Post by David on Aug 29, 2011 21:42:12 GMT -5
Around 7am, Black Robe and Moorak leave Tovag Baragu with Mikhail in order to rescue Saanau, leaving behind to guard the stone circle the rest of the party -- Aris Tradewind, Stefan, Daj, Helga Shieldsmasher, Moonlight, Jamal, and Cedric. About an hour later, a dog came through one of the lintels. Moonlight and Daj communicate with the animal and learn that he's a psionic blink dog from another world named, Shiek. Unfortunately, his blinking around the lintels triggers Tovag Baragu so that a gate to a jungle world opens. On the other side are four koala-like creatures. Two approach the gate, hugging the ground first and taking on a stone-like appearance. Once the creatures arrive, however, a sun dazzle from Moonlight and psionic domination from Shiek takes the fight out of them...
Three hours pass and it's nearly midday. That's when the lintels shift to another jungle world. This time four three-armed creatures squeel and spring to attack the heroes. As the heroes fight back, suddenly, Vertigo herself appears and transforms Moonlight into a lizard. Aris responds with a fire breath which incinerates most of the squeelers, but also seriously wounds Vertigo herself. Unfortunately, it also damages the stones of Tovag Baragu. The response is immediate and dramatic...!
Out of a clear sky, a bolt of lighting nearly incinerates Aris, stunning him instead. The ALL of the gates in the inner ring of lintels activates, with a beholder, a titan, a catablepas, a purple worm, three bullettes, and a T-Rex appearing. Now things get REALLY crazy!
Helga goes after the beholder and wounds it slightly in its central eye. The beholder then shoots its rays around the inner circle, over the course of the battle turning one bullette to stone and disintegrating another. For her part, Helga falls victim to the creature's charm ray. The purple worm tries to swallow Aris, but fails, and the Scarlet Sorcerer uses his carpet to fly out of the circle to safety. Meanwhile, the T-Rex attacks and makes short work of the catablepas. The titan simply leaves.
The heroes try to focus on Vertigo, now trapped on Oerth with the rest. Jamal wounds her again and she teleports to the far side of the battle, taking cover behind the other monsters. A bullette takes out Stefan, leaving him for dead. The T-Rex moves on to bite off one eye stalk after another from the beholder while the purple worm bites and stings Moonlight, Mikhail and Jamal. The Zakharan warrior manages to wound Vertigo, bringing her to the edge of death. Unfortunately, Moonlight can't get to her and is weak from the venom. He passes his spirit fetish to Daj while Shiek tries to blink to the attack and bite her, causing the gates to shift again, this time back to Celene.
Daj tosses her throwing scimitar and slays the Goddess of Insanity, her essence flowing into the spirit fetish. Aris, meanwhile, unleashes a hail of mystic missileswhich slay the last bullette. This leaves just the beholder with the now-charmed T-Rex, purple worm, and Helga...
Jamal drops from the purple worm poison. Stefan is still alive, but slowly bleeding to death. Moonlight is seriously wounded, as is Daj. The half-dryad tries to invoke the spirits to aid the heroes, but unlikely things begin to happen. Meanwhile, however, Cedric is fighting for his life and psionically ego whips the beholder, scaring it back through the gate and to Celene. Without their master, the T-Rex and purple worm behave normally, with the purple worm again attacking the party but the T-Rex kills it. Daj unleashes a lightning bolt while Aris and Shiek finishes it off.
With Vertigo dead and the gate "stuck" on Celene, the heroes spend the rest of that day and the next safe. Recovering from their wounds, the heroes are greeted by Mikhail and now-alive Maedhros, though only briefly. Although Moorak has no interest in seeking Andar's help, the psionic druid still has the means to transport himself as well as Maedhros and Shiek to Eon. He asks the rest of the party to wait a week for his return...
Meanwhile, on Eon, with a bit of convincing from Mikhail, Andar agrees to train Shiek. The empath also convinces Andar to help him rework Maedhros' memories so that the druid can help him with his emotional trauma. Thinking it a challenge (and thanks to some ego-stroking to the most powerful telepath on two worlds from his insightful, empathic student), Andar works for a week with Mikhail's help (and supervision) to subtly shift Maedhros' memories. The result is that the half-elf is still traumatized, but able to deal more effectively with his experiences as a shadow. Andar also leaves active his passivity-trigger, just in case Mikhail needs it (among other things...).
For his part, Shiek organizes a pack of the particularly-intelligent dogs on Eon. They work together to get food from sympathetic humans...or snatch snacks from the unsuspecting. Unfortunately, the pack is too successful, with the Queen Orcs ruthlessly slaughtering over half of them.
Three hours pass and it's nearly midday. That's when the lintels shift to another jungle world. This time four three-armed creatures squeel and spring to attack the heroes. As the heroes fight back, suddenly, Vertigo herself appears and transforms Moonlight into a lizard. Aris responds with a fire breath which incinerates most of the squeelers, but also seriously wounds Vertigo herself. Unfortunately, it also damages the stones of Tovag Baragu. The response is immediate and dramatic...!
Out of a clear sky, a bolt of lighting nearly incinerates Aris, stunning him instead. The ALL of the gates in the inner ring of lintels activates, with a beholder, a titan, a catablepas, a purple worm, three bullettes, and a T-Rex appearing. Now things get REALLY crazy!
Helga goes after the beholder and wounds it slightly in its central eye. The beholder then shoots its rays around the inner circle, over the course of the battle turning one bullette to stone and disintegrating another. For her part, Helga falls victim to the creature's charm ray. The purple worm tries to swallow Aris, but fails, and the Scarlet Sorcerer uses his carpet to fly out of the circle to safety. Meanwhile, the T-Rex attacks and makes short work of the catablepas. The titan simply leaves.
The heroes try to focus on Vertigo, now trapped on Oerth with the rest. Jamal wounds her again and she teleports to the far side of the battle, taking cover behind the other monsters. A bullette takes out Stefan, leaving him for dead. The T-Rex moves on to bite off one eye stalk after another from the beholder while the purple worm bites and stings Moonlight, Mikhail and Jamal. The Zakharan warrior manages to wound Vertigo, bringing her to the edge of death. Unfortunately, Moonlight can't get to her and is weak from the venom. He passes his spirit fetish to Daj while Shiek tries to blink to the attack and bite her, causing the gates to shift again, this time back to Celene.
Daj tosses her throwing scimitar and slays the Goddess of Insanity, her essence flowing into the spirit fetish. Aris, meanwhile, unleashes a hail of mystic missileswhich slay the last bullette. This leaves just the beholder with the now-charmed T-Rex, purple worm, and Helga...
Jamal drops from the purple worm poison. Stefan is still alive, but slowly bleeding to death. Moonlight is seriously wounded, as is Daj. The half-dryad tries to invoke the spirits to aid the heroes, but unlikely things begin to happen. Meanwhile, however, Cedric is fighting for his life and psionically ego whips the beholder, scaring it back through the gate and to Celene. Without their master, the T-Rex and purple worm behave normally, with the purple worm again attacking the party but the T-Rex kills it. Daj unleashes a lightning bolt while Aris and Shiek finishes it off.
With Vertigo dead and the gate "stuck" on Celene, the heroes spend the rest of that day and the next safe. Recovering from their wounds, the heroes are greeted by Mikhail and now-alive Maedhros, though only briefly. Although Moorak has no interest in seeking Andar's help, the psionic druid still has the means to transport himself as well as Maedhros and Shiek to Eon. He asks the rest of the party to wait a week for his return...
Meanwhile, on Eon, with a bit of convincing from Mikhail, Andar agrees to train Shiek. The empath also convinces Andar to help him rework Maedhros' memories so that the druid can help him with his emotional trauma. Thinking it a challenge (and thanks to some ego-stroking to the most powerful telepath on two worlds from his insightful, empathic student), Andar works for a week with Mikhail's help (and supervision) to subtly shift Maedhros' memories. The result is that the half-elf is still traumatized, but able to deal more effectively with his experiences as a shadow. Andar also leaves active his passivity-trigger, just in case Mikhail needs it (among other things...).
For his part, Shiek organizes a pack of the particularly-intelligent dogs on Eon. They work together to get food from sympathetic humans...or snatch snacks from the unsuspecting. Unfortunately, the pack is too successful, with the Queen Orcs ruthlessly slaughtering over half of them.
