Plans Within Plans Part 5

DM
As the party leaves the command tent, the tent shimmers and begins to disappear. The voice of the Rakshaza speaks. "One more thing...Kill the messengers." The dead rise from the cultivated dirt in the darkness beyond the fire. Elves, humans, ane more. Then the shock hits you. These are The Three, but dead. Gareth, Jus, Nonam, Onrad, Kat, Flaust, Tiburon, Teko. They are all here. The wounds look exactly like the wounds you gave to the Bloody Claws. (Roll for surprise at -2.)

DM
Round 1-(The party gets initiative.)The front row of undead stand 50 feet away from you. Gareth, Tiburon, Onrad and Teko are in their front row. The rest are in back. There is about 15' between them on the front row. 20' between each of them on the back row. The back row is 30' behind the front row.

Gareth
Gareth pulls out his sword and also the horn he kept from the clearing. "Retreat to the beginning of the road! Get ready to use our other way out!" and with that blows the horn.

Tiburon
Tiburon cast Random Causality upon the Undead Gareth , then moves with the rest towards the end of the road.

Kat
Kat says "OK boys how about the ring now??"

Teko
Teko unsheaths his short sword and attacks any undead that comes to meet him. He also looks for any sort of discrepency which might reveal these creatures as illusory.

DM insert
The undead's AC is 4 in case it's needed.(FYI)

Nonam
Nonam retreats with the others. "Let's get out of here!"

Jus
Jus, not surprised (6), moves in front of Kat and Flaust, pulling out his bow. "I've always wanted to do this!" he quips to Nonam as he fires two +1 arrows at the undead Nonam. Both arrows hit the creature (h16, h9) for 3hp and 7hp.

Nonam
Not suprised either (7), "HEY!!!" In childish fashion, Nonam retaliates with a magic missle. The 3 bolts of energy race toward the undead Jus for 13 points of damage (4+1,2+1,4+1).

Gareth
If nothing happens when Gareth blows the horn he says to Kat "The ring would be good about now!"

Flaust
Flaust shakes her head quickly as if coming out of a daze. "sorry, this is too much." Flaust puts on the ring and then hands it to Kat

Onrad
Onrad races back to the area where they first arrived. Onrad reaches for the ring, puts it on and passes it. Looking around he comments, "Gareth, I do believe the horn is working, this vile place seems to be fading, but not our enemies! Quick everyone, pass that ring!"

Kat
Kat casts Magic Missle at any Undead that aproach. (4+1, 1+1, 3+1) The she says, "The ring boys, please keep it moving."

Gareth
Gareth puts the ring on and passes it on. He attacks any undead that approach making sure he's between them and the ring.

Teko
Teko(who was not suprised earlier, by the way, rolling a total of 5 {3 + 2 reaction bonus}) stands ready to parry. He, too, eagerly puts on the ring when it comes to him and then passes it on to the next person.

Jus
Jus uses the ring. "I guess your mommy would be mad if we left you behind", he teases, giving the ring to Nonam.

Nonam
Silently Nonam slips the on the ring, and then he passes it on to the next person.

Tiburon
Tiburon puts on the ring and passes it back to Kat, " I think that's everyone, dear," Tib smiles," Shall we go ?"

Kat
Kat doubble checking to make sure everyone has put on the ring, places it on her own finger as she winks at Tib. "Home James." she says as she visualizes home.

DM
Nothing happens, and the undead move in to attacking range. Our heroes have the initative.

Nonam
Nonam screams "DIE! DIE! DIE! HUMAN FILTH!!! I'LL SEND YOU TO MY MASTER AGAIN!!!!!!!" Then he throws a pair of daggers at the undead Jus. Both hit (13/17 needed 11) and do 10 points of damage (3+2/3+2).

Gareth
At Onrad's words, Gareth looks through the gathering mists to see if the party is going back to the camp. "Die again human!" He attacks the creature that looks like Gareth with a viscious down slice across his chest laying it open for all to see (10 w/ 13 dmg). "Try again when the mists clear Kat!" Gareth yells.

Flaust
Summoning strength from her diety, Flaust attempts to turn the undead. (9/8 turned 8 undead of 5 HD or below)

Kat
Kat defends herself waiting till the mists clear to try the ring again.

Jus
Jus glances at Nonam and launches his own Magic Missiles at the undead Nonam, causing another 5hp of damage.

Onrad
Onrad moves to attack the undead Flaust. He strikes a mighty blow (15) and leaves a long gash in the monstrosity (6pts).

DM
The undead siltently close to attack. The Nonam moves in to attack Jus with bare hands. It strikes with a 16 and does 3 points, but it's cold touch leaves Jus feeling weak. The Jus moves to attack Nonam. Again it attacks with bare hands. It too strikes with a 16 and deals 4 points of damage. Nonam screams at the creatures icy touch. The Kat moves to attack Kat. It reaches out it's icy fingers, and Kat can feel them groping for her neck. Then it stumbles and falls (1). The Gareth attacks Gareth and hits with a 15. It only inflicts 1 point of damage, but Gareth can feel his life force drain away. The Onrad attacks Flaust, but it's hands grasp at thin air (4). The Teko attacks Tiburon, but it misses (5). The Flaust attacks Teko, but misses (5). The Tiburon rakes at Onrad with it's claws. It does 2 points of damage, and Onrad feels week.

DM
(Those were level draining attacks. All touched lost one level. Make the appropriate adjustments to Thaco, hitpoints, saves, and spells before submitting another turn.)

Flaust
Flaust throws a net at the undead Flaust (12 hits AC 2)

Gareth
"You cannot win!" Gareth hacks the creature twice (13, 17) for (14 + 17 = 31 dmg).

Nonam
Nonam casts Burning Hands at the undead Jus. The creature screams in agony as it takes 9 points of fiery damage.

DM
Kat comes to the realization that the evil, vision obscuring, green mist cleared some time ago and that all that remains is some normal mist which doesn't really seem to impair the group. She is free to act if she wishes.

DM
As the fight progresses, many of the demihumans who were gathered around the campfires outside the now disappeared tent begin to come over and watch. As they cheer, it quickly becomes apparent that they came to watch a fight, but it's hard to determine which side they are cheering for.

Tiburon
Tiburon draws his sword and swings at The Tiko ( a 13 ) and does 5hp's to the vile creature.

Onrad
Onrad strikes out twice at The Tiburon rolling 6 and 15 hitting once for 8 points of damage. He screams: "Die enemies!" With all the confusion Onrad is not sure who is closed with who. He tries to maneuver himself so that he can free up one of the casters to cast. He looks first to aid Tiburon, then if that is impossible will look to engage Kat's opponent.

Teko
Teko hits the undead Flaust with his short sword (rolling a 16) for 4 points of damage. He keeps a lookout for that ring...

Jus
Jus pulls out his swords and strikes at the undead Nonam (h14/ac1 h18/ac-3) causing 5hp of damage with his +1 long sword, and 6hp with his short shord.

Kat
Knowing that the Undead can't drain her she steps up to the undead Noman, in order to defend Jus. "I've allways wanted to do this!" she says as she swings at his head in an attempt to take it off. (Called shot -2 using 3 hero points [13 +3 = 16] for 4 pts. dam)

DM
Kat doesn't succeed in lopping off the Nonam's head, but she does but the monstrosity down. The Jus succumbs to Nonam's magic, and Gareth opens himself up in brutal fashion. Gareth we need a Con check to see if you have the strength to go on after killing yourself.

DM
The Flaust is tangled in Flaust's net.

DM
The remaining undead move to attack. The Kat gets up from the ground. The Onrad attacks Flaust with tooth and nail. It strikes (14/14) doing a total of 9 points of damage. Flaust feels pain from the damage, but she also feels warmth and engouragement from Alemi for the 1st time in a long time. She does not lose a level. The Teko attacks Tiburon, but once again fails to hit (10). The Flaust begins trying to chew through the net. The Tiburon swings a clawed hand at Onrad's face. The nails drag across Onrad's flesh (17), and he feels the nauseating chill of the dead thing once again. He takes 4 points of damage.

Onrad
Receiving no indication as to whether his tactics worked last round, [grin] Onrad once again tries to position himself so as to free up Tiburon to cast by drawing Tib's attacker onto himself. He strikes at The Tiburon twice hitting both times (17 and 15) doing 7 and 6 points of damage respectively.

Gareth
With great effort, Gareth grimaces with effort (13 Con check) as he turns and slices at The Tiberion hitting it square across the right shoulder and chest opening a big hole (17 to hit 12 dmg).

DM
With the combined effort of Gareth and Onrad the Tiburon falls to the ground dead... again. Now that Onrad has freed himself from mortal danger, he sees that his companions are winning the battle with little effort. Onrad sees that Tiburon is fighting the Teko, but Tiburon seems to have the upper hand. Kat and Jus are working together and have just put down their opponent. Teko is wailing away on the netted Flaust. Nonam stands over a smoking corpse and seems to be looking for another victim... then he spies Flaust. She looks as if she could use some aid, but there's a fire in her eyes that's been missing for a while.

Nonam
Nonam moves to aid Tiburon. He pulls out the wand of shocking and zaps the Teko for 8 points of damage.

Flaust
Looking better than ever aside from a bit of blood, Flaust begins casting "weighty chest" on the net.

Kat
Kat strikes at the downed Noman with all her might. (4) misses

Jus
Jus moves his attack to the Kat, but only connects with one of his swords (h16/ac-1 h10/ac5) doing 7 hp of damage.

Teko
Teko, rolling a 14, thrusts(but does not slash) his sword into The Flaust for a mighty 1 point of damage.

Tiburon
Tiburon drops to one knee as he swings at The Teko's knee( a called shot -4 to hit)to attempt to cripple it. He swings ( rolls an 18, promise) and hits the left knee for 3 hp's.

DM
Flaust's spell goes off and the Flaust in the net can not move. Tiburon's tactic drops the Teko, but it is still struggling. The Onrad draws both of its swords and attacks Flaust, but misses twice (5/8). The Kat attacks Jus with a claw and a bite. The claw slashes wildly at thin air, but the foul things manages to chomp down on Jus's arm. He takes 5 points of excrutiangly painful damage from the Kat's lovely undead teeth, and he feels the chill.

Gareth
Not being able to easily bring himself to hit The Kat, Gareth focuses his attack on The Onrad, ripping into it with deadly accuracy twice (12,18) for 27 hp dmg (12, 15).

DM
The Onrad falls before Gareth's mighty onslaught. The crowd of demihumans around the battle cheer wildly as the Onrad falls. Gareth notices Crud in the group, whooping wildly and screaming "Kill the humans!!! KILLKILLKILL!!!!!"

Nonam
With the Teko on the ground, Nonam focuses on the only undead still standing, the Kat. "Die you tramp!!!" He throws 2 daggers. The handles glow as they streak through the air. The first hits (14) and does a whopping 4 points of damage, but the second just barely misses (10).

DM
Kat realizes that the Nonam is down for good even if it's head is still attached.

Teko
Teko swings at The Kat, missing with a 12.

Jus
Jus quickly parries the Kat’s bite (h12/ac4), but misses with his off-hand attack (h12/ac5).

Onrad
Onrad stops to play to the audience for a moment just to be sure they are on our side screaming, "Bloody Claws! Bloody Claws! Hip-Hip......" Then he points to the crowd directing them and hoping they say 'Hooray' Then he swaggers and cavorts over to The Kat and strikes at her twice hitting twice with a 15 and an 11 for 3 and 7 points of damage.

Kat moves to the Flaust in the net and begins to pummell it back to it's un-undead state. She hits it twice through the net. (20 and a 16 for 9 pts of dam.)

flaust
Flaust begins casting cure light wounds on Jus (5)

Jus
Seeing Flaust coming his way, Jus quickly shakes his head. "Just a scratch. Don't waste your healing on me."

DM
At Onrad's prompting, Crud screams, "BLOODY CLAAAAAWWSSSS!!!" And the crowd goes wild. The Kat succumbs to Nonam and Onrad's assault and becomes one of the redead. The Teko recovers just enough to take one more swing at Tiburon but misses wildly (1). It now lies on it's back exposed to the world. The Flaust keeps trying to chew through the net, and acutally seems to be making a little progress. Given another 15 minutes it might free itself.

DM
One of the onlookers screams, "The one that threw the net hasn't ever hit anyone!!! He must be a weak willed elf!!!" Then the crowd begins to chant "Net Thrower kill a human for us! Net Thrower kill a human for us! Net Thrower kill a human for us!"

Gareth
Gareth turns to Flaust and somewhat softly says "Will you kill the thing under the net? It would really help you, us, and the tormented thing go back where it should be." and with that turns and nails The Teko into the ground with his sword (16 TH, 17 dmg).

Nonam
In a wanton display of power, Nonam casts burning hands straight into the air. The arc of flame crackels with heat and magic as it shoots up into the air. Then Nonam screams, "WE'LL KILL THE HUMANS WITH THEIR OWN MAGICS!!!"

DM
Gareth's mighty blow drops the Teko, and the fans go wild, "Tokor! Tokor! Tokor!" Then Nonam flames the air, and the crowd gets quiet. Then at the brief speech they go berserk. They scream, whoop, and yell, "Bloody Claws!!!" They carry on for a bit, and then one notices, "Hey the net thrower still needs to kill one! He doesn't deserve to be a bloody claw!!" And they begin again, "Net Thrower Kill!!! Net Thrower Kill!!!" They begin to press closer and at times the chant seems to sound more like, "Kill Net Thrower!!!"

Teko
Teko waits to see what will happen next, but remains ready to fight and takes a good look around for any suprises.

Jus
Jus is shaken when he realizes he can no longer remember his 2nd level spells. He manages to keep his composure (con check rolled 4), and looks around for any more undead.

Kat
Kat continues to wail on the Flaust within the net, screaming "Go back where you came from!!!" She dosen't seem to notice anythng else, as a matter of fact she seems to have lost it a bit. (13 hits ac 5 for 4pts dam)

Flaust
Flaust gets the appearance of numbness and turns to Kat. Quietly she says,"Give me a blade"

Gareth
Gareth walks over to The Flaust and positions himself betweem the screaming crowd (or at least the largest rowdiest portion of it) and the rest of the party. Seeing Flaust ask for a blade he turns and bellows "We thank you for watching while we rid this camp of filth and dirt! After our net thrower kills the last one we must leave on The Dark Lords business. Crud! you and your men keep everyone back a minute so we can hurry up and finish. Don't let them stop us from the Dark Lord's business!". And with that turns and watches to make sure things go like he thinks they will. "Ring guys. Now would be good."

Gareth
With an evil grin Gareth also shouts back to the creatures. "When we leave you guys should clean up this mess. I hear human has a great taste to it!"

Nonam
"She's the bloodthirstiest one of the bunch. That's why we make her use a net. She never leaves enough humans for us to kill. Now boys, step back and watch a master...."

DM
The orcs calm down a bit and all eyes focus on Flaust.

Nonam
Nonam goes over and rests a hand on Kat's shoulder, and says quietly, "stop."

Flaust
Flaust approaches "the flaust" Standing above the net trapped figure, Flaust pulls a dagger from her wrist sheath. She then raises the dagger into the air and begins whispering something.

DM
The orcs all strain to hear the whispering. They're all eager to see exactly what happens.

Flaust
Flaust brings the blade down hard and fast. (16- hits ac 5 due to non-proficient pen.)

DM
Being held by the net like The Flaust is, the hit goes true and fine striking the undead and burying itself to the hit in the top of The Flaust's head. Then a cracking sound occurs as the head splits into falling to the left and the right each resting sideways on the creatures shoulders as it collapses dead.

Crowd
The crowd goes wild! They yell, "Blooooody Net Thrower! Blooooooody! Blooooooooody!"

Onrad
"And now we leave you to your feasting!" Onrad reaches out for the ring.

Gareth
Turns triumphantly to the crowd and says Crud! Keep them back while we finish! Then he turns, takes the ring from Onrad, puts it on and passes it on.

Nonam
Takes the ring and passes it.

Teko
Teko quickly slips on the ring when it comes to him and passes it on.

Kat
Kat continues to wail on the body in the net untill Noman aproaches her, she then colapses and holds out the ring.

Flaust
Flaust puts on the ring and passes it

Onrad
Onrad looks at Tiburon and with a crooked grin says, "Ya wanting to stay or somethin'?" Then to Kat, "Where are we off to?"

Jus
Jus takes his turn at the ring and walks over to Tiburon, "You better slip it on again, since it's been a few minutes."

Tiburon
Tiburon takes the ring from Jus, slips it on, removes it and hands it to Kat." Just waiting for everyone else to do their thing.Shall we go to do more of our Lord's Business ?" says Tiburon.

Gareth
"I'd say he has earned our best efforts and work."

Thorin
Thorin slips through the doorway and follows the wall on his right, searching for the source of the smoke.

jk
What??? Who is Thorin?

Nonam
"Well let's be off. That is if this thing is going to work this time."

DH
Thorin is in game #2. Must'v goofed.

The Scribes of Wold
The Scribes of Wold calmly put down their pens for the first time in millenia waiting for Kat to declare the location she is teleporting the group to.

DM
Thorin disappears just as mysteriously as he came. The Physical Laws of Wold reset themselves once again.

Kat
Kat puts the ring on and imagines the room they left from.

DM
The Wold spins around you and the chants of the Dark Lord's Army die away. You appear in an empty room devoid of all furniture. You recognize it as the conference room you were in before, one door leading to the War Room and one leading to the kitchen. Both rooms are also empty. A magic mouth forms in the wall. "Intruders detected! Drop your weapons and prepare for interrogation!"

Guards
A contingient of 20 guards open the door and rush into the War Room. The leader spots you and says, "Surrender." The soldiers seeing an orc adventuring group, begin to spread themselves out through the room. One throws a small block onto the ground and says, "Get to know me, Domi!" It grows into a barricade. Some of the soldiers crouch behind it and draw arrows. One soldier upon the nod of the leader rushes out the door.

Gareth
Gareth puts up both hands in front of him. "Not the welcome we were expecting. We are NOT orcs, we are the Three who were polymorphed into orcs for a special mission for General Livermore. We can prove this if you check. We just returned from the mission with information for him."

Flaust
Flaust , physically and emotionally exhausted, collapses to the floor.

Nonam
Nonam throws down his weapons as he spouts off, "Back off! Orcs are too stupid to figure out how to teleport into here!"

Jus
"Or check with Roscoe or Fireball."

Kat
Kat drops the illusion spell, and sits next to flaust, looking at the nearest guard she makes eye caontact and growls "Get Roscoe or the Genral NOW!"

Tiburon
Tiburon goes over to a chair in the courner and sits with a sigh.

Teko
Teko sets his weapons down slowly, puts his hands up, and waits quietly.

Flaust
Flaust looks at her hands and as a tear rolls down her cheek says, " I didn't want to do it. I don't know what happened. I lost it. The blood all the blood."

Nonam
"Flaust, you didn't kill anything. You merely returned a dead thing to the grave. You and I both know that Alemi encourages his preists to fight the undead, and he gives them the power to destroy them."

Guard Leader
"Flaust? Orcs don't cry over a kill. Lower your weapons lads. These are The Three! Why the @#$% did you guys teleport back here? General Livermore left to take command of the army an hour ago. Just after you left. Follow me. Explain as we go. The new headquarters is a few blocks away."

Onrad
"I thought our next stop was Edonmoor? Wasn't it? Kat, why did you bring us back here?"

Tiburon
"Well Flaust," says Tiburon," I guess you'll have some Major attonement to do. Using a BLADE to kill a helpless creature, I didn't think a Patriach of Alemi could use an edged weapon. I bet if you you got down on your knees and prayed real hard, Domi would show you the way."

Flaust
" Tiberon, you may be right, but that is between my God and I. Perhaps you should judge your own decisons and let me deal with mine. "

Nonam
"Well I wasn't in charge of the teleporting, but there's a good chance that the Darklord's army is expecting are attack. Their general seemed to know about us and tried to have us killed by undead which looked like us... as humans. We need to let General Livermore know."

Jus
Could be, but I bet Fireball turned the Bloody Claws into us, and the enemy just wanted to tie up loose ends. What better and more ironic way than to use undead "humans" that we just defeated.

Onrad
I think in a sort of perverted way that giving The Bloody Claws the chance to kill the ones who they fought before in front of the army was a sort of reward. Also a final test of their power. Who's gonna get tested more than a succesful group on the heels of a great triumph of being allowed to carry the Dark Lord's battle plans? Yes we should report it. We should be debriefed by General Livermore. We should get to him as quick as possible.

Kat
"Look I have had a rough day, I have never seen Edenmor so we came here! You want to go some where else, someone else use the damm ring!"

Nonam
"We should probably get someone here to teleport us there. We can't be late with this. Guard, are either Fireball or Roscoe still here? Or anyone else who can polymorph us back to humans and teleport us to the army? Also we were in battle with undead and could really use a preist."

Tiburon
" But Flaust, " says Tiburon," It looks like you made your decision when you used that blade while I haven't gone against the tenents of my faith. I'm sure that Domi would gladly take you in help you with your problem."

Flaust
To Tiburon , Flaust says," Tiburon, please just mind your own business." Flaust then turns away from Tiburon and addresses the party. " Can we please just go do whatever we are supposed to do? I can't take much more of this."

Tiburon
" Ah Flaust," says Tiburon with a smile," converting wrong-doers IS my business. It should be yours too. "

Teko
After picking up and sheathing his weapons, Teko follows the guard leader, but remains quiet.

Kat
Kat crosses to Tiburon "Leave her ALONE!"

Onrad
"Lay off Tib. This discussion can be saved for another time and another place. It is DEFINITELY not Domilike to hit a person when she's down even figuratively. Look to your own faith!"

The soldier
The soldier leads the party across Humble Street into Campfire Court where he leads the party into Campfire Court Barracks. There a new makeshift operations has been set up. The head soldier says, "General Zerina, it was The Three teleporting back after their mission. Here they are." An attractive woman in a general's outfit says, "Report!" She turns to Flaust for the answer.

Nonam
"Damn it. We're in a hurry. How many reports do we have to make?"

Flaust
Flaust stands regains composure and states, "After successfully delivering the altered plans, a map was displayed. I believe Kat saw the map well enough to relate what was on it. As we left, the rakashas ordered the death of the messengers. We were then confronted by undead whose appearance resembled our true forms, and not our disguises. After a most disheartening battle we arrived here."

Onrad
Onrad seethes and gritting his teeth with his hand on his sword says to Nonam, "Nonam is it your intention to insult every person we meet who is in a position to help us?" He then turns to the General and says, "I'd apologize for him, but he'd just say something worse. Is there anything else you need to know? This has been a very soul draining experience for us and we are weary of it. We are anxious to move on and put this behind us."

Jus
"Draining... Yes, Draining! I don't suppose you could restore what the undead just took from us?" Jus then explains that he can no longer remember his second level spells, nor can he fight quite as well -- a result of the encounter with the undead Three.

Nonam
Nonam blows Onrad a kiss, "Onrad, you make such a cute orc when you're angry." Then he turns to General Zerina, "General, I appologize for my brusque manner. I am weary after our mission, weakened from our encounter with the undead, and sickened at looking down at these brutish orc fingers. I am afraid it's made irritable. I sincerely pray that you'll find it within your lovely heart to forgive me."

Tiburon
" I see no-one of you has thought about Flausts' situation. If she is out of favor with Alemi for forsaking her tennats of faith , then she will no longer have access to her clerical powers and is a liability in a combat situation. One that could get one of us killed. I hope that Alemi will forgive her slip-up this time, but you must look at the possable results from such actions and to its' effect upon ALL of us, not just her. I might not have baited her about switching to Domi, but we need to find out if she needs to atone for that before she goes on or if she can wait until after. " says Tiburon.

Flaust
"Atonement may be necessary, but it is between me and my god so, please just shut up about it and mind your own business!"

Kat
"Can we please finish and go somewhere and relax. We are going to kill each other in a moment if we don't."

Teko
Teko, looking on, sighs and wearily waits for a response from the general.

Jus
Quietly, Jus considers that Flaust could always become a fighter... or start her children's home. "I'm sure Flaust appreciates our concern, but she can take care of herself. And our help will always be there whenever she asks for it."

Nonam
With a twinkle in his eye, "Oh come now Tiburon, isn't all that stuff just mumbo jumbo. You learned your spells and abilities through study. Your method of memorization is different from mine, but it's still just power that you produce and channel yourself."

General Zerina
"Silence! I don't see how in blazes such a disintegrated group of individuals can be effective, but my instructions are to trust your instincts. Do you feel the planting of the plans was successful? Do we arrange our armies in anticipation that they will follow those false plans or not?" She scans the party for signs of intelligience.

Tiburon
"Flaust, don't you understand that keeping you and everyone else alive and well is my business ?", Tiburon says with a sigh," If you have turned into a non-combatant, then we need to plan for that. Do you want these others to die just because you can't cast a healing spell or a protection spell when it's needed ?"

Kat
Kat stands up and shouts "SHUT UP!!!!! This is not the time. Genral yes the plans worked, they have changed their battle plans and are begining to march toward the valley."

Teko
Teko says, "Yes, it does appear that they took the bait. Still, I'm puzzled. Why did the undead we fought appear as us in our unpolymorphed forms? We need to be sure about that."

Jus
"General, please forgive our behavior. We have seen sights abominable to all decency, even considering the war. No matter how we may sound -- at the moment -- we are a team." Jus then describes what occurred in as much detail as he recalls, finishing up with "My judgement is that they believed the plans. Since we saw there current battle layout and overheard the new plans, we were a liability that the undead were to remove."

General Zirena
Very well then. She writes something on a scroll quickly and seals it with her personal seal. Now, take this through to General Livermore. Nikar here, a mage of fine reputation, will give you a mental picture of where you are to go. She is in constant contact with the General this evening. Nikar?"

Nikar
"Greetings, Kat. Tell Pantheon hi for me when you talk to him next. I'm sure he'll remember me. I used to be one of his witches....(soft laugh). I'm going to be using a new spell of mine called Shared Vision. It will let you see the picture I have of the general's locale in my mind, Ready?" After getting Kat's consent, she closes her eyes, puts her hands on the sides of Kat's head and breathes slowly on her. Kat receives the current location of the general as a current moving scene.

Nonam
Nonam waits and puts on the ring at the appropriate time.

Flaust
Walks up to Tiberon, " I am sorry for my behavior. Everything you have ever said is exactly true. Please forgive me. How about a hug?" Flaust gets even closer to Tiberon, winks, and gives him a hug.

Teko
Teko waits and puts on the ring when it comes to him.

Gareth
Gareth waits for Kat to pass the ring.

Flaust
Waits for her turn with the ring

Onrad
Onrad wait for his turn with the ring. "You've primped long enough Kat, you're never gonna fit in that outfit anyways."

Kat
Kat wipes a tear from her eye and looks at Onrad, she then places the ring on her finger and imagines the place Nikar showed her. in the prosess she imagines Onrad about three feet off the ground.

DM
The party is teleported to the edge of a low cliff ovelooking a misty valley. Onrad lets out a huge yell as he appears in the air falling. Kat looks up grinning only to get a very surprised look on her face as Onrad lands rather hard on her knocking her down, messing up her hair and covering her in wet dirt from the slightly wet ground. Her clothes and hair are a mess. The small but bold army of New Elenna is spread out through the valley working furiously at setting traps magical and mundane. General Livermore smiles at the group and motions them over. "Welcome heroes! You have done well. The enemy will advance through this valley and our preparations should give us a decided advantage. The spies in the Orcish camp have confirmed your report and that they are to all indications following our false plans. Hopefully the Red Dragons will be able to keep the Dark Lord busy enough that he will not check in on his troups. Edenmoor has been evacuated ahead of schedule thanks to the Red Tigers and the Black Blades. Therefore your work here is ended. You may remain and watch the battle from this vantage or retire and rest. You are heroes in the highest sense of the word and your city thanks you. Here is my seal. Report to the temple of Domi and they will do their best to restore your lost life force and heal your wounds. I give you this now, because things will get very busy shortly. Again thank you and I am forever at your service." He bows and shakes each hand, then salutes.

Nonam
After confirming that no one dispelled the polymorph spell by looking at his companions, Nonam says, "Uhm, general, can someone change us back into humans. I don't really want to walk into the temple of Domi looking like an orc."

General Livermore
Uh, sure. General Livermore looks into a special ring with the shape of a golden dragon in its design and says, "Roscoe? Good. Please cast the contingency spell to polymorph these fine heroes back into their proper forms please."

Voice in the ring
"May you all be as ugly as you were before." And with that the orc faces melt away into your former faces.

Tiburon
" Wait a minuet, aren't you going to change Onrad back ?? Oh wait , that's how he looked before.. heh...heh... sorry Onrad, I couldn't resist." says Tiburon with a laugh.

Kat
Kat looks amazing even coved in mud and messed up clothes.

Teko
Teko breathes deeply. "I've traveled more in the last few hours than I have in all my other days. This is truly amazing. But somehow I don't think I've seen anything yet. Well... On to the temple, yes? Oh. And it's good to see everyone again! Sorry if there was any misunderstanding about my arrival."

Jus
When everyone starts going to the temple, Jus says, "Let's get this over with quick. I'd like to volunteer our services to the General again. I, for one, want to stop the abominations we've seen. Anyone disagree?"

Nonam
"Are we going to the temple in Floating City?" Nonam sneezes and he turns into an orc for a brief second. He doesn't seem to notice.

Flaust
"I definitely want to get this over with."

Onrad
Onrad waits to put on the ring and pass it along.

Gareth
After being in in an amazing daze for what seems 2 weeks... Gareth says "Thank you General, we will quickly go to the temple and return for the battle. I would relish the idea of cutting down large numbers of the evil creatures we've seen. By the way, the North army is MUCH larger than anticipated. We couldn't count them all."

Nonam
waits for the ring.

General Livermore
Your courage is uplifting to us all, but we have things well in hand here. You may come and watch the battle from the air with me or begin your earned R&R. I won't have such valuable forces in the common field of battle. Not unless it is needed. Later, if the Dark Lord continues his offensive against New Elenna, I or one of the Dragon Groups may call on you again. May that day never come!"

Kat
Kat passes the ring around and the group finds themselves in front of the Cathedral of Love.

DM
Priests tend to your needs over the next few hours using highly prized Restoration spells to restore the lost life-force to your bodies. (This puts you at the beginning of the level you were at. Experience past that point are lost for good.) The priests do their best to cater to your every need and want. It's almost as if they are embarassed about something. Then a summons arrives.

(Summons)
Hear ye! The Overlord of The Floating City hereby requests the company of The Three for an early morning breakfast and to accompany him in watching the Battle for Edenmoor. A carriage awaits.

DM
Looking outside you see the sunshine pour in the doorway and you realize that your healing took much longer than you would have thought. Not only do you see a beautiful carriage, evidently the royal carriage of the Overlord, but a huge crowd of thousands all converging on the sides of the streets where grandstands have been erected and signs bearing a hand holding three fingers aloft are everywhere!

Gareth
"Well guys, I guess we'll go see the battle. I sure do hate to watch and not fight but at least they'll be there if they need us. I think we did a great job. Couldn't have been much better. I also think that we should not fight among ourselves any more. We'll be much more effective without that. At least that's my opinion. Ready?" And with that strides toward the royal coach that is waiting.

Teko
"I think I should have studied ettiquette. This isn't like a wood-elven celebration at all..."

Jus
Jus stands at the Cathedral entrance for a moment, looking at the crowd with undisguised delight. "I wish my brothers could see this!", he thinks to himself. He realizes he hasn’t written Ladybug in quite a while and decides this would be a great story for her -- although she probably wouldn't believe it.

Tiburon
Tiburon turns to Flaust and says," Is there anything I can do to help you if you need Atonement ? I hope you understand that it wasn't anything personal, it was looking out for the group that made ask you about that. We needed to know that we could count on your full powers if they were needed. "

Flaust
No prob, Tib.

Nonam
Nonam seizes the moment. He walks down the steps and raises his arms up above his head in a victory stance. Then he casts 'phantasmal force,' and an absolutely huge, gigantic hand holding up three fingers appears floating several feet above his head.

Gareth
Looking back and shaking his head, he just smiles and keeps walking.

Onrad
Onrad sees an older brother in the crowd. The brother is screaming and telling everyone that "the one over there" is his brother. Onrad remembering all the times that Radon buffeted him with the flat of a sword, stares at him as if he isn't there for a couple of seconds and unsmiling walks alongside Gareth.

DM
The party is led by carriage to the Overlord's Palace. The road leading to it's entrance winds around the outside of the Arena making several laps before arriving at the front of the palace. They are led inside where the Overlord welcomes them and gives them the "keys to the city." A holiday is proclaimed for the next day which will be called "Day of The Three." They are dubbed "Knights of Pillars" and then the formal session is ended. The overlord and a few family members and friends lead the group to a side chamber where a strange crystal ball is projecting a picture of the battle onto the wall.

DM
The army of the Dark Lord looks silly as they hit trap after trap. (Picture the Swiss Family Robinson) They struggle forward knowing that to retreat is to die. Eventually the entire army turns on their leaders and in a bloody counterattack, the orcs kill their Rakshaza Generals and rout. The picture on the wall shows the various orc bands separating and heading for hiding going back to the land that spawned them. The undead in the attack have to be dealt with and some of that fighting was vicious. However with the combining powers of some of the priests, notably Mendicants of Wardd, they are destroyed. Only 14 of The Overlord's Army are slain.

DM
Now the celebration truly begins! Half the Dark Lord's armies in the Red Hills have been defeated. Only the Southern Army camped west of Madvow remains.

DM
Several hours later an announcement comes that the Dark Lord opened a large gate and removed his Southern Army from the Prime Material. The celebration spreads to the entire stack of plateaus! The High Lord Mayor proclaims a permanent holiday to be called The Day of Joy where all are to make peace with their enemies.

Overlord
"What a grand occasion! You are to be congratulated! The Three proved themselves to be heroes in the face of overwhelming odds and circumstances. Long live The Three!"

Nonam
"My lord, I think I speak for all of us when I say, I only hope that we can continue to serve your city in the future."

Gareth
Trying not to be too embarassed, Gareth says thank you, smiles, nods, or bows whenever appropriate and waits for the celebration to end. He says to the Overlord "You have been very kind. Please call on us in the future if the Overlord requires our services again."

Teko
Teko smiles and bows low.

Jus
"I am glad to hear so few of our number have paid the terrible price of death. For those that cannot be recovered, I hope their gods walk with them in their eternal rest; we should honor their names as a testimony to our victory and the overwhelming defeat of our enemy."

Overlord
"Jus, that's what the Day of Joy is for. Anyway, you should enjoy your day. I have some other heroes to congratulate. This has been a fine day for THIS city. You did well in not choosing to live in Plateau City." With that you are all dismissed to an outer chamber.