And so the Iron Kingdoms crew, after their near party wipe at the hands of Mr Gibbles and his combined mercinary force, licked their wounds (and their pride for they couldn't chase the mage who stole the mask artifact due to massive amounts of flame shooting down the hole barring our pursuit as well as charring the rope) and packed up shop to head for the surface to find a place to hole up, hide and wait for transport. Along the way, we discovered a 3 way brawl between toothpicks, some wierd laughing adventuring groups and some undead. We were able to slide around the battle into a side passage, slightly delaying our exit time but we evventually and finally made it to the surface, found some cover, camo'd the carts, fortified our cannons possition and began our wait. The next day, we began to hear fighting from the temple ruin and also spotted a fleet of ships off in the distance with a massive black storm riding behind them. At the same time, off at a 90 degree angle from the fleet, a solitary vessel, coming into the shore line, begining to change sail color to match the black fleet ahead of the storm. We had thought we were saved and that our ride had arrived JUST in time.......no such luck.
The sound of battle was now outside the temple ruin as a mass of undead minions were pushing a platform cart on which rode Mr Gibbles and some lady wearing the stolen mask, all surrounded by the red eyes insane laughing mixed adventuring parties. They must have spotted us, for a large troup of the possessed guys began marching towards us in formation. We set our 4 lady pirates and their leader to work with the cannon, trying to damage Mr Gibbles transportation while the rest of us focused on the aproaching threat. Suprised we were to find that when we dropped one possessed enemy, the others grew stronger! Simple solution; have our archer fire one of the remaining sleep gas bomb arrows, knock em down N out but not killing em. It worked to our relief (YAAAAAAAY! GOOD SIGN: something went right AND as planned
)
Now the fun part. Remember that demon a while back that got sucked into the chamber pot vortex after I stole NECROM from it and chopped off his hand, keeping it as a souvenier? Well, he was back, in the back of the formation, ushering the things on, still missing his right hand the Trollkin chopped off (I dubbed the demon RIGHTY). Words were exchanged between him and the Trollkin tank (who already had NECROM out and ready
) and the battle began. As The Trollkin closed and began the melee with the demon, some kinda mer-man-salamander-like-fishy-thingy (everyone called it fishy....I just said I never ordered the lobster bisque!) popped out of the sand behind me and started spearing me with a trident. Our mechanic and his Jack were wreaking havoc on the surrounding minions, the archer was dividing his time between assisting with minions and sniping both Mr Gibbles and the lady with our mask.
Now, the Trollkin got pretty beat up (again....suprise! I GET KNOCKED DOWN.....you know the rest) but came back with a DEVASTATING critical hit that made the demons on other PLANES feel the hit (for those reading this in CFG that night, sorry for my groups noise, but this was a MONSTER HIT and I am NOT that good of a roller to begin with, so seeing a FULLY MAXED DAMAGE CRITICAL HIT....it was sumthin). The hammer not only DESTROYED this demon, but it litterally ATE him. How ironic is that; the weapon ate the creature that made it. HA! MINE NOW BOY!!! Then of course the Trollkin turned around to finish off the lobster bisque/fishy, who was apparently hired to hunt down and slay the pureblood troll that the Trollkin whacked earlier on and since he was the one that killed him, fishy now had to kill HIM to regain his aromatic fich-oil-smelling honor code.........didn't work. ALMOST DID (I GE......NO, BAD LURCH!!!), but we prevailed.
We ended the adventure with Mr Gibbles ship beaching, Mr Gibbles himself NARROWLY escaping into the ship, all the minions that were hauling the cart were now heading our way as a blockade, the lady with the mask is aboard as well, the ship has taken minimal damage and our ride is now where to be seen with the black fleet rapidly approaching (full of CRIX pirates who are NOT happy to see people on THEIR treasure stash island doing the obvious). Can our cannon get a lucky shot and beach/sink Mr Gibbles vessel before it gets out of range? Will our ride arrive in time (don't think so...might be time to abbandon the cannon and try to take control of the enemy ship.......farfignugen!)? Can we survive the horde in front of us as well as what's on the ship? Who knows. Tune in next time!
Also, personal question from the Trollkin: what will happen with NECROM now that it has not only a demons powers imbeded in it but now also has the demon ITSELF locked inside and bound to it? Could it POSSIBLY become more powerful? Scary thought.......