Something Wicked this way Comes...

[Mr. X]

Ironjaw tilts his head sideways at Taalkar, raising an eyebrow.

"... A fair bit, I imagine, and plenty o' other flammables as well...

What are you thinkin'?"

[Barthac]

If the catapults can lob the oil over the wall all we have to do is send over somma those ones that go boom. Then they go boom, to illustrate he claps his hands together with a loud clap because obviously no one would understand the boom.

Seeing blank stares he stammers on, It works on trolls an I thot they stitch up pretty quick like these guys and to be fair I am ab bit hungry for grannies mushroom stew.

[Mr. X]

Ironjaw nods thoughtfully,

"Ahhh... Light 'em up in swaths behind their very walls eh? It's a good plan, though we'll need te get into closer firing range for it, though not much closer, heh."

He looks back at the lot of you.

"Well, if you're all in favor of this attack, I'll add my go-ahead to Sir Tormand's. You lot head back to the command tent, and send riders out to meet with Great Gate. Once the King prescribes a plan, I'll let you know where I need ya."

With that, he turns and heads back to the Royal Pavillion.

[LordDice]

Heading back to the Command tent they pull a Quartermaster loose for a minute.

"We've got a location on the Great Gates army, lets keep this quiet though. Get 5 of your best riders to get out to them and let them know what's going on"

Gesturing at Dolin, "He's got eyes on the army ...somehow". He'll get the riders going in the right way"

[Mr. X]

The quartermaster gathers a messenger party together, and sends them off to meet with Great Gate.

It is barely an hour later when Ironjaw returns. He's huffing and puffing with excitement as he sweeps into the tent.

"Alright lads, the plan is set!"

He lays out a local map, and grabs up unit markers to lay out upon it.

"We're attacking the South-Western gate. Despite the city's walls being damaged from the earthquake, the gates remain their weakest points.

Infantry shall form up here and here, with their Flanks being guarded by the Silver Horsemen's heavy horse.

We'll march forward about a half mile to get into trebuchet and cannon range. (The Cannon's fire a fair bit further, but if we want to light'em up, as Taalkar suggests, we'll need to get right up close and personal with 'em.)

From there, we volley the city over the wall, blasting and burning them to the hells untill either we run out of powder, or they come and chase us off. More likely the latter than the former.

We're not trying to fight a flat battle here. If we can get out of this without bloodying our axes, so much the better.

We'll have outriders covering our outer flanks, and at the first sign of a goblin response force, we'll sound the retreat, and pull back to the hill.

The retreat will be steady and orderly, holding the line and shield wall all the way. If they try to push their luck, and attack the line, the cavalry shall swoop in from the flanks to thin them out, and then pull back again. And so on and so forth untill we're secure, and they give up the chase.

We march immediately. It's daylight now, and despite the cloudy skies, we have the advantage."

He sits back.

"So, I almost hate to say it, but I'm gonna need you lot on the line. The plan's nice an' pretty an' all, but if things start to go south, they'll go south quick. An' if the line breaks, there won't be much use comin' back to the hill at all.

Think ye can manage?"

[LordDice]

"Aye, sounds like a decent enough plan General. I can't help but think we'll be just fine on the line there. I doubt I'd be able to keep Taalkar off it anyhow....nasty habit of jumping into things as it were !"

"Perhaps you could arrange a couple cannon to be preemptively sighted in on our retreat path. So as we withdraw they can open up on that Scum....to keep them honest."

[Mr. X]

Ironjaw ticks his finger at you,

"Ye see that, that right there? that's what I keep you lot around for. Ha! Ne're you worry, the retreat shall be under ample cover.

[Barthac]

Brother? Retreat?

[LordDice]

"It's not an ACTUAL retreat brother....we're just luring them in. Don't worry...you wont have to turn your back to them, just kill plenty"

[Mr. X]

Even as Karazi speaks, Ironjaw picks up a bucket and throws it at you (Taalkar).

"Ya know damn well what we mean!" He says, looking at Taalkar as though he'd like to see the color of his insides, "Now get out, and get the army ready to move. We march as soon as we're formed up."

[Barthac]

Taalkar looks dumbfounded at the bucket. He glares over at Ironjaw, If yer gonna throw buckets, fill em with ale first!

[Mr. X]

"OUT!!" Ironjaw shouts, hurling another bucket after you as you leave.

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Just a short post now, Im afraid. I'll start the next scene tomorrow. Feel free to take any actions you want before the army marches.

[Barthac]

Taalkar, now outside the tent, picks up the second bucket expectantly. Noticing no ale he frowns, Now he's just being ornery

Taalkar stomps off towards his own tent. He needs all the sleep he can get before tomorrows battle. A glint enters his eye as he thinks about the coming day and his stomping turns almost into skipping (as much as a dwarf can skip anyway). He's pretty sure he'll have some good dreams.

[Mr. X]

As Taalkar skips off to catch up on his beauty sleep, and catch pleasant dreams of splitting skulls and screaming goblins, Karazi and Doilin are left to manage prepping the army for battle.

Of your nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dwarves, most are organized as phalanx troops, to be backed up by cannon teams. You don't have a proper calvary company, merely enough ponies to maintain the wagon train, and a number of outriders.

This matters little, however, as Star Spire's force is as large, and nearly half made up of light and heavy horse.

The men are eager for a fight, however, and the mobilization happens in record time.

Barely four hours later, you must send a messenger to roust your brother from his slumber, as the front lines have already begun to move.

----------------

The distance that would take you perhaps half an hour to ride alone, it takes the joint army almost three hours to cover, marching in even step and locked shields the whole of the way, the cannons, ballistae, and trebuchets bringing up the rear.

Beluvah's walls are nothing to compare with what Citadel's were, but they are still stout and strong.

While smoke curls up from various points around the city, the air is quiet, and there is no activity upon the walls... Even still, as the army approaches closer, you feel a certain sense of unease as the walls loom up before you...

Pulling to a halt, a fair distance from the Southwestern gate, it seems to take hours for the trebuchets and cannons to be wheeled into their positions, set up, loaded, and made ready to fire. All the while, casters move through the ranks, applying bolstering magics to the troops.

Far behind, the banner of the Crowned Steed, where the Boy King himself has riden with the army to provide comand and support for his men. There he sits, high upon his pure white destrier, his gleeming armor and crowned greathelm catching every stray ray of light filtering through the heavy clouds.

Slowly, he raises his right hand in signal, and holds it aloft...

...

...

... And then he drops it.

As one, the immense trebuchets creak and spring, dropping their counter-weights, and slinging heavy barrels filled with oil and alchemist's fire over the walls of the Holy City.

A string of thunderous explosions sound off in rapid succession as the cannons volley ball and bomb shots far over the wall...

... The city is rocked by the ferocity of the incoming artillary. Great swaths of fire ignite through the area you approach, and in places, the wall crumbles where the cannons strike it... The blustering winds carry occasional shrieks and agonized screams to your ears, of those suffering and dying under the onslaught, and before long, a great wall of thick, black smoke is pouring up into the skies from within their city...

A cheer goes up from the ranks, as explosion after fiary explosion rakes the edge of the city, but as it dies down, it is replaced by a new sound...

... An odd, buzzing whine...

... As you watch, the billowing smoke almost seems to waft outward, and expand towards you...

... The buzzing gets louder as the cloud continues to expand, darkening the sky above you...

... It grows to a cacophony as they fall upon you...

... One gets the dwarf next to you. A cancerous lump of flesh with flapping, insectoid wings, and squid or jellyfish like tendrils... I slaps into the dwarf's face, and he goes down screaming, as the thing's tendrils squirm and twist into his visor, followed quickly by a spray of blood as it digs into his eyes...

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Everyone, please roll Initiative.

each of you get attacked by three of the things:

For Taalkar:
1) (1d20+12)[32]
2) (1d20+12)[28]
3) (1d20+12)[31]

For Karazi:
1) (1d20+12)[26]
2) (1d20+12)[17]
3) (1d20+12)[17]

For Doilin:
1) (1d20+12)[32]
2) (1d20+12)[22]
3) (1d20+12)[20]

If, for some reason, you are not wearing a helmet, these attacks are against your Touch AC.

These are Grapple attacks. Please make a series of Strength Checks (DC above attack rolls that hit) to resist the grapple.

If you fail, take damage:
Wisdom - (1d4)[2]
Intelligence - (1d4)[3]
as your brains are sucked out.

To get at your brains, these things will try to go through your ears, or your eyes. If you take any damage, you are likely going to lose one or the other, or both.

Luckily, you can only have one stuck to your head(and effective) at a time, so once one gets you, ignore all further attacks. (They'll stick and gnaw on your armor, but do little else.)

Each of these things has an AC of 12, and 5hp, if you'd like to attempt to squash them once you get them off of you.

Good Luck.

[Barthac]

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Not wearing a helmet! (I regret nothing)

Initiative:(1d20+6)[17]

Grapple: (not sure how I beat a 32)
#1:(1D20+4)[15]
#2:(1D20+4)[9]
#3:(1D20+4)[6]

They eat brains? Maybe Taalkar will just starve them out. Any chance of them getting alcohol poisoning from Taalkar?

[Mr. X]

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A 20 of your own would have done it.

Sorry, those were some pretty obscene rolls. :-/

A moment later, one of the things slaps into Taalkars face, staggering him backwards. It grips him fiercely as its tendrils squirm over his bare face, one burying itself into his eye, while another slides up his nose...

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Taalkar, you loose an eye along with the mental damage. (I'll let you choose which one.)

I might suggest just killing the thing on your turn, as it is unlikely you are going to be able to break its grip, and it will continue to eat your brains each round.

[LordDice]

Flailing wildly he tries to throw the bloated things off even as they worm their way past his helmet.

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Init (1d20-7)[12]
Grapples
1: (1d20+1)[15]
2: (1d20+1)[6]
3: (1d20+1)[18]

This is gonna hurt

[Mr. X]

Doilin collapses backwards, scrabbling at the thing.

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Take your actions, the monsters shall deal their damage again at Init: 10.

DC to get them off remains their initial Grapple roll. However, as they're stuck to you, they are Flat-footed, so their AC is reduced to 10.

(Note: Smashing yourself in your own face with your axe may result in damaging yourself as well.

[Mr. X]

Combat Order

17- Taalkar
12- Karazi
10- Buzzing tentacle things
0- Doilin (untill he posts)

[LordDice]

Screaming as the creature burrows into his head, ripping through a small gap around his ear. In a panic he tries to shift into his newly practiced Rockform only to have something go wrong.

Great shifts of rock jutting out of his flesh in a giant mishmash, Nothing like the clean form he practiced before. Still seems to be somewhat more effective against the creatures crawling over him.

Seeing Karazi tearing at the creature on his head, Sid quickly tries to aid him. Smashing off the first abomination.

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I think I'll go with a ruputured ear rather than eye...can't be copying after all :P

Shifting form takes up his action, and That's all just flavor.. I just figured'd it would be kinda difficult to shift into a form he's barely practiced while getting his brain sucked out. I made a note of the neg modifiers already for my mental stats.

Sid'll smash at a few on him
Attack (1d20+9)[13]
Damage (1d8+8)[13]
Potential Cleave
Attack (1d20+9)[29]
Damage (1d8+8)[14]

[Barthac]

Taalkar falls to the ground in intense pain as his eye ruptures. Not thinking clearly (his brain being eaten and all) he begins to beat at the things on his face and body.

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No stance or special maneuvers, Taalkar is simply freaked out.

Full attack round on this things with unarmed attacks:
To hit:(1d20+12)[19]
damage:(1d3+6)[9]
To hit:(1d20+7)[19]
damage:(1d3+6)[9]

[Mr. X]

All around the armies reel under the onslaught of the squamous, buzzing things. The cannons behind get perhaps another one or two shots off before falling silent, as their widly spaced crews proved even more vulnerable to the swarm...

Somewhere behind a rallying trumpet sounds, but is cut off after but a single note, and a squealing gargle...

Taalkar rolls on the ground screeching, clawing the thing on his face to pieces with his fingernails, as Sid grips the one holding the nearly shapeless form of Karazi, and squashes it to jelly..

A moment later, Taalkar regains his feet. Blood pouring down his face, and a bit of tendril still hanging from his eye socket, he flinches back as another 'bug' zips past him, and onto a fallen and screaming ally...

From somewhere to the left, a sub-commander shouts out,

"SHIELDS UP MAGGOTS!!! FORM A TORTOISE SHELL!! SEAL THEM OUT!!

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The formation to which he is referring:

[GiedalCaine]

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Posting out of order to make sure I get one in

Flailing about with his hands, Doilin attempts to be rid of the monstrous things.

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(1d20+5)[9]
(1d3+1)[3]

[LordDice]

As the creatures continue to crawl all over him, his form starts to recover somewhat, still definitely not a clean transformation.

Seeing Sid looming over him, smashing and pulling them off him, a wave of relief fills him. Feeling a sense of protection and security through his bond with Sid, along with an odd note.

Almost like the magics he was trained to use by the old Stoneshapers he felt pattern for something coming right from Sid. Latching onto it he focuses on bring it into reality.

Shouting over the horde"I hope to hell this WORKS..."

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Just working towards that eventual realization his spells and power have been coming from Sid all along.

Spell cast is Mass Snake's Swiftness. Everyone in a 20ft Radius gets an attack, regardless of init order or other actions taken.

Sid's gonna keep attacking the ones on Karazi, or nearby.
Normal Attack (1d20+9)[16]
Damage (1d8+8)[9]

Possible Cleave
Attack (1d20+9)[20]
Damage (1d8+8)[15]

Snakes Swiftness Attack
Attack (1d20+9)[18]
Damage (1d8+8)[10]

[Mr. X]

All around, the struggling dwarves and men manage to get in that lucky shot that lets them escape their current bind... Slowly, shields come up and lock together. Those within helping others kill the creatures latched onto them, and assimilate them into the formation, eventually forming an impenetrable shell, bristling with pikes and Urgrosh spikes, that make short work of any of the buzzing creatures that attempt to squirm their way in...

Across the field, the army is taking heavy losses, but many groups are rallying to form similar formations. Before long, the field seems a mass of skittering crabs, as the sheild-shell structures work their way hither and thither to gather up those isolated whom can yet be saved.

Real progress is just beginning to be made, and the cloud of squamous creatures seems beginning to dissipate, when the city gates open...

... The goblins pour out by the thousands...

... Even so, it is not their countless numbers that causes your blood to chill, it is that which comes behind...

... A cancerous bag of flesh nearly as big as a small house, floating over the heads of the charging horde like some obscene balloon. Squirming tendrils hang off of it like strings of hair, its toothy maw large enough to swallow whole a horse (or as easily snap it it two), and a great, rolling, bloodshot eye is sunken in its center....

Somewhere far off, a horn sounds the retreat...

But then the eye falls upon you...

... Under its gaze, it is as though the fire goes out from the world. Every bit of active magic flickers and dies... Karazi morphs back into a dwarf, blood dripping from his ear, and Taalkar's crackling axe fizzles and goes silent, and Sid disappears, along with the forming connection to Karazi...

And then the hells are unleashed...

From one of the things squirming tendrils explodes a jet of greenish light that seers through a troop off to the right, slicing it in half, and reducing many of its men to clouds of ash...

Another stalk twists around, blasting another group with crackling black lightning...

... As it turns to survey the havoc it wrought, it is as though a tinder twig was struck, and your magics return... Sid reappears, Taalkar's Axe again dances with light, and Karazi's form calcifies into stony plates...

And yet the goblins surge forward... They'll be on you before long, but without a solid line, you cannot hope to hold them, much less outrun them...

And as long as that 'Eye' is out there, there any formation will be hopeless.

[LordDice]

Clutching at his chest and feeling the link reestablish with Sid squashes that overwhelming panic right away. Relief that he wasn't one hit by the deadly beam, that his magic is back and most importantly that Sid hadn't just been ...unmade.

The very thought leaves him queasy.

"Brother, I'll distract the great fleshy....THING. you get the cannons on it. It's our only hope"

Feeling at his magic he notes in the back of his mind, though still addled from the burrowing creature that the magic he feels is quite clearly flowing FROM Sid somehow.

It had always felt like it came from everywhere before...why the change, what had happened ?....thoughts for later.


Focusing himself amidst the chaos he reaches down to the trodden dirt below, foul creatures still skittering around his armor. Letting it slowly slip through his fingers it quickly starts to whip into a massive dust storm of sorts...coming together right on the giant fleshbag itself.

"Heh, no matter how big ya get. Someone can always throw some sand in yer eye"

[Barthac]

Taalkar scrabbles in pain on the ground. The piercing agony of his left eye blocking out most of the world. He bumps into another form on the ground. It's a dwarf, as still as the earth, with lumps and tentacles all over their body.

Taalkar sucks in a breath to calm himself and try and clear his head. Reaching out to the body next to him he tears a long strip of cloth of its cloak. Sitting up he gingerly ties the long strip over his left eye and around his head. He gingerly flicks the remaining tentacle from his face.

Blinking his remaining eye he tries to get a grasp on what's happening in the battle as he hears his brothers command. Glancing around he finds a discarded helmet and gently pulls it on without upsetting the makeshift bandage.

Standing up now, he runs for the cannons screaming, To arms, fools. Get up and blast that thing.

[Mr. X]

At Karazi's injuction, dust and dirt kick up in clouds around the monsterous eye, obscuring it from view for a moment, as Taalkar gathers a group of cannoneers to move, huddled under the cover of their shields, to re-establish the artillery...

The respite is short lived... Multiple blasts of light and energy explode forth from the dust cloud, directed seemingly at random, cutting through men and goblins alike, as the monsterous creature emerges from the dust cloud, blinking its great eye, and twisting around its tendrils and stalks to wipe away the dirt and grime... One narrow blast of abysmal black energy burns through your troop, narrowly missing Karazi as he flinches away, but catching Doilin squarely in the chest...

The dwarf convulses violently, and drops... Dead.

And yet the army remains divided into disparate groups, retreating in fits and starts under their shield cover, away from the onpouring horde...

For Doilin:

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Amidst the chaos of battle, of men screaming, the incessant buzzing, and the a screeching of the eye's blasts, you suddenly feel a jolt of freezing pain, and all goes quiet...

... You stand alone on the battlefield... Gray mists drifting across the scene of devestation, continually shifting to obscure some sights, while revealing others... The bodies of the fallen lie all around in broken and contorted heaps, here outside the walls of the Holy City, their lives ended before their time, much as those who fell within...

... And now you've joined them...

... You suddenly feel completely lost. What were you doing here? What madness led you to a battlefield when you still needed to find what you'd lost..?

She was lost... You can never find her...

Unless...

Unless she's here too...

...

You whirl around, searching the landscape, and find her standing just behind you...

Her dark hair hanging sodden in her face, she wears a flimsy white shift blowing gently in the wind...

... She is so small... So frail... You cannot immagine how she accomplished what she did in Beluvah... What you accomplished together...

... That has ended... And yet you have found each other, and may face the wonders of the afterlife together...

Running to her, you brush the hair from her face... The eyes that stare back at you are so hollow, so empty, that they wither your soul...

"... The Gods have no place for you, heretic..."

... You stagger back, appalled... It isn't her, it isn't Diana...

The girl lifts her head, a palpable power flowing off of her,

"... Any more than they have a place for me...

... Yet there remains much that needs doing... The Blight has risen again, and I shall not stand idly by to watch the world be consumed..."

She raises her hand, and lines of fire lick and burn the ground between you, sizzling and crackling, and forming a circular arcane sigil on the ground...

"... Seal your Pact with me, heretic. I shall fill those parts of you that are broken, and more, once we ride the waking world once more."

For Karazi and Taalkar:

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Taalkar, its going to take you a few actions to get for the cannon line.

Karazi, you still need to get the army to form up if you don't want to get overrun.

[LordDice]

Barging his way into the nearest Shell formation while Sid is flowing along the ground crushing Jellies where ever he can get them.

"Who's in charge in this formation ! Speak up. We need to start forming up. Get on the horn, the Cannons will be taking care of that monstosity in a few moments and we need to be ready to hold off the mass of goblins"

Smashing a Jelly under his boot heel as it tries to crawl up his leg. He looks around to see if anyone even heard him shouting orders.

[GiedalCaine]

Bewildered and amazed at this sudden turn, Doilin is unsure how to proceed. Standing outside the flow of time though does have its luxuries. Pondering the words of the enigmatic figure before him, he begins musing to himself.

'taint no vestige 've ever heard of, that's f'sure... some kinnda... flame spirit perhaps? Why did it make me think o' Diana? The hair.. ain't even right... Ahh.. what tha 'ell, I been failin' her in so many ways, if she's still alive, I owe it ta her to find any way I can ta get back to her.

Becoming exceedingly more decisive by the moment (though who can measure the eternities of being dead) Doilin begins to roar at the being before him.

Arright you vile thing, you temptress. You get me back inna that fight or on ta the next and we'll work together. You have my oath as a binder, you'll taste the world again and those monsters will taste my vengeance!