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Dawn of Magic
This is another belated report on a session close to two weeks ago. We skipped April 7 so that Bonnie and I could go see Ladytron (not that I have any regrets . . . I'd see 'em again if I could!). Anyway, the March 31 meeting enjoyed a full house: Bonnie ("Leif"), Marc ("Mushamee"), Martin ("Kaeso"), Mike ("Rufus"), and Stéphane ("Vinz").
Time: Night, Dva 10, 1003 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Hippolyte's palace in Tenosia.
Last Event: Mock trial of the Starfish-Man spy.
After the false trial, the Starfish-Man spy is escorted to Hippolyte's dungeons. Leif personally commands the guard placed on the cell – a ploy to ensure that when Vinz shows up in disguise, the other guards are conveniently looking the wrong way. As Vinz's cue approaches, Leif sends his men to fetch him a barbarian-sized meal. Given Leif's legendary appetite, size, and strength, nobody dares question his orders! Soon, Leif is guarding the cell by himself.
In a vacant cell nearby, Vinz prepares to act. He disguises himself as a Starfish-Man wizard using captured clothing and weapons. Then he alters his visage with magic to create an exceptionally convincing illusion. Once he's ready, he works an invisibility spell and steals out into the shadowy dungeons. He slips past the conveniently unbarred door to the guardroom outside the spy's cell and "sneaks up" up Leif (who of course is expecting him and can in fact hear him).
On arriving behind Leif, Vinz casts a third charm – this one to impart his skill at acting and deception to Leif. Then, as he and Leif previously agreed, he strikes the barbarian a genuine blow to the neck. Leif falls over, bleeding and gurgling convincingly . . . whereupon the prisoner speaks up: "Stab him again! This one is tough." Vinz does so, and Leif fakes a very convincing death. (He has had much worse, but the spy likely doesn't know the full extent of Leif's superhuman toughness.)
With Leif out of the way, Vinz becomes visible, tells the spy that he has come to rescue him, and proceeds to unlock the cell door. Then he renders both himself and the Starfish-Man invisible, and they sneak out of the dungeons following a route that "luckily" passes near few guards. Once outside the palace, they keep to shadows in the streets of Tenosia – once again following a route carefully selected by Vinz – until they reach the tunnel out of Tenosia's cavern and into the Starfish-Man realm.
The tunnel entrance is heavily guarded, as Hippolyte felt that it wouldn't be convincing to leave it unguarded! Vinz drinks some paut for energy – convincing the spy that it's distilled world-essence – and then casts a mighty sleep spell over the guards. As soon as the soliders keel over, Vinz escorts his charge to the gate, magically unlocks it, and hustles him into the passage beyond. They soon reach the blank stone wall across the end.
At the stone wall, Vinz sacrifices blood to fuel the magic needed to shape the stone and let the spy escape. He warns the Starfish-Man that this means continuing ahead without Vinz, who will be too injured to flee. When the wall opens to the Starfish-Man realm, Vinz works one final bloody spell to bestow flight upon the spy so that he may escape quickly. After doing so, he collapses in a convincing "death" while the former prisoner flies to freedom.
By now, Vinz's allies have left the palace. They move at such speed that the regular soldiers responding to the alarm are left in their dust. Mushamee arrives first. On finding the collapsed "Starfish-Man" jail-breaker, he puts on a good show, yelling curses at the fleeing speck in the sky and waking the sleeping guards with kicks and shouts. Rufus arrives shortly thereafter, takes custody of the "dead" enemy agent, and carts the body to Necros' bone cathedral for post-mortem interrogation.
At the bone cathedral, safely out of sight of prying eyes, Recnam awakens Vinz. Rufus gives Vinz some healing elixirs to close the wounds caused by his blood magic. Vinz also drinks some of the remaining paut to recharge his magical energies. Thus revitalized, Vinz ditches his disguise and dresses in a plain robe.
Rufus and Vinz return to the tunnel entrance. Mushamee is still there, angrily chastising the formerly sleeping guards. Rufus delivers the results of the "interrogation" of the Starfish-Man jail-breaker, making up details as he goes along. After hearing this, Mushamee orders a search of the area surrounding the exit into the Starfish-Man realm. The search parties consist of air elementals sent by Kerim Khan, who have orders to do a very visible and deliberately sloppy job of looking for the escaped spy.
During these goings on, Kaeso and Leif – both ostensibly dead – stay out of sight back at the palace. Kaeso uses the time to brew more potions, especially healing potions, for use on the heroes' upcoming raid on the Nybboth. Leif, meanwhile, calls on spirits to heal himself from Vinz's attack, and then grabs himself a big meal. After that, both men set to loading supplies onto Kaeso's flying disc: food, potions, rope, spare armor and weapons . . . everything.
Mushamee, Rufus, and Vinz soon return to the palace to plan in secret with Hippolyte, Kaeso, and Leif. They agree upon on a strategy: If the "escaped" spy's report triggers the hoped-for military reaction, the heroes will set out on the disc to the tower of the Nybboth. Hippolyte will stay in telepathic contact with Mushamee. Once enemy troops have passed the point of no return and committed fully to their attack on Tenosia, she will send the order to neutralize the Nybboth.
Then the meeting adjourns so that everyone can rest . . . but the enemy response doesn't take long to come! In the wee hours of Dva 11, alarms sound across the city. Hippolyte calls Mushamee telepathically and orders him to bring his allies and the disc to meet her at the passage to the surface. The general fetches Kaeso, Leif, Rufus, and Vinz, and the five board the disc. Kaeso switches on the machine's invisibility function and ferries everyone to the tunnel entrance, which is surrounded by troops.
Hippolyte immediately briefs the squad on recent events: The far end of the tunnel was rived by a magical blast that killed the masons sent to seal up the exit. Sounds of enemy activity now echo down the corridor. There has been no other enemy action yet – the opposition isn't foolhardy enough to attack in force down a narrow gallery – but there are clearly preparations afoot. The queen asks for an invisible scouting party to gather better intelligence for her.
Vinz draws his cloak about himself, while Kaeso and Leif quaff flight and invisibility elixirs. The three then steal up the passage to take a look. What they see is impressive: Ranks of Starfish-Man troops hold the plains surrounding the tunnel exit. A swirling portal in the sky – which Kaeso notices seems to employ the same weird science as the ones in Tenosia – is bringing hundreds more soldiers every minute or two. Floating discs and barges are arriving constantly, with yet more forces. And immediately surrounding the tunnel, thousands of Starfish-Man wizards are working a great ritual of earth magic.
The scouts report in. Hippolyte asks Rufus – whose memory is legendary – to recall what he remembers about the forces the party saw arrayed around the Nybboth tower on their last foray into the Starfish-Man realm. Then she reads the minds of all four and starts tossing numbers at Kaeso, whose aptitude with figures is as impressive as Rufus' recall. In the final calculation, Hippolyte concludes that the enemy forces will be fully positioned to attack in at most 16 hours. She orders Mushamee to depart on his raid at once.
Mushamee summons Petr, who promised to join the group. Vinz fetches the Wand of 13 Curses from the Asok. When everybody is ready and aboard the disc, Kaeso switches on the vehicle's invisibility again and flies it up through the portal into the mortal world. There, he accelerates to top speed and activates the machine's dimension-crossing function . . . which transports it and its riders back to the Starfish-Man realm, but now in the immediate vicinity of the Nybboth tower!
In the area around the tower, the adventurers can see enemy legions advancing toward a dark tentacle from the sky, which is sucking up troops and transporting them elsewhere – no doubt to the area around the tunnel into Tenosia. Kaeso verifies that Hippolyte's estimate on the opposition's preparation time was about right. Then he flies his invisible disc around the area in a brief scouting pass.
From the air, it's evident that the Starfish-Men have improved tower security since the party's last visit. The upper entrances, accessible only by flying, are especially beefed-up. Portcullises block the openings. Three times as many solider stand guard at each gate – and have one of their strange scrying "dogs" with them to sniff out intruders. A giant bolt-caster stands ready to blast approaching discs.
Next, Kaeso heads up to examine the top of the tower, from which the Nybboth itself protrudes. Rufus sees that the giant "plant" is throbbing with active supernatural energies, which in addition to being deadly to living things would serve as a sheath of normality that would negate most non-cosmic effects – including the disc's flight. This radiates about 100 feet in all directions. Accounting for the diameter of the Nybboth itself, this represents an unapproachable zone over 300 feet wide above the tower.
Nevertheless, the raiders decide that their best bet is to attack from above, not to force one of the entrances. The plan: They'll fasten one end of Leif's 500-foot line to the disc's cargo hooks. Leif will then transform into his giant bird form and fly off with the other end in his beak. With the line drawn almost taut, this will leave a 100-foot safe area at either end. Vinz will be harnessed in the center, and flown up to the Nybboth without either flyer coming into contact with the sheath of normality. This will let him use his Word of Power and the Wand of 13 Curses.
With that plan made, the party gets ready for Hippolyte's call to strike. Leif paints himself with lucky Northern Runes. Vinz strips almost naked to minimize his weight, and then meditates to clear his mind so that the Wand cannot corrupt him; he even dreams some, although it's hard to say on what. Kaeso continues to fly around the tower so that Rufus can – with the aid of a "keen sight" elixir – observe the enemy troops and report to Mushamee, who passes along what he learns to Hippolyte via their mental link.
Shortly after the last of the enemy troops vanish from near the base of the Nybboth tower, Hippolyte gives Mushamee the order to strike. Mushamee passes this along to his allies, and the plan goes into motion:
• Mushamee treats Leif's 500-foot line with an invisibility preparation cooked up by Kaeso, and then ties one end to the disc and gives the other to Leif.
• Vinz slips into a rope harness fashioned by Kaeso, which Kaeso attaches to the invisible line. He then focuses his will and hides himself with his invisibility cloak – an item of cosmic power, likely able to resist Nybbothic energies.
• Leif drinks an invisibility potion provided by Kaeso. Then he turns into a gigantic bird and flies off with the far end of the line, drawing it taut and suspending Vinz between it and the disc. Per Kaeso's orders, he simply holds a level course.
• Kaeso then calculates the best possible course to swing Vinz toward the Nybboth in such a way that when the invisible line enters the sheath of normality and becomes visible, it will be maximally obscured to any observers left around or on the tower.
Kaeso and Leif follow their respective courses. Even at great speed, though, the dangling Vinz spends the space of a few heartbeats within the deadly Nybbothic energy field. His Bracers of Su protect him from this somewhat, but the protection isn't perfect. He feels his skin burning, his life sapping away. He stays conscious through sheer will and prepares to strike.
With the Nybboth at point-blank range, Vinz flings open his cloak, summons his chi, and with both hands stabs the Wand of 13 Curses into the Nybboth's stringy bark. Immediately, he speaks his Word of Power, directing its explosive cosmic energy through the Wand and into the evil plant. Vinz and the Nybboth are engulfed in a soul-searing shockwave of supernatural destruction. When it's possible to look again, the Nybboth is shriveling in flame, its demise slamming shut the door on the Starfish-Man forces, compelling them to stay and fight to the death in Tenosia.
Flying swiftly, Kaeso and Leif attempt to extract Vinz before he's incinerated or the line burns up. They manage to pull out Vinz – only to see the line snap and Vinz plummet. Kaeso dives his vehicle to get under Vinz. He succeeds, and the bloodied, smoldering Vinz slams into the disc's hard stone, all but dead.
There are a few hairy moments as the supernatural aftermath of the Nybboth's destruction sweeps over the disc, deafening some and blinding others, but Kaeso manages to regain control. He immediately returns the disc to the mortal world . . . where Recnam has prayed to Necros to shut down Tenosia's many portals and using their energy to return it to its former location with both armies in its streets. Leif treats Vinz's grievous wounds, and then the heroes descend on the battle brewing below. In the distance, Black Adolph's troops are charging – apparently to attack Hippolyte's, but hopefully to veer off at the last moment to surprise the Starfish-Men as planned.
no subject
1) Vinz didn't pull any punch when attacking Leif (it had to be convincing), but he didn't use Power Blow. :) Just beforehand, he used Lend Skill to lend his Acting skill to the barbarian.
2) Vinz achieved his convincing death by putting himself into hibernation using his Metabolism Control advantage - after casting Hawk Flight on the spy.
3) The spell used on the Nybboth was Burning Death, one of the Wand's spells that it bestowed to the wielder at effective skill 20. Both the Nybboth and the Wand were destroyed.
4) Vinz bought a critical success to be able to manipulate the energy released by his Word of Power the exact way he wanted, thus giving Kaeso and Leif one second to move him away from the explosion (otherwise he would have been vaporized).
5) The total damage to the Nybboth was, IIRC, around 1200 points (since it was a party roll, all the people who had it available used his/her luck to get the best roll possible). The Nybboth needed a bit less than 1,100 points of damage to be destroyed.