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Message: <blockquote data-quote="War Golem" data-source="post: 1063261" data-attributes="member: 142">As the party ponders the nature of the offer before them, they see the faint ghostly images of the masks they previously donned flicker intermittently on the surface of the ooze puddle. Heian volunteers to take a chance, and consumes a handful of the viscous, primordial goo. He immediately feels himself charged with energy, a sense that an untapped potential has been released; he has but to focus it. And so he does, directing the change into his physical body. Eventually, all those present imbibe some of the goo and initiate their own transformations.The party heads up the spiral stairs and finds themselves in the room where they started their adventures on this lost island. They return to the Catspaw, to the relief of the captain and crew, but mourning the mysterious loss of the warrior Blade. Mugo in particular is noticeably depressed and withdrawn over the next few days. Flick informs the party that five days have passed since they landed on the rocky shore of this little island. The boat seems to have no problem pushing away, though, and continuing on its way.Despite the very overcast and foggy weather on the Crystal Sea, Giblet manages a passable job of guiding the boat towards the northern coastline in the vicinity of the river that leads to the Misty Lake. Three days after leaving the island, the Catspaw is a few hours upriver when the remnants of a recent battle are sighted on the western shore. The burnt and smashed bodies of several dozen wolfen warriors lay strewn about the shoreline. Bytnr makes use of his new wings to do some aerial recon but does not approach the wreckage closely enough to gather any more insight into what took place here.The party decides to continue on, and so the Catspaw continues its slow trek up the river. An hour later, the western shoreline is again the source of something unusual - a pair of twenty-foot tall roman crosses standing up on the upper bank. A pair of figures are visible strapped to the crosses, and Heian's sharp eyes reveal that they are most likely human or elven. Flick informs them that occasionally such crosses are used along this river to ransom prisoners or sell slaves. Some of the party wants to stay on course, but Bytnr and Heian are uncomfortable leaving the captives behind in such a state.Bytnr flies over to the shore and hovers about twenty feet from one of the crosses. He can tell that the captive is a pale elf, bloody and battered, dressed in torn furs and seemingly unconscious. Bytnr is doing his best to determine if the elf still lives without getting too close, and is caught completely by surprise when the ground beneath him erupts in a furious explosion. As the poor rogue flaps his wings in a panic, a massive column of stone and earth rises up next to him. As it rises to its full forty foot height, it grows a pair of club-like appendages and ferociously smashes Bytnr.Bytnr is desperate to get away from the monster, and his companions, still on the ship, are now desperate to get on shore. However, options for quickly traversing the sixty feet or so from the boat to the shoreline are few. Deuce casts fly on Heian, Jenna casts freedom of movement and water breathing on herself, and Falko dimension doors himself next to the earth elemental. Soon, Bytnr has flown back to the relative safety of the boat, while Falko and Heian are on shore attacking the monster. Six aids them with a blade barrier, which rips apart the earth elemental at a height of thirty feet, until it manages to sink back into the ground below the whirling disk of ginsu death.Jenna leaps over board, quickly sinks to the riverbed, and runs onto shore. By this time, a huge fire elemental has sprung up as well, and not long after, a water elemental rises up next to the boat. The party takes some blows, but nonetheless seems well on the way to beating down the elementals. Six casts phantom steed, and Deuce casts fly on Kimchee, and the two of them make their way to shore, only to be greeted by yet another pair of earth and fire elementals. By now, the original earth elemental has been dispatched, but the party members on shore are hurting, and with three elder elementals running around, the situation isn't looking so rosy.They get no sympathy from Bytnr, though, as he attempts to battle the water elemental and comes up on the losing end. The towering column of water menacing the Catspaw directs all of its attacks at the flying rogue and pummels him mercilessly, until Bytnr plummets into the river. With Bytnr's death, the water elemental sinks back into the river. It forms again next to shore, where it catches an unsuspecting Jenna with a couple slams.The first fire elemental falls, but the remaining elementals are still close to full strength. The party is getting pretty ragged, as the earth and fire elementals don't miss with their attacks very often. Falko and Heian both spend a round or two unconscious before Kimchee can tend to them with his wand. Six is severely buffed out, and takes the attack to the elementals, making good use of her phantom steed and her strength domain granted power. Freshly returned to consciousness, a desperate Heian pulls out his Rod of Chaos, a magic item he has carried for a long time but never used. He aims it at the water elemental and says the command word, "Pocus-Cadabra!" An inky green ray streaks towards the elemental, striking it and injecting it with a random chaos effect - in this case, aging the elemental ninety-two years. Although the party is not sure exactly how this should affect an elemental, they are quite relieved to see it immediately fall apart and back into the river.The remaining combatants spend a couple rounds only one good hit away from meeting their makers, but manage to take down the earth elemental. The fire elemental, quicker and making good use of its spring attack ability now that it is outnumbered, finally falls as well. As the clerics immediately start dumping healing spells into themselves and anyone nearby, the relief from the group is palpable.</blockquote>

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