keen to find work as soon as possible. Enlisting Bob, we retired to the [i]mansion[/i] to prepare for the fight. A huge series of songs and spells were laid down, layering carefully across one another to make each of us as effective as possible. Confident that we were as ready as we would ever be (as long as Flynne continued to be absent), we stepped out and teleported to a different spot on a wall overlooking the portal. Across the gap we could see a wall of smoke from the efreeti’s massive nightmare steed, but nothing else was in front of me. Then I glanced to my left, and my jaw dropped open. Perhaps ten feet away from me, and slowly turning to stare down at the group of impetuous adventurers who had just dropped in on it stood the devil, 14 feet of barbs and horns wrapped in a pair of leathery wings and trailing its colossal spiked chain like some vicious tail. Yelping in alarm, I dashed away from it, casting a spell setting up a moving image of myself in the small area of open ground between myself (cloaked in invisibility), and the flaming efreeti. Disguised as a wizard, Fez took flight and streaked across the ground towards the efreeti, swinging his scythe heavily across its torso as he arrived. Both it and the cauchemar launched into a counterattack; whilst the flaming smoke-wreathed mount missed, Fez was injured from a single strike from the burning falchion which slipped past all the magical defences we had layered onto him. In the centre-ground, a monk dashed around a corner yelling a battlecry before launching a leaping attack, foot-first, onto and then through my image of myself. I forced the image to grin in the monk’s direction and yell “Displacement spell, stupid!” As Endo started casting his spell ‘[i]Endo’s Dirge of Deathly Drums[/i]’, I could hear the mystical sound of the phantom drummers he was channelling. Although he was invisible, I could hear as he flung the spell towards the otherwordly attackers. The spell failed, however; no doubt thwarted by their innate resistances to all but the most powerful spells. Taking his first chance to show us what he was capable of, Bob dived away from the devil in his turn, slapping a series of bolts into his tiny crossbow and firing three of them in phenomenally quick succession into the efreeti. As they struck, I could see them flaring with fire and crackling with lightning; and each slammed home with a blast of sound. Janga, however, wasn’t as fast. He looked around and saw all of us either diving away from him or fading from sight, and he was left alone; a single tiny armoured form practically at the feet of the horned devil. He opened his mouth to exclaim something, but got no further than “oh, Bu….” When his voice was drowned out by the rage of the devil. The massive clanking chain flailed around; foot long blades scything around it as it whipped through the air; interspersed by savage bites from the devil’s toothy maw and a slap from its barbed tail. Despite the savagery, Janga was unaffected by the devil’s mystical stunning effect; the gnome staggered away from the vast devil. On the other side of the field of combat, I could see Darl Zuethos stepping out from behind a wall. He approached the area where Fez was fighting the efreeti, and healed the beast completely of all the wounds Bob and Fez had inflicted. At this point, I flung a bardic spell of sound manipulation towards the efreeti, cauchemar and Zuethos. The cleric managed to shake off the spell, but suddenly the efreeti and his mount paused before a peal of bells sounded out. Every movement that they made, and every time that they opened their mouths, the only noise which could be heard was that of cowbells. The ringing sound got a great deal louder as the cauchemar-mounted efreeti charged across the end of the island to slash at Endo with his mighty flaming falchion; clearly the creature was able to see through the powerful invisibility spells I have woven over the half-orc mage and myself. Meanwhile, the monk had clearly decided that he was unable to strike my image, and dashed across to where Bob stood; already threatened by the vast hulking devil which had stalked forwards, the miniscule Halfling was swiftly surrounded by these two foes. Endo, meanwhile, was being made to look equally small in front of the tremendously large smoke-breathing cauchemar. He stared up at it, and from a few yards away I could hear his teeth grinding together. Then he began to chant in a deep voice; the syllables ground together like two falling tombstones. He completed his spell with a bellow of vengeance, and his magic manifested as a wreathe of small ghosts, each streaming from where the mage was standing to swarm around the head of the efreeti. They swirled around it, cackling, before dipping their tiny clawed hands into its head. The flaming outsider stiffened, and then fell from the cauchemar amidst a tremendous jangling sound of cowbells. To follow up, Endo yelled a word of power, and the monk abruptly went blind. .oOo. Bob was quick to capitalise on this, and shot the monk twice before leaping and spinning away from the situation. He was acrobatic enough even to leave the devil standing still. The Halfling dashed away down a narrow gap between two walls where the devil would struggle to follow him. The vast devil charged instead towards Endo, screaming imprecations as it went before slashing a terrible blow across his side with the huge barbed chain. There was a huge flash of eldritch power which threatened to surround the mage, but was then suppressed by an even greater flash of divine power as Fahrlanghan’s blessing (laid on Endo that morning by Janga) saved him from being dazed. Darl, meanwhile, cast an awesome spell of divine power, which wracked Fez in tremendous pain. His back twisted in agony, but Zuethos was already moving away; as he did so he invoked a second spell with just a word, and Endo and I immediately became visible as he closed on us. I responded by dashing out of the area of Zuethos’ spell, and was relieved to see myself disappear once again. Then I pulled a bone wand from my belt and triggered it. A dark ray shot into the side of Zuethos’ head, and he yelled in pain and alarm as some of his most powerful magics were simply pulled from his mind. I grinned to myself and tucked the wand of [i]enervation[/i] we had claimed from the true ghoul Moretto back into my belt. Amidst the ringing of cowbells, the cauchemar then dashed over to slash at Fez, and a crossbow bolt glanced off the Jangahty warrior’s armour from somewhere unseen. Endo cast a spell of his own upon Darl Zuethos, and the cleric screamed in pain, clutching at his temples with the grey-skinned [i]Hand of Vecna[/i] as Endo’s spell tore away much of his ability to cast spells. From behind the wall, Bob’s pinpoint-accurate crossbow fire slammed again and again into the monk, and the tiefling collapsed onto the floor, pierced through with enchanted bolts. At this point, the demon’s chain-weapon tore into Janga, and the gnome cleric was simply torn limb from limb; massive spikes and barbs gouging his flesh and rending his bone and the grisly mess of a gnome was spattered across the floor to lie dead on the ground. Darl, meanwhile, took his vengeance. Speaking words of power, he reached out and backhanded Fez across the face with the grisly [i]Hand of Vecna[/i]. The barbarian was enveloped in dark shadows as the [i]Hand[/i] and the spell took effect and tore away much of his life force. Focussing, I used my projected image to unleashed a tremendous bellow across the field of battle. The yell washed over Janga’s broken body, blasting through several foes. Blood began to leak from the ears of the kenku who I could suddenly see in the centre of the battlefield, and Zuethos’ nose began to bleed freely. Both of them clutched their hands to their ears as they yelled in pain and agony. A massive blast of lightning then shot from Endo’s position, slamming into Zuethos’ stunned form and then ricocheting into the other villains around him. Zuethos’ yell was incoherent in his deafness, and he died there, in the blast of lightning and stench of ozone. “Surrender or die,” demanded Endo of the horned devil, as Bob’s crossbow bolts slammed into its flank. “No,” he then shouted. “Leave the devil alone – I wish to compact with it!” Severely wounded, the devil responded by simply vanishing amidst a storm of brimstone smoke. .oOo. I ran across the battlefield to Fez, passing him a flask and healing some of his wounds to a point that I could no longer see his lung through one of the slashes. He quaffed the flask’s contents which healed many of the rest of his grievous injuries before slashing the cauchemar down to size. Endo and I then proceeded to simply cover the area of our combat with spells of [i]glitterdust[/i], until the glowing form of the kenku assassin was revealed. The second we could see her, she was transfixed by spells, sonic blasts and crossbow bolts before Fez’ enraged form arrived to slash at her remains with his massive and terrible scythe. The battle was over, and we had won. [/QUOTE]
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