4 - 072: The Fourth Piece

[K Man]

Romar -

Irinys recoils like a snake ready to strike. He rips his hand from the area of yours and his eyes go cold and heartless.



"I think you mistake me Romar Belamor."

"My goal is not to unite the world...to save it in its darkest hour like some white knight--I mean to end the reign of darkness. To do so I need that shard and neither you or your pathetic ideals of a utopia will stop me."

You're vaguely aware of the Prince of Astoril's army as it fades into the darkness of night behind you, leaving nothing but trails of dust. Irinys turns from you and looks to the dunes, his keen Elven eyes clearly making out more than yours can. His face is still somber and grim, much colder than you have ever remembered it.



"Though you may think me a lousy general human, I've no interest in gambling with my troops on a battle that I could very well lose when the shard needed to end this war is at the end of my fingertips..."

And with that, he turns from you and disappears into the darkness, walking towards the inevitable battle near the canyon. You're left, standing amidst the fading campfires of the city refugees...alone in the desert.

The sounds and cries of the night battle beyond are muted, dampened by the coming fog of night. You look about, noticing that only a small embankment of fluffy white smoke is rolling about, not nearly enough to qualify as fog. It's more like some rampant smoke from a campfire that has taken a life of its own...

[Survival Check] You're positive it's not smoke or fog, but something unnatural. But just as you put the pieces together, the smoke compiles and forms, changing from the incorporeal to the solid. At first your heart jumps, wondering if this is Yuri on some strange visit for you've seen him do this trick before...

But, you recognize the form in the last few seconds of its change...



"You know what fascinates me most about humans little mouse? Their undying will."

"They have the most uncanny knack for picking themselves up, no matter how many pitfalls they leap blindly into..."

"I guess that's why I enjoy chasing them. Because they always give a good fight..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irris and Tineniel -

Floating high above the Elves, you can see that each 'division' is roughly two hundred troops. Mostly standard soldiers, but you can see that a few of them do bear rank. For every fifty soldiers, there is a seargent barking orders and each division has the equivalent of a lieutenant...or troop leader. Among the Elves, you can spot but four mages, divided evenly among the troops. [Two per division of troops] All are clearly marked not only by gear, but by action.

As Telena and Irris race along the canyon floor, the words of the Elven troops dividing and heading to the walls unnerves her. She looks about as the dunes give rise to stone and high canyon walls.



"Damn!"

She looks about.

"The walls of these canyons are riddled with caves. We could seek shelter in one them, perhaps hide the wagon and confuse our pursuers..."

"If only we hadn't sent the citizens to the walls!"

She slams an overly large half-Giant fist on the wagon side.

{Still no real need for map yet as we're deciding tactics.}

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those in the Fortress -

{Unfortunately you cannot charge, Galdren. You would need to reach the closest square (occupied by Girud). However, you can move and base and hope for an AoO.} Galdren closes the distance to 'The Master', ready to take advantage of the distractions necessary to cast spells.

Krysta remains in place, desperately needing the healing from her cohort.

Yuri works on breaking the magical barriers 'The Master' had placed around himself. [Ranged Touch Attack = 17, Fire Damage = 29] The fire envelops the skeleton, but does little to nothing against the barrier...

Alton moves closer and looses an arrow. [Attack Roll = Nat 20, No Crits] The arrow flies into the interior of the over-sized helmet, rattling around. [Damage Roll = 14, Real Damage = 2] It seems to do little.

'The Master goes now. He realizes he is once again surrounded, but this time decides to stick it out. [Cast Defensive Concentration Check = 38, Concentration Check Vs. Damage = 24] He reaches out a bony hand for Girud, jabbing into the meat of his shoulder. [Touch Attack = 22, Will Save = 12 (base 8)] He feels the magic course through his body, taking effect and draining nearly all the will he has. [Bestow Curse, Choose Effect: 50% chance to take action normally]

Trying to shake the effects of the magic from 'The Master', Girud swings his sword. [50% roll = Fail] His body goes frigid and he is unable to move...stuck in place.

Garor takes a swing, his body wracked by fatigue. [Attack Rolls = 40 (smite 1st attack) 2nd = Nat 20 (no Crits)] The fall of the maul is mighty, banging into 'The Master with fervor. [Damage Rolls = 29 (smite), 18 (47 Total, 27 real)]

Adelia casts her spell. [Divine Power Roll = 10] She also hands a potion to Krysta.

The battle continues...

{Initiative: Galdren, Krysta, Yuri and Alton, 'The Master', Girud, Garor, Adelia. }

Map;

                 
  ______________   ______________
 |              \±/ §            |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                            A  |
 |                           K   |
 |                               |
 |  Y            0               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |                               |
 |              T                |
 |                               |
 |          OO                   |
 |       RG OO                   |
 |       M                       |
 |_______________________________|
                 

[/pre]
<<<Legend>>>

± = Unholy Throne
§ = The Body of Mordrock

M = 'THE MASTER'
(StoneSkin HP Left 70/150)
(Protection from Energy, Fire HP Left = 65/120)
(Protection from Energy, Sonic HP Left = 120/120)
(Protection from Energy, Acid HP Left = 120/120)
[Real HP 103/153]
G = Girud
OO
OO = Righteous Might Garor (Large-Size)
R = Galdren
K = Krysta
Y = Yuri
T = Alton
A = Adelia

__________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTICE: I will be gone to Florida for the remainder of this week. I will have intermittent internet access, but little time to post (stupit conferences). I will return full-time Monday the 17th. Sorry everyone.

[K Man]

[Forgot to apply SR to the spell for Girud. SR Roll = 28, Spell still affects]

[Fangor the Fierce]

Krysta HP = 43/84 with 19 rounds of Fast healing +2 HP/round
Adelia HP = 29/46

Krysta drinks the potion, and turns to Adelia. "We must hurry!" (Potion drank was Potion of Hide from Undead, which means everyone else can see her except the Master, right?)

Adelia begins by preparing another spell, hopefully one that will aid them both. She focuses her powers, and casts the spell that will hopefully get Krysta back into the fight quicker. Casting Bear's Endurance, for Krysta to gain +4 CON, = +16 Temp HP

Adelia then looks at the others, trying to figure out where her aid is needed next. (Can she get a heal check to see who is in need of assistance?) heal Check +10 as she hands Krysta her weapon of choice, the Heavy Mace of Spell Storing... (Standard action to cast spell, move action to grab wepaon. Krysta's actions are standard action to drink potion, move action to grab mace from Adelia.)

Sorry to the rest, but there is a plan... please bear with me...

[K Man]

(Potion drank was Potion of Hide from Undead, which means everyone else can see her except the Master, right?)

From SRD;

Hide from Undead
Abjuration
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: One touched creature/level
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

Undead cannot see, hear, or smell the warded creatures. Even extraordinary or supernatural sensory capabilities, such as blindsense, blindsight, scent, and tremorsense, cannot detect or locate warded creatures. Nonintelligent undead creatures are automatically affected and act as though the warded creatures are not there. An intelligent undead creature gets a single Will saving throw. If it fails, the subject can't see any of the warded creatures. However, if it has reason to believe unseen opponents are present, it can attempt to find or strike them. If a warded creature attempts to turn or command undead, touches an undead creature, or attacks any creature (even with a spell), the spell ends for all recipients.

{Most important piece is the single Will saving throw...and I'll warn you now, it's high. If you want to changes actions, you certainly can.}

[VemuKhaham]

When Irinys moves away from him, after his army, Romar simply remained where he was. As the war moved away from him, the realization came that with those last words that both Irinys and Telena had directed at him, he had done his part in the war. He didn't turn around, to see where the elves were marching now, or to get any clue as to whether Telena would succeed in leading her people through the canyons in time. He didn't care anymore. No-one cared about what he thought. He was like God in some aspects, though a tragic aspect: he had created this scenario, he had created the people and given them a role in the whole affair, but now these people had taken over and had stopped listening to what he had meant things to be like. Where it all would lead to now, he had no idea. He couldn't affect it anymore either.

Maybe Caelith or Callian, friends of him for so long, would realize what was to be done in time. Maybe Telena, or even Irinys, was right all the time. Yes, they were right. They were all right, yet none took the trouble to listen.

So what now? Where would Romar go now? For one thing, he threw off his amulet that was given to him by the queen of Ephemyril, and threw it at Irinys' back. He then looked at the other shiny thing he carried around his neck, also of elven craftsmanship. He wasn't sure whether to throw it away as well or keep it. He was in serious doubt on whether the Hunt still had any purpose behind it. Maybe the Hunt had simply been a drug to him that had shown him a clear path during these chaotic times of war, in which there seemed to be no paths safe and certain to tread. As soon as he had strayed from that one safe path, and he had gone back to Ravenshead with Yuri, the misery had begun.

But he knew not if all that meant that he should take up the Hunt again. Maybe he should simply end it here. His part was over. He stared for a moment to the stars. His parents, his brothers, his sister. Húna. Veya, with her unborn child. They were all up there. Maybe he'd see them again. His gaze drifted towards his blades, which lay at a little distance away from him in the sand.

But then, a fog began to gather, a mist, no, it was neither. It was the chilly gas that hinted at vampiric presence. First he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, that maybe his tragic mind was already making fun of him as he considered suicide. But then, the ever so real and anger-arousing voice of an old enemy spoke to him.

...Hirsuthe...

In one moment, one rush of adrenaline, Romar remembered suddenly very vividly all the anger that he felt for this despicable being of darkness. A surge of energy coursed through his veins. A shot of blood suddenly sharpened his mind and senses. All he needed now was the blade that lay in the dust.

So near his belt, his fingers clenched the haft of a small axe. They pulled it free as he listened to Hirsuthe's words and slowly moved to where his swords lay, but never turning his side or back to his opponent.

When Hirsuthe finished, Romar, already bracing for a fight, retorted in a voice so cold that even an undead vampire such as Hirsuthe might feel the sting of a stake driven through his sole:

So it turns out that you find me, and not the other way around. I congratulate you on this meager victory, but I was delayed... for five years.

Now, have you come to end this Hunt? Or are you here just to show up and than flee again such as you did when last me met?"

Romar would pick up his swords as he speaks, leaving the axe on the ground in their stead.

---

Move action to go to swords, meanwhile drawing weapon. Then move action to pick up swords, free action to speak and drop axe.

[Fangor the Fierce]

Ok, considering he is in battle with the others, would he be knowingly looking for a hidden foe? I would think that since his line of sight is hampered by a Large target, and that he is in combat, how would he know someone just vanished? If he would knowingly be looking for invisible foes, then yeah, let me know....

[Japic]

{If he cast 'hide from life' (if there is such a thing) you'd expect the opportunity to see through his illusion, the same applies to you. You can argue line of sight, but one way or another he'd get a save to see you once you're in range or line of sight or whatever.}

Focusing his mind Girud cries out to his limbs to obey his commands. He want's to smack this mofo down so bad it's not even funny.

{Assuming he's still around on my go: +15/+10 to hit; 4d6+12 dam} {AC 22, SR 13}

{gimme good rolls please}

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glad to have hit the bastard again Alton Moves ten feet W to get around the large Cleric and fires another shot. He notices that Girud ins't attacking like he should and has to wonder exactly what the soulless bastard did to his buddy. For now they were both still alive, so the fight was ON.

{move 10 ft W; +11 to hit, 1d4+4 +2d6 dam} {AC 21}

[TheUdjat]

"We must decide whether to flee or fight, Telena." It is Irris, down below with the council's half-giant, making the last few adjustments to his gear before battle. "We know what we face. We can choose to direct our efforts in one direction, trying to break through, or we can defend from both, hoping to outlast them. If these caves are deep, we could flee there - the narrow spaces would be easier to defend. But then we will have no way out. If we do fight, then we must try and find their leaders and mages and strike them down. The magi will kill us in a prolonged siege." He pauses, trying to think. "What else can this shard do, Telena? Does it merely create water? Could it create enough to flood the canyon?"

Meanwhile, overhead, Tineniel surveys the troop before him. Two mages. He can not dispatch them both in one pass, but he can make life exceedingly difficult for them. A veritable catalogue of options confront the memory-deprived mage, and he wracks his brain trying to remember what they do. He knows he could damage the group or damage just one. If only he could remember... He's done so much in the last few moments, but has been largely awed by every action. He had no previous inkling that he could do any of this! But if the people of the Gathered Nations are to survive, he must act.

He singles out one of the mages, swooping in closer as he knows he must to have the range for his spell. His hands play at the wind in the air, marking it with symbols and gestures, while his voice utters forth the ancient words of power that cause his blood to burn. But there is no visible evidence of this spell. He opens his eyes at his completion, wondering if whatever he just did in his reverie worked.

((Caelith casts Blindness on one of the Mages. Fortitude Save at DC 18))

[GeneralMHB]

Yuri does not know the extent of the damage he is dealing to this magical barrier, but he must continue in his assault. Only when the barrier is down, phase two of his plan will commense, knowing his power is nearly out. He hopes his companions can last though this onslaught...

(OOC: Yet another Energy Ray, same song and dance as before, +8 to hit, ranged touch, 6d6+6 Fire damage. 27 power points left, 55 HP remain)

[BluSpecs]

Garor will use his feat of strength for the day and continue trying to beat down a big M



Masterwork Maul +2 (+20/ +15, 2d8+19 . 20\x3 Ghost Touch)

AC: 22
HP: 90
Size large with DR 6/evil