NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1338330" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Battle Against the DemilichAngelfire gasps through her stupefaction as she hears the terrible wailing the demilich’s levitating skull emits.  As she watches, mumbling through her drool, a scattering of the party falls.  If she was any smarter she’d react faster, do more, something, but numbed by the vapors of idiocy her mind just can’t seem to make the connections necessary to propel her into battle.  She can’t figure out what to do.***Acererak is enraged.  He can hardly remember the last time he was actually injured.  Well, it should all be over in a moment or two.  He transfers to his physical body and rises from his physical remains’ resting place, hovering in the air.  As he unleashes a wail of the banshee, Acererak gleefully notes that only three of the group fall.  Perhaps they will actually prove worthy!  But regardless of the possibility, he will show no mercy, for how else can he truly test them?***Drelvin draws in a deep breath, draws back the string of his bow and fires a true shot.  His arrow sings as it zings into the skull, and it takes out a tiny chip from the cranium.A tiny chip.Gritting his teeth, Drelvin screams, ”Patyn, how do we kill this thing??”  He’s terrified, and his terror only grows as Patyn doesn’t bother to answer.  Oh gods, Drelvin groans inwardly, either he doesn’t know how to fight this thing... or we can’t beat it.Thrush swirls his blade in a deadly figure-8.  The skull’s right there, it’s in the perfect spot, and the fighter is as good as they come.  His blow is textbook-perfect, and in his haste to strike it he hasn’t even adopted his horrendous combat style*.  He feels a deflection aura around it but shears through it.  And his blade bounces harmlessly from the thing.“We can’t take this thing!” he cries in a panic, starting to back away.  “I can’t hit it!”The skull laughs as Ulla, in golem form, swings her mighty fists at it.  They deflect away off of some sort of aura around it.  Then Patyn channels again, triggering another positive energy burst, and the skull’s howl changes to a cry of rage and pain.   “Fool!” it booms.  “So be it- yours will be the next soul to feed Acererak!”There’s a flash of dazzlingly-bright light from the gem in the skull’s right eye socket, and Patyn screams in horrible agony.  For an instant it looks like some invisible hand has reached into Patyn’s body and is stretching out a ghostly version of him, pulling it towards the skull like taffy.  The hunter of the dead gives an agonized yell of “Galador help me!”And the moment passes.  It’s like the hand finally lets go and the soul of Patyn snaps back into him like a rubber band.  His hair has turned white, all of his equipment’s color has faded, and his skin is the color of bone- but he survives.Drelvin poops his pants.**“Is that... the best... you can do, monster?” Patyn gasps defiantly, swaying on his feet.  He can barely stand; his muscles tremble. Drelvin fires another true shot, but this one doesn’t even chip the skull.  At least it hit, he thinks grimly.Thrush turns and runs for the corner.  “Flee!” he cries.  “We’re all going to die if we don’t flee!”  He stops at Angelfire’s drooling form and grabs her by the arm.  “Come on, Angel!”  He starts trying to tug her after him, but she resists, shaking him off- and suddenly notices the Deleter on her hands.  She frowns, puzzled for a moment, trying to figure something out...Patyn screams again as the demilich tries to suck out his soul again, but to the surprise of everyone he manages to resist again.  He’s staggering, retching, bleached white through and through, but he’s still standing.  “I’ve got another one for you, monster,” he gasps, and another positive energy burst explodes from his body, charring and crackking the skull.  That has to be enough, he prays, because I don’t have the strength left for another...As the radiance dims, the skull howls in triumph.  It has survived.  “Fool!” the demilich cries.  “Your time is up!  You are mine!”*Basically, he wasn’t power attacking, it was his first attack, and he rolled a natural 19.  The only way he could have topped that was a natural 20 on one of his first couple of attacks.  (We use the “natural 20 counts as a 30” variant on attack rolls.)**That is exactly what his player said after Patyn got ‘bleached’ (except substitute a non-grandma friendly word for ‘poop.’Next Time: The conclusion to the battle with the demilich!  Our heroes are in trouble, especially now that Patyn's out of PEBs!  What will they do???</blockquote>

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