GoCorral

This session was attended by Will, Avery, Trajan, Jamie, and Ben. We used Roll20 as a virtual tabletop and Skype for voice and video.

The Western Garden

The lava cavern in which the party fought the dragon spider dissolved around them. The group soon found themselves standing in an expanse of dry-smelling grass. In front of them was a twenty foot tall, iron wrought fence that enclosed a large garden. Groomed shrubs and plants grew within the garden. At the center was the golden apple tree, tall and resplendent with dozens of gorgeous fruits hanging upon it. A heavenly smell flew from the tree to the party’s nostrils and when the wind blew through its branches it was almost as if the gods themselves were singing.

Unfortunately, the beauty of the Garden of Hesperides was marred by a hideous beast that coiled around the base of the golden apple tree, Ladon the hundred-headed dragon. His heads filled the garden, snaking off long necks that split from each other and reformed in a never ending dance. The sweet smell of tree’s fruit was soon replaced by the foul stench of fire and death that leaked from every pore of Ladon’s being. A large, closed, metal gate separated the dragon’s web of heads, necks, and teeth from the party.

The party could tell that Ladon would turn nasty in an instant if they stepped through the gate. Could they fly over? Tagenadi tried and found an invisible pyramidic barrier surrounded the garden, extending from the fence to form a point over the top of the tree. Could they tunnel under? Hektor used his staff of the magi to summon an earth elemental. The elemental tunneled under the fence, but encountered a similar invisible barrier under the earth. The only way forward lay through the gate.

Amalius opened the gate and stepped back, not entering the Garden. The heads hissed in unison and two dozen of them instantly snaked forwards to surround the Garden’s entrance. Amalius said, “We wish to take one of the golden apples.”
Ladon responded with what seemed like a hundred voices and one at the same time, “No applesssss for you. I guard. No applessssss unlesssss Atlassssss ssssayssssss sssssso.”
“Atlas was defeated long ago. We come here with the blessing of Zeus, Hermes, Zelus, and Hades.” Amalius turned to Tagenadi who nodded his head in approval of the use of his patron’s name. “Will you not give us an apple for these powerful gods?”
“They are not my masssster! My masssster is Atlassss. I ssssserve him and him ALONE! You will have no applesssssss!”

Ancient Dragon Defenses

The party stepped away from the gate to discuss their options out of Ladon’s earshot.
Could they cut off the dragon’s heads from outside the Garden and move forward that way? This seemed unlikely to work. If Ladon was anything like the Hydra, cutting off his heads would only make things worse.

Could Eathirilu buff himself up and race forward towards the apples? Maybe. He could change into a burrowing animal and tunnel under the ground once he was inside the Garden, perhaps? With magical enhancements to his speed and distance healing from Zelus he might be able to make the journey.

Could they go through invisible? Probably not. Ladon’s heads and necks presented an almost solid barrier between the Garden and the gate. The Cap of Hades made the wearer invisible to all senses save touch, but Ladon’s positioning ensured that even touch would betray them to him.

Eathirilu diving forwards seemed like the best plan. He changed into a badger, cast longstrider to improve his speed, and jumped forward into the Garden! The heads of Ladon descended upon Eathirilu. Biting and snapping at him, they ripped at his flesh, almost making Eathirilu collapse in his first second of digging into the earth. Poison entered Eathirilu’s bloodstream, but his druidic powers fought it off. One final threat remained, A head reared above Eathirilu and breathed fire down upon him. The shapeshifting druid warded himself with total immunity to fire every day, but Ladon’s fire was different. It burned hotter and brighter than anything the party had ever seen. The flames singed through Eathirilu’s magical armor and consciousness left the eyes of the druid turned badger.

Ladon’s heads dragged Eathirilu’s body behind the wall of necks and teeth before Tagenadi could grab his friend. Zelus said, “Well there’s no point in healing him now. The heads would just knock him unconscious again or kill him before he could burrow into the ground.”
Hektor said, “Is he still alive?”
“Yes, his mind is still there,” said Amalius.
Hektor said, “Well, what now?”

The group decided to combine their other plans of invisibility and chopping off Ladon’s heads. Tagenadi donned the Cap of Hades and swung his kusari-gama through the open gate at Ladon. The dragon did not react until the weapon passed the Garden’s threshold. At that moment he reflexively dodged backwards. It was clear that he could not see the blade, but he felt the air stirred by its presence. Despite Ladon’s quick reaction, Tagenadi still inflicted a wound, slicing a piece of lizard flesh off a neck. Ladon roared and retreated thirty feet from the entrance, dragging Eathirilu’s body with him. The dragon’s heads still encircled the entrance, although the coverage was certainly thinner.

Juice Rewards

Thinking for a time the party came up with a new plan to both get an apple and to retrieve Eathirilu. Hektor could summon an almost never-ending stream of powerful elementals using his staff of the magi. The staff used charges to summon these creatures though. Fortunately, a staff of the magi can be recharged easily by casting a spell into it. Zelus could give the staff enough energy to cast summon monster 9 using only a second level spell of his. An excellent use of resources! The elementals could then storm the Garden like a crowd of commoners running after the gold tossed aside by a noble. Earth elementals could run on the ground or burrow beneath it and air elementals could presumably soar over Ladon once inside the Garden. The ones that got furthest could grab Eathirilu and the apples and hopefully make it back to safety without succumbing to the dragon’s teeth.

Hektor and Zelus began casting, bringing close to two dozen elementals into being. Hektor gave them their marching orders and then sent them into the Garden! The first rush hit a wall of biting gnashing dragon heads, but the push from behind kept them going. The elementals on the ground and in the air eventually reached a point where Ladon eliminated them as fast as they came forward. Fortunately, five earth elementals that went underground were spared Ladon’s aggression once they burrowed into the dirt. They raced towards the golden apple tree and popped up to claim the apples. Each plucked a fruit and Ladon roared his fury at them. His heads snaked across the Garden and devoured one of the elementals. The other four dived into the ground once more and safely brought their prizes to Hektor behind the crush of the remaining elementals. Unfortunately, those who were ordered to retrieve Eathirilu were unsuccessful.

Amalius took one of the fruits from Hektor and tossed it up and down. He spoke to the dragon, “Well, well, well. Looks like we have one of your apples!”

“NOOOOO!!! GIVE THEM BACK!!!”
“Tell you what, I’ll give one back if you free my friend, Eathirilu.”
“NO! ALL OF THEM BACK! Then I will release your friend.”
“Sorry. No deal. One or none.”
Ladon’s heads looked between Eathirilu, the tree, and Amalius. They hissed, “Fine. Give ussssss the apple.” One of the heads picked up Eathirilu’s limp badger body and brought it close to the gate.
Amalius tossed the apple to Ladon who caught it in a mouth. The dragon dropped Eathirilu at the gate’s edge. Tagenadi pulled the druid through while Ladon returned his salvaged apple to its spot upon the tree.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” said Amalius.

Zelus used his magic to bring Eathirilu back around. The fenced in Garden rippled before their eyes and soon the adventurers found themselves in a different place.

He Cannot Lose

They stood in a vast open rectangular room. Corinthian columns and carvings covered the walls. A vaulted ceiling rose overhead and huge marble slabs tiled the floor. Hermes floated overhead. “Excellent! Excellent! But one more task for you and I will be forced to declare you the winner of this wager! The golden apples first though.”
Amalius tossed an apple up followed by a second, “One for you and one for the Queen of the sky, Hera.”
Hermes tossed the second apple up into the air and it disappeared with a flash. “I’m sure she will appreciate the gift.” He rolled the apple in his hands and continued while he worked, “My father talked to all the gods during the Trojan War once. He’d banned us all from fighting, but we did it anyways while he was distracted. He stretched a golden cable out across a pit to Tartarus,” Hermes stretched the apple out to form a golden cable, “and dared all of us to best him in a tug-of-war. None of us took the bait because we knew he would win.” Hermes examined the cable. “I have a similar game I want to play with you. At the other end of this cable will be…” Hermes threw the cable towards the end of the room. It coiled forward through his hands, but instead of striking the wall it went through a magic portal that suddenly appeared. “A volcano!” Hermes finished.
Looking through the portal revealed a top-down view of a volcano’s lava-filled caldera. The portal cut off the edges of the volcano’s base. The golden cable wrapped around the sulfurous mountain several times, secure at that end. The other end of the cable lay on the floor of the temple the party was in.
Hermes continued, “All you have to do is move that volcano up for just a second and you’ll win this challenge. Just a little pull. That’s all!”
Hektor, knowing that monsters were often imprisoned within volcanoes, asked, “Which volcano is that?”
“What does it matter which one it is? If you’re worried about the monster, this one got free long ago. No need to concern yourself with defeating it.”
“Is it Greshendale?”
“What? Why would I want to pull Greshendale?.”
Eathirilu said, “Are you sure? It’s not Greshendale?”
“Cross my heart.”
“For real?” Eathirilu persisted.
“Did I say it was Greshendale?”
“No.”
“Then there you go.”
Girding themselves for the challenge, the party all grasped the cable and pulled. Not a budge.
Amalius asked their resident Olympian, “Do we have a time limit on this challenge?”
Hermes answered, “No. Take as long as you need.”
“And can we get as much space as we want to?”
“Yes. The temple will expand to suit your needs as your require it.”
Amalius said to the rest of the party, “If we have as long as we want then I can build a complex pulley system. It should minimize the volcano’s weight and we can lift it up like a butter churn.”

The party agreed that what Amalius had said sounded like a good plan. The psion got to work designing his pulley system while the others sat and pondered their existence. While thinking, Eathirilu landed on a different idea. What if he summoned a bunch of triceratops and tied the cable around their horns? He could transform into a dinosaur as well and animal growth all of them to vastly increase their strength. Couldn’t they pull the volcano together then? It was worth a shot. Eathirilu magicked up some dinosaurs and Tagenadi and Zelus tied the cable to them.

The dino gang along with Tagenadi and Zelus pulled on the cable… and it began to move! Tagenadi’s bony hands slipped and the cable pulled back. Shouting for help, Hektor and Amalius joined in. As everyone struggled together the volcano moved! The party released the cable, cheering!

But wait, the volcano hadn’t stopped moving. It hadn’t gone back to its place in the earth. It was coming on towards the portal, faster and faster! The party heard the faint screams of tens of thousands of people as the volcano came closer. It hurtled closer and it seemed the lava would envelop the portal, then the magic gateway went dark.

“Oops,” said Hermes. “Maybe it was Greshendale after all. Here you go, Zelus. You can have the Lots.” Hermes tossed the dice to Zelus who pocketed them.
Eathirilu said, “You lied to us.”
Hermes shrugged and said, “What do you expect from a trickster god?”
Tagenadi asked, “What do we do? Do we go there now?”
Amalius said, “Yes. Right now. We can kill Lady Li and a few other dragovinians in the chaos. Gather around me. Everyone ready?”

With a pop the party disappeared from Hermes’ temple.

Shattered Igneous Metropolis

All teleportation magic in Greshendale is redirected to the main entrance to the city. That remained true despite the city’s fall. Amalius’s teleport planted them directly on the main teleportation pad of Greshendale. Fire and ruins surrounded them. Along the city’s shattered walkways finely manicured gardens burned. People both mortal and dragovinian ran screaming for the teleportation pad to take it to the ground. No one cared for the party’s arrival, only rushing past them to activate the escape pad for themselves. Others stumbled around, either too injured or too shell-shocked to fully comprehend what was happening. Smoke of mystical colors and scents rose from several dozen spots in the distance.

Amalius said, “Let’s find a dragovinian that’s alone and get some information from them.”
Everyone agreed that getting information about the city was their best course of action. They stepped away from the pad. Amalius searched around with his mind and found a likely candidate dragovinian. He dominated the victim, a wizard who appeared to possess some skill, but nothing that approached the party’s towering arcane might.
Amalius asked the dominated dragovinian, “Where is Lady Li?”
In a stilted voice the man replied, “I don’t know.”
“Where do you think she’d be right now?”
“At the compound or where she is needed most.”
“Take us to the compound,” Amalius ordered. The wizard led the party down the cracked and ruined streets of Greshendale. Along the way Amalius gave more order, “You are to conduct yourself amicably and nonchalantly with other dragovinians. You will be calm and collected. You will give no indication that you are dominated or controlled in any way. When we get to the compound you will go inside and locate Lady Li. Once you have done so you will come back out to me as soon as possible.”

The party arrived at the compound, a large stone building shaped like a rhombus. To the left side a tall tower once stood, but the city’s fall caused the tower to fall as well. Dragovinians and mortals rushed in and out of the building, making it clear that it was acting as a sort of command center during the crisis. Amalius sent his peon in and the party waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After almost half an hour Eathirilu felt a tingling on the back of his neck due to his foresight spell. “We’re under attack!” he shouted!

What Happened Inside the Compound

The nameless peon entered the building and approached the person in charge. He asked her where Lady Li was, doing his best to pretend to not be dominated. Unfortunately the peon was not a very good liar. The person in charge noticed something was amiss immediately and asked if the nameless peon was doing okay. The nameless peon responded, “Yes. I’m perfectly fine and calm. Why wouldn’t I be? Do you know where Lady Li is?” Calm and collected may not have been the best choice of words for Amalius to use when Greshendale is experiencing the biggest disaster it has ever known.

The person in charge called someone else over to double check that something was wrong. They confirmed the person in charge’s suspicions. The nameless peon was acting strangely because he was dominated. Fortunately, the person in charge had prepared a protection from good spell which blocks all attempts at mind control. She cast it upon the nameless peon. The nameless peon regained his senses and informed the person in charge of what had happened outside the compound.

The person in charge and looked out the window and saw the party. Recognizing who they were and the threat they posed, the person in charge contacted Lady Li. Lady Li in turn contacted other people and… well…

Air Raid

Up in the sky several dragovinians appeared. Terroc, the spying mage who had stolen Kharad-khor and given it to the sahuagin, completed a teleport spell, bringing along:
Lady Shunawo Li, dictator of Colchis and accomplished wizard in her own right. She specialized in force and enchantment magic. Her presence in Greshendale led to the rise of dragovinians in the city and the city eventually joining the Xorians.
Krodius, leader of the Sky Patrol, the aerial police force of Greshendale. When he became a dragovinian it wasn’t long before the rest of the worthy in the city followed suit. His battle skills were honed in the War Mage Academy of Greshendale.
Barejando, chief general of the Xorian forces. Barejando mastered the same armament that his troops use on the battlefield, a large spear and a massive shield.
King Jevaninada II. What more needs to be said? He arrived in his flowing purple silk armor, wearing the Crown of Xoria on his head and the Gauntlets of Martial Skill on his hands. He wielded the Diamond Sword of Xoria which glowed a dark blue.
Darunanano, King Jevaninada’s bodyguard and Tagenadi’s elder brother. Daru’s size is magically enhanced just like his younger brother and while he wielded no weapon his draconic claws and teeth showed the signs of significant “work” to increase their damage-dealing potential.

Each of the dragovinians had scaled skin and cruel smiles. In addition, they all had leathery wings sprouting from their backs. Blendegad had given them the gift of flight!

Eathirilu’s warning allowed the party to react quickly, but Barejando was prepared! He flew down and breathed upon the party. This wasn’t the typical dragovinian fire breath. Barejando breathed black crackling electricity, the same energy as that in an antimagic field. A dark pale set over the party as their magic faded into the background.

Everyone scattered out of the new antimagic area. Eathirilu left and summoned an enormous downdraft with control winds. Tornado force winds began blowing down on the dragovinians forcing them to land or risk being blown away. The three dragovinian mages were sufficiently disrupted by the winds that they were unable to cast spells while they repositioned in the broken streets of Greshendale.

Jevaninada and Darudanano charged through the winds to collide with Tagenadi. Tagenadi swung his kusari-gama around, freeing a space for Hektor, Zelus, and Amalius to back out of the antimagic zone. Hektor shapeshifted into an iron golem and began a summoning spell. Amalius used his time magic to position himself for a devastating spell. When he rejoined the normal time stream he was face to face with Lady Li. Amalius blasted her with a full force disintegrate. Li screamed, but her tongue turned to ash followed swiftly by the rest of her body. Terroc attempted to disintegrate Amalius right back. Fortunately, the wards that Amalius had placed upon himself protected him from taking damage.

Krodius cast a damaging spell that burned through the party’s magical wards, but Zelus quickly healed any wounds with a mass heal spell. Zelus targeted the spell at Jevaninada and Darudanano as well, knowing the positive energy would disrupt the negative energy that powered their unliving forms. The magic caused lesions to appear on Darudanano’s skin, but Jevaninada remained immune.

Eathirilu turned into a T-Rex. He joined the melee with Tagenadi against Jevaninada and Darudananano with Barejando joining on the other side. Hektor and Zelus attempted to disrupt the dragovinians by blocking them with force spells. Daru dispelled one of the effects using the magic of the headband he wore. The other effect, Daru and Jev flew over. Barejando took an alternative approach and broke threw a weakened stone wall that a wall of force butted up against. The three of them surrounded Eathirilu and Tagenadi, trading blow for blow.

Hektor’s summon spell concluded, calling an air elemental to the battlefield. The elemental attempted to catch Krodius and Terroc up in its whirlwind. It succeeded in capturing Krodius, providing an easy target for Amalius. Amalius lined up the shot and fired off another disintegrate. Krodius turned to ash and the wind blew his remains away.

The fight went poorly for Eathirilu and Tagenadi. They could dish out damage, but against superior numbers they couldn’t take it as well. Jev’s dark blue diamond sword cut again and again while Daru savaged the heroic pair with his enhanced dragovinian claws. Barejando provided a flanking position ensuring that Eathirilu and Tagenadi could not defend themselves adequately. Zelus attempted to heal his new companions’ wounds, but he could only channel one type of energy at a time, positive or negative. Positive energy sustained Eathirilu while negative sustained Tagenadi. In the end, Eathirilu was the first to go. A diamond sword swipe took his consciousness followed by a bite from King Jevaninada’s fangs that took his life. Eathirilu fell dead upon the broken stone of the street.

Amalius had more success in his continuing barrage of disintegrates. He blasted Terroc with one. The dragovinian wizard attempted to block with a rod of absorption, but could not raise the magical item in time. The spell took his life, but the rod absorbed any latent energy into itself. The rod survived, but its master did not. Amalius scooped the rod up into his portable hole.

Amalius would not be able to celebrate his accomplishment for long. A new dragovinian entered the battlefield! Wu Lang Li, the Lord of Colchis, first made dragovinian after King Jevaninada II, and Enforcer of the King’s will. Wu had returned after his disappearance into the Rebellion controlled territory of Bigby’s Forest. He wielded a massive dragonbone composite longbow. He wore purple silks similar to what King Jevaninada had. On his back was a quiver of arrows of different sorts. Yes! This was the same Wu that had helped Korjak, Gregor, Stanton, and Sivirdm to find the first pieces of the Druid’s Prophecy!

Amalius’s first clue that Wu had entered the combat was when four arrows sprouted from his chest. The magic of the arrows ripped through his magical protections and blood flowed freely from his wounds. Amalius fell to the ground, unconscious.

Wu’s dark red eyes glowed as he said, “That’s what you get for what you did to her.”

Hektor, Zelus, and Tagenadi could feel the battle turning against them. Sounding a retreat, Zelus flew forwards on his seraphic wings and teleported himself and Eathirilu to his temple on Mount Olympus. Hektor teleported himself away to Lakatia. Tagenadi donned his Cap of Hades and slipped away from his fight with Daru and Jev, hoping to rescue Amalius before he fled as well.

The dragovinians dispatched the air elemental as an afterthought and gathered around the body of Amalius. Tagenadi circled the battleground, stepping upon the cracked stone of what was once a vibrant street of Greshendale. He was invisible to every sense except touch, but one could never be too careful. He slowly crept towards the spot where Amalius lay.

Wu felt a tingling on the back of his neck. Something was wrong. What was that over there? A footprint on the dusted stone? And another? Someone was there! Wu nocked four arrows to his bow and fired! Two whistled past Tagenadi, but the others hit him straight in the chest. He felt his unliving form shudder and almost fall apart. He held on to his “life,” but the arrows carried another force. He felt the arrows pulling him, pushing him, trying to take him out of the material plane! Tagenadi held on with everything he had! His force of will, his martial training from Guru Nidiri Sukon, every fiber of his being resisted the magic. At last the pull stopped! Tagenadi was still on the mortal plane!

The death knight snapped his hand forward and grabbed Amalius. He teleported away to Lakatia, safe from harm.

Wu looked at the ground where Amalius had been, “They can’t get away with this.”
“No,” said Jevaninada. “Not this time.”