We have returned to take down the giant primal earth elemental. It is standing there, waiting for us, and we spread out around it to try to maximize our chances. Chuck is relying on Acid Fog, Jenny is smashing at it with her spiked chain, and Balaam, Ferrous, and Bob stay behind the thing so that Jenny has flanking. We’re essentially fighting a mountain that’s resistant to magic, so our strategy is basically… Jenny. Durest’s job is mostly to keep her alive, though he’s trying to hit it with other things as well.
Jenny finally takes down the elemental.
We have improved.
We head back to town and spend a portion of our considerable party funds buying the sorts of magical books that make us stronger, tougher, smarter, wiser… and then spending some time to benefit from them.
In January we approach Sol Star itself. A figure emerges from the castle and approaches the Parley point. The man introduces himself as Gaiton, the King’s Constable. The King proposes that control of Sol Star be determined by a battle between three of their champions and three of our champions.
Us: "Oh, it is so fucking on. Bring 'em out here!"
The Hierophant is a bit surprised that we’re so eager to do this, but he promises a suitable reward if we take the city for him. They -- Sol Povos -- will send Montaigne, the Chief Priest; Lars Dagan, the King’s champion; and the chief wizard, Mal Zaral. Viggo the whisperer has serious doubts about this plan, and goes to the dungeon to find Vendril/The SIlver Fox. Viggo, along with the bard Dante Alighieri, releases him. “You’ve been smuggling elves out of town?”
“Yes.”
“And I hear you’re very good at it?”
“Yes. Now what?”
“What happens now,” said Viggo, “is you get me the hell out of here.”
Viggo asks for a list of equipment for Vendril, and goes off to finalize his own preparations.
Meanwhile, the champions prepare to face off.
The wraiths and mummies move first, spreading out across the battlefield and approaching Durest’s enemies. Mal Zaral attempts to disintegrate Jenny – twice – and fails, but does some damage. He stops time, and throws a couple of Delayed Blast Fireballs on Durest, Goldilocks the dragon skeleton, and Chuck. The flames batter us, but nobody goes down. Chuck uses Dimension Door to get behind the wizard, and hits him with Finger of Death; Mal Zaral survives, but barely. Chuck casts Greater Invisibility on himself.
Balaam grabs Ferrous and Bob and teleports over to Mal Zaral, and then drops a quickened fireball on the whole group of them. The wizard does have some fire protection on, at least, but he's now surrounded by some fairly heavy hitters.
Father Montaigne drops a Fire Storm on the battlefield, burning through the wraiths and mummies. Durest: “I’m going to need more Black Onyx.” The priest follows up with a flame strike. He follows that up with True Seeing.
Lars Dagan backs away from Jenny, who charges up to the edge of her range, and rips into him with her chain. Bob hits the wizard and mirror images spring up. Ferrous attacks the wizard, but only succeeds in killing two of his images. The wizard casts Maze on Jenny, sending her off the battlefield and into a very annoying extra-dimensional space. He then tries a quickened Disintegrate on Goldilocks, who is destroyed. He then teleports to the far side of the circle.
Chuck throws a quickened fireball after him, and then another, and then follows it up with a meteor swarm. Balaam follows up with another Meteor Swarm on Mal Zaral, and then another quickened fireball. Mal Zaral goes down. Father Montaigne heals Lars Dagan, and then casts Sunbeam at Chuck, burning into him. He then adds a quickened Protection from Fire on himself. Lars charges Tiny Steve and takes a bit of damage on the way in as the titan skeleton slashes at him. He swings his greataxe and damages Tiny Steve.
Jenny is still in the maze. Tiny Steve attacks and does some damage; Chuck uses a quickened Dimension Door to cross the field next to Durest, and hits Lars the Barbarian with Maze; Lars is now also out of the battle. Balaam then carries Bob and Ferrous over to the priest, and drops a fireball to remove the last of his fire resistance. Ferrous and Bob attack, but miss. Father Montaigne drops a quicked protection from fire on himself, then speaks a quickened Holy Word. Balaam is paralyzed, blinded, and deafened. The High Priest then drops a Sunburst on our side of the field. Durest is blinded and damaged, while Tiny Steve is destroyed. Durest uses his Time Stop and then Heals himself and Harms Chuck back to unhealth.
Chuck then tags Montaigne with a Polar Ray, and follows with a quickened Feeblemind which unfortunately fails to affect him. Father Montaigne throws a Sunbeam at Chuck, damaging him, and follows up with a quickened Flame Strike. Durest responds by Harming Chuck to restore him, and throwing a quickened Destruction at Father Montaigne. Chuck teleports over to Balaam and uses a Limited Wish to remove his paralysis. Balaam then uses Wish to bring Jenny back.
Father Montaigne attempts to turn undead, and drives Chuck away; then he drops quickened flame strikes on Durest, who avoids the worst of it and still has some fire protection up; he is undamaged.
Jenny turns to look at the priest. She swing her chain once, casually. Then she lashes out with it… and misses. Bob, however, stands back up, and Balaam is on his feet again. Durest Miracles Balaam back to being able to see and hear, and then drops a flame strike on Ferrous and Father Montaigne. Chuck is turned, and runs away. Balaam follows up with a fireball and a quickened fireball. Balaam then moves around to flank him. Father M does a quickened protection from fire and a quickened flame strike on Durest, then follows with Destruction on Durest and does a bit of damage.
Jenny whips her chain around and finally manages to connect with a ridiculously powerful blow. Combined with the pain feature on her spiked chain, she rips through him and takes him down. He is not dead yet, but he is well on the way. Bob finishes him off.
About ten minutes later, the barbarian Lars reappears and… well… dies.
* * *
Four months later, Tavros wakes up in a stone sarcophagus and promptly shoves his way out. He looks around, and then retrieves Leira and Marshall from their sarcophagi. Leira, of course, is in hysterics; Marshall is… disturbed to wake up in a temple of Helios. "That just don't seem right," he drawls.
We’re in a temple of Helios, and Leira’s screaming has brought the sound of approaching footfalls. This haggard looking priest shows up and makes sounds of surprise. “Just my luck! My first day in charge, and the dead start crawling out of their graves!” Yes... it's Clovis Cloverfield, the one Solari to survive annihilation at Evil!Party's hands during the Battle of Springhollow.
We get him settled down a bit and start asking quesitons. We went to Fanaxia in April of 557, and we have returned in May of 559. No, Vecna hasn’t returned to Midgard. We’re not so much at war with anybody as overrun with demons. There’s a barbarian queen on the throne – “That bear girl” – and… yeah, things are a mess. Tavros discovers that his mother is dead, hanged by rebel elves; the cleric, Cardinal Clovis, suggests that we should either hide here or get out of town. If we want to do this, we should probably talk to this one guy, The Silver Fox. Duke Lamont has taken over Duendewood, and the elf king is missing. Basically, everything is an unholy mess.
…And we will pick up from there.
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