In anticipation of the great wyrm’s escape from the maze at any moment, Indigo cast protection from energy (cold) on himself and Green Arrow. Firiona and Green Arrow hovered, eyeing the maze. But then something unexpected occurred. Haxiasssskaash . . . suddenly disappeared!
"What!" exclaimed Green Arrow. "Where did he go!" Firiona didn’t have a good answer to that question. The elven archer held position and kept multishot at the now-empty maze, in case the dragon suddenly returned. Edward held, likewise readying an attack
Across the battlefield, Lina landed, then shapechanged into an iron golem. Firiona, having waited for Lina to act, then cast an admixed maximized scorching ray, which Lina intentionally failed to evade! The fire damage actually healed Lina in golem form!
Before the city gate, the horde of undead raced toward the city. Gordian ran toward the city as well, trying to head off the undead horde.
Now the Stone Giant King, Undurr the Mighty, bellowed from the back of his charging mammoth mount, "Chalons! I have come for you!" The ettin still ran along beside him. But now, Edward could see that Undurr was no longer alone atop the mammoth. Behind him, the paladin spotted a sinister figure suddenly become visible. A tall, gaunt, emaciated male humanoid, wearing a silver hooded robe with a goat-horn headdress and wielding a black, skull-tipped wand. Edward’s knowledge of religion, augmented by terrifying personal experience, told him at once who was racing toward the defenders: a Skull of Orcus!
Before Undurr could reach the city gates, Ardaric landed on the battlefield and raced toward him, hammer in hand. "You will never enter my city!" the venerable warrior vowed to himself. The flying wedge vanguard, however, had other ideas. They pulled out more rocks from their bags and hurled them at the city walls. Softening stones! They struck the city gate with tremendous force. Then their magic activated, weakening the very structure of the gate and the adjoining walls. The gate was wrecked! The city was now wide open!
The agonized screams of Fulk continued and grew, as the stricken cleric writhed about on the ground before the city.
Elana reached Indigo, and healed the airborne druid of major damage that the dragon had inflicted on him. He quickly flew back toward the battlefield.
The threat situation had changed. Green Arrow switched focus. He loosed a volley of arrows at Undurr, doing heavy damage. On the battlefield below, Lina held for Firiona, who reverted to solar form, then dimension door ’d with Lina to the ettin’s position on the battlefield. Lina, still in iron golem form, breathed a poisonous gas cloud at the two-headed giant, then attacked the giant, seriously wounding him! The giant managed to avoid the effects of the gas cloud, then struck back at Firiona, but missed.
"Gorg! Take her!" Undurr shouted at the two-headed giant. Unexpectedly, the giant then cast dimension door, trying to reposition himself. "Two-headed casting?" thought Firiona to herself. "Not good."
The undead horde continued its charge toward the city. Gordian reached the city gate and entered the city, heading them off.
To the astonishment of the city defenders, and the adventurers, Undurr, on his mammoth mount, suddenly took flight! Now airborne, he cast acid swarm at Edward, Green Arrow and Indigo! Edward and Green Arrow suffered severe damage, but Indigo managed to evade the corrosive bursts. But as the flying pachyderm passed over more piles of corpses, Undurr’s passenger uttered dark words and gestured with his skull-tipped wand. Instantly, still more of the dead were reanimated and began to run toward the city!
Descending from the air over the battlefield, Ardaric, gripped his hammer, and raced toward Undurr from below. But the sirrush, in turn, fangs bared, charged toward Ardaric.
The stone giant vanguard hurled rocks upward at Edward. Five of them hit, one smashing the paladin’s arm for critical damage! Then, amazingly, the rocks returned to their hurlers! "They have returning rocks!" exclaimed the paladin.
An even more disturbing, and horrible, sight awaited the airborne adventurers. Fulk’s agonized writhing reached a climax, and then, with a horrible tearing sound, the stricken cleric’s body burst! From his exploded abdomen, hundreds of hideous worms, spiders, leeches and other vermin erupted and scattered over the surrounding battlefield.
The fighting raged within the city. Realizing a powerful ally was needed, Arimir gated in a wyrm gold dragon to assist with the defense of the city. Elana flew back into the city to rejoin Arimir.
Seeing Ardaric below, Indigo flew at high speed toward him. Edward also flew to join Ardaric. As he flew by, he Green Arrow, "Shoot me!" Green Arrow shot five cure critical arrows at Edward, restoring the wounded paladin closer to full strength.
The healing came just in time. From the back of the flying pachyderm, Undurr pointed his fingers at Indigo, Edward and Ardaric. A prismatic spray leaped from his hand and struck the three adventurers. Suddenly, Indigo vanished, stricken by a violet ray! Edward found his vigor severely drained by a green ray. Ardaric was likewise drained.
The giant king then landed, ready for battle. His mount, however, remained airborne and flew straight at Green Arrow. And the elven archer felt yet another unseen, clawed hand touch him, and again sensed that his scarab had protected him from the assailant’s touch.
From the mammoth’s back, the skull of Orcus attempted to cast energy ebb at Green Arrow. "Get him, Hulagu!" cried Undurr. But the necromancer failed to damage him.
Maneuvering about, the mammoth returned and tried to gore the elven archer. Green Arrow evaded the tusks of the flying beast. But the evil cleric pointed at Green Arrow, and suddenly a surging beam of black and red fluid arced from his fingers to strike the adventurer
Green Arrow doubled up in pain from the impact of the sickly stream.
Below on the battlefield, the newly-animated undead continued racing toward the city. The stone giant fighters now hurled their returning rocks at Firiona and Lina. Firiona avoided the massive projectiles, but Lina was stricken for serious damage to her iron golem form. But Firiona repeated the trick of hitting Lina with a quickened fireball, then with her scorching ray wand, to heal Lina-golem.
Revived once again, Lina assaulted Gorg, battering the ettin with three massive blows from her iron fists. Two blows connected with the giant’s two heads, fracturing both skulls. Gorg fell to the battlefield, stone dead!
Ardaric raged toward the stone giant king and bellowed, "Undurr Stoneskin, today you meet your doom!" The old man landed a mighty blow, but the hammer failed to strike the giant dead. Nearby, the sirrush suddenly changed its target, and pounced on Edward. The paladin suffered severe wounds!
But Edward chose to ignore the sirrush, and instead advanced on Undurr. Three heavy blows rocked the giant. "Leave this place!" demanded the paladin, as Green Arrow, firing from above, shot more healing arrows at him.
Undurr roared in reply. "Retreat? In the hour of my greatest triumph?! Never!!" The mighty stone giant then rained heavy blows down on Ardaric and prepared to engage Edward. With his last strength, the venerable warrior hurled the hammer of thunderbolts to Edward! "Save my city!" the dying fighter gasped, then fell senseless to the ground.
As the undead hordes kept racing toward the city, the stone giant fighters hurled their returning rocks at Lina again, and again did heavy damage to the adventurer. Seeing the threats to her sister, Firiona cast displacement on herself, then raced toward the stone giant fighters assailing her. Lina shapechagned again, taking solar form. She cast displacement on herself and flew to join up with Firiona.
Back on the battlefield, the sirrush flanked Edward. The huge fangs and vicious claws of the strange beast mauled the mighty paladin for huge damage! But Edward shrugged off the creature’s attack, for he had a more important target. Wielding the hammer the dying Ardaric had entrusted to him, the paladin assaulted the stone giant king. Undurr’s sneer of defiance turned to fear!
With all his strength, Edward brought the hammer crashing down on the giant in one massive blow. Undurr screamed in pain. He gasped, "You . . . only wounded me," as he dropped to the battlefield. But no mere wound had brought the giant king down. This wound was mortal. And Undurr Stoneskin, king, elemental savant, sorcerer, terror of the mountains, breathed his last.
For a moment, Edward looked down at his fallen foe. Then he turned his attention to the sirrush that still threatened him. The strange beast evaded his attacks.
From where he hovered above, Green Arrow fired five more healing arrows at Edward, bringing him back closer to full strength. But the sirrush’s next attack almost wiped out the benefit of Green Arrow’s healing, and severely wounded the paladin again. Edward dropped the hammer, pulled out his sword and struck back at the sirrush, wounding it twice. Yet still the steely-scaled creature continued to maul Edward for major damage!
Meanwhile, the stone giant fighters kept up the battle with Lina and Firiona, some hurling rocks, others trying to grapple the women. All their attacks went amiss. Not so Firiona. She cast her favorite prismatic spray at the giant fighters, wounding four, draining one of vigor, and sending one to the Elemental Plane of Fire! Lina cast the same spell, missing one, wounding four and driving two more insane. The giants retaliated with another hail of returning rocks, yet only one rock hit for minor damage. Two more prismatic sprays drained three giants of vigor, wounded another, and sent two to the plane of Arborea and one to the plane of Gehenna!
As the women fought the giants, Ardaric still lay inert on the battlefield, bleeding. He was fading fast.
In the air overhead, the flying mammoth tried to gore Green Arrow again, but missed. Hulagu shrieked and cast writhing ruin at Green Arrow, the same fell spell that had destroyed Fulk. Green Arrow lost more vigor and was assailed by nausea! As he drifted in the air, toward Edward, the airborne pachyderm succeeded in goring the elven archer for heavy damage.
Seeing his foe almost helpless, Hulagu shrieked and sent another stream of red and black fluid at Green Arrow. Another searing seed! The elven archer fell to the ground, subdued and unconscious.
Meanwhile, as battle continued to rage inside the city walls, the defenders heard a rush of air above their heads, and looked up. Suddenly, the red-eyed great wyrm reappeared above the city! Arimir sped toward the fell dragon’s position. But Haxiasssskaash confronted the nearby city defenders and, true to his avaricious draconic nature, demanded to be shown the location of the city treasury! Exerting his draconic charm, he persuaded one of the defending citizens to lead him to his desire.
And as the great white wyrm reappeared, so did the frost worm! It burst up through the main city street, and tore a swath of destruction through the heart of the city. But the woes of the city were to increase yet again, for now the undead hordes stormed through the broken gates into the city! Arimir and Elana turned to defend against the undead hordes, along with the gold dragon, but even they were hard pressed.
The mighty white dragon reached the city treasury. He immediately broke down the doors of the building, which were no match for the Father of White Dragons! The dragon began to plunder the city’s stored wealth.
As he did so, battle continued to rage throughout the city. Mobs of undead orcs, goblins and hobgoblins raged. The frost worm tore through buildings already weakened by the earthquake assault of the stone giant fighters’ rocks. Arimir and Elana did what they could to defend and to rally the surviving city troops, but had small success against the might of the frost worm.
But suddenly, some of the undead attackers turned and began to run from the battle within the city and toward the main gates! Gordian, the city cleric, had returned to the fight and channeled the power of Kord against the evil undead. He raised his holy symbol again and again, and still more of the undead turned and fled. At last, Gordian breathed a heavy sigh of relief. All of the undead invaders had been turned.
Yet, the battle was far from over, for the frost worm continued its rampage through the city. And now, Haxiasssskaash, having temporarily sated his lust for treasure, returned to the battle, striking from above at Arimir and Elana and wounding them heavily.
"Hold fast!" cried Gordian to the two adventurers. He then raced to the city’s main temple. If he could locate a certain scroll within the temple, the city might yet be saved.
As Gordian began his search, Edward and the sirrush continued their struggle. Edward stepped back and laid hands on himself, restoring himself close to full strength. But the sirrush hit Edward again, undoing much of the healing! The paladin pressed his assault, landing three huge blows and one critical hit that almost brought the beast down!
The stone giant fighters continued battling with Firiona and Lina. Some hit for minor damage. Even the Insane giants joined in the attack. Firiona tried to cast a spell, but failed
Lina cast another prismatic spray, which wounded three of the giant fighters and sent another to the plane of Arborea. Still the giants kept up their attack. Two hit the women, but did only minor damage. The insane giants, though, left the melee and fell to babbling.
All the while, Green Arrow lay unconscious on the battlefield. Ardaric lay almost dead, still bleeding profusely.
Firiona saw Edward engaged with the sirrush. "Time to switch," she thought to herself as she used her wand of greater invisibility, then flew toward Edward. Lina did the same, but headed for Green Arrow.
Overhead, the flying mammoth hovered, bewildered after the loss of its master. Hulagu suffered from no such confusion. The skull flew down to Green Arrow, leveled his staff of power at the inert archer, and intended to blast him with a cone of cold and finish him off. To his dismay, the spell failed! He hadn’t counted on Green Arrow’s magical protection against cold. So, he changed tactics. He reached out and touched the elven archer with night’s caress. The spell severely wounded the helpless Green Arrow. Not to be outdone, the flying mammoth landed next to the elf and gored him for even more damage. Green Arrow remained defenseless.
With malicious glee, Hulagu cast the same spell again, striking Green Arrow for even more damage. And now, a small figure became visible. A quasit, perched on Hulagu’s shoulder! The demon familiar piled on to Green Arrow’s injuries with a small scratch of its own. "A fine hit, Scratch!" cried Hulagu. The elven archer had been pushed to the brink of death.
Racing to Green Arrow’s inert form, Lina tried to distract Hulagu with a feeblemind spell, but the spell failed to affect him. She then flew back and up 150 feet into the air and readied her next move.
Hulagu looked up at Lina. "Foolish girl!" he sneered. "Do not come between the Skull and his prey!" With that, he cast greater dispel magic at her. Suddenly, her displacement and greater invisibility spells were removed from her. She flew back and up, further away from the skull, then cast greater dispel magic back at him. It failed to affect him. But it also caught the flying mammoth and negated the pachyderm’s flying ability. It abruptly plummeted to the ground and landed with a thud!
Farther away, near Edward, Ardaric also lay helpless, and was almost at the point of expiration. But his fierce spirit was not ready to depart. Summoning his last strength, the valiant fighter rallied and stabilized!
Across the battlefield, the sirrush fell back, taking opportunistic damage, but then roared! Edward and Firiona were stunned by the force of the creature’s roar! The sirrush, seeing his antagonist stunned, now sensibly decided to run away from the battle and escape with its life
Meanwhile, the stone giant fighters took advantage of Firiona’s and Lina’s absence and ran toward the open city gates, eager to join in the plunder of the city! All of them charged ahead, but for their insane comrades, who chose this moment to attack their own allies.
As Edward and Firiona stood, stunned, and Green Arrow lay dying, Hulagu fell back 30 feet from Lina, then recited dark words of power. Instantly, a huge, corrupted, ragged-winged creature appeared – a wyvern zombie, ready to fight! At the same time, the now-grounded mammoth charged Lina, but the clumsy beast missed its target.
Quickly, Lina flew up 100 feet above the mammoth, then cast true seeing, hoping to spot any additional hidden foes. The skull then used a spectral hand spell to cast vampiric touch at Lina, trying to drain her life force, but he missed! But as he strove to drain Lina, the wyvern zombie flew toward Lina. She didn’t wait for its arrival, but flew above Hulagu. Mystical syllables charged the air as she recited power word stun. And Hulagu was stunned!
Farther away, toward the city, the stone giant fighters had now reached Edward’s position on their way to the open city gates. One of the giants attacked the stunned paladin, but amazingly, he missed. The insane giants kept on babbling as they ran. But even the insane giants could see that the tides of battle favored the invaders.
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