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28 Rhonus 1120
Maelstrom
A thorough search of Rorin's lair turned up no signs of any magical laboratory, spell books, or other materials that an advanced mage would be expected to have. The heroes were forced to conclude that they had raided what amounted to a summer cottage -- Rorin's actual dwelling was elsewhere. Knowing that they could locate the mage at will using their discern location scroll, the party spent some time discussing tactics. They would need to coordinated plan of attack to pin Rorin down and neutralize his ability to stop time and escape. A touch of chaos, Strontium suggested, would be a good thing. And with Mrs. Wilkins still absent, the group knew exactly who they could call on for that. They returned to Marhaven and began asking around about the current whereabouts of Garrick Mistrider, the beguiler/forger/general vagabond they'd saved from multiple unpleasant consequences of his lifestyle. Several sources said that Garrick was likely in a holding cell at City Hall, having been a guest of Laen Morogue for several days on an unspecified matter. The heroes made for Marhaven's center deck. It was a cold but sunny day, and the city center was a busy place. As the party crossed the deck, however, they sensed something ominous in the air. It didn't take long to discern what: not 30 feet away, a sudden shower of rocks fell from nowhere and bludgeoned a young man who had been lingering around a fruit stand. At the same time a cloud of black, dense fog in another spot enveloped two city guardsmen and four Medium vipers popped into existence on the far side of the deck from the party. Aria, Caenus and Melian chased down snakes, which were no particular threat to seasoned heroes but could quickly prove deadly to the common bystanders in the square. Audas saw one viper about to attack a woman near the Temple of Aegir and fried it where it slithered with an eldritch spear. Quinn cast a call lightning on another viper to protect a boy and his dog then started looking around, expecting to see Rorin somewhere in the crowd. With no enemy yet in sight the magical barrage continued. A lesser orb of cold exploded against a merchant and killed him, a web appeared near the center of the deck and ensnared another woman while a stinking cloud came into being in front of the headquarters of the city guard, incapacitating two more watchmen and a higher-level official. At the same time a larger orb of cold struck Strontium and damaged him severely, a viscid glob of sticky goop glued Quinn to the deck where she stood and a chaos beast materialized near the Church of Tyr. Strontium saw an ugly pattern in the attacks: one spell each of levels one through three, followed by one each of levels one through six ... unless the heroes could locate Rorin -- it had to be Rorin -- and counterattack there was likely to be an even more devastating barrage in just a few seconds. And the chaos beast, while still not a serious threat to anyone in the party, was even more capable of doing serious harm to the innocents in the square. He fired a lesser missile storm at the chaos beast, vaporizing it, and joined Aria, Melian, and Quinn in the search for Rorin. Time ran out and Aria was struck with a lesser orb of sound while Quinn and Audas were scorched by an arc of lightning. A Melf's acid arrow pierced the chest of a bystander, slaying her instantly, as a set of bands of steel engulfed and entrapped another and a full-sized orb of acid disintegrated a third. Near the Temple of Aegir, a swarm of fire spiders took shape and advanced on a group of citizens who were desperately trying to gain shelter in the Temple. The general mayhem got worse at the sight of two huge monstrous spiders and a greater fire elemental, all of which appeared on the main part of the deck. Things were very grim now, both for the party and for the citizens. Buildings opened up and allowed those pounding on them to enter before slamming shut again, but not before several more citizens were slaughtered by the summoned beasts and magical effects in the area. The heroes continued to look for Rorin but also had to address the growing menagerie of increasingly powerful creatures. Strontium cast see invisibility and continued to search. There was also Quinn to free. Audas tried to devour magic but got himself partially stuck in the goop as well. The fire elemental descended on Aria and attacked, setting her on fire momentarily, while the spiders advanced on the last of the retreating bystanders. Caenus moved to intercept just as Quinn managed to break herself free of the magical glue. With the heroes' frustration mounting another cascade of lethal magic struck the area. A lesser orb of acid missed Quinn but a Melf's acid arrow struck Caenus squarely and an orb of force put Aria in serious need of medical help. A few stragglers who were too slow finding their way into the city records building were caught up in Evard's black tentacles and crushed to death. By comparison the two children caught by an arc of lightning were killed with merciful speed. Strontium dodged an antimagic ray but had little time to appreciate his good timing as he saw more summoned creatures appear: an arcane ooze and three pseudonatural dire tigers. Aria had no choice but to withdraw to Audas, who was holding the Rod of Health. Caenus moved in to engage the fire elemental in her place and held its attention admirably. One of the huge spiders cornered a city guardsman and stung him to death on the spot but thankfully the rest of the innocents were out of harm's way. That left Quinn free to use ice flowers to harm the arcane ooze and left the dire tigers with no easy-to-find prey. The arcane ooze proved troublesome indeed. Strontium felt his mind being probed and Mordencainen's sword, one of his highest-level spells, was siphoned away by the hungry thing. He moved away from it but it pursued him. Audas blasted it with a vitriolic blast only to see the thing heal from the energy; Quinn then tried an arc of lightning on it and it got faster, effectively hasted by the electricity. Finally, Melian spotted a tiny orb floating in the air above the records building. He called Strontium's attention to it and Strontium recognized the sensor used by a scrying spell or crystal ball. He fired a dispel magic at it and the orb vanished. Destroying the sensor seemed to break the connection to wherever Rorin was, because the magical onslaught stopped immediately. Now it was just a matter of dealing with the already summoned monsters before they got to any more civilians. Aria, newly healed, engaged a dire tiger and pummeled it repeatedly. Audas dropped one of the huge spiders with an eldritch chain and Quinn contributed another arc of lightning to fell a tiger. Melian, seeing one charging him, set his trident and let the creature impale itself on the tines but then fumbled his counterattack but Strontium and Audas combined to kill it before Melian could be devoured. Meanwhile, Caenus traded blows with the greater fire elemental. His clothing burned on his body but Caenus ignored the flames and concentrated on landing blow after blow against the fire creature. Only after several exchanges leading up to a cold-powered lesser missile storm from Strontim for the kill did Caenus bother to put out the fire. In typical warrior fashion, he then immediately charged and killed a dire tiger. Soon only the arcane ooze was left. Most of the party's spells were either unable to affect it or unable to harm it; it came down to the entire group banging on it with weapons until the ooze dissolved into an acidy goo and flowed between the deck boards into the ocean. When the threat was gone the party counted 14 dead, all either low-level city guards or innocent citizens. There were a few more sickened or unconscious but out of danger. The heroes entered City Hall and were ushered directly to the office of Lord Mayor Ander. The Lord Mayor expressed appreciation for the party's timely assistance; if he held any reservations about the party's possible involvement in the attack he kept them to himself. For their part the heroes allowed that they had a suspicion as to who might be responsible and were willing to pursue the attacker -- but they would require the assistance of Garrick, who rumor had it was in custody. An hour later the party had Garrick in their midst and the Lord Mayor's pledge of a reward for the delivery of the attacker, dead or alive. Now all they had to do was find him.
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