LongestRoad Run22

Last Chapter

3 Lightning Moon, 1372

• Entered the catacombs! A great big fight!
  • Beholder behind a wall of force, his antimagic field filling the room
  • Two elder black puddings (oozes), dripping with stuff-destroying acid
  • Tendriculous, ready to om nom nom
  • 4x horde scarab hellswarms, ready to burrow into your FLEEESH
• Michael began chopping at a stalactite above one of the puddings to fall and smoosh
• Teris SUGGEST'ed that the beholder close his eye
  • When it did, another monster appeared in the room- a 12-headed cryo monster based on a remorhaz! Ready to breathe lots of lasers and break lots of weapons!
• Cryoremorhaz breathed at Oraine, she saved herself through a classy defensive shift and wasn't totally killed outright
• All hell breaks loose- walls of fire, lots of dragon breaths, antimagic going on and off
  • Querca gets schlorped into the ooze and a lot of her stuff melted
  • Sil and Teris both get chomped by the remorhaz's head, but Ezel CONFUSE's it so it charges around madly
  • A couple forcecages get dropped on Ezel and Oraine (with poison)
• Ellowyn disintegrates the wall of force and Michael and Sventukothar take care of the beholder (which hates you)
• Vin uses his death attack, what a good boy! Umm... but well at least his bestow curse helped.
• Party members gathered, treasure scooped, on to the next room with the Brass Orb
  • All the orbs start vibrating, wanting to be brought together; party runs upstairs to Fellithysaar to show him and then SHOOP they are transported
• CORRIDOR OF TRIALS- a hallway with eight gates, each representing one of the lesser dragon gods; each demanding a free sacrifice
  • Aastilabor, Goddess of Wealth - "Let he who has great wealth sacrifice it freely to the Hordemistress." Michael loses 10,000 gp
  • Hlal, Goddess of Humor - "Let he who inspires others sacrifice it freely to the Keeper of Tales." Evathyth loses bardic inspiration
  • Tamara, Goddess of Life - "Let he who heals the wounded sacrifice it freely to Her Mercy." Querca loses all healing ability
  • Aasterinian, Messenger of Io - THE GM ACCIDENTALLY SKIPPED THIS ONE BUT I SHALL TELL YOU ANYWAYS - "Let he of great knowledge sacrifice it freely to Io's Messenger." Someone WOULD HAVE lost all knowledge skills.
  • Lendys, God of Justice - "Let he who brings justice to the wicked sacrifice it freely to The Balancer." Michael loses his SMITE.
  • Chronepsis, God of Fate - "Let he who sight does judge his fellow sacrifice it freely to The Watcher." Ellowyn becomes blind (for real).
  • Garyx, God of Destruction - "Let he who wields the flames of destruction sacrifice it freely to the All-Destroyer." Ezel loses his ability to cast any fire spells.
  • Falazure, God of Decay - "Let he who lives and breathes sacrifice himself freely to the Night Dragon." Vin dies.
• HOLY SHIT A MASSIVE BATTLE IS STARTING! A long open-air temple with two altars at the back- black and white- and tons of demons pouring in. Also, a 50s-housewife demon. Also, Team Tamara has become evil. Marcus, Senyo, Eryuul, and Aezma attack the party.
  • Dammit the room is teleport/dimdoor proof.
  • Michael opens up a can of holy whoopass with Holy Word
  • Aezma counters with some BLASPHEMY
  • Ezel unexpectedly attacks the party
  • Suddenly Armatt (Michael's mom!) and a FRIGGIN ARMY of celestials WHOOSH in and bodyslam the demons! Armatt bodyslams Itessa, possibly for a makeout fight, and Ezel is freed! Team Tamara gets taken down! "KEEP GOING!"
• Party presses on a little farther, but the demons and celestials reach a stalemate- and there's no time!
  • The gold orb starts thrumming at Sil, filling her whole body with what sounds like her favorite drinking song. She starts belting it out, and then suddenly WHAM! The Bauriars appear, high five her, and make a wedge to push on!
  • A little farther, another stalemate- the silver orb starts thrumming at Michael, a melody he'd been picking out on his Tiny Violin; he starts playing (really well) and WHAM! Zeroth and three lillends- the mayors of Freehaven and another that Ellowyn had chatted up- appear, fighting and BARD'ing! A hole is made!
  • A little farther, Ellowyn feels the bronze thrumming and crackling; does a fireworks cantrip and BAM! Cybilenemarea appears with Archmage Serahn and Vitaria strapped to his back, they start a'roaring and a'zappin and a'shootin! A big hole is made!
  • A little farther, copper starts thrumming at Querca; she eats a delicious goodberry acorn and Leon-Hai appears! He wades joyfully into the fight, throwing guys into other guys, using Godly Smash powers, etc. A good time! A hole is made!
  • A little farther, brass starts thrumming at Teris, reminding him of THAT ONE TIME... he starts telling a story and BAM! Fellithysaar appears, throws a HUGE gush of fire, smashes a bit of Querca's wall of thorns, and a way is clear! GO GO GO GO GO! "One of you will have to bring all 5 to the altar- and you'll know what has to be done!"
• Rush to the altar- and Sil suddenly knows what to so. She sets them on altar-grooves; they start to lift and spin around her, flooding her mind with confusion and nausea and a sense of herself ripping apart
  • Her skin is glowing molten; gold trickles down her side; she falls down, dead. And an elf.
  • Also, Bahamut is not there.
  • Silara wings in, shocked at Sil's death; hands her back to Michael after a minute and goes to finish the summoning.
  • "Oh excuse me," TOM shoves in and whispers something in Sil's ear
• SIL: Sitting in TOM's kitchen with a dinged up stock pot of scrying in the middle of the table showing the fight. He explains that since evil always cheats, Zahn and "that young Pazuzu fellow" managed to find a way to do it with four orbs. But she sees that it's erratic and limping (he has, at this point, taken the altar with Pazuzu guarding him).
  • TOM reveals that with four, either the summoning will kill him, or Tiamat will when she rises. Unless... rolls Red Orb over to Sil.
  • Sil lowers the orb into the stockpot, and the scene fades away
• In real life: Zahn has taken the altar and started summoning, Pazuzu guarding him; not going well at all; suddenly a ghostly figure of... Sil?... appears and sets the red into the groove.
  • Silara has finished her summoning; a huge platinum flash bigger than one can imagine as Bahamut wings into the sky.
  • A long few moments later- Zahn finishes his, and Tiamat takes the sky with a terrible roar
• B&T prepare to square off, when TOM sighs, leaps into the air, and takes them both by the jaw (one of Tiamat's five). She tries to blast him with her other four heads, but it rolls off him and dissipates. He lands again, B&T following, transforming respectively into a strong and craggy fighter with shiny, shiny armor; and a gorgeous woman in a slinky dress shifting in color between her five types
  • TOM waves his hand and the battle disappears, except for Marcus, Senyo, and Eryuul (not evil anymore); and for Zahn at other altar
  • "Now son, rules are rules, and you get to go first"
  • Bahamut rezzes Vin, takes Sil into his arms, and closes his eyes for a moment
• SIL: In front of two mirrors, one reflecting herself as an elf, the other a wyrmling gold dragon. Bahamut explains that what she did sundered her; and only one "self" can be saved
  • She chooses dragon
• In Bahamut's arms, Sil transforms into a wyrmling gold dragon; and her eyes open. She shifts into her alt form (looks like regular Sil) and he sets her down
• Bahamut also restores all things sacrificed
  • "The Orbs are bound to you... it would be my wish to reabsorb their power, if you choose to give them to me"
  • They are being offered before he even finishes speaking; Ellowyn: "We've seen what danger these things can do"
  • Then abruptly, "Now... I would give you the wish of your heart, if it is in my power to give it."
    • Querca: for him to plant her last holy seed somewhere safe. He will plant it in the courtyard of his most besterest temple on Celestia.
    • Vin: "I could make his scales a more pleasing hue?" He is unsure and begs time to consider, Bahamut peels off a scale and hands it to him. WOOOOOWW
    • Evathyth & Oraine: safety for their people. Bahamut promises forever friendship/alliance with neighboring gold dragons.
    • Michael: for his father and mother to be together again. "It is done."
    • Ezel: to save his sister. Bahamut is unable to act directly since it is outside his god-sphere; there are no metallic dragons there or temples to Bahamut, priests, etc; but he gives Ezel the power to save her by creating a new phylactery for him (now his mom won't be able to control him)
    • Ellowyn: the long life of his bronze dragon heritage. "Yes; perhaps in your long lifetime you will find a way to make whole your race once more."
    • Teris: doesn't want anything, so Bahamut gives him a scale for a rainy day or whatnot.
    • Sil: for her family to be together. Bahamut grants "a charmed life" for her children until they reach their majority; and for their children, and their children's children.
• Tiamat's turn! She stalks (oh god her butt swaying omg so hot) over to Zahn
  • "Boy, give me those orbs at once!" "No." ?!@?@?@??@?@!!!!
  • Conversation with Sil: Evil has to be controlled, this is the pinnacle of his life's ambition; so uh, goodbye possibly forever? Gotta go do god stuff?
  • "BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR FAMILY" "AIEEE WTF. Um I could make a better future for them?" "GUILT GUILT GUILT BE IN THEIR LIVES INSTEAD." "okay."
  • Zahn gives the orbs to Tiamat, she and Bahamut both fly off
• TOM gathers the group together, "Well, you've all done so well, but now there's even more to do: a war is picking up force in the Abyss, and some of you have some personal stake in it, eh?" Elbow, elbow.
  • Ezel: "One last thing, who are you?" "Oh come on now, if you really need me to answer that, you're not my best student ever. Oh yeah by the way not going to have time to teach you two now; got to spend some time with the kids. Hope you didn't leave anything you need in the house."
  • Io (TOM) sends them back to Fellithysaar's lair to rest and recover.

POST GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

• Querca and Oraine both leave the party to go home- Fell teleports them since he likes you guys
• Evathyth makes a brief trip home as well but returns
• Party visits Bahl Lok again to sell some items and retrieve Nula; she'd been Soul Gem'ed, but Zahn had stolen it from Pazuzu and hands it over
• Zahn wants to save his mom
• War in the Abyss to deal with
• NEXT TIME ON... THE LONGEST ROAD!

The Challenge of the Murder Brigade!

For this challenge, I anticipated some kind of beast bludeoning me with some kind of enhanced fire. I enhanced our resistance to fire, linked us mentally, and sent out an Arcane Eye as intel and figured I should get a good look of the room. Then a bigger eye opened as my vision cut off.

Antimagic field from a Beholder. Great. I also noticed two large black puddings and a Tendriculos (that's what Querca said it was. I guess her nature nonsense came in handy.) So, no melee, no magic. The Puddings would devour anyone close and bathe them with acid. The Tendriculos still had its ridulous range (and some trick to prevent it from regenerating, I didn't get the details.) I gave Sil and Michael some Acid resistance and we began a simple plan to shoot the beholder's eye out. Michael drew his bow and we found a wall of force protecting it. We could beat that with a disintegrate spell, but there's an antimagic field in the way!

There was also a pile of gold in the room. Obvious trap was obvious. We eventually found out they had Scarab Hellswarms. These buggers like to bury themselves into people's flesh and lay eggs from within. Not a problem for most of us who didn't have soft flesh, or resisted disease like Michael.

The front liners promptly separated. Vin hid somewhere (he wouldn't tell me where, the brat.) Oraine hid somewhere else (but told me where, thank you.) Michael decided to slice off the salactites on the ceiling to drop them on the pudding (maybe he should have started a bit lower.) Sil held her ground and looked for an opening. Ellowyn, Querca and I scratched our asses as we had no conjuration magic and therefore could do nothing in that field (Maybe Querca scratched her trunk?)

Teris, in no mood to fight the encroaching puddings, used his dragon orb to suggest the beholder close its antimagic eye. It actually worked. Unfortunately the antimagic field was supressing one more monster. It was a cryohydra remorhaz. In layman's terms, 12 heads to breathe cold and a body that destroys weapons on contact. Guess I should have chosen cold resistance. Oraine was its first target, and she was blasted with icy shards. She shifted as she rolled out of the way, I guess to reduce injuries.

With the antimagic field down the magic users could finally do something. Except for Querca, a pudding ate her. Ellowyn used Dimension Door to get within range of the beholder. I set up a wall of fire (bless this spell) to roast the Tendriculos and get the remorhaz to shuffle out of the way. I was weary of the beholder's disintegrate rays, so I moved behind a pillar for cover and onto some kind of trap. Vin decided to tell me after I triggered it, claiming it was "obvious." It was the classic "Forcecage and poison gas" trap. No problem for me, but may have been trouble for Oraine, who fell into a similar trap.

When Ellowyn disintegrated the wall of force surrounding the beholder, Michael and his mount Sventukothar charged in and performed their Murder Brigade duty.

As for the remorhaz. Sil and Teris were busy with it, as it tried to swallowed them whole. Vin had been studying it closely, using a bit of Bestow Curse to reduce its vitality. He was preparing a death attack. Took forever though, so I kept it busy by overwhelming its mind with a Confusion Curse. The forcecage I was in came in handy, as it couldn't swallow me. It breathed on me but I'm a lich, bitch. Vin finally landed his death attack and gutted the remorhaz like a giant, frosted over fish. A land fish. With 12 heads. And I think I lost the metaphor.

Well, we won. Lots of gold, art, and treasure to be had. We also apparently found the Brass Dragon Orb. Looked like junk to me, but I knew the procedure. We had all five metallic orbs, and they started vibrating accordingly. They wanted to be together. They also wanted to be somewhere else. We barely had time to announce our victory to Fellithysaar before we were teleported.

The Price

We were in a corridor, location unknown. Each door was marked by a lesser dragon god, along with a lofty description. Basically make a sacrifice to open each gate. Did they want us to revive their god, or kill us off with pointless sacrifices? Maybe this is what gods have to do to pass toll bridges in the divine realm.

Aastilabor: Michael put his hand in and lost 100,000 gold pieces. Honestly, what does she need that for? I bet she can already swim through her already huge horde.

Hlal: Evathyth lost his ability to inspire through song. Or whatever.

Tamara: Querca lost her ability to heal. I don't have any experience with this.

Aasterinian: I guessed correctly that I would lose most of my in-depth knowledge. I'm sure the Messenger knows more about, well anything, than I do. So once again I ask: why?

Lendys: Michael sacrificed again and could no longer Smite Evil.

Chronepsis: Ellowyn lost his sight. I mean, could not use his eyes or his eagles to detect vision.

Garyx: I didn't like losing the ability to cast fire spells. I mean really. Wall of Fire worked out better than I thought it would.

Falazure: Initially, I expected to be the sacrifice for this. God of Decay, am I right? But the instuctions read, "Let he who lives and breathes sacrifice himself freely to the Night Dragon." I was the only one who couldn't use it. I thought of Sil and wondered if she would do it. She was thinking about it as well. But Vin was quick on the draw and gave up his life to open the door.

Vin, thank you. Sacrificing yourself for your surrogate sister. I've never regretted freeing you from Zahn's grip. Ever.

The Push

I suppose this is what families are for. They argue, they fight, they bicker, but they also cooperate, aid each other and love.

I wish I could get that second part down, but I did see many examples on our mad dash to the altar.

We entered a wide-open courtyard, mostly grassy plains but also remnants of a great temple. There was our goal, down the road - an altar dedicated to Bahamut. Ellowyn noted this area prevented alternate forms of travel, like teleportation. However, I was more worried about the army of demons rushing in.

There was another altar dedicated to Tiamat, and they were going to kill us and get their orbs to the altar no matter what. Michael opened up with Holy Word and killed many weaker creatures, but there were more to replace them. Also, Aezma countered with Blasphemy.

My beloved sMother was there, along with our reeducated allies from the Church of Tamara. And Aezma was in top form, of course. Mother asked me to help her, and unfortunately all I had was a Shadow Evocated Ice Storm left. And a bunch of dispels, but I doubted they would waste time casting.

Apologies, that was her compulsion. Because that's what mothers don't do. Michael's mother Armatt soon arrived with a fleet of celestials to counter the demons and tells us to get to the altar. She scored a horrible body check on Mother, cursing me to act freely and against her wishes.

Once again, compulsion.

The celestials bought us time, but we needed more. Sil broke out a limerick about the man from Buckett. Highly inappropriate lyrics, but it did summon the Bauriars who helped us rush ahead. We got a little closer to the altar, but need more help. Michael took out his violin and played it a bit. This brought the mayors of freehaven and a third lillend (is that the one Ellowyn flirted with?) here to lend us a hand.

Ellowyn drops a fireworks cantrip, Cybilenemarea appeared with Archmage Serahn and Vitaria appear and bought us more time (go Archmage!) . Querca ate an acorn and somehow summoned Leon-Hai. Also Teris started telling us a story about some inappropriate meeting and Fellithysaar appears, granting us entry to the altar. Later I was told the dragon orbs hummed and told them to sing/recite/play something. Artifacts. Fellithysaar yelled after us: "One of you will have to bring all 5 to the altar- and you'll know what has to be done!" Everyone handed their orbs to Sil, and she knew exactly what to do. *sigh* Artifacts.

The summoning ritual was quite beautiful, once you understand the intricacies of draconic magic, ley line manipulation, and the applications of divine energy. Skipping details like this upset me, but the short of it is that you need a pureblood dragon to pull this off without trouble. Sil was not pureblood, and thus she was killed on the spot. No, that's not accurate. She lost her dragon blood, reduced to a flighty elf, then dropped dead at the altar. Her mother Silara arrived to mourn her daughter and complete the ritual. Once again, a very beautiful event - both of them.

Across the way, Pazuzu and Zahn were at the altar of Tiamat. They were going to try to summon Tiamat with only four orbs. "It's not going to work", I thought. I mused myself with how it would backfire before I noticed...uh...That Old Man arrive and whisper into Sil's ear. I saw some whispy figure deposit the Red Orb into Tiamat's altar. That whisp looked like Sil. I couldn't really identify them due to my GOD SENSE TINGLING.

A platinum flash briefly rushed by our altar, Bahamut was awake. Soon after a multi-colored flash rushed past the other altar. Bahamut and Tiamat prepared to finish their fight from long ago. In these situations I usually fight to the death, but That Old Man decided it was time for discipline. Sibling war and parental control are familial values I am used to. That Old Man simply grabbed them by the chin (ignored Tiamat's flame) and told them to land and follow the rules. Oh, he also dismissed everyone outside with a wave of his hands. Except for Marcus, Senyo, Eryuul and Zahn.

Rewards

After they took more humanoid forms (Teris was quite "impressed" with Tiamat) That Old Man continued laying down his family law. Bahamut got to go first, and the first things he did was restore what we sacrificed. The money, knowledge, and spells we lost were restored and Vin was revived. Bahamut grabbed Sil and...she turned into a wyrmling gold dragon. Whatever state she was in from the ritual, he fixed it the best he could. The side benefit, of course, is that she is now a DRAGON. And she can polymorph back into her half-elven form rather freely.

Bahamut had to ask us to allow him to absorb the power of his orbs. Those are the rules. Ellowyn did not give it a second thought. I cannot blame him. This kind of direct power corrupts utterly and thouroughly. Besides, it constantly gave away our position. No wonder Mother found me.

Bahamut offered to grant us any wish within his power. How nice of him. Querca asked for her holy seed to be planted somewhere safe (he chose his garden in his temple on Celestia.) Ellowyn wanted the lifespan of his dragon heritage, and got it. Sil wanted her family to be together, and Bahamut blessed her children and their descendants. Michael wanted his parents to be together (amazing how he and I have polar opposite parents.)

My wish was simple: Aezma. Marcus said when Mother lost control of them they saw Aezma disappear. Contingency Plane Shift? I should have counterspelled it. So stupid. Reminding me how useless gods can be, Bahamut can't save her, she was outside of his range of influence and temples, and there were no metallic dragons or priests nearby. Well, go down there and stomp my parents! Problem solved! No wait, I need to do this myself. So I wished for the power to do so, and Bahamut formed a phylactery for me. He says Itessa will no longer be able to control me.

Itessa.

Itessa.

HA! Itessa! I hate her! I hate her so much I can express it! I hate you mother! My mother is so fat when she took a step in high heels she sprung oil! That was a lousy joke. I can finally say her name! Gods are still useful.

As for the other wishes, Vin and Teris were undecided. To be precise, Vin was offered a "change to a more pleasant hue" (dragon racism. Best not to snark about it.) but deferred. Good boy. Meanwhile, I don't think Teris was any happier at that moment, and I'm not referring to Tiamat. I think he was quite content and had no major qualms. Oraine and Evathyth wished for safety for their people, and have thus forged an alliance with gold dragon clans near their homelands. Not too shabby.

Farewells

"Are you DONE?" Tiamat snapped as she slinked back to Zahn. Of course she did it in as sexy a manner as possible. I'm sure Teris has a better evaluation. She immediately demanded Zahn return the orbs to her. He refused! Ha. I enjoyed watching Tiamat squirm indignantly (I'm sure Teris did as well.) The problem is these orbs had to go somewhere. Was he trying to run off with divine power?

Sil walked up to him and got him to talk. He was going to use the orbs' power to become a god and use his powers to control evil. Never works. Ever. Believe me, I've taken down enough nuts who think they know the difference between "right" and "wrong" but end up stabbing everyone anyway. Sil had a better idea: "Stay here and be a father to your children." To give up ultimate power for love. Many people irrationally choose family over power, over survival, over conquest. Myself included. It's what separates you from an automaton. Zahn did something smart and gave the power back to Tiamat. She absorbed it and flew off.

That Old Man congratulated us for a job well done. But we have much more to do. I must prepare to rescue Aezma, and that will probably involve the demon war that is brewing up. I know she will be alive, but I do hope her psyche stays intact. That Old Man brought us back to Fellithysaar's lair and bid us goodbye. He will be busy for some time as well, taking care of his family.

It is time I took care of mine.

I bring this transcript to you in hopes to build up some layer of trust. I am Ezel, linked to Itessa, Willard and Aezma. And I want to connect with my relatives. Help me.

PS I- I knew That Old Man was Io. I mean, it was obvious. I was just asking him to clarify.

PPS You Soul Jar'd Nula so we couldn't resurrect her at Bahl Lok? Dick move. Zahn was kind enough to produce her soul jar. Nice.

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