Monday, November 19, 2007

A Beautiful Place to Live

For many, the city of Verbobonc is an ideal place to live. A free town that answers to no higher lord. A center of commerce that is small enough to remain a close-knit community. A place of charm. Yet it also seems to be a magnet of evil. The Temple of Elemental Evil. The Cult of Tharizdun. Horrors yet unknown. After the most recent threat--Tharizdun--was eliminated, for instance, everyone was prepared to settle in for a period of peace and prosperity. Yet a new evil had already taken root in the bowels of the city. An alien evil. It tried to hide for a time, but eventually tendrils of its spreading foulness began to show. The city's leaders sent brave souls to investigate, but none were heard from again. Finally the master of the Silver Consortium himself was able to divine a name: Aerin. It turned out one of the champions who had defeated the Cult of Tharizdun had not escaped the enterprise untainted. Juelihm gathered the powerful personages of the city--Ingish Blackhand, the druid Reshaph, the bishop of the cathedral of Pelor, champions from the new church of St. Hadrian, Mia Dragonslayer--and headed into Aerin's foul lair to expell him from their fair city. He had dug himself in deep, and in the end it was the recalled hero Degolar who made the difference. Aerin was defeated, banished to the alien plane that had already seized his soul. And Verbobonc was once again free from evil. For now.

6 comments:

Leelu said...

Juelihm never did like his nephew...

Aerin said...

Actually, wow, remarkably close to what I'm ever so slowly working on , up to and including the possible future adventure to fight him!

I only ask, HOW did noble Degolar defeat the dread mage? You know...for posterity...

David Crowe said...

With his meat lance? *shrug*

Degolar said...

I only ask, HOW did noble Degolar defeat the dread mage?

With his wit and charm, of course.

Because I know that if I say anything more specific, you'll just come back with a rebuttal along the lines of, "that wouldn't have worked, because if you'd done that, then Aerin would have done this." No matter what I say.

But since this is my story . . .

Actually, wow, remarkably close to what I'm ever so slowly working on.

That's a lot of it right there--he knows how you fight and could prepare everyone for you. Things like gas masks for the cloudkill, dispell for the walls of force, protection from focused rays, etc. Ultimately, though, he caught you with the Sublime Chord Song of Timelessness. You were suspended outside the influence of time while the casters did what was needed to banish you.

(And if you think you wouldn't fail the save, remember, it's my story. I rolled a 20 and you rolled a 1 ;-)

Hadrian said...

I, for one, prefer to think that Divine Intervention had something to do with Degolar's victory. Just sayin'.

David Crowe said...

So... not his meat lance?