To War Against Felenga (FINAL UPDATE POSTED!)

[the Jester]

Spukoni cracks his whip-arm a few times and spends a little while casting legend lore on the Deleter.

The savants of flame
Ascend to the elements
Unaware that their efforts
Are doomed by the Deleter.

The alienist's irony
Transcendence undone
Doomed by the Deleter.

Gifts of ancient gods
Alterations ripped away
Doomed by the Deleter.

"Interesting," muses Horbin, and Telemundo cracks an old man's smile. "Gifts of ancient gods?" he queries. "What's that mean, I wonder?" He shakes his cane in space.

"What," Drelvin asks, "are we going to do with this thing?"

"More divinations," Orbius suggests.

"Who should wear it?" wonders Angelfire.

"Maybe we can divine that as well," suggests the Eye.

"I could wear it," Telemundo wheezes.

"No, not until we know how it works," Angelfire says. "We don't want anything to go wrong with it..."

But Telemundo is already reaching for the Deleter, and he slips his hands easily within it. The glove-like objects settle tightly around his wrists and he gulps. He can't really feel his fingers, and the long fingerpieces of the Deleter and slowly twisting in the air now.

"Can you take it off?" Angelfire demands.

"Uh-" Telemundo tries to tug at the Deleter, but can't really use his fingers very well. Angelfire grabs his hands, pulling mightily on the glove-like things; they're warm and organic-feeling. For a moment Angelfire's thews bunch as he struggles with all his mighty strength to pull the Deleter off of the aged wizard. Settling back on his heels a moment later, the Coilite shakes his head.

"Well," he says, "if the only way to get these gloves off you is to chop off your arms, so be it." And with that, he quickdraws his falchion and, with a single blow, deals a tremendous blow to Telemundo's right arm, breaking his wrist. The sorcerer gives a strangled cry and staggers back, which causes Angelfire to misjudge his second blow. Instead of the hand, it takes Telemundo in the head and splits it open like a ripe melon. Without another sound the old man slaps bodily back into the spinning spaces of the Far Realms.

"Damn it!" Horbin explodes. "Did you have to do that??"

"Well, I wasn't going to let him flee with the Deleter, now was I?"

Horbin the Holy grabs up Telemundo's body, glaring angrily at Angelfire, and casts gate. Through this portal the party manages to return to Var. They're a step closer to hopeful victory over Felenga.



Next Time: Horbin brings Telemundo back, but he's not happy! (And really, who can blame him?) Spukoni rambles about the days when he worked for the Temple of Elemental Evil! And something comes for the Book of Olaf!

 

[the Jester]

Becoming a Target

Horbin the Holy takes the corpse of Telemundo, the old sorcerer, to his temple for resurrection. Soon the sorcerer jerks back to life, anger in his eyes, and stomps off on his own. He spends some time trying to put a hit out on Angelfire, but he doesn't really know who to talk to or where to go.

Spukoni, meanwhile, has assumed a more humanoid shape- silvery, feathered, with a whip for an arm- but more humanoid nonetheless. "So what do you guys need this thing for, anyway?" Spukoni asks brightly.

"We're going to use it to overthrow a great enemy of ours, who leads the forces of the Temple of Elemental Evil," Lester tells the strange creature.

"The Temple of Elemental Evil?" Spukoni exclaims. "I worked for them briefly!"

"What?"

"Yeah, we carried rocks for beholders. Now, normally I wouldn't carry rocks, but when a beholder tells you to do something you really ought to. You don't want to get a beholder mad, you know."

"Wow... so maybe you could help us sneak in there or something?"

"My divinations have told me that our best course is to strike at the nodes," Orbius proclaims.

"I don't know about any nodes," Spukoni says, "but I'll tell you what, beholders are mean! And they had all sorts of powerful clerics and stuff too, plus some half-elf murfur or something..."

But our heroes are unconcerned, or at least not overly concerned; they've fought beholders before- entire nests of them, in fact.*

Angelfire sets out to track down a helm of teleportation after Lester mentions that Arion the Archmage made once for his old buddy Thimbleton once. "Do you think he has another one? Would he be disposed to sell it, or make one?"

Drelvin laughs. "He's disposed to drink and fire off lightning bolts, that's about it."

Angelfire determines to try, anyhow, and drops by Arion's tower with the party. They knock but receive no reply; Orbius leaves a message. The group does some shopping around, then goes to Horbin's temple. Angelfire, Thrush, Sybele and Jezebel stay outside in the gardens while the others go inside to talk to one of Horbin's clerical associates, the local high priest (his official title in the church is 'Rector') Metron, who sees things that don't appear to be there in any conventional sense.

"How are things?" Horbin asks him.

Metron looks haunted, and he says, "There are lots of them. You can't see them, but they spill over from somewhere outside..." He gulps, staring around him in fear. "I can't stand it."

Concerned, Horbin talks to him for a few moments, hoping to draw out information and offer some comfort. Simultaneously, Thrush, Sybele and Jezebel are talking in the garden.

"We're in a dangerous period," Sybele is saying. "Maybe too dangerous for you. I'm not sure that it's wise for you to be with us right now, so I thought I'd offer to send you to be with Marius for a little while."

Jezebel's face conveys mixed emotions- a guilty pleasure among them. "I-I'll think about it," she says hesitantly.

Angelfire, a few dozen feet away, is idly arranging rocks in the garden into the shape of Coila's symbol, when suddenly he spies something swimming through the folded dimensions at him, an immensely fat thing with a gaping mouth. Before the red-skinned Coilite can even move its materialized right on him, a blubbery corpse-thing tearing at his arm with a huge mouth! Angelfire hears the screams of Sybele and Jezebel as the bloated monster rips at him.

With a grunt of effort, Angel brings out his falchion and slashes it across the chest, inflict a punishing blow. There's no blood; instead, a thick brown sludge starts leaking slowly from the monster, smelling of rot and feces. It gnashes its teeth and roars, "So hungry!" Screaming, it rushes him again, its little hands scrabbling for the book in Angel's backpack. Its lower jaw unhingers and it bites the Coilite along the breast and ribs, tearing a great chunk of flesh from him. Angelfire stands his ground, slicing at the thing, hacking into its neck.

"Get the priests!" Sybele shouts to Jezebel, her bow in her hands. Simultaneously, her psicrystal telepathically alerts her allies within the church, issuing a rallying cry directly into their minds. Then Sybele's firing arrows at the monster.

Within the church office, the rest of the party stiffens as the psicrystal's message reaches them, and Lester and Horbin leap to the wall leading to the gardens. The L casts pass through earth and stone and steps through the wall; Horbin the Holy stone shapes an exit for all of them. And Metron, the cleric who sees things, gives a great wavering scream and flees deeper into the church.

Meanwhile, the duel between the snapping monster and Angelfire's sharp blade is rudely interrupted by Thrush, who steps up and finishes matters with a series of immensely damaging blows from his blade. The corpse falls to the ground, immobile now, and starts rotting. Within a few minutes all that remains is an oily blubber, and in an hour even that is gone; only a greasy stain shows where the thing fell. Orbius legend lores the monster and obtains a snippet of verse:

Eater of heroes
Bringer of famine
Ender of cities
Biter of heads

"Hm," the Eye says thoughtfully.

"Why did you run?" Horbin asks Metron meanwhile.

"They're surrounding the red one," Metron tells him with fear in his eyes. Horbin can only assume that Metron is referring to Angelfire, whose skin is indeed the red of a deep sunburn. Thoughtfully, our heroes leave.

They return to the castle, whereupon they give the Deleter up to Malford for safekeeping. "Until we decide what to do with it, I think you're the best one to hold it," Horbin states, and the gnome-king nods thoughtfully. That evening, he sends his mind to a distant plane to try to ascertain a few things about the weapon.

How does the Deleter work? Touch.
Can it only be used once? No.
How do we destroy it? Glass.
Who among our group would be best suited to using it? Sybele.
What's our biggest unseen problem when facing Felenga?Stain.
Where is our best opportunity to strike Felenga? Nodes.

Oddly, even after Malford's recommendation, Sybele seems reluctant to put the Deleter on.

"Perhaps it's time to ask Boccob some questions," Orbius muses, and casts a commune spell.

I open my mind to you, Boccob- take what knowledge I have to provide!
Who sent the monster at us? Nobody.
Is there a way to trigger the sorely beset curse the Bile Lords have placed upon us without hurting ourselves bodily? Yes.
What is the best way? Incapacitate.
Is there a way to dispel the curse? Yes.
Who do I know that could dispel it? No one.
Give me the name of someone who could and might be willing to dispel it, if we met their demands. Marius the Frozen-Hearted.
A simulacrum, Orbius thinks instantly.
Give me the name of someone who can and might do it, who isn't a likely enemy of ours. Vuivui.
Who me a place where we can safely teleport into the chamber of the elder brain leading the mind flayers threatening the svirfneblin we meet under the mountain recently. None.
Where can we find or go to summon Vuivui? Squirmhall.
Does the Diamond Sword of Raldese exist on Cydra? No.
What is the stain Malford learned of? Lie.
What is Felenga's biggest current problem? Darkhold.
What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Air? Chan.
What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Earth? Sunnis.
What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Fire? Zaaman Rul.
What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Water? Ben-Hadar.
What is the name of the most powerful hunter of the dead who might help us? Patyn.
What is one of the Deleter's powers? Unknown.

"Well," says Lester after Orbius reports his information, "I propose we first find a way to deal with the Bile Lords' curse and then assault Felenga. It's time to take the fight to him!"

"You guys are cursed?" Malford inquires.

"Sort of," says Angelfire.

"Yes," Lester answers, "we've been cursed by the Bile Lords so that when we're sorely beset they'll come kick our butts."

"I didn't know that it was a curse," Sybele says, but the rest ignore her.

"I'll help you break the curse," Malford offers. "I am required by Galador to do that sort of thing. Heh heh."

"Once the adventuring bug got back into you, you just can't stop, eh, Malford?" Lester slaps the king on the back, who looks a little sheepish but certainly can't deny his friend's words.

"Your Majesty, may I speak to you alone for a moment?" Thrush asks, and the two go aside and speak in quiet tones for a moment. Meanwhile, Orbius casts sendings to Garnet, Zelman and Patyn, receives a reply only from Patyn (I oppose the Black Academy- it is surely the greater danger; join me). He also dispatches a sending to Marius, offering to let him take Jezebel as his apprentice. His heart feels oddly tight as he does so. A reply indicates acceptance; and the Eye prepares to cast a gate to the Citadel of Eternity. Jezebel casts him a longing look, and he opens the portal.

Jezebel hesitates for a long moment; then she throws her arms around Orbius and kisses him full on the lips. The kiss draws itself out for a long moment, then breaks; and the Sybele's half-dragon lovechild steps through the gate.

Orbius sighs and lets the gate close. He does indeed hope to see her again in the future.

"All right," says Lester decisively. "Squirmhall."


*Back in Bile Mountain.


Next Time: Squirmhall!

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Very nice, I didn't check in yesterday, and low and behold: 4 updatse in a row, very nice

Haven't finished the earlier parts, I started somewhere in the middle and continued from there, but I'm really growing to liking this story alot-keep up the good work Jester

 

[the Jester]

Very nice, I didn't check in yesterday, and low and behold: 4 updatse in a row, very nice

Haven't finished the earlier parts, I started somewhere in the middle and continued from there, but I'm really growing to liking this story alot-keep up the good work Jester

Thanks!

All of my story hours are interrelated somehow. For instance, you'll find Malford in the early years and this one, plus a few minor appearance in Agents of Chaos; you'll find Clambake in both my old story hour and the Politics of Tirchond one; Sheva and Zeebo are in Agents of Chaos and are/will be in Politics of Tirchond; Horbin ties the old story hour to Agents of Chaos and this one; etc.

I'm glad you're enjoying it- if you want some of the backstory, well- the immediate predecessor to this thread is Agents of Chaos. The Politics of Tirchond happens at about the same time as the start of this thread.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

*sigh*

If P-kitty and jonrog updated this frequently, there would be even more drooling fanboys reading their SH's than there are now...

Great stuff, Jester!

 

[Welverin]

Re: A Bit of Flesh

*Ten points for Welverin!

Woo-hoo! Go me, I'm in the lead!

So what inspired his appearance?

 

[the Jester]

Re: Re: A Bit of Flesh

Woo-hoo! Go me, I'm in the lead!

So what inspired his appearance?

He's played by the same guy who plays Malford and Sheva. Malford wouldn't want to go to the Far Realms, and so he decided to bring in Spukoni- easy enough, since he'd befriended Nigel, Angelfire's father, who had been hanging out with one or the other Marius.

 

[Welverin]

So he finally succumbed to the lure of evil and returned, eh?

 

[the Jester]

Squirmhall

Strogass is a huge continent thousands of miles away from Var. Nonetheless, a teleport without error followed by trump use should get our heroes there. When the morning comes- the evening having been spent in planning for the journey- Orbius teleports himself to a great cliff. His superior knowledge of geography, fortunately for the group, has left him knowing the locations of many unusual places.

Somewhere on this cliff...

Picture if you a thick board. Break it in two, shift one piece up so that it's higher than the other, make it about a mile and a half high and you have a decent picture of this cliff. To the west is open ocean; the face of the cliff towards the sea is riddled with caves. Squirmhall, according to Orbius' readings, is somewhere in there.

Some flying and detection magic soon enough reveals a magical aura emanating from beneath the water about half a mile south of the party's initial position. It looks to be underwater. Malford casts a water breathing on most of our heroes (though Lester has gills and thus doesn't need it) and in they go.

The underwater cave the party enters is oddly shaped, not having the typical appearance of a sea cave. Soon the rock gives way to a weird organic-looking surface. Then it slopes upward and opens on a strange air-filled cave, but one that pulses as if alive. Membranes form, cutting part of the cave off from the rest, then dissolve away. Weird fluids leak out and are reabsorbed. The floor grows lumps that are slurped back inside it momentarily. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Doom Sleeper; our heroes seem to be spending a lot of time inside living things lately (and will shortly spend some more).

"Whoa," Lester says in a hushed voice.

"Vuivui*!" Malford calls. "I, God-King Malford the Magnificent, and my allies, who include warriors of Chaos, come to ask you a boon!"

Vuivui... Vuivui... Vuivui... The name seems to echo and reverberate, almost taking on a life of its own, growing louder and louder. In a few seconds it becomes painfully loud, and Thrush and Malford clutch at their ears, deafened by the terrible noise. Sybele, gritting her teeth, manifests control sound and tones it down to manageable levels.

"Whew," says Drelvin. "Looks like we know what not to do now."

"Hey, look!" Angelfire exclaims. He's pointing at a spot on the floor; but nobody else quite catches what he saw, as the floor seems to be growing back over.

"What was it?"

"It looked like a bookcase," Angelfire tells them. Sybele strides over to where he's pointing and reaches out to touch the floor.

Then there's a loud zap! and she cries out, snatching her smoking hand away, just as two weird things that seem almost formless melt up from within the chamber and into view! A quick flurry of eyes and noses regard the party as the two chaos beasts** begin to slither forward towards our heroes!



*For the record, it's pronounced VOO-ee-VOO-ee.
**Er, two spring attacking, 10th-level fighter chaos beasts, that is...


Next Time: To Summon Vuivui!

 

[the Jester]

Vuivui

The party acts fast, with weapons clearing scabbards and spells flying to mind, but they aren't trying to fight here; so it's really Malford who seizes the initiative here.

"Peace!" he calls, hoping fervently his wingtips of diplomacy will come through, and so they do.* "We come to beg of boon of great Vuivui, I have encountered him before!"

There's a momentary hesitation and the two chaos beasts sunk back into the organic-seeming wall of the Squirmhall. Our heroes look to Malford in amazement, who merely smiles and turns back to the search. The party waits for the bookcase to become visible, and though it briefly does from time to time, it's only for an instant. Finally growing impatient, Angelfire digs or it, bracing himself against the forces that course through him as he does so, and he forces open an area of skin that does indeed cover a bookcase hosting a single book.

Quickly our heroes retrieve the book and ascertain that it contains a ritual that will summon Vuivui himself to the Squirmhall, and they determine to use it. Lester reads the magical words out while Sybele stops Vuivui's name from causing trouble, and soon the room fairly churns with power. And then Vuivui arrives- a great slaad lord, currently tinged with pink and violet. He stares placidly at the heroes.

"Vuivui," Lester calls to the looming frog-thing, "we have incurred the great wrath of powerful enemies, who have laid a curse upon us that we'll be attacked when it great distress! We beg your aid- we understand you can help us. Will you lift this curse?"

In response, the great slaad's tongue shoots out and sticks to Lester. He gazes dumbly at it for an instant, then is jerked straightaway into Vuivui's mouth. Vuivui's throat works once, and Lester is down the hatch.

"Er, that's not exactly what we meant," Malford begins. Vuivui seems to contemplate the small gnome for a moment before deciding he's bite sized, and then his tongue shoots out and sticks to Malford. With a yelp of surprise, the gnome-king finds himself drawn into the slaad's mouth and, in one great convulsive grunt, swallowed whole.

"Uh-" says Sybele, and the rest of the party looks on in shock.

"Oh crap," mutters Orbius, and indeed, the slaad seems to be giving him the eye. Should he fight back? Cast a spell? Or...

"Maybe it's part of the process," Sybele reasons, and then Orbius is in the mouth; without hesitation, it consumes the huge archer next.

"I don't know about this- OH CRAP!!" Thrush cries.


*Malford got a 50 on his Diplomacy check. That certainly set me back a moment.

Next Time: The aftermath of the Vuivui incident!