The Defense of Farshore
This is from memory
Our party is:
Ditka, Human Cleric of Kord 9, Fighter 1
Minx, Halfling Rogue 8 / Druid 2
Iridial, Elf paladin/mix of prestige classes
Elisar, Elven Wizard
Quenton, Sea Elf Bard
Our scout ships see the fleet coming in, so Iridial uses her cloak of the manta ray to swim out to the fleet for recon and to try to punch a hole in a ship with a Ring of the Ram. She plays it cautious when she sees the nasty main ship and latches onto a different ship. She doesn't get good rolls but does do some damage to the prow just at the water line. this turns out to be useful later.
She comes back, and we set the town's defenses. We have used walls of stone to build and reinforce the towers, so archers are ready. The party skulks among the docks at the water line.
As the first two ships try to enter the harbor, Ditka casts control water right in front of them, dropping the ships into a 20' foot trench. This caused a 30 minute game delay while we tried to figure out how to resolve the effects on the ships - we went with foundering rules. This shatters the first ship (the one already damaged by Iridial) and hurts the second one badly, throwing crew about and equipment off the decks. It also leaves the ship stuck in a trench and holds up the other ships for several minutes until a dispel magic removes the effect. That ship moves into position to attack the first tower, and drops several boats of pirates who head for the shore.
The main ship and a fourth ship then try to enter, and Ditka casts another control water. The magical nature of the lead ship dispels it on contact. The fifth ship comes to enter, and Ditka does it one more time, catching the both the 4th and 5th ship. This does good damage to the 5th ship and allows the Jade Raven's pet dinosaur a nice feeding bowl until the pirates kill it. This is ultimately dispelled as well, letting the ships up.
Elisar lights up the first few rowboats of pirates heading for the north end of town, killing many and sending the rest swimming where fireballs will be less effective. The eventually land and are killed by townsmen and olmans, bolstered by Quinton's songs. The party then moves to where the lead ship has beached itself.
Elisar has put permanent See Invisible on himself, and notices the Vrocks leaving the ship. He warns us... and casts to get their attention. They come down and summon two more before entering the fight, giving Elisar time to haste the group. Iridial (with a relic sword of Corellon) kills one with an amazing series of crits. Ditka, with a holy sword and Righteous Might, also kills one with an amazing series of crits. The other three bug out to above the church, and start their dance. All of us but Minx rush up to the church - Minx stays to help kill pirates fighting the Olman's and Jade Ravens, killing many with her sneaky rogue ways.
Ditka had consecrated the church, and that plus (maybe) the outsiders protecting it let it resist the dance - unfortunately the guardsmen outside are killed. The 2 remaining vrocks come back down, and Iridial again kills one while Quenton and Ditka kill the other. Elisar dies for a round, but Ditka raises him the next round (note: Isle of Dread needs more diamonds...).
Minx comes up to see what the giant explosion was, spotting the flesh golems rising from the sea. We rush down to meet two of them. These are rapidly dispatched with Ditka enlarging to make better use of his greatsword and elisar plinking them with adamantine arrows (recovered from the Rakasta temple fight). Elisar then sees the invisible Yaun ti come out of the water and plinks the spell caster to reveal him. Irridial charges to kill it, and the body guards appear - the party fights them in a darkness aura. A flying caster with enhanced fireballs drops one into the party as that fight ends, and it dies as Ditka and Elisar dispel it in sequence, dropping him to the ground where Irridial and Quenton cut him apart. Elisar snags the wand while minx loots it rapidly for other goodies. The rest of the party is informed that Lavinas compound is under seige (Elisar has been playing radioman with Message spells)
We rush back chasing the pirates who are chasing the Jade Ravens. We kill them, but Elisar sees three more invisible demons as he and minx try to catch up and they halt outsde of the compound behind a building. We were prety despondent at this point, we didn't think we could take 3 more Vrocks.
But they turn out to be Demon Vanthus and his buds. The Warlock circles around blasting at Ditka mainly. Vanthus charms Lavina, then is suddenly struck by a feeblemind spell from Elisar (who rolled awesome for spell penetration and Vanthus 1'd his will save) He starts follwing #3 around, who is now going after Elisar. This causes an amusing train to start, with #3 followed by idiot-Vanthus, follwed by charmed-Lavina, followed by Quenton trying to break the enchantment and slow her down.
Ditka pulls his demon-bane bow out and enlarges again, and starts dueling at range with the warlock in between heals. Elisar uses invisibility to get out of sight from demon #3 after ducking around a corner of the building, then reappears to put Evards Black Tentacles on the roof of the building that Demon #2 is using for cover from Ditka, catching him in a grapple. Ditka moves around to get clear shots, and rains 2X 4d6 worth of arrows shots into the warlock until it is dead.
Demon 2 tells Vanthus to go back to the ship. Our DM missed how disabling feeble mind is, and the party assumes that Demon #3 is using a special power to control him. This causes a rift in the time line. What we first though happened was:
Iridial gets a fly spell and chases #3 down, where he and minx gang up on him and kill him. He shouts something out ot vanthus, and Vanthus pulls out the shadow pearl, wetting it with his blood. Iridial flies up and kills him as the pearl starts doing its thing. Iridial tries to channel goodness to stop the pearl, but fails, and tries to fall on it like a grenade. Ditka tries to use positive energy to hold the expanding cloud back, fails, then runs to gather towns people back in the church (since it survived the vrock blast). Quenton heads to the other side of town to do the same. Elisar figures out to put the pearl into a bag of holding, so Minx gives up her Hewards Haversack and Elisar flies into the cloud.
However, Iridial has decided to fly the pearl away from the town, and is flying straight up. After a few rounds, she runs out of health and the pearl falls back to earth. Elisar rushes over to grab the pearl, then it all breaks loose. We all make our saves, and end the game assuming we will be in zombie hell next gaming session.
...until we ask how Vanthus was able to activate the magic item with a feeblemind spell up. After consulting the books and relevant legal authorities, time reverts - Iridial simply flew up and cut Demon Vanthus apart, and Farshore is Saved! Though much less populated...
