Epic Main Page

This is a quick reference to all of the epic postings. For pre-epic, see the Shackled City Main Page. For our other campaign, see the Black Sands of Semferia campaign homepage.
Last Update: July 7. Added Day 51 via the Black Sands page.

Party Image (courtesy Djinn_In_Tonic):
There is a full size image on Djinn_In_Tonic's photobucket site.

Character And Item Information:
Retraining
Epic/Legacy Items

Session Logs
Chapter 13: True Colors, wherein colorful mists cover the land, and twelve colorful adventurers get a chance to show what they're made of.
Day 39: The Rubble Rousers meet together, Rain meets his match, and blighted creatures meet their ends.
Day 40: A pair of dragons out of their minds, a temple out of repair, and Garlen out of hitpoints.
Day 41: Snow likes Rain, Grokk doesn't like delays, Grilka likes thrashing, and everyone likes shoes.
Day 42: Breakfast is interrupted by death, and the quest is interrupted by hilarity.
Day 43: An old hag, a duplicate party, and this adventure all meet an end.

Chapter 14: Zen Mario, wherein we embark on a quest to save the princess by not saving the princess.
Day 44: Roland leaves cryptic clues, and we leave for a place that we previously left in ruins.
Day 45: Horkina refuses to listen to the voices in her head, and the bad guy refuses to fall.
Day 46: Horkina pity the fool who doesn't stay dead. Grokk's rage earns him accolades and loot.
Day 47: The bright shiny ray of sunshine and her little entourage, for the win.
Day 48: Wherein a battle turns quickly, and a deal with a demon is made

Chapter 15: Unlikely Allies, wherein a Demon Prince and a Radiant Dragon both help the same team, and the Rubble Rousers get inspired to save another world
Day 49: Wherein an iron stronghold proves weak, and Rain goes on his best behavior.
Day 50: Wherein a drunken brawl breaks out on a plane flying home.
Day 51: wherein five Waste Lords learn the folly of working alone, and eleven adventurers prove the value of teamwork
Day 52: wherein one god is fooled, two gods die, and fate wins out
Postmortem: wherein six players talk about the game

Rubble Rousers, Day 50 (2008-05-02, 6:30 PM), Chapter 15: Unlikely Allies

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tony (Roland)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

Garlen stood at the D&Dbay console and procured a pair of tomes and a modified tailored suit. He seemed merely to thumb through the tomes, but soon he'd absorbed all of their magic. He then took centaur form, and one of the chairs shifted its shape to match. Meanwhile, Amber commissioned the cloak of Sunlit Shadows, and the rest of the party bought various other items. The dragon's final note still lingered in the air as he started speaking -- as if only a few seconds had passed. "Ahhh, hello, little ones. I suppose, now that I've received the assistance I needed, it's my turn to help you. What is it that you need?" Roland described the situation, and the dragon Throdenthurirl agreed to protect Posiccuit during its journey.

Within moments, the projection of Posiccuit began growing and the room faded away. Athux, standing on Occipitus, broke the link between the two planes, and Posiccuit began to drift. Throdenthurirl began concentrating on his magic, and soon a shield of order surrounded Possicuit. By then, the plane was floating past the rugged, cavernous landscape of Pandemonium, with high winds and fog blowing past. A vague shadowy shape emerged from the fog -- a Phane, which manipulates time and space, was moving to attack the source of the shield of order. Garlen, Horkina, Grokk, and Rain all moved to assault the Phane, resisting the effects of its null-time aura as they approached. Rain couldn't manage to hit the slippery shadow, but Horkina's powerful blows more than made up for it, and Grokk landed the killing blow.

As Posiccuit continued to drift over Pandemonium, a Black Slaad and two White Slaads approached. Garlen, flying under the power of a spell from Roland, used the power of the Mantle of Ehlonna to slip behind the lead Slaad and attack. These strange chaotic creatures were not really Garlen's favorite enemies, though, and his attacks were less effective than usual. Roland ineffectively cast Mass Hold Monster on the group, but his Stun Ray left the Black Slaad reeling, and he summoned a Black Blade of Disaster to attack one of the White Slaads. Grokk charged at the Black Slaad and swung wildly in its general direction, landing a few strikes but missing twice as well. Amber boosted Rain and Horkina with Righteous Wrath of the Faithful and tried to curse the lead Slaad, but when it resisted, she used her amulet to repeat the spell on one of the weaker Slaads. Still, her spell was ineffective. Rain joined Grokk and placed several holes in the still-stunned Slaad. The two White enemies attacked Garlen, missing the blurry centaur with their claws but both managing a chaos-laced bite that continued to bleed for another minute. Horkina flew at one of the White Slaads ("I don't really like flying, but given the choice between staying on the ground and hitting something, I think I'll hit something.") Her axes cut deep and left many painful wounds. Garlen stabbed at the enemies now surrounding him, stabbing one at the base of the skull and hurting its brain. Roland's Black Blade of Disaster had little effect, but his highly modified fireball (centered on the ever-so-evasive Garlen) killed the Slaads.

Roland reached level 25 as Posiccuit crept closer to Elysium.

Pockets of earth, air, fire, and water crashed into each other and into the shield surrounding Posiccuit as it passed through Limbo. A creature that looked like a chaotic conglomoration of several beasts -- dragon, troll, and who knows what else -- moved straight toward Throdenthurirl. (Tony: "You can do Warmaster's Charge." Tom: "That would be really sick... OK.") Garlen led everyone in an attack on the shape-changing Hagunemnon, and even Amber and Roland were able to wound it (Amber: 25 hp with her +1 mace, Roland 37 hp with his not-even-masterwork quarterstaff.) Garlen called out encouragement to Rain to press the attack, and Rain's solid strikes with Bleeder made the chaotic beast crumble into a chaotic mess of deadness.

Roland reached level 26 as Posiccuit crept even closer to Elysium.

Posiccuit passed just over the tip of a soaring mountain on Ysgard, descending toward a wide plane where armies of powerful dwarves and giants battled. A contingent of dwarven warriors teleported onto Posiccuit, and their leader, Brottor Strongheart, called out "who dares disturb our glorious battle with this aura of Law?" Horkina yelled back "mind your own business! We'll be gone soon." Brottor was undeterred -- "you cannot bring such order to our battlefield! We have to settle this, or at least make things a bit less structured, with a drunken brawl! Who is up for the challenge?" Horkina stepped forward and began swigging Brottor's finest ale, never feeling its effects, though Brottor became slightly inebriated. The two stepped together in an epic drunken brawl as Brottor's compatriots cheered him on. He landed several solid blows, but she retaliated, flying into a rage. He landed another few solid strikes, and one of his friends pulled a bar stool out of a bag of holding and smashed it over another's head, starting their own fight. Suddenly Horkina stepped forward and landed two perfect punches, knocking the previous champion barfighter unconscious. His friends jeered "that's what you get for hitting a girl", which led Horkina to start punching them. When the fight finally wound down and Brottor woke up, he gave Horkina a case of his finest ale.

Soon Posiccuit was passing over Arborea, a massive forested paradise. Giant eagles and dragons would occasionally investigate the strange sight of a plane flying through the sky, but only the most powerful silver dragons dared approach. When they noticed Amber and Garlen, with symbols of Ehlonna proudly displayed on shields and cloaks, they gladly moved aside and watched Posiccuit continue. The same thing happened with the most powerful guardians of the Beastlands -- if some of Ehlonna's most faithful and powerful followers were guiding Posiccuit, surely it could be allowed to pass through. As the threats diminished, Throdenthurirl began fading away, waving goodbye as he again sang a catchy and triumphant song about the foiled plans of spellweavers. After a few more hours of drifting, Posiccuit came to rest on the edge of Elysium's topmost layer, the colorful and beautiful Amoria. As the Rubble Rousers celebrated, they began to fade just like Throdenthurirl before them, and they found themselves back in the hemispherical white room.

Roland reached level 27 as Posiccuit settled into its new cosmological home. The rest of the party also reached level 27.

Rubble Rousers, Day 49 (2008-04-25, 6:30 PM), Chapter 15: Unlikely Allies

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tony (Roland)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

Athux quickly set to work separating the celestial remnants of Occipitus from the rest, creating a pair of half-planes facing each other over the course of about three weeks. Roland christened his half-plane "Posiccuit", and was able to determine that it would drift to the place he'd feel most comfortable - Elysium. Roland also knew that such planar drifting would take Posiccuit through some of the most chaotic planes, and that pieces of it would be eaten away if it wasn't protected by a sufficiently powerful shield of Law. The party spent most of that time reminiscing about old times and shopping for new equipment, knowing they'd have to escort the newly formed plane to its final home, but unsure of how to create such a lawful shield.

Amber cast a divination, which yielded this poem:
"Fearless pursuit of planar relocation requires
Fending off the forces of chaos.
Few dare enter the Dispicable Duke's tower, but
Feats of bravery yield Help from on High."
Roland recognized the repetition of "Fe", the chemical symbol for Iron, combined with other elements of the divination, pointed toward Dispater, the Iron Duke and devil prince of the Iron City of Dis. He also knew Dispater was extremely powerful within his own stronghold, and could rust both weapons and people. The party planned to assault him using weapons Amber had turned to brilliant energy, with cheap wooden weapons as backups just in case.

The party planeshifted to the Nine Hells and stepped up to the gate of the Iron City. Beareded devils stood atop the city walls, and one in the gate blocked the party. Looking at Amber, he said "you don't look like you belong here." Garlen stepped forward and punched the devil in the face, leaving him badly bruised, and saying "I'm her bodyguard. Don't mess with her." Amber grudgingly agreed to wear Rain's cloak of nondetection to avoid unnecessary combat, and the party walked to the Iron Tower without further incident. Several horned devils trained for combat in the tower's courtyard, and an infernal and a pair of pit fiends stood guard at the main gate, reacting aggressively when the party approached.

Garlen hit the infernal with a White Raven Hammer strike, stunning it. Amber flew to the middle of the courtyard and cast a widened Holy Word, killing about a dozen horned devils. Horkina charged up next to Garlen and struck the infernal several more times. One of the pit fiends tried to cast Power Word Stun on Garlen, but failed miserably. He then cast a fireball that both Garlen and Horkina evaded. Finally, he stepped forward, clawing and swinging his tail at Garlen, though Garlen's Freedom of Movement made him too slippery to hold. The other pit fiend stepped forward and pounded on Horkina, wounding her somewhat significantly. Rain charged between Garlen and Horkina, stabbing the stunned infernal several times as he expressed disappointment that the thing wouldn't bleed. Roland dropped a line of arc-sound and a second blast of sound, harming the infernal and one pit fiend. Grokk leaped and smacked that pit fiend with three nice strikes. Garlen attacked and killed one pit fiend, and wounds Rain had opened up finally bled the infernal to death. Horkina smashed her axes into the other pit fiend, who tried to teleport away but got blocked by Amber. Several party members struck the now-disoriented pit fiend, whose death came quickly.

Rain began working on picking the lock on the main tower entrance. Horkina shattered the door with her master key, leaving Rain holding the lock. "This is a nice lock, I think I'll keep it," Rain said. Dozens of imps and the occasional erinys -- devil bookkeepers, receptionists, and the like -- followed their procedures for hiding or evacuating in an orderly manner, and the party decided not to waste time killing such weak enemies. The party flew up the central staircase and stepped into a recently abandoned reception area with a door that clearly led into Dispater's office. Amber cast a few important spells, such as Brilliant Energy Aura, and then Horkina shattered the door leading to Dispater's chamber.

The chamber was ringed with lifelike iron statues of angels and the like, obviously Dispater's past victims. A large desk held a map of the city with evacuation and battle plans drawn on it, and the walls held similarly-marked maps of various other devil strongholds. Dispater, empowered by his stronghold, stood with an infernal bodyguard in front of the desk. The whole party, including Amber and Roland, followed Garlen's instructions to attack Dispater. ("Fine, I won't power attack... except for 5." - Rachel) Amber's mace and Roland's quarterstaff both bounced off of Dispater's thick skin, but the others each landed a solid strike, and Dispater was stunned. Horkina kept striking Dispater, dropping his resistance to magic with each strike. The infernal focused his efforts on Roland, landing several solid hits and grabbing Roland with its tail, but Roland released some magical energy that greatly reduced the damage. Still, Roland found several spells slipped out of his mind. Rain found all of Dispater's vital organs with his next few stabs, and the devil lord was no more. Roland's dimension door got him out of the grasp of the infernal, and he blinded it with glitterdust. Grokk leaped over the infernal and stunned it, and Rain and Horkina finished it off (with Horkina's final strike leaving an ugly gash across its face, adding insult to injury.)

Roland warned Rain about a disintegrate trap a few feet in front of the vault door. Rain was able to bypass a whole series of nasty traps and clear the way for the party to acquire whatever help the divination said they'd be able to reach. The vault held several valuable treasures, with the most valuable being a huge golden ring with celestial runes. The runes read "For those who need help, and for those who can provide it, your needs will be fulfilled, and your abilities will be used by those in need." Touching it, Roland immediately understood: this artifact would allow the group to summon exactly the help it needed, but at the cost of being summoned themselves. Activating it was a matter of holding it and speaking the word "unity" in an appropriate language. The party took the ring back to Posiccuit and activated it.

Suddenly, they found themselves in a perfectly hemispherical room, a hundred feet high and a hundred feet in radius. The white roof and floor emitted soft, pleasant light, and no shadows were visible anywhere. A shrine to the north was covered in silver holy symbols of various greater and lesser gods -- Heironeous, Eholonna, Kord, Pelor, Corellon Larethian, and many others. The walls held various inscriptions, again in glowing silver runes: "For those who fight alongside us", "for those who cannot fight for themselves", "for those who have gone before", "for those who are yet to come", and so on. Concepts of unity, freedom, honor, and continuity dominated the messages. A large sign to the south (marked "D&Dbay") described various magical items and their costs, displaying a new group of items every so often, though it wasn't apparent exactly how often. Time flowed vaguely, seeming to both rush by and stand still. Rain straightened out his hair and clothing, feeling like he had to be on his best behavior in a room like this.

At the center of the room was a large circular table. An image projected above the table showed a perfect map of Posiccuit. There were six empty chairs around the southern end of the table, two sized for halflings. A huge chair to the north was presently occupied by a colossal Radiant Dragon, whose scales glistened like gold. The dragon hummed an upbeat, triumphant song, stopping suddenly when he realized he was no longer alone.

Roland reached level 24 as his connection to Posiccuit grew.

Rubble Rousers, Day 48 (2008-04-18, 6:30 PM), Chapter 14: Zen Mario

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony

Roland's book provided the party with another page of text:
"You've thinned their ranks.
Now it's time to pay them back for what they've done.
But beware, revenge is a two-sided coin.
You've taken their measure and they've taken yours.
Guard against their strengths, prey on their weaknesses, and use the knowledge they don't have."

The party decided to use Roland's special coin to planeshift into Occipitus, thinking it might provide a back way into Roland's tomb. Amber cast a series of spell protections and immunities, and the party shifted into a chamber that looked remarkably similar to the chamber in the tower in Cauldron. Rain set to work picking the lock on the door to the north, opening it within moments. The next room held huge stones at strange angles and runes written in undercommon. Horkina recognized it as a larger version of a dwarven puzzle toy, and was able to identify which stone would be key to the solution. That stone had a handprint, and Horkina touched it and said "knowledge is key". Her hand tingled at the word "knowledge", but it wasn't until she said it in undercommon that the block dispersed and a new passageway opened.

The next chamber was circular with high walls and draconic runes. Rain's knowledge of the draconic language and spellcasting allowed him to recognize the magical focus of the room, so he stepped to the key point and said "knowledge" in Draconic. Again, a passage appeared. The next room looked like a huge distorted map with runes in abyssal. Garlen located Cauldron on the map and spoke the abyssal for "knowledge", which again revealed a new passage. The next chamber was a huge drum head which pounded out an orcish war chant. Grokk stood at a specific point on the drum head and began playing, while saying "Grokk have much knowledge of drums" in Orcish. This opened a door to the next room, which glowed brightly and was covered in celestial runes. Amber borrowed a ring of Comprehend Languages and recognized the runes described the process of turning undead. She did so while saying "knowlelujah" (the celestial word for "knowledge"), revealing a small square chamber. The party stepped into the chamber, which had the word "knowledge" inscribed in the walls in hundreds of languages. One wall was particularly thin, and Rain and Garlen could hear arguing through it. Garlen spoke the clue Rain had been given: "in the end, knowledge is just a tool." With that, the wall disappeared and Roland's tomb was revealed.

At the center of the huge round chamber was a stone sphere encased in antimagic fields. The stone had been chipped away to reveal a prismatic sphere. The were-bugbear, the ice lich, and Strength the marilith-dragon were all around the room. A black-skinned, blue-eyed six-fingered humanoid held the staff that had been stolen from Ober, and he yelled at the lich about failing to secure the Staff of Winter. As the wall disintegrated, he called out "oh... you... are the ones who screwed up my plans." This was Athux, Grazz't's son.

Amber saw an invisible, shadowy figure step out from behind the antimagic area. This figure, named Murder, drew a poisoned antimagic dagger and threw it at Amber, nearly killing her. The were-bugbear approached and cast freedom of movement on himself. Horkina pulled the dagger free from Amber and stabbed it into a nearby wall, hoping to make it inaccessible. Garlen ran up to Athux and struck him repeatedly, and Grokk's Leaping Dragon Strike left Athux stunned. Amber healed herself, cast true seeing on Rain, cast Righteous Wrath of the Faithful on everyone but Grokk, and dispelled Murder's invisibility. Rain's Five Shadow Creeping Ice Enervating Strike wounded Murder somewhat. Strength teleported next to Amber and struck her several times, causing her Fortunate Fate spell to trigger. The lich-cleric of Wee Jas teleported across the room, keeping an antilife shell around himself, and healed his wounded comrades.

Murder's Death Strike hit Rain solidly, but Rain resisted its brutal effects. The were-bugbear smacked Horkina, stunning her. Her Iron Heart Surge allowed her to shake it off, and she hit the bugbear several times. Garlen called out instructions to the party, and his War Master's Charge left Strength stunned and badly wounded. Amber triggered the Fire Seeds Rain was carrying, and Garlen gave more instructions to Horkina, giving her the ability to react quickly and land several more blows that killed Strength. Grokk's Feral Death Blow killed Murder, and suddenly Athux had two fewer allies. He turned and dispelled nearly every spell that was on Garlen, attacked Grokk several times with a Bastard Sword made of pure force, and finally disintegrated Amber. Rain stepped through shadow and next to Athux, attacking several times but finding his strikes ineffective. As the Ice Lich stepped forward, Grokk heard a chorus of female dragon voices telepathically call out "our debt is repaid", and the lich died as the far-off phylactery was destroyed.

In a bright flash, Roland appeared, ready for action. He yelled a taunt at the were-bugbear: "you'd better leave or you'll end up dead like the others. You don't want to die for Athux' sake, do you?" The were-bugbear planeshifted away as the Rubble Rousers moved to surround Athux. Roland spoke again: "we both know this fight could get ugly, so let's make a deal. You want Occipitus as your own dominion. I just want its celestial parts to be back where they belong. If you'll help free the parts of this plane that still remember their old celestial home, I'll grant you power over what's left." Athux pondered for a moment as various Rubble Rousers readied their weapons, and he finally agreed: he would split the plane and rule over its abyssal parts, and Roland could take its celestial parts wherever he wanted to.

Epic Items

Heart of the Mine

Some say Heart of the Mine was forged with the help of Moradin himself, others believe the axe somehow absorbed its creator's deep love of metal. Regardless of it's origins, this icon of the Ironheart Clan of Dwarves has managed to "remember" the trademark style of some of its most powerful users. Over the many centuries that the Ironhearts roamed the tunnels below the surface, the Heart has strengthened its link to the Earth itself, and developed echoes of the maneuvers used to keep the Ironheart mines safe from the denizens of the deep.

In more recent centuries the Ironheart Clan has waned in power, until they controlled only one remaining mine. They shared this mine with another clan of dwarves, the Blackrock Clan. When this final mine was taken over by a cabal of black and shadow dragons, the Heart went dormant. The spirits of the mine's final failed defense stayed in the mine to harass the dragons until someone could free the mine. Over the years the remaining dwarves tried in vain to clear the mine, but they did manage to regain the derelect Heart. It hung above the dwarven King's throne as a reminder of his commitment to his lost brethren.

When the mine was invaded by canine demons, the Rubble Rousers arrived to chase their leader deep within the earth. Though on a completely different mission, they managed to clear and reclaim the last Ironheart Mine. As Horkina the Giantslayer entered King Uther's throneroom to report what had happened, the remaining spirits of the Ironheart Clan defenders manifested and demanded the King grant the Heart to her. One by one, they thanked her for releasing them, and touched the Heart. With the thanks of these last defenders, the Heart once again lends aid to Horkina, the last Ironheart.

Heart of the Mine - +6 Dwarven Waraxe (Holy, Terran, Shattermantle)
- grants constant Tremorsense to 60 feet.
- grants constant Accurate Strike (no miss chance from concealment or incorporeal)
- grants constant Superior Two Weapon (full strength bonus to damage on both weapons)
Grants the following maneuvers, usable once per encounter unless otherwise noted.
- Wall of Blades
- Ironheart Surge
- Lightning Recovery
- Iron Heart Focus
- Iron Heart Endurance
- Lightning Throw
- Supreme Blade Parry (stance)
- Perfect Clarity 1/day (lvl 25)

Smilidon - Spirit of the Sabertooth

In the frozen north where most men would not survive, the Hunter of hunters is the great Sabertooth Tiger, also known as the Smilidon. Centuries ago, there existed a clan of Icemen who dared to stalk the great Hunters. The best among them was called Enrok. Enrok hunted the Tigers with unmatched fury and prowess, matching their speed and ferocity and imitating their hunter's movements. Over the years that Enrok stalked the northlands, legends say he slew no less than 100 of the great Tigers, and brought them to the brink of extinction. His prowess was too great though, and his singlehanded assault on the Tigers was noticed.

In the northlands, each animal has a totem spirit that watches over them and their environment. Enrok was noticed by the Smilidon spirit, and marked for extinction himself. The battle between the Totem and Enrok was long and bloody. Legend says that it lasted three days, and in the end the Spirit only barely won out. Enrok had such ferocity and stamina that the Smilidon Spirit honored him by forging his hunter's spirit into a weapon the remaining Icemen could use to defend themselves. In return, the Icemen agreed to give up hunting the Smilidon for two centuries until their numbers returned to a healthy level. Unfortunately, the Icemen didn't have a totem spirit, and they didn't last two centuries.

The legendary greataxe, Smilidon, has passed through many fierce warrior's hands since Enrok's end. Most recently it was awarded to a minion of the Snowbound Queen. A half white dragon, half ice troll Talon of Tiamat, he wielded Smilidon with brutal efficiency and a complete lack of mercy. When the Snowbound Queen was assaulted by the Ice Lich known as the King of Winter, her pet was slain and used against her as an undead. The Rubble Rousers were chasing the King for another reason, but managed to "save" the Queen. During the battle, Grokk the Barbarian showed such brutal and chaotic power that the Queen awarded Smilidon to him in gratitude for his part in the battle. Will Grokk match the power and ferocity of Smilidon's previous owners? So far, chances are good.

Smilidon - Spirit of the Sabertooth - +6 Greataxe (Icy Surge, Slow Burst - no save)
- grants constant Scent
- Critical multiplier raised to x5
- Leap attack multiplier raised to x4
- adds D12 when weilder is in Rage
- Haste 10 rnds/day (swift action to activate)
Grants the following maneuvers once per encounter unless otherwise noted.
- Rabid Bear Strike
- Leaping Dragon Strike
- Hamstring as an attack (usable with Full Attack)
- Wolf Pack Tactics (Stance)
- Feral Death Blow 1/day (lvl 25)

The Celestial Mantle

Half Plate made by celestials and granted to high level Clerics and Paladins who they feel deserve it. This particular item was forged recently and has no interesting history behind it.

+7 Celestial Half Plate (1/10 normal weight)
- Wings sprout from the shoulderblades and grant fly speed of 120ft, good maneuverability
- Constant personal Holy Aura effect. Save DC for the blind is 20 + wearers Wisdom bonus.
- Use one turn undead attempt to Empower, Enlarge, Extend or Widen a spell as a rod.
- Use three turn undead attempts and a full round action to either Maximize or Enhance a spell as a rod.

Mantle of Ehlonna

This green and white cloak is made by celestial servants of Ehlonna and granted to Paladins, Rangers, and other champions they feel deserve it.

- Cloak of Charisma +8
- Nature's Blessing (immediate, 1/day): add 1/2 character level to an ally's saving throw. Natural 1's do not count as automatic failures when this is used.
- Nature's Embrace (immediate, 1/day): until your next action, heal 1/2 character level in hitpoints every time you are struck in combat. If you fall below 1 hp, make a fortitude save DC = negative hp to remain at 1 hp.
- Nature's Fury (full round, 1/day): you may take two move actions and then attack as if you had charged. Usable with Dire Charge and similar abilities.
The Mantle of Ehlonna also grants the following maneuvers
- Leading the Charge (stance)
- Tactics of the Wolf (stance)
- Order Forged from Chaos (1/encounter)
- White Raven Tactics (1/encounter)
- Flanking Maneuver (1/encounter)
- White Raven Hammer (1/encounter)
- War Master's charge (1/day; each participant may make only one strike, even if they have Dire Charge or similar abilities.)

Sunlit Shadows

This shimmering golden cloak was commissioned by Amber when in the epic summoning room. After 12 hours in the sun, it emits true sunlight for another 12 hours at a radius of 100'. The color of the sunlight can be changed to appear as a sunset, sunrise, etc. As long as it has reserve sunlight, it has the following powers:

- Shadows Flee: counters and dispels all darkness effects within 100' radius, as a 9th level spell
- Endless Dawn: grants all creatures within the lit radius endure elements, effective only against cold
- Noonchild: wrapping the cloak around the wearer turns her into a being of pure light. She becomes incorporeal, and can pass through force effects but not solid objects like walls. She can move to any point within line of sight, up to 500,000 miles away, as a move action. Unwrapping the cloak turns the wearer physical again, and the cloak can't be reactivated until the wearer's next turn.

Posiccuit

Formerly a part of Occipitus, the plane of Posiccuit now resides at the edge of Elysium under the control of Roland Brighteye. Posiccuit and Occipitus were split by agreement between Roland and Athux, son of Grazz't, who desired to be a full-fledged demon lord and not merely a prince. Posiccuit was protected on its journey from the Abyss to Elysium by the Radiant Dragon Throdenthurirl, whose lawful magic surrounded the plane while the Rubble Rousers protected him. Posiccuit is made primarily of celestial rubble, with Roland's tower right at its center.

Posiccuit granted Roland the following abilities:

- +1 bonus to saves (at level 23)
- +1 bonus to INT (at level 24)
- Normal, Greater, and Epic Spell Penetration (at level 25)
- Increased Spell Capacity: level 12 spells (at level 26)
- +1 caster level and sudden intensify (at level 27)

Blitz

+6 shortsword, +10 Dex, Speed, Eager, Warning, Blurstrike, Deadly Precision, 4/day quicken spell (4th level or lower), 1/day dimension door 120' (swift action), 20% miss chance as blur

Rubble Rousers, Day 47 (2008-02-09, 6:30 PM), Chapter 14: Zen Mario

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony

When the party arrived back in Cauldron, Percy contacted Rain to let him know a guest was waiting at Roland's tower. Rain offered Percy a hooker for his trouble, and when the stone and metal construct turned down the offer, Rain asked if he was gay. A telepathic chorus of "shut up, Rain" came through the link, and the party headed into Roland's tower to meet the guest. Alexandelsnerf, a tiny and geeky looking gnome, stood nervously in the corner. "Roland, uh, asked me to uh, answer a question for him" he said while looking at his shoes. He began describing various high-profile demon combat groups, gaining confidence as he spoke about his area of expertise. Soon, he was describing the four horsemen of Grazz't, each of whom shared one of his key personality traits: strength, beauty, deceit, and fury. "Strength" was a half-dragon marilith with a tactical mind and a focus on mobility. "Beauty" was a succubus sorceress with a focus on ray spells. "Deceit" was a yugoloth mercenary who was hard to locate and good at assassination. "Fury" was an archer with the ability to deal significant damage from extreme range. Alexandelsnerf finished his description and immediately went back to staring at his shoes. Garlen poked Rain to wake him up.

Amber extended spells of "Mind Blank" for the entire party, and then rested and prepared new spells using Incence of Meditation. She cast a series of protective spells including Conviction, Fortunate Fate, Antidragon Aura, Spell Resistance, Death Ward, Blindsight for Rain, Freedom of Movement for herself, and True Seeing. Garlen cast Listening Lorecall and then the party teleported to just outside of Ober's anti-teleportation shell. The huge building was home to creatures of all sorts, many from opposed planes, who studied magic together. A pair of guards asked why we'd just teleported in, and upon hearing the name "Rubble Rousers", immediately remembered Roland's descriptions. One invited the dean of the school out to meet us, while the other preemptively stated "no, Rain, I don't want to see your sword."

The dean of the school, an erinys devil, invited the party inside and then closed all entrances. She introduced the lieutenant of the guard, a human archmage, and a few other key figures in school administration. The party described Roland's poems and the situation faced thus far, and was preparing to form a battle plan when shouts arose outside. "We don't have time; they've brought a demonic horde", one of the guards explained. Outside, a pack of lesser demons stretched hundreds of feet out from the wall, and Grazz't's horsemen stood behind them, with the archer firing devastating shots at the guards atop the wall. The dean said the guards could handle the lesser demons if we could take out the biggest ones. We agreed, and Amber cast Righteous Wrath of the Faithful before teleporting the party to face the enemies.

The succubus and the yugoloth both turned invisible as the party materialized around the archer, and the marility exclaimed "oh, look, it's that bright shiny ray of sunshine, and her little entourage. All right, Daryl, take that little feathered peacock out of the air." The yugoloth appeared next to Rain, taunting "rogue assassin? We'll see" as he attacked twelve times, connecting on most of them (317 hp + 8 str). This would have killed Rain, but Fortunate Fate triggered to keep him alive. The assassin faded out and reappeared sixty feet away, stating "maybe you're a little tougher than I thought." The archer fired each of his two force bows at Amber five times, dealing significant damage (224 hp) and, like his friend, teleporting sixty feet away. Amber used dimension door to put the party surrounding the archer again, cast dimension lock in the area to block enemy teleportation, healed the party, and cast Delay Death on herself. Garlen screamed out "don't you dare attack Amber!" as he stabbed the archer repeatedly, killing him (544 hp).

The marilith-dragon attacked Horkina (225 hp), trying to bullrush her, but Horkina stood her ground. Rain tumbled behind the dragon and stabbed at her, and she responded by grabbing him with her tail. Horkina fought back (105 hp) and triggered her Scarab of Invulnerability to avoid damage. Grokk, using Wolf Pack Tactics and a Dancing Mongoose Strike, smashed into the dragon with several deep hits (201 hp) while moving around her into a flanking position. The sorceress split a stunning ray at Garlen and Amber, freezing Garlen but failing to penetrate Amber's spell resistance. The yugoloth jumped over Grokk's head, making a swooping dragon strike to stun the big orc and then turning invisible. Amber cast mass heal and a series of moonbolts on the various enemies, then triggered her amulet and re-cast mass heal and focused the moon bolts on the dragon, who had proven to be the most susceptible to the spell. Garlen, whose swords had fallen to the ground when he was stunned, drew his bow and fired a series of shots at the dragon. Rain poked the dragon's tail with his wounding sword, dealing little damage but again draining her blood.

The dragon again attacked Horkina, but soon noticed her strikes were ineffective, so she turned her attention to Grokk (72 hp), trying to knock him backward but failing. Horkina again smashed the dragon (104 hp). Grokk tried to turn the assassin's strategy against him, making a leaping stun attack with his Holy Cow axe but failing due to invisibility and an intrinsic Unluck effect. The sorceress again hit Amber with a stun ray, and fired some intelligence-draining rays at Grokk that were absorbed by Mind Blank. The yugoloth assassin struck Grokk repeatedly, cursing him and dealing substantial damage (187 hp). Garlen fired his bow at the dragon (137 hp) and Rain again stabbed its tail. This prompted the nearly-dead dragon to fade out, leaving the area while exclaiming "you fools, we are only the distraction."

Horkina and Grokk now focused their attention on the assassin (121 and 255 hp), while the sorceress' Polar Rays caused Amber's Fortunate Fate to trigger. The assassin stabbed Grokk, cursing him with yet another form of curse. Amber cast Downdraft to bring the sorceress to the ground, then surrounded her with dimension lock and used invisibility purge to make her an easy target. Garlen and Rain moved to flank her and began their attack (100 and 95 hp), slaying her while resisting the negative energy her body released. Horkina and Grokk finished off the yugoloth with a ridiculous number of strikes, and Garlen and Amber started taking out the lesser demons in the now-decimated horde.

Rain picked up a set of custom gloves, and the school rewarded Amber with half-plate "Celestial Mantle" armor with wings attached. The dean warned that, during the assault, a staff of rapid striking had been stolen by the same figure as had initially killed Roland. The staff cast a specialized version of Magic Missile, among other things, which would make it useful for penetrating some of the predicted defenses at Roland's tomb.

The party reached level 25.

Rubble Rousers, Day 46 (2008-02-02, 6:30 PM), Chapter 14: Zen Mario

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony

As Rain looked over the three pages of clues, he noticed the first line of each poem seemed out of place, but that they seemed to fit better with each other. This suggested the "keys" might be a way to get into Roland's tomb on Occipitus. Amber stood in Roland's tower and cast hindsight, viewing the events of the previous month in accelerated motion and gaining insight into Roland's plans. He'd spent a lot of time contacting elderly dwarves regarding the mines of Kerah, cast several divinations, researched and created something like a prismatic sphere within a defensive structure, and created a "grocery list" of important objects including a mithral mining golem. He'd been developing plans to safeguard his own tomb, as well as plans for the Rubble Rousers to be able to make their way inside. The vision also showed Roland creating the magical painting with his father as his last action before the nondescript figure threw the antimagic dagger at him. The figure followed by digging through Roland's desk, taking his dagger, and touching his brooch to teleport out as Roland's body dissipated.

Amber also cast a Vision spell (through Miracle) to gain information on the Snowbound Queen, a name Rain recognized as referring to a great white dragon. The Snowbound Queen was only two generations removed from Tiamat, living in a place often referred to as "the cursed glacier" at the northern end of the world. Even small pieces of her, like single scales, were heavily prized and used to make magic items. Skye's adventuring shop had a brooch of minor cold resistance that had been made from one of her scales, so Amber borrowed it to allow her to cast discern location, finding good coordinates for the crevice the Snowbound Queen lived in. Unfortunately, the distance was too great to teleport all at once, so the party stayed the night in Kerah before making the final teleport.

In the morning, Amber and Garlen gave the party protection from cold, ability to walk on snow, and ability to turn into gaseous form. Amber also gave the party several other protective effects. The party teleported to the glacier, finding themselves in the middle of a nasty, windy blizzard. Amber again rode on Garlen's back because she couldn't reliably fly in such winds. The party fought against the strong winds, walking for over an hour before they reached a calmer area near the opening of the large crevice where the Snowbound Queen lived. In the distance, the party occasionally spotted huge animals through the hazy snow. At the head of the crevice, an intelligent polar bear and a pair of huge white tigers looked at Amber's symbol of Ehlonna and smiled. "There's something unnatural here. She sent you to fix it" they said. Garlen asked what had happened, and the bear tried to explain "dead walk. He came and stole our friends. Came and collected dead. He dead." The party knew they'd be fighting undead, probably some sort of lich.

Some distance down the crevice, the party heard a cackling voice speak out: "Snowbound Queen, my rotten ass. You're nothing now. My mistress has given me what I need to defeat you." A loud sniff was followed by "I smell warm blood. Since you're busy, I'll entertain them" and another cackle. Just around a bend in the icy crevice, the cackling lich-cleric of Wee Jas stood surrounded by his minions and looking into an icy block that held a beyond-colossal dragon and her minions. Garlen immediately sparked flame on his swords and charged at the frontmost undead minion, some sort of ice scorpion that fell quickly to the ranger's blazing blades. A Winter Wight breathed a cone of cold at Garlen and Amber, hurting her slightly and missing him entirely. The lich disappeared and rematerialized at the back of his pack of minions, covered them with a shadowy aura, granted them a life ward, and surrounded himself with an antilife shell. An undead troll-dragon wielding an axe shaped like a saber-tooth tiger breathed a line of lightning on Garlen and Amber. Amber responded by triggering her bead of karma, flying above the pack of undead, and speaking a Holy Word. A heavily armored undead polar bear stood paralyzed and a pair of zombies carrying icy spears went blind and deaf. Amber also used three spells to dispel as many magical protections as she could, including the shadowy aura, which prompted the lich to shout many profanities.

A skeleton in an icy body seemed to swim down into the ice below, and then came up next to Garlen, but missed his slightly-blurry figure due to his recently acquired cloak of displacement. What looked like an icy human mummy cast a spell of Ice Flowers on Garlen, making the terrain difficult to pass but dealing very little damage. Horkina drew her "axe of kicking your ass in many varied ways, sucka" -- which she nicknamed "Mr. T" -- and her construct-bane axe, and shattered the huge ice golem that stood in front of the remaining enemies. Rain carefully and acrobatically made his way into the middle of a group of undead, holding his breath due to an unnatural stench. Amber triggered her fire seeds, heavily damaging a frost giant ghoul. Grokk furiously leaped at the icy skeleton, crushing its icy frame several times and leaving it barely functional. The heavily damaged ghoul and the blinded zombies retreated toward their lich master, allowing Rain a chance to deal a painful blow.

Garlen attacked and destroyed the icy skeleton and then tumbled behind the Winter Wight, which clawed and bit him, lighting a black flame on his body that threatened to suck out his life force. The lich cast Shield of Law on himself and his minions, and conjured an unholy-enhanced ice storm that healed some of the damaged enemies. The dragon-troll jumped out of the reach of Garlen and Rain and hit Amber in the back of her head, stunning her. She fell toward Rain, who caught her and set her on her feet. The strange mummy created an extraordinarily cold burst that slightly injured most of the party. Horkina used Lightning Throw to hit the mummy and the lich with her Mr. T axe. Rain took a stab at the Winter Wight and Grokk stood over Amber to protect her. The blind zombies continued to retreat, drawing attacks from Rain and Horkina in the process.

Garlen stabbed the Winter Wight several times, killing it and casting haste on himself to counteract the slowing effect of the Shield of Law. The lich continued dealing out icy and unholy damage, but the party continued to resist significant amounts of it. The dragon-troll used his own Lightning Throw on Grokk and Amber, causing her Fortunate Fate to trigger due to the serious injuries she'd taken. Amber cast Bigby's Grasping hand on the lich, but it turned back on her, having no effect due to her freedom of movement. She cast another, which failed due to the lich's own freedom of movement. She then cast greater dispel, which his ring counterspelled. He taunted "you think you can take a cleric of the god of magic?" Amber's fourth spell then dispelled most of the lich's protections, including his antilife shell, leading him to shout even more profanities. The mummy tried and failed to trap Rain in a tomb of stone, and Horkina used truestrike to hit the mummy solidly. Rain tumbled into position behind the lich and waited for another party member to provide him with flanking. Grokk's mind suddenly focused in on the lich, so he leaped and hit it right through its blurry magical concealment, giving Rain a clear shot as well.

Garlen jumped over the icy rubble and cast Lion's Charge, allowing him to kill the dragon-troll with several stabs. The lich fired off more ice and unholy energy, and cast a spell the party wasn't able to recognize on himself. Amber used Mass Heal to restore most of the party and harm the remaining undead. The mummy used harm to restore herself, but it turned out to be worthless as Horkina smashed her to pieces with both of her axes. Grokk focused all of his rage on the enemy lich, cutting it to pieces with several furious strikes. The lich exploded, injuring everyone around it, and the ice wall shattered.

As the ice wall collapsed, the white dragon's minions began to move aggressively toward the Rubble Rousers. Suddenly the Snowbound Queen called out "halt", and everyone and everything in the area was magically compelled to hold still. She spoke out "it's not that I couldn't have handled that eventually, but many of my children could have been damaged, so, thank you. And you," she said, looking at Grokk, "you wellspring of chaos, for you." The axe the dragon-troll had wielded floated into Grokk's hands. "He took this, but now it's yours." A chorus of female voices called Grokk a "useful tool", and he expressed his somewhat confused thanks to them. The remaining undead, unable to act, fell quickly to the fury of the Rubble Rousers and the Snowbound Queen's minions. The Snowbound Queen agreed to allow the party access to a powerful artifact, the Staff of Winter, if it was needed. Grokk experimented with his new saber-tooth tiger shaped axe, "smiledon", as the party returned to the warm comforts of Kerah.

Roland's book provided the party with one more poem:
"Hell will tremble at the sun's ascent
Where demons and angels mingle freely
A battle will soon ensue
An abyssal army marches on Ober
Seeking the keys of magic true"

Rain recognized Ober as a legendary school of magic located in the outlands.

Rubble Rousers, Day 45 (2008-01-19, 6:30 PM), Chapter 14: Zen Mario

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony

As Amber returned to the air, Garlen, still in centaur form, called out to her "you look like a tasty dragon-snack flying all alone up there. Ride on my back where it'll be safer." Rain led the way, with Amber and Garlen directly behind and Grokk and Horkina off to the sides. As the party approached the next large area denoted on the map, Amber cast Death Ward on herself. Soon, the party was met with an explosion of acid and negative energy, which Rain identified as a mix between black and shadow dragon breath. Grokk and Horkina took the brunt of the blast, feeling significantly weakened. Garlen hasted himself and rolled behind the colossal dragon, taking Amber with him as he yelled out "we don't want to kill you, we just want to kill the demon-dogs, so get out of the way." The dragon bellowed back that no upright-walking creatures were allowed in her lair. Rain called out "it's your funeral" in Draconic as he charged and swung with his dragonbane sword, but he missed the blurry beast. Amber dispelled a series of protective spells from the dragon and triggered the fire seeds Rain was carrying. The dragon's breath had a lingering effect which further drained Grokk and Horkina, who continued to move toward the combat. The dragon slapped Rain with her tail and attacked Amber with her teeth and claws, causing significant injury. Garlen and Rain jabbed at the dragon several times, causing her to crumple to the ground dead, and Rain resisted a Finger of Death that triggered as he attacked. Rain continued to taunt the dead dragon in its native tongue as the party moved onward.

Immediately after the dragon fell, Horkina started hearing whispers that sounded like dwarven voices. Garlen and Rain listened carefully but didn't hear them, leading them to think maybe Horkina had a little too much to drink. Continuing along the mapped-out path, the voices became more and more distinct to Horkina, but were still inaudible to the others. As the party approached the last area marked on the map, the voices were almost clear enough for her to understand, but still, nobody else heard them. Amber boosted the party with spell resistance and conviction, and gave Grokk freedom of movement, and Rain and Garlen silently approached the marked chamber. The corpse of a male dragon, about the same size as the female the party had just fought, lay across the stone arch leading into the rubble-filled chamber. Two wolf-like creatures were behind the corpse, munching on it. One was a Brachyurus , large and white with oversized claws and fangs. The other sniffed the air, shifted form from wolf to bugbear, and called out "someone has brought dessert!" The bugbear stood upright with his maul raised overhead, proudly displaying symbols of Orcus on his armor.

Garlen, already airborne, flew over the dragon corpse and stabbed at the Brachyurus, which responded by failing to trip him. Rain tumbled past the dragon and waited for an opportunity to move closer. The werewolf-bugbear bit at Garlen, draining a significant amount of blood, and faded out to the side. Amber moved closer and cast invisibility purge, holy word, and greater dispel on the servant of Orcus. Horkina ran forward and jumped over the dragon corpse, but the brachyurus knocked her on her back. Grokk flew into a rage and made the same maneuver, but was knocked backwards by a powerful blow from the maul-wielding foe. The brachyurus continued to focus its attacks on Garlen, but was unable to make him fall. Garlen attacked the bugbear, but found his attacks were less effective than normal. Amber healed the party, restoring Garlen's constitution but not all of his health, and then fired a moon bolt at the bugbear, who completely resisted. She triggered her amulet to reverse time, and instead fired the moon bolt at the brachyurus, weakening its muscles. The bugbear replaced the curse Amber had dispelled from his maul, allowing it to again deal damage that was more difficult to heal. Rain's quicksilver boots let him slip into position behind the Brachyurus, which he stabbed several times, though his balance was slightly off and he missed badly with a pair of strikes.

At that moment, a dwarven voice yelled out to Horkina "stand up!", though she was the only one who heard it. She responded "I don't let anyone tell me what to do" as she swung at the soft underbelly of the brachyurus. The voice called her stupid, but she was pleased with the damage she'd done with three solid blows from the ground. Rain used the distraction to take a stab at the brachyurus, further damaging its muscles. Grokk stood and moved near the brachyurus, which bit Horkina and then turned and tripped Rain. Garlen flew over the top of the brachyurus and attacked the bugbear, who tried to push him back with his maul but found the centaur was a bit too large to be moved. Rain took a shot at the brachyurus' underside. Amber dispelled the maul, suppressing its power for a few moments so the bugbear could not continue to draw on its powers. The bugbear cast a spell to enhance his bite and then bit and clawed at Garlen. Rain tried to stand but was tripped by the brachyurus, so he tumbled away and waited for healing. Horkina decided to stand, but didn't heed the voices' instructions on where to place her feet, and she found herself lying on the ground and unable to land a solid blow with her axe. Grokk leaped at the bugbear and landed a powerful blow with his axe, taking one from the maul in the process. The brachyurus again bit Horkina, and then turned and clawed at Garlen. Garlen stabbed furiously at the bugbear. Amber fired a lucent lance and a moon bolt at the brachyurus and again healed the party, though Garlen had some wounds that resisted the healing magic. The bugbear continued attacking Garlen, who fell dead to the final blow. The bugbear then faded out and reappeared on the other side of the dragon's corpse.

Horkina stood and avoided the brachyurus' attack, telling the voices that they're awfully bossy and that she'd succeed her own way. She and Rain landed several solid hits on the brachyurus, and Grokk jumped in from the side to deliver the killing blow. Amber flew away from the werewolf-bugbear and fired a sunbeam at it, but it resisted, and its maul regained its magical power. Horkina jumped over the dragon and Rain sneakily approached the bugbear, preparing to stab it in the back when Horkina finally approached. Grokk leaped over the dragon and swung his axe furiously, but the bugbear's maul tossed him backwards. Amber tried to make his metal armor heat up, but this did nothing. The dwarven voices continued instructing Horkina, but she called out "I'm not listening to you, la la la la la!" and charged at the foe. Just then, a dwarven ghost materialized behind the bugbear, distracting it while sarcastically stating "I'm dead, maybe you shouldn't listen to me." Horkina landed a perfect strike on the bugbear's head, but his stance allowed him to move with the strike and shrug it off completely. Rain stepped into the space the ghost had been and took a swipe, dealing a trivial wound to the enemy. He responded by hitting Horkina so hard that she dropped her axe and became disoriented. Grokk tumbled into position to flank for Rain, summing up his feelings by saying "Grokk feel need for retraining. Perhaps Grokk become accountant." Amber's sunbeam scratched the enemy, and then Rain took 8 stabs at him (107 d6), several of which seemed like they should have killed him. The bugbear remained standing despite his many serious wounds, and he called out "there's more than one way to get through a stone wall." He grabbed on to the corpse of the dragon and touched his brooch, and both disappeared.

Six dwarven ghosts materialized and spoke to Horkina, saying "thanks for freeing us", but with a gruff demeanor that showed they were displeased she hadn't taken their advice. Amber brought Garlen back to life and the party picked up the dragon's hoard before returning to speak with Uther. The six dwarven ghosts stood with Uther in the throne room, and explained that Horkina was entitled to the axe above Uther's throne by virtue of being the first dwarf to survive the area since the dragons had taken it over, though they weren't interested in training her like they'd planned to do with whoever eventually earned the axe. One of the ghosts touched the axe to reactivate its magic abilities and passed it off to Horkina. The ghosts told Uther he could find a mithral mining golem named Lenny -- the "key" from the poem -- buried deep in the mines, and that he could be activated by speaking his name.

Roland's magical book provided the party with its next clue:

"Walls will be breached and power lent
In the frozen wasteland north of north
Where breath has a crystal sheen
The key of ice lies in a solid sea
ruled by a Snowbound Queen."

The party reached level 24.

Rubble Rousers, Day 44 (2008-01-12, 6:30 PM), Chapter 14: Zen Mario

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony

Over the course of the next year following the blight, Roland began to get inklings of some sort of plot. Periodically he'd express worry over the telepathic bond, and eventually, he requested a meeting of the Rubble Rousers back in Cauldron. The night before the meeting was to take place, a sudden surge came over the bond. The party got an image of Roland saying "it's too soon", and an antimagic dagger flying directly at him. Each party member recieved a little more information before the link went dead:

Grokk: "Stop them."
Horkina: "Divide and conquer."
Amber: "Stop them; don't save me."
Garlen: "Knowledge is key."
Rain: "In the end, knowledge is just a tool."

Once Rain could be extracted from his adventure with a random female, the party headed for Roland's tower. Percey, who had been recently awakened, stood guard at the base of the tower. He escorted the party into Roland's study, which is where the vision seemed to have taken place. The closer the party got to the room, the less organized the furnishings. The furnishings of this particular study looked to have been thrown all over the place, as if someone had come looking for something. Roland had clearly been attacked in this room, but there was no body and only a tiny bit of blood.

To one side of the room stood a carefully crafted portrait of Roland and his father, which was somewhat suspicious -- Roland's father had died before the portrait would have been made, and the two were never close. This was obviously a well-crafted illusion, suspected to be designed to draw our attention. Amber cast "detect evil" and noted that a strong, but not overwhelming, evil aura lingered in the room. Detect Magic showed that Roland's backpack had no aura; Rain suspected it might have had Nystul's Magic Aura cast on it to hide it from whatever had torn up the room. Amber confirmed this by casting True Seeing. Roland had also left his coin gateway to Occipitus in a carefully stacked pile of coins on his desk. Inside his bag were two objects: a single book and a map. The first page of the book read:

"Five powers seek keys to the living tomb
Four burn with vengeance for plans undone
For Three it's related to a cherished one
Two have plans that took years to make
One seeks the power to make a break"

As Rain finished reading this, words faded onto the second page:

"Earth and magic wove into a womb
in ancient tunnels dark with wings
a mithral key sits idle
left alone when creators fled
it waits to know its title"

The map appeared to Horkina like a dwarven mine route, and the cartographer's signature looked like one from Naurim, the Blackrock Mountain. Amber cast Discern Location to try to locate Roland, and found that he was somewhere on Occipitus, but that his exact location could not be found. The party began to suspect that Roland wanted to keep them away from him (and whatever was attacking him) until enough resources and information had been gathered that we could face the threat. Garlen suspected the "cherished one" from the first riddle might be Adimarchus, and that his friends or enemies might be trying to claim the power of Occipitus.

The party headed to Kerah, the capital city within Naurim. The city was in a frenzy, but they were able to secure an audience with King Uther. Above his throne were several nice axes and a single beat-up axe, but before the party had a chance to really look them over, Uther exclaimed "it's a good day for strange visitors!" Earlier in the day, a mine that had long been overrun by dragons was suddenly invaded by demonic hounds with a wolf-riding bugbear creature at their head. Amber said "that sounds like our kind of party!" Rain showed Uther the map, and he confirmed it was the mine in question -- and a better map than was in the royal archives! The mine was deep and confusing, so it would be best to stick to the path marked on the map.

At the entrance of the mine, Garlen transformed into centaur form for better mobility. After walking for nearly an hour, the howling of far-off demon dogs started to test Rain's sanity. Patches of magical darkness, probably left by Shadow Dragons and the like, made navigation difficult, so Amber cast Daylight on herself and Horkina. Soon, Rain heard a group of large hounds behind the party. One of the demonic hounds leapt and dragged Amber to the ground, laying on top of her. Another charged and tripped Horkina. The third howled, trying to frighten the group. Rain stabbed one of the hounds, which moved on top of Horkina, blocking off her light source. The howling hound bit Grokk and dragged him to the ground. Horkina was able to wiggle free, providing light for the party again. Garlen, upset at being caught unaware, dealt a flurry of jabs into the two hounds within his reach, killing one and wounding the other. Rain finished off the second hound, leaving only the one atop Amber. Grokk and Horkina moved to surround it. Garlen used a spell of Lion's Charge, as well as his anti-demon weaponry and training, to kill the final hound and free Amber. Amber passed her everburning bracelet off to Garlen so that the party would have more light sources in the next such encounter.

As the party kept moving along the map route, corpses of the dogs and mid-sized dragons began to appear. Rain recognized both Black and Shadow dragons from subtle differences in their scales. The sound of fighting in the distance made it clear that the demon-hound horde and the dragon horde were not friendly with each other. Soon, Garlen heard another group of large animals sneaking behind the party. He turned and charged, pouncing on a huge Howler and killing it. Two more Howlers converged on him, tripping him and jabbing quills into him. Rain, Horkina, and Grokk all ran towards the Howlers. Amber cast Greater Command, telling the Howlers to stop fighting and sit down. Garlen and Rain moved to flank one of the Howlers, while Grokk leap-attacked and Horkina landed a critical hit on the other. The Howlers continued to sit as they were slain.

Further along, more dog corpses and larger dragon corpses started to appear. It became clear the party was entering still-contested areas. Amber cast Fortunate Fate on everyone for extra safety. A few moments later, a Black Dragon dropped on top of Amber, pulling her down directly between Grokk and Horkina. At the same time, a Shadow Dragon dropped in front of Garlen and clawed him several times. Garlen responded with a slightly less effective attack and yelled at the dragons "you idiots, get out of the way so we can kill more demon-dogs!" Horkina pounded on the Black Dragon while Amber cast a quickened Freedom of Movement to free herself. Amber then dispelled the Shadow Dragon's Blur effect and hit it with a Moon Bolt. Grokk attacked the Black Dragon and landed a critical hit with the Holy Cow Axe, pulverizing the foolish dragon. Rain snuck behind the Shadow Dragon and stabbed its kidney, leading it to realize it was in over its head. It tumbled a few feet away and breathed negative energy at the party, draining energy from Grokk and Horkina. A few seconds later, it was dead, and the party was left unsure as to who had actually killed it. Amber restored and healed the party.

Rubble Rousers, Day 43 (2007-11-09, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

The party spent the night resting in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and then gathered up with the other party and headed deep into the cave complex. Passing through billowing clouds of the same sort of diseased mist that had been on the surface, the party entered into a large, flat cavern. In the middle of the cavern, a strange intestine-like tube bellowed forth clouds of the blight-causing gases. An ugly hag stood alongside the intestine, and several large and mutated insects crawled around the room. Clearly, this was the source of the blight.

Rain and Snow jumped forward and stabbed a snake. Garlen charged at the old hag and stabbed her several times, but she seemed to absorb serious blows while taking little injury. Marta flew into a rage and attacked a spider. Amber dropped a Sunburst on several of the insects, blinding most of them. Grokk charged and killed another snake. Roland let the party know what we were up against: the Empress of Rot. Knowing what a nasty foe this was, particularly due to her ability to present aspects of pestilence, night, sludge, and swarm, and to cast certain dangerous spells, Roland cast a quickened Duelward and then used Chain Lightning to weaken all foes in the room. The Empress used her pestilence form to infect Garlen with some sort of nasty disease. Obsidian cast a spell and was suddenly holding a scorpion's heart in his hand. Horkina killed a spider in a more conventional way.

A woman who looked remarkably like Snow stepped into the room, calling out "I'm sorry I'm late, I was busy reading a book about plagues at the library." She wore a long, silky blue dress with matching boots and gloves, and had an icy crystal in the place of one eye. She tossed a fireball into a far-off pack of insects and kept babbling about how fascinated she was by the material she'd been reading. Thorko drunkenly stumbled forward and swung at another insect, cutting it in half. A few of the insects injured Snow and Grilka, but not very badly. Rain tumbled behind the Empress while the wounds he'd caused finished off the snake he'd been fighting, and Snow turned to finish off another snake. Garlen pounded on the Empress, and Amber used Mass Heal to close up most of Garlen's wounds. Grokk jumped right past the Empress, smiting the ground with his Holy Cow Axe. Roland's empowered Arc Lightning fried a few more bugs, but his Ray of Dizziness did nothing to the hag. She switched into her Swarm form, becoming a lithe woman surrounded by hundreds of little bugs. Amber set off the Fire Seeds Rain had been holding, and Grokk, Rain, and Garlen all managed to avoid the swarming insects.

Horkina killed a pair of spiders with a critical strike and follow-through, and Grilka thrashed another. Rain, Garlen, and Grokk all focused their attacks on the Empress, doing significant damage and leaving the Empress in a desperate situation. Roland's Polar Ray made things even tougher for the Empress, who tried to slay Rain with a beam of darkness. Amber countered with a Sunbeam, and Horkina finished off the Empress with a swing of her axe.

The woman in blue walked up behind Roland, and Snow made introductions. "This is my sister, Ice." Ice responded "you know not to call me that. Call me by my full title; it's written on my shoulder." Ice pointed to a complex rune on her shoulder which Roland was able to translate as "the artist formerly known as Ice". The two bickered for a few more moments as they stood on opposite sides of Roland, and then Ice cast an Antimagic Field. This brought down all of Roland's defenses, and revealed both Ice and Snow to be shapechanged Succubi. Snow stabbed Roland with her rapier, but he managed to resist the life-draining poison.

Garlen reacted first, and decided he'd held back long enough. He charged directly at Marta and cut her to bits, discovering from her corpse that she, too, was a shapechanged Succubus. Rain started crying as he stabbed Snow over and over again, killing her. Horkina pounded on Thorko, discovering he was actually a Marilith as (s)he fell to the ground dead. Amber's Holy Word had no effect, but a pair of Lucent Lances left Obsidian reeling. Obsidian, sensing the battle had turned, filled the room with Damning Darkness and used an Earthquake to pin everyone under several feet of rubble. Grokk broke free while Grilka teleported to the top of the rubble pile. Roland used a quickened Dimension Door to escape to the edge of the area, used a Wish to gather up the Rubble Rousers next to him, and then hasted the whole group. Grokk and Grilka immediately moved into melee with each other, but before either did much damage, Amber used another Holy Word to paralyze Grilka and send her to her home plane. Obsidian and Blackbones continued struggling through the rock, eventually finding their way to the surface where the Rubble Rousers were waiting. Rain, Grokk, and Horkina smashed Blackbones into little pieces, while Garlen stabbed right between two of its ribs. Obsidian's head popped up to the surface, and Roland immediately grabbed him with Bigby's Crushing Hand, following that with a lecture about attacking the Rubble Rousers. Obsidian died in a most grisly way as the party converged, and then Roland used a Wish to bring Grilka back into range so the party could collect her equipment. Grokk took her out with a single blow to the head.

The party headed back to the demons' camp, where they found a journal with detailed plans for the ambush. A bit of study revealed these demons had been in the service of Grazz't, who was upset about the Rubble Rousers' invasion of Skullrot and killing of his prized prisoner. Grazz't had tricked Orcus into sending this blight in order to bait the Rubble Rousers into a position where they'd be weak from combat, with the hope that his highly trained assassins would be able to finish off the party. And thus, the Rubble Rousers were yet again underestimated by a Demon Prince.

The party reached level 23.

Rubble Rousers, Day 42 (2007-11-03, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

The next morning, as the party was settling down for breakfast, shouts came out from the periphery of the temple. Garlen stepped around the corner and saw a huge demon wielding a curved sword, and behind him, the orc cleric who'd escaped from the temple. The demon, a strange balor-hellcat hybrid, leaped ahead and killed Garlen before he had a chance to react. Roland's attempt to make the demon dance failed, as did Grokk's attempt to make the demon bleed. The orc cast repulsion, making it harder to approach. Amber converted the party's weapons into energy, making them bypass the demon's considerable armor, and Horkina laid into it with a pair of powerful strikes. It responded by smashing into her with its huge sword and tackling her with its claws. Roland's Mass Hold Monster failed, but this time, Grokk's axe succeeded. The enemy cleric healed the demon, and Amber healed the party while strength draining the foe. The demon clawed Horkina to little effect. Roland fired off a Ray of Dizziness, and the enemy cleric again healed the demon. Rain stabbed into the demon's exposed hind quarter and Amber spoke a Holy Word to paralyze the opposed healer. The demon tried to dispel its own diziness, but failed. Grokk took a few swings at it and then let up as it got close to death, and Roland sent it into a maze, where it died seconds later due to bleeding from Rain's strikes. Rain took care of the paralyzed enemy cleric while Amber set about the unpleasant task of reviving Garlen.

The party headed back below the temple, but not until they'd finished breakfast and picked up significant spell protections such as Fortunate Fate and Spell Resistance. Only a few steps into the cave, and the walls began to constrict on Garlen and Rain. Grokk stepped forward and took a powerful swing at the stony-looking mouth, and Rain gutted the Tunnel Terror from inside. He and Garlen crawled out of the mess and led the way into the next massive cavern. There, another orc cleric and several two-headed dinosaur skeletons patrolled. Garlen charged straight across the room, jumping off an uneven ledge midway, and started attacking the nearest skeleton. Amber gave Grokk's axe a magical boost against undead. Roland cast Bigby's Grasping Hand to keep the cleric occupied. Horkina's Maul smashed one of the skeletons to bits, and Grokk's axe vaporized another. Rain jumped into position to attack the cleric. The skeletons tried to claw at Grokk, but had very little effect. The cleric's attempts to cast spells failed as the hand squeezed him. Garlen and Rain finished him off with a series of pokes and stabs, and Grokk vaporized the remaining two dinosaurs.

A glimmer of coins from a side cavern caught Rain's eye. Inside, about 25,000 copper coins lay in a huge pile, which was protected by a Wail of the Banshee trap. Out of its range, a young goblin woman stomped on several spiders in succession, counting out "25... 26... 27... 28." Garlen started breathing heavy and was getting ready to attack her when Grokk grabbed his belt to hold him back. The goblin looked up and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Marta. You must be the ones Snow told me about. Come with me back to our camp." As Marta led the party through the largest of the caves, the party came upon a group of somewhat larger spiders, and the sound of a dwarf yelling from a corner. Marta called out "I frickin' HATE spiders, and halfli... uh... spiders and undead." Amber created a stone bridge for Marta, who ran up to the closest spider and shredded it. Grokk flew into a rage and jumped into the middle of the group of spiders, cleaving through three of them. Roland created a Black Blade, which killed another. Horkina landed a critical hit on yet another. The drunken dwarf in the corner dropped the final spider, and then introduced himself as Thorko. He continued to drink ale from his funny hat as he stumbled his way back to camp, with Marta and the party following along.

Back at the other party's camp, Snow and Grilka sat quietly in the dark next to a svirfneblin and his skeletal black dragon mount. As Amber approached, he called out "will someone put out that halfling? She's giving away our position." The dark gnome cast a darkness spell, trying to extinguish Amber's light sources. Most of the members of both parties stepped between the two, trying to prevent a violent confrontation. Snow apologized to Rain, saying "Obsidian is pretty particular about light." As Amber and Obsidian continued to stare each other down, Thorko asked Snow where her sister had gone off to. Snow explained, "she's probably off reading a book or something." Just then, Roland spotted a swarm of insects led by a Thorciasid. Garlen fired off a series of arrows at the Thorciasid while Snow took out one of the escorting spiders. The bug's huge claw swooped in and drained some energy from Roland. Amber gave both parties a Death Ward to protect from further drains and Obsidian cast Repel Vermin to hold off the assault. Grokk and Horkina both ran into melee, and Roland's Black Blade of Disaster and a pair of Chain Lightning casts reduced the swarm considerably. A little bit of cleanup was all it took to destroy the threat.

Rubble Rousers, Day 41 (2007-10-27, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

The group of zombies had come out of the temple's central room. Inside stood a defiled altar to Pelor. Amber took a few minutes to clean and restore it. In the mean time, Rain discovered a Symbol of Insanity, which he deftly reprogrammed into a Symbol of Inanity. "I like shoes", he said. "I'm wearing shoes", Grokk replied. Then Rain made a startling discovery in a pile of treasure: Snow's Sweetass Sword. Amber used a Sending to contact her, saying "we found your sword. Are you okay?" She replied "no, that lameass Orcus' stupid cleric grabbed me and locked me in a cage in this nasty fucking piece of shit temple and I really"... she no doubt continued, but the spell's duration expired.

Rain quietly opened a door leading to the north. An orc slept on a mattress on one side of the room, and a shrine to Orcus stood in a central location. Grokk slinked over and carefully lined up his axe with the orc's neck, ending his life with a single well-placed swing. Amber melted the statue of Orcus and cast the metal into the shape of a sun -- the symbol of Pelor. Back to the east, the party encountered a pair of orcs and a pair of giants. Garlen took the lead, poking many holes through the nearest orc. Horkina followed with a furious blow on one of the giants, and Rain rolled past the lead orc, killing him with a jab to the throat on his way past. Roland cast haste on the party. One of the shadow giants responded by wailing on Horkina with its murderous morningstar, and the other moved into a flanking position. Grokk flew into an angry rage, as he could no longer reach the orc he'd planned to slay. "Stupid giant in way! Out of way! Grokk very important barbarian!" He brought his axe down on the giant's head repeatedly, and Rain, seizing the opportunity, poked a neat hole into the giant's lung and brought it to its death. Amber blinded the remaining orc, whose attempt to blaspheme was cut short by Roland's counterspell. Seeing that he stood no chance, the coward fled for some far-off plane. Horkina cut the last bits of life from the remaining giant.

Several side rooms in the area were filled with cages holding all manner of mutated beasts. Extra limbs, strange bulges, bizarre vermin-like features, and thickened hides were the most prominent of the mutations. From the back of one room, Rain heard a voice, still ranting about "stupid Orcus and his stupid clerics". There was Snow, trapped in a cage and ranting about the blight and how weird Orcus must be to have become demon prince of the undead "instead of something cool like sensuality". Rain called out "hey baby, want to see your sword?" He worked quickly to free her, disarming the lock she'd damaged in her own escape attempts.

The party moved quickly across the temple, discovering more shadow giants. Garlen leaped into the fray before the others realized he'd opened the door, and he nearly dropped one of the giants. Roland fired off a charge of electricity: "just something to do", he apologized, half bored. Rain bounced across the room and killed the giant Garlen had so gravely wounded, leading Snow to exclaim "Rain, you're my hero!" Horkina waded through a pool of blood and began pounding on the next giant, with Snow providing the occasional strike and "tee hee". Grokk roared and leaped into the action, hewing the giant into more pieces than anyone wanted to see. With that, the party moved onward.

The next room held abominations against nature -- six-armed skeletons that were probably originally dinosaurs and ettins, with an orc supervising. One of the dinosaurs held a limp orcish woman in its mouth, leading Snow to exclaim "oh no, Grilka!" Garlen slew the orc cleric within moments, while Grokk and Rain each destroyed a skeleton by wildly different methods. Amber gave Horkina's axe a brilliant glow, and Horkina cut down the remaining four skeletons as they ineffectively tried to strike. Amber gave a bit of healing to Grilka, who immediately claimed a set of three large wavy greatswords that had been found with Snow's sword. Another room later, a pair of dread wraiths and a shadow demon set upon the growing party. Garlen and Rain each attacked one of the wraiths, which fought back by stealing some of Rain's life essence. Amber's Sunbeam narrowly missed the shadow demon, and Horkina's glowing axe did not find its mark either. This left the Shadow Demon with a clear path to Amber, and it began its assault with its hideous claws. Grokk tried to stop it, but his attack was ineffective, as well. Roland decided this was no time to play around with ineffective attacks, so he released a Chain Thunder spell as well as a maximally powered Black Blade of Disaster. This left the fiends nearly dead, easy fodder for Horkina to finish off.

With the main floor of the temple cleared, the party descended the dark staircase into a large natural cavern. There, a massive bloated giant's head with only a few streaming entrails for a body began roaring at the party. Garlen charged directly at the undead head, and his legendary hatred for such creatures gave him the strength to kill it before anyone else quite understood what was going on. "Garlen, hurry up. Stop messing with that dead thing," they exclaimed, stopping only when Garlen pointed out the magical items the Crawling Head had acquired when it had eaten other creatures' heads.

The next room held a pair of arachno-beholders, some of the strangest creatures yet. Garlen rushed into the fray, stabbing at eyes and jabbing at legs. Rain jumped alongside and did the same, while Horkina and Grilka slashed at the other. The funny orc woman cried out "Grilka thrash!" with each blow. Roland's Black Blade fizzled out, but Amber's sunbeam blinded the healthier of the abominations. Grokk dealt a terrible blow to the first beast, finally cutting it down. The blinded arachno-beholder began shooting its eye rays randomly toward where the party had been, failing on every attack. Even its bite was ineffective. Roland's Black Blade swept in, and this time the foe was unable to resist. Collecting a luck blade (with a wish) from a corner of the room, the party headed back to Amber's temple to get some rest.

The party reached level 22.

Rubble Rousers, Day 40 (2007-10-20, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

The party spent the night at Amber's temple. Garlen and Rain slept in the treehouse over the entry, while the others slept in The Resting Place, where flowery fey called "petals" sang sweet lullabies. Grokk insisted that he was not gay, but indeed remained entirely serious and not at all jovial.

The party teleported back into the blight, where they were immediately set upon by a pair of dragons, one black and one green. Garlen and Rain immediately flanked the green dragon and breached its scales in several places. Grokk leaped at the same dragon, hitting it once on the arm and then landing a perfect skull-splitting strike, leaving the others awestruck at the carnage. Roland's Ray of Enfeeblement weakened the black dragon, but it shrugged off an attempt to grasp it with Bigby's Hand. Amber's trio of moon bolts left it extremely weak. Grokk shrugged off a strange mental assault and then moved with Garlen, Rain, and Horkina to smash the remaining dragon. Roland's Hand held the dragon in place and Amber continued to drain its strength. Grokk again resisted a strange mental compulsion. The dragon tried to teleport away, but was counterspelled. Rain's next blow left the dragon paralyzed, and his series of wounds finished it off (441 damage.) Roland cast True Seeing and saw that a pair of succubi had possessed the dragons and were now trying to possess Grokk. Amber popped onto the ethereal plane and fired off a Holy Word, destroying the demons once and for all.

The party moved through what looked to be a long-forgotten village, with barely recognizeable outlines of huts and small shops scattered about. The center of the blight, and the source of the strangely colored mists, was an old and cracking former temple of Pelor. Under the crumbling awning, Rain spotted a demon with a huge mouth at its belly -- a Klurichir. He charged and stabbed it in the eye. It responded by grabbing him and trying to bite his head off. Horkina swung wildly with her axe. Amber cast a spell to release Rain from the Klurichir's grip. Rain made a series of strikes that crippled the beast, but Roland, knowing the power of its bite, decided to finish it off right away with a Wrathful Castigation. As the demon dropped to the ground, four of the stone pillars came to life in the form of giant stone people. These Caryatid Columns swung at Grokk and Garlen, leading Grokk to declare "that tickles!" Grokk flew into another rage, leading Rain to declare him not gay, and then crushed one of the columns. Horkina smashed another, and Amber handed Rain a set of Fire Seeds which he detonated on top of two others. Roland's Deanimation Ray and a few arrows from Garlen were enough to destroy the final column.

Rain carefully searched the temple's main door, making note of lingering magical auras. The party entered the trashed temple foyer, where a skull had been crudely painted in blood on the wall. A pair of shadow giants stood flanking an armored orc, whose black, skull-topped scepter signified he was a worshipper of Orcus. Rain made an acrobatic dive to get behind the cleric, and Garlen charged right at him. Team rogue was credited for another assassination. Unfortunately, the shadow giants turned on Garlen with their Wounding maces, killing him in moments. Amber's Brilliant Aura allowed the party's weapons to pass through the giants' armor. Roland's Hold Monster froze one of the giants, and Grokk and Rain pounded on the other one. A group of giant zombies began pouring through one of the large doors, so Amber dropped a Sunburst in their midst, blinding most of them. One giant tore into Grokk with its mace while Horkina beheaded its companion. Roland's Lightning Bolt left the now-blind zombies stumbling around trying to locate its source. Grokk dropped the remaining giant, and a Mass Heal from Amber left the zombies on the edge of death. A few stabs, jabs, and swings took them down.

Amber set up a Prismatic Sphere for safety and began resurrecting Garlen while the rest of the party stood watch. A few minutes later, a pair of shadow giants opened one of the side doors. Horkina swung furiously, killing one (with some help from Rain) and cleaving just past the other. It turned to run, but found itself on the receiving end of a critical hit from Horkina as well as solid shots from Rain and Grokk. A set of hailstones from Roland finished it off, and a few minutes later, Garlen was restored.

Rubble Rousers, Day 39 (2007-10-13, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

Note: the party began this section at level 21.

As Rain was hanging out in his whore arena, he was approached by a tall, beautiful woman with pale skin and nearly white hair with just a touch of pink. Her shiny, silky white dress was low-cut and form-fitting, and she wore tall boots and long gloves made of the same material. Drawing a weapon, she called out "hey baby, want to see my sword?" The blade of her rapier threw off glowing white sparks, and its hilt was engraved with draconic runes that read "Snow's sweetass sword". She described such things as her hatred for dragons, love for quality beer, and desire to kill undead. She and Rain stared at each others' swords for a while, repeating "sweet" and "cool" back and forth until those on the other end of the telepathic bond became convinced Rain was trapped in some sort of loop. Eventually, Snow told Rain that she had other things to do, and that he couldn't handle her anyway.

Over the next few days, Horkina started to realize that her suppliers were sending poor crops of hops and barley, which were leading to skunky beer. This made nobody happy. She and Rain vowed to investigate. At the same time, Grokk found that his goats could no longer graze in the eastern part of the steppe, as the grass was undergrown and started to smell like his friend Thag. Roland, now living in connected towers in Cauldron and on Occipitus, was contacted with an urgent message from the great library in Athedria saying the organic materials in some of their books had begun to break down. Amber and Garlen, living in a massive temple to the north, began hearing whisperings from the elves about a strange transformation taking place in the forest. The telepathically-linked party was able to determine a pattern -- a blight of over a hundred miles radius near the center of the continent.

The party met up in Athedria, where they could look out over the blighted area from a high tower. Mists of green, purple, and black swirled over trees and farms, pouring out of a dense central area. Rain decided this would be an ideal moment to declare that Grokk was gay. Grokk was confused; "Grokk not at all festive. Grokk very serious barbarian." The party set out for the middle of the blighted area on horseback, and the strange banter continued as the party passed by spoiled crops and unhealthy-looking animals.

Soon, a pair of forty-foot-long scorpions crawled out of a colossal hole in the ground. Amber cast an earthquake that caused a landslide and pinned one of the scorpions. Roland invoked a storm of hailstones that pounded down on one. It rumbled its way over to Rain and bit him, dealing a vile wound that could not be cured by normal magic. Rain stabbed the scorpion's underbelly, while Amber blinded the other with a Lucent Lance. Grokk charged and lodged his axe firmly in the scorpion's head, dealing it a serious wound and giving Rain an opening to take another stab. Horkina's axe cut deep into the scorpion, which responded by grabbing Grokk and Garlen in its pincers and biting into Garlen, again dealing vile wounds. Lingering damage from Rain's earlier strike finished off the scorpion, and Roland's Wrathful Castigation made the other one writhe in pain for a few moments before dying. Roland determined the scorpions had been transmuted and corrupted somehow. The party took a quick trip back to Amber's temple, healing from the aura she emanated and the consecration effect on the temple.

The party teleported back, and within a short distance, encounted a battlebriar -- a massive plant creature, again transmuted and corrupted. Grokk smashed it with his axe and Rain tumbled into position, but wasn't quite sure how to stab a plant in a "sensitive" spot. Roland cast a minor spell, and Amber's sunbeam blinded the creature, dealing trivial damage as well. Rain declared Amber's attack to be gay. Garlen stabbed the battlebriar six times, and it responded by trampling over the party. Grokk finished it off with a powerful swing of his axe. Moments later, a huge, poisonous tumbleweed -- a Plague Brush -- came rolling along. Grokk made a nearly perfect strike that would have caved in the head of almost any animal, but alas, it merely carved a piece out of the plant. Horkina and Garlen took a few swings, tearing the brush apart, and the party shrugged off the cloud of poison.

Later, a huge flying insect-like creature approached, surrounded by a swarm of smaller insects. Roland identified the creature as a Vermiurge. Garlen began flying and charged directly into the fray, but was unable to penetrate its thick hide. Roland's high-powered fireball cleared away the cloud of insects. The Vermiurge stung and bit Garlen, pinched him with 3 of its 4 claws, and relased several more insects. A pair of moon bolts from Amber had minimal effect. Roland grabbed it with Bigby's Crushing Hand, but it worked its way free as Garlen sought healing. Amber tried to destroy the bugs, but her spell was resisted. Roland's Crushing Hand dragged the vermiurge to the ground, and his quick fireball again cleared away the swarm. Grokk landed a critical hit with his Holy Cow Axe, while Horkina and Sam (in Marut form) couldn't make contact. Rain wounded it, dealing minimal damage but spilling huge amounts of blood. It responded by sending a swarm of insects after him, leaving him barely standing. The rest of the insect swarm barely scratched Grokk. Amber continued to drain its strength while Roland's polar ray cut a hole in it. As Rain slipped away, the wounds he'd caused continued to bleed. Grokk (in a rage), Sam, and Horkina finally put the wounded Vermiurge down.

Epic Rules: Retraining

Each time you go up a level, you may retrain ONE of the following. For the start of epic, you may retrain TWO:
- A class feature. You may select a different class feature from the available list (ex: cleric domain, Ranger favored enemy)
- A feat. You must have met all prerequisites for the feat at the same level you took the original feat (so you can only retrain your level 3 feat into something you could've taken at level 3. No swapping out your level 6 feat for an epic feat.)
- Language. You can swap one known language for another.
- Skills. You can re-assign up to four skill points. They must be spent in something that's a class skill for one of your classes (not necessarily the class you've just gained a level in.)
- Spells. You can swap out two spells known for two other spells known.
At the end of the process, your character must still make sense. You must have the right number of feats and skill points, prerequisites for all of your feats, etc.