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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 57191" data-attributes="member: 94">LORD OF THE IRON FORTRESS-- Part VIBack in their room in Rigus, Wulf was having trouble resting. Keldas hadn’t said a peep about his new staff, but it wasn’t as if he was being discreet about it, either-- there commenced a long and, in Wulf’s opinion, overly intimate inspection for what Wulf rightly asserted was a glorified walking stick. Naturally, when the elf volunteered to take a watch, Wulf volunteered to stay up with him. There was a warm spot in his belly nurtured by a healthy paranoia and the thought of having finally put those pricks Rourmed and Engram down for good. The thought that Keldas was hiding something was titillating in its own right. Wulf hoped that the daggers he cut with his eyes would appear as no more than his usual disgust, though truthfully he admitted that there was little danger the elf would notice, rapt as he was with his staff. The hair stood up on the back of Wulf’s neck and suddenly Keldas was looking into his eyes. “We’re being scried…” Keldas whispered.“Wake up!” Wulf said-- or at least, he thought he said it, for a surreal, dreamlike state seemed to settle in. There appeared in the center of the room a tall, beautiful winged elf. The archon smiled, raised a long, fluted trumpet to its lips, and blew a shrill note. “Yer don’t see that every day…” Wulf thought, as Keldas turned stark white and fled up into the corner of the ceiling, skittering like a spider. Come to think of it, he didn’t feel quite 100% himself. Still not quite sure what was going on-- yet fairly certain it would involve bloodshed-- Wulf downed a potion of haste, just in case.Still wearing the same beatific smile-- no doubt that same smile reserved for the slaughtering of firstborn babes and similar missions-- the archon stretched forth his hand. Wide strokes of lightning leapt from his fingertips and scorched everyone in the room-- everyone, of course, except Wulf, who dodged out of the way, and the paladin’s boy, who seemed immune to its effect.Without missing a beat, and moving with unearthly speed, the archon’s trumpet suddenly shifted and changed into an enormous greatsword. The archon seemed to laugh just a bit as a black bolt of destruction slithered down the blade and struck the boy full in the chest. Wulf had seen the effect before, and if the boy’s reaction was an indication of the spell being successfully resisted, he had no desire to see the spell’s full force. Still not quite sure of himself, Wulf stammered once again for his comrades to get up, all the while pulling darts and daggers from the bandolier on his chest and hurling them ineffectively at the archon. The next moment, a female duergar appeared in the room, enlarged to twice her size and wearing the loose-fitting garb of a monk. Wulf sensed something else out there, as well, lurking invisibly amongst their other foes. Karak finally managed to get to his feet, just in time to be set upon by the invisible creatures. Wulf could not see the attackers, but he recognized the arterial spray easily enough: nary a weak spot on Karak’s armor and anatomy was left unbloodied by the attack. The paladin staggered backwards and the boy sprang to his defense, changing form into a young bronze dragon as he positioned himself unerringly between his master and the invisible rogues.Dorn was awake. Activating his boots of speed, he sprang to his feet and cast destruction on the archon-- to absolutely no effect. Karak groaned something pitiful and slipped backwards, fumbling desperately to lay his healing hands on himself. Before the young dragon could retreat alongside him, the archon stepped forward and slashed twice across the dragon’s hide, opening deep wounds across his flank.Wulf wanted nothing to do with the archon; he wondered vaguely if the two invisible rogues were of sufficient skill to bypass his own uncanny reflexes. Never one to take unnecessary chances, he grabbed Taranak in one hand and his chaos mace in the other, and attacked the female duergar.“Yer gonna like this,” Wulf said, pounding the chaos mace into the monk’s unarmored body. He scored several good hits, sending the duergar into a desperate defense. The monk struck once at Wulf’s chest-- no doubt attempting a stunning strike, for all the good it would do her-- then thought better of that approach. She stepped back and downed a potion of invisibility. Meanwhile, the rogues were relentless in their assault on the paladin. The dragon did his best to defend him, and the room echoed with screams of pain as its jaws bit down solidly on vulnerable flesh. Dorn rushed to his aid as well, casting a heal spell while swinging away wildly around him. “Fight!” Dorn yelled, trying to spur the paladin into something other than endless retreat.Karak finally struck out-- a lucky shot. His sword crashed down solidly on the other rogue. Their cries of alarm bought Wulf a little more time as the archon stepped over to deal with the growing scrum of combatants surrounding the paladin. The dark angel first tried to poison the dragon with a spell, and when that failed, resorted once again to his greatsword. That, at least, had the desired effect: Another solid blow, and suddenly the dragon wasn’t looking as if he’d be in the fight for the long haul, either.Wulf decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He stepped up and hacked away at the archon, landing a solid blow. Almost at once, the cloud of menace and despair that had dogged Wulf's subconscious seemed to lift away on a breeze. Yeah... I can win this fight. Karak had backed into a corner in some semblance of strategic defense, but to no avail. Still the rogues carved away at him and again the paladin see-sawed from vigorous health to death’s door. The monk appeared once again to attack Wulf, but her fists found nothing but empty air. Wulf was fighting at full strength, now-- and the monk suddenly realized she’d become visible with the first punch. Dorn reached out to heal Karak again, shrugged, then made a wild guess at a rogue's location. He slammed his new axe down in a splintering stroke that somehow found its mark. There was a blast of electricity, a puff of ozone, and shards of rogue showered the area. “Is he dead?” Karak asked. The archon answered his question by stepping forward into the space just vacated by the slain rogue. Keldas chose an opportune moment to join the fight. Two summoned archons of his own joined the fray, bobbing forward to attack the dark archon. “I think, brothers, you should return home,” the dark archon boasted.“Eat sword,” they responded.Things were looking up, but the party was not ready for one last trick of evil. From across the room one last invisible rogue finally acted, stepping forward to thrust a blade between Keldas’ ribs. Keldas body stiffened as poison took hold; he was paralyzed almost instantly.The duergar monk assessed the new development and acted with practiced precision. She ran to join the rogue, grabbed Keldas, and together they all teleported away. The dark archon didn’t wait long before he, too, teleported away, taking the rest of their strike force with them. “Another time…”“Sons of…” Wulf growled. “Gah!” He grabbed a ring from the finger of the fallen rogue and tried desperately to get it working. There was a brief spark, followed by not-so-brief cursing. What did he hope to accomplish? Wulf’s frustration threatened to overwhelm his usual good sense.“Let’s go!” said the paladin. “We’ve got to rescue Keldas!”“Screw it,” said Wulf. “They must’ve took him alive for a reason. Either he’ll get himself out of it, or we’ll just have to go get him tomorrow. Put it on my friggin’ schedule.”“Right…” agreed Dorn. “Let’s loot this body, and identify what we can.”“I’ll tell yer one thing,” Wulf said, nursing his sore finger. “When I get this ring of invisibility workin’, some bastard’s gonna pay.”*****Returning home to the Forge, they scried on Keldas at the first opportunity.He was bound with thick chains, spread-eagled between two sturdy columns in what appeared to be Imperagon’s war room. A gag was in his mouth-- yet, he was awake, and apparently cogent.Looking around, Dorn could see curtains at both ends of the room. Imperagon was there, seated in a throne, his allies arrayed around him: the duergar monk, the dark archon, a cloud giant with a cryohydra pet. An old woman stood near Imperagon, clutching Keldas’ staff. They also saw a kyton, and now noticed the chains hanging from every surface. “We need to buy ourselves some rust monsters,” Wulf suggested. “Any ideas?”“We’re gonna need a miracle,” Dorn said, looking at the Old Man. “What’s it gonna cost us?” “This time, fourteen-thousand.”Wulf rolled his eyes. “Hey, thanks for the discount. We’ll keep it simple, then; an easy miracle. Just remove the gag from his mouth-- nice and easy.”The gag slipped away ever so slightly. Acting quickly, Keldas spoke the words to invoke a teleport. They saw him disappear, and moments later he appeared beside them.“Welcome home,” Wulf said.“They got my staff…”“Am I gonna have to tie that thing to yer mitten strings?”“Wanna hit them now while they’re all gathered up?” asked Dorn. Wulf thought about the chains on the walls, and how effective his party of spellcasters would be, bound up and grappled by the kyton. “I’d rather not.”“We can’t enter directly, at any rate,” Keldas advised them. “The place is sealed with forbiddance. It is proof against ingoing teleport.”Dorn nodded. “We likely won’t be able to enter at all unless we’re evil. The spell will hedge out good-- or anyone not of Imperagon’s ethos.”“That can’t be right,” Wulf said. “Surely he has to be able to receive visitors. He’s a businessman, after all.”Dorn scratched his beard. “I guess you can key the spell to a password. If we had the password, which we don’t, we could enter.” “I’ll go have a nice chat with miss Arrinna, then,” Wulf said, already heading out the door to see their prisoner. He looked at Keldas and the Old Man. “Yer… ach, right, yer just wait here for me. Shouldn’t be long.”But one can always hope, he thought.*****Wulf returned shortly. “Fiery might conquers…” he announced, grinning happily. “She told you?”Wulf nodded. “Diplomacy.”“So… tomorrow, then?” Karak asked.They all nodded. “I suppose I should see about warding this place with our own forbiddance,” said the Old Man, excusing himself. “Yer just let me know if yer want any suggestions on the pass-phrase,” Wulf called after him.*****The next day they stood several hundred yards off the main gate of Imperagon’s mighty fortress. They could see that the front gate was guarded by an immense iron golem with wicked bladed hands. Steel predators slunk about in the shadows under the gatehouse.“Now, we have the password,” said Keldas. “So we should be able to just bluff our way past the golem.”“Right,” Wulf nodded. He gave Keldas the thumbs up.They walked to the front gate, and the golem rose to meet them as they came near the gate. “WHO SEEKS ENTRY?” it bellowed, its voice sounding forth from hollow lungs that boomed like empty drums being kicked down a long flight of stairs. “Wulf DRAGON-bane!” Wulf shouted back. The party stood agape at him. Wulf’s weapons had somehow found their way into his hands.“What?” Wulf said, shrugging. “I’m incognito.”And the fight was on. Keldas’ dragon launched itself through the air at the golem, snapping feebly as it flew by, but its jaws could not penetrate the golem’s metal hide. The golem was prepared, and slashed at the dragon’s side as it passed, scoring a deep, bleeding wound.Karak charged forward and was immediately pounced on by both predators. They took turns savaging him.Keldas cast rapid strikes on Dorn and keen edge on Taranak and shooed the two dwarves  into the fray. Wulf stepped quickly to Karak’s aid: the predators were intent on grappling with the paladin, and Wulf had little difficulty shredding the predator’s exposed flanks. Dorn was right behind him to finish it off. Karak stumbled to his feet and watched the remaining predator warily.Somehow the golem had settled on Dorn as the greatest threat, and it slashed at him twice with its huge, cleaver-like hands.“Finish off that predator so we can take this thing down!” yelled Wulf. He was a firm believer in attacking the weakest link of a chain first, but they couldn’t afford to spend much time on the predator with their backs to the golem. Keldas cast hold monster on the predator, once, twice, both times with no luck. The predator had backed off now, having learned from the other’s mistake not to grapple up with enemies at its flanks. It sat back on its haunches and roared at the group, pounding them all with sonic energy.“Screw it,” said Wulf, grabbing Dorn and steering him towards the golem. “Let the assmar worry about the cat, we need a heavy hitter on this golem.”He swung Taranak at the golem, but even prepared with greater magic weapon, he couldn’t seem to hit it.“Are you holding back or what?” Dorn asked. “A bit,” Wulf admitted, maneuvering to keep Dorn within arm’s reach.Karak and the dragon continued to work on the predator, but it wasn’t falling for the bait. It continued to elude them and roared across the group once again. Wulf and Dorn were unimpressed but it was surely taking its toll on Keldas. Wulf and Dorn continued working on the golem. Dorn would take a step to flank the golem with his great-axe, and Wulf would take a step to follow him. Dorn was getting impatient. “Gimme some room and flank him, yer not even hurt yet!”The golem’s bladed arm came whistling down on Dorn. Wulf hauled Dorn aside, then nimbly stepped under the blade to take the blow instead. He tried his best to turn it aside with expertise, to no avail.“Sorry,” he panted. “Yer was sayin?”Keldas saw Wulf’s plan and cast a haste on him before retreating to the sky, out of reach of the predator. The thing roared one last time; Dorn finally dropped the golem, and Wulf was clear to pounce on the predator with everything he had. In moments, it collapsed, and the way was clear.Korak and Dorn brought out their wands of cure serious wounds to hurry the party along. Keldas was severely wounded, as the predator had made sure to center Keldas in every sonic blast. Dorn couldn’t help commenting as he healed him up.“Why do the bad guys always pick on you, Keldas?”“They can tell who’s the man, I guess,” he deadpanned.“Yeah,” Wulf snorted. “It’s the guy in the slippers, right?”***Just inside the main entrance they found a storeroom holding some uniforms marked with a fiery scimitar. “Let’s wear these,” Wulf suggested. “Maybe it’ll fool the golems.”They found the interior of the fortress surprisingly small and cramped-- all the better, as it narrowed their options. At the end of a short hallway to the north, they found a door, warm to the touch, and the dragon informed them that he could hear a low, animal snoring from inside. Assuming it would be more steel predators, they turned south.Wulf slowly opened the door they found there. An ogre-mage stood inside the spartan room, flanked by a couple of stone guardians. He seemed to be watching the north wall, where a long curtain bisected the room. The ogre-mage looked askance at the group, then turned away, disinterested. Wulf shrugged, walked into the room, and cut the legs out from underneath the unsuspecting ogre. Dorn stepped in quickly behind him.“Stick on him!” he said. “Don’t let him cast!” Dorn cast a silence spell on Wulf, who was already grinning in eager anticipation. But it was not to be: the ogre-mage retreated behind the curtain, as the statue guardians came to life to attack Wulf and Dorn.Wulf disengaged from the statue, tumbling off behind the curtain in pursuit of the ogre-mage. When he rolled to his feet on the other side, he was standing in a smaller curtained cell-- and face-to-face with a mind flayer.Like clockwork, Wulf’s dwarven instincts took over: He succumbed to a sustained screaming fit.A long, silent, unanswered scream.Desperate, Wulf fumbled at the ring of invisibility on his finger. Somehow, miraculously, he got the damn thing to work. Things were looking up, now. He was isolated on the other side of the curtain from the rest of his group, true enough, facing a mind flayer, silenced and with no way to warn them, yes-- but at least you couldn’t say he wasn’t invisible. He grinned and gave himself a little mental “Thumbs up!”Back in the other room, Keldas stepped in, saw Dorn hacking one of the statue guardians to pieces, and nonchalantly leaned up against the wall. “Looks like you guys have this under control.”The mind flayer turned towards Wulf with a hungry little quiver of its tentacles, feeling for him, feeling for his presence with its tentacles as well as its mind. Wulf knew what was coming, and it was then that he felt the almost tangible presence of Haela Brightaxe, hovering over his shoulder, offering him good luck.Piss off! Wulf thought. He had enough problems just worrying about Moradin’s steely-grey peepers on him all the time. Wulf Ratbane ain't none o’ yer concern!. A powerful wave of psionic energy washed over Wulf--  but he fought it off. I don’t believe in luck, he thought. Good or bad.Another mind flayer suddenly stepped out from the adjacent curtained cell. Ok, that’s pretty bad…The second ‘flayer blasted Wulf; again he felt Haela calling to him, and again he refused her aid and stubbornly resisted the overpowering psionic energy on his own. “Luck’s got nothin’ to do with it!” He shouted and shook his fists, though there was no one to see or hear.The ogre-mage cast a cone of cold at the group hovering around the doorway. The dragon shook it off and slinked into the room. Its keen senses had somehow warned it that there was something lurking behind the curtains, and it fired a blast of its lightning breath across the ogre-mage and both mind flayers. The ogre mage had had enough, and wisely turned to gaseous form. But the dragon’s lightning blast had provided just the jump-start Wulf needed. He grabbed the closest mind flayer by its face-tentacles and frenziedly beat its brains out in about three seconds flat. Now visible, and covered in mauve-colored gore, Wulf staggered backwards out of the cloister, ripping down what was left of the curtains and gesturing wildly the way he had come.The second mind flayer knew the jig was up. It stepped out and positioned itself to blast everyone in the room. Wulf and Dorn, the two dwarves, were the only ones stunned. Wulf stood there slobbering stupidly, surprised as he was to see Dorn standing there slobbering stupidly as well. He took this as proof positive that Haela Brightaxe was full of…Shifting over slightly from behind the stone guardian, Karak finally hove into view. He smoothly drew his ghost touch bastard sword and swung full-force at the misty form of the ogre-mage. The ghostly vapor was scattered and Karak continued his swing right into the mind flayer. It dropped to the ground, cleft nearly in twain. Karak wrenched his sword from the rubbery hide and turned just in time to see his dragon finish off the last statue guardian.</blockquote>

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