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25 Tilden 1120
Divide and Conquer
Castanamir summoned the party to announce that the spell he'd been working on, which would allow the party to use the power stored in the galadiir to imprison Azazel again for all time, was nearly complete. It was time, he suggested, that the party consider how they planned to use it. The spell would be in the form of a scroll, which someone -- Strontium, most likely -- would have to read whle holding the galadiir and within close range of Azazel. It would take a full round to read the scroll, so it would be very difficult to do in the middle of an intense combat. It would be advisable, he suggested, for the heroes to deprive Azazel of as many defenders as possible before facing the godlike creature in person. As the group discussed options, a gong sounded informing them that someone was approaching the villa. Castanamir uncovered the crystal ball in the lab area to reveal three men: two wearing the garb of the Diamond Palace guard and, leading them, Shimasa Motao. Castanamir remained below in his lab while the party met with the visitors. Shimasa bore an urgent message from His Immoral Highness, the Emperor. In response to the party's need for a mage experienced enough to finish Castanamir's unfinished spell the Emperor had sent messengers out to the only three qualified candidates He know of: Riniel Galanae of Corivan, Syrian Van Horne of Hestmark, and Aldavir Neth'anin of Nessen and Aelhandra. In the time since Aldavir (or so the Emperor thought) had answered the summons the other two mages had been slain, apparently by an adventuring party. The Emperor urged the party to take every measure to protect Aldavir. The heroes explained to Shimasa that Aldavir's response had been faked and that Aldavir was not on the island. This surprised the samurai; because divinations had shown that Aldavir was still alive they assumed he was with the party and therefore had escaped murder. Suddenly the heroes needed to determine very quickly whether Aldavir was, in fact, still alive and where he might be. Unfortunately, none of them had ever met the mage. But, they remembered, Castanamir knew him. They excused themselves and returned to the lab, where Castanamir interrupted his work to cast discern location for his old colleague. The spell worked; Aldavir was at his home in the Aelhandran Forest. With no time to waste, the party informed Shimasa that they would move immediately to protect Aldavir and sent him back to the Jade Islands. Before he was even back in the water they used a greater teleport to cover the 400 miles in an instant. Castanamir, because of his failing health, remained behind to focus on his work. The heroes found themselves in the oldest part of Aelhandra, a place thick with old growth trees. One tree in particular stood out, as Quinn was able to spot man-made platforms in the upper limbs. Castanamir had told them that Aldavir lived atop a spectacular old oak; this had to be it. The lowest part of the tree house was 80 feet straight up, though. As the party circled the trunk looking for a way up they encountered a dryad, who playfully pinched Caenus's buttocks and joked with Mrs. Wilkins. The dryad, Nalinae, resisted their questioning about Aldavir until they mentioned having been sent by Castanamir. Then she vanished for a few minutes, returned, and instructed the party in how to use the hidden teleporter to ascend. Aldavir greeted the party with great curiousity. They gave an abbreviated version of the story, enough to prove that they really had met Castanamir and were near to completing his last mission, and then related the message from the Emperor that indicated Aldavir's life was in danger. They were disturbed at the old elf's lack of defenses on the house -- this deep in friendly territory he had never needed any, Aldavir explained -- but worked out a reasonable plan. Aldavir sent his manservant away for a few days and instructed Nalinae not to accost any strangers until he told her otherwise for their own safety. After a simple meal the party took positions and waited. Some time after nightfall the calm of the forest was broken by a blood-curdling scream from Nalinae. Before the party could move to investigate they felt the tree house sway off kilter and begin to fall. Strontium cast a quick fly on himself and everyone else grabbed on for dear life. The tree landed with a massive thump, entangling most of the group in the broken and twisted branches. They barely had time to register what had happened when Kallaebri Seastar and three four-armed half-illithid mutant warriors appeared as if from nowhere, unharmed and moving freely through the brambles. Kallaebri closed on Aldavir and readied her spear. Aldavir, however, was prepared. Exactly as planned, at the first sight of an enemy Aldavir cast greater teleport and took himself directly to Castanamir's villa, a destination well known to him. Audas popped out of the entangling debris with a Baneful Chain against all three warriors and Strontium fired from above with an ultimate missile storm against the entire enemy group. Kallaebri, deprived of her main objective, cast dispel magic and sent Strontium falling to the ground. He recovered himself in time to cast ghostform to protect himself from further physical attack as Aria moved to engage her mother. The mutants proved to be highly effective psychic warriors. Their spears slashed repeatedly into the heroes with seeming ease and when wounded they responded with empathic transfers that healed themselves at their opponents' expense. Even Audas's powerful word of changing failed to affect them. Between their presence and the absence of two expected figures -- Aria's brother Andronus and the ulitharid Shendrothar -- the party's original battle plan was thrown off and their early response was chaotic. Then Shendrothar made his presence felt. First he tried to stop Strontium with a crisis of breath, and when that failed he unleashed an energy wave from a hidden spot in the shadows. The heroes regrouped and focused where their talents were most effective. Quinn cast a mass cure critical wounds to help strengthen the party and Strontium unleashed a sudden maximized ultimate missile storm aimed to catch as many foes as possible in its destructive range. One warrior went down immediately. Aria focused her attention on her mother, using flurries of blows to keep her engaged and wear her down and Strontium applied a dimensional anchor to keep her from escaping this time. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilkins used true seeing and a series of major images to locate Shendrothar, who was using the shadow body power to remain functionally invisible, and point out his location to the others. Audas focused on the aberrants, using his baneful chain to take down both remaining warriors and then turning his attention to the ulitharid. The loss of the warriors pushed Shendrothar into a desperate move: he used fission to split himself into two, effectively enabling himself to act twice for every action of the heroes. His second self, however, lacked the protection of shadow body and quickly drew fire from Audas and Caenus. At the same time Quinn cast miasma against Kallaebri and succeeded in filling the fallen paladin's lungs with noxious gas. Mrs. Willkins followed up with a power word stun for a combination that crippled the enemy leader just as Strontium moved in with a greater missile storm for the kill. Within moments Shendrothar saw his duplicate fall to Caenus's halberd and plane shifted out in time to save himself. With the enemy vanquished the heroes turned their attention to Nalinae. They found her weeping at the base of the fallen tree, where a large section of the trunk had been disintegrated, causing the remaining portion to snap under the tree's weight. Quinn had no magic that could save the tree; it, and therefore the dryad bound to it, would soon die. The party collected Kallaebri's belongings and discovered among them a dagger of soul stealing. An identify spell confirmed that it held two souls -- those of the two slain archmages -- so they took that and remanded the rest for return to the aventi colony. They rested the remainder of the night and teleported back to the island the next morning. Aldavir was alone in the villa when the heroes returned. Castanamir, he announced, was dead. However, the great mage had left two items for the party. One was the completed binding spell, scribed to a scroll for reading in combat. The other was a bill of sale, witnessed by Aldavir, transferring legal ownership of the island and the villa to the party. Aldavir teleported away to attend to his sticken tree. A wish would put it right, albeit at great cost to Aldavir, but the mage felt it was only right. The heroes held a quiet wake for Castanamir and buried the body on the hill near the villa.
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