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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 480455" data-attributes="member: 41">Coldeven 17, CY 59327:  Heroes, like their history, are named by the victors.The plan is simple.  Cmin will accompany Heydricus, Prisantha and Dabus.  The four of them will attack the Iuzian forces, kill them all, and provide an opening for the remaining Knights of the High Forest to retreat.  After all the Iuzians are sent to their new home in the Abyss, they will take Cmin back to the relative safety of Tenh.Or as they say in the Great Kingdom "A bloodstain threatens no Rule of Law".The four adventurers creep toward the ruined fort, and find it a simple affair, likely of orcish construction:  A lone building surrounded by a palisade wall, now crumbling in places, the whole likely desecrated.  A small tower is built out of one end of the roof, though it has certainly lost some of its higher levels to the ravages of time.Preparatory spells are cast, Prisantha is stoneskinned, and the entire group is protected in a magic circle against evil.Prisantha casts a message spell, allowing Cmine to stay in touch as she scouts ahead.  The elven rogue uses this magical communication channel to report back her findings-several fat and complacent orcs are making a half-hearted attempt to patrol the walls.  Likely, the Iuzians are waiting for nightfall to attack.Prisantha calls out for Valor, her celestial hound archon friend, and summons him to the walls, near the orcish sentries.  The celestial does what he does best, smiting orcish evil, and beating them off the walls.  The sentries sound an alarm, and within seconds a band of ettins and trolls led by a pair of human mages are charging forth from the fortress.Heydricus drinks a potion of flying, and snatches Prisantha in his arms, speeding for the compound's roof.  He is met by Dabus (who has to climb the walls the old-fashioned way - oh, the indignity!), and by the time the giants and wizards have sent Valor back to his home, the Liberators are above them, raining spells down into their ranks.If the ettins didn't like Heydricus' wand of fireballs, the trolls absolutely hate it, and they attempt to scrabble up the loose stone of the compound to get at the Liberators, but they are betrayed by faulty orcish craftsmanship, and huge chunks of the wall come loose in their grasping claws, foiling their attempt.Too bad for the trolls, as they say hello to Heydricus' little friend.  The rubbery beasts just can't take two fireballs a round from a hasted sorcerer with enough wand for everyone.After the smoke clears, a pair of ettins almost make it to the front doors of the place before they are slain.  The mages were barely able to get off a spell apiece, so taken in were they by their own blood-lust at the sight of a celestial.Cmin (who is much better at climbing walls than the trolls were) makes her way to the roof, and the party is about to enter the tower at the back end of the place when the tower's wall is smashed open from the inside by a furious ettin who wields a pair of greataxes like hatchets!  He charges Prisantha, laying in to her with a series of vicious swipes, and the popping noise as her stoneskin wards off the bulk of the damage sounds like rain on a brass roof.Worse yet, this ettin is obviously a trained fighter, and he is using Halrim's Double Method, a school of fighting developed in the fallen Sheildlands, and shunned by honorable sword-masters (like Esril) for it's reliance on deception and low-blows.As the ettin makes its charge, a more sinister figure emerges from the ruins.  This winged abomination looks like a man who has consorted too long with nightmares and pain.  His eyes are over-large and yellowed, and the light coating of scales along his back form into a pair of Abyssal wings that seem to be a patchwork of filthy feathers and sinew.The half-fiend is hasted, and casts a pair of spells in succession with no visible effect.  Both Heydricus and Cmin feel a powerful and hostile mental presence enter their minds, but suffer no noticeable consequences.  Cmin maneuvers her way toward the fighting giant, and Heydricus readies himself to charge the fiendish sorcerer.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Metagame Note:  Heydricus and Cmin both failed saves against a domination spell, but as they were warded by a magic circle against evil, they are not subject to the feind's mental commands.  This is, of course, a situation that will soon be remedied by the malicious spellcaster. </li> </ul>Dabus sizes up the situation, and summons a whirling field of invisible knife-like blades.  His blade barrier shreds the legs of the ettin, and cut deeply into the fiend, forcing him to take flight on his frail-seeming wings.Prisantha has had all of this giant she is willing to take, and levels an eyebite-fear spell at the brute's smarter-looking head. The creature obviously doesn't have a smart head, as both immediately gaze at the petite wizard with an expression normally reserved for Iuzian clergy-utter fear and revulsion.  The ettin turns to flee, not even pausing to leap off of the roof, falling instead to the blood-and-fire stained battlefield on the ground below.Heydricus flies forward and attacks the enemy sorcerer, but finds that the fiend is only partially present.  One of his blows strikes true, however, and a thick ghastly ichor stains his blade.The vile sorcerer responds by flying further away from the battlefield and targets the area with a dispel magic.  His spell is successful, and within an instant Cmin and Heydricus are subject to his mental commands and sit placidly, watching as the cruel arcanist turns his attention to Pris."A taste of your own device, milady?" the thing croaks in a wretched mockery of courtly grace as it subjects the enchantress to a cone of fear.  Prisantha suddenly comes to the conclusion that the only reasonable course of action would be to flee to the edge of the fortress, where she cowers and whimpers to herself.Dabus is baffled by the strange behavior of his formerly staunch companions, but refuses to surrender.  He produces a wand of his own, and attacks the flying fiend with a searing light burst, discovering, like Heydricus before him how difficult it can be to pierce this beast's magical defenses.The sorcerer laughs at the land-bound cleric, and begins striking him with a series of enervations- each one weakening Dabus, and shattering the core of his faith with the cold touch of negative material energy.Dabus refuses to give up the ghost and attempts to throw his spear at the creature, but when it bounces harmlessly off of the sorcerer's hide, Dabus says a silent prayer for those about to die, substituting his own name.Strangely enough, the fiend laughs and flies down into the reach of Dabus' grasp, but only long enough to cast a pair of vampiric touch spells that suck the very soul's-blood from the weakened priest.  Dabus cries out, and with his last living act, grabs the fiend bodily and charges forward-hurling the both of them directly into the thick of the blade barrier.  It is the final act of a hero, and one hopes that in his last seconds before being rent flesh from bone by his own spell, Dabus believes that his tactic worked. Which, of course, it did not.Bolstered by the life-force he drained from the cleric, the fiend staggers out from the blade-swarm and surveys his situation.  In the distance, he can see his dim-witted giant companion shrugging off the fear effect and returning to his side.  He orders his dominated thralls to remove their magic items, bind the cowering enchantress and bear her inside where he can ponder his plan of torture at his leisure.-----Next:  The Liberators are defeated!  Can they pull thier fat from the fire?</blockquote>

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