Yes, Mikey.... You were dead, but Marcus raised you with the Caduceus.... And yes, Ithaqua is dead....
Even as Daisy speaks, the corpse of Ithaqua molders away into an unrecognizable heap of foul-smelling putrescence, as if decomposing at a greatly accelerated pace....
Daisy produces a small doeskin pouch, from which she tosses diamond dust (1,000 gp worth!) on Mikey, as she chants, casting restoration to remove one of MJ's negative levels....
According to the shamans, I must cast another restoring on you in one week to fully restore you.... You'll owe me some diamond dust worth about $2,000.... Sorry, but that's what it'll cost to get you feeling up to par.... The spirit world still has some of your spirit, and demands a sacrifice of diamond dust to give it back....
Huh.... I guess that's fair.... A small price to pay to cheat death....
MJ rises unsteadily....
Whoah.... I feel like crap....
No shit, Sherlock, you were dead for over a minute....
Daisy grins at MJ....
Take it easy.... Let me heal you up....
Daisy burns her second dismissal to cast cure critical wounds on Mikey, healing damage....
She burns her second restoration to cast another cure critical wounds on Mikey, healing damage....
Jeez, next time I'm gonna try breath of life.... This way is expensive and uses up a lot of my mana....
She winks at MJ to let him know she is just teasing him....
Daisy burns dispel magic and invisibility purge to cast two cure serious wounds spells on MJ....
Heals damage....
Ahh, much better! Thanks, Daisy!
MJ is fully healed, but handicapped by 1 permanent negative level, which cannot be removed with restoration until one week has passed....
The sound of Hooty's chopper grows louder as he approaches the FOs' position.... The Tomahawk appears overhead through gaps in the canopy of the forest opened by the brief forest fire....
Hooty tilts the cockpit groundward, and gives a thumbs up as he realizes that the FOs have survived, and either defeated or driven Ithaqua away.... He shouts through the loudspeaker....
I'll be damned! You guys are still alive! Hehehehe! I'll meet you bad-asses back at the highway....
Hooty salutes the FOs and pilots the chopper back east to Highway 22....
The weresquatches appear to be withdrawing, retreating deeper into the park.... Their forlorn howls grow fainter with distance....
The weresquatches know we've killed their pack-leader.... Their god.... I have a feeling they will submit to us now....
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Hmmmm.... That kinda takes the fun out of killing them.... Not sure I have the heart or stomach to go around coup-de-gracing weresquatches that have bared their throats to us....
I know.... It's easier to forget that these are creatures of evil.... They are so much more like natural beasts of the forest than the monsters we encountered in the Silver Tower....
If only we knew a way to keep them in check.... Keep them from killing people and whatnot.... And use them in the final battle against Cthulhu's hordes....
Derrik had seen the creature felled but his intense state lingered and even when he could focus on something else... He was not quite the same. At this point he could only recognize Mikey's form becoming still for the moment and even then the gravity of it seemed.. Less frightening. So he stood there and light began to Erupt from his entire right side as the blessings ceased. Dawnbringer's appearance changed drastically.. growing in size and radiance; eventually becoming to unwieldy in one hand for a mortal, much like Mjonir. It's resplendent double-bitten appearance gaining a bearded and golden finish with an onyx edge the haft ending in a curved talon-like blade with a red gem embedded inside. The red gem ignites as well, becoming a fine mist that envelops Derrik for a few moments, forming into a regal cape of the same color.. an Insignia of White and Black Angelic wings with an axe and blade crossed all upon a shield-like crest adorned the back; characters adorned the bottom of the seal much like a motto or phrase, but not currently legible.. definitely not in any human language to note.
Derrik's armor also seemed changed as well.. where there was just his arm.. it had seemed to have spread. The white hue that normally overtook a portion of him during great battle did not recede completely, instead splitting him symmetrically down the middle, the strong dark onyx/ebony black and menacing crimson accents of the left being mirrored by a warming pearlescent white with azure allure. At his hips the blood of Ithaqua draws upwards from the creature's body and began to form rectangular objects of black and white metal which seemed to house his two weapons.. though it took Derrik to shoulder Dawnbringer at it's current state. The odd sheathes also seemed to be attached to his side securely which had many spikes jutting out (Think Big O here)
There is still silence from Derrik.. nothing from him during any of this.
"Killing them achieves little. Without Ithiqua they are likely going to simply engage in survival and little else. I don't know how we could use them against Cthulu unless we show mastery over them.
Koran seems to be most in touch with his primal side? Maybe he can establish dominance amongst them? Make them Korans pack somehow?
Finally after realizing MJ was indeed alive.. and that his consciousness returned, Derrik looked to Radsworth, sheathing Excalibur in the right-holder and removing his helmet with the free hand shaking his head to alleviate himself of sweat.
" Perhaps Radsworth is right, Bestial creatures require some form of leader, often by strength. Until Ithaqua was present, squatches never seemed to bother anyone.. which means their nature originally may have been more benevolent. In that case they have a chance to be changed to the side of Good and possibly be relieved of their affliction altogether.. like any other sentient being. "
Raising his left hand to look upon his helmet with a bit of curiosity in its coloring.. but somehow not completely surprised.
" If anything.. we avenged many innocents who may have been sacrificed to Ithaqua.. as well as our Comrade Nature Boy.. Jewels will be happy to know that. "
He looks up and smiles ... to reveal one of his k-9's to the right was elongated noticeably and that his eye to the left had traded white for black.. and brown and gold pupil for a deep rouge.
" Now.. I am not sure about you all ... but I do not believe our job is done we need to see if Hooty is alright and then plan on what to do about Azathoth coming into this world.. among all else I doubt any of you could really justify not dealing with this before it becomes too late... If possible I'd rather not wait more than a few days "
Derrik then placing the helmet back on, one handed, with a click, twist and small sound of air passing.
Rad stared at Derrik for a long while. While he supposed they had all changed dramatically since Lido Key (and Levinsons wings were certainly proof of that!), he could not help but be especially intrigued by the erstwhile Paladins changes in demeanor and appearence.
After his own awakening, he began to see people and things not only as themselves, but also as integers and parts of a greater formula... the equation of existence. He had yet to figure out exactly what was balancing, but Derrik weighed heavily upon whichever calculation he was so intent on championing.. he was an algorithm which squared and cubed it's power every time Derrik advanced or unlocked his ability.
In his own new view, Radsworth felt more and more like it was his job to not only remove the incredible inbalance Cthulu had brought to an otherwise stable realm, but to make sure its scales were never tipped too far on any of its four axis.
"Indeed Derrik. Nature Boys loss has been avenged. There is still much to set right, as you say. I think Hootie is okay. I heard him on the PA not long ago. He wants us to meet him. Are we going to do that before or after Koran influences the Sasquatch? As I understand it, a werecreature that loses it's paragon reverts to normal. They have had a notable day, and are whipped heavily. They may need time to recover, as they seem to be an intelligent species, using pack tactics and communication at the very least."
He looks at the others too, seeking their opinions.
"If concern for Hootie is influencing your decision, then it is misplaced. We can let Hootie go home. I can take us home from here on my own power. Merlins teleportation is no longer beyond me."
Mikey grins and nods in approval at Radsworth, putting his fist out for the spellslinger to fist-bump....
That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Professor Rad's Wild Ride, baby!
Well, we should at least go and meet Hooty, now, and tell him to head home.... If Rad can teleport us around, now, we totally got this!
Daisy smiles at Radsworth....
Whaddya think, Koran? Can you tame these evil beasts?
MJ gestures to the nearby corpse of a weresquatch, transformed in death to its natural shape--a giant Sasquatch....
Radsworth looks at Mikey for a second, terribly confused, then grins and uses his still-floating spectral hand to long-distance fist bump the eager young fighter.
As he starts to levitate again and head off in Hooties direction, he winks and ruffles the young mans hair.
"I'll be right back!"
Radsworth heads off to notify Hootie that he is free to go.
Radsworth! No f%~*ing way! You guys killed Ithaqua!?.... The Fierce Ones killed a Great Old One!?.... If I wore a hat, I'd take it off to you, Professor!
Radsworth smiles.
"Old Traveler here got the last shot too. Right through his accursed skull. If the others are this easy Earth is as good as ours! Farewell! Take the good news back home to the others!"
Feeling bad for showing more optimism than he felt, Rad turns and heads back towards the others.
Derrik chuckles, it seemed that with each battle the Fierce Ones grew in experience and power; That the universe was trying to help them stop this threat.. that they could have the power TO stop this threat. I calmed him somewhat, though recently little more than battle went through his head,
" It seems our band is growing stranger, perhaps to combat that which we wish to defeat? Levinson those wings suit you, they bring out your Elegance, though it seems like the ever Brave Wormwood was not able to show off his valiant posture again and fell the Great Old one himself. I thank you all especially Mahatma and Kelper, on a Job well done. Now Fierce Ones.. We clearly are no longer mere mortals... even with Mikey's death.. his soul remained strong and returned...but We still will need more to even hope to defeat Cthulhu.. and I plan on making that defeat permanent... After we stop this Witch.. might I suggest we also ally ourselves with the OTHER reincarnations? The Fierce Ones may be intimidating.. but an army of them would be more-so. "
Koran grunts in response to the inquiries about him taming the pack. His eyes still burn with a bestial fury but his battle rage seems to have subsided. I'll be right back. Koran grins a bestial grin and licks a spot of blood off of Mjolnir's massive head. The monstrous tiefling sheathes his weapon and bounds away into the forest on all fours, following the sounds of the retreating weresquatches.
Koran looks at the pack leader and bares his teeth. He roars at the sky and slams mjolnir on the ground to cow them before he tries to take control.
He immediately charges the closest beast and fells it in several quick swings of his hammer.
He finishes his grisly display by tearing out the beast's teeth with his fangs. He stands to his full height and looks around at the remaining weresquatches challenging one of them to step forward.
Koran grunts in response to the inquiries about him taming the pack. His eyes still burn with a bestial fury but his battle rage seems to have subsided. I'll be right back. Koran grins a bestial grin and licks a spot of blood off of Mjolnir's massive head. The monstrous tiefling sheathes his weapon and bounds away into the forest on all fours, following the sounds of the retreating weresquatches.
Koran looks at the pack leader and bares his teeth. He roars at the sky and slams mjolnir on the ground to cow them before he tries to take control.
[dice=Intimidate]1d20+12
He immediately charges the closest beast and fells it in several quick swings of his hammer.
He finishes his grisly display by tearing out the beast's teeth with his fangs. He stands to his full height and looks around at the remaining weresquatches challenging one of them to step forward.
The weresquatches avert their gaze from Koran's.... None dare to challenge him....
Marcus reclines for a moment...in the air, bouyed on what appears to be a cloud of pure darkness. His eyes glow brightly for a moment before changing color to an unnaturally bright green that glows softly in the darkness.
He shakes his head and rubs his eyes for a moment.
"Did the sun come up while I wasn't paying attention?" he says, looking around at the suddenly brightly lit forest.
His attention taken by the apparent brightness, he doesn't notice that the sickening writhing under his skin has started up again, with more and larger creatures threatening to burst out of his skin.
Abruptly, it stops, restoring him to his mostly innocuous looking state, besides the small oddities that make him stand out.
"Please don't do that, Marcus, it's sickening."
"Though the green really does suit you."
She lays down beside him on a "bed of air" and relaxes, cuddled up next to him for a moment.
"Well... I was going to offer my monster charming services, but it seems that Koran is handling the problem with his own form of charisma..."
As they gathered around and waited to teleport, Levinson sat watching her wings as the wind lightly blew her feathers. Silky white feathers with motes of silver and gold were clearly a gift from Ein Sof just like Kepler, and not her more nefarious benefactor.
The imp popped his head out of Naomi's sachel with a half-eaten sandwich in his hands, "Very impressive all around! Especially you, Gentleman Gunslinger. Quite the finishing blow if I may say so! Couldn't have done better myself! And as always, the Good Knight really sent them running, three cheers all around!" he gushed on as he took another large bite of sandwich.
Koran looks down at the weresquatch corpse at his feet. Pity to just leave him lying there.
The giant reaches down and runs one long claw down the beast from chin to groin and rips the hide from the body.
He turns and begins to stalk away looking back expectantly at the weresquatches to follow.
If they refuse he turns and hurls Mjolnir at the closest one to reassert dominance and bounds off back towards his companions with a pack of weresquatches in tow.
Koran streaks out from the forest in a flash of white fur and blood when he stops moving the Fierce ones see him wearing the hide of a weresquatch over his head and shoulders blood runs down his face from the fresh kill. Behind him in the forest you see the faces of several scared weresquatches cowering behind the trees.
I don't think they're going to be much of a threat. he spits out what you can only assume used to be part of the corpse he is wearing.
The weresquatches follow Koran.... But at a fearful distance of 40 ft....
Yingzen looks thoughtfully at his friends yes friends was the right word. They have been thru so much but have even more to go thru
"Thank you Sir Imp. I suspect my shot was merely the cherry on top of a MJ and Derrik Fisticuff Sundae, but between us I feel it was a good shot as well."
He spends a moment watching Levinson, as he does from time to time. So pretty, that one. The Wings merely added to her allure as opposed to her gaining some in-attractive strangeness, but he was quite incapable of vocalizing his thoughts on the matter.
"Miss Levinson, I just want to say that.. ah.. hrm. Well you see ...
Radsworth trails off when Korans grisly triumph becomes apparent. Not entirely surprised, he had thought that perhaps Koran would be more gentle in his negotiations. Apparently he was wrong.
"Good god Koran. You're wearing a Sasquatch!
Derrik quirks his helmet to the side and lifts up his hand, noticing the Imp had been eating the entire time.
" But ofcourse Noble Imp, you had much better things to do... "
Looking on as he sensed a presense come near them.. recogniing it was Koran.. he lifts his hand again and makes a circling motion drawing it around his own head
" Big guy, you have a little something.. All over here.. "
Beams of afternoon sun pierce the canopy of the forest, dappling the forest floor and the FOs with spots of light....
The storm summoned by Ithaqua has faded completely away, leaving the sun and warmth of Spring....
I'm gonna need a good night's sleep before we take on the lich....
So.... Is our work here done, Fierce Ones?
MJ warily watches the weresquatches lurking in the distance....
"Almost, Mikey."
Radsworth thinks a moment before chanting a spell he had never known before. It was more a calculation really, an understanding of how magical effects coalesce to achieve a desired result.
"Koran, make them aware that in no uncertain terms that attacking a sentient creature means you will return to eradicate them. You are their leader now, and we have magic in the sky to always watch them. We will return for them when we need them to come to battle. We will also protect them, if they need it, though I doubt they are as vulnerable as the survivors at Lido Beach."
When everyone is ready, Radsworth will teleport the party home.
it looks like it, we do need to find a place for daisy to rest and gain her strength.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in the desert wastes outside the ruined city of Baghdad, among the rubble and dune-covered ruins of the far more ancient city of Babylon....
Lavinia's mummy porters bear her covered litter over the sand-and-rubble-choked ruins, the hulking flesh golem that was once her son, Wilbur Whateley, ponderously trudging along beside them....
Head for yonder great dune, my darlin's.... There be buried the Great Ziggurat of Yog-Sothoth.... We must unearth it, so's I can call the Opener o' Ways through the gate....
Derrik sighs, but nods seeming to muse over the choice of sleep ;
" A good rest seems in order.. but know everyday we wait the enemy grows more deadly.. I will spend my time training some more when we return.. I need to figure out why I have been blessed with the Blood of the Ithaqua... And how to better fell creatures such as lichs. Dawnbringer seems.. much heavier as well. " It fitting into the left sheath with ease.
As he neared the group to leave everyone notices that a slight aura seems to come from him.. and that any fears they might have had... seemed to dull somewhat.. almost calming.
Koran turns to his pack and shouts out in their own language. WE THE FIERCE ONE HAVE DEFEATED YOUR LEADER. I AM YOUR PROTECTOR NOW, AND YOUR DESTROYER IF IT COMES DOWN TO IT. Stay hear and live out your lives in peace, we will return if we must call you to battle. Let it be know that we are always watching you and if you harm a sentient being who is not an agent of the great old ones I will return and wipe out your entire tribe. Are we at an understanding?
Koran turns to his pack and shouts out in their own language. WE THE FIERCE ONE HAVE DEFEATED YOUR LEADER. I AM YOUR PROTECTOR NOW, AND YOUR DESTROYER IF IT COMES DOWN TO IT. Stay hear and live out your lives in peace, we will return if we must call you to battle. Let it be know that we are always watching you and if you harm a sentient being who is not an agent of the great old ones I will return and wipe out your entire tribe. Are we at an understanding?
The weresquatches draw closer, howling and growling their assent to Koran's rule.... They are now Koran's pack!
Promises to harm no sentient being other than known agents of the Old Ones are made, and it is agreed that the pack will dwell here, preying only upon beasts of the forest (and any agents of evil they might encounter), until their leader returns to call them to battle....
Radsworth teleports the Fierce Ones to the Black Forest, just outside the hillside portal to Alfheim, where they are hailed and admitted through the narrow cave mouth by the elves guarding the portal....
Once they are safely back at the Castle, they report the success of their mission to their friends and allies at Pandora's Box....
Seeking to honor the great heroes who defeated a Great Old One, the Elflords and Elfladies reward the FOs with generous gifts of treasure and magic: each FO receives 12,000 gp worth of new equipment or upgrades to existing equipment....
That night, as the FOs sleep in their comfortable quarters at the Castle, Radsworth, Daisy, Levinson, and Marcus each have a nightmare of strikingly similar nature....
In their nightmares, they trudge wearily through desert sands, feeling enervated, fatigued....weighed down as one often feels in nightmares.... Ancient ruins of reddish clay and weathered stone sprawl along the banks of a river.... Palm trees stand along the edge of the ruins and along the riverbanks.... At the heart of the ruined city rises a great mound of sand, higher than the other dunes threatening to swallow the crumbling buildings.... A darkness rises from the top of this mound, spinning like a whirlwind....a black sandstorm....
Soon, the sand of the great mound seems to recede from some cyclopean stone structure buried beneath as the sandstorm unearths it.... A mighty ziggurat, such as those raised in ancient Mesopotamia, is revealed!
Now, a small band of sinister-looking figures can be descried near the base of the great ziggurat.... Though they are distant, the dreamers feel somehow certain that these figures are the albino lich and her ghoulish entourage! Fell chanting can be heard from the lich as she raises her near-skeletal, claw-like hands skyward....
In Aklo: Hail Yog-Sothoth! Hail, mighty Opener of Ways! Hear the call of thy humble handmaiden! Come into this world and purge it! Transform this world into thy new kingdom!
At this point, all four dreamers awaken in a cold sweat.... It is an hour before dawn....
The dreamers can attempt Knowledge (geography) or (history) checks vs DC 20 to recognize the location in their shared nightmare....
Much of the ruins in the nightmare looked like this....
The four mummy porters lower Lavinia's litter gently to the ground, and stiffly lurch toward the great mound at the center of the ruined city....
Raising their bandage-wrapped arms in unison, they invoke a primal supernatural command over desert sands.... A sandstorm begins to form, first as a series of small dust devils that lift the sand off the great mound, merging together in a great whirlwind of sand that soon towers menacingly over the receding mound....
A rectangular brick frame or gateway is unearthed at the peak, 40-ft high and 20-ft wide....
There! There be the doorway!.... Keep it up, my darlin's! Unearth the priestly portal, so's I can enter the old vestry, an' don the ceremonial panoply....
The mummies keep their arms upraised, jaws working in a soundless chant, and the sandstorm continues to unearth more of the cyclopean ziggurat buried within the mound....
Radsworth wakes with a scowl and rolls from bed, immediately racking over some over history and geography books he salvaged from Oklahoma.
Radsworth wakes with a scowl and rolls from bed, immediately racking over some over history and geography books he salvaged from Oklahoma.
[dice=Knowledge History]1d20+25
[dice=Knowledge Geography]1d20+25
Radsworth is certain he has seen photographs of the ruins he saw in his nightmare....the ruins of Babylon....but to be sure, he consults his books, confirming his immediate suspicion....
The lich and her entourage are in Babylon, at the great central mound known as Hasr, or the Palace....said to cover a great ziggurat....