Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1052642" data-attributes="member: 1210">Big Like His EgoAs our heroes advance relentlessly through the Citadel of Eternity, they find a few traps- one is apparently a spellbook, but when investigated it turns out to merely be a sepia snake sigil cast on a red herring.  A greater dispelling fixes the problem.  Another is an illusionary wall cast horizontally to cover up a symbol of death, which the party avoids handily.Soon the party enters a large hall and skid to a stop.Ahead, animating, are two huge metal Marii.  They stand about 25’ tall, gigantic iron statues that definitely don’t look friendly- and then the view of them that the party has goes away as Malford’s solid fog fills the chamber.  “Careful!” the gnome-king cries.Angelfire moves forward, heedless of caution.  He’s dealt with worse than these before- probably.  He hopes.  But he finds himself stymied by the slowing fog, and so he angles himself upward to fly out above it.  Sybele, meanwhile, flies directly up and out of the fog, where she can see the tops of the golems looming above the churning grey vapors.  Telemundo tries a disintegrate spell, but the golems are clearly immune- his ray zaps one to no avail.  Thrush grunts and forces his way forward, hoping to meet the metal enemy and cut them to pieces.The golems, slow to move, swing ponderous fists down, and the first one smashes into Thrush’s breastplate with a loud clang.  The fighter gives a grunt as he feels the metal compact into his chest and a huge bruise, the size of his entire torso, starts to rise on him.  Staggering, he strikes back, dueling with the metal monster, and another blow slams into his head, leaving him reeling.  “I can’t take much more of that!” he cries, spitting blood from his torn lip and feeling his nose slide around brokenly.Then, behind the golems, behind the solid fog, a door opens and the self-styled Marius the Great tosses first a quickened fireball and then a stunning cone at the party!  The fire roars around them, causing a little harm to the group, but the main purpose for it suddenly becomes obvious to those above the mist- it’s repairing the little damage that they’ve done to the golems!“There’s a Marius!” Drelvin cries in warning.  Whing! Whing! whing! his arrows reverberate as they drive into the golems.  Haste spells start to go off everywhere.  First Malford, then Drelvin and Telemundo; doubtless both Marii are already sped up.  Arrowhawks appear, weird creatures of elemental air, firing beams of lightning at the golems.  “These golems are huge, like your ego, Marius!” Horbin taunts.  The sizzle of their electric ray blasts through the air, and Thrush gives out a great battle cry, hacking and hewing at the enormous iron golem he’s fighting, opening great rents in its legs.  It seems to stagger, and Sybele concentrates her firepower at it- spang! spang! spang!- and the first one drops, crashing down in a twisted pile of metal.  “Healing!” Thrush calls, staggering to the edge of the fog.Then the entire band shrieks in horrible agony as Marius the Great casts an empowered horrid wilting on them.  Every bit of moisture in their mouths suddenly is sucked away, and their skin goes dry like a raspy piece of sandpaper.  A chorus of groans rises- few of the party are in good shape after that one!  Thrush falls to his knees, barely conscious.  “Healing...!” he gasps.  Malford flies in, wincing at the pain as he attacks Marius, but his blows go wild and he fails to connect at all.Horbin casts a mass heal, and suddenly everyone’s feeling much better.  Everyone except the simulacrum of Marius.More arrows keep sinking into the giant iron golem, and though it’s featureless, it’s plain to see that the damage inflicted is severe.  It’s starting to stagger, and finally Thrush rushes in again, roaring at the top of his voice, his greatsword a blur in his hands.  The next moment- the golem falls, a cloud of billowing green vapors spewing forth even as it does.  With a thunderous boom, the body of the thing smashes down!Marius- the real Marius, the one our heroes are aiding- seems to be teleporting around rather quickly, and unleashes a chain lightning and a burst of quickened magic missiles at the imposter, who snorts as his shield absorbs the missiles.  The lightning seems to harm it a little, however; it responds with another stunning cone.  The spells are slinging back and forth- bonebreak, a quickened wall of force followed by a prismatic spray, a quickened disintegrate, fireballs from Telemundo, both of which catch Malford squarely in their radius- and seem to be sucked into his gauntlets. A strategem they’d discussed earlier, actually.Malford feels the fireballs burning in the gauntlets.  He channels all their power into his sinews, speaks a power word stun to disable the ersatz Marius for just a second, and charges in and attacks, using all his expert ability to place a blow combined with the burning power of his gauntlets of absorbtion, and cleaves the simulacrum’s head from its shoulders.Next Time:  Into the Far Realms!!</blockquote>

Verification