In reply to Morteft (msg # 25):


Morteft begins to fly towards the misty mage in the background, taking care to circle around the troll king.  With his true sight he can't get any details on the mist, other than it is misty.  He thinks he sees an outline of a head but no body.  Aztar is able to release the invisible homonculus near the mage and Morteft can see it fly behind the mage.
   The homonculus swings the Rod at the mist and in the blink of an eye something like a misty hand forms and grabs the Rod of Cancellation and the Rods magic is cancelled!  The rod is pulled from the homonculus, is spun deftly and smacks down on top of the small creature which then plummets to the ground.  Morteft feels a twinge of pain but less then he would expect if the homonculus was dead; however it does lie motionless.  The troll mage smiles.

It seems Aztar is correct the mist is at least semi-sentient, a familiar perhaps.

OOC: I think that's it for everyone.

The troll army is at the crater center. You'll almost have a full round before they get to you, Shorty, Art and Megavolt that is.

Actions?

--DM2

In reply to Aztar (msg # 29):

"Ain't going to happen, lad.  We underestimated them and overestimated ourselves."

In reply to Warwick (msg # 31):

OOC:.  I need a GM response before going any further.  So don't plow to fast.  Shorty has to make a decision and his brain has a very old processor....

In reply to Warwick (msg # 31):

Artharlian: "Just remember all the traps we've laid once they get to our side.  Me and MegaVolt will make a large swath."  MegaVolt pulses as if in response."

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 33):

"Aye, but we lost our dragon and we'd be hard pressed to take just the troll army and it's support troops without the king."

In reply to Warwick (msg # 34):

Warwick puts the hammer away and hefts his axe once more.  He looks at Krull closing the distance and flies up into the air to meet him.  Just before they join, Warwick activates his enhanced strength.

In reply to Warwick (msg # 35):

Shorty slowlty sheaths the troll slayer over his shoulder and moves the black blade to the hand without the gauntlet.  The blade tip moves to point at the mage.

In reply to Shorty (msg # 36):

OOC: We will wait on Morteft's reply then we'll go forward.

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 37):

OOC: Sorry all...I some how missed the post about the mist and the rod. Not good.

Morteft will go ahead and hit the mist with the disintegrate to see if that will work against it. His target isn't the mage, but the mist creature.

In reply to Morteft (msg # 38):

OOC: I'll try to put all this in 1 post, paragraphs will separate individual battles

The troll army crosses the center and into the magic zone, which they don't necessarily notice as they rush forward and probably have no magic.  Once about 20' in,  about 3 ranks the trap spells go off.  Many spells of no more than medium power erupt as if they were several ranks higher, bits of troll go every where.  It doesn't significantly reduce their number but has injured dozens.  This mainly happened in the middle as the trolls are spread out a couple hundred feet end to end.  Your army stops retreating and launches arrows into the trolls and the mages launch Fireballs into the trolls with significant effect.  Artharlian and MegaVolt launch their own attacks, a Flame Strike from Art and a searing beam of energy from MV, removing some trolls from the front.

In the air Warwick intercepts Krull for a battle in the air.  "Prepare for pain." Krull growls.  Krull has a solid hit on Warwick for 19 points of damage.  Warwick in turn strikes Krull doing some damage.  Warwick can tell that Krull is a very strong opponent.

Morteft casts a spell and a dull green beam leaps from his finger towards the mist of the mage but the spell seems to dissipate when it strikes the mist.  The mage looks towards Morteft and casts his spell.  Crackling bolts a black energy shoot forth towards Morteft, save vs magic.

Shorty points his big black sword at the mage and then vanishes only to reappear behind the mage.  He makes a grab for the mage, blank gauntlet leading to grab the chin of the mage.  With the speed of lightning the mist intervenes itself between the two.  Shorty's glove enters the mist which seemingly rips it off Shorty's hand and let's it fall to the ground!  Shorty is momentarily shocked by these events, as one, the glove that couldn't come off is off and two, he is hit by a surge of electricity - 20 pts.

Aztar opens his portal to release something green behind the 5 tall warrior trolls.  There is some frantic movement with the last two trolls in the V and a few moments later all is normal again.  What Aztar sees is the green blob hit the intended target, the frantic exchange ends with the target kneeling, touching the ground and then his head and the results is the green blob turning to dark ash.  The individual then removes his helmet revealing a troll, probably a teenager in human terms.

As the troll army crossed into the magic side and the trap spells exploded, the noise of this momentarily caught the attention of Joe.  He stood up holding a nice size chunk of rock, roughly a 1 foot diameter ball.  "Hey here is a nice piece."  He looks up to see the trolls closing in on him.  The next sequence of events Aztar has seen before. Joe starts to yell at the trolls as he does so a faint green glow emanates around him.  He puts out his hand as if to say stop; which would have been a wise move for the trolls.
    From his hands and eyes green flares of energy spring out in a cone like pattern.  These strike the trolls ranks.  The first row of trolls, in a 20 foot width, almost evaporates, the lucky ones.  The flares continue on and widen striking the next three ranks of trolls.  The trolls are left in various states, burned to a crisp, literally falling apart, stumps of limbs, smoldering and all still alive seem blind.  Twelve trolls in all die with 15 more left incapacitated.  The troll surge on that side comes to a halt, too stunned to move.  The troll king saw this out of the corner of his eye and causes his Fireball to go wide, doing minimal damage.  "By all the Nine Hells."


Actions?

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 39):

Shorty responds instictively to actions beyond his mental capacity.  he reaches to his belt and flips the cap off of the ever smoking bottle and grabs to flask next to it.  He pops the cap off of it as well and yells fire <rolled a 20 save vs spell to remember activation word>.  The decanter fires off a 20 foot stream of water at the dark mist as Shorty sinks into the smoke to hide.

OOC:  Where is Warwick's fire elemental?  Nearby?  Or is it causing damage somewhere beyond their site?

Warwick laughs. "Speck, dwarves live a life of pain.  That's how we know we're alive!"  He hopes the ioun stone will heal some of his wounds.  He attacks once more.

OOC: Made my save.

Morteft sighs. "Ok, let's try something different."

He reads a scroll and flies up toward the mage.

OOC: the scroll with anti-magic shell on it. He is going to fly close enough that the trolls magics are cancelled out.

In reply to Warwick (msg # 41):

The Fire Elemental is below you, fighting with Art and MV.

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 43):

Okay, thanks.  Can fire elementals fly?

In reply to Warwick (msg # 44):

No flying ability.  They are bound by local gravity.

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 45):

Morteft says, "Shorty, follow my lead, but stay near the ground."

He flies toward the wizard.

In reply to Warwick (msg # 44):


The middle and right troll sections continue to move forward while the left flank still is unsure what to do about Joe.  Art, MegaVolt and the fire elemental are causing havoc but the trolls are not really stopping to engage; but going forward to try to engage the rest of the Calator force.  The Calator mages launch more Fireballs and lightning spells; but the trolls keep coming.  The archers launch their arrows causing some damage.  Then you see 3 more positrons appear near Art and Megavolt, not as large as MV but still about 3-4' in diameter.

Warwick and Krull continue to battle and it appears Krull may have the upper hand.  Krull swings his large bright blade, hitting twice, with the second strike he feels a jolt of electricity.  The two strikes cause 31 damage + 15 electrical for 46 points total. Warwick is able to respond with 1 hit doing some damage (he had 2 attacks).

The king ignores the Calator army for now, as he focuses on Joe.  He yells at his forces on that side.  "Fools, continue forward, it's just a puny human."  they move forward at a walking pace.  The king casts a Lightning Bolt at Joe.  The large lightning bolt strikes him and the energy sizzles and crackles around him; but he just stands there and a moment later the energy is gone.  The king yells 'WHAT in Gargaragoths name!' Again the trolls stop, the anger again flares up in Joe as he glows bright, still holding to the rock, green energy erupts from him again.  Trolls disappear in a flash, others are burned mortally as others are seriously injured.  A total of 10 die while another 12 are dying or wounded.  The trolls scramble away from Joe, none truly retreat, just make wide arcs around him.  The glowing around him subsides.

Morteft and Shorty are engaging the mage and mist.  Shorty release smoke and a powerful stream of water which pushes the mage and his mist about fifty feet away.  This causes Morteft to re-direct his path.  The mage seems unhurt but not very pleased.  Morteft continues toward the mage with a scroll in hand.  Shorty comes to of the smoke cloud flying below Morteft.  The troll mage recovers from the spray that Shorty gave him.  Morteft closes in and finishes the spell nearby as the mage prepares an attack.  Suddenly they both begin to fall, they are about 75' in the air.  After dropping about halfway, the mage and the mist stop - Morteft continues to fall while Shorty is nearby.

Actions?

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 47):

Warwick casts sanctuary, hoping that it'll work and give him a chance to recover.  If it doesn't, Warwick will attempt to fly closer to Joe.

Shorty rises back out of the cloud of smoke heading towards the mist creature.  This time he intends that nothing but blade enter the creature.

In reply to Warwick (msg # 48):

In reply to Shorty (msg # 49):

Morteft will cancel his anti-magic shell and try to fly upward in order to avoid hitting the ground or minimize his crash into it.

He broadcasts to Warwick, *Pass on to Aztar...we need to hit him with something he hasn't seen before. That cloud is adaptive so we have a very small window to actually affect him. I am thinking of exploding my staff. It would likely obliterate him since he wouldn't have a chance to adapt to the energy. However, you need to tell Shorty to back off. I will do that unless we can think of another way to take him out.*

In reply to Morteft (msg # 50):

Warwick relays the messages to Aztar and then Shorty.

Shorty changes his In reply to Warwick (msg # 51):

Shorty changes his direction of flight heading towards Warwick.  Shorty raises his voice to get the attention of Warwick's opponent.  "Shorty comin little boy.  Ready fer me to gives woppin?  Np running way dis time cause daddy king be watchin.  Me bets you so scairt rights now, but Shorty fix you good."  Shorty waves his blades and laughs.

In reply to Shorty (msg # 52):

OOC: This will almost be a transition round as no one is close enough to get to their opponent this round.


Morteft is able to cancel his spell and pull out of the fall mostly just in time, he hits the ground as if he fell 12'; but he is able to absorb some of that and takes 3pts of damage.  He then begins his ascent back towards the misty mage, approx 50' above him.

After picking up his fallen glove and putting back on, Shorty heads towards Krull, about 120' away.  Krull on the other hand is taking a small break and seems to allow Warwick to cast his spell uncontested.  He notices the ogre bullet coming towards him and smiles a large grin, he even extends a hand and urges him onward.  Warwick now waits about 20' feet away, still in the air.

The king believing that the biggest threat on the battlefield is some guy named Joe, pulls out both of his swords and then vanishes, to reappear about 10' in front and 20' above the Joe.  The mages would guess there is some wildness about this place when it comes to teleporting.  The king drops to be in front of Joe and he towers above the man.  The kings swords are obviously strengthened by this zone as their emanations of heat and cold enlarge.  Joe doesn't seem scared he just extends a hand toward the king.

Te main troll army and your army are almost fully engaged, the mages casting spells into the troll ranks, clerics trying to keep them safe and healed.  Art the fire elemental and the 4 positrons go to meet the forces that have made a strategic circumventing of Joe.

When Shorty crosses into the magic zone again, after crossing the midline of the crater he is met by a hail of, well , hail.  Take 37 points, save for 19 points at +2.
Morteft saw that the misty mage cast the spell.


OOC: Next, hell 2 breaks loose

Actions?

--DM2

In reply to Ron, The DM (msg # 53):

Morteft sighs and says, "I suppose there is no choice. Well, my companions. I wish you luck in the battle ahead and I hope I am doing the thing that will help you all."

He flies toward the wizard. He gets close and casts disintegrate...directing it into his staff and absorbing the power of the spell.