Post by David on Aug 4, 2008 14:25:13 GMT -5
The bulk of the party (Dion, Clanndennagh, Marc, Mikhail with Samhain, Sky, and Dajamira) decided to camp out in the woods around Klarr while Cliffy scribed a spell into his spell book in town. Nothing much happened, although the party did sense that they were being scried on multiple occasions (as often as three times a day!) and used both mind blank (from Mikhail and Clanndennagh) and dispel magic from Dion to disrupt the intrusion. But all the surveillance made the group nervous, so they kept moving their campsite around.
Briefly, a couple of party members popped into town for supplies or information as well. At one point, Clanndennagh (with prodding from his student Mikhail as well as Sky-the-fire-snake-who-really-can-understand-Common) asked the fortune-teller, Esmerelda, if it would be beneficial for him to imbue the magic ankh he found with more of his life-force. She said no immediately, and yet even after paying the witch of the Norns for a spell which revealed no information, the psychic warrior went ahead and drained himself of more of his life-energy. He then asked Jellie to create some illusions on which to test the sword the ankh conjured, quickly discovering it was +2...!
Esmerelda, upon hearing the situation that Mikhail was in, offered for the pudgy warrior to bring her dire wolf pups, Skögul and Róta, to the young psi. It would seem that it was Mikhail who trained them initially and both of the bitches were quite fond of the young man.
With the two dire wolf pups, the heroes spent the 24th trying to find the rest of the pack in the area, so that Marc could obtain a WILLING wolf-friend of his own (Mikhail was quite insistent on this point, which the beastmaster completely agreed with). Although the heroes couldn't narrow down where the wolves were, they did spot several groups of bats searching for something in the area...except these bats flew by day and either left a trail of smoke or appeared to be made of fire...
It was last watch on the morning of the 25th. Clanndennagh and his student/mentor Mikhail (the Celt had drained himself of two levels into the ankh by this point, so the young psi was now helping HIM) were on watch in the pre-dawn light. Mikhail was distracted by something in the woods when the psychic warrior saw a large dark disc six feet in diameter but only a hair's breadth thick appeared in the air between the pair. The wind suddenly picked up strongly, blowing in gusts all about and fanning the smoldering campfire. Clanndennagh rushed around to Mikhail's side of the disc just in time to see six skeletons pour out with many more charging. Behind them was a familiar heavy-set man in platemail...Mordrammo...!
The winds awoke Sky, slumbering in the fire, as well as Marc. That's when the winds turned into a whirlwind and smashed down hard on Mikhail, nearly stunning him. Then appearing from nowhere, a thin man dressed in chainmail, human but perhaps with a hint of elvish blood, thrust his longsword into the young psi, wounding him severely. The boy reeled. As Clanndennagh moved toward him, a beautiful woman appeared before the psychic warrior and thrust twin poisoned shortswords into the chubby psi. He spied that the man's swords were similarly treated, thus Mikhail similarly poisoned.
Somehow, miraculously, Mikhail managed to time shift before either the whirlwind or fighter could administer a killing blow. Samhain and Skögul sprang up to face the whirlwind, snapping uselessly at the air, while Dion called forth the power of Apollo to destroy the skeletons. Meanwhile, Sky bites at the man's ankle (but misses) and Dajamira attacked with some strange open-hand attack, interposing herself between the man and where Mikhail was. All she managed was to get in the way though. Marc grabs his magical axe and swings at the whirlwind, with similar results to the ranger.
The man, Averil, turns out to be an experienced warrior with superhuman strength, great speed, and much skill with the shield. Each time he strikes one of the party, he seems to get even stronger. He hacks down Róta and wounds Dion as well as Sky. The firesnake bites him, but while he slows down a bit, it's not enough to really stop the killer.
Meanwhile, the woman, Erika, turns out to be Averil's wife. While a decent combatant and definitely more skilled than Clanndennagh now, she doesn't manage to do much damage. But the poison of her earlier hits do take the big man down.
With Mikhail missing (unbeknownst to the aerial servant, shifting through time), the whirlwind breaks off attacking the heroes and begins searching the area, charging to each locations Mikhail returns to once time snaps back. The distraction, however, is enough to keep the elemental out of the fight, although it similarly keeps the young psi on the run.
Dion tries a dispel magic to disrupt the aerial servant, but the spell fails. He then attempts another such spell at the two killers, hoping to remove the protection from good spells each appear to have. With Erika, it works, although unbeknownst to the cleric of Apollo, he also removes five or six OTHER defensive spells as well...!
Averil is stumbling, but not getting any worse, so Sky bites him again. The fighter, however, is more than a match for Samhain, Skögul, Daj, and Marc. Sky bites the female killer again, and she begins to succumb to the venom just as Clanndennagh drops too.
Averil quickly quaffs a sip of a potion, but it has unexpected side-effects (he'd already drunk a potion of hill giant strength!) -- he vomits forth green foam and nearly dies. Stumbling, the man has let down his guard AND is really feeling the effects of Sky's second dose of venom AND Samhain locks on with his giant weasel jaws. Meanwhile, Erika is looking bad herself and stumbling and Marc nails her with his axe. The killers panic and Averil tells his love to flee as he hacks down Samhain. They both then drop their guards to quaff another potion in melee.
Badly wounded, both Averil and his love Erika survive. He turns to vapor while she flies into the sky. Daj pulls out her wand and lightning bolts the pair, knocking the woman out of the sky. She hits the ground and the wolves and giant weasel rip her to pieces.
Mikhail returns and asks if the heroes can deal with the aerial servant. He's exhausted most of his mental strength while it's fresh as a daisy. The aerial servant follows Mikhail back to the party where Daj and Marc each manage to hit it. It fights back, but the heroes have great difficulty striking the invisible creature. Dion tosses a bag of chalk at it, the white powder giving the fighters something to target on.
The group needs a moment to heal and regroup (Clanndennagh is down from Erika's venom, despite to cure light wounds from Dion and Róta is bleeding out). The young psi agrees, thinking himself clever by time shift forward, disappearing into the night, and then calling out to the aerial servant from a distance. He nearly pays for this mistake with his life; the elemental is fantastically swift and homes in on the psi almost unerringly once he remains in normal time.
Mikhail again time shifts, returning to the heroes. The chalk, by this point, has left the creature's body, so as it charges, Clanndennagh tosses the magical dust the party found in the Temple of Poseidon at the elemental. Instead of making the thing visible, it blasts it out of existence....! Nice dispelling dust!
The party tends to the wounded and head back to Klarr, arriving before noon. The group had searched Erika, recovering her gear as well as Averil's dropped sword, before the animals ate every fleshy bit and her bones were charred in the fire. "Try to come back from that!" They did keep one of Erika's pinky bones and brought it to the witch, Esmerelda, so that she could speak with the killer's spirit. The heroes didn't learn much -- only that Mordrammo initiated the assault from far-away Rel Astra and that Averil and she were merely paid assassins. The group did learn of Erika's wand of detect magic as well as its command word "slàinte" (pronounced "slan-sha"). Stephanos and Jasmine help heal the party and they decide to return to the scene of the battle and hunt down Averil before he can attack them again.
The group arrives at their previous campsite about an hour before sunset. Dajamira and Marc pick up Averil's trail, as well as that of a half dozen bugbear and several tiny clawed humanoid fliers. They also find the boot prints of an athletic human which appear and then disappear. Using Samhain and Skögul's keen sense of smell (Róta was having a bad day) as well as Marc and Daj's tracking skill, the group trek through the forest for an hour and a half. Marc pulls out a continual light stone to see by, but as the heroes move through the woods, Averil springs out and attacks Mikhail again!
"Finally, I'll pay off my debts! Thanks for coming to me!"
The young psi nearly dies in the assault and again time shifts to safety. Marc, Daj, and the animals pounce on the desperate fighter. Dion steps back and suddenly has a longsword and dagger in his back! Lassivar fades visible, a grin on his handsome, boyish face. "Tsk, tsk, no spell-casting, cleric. I just need one of you to earn my bounty," the assassin chides softly.
Marc springs forward to protect Dion, while Averil hacks down Róta as well as Daj! Sky bites Lassivar, but while the assassin seriously wounds Marc with a crippling wound, he can't seem to touch the firesnake. Averil, however, is not doing too well. Although he's regained much strength from battling the ranger and wolves, he's still facing too many foes and Sky's venom has begun to slow him down. Samhain locks his jaws on the assassin and he sways before the wolves bring him down... Meanwhile, Lassivar has retreated into the air, fading away...
Mikhail uses his empathy to get an idea where the assassin is, but encounters a mental defense. Clanndennagh and Marc tend to the wounded, soon joined by Mikhail, with only Sky on watch. Dion's heart has stopped from Lassivar's poison; the cleric is dead and without a neutralize poison in the very near future, will remain that way. Marc remembers Averil's potion of anti-toxin and uses half of it on the cleric of Apollo while Mikhail tends to the man's wounds. He'll live, although it's a close call and the cleric remains unconscious. After tending to Dion, the group stabilizes Dajamira and Róta too. Unfortunately, the firesnake's senses aren’t keen enough nor is she able to warn the party fast enough...!
Lassivar materializes again, his blades protruding from Marc. The Maneän's wounds are poison free, but near-mortal. "You're going to die, maybe even several of you. Just let me claim one and the rest of you are off the hook," the athletic, sandy-haired man tries to reason. Clanndennagh and Sky spring to the attack, as do Samhain and Skögul. Mikhail hangs back, using his psionics to mind thrust Lassivar until he successfully breaches the man's defenses as Sky's fangs again pierce the man's flesh.
"Gee Lassivar, either you're about to feel the full strength of my psi powers or you're psionic yourself and are about to go catatonic defending yourself," Mikhail says. "I've beaten your defense, so let's see what else you've got...!"
With that, Lassivar again retreats into the air, fading invisible and quickly getting out of range of any truly dangerous psionic attack (it was a bluff anyway, since Mikhail only had the strength to make Lassivar fear him or forget). But Samhain and Skögul can still smell the man, hanging about in the sky, waiting for another opportunity. Mikhail uses half of his potion of healing on Marc and the other half on Dion, who in turn heals Daj. It turns out that Lassivar's sword also drains levels and both men have lost several...
Lassivar calls down to the group again, giving them another "chance" to surrender. Daj smiles, looks up at the tree-filled sky and puts her hand to one of the oak trees. Suddenly the mighty branches smash together, catching and trapping the invisible, flying assassin. "I haven't been telling you the whole truth," Daj admits. "I'm not ENTIRELY human. I'm party dryad," she explains.
"You think?" responds Clanndennagh. "That's why you're so ditzy!" *POUT!*
While the trees have entangled Lassivar, the same effect prevents anyone from reaching him over 50' in the sky. Daj could do it, but must concentrate on the oaks, while Mikhail's lost faith prevents him from using his druidic abilities. Finally, Dion suggests Sky drink the last half of Averil's potion of flying and go after the assassin. The firesnake agrees.
Her first attempt is a failure and the trees nearly entrap the immature salamander as well; only her serpentine form allows her to escape! But a second attempt finds Sky zipping through the air and slithering through dense foliage to a clear "spot" in the shape of a human body. Moreover, the "spot" appears to have loops around what would be arms and legs... "Uh, you're really quite a bit brighter than just a dumb familiar, aren't you? Are you reincarnated or just badly cursed?" With that, Sky AGAIN tastes Lassivar's blood.
The assassin struggles frantically and finally says, "I hate using up one-shot magical items," as he fades away in a rainbow swirl of color, leaving nothing in his wake. Sky feels drawn with the man, but resists, and returns to the ground.
Feeling somewhat victorious, the groups tends their wounds and returns to Klarr. Dor, the village's hobbit sherrif, is in the square shooting arrows into the distant sky. "Oh, hi guys! Just gunning down the mephits spying around town," he says proudly. With that, his arrow scores on a "fiery bat" some 1000' distant, the target dropping out of the sky like a stone. "My magic bow lets me shoot anything I can see clearly, regardless of range!" he adds with a grin on his face. The group talks with Stephanos and Jasmine in the Displacer, where they spend the night without further incident -- Jasmine setting the charmed/influenced/enslaved/love-besotted monk, Luthor, to guard the party.
Briefly, a couple of party members popped into town for supplies or information as well. At one point, Clanndennagh (with prodding from his student Mikhail as well as Sky-the-fire-snake-who-really-can-understand-Common) asked the fortune-teller, Esmerelda, if it would be beneficial for him to imbue the magic ankh he found with more of his life-force. She said no immediately, and yet even after paying the witch of the Norns for a spell which revealed no information, the psychic warrior went ahead and drained himself of more of his life-energy. He then asked Jellie to create some illusions on which to test the sword the ankh conjured, quickly discovering it was +2...!
Esmerelda, upon hearing the situation that Mikhail was in, offered for the pudgy warrior to bring her dire wolf pups, Skögul and Róta, to the young psi. It would seem that it was Mikhail who trained them initially and both of the bitches were quite fond of the young man.
With the two dire wolf pups, the heroes spent the 24th trying to find the rest of the pack in the area, so that Marc could obtain a WILLING wolf-friend of his own (Mikhail was quite insistent on this point, which the beastmaster completely agreed with). Although the heroes couldn't narrow down where the wolves were, they did spot several groups of bats searching for something in the area...except these bats flew by day and either left a trail of smoke or appeared to be made of fire...
It was last watch on the morning of the 25th. Clanndennagh and his student/mentor Mikhail (the Celt had drained himself of two levels into the ankh by this point, so the young psi was now helping HIM) were on watch in the pre-dawn light. Mikhail was distracted by something in the woods when the psychic warrior saw a large dark disc six feet in diameter but only a hair's breadth thick appeared in the air between the pair. The wind suddenly picked up strongly, blowing in gusts all about and fanning the smoldering campfire. Clanndennagh rushed around to Mikhail's side of the disc just in time to see six skeletons pour out with many more charging. Behind them was a familiar heavy-set man in platemail...Mordrammo...!
The winds awoke Sky, slumbering in the fire, as well as Marc. That's when the winds turned into a whirlwind and smashed down hard on Mikhail, nearly stunning him. Then appearing from nowhere, a thin man dressed in chainmail, human but perhaps with a hint of elvish blood, thrust his longsword into the young psi, wounding him severely. The boy reeled. As Clanndennagh moved toward him, a beautiful woman appeared before the psychic warrior and thrust twin poisoned shortswords into the chubby psi. He spied that the man's swords were similarly treated, thus Mikhail similarly poisoned.
Somehow, miraculously, Mikhail managed to time shift before either the whirlwind or fighter could administer a killing blow. Samhain and Skögul sprang up to face the whirlwind, snapping uselessly at the air, while Dion called forth the power of Apollo to destroy the skeletons. Meanwhile, Sky bites at the man's ankle (but misses) and Dajamira attacked with some strange open-hand attack, interposing herself between the man and where Mikhail was. All she managed was to get in the way though. Marc grabs his magical axe and swings at the whirlwind, with similar results to the ranger.
The man, Averil, turns out to be an experienced warrior with superhuman strength, great speed, and much skill with the shield. Each time he strikes one of the party, he seems to get even stronger. He hacks down Róta and wounds Dion as well as Sky. The firesnake bites him, but while he slows down a bit, it's not enough to really stop the killer.
Meanwhile, the woman, Erika, turns out to be Averil's wife. While a decent combatant and definitely more skilled than Clanndennagh now, she doesn't manage to do much damage. But the poison of her earlier hits do take the big man down.
With Mikhail missing (unbeknownst to the aerial servant, shifting through time), the whirlwind breaks off attacking the heroes and begins searching the area, charging to each locations Mikhail returns to once time snaps back. The distraction, however, is enough to keep the elemental out of the fight, although it similarly keeps the young psi on the run.
Dion tries a dispel magic to disrupt the aerial servant, but the spell fails. He then attempts another such spell at the two killers, hoping to remove the protection from good spells each appear to have. With Erika, it works, although unbeknownst to the cleric of Apollo, he also removes five or six OTHER defensive spells as well...!
Averil is stumbling, but not getting any worse, so Sky bites him again. The fighter, however, is more than a match for Samhain, Skögul, Daj, and Marc. Sky bites the female killer again, and she begins to succumb to the venom just as Clanndennagh drops too.Averil quickly quaffs a sip of a potion, but it has unexpected side-effects (he'd already drunk a potion of hill giant strength!) -- he vomits forth green foam and nearly dies. Stumbling, the man has let down his guard AND is really feeling the effects of Sky's second dose of venom AND Samhain locks on with his giant weasel jaws. Meanwhile, Erika is looking bad herself and stumbling and Marc nails her with his axe. The killers panic and Averil tells his love to flee as he hacks down Samhain. They both then drop their guards to quaff another potion in melee.
Badly wounded, both Averil and his love Erika survive. He turns to vapor while she flies into the sky. Daj pulls out her wand and lightning bolts the pair, knocking the woman out of the sky. She hits the ground and the wolves and giant weasel rip her to pieces.
Mikhail returns and asks if the heroes can deal with the aerial servant. He's exhausted most of his mental strength while it's fresh as a daisy. The aerial servant follows Mikhail back to the party where Daj and Marc each manage to hit it. It fights back, but the heroes have great difficulty striking the invisible creature. Dion tosses a bag of chalk at it, the white powder giving the fighters something to target on.
The group needs a moment to heal and regroup (Clanndennagh is down from Erika's venom, despite to cure light wounds from Dion and Róta is bleeding out). The young psi agrees, thinking himself clever by time shift forward, disappearing into the night, and then calling out to the aerial servant from a distance. He nearly pays for this mistake with his life; the elemental is fantastically swift and homes in on the psi almost unerringly once he remains in normal time.
Mikhail again time shifts, returning to the heroes. The chalk, by this point, has left the creature's body, so as it charges, Clanndennagh tosses the magical dust the party found in the Temple of Poseidon at the elemental. Instead of making the thing visible, it blasts it out of existence....! Nice dispelling dust!
The party tends to the wounded and head back to Klarr, arriving before noon. The group had searched Erika, recovering her gear as well as Averil's dropped sword, before the animals ate every fleshy bit and her bones were charred in the fire. "Try to come back from that!" They did keep one of Erika's pinky bones and brought it to the witch, Esmerelda, so that she could speak with the killer's spirit. The heroes didn't learn much -- only that Mordrammo initiated the assault from far-away Rel Astra and that Averil and she were merely paid assassins. The group did learn of Erika's wand of detect magic as well as its command word "slàinte" (pronounced "slan-sha"). Stephanos and Jasmine help heal the party and they decide to return to the scene of the battle and hunt down Averil before he can attack them again.
The group arrives at their previous campsite about an hour before sunset. Dajamira and Marc pick up Averil's trail, as well as that of a half dozen bugbear and several tiny clawed humanoid fliers. They also find the boot prints of an athletic human which appear and then disappear. Using Samhain and Skögul's keen sense of smell (Róta was having a bad day) as well as Marc and Daj's tracking skill, the group trek through the forest for an hour and a half. Marc pulls out a continual light stone to see by, but as the heroes move through the woods, Averil springs out and attacks Mikhail again!
"Finally, I'll pay off my debts! Thanks for coming to me!"
The young psi nearly dies in the assault and again time shifts to safety. Marc, Daj, and the animals pounce on the desperate fighter. Dion steps back and suddenly has a longsword and dagger in his back! Lassivar fades visible, a grin on his handsome, boyish face. "Tsk, tsk, no spell-casting, cleric. I just need one of you to earn my bounty," the assassin chides softly.
Marc springs forward to protect Dion, while Averil hacks down Róta as well as Daj! Sky bites Lassivar, but while the assassin seriously wounds Marc with a crippling wound, he can't seem to touch the firesnake. Averil, however, is not doing too well. Although he's regained much strength from battling the ranger and wolves, he's still facing too many foes and Sky's venom has begun to slow him down. Samhain locks his jaws on the assassin and he sways before the wolves bring him down... Meanwhile, Lassivar has retreated into the air, fading away...
Mikhail uses his empathy to get an idea where the assassin is, but encounters a mental defense. Clanndennagh and Marc tend to the wounded, soon joined by Mikhail, with only Sky on watch. Dion's heart has stopped from Lassivar's poison; the cleric is dead and without a neutralize poison in the very near future, will remain that way. Marc remembers Averil's potion of anti-toxin and uses half of it on the cleric of Apollo while Mikhail tends to the man's wounds. He'll live, although it's a close call and the cleric remains unconscious. After tending to Dion, the group stabilizes Dajamira and Róta too. Unfortunately, the firesnake's senses aren’t keen enough nor is she able to warn the party fast enough...!
Lassivar materializes again, his blades protruding from Marc. The Maneän's wounds are poison free, but near-mortal. "You're going to die, maybe even several of you. Just let me claim one and the rest of you are off the hook," the athletic, sandy-haired man tries to reason. Clanndennagh and Sky spring to the attack, as do Samhain and Skögul. Mikhail hangs back, using his psionics to mind thrust Lassivar until he successfully breaches the man's defenses as Sky's fangs again pierce the man's flesh.
"Gee Lassivar, either you're about to feel the full strength of my psi powers or you're psionic yourself and are about to go catatonic defending yourself," Mikhail says. "I've beaten your defense, so let's see what else you've got...!"
With that, Lassivar again retreats into the air, fading invisible and quickly getting out of range of any truly dangerous psionic attack (it was a bluff anyway, since Mikhail only had the strength to make Lassivar fear him or forget). But Samhain and Skögul can still smell the man, hanging about in the sky, waiting for another opportunity. Mikhail uses half of his potion of healing on Marc and the other half on Dion, who in turn heals Daj. It turns out that Lassivar's sword also drains levels and both men have lost several...
Lassivar calls down to the group again, giving them another "chance" to surrender. Daj smiles, looks up at the tree-filled sky and puts her hand to one of the oak trees. Suddenly the mighty branches smash together, catching and trapping the invisible, flying assassin. "I haven't been telling you the whole truth," Daj admits. "I'm not ENTIRELY human. I'm party dryad," she explains.
"You think?" responds Clanndennagh. "That's why you're so ditzy!" *POUT!*
While the trees have entangled Lassivar, the same effect prevents anyone from reaching him over 50' in the sky. Daj could do it, but must concentrate on the oaks, while Mikhail's lost faith prevents him from using his druidic abilities. Finally, Dion suggests Sky drink the last half of Averil's potion of flying and go after the assassin. The firesnake agrees.
Her first attempt is a failure and the trees nearly entrap the immature salamander as well; only her serpentine form allows her to escape! But a second attempt finds Sky zipping through the air and slithering through dense foliage to a clear "spot" in the shape of a human body. Moreover, the "spot" appears to have loops around what would be arms and legs... "Uh, you're really quite a bit brighter than just a dumb familiar, aren't you? Are you reincarnated or just badly cursed?" With that, Sky AGAIN tastes Lassivar's blood.
The assassin struggles frantically and finally says, "I hate using up one-shot magical items," as he fades away in a rainbow swirl of color, leaving nothing in his wake. Sky feels drawn with the man, but resists, and returns to the ground.
Feeling somewhat victorious, the groups tends their wounds and returns to Klarr. Dor, the village's hobbit sherrif, is in the square shooting arrows into the distant sky. "Oh, hi guys! Just gunning down the mephits spying around town," he says proudly. With that, his arrow scores on a "fiery bat" some 1000' distant, the target dropping out of the sky like a stone. "My magic bow lets me shoot anything I can see clearly, regardless of range!" he adds with a grin on his face. The group talks with Stephanos and Jasmine in the Displacer, where they spend the night without further incident -- Jasmine setting the charmed/influenced/enslaved/love-besotted monk, Luthor, to guard the party.
