Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6911903" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>So we prepared to leave again and transported ourselves back to the spot where the Princess had been; she was no longer there but one of her staff was waiting in the same spot. As soon as she saw us, we were led to the Princess. She had set up her command post in a sheltered vale, with a tray of sand upon which was a remarkably drawn map. There was no sign of her father. </p><p> </p><p>She looked up as we approached: </p><p> </p><p>“Ah, I was just going to send for you……”</p><p> </p><p>We looked around and saw that Arisha, the planetar was with her so she must have been aware of our neutralizing of the golems. </p><p> </p><p>Longhelim interrupted her first: </p><p> </p><p>“Apologies Your Highness but we must interrupt you. This is most important.”</p><p> </p><p>He then went on to explain what we knew about the battle standards and also Foebane’s assignment of one of the captured ones to her forces. She frowned and said: </p><p> </p><p>“Well, that explains much. Thank you for this. It will help with the battle. Indeed, it will greatly help with the next phase of the battle here, for which I will need you. We have managed to locate the enemy command post and the commander of the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] army. His name is general Euserius de Fiaba and he is a powerful necromancer, who surrounds himself with undead. If we eliminated the general, it will greatly weaken his army.”</p><p> </p><p>We spoke of several plans and finally left with a force of four hundred elves and the Planetar, as well as Shalosha herself. Once we approached within a fairly short distance of the enemy’s command post, Shalosha cast fly on herself and used the power of the banner, sharing it with her force. The general plan was to attack the general from the air and try to avoid his undead bodyguards as much as possible. </p><p> </p><p>We needed Shalosha’s spells as we were all desperately short of resources. </p><p> </p><p>Shalosha’s force swooped down onto the General’s undead army while we flew as fast as possible to the command post. As we approached, we were able to recognize his bodyguard and it was indeed formidable. We were able to reach within a fairly short distance before a creature seemingly made of shadows flew up towards us. It looked like an enormous bat; it was Felix who shouted: </p><p> </p><p>“’Ware, Nightwings!”</p><p> </p><p>I had only heard of these creatures and vaguely. They were undead creatures of enormous powers, loyal only to the most powerful of practitioners of necromantic magic. I had never studied them but dimly I remembered that not only did they have a formidable array of combat skills, they were also powerful spell casters. They were true servants of evil. If this General Euserius really did command these creatures, that made him a necromancer of superlative knowledge and skill. </p><p> </p><p>Briefly taking my attention from the approaching Nightwing, I saw a truly incongruous sight; the figure of the general was quite unprepossessing. Even his elaborate skull mask could not hide his receding hair line; and despite his black robes, his slight stature could not be hidden, together with a tendency to plumpness. However, the strangest sight was the presence of one of his skeletons holding an umbrella above his head, while another held his robes above the muddy ground. Another skeleton nearby was holding a banner.</p><p> </p><p>The figure had turned his head towards us and was making shooing motions to his other nightshades. I counted another three nightwings and a pair of huge humanoid creatures; these were more powerful beings than the nightwings, often called nightwalkers and their nature was very similar. </p><p> </p><p>Shalosha cast a spell and suddenly we were all moving much faster; as was the rest of her force. Those banners were truly powerful magic. </p><p> </p><p>The first nightwing flew in and attempted to strike Longhelim but the blow bounced off the paladin’s armour. Then Victor stepped in and gave it a mighty slice; it was difficult to tell just how badly the creature was hurt as the Living Blade just seemed to sink into the shadows of the bat. General Euserius cast a spell, which I recognised. It was one that I used so often I knew it by heart. I was startled as I saw that his casting of it was quite crude but it still hurt. I braced myself as the magic attempted to wrest every drop of blood and water out of my system; I managed to resist the worst of the magic but I saw that others had not. </p><p> </p><p>As the other creatures flew towards us, Drudge let loose a full volley of his arrows against the necromancer; he managed to knock one of the arrows coming towards him out of the air while the others struck him. It was difficult to tell of his reaction behind his mask but as soon as he could he cast a spell which surrounded him in a dome of stone; moments later, a high pitched voice screeched: </p><p> </p><p>“Someone do something about that archer or I will flay you!”</p><p> </p><p>We could not see him and therefore, Drudge was unable to fire any further arrows against him. The silver lining to that was that at least he wasn’t casting spells against us. </p><p> </p><p>This had the unfortunate effect of the enemy concentrating their efforts on Drudge. The Nightwings and the Nightwalkers all let off thin black beams at Drudge. I recognised it as death magic. Drudge was highly resistant to magic but when five such powerful casters concentrated on you, it was difficult to survive. And so it was: the gallant archer fell before one of the black beams. </p><p> </p><p>Things looked grim indeed.</p><p> </p><p>Felix shouted: </p><p> </p><p>“We need silver weapons; and they have to holy!”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim and Victor looked at each other and I was fairly certain that neither the Torch nor the Living Blade possessed those qualities. </p><p> </p><p>Looking over the forces of three nightwings and two nightwalkers arrayed against us, Longhelim shouted: </p><p> </p><p>“Time to go?”</p><p> </p><p>John replied: </p><p> </p><p>“We do not have anything else to throw at them. Faden and I are out of spells. I’m going to pick up Drudge!”</p><p> </p><p>Felix began to get ready: </p><p> </p><p>“Everyone gather around me.”</p><p> </p><p>I joined in:</p><p> </p><p>“And me….one of the few things I have left is a transport spell.”</p><p> </p><p>At that point, there was a massive burst of light; so intense that it hurt the eyes. I blinked a few times, trying to rid myself of the spots on front of my vision. Still, if it was uncomfortable for me, it was devastating to the nighshades. They wailed in pain and writhed in the light, all of them literally smoking as they tried to get away from the merciless light. One of the nightwings dissipated while Victor took advantage of the confusion caused by the spell; he stepped forward and in another of those cunning moves literally decapitated two more of the nightwings, who again dissipated into the darkness. The final nightwing had already been repulsed by Felix’s holy power while other nightwalkers were staggering and pawing at their eyes. </p><p> </p><p>I looked back at Shalosha who looked satisfied with the results of her spell.</p><p> </p><p>It still left the formation of skeletons and General Euserius. </p><p> </p><p>The nightwalkers were desperate now as they flailed wildly, obviously blind. One cast a spell at our area. I recognised it as a powerful enchantment which befuddled the its victim, making them take random actions which made no sense. Thankfully, our mental defenses ignored this but more unfortunately, it became obvious that Shalosha had been affected as she suddenly attacked the Planetar. Victor drank a potion and flew towards the dome of stone which the General Euserius had formed around himself. He did this as Longhelim was dispatching the last two of the nightwalkers. They had both been badly hurt by Shalosha’s spell already so although they did manage to cast a few spells which caused some hurt, they were ultimately spent forces. Ultimately, they dissipated into the nearby darkness. </p><p> </p><p>Quickly, I approached the paladin and said: </p><p> </p><p>“I have a little magic left and one of these is my ray which will destroy a chunk of that stone wall. If you and Victor get ready, I’ll do that once you give me the go ahead. I will be very surprised if he was still there but I think we have to act as if he is, just in case.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim just nodded and also flew onto the dome, speaking quickly to Victor, who nodded. A moment later, they both set themselves and then the paladin looked at me. I cast a spell and a green ray shot out of my hand and hit the dome, creating a hole. Nothing happened. As expected, General Euserius, his skeletons and the banner had gone, no doubt magically transported to a safe place. </p><p> </p><p>By the point, the Planetar had managed to dispel the enchantment on Shalosha and we quickly gathered ourselves. The Princess was now facing leaderless forces so her task would be much easier while we decided to report back to headquarters. </p><p> </p><p>We managed to return via the Torch and immediately reported to Xavious. He was looking a little less tense and told us: </p><p> </p><p>“We are not in such dire straits any more; thanks mainly to your intervention, we have managed to get things under more control. I still need a word with our intelligence department about how they managed to get things so wrong; we have calculated that Leska has somehow managed to hide her Fifth Army without our knowledge; that is what we are facing. There are approximately twenty thousand soldiers and forces which had appeared in this desert without our knowledge.”</p><p> </p><p>I cleared my throat and said to him: </p><p> </p><p>“Don’t be too harsh on them; it has almost certainly something to do with those banners and that is magic that took all of us by surprise. In all my reading and research I have not come across anything like that; neither has anyone else to my knowledge.”</p><p> </p><p>He nodded to me and continued: </p><p> </p><p>“Well, after your actions this morning, my reports indicate that the enemy has lost roughly twice as many soldiers as we have; so far as we can tell their casualties number about six thousand. They have also lost several high ranking beings, including the two you have managed to eliminate. We believe that the enemy is withdrawing all on fronts.”</p><p> </p><p>He looked us over more carefully and then said: </p><p> </p><p>“I can see you are exhausted; I know you have also had your adventures before this battle so please go and rest. You deserve it.”</p><p> </p><p>Without any further prompting, we quickly left his presence and retired to a small corner of the command tent. Mindful of treachery and assassination attempts earlier, we wanted to be inside a safe area but made sure to keep out of everyone’s way. The exception to that was when Xavious would consult with either Longhelim or Victor about some matter; he obviously respected their insights. </p><p> </p><p>The day passed remarkably quickly in that manner and we finally managed to relax a little. In the late afternoon, I even felt a little more refreshed and energetic, especially bearing in mind the forced cramming we had been forced to do the day before.</p><p> </p><p>Towards evening, Longhelim came to us:</p><p> </p><p>“We need to leave here. We cannot relax and we will always be in demand. It will be impossible for the spell casters to learn their magic if we stay. I have been asking around and command already has a mission planned for us tomorrow, whether we are ready or not.”</p><p> </p><p>I looked curiously at him at that comment and he continued: </p><p> </p><p>“They found the source behind these strange storms and weather. There is a powerful druid sitting on top of a column near the Dragon Gates. The column is huge and magic has been cast on it which prevents anyone just transporting themselves there. So we will have to fly up there I guess. He is also being defended by a squadron of Wyvern Knights; and you can bet that he will be a very powerful individual.”</p><p> </p><p>I looked at everyone and added: </p><p> </p><p>“And no doubt he will have several devilish friends.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim just nodded and continued speaking: </p><p> </p><p>“I know of a place we can go where no one will disturb us; it is far away but that is not an issue if we have the Torch. It is quiet and peaceful and above all, deserted. We’ll go there and rest. Command can get in touch with Felix magically if it becomes necessary.”</p><p> </p><p>So that is what we did.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6911903, member: 6692807"] So we prepared to leave again and transported ourselves back to the spot where the Princess had been; she was no longer there but one of her staff was waiting in the same spot. As soon as she saw us, we were led to the Princess. She had set up her command post in a sheltered vale, with a tray of sand upon which was a remarkably drawn map. There was no sign of her father. She looked up as we approached: “Ah, I was just going to send for you……” We looked around and saw that Arisha, the planetar was with her so she must have been aware of our neutralizing of the golems. Longhelim interrupted her first: “Apologies Your Highness but we must interrupt you. This is most important.” He then went on to explain what we knew about the battle standards and also Foebane’s assignment of one of the captured ones to her forces. She frowned and said: “Well, that explains much. Thank you for this. It will help with the battle. Indeed, it will greatly help with the next phase of the battle here, for which I will need you. We have managed to locate the enemy command post and the commander of the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] army. His name is general Euserius de Fiaba and he is a powerful necromancer, who surrounds himself with undead. If we eliminated the general, it will greatly weaken his army.” We spoke of several plans and finally left with a force of four hundred elves and the Planetar, as well as Shalosha herself. Once we approached within a fairly short distance of the enemy’s command post, Shalosha cast fly on herself and used the power of the banner, sharing it with her force. The general plan was to attack the general from the air and try to avoid his undead bodyguards as much as possible. We needed Shalosha’s spells as we were all desperately short of resources. Shalosha’s force swooped down onto the General’s undead army while we flew as fast as possible to the command post. As we approached, we were able to recognize his bodyguard and it was indeed formidable. We were able to reach within a fairly short distance before a creature seemingly made of shadows flew up towards us. It looked like an enormous bat; it was Felix who shouted: “’Ware, Nightwings!” I had only heard of these creatures and vaguely. They were undead creatures of enormous powers, loyal only to the most powerful of practitioners of necromantic magic. I had never studied them but dimly I remembered that not only did they have a formidable array of combat skills, they were also powerful spell casters. They were true servants of evil. If this General Euserius really did command these creatures, that made him a necromancer of superlative knowledge and skill. Briefly taking my attention from the approaching Nightwing, I saw a truly incongruous sight; the figure of the general was quite unprepossessing. Even his elaborate skull mask could not hide his receding hair line; and despite his black robes, his slight stature could not be hidden, together with a tendency to plumpness. However, the strangest sight was the presence of one of his skeletons holding an umbrella above his head, while another held his robes above the muddy ground. Another skeleton nearby was holding a banner. The figure had turned his head towards us and was making shooing motions to his other nightshades. I counted another three nightwings and a pair of huge humanoid creatures; these were more powerful beings than the nightwings, often called nightwalkers and their nature was very similar. Shalosha cast a spell and suddenly we were all moving much faster; as was the rest of her force. Those banners were truly powerful magic. The first nightwing flew in and attempted to strike Longhelim but the blow bounced off the paladin’s armour. Then Victor stepped in and gave it a mighty slice; it was difficult to tell just how badly the creature was hurt as the Living Blade just seemed to sink into the shadows of the bat. General Euserius cast a spell, which I recognised. It was one that I used so often I knew it by heart. I was startled as I saw that his casting of it was quite crude but it still hurt. I braced myself as the magic attempted to wrest every drop of blood and water out of my system; I managed to resist the worst of the magic but I saw that others had not. As the other creatures flew towards us, Drudge let loose a full volley of his arrows against the necromancer; he managed to knock one of the arrows coming towards him out of the air while the others struck him. It was difficult to tell of his reaction behind his mask but as soon as he could he cast a spell which surrounded him in a dome of stone; moments later, a high pitched voice screeched: “Someone do something about that archer or I will flay you!” We could not see him and therefore, Drudge was unable to fire any further arrows against him. The silver lining to that was that at least he wasn’t casting spells against us. This had the unfortunate effect of the enemy concentrating their efforts on Drudge. The Nightwings and the Nightwalkers all let off thin black beams at Drudge. I recognised it as death magic. Drudge was highly resistant to magic but when five such powerful casters concentrated on you, it was difficult to survive. And so it was: the gallant archer fell before one of the black beams. Things looked grim indeed. Felix shouted: “We need silver weapons; and they have to holy!” Longhelim and Victor looked at each other and I was fairly certain that neither the Torch nor the Living Blade possessed those qualities. Looking over the forces of three nightwings and two nightwalkers arrayed against us, Longhelim shouted: “Time to go?” John replied: “We do not have anything else to throw at them. Faden and I are out of spells. I’m going to pick up Drudge!” Felix began to get ready: “Everyone gather around me.” I joined in: “And me….one of the few things I have left is a transport spell.” At that point, there was a massive burst of light; so intense that it hurt the eyes. I blinked a few times, trying to rid myself of the spots on front of my vision. Still, if it was uncomfortable for me, it was devastating to the nighshades. They wailed in pain and writhed in the light, all of them literally smoking as they tried to get away from the merciless light. One of the nightwings dissipated while Victor took advantage of the confusion caused by the spell; he stepped forward and in another of those cunning moves literally decapitated two more of the nightwings, who again dissipated into the darkness. The final nightwing had already been repulsed by Felix’s holy power while other nightwalkers were staggering and pawing at their eyes. I looked back at Shalosha who looked satisfied with the results of her spell. It still left the formation of skeletons and General Euserius. The nightwalkers were desperate now as they flailed wildly, obviously blind. One cast a spell at our area. I recognised it as a powerful enchantment which befuddled the its victim, making them take random actions which made no sense. Thankfully, our mental defenses ignored this but more unfortunately, it became obvious that Shalosha had been affected as she suddenly attacked the Planetar. Victor drank a potion and flew towards the dome of stone which the General Euserius had formed around himself. He did this as Longhelim was dispatching the last two of the nightwalkers. They had both been badly hurt by Shalosha’s spell already so although they did manage to cast a few spells which caused some hurt, they were ultimately spent forces. Ultimately, they dissipated into the nearby darkness. Quickly, I approached the paladin and said: “I have a little magic left and one of these is my ray which will destroy a chunk of that stone wall. If you and Victor get ready, I’ll do that once you give me the go ahead. I will be very surprised if he was still there but I think we have to act as if he is, just in case.” Longhelim just nodded and also flew onto the dome, speaking quickly to Victor, who nodded. A moment later, they both set themselves and then the paladin looked at me. I cast a spell and a green ray shot out of my hand and hit the dome, creating a hole. Nothing happened. As expected, General Euserius, his skeletons and the banner had gone, no doubt magically transported to a safe place. By the point, the Planetar had managed to dispel the enchantment on Shalosha and we quickly gathered ourselves. The Princess was now facing leaderless forces so her task would be much easier while we decided to report back to headquarters. We managed to return via the Torch and immediately reported to Xavious. He was looking a little less tense and told us: “We are not in such dire straits any more; thanks mainly to your intervention, we have managed to get things under more control. I still need a word with our intelligence department about how they managed to get things so wrong; we have calculated that Leska has somehow managed to hide her Fifth Army without our knowledge; that is what we are facing. There are approximately twenty thousand soldiers and forces which had appeared in this desert without our knowledge.” I cleared my throat and said to him: “Don’t be too harsh on them; it has almost certainly something to do with those banners and that is magic that took all of us by surprise. In all my reading and research I have not come across anything like that; neither has anyone else to my knowledge.” He nodded to me and continued: “Well, after your actions this morning, my reports indicate that the enemy has lost roughly twice as many soldiers as we have; so far as we can tell their casualties number about six thousand. They have also lost several high ranking beings, including the two you have managed to eliminate. We believe that the enemy is withdrawing all on fronts.” He looked us over more carefully and then said: “I can see you are exhausted; I know you have also had your adventures before this battle so please go and rest. You deserve it.” Without any further prompting, we quickly left his presence and retired to a small corner of the command tent. Mindful of treachery and assassination attempts earlier, we wanted to be inside a safe area but made sure to keep out of everyone’s way. The exception to that was when Xavious would consult with either Longhelim or Victor about some matter; he obviously respected their insights. The day passed remarkably quickly in that manner and we finally managed to relax a little. In the late afternoon, I even felt a little more refreshed and energetic, especially bearing in mind the forced cramming we had been forced to do the day before. Towards evening, Longhelim came to us: “We need to leave here. We cannot relax and we will always be in demand. It will be impossible for the spell casters to learn their magic if we stay. I have been asking around and command already has a mission planned for us tomorrow, whether we are ready or not.” I looked curiously at him at that comment and he continued: “They found the source behind these strange storms and weather. There is a powerful druid sitting on top of a column near the Dragon Gates. The column is huge and magic has been cast on it which prevents anyone just transporting themselves there. So we will have to fly up there I guess. He is also being defended by a squadron of Wyvern Knights; and you can bet that he will be a very powerful individual.” I looked at everyone and added: “And no doubt he will have several devilish friends.” Longhelim just nodded and continued speaking: “I know of a place we can go where no one will disturb us; it is far away but that is not an issue if we have the Torch. It is quiet and peaceful and above all, deserted. We’ll go there and rest. Command can get in touch with Felix magically if it becomes necessary.” So that is what we did. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
Top