Mephos and his steed crash to the floor of the canyon, a fall of 170 ft, dealing 17d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 4, 5, 3, 4, 6, 3, 6, 1, 1, 4, 3, 6, 3, 4, 5) = 65 falling damage to Mephos, and if the shantak goes belly up during the fall and lands on top of him (50% chance, 01-50 on d%)....1d100 ⇒ 5....which it does....he suffers an additional 17d10 ⇒ (7, 4, 1, 2, 6, 5, 10, 8, 10, 7, 2, 1, 1, 8, 1, 6, 6) = 85 crushing damage!
Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, has met his doom, crushed beneath his own shantak steed!
It....wasn't....supposed to....
His vile soul is transported, shrieking in terror, into the terrible coils of his dread master, Cthulhu, who devours it without a thought!
....and with it, firmly strapped by multiple harnesses and belts into the aerial saddle, plummets Mephos!
NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
uh-oh....
A priceless grimace of fear crosses Mephos' normally cool, grinning face as he sees the head of his shantak steed hang nearly severed, and it's wings beat spasmodically for a few beats and then go rigid!
The "playmate" Mephos summoned with the Rod of Faust materializes fully this round....a towering, horned, winged, red-skinned devil, by it's thoroughly evil appearance!
It emits a horrifying, rumbling clucking that might be diabolical laughter....
Then, it utters a rumbling incantation familiar to the FOs by now, and drops a fireball on its own central location on the battle station, catching everyone but Koran and Kepler (who are hovering over the canyon 15-20 ft west of the precipice) and Daisy (10 ft higher than the apex of the blast), and dealing 10d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 3, 1, 3, 4) = 45 fire damage (DC 19 Ref for half)!
Mephos himself, still just out of Koran's reach, chuckles at his erstwhile "ally", and points the Rod at him, uttering an arcane word that seems to resonate with stunning power....
Koran is stunned for 2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5 rounds!
The Whisperer of Secrets throws back his darkly handsome face to the stars and laughs.
I prefer to keep a healthy distance from your brutish thews, Koran.... But I'll give you a new playmate....
Raising the sinister-looking black rod in his hand, Mephos traces an elaborate pattern in the air and utters a dark incantation of summoning....
A black vortex of smoke appears in the center of the FOs' battle station, towering to a height of some 15 ft, and foul with a sulphur stench....
Initiative 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Now will my true nature at last be revealed to my erstwhile companions of Pandora's Box! Now they shall see the true glory, and unrelenting power of Mephos!
Mephos brandishes the Rod of Faust as he soars toward the Grand Canyon on shantaks' wings, at the head of a loose formation of several shantaks bearing sinister riders, each a formidable servant of Cthulhu, be it oracle, sorcerer, wizard, or cleric.....
On wings of doom rode Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, with the Rod of Faust in his hand....
And with him rode other minions of Dread Cthulhu....
A flight of shantaks bore death on the wind.... Undead commandos sent to silence Pandora's Box forever....
Vampires and ghuls sat in those queer saddles, snapping the reigns....
They would only fly by night.... When the sun shone in the sky, they hid in dark places in the Earth....
I shall not fail thee, Master.... whispers the tiefling as he takes the unholy artifact--The Rod of Faust--in hand....
Your humble servant cannot be certain.... But Arthur, King of the Britons, is among them.... As is Odysseus, and Atilla the Hun, and likely others.... Merlin will find and rouse whomever he can.... Gilgamesh.... Heracles..... Theseus.... Achilles.... Circe.... Beowulf.... Robin Hood....Joan of Arc....The old wizard will raise them all up against thee....
They are emboldened by a collection of spirits too belligerent and faithful to each other to corrupt.... A powerful wizard named Merlin shepherds them, guiding them to find weapons of great power to use against thee, My Liege.... This Merlin wizard stirs up potent hero-souls wherever he goes, awakening excarnic memories in reincarnated heroes.... Spirits which have ever proven inimical to our goals, My Liege....
They seek to restore the world under humankind, My Liege.... They will not accept that Homo sapiens have outworn their use.... Ultimately, they seek to besiege R'lyeh, slay Your Omnipotency, and all other Great Old Ones contesting for this world.... And begin anew their ever evolving dream of humanity and civilization....
Forsooth, My Liege.... They now call a great rift in the midst of the arid region of that landmass known to mortals as North America home.... It is called by them, "Pandora's Box in the Canyon", and they huddle in caves in the walls of what they call The Grand Canyon, learning the primitive ways of the native humans indigenous to the land....
I bring thee tidings of the Order of the Elder Sign, Your Omnipotency.... And of their champions, The Fierce Ones, who have assassinated several of your lieutenants already, My Liege....
Mephos strides unwavering through the long, dimly-lit streets and alleys of R'lyeh, crossing slime-dripping bridges over deep pits in which shoggoths spawn fresh horrors....
He passes maddeningly intricate spires that stab at the storm-tossed sky, from which the many baleful eyes of aberrations, fiends, and undead horrors watch the hooded traveler's progress....
At length, he arrives at a vast, domed palace of sorts, it's architecture defying the human eye, with corners that seem to fold into extradimensional space, non-Euclidean geometry grossly featured in its alien dissymmetry, stairways and corridors that seem to form a tesseract of impossible physics....
Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, enters the court of Dread Cthulhu and falls prostrate before the terrible Great Old One....
Dread Cthulhu.... Your humble servant returns....
Breaking through a bank of dark, storm-fraught clouds, Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, Rider of Shantaks, beholds R'lyeh below....
He is momentarily confused by the vast, cyclopean ruins, with their suggestion of impossible antiquity.... Non-Euclidean geometry evident in the mad architecture....
Other flying things swooped and soared amid the green, slime-covered spires, domes, and polyhedrons that clustered like islands buffeted by the tide of the Pacific Ocean....
Tentacled things squirmed in the sodden streets of that fell city, and Mephos fought to retain his sanity at the vista that met his eyes below....
Landing on a surf-sprayed terrace jutting a few feet above the surface of the ocean, Mephos slides off the Shantak's back down its leathery wing, and strides toward an immense portal looming before him in the side of the mountainous ruins....
The great, dragon-like shantak bears Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, on the winds, through banks of dark storm clouds that flicker with lightning and rumble with thunder....
Far below, the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean churn and thrash....
It is not far now.... The risen city of R'lyeh.... Capital of My Dread Master's new kingdom.... A kingdom in which I shall rule a duchy as Duke Mephos!.... His Dread Monstrosity will reward me handsomely for delivering the new location of Pandora's Box....
Mephos grins as he spurs the shantak to fly faster.... Then he throws back his darkly handsome face to the darkening sky and gives voice to diabolical laughter!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
The shantak screams an unholy howl in response, and beats its mighty wings faster....
Mephos, Whisperer of Secrets, slips away from Pandora's Box in the Canyon, silently stalking the red rock formations that form a stone forest of sorts within the canyon....
From a hidden pocket, ever concealed from the other Fierce Ones, he produces a white whistle of bone, shaped like a strange dragon....
Raising it to his lips, he sounds a high, wavering wail....an eldritch call....
A moment later, a great, dragon-like shantak silently drops down out of the starry night sky to land on the canyon floor with a tremendous thud! It dips its wing, forming a ramp for Mephos to ascend to mount its scaly back, to which an equally scaly harness and saddle have been strapped....
Seated on the great winged beast, Mephos snaps the reigns and the shantak beats its leathery wings, voicing an unearthly call that echoes horribly in the canyon!
Up into the star-studded night sky he flies, an evil smile on his handsome face....
My Lord Cthulhu will reward me handsomely for all the information I'm about to bring him.... Perhaps he'll even make me an outsider with greater powers.... An incubus, or a glabrezu, perhaps.... I should hope he grants me at least such power, for what I'm about to give him.... The location, names, appearances, powers, mannerisms, and even the weapons used by his chief enemies.... With this knowledge, he will be able to easily crush my erstwhile companions. What glory it will be to see that self-righteous Derrik and his friends get smashed like the bugs they truly are beneath the heel of Almighty Cthulhu himself! So sweet.... So precious....
An evil laugh mingles with the weird cries of the shantak as Mephos rides on the night winds to inform his Dread Master of all he has learned of The Fierce Ones and Pandora's Box in the Canyon!
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