Post by David on Aug 11, 2008 12:41:30 GMT -5
On the morning of the 26th, the heroes (Dion, Clanndennagh, Marc, Mikhail with Samhain, Sky, Cliffy, Dajamira, Moonlight with Quicksilver) set out from Klarr for Nulb and the Temple of Elemental Evil. The idea was to skirt the town and go directly to the temple, but to arrive there it would be a hard three days walk over densely forested hills. Joining the group was a small female gnome, "Pepper", whose brother had been slaughtered by the roving bands of Norsk bandits the heroes had earlier disbanded. During the hike, Marc came upon the trail of the wolf pack he and Mikhail had been following earlier; the beastmaster broke away from the rest of the group in order to meet up with animals in the hopes of gaining a new wolf companion.
It was a beautiful, sunny fall day that passed without incident. Clouds started to roll in as the sunset and the party camped around a fire, Mikhail using Cliffy's ring to turn himself invisible. At one point Clanndennagh felt the heroes being scried, so he and Mikhail put up mind blanks and nothing more happened. A few hours before dawn, while Sky and Mikhail were on watch, a group of nine bugbears attacked the party. The fire snake sounded an alarm and no one was seriously wounded before the party go to their feet. Unfortunately, more bugbear followed the first group, drawn to the calls of their fellows, the sound of combat, and the light of the party's magical weapons and continual light stone.
After Dion held three of the assailants, the last one decided discretion over death, grabbed the downed form of Pepper, and bolted. Daj and Samhain gave chase as another group sprang at the heroes. Clanndennagh proved quite adroit in battle, using his new psionic discipline of enhanced strength, combined with his accelerate and life-sword to slaughtered many of the cave-goblins. Moonlight also charmed one bugbear, telling it to surrender, which it did. Unfortunately, poor Sky was wounded in the melee, many of her ribs broken. But ultimately, the heroes were triumphant with dozens of bugbears scattered at their feet. Daj and Sammy were having trouble, but Cliffy charged to her rescue, followed later by Mikhail and Clanndennagh. Pepper was saved and the party questioned the charmed bugbear, later sending it back to Klarr "to kiss the White Witch there".
Unfortunately, the attack interrupted Cliffy and Daj's sleep, so the mages needed to sleep in in order to regain their spells, thus the group lost a half-day on the road. A man approached while they rested. He was a traveler from the South Province, on his was to avenge his parent's murder. The man, Bane, had a single clue -- a burning eye branded into his father and mother's dead flesh. After being empathically checked out by Mikhail, the group welcome the Medegian into their ranks. Soon afterward, Marc and his new dire wolf, King, as well as a giant crow, and a regular hawk also rejoined the group. They sensed someone watching them again the next day, but nothing more came of it after Clanndennagh used mind blank and Mikhail time-shifted.
Around midday on the 28th, the group came across a large clearing of slaughtered orcs, ogres, and humans as well horses. Most of the humans appeared to be clerics, wearing blood-stained white robes and bearing a leering skull. The majority had been killed by blunt trauma, although a few fell to arrows. The heroes searched the corpses, but they had already been picked over. Also present were the bodies of several gnolls and flinds, as well as the footprints of giants. The heroes continued to another clearing, where they were ambushed by three hill giants, two stone giants (one of which was rather hairy), eight gnoll bowmen, and four flinds!
Dion was stunned immediately, with arrows raining into the party. Two giant boulders fell to either side of platemail-clad Pepper. Cliffy got off a haste on Daj, Marc, and all the animals (much to Mikhail's irritation) -- Clanndennagh, meanwhile, also initiated his accelerate power. Moonlight used an entangle on the tall grasses to slow down the gnolls and flinds, but the giants were unhampered, luckily a psionic blast from Mikhail took them and most of the other gnolls out as well.
Marc got off to a great start, killing one hill giant after the animals wounded it. Daj was having trouble with another, but Clanndennagh joined her. At that point, the one stone giant using boulders nearly killed Moonlight with a single hit. That's when the mephits arrived...three fire, one lava, two smoke, and one steam. Clanndennagh made short work of two of the fire mephits while the other one as well as the lava mephit foolishly attack Mikhail, whose new magical pendant offers fire resistance. Unfortunately, his magical item didn't protect the young psi from the mephits cracking several of his ribs and forcing him to avoid direct melee. Marc, meanwhile, was caught in smoke from his foes and blinded by the vapors. Quicksilver and Pepper fought the steam mephit to save Moonlight, already downed. While the heroes had taken out the three hill giants and most of the gnolls with little problem, the stone giants and mephits proved far more difficult.
A flind disarmed Daj, only to learn of the half-dryad's tiger-style martial arts. Clanndennagh was badly wounded, but hacked through most of the remaining mephits. Sammy took out most of the remaining flinds and gnolls, confident in their inability to disarm him! Miraculously, Pepper, with the help of some magic missiles from Cliffy, finished his first steam mephit, although not before it summoned a friend! If it were for the gnome's phantom armor surely she would have died many times! Meanwhile, Marc and the animals were battling for their lives against the one stone giant who did not throw boulders.
Marc finally went down, badly concussed and bleeding from a near-mortal wound. Mikhail couldn't manage to keep the stone giant psionically busy with all the mephits on him, so he time-shifted away. Daj used the opportunity to fork a lightning bolt to catch the three of them AND the stone giant. The bolt crisped the giant and seriously wounded the mephits. Bane stepped up and sunk arrows into the remaining elemental imps, killing one of the fire mephits. By the this point too, Clanndennagh had killed the smoke mephits but was barely on his feet. Dion, Daj, and Mikhail were in similar shape with the lava mephit chasing a fleeing Bane across the battlefield. Sky charged to the rescue, distracting the last stone giant from Marc and Clanndennagh, although it did pulp the hawk and strike down the giant raven.
Unfortunately, Sky's venom did nothing to this nearly-unharmed stone giant. Two strikes forced the fire snake from combat, but gave Dajamira a chance to drink her potion of extra-healing, regain her scimitar, get an aid from Dion and quaff her half potion of storm giant strength (nice haste, just please don't do it again!
. Clanndennagh recovered Marc's ring and gave it to the ranger as well, who then charged the stone giant.
One hit seriously wounded the joten and it missed in return. It's life force flowed into the half-dryad thanks to Marc's magic ring and Dajamira pressed her attack, splitting the giant open...only to have a smaller hill giant step out of the flesh "shell" Dajamira had "killed". Mikhail suddenly understood why he had such a hard time mental assaulting this stone giant -- it wasn't one!
Mikhail and Dion tended to the wounded. Sammy joined Daj, Sky, and Clanndennagh (too brave for his own good, although the half-dryad convinced both to "let her handle it"). The giant gave way to a verbeeg (that killed the giant crow out of spite), which in turn gave way to an ogre that nearly killed Sky! Now the creature's forms were falling away fast -- a bugbear, a gnoll, a hobgoblin, an orc, a goblin. Finally, when Daj split the kobold in two, an imp flew out, taunting the party that it would simply escape. The creature seemed all but immune to weapons, when Clanndennagh (now somewhat stronger and back in the fight thanks to Moonlight's goodberries) hacked it down.
The imp disappeared, but the heroes kept striking, Mikhail mentally confusing the creature again and giving the others a chance to strike before it fled. Clanndennagh hit again, his life-sword slicing the creature into small chunks. Cliffy gathered the bits and Mikhail stuffed the wrapped body into his bag of holding.
Clanndennagh and Mikhail set about psionically healing the party and Dion and Moonlight exhausted their spells. Marc was badly concussed and no one was in great shape. The heroes rested for a while, until they felt they were again being watched. The group moved about a mile down the path and rested again as sunset. Five more gnolls and a pair of flinds tracked them to this new location, but were quickly dispatched. Daj caught one gnoll and one flind in a web spell, but the heroes couldn't reach the creatures without lighting up the webs and risking burning the forest. Mikhail calmly said he'd take care of it -- suddenly the gnoll's head exploded into a haze of red amid the sticky strands. The flind begged to mercy -- in exchange for information, he only asked to live.
Using Mikhail's empathy to determine the truth, the heroes learned that the gnolls, flinds, and giants were also from the Temple. They were supposed to kill the party if they could, but otherwise drive them back to the temple toward the assassins waiting there. The flind knew none of the killers but one -- a half-orc "bully" named Omega...
The party sent the flind on his way to Klarr too. The heroes went back to sleep, anxious about the news they'd learned. Just before midnight, a disc of darkness appeared in the air while Moonlight and Dajamira were on watch. Suddenly the wind began blowing fiercely all about the campsite. Pepper, already having trouble sleeping, sprang up and sounded the alarm while Daj interposed herself between the disc and where she knew Mikhail slumbered under the cover of his cloak of elvenkind.
Amazingly the half-dryad hit the aerial servant, which nearly killed her in a single counter-attack. Mikhail time-shifted and the heroes attacked the air elemental. In less than a minute, the combined fighting might of Marc, Clanndennagh, Dajamira, and Moonlight disrupted the creature. Mikhail used the last of his mental strength to heal the wounded and the party went to sleep again on the last day of October...
It was a beautiful, sunny fall day that passed without incident. Clouds started to roll in as the sunset and the party camped around a fire, Mikhail using Cliffy's ring to turn himself invisible. At one point Clanndennagh felt the heroes being scried, so he and Mikhail put up mind blanks and nothing more happened. A few hours before dawn, while Sky and Mikhail were on watch, a group of nine bugbears attacked the party. The fire snake sounded an alarm and no one was seriously wounded before the party go to their feet. Unfortunately, more bugbear followed the first group, drawn to the calls of their fellows, the sound of combat, and the light of the party's magical weapons and continual light stone.
After Dion held three of the assailants, the last one decided discretion over death, grabbed the downed form of Pepper, and bolted. Daj and Samhain gave chase as another group sprang at the heroes. Clanndennagh proved quite adroit in battle, using his new psionic discipline of enhanced strength, combined with his accelerate and life-sword to slaughtered many of the cave-goblins. Moonlight also charmed one bugbear, telling it to surrender, which it did. Unfortunately, poor Sky was wounded in the melee, many of her ribs broken. But ultimately, the heroes were triumphant with dozens of bugbears scattered at their feet. Daj and Sammy were having trouble, but Cliffy charged to her rescue, followed later by Mikhail and Clanndennagh. Pepper was saved and the party questioned the charmed bugbear, later sending it back to Klarr "to kiss the White Witch there".
Unfortunately, the attack interrupted Cliffy and Daj's sleep, so the mages needed to sleep in in order to regain their spells, thus the group lost a half-day on the road. A man approached while they rested. He was a traveler from the South Province, on his was to avenge his parent's murder. The man, Bane, had a single clue -- a burning eye branded into his father and mother's dead flesh. After being empathically checked out by Mikhail, the group welcome the Medegian into their ranks. Soon afterward, Marc and his new dire wolf, King, as well as a giant crow, and a regular hawk also rejoined the group. They sensed someone watching them again the next day, but nothing more came of it after Clanndennagh used mind blank and Mikhail time-shifted.
Around midday on the 28th, the group came across a large clearing of slaughtered orcs, ogres, and humans as well horses. Most of the humans appeared to be clerics, wearing blood-stained white robes and bearing a leering skull. The majority had been killed by blunt trauma, although a few fell to arrows. The heroes searched the corpses, but they had already been picked over. Also present were the bodies of several gnolls and flinds, as well as the footprints of giants. The heroes continued to another clearing, where they were ambushed by three hill giants, two stone giants (one of which was rather hairy), eight gnoll bowmen, and four flinds!
Dion was stunned immediately, with arrows raining into the party. Two giant boulders fell to either side of platemail-clad Pepper. Cliffy got off a haste on Daj, Marc, and all the animals (much to Mikhail's irritation) -- Clanndennagh, meanwhile, also initiated his accelerate power. Moonlight used an entangle on the tall grasses to slow down the gnolls and flinds, but the giants were unhampered, luckily a psionic blast from Mikhail took them and most of the other gnolls out as well.
Marc got off to a great start, killing one hill giant after the animals wounded it. Daj was having trouble with another, but Clanndennagh joined her. At that point, the one stone giant using boulders nearly killed Moonlight with a single hit. That's when the mephits arrived...three fire, one lava, two smoke, and one steam. Clanndennagh made short work of two of the fire mephits while the other one as well as the lava mephit foolishly attack Mikhail, whose new magical pendant offers fire resistance. Unfortunately, his magical item didn't protect the young psi from the mephits cracking several of his ribs and forcing him to avoid direct melee. Marc, meanwhile, was caught in smoke from his foes and blinded by the vapors. Quicksilver and Pepper fought the steam mephit to save Moonlight, already downed. While the heroes had taken out the three hill giants and most of the gnolls with little problem, the stone giants and mephits proved far more difficult.
A flind disarmed Daj, only to learn of the half-dryad's tiger-style martial arts. Clanndennagh was badly wounded, but hacked through most of the remaining mephits. Sammy took out most of the remaining flinds and gnolls, confident in their inability to disarm him! Miraculously, Pepper, with the help of some magic missiles from Cliffy, finished his first steam mephit, although not before it summoned a friend! If it were for the gnome's phantom armor surely she would have died many times! Meanwhile, Marc and the animals were battling for their lives against the one stone giant who did not throw boulders.
Marc finally went down, badly concussed and bleeding from a near-mortal wound. Mikhail couldn't manage to keep the stone giant psionically busy with all the mephits on him, so he time-shifted away. Daj used the opportunity to fork a lightning bolt to catch the three of them AND the stone giant. The bolt crisped the giant and seriously wounded the mephits. Bane stepped up and sunk arrows into the remaining elemental imps, killing one of the fire mephits. By the this point too, Clanndennagh had killed the smoke mephits but was barely on his feet. Dion, Daj, and Mikhail were in similar shape with the lava mephit chasing a fleeing Bane across the battlefield. Sky charged to the rescue, distracting the last stone giant from Marc and Clanndennagh, although it did pulp the hawk and strike down the giant raven.
Unfortunately, Sky's venom did nothing to this nearly-unharmed stone giant. Two strikes forced the fire snake from combat, but gave Dajamira a chance to drink her potion of extra-healing, regain her scimitar, get an aid from Dion and quaff her half potion of storm giant strength (nice haste, just please don't do it again!
. Clanndennagh recovered Marc's ring and gave it to the ranger as well, who then charged the stone giant.One hit seriously wounded the joten and it missed in return. It's life force flowed into the half-dryad thanks to Marc's magic ring and Dajamira pressed her attack, splitting the giant open...only to have a smaller hill giant step out of the flesh "shell" Dajamira had "killed". Mikhail suddenly understood why he had such a hard time mental assaulting this stone giant -- it wasn't one!
Mikhail and Dion tended to the wounded. Sammy joined Daj, Sky, and Clanndennagh (too brave for his own good, although the half-dryad convinced both to "let her handle it"). The giant gave way to a verbeeg (that killed the giant crow out of spite), which in turn gave way to an ogre that nearly killed Sky! Now the creature's forms were falling away fast -- a bugbear, a gnoll, a hobgoblin, an orc, a goblin. Finally, when Daj split the kobold in two, an imp flew out, taunting the party that it would simply escape. The creature seemed all but immune to weapons, when Clanndennagh (now somewhat stronger and back in the fight thanks to Moonlight's goodberries) hacked it down.
The imp disappeared, but the heroes kept striking, Mikhail mentally confusing the creature again and giving the others a chance to strike before it fled. Clanndennagh hit again, his life-sword slicing the creature into small chunks. Cliffy gathered the bits and Mikhail stuffed the wrapped body into his bag of holding.
Clanndennagh and Mikhail set about psionically healing the party and Dion and Moonlight exhausted their spells. Marc was badly concussed and no one was in great shape. The heroes rested for a while, until they felt they were again being watched. The group moved about a mile down the path and rested again as sunset. Five more gnolls and a pair of flinds tracked them to this new location, but were quickly dispatched. Daj caught one gnoll and one flind in a web spell, but the heroes couldn't reach the creatures without lighting up the webs and risking burning the forest. Mikhail calmly said he'd take care of it -- suddenly the gnoll's head exploded into a haze of red amid the sticky strands. The flind begged to mercy -- in exchange for information, he only asked to live.
Using Mikhail's empathy to determine the truth, the heroes learned that the gnolls, flinds, and giants were also from the Temple. They were supposed to kill the party if they could, but otherwise drive them back to the temple toward the assassins waiting there. The flind knew none of the killers but one -- a half-orc "bully" named Omega...
The party sent the flind on his way to Klarr too. The heroes went back to sleep, anxious about the news they'd learned. Just before midnight, a disc of darkness appeared in the air while Moonlight and Dajamira were on watch. Suddenly the wind began blowing fiercely all about the campsite. Pepper, already having trouble sleeping, sprang up and sounded the alarm while Daj interposed herself between the disc and where she knew Mikhail slumbered under the cover of his cloak of elvenkind.
Amazingly the half-dryad hit the aerial servant, which nearly killed her in a single counter-attack. Mikhail time-shifted and the heroes attacked the air elemental. In less than a minute, the combined fighting might of Marc, Clanndennagh, Dajamira, and Moonlight disrupted the creature. Mikhail used the last of his mental strength to heal the wounded and the party went to sleep again on the last day of October...
