Chapter 34 - Things From the Dark

Quick Summary : the PC's traveled about and found a race that Olla called Forerunners. Apparently they were the stock race of the Illithid slaves. They are where Githyanki and Githzeria came from. Anyway, they found a village, which was having problems with some giant spiders, and they were asked to help. There, a traveling dwarf named Ozzy who had also offered to help (there could be treasure involved, right?), and together they all headed out through a giant spider infested forest to the lair of the beasts. Inside they fought a giant spider creature that unfortunately killed Gorvagio, the troll, with some sort of poison, and injured a few others, but they killed the beast after all. The found a map of the area in some stuff in it's lair. They fetched Queen to cure the troll's poison (from which he sat up and looked around, wondering where the ugly leg thingy went).

Imagine this thing, 30' diameter, 20' high

Upon the map were two points of interest. A "lair of the vivimancer", and an entrance to some underground place. They decided to investigate the lair of the vivimancer in the ruins first. There they had a battle with many mind dead forerunners and an undead illithid which promptly disappeared, after they thought they had killed it. They freed a forerunner shaman from the village and sent the forerunners that were with them home.

They continued to explore the ruins after that. In one building they found a rare basement, and some unopened doors that were psionically charged and zapped anyone who touched them. The goaded Gorvagio into smashing them down, and he ran clear through the room, up a dais and back down the far side before finally stopping, sitting down, and rubbing his feet. Xej discovered that the stairs were also charged as he was zapped. Upon the raised dais, floating in a beam of light, was a strange two pronged staff thing, the prongs being curved inwards slightly. Sorin, flying went and bravely grasped the staff, and the light dimmed. He had the staff. Giving it to Olla to identify, Olla was zapped and said he would be unable to identify since, apparently, it didn't like him. That is where we left off.

Chapter 35 - Down the Tube

Yet another quick summary :

The PC's left the staff to the Paladin (since no one else could touch it without getting zapped), and continued traveling through the ruins. At one point, a trap of sorts was laid by, who the PC's suspect is the Vivimancer, and both Sorin and the Troll were crushed by a falling tower. Very little other damage was done, though the potential was there. Sorin barely survived, and the troll did not. (luckily they unburied him and he got back up and limped away, muttering about not liking evil towers.)

Later they encounter a group led by, what is suspected to be an anti-paladin, riding a huge red dragon, escorted by 6 other fearsome looking warriors, a powerful looking mage, and two other invisible floating warriors. This large party approached (leaving their dragon about 100 feet away as to not strike fear into their hearts, and politely inquired about any maps of the area, or knowledge of a golden ring about 1'6" across. Thorlin said that they had no map or information about such an item, (even though there was a picture of a similar item on their map), and the large party left in peace.

About an hour and a half later, they were again interupted by the violent appearance of Acerack. 'Acerack here?' was the general feeling. Olla and Acerack disappeared in a violent explosion.

They spent the next day searching the ruins, saw the evil party from a distance, but did not get near them. They then returned to the Forerunner village.

From there, they went east, and searched for the marked entrance on their map. They found it, and descended into the 300 foot tube that went straight down. Beneath there they encountered the sunken Illithid city, infested with 9' tall cockroach like creatures. After some fearsome fighting, they managed to find the Queen's nest, and kill her. By that time their were all quite beat up, exausted of spells, and generally tired. They set up camp in a ruined building, and went to sleep.

Chapter 36 - Penumbran Tunnelscape

After resting, they descended into the dark tube. (the troll went first, letting gravity carry him through. He was still conscious when they found him crunched on the floor, 140' below. There they encounted some creatures with no eyes, and large ears, but following my D&D groups standard attitude,the walked around attempting not to interact with anything, unless it was to kill them. They marched right through this area, leaving by means of the first tunnel they come to, that leads away into the underground tunnelscape of Penumbra. A day later they reached another nest of nasties, and killed them all, and then another day later they came to a dead end.

Though there were other ways to go, the party decided to head back, since they felt they had wandered away from the area where this ringlet might be found. When they got back, they found the area destroyed, scorched, and the very rock melted. Something large had come through here, and they followed the hole to yet another bore hole leading straight down. Around this borehole where the inscription, "Arack was here" and a Toril date. The rested, and woke to the smell of smoke coming from the hole. They descended. At the bottom they found themselves in a massive cavern with a floor filled with squirming, fishy purple tentacles. From there the entered an ajoining cavern after passing the smoldering mass of some creatures slain upon the tentacles. They traveled on, they entered another ajoining cavern and found themselves at a T shaped room.

To the left "T" the saw an open door, but as soon as they noticed it, it was closed by two figured who were in it. They immediatly began making plans to enter and slay the dragon, evil knight, and their entourage. As they discussed the intelligence of attacking them outright for no apparent reason, the doors opened and the evil knight strode forth, stopping short after being told to stop by Growly. They said, "What do you want?" After some time of discussion, the story was brought forth in detail. This party were Githyanki. They were here, on a quest to get this powerful item that "could destroy any single entity in the multi-verse", and use it against a machine built by the Illithid, in Astral space, that was going to draw out an alternate universe upon this one, where the Illithid rule everything. So, obviously this threat superceded the PC's party, and so, basically, get the hell out of the way.

The party offered their help, but were refused. They then decided they could use this item against Fate, and with the refusal to get out of the way, the knight left and said in ten minutes they'd be coming out, and if the PC's were still here, they would perish. With 10 minutes to discuss, the PC's began to talk. Xej began casting spells. The party argued for 8 minutes over the decision to take on this evil group. The paladin was the loudest advocate for leaving, as he was not willing to die here for apparently no reason. Thorlin was the loudest advocate for staying and attacking, his mentality being, what does it matter when we die? If we do not die here, it will be at the hands of the Gyshin. Xej said he was not a good decider, because he felt confident in his ability to leave at any time. So if they lost, he would probably still get away. After 8 minutes, surprisingly early, the doors opened. Decision made for them. The doorway stood empty, though everyone still spread out and grabbed at spell components and weapons. Xej was the first to leap into action, a cone of cold blasting from his godly staff into the open doorway. As he did so he said, "Invisible Red Dragon, invisible Red Dragon!" And then things started happening.

Chapter 37 - Confrontation

A rushing blur emerged from the room, moving so fast that it's black endorned armor was simply a black streak. It stopped at Gorvagio, who stood in the center of the hall. As it stopped, it became clear. It was the dark knight. His sword made no noise as he weaved it through the air like an artist. The weapon seemed to have little substance, appearing to be as flat as paper. As he wove it about, sparks could be seen as his sword bounced off of the magical shield wizzing about Gorvagio. Following him, more knights came blurring out of the room, moving so quickly that, until they stopped to attack their foe, they were nothing but streaks of black metal. As they moved their swords in graceful arcs they continued to move inhumanly quickly. Knights swamped Gorvagio and Growly who stood in the center, and one made it through the battle to Queen who stood behind them. She glared as she wove her spell, but the knights sword was faster, and it bit deep into her side. She stumbled backwards, her spell disrupted, and she clasped her hand to her bloody wound. The knights in black, heavily adorned armor, moving like dancers swamped the party members, and blood flew. A knight, glowing softly, got a lucky strike through Gorvagio's shield, and Gorvagio's arm was cut off. The troll merely shrieked in anger and continued to fight.

A mage appeared near the center of the battle, a powerful blast of cold slamming into Growly and missing the warriors fighting him. Growly managed to leap out of the way being only partially hit. Thorlin's enlarged form stepped out from around a corner, and his hammer flew through the air towards the empty doorway. With a loud...no, silent thud, it hit something, and fell to the floor. Then, is flew back through the air to Thorlin. No boom from it's striking? A warrior appeared in front of Thorlin, his long sword arcing and bouncing off of Thorlin's armor.

Suddenly their was a great whistling noise of wind flowing towards the open doorway.....then came the out breath. A blast of fire hot enough to melt steel exploded from mid air and streamed like death towards the corner where Marrienne and Xej stood. Xej leaped around the corner, and Marrienne began to drop into the ground, but the fire hit them both. Xej, his lower body engulfed in flames, hit the ground around the corner and didn't move, his legs and lower body charred almost to bone. The sickening smell of burning flesh swept through the room. There was no sign of Marrienne.

Wondering if the battle could have started worse, the party fought valiantly, but with little hope in their hearts. So it was a shock when something good finally happened. A cloud of metal darts appeared in the air, and swarmed towards the Githyanki mage. Dozens missed, but many hit, and sickening thuds issued from the mage. He slumped over, blood oozing from many wounds. The darts were gone.

But the Githyanki knights took no notice. It was warfare, casualties happened. They continued to press their foe. Growly, as he ran to help Gorvagio against the leader stumbled, and for a moment left his defenses open. The three knights struck at him over and over, their weapons a blur. Blood sprayed through the air, and a final blow struck Growly in the gut, blood poured out of his back, the sword had gone right through. The knight withdrew his weapon, and Growly slumped to the ground, blood pooling.

A blazing blue sword appeared in the center of the room, and descended upon the Githyanki wizard. The wizard could only watch as the blazing weapon arced through the air and struck his body. Blood gouted out from his chest, and the mage collapsed. The sword moved to aid Thorlin.

The leader of the Githyanki, and 4 other knights surrounded Gorvagio, a light show occurring about them as their weapons slammed off of the magical shields. A few hits made it through, and Gorvagio was wounded. But then the leader's sword arced through a gap in the shields, and slammed into Gorvagio's neck, and kept going. Gorvagio's head lifted into the air, and the huge troll body slumped to the ground. The god shield skittered across the floor and came to rest near a wall.

The knights continued to press the battle. Thorlin became surrounded by knights, and other moved on to confront Soren who had been battling to save Queen. The leader of the Githyanki shouted a word, and pointed his finger at Soren, "YOU!" He strode across the room to confront Soren, his enemy. Soren turned, and prepared to fight his evil opponent. Thorlin's hammer began working as he slammed it into a large warrior, but nearly surrounded, swords beating into his flesh, he turned and fled. As the killing blows of his enemy came down upon him, the glowing blue sword interfered, and several sword blows were blocked. Thorlin escaped. The knights ignored the retreating Minatour, and turned to the blue sword.

Mudslide, protected by magic from the knights blows around him, finished a spell, and suddenly the doorway was filled with the sight of a massive red dragon.

The leader of the Githyanki, eyes only on paladin, a glowing figure of good, strode forward. He reached him, and their swords began to arc and smash, sparks falling down upon them. But the evil paladin was too fast, was too focused, was too skilled. The short exchange of blows stopped as the knights sword slammed into Soren's side. Soren, stumbled back, distracted, blood flowing through his armor. It was more than enough time for the evil knight. He swept his sword forward in a grand arc of death. Soren raised his sword, the holy avenger poised to block the blow, but the shimmering unholy avenger slammed into it, and kept going. The holy avenger ceased to glow, and and the metal went dull as the blade was broken clean through. The killing blow of the evil Githyanki continued, and cracked through Soren's neck. Soren's body fell to its knees, the broken sword clanking to the ground, Soren's head thumping to the ground a few feet away.

Meanwhile the other warriors made quick work of Queen. Mudslides protective magic finally failed, and the swords began cuttin into him. It was only a moment before the many wounds caused him to collapse. The battle looked nearly over. The red dragon sat, merely watching. The leader paused and looked about. Several warriors began fighting the glowing blue sword. Then the other dragon appeared.

A smaller, but far more beautiful dragon appeared. It was only about half the size of the 300 foot long red dragon, but it's scales glittered like purple gems, and the fierce look of intelligence in its eyes were frightening. It shrieked out and a blast of energy emerged from its maw. A glowing sparkling orb of crystal flew from its mouth, across the room, and slammed into the wall. A concussive force shook the room as the sphere exploded in a massive blast of energy. The explosion swept across the battle field but fell just short of hitting any friendly's. The red dragon's neck rocked to the side as the force hit, and he growled in anger. Of the five knights fighting the glowing sword, four of them collapsed, the force of the blow cracking skulls and shattering bones. A crack opened in the wall, and rocks fell from the ceiling.

The red dragon almost grinned, the battle now truly joined. It's neck snaked forth, and again, another gale force intake of breath swept across the field. Then, unstoppable as the gods, the blazing fire exploded and arced through the air. The gem dragon tried to duck but was engulfed nearly completely in flame, as were Ozzy and two evil knights. The gem dragon shrieked and yelled in pain as its scales melted together, and it's blood boiled. The fire stopped, and the gem dragon clawed franticly backwards, but could barely move. It's left claw melted to the very stone, as its bones protruded through it's melted flesh in several places.

An elven woman then appeared next to the amethyst dragon, and lay her hands on it's melted side, words of holy power issuing from her mouth. A glow rippled across the dragon's body. When it was done, the dragon appeared whole. It licked it's maw as it shook itself all over. The fire damage was completely gone.

What more could happen? From the large pool that lay in this room, came a gurgle. Then came a slash. Then emerged the Neolithid. A huge 120' long squid like creature emerged from the water, shrieking with anger at being woken from it's hundred year slumber.

The Githyanki anti-paladin looked about at this new turn of events. He saw that half his force had been killed, his mage dead, and now an enemy dragon, and a huge illithid terror. This battle was over. He had what he wanted, he doubted these upstarts would bother him again. "WE LEAVE!" The remaining knights, hearing this statement, raised their swords to their front, in memory of their fallen comrades, and vanished, as magical energy swished them away, leaving only the dragon and their leader.

A body in black skull adorned plate mail appeared holding the blue sword, and charged the knight in desperation. The devastating sword blow arced towards the evil paladin, but the unholy avenger raised and with a clank of sparks, the blow was deflected. The knight smiled, stepped back, raised his sword, and magic began forming around him to wisk him away. But then something happened. A form of pure black energy, shiny eyes reflecting the light, appeared behind the knight as he was vanishing, and yanked the backpack off of his back. The knight vanished. The black form and the backpack remained.

The red dragon leapt forward, it's claws and teeth slamming into the black form throwing it backwards. As the red dragon neared the huge Neolithid, it turned to confront it's nearest foe and a stream of oozing acid sprayed across the red dragon. It shrieked in terror and clawed backwards frantically, fleeing back into the room. The warrior with the blue glowing sword moved forward, and began hammering on the black form that it knew to be Fate. Fate only grinned as the blows slammed into the demi-god's shadowy flesh. It held the backpack firmly in it's grasp. Thorlin, apparently fully healed moved back into the battle, and hit hammer flew and smashed into the Neolithid with a crack. Fate then slammed it's hand through the material of the backpack, and ripped out a hoop of shiny metal with ruins engraved upon it. "No!!" shouted Zendrak, the warrior spirit. The gem dragon clawed and bit at Fate but he moved away, attempted to gain a moment of peace to leave this place. Zendrak pressed on him, his sword hacking, and slamming, and then, with a valiant blow, severing the arm of Fate that held the ringlet. All watched as the arm, departed the body, and then, as if connected by a bungy cord, sprung back and reattached itself!!! Fate smiled.

Fate began summoning the energy to teleport away, as all watched in a moment of horror. Then the Neolithid acted. Energy swam and swarmed in front of the Neolithid, then with a blast, a sparkling ball flew through the air and struck the center of the battle field. A wave of psionic energy exploded outwards. It struck Zendrak, but did not affect him. It struck the gem dragon, rendering her unconscious, her huge form flopped to the ground. It struck Fate. He screamed in anger as his form dissipated, and the ring dropped to the ground. It rolled about, and before it could settle to the ground Zendrak bent over and picked it up.

Another loud crack from the hammer rung out as it slammed into the huge beast. Zendrak spun and leapt at the thing, and together, he and Thorlin slew the creature, and it sunk back into the water.

It was quiet. Zendrak looked down at the ring in his hand. Everyone stood about for a few seconds, silent, watching. Zendrak looked about in interest. Thorlin was wary of these new comers. He looked, and noticed an elven woman wearing a circlet upon her head. As she looked him in the eyes, memories washed through his mind, but he was left with only one. The image of an elven princess. The elven woman turned away. Thorlin blushed, though no one noticed, and he looked at his apparent allies. "What now?"

Zendrak turned suddenly. "The Red Dragon!" Thorlin and Zendrak ran to finish off the dragon.