Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 22
2-4-06
Oy-aht's summoned Eladrin Bralani carves a small swath out of the approaching regiment with a well-placed lightning bolt. Therath, fearing for his life, dives further behind the boulder for cover, while Andune lets loose her well-practiced ice storm, and makes a massive circle in their formation as they're pelted with freezing stones of ice.
Atheele prepares for the worst, casting Cat's Grace on himself before getting directly involved. Kenlow briefly considers his options, then attempts to toss a vial of greek fire over the soldiers. Once it's falling behind them, he fires a weak lightning bolt to ignite it, and gusts the air down into their ranks - and if that wasn't sufficient, improves the blast of fire with his own abilities, generating a veritable inferno, and incinerates another large circle.
Seeing no need to waste more magic just yet (since only six soldiers are still standing out of this part of the regiment), Sarai takes pot-shots with her bow towards them.
More troops fill in the destroyed gaps, but the group doesn't seem particularly concerned, as the road where they are standing dips down... in effect, the party is firing shots out of a barrel of a gun that is constantly being refilled by enemy forces. More of them gather around the Bralani, but it is adept enough in combat to only be hit by one of its attackers.
Meanwhile, archers gather up on the 15-foot ridgeline to fire down on the party below, hitting Sarai and a few others. A fireball is also fired down on the cluster of the party, doing a reasonably minor amount of damage, but it serves as a reminder to split up real quick.
Kaira, in bear form, charges another soldier.
Akili leaps up with his boots of flight, peparing to fight the archers. Up above, he spots dozens more troops, shouts that there are more of them up here, and then sees SALERVAN! Akili roars his adversary's name, and unleashes Chaos Attack!
Ken and Ryu are summoned, and start beating the crap out of Salervan, although he actually lives through the experience, ending up several feet from where he started - much to Akili's surprise. Until now, that was pretty reliable about decimating anything that was hit by it... and now he realizes just how low on magic he is after that.
Atheele begins rapidly firing arrows at the archers at the ridge, dropping a few. Oy-aht casts Blade Barrier, taking out several other toops, and trapping the rest within its center.
Kenlow leaps up in the air, spots Salervan after Akili shouted him out, dives upon him with the Godslayer bared, and impales him, then tosses him upon the flames, freeing him from the blade, and ridding the worlds of yet one more Salervan.
Therath climbs up the ridge, spots another soldier preparing to fire an arrow at Akili, and attacks, distracting but doesn't kill him.
Keira, up at the front of the road, is attacked by a creature that's some ten feet long, made out of bone, and is feline in shape - something along the lines of a lion or tiger, and decks Keira mightily hard for 40 points.
Up on the ridge, Akili backs up a little from the soldiers that have gathered around them, takes aim, and unleashes Prismatic Spray from his Rod of Chaos, sending multicolored beams through and around his attackers and everything else in a sixty-foot cone. They are alternately fried by lightning, acid, turned to stone, poisioned, and two promptly go insane and kill each other.
Therath asides to Akili, after watching the display, "Remind me never to get you mad at me." Akili grins, and answers, "That doesn't always seem to matter, but yeah."
Sarai engages another, and drops yet another soldier, leaving about three-quarters of the regiment destroyed, although the feline bone golems are very fast, and do a great deal of damage by themselves.
Off in the distance, the troops caught within the blade barrier flee, attempting to find another way out.
Akili and Therath have a moment of paws - pause - and can see off in the east, a massive Tower that looks quite evil and has flames jetting out of it in certain places, and seems to be about five miles away. Therath mentions in a low voice, "That's where we're going, isn't it." Akili nods, and responds just as quietly, "Most likely." He was actually hoping it was rather farther away, to give him time to get that much stronger. But, upon reflection, it would have been unusual for the portal to be on the opposite end of the world from Matro's home. Either way, that's what they're stuck with.
Kenlow again draws upon his powers of air and fire to blast a number of troops from around him that had been surrounding him, and is largely successful.
Andune gets her bearings, then fires a lightning bolt at the bone golem at the end of the road that has been attacking Keira. The bolt doesn't appear to affect it, however.
Akili then turns, Rod of Chaos still in hand, and fires Wild Strike at the bone golem that is a short distance away from Kenlow, having been blown back just a moment ago. Akili gains the Master Sword, flies over with his wings, and charge-attacks the golem. He gets a triple critical (two 20s and a 16), and cuisinarts the golem. The sword vanishes, and the golem still lives, even though it doesn't look like it avoided any of it.
Therath jumps down from the ridge onto the road below, and attacks a lone soldier still down there, killing him. Therath takes a moment to reflect that this is the first enemy soldier of this battle that he's actually killed, and again weighs his decision to stay with this party, given the tower that he has seen from the ridge.
Oy-aht runs up towards Keira, dodging a blow from a soldier, and casts a healing spell on the young girl-turned-bear, since she's been battered about so much.
Atheele fires a barrage of arrows from his holy bow at the golem, but all of them appear to glance off or otherwise miss.
The Eladrin takes a swing at the golem with its scimitar, but it doesn't appear to do any damage - probably because it is made of lightning.
Sarai nocks another arrow, and fires at yet another soldier that is charging her.
Akili quick-draws his scepter of Eryn, criticals twice more with the blade, and it shatters into thousands of pieces.
Therath charges another soldier, but surprisingly misses. Kenlow, meanwhile, takes to the air, spreading his winds wide, causes himself to glow a radiant blue-silver with Air power, and yells, "Behold the Might of the Righteous Gods of Annor! Renounce your treacherous sin of following the false god Matro!"
The troops all fall to their knees, and prostrate themselves on the ground.
Keira, meanwhile, is still in battle with the bone golem, and attacks back with her bear paws and bite, although it withstands the attack.
Seizing the opportunity, Atheele runs up, and orders the prostrating troops, "You will die if you continue to fight! Surrender and you will live!" After a short pause, they drop their weapons.
Suddenly, the feline bone golem turns tail and attempts to flee, giving a chance to a couple members of the party to try to destroy it first, but it escapes anyway, leaping over the blade barrier and running into the distance. Atheele climbs up onto the ridge to try to spot it and take one last shot, but it is nowhere to be seen. He gazes down into the twisting canyons for a minute, and catches a glimpse. He fires a shot with another arrow that has a vial of acid attached to it, and with his precise aim, pegs it. However, it also doesn't seem to do any damage, and gets away after all.
Akili takes to the air, and chases after the cat from the air, and fires a Wild Strike at it. It slows down significantly, and Akili realizes there appears to be something wrong with its legs... it's feet are missing! It's running on its bone nubs, although he's not sure where its feet have gone.
Kenlow attempts to fire one last bolt of damage to the single fleeing soldier, and drops him.
Back over the golem, Akili weighs his choices, and manages to dodge a falling blue box that fails to hit the creature, but lands right in front, forcing the creature to stop. It has cryptic white text written on it, and is not immediately intelligible.
Akili is suddenly struck by stomach pains, and has to stop flapping, resorting to his boots to land safely... and in the meantime, Keira catches up, pouncing on the golem, and finally kills it!
Atheele goes back to the prostrating troops, tells them that they've made a wise choice, and has them line up on the road, against the line of the ridge. Sarai then starts questioning them - they explain that they were on their way to the tower, on the order of Salervan. She asks what they're going to do now, and they don't know. They don't want to stay here, so maybe they'll go home.
Oy-aht asks why they were on Matro's side, and they explain that they were probably going to die instead. They really just want to go home. Kenlow puts a paw on Atheele's shoulder to quiet him, then marches up and down the line of troops, inspecting them. Inside the bladed circle, all of them approach the party again, and drop their weapons.
As Kenlow asks if they can go home, there is a voice that booms from the Tower: "Fools! You gave your souls to me! You cannot turn back!" They all abruptly burst into flames, and die.
Off in the distance, there is a sound of doors opening... very big doors. Probably close to the Tower, really.
Akili soon realizes that he's just suffering from hiccups, and offers Keira a lift back to the party. She accepts, and the two of them go back. Hearing the sounds of the doors - but not Matro's voice earlier - he looks back, and sees something emerging, but not sure what it is. He then finishes winging his way back to the party.
The party takes a moment to discuss what Akili might have seen coming out of the tower, and he isn't sure if it was one big thing or several small things - it could also have been an army marching in closer formation. Atheele asks how they're doing on firepower, and several of them really need some time to recharge. Audune prepares to use her Rope Trick, but the group attempts to make sure they're not being scryed upon first.
Atheele and Andune decide that if they hide behind the boulder that the party was originally hiding behind, no one will see them. Everyone else agrees that's a good idea, as further up the road they're on, there's a hunk of rock that seems to have been carved into a home, with structures that look like windows, but they don't know if they're being watched from that direction.
Akili gets the idea to check Salervan's body after Sarai asks about him. On what remains of his body, he finds a handy Great Sword +3 (2d6), a Ball of Scrying, and chain shirt that he can't quite identify. He gives the sword to Andune, and temporarily keeps the ball of scrying and the chain shirt. Some of the others briefly search the bodies, then they ascend up into the extradimensional portal to check over their finds and rest. Akili, getting the idea that there's more to his scepter, experiments a little more with what it's capable of.
Meanwhile, Kenlow meditates, and attempts to find some way to contact some kin of the dragon he knows he owes his gold to in exchange for some long-ago exchange. After a short while, he receives a reply from a feminine draconic voice, saying, "My grandson... You go forth to do that which my daughter could not, but you have the weapon with which he can bring peace to us all." Kenlow's jaw drops as his eyes open, but he doesn't explain what he's heard.
Sarai works on developing a variant of her Delayed Fireblast spell, to create blinding light, and is soon successful, although one of the more difficult components is a feather soaked in water that's been exposed to daylight for 24 hours.
Eventually, the party finally sleeps. Some two hours after the party retires into the rope trick rooms, Atheele is awoken by his silent alarm spell being triggered. Looking through the window, he spots another one of the bone cats, but it does not appear to be following any particular trail... it's just passively investigating, by all appearances. Deciding they're not in danger, he goes back to sleep.
The next morning after having left the Rope Trick room, Sarai - having borrowed the Sun Blade from Andune - instructs Manq to start swinging the blade, after strapping a vial of water containing a feather to him.
They then hear the sounds of more cat-beasts approaching... four or five of them, in fact. When they realize this, they stop debating whether to stay and fight, and just climb the rope back into the room, since it still exists. Sarai instructs Manq to keep doing that, then shoves him into her Super Bag of Holding.
The party then clambers back up the ropes, and peer through the windows. After a couple minutes, multiple bone cats are milling about under the extradimensional room's windows... then, after a couple minutes, wander off again. Several minutes later, the party climbs out again... and not hearing them anywhere nearby, they emerge again. They discuss where he might be, and Akili then learns about Matro's voice being heard. They mostly conclude that he's likely at the tower with the large door, although Kenlow keeps his mouth shut.
After a short while, Akili observes that Kenlow is being quiet, and eventually works out of him that Kenlow used to know where Matro resides. His main tower used to be in the center of the world, equalling where the Tower of the Mages stands in Annor. Kenlow then explains a little more of the legend of Eyenor, and his overbearing ego, and that Eyenor had left his friends behind - those that were left - to confront Matro in single combat. Matro, of course, made pretty short work of Eyenor, tossing him off the tower and throwing the blade after him.
Some more discussion follows, and Kenlow reveals that the pile of stone building nearby was his personal stronghold, and that Matro's tower is a little farther beyond it.
Even more discussion occurs, and the group decides to disguise themselves as the bone cats, and start moving towards where they think Matro's tower is, but they avoid going too close to Kenlow's old stronghold in doing so, staying mostly to the roads.
On the way, Sarai notices that her stone of Salervan seeking has turned more red. She has a good inkling that the blue color has to do with the proximity to the original, and that red is towards a clone. She explains this to the group to some interest.
Therath spots a flying Salervan heading towards them, about 100 feet up and about a mile away. They are about to scatter, then decide - after being persuaded by Kenlow - to not make any threatening motions, lest they blow their cover. Eventually, he veers off to the right and heads towards the other tower... but as they're heading towards Kenlow's old stronghold, they hear the sound of a crowd. It sounds not unlike some kind of morale-boosting event, or perhaps a particularly vocal religious convention. Sarai's stone is becoming a very, very vivid red.
As the party crests the ridge, they can see this huge caldera - actually, an ampitheater, filled with Black Hand troops in the seating areas... at a guess, it could hold some five hundred people. To the sides of the stage are the traditional big golems, managing some kind of a parade rest. On the stage, or altar, stands Salervan, and he has a blade in his hand. In front of him is a random Black Hand soldier, and he appears to be knighting him. After that, he reaches into a satchel, and pulls out a claw of about six inches long, including the finger that is attached to it. Kenlow suspects it's one of Matro's fingers. He steps down the altar, then thrusts it into the knighted soldier's chest, who falls over and writhes, but doesn't appear to be dead. After he gets back up... he's now a Salervan! The party has found the generator. In fact, the first front row is all Salervans. They're about 350 feet away... and the party starts making preparations to totally destroy them. A feat which will be very impressive, and possibly ill-advised.
They work out their plan, and put it into play. Akili goes over close to the left edge of the ampitheater, still disgused, casts Protection from Evil on himself, and makes a gesture. Atheele fires an arrow, hitting the lead Salervan's belt and cutting it. His pants fall, and he falls on his face with them. The entire army has a lower morale. Sarai casts Tillian's Levitation to snag the falling bag of claw-fingers that had been attached to that belt, and pulls it towards her, to safety. Akili shouts, "Chaos Stampede!" and casts it. A 30-foot-wide portal appears a short distance in front of him, and out of it comes a solitary rider on a horse with a bugle and a standard (flag). He gallops down the stands, and about two seconds later, a horde of guys mounted on horseback, with strange sticks start pointing at everything (a horde of them) and firing. They climb up the other side of the stands, and go through the other portal. The carnage is devestating, leaving over 300 dead. This is beyond Akili's wildest expectations.
The leading Salervan takes five shots to the chest, but survives, amazingly. As do a number of the others, although they are severely traumatized by the experience.
Next in line, as pre-arranged, Oy-aht casts Blade Barrier on the semicircle of Salervans. Only one dies, to the astonishment of Akili. Keira puts Oy-hat's Staff of Striking to excellent use, and finally takes out all but the main guy. Atheele then releases several arrows at the still-standing Salervin, although it still doesn't drop him. Growling, Kenlow charges up a lightning zot, and fires *that* at him. Still didn't kill him, though.
Akili fires Wild Strike at the still prone Salervan, and although he does a fantastic amount of damage in the form of shredded wooden splinters that take out any remaining soldiers between him and Salervan, it is too short to reach that far.
Atheele fires more arrows at Salervan; they're determined to put him down. One super-criticals, and the other is just a very powerful shot (101+ damage). He doesn't move, aside from the impact. Kenlow then swoops in, and swings with the Godslayer, beheading him, for a total of 291 points of damage in the end.
Sarai's stone turns blue. Grinning, she hurls her held Delayed Fireblast at a part of the ampitheater that hasn't been hit yet. They are summarily erased from existance.
Keira turns into her bear form, and starts heading towards the caldera, looking for targets to slay that are attempting to flee; Therath joins her.
Andune casts one of her ice storms, achieving the same result as Sarai's fireblast and demolishing another 30' circle of the ampitheater.
The big golems, breaking rank, start to gather around Kenlow and start beating him. One of them also approaches Akili and swings at him, which he manages to dodge.
Keira and Therath are attacked by some of the fleeing soldiers, although they're both only hit by one each. There's also an explosion near them, and while Atheele looks for the gestures of a spellcaster, he doesn't spot one.
Atheele instead fires more greek fire arrows at golems and some other areas of soldiers.
More combat ensues, as things get more hectic.
The golems charge several players, hitting Keira, Akili, and Kenlow. Funnily enough, for the same amount of damage.
Andune takes out even more troops with a lightning bolt; less than 100 of them are remaining.
Kenlow leaps up from his surrounded position; they take swipes at him as he flees, but they miss.
Taking the hint, Akili backs up, then activates his boots to also get airborn, safely away from his attacker. He evaluates the situation, then fires Wild Rain at a prime-looking area. A horde of guys in bright yellow, green, orange and red jumpsuits come falling from the sky, screaming the entire way, and clawing uselessly at something on their backs, then splat into the ground. He wipes out another 15 troops, but unfortunately misses the golems.
Oy-aht casts another spell, and everyone in her party is healed by 15 points... and later summons a pair of Hound Archons.
In the meantime, Akili eyes the situation from the air, and casts Stampede again. There are three loud sonic booms, and a big metal object leaves flaming trails as it rams through everything, then vanishes at the far end, wiping out several more troops and one of the golems.
Therath flings his whip around, and takes out three more troops in a single blow with a whirlwind attack.
Andune varies her last trick, and sends a lightning bolt arching through three golems, who are quite vulunerable to it.
Oy-aht approaches some other troops, and throws something resembling a wave-motion fist at them, and sends her Hound Archons off in a different direction to fight some golems.
From his ledge above the stage, Kenlow pumps Fire into the still slightly-burning alchemist's fire, causing it to explosively ignite once more, bellowing, "The might of Eryn is swift and just!"
Various other damage is dealt, and another golem falls. The enemy forces make another push towards the party, decking one of the Archons, but he survives it.
Atheele picks out his targets, starting with the most heavily-damaged golem as he fires his mighty arrows. That one drops, and he moves on to the next, critically hitting it, but doesn't drop it just yet. He fires one last arrow, and this time it drops.
Andune casts yet another Ice Storm on another group of soldiers, although these ones prove to be somewhat more resilient.
Keira leaps forward, charging the golem from above, and smacks it.
Oy-aht directs her Hound Archons to attack the golems, which they have no problems doing. She engages more troops herself with her furious fists, taking out one, then another.
Seeing that Sarai is still tied up with the bag, so Akili swoops over, grabs the bag, and brings it to Sarai at last.
Kenlow finally leaves his ledge, diving towards one small group of troops, charging up a zolt, and shouts, "Thou has forsaken the love of your god, Eryn, for your false god! Prepare to suffer the consequences of your foul actions!" They all die.
A golem strikes one of her archons again, and this time drops it. One is still standing, though.
Now freed of her levitation spell, Sarai looks at all the boulders around, and at the far-away group of soldiers, grins evilly, and casts Felder's infamous spell... at least in her hands. They are completely wiped out.
Atheele fires his mighty arrows again, and demolishes another golem... then shifts to the last standing one, which is still standing after being pummeled by two more.
Therath makes another whirlwind attack with his whip, striking them all.
Andune fires some arrows of her own towards the last remaining cluster of soldiers.
Kenlow swoops over to the last golem, beating them about the upper body with his metal quarterstaff.
Snarling, Keira attacks the same golem, and finally drops it.
Finding only one group of soldiers left, Akili leaps up and swoops over to them, swinging with his sword, but misses.
Oy-aht cracks them up with her fists, dropping one, then two, and the last one, *finally* ending combat.
Sarai peeks inside the bag, and finds three claw-fingers in there. And they're wiggling.
The game is paused here.
Note: Next game, Akili is casting Detect Magic to look for magical loot.