Chapter #1191
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+ THE ADVENTURERS +
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+ Epic VI +
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+ Many of the locations, non-player characters, spells, and other +
+ terms used in these stories are the property of Wizards of the Coast +
+ which has in no way endorsed or authorized their use. Any such +
+ property contained within these stories are not representative of +
+ Wizards of the Coast in any fashion. +
+ The player characters depicted in these stories are copyright +
+ 1991-2026 by Thomas A. Miller. Any resemblance to any persons +
+ or characters either real or fictional is utterly coincidental. +
+ Copying and/or distribution of these stories is permissible under +
+ the sole condition that no money is made in the process. In that +
+ case, I hope you enjoy them! +
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+ KEY ELEMENTS OF THE ALLIED FORCES +
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+ Mongo's army (~9000 soldiers from multiple kingdoms and lands) +
+ Mongo 20th level dwarven fighter +
+ Gorgo 10th level dwarven berserker +
+ Gorin 13th level dwarven fighter +
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+ Yod's army (~9200 dwarven warriors from the Lortmil Mountains) +
+ Yod Ironbeard 21st level dwarven fighter +
+ war-lizard mount (30' long, armored, and battle-trained) +
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+ forces of Geoff (~1000 soldiers and ~900 armed refugees) +
+ Stramburg commander of the Geoff refugees in in the Hornwood +
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+ wood elves of the Hornwood Forest (~1000 archers and infantry) +
+ Tassarion captain of the wood elven forces in the Hornwood +
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+ ASSISTANCE FROM THE BRIGHT LANDS +
+ Belphanior 18th/18th/18th level elven fighter/wizard/thief +
+ Hope 16th level female human wizard +
+ Poulos 8th level human fighter +
+ Irina 14th/7th level female human priestess/fighter +
+ Otto 12th/14th level dwarven fighter/thief +
+ Paige 13th level human female fighter +
+ Razor Charlie 12th level human fighter +
+ Skektek 14th level human wizard +
+ Ys 14th level reptilian fighter +
+ iron dwarf insane, armored berserker +
+ Parekh 18th level female human wizard, innovator +
+ Drak 15th level human barbarian +
+ Wu 18th level human wizard, transmuter +
+ 6 elite ogre magi +
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+ Date: 1/9/587 C.Y. (Common Year) +
+ Time: midmorning +
+ Place: Gorna, capital of Geoff, occupied by evil forces +
+ Climate: cold and windy +
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+ "It's time we showed everyone who would threaten the world just +
+ how much power they're dealing with. No more holding back." +
+ - Superman, from _Injustice_ +
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MCXCI. Tactics of Mass Destruction
The stage is set, and everything that has happened in the last week has
led to this: Gorna, former capital of the Duchy of Geoff which has been
populated by evil giants for years, now faces an attack from dual fronts.
To the south, a massive force approaches, this pair of armies comprised
of elements from numerous areas to the south and east which have united
to take back the Lost Lands and drive the savages from this once-great
region. And to the west, a force of men and elves, newly escaped from a
long entrapment within the Hornwood, moves to join the two larger armies
for an all-out assault on Gorna.
The plundered city's defenders had been augmented and organized by the
true ruler of the place, the renegade dark elven high priestess Eclavdra.
Having studied what she knew of the tactics her foes previously employed
at Istivin and the Stark Mounds, she now had multiple aerial elements in
place, ready to counter attacks from the sky - particularly from wizards
using mass-destruction magic. Her planning was solid, for there was no
way any foes could get through these defenses and into the palace without
a difficult fight.
Unfortunately for the drow priestess and her various forces, Belphanior
had taken a different approach when studying the problem of Gorna and how
to best recapture it. He and Parekh had talked a couple of days ago and
chosen to use the latter's magic to do some advance scouting...not just
any regular magical scouting, but something deeper and even more covert.
That discussion, two days past, had been quite productive...
Belphanior: I want to get a much closer look at Gorna and those who
wait within - but as stealthily as possible. (he folds his arms)
I mean _completely_ unseen and undetected.
Wu: Why so?
Belphanior: Well, obviously we need to get a better idea of exactly
what we'll be up against. It's safe to assume that those in Gorna
learned something from our retaking of Istivin, as well as the battle
just won in the Stark Mounds. (he frowns) In their shoes, I sure
would have learned from what came before. We have to assume they
have scouts, know our numbers, and know that we have two notable
dwarven generals, as well as multiple wizards who can bring powerful
magic to the battlefield.
Parekh: That's...worrisome. But not unexpected.
Belphanior: Nope. You just have to think about it the way they would.
They know there's magical help...but they don't know the full extent
or capabilities. And I have another idea for our attack, but first I
need to get closer and survey the area thoroughly. (he thinks for a
moment) And that will take some effort. I'll need to be invisible,
inaudible, completely unseen. Maybe an astral form.
Parekh: I may be able to help out here. I have a new spell I've been
waiting to try, and this is as good an opportunity as any.
Belphanior: I'm listening.
Parekh: So I got this idea after hearing Cespedes talk of how he sent
an immaterial image of himself to speak with the blue dragon Volte,
months ago. That image, or projection, or duplicate - whatever you
prefer to call it - could see and hear and speak but was otherwise
completely untouchable. At the time, Cespedes and I talked briefly
and he mentioned that making that spell more powerful, capable of
casting spells and such, would have been a lot more difficult. And
that got me thinking about doing the same thing but making it _less_
powerful - unable, say, to speak or communicate - but correspondingly
less difficult to implement. After that, I started tinkering with
the idea and the magic required, and eventually developed this new
spell, which I'm tentatively calling "Impalpable Spy."
Belphanior: Hmm.
Parekh: (frowns) It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?
Belphanior: Not particularly.
Parekh: The name doesn't matter. What does matter is the nature of
this spell and what it summons...a completely invisible, intangible
eye with multiple powerful wards against detection. It can travel
great distances and gaze upon things, and from here I can see what
it sees. Better yet, since it's only the size of a normal eye, it
can fit through window bars, under some doors, through cracks in
walls, and so on.
Wu: No hearing?
Parekh: (shakes her head) No hearing, no talking, nothing like that.
Merely enabling one of the five senses while still keeping the thing
virtually undetectable was a challenge. (she smirks) A challenge
which I overcame in the end.
Belphanior: So this spell will let you see the city, specifically the
royal palace, in great detail as the eye moves about...all without
being seen?
Parekh: (nods) Unless it gets caught. Which would probably mean a
rather powerful spellcaster or creature, or perhaps a god.
Belphanior: Let's hope they don't have a god on their side. Although
if they did, they wouldn't be using hobgoblins and giants to hold
the lands they took.
Parekh: One way to reduce or perhaps avoid any risk is simply to pay
full attention to what I'm seeing as the eye moves about...basically
be overly careful.
Belphanior: Agreed. So can you deploy this thing right away?
Parekh: I can.
Belphanior: Good. I'd suggest as soon as possible, maybe even during
the daytime since they'll be a little less careful then.
Wu: Why so?
Belphanior: In the daytime, their sentries can see our army coming a
league away, same for any airborne scouts. If I were them, I'd be
much more alert at night.
Parekh: You haven't explained what you're looking for exactly...I'm
assuming it's more than just the number, type, and location of foes
in Gorna?
Belphanior: You assume correctly. What I'm most interested in here
is verification that there are no prisoners or servants in that royal
palace. That's the general sentiment, but I'd like to be sure.
Wu: And if so, what then?
Belphanior: One step at a time. Let's make sure first.
Belphanior had figured this was a win, no matter what happened. If
the magical eye was able to travel through the city, and the palace,
without being detected, then they would obtain details of the defenses
and could also confirm what the elf wanted to know. And if the thing
did get caught, then they would at least know that one of the foes in
Gorna possessed potent abilities of detection.
By the end of the next day, and still one day before they'd reach
Gorna, the powerful magical scout had gone out and returned, and the
answer was known: at every window the eye had peered into, in every
room it had passed through, there were only foes. Whether fomorians,
ogres, hobgoblins, dark elves, or mercenary adventurers...all of them
were hostiles and enemies. Not a single prisoner was in evidence in
the entire palace, as best could be discerned...though the remains of
prisoners were evident in numerous places in both the city and its
central palace. The wizards had gotten together again for a brief
followup discussion...
Belphanior: Dark elves. Hmm.
Parekh: (nods) I had to be careful around those...I avoided getting
anywhere close. It was a lot easier in the parts of the palace that
held giants - basically all of it save the top few floors. While the
beasts might have noticed any normal spy in the area, mine went
completely undetected....and I'll consider this new spell a success.
Anyhow, there were no signs of any prisoners, slaves, or such. In
fact, as far as I could tell, the giants have now taken to eating the
hobgoblins when they get hungry.
Wu: Maybe we should wait another month to attack...reduce their force.
(he cackles at his own joke)
Belphanior: Heh.
Parekh: So why are you so concerned about prisoners, or lack thereof?
They wouldn't have been of any real help as allies even if there were
some around, and if we somehow got them armed...not with giants and
such everywhere.
Belphanior: You're thinking in terms of addition...but I'm thinking in
terms of subtraction.
Parekh: (looks puzzled)
Belphanior: The impact of prisoners is far, far greater if they're NOT
there.
Parekh: Why is that?
Belphanior: (smiles thinly) Because if there aren't any innocents or
friendlies to worry about, then there's no reason we can't simply
destroy the entire palace as opposed to going room to room, floor to
floor, to retake it.
Wu: Ohhhhhhh.
Late in the morning, the armies from the south finally came into view
of the city's defenders. It was a magnificent, if ominous, sight: the
wall of dwarves and men was wide enough that it moved around to both sides
as it advanced, eventually encircling Gorna completely. At the same time
this was happening, the force from the Hornwood - much smaller but just
as experienced and motivated - advanced from the west, helping complete
the effort to surround the city. The giants and humanoids within had
been directed not to go forth and engage the attackers in the open, but
rather to meet them within the city - where they had the advantage of
familiarity, and which also meant the foes would have to fight their way
into Gorna in the first place. Every wall was manned by defenders with
bows, spears, pots of boiling oil, even stones. The gaps in the city's
outer wall - and there were many due to its initial sacking followed by
years of neglect - were filled with ranks of massive fomorian giants,
behind which waited large numbers of hobgoblins, and smaller numbers of
ettins, trolls, and ogres. Many of these defensive positions also had
a wizard of some ability, to provide magical support. Eclavdra had made
sure that concentrated groups of powerful defenders blocked each break in
the city's wall. She had also held back significant forces to defend
the palace itself from a ground-based attack. And of course there were
multiple spellcasters and flying creatures at the top of the palace, all
ready and fully able to contend with any aerial foes who might approach.
She had also had her subordinate drow priestesses prepare foul, highly
potent magical concoctions, which had been loaded into the handful of
serviceable catapults that remained in the city. Once the war engines
launched these vile payloads into the ranks of the attacking armies,
those foes would quickly find themselves overcome with a combination of
sicknesses and diseases which would fell large numbers of their ranks.
Other drow wizards were ready to bombard the attacking force with huge
fireballs, massive lightning bolts, and cohesive swarms of writhing
black tentacles that would aggressively entrap and crush anything they
touched. All in all, Eclavdra had planned layer after layer of tactics
to counterattack against the surrounding armies, and done everything
necessary for her forces to be able to stop both a conventional offense
and the sorts of unconventional magical ones that had contributed to the
fall of Istivin and the defeat of the giants in the Stark Mounds.
What the dark elven priestess hadn't expected - what no one had any
reason to expect - was the gigantic portal that suddenly opened more than
a thousand feet above the roof of Gorna's royal palace. Almost a hundred
feet wide, this hole in space was linked to another such portal many
leagues away, within the Bright Desert's Brass Hills, that second portal
positioned just below the edge of a wide plateau, atop which a massive
boulder had rested undisturbed for countless years...until now, when a
large volume of the rock beneath it was disintegrated or turned into mud.
It would have taken a hundred giants to push the gigantic chunk of rock
(which was perhaps eighty feet across and roughly spherical in shape)
over the cliff's edge, but it was much easier to just remove the material
underneath and let gravity do the work. Belphanior had been formulating
this basic idea ever since spotting the lone colossal boulder months ago
while flying over the hills on some errand. He'd figured that, with
Pallin's help on the far end and Parekh's help on this end (facilitated
by the sharing of one of Pallin's unique spells focused on portals and
the transporting of things through them) it might be possible to move the
immense boulder elsewhere.
Having it emerge a thousand feet above a target was both a creative
touch and an overwhelmingly destructive one.
Eclavdra: (standing on the roof of the palace, protected from the sun's
harmful effects by one of those magical cloaks, she peers upward at the
yawning portal in the sky far above) Now what manner of foe are they
thinking to send through _that_?
At first, it was impossible to make out the exact nature of the black
speck far above...was it a demon? A dragon? The dark elven priestess,
as well as every wizard on the rooftop with her, already had protective
magic employed on their persons, to give them more advantages in whatever
battle lay ahead. Projectiles, blows, and various sorts of magic attacks
would be turned back, and they would have extra speed, strength, spells,
and so on for this conflict. However, as the dark object above rapidly
neared and grew in size, those below understood far too late that it was
no living foe that was dropping from above...not at all.
Eclavdra: (eyes wide, she curses profusely in her native dark elven
tongue as she quickly, desperately weighs her options)
Moments after that, the gigantic ball of rock smashed into the roof of
the royal palace, obliterating the topmost floors and everything within.
Debris was ejected outward in a nearly-horizontal disk, flying hundreds
of feet through the air in all directions, to eventually rain down on the
city below. A few levels of stonework, thick and well-built as they had
been, were nowhere near enough to stop the huge boulder, and it plowed
downward with unbelievable force, violently demolishing floors and walls
as it went. Anyone within the downward path of destruction was crushed
into a bloody pulp amidst the rubble, which was now itself falling in the
wake of the boulder. For any standing outside of the palace - including
all the evil defenders in the city proper as well as the assembled armies
surrounding Gorna - the overall spectacle was one they would never forget
for as long as they lived. The gigantic boulder's impact with the top of
the palace was seen and then heard moments later, followed by the collapse
of the structure floor by floor. The deafening sound of shattering stone
and snapping columns resounded throughout the entire city and across the
surrounding plains, and was audible from as far as a league away.
In a matter of moments (moments that felt like much longer) the royal
palace was simply...gone. A massive pile of rubble and debris rested in
its place, from which an immense cloud of dust continued to issue.
Belphanior: And _now_ we attack.
next: fallout
map: http://www.peldor.com/world/atlas/bright_desert_1156.jpg
www: http://www.peldor.com/download.html
homepage: http://www.peldor.com/
email: tmiller@peldor.com
released: 1/9/2026
notes: I was originally thinking about somehow employing Mongo's
earthquake horn in the base of the palace to achieve the same effect,
but then I came up with this idea, which seemed more fun. For the
record, I'm no military historian or expert; in situations like these
I just consider the good guys and the bad guys, try and think through
what both sides can/should do, sometimes sprinkle in some bit of
tactical brilliance that's floating somewhere in my mind...and the
result is an episode like this. Such episodes are never perfect, but
they are, I think, a damn good effort to entertain you while sticking
with the canon of my version of Oerth and its events, and the hundreds
of notable individuals who have appeared in my past work.
For those not intimately familiar with the AD&D of the 1980s or the
World of Greyhawk, Eclavdra is a major powerful player - and servant
of various evil deities at different times. In fact, her history was
so complicated that I had to research it. She pops up in all of the
following places, in this order:
- G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King
- D3 Vault of the Drow
- Gary Gygax' Gord the Rogue books (which may or may not be canon)
- WGR5 Iuz the Evil
One sage you can consult on this and many, many other Greyhawk topics
is Joe Bloch aka the Greyhawk Grognard. He has tons of Youtube videos
and a blog, and also writes his own adventures and sourcebooks. As an
example, his video on the topic of Eclavdra can be found at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geSOh7etSRg
Once again I'll remind everyone that the events of this story arc
took place in the southwestern area of the continent, specifically
http://peldor.com/world/wog/map13.html
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