Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 13
4-5-06
The group continues to plan, discussing various strategies of range and position. The approaching contingent seems to be roughly 100'x100' in size, all of them on horseback and moving at a full gallop. The decision is made to have all the spellcasters attack simultaneously, so the group can't scatter. Now spells have to be considered, as well as range. Everyone chooses their spells, and picks 100' away as the casting point. Sarai and Oy-aht target the center, while Andune and Akili will take out both sides. The last thing to figure out is which direction the army will end up in by casting time, and after spending the next hour watching, the decide what 100-foot-out point they'll likely be crossing.
The army finally arrives, and spells fly furiously. Andune begins the assault with an Ice Storm, and takes out a respectable chunk with large falling blocks of ice. Oy-aht invokes his Staff of Striking, causing a whitish sphere of pure force to spring into being, creating a big crater in the formation. Sarai's up next, and casts Felder's Self-Propelled Exploding Boulder. 49 points of damage turn one soldier into vapor. Splash damage from impact sends molten flaming rock death in a 30-foot radius, with much the same outcome.
Akili takes his turn, and casts Stampede for the first time, across the remaining front row of the regiment. Huge portals appear on opposite sides of the line, and a 10-foot deep, 30-foot wide flood of a clear but disgusting-smelling liquid torrents straight across, from one portal to another, through the leading edge of the army. Most of them are washed away. Six of the remaining eight succumb to extreme nausea, brought on by being submerged in a river of sock sweat.
Sarai gets off one more shot with a delayed fireblast, blowing another gaping hole in the formation. The army, finally getting a chance to react, attempts to figure out what to do. Several clusters scatter, while others still seem determined to charge the party. Andune zots a cluster of three with a well-placed lightning bolt, and takes out a few of the nauseated ones also.
Spotting a single guy who seems to be milling about, possibly trying to rally his troops, Akili makes use of his Rod of Chaos. The apparent leader abruptly sprouts several extra appendages, and falls off of his horse. He disappears into the grass, trying to figure out how to move after having a new leg coming out of his forehead, arms out of his ears, extra wrists at each of his toes, and so forth. Elsewhere, Sarai flings Kavron's Firey Dart at another unfortunate soldier, pegging him. Oyaht, who had been sheltering the spellcasters with her Kwalish, advances towards the remains of the army.
Akili unleashes Wild Rain from his Rod of Chaos on yet another group of three mounted soldiers, as there are no other larger clusters remaining. From the sky fall four large rectangles, about 20' long and approximately 6'x6' otherwise. Three of the four long sides are mostly yellow, with strange black markings, and the fourth side is a matte black with metallic highlights. Two of the soldiers are crushed by these objects, and two others fall nearby harmlessly. (school buses)
The few remains of the army (down to roughly 15 soldiers) still try to approach the party, but it looks pretty grim for them, as more deadly spells are flung about.
In the melee, the school buses explode violently, but nothing is near them to be damaged further, save the surrounding terrain.
The spellcasters are mostly drained, and in the end, four remaining nauseated soldiers - who are managing to recover - and one other lone soldier manage to escape with their lives, although not for lack of trying on the casters' part.
Once battle is over, Akili starts looting the bodies for more silver, while Sarai investigates the smoldering bus frames.
Akili is then surprise-attacked by the several-appendaged leader from earlier. He seems to have figured out how to work his new limbs, and has a considerable amount of strength behind them, smashing Akili quite solidly in his muzzle. He's understandably pissed off that this party has demolished his entire batallion, and says so, while beating Akili around some more. Akili tries to fight back with Eryn's sword, but he's obviously outclassed. After knocking him down almost half of his hit points, Akili casts Wild Shield, which puts several basic shapes - pyramids, cylinders, trapezoids, etc. - between him and his attacker, and he retreats. The rest of the party notices, and start lobbing smaller spells at the leader.
Once he manages to put some forty feet between himself and the leader, Akili whips out his wand of Polymorph, and turns the leader into a giant puffball mushroom, approximately the same width and height as the leader was. Grinning viciously, Akili sprints back towards the mushroom, but Sarai is quicker on the draw, lobbing a fireball at the huge, white, stationary, and above-all extremely inviting target. Unsurprisingly, there is now a giant flaming puffball mushroom, which is not unlike watching a mushroom being overcooked in a campfire. Eventually, the mushroom shrivels, and collapses on itself, only emitting wisps of smoke as the flames die down.
Looking quite beat up, Akili approaches and kicks dirt over the smoldering remains of the mushroom, grumbing, then massages the huge knot of a bruise on his muzzle, and rejoins the party to see Oy-aht. "Oww. It hurts." Oy-aht fully heals him, and Akili is very grateful.
The next hour or so is spent helping Akili check over the bodies for anything useful, and quite a stash of gold, silver, platinum, and masterwork items are found. Everything is taken save a chunk of obsidian, and comments once again circulate that they need to find some aspect of civilization to unload all the stuff they've collected... preferably one that's not under siege, after Sarai points out that they're approaching a castle.
The game is paused here.