Greek-Annulus Trial

[Andy]

david said:

Intel is a VERY good thing to have. Since the Greeks are "inspiring" this mission, Kephalonia gets a very good image of the location. If she's willing to shoot off a probability control spell, Brand would be willing to trust her dimensional folding for a quick visit. Then, the two of us can recon the area, choosing teleport sites, doing ethereal scouting missions, casting divinatory spells, etc. That said, time is RUNNING OUT to do that, so let's start the process NOW!

Exactly! DF + PT = go to the place you've heard of, and dont' bother rolling. I need to check exact percentages on that, but that's the basic idea. I'll also need to make a quick check of K's new divinitary powers which have been enhanced recently.

Of key interest would be (a) finding some outlying scout and picking his brain about the inner workings of the place and (b) finding nearby Wolf Nomads and getting them to agree to attack Iuz, preferably around or near the time we do some cavern-cleaning.

Do we have official time for setup, or are we officially on the clock the moment we start scouting the area?

[David]

For the players, the game starts at 12-noon on Sunday. For the characters, they have three days to "prepare" for their trial, with no restriction on information gathering. I would REALLY like to do as much recon via the website as possible, since it would only bog down the face-time portion of the game. I realize there will probably be some "lingering" recon work, but doing it ahead of time also gives folks a chance to think about the repurcussions of what they discover...and plan accordingly!

[charbidge]

Alexis is woods-wise (forest survival) and a terrific runner, both for sprinting and for distance (Endurance). Where can she go, how can she help, studying enemy dispositions with her tactical sense (Tactics).

[Andy]

Right on - let's do it then. Where can Brand be picked up? We can use (with her permission of course) Arianna's temple to group up and do our scouting. Do we have a telepath at our disposal? A higher level cleric with some of the mental interrigation spells might be useful for this, too.

[Andy]

Anyone have 'Protection Against Spit?'

[Artec]

Hey David, Does Black Robe find out about the Wolf nomads being "under the thumb" of Iuz? If so he would go there Right Figgin Now!!!! That is his region, his original homeland. He has several spells he can use. He Is Not Going There To Help The Greeks. He is going there to free his people!!!!!! The spells he has are Fire Gate, i have always stated that he had a bon fire going at his home land and Amberwood. 2nd spell is Dream Voyage, mini adventures on the way to the home land. He would try to see if he could get several other heroes willing to help, he will not look for more than a few hours to ask for help. First would be Black Eagle, we have 3 children now, woodenthighs, brother in-law and from same region, morak if around, Jessica, if avalaivable, Artec, same stipulation. Any others you can think of.

[David]

The Wolf Nomads are not "under" Iuz -- he is keeping them away from his own lands and from "meddling" in the war. It would NOT be common-knowledge that Iuz is masquarading as totemic spirits.

[charbidge]

What was the evening worth in terms of xp?

[Stephanous]

Hi All,

Is everyone up for noon Saturday for the second part of the Greek trial? We need to wrap-up the game and finish accomplishing our goal. We also need to come up with questions for another speak with dead spell for the mage. I believe that we were going to ask him what magic items he had back in his room and what spells were in his spellbooks. This way we could find out if he had any wall spells that might help block-off the entrance so we can flood the place. Any other ideas?

Paul

[David]

On June 24th of the Common Year 616, Kephanlonia plane shifted to Maneä in order to fetch Brand and Stephanos, as well as Allyrion, Jasmine, Danté and Gabriel (Brand and Allyrion's sons), Kaitlyn (Jas and Stephanos' daughter), Yambre and Warango (Brand's griffons), and Lucky (his hunting dog). Luckily, Keph brought along Rufus; her dimensional "aim" was off and she landed in the middle of a vast ocean under the daytime sun. Rufus kept the witch of Hecate afloat until sunset, and as shadows gathered on the horizon and around her eye, Kephalonia teleported the pair to Grandel. There, the Greeks reunited and via a scroll, returned to Oerth.

On the 25th, the whole Greek party assembled to recon the orcish fortress of Waterwall caverns. Kephalonia, Rufus, Brand, and Stephanos were joined by Meara, Andonia, and Alexis. Together the group dimensional folded via Kephalonia to the hills, where Brand brought the group ethereal. The party spent nearly four hours exploring the orcish caves via the ethereal plane. Despite demonic guards, the heroes managed to snoop without arousing attention. Finally deciding not to push their luck, the heroes returned to Kephalonia's home in Klarr.

The following morning, on the 26th, the heroes did more ethereal recon. Brand, however, was the only member of the group able to clearly look back onto the Prime and moving through caverns, the mage didn't work the angles correctly -- soon they were lost in solid stone. The group decided to cut its losses and make contact with the local wolf-nomad tribes. The heroes warned the nomads of their plan and tried to encourage them to act while Iuz' forces would be distracted and in disarray.

On the morning of the 27th of 616, the heroes returned a third time to Waterwall caverns. They managed (AGAIN!) to sneak past the demonic guardians via the ethereal plane and attacked a powerful mage and his clerical paramour. Shadows surprised the group, but Stephanos made short work of them, as he had the mage's skeletal bodyguards. Unfortunately, one of the shadows managed to drop Brand with a lucky strike to the leg. In the confusion, the mage cast a spell and vanished. Rufus and Andonia slaughtered the cleric and the heroes ethereally moved to another cavern once Stephanos cured Brand's wound.

In rapid succession, the party met and battled a variety of foes. First the heroes slaughtered a pair of type II demons. Then Kephalonia assumed the form of the dead priestess and ordered some gargoyles to search a different cavern. Brand then stepped forward to incinerate nearly a dozen of them, as well as a pair of invisible bar-llgura, in a sunfire spell. A pack of worgs thought about attacking, but as Kephalonia was able to eavesdrop, waited for their hobgoblin allies as well as the rest of the gargoyles to strike first. As it was, another sunfire still returned the wolves to dust from which they were made...

Andonia's knee was shattered by one of the gargoyles while Alexis was sore-pressed by several more on her. Rufus, meanwhile, calmly cut a swath of dead foes through the ranks of the enemies. Stephanos saved and tended to Andonia while Brand used an Aganazor's scorcher to rescue Alexis. Meara, meanwhile, was steadily battling gargoyles and worgs, mostly on her own, with a little help from The Mariner, Rufus, the Seven of Clubs.

Brand and Andonia had a friendly bet going -- who could rack up the highest body-count? Stephanos and Rufus both wanted in on the bet too, but with slightly different angles. Brand, however, clearly won the title when he launched his third (and final, since it was powered by his spell adder) sunfire, vaporizing a huge horde of incoming orcs. This was moments after Kephalonia lightning bolted the mage from earlier.

Victorious, the heroes gathered up their wounded as well as the bodies of the leaders they'd slain, and disappeared back into the ethereal plane...

I'll do eeps after Saturday's conclusion. I'm sure I made a few little mistakes in my log -- please let me know.

[David]

After a brief rest on the hills above the caverns, the heroes re-entered Waterwall caverns ethereally. Somehow, the river had returned to its previous course, requiring that the heroes make a risky entry via the waterfall mouth. Luckily, no demons capable of dispel magic were present or noticed. When the heroes returned to the Prime, however, they were very soon in combat with a type III demon, then the image of a type V again, then two babau, followed soon by two more!

Amazingly, the heroes managed to defeat this entire host, although at one point Brand nearly died, triggering his sacred guardian. Allyrion, on the other end of the spell, teleported in to rescue his partner. Stephanos managed to hold off the babau while Allyrion healed Brand, then they swapped with Stephanos getting healed. Meanwhile, Rufus was tearing one demon after another apart. The projected image of the type V demoness kept trying to charm Rufus, to no effect. Meanwhile, The Mariner was sending one demon after another back to the Abyss. Kephalonia had a plan to get rid of the demoness as well, but was plagued by Andonia, who had been charmed by the demoness to kill her. Finally, however, she managed to get clear and cast a darkness over the demoness' image. Unable to see, the image ceased to exist.

The heroes headed back to the surface, dropped off Allyrion, then re-entered the caverns again, this time coming in in the back of the main cavern. There they did a brief recon, surveyed much of the slaughter they'd caused, picked up a few goodies and then ran into a horde of orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins. The heroes made short work of the humanoids, but the demoness returned, this time in the flesh. She successfully charmed Rufus to kill Meara. The ranger bolted, getting her spine nearly sliced open in the process. Meanwhile, Brand cast a forget, telling Rufus to accept the spell. Rufus momentarily forgot what was going on and in that moment Brand brought the group ethereal again.

After a brief pow-wow, Brand charmed Rufus as well as a safety measure, then left him on the ethereal while the rest of the team returned to the Prime and drove off the demoness. Worried about encountering the demoness again since Rufus was still charmed, the heroes raided the mage's lair, recovering his spell books. In one of the books the mage had captured was limited wish. That gave Kephalonia an idea...

Casting the spell out of the book, Kephalonia wished[/i] that the water from the river could not leave the cavern through the two main egresses. Naturally, the caverns began to flood and within a few hours most of the orcs drowned. Ultimately, the water rose high enough to flood into the Underdark, but not before the caverns were ruined as a base of operations.

Ultimately, the Greeks were quite successful in the mission, setting a high bar for the Egyptian team...

[Artec]

Hey David,
Could Black Robe find out, not the impersonateing spirits, about Iuzes base? Would it not be reasonable that Black Robe would want to go and check things out for himself to make sure that the Armies of Iuz are not attacking his people? Or enslaving them. Actually David Black Robe will cast Commune to find out what is going on there. Yes he does get the spell.

1) Are the Armies of Iuz endangering the wolf nomads?
2) Are the Demons working with Iuzes priest endangering the wolf nomads?
The rest pending answer to these questions, Black Robe gets 13 questions total per spell.

[Jenn G]

Hey, so did we ever get eeps for this game? - Jenn

[David]

15,432 xps