So It Begins |
Battle for the North Gate |
|
Battle for the West Gate |
Battle for the South Gate |
|
Second Battle for the North Gate | Interlude | |
Just before dawn on the 10th of March, 616, warning bells sounded in Dragondale, the capitol of Amberwood. At first, many of the town's nearly 1700 inhabitants believed it was another incursion from Graystone, the neighboring fief to the north-west, but within minutes, the true magnitude of the problem became apparent.
Six battalions of goblins, each numbering over 600 and supplemented with hobgoblins, bugbears, and worgs were preparing to sack the town. The battalions had broken into three groups of two, with each pair supported by another battalion of about 150 skeletons. In addition, there was another battalion of zombies advancing slowly as well as a formorian giant.
Unfortunately, neither Moorak, nor Artec, nor Zandra, nor Rhanée, nor Arianna were in town; the first three were in Wintershiven, saving the Theocracy from a chaos-enhanced demon, while Rhanée was in Bolthold with the Orb of Law, and all of the clergy of Athena are missing on some other, mysterious quest. For his part, Black Robe immediately left for Magic Mountain when he received word, leaving Dragondale without its normal defenders.
The first to answer the call were Jyoli, Goldilox, Redwolf, Wei, and Holly. Their goal was to scout out the size and power of the enemy forces with an eye toward possibly decapitating the army's leaders. To that end, Treblo polymorphed the lot of them into al karak elams. The group then used various means to render themselves invisible and flew over the enemy ranks. The party chose the western-most battalions as those were supported by the giant.
Holly, Redwolf, and Wei's aerial reconnaissance went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, however, bar-lgura demons spotted Goldi and Jyoli and attacked. One demon teleported onto Goldilox, driving her into the ground. She managed to survive the fall and use her potion of phasing to slip through the ground and away. Jyoli was not so lucky. Although her invisibility spell remained, another demon dispelled the polymorph spell on her, turning her back into an elven cleric 60 feet in the air. Although the impact didn't kill her, it did knock her out. Goldilox tried to help, but it was only with luck and the use of both her fireball and wall of force from her ring of spell storing as well as most of her potion of phasing and a distraction from Treblo that the hobbit got away alive. Wei managed to invisibly sneak about the invading army searching for the fallen elf, but in the confusion of the goblin horde, he couldn't find where Jyoli fell before the demons did. Redwolf also moved in to help, only to likewise be restored to his natural form; wolves can't fly very well. Miraculously, however, Redwolf survived the fall and escaped before the bar-lgura were able to rip him to pieces. That pleasure they saved for Jyoli whose skull they opened and who they later crucified onto the goblins' war banner as a trophy.
Meanwhile, a second group attacked the middle, northern battalions. Garlok's idea was for a powerful group of warriors to form a fighting wedge and slaughter the goblins. While the group couldn't defeat the entire army, it should be able to intimidate the goblins and hopefully induce a rout. If only...
Joining Garlok were Samandra, Raitan, Ael'Mara, Kate, and Lucky. They also turned themselves invisible and Mina hasted them. The heroes then zipped down the main road out of Dragondale, across a small field and attacked the invaders. At first, the offensive looked extremely effective, cutting a bloody swath of goblins through the enemy ranks. Then the demons arrived. A single dispel magic slowed everyone but Ael'Mara to normal speed. The waves of hobgoblins arrived, denying the higher-level fighters from their crippling multiple-attacks. Luckily, the heroes defenses were more than a match for the goblinoids' attacks and Kate made short work of the first few bar-lgura. Things were looking good...
Then Garlok was held. Shortly afterward babau demons arrived, seriously wounding Samandra. Another telekinesed Raitan out of the circle of fighters, although only long enough for Rai's daggers to shred him. The problem was that Raitan was now cut off from the other warriors; were it not for Ael'Mara's speed and prowess, the mariner would probably have been overwhelmed. Bugbear, worgs, and even a couple of ogres then arrived. The heroes grew fatigued as the battle ranged for several minutes. As things started to look bleak, Garlok shook off the hold person and rejoined the fight, just as Mina arrived. Ael'Mara used a disrupt unlife to vaporize a large horde of incoming skeletons. Lucky continued to leave a path a dead hobgoblins and bugbear in his path. The tide began to turn again.
Naturally, that's when the succubus and alu-demons showed up. Mina's wrestling was no match for the demoness' resistance to non-magical weapons, but her suggestion kept the young half-elf from trying a more effective form of attack. As the heroes cut a hole in the army, the remaining goblins and hobgoblins fled, giving a trio of mages the opening they needed to rain fireballs and lightning bolts on the defenders. Raitan and Garlok nearly fell and Kate was forced to drink her elixir of health. Surprisingly, the heroes held the field and finished the remaining demons, just as Treblo unleashed a meteor swarm on the nearest group of goblins!
In just about five minutes, over 600 goblins and the allies lay dead, but the survivors' vigor remained undiminished! Indeed, the display of such powerful magics only spurred them on to cry for vengeance...! Looking up, the heroes spy nearly a hundred more skeletons and a fresh battalion of goblins rushing in!
Treblo swooped down and using his wand of polymorph transformed Kate and Samandra into pegasai. Redwing also arrived, now wearing the shape of a crystal dragon, thanks to the wand. Meanwhile, Ael'Mara unleashed a second disrupt unlife as a huge host of skeletons attacked. The results were spectacular; instead of nearly two hundred skeletons, there were but a handful of juju zombies and goblins. Raitan and Garlok made short work of the humanoids and with the help of Mina and Ael'Mara. Then additional babau and bar-lgura appeared. Although the main body of the goblin army hesitated, these demons charged in, enfeebling Raitan and Garlok. They and Ael'Mara began to take a furious pounding. Fortunately, at that moment, Lucky returned and started carving bar-lgura into shreds. With a bit of luck and some good hits from Ael'Mara, the heroes held the field long enough to defeat the demons and retreat, but without their leaders, the goblin offensive was over.
Minutes later, Moorak, Zandra, Artec, Sage, and Tyris=Flare returned from Wintershiven. Joining with Garlok and Lucky they seven heroes prepared to engage the forces amassed at the Western Gate to Dragondale. Hundreds of goblins and hobgoblins charged the seven defenders. But as they approached the gate, a huge three-headed flaming hydra erupted out of the ground, spewing fireballs at the goblins. Only ashes remained. The horde broken, throwing down their weapons in retreat. Unfortunately, the rout did not last. A group of demons dispelled Moorak's scroll-cast hydra spell and marshaled the invaders for another charge. As they reached the gate, nearly every hobgoblin fell dead. Using his gauntlet of the valorous, Moorak had death spelled them. Then the defending fighters tore into the remaining goblins. Dozens died within the first few seconds. Their morale broke a second time and the goblins began to fall back. Another host of undead stormed the heroes, only to be vaporized by Sage's disrupt unlife spell. The heroes had the clear upper hand.
Then the demons attacked in earnest. Several babau and bar-lgura let their guises of goblins and hobgoblins fall. When this melee began, the demons were unaware of Artec's prowess; having drunk a potion of speed, he was killing nearly two demons every ten seconds with his deadly arrows. Finally, a succubus realized what a lethal weapon the half-orc archer could be; she suggested he target the goblins instead. Unfortunately, because this was completely reasonable, the Commander of Amberwood's army did just that, effectively removing him from the fight. Then disaster; a babau managed to psi blast nearly every one of the defenders. Only Moorak, Sage, and Tyris=Flare remained on their feet. While she was down, a demon severed Zandra's leg. Things looked dark. Moorak's answer was to invoke a temporal injunction, slipping backward in time and attack the babau who launched the psionic assault. It made no difference and again the heroes lay ready to be slaughtered. There was no way Sage and Tyris=Flare could defend all of the fallen forms. As the babau chose not to engage Moorak, it gave him a moment to cast another spell from a scroll.
"I wish my allies were in the same stay of health and freshness as when they awoke this morning!"
And so the heroes leapt to their feet, completely refreshed and ready for battle. For his part, however, Moorak found himself terribly weakened. Not only had the spell nearly failed, but the stress of casting it robbed him of his strength and ability. The other heroes, especially Zandra, Lucky, and Tyris=Flare cut a swath through the assembled demons, but the Baron of Amberwood could barely hold his own. Then, a babau unhinged his mind with an id insinuation. Moorak began trying to catch dust motes in the middle of combat! The demons pounced on him. Luckily, Zandra beat them back. Indeed, by this point the goblins had completely retreated beyond even the range of Artec's magic bow. He turned and began gunning down demons again, rescuing Moorak.
Naturally, at this point, the combat turned again. Garlok caught the gaze of a babau and was enfeebled. Worse, however, lightning bolts from the edge of the goblin forces began blasting Moorak while he was confused. After the third one, Moorak was only barely alive. Luckily, at this point he recovered his wits and fled over the city wall. Meanwhile the demons again turned their attention to Artec. The half-orc was quickly trashed and nearly killed. He would have died had Sage not dashed to his rescued, using an enchanted bloodstone to heal him and trusting that her protection from normal weapons spell would protect her from several worgs. It didn't. She too was wounded, but Artec was saved. For his part, it was all Garlok could do to stay on his feet. Tyris=Flare too was beginning to fray under the constant assault.
By this point, nearly all the demons of the invading force had attacked. The heroes were holding their own, but just barely. Suddenly, vaulting over the city wall came a fully healed gold dragon. Moorak was pulling no punches and had invoked his Orb of Dragonkind. The dragonfire incinerated two demons on the spot and nearly killed the third. The heroes rallied. While Tyris=Flare and Zandra finished the stragglers, Sage brought Artec back to his feet. The a chain lightning ripped through the heroes, focused on Moorak. Again, the Baron nearly died, only barely managing to resist the repeated strokes of destruction. When the smoke cleared the heroes saw a small group of bugbear, ogres, and alu-demons at the edge of the battlefield. The group surrounded a short figure in robes, his hands smoking from the spell he'd just unleashed.
Sage was the first to respond, "you're probably protected from fire and likely protected from lightning, so why don't you try this?" Her frostball hit with deadly effect, followed almost immediately by a lightning bolt from Moorak. The group was largely freeze-dried. Those remaining invaders that could fled in full rout. Before the surviving demons could react, however, Sage, Artec, and Zandra closed with them and finished them off. The heroes had saved the gate.
The crisis momentarily abated, Moorak attempted to timeheal himself, but for some reason the spell failed. He then attempted to use the same spell on Tyris=Flare, only for it to fail again. Instead of plucking an alternate reality fugue form of the Khazadi warrior to this plane, both Moorak and Tyris=Flare watched each other shift into sharply divergent versions of each other; Moorak appeared as a vampire, a brutish warrior, and a paladin while Tyris=Flare seemed to become a cambion devil, a punk rocker, and a fire sorceress. Reality itself was beginning to unravel...
From his aerial vantage, Moorak could clearly see that the army attacking the South Gate had already been decimated. Unfortunately, the remnants of the forces at the Northern Gate were preparing another assault. Moorak and Sage fly off to stop them, followed by a giant-strengthed Samandra carrying Tyris=Flare and Garlok and finally Zandra carrying Artec and Kate...
Only four heroes arrived at the southern gate to Dragondale. Treblo, Chastity, Raitan, and Ael'Mara nevertheless prepared to defeat the invading goblin horde. Treblo used a scroll to cast project image. Raitan, meanwhile, sucked down Ael'Mara's potion of storm giant strength. The pair then littered the battlefield with continual light stones so no demon-conjured darkness could break Treblo's line-of-sight with his projected image. The image brashly walked toward the charging horde of goblins. Just as the wave of warriors crashed into Treblo's projection, he let loose a fireball from a scroll, centering the spell on the image. As only a some sort of counter spell can harm such a phantasm, it remained, but the surrounding force was incinerated. With this unimpeded view, Treblo could now spy the formorian giant and his entourage, which he promply fireballed, causing them to flee. Two more waves of goblins attacked before a babau managed to dispel the projection. Right on cue, Raitan and Ael'Mara arrived, again cutting a deadly swath through the remaining forces. Treblo and Chastity joined the battle only second later, using their wands to freeze large sections of the invaders. Then the demons attacked in earnest.
Raitan held his own, but Ael'Mara was being struck from all side, including above. Another host of undead arrived to aid the invaders. Treblo nodded to Chastity and unleashed the potion of mass destruction he had drunk earlier. Every goblins, hobgoblin, bugbear, worg, and skeleton within 60 feet died. Freed of the lesser monsters, Raitan and Ael'Mara began slaughtering the demons. A few realized what happened and swooped in to kill Treblo while he was stunned, but Chastity reached him first and dimension doored to safety.
After more than a minute, the demons again begin to batter through Ael'Mara and Raitan's defenses, aided in no small part by the majority of the invading army. The pair had held out remarkably long though, thanks to Moorak's earlier wish; just when they were ready to drop, they found themselves revitalized. Chastity unleashed several psionic attacks to weaken the demons, managing to confuse one bar-lgura enough that it quit fighting and began singing, but that alone was not enough. Things began to look grim. This time it is Chastity who invoked a potion of mass destruction, clearing a similarly large swath through the invaders. Although his own magical powers had not yet recovered, Treblo used his staff keep the handful of remaining demons from Chastity unconscious form.
Again using the respite to their advantage, Ael'Mara hew another demon in two while Raitan flew to the city wall. There, he had Zarabell and Ourobus cure his wounds. He returned to the battle not a moment too soon. The remaining babau and bar-lgura dispelled most of the defensive wards protecting Treblo. Now that Chastity was on her feet, the master of SkyHaven attempted to flee by polymorphing himself into a pixie and flying to safety. Unfortunately a babau reached him first and nearly killed him. Chastity caught him as he fell to the earth, but another dispel magic turned him human again. Chastity only barely managed to land without further hurting them both. The last few demons attacked. Raitan cut a path of death through them. Ael'Mara had held the field as long as he could, stoically holding back the tide of Abyssal spawn. He even managed to slay the formorian giant after surviving one of its castle-shattering assaults. Now the elven ranger too fell. But using his skill at brawling, Raitan defended his friend and discovering that babau are quite vulnerable to blunt trauma. Chastity cast two fire breath and one acid bolt spell, effectively bypassing the magic resistance of the babau and bar-lgura not battling Raitan. During a brief respite, Chastity used a potion of restore Treblo, who in turn disintegrated several demons; their magic resistance was no match for his skill with dweomercraft. Although a bar-lgura managed to law Treblo out again, very quickly the last of the invaders were dead.
Restoring Ael'Mara and Treblo to consciousness, the four defenders gave chase, assuming various forms to catch the handful of worgs, goblins, and hobgoblins that remained. In the end only three worgs and their riders managed to get far enough away to find cover. The battle was a complete victory. As they returned, Raitan gathered Jyoli's remains and Chastity scoured the battlefield for magic items, both those of the elven cleric and the invading host.
The forces that Garlok's wedge had driven off had by now regrouped and were attacking the North Gate again. Right on cue, Moorak (the gold dragon) and Sage flew into actions. Moorak's fiery breath burned a wide path of goblins and demons to ash. Sage, meanwhile, launched off multiple ice storms from her wand and both attacks quickly took their toll on the enemy as the lesser monsters could not survive the damage while the demons' magic resistance proved ineffective.
Less than 30 seconds later, Samandra arrived with Garlok and Tyris=Flare, who took up fighting positions around Moorak, hacking down bugbears and worgs as by now the goblins morale was breaking. Moments later, Zandra left Artec on the town wall to rain arrows of death among the invaders and prepared to charge in with Kate. The heroes formed a very effective fighting group, whittling down the enemy forces quickly. Suddenly, a mage dropped a stinking cloud into their midst. Ironically, as the heroes all managed to resist the magic, it proved more of a liability to the invaders. On cue, more bar-lgura attacked and Samandra was held by a low level priest of Iuz. Meanwhile, another bar-lgura telekinetically grabbed Artec's bow, pulling him off the wall and preventing him from effectively attacking. The heroes' victory was beginning to sour.
Tyris=Flare defended Samandra while Kate battled bugbear. Zandra took out the babau menacing Garlok while Sage slept the lesser opponents. Moorak let loose another blast of dragon breath, this time poison gas, all together effectively removing enemies on three sides. Artec let go of his bow and drew his sword for battle, but found himself in a sea of courageous goblins; together with the bar-lgura, the monsters nearly ripped him apart. Garlok and Zandra charged to the rescue, Garlok and Artec slaughtering goblins while Zandra mashed the demon. Sage slept the remaining goblins and hobgoblins, leaving Tyris=Flare facing a single juju zombie. Kate finished mopping up the remaining demons and bugbear while Moorak magic missiled the spell casters. Artec began skewering the fleeing enemies with arrows while Sage ice stormed and Moorak fireballed. When the smoke cleared, no survivors could be seen, although the bodies of two of the clerics of Iuz were not among the fallen, nor was a bugbear who had run off earlier.
Turning the heroes decided to finish off the fleeing forces from the West Gate; the 500+ goblins, hobgoblins, worgs, and bugbear could do serious damage to any community in their path. In addition to some Amberwood terriory, the fief of Oakenshire lay in the retreating invaders' path. Garlok, Samandra, Tyris=Flare, Artec, Zandra, and Kate hurried back into the town. While Tyris=Flare gathered horses, Garlok checked in with the lookouts at the water tower; the goblin army was indeed in retreat but certainly still a threat. Gathering Mina and Timrith, Garlok rejoined the others in their charge against the humanoid horde.
Moorak and Sage meanwhile sought information, the reasons and goals of the attack. Sage called forth the spirit of the mage who cast the chain lightning and numerous lightning bolts. His name was Cranzer, a Mage in service to Iuz. His goal had been simple: to obliterate the fief of Amberwood in a blitzkrieg while Moorak and his allies were distracted elsewhere. Cranzer knew when to strike thanks to a network of succubi spies throughout Furyondy and beyond.
"Now is when the forces of Law will be most weak," his master had said.
The idea was to take out the four most powerful regions of northern Furyondy; Amberwood, Grabford, Crockport, and Chendl. Indeed, a vampire mage and his minions had begun the assault on the capital the night before in the hope of drawing off yet more forces from neighboring fiefs to defend the King. Although the fate of Nathan was still unknown, based on demonic reports, the three other cities were already in danger of falling. Although much more heavily fortified and larger, these cities lack the body of skill adventuring-heroes to defend them.
"But why are goblins working with demons?" Sage demanded. "And why is the Horned Society and Queen Fanggrabber in league with Iuz?" Moorak asked. The Horned Society is now a puppet of the nation of Iuz. For months a succubus has masquaraded as the goblin queen while the real Fanggrabber is a prisoner in Dorakaa. The master plan is simple: use the goblins and hobgoblins of the Horned Society to conquer all the neighboring kingdoms, in the process obliterating both human and goblinoid populations, thereby creating lebensraum for the orcs of Iuz. The demons summoned by the Old One himself serve as messengers, spies, commanders, and shock troops for these assault. And in the end, the domain of Iuz grows several-fold.
Oy! What next?
Questions? Comments? Funny stories? Lemme know...
© 2004 buddhabear@geocities.com