Shorter update today, but that's because there's some DM fun at the end that has been tacked on for your pleasure
Teleporting Behind the Enemy
The air around the party swirled and frothed with arcane energy, until the crackle of the burning city was replaced by an eerie, still silence.
Nayu opened his eyes, the area around him completely dark for a moment as he adjusted to the vast difference in light. Behind him, several miles away, he could perceive the glow of the burning Outer City, as well as very distant, very massive movement...
...Hu’s army.
“Well, it looks like I was a bit off on my guess,” he whispered quietly, blinking quickly, trying to get his eyes to adjust faster.
It’d be wasteful to use a spell to improve my seeing now... especially when that spell could come in handy later...
“Um... Nayu?” He turned on hearing Felonca’s hurriedly whisper, and it was then that his ears began to pick up a jingling noise... not the noise of armor, but the noise of immense pieces of steel rubbing, clinking together. Just then, he saw glints in the distant darkness...
“What are those?” he asked, as Felonca pulled out her bow. As she yelled out a challenge, his eyes finally revealed to him something straight from a story of terror...
The two creatures covered from head to two in loose chains weren’t what scared him. They moaned as they advanced, chain links whirling above their heads. What scared him were the two things accompanying them... tall, wide banks of darkness, with black tendrils sweeping around their bodies impatiently, reaching out, searching as a low, quiet muttering reached his ears.
What are those things? Nayu asked himself, as the noise of the party drawing their weapons momentarily drowned out the light muttering he heard in the air. The sorcere focused himself, and stretched forth his hand towards one of the chain bound creatures.
I can see their weapons... they’re the more dangerous right now...
An enormous thunderclap echoed through the air as a lightningbolt shot into the first of the chain creatures, electricity arcing between its metal links. It shrieked and stumbled backwards, before resuming its lumbering gait towards the party. As he watched, Nayu saw arrows from Felonca and Felonxi seemingly pass
through one of the large shadowy patches of darkness, as it continued to float closer and closer...
So the large creatures are ethereal... spectres of some kind... he realized, preparing another lightning bolt.
I’m going to have to address them first, before those chain creatures. He started to turn to tell the others to deal with the chain monsters first, when his ears were suddenly assaulted.
The noise was no explosion of sonic power or blast of magical energy, but an incoherent, constant babble, a blur of noises, grunts, hoots and hisses that grated the ears and dug deep into his mind. For a second, Nayu felt his hands seem to move of their own accord, until he focused his mind, and wrested control back.
No one’s going to take over my mind today! he snapped, as the incoherent mumbling continued, seeming to rumble into his bones.
They’re more dangerous than I thought... we should concentrate on killing them! He started to open his mouth to give directions to the others, when he suddenly stopped.
Nayu blinked, as Felonca and Meiji calmly, almost serenely, sheathed their weapons then walked, even meandered, over towards a tree between the two shadowy, chattering forms. Once under its gnarled branches, they calmly sat down, and stared off into space.
“What in the...” the sorcerer thought, trying to remember any spell, any compulsion that could cause someone to do that.
They’ve obviously lost their minds... and it happened after the creatures started babbling... wait... does that mean...
“Allips!” Nayu shouted, recoiling himself.
The tortured souls of the dead, arisen to take our minds! Allips were small creatures usually... but these allips were massive, easily close to twenty feet tall, the gathered souls of hundreds of dead each. The sorcerer spun around to warn his friends, only to see another chilling scene.
Yari Ai stared at him, her face a blank stare, while Dian spun around wildly, staring alternately at the allips, the chain monsters, then his allies, laughing maniacally and waving his hands about in the air.
“I’m the Grand Poobah of Pickerstan!” he screeched, waving his sword about, ignoring the confused stares of both Felonxi and Liu.
It’s taken them too! Nayu realized, as the babbling reverberated in his head more and more. Quickly, Nayu felt his arcane magic building yet again, and with a flash and enormous thunderclap, a lightning bolt leapt from his hands, enveloping one of the immense shadows. It’s filaments wreathed in the electric light, yet its babbling moan continued to sound over the plain.
“Got him!” Nayu heard Liu yell a moment later, as there was an enormous jingle of chains. The sorcerer permitted himself to look to the side, as one of the chain-bound creatures collapsed to the ground in front of the monk, its ‘head’ bent oddly to the side. A moment later, there was the immense crash of steel on steel, as Felonxi’s sword ripped the other chain creature in half.
“Focus on the shadow creatures! They’re trying to affect our minds!” Nayu yelled belatedly. He turned back around, another nascent bolt of lightning building in his hands, when his eyes caught Felonca. She was still sitting under the tree, when a fine filament of the first shadowy allip suddenly exploded, lashing forth and wrapping around her head.
“Felonca!” Nayu shouted, only to have the cry die in his throat as suddenly her dead-eyes flashed bright with confusion, then life. In a blur, her warfans lashed out, and she leapt free of the creature’s ghostly grip. Yet the calm cacophany continued, the creature’s both making quiet mumbling noises in a tongue no sane person could ever understand, and mere moments later, Felonca serenely returned to her perch under the tree.
“Whoosh! Whoosh!” Nayu heard a voice yell, and the sorcerer quickly spun around, only to see Yari Ai staring at him, her hands raised high over her head.
“Whoosh! BAM!” she yelled, adding child-like noises of crackling and burning as she poorly mimicked the movements of a scholar casting a fiery spell.
They’ve really gone off the deep end... the sorcerer groaned, turning towards the nearest of the great, shadowy figures yet again, arcane energy building in his veins.
So they’ve lost their minds, and yet you’re still babbling. Things were going from serious, to just plain strange.
If you want to cause harm, why are you making them sit under the tree, or laugh like madmen, or...
Pretend to be scholars? No matter...
You’ll let go of my friends... A fierce grin started to grow on Nayu’s face as he faced the dark shadow.
NOW!
The ground around them flashed white, and an immense thunderclap shook the trees as a lightning bolt of extraordinary power flashed from Nayu’s hands. The electricity seemed to envelop the titanic mass of shadow, crackling, running along the filaments of darkness. The creature’s incessant mumbling and babbling turned into an ear-splitting screech, its dark tendrils writhing away into nothingness.
Immediately Nayu spun around, just in time to see Liu, Dian and Felonxi break the other allip into nothingness, its shriek joining the cry of its fellow as it disappeared into the abyss. Nayu turned around to Felonca, and saw that the rogue was looking around, a bewildered expression on her face.
“Wha... what happened?” she asked, eyes wide in confusion, before she dropped back into a combat crouch. “Where are they?”
“Dead,” her father replied grimly.
“The allips took your mind, as well as Meiji’s and Yari Ai’s briefly,” Nayu explained, checking his friend over. From nearby, he heard Meiji and Yari Ai asking the same questions, and a grunt from Felonxi that they should listen to Nayu.
“Allips?”
“Dark spirits that are insane,” Nayu simplified. “They spread insanity and confusion through their constant talking and babbling.” At Felonca’s wide-eyed look, Nayu smiled. “No, you aren’t insane... you just got... confused... for a bit.”
“So that’s why I suddenly found myself under a tree?” she asked, putting things together.
“And why Yari Ai was pretending to be a scholar, and your Uncle started laughing maniacally at one point.”
“I was pretending to be
what?” Yari Ai tapped him on the shoulder. Nayu turned, and despite the situation, found himself having to hold back laughter. Now that the danger had passed, everything seemed to grow incredibly funny.
“Um...” he snickered, “you were making whooshing noises. And waving your hands about like you were some kind of willow tree.” Nayu did a good job, and no full laughs managed to break through his defenses, despite Yari Ai’s red faced look of embarrassment.
“Ahem,” Meiji cleared his throat, pressing in between Nayu and Yari Ai. “I just blanked out, and now I’m next to Yari Ai. Did I just get laid?”
He let out a yelp when Yari Ai and Felonca jointly slapped him.
======================================================
The two creatures in this combat were especially fun for me to run. The chained creatures were chain devils, as described in the Monster Manual. They were meant as fodder... shiny tidbits to get the players attention so I could...well... play.
The other creatures were immensely buffed up allips (advanced as far as possible, then sorcerer levels added and ability scores fiddled with) that I created for this encounter, which I have stated out below:
MIND CONTROL ALLIP
Huge Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 12d12+10d4 (103 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: Fly 80 ft. (perfect) (12 squares)
Armor Class: 19 (+4 Dex, +4 deflection, +1 size), touch 15, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +11/—
Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Babble, madness, Wisdom drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, +2 turn resistance, undead traits, SR 20
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +12
Abilities: Str —, Dex 18, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 18
Skills: Hide +25, Intimidate +17, Listen +17, Search +7, Spot +17, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Pair
Challenge Rating: 16?
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: ---
Level Adjustment: —
An allip is the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by a madness that afflicted it in life. It craves only revenge and unrelentingly pursues those who tormented it in life and pushed it over the brink.
An allip cannot speak intelligibly.
COMBAT
An allip is unable to cause physical harm, although it doesn’t appear to know that. It keeps flailing away at enemies, yet it inflicts no wounds.
Babble (Su): An allip constantly mutters and whines to itself, creating a hypnotic effect. All sane creatures within 60 feet of the allip must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or be affected as by the Allip Control Table listed separately. This is a sonic mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Madness (Su): Anyone targeting an allip with a thought detection, mind control, or telepathic ability makes direct contact with its tortured mind and takes 1d8 points of Wisdom damage.
Wisdom Drain (Su): An allip causes 1d8 points of Wisdom drain each time it hits with its incorporeal touch attack. On each such successful attack, it gains 5 temporary hit points.
SPELLS (7/7/6/6/5/3):
0th – Resistance, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Ghost Sound, Message, Open/Close, Mending, Prestidigitation. 1st- True Strike, Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement, Mage Armor, Obscuring Mist. 2nd – Hypnotic Pattern, Resist Energy, Touch of Idiocy, Detect Thoughts. 3rd – Suggestion, Vampiric Touch, Major Image. 4th- Phantasmal Killer, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. 5th – Dominate Person.
These lovely creatures (in my opinion), when they did make someone go mad, would induce an effect based on a random D20 roll, from the following table.
Allip Control D20:
1, 2 – Hop in a Circle (lose 1d4 turns, -10 on Hide and Move Silently next round)
3, 4 – Victim begins to nitpick own hair, checking repeatedly for lice (lose 1d4 rounds)
5,6 - Victim begins to garble incoherently and loudly to allies (-10 on Move Silently and Hide, lose 1d4 rounds due to garbling)
7,8 – Victim has sudden urge to laugh maniacally, for no apparent reason (-10 Move Silently/Hide, lose 1d4 turns)
9,10 – Victim will mime as if they are a spellcaster for next 1d4 rounds. Victim Launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
11,12 – Victim will mime as if they are a warrior for next 1d4 rounds. Victim launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
13,14 – Victim will get the urge to attack nearest living creature
15-20 – Victim gets urge to merely assist allip in search for tomes
I know
I had a great deal of fun running the encounter, and watching the players (well, Felonca and the two NPCs she ran for the battle) do random things through the encounter, despite the fact that neither allip used their sorcerous powers and instead focused on babbling. :-D The players had fun laughing about it afterwards as well.