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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DustinGebhardt" data-source="post: 5333353" data-attributes="member: 82905">An Exercise in FutilityAs  the newest threat of gargoyles fly towards us from across the large  inlet, we take a quick moment to assess our situation. Behind is the  trail we have already taken, ahead is the way we are going...obviously.  To our left, East, the gargoyles, with their king approach at a steady  pace above the sixty foot drop to the rocky shore. To our right is a  shallow alcove of a cave that is split at the entrance like an ancient  double arched doorway. I take my place in the small amount of shadow  that this pseudo pillar affords; it is more than enough for me to hide  in. Mythyria, calculating the enemies approach, begins her all too  familiar chant; ending any thoughts of banter with the approaching  creatures. Mort and Hekuba take position in front of my pillar; the monk  goes into a fighting stance, and the half-orc draws one of his  crossbows. "How you gunna hit 'em elf?" Hekuba asks as he loads a bolt  into his crossbow and lines up a shot, waiting for the gargoyles to get  closer. Mort has no time to reply before Mythyria finishes her spell and  a small bead of orange light sails toward the creatures. We lose sight  of it just before it becomes a sphere of inferno around three of the  five winged beasts. "What about elves? Orcling?" Mythyria remarks  with a smirk. The proud ranger is cut short by Hoppup, "Argue semantics  later you two, we've an enemy to face, and five of five still fly." They  lizard wizard draws his short bow and readies himself next to Mythyria  with a confidence that he did not offend the often sarcastic elf caster.  Karyan rolls her eyes, not for the first time, as she draws her long  bow. "One of these days our wagging tongues will be the end of us all,  mark my words." Kamal smiles a knowing smile and simply moves alongside the human ranger; the only one privy to the knowledge that she  and I are in fact twins, the priest softly sings a prayer to Sarenrae  that holds no magic, but reassures us to a one.I listen with a  measured interest and maintain my shadowy cover. "Where's Eriks?" Mort  notices at last, and answers his own question; "oh right, he's sneaking.  Hekuba, I thought you were going to shoot them." The monk taunts his  friend. "Concentrating here." Mythyria replies with annoyance; even  as she quickly chants another spell and three rays of flame strike the  king gargoyle hard leaving a trail of smoke behind his highness and  visible scorch marks on its wildly glyphed skin, even as she dives  immediately into another incantation. Hekuba gives a resigned "Harumph",  deftly switches from his crossbow to his sword and shield, and answers;  "Might as well keep at what we're best at." "Agreed" Hoppup states,  as he lets fly an arrow from his short bow; it falls short of the mark  however and Karyan comments, "Too far for that one" Her long bow shot  finds its mark. Kamal draws the power of his goddess and a  concentrated beam of sunlight also lands home among the gargoyles.  "Steady all, they are almost upon us, and still number five." "Five  Schmive" Mort replies, "Hey ugly! When we kill you, I want that crown!"  the monk taunts. If the gargoyle king understands the words, he makes no  indication. The first of the gets close to the cliff edge and is struck  by Mythyria's enfeebling ray and is visibly weakened but still closes  in and swings weakly at Mort. The blow falls short of connecting with  the agile monk, who now stands beside Hekuba nearer to the edge. Another  gargoyle gets dangerously close, and our ranged options grow thinner. Hekuba  raises his sword against the monster, and the strike digs much deeper  than the strength of the ranger should allow. "Die! You vile creatures!"  he shouts as he notices the gash his enchanted sword has opened on the  gargoyle. "Good hit Hekuba!" Hoppup encourages as he conjures a small  flame into his palm, throwing it at the nearest creature. The small orb,  while nowhere near the size of Mythyria's explosion finds an already  opened spot on the creature's skin, scorches its insides and it falls to  the rocks below. Kamal's armor deflects the blows of his enemy, and he begins chanting another prayer.A  third gargoyle advances, swipes a fiendishly sharp claw at Karyan, and  misses. "It will take your king to even scratch me beast" she threatens  as the king swoops upon Hoppup. A keening screech that I do not think I  could have weathered nearly as well assailed the lizard wizard, and  though his head lolled once, Hoppup kept his composure enough to avoid a  clawed strike from the gargoyle king.I shudder as I see that Karyan  has no way to fire her bow so pressed. She realizes the same thing and  drops the weapon in favor of her swords. In the instant her guard is  down, the creature upon her connects and draws a shallow cut in the  crease where her armor bends for her hips. She grunts through the pain  and returns a slice that looks much worse than the one she took for her  trouble. Kamal notices the blood drawn on his ally, and invokes a prayer  that guides our actions and confuses our enemies. Having seen my  sister injured, I step from the pillar and fire a shot into the eye of  the enemy closest to me, my shot works in keeping me from its sight, for  I am able to quickly take a second shot that pierces the other eye;  dropping the creature in a world of darkness and pain. With three of  the five creatures down ,Mort flies into a flurry of fists and feet, I  can hardly discern one blow from the next, but the the coordinated monk  lands each one precisely. Although the gargoyle still breaths, Mort has  managed to find pressure points with each strike, causing it to go rigid  and begin to fall from the cliff face. Hekuba seizes the opportunity of  the creature's dropped guard and swings into; drawing a line of red  even as it begins to fall. "These things are barely worth my spells"  Mythyria laments; the elf takes a shot with her bow, but the missile  skips harmlessly off the tough skinned enemy. "Silly elf, it's like  this." Hekuba taunts the wizardress as he quickly draws his crossbow and  connects to flesh where her own shot was just repelled. Karyan gives  another shout as the gargoyle upon her has learned how to breach her  armor, its efforts are rewarded five-fold as she starts a series of  swipes high and low, connecting with all, and bringing the to a wet and  sloppy end before it can even sort that the first swing drew blood.  Kamal and Hoppup finish their spells nearly simultaneously as an arc of  lightning flashes on the Gargoyle king and a burst of pure sound erupts  on the same target. Good thing too, for the Gargoyle king, though  pressed from two spells rakes his claws into Hoppup. The burst of  Kamal's spell muffled out the cries of pain that nearly double the  lizard wizard over. How he kept his feet after seeing the tissue under  his scaly skin, I do not feign to know. With only one enemy left on  the field, I advance upon the Gargoyle king, even I hear Mort shout,  "You're about to be a king without a crown sucker!" I chuckle even as  the point of my thinblade buries itself within the enemy's side. It  grunts in pain, but still presses us. Hekuba prepares to slice at the  king just as he notices that the gargoyle we thought had fallen has  winged its way back onto the cliff face. With a feral shout of pure rage  at the creature's refusal to die, Hekuba swings his sword in a downward  arc that takes the persistent monster's wing off. "Fly back up now  beastie." the half-orc taunts, "ain't you done yet?" he regards to  Mythyria. "Not my fault you all like to stand in the way of my spells"  she retorts, "such it shall be, I suppose" the elf sighs and quickly  begins chanting. Hoppup, who managed to keep his concentration held  enough to maintain the flame in his palm, which he desperately thrusts  at the Gargoyle king to ward off the terror. "No worries Hoppup! I'll  get him" Mort cries, as the fleet footed elf moves beside the lizard man  and punches a vital area on the last remaining enemy. We all see the  crowned thing go rigid, and Karyan steps in. Just as the ranger begins  her first double slice into the gargoyle, Mythyria's spell fires and  four bolts of arcane energy fly unerringly toward and strike the  creature. It shows no sign of falling, but this could be due to Mort's  earlier strike. Karyan ignores the missiles flying about her and with  striking speed commits two double slice maneuvers, high and low on the  beast's torso. Deep lines of red, follow the strikes, and the Gargoyle  King falls.I am the first  upon the fallen king's body, which is well..."He has eight rings", I  report, "some bracers, and..." I am cut short as Mort does not even wait  for Mythyria to identify the magical headpiece before he grabs it from  the still bleeding corpse and dons it. "Wait you fool!" Mythyria tries  to warn even as Mort adjusts the enchanted crown atop his head. "Well,  at least let me tell you what it can do if you are so insistent upon  wearing it." The wizardress proceeds to examine the gear with her  knowledge of the arcane and reveals that the monk's new accessory is  indeed very magical and can even harden the wearer's skin to that of  stone! "You know, some items just like that will take your head off  without the proper handling", Mythyria scolds mostly to herself; as Mort  has found a mirror and adjusts the crown to his liking. "I feel  inclined to inform you, Morty", I say with a poorly hidden smirk, "that  is definitely a princess's crown.""Jealousy doesn't look as good as I  do right now Eriks." Mort quickly sends back. Hekuba and Karyan make no  attempt to hide their own laughter, though whether at me or the monk, I  do not know. Hopup shares a hissing laugh that would be quite menacing  under different circumstances. Even Kamal cannot contain a controlled  chuckle at the exchange. Mythyria just rolls her eyes and suggests we  set camp inside the alcove. As we set a watch, Kamal again recalls  the answer he received from the spell cast to help us locate the  'presence' that has haunted our steps of late. "To finally confront the demonous ape,find the growing place of the canyon grape;But beware the ravine's funnel-type shape,for it barely affords a narrow escape.""I  like the rhyme scheme, but the whole 'narrow escape' bit puts me ill at  ease" I say, not for the first time. Hoppup reminds us that we are not,  in fact, very far from where he believes the 'canyon grape' to be.  "Now, more than ever, we should be on guard, this means no idle  distractions while on watch, and no drinking", he directs the last part  of his warning toward me. I give a sheepish smile and hold my hands up  in resignation. "Alright, no drinks on watch." I agree, "good thing I'm  on third watch!" I exude as I take a long draw from the Aranea liquor.  Ignoring us with precision born of practice, Mythyria casts a spell that  keeps us all comfortable during the night.Perhaps too comfortable.  When we are at last all awake, and take stock of our gear to begin our  travels, we notice that several items have gone missing in the night.  Not the least of which is my magical bag!"Okay, really no one saw  anything?" I ask for perhaps the hundredth time as we walk on. "No one  saw any more than you did Eriks, and good Hekuba and Karyan both report  no sign of a trail to follow." Kamal tries to calm my ever diminishing  resolve. "And besides," Mort adds, "If it's that 'grape ape' thing,  we're about to take it down anyway." All the encouragement does little  to lift my mood, but I act the part for their benefit. Karyan comes  alongside me, puts her hand on my shoulder, and reassures; "Cheers  Eriks, be glad we all yet breathe, whatever came to us in the night  could have slit our throats or taken us away." I give her a slightly  more genuine smile. Mythyria, perhaps taking the nocturnal invasion as  hard as I, berates herself for not casting a spell to alert us all if  any other than us enter the camp. The day goes much in this manner, as  we all have the sobering thought that tonight we will be invaded again.  We come to another abandoned village, and decide to travel slightly away  from the place as night falls and we mush again set camp. Mythyria  casts her comfort spell once more, and adds to it an incantation that  will cause a loud alarm to sound if any enters the area without the  password. During second watch, around the opposite of noon, while  Mythyria and Karyan are keeping vigil, the alarm sounds. We all awaken  with a start, but none of us can see who or what has caused the spell to  trigger. Mythyria quickly chants a spell and keeps it charged on her  hands, ready to direct it at the assailant as soon as it is revealed.  Hekuba is up in a flash and draws his weapons scanning everywhere and  seeing nothing. Karyan is sure she heard a disturbance at the perimeter  of the camp, and using her ranger abilities, summons a cone of wind  where she thinks the invisible stalker to be. Mythyria, trusting  Karyan's judgment, directs her spell into the funnel of wind and a  hideous, ape-ish laughter howls even over the sound of the alarm and  wind. Kamal, targets the disembodied laughter with a spell to dissolve  invisibility. Hekuba, luckily standing close, is there as the demonic  ape's invisibility is countered. The half-orc takes a swing and connects  with the enemy, and battle is joined by us all.With a whisper, my  thinblade is drawn as I move upon and piece the menacing ape. The effect  of Mythyria's spell expires and the creature's terrible laughing stops.  Hoppup summons the energy of his weird spell source and Hekuba,  Mythyria, and I are all given a burst of energy. Hekuba's bolt shoots  wide of the beast, as it is also countered in the wall of wind.  Mythyria, perhaps of caution, perhaps of fear creates a hand of energy  to attack for her. I find another opening in the the ape's defense.  Karyan lets down the wall of wind, draws her blades and attacks. Where a  line of red formed from her swing, she notices that it disappears  almost instantly. "It heals as a troll might!" the ranger warns the rest  of us. Even as I at last notice that the holes I found in its flesh are  smaller than they should be. "Once again, magic trumps might" Mythyria  boasts. She has charged her spectral hand with a spell, and touches the  ape with it...and the spell is resisted. "You were saying elf?" Hekuba  mocks. The hulking ranger stows his crossbows and pulls out sword and  shield. Making his way to the ape, he lets loose a slice that goes wide  and a bash that connects but is absorbed in the thing's thick skin.  "Back to the Abyss with you demon!" Kamal growls. A blast of holy energy  bursts from his hands, pierces its resistance to spells, and drives  into the demonic ape. It howls in frustration and throws both of its  huge arms around Karyan. I can hear bones crunching as it squeezes with  unholy strength. A rage boils in my veins and as I scream in anger, the  beast disappears with Karyan still wrapped in its arms. My scream turns  to frustration as I swing wildly at the air, where the ape once was. "It is gone, teleported" , Mythyria reports. "But  to where?!" I scream. Holding back tears I did not know I had. I wash  my face a palette with a splash of alcohol to ease my nerve and hide my  emotion. "You can track them can't you?" I ask Mythyria with more  desperation in my voice than I would like. Kamal cuts the elf's  response, "We know where she is Eriks, there is nothing for it but to  continue to the canyon. Pray for calm in troubling times friend."  Following his advice , I ask Cayden to ease my temper; he responds with a  desire to have another drink. Who am I to question his motives? I pull  out the coaster he gave me and let the magic of it drift into my  thoughts. Perhaps there is something I can do to hurt this ape...Morning  finds me in much better spirits, determined to end this creature and  return any harm it has done to my sister. Not long into the day, we come  to the canyon of grapes, they are large and ripe for picking.  Inspiration strikes me, and I ask Kamal to fashion a planter out of the  stone. With the help of Hekuba, I locate a taproot and take some of the  grapes with me. "These will make an excellent wine" I say, and though  the others do not share my enthusiasm, none argue the point. Around mid  afternoon, long after the grapes are behind us, the canyon narrows. We  get the sense of being watched once more, and before any of the others, I  see the figure of Karyan tied to a huge boulder in the center of the  depression. I pull a wand of protection and trigger its effects as I  begin to run toward my sister. A howling laughter, not born of a  spell's effect, begins to echo through the canyon. Bouncing from side to  side, it is almost deafening. Hoppup and Mythyria begin casting and  advancing behind me. Hoppup chanting quickly to bless our actions and  put a ball of flame in his palm; Mythyria from a wand to increase her  vitality. Mort outruns me to get to Karyan, just before I arrive myself;  she is alive, but bound by thick viney ropes. "Take a blade, start  cutting!" I command to Mort as I begin to free my sister. Behind us,  Kamal advances cautiously, Hekuba draws his sword and shield; and the  howling laughter continues. I do not even bother a glance as I hear a  huge rock flies from the canyon wall and strikes truly against Mythyria.  It makes a terrible cracking sound, as it is broken upon a magical  force of armor surrounding the wizardress. The source of the howling  is revealed as a mob, beyond massive, of various ape and monkey  creatures appears on the canyon wall. It rolls towards us, a shambling  swarm of teeth, claws, and fur. Everyone else secures their positions,  as Mort and I continue to cut Karyan's bonds. I do not even react as the  monk screams a warning and another boulder flies at me from the canyon  wall. With a similar sound, the rock is broken upon the magical force I  warded myself with earlier. Hoppup summons an ant to fight alongside us  and begins summoning energy for the coming battle.The summoned ant  flies into the mob of creatures and connects as Hoppup's next spell  lends power to Mort, Kamal, and Mythyria. "I'm sorry, but I must join  battle." Mort laments as he moves from my side. The nimble monk charges  the swarm and flies into a flurry of feet and fists that each connect  with the mass of evil. Mythyria shouts, "the demon ape is likely here  and invisible, stay alert!" She calls a protection upon herself and then  quickly mouths the words to a familiar spell. The ball of flame ignites  around where she predicts the demon to be, and the screech of pain  assures us all that the spell connected. I do nothing but continue to  cut the ropes binding Karyan. Kamal incants a fast prayer to Sarenrae  before calling down the very power of the sun. A burst of pure and holy  light fills the canyon. The demon ape, and the swarm give terrible keens  of pain. The blast reveals the demon ape, for a split second, before it  is invisible once more. The mob of creatures, though diminished, moves  closer toward me, taking glancing blows from the summoned ant, and Mort  for its effort. The entirety of the mob moves around Mythyria, but her  arcane protection from evil keeps even the lightest of blows from  connecting. Hekuba chases the mob and connects with a powerful blow.Hoppup  and Kamal each begin chanting again as Mythyria emerges from the mob  unharmed. The wizardress runs for cover behind a large rock and realizes  just too late that she has tripped a wire. Three large and deadly  spears thrust at her, but are pushed aside by her unseen armor. Mort,  seemingly caught within the huge swarm of creatures kicks, punches, and  bites at every available target; enough of the mob must have been harmed  by the monk's attacks because the swarm begins to crumble around him.  The summoned ant attacks the demon ape, but cannot connect a blow as the  demon ape rushes and slams into me. I take the hit and continue to cut  at Karyan's bonds. Hekuba rushes to my side and aids my struggle as  Kamal and Hoppup's spells are both absorbed by the demon ape's natural  resistance.I at last free Karyan, and Hekuba notes that she is badly  injured. Mythyria, Kamal, and Hoppup all begin chanting as Mort runs to  the creature. With a flying kick that could have gone through a wall,  Mort flies wide of hitting the demon ape. The ape makes a running attack  upon Mythyria, but again the elf is saved by her energy armor. A  barrage of spells target the creature even as the summoned ant still  cannot seem to harm it. Darts of magic fly from Hoppup and connect,  Mythyria fires an arrow made of acid and Kamal again summons holy might  to scorch the creature. It howls as some of the energy finds its way  into its flesh.Kamal and Hoppup begin chanting once more as the ape,  looks skyward. I use my wand to heal Karyan, noting that even as her  flesh reknits, there are many bruises and cuts apparent. Hekuba, quickly  sheaths his blade, draws a crossbow, fires and misses hitting the ape.  Hoppup's spell trigger and a wave of energy is transferred to Mythyria,  Mort, and Kamal. Mythyria moves into better position as Mort and Kamal's  attempts to strike the beast both fail. The demon ape gives a sinister  smile and begins flying. Kamal quickly chants a dispel magic spell, but  it fails to stop the flight. Mort connects a glancing blow but it does  nothing to stop the ascent. The monk tries to climb the canyon wall to  give chase, but slips and falls back down. Angered, the elf goes to the  remains of the swarm and begins footing through the carnage.Hoppup  lets loose another series of magical darts as Mythyria sends two rays of  fire at the quickly rising foe. Hoppup's spell connects while the elf's  is absorbed. With little other option, I cast a spell from a wand that  also fails to connect. Karyan takes my wand of healing and uses it on  herself once more. "Worry not, Eriks, we will get him" she assures me,  but I am too frustrated to listen. I take a drink and lose some  memory...Mythyria casts a spell and reports,"I'm following it with a  clairvoyance, it won't get away!" I begin to climb the cliff wall. I  climb the wall, nearly as high as Mort before me and Mythyria creates  her spectral hand to deliver more spells to the fleeing creature. The  rest move to join my climb except for Hekuba and Karyan. The half-orc  reports that my magical bag is not in the bloody mess on the canyon  floor, and Karyan uses the wand once more to heal her broken flesh. "By  the ancients you sneaky devil!" Mythyria curses. "The foul beast has  teleported once more." And so we stand, beaten, tired, and ultimately  outmatched.</blockquote>

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