The Challenge to Become King
Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, who is the last Vale Elf
Eurydice, Aurora's faerie dragon familiar
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, who is the last Vale Elf
Eurydice, Aurora's faerie dragon familiar
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem
Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster
Grax Thunderhorn, the Lightfoot Halfling Assassin with a voice in his head
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world
Grax Thunderhorn, the Lightfoot Halfling Assassin with a voice in his head
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world
Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated
Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion
Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.
Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.
Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.
***** Lacysnows 21, CY 710, Jotsplat
Around midday, the dwarves came to get us from the quarters they'd taken us to the night before. A group of stewards came to clean us up first, putting Vish, Dervish, and I in dwarven half plate. It was absurdly uncomfortable, ridiculously heavy, and moving was difficult. Dervish and Vish looked absolutely ridiculous in theirs, they weren't as bulky in their chests as dwarves were; I laughed my ass off when I saw them. I fared a little better, thanks to my significant endowments.
Eventually, they led us back to the council chambers, and Cyrrik and Stonefist- the naked monk- began debating who was the rightful king. Stonefist's argument was basically that he should be king because it's his clan's turn. The Goldmattocks had reigned for hundreds of years, with the Stonefists standing by their side, and it was time for the table to turn. The council pointed out that lineage was always determined by the axe Cyrrik had, and they had to change the system when it vanished with Cyrrik. Now that Cyrrik was back, they said he had a much more ancient claim to the throne than Stonefist did.
Stonefist was not pleased with the council's response- not surprisingly. He suggested they throw Cyrrik in the pit to test his ability to defend the kingdom. Apparently, this pit was said to be the gateway to the tarrasque. Cyrrik readily agreed to the challenge. Instead of putting Cyrrik through this test, they decided to dismiss everyone and convene privately to debate what to do. They'd have an answer for us by sunset. This was fucking ridiculous.
I took the opportunity to speak to Stonefist, and he swore to me that he would help Potidaea if he was crowned- so we'd have aid no matter who got crowned. Stonefist knew what we needed to get to the tarrasque, so he went to get that while we changed into armor that actually fucking fit.
While we waited for Stonefist, I checked in with Briisa. The barbarians hadn't started attacking yet, they were just standing there like they were waiting for something. They had a shitload of siege weapons though, so things would not be good when they finally did decide to attack.
When we met back up with Stonefist, he had a statuette of Moardin from the temple, and when he touched it to the wall it melded into it. A visage of Moradin appeared briefly before a hallway appeared behind it. What Stonefist had just done was considered desecration and he'd be banished for it; guess that cemented Cyrrik as the king.
We walked for six fucking hours before Stonefist did something to speed us up a little bit. This was taking for-fucking-ever. Eventually, we reached a huge metal gate covered in some of the most powerful containment runes to ever exist. It was a rune puzzle. I contacted Allysandra for help, but apparently, I'm not very good at getting directions. I had Dervish give her better directions, but she couldn't get to us now. They'd found the door we'd opened and were in the process of reapplying the wards... which could lock us out. Asshole dwarves.
Cyrrick and Stonefist began working on the puzzle together, hoping that their royal blood would help them or something. Suddenly, Vish was hit hard by something... I think it was Pimbin again. I never liked that fucking halfling. Cyrrik began glowing with an ethereal shield, while we looked around for the little fucker. Vish saw him briefly and managed to land a blow. Then he seemed to vanish until Dervish spotted him, and he did something that put Dervish in a frenzy of sorts. I still couldn't see him. A shot hit Cyrrik, followed by a blast of thunder, which slammed Stonefist into the door.
The stupid halfling was working with the damned Gunslinger, who appeared, standing right fucking next to me. I hit him with faerie fire to keep him from hiding again, but the fucker extinguished it instantly. I hate this fucking guy. Cyrrik charges him and began beating the Hells out of time, though the fuckhole seemed to resist most of it. The Gunslinger pulled out a stick and snapped it, shrouding himself in smoke- which Cyrrik and I were also stuck in.
An eerie, blood-chilling giggle rang out and the smoke dissipated. Sil- her eyes black and skin white- appeared and sent the Gunslinger flying into the puzzle door. Creepy ass tendrils of blood were coming from the Gunslinger, and Sil sent them to find the stupid halfling too. Pimbin was so terrified of her blood magic he stopped trying to hide as he fled the terrifying child.
Blood began freely pouring out of the Gunslinger as he screamed in agony. Stonefist looked rightfully grossed out and disturbed. Sil snagged Pimbin and began working on him; then she spent the next five minutes slowly draining the gunslinger before flinging him away.
The gears on the door began to shift and the door swung open, revealing the ruins of an ancient city... the same fucking city we were just in activating the fucking Beacon. Apparently, this place was fucking enormous, since we didn't see a fucking tarrasque lurking when we were here earlier.
Stonefist decided we needed to get drunk and loud to announce our presence, and he pulled out a cask of ale- I don't know where he was storing that. Everything went quiet after we made our presence known, and then a rune exploded. Then a fucking pit fiend appeared.
Dervish sent his bunny at it first, and the bunny kicked it hard enough to stumbled. Dervish and Vish followed up with sword hacks of their own at the fiend. Cyrrik was hacking into it well with his axe, and Stonefist- not wanting to be outdone by Cyrrik- began punching the fuck out of it. The Sil pointed her creepy staff, that looked like it was made from humanoid flesh, at it and told it to sit; and it fucking listened. Then she told it to die and it turned to dust; the dust began swirling around and took on a new form: a Balor.
The balor popped up right in front of me and grappled me with its whip before yanking me closer to it. Dervish and Vish went for it, and with a flick of its wrist, the balor slammed me right into Vish. As Cyrrik and Stonefist began attacking it, Sil wished it would become its true form... the tarrasque. She giggled in terrifying glee.
Stonefist ran in terror from the tarrasque- guess he's not up to the challenge of being king. The beast swallowed Dervish whole. Vish, Bunny, and Cyrrik all began hacking into it. I used my Shadow Twin from my Lolth blade, and we both began hacking at it, using both of our Moonblades. It bit Vish and swallowed before slashing at my Twin with its claws. As Cyrrik hacked into it, it bit him and swallowed him up too. Leaving only Sil and I outside of it- well, Stonefist too, but he ran like a little bitch. Oh and the Bunny, who was the next one to be eaten
My twin and I slashed at it over and over, in perfect unison, trying to destroy the tarrasque on our own. At one point, Sil appeared between us and it, got covered in the tarrasque's blood, and vanished again. She was definitely up to something. I just hoped I'd be able to keep the beast at bay until she could set her creepy plan into motion. After what felt like forever, Stonefist finally grew a pair and came back, and began punching the tarrasque right in the ass. He hit it in the asshole just right with a quivering palm, and diarrhea shot out of it, covering Stonefist completely, and ejecting Dervish and Vish.
Just as I hit it with a particularly hard hit, it began jerking and clawing at its face, like it was trying to rip its own throat out. Then Bunny and Cyrrik went flying out its mouth, my Twin's head exploded, the tarrasque puked blood, and Sil came out with it. I knew she'd come up with something amazing and disturbing to help.
The tarrasque turned to flee us, but we all used dimension doors to catch up to it and continue our assault. Stonefist jumped right up onto its nose and punched it right in the eye. It began to list to the side at that, so Cyrrik jumped on its head and started hacking at its neck, while Stonefist continued punching it in the eye. Cyrrik severed its head, which went flying, with Stonefist still on the nose.
We spent the next couple of hours sorting through the treasures that were inside the beast. We found a couple of things that led me to freeing Eurydice as my familiar so she could become a warlock. While we were all talking and sorting through everything, Stonefist left using a Well of Many Worlds we'd found. He knew he'd be exiled for what he'd done to get us to the tarrasque, so he didn't see a need to stick around, I guess.
***** Lacysnows 22, Jotsplat
We eventually transported ourselves back to where we'd come from, but something was off. Andolin told Pharin there was a very powerful psychic nearby. Allysandra was disoriented like she wasn't sure if Dervish was real. He, being the dumbass he was, decided to pinch her to prove himself as real, and she punched him. Sil wished that she had the psychic powers of whatever was causing this offness and that whoever was doing it was no longer psychic. Things cleared up, and we realized everything was just a little fuzzy around the edges.
Then Sil wished we were resistant to Vecna- the mind of a child is damned brilliant sometimes; none of us would have ever thought of that. She also wished for Pimbin and the Gunslinger's blood- which we're pretty sure killed both of them. Good fucking riddance.
We were ushered into the council's chambers after that, where they started going off about protocol. One of the council members said Cyrrik had proven his strength and power by destroying the fucking tarrasque. Another asked him how he'd weed out the followers of Vecna in the surface town without causing an uproar. Cyrrik demonstrated with holy water and explained the ritual we'd done. Then Sil got blood from that dwarf, put a bloody handprint on Cyrrik's head, and briefly melded with him. Which led to everyone who wasn't on the council or with us to be kicked out of the council's chambers. Fucking dwarves.
We explained to them the situation with the cult and reminded them of the attack on Potidaea. Then Lothar walked in- but it wasn't actually him. Cyrrik noticed a hand poking out of his pocket and chucked an axe at him, killing him. That Lothar had passed the council's test and managed to get past them. At that point, they wanted a private meeting and kicked the rest of us out. I tried to have Eurydice stay there to watch, but it kinda backfired and I had to revivify her... Maybe freeing her wasn't the best idea.
While we waited for the asshat council, a guard came down and told us the surface village had been destroyed and an army was now standing at the foot of the mountain stronghold the dwarves inhabited. Cyrrik busted into the council chamber and found them all screaming at each other. He slammed his axe onto the table, making a loud gong ring throughout the room. Cyrrik and the dwarf who seemed to be the council leader agreed that this beaurocratic bullshit needed to end right the fuck now, and they needed to make him king right away. One dwarf objected, and the council leader killed him, then asked if there were any other objections to Cyrrik assuming the crown. Four idiots raised their hands and Cyrrik chucked his axe, killing them all instantly.
Cyrrik demanded they summon the war council. The high priest of Moradin hurried into the room at that point and said he needed to come with him. We were led to a large, sealed door with an axe-like imprint on it. Cyrrik put the axe into the imprint and it opened, revealing thousands of terracotta soldiers. He activated them right away, and we were then led to the parade grounds. On the way, I did a sending to Briisa to check in; the barbarians hadn't attacked yet, it seemed like they were waiting for something- which was honestly more worrisome to me than if they'd just attacked right away.
Dervish had apparently been off contacting Aerathema for his army- and she was pissed at him about the Vale. He told us the army outside was made of volcanic ash. Dervish wanted to do sendings to every major city to see how far this thing spread, so I rattled off the names of every major city on the continent. While he was occupied, Cyrrik and I were taken to a balcony that overlooked the battlefield... there were thousands of these fucking things. Cyrrik thought water might hurt them, so Aerathema whipped up a storm. Aerathema could see through Pharin's facade but decided to wait to call him out on it, since there were much bigger issues at hand, and they needed the dwarves to cooperate.
While Cyrrik started giving off a speech, I went with Dervish to talk to the warriors. The terra cotta army was currently in the process of surrounding the volcanic army. Such a weird fucking combination- volcanic ash vs. clay. A couple of badly injured dwarves stumbled into the room with a small bone fragment they'd found in one of the ash golems. Cyrrik mended it to give us a better idea of what it was. It was a little bone token with the right hand of Vecna and runes on it- there were exploding runes on the other side, but he managed to catch it before it went off. He tasked the rune master to create a circle to connect that token to all of the others. I think he intended to set them all off at once, to destroy the enemy at once instead of bit by bit.
Pharin received a message that his wizard tower was under attack by flesh golems, he instructed them to evacuate to his location. Then Ralliakkan sent him a message that her group was being attacked by vampires.
Narg and Oryn appeared and told us the cult had found Alucard's body. Because today just couldn't get worse... well, it could, but you know what I mean. Narg went to Potidaea to help Briisa and told us to go find that body. As much as I loathe to admit this, we should have apparently listened to Douchebag when he insisted we find the body. I scryed for Alucard's body and in my crystal ball, Greyhawk was shown smack in the center of the continent, which is not where Greyhawk is on the map.
While Aurora was scrying, Cyrrik used the city's Horn of the Ancestors, summoning spirits to help defend the stronghold. The golems down below began screaming. Then a group of 300 birds- giant eagles and rocs- came swooping in; the Vale Elves had come to help. A grotesque skull appeared in the sky and began cackling, then everything went red. When it vanished the golems began attacking.
I scryed for Greyhawk itself next and a chilling visage appeared in my ball. It was an undead thing, but it wasn't quite like any I'd ever seen before. We needed to get to Greyhawk right the fuck now. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that because of the battle down below us. Our army didn't seem to be doing very well.
Oryn had an idea that would slow down the cult from reviving Alucard, and gathered myself, Cyrrik, Dervish, and Vish in a circle. He shattered into four pieces, and one fragment went into each of us. So since Alucard had fragmented his soul into eight parts, we now each contained 1/4 of the 1/8 of the soul that made up Oryn. I know it's fucking confusing, it doesn't make much sense to me either, but whatever.
The person Dervish had tasked with getting sendings out to all the major city's came back and told us that every major city in Oerth was under siege. The cult was playing hardball now. With that, Dervish hurried to the battlefield to lead his people. Both he and his Bunny turned into brass dragons. A massive purple dragon appeared in the sky- Aerathema- and started laying waste to the volcanic warriors. Then a bunch of balors appeared right in the center of the battlefield and started attacking the golems; Pharin had sent in the balors as fodder.
As our fighters were blown up by the volcanic golems, their fucking souls were being burned out. I prayed to Lolth to take those souls so Vecna couldn't have them. She said she was trying, but she was a little busy at the moment. A meteor swarm rained down over the battlefield; Pharin was using that for demon drop pods.
Dervish had Scottie use his blood to fuel a shield to help protect his army from the friendly fire. Skeletons started coming from somewhere and seemed to be on our side. Another of Alucard's soul fragments was aiding the group.
Then the ground began to rumble and the rain turned to blood.
Around midday, the dwarves came to get us from the quarters they'd taken us to the night before. A group of stewards came to clean us up first, putting Vish, Dervish, and I in dwarven half plate. It was absurdly uncomfortable, ridiculously heavy, and moving was difficult. Dervish and Vish looked absolutely ridiculous in theirs, they weren't as bulky in their chests as dwarves were; I laughed my ass off when I saw them. I fared a little better, thanks to my significant endowments.
Eventually, they led us back to the council chambers, and Cyrrik and Stonefist- the naked monk- began debating who was the rightful king. Stonefist's argument was basically that he should be king because it's his clan's turn. The Goldmattocks had reigned for hundreds of years, with the Stonefists standing by their side, and it was time for the table to turn. The council pointed out that lineage was always determined by the axe Cyrrik had, and they had to change the system when it vanished with Cyrrik. Now that Cyrrik was back, they said he had a much more ancient claim to the throne than Stonefist did.
Stonefist was not pleased with the council's response- not surprisingly. He suggested they throw Cyrrik in the pit to test his ability to defend the kingdom. Apparently, this pit was said to be the gateway to the tarrasque. Cyrrik readily agreed to the challenge. Instead of putting Cyrrik through this test, they decided to dismiss everyone and convene privately to debate what to do. They'd have an answer for us by sunset. This was fucking ridiculous.
I took the opportunity to speak to Stonefist, and he swore to me that he would help Potidaea if he was crowned- so we'd have aid no matter who got crowned. Stonefist knew what we needed to get to the tarrasque, so he went to get that while we changed into armor that actually fucking fit.
While we waited for Stonefist, I checked in with Briisa. The barbarians hadn't started attacking yet, they were just standing there like they were waiting for something. They had a shitload of siege weapons though, so things would not be good when they finally did decide to attack.
When we met back up with Stonefist, he had a statuette of Moardin from the temple, and when he touched it to the wall it melded into it. A visage of Moradin appeared briefly before a hallway appeared behind it. What Stonefist had just done was considered desecration and he'd be banished for it; guess that cemented Cyrrik as the king.
We walked for six fucking hours before Stonefist did something to speed us up a little bit. This was taking for-fucking-ever. Eventually, we reached a huge metal gate covered in some of the most powerful containment runes to ever exist. It was a rune puzzle. I contacted Allysandra for help, but apparently, I'm not very good at getting directions. I had Dervish give her better directions, but she couldn't get to us now. They'd found the door we'd opened and were in the process of reapplying the wards... which could lock us out. Asshole dwarves.
Cyrrick and Stonefist began working on the puzzle together, hoping that their royal blood would help them or something. Suddenly, Vish was hit hard by something... I think it was Pimbin again. I never liked that fucking halfling. Cyrrik began glowing with an ethereal shield, while we looked around for the little fucker. Vish saw him briefly and managed to land a blow. Then he seemed to vanish until Dervish spotted him, and he did something that put Dervish in a frenzy of sorts. I still couldn't see him. A shot hit Cyrrik, followed by a blast of thunder, which slammed Stonefist into the door.
The stupid halfling was working with the damned Gunslinger, who appeared, standing right fucking next to me. I hit him with faerie fire to keep him from hiding again, but the fucker extinguished it instantly. I hate this fucking guy. Cyrrik charges him and began beating the Hells out of time, though the fuckhole seemed to resist most of it. The Gunslinger pulled out a stick and snapped it, shrouding himself in smoke- which Cyrrik and I were also stuck in.
An eerie, blood-chilling giggle rang out and the smoke dissipated. Sil- her eyes black and skin white- appeared and sent the Gunslinger flying into the puzzle door. Creepy ass tendrils of blood were coming from the Gunslinger, and Sil sent them to find the stupid halfling too. Pimbin was so terrified of her blood magic he stopped trying to hide as he fled the terrifying child.
Blood began freely pouring out of the Gunslinger as he screamed in agony. Stonefist looked rightfully grossed out and disturbed. Sil snagged Pimbin and began working on him; then she spent the next five minutes slowly draining the gunslinger before flinging him away.
The gears on the door began to shift and the door swung open, revealing the ruins of an ancient city... the same fucking city we were just in activating the fucking Beacon. Apparently, this place was fucking enormous, since we didn't see a fucking tarrasque lurking when we were here earlier.
Stonefist decided we needed to get drunk and loud to announce our presence, and he pulled out a cask of ale- I don't know where he was storing that. Everything went quiet after we made our presence known, and then a rune exploded. Then a fucking pit fiend appeared.
Dervish sent his bunny at it first, and the bunny kicked it hard enough to stumbled. Dervish and Vish followed up with sword hacks of their own at the fiend. Cyrrik was hacking into it well with his axe, and Stonefist- not wanting to be outdone by Cyrrik- began punching the fuck out of it. The Sil pointed her creepy staff, that looked like it was made from humanoid flesh, at it and told it to sit; and it fucking listened. Then she told it to die and it turned to dust; the dust began swirling around and took on a new form: a Balor.
The balor popped up right in front of me and grappled me with its whip before yanking me closer to it. Dervish and Vish went for it, and with a flick of its wrist, the balor slammed me right into Vish. As Cyrrik and Stonefist began attacking it, Sil wished it would become its true form... the tarrasque. She giggled in terrifying glee.
Stonefist ran in terror from the tarrasque- guess he's not up to the challenge of being king. The beast swallowed Dervish whole. Vish, Bunny, and Cyrrik all began hacking into it. I used my Shadow Twin from my Lolth blade, and we both began hacking at it, using both of our Moonblades. It bit Vish and swallowed before slashing at my Twin with its claws. As Cyrrik hacked into it, it bit him and swallowed him up too. Leaving only Sil and I outside of it- well, Stonefist too, but he ran like a little bitch. Oh and the Bunny, who was the next one to be eaten
My twin and I slashed at it over and over, in perfect unison, trying to destroy the tarrasque on our own. At one point, Sil appeared between us and it, got covered in the tarrasque's blood, and vanished again. She was definitely up to something. I just hoped I'd be able to keep the beast at bay until she could set her creepy plan into motion. After what felt like forever, Stonefist finally grew a pair and came back, and began punching the tarrasque right in the ass. He hit it in the asshole just right with a quivering palm, and diarrhea shot out of it, covering Stonefist completely, and ejecting Dervish and Vish.
Just as I hit it with a particularly hard hit, it began jerking and clawing at its face, like it was trying to rip its own throat out. Then Bunny and Cyrrik went flying out its mouth, my Twin's head exploded, the tarrasque puked blood, and Sil came out with it. I knew she'd come up with something amazing and disturbing to help.
The tarrasque turned to flee us, but we all used dimension doors to catch up to it and continue our assault. Stonefist jumped right up onto its nose and punched it right in the eye. It began to list to the side at that, so Cyrrik jumped on its head and started hacking at its neck, while Stonefist continued punching it in the eye. Cyrrik severed its head, which went flying, with Stonefist still on the nose.
We spent the next couple of hours sorting through the treasures that were inside the beast. We found a couple of things that led me to freeing Eurydice as my familiar so she could become a warlock. While we were all talking and sorting through everything, Stonefist left using a Well of Many Worlds we'd found. He knew he'd be exiled for what he'd done to get us to the tarrasque, so he didn't see a need to stick around, I guess.
***** Lacysnows 22, Jotsplat
We eventually transported ourselves back to where we'd come from, but something was off. Andolin told Pharin there was a very powerful psychic nearby. Allysandra was disoriented like she wasn't sure if Dervish was real. He, being the dumbass he was, decided to pinch her to prove himself as real, and she punched him. Sil wished that she had the psychic powers of whatever was causing this offness and that whoever was doing it was no longer psychic. Things cleared up, and we realized everything was just a little fuzzy around the edges.
Then Sil wished we were resistant to Vecna- the mind of a child is damned brilliant sometimes; none of us would have ever thought of that. She also wished for Pimbin and the Gunslinger's blood- which we're pretty sure killed both of them. Good fucking riddance.
We were ushered into the council's chambers after that, where they started going off about protocol. One of the council members said Cyrrik had proven his strength and power by destroying the fucking tarrasque. Another asked him how he'd weed out the followers of Vecna in the surface town without causing an uproar. Cyrrik demonstrated with holy water and explained the ritual we'd done. Then Sil got blood from that dwarf, put a bloody handprint on Cyrrik's head, and briefly melded with him. Which led to everyone who wasn't on the council or with us to be kicked out of the council's chambers. Fucking dwarves.
We explained to them the situation with the cult and reminded them of the attack on Potidaea. Then Lothar walked in- but it wasn't actually him. Cyrrik noticed a hand poking out of his pocket and chucked an axe at him, killing him. That Lothar had passed the council's test and managed to get past them. At that point, they wanted a private meeting and kicked the rest of us out. I tried to have Eurydice stay there to watch, but it kinda backfired and I had to revivify her... Maybe freeing her wasn't the best idea.
While we waited for the asshat council, a guard came down and told us the surface village had been destroyed and an army was now standing at the foot of the mountain stronghold the dwarves inhabited. Cyrrik busted into the council chamber and found them all screaming at each other. He slammed his axe onto the table, making a loud gong ring throughout the room. Cyrrik and the dwarf who seemed to be the council leader agreed that this beaurocratic bullshit needed to end right the fuck now, and they needed to make him king right away. One dwarf objected, and the council leader killed him, then asked if there were any other objections to Cyrrik assuming the crown. Four idiots raised their hands and Cyrrik chucked his axe, killing them all instantly.
Cyrrik demanded they summon the war council. The high priest of Moradin hurried into the room at that point and said he needed to come with him. We were led to a large, sealed door with an axe-like imprint on it. Cyrrik put the axe into the imprint and it opened, revealing thousands of terracotta soldiers. He activated them right away, and we were then led to the parade grounds. On the way, I did a sending to Briisa to check in; the barbarians hadn't attacked yet, it seemed like they were waiting for something- which was honestly more worrisome to me than if they'd just attacked right away.
Dervish had apparently been off contacting Aerathema for his army- and she was pissed at him about the Vale. He told us the army outside was made of volcanic ash. Dervish wanted to do sendings to every major city to see how far this thing spread, so I rattled off the names of every major city on the continent. While he was occupied, Cyrrik and I were taken to a balcony that overlooked the battlefield... there were thousands of these fucking things. Cyrrik thought water might hurt them, so Aerathema whipped up a storm. Aerathema could see through Pharin's facade but decided to wait to call him out on it, since there were much bigger issues at hand, and they needed the dwarves to cooperate.
While Cyrrik started giving off a speech, I went with Dervish to talk to the warriors. The terra cotta army was currently in the process of surrounding the volcanic army. Such a weird fucking combination- volcanic ash vs. clay. A couple of badly injured dwarves stumbled into the room with a small bone fragment they'd found in one of the ash golems. Cyrrik mended it to give us a better idea of what it was. It was a little bone token with the right hand of Vecna and runes on it- there were exploding runes on the other side, but he managed to catch it before it went off. He tasked the rune master to create a circle to connect that token to all of the others. I think he intended to set them all off at once, to destroy the enemy at once instead of bit by bit.
Pharin received a message that his wizard tower was under attack by flesh golems, he instructed them to evacuate to his location. Then Ralliakkan sent him a message that her group was being attacked by vampires.
Narg and Oryn appeared and told us the cult had found Alucard's body. Because today just couldn't get worse... well, it could, but you know what I mean. Narg went to Potidaea to help Briisa and told us to go find that body. As much as I loathe to admit this, we should have apparently listened to Douchebag when he insisted we find the body. I scryed for Alucard's body and in my crystal ball, Greyhawk was shown smack in the center of the continent, which is not where Greyhawk is on the map.
While Aurora was scrying, Cyrrik used the city's Horn of the Ancestors, summoning spirits to help defend the stronghold. The golems down below began screaming. Then a group of 300 birds- giant eagles and rocs- came swooping in; the Vale Elves had come to help. A grotesque skull appeared in the sky and began cackling, then everything went red. When it vanished the golems began attacking.
I scryed for Greyhawk itself next and a chilling visage appeared in my ball. It was an undead thing, but it wasn't quite like any I'd ever seen before. We needed to get to Greyhawk right the fuck now. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that because of the battle down below us. Our army didn't seem to be doing very well.
Oryn had an idea that would slow down the cult from reviving Alucard, and gathered myself, Cyrrik, Dervish, and Vish in a circle. He shattered into four pieces, and one fragment went into each of us. So since Alucard had fragmented his soul into eight parts, we now each contained 1/4 of the 1/8 of the soul that made up Oryn. I know it's fucking confusing, it doesn't make much sense to me either, but whatever.
The person Dervish had tasked with getting sendings out to all the major city's came back and told us that every major city in Oerth was under siege. The cult was playing hardball now. With that, Dervish hurried to the battlefield to lead his people. Both he and his Bunny turned into brass dragons. A massive purple dragon appeared in the sky- Aerathema- and started laying waste to the volcanic warriors. Then a bunch of balors appeared right in the center of the battlefield and started attacking the golems; Pharin had sent in the balors as fodder.
As our fighters were blown up by the volcanic golems, their fucking souls were being burned out. I prayed to Lolth to take those souls so Vecna couldn't have them. She said she was trying, but she was a little busy at the moment. A meteor swarm rained down over the battlefield; Pharin was using that for demon drop pods.
Dervish had Scottie use his blood to fuel a shield to help protect his army from the friendly fire. Skeletons started coming from somewhere and seemed to be on our side. Another of Alucard's soul fragments was aiding the group.
Then the ground began to rumble and the rain turned to blood.
 |
| Map by Anna B. Meyer |
No comments:
Post a Comment