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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8008483" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 79: THE FINAL ORC WAVE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 20</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 20</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Genevar, humanoid mutant</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 15</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 6 June 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Learning to pilot the Eradicator combat machines (Genevar called them "mechs") took a bit of practice, but this was made much easier with the help of a telepathic mutant who could read the local language and explain what all of the controls did - after telepathically "communing" with the artificial intelligences (Genevar called them "programs") that helped run the devices. Binkadink took to the Spriggan armor like a duck to water, spending practically his every waking moment inside the mech, parading up and down the decks and learning to maneuver this massive metal body as well as he could his own. He even practiced using his <em>reverberating glaive</em> - extended to its maximum length - in the mechanical hands of the Spriggan mech. It took some getting used to (and it made him feel like his glaive was much smaller than he was used to), but he got to be pretty good with it.</p><p></p><p>Hagan was getting proficient with the Titan armor as well, but in his case he didn't have all that much to learn: Titan had six shoulder-mounted grenades but the targeting system for that was fairly simple (he practiced without live ammunition to get down the basics), and other than that the mech wasn't all that complicated. Hagan was pretty sure he'd still be relying upon his spells much more than this metal robot suit's hydraulic punches, no matter how much power he could channel into the system's strength.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert had politely learned the very basics of how to run the Goliath mech but then subcontracted the whole scheme to his earth elemental familiar, after <em>polymorphing</em> him back to human size. "Got too many powerful spells to be cramped inside metal armor thing!" the portly mage complained. So Mudpie spent the time learning the ins and outs of piloting the Goliath mech; one side benefit was he didn't need to waste any power keeping the life support system on-line, as he didn't need to breathe.</p><p></p><p>Finoula, Darrien, and Aithanar had it much easier: the Banshee, Ogre, and Wraith systems were more along the line of magic armor they wore (although Genevar insisted there was nothing magical about it, it was mere technology - but the others failed to see the difference). Still, once they learned how to put on the armor they could move about on their own from the start and it was a simple matter to learn how to activate the various abilities built into the combat armor systems: Wraith's invisibility field, Banshee's sonic scream, and Ogre's shoulder-launched missiles (the targeting of which, like Titan's grenades, were practiced without the actual armaments in place). Wraith and Spriggan had pulse guns as part of their armor and Titan and Ogre had lower-level pulse blasts, but these weren't intrinsically much different than targeting the stun rifles and laser sniper rifles the group had accumulated during the last month.</p><p></p><p>Once the heroes had retraced their steps to the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex - their entry into this alternate world - from the air they had the controller droid who ran Eradicator Base land nearby while they checked it out to ensure all was still in working order. Genevar confirmed the power was still building that would allow the portal to Oerth to open in several days' time. Thinking long-term, Gilbert had the repair droids see what they could do about mending the defense droids the Kordovians had destroyed when first encountering the floating base (even if it meant making one good robot out of the parts of several others). He also gave orders for the repair droids to see what they could do about mending the sonic fence surrounding the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex; no need to allow spider-sharks or whatever else wander in here during their absence. Finally, Gilbert decided that once the heroes and their jackalope companions returned to the world on the other side of the portal, the controller was to return Eradicator Base to an aerial position hovering unseen above the Complex, there to remain until Gilbert returned to give the controller further instructions - he wasn't necessarily sure they'd ever return to this strange world but it would be nice to have things in place ready for their return if it became necessary (or even just desired).</p><p></p><p>On the day the Kordovians were to return to Oerth, the six new Eradicators stood in the courtyard of the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex, with Gilbert riding his jackalope Twitchy-Tail and MARCI and Genevar astride Obvious; lined up behind them were the rest of Obvious's litter-mates. "Should be any time now," observed Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>Back on Oerth, due to the different rates of rotation between the two worlds, it was already late at night. Malrin stood by the abandoned cottage of the dead wizard Selune Travers, looking up at the lightning rod rising from one of the stone columns forming the <em>well of many worlds</em>. It was a dark night, heavy with clouds, such that neither the stars nor the two moons could be seen and the elven druid had half expected lightning to strike the metal rod without any prompting on her part. But when the rains that had threatened all evening failed to come, Malrin took matters into her own hands and cast a <em>call lightning</em> spell that brought an arc of electricity crashing down to strike the lightning rod, lighting up the hidden grove for a brief moment.</p><p></p><p>The space between the two stone columns, topped by a curving arch of stone, illuminated with a silvery energy field of an almost liquid consistency. Then, from this vertical plane of shimmering waves stepped a few humanoid figures. These were beings the likes of which the elf had never seen before and she instinctively made a mental survey of the attacks spells she had at hand, for these metal golems looked fearsome - one held an enormous...gun of some type, its long barrel like that of a crossbow but without the cross-pieces, the whole thing attached to the construct's chest by thick cables. But then, alongside these metal giants hippity-hopped a form with which Malrin was much more familiar: it was Obvious, with MARCI and Genevar on his back. "It's okay," Obvious assured the elf. "That's Binkadink in there." The Spriggan mech looked over at Malrin and raised a mechanical hand in greeting.</p><p></p><p>Behind Binkadink in the Spriggan mech strode Goliath, piloted by Mudpie, then Titan - and Malrin could see Hagan and Wezhley inside the thing through a viewport, the little weasel jumping around excitedly on the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder, apparently glad to be back home. Malrin's astonishment rose as five other jackalopes accompanied the six metal humanoids, one of the antlered bunnies ridden by Gilbert Fung. "We back!" he announced. "You miss us?"</p><p></p><p>"You're just in time!" replied Malrin, looking back through the trees the way she'd come. "I think we're under attack! I saw a blast of fire in the sky a few minutes ago - it might have been a signal arrow." Chalkan's arcane archers were stationed in blinds up in the trees ringing the kingdom, on the watch-out for orc and goblin armies approaching, as they'd done every six months or so for the last two decades. When spotted, the archer sent an arrow high into the sky, imbued with a <em>fireball</em> spell to warn the kingdom of approaching enemies. "But it was from pretty far away," she added.</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's go check it out!" decided Gilbert, urging Twitchy-Tail forward. The other jackalopes followed, one of them - Aithanar's Digger - taking the time to lower himself to the ground so his new master's sister could leap upon his back. The mechs ambled along, pushing their way through the trees.</p><p></p><p>As they approached the edge of the Vesve Forest, they could see a burning tree ahead. Getting closer, they could see it was one of the arcane archer perches - apparently the orcs and goblins (or, most likely, their handlers) had gotten wise to the Kordovian first line of defense and warning and managed to lob a <em>fireball</em> or similar spell at the ranger in the blind before he could get off a warning. That would explain the fact that the warning shot Malrin had spotted was from much farther off; the group approaching by this station had managed to take the arcane archer stationed here, meaning they were able to infiltrate deeper into the kingdom before being spotted and the warning going out.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the heroes (remembering to include Malrin, as she hadn't been with them in the past month), which allowed them to communicate with each other - even those not currently inside Eradicator armor, which had their own communication method which Genevar had tried to explain but which none of the Kordovians really understood. (Most by this time had simply assigned "advanced technology" as another type of magic currently unknown on Oerth.)</p><p></p><p><Get combat spells ready!> Gilbert advised over the link. He cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell on just himself, as Mudpie was too far away - and encased inside the Goliath mech - for him to share in his master's protective spell. <em>Ah, he be fine!</em> Gilbert thought to himself. He then cast a <em>shapechange</em> spell upon himself, choosing not to change forms just yet but glad to have the spell already in effect in case he needed it at a moment's notice.</p><p></p><p>Malrin cast a <em>stoneskin</em> on herself as well but the rangers didn't bother with their normal pre-combat spells; after all, their new Eradicator armor would give them much more protection than the <em>barkskin</em> spells they normally cast. Likewise, Darrien opted not to buff up his jackalope mount, Droopy-Ear, as the heroes had decided they wouldn't be bringing the hoppers into combat; Obvious would keep them hidden at the edge of the forest, along with Genevar, once they'd delivered Gilbert and MARCI to the battlefield.</p><p></p><p>The group marched out of the forest within visual sight of the garrison fort closest to Battershield Keep, the one where the former King Galrich served as the sellsword Slayer. The mercenaries were out in full number, fending off attacks by orcs, goblins, and what could only be orogs - orc/ogre hybrids bred for combat. If the garrison men had started out in orderly ranks they were no longer so, the chaos of war scattering them all around their stone fort. Dozens of bodies of all the races involved were already strewn about the battlefield, the fight having already been going on for some time before the arrival of the heroes just returning from Gamma Terra.</p><p></p><p>Finoula ran forward to get herself in position. Before donning her Banshee armor, she'd removed her <em>ioun stone</em> and <em>lightning amulet</em> so she could wear them outside the Eradicator armor. (She was still miffed she couldn't wear her <em>boots of spider climbing</em> over her Banshee armor - knowing if she did, they'd likewise be destroyed the first time she deployed the Banshee's jump-jets: a thrust system that propelled her through the air for short distances, the thrust coming from the bottom of her feet.) Then, having lined herself up as she wanted, she activated her <em>lightning amulet</em> and transformed herself - Banshee armor and all - into a living bolt of lightning that went blasting through three goblins and as many orcs, killing them outright before altering course and reverting to her armored elven form halfway up the side of the steep hill leading to the garrison fort.</p><p></p><p>At Gilbert's direction, Mudpie plucked him up off of Twitchy-Tail and deposited him on the shoulder of the Goliath armor; now the heavyset mage was doing a fine impression of Hagan's own weasel familiar, Wezhley. But as Mudpie piloted the Goliath armor closer to the enemy, Gilbert cast a <em>quickened Evard's black tentacles</em> on a group of powerful-looking orc barbarians climbing up the other side of the hill from Finoula. He then followed that up almost immediately with a <em>waves of exhaustion</em> spell encompassing the same orc barbarians and a group of nearly goblins rushing to go attack a guardsman already fending off a pair of orcs. Mudpie punched a nearby orc on the head with his hydraulic fist as he passed, crushing the burly fighter into paste. He didn't slow his pace at all.</p><p></p><p>Aithanar activated the <em>invisibility field</em> incorporated into the Wraith armor's design, fading from view as he approached the battle scene. He pulled up his pulse gun and fired at an orc, blowing his head clean off with the blast of energy that went streaking his way when the elf pulled the trigger. Aithanar grinned wildly inside his armor; for once, he felt he was truly pulling his weight in a fight alongside the much more experienced members of the Kordovian Adventurers Guild.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and the Titan armor and the metal mech rose into the sky. He aimed himself at the top of the stone fort, planning to use it as a lookout platform from where he could see where his offensive spells could be best deployed. He worried for a moment whether the stone structure could support the weight of a 15-foot-tall metal combat mech, but decided he didn't need to actually land on the roof of the fort - it would be safer if he didn't put it to the test.</p><p></p><p>Malrin had leaped off of Digger's back and was running forward towards the combat as her brother's hopper mount high-tailed it back to the safety of the forest. She saw a group of orcs bunched together and decided they'd make a fine group of targets for an <em>entangle</em> spell. Orcish curses echoed across the battlefield as the beastly warriors found themselves being attacked by...grass! And what was worse, the plants growing up from the ground were effectively taking them out of the fight, a horrible fate for fearsome warriors eager to kill the humans before them. They'd have been fine with dying in battle against a superior foe - what orc could ask for more? - but to be grounded from battle by plants was humiliating!</p><p></p><p>A pair of orogs had made it up the hill and were making short work of the garrison men by the base of their fort, cutting them down like wheat. Darrien cast his own <em>entangle</em> spell on another group of orcs and started up the steep hill to aid the guardsmen up there fighting the savage orogs. On either side of the hill, though, orc skullslingers were also attacking scattered pockets of guardsmen, their primary weapons bolas made from the hardened skulls of those they'd slain in previous battles. And all around, sneaky goblins crept close to their foes but just far enough away to stay out of immediate danger themselves; they preferred throwing spears and shooting arrows at men already distracted in hand-to-hand combat with the larger, more dangerous foes. But the goblins' spears took down more than a few of the mercenaries fighting for the defense of the Kordovian kingdom.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink raised the Spriggan's pulse gun and aimed at an orog up at the top of the hill. He fired and hit him but the brute refused to fall, roaring his defiance at the strange metal man approaching up the hill. But he turned away from the mercenaries he'd been attacking, allowing them to gang up on the other orog, cutting him with their blades as he seemed unable to defend against three swordsmen at once.</p><p></p><p>And then, out of nowhere, a monstrous form materialized at the western side of the garrison fort's hill. With a leg-span of nearly 50 feet, the monstrous spider looked down at the Spriggan mech before it and pounced, its wicked mandibles catching Binkadink's armored suit around the middle. Venom dripped down from the tips of its fangs but failed to penetrate into the Spriggan's sealed interior. Binkadink noted the numerous spikes rising up from the arachnid's legs and guessed it was from somewhere in the Lower Planes; apparently there was a spellcaster somewhere among the enemy, and a pretty powerful one at that if capable of summoning forth a monster of this size and strength!</p><p></p><p>Just as suddenly, a dire bat appeared in the sky directly before Hagan in his Titan mech. It scratched at the mech's metal chest with its clawed feet and tried to bite through the plasteel viewport at the front of the mech's head area, attempting to get at the half-orc sorcerer inside. Neither attack did much but leave a trail of saliva across the front "window" of the mech, but Hagan likewise decided the bat was likely fiendish in nature, judging by the horns ringing the top of its head like a crown.</p><p></p><p>Finoula approached a group of orcs and goblins trying to overrun a garrison mercenary and tried out her sonic scream, causing the enemies to drop their weapons and instinctively cover their ears. The mercenary, out of range of the Banshee's attack, took the opportunity to stab the closest orc through the neck, slaying him instantly.</p><p></p><p><em>This crazy!</em> Gilbert thought to himself, flipping to the back of his <em>Omnibook</em> where he kept his scrolls in magical storage. He flipped the pages to a <em>time stop</em> spell and cast it, watching in satisfaction as everything froze into position all around him. Taking advantage of the extra time he now had to deploy a bunch of tactics all at once, he pulled Hachi and Tzumezhao, his <em>foo lion figurines of wondrous power,</em> and dropped them to the floor, calling out their shared command word as he did so. He then cast an <em>invisibility</em> spell upon himself and, not having the spell he wanted available in his current mental inventory, flipped the pages at the rear of his <em>Omnibook</em> until he found a scroll of <em>see invisibility</em> - he was pretty sure none of these orcs, goblins, or orogs were capable of summoning forth a fiendish monstrous spider of that size and suspected an invisible spellcaster somewhere in their midst. Finally, he used another scroll to cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and flew over to the top of the stone fort. However, with his <em>see invisibility</em> spell already in effect, he could now see there was a female drider on the fort's roof - a drider he hadn't been able to see before casting his spell! Looking around the battlefield, he also saw a male drow sorcerer or wizard standing behind a group of orcs and goblins, no doubt watching invisibly at the progress of his beastly allies.</p><p></p><p>As the <em>time stop</em> spell ran its course and Gilbert fell back into the normal flow of time, he called out over the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell what he'd seen: <Drider spellcaster on rooftop, drow spellcaster to the east! Finoula, drow on your left, up on top of hill!></p><p></p><p>As one, Hachi and Tsumezhao, rising to their full size in front of the fiendish monstrous spider, clamped down on the spider-leg closest to them. Mudpie also swiveled the Goliath armor and sent a hydraulic fist crashing into the massive arachnid's head. Just now approaching the battlefield, MARCI stepped forward and cast her red beam over the bodies of several guardsmen lying in the dirt. "Dead," she identified. "Dead. Pulse detected." Stepping up to the third body, she injected him with a stimdose that had him fluttering his eyes open and grabbing up the sword that had fallen from his hands when he'd been knocked out by an orc's blow. Ignoring the metallic construct who had just revived him, he jumped to his feet and raced to the nearest orc, ignoring the fact he was standing beneath a spider so big he'd taken its legs as slender tree trunks.</p><p></p><p>Hagan punched the fiendish dire bat, nearly knocking it out of the air. It struggled to maintain its position n the sky, reeling drunkenly but eventually managing to get its bearings. Hagan was willing to bet it had never before been punched as hard as the Titan mech had just punched it.</p><p></p><p>Aithanar shot up at the fiendish arachnid with the Wraith pulse gun, grinning as a chunk of flesh exploded from its body and a dark ichor dripped from the wound. Then Malrin sprinted at the spider, wildshaping into a tyrannosaurus as she did so. The monstrous dinosaur was of a large enough size to be a natural threat to the fiendish arachnid, clamping her daggerlike teeth into one of the eight legs near where it connected to the body. And Binkadink turned to attack the spider as well, using his <em>reverberating glaive</em> extended to its full length. The weapon was quite impressive with the full strength of a 15-foot-tall armored mech behind it!</p><p></p><p>The arrival of the heroes had certainly made quite a difference in the course of the battle already, but the orcs, goblins, and orogs weren't giving up yet - they surely knew they had drider and drow spellcasters on their side and they still had superiority of numbers over the mercenary guardsmen, at least. Darrien cast a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell upon himself and waded through the edge of his <em>entangle</em> spell to make it up the steep slope of the hill to the top where the orogs were still thrashing at the few human warriors still alive up there. They were doing their all against the orog fighting them, and as Darrien watched a quartet of orc warriors skirted around the back of the garrison fort, ready to attack the guardsmen from behind. Pulling out his <em>Arachnibow</em>, he managed to slay two of the orcs in rapid succession, glad he'd spent time on Eradicator Base learning to fire his magic bow while wearing the bulky Ogre armor.</p><p></p><p>Another summoned combatant materialized on the field, this one another spidery being but nowhere near as large as the massive fiendish spider to the west. Finoula recognized it as a bebelith as it scurried towards her, forelimbs ready to rend her armor and mouthparts opened wide to bite. She felt the fangs pierce the sides of her armor, sliding between the layers to pump venom into her torso, causing a burning sensation as the poison did its work. She felt her heart pumping faster as the strength left her body. To make matters worse, the drow sorcerer popped back into visibility as he cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at Finoula, apparently deciding that exposing himself to full view in the midst of combat while taking out a female foe was worth the risk.</p><p></p><p>But there was no way Finoula was going to stay here in the demon's clutches, not when the single touch of her amulet and a command word sent her blasting through the bebelith as a bolt of living lightning. She arced over through a couple of orcs at the top of the hill for good measure, then pivoted and blasted through the drow sorcerer on her way back to the ground far enough away from the bebelith to force it to waste time reaching her - time she could put to good use. The orcs and drow were slain instantly, whereas the bebelith seemed entirely unaffected by the electrical attack.</p><p></p><p>The fiendish monstrous spider bit at the tyrannosaurus who was in turn biting at it, while Mudpie threw another powerful punch at the creature with the full might of the Goliath mech's hydraulic systems. In midair, the fiendish dire bat again tried biting the Titan mech with no discernible effects. Gilbert flew up and over the top of the keep and cast an <em>acid fog</em> spell over the roof, catching the <em>invisible</em> drider spellcaster within its billowing clouds. The drider made no cries or indications of pain, but Gilbert knew she had to have been affected. Still, one disadvantage of the spell was she was now obscured within the cloud and thus couldn't be individually targeted with further spells, only those which affected an area. But Gilbert had a few more of those on hand, so he wasn't overly concerned.</p><p></p><p>The foo lions continued biting at the giant spider's legs, while Aithanar kept firing his pulse gun at the thing. Malrin dodged to the side and bit a chunk of demonic flesh from the spider's abdomen with her dinosaur teeth. Together, they were taking the fight out of the summoned arachnid.</p><p></p><p>Hagan ignored the fiendish dire bat and cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell down at the orc barbarians still trapped in Gilbert's <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell, arcing off blasts to strike a bunch of other orcs and goblins in the immediate vicinity and the orog making its way towards Binkadink in the Spriggan armor. The goblins were slain instantly; the orog and orcs were brought near to staggering - none of them looked to be worth much in the fights to come, but still they fought on.</p><p></p><p>Darrien slew two more orcs with his <em>Arachnibow</em> and then started shooting at the bebelith. Binkadink slew the fiendish monstrous spider with a crippling blow from his <em>reverberating glaive</em>, the full power of the Spriggan mech behind it. As a summoned creature, the spider returned to its Lower Plane when it was slain, not polluting the battlefield any further with its corpse.</p><p></p><p>Then a quartet of lights shot up out of the <em>acid fog</em> cloud covering the top of the garrison fort. A simple <em>dancing lights</em> spell, the four glowing balls of light took alignment in a diamond shape and then started spinning in a circle. Gilbert surmised this was a signal, of the same sort the arcane archers used when sending <em>fireball</em> arrows up into the sky to warn of an impending attack. Sure enough, the remaining orcs, goblins, and orogs looked up, saw the lights in the otherwise dark sky, and turned back to the Vesve Forest, slinking off the battlefield - the lights were apparently a signal to retreat. Unseen inside the <em>acid fog</em>, the drider cleric cast a <em>word of recall</em> spell that instantly <em>teleported</em> her off of the rooftop and across the miles to the designated rally point, where she could begin the trek back to home and to safety.</p><p></p><p>The orcs, orogs, and goblins, when opportunity allowed, took time from their retreat to grab up any metal weapons dropped by the men they'd slain. The bebelith, however, had no desire to retreat; it scurried forth and caught up a mercenary in its jaws, ripping the armor from him with its fore-claws as it pumped venom into his system. The soldier, not as seasoned a fighter as Finoula, died instantly; as for Finoula, she could still feel the effects of the venom but was fighting on. The fiendish dire bat was in no mood to retreat, either, and continued its fruitless attacks upon Hagan in the Titan mech. Hagan punched it to death and its body disappeared before striking the ground.</p><p></p><p>But just because the foes were in retreat was no reason for the battle to be over. Finoula blasted her way through a line of fleeing orcs and an orog as a living lightning bolt, regaining her armored elven form in front of a line of slain corpses. She nodded in appreciation to herself. Gilbert dropped lower, directly in front of a group of enemies, including the bebelith. He cast a <em>prismatic spray</em> spell at the group, watching orcs get burned alive and goblins get poisoned into immediate death; the bebelith, however, was randomly struck by a blast of electricity, to which it was completely immune.</p><p></p><p>Mudpie's greater stride in his Goliath mech allowed him to catch several fleeing orcs and pound them into mush before they could escape the kingdom. Hachi and Tsumezhao, without the fiendish spider to chew on any more, bounded up to an orog and brought him to the ground, ripping at his arms and throat until he was dead. Aithanar, deciding he'd go after the toughest-looking foes, shot another orog with his pulse gun, dropping him instantly. Darrien was picking off orcs and goblins with his arrows, firing as fast as he could.</p><p></p><p>But the entire army had not been centered on this one particular garrison fort; the combatants had spread out and attacked Kordovia in a wide swath, some of them apparently making it into the capital city, for streams of orcs hurried towards the Vesve Forest, some of them carrying human women over their shoulders. That was a first - in the past, they'd limited their "war trophies" to metal armor and weapons from the soldiers they slew. The heroes spread out as well, trying to slay as many of these attackers as they could before they escaped.</p><p></p><p><Do we follow them?> asked Binkadink over the telepathic link.</p><p></p><p><Best we stick together!> replied Gilbert. <We better as a powerful front all in one place - split up, we easier to take down one at a time!> He also knew the futility in trying to track down an entire army on the rout, with everyone entering the forest by the quickest means available. He saw the bebelith wink out of existence, the duration of the spell that had summoned it apparently having expired.</p><p></p><p>One orc in particular was running straight at Gilbert. He readied an attack spell before he noted the orc was a woman waving her arms wide. "It me, Mudpie!" she called out, using her son's childhood nickname. Gilbert landed on the ground before his winded mother, reincarnated into an orc body after her slaying by assassins from her homeland. Harriet Fung briefly told her son of her recent exploits since the previous orc wave, when she inserted herself among the attacking ranks as they retreated back to their hidden home base.</p><p></p><p>"Orcs think I part of different group, take me into ranks. We return to cave in forest. Then we teleport to different places underground. We end up in--"</p><p></p><p>"--a drow city," finished Gilbert, earning him a swat on the arm.</p><p></p><p>"Mudpie!" fumed Harriet. "You already know this, why you send me in as spy?"</p><p></p><p>"Mom, I swear, we just found out now - there was a drow spellcaster and a drider in with the orcs and goblins and whatnot. I figured, based on the power of their spells, they were the masterminds behind the attacks. They are, aren't they? It's drow sending them after us?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, it drow all right - entire drow city, called Arachnespinnacle. They got <em>teleport circles</em> all through Underdark - it only safe way to <em>teleport</em> that far underground."</p><p></p><p>"Tell me you know how to get us to this Arachnespinnacle," prompted Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>Harriet playfully slapped her son's arm again. "Of course I know way back - what kind of spy you take me for? I know command words to <em>teleport circles</em>, too!"</p><p></p><p>The others regrouped around Gilbert and his mother and were caught up on Harriet's tale. "Drow!" hissed Finoula. As an elf, she had no love for the drow - and the feeling was quite mutual, for the dark elves hated their surface cousins above all others.</p><p></p><p>"Should we go follow them now?" asked Binkadink, eager for continued battle.</p><p></p><p>"No, we wait, rest up, go when we at full strength," Gilbert replied. "Want Mom to draw us out map of drow city, so we make plans on how best to attack. We should check in with the Queen, too, let her know we back and we know who behind attacks."</p><p></p><p>"It'll give us time to bury our dead, too," observed Darrien. There were a lot of dead soldiers strewn about the battlefield - and this was just one pocket of fighting among several.</p><p></p><p>As it turned out, there were some personal losses among those slain in this most recent attack. Galrich Slayer's body was found under a pile of enemies, an arrow sticking out of an eye socket; apparently he'd been shot through the eye but fought on until he was overpowered by a group of orcs, but still managed to take out a half dozen by himself before succumbing to his wounds. The group talked about having the former king <em>resurrected</em>, but they also realized he had finally been reunited with his loving mother in death: Queen Kathenta, who'd died giving birth to Galrich in an orc encampment. "We'll ask Queen Kaelanna," suggested Finoula. "She'll best know his wishes."</p><p></p><p>But that wasn't the only death that hit hard. Several garrison forts to the north, a group of bodies had been burned to a crisp, the victims of repeated <em>fireball</em> attacks, it looked like. There wasn't much left to identify the bodies...but one of them wore a ring on his finger bearing the Ivenheart crest. Malrin and Aithanar recognized it at once as the ring their father had worn as the oldest male in his line; after Aroban's death, the ring had been passed on to Castillan. The bounder's identity was further confirmed by the ring on his other hand, which Castillan had had custom-made to allow him to <em>dimension door</em> three times per day.</p><p></p><p>"They will pay for this - the drow, all of them will pay!" swore Malrin, before breaking down into tears. Aithanar comforted his sister as best he could.</p><p></p><p>"We make plans at once," promised Gilbert. "This the final orc wave ever come out of the forest to attack us!"</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>So, getting back to that "wavelength" that I seem to have with my son Logan (who plays Binkadink in this campaign and is the DM for the "Raiders of the Overreach" campaign)....</p><p></p><p>When I first devised this campaign I knew that waves of orcs and goblins were going to be a long-term plot line, one I envisioned being taken care of at the very end of the campaign. I had decided the orcs and goblins were slaves to the drow, who didn't want to waste time and resources arming their slaves when the occasional raid on the surface would not only weed out the unworthy but allow them to scavenge for metal weapons and armor from those they slew. I figured their Underdark city would be heavily shielded from divination spells and the way back to their city - from a cave in the Vesve Forest, which was one end of a <em>teleportation circle</em> node leading to the Underdark - would make it nearly impossible for the Kordovians to be able to find where these attacks were coming from.</p><p></p><p>So, when we finished up the "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign (that Logan DMed), he informed us his next campaign was going to start off with our new PCs as slaves to a drow city in the Underdark. I had to just laugh quietly to myself - damn that "wavelength!" (Despite Logan looking more like his mother's side of the family than mine, he and I practically share the same mind sometimes.) So the big reveal in this campaign kind of ended up being a bit of a letdown, but I think the PCs are stoked enough about having Gamma Word armor/mechs that the "unoriginality" of the drow city is lessened significantly in their eyes.</p><p></p><p>So, the next adventure will be our last. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we won't be able to play in this campaign until sometime in July. We also need to decide who all will be going on the adventure: the five PCs, of course, as well as Malrin and Aithanar, with Harriet Fung as a scout. I think the general consensus was to leave Obvious and the other jackalopes behind; they're still kind of wavering on bringing Genevar or not. ("Who brings a ten-year-old into a war?" - "But it's a ten-year-old with prophetic visions of the future!") So we'll see how that turns out.</p><p></p><p>In any case, I'm feeling the same way as I did about closing out my last campaign: sad to see the end of these characters but eager to see what the next campaign will be like. (The next campaign will be called "Dreams of Erthe" and will feature a pantheon of gods patterned after the PCs from my first campaign with this group, "Wing Three." I think I'll start up a thread for that one pretty soon.)</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: My TSR Silver Anniversary T-shirt, because among the many D&D monsters it has featured on it (in an illustration by none other than Tony DiTerlizzi) is a goblin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8008483, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 79: THE FINAL ORC WAVE[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 20[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 20[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Genevar, humanoid mutant[/INDENT] [INDENT] Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 15[/INDENT] [INDENT] MARCI, humanoid construct[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 6 June 2020 - - - Learning to pilot the Eradicator combat machines (Genevar called them "mechs") took a bit of practice, but this was made much easier with the help of a telepathic mutant who could read the local language and explain what all of the controls did - after telepathically "communing" with the artificial intelligences (Genevar called them "programs") that helped run the devices. Binkadink took to the Spriggan armor like a duck to water, spending practically his every waking moment inside the mech, parading up and down the decks and learning to maneuver this massive metal body as well as he could his own. He even practiced using his [I]reverberating glaive[/I] - extended to its maximum length - in the mechanical hands of the Spriggan mech. It took some getting used to (and it made him feel like his glaive was much smaller than he was used to), but he got to be pretty good with it. Hagan was getting proficient with the Titan armor as well, but in his case he didn't have all that much to learn: Titan had six shoulder-mounted grenades but the targeting system for that was fairly simple (he practiced without live ammunition to get down the basics), and other than that the mech wasn't all that complicated. Hagan was pretty sure he'd still be relying upon his spells much more than this metal robot suit's hydraulic punches, no matter how much power he could channel into the system's strength. Gilbert had politely learned the very basics of how to run the Goliath mech but then subcontracted the whole scheme to his earth elemental familiar, after [I]polymorphing[/I] him back to human size. "Got too many powerful spells to be cramped inside metal armor thing!" the portly mage complained. So Mudpie spent the time learning the ins and outs of piloting the Goliath mech; one side benefit was he didn't need to waste any power keeping the life support system on-line, as he didn't need to breathe. Finoula, Darrien, and Aithanar had it much easier: the Banshee, Ogre, and Wraith systems were more along the line of magic armor they wore (although Genevar insisted there was nothing magical about it, it was mere technology - but the others failed to see the difference). Still, once they learned how to put on the armor they could move about on their own from the start and it was a simple matter to learn how to activate the various abilities built into the combat armor systems: Wraith's invisibility field, Banshee's sonic scream, and Ogre's shoulder-launched missiles (the targeting of which, like Titan's grenades, were practiced without the actual armaments in place). Wraith and Spriggan had pulse guns as part of their armor and Titan and Ogre had lower-level pulse blasts, but these weren't intrinsically much different than targeting the stun rifles and laser sniper rifles the group had accumulated during the last month. Once the heroes had retraced their steps to the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex - their entry into this alternate world - from the air they had the controller droid who ran Eradicator Base land nearby while they checked it out to ensure all was still in working order. Genevar confirmed the power was still building that would allow the portal to Oerth to open in several days' time. Thinking long-term, Gilbert had the repair droids see what they could do about mending the defense droids the Kordovians had destroyed when first encountering the floating base (even if it meant making one good robot out of the parts of several others). He also gave orders for the repair droids to see what they could do about mending the sonic fence surrounding the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex; no need to allow spider-sharks or whatever else wander in here during their absence. Finally, Gilbert decided that once the heroes and their jackalope companions returned to the world on the other side of the portal, the controller was to return Eradicator Base to an aerial position hovering unseen above the Complex, there to remain until Gilbert returned to give the controller further instructions - he wasn't necessarily sure they'd ever return to this strange world but it would be nice to have things in place ready for their return if it became necessary (or even just desired). On the day the Kordovians were to return to Oerth, the six new Eradicators stood in the courtyard of the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex, with Gilbert riding his jackalope Twitchy-Tail and MARCI and Genevar astride Obvious; lined up behind them were the rest of Obvious's litter-mates. "Should be any time now," observed Gilbert. Back on Oerth, due to the different rates of rotation between the two worlds, it was already late at night. Malrin stood by the abandoned cottage of the dead wizard Selune Travers, looking up at the lightning rod rising from one of the stone columns forming the [I]well of many worlds[/I]. It was a dark night, heavy with clouds, such that neither the stars nor the two moons could be seen and the elven druid had half expected lightning to strike the metal rod without any prompting on her part. But when the rains that had threatened all evening failed to come, Malrin took matters into her own hands and cast a [I]call lightning[/I] spell that brought an arc of electricity crashing down to strike the lightning rod, lighting up the hidden grove for a brief moment. The space between the two stone columns, topped by a curving arch of stone, illuminated with a silvery energy field of an almost liquid consistency. Then, from this vertical plane of shimmering waves stepped a few humanoid figures. These were beings the likes of which the elf had never seen before and she instinctively made a mental survey of the attacks spells she had at hand, for these metal golems looked fearsome - one held an enormous...gun of some type, its long barrel like that of a crossbow but without the cross-pieces, the whole thing attached to the construct's chest by thick cables. But then, alongside these metal giants hippity-hopped a form with which Malrin was much more familiar: it was Obvious, with MARCI and Genevar on his back. "It's okay," Obvious assured the elf. "That's Binkadink in there." The Spriggan mech looked over at Malrin and raised a mechanical hand in greeting. Behind Binkadink in the Spriggan mech strode Goliath, piloted by Mudpie, then Titan - and Malrin could see Hagan and Wezhley inside the thing through a viewport, the little weasel jumping around excitedly on the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder, apparently glad to be back home. Malrin's astonishment rose as five other jackalopes accompanied the six metal humanoids, one of the antlered bunnies ridden by Gilbert Fung. "We back!" he announced. "You miss us?" "You're just in time!" replied Malrin, looking back through the trees the way she'd come. "I think we're under attack! I saw a blast of fire in the sky a few minutes ago - it might have been a signal arrow." Chalkan's arcane archers were stationed in blinds up in the trees ringing the kingdom, on the watch-out for orc and goblin armies approaching, as they'd done every six months or so for the last two decades. When spotted, the archer sent an arrow high into the sky, imbued with a [I]fireball[/I] spell to warn the kingdom of approaching enemies. "But it was from pretty far away," she added. "Well, let's go check it out!" decided Gilbert, urging Twitchy-Tail forward. The other jackalopes followed, one of them - Aithanar's Digger - taking the time to lower himself to the ground so his new master's sister could leap upon his back. The mechs ambled along, pushing their way through the trees. As they approached the edge of the Vesve Forest, they could see a burning tree ahead. Getting closer, they could see it was one of the arcane archer perches - apparently the orcs and goblins (or, most likely, their handlers) had gotten wise to the Kordovian first line of defense and warning and managed to lob a [I]fireball[/I] or similar spell at the ranger in the blind before he could get off a warning. That would explain the fact that the warning shot Malrin had spotted was from much farther off; the group approaching by this station had managed to take the arcane archer stationed here, meaning they were able to infiltrate deeper into the kingdom before being spotted and the warning going out. Gilbert cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on the heroes (remembering to include Malrin, as she hadn't been with them in the past month), which allowed them to communicate with each other - even those not currently inside Eradicator armor, which had their own communication method which Genevar had tried to explain but which none of the Kordovians really understood. (Most by this time had simply assigned "advanced technology" as another type of magic currently unknown on Oerth.) <Get combat spells ready!> Gilbert advised over the link. He cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell on just himself, as Mudpie was too far away - and encased inside the Goliath mech - for him to share in his master's protective spell. [I]Ah, he be fine![/I] Gilbert thought to himself. He then cast a [I]shapechange[/I] spell upon himself, choosing not to change forms just yet but glad to have the spell already in effect in case he needed it at a moment's notice. Malrin cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] on herself as well but the rangers didn't bother with their normal pre-combat spells; after all, their new Eradicator armor would give them much more protection than the [I]barkskin[/I] spells they normally cast. Likewise, Darrien opted not to buff up his jackalope mount, Droopy-Ear, as the heroes had decided they wouldn't be bringing the hoppers into combat; Obvious would keep them hidden at the edge of the forest, along with Genevar, once they'd delivered Gilbert and MARCI to the battlefield. The group marched out of the forest within visual sight of the garrison fort closest to Battershield Keep, the one where the former King Galrich served as the sellsword Slayer. The mercenaries were out in full number, fending off attacks by orcs, goblins, and what could only be orogs - orc/ogre hybrids bred for combat. If the garrison men had started out in orderly ranks they were no longer so, the chaos of war scattering them all around their stone fort. Dozens of bodies of all the races involved were already strewn about the battlefield, the fight having already been going on for some time before the arrival of the heroes just returning from Gamma Terra. Finoula ran forward to get herself in position. Before donning her Banshee armor, she'd removed her [I]ioun stone[/I] and [I]lightning amulet[/I] so she could wear them outside the Eradicator armor. (She was still miffed she couldn't wear her [I]boots of spider climbing[/I] over her Banshee armor - knowing if she did, they'd likewise be destroyed the first time she deployed the Banshee's jump-jets: a thrust system that propelled her through the air for short distances, the thrust coming from the bottom of her feet.) Then, having lined herself up as she wanted, she activated her [I]lightning amulet[/I] and transformed herself - Banshee armor and all - into a living bolt of lightning that went blasting through three goblins and as many orcs, killing them outright before altering course and reverting to her armored elven form halfway up the side of the steep hill leading to the garrison fort. At Gilbert's direction, Mudpie plucked him up off of Twitchy-Tail and deposited him on the shoulder of the Goliath armor; now the heavyset mage was doing a fine impression of Hagan's own weasel familiar, Wezhley. But as Mudpie piloted the Goliath armor closer to the enemy, Gilbert cast a [I]quickened Evard's black tentacles[/I] on a group of powerful-looking orc barbarians climbing up the other side of the hill from Finoula. He then followed that up almost immediately with a [I]waves of exhaustion[/I] spell encompassing the same orc barbarians and a group of nearly goblins rushing to go attack a guardsman already fending off a pair of orcs. Mudpie punched a nearby orc on the head with his hydraulic fist as he passed, crushing the burly fighter into paste. He didn't slow his pace at all. Aithanar activated the [I]invisibility field[/I] incorporated into the Wraith armor's design, fading from view as he approached the battle scene. He pulled up his pulse gun and fired at an orc, blowing his head clean off with the blast of energy that went streaking his way when the elf pulled the trigger. Aithanar grinned wildly inside his armor; for once, he felt he was truly pulling his weight in a fight alongside the much more experienced members of the Kordovian Adventurers Guild. Hagan cast a [I]fly[/I] spell upon himself and the Titan armor and the metal mech rose into the sky. He aimed himself at the top of the stone fort, planning to use it as a lookout platform from where he could see where his offensive spells could be best deployed. He worried for a moment whether the stone structure could support the weight of a 15-foot-tall metal combat mech, but decided he didn't need to actually land on the roof of the fort - it would be safer if he didn't put it to the test. Malrin had leaped off of Digger's back and was running forward towards the combat as her brother's hopper mount high-tailed it back to the safety of the forest. She saw a group of orcs bunched together and decided they'd make a fine group of targets for an [I]entangle[/I] spell. Orcish curses echoed across the battlefield as the beastly warriors found themselves being attacked by...grass! And what was worse, the plants growing up from the ground were effectively taking them out of the fight, a horrible fate for fearsome warriors eager to kill the humans before them. They'd have been fine with dying in battle against a superior foe - what orc could ask for more? - but to be grounded from battle by plants was humiliating! A pair of orogs had made it up the hill and were making short work of the garrison men by the base of their fort, cutting them down like wheat. Darrien cast his own [I]entangle[/I] spell on another group of orcs and started up the steep hill to aid the guardsmen up there fighting the savage orogs. On either side of the hill, though, orc skullslingers were also attacking scattered pockets of guardsmen, their primary weapons bolas made from the hardened skulls of those they'd slain in previous battles. And all around, sneaky goblins crept close to their foes but just far enough away to stay out of immediate danger themselves; they preferred throwing spears and shooting arrows at men already distracted in hand-to-hand combat with the larger, more dangerous foes. But the goblins' spears took down more than a few of the mercenaries fighting for the defense of the Kordovian kingdom. Binkadink raised the Spriggan's pulse gun and aimed at an orog up at the top of the hill. He fired and hit him but the brute refused to fall, roaring his defiance at the strange metal man approaching up the hill. But he turned away from the mercenaries he'd been attacking, allowing them to gang up on the other orog, cutting him with their blades as he seemed unable to defend against three swordsmen at once. And then, out of nowhere, a monstrous form materialized at the western side of the garrison fort's hill. With a leg-span of nearly 50 feet, the monstrous spider looked down at the Spriggan mech before it and pounced, its wicked mandibles catching Binkadink's armored suit around the middle. Venom dripped down from the tips of its fangs but failed to penetrate into the Spriggan's sealed interior. Binkadink noted the numerous spikes rising up from the arachnid's legs and guessed it was from somewhere in the Lower Planes; apparently there was a spellcaster somewhere among the enemy, and a pretty powerful one at that if capable of summoning forth a monster of this size and strength! Just as suddenly, a dire bat appeared in the sky directly before Hagan in his Titan mech. It scratched at the mech's metal chest with its clawed feet and tried to bite through the plasteel viewport at the front of the mech's head area, attempting to get at the half-orc sorcerer inside. Neither attack did much but leave a trail of saliva across the front "window" of the mech, but Hagan likewise decided the bat was likely fiendish in nature, judging by the horns ringing the top of its head like a crown. Finoula approached a group of orcs and goblins trying to overrun a garrison mercenary and tried out her sonic scream, causing the enemies to drop their weapons and instinctively cover their ears. The mercenary, out of range of the Banshee's attack, took the opportunity to stab the closest orc through the neck, slaying him instantly. [I]This crazy![/I] Gilbert thought to himself, flipping to the back of his [I]Omnibook[/I] where he kept his scrolls in magical storage. He flipped the pages to a [I]time stop[/I] spell and cast it, watching in satisfaction as everything froze into position all around him. Taking advantage of the extra time he now had to deploy a bunch of tactics all at once, he pulled Hachi and Tzumezhao, his [I]foo lion figurines of wondrous power,[/I] and dropped them to the floor, calling out their shared command word as he did so. He then cast an [I]invisibility[/I] spell upon himself and, not having the spell he wanted available in his current mental inventory, flipped the pages at the rear of his [I]Omnibook[/I] until he found a scroll of [I]see invisibility[/I] - he was pretty sure none of these orcs, goblins, or orogs were capable of summoning forth a fiendish monstrous spider of that size and suspected an invisible spellcaster somewhere in their midst. Finally, he used another scroll to cast a [I]fly[/I] spell upon himself and flew over to the top of the stone fort. However, with his [I]see invisibility[/I] spell already in effect, he could now see there was a female drider on the fort's roof - a drider he hadn't been able to see before casting his spell! Looking around the battlefield, he also saw a male drow sorcerer or wizard standing behind a group of orcs and goblins, no doubt watching invisibly at the progress of his beastly allies. As the [I]time stop[/I] spell ran its course and Gilbert fell back into the normal flow of time, he called out over the [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell what he'd seen: <Drider spellcaster on rooftop, drow spellcaster to the east! Finoula, drow on your left, up on top of hill!> As one, Hachi and Tsumezhao, rising to their full size in front of the fiendish monstrous spider, clamped down on the spider-leg closest to them. Mudpie also swiveled the Goliath armor and sent a hydraulic fist crashing into the massive arachnid's head. Just now approaching the battlefield, MARCI stepped forward and cast her red beam over the bodies of several guardsmen lying in the dirt. "Dead," she identified. "Dead. Pulse detected." Stepping up to the third body, she injected him with a stimdose that had him fluttering his eyes open and grabbing up the sword that had fallen from his hands when he'd been knocked out by an orc's blow. Ignoring the metallic construct who had just revived him, he jumped to his feet and raced to the nearest orc, ignoring the fact he was standing beneath a spider so big he'd taken its legs as slender tree trunks. Hagan punched the fiendish dire bat, nearly knocking it out of the air. It struggled to maintain its position n the sky, reeling drunkenly but eventually managing to get its bearings. Hagan was willing to bet it had never before been punched as hard as the Titan mech had just punched it. Aithanar shot up at the fiendish arachnid with the Wraith pulse gun, grinning as a chunk of flesh exploded from its body and a dark ichor dripped from the wound. Then Malrin sprinted at the spider, wildshaping into a tyrannosaurus as she did so. The monstrous dinosaur was of a large enough size to be a natural threat to the fiendish arachnid, clamping her daggerlike teeth into one of the eight legs near where it connected to the body. And Binkadink turned to attack the spider as well, using his [I]reverberating glaive[/I] extended to its full length. The weapon was quite impressive with the full strength of a 15-foot-tall armored mech behind it! The arrival of the heroes had certainly made quite a difference in the course of the battle already, but the orcs, goblins, and orogs weren't giving up yet - they surely knew they had drider and drow spellcasters on their side and they still had superiority of numbers over the mercenary guardsmen, at least. Darrien cast a [I]freedom of movement[/I] spell upon himself and waded through the edge of his [I]entangle[/I] spell to make it up the steep slope of the hill to the top where the orogs were still thrashing at the few human warriors still alive up there. They were doing their all against the orog fighting them, and as Darrien watched a quartet of orc warriors skirted around the back of the garrison fort, ready to attack the guardsmen from behind. Pulling out his [I]Arachnibow[/I], he managed to slay two of the orcs in rapid succession, glad he'd spent time on Eradicator Base learning to fire his magic bow while wearing the bulky Ogre armor. Another summoned combatant materialized on the field, this one another spidery being but nowhere near as large as the massive fiendish spider to the west. Finoula recognized it as a bebelith as it scurried towards her, forelimbs ready to rend her armor and mouthparts opened wide to bite. She felt the fangs pierce the sides of her armor, sliding between the layers to pump venom into her torso, causing a burning sensation as the poison did its work. She felt her heart pumping faster as the strength left her body. To make matters worse, the drow sorcerer popped back into visibility as he cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at Finoula, apparently deciding that exposing himself to full view in the midst of combat while taking out a female foe was worth the risk. But there was no way Finoula was going to stay here in the demon's clutches, not when the single touch of her amulet and a command word sent her blasting through the bebelith as a bolt of living lightning. She arced over through a couple of orcs at the top of the hill for good measure, then pivoted and blasted through the drow sorcerer on her way back to the ground far enough away from the bebelith to force it to waste time reaching her - time she could put to good use. The orcs and drow were slain instantly, whereas the bebelith seemed entirely unaffected by the electrical attack. The fiendish monstrous spider bit at the tyrannosaurus who was in turn biting at it, while Mudpie threw another powerful punch at the creature with the full might of the Goliath mech's hydraulic systems. In midair, the fiendish dire bat again tried biting the Titan mech with no discernible effects. Gilbert flew up and over the top of the keep and cast an [I]acid fog[/I] spell over the roof, catching the [I]invisible[/I] drider spellcaster within its billowing clouds. The drider made no cries or indications of pain, but Gilbert knew she had to have been affected. Still, one disadvantage of the spell was she was now obscured within the cloud and thus couldn't be individually targeted with further spells, only those which affected an area. But Gilbert had a few more of those on hand, so he wasn't overly concerned. The foo lions continued biting at the giant spider's legs, while Aithanar kept firing his pulse gun at the thing. Malrin dodged to the side and bit a chunk of demonic flesh from the spider's abdomen with her dinosaur teeth. Together, they were taking the fight out of the summoned arachnid. Hagan ignored the fiendish dire bat and cast a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell down at the orc barbarians still trapped in Gilbert's [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell, arcing off blasts to strike a bunch of other orcs and goblins in the immediate vicinity and the orog making its way towards Binkadink in the Spriggan armor. The goblins were slain instantly; the orog and orcs were brought near to staggering - none of them looked to be worth much in the fights to come, but still they fought on. Darrien slew two more orcs with his [I]Arachnibow[/I] and then started shooting at the bebelith. Binkadink slew the fiendish monstrous spider with a crippling blow from his [I]reverberating glaive[/I], the full power of the Spriggan mech behind it. As a summoned creature, the spider returned to its Lower Plane when it was slain, not polluting the battlefield any further with its corpse. Then a quartet of lights shot up out of the [I]acid fog[/I] cloud covering the top of the garrison fort. A simple [I]dancing lights[/I] spell, the four glowing balls of light took alignment in a diamond shape and then started spinning in a circle. Gilbert surmised this was a signal, of the same sort the arcane archers used when sending [I]fireball[/I] arrows up into the sky to warn of an impending attack. Sure enough, the remaining orcs, goblins, and orogs looked up, saw the lights in the otherwise dark sky, and turned back to the Vesve Forest, slinking off the battlefield - the lights were apparently a signal to retreat. Unseen inside the [I]acid fog[/I], the drider cleric cast a [I]word of recall[/I] spell that instantly [I]teleported[/I] her off of the rooftop and across the miles to the designated rally point, where she could begin the trek back to home and to safety. The orcs, orogs, and goblins, when opportunity allowed, took time from their retreat to grab up any metal weapons dropped by the men they'd slain. The bebelith, however, had no desire to retreat; it scurried forth and caught up a mercenary in its jaws, ripping the armor from him with its fore-claws as it pumped venom into his system. The soldier, not as seasoned a fighter as Finoula, died instantly; as for Finoula, she could still feel the effects of the venom but was fighting on. The fiendish dire bat was in no mood to retreat, either, and continued its fruitless attacks upon Hagan in the Titan mech. Hagan punched it to death and its body disappeared before striking the ground. But just because the foes were in retreat was no reason for the battle to be over. Finoula blasted her way through a line of fleeing orcs and an orog as a living lightning bolt, regaining her armored elven form in front of a line of slain corpses. She nodded in appreciation to herself. Gilbert dropped lower, directly in front of a group of enemies, including the bebelith. He cast a [I]prismatic spray[/I] spell at the group, watching orcs get burned alive and goblins get poisoned into immediate death; the bebelith, however, was randomly struck by a blast of electricity, to which it was completely immune. Mudpie's greater stride in his Goliath mech allowed him to catch several fleeing orcs and pound them into mush before they could escape the kingdom. Hachi and Tsumezhao, without the fiendish spider to chew on any more, bounded up to an orog and brought him to the ground, ripping at his arms and throat until he was dead. Aithanar, deciding he'd go after the toughest-looking foes, shot another orog with his pulse gun, dropping him instantly. Darrien was picking off orcs and goblins with his arrows, firing as fast as he could. But the entire army had not been centered on this one particular garrison fort; the combatants had spread out and attacked Kordovia in a wide swath, some of them apparently making it into the capital city, for streams of orcs hurried towards the Vesve Forest, some of them carrying human women over their shoulders. That was a first - in the past, they'd limited their "war trophies" to metal armor and weapons from the soldiers they slew. The heroes spread out as well, trying to slay as many of these attackers as they could before they escaped. <Do we follow them?> asked Binkadink over the telepathic link. <Best we stick together!> replied Gilbert. <We better as a powerful front all in one place - split up, we easier to take down one at a time!> He also knew the futility in trying to track down an entire army on the rout, with everyone entering the forest by the quickest means available. He saw the bebelith wink out of existence, the duration of the spell that had summoned it apparently having expired. One orc in particular was running straight at Gilbert. He readied an attack spell before he noted the orc was a woman waving her arms wide. "It me, Mudpie!" she called out, using her son's childhood nickname. Gilbert landed on the ground before his winded mother, reincarnated into an orc body after her slaying by assassins from her homeland. Harriet Fung briefly told her son of her recent exploits since the previous orc wave, when she inserted herself among the attacking ranks as they retreated back to their hidden home base. "Orcs think I part of different group, take me into ranks. We return to cave in forest. Then we teleport to different places underground. We end up in--" "--a drow city," finished Gilbert, earning him a swat on the arm. "Mudpie!" fumed Harriet. "You already know this, why you send me in as spy?" "Mom, I swear, we just found out now - there was a drow spellcaster and a drider in with the orcs and goblins and whatnot. I figured, based on the power of their spells, they were the masterminds behind the attacks. They are, aren't they? It's drow sending them after us?" "Yes, it drow all right - entire drow city, called Arachnespinnacle. They got [I]teleport circles[/I] all through Underdark - it only safe way to [I]teleport[/I] that far underground." "Tell me you know how to get us to this Arachnespinnacle," prompted Gilbert. Harriet playfully slapped her son's arm again. "Of course I know way back - what kind of spy you take me for? I know command words to [I]teleport circles[/I], too!" The others regrouped around Gilbert and his mother and were caught up on Harriet's tale. "Drow!" hissed Finoula. As an elf, she had no love for the drow - and the feeling was quite mutual, for the dark elves hated their surface cousins above all others. "Should we go follow them now?" asked Binkadink, eager for continued battle. "No, we wait, rest up, go when we at full strength," Gilbert replied. "Want Mom to draw us out map of drow city, so we make plans on how best to attack. We should check in with the Queen, too, let her know we back and we know who behind attacks." "It'll give us time to bury our dead, too," observed Darrien. There were a lot of dead soldiers strewn about the battlefield - and this was just one pocket of fighting among several. As it turned out, there were some personal losses among those slain in this most recent attack. Galrich Slayer's body was found under a pile of enemies, an arrow sticking out of an eye socket; apparently he'd been shot through the eye but fought on until he was overpowered by a group of orcs, but still managed to take out a half dozen by himself before succumbing to his wounds. The group talked about having the former king [I]resurrected[/I], but they also realized he had finally been reunited with his loving mother in death: Queen Kathenta, who'd died giving birth to Galrich in an orc encampment. "We'll ask Queen Kaelanna," suggested Finoula. "She'll best know his wishes." But that wasn't the only death that hit hard. Several garrison forts to the north, a group of bodies had been burned to a crisp, the victims of repeated [I]fireball[/I] attacks, it looked like. There wasn't much left to identify the bodies...but one of them wore a ring on his finger bearing the Ivenheart crest. Malrin and Aithanar recognized it at once as the ring their father had worn as the oldest male in his line; after Aroban's death, the ring had been passed on to Castillan. The bounder's identity was further confirmed by the ring on his other hand, which Castillan had had custom-made to allow him to [I]dimension door[/I] three times per day. "They will pay for this - the drow, all of them will pay!" swore Malrin, before breaking down into tears. Aithanar comforted his sister as best he could. "We make plans at once," promised Gilbert. "This the final orc wave ever come out of the forest to attack us!" - - - So, getting back to that "wavelength" that I seem to have with my son Logan (who plays Binkadink in this campaign and is the DM for the "Raiders of the Overreach" campaign).... When I first devised this campaign I knew that waves of orcs and goblins were going to be a long-term plot line, one I envisioned being taken care of at the very end of the campaign. I had decided the orcs and goblins were slaves to the drow, who didn't want to waste time and resources arming their slaves when the occasional raid on the surface would not only weed out the unworthy but allow them to scavenge for metal weapons and armor from those they slew. I figured their Underdark city would be heavily shielded from divination spells and the way back to their city - from a cave in the Vesve Forest, which was one end of a [I]teleportation circle[/I] node leading to the Underdark - would make it nearly impossible for the Kordovians to be able to find where these attacks were coming from. So, when we finished up the "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign (that Logan DMed), he informed us his next campaign was going to start off with our new PCs as slaves to a drow city in the Underdark. I had to just laugh quietly to myself - damn that "wavelength!" (Despite Logan looking more like his mother's side of the family than mine, he and I practically share the same mind sometimes.) So the big reveal in this campaign kind of ended up being a bit of a letdown, but I think the PCs are stoked enough about having Gamma Word armor/mechs that the "unoriginality" of the drow city is lessened significantly in their eyes. So, the next adventure will be our last. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we won't be able to play in this campaign until sometime in July. We also need to decide who all will be going on the adventure: the five PCs, of course, as well as Malrin and Aithanar, with Harriet Fung as a scout. I think the general consensus was to leave Obvious and the other jackalopes behind; they're still kind of wavering on bringing Genevar or not. ("Who brings a ten-year-old into a war?" - "But it's a ten-year-old with prophetic visions of the future!") So we'll see how that turns out. In any case, I'm feeling the same way as I did about closing out my last campaign: sad to see the end of these characters but eager to see what the next campaign will be like. (The next campaign will be called "Dreams of Erthe" and will feature a pantheon of gods patterned after the PCs from my first campaign with this group, "Wing Three." I think I'll start up a thread for that one pretty soon.) - - - T-Shirt Worn: My TSR Silver Anniversary T-shirt, because among the many D&D monsters it has featured on it (in an illustration by none other than Tony DiTerlizzi) is a goblin. [/QUOTE]
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