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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 480456" data-attributes="member: 41">Coldeven 18, CY 59328:  Wevenge, twue wevenge.The three surviving Liberators are securely bound and stripped completely of wealth and weapons when it happens.The fiend, who is consulting some sort of Iuzian torture-on-the-go field manual, looks up with a cross expression, and manages a sort of hiss as his vampiric touch spell expires.  He seems to cave inward on himself just a bit, then a gash opens across his forehead.  The fiend reaches up to dab at the wound when a half-dozen cuts appear on his body, followed by a dozen more, then another dozen, and suddenly the sorcerer is whirling in shock as he sprays his life's blood all over his dominated captives.Dabus' final ploy worked, although the life force the foul fiend drained from him gave the sorcerer another hour of false security before the wounds of the blade barrier took effect.With the domination instantly dispelled, Heydricus uses this opening to bluff the ettin.   "This is the fate of all who cross my arcane might!  Even bound, I can kill your master with but a glance!  Flee, wretch, before you suffer the same!"The ettin seems to know what side his bread is bloodied on, and he takes to his heels instantly, but not before scooping up the portable hole with an entire adventuring party's worth of loot.Bound hand and foot, the Liberators of Tenh watch the two headed beast trot off into the sunset with all their money, magic and gear.-----A few minutes pass, as Cmin struggles to wiggle free of the ropes she is tied with.  Finally, Heydricus flexes his muscles and rips through his bonds, and swoops the still bound Cmin over his shoulder.  He rushes out to the roof where he spots Prisantha, tied hand and foot where she was left cowering in fear, and within a moment, both of his companions are over his shoulders and the Holy Liberator of Tritherion is bounding down the stairs to the ground level.After making quick work of the ropes tying Pris and Cmin, the Liberators creep out into the blood-stained paving-stones of the area outside the door and cautiously look over the scene of the previous hour's carnage.It is surprising how cold the nor'easter blowing out of Dorakka can seem when you are completely without the comforting warmth of your magic items."The giant has my spell books and components," Prisantha says, suddenly realizing why that familiar weight was off of her hip."And my infiltration gear," Cmin says with a resigned sigh.  "Thank Mayaheine we don't have to walk back to Tenh, right Pris?""My only teleport spell is on a scroll right now, in the giant's pouch," Pris says, and under her breath she adds, "I got a little lost on my first attempt.""The giant has my weapons and armor of investiture," Heydricus states flatly.  "We're going after it."The group ransacks the bodies of the dead Iuzians for salvageable equipment, and prepares the new gear after cleaning as much of the blood and charred gobbets of troll flesh off of them as possible.Prisantha's eyebite fear effect is undoubtedly still active on the ettin, but a brief mental inventory of her spells bears disheartening fruit.  She has little offensive capability left, without her spell components.  Charm person is available, but of little use against giants.  Cmin is without her magical weapons or elven garments, and Heydricus, of course, feels practically naked without all of his clothes.The ettin proves remarkably easy to track, even by the untrained eye.  The bad news is that the beast's path is careful and sure, straight toward the road leading into Dorakka-a thoroughfare paved by slave labor, and built of stone mixed with the crushed bones of the innocent.The ettin seems to have made for a sinister-looking way-tower looming over the highway like a diseased carrion bird.  The group sends Cmin ahead to scout, and she makes her way into a position where she can spy on the interior of the place.  Her report is grim.  The party's quarry is in there all right, and he appears to be bargaining with the master of the place.  They are speaking in Abyssal, and while Cmin's Abyssal isn't what it was while she was in school, she is still able to make out the gist of it: The ettin wants to trade Prisantha's spellbooks to the way-tower's master in exchange for the human's protection, and the loan of some troops.  The troops in question are a half-dozen hill giants under the thrall of this wizard, billeted in the nearby woods.  In addition, the outpost itself has a few human fighter-types present as an official Dorakkan guard.  (Or unofficial Dorakkan spies, things being what they are in the lands of Iuz.) Cmin is confident that she can make it inside the place, if the group wants to stage an assault.  Pris excitedly points out that her charm person spell will work on the wizard, if he can be drawn out.Prisantha's message spell is still active, and Cmin is able to creep indoors and deliver an ongoing whispered commentary about what she sees there.After the Iuzian negotiations threaten to break down into violence (as expected), the two negotiators finally reach an agreement.  The ettin seems to have gotten the short end of the stick, thanks to the foot-in-mouth style of exchange favored by the left head.   He delivers Prisantha's spellbooks as well as her arcane scrolls into the hands of the way-tower mage.In the meantime, Prisantha and Heydricus have positioned themselves by the building's exit and await their opportunity.It isn't long in the coming, as the wizard greedily hustles the ettin out the door, intending to introduce him to the hill giants (who are to then take the ettin half a fathom up the road, kill him, and deliver whatever other magical treasure the two-headed imbecile might have on him to the mage.  Of course, the hill giants could smell a payday when they step in one, and would abscond with the loot, leaving the mage alone in the way-tower with the four fighters, two of whom are actually hired killers sent by the mage's superiors in Dorakka to torture and assassinate him).  Luckily for some, and unluckily for others, the mage and ettin do not quite make it out of the door before they spot Prisantha.The Enchantress of Verbobonc tosses the evil duo her most fetching grin, and winks slowly.All at once, the ettin screeches out a two-toned peal of fear reminiscent of a halfling schoolgirl confronting her first mouse in the temple's cloakroom.  As the giant shoves him aside (the better to flee at full speed away from Pris), the Iuzian mage gathers his robes about his waist, and slinks toward Prisantha, offering her his best courtly smile and bow, muttering something about ". . . sure we've met before.  Do you attend the end-of-year bonfires?""Ah, charmed, I'm sure," Pris replies as the Iuzian (who introduces himself as Durmer) sloppily kisses her hand.  "But make haste sir," Pris continues, with a sense of urgency in her voice, "that foul giant hoped to betray you.  You are lucky I arrived in time."And then things go downhill for the fleeing ettin.  The mage turns toward his hill giant retinue, now stumbling from the nearby wood to investigate the commotion, and commands them to kill the two-headed giant.  A Large-Sized footrace ensues, and Heydricus flies to the hill giant's aid, casting magic missiles at the ettin.  Eyebitten or no, the ettin isn't about to go down without a fight, and he turns to confront the half-dozen hill giants bent on his murder.  The ensuing melee is brief and vicious, and when the blood sprays clear, there is one less academy-trained ettin fighter in the world.Heydricus makes sure to snatch the portable hole off of the fallen giant, and removes several of the group's magic items that the beast had equipped himself with."Ah," the Iuzian mage coos, "your lackey returns with our spoils my dear.  Shall we retire to my chambers and . . . divide our loot?""Lackey?" Heydricus says to himself as he flies to Prisantha's side.  "Of course," Pris says in her best imperious tone.  "Heydricus, inside with you.""Heydricus . . . that name seems familiar," the mage says."It should," Heydricus says as he shuts the door on the hill giants, who are still mustered outside, poking at the ettin's corpse, perhaps hoping for more sport.  "Because after all," Heydricus says as he unsheathes his sword, "I killed Zinvellon at the Temple of Elemental Evil!"The mage gasps.  All of his years of service in Iuz' armies, and to be taken in by the most basic of treacheries!Heydricus cleaves the mage once, then twice, as the fellow reaches into his pouches and backs away, scalding the Holy Liberator with a burst of lightning from his fingertips.At the sound of the lightning bolt, Cmin springs from her hiding place in the tower's upper level, and sneak attacks one of the guards stationed there, and then runs down the stairs into the main chamber of the ground floor.Prisantha readies her spell components as best she can, but has no real need of them, for wizards are just not built to withstand surprise attacks from skilled swordsmen-the Iuzian perishes swiftly, his final curse dying on his lips.The three surviving guardsmen exchange a round of missile fire before realizing that their goose is cooked, its liver already made into foie gras and served on herbed toast to the Liberators of Tenh. The guardsmen surrender their cause with an alacrity that would shame even a Sheildlander Knight.Cmin relieves them of their weaponry while Heydricus and Prisantha sort through the portable hole and reacquaint themselves with their lost equipment.A short overland trek later, and Dabus' body is in the portable hole, and the group is teleported without any trouble to Tritherion's Grand Temple at Chendl.  Heydricus petitions Halrond to return Dabus to the living, should his soul and its Lord be willing.At the least, the Liberators will have one more night to sleep in comfort before returning to the fight in Tenh.-----Next:  Hail, hail-- the gang's all here!</blockquote>

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