bae@fisher.UUCP (Shiva the Destroyer) (04/15/85)
Volume 1, Issue 3 Athron Advocate May 9, 868 A.T.
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Table of Contents
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Spectacular Battle Above Athron!
Psionics Guild Destroyed!
Classified Ads
SPECTACULAR BATTLE ABOVE ATHRON!
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Last night, around 12:30am, lightning flashes were seen at an altitude
of ~10000 feet above the center of town. Moments later, a large explosion
lit up the night sky for miles around. Three minutes after this explosion
took place, an unarmoured human, riding on a heavily armoured dwarf, crashed
through the roof and the second story of the Storm Inn, coming to rest on the
floor of the main tavern room. The human, a follower of Donblas by the
name of Branth, got up out of the wreckage, staggered over to the bar, and
began drinking heavily. The dwarf did not get up. Ten minutes after Branth
had arrived in the Inn, several other individuals came into the Inn, sat
down next to him, and began drinking heavily. One of the individuals was
the Baron Kilgrade. The proprietors of the Storm did not seem overly
concerned by the strange manner by which their new customers had entered the
premises, although the Bard Calinor, one of the owners, began wheedling the
group's story out of them, plying them with drinks all the while.
Our reporter went up to the group, after they were deep in their cups, and
asked them to relate their story. Here is the text of the Advocate's exclusive
interview with this rather eclectic group:
Advocate: What happened?
Ilmar (evidently the party's ranger): Huh? Who are (hic!) you?
Advocate: A reporter from the Advocate. The public has a right to know!
Ilmar: Yeah, right. Whaz it worth to ya?
Advocate: I'll buy you all a round of drinks.
The Party: RIGHT! We'll tell ya anything ya wanna know!
Ilmar: Yeh. We had just finished an expedition into this den of evil.
You know, the classic skull-carved-into-the-cliff, full-of-undead
sort of place. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a normal day's
work. Anyway, we withdrew from the installation, after having
sustained considerable damage during our exploration of the place.
We retreated to our campsite, ~3 miles from the entrance to the
place, and began to rest up, preparing to go forth again the
next day. Me and the hobbit druidess here took the first watch.
I was patrolling the perimeter, when this big foul bird swooped down
out of the sky, and grabbed trhe body of the Baron Kilgrade here.
The Baron had been rendered comatose by something in a room in the
fortress, and we had not yet figured out how to revive him. Anyway,
I woke the boys up, and Garin (the mighty paladin of Donblas) and
I decided to go back to the evil fortress and wait for the bird to
arrive there, since when I last saw it it was flying back in the
direction of the fortress. Tim the MU took us there etherially, and
then went back to guard the encampment.
After we had been waiting for the bird for 10 minutes, I noticed
evidence that a large force had passed out of the gates of the
skull-fortress roughly an hour or so before we had arrived. Garin
and I decided to wing it back to the party, to warn them. We
flew towards our encampment for a while, then noticed that the
tracks indicated that the enemy force was probably quite near our
encampment by this time. We decided to teleport back, using Garin's
sword, in order to warn the party.
We arrived just in time to see a large number of undead, mostly
skeletons and zombies, surrounding our party. We flew down
from the sky (we had been flying when we teleported), and organized
our resistance. Tim and Phred, the party's two MU's, flew up to
recon. They were jumped by a group of wraiths.
Tim: Don't forget the Ogre Magi!
Ilmar: Oh yeah, there were some Ogre Magi flying around as well. All we
people on the ground saw was a bunch of lightning as Tim and Phred
fought their way free.
Tim: and I lost two levels!
Ilmar: Them's the breaks. Anyway, Garin and I flew over the enemy skirmish
line at what we estimated was their weak point. At the same time,
Branth, the hang-gliding illusionist here, zorched the area with a
fireball. We thought we were about to break free, for there were only a
few creatures left standing, but 6 demons chose to arrive around Garin
and me, charming me, killing Garin, and taking his body and sword. The
demons and I (I was charmed now) then charged the party. Our cleric
Uzi was destroyed by having a flaming crack open up in the earth
underneath his feet.
Branth: Seeing this happening, I put up a wall of fire around the few of
us that were left on the ground: Gareth the Dwarven fighter (the
hang-glider I used to enter the bar), Cullen the thief, and myself.
I left a small opening in the wall, so Gareth the mighty could kill
the nasty demons.
Tim: I had conjured two air elementals by now, one to carry Phred, and
one to attack the demons.
Branth: At this moment, Ilmar, who was charmed, a shadow, and a demon
walked through the wall, and killed Gareth. We decided to flee.
Halo: I flew up, carrying Branth, and Gareth. Phred picked up Cullen.
As we were making our getaway, a blade-barrier hit us all.
Tim: This disrupted my concentration, so the elementals were freed,
and attacked me. I fled to the astral plane, where, unfortunately,
the demons were waiting.
Halo: I went astral as well, and was also attacked by demons.
Phred: Well, as my elemental dropped me and Cullen, I polymorphed us into
small beetles, and we burrowed into the ground, hoping not to be
noticed.
Tim: I fled to the skies over Athron, hoping to get to a place of safety.
At that moment, I got hit by 3 cones of cold, and was surrounded by
several demons. I also was hit by a disintegration blast which
destroyed all of my thinbgs except for my staff. Since I was out of
spells, and about to be killed, I broke my staff of the magi, doing
a retributive strike, killing some of the demons. I was luckily sent
back to the astral plane, where the Baron here found me 15 minutes
later.
Halo: While this was going on, I was flying down, hoping to get to a temple.
A fiery crack opened in the sky in front of me, destroying my body
and equipment. Fortunately, my soul escaped, and was resurrected.
Branth: Unfortunately, Halo had been providing us with our means of
flying. Here I was, holding onto Gareth the dead dwarf, at an
altitude of 10000 feet. I had no spells, and no useful magic items.
So - I hang-glided down on the dwarf, hit a heal-stone as I crashed
through the roof of the Storm Inn, and started drinking.
Aebil: The whole thing is my fault really. I (the hobbit druidess) was
on guard duty with the ranger. I thought that I'd fly back to the
dungeon and check things out, because I was sure that we had almost
finished off the evil vampire cleric-mage who was running the place.
When I arrived at the place where the Baron had bit it, I figured out
how to restore him to functionality, flew back to the party, and
picked up the body, so I could bring back Artagon (the Baron Artagon
Matsushi von Kilgrade). Thus, I was the large bird swooping down that
Ilmar saw. I just forgot to tell him what I was doing, and he
overreacted. Ooops. Anyway, Artagon and I reaved the dungeon, and
returned to the campsite, only to see Ilmar surrounded by demons. I
rescued Ilmar, and Artagon picked up the two polymorphed party members,
and we went into town. Artagon also went and retrieved Tim from the
astral plane. Sorry guys.
Advocate: Why were you all fighting demons?
Tim: Well, we had offended this other evil cleric. Remember the article
on the group exploring the north you published a while ago? Well,
that was us. The cleric who owned the church we destroyed had
evidently been following us for some time, waiting for revenge. When
he saw us weak and wounded from a day's adventuring, and then
attacked by the forces of the vampire, he chose to hit us then. Urrr!
Advocate: So, are you planning any otgher dramatic entrances into town?
Tim: No! I think we'll just rest up here for a while, perhaps open up
a small shop. We have been out adventuring for months, and have
absolutely nothing to show for it! Perhaps we'll do better here.
Advocate: Well, good luck to you all.
PSIONICS GUILD DESTROYED!
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In the early morning hours today, a concentrated strike force of
unknown composition penetrated into the Psionics Guild headquarters on
Dragon Isle. All top guild officials are missing, and presumed dead.
All members of the guild who were on Dragon Isle are dead, or missing
and presumed dead.
At 9:00am this morning, the Dragon Emperor announced this tragedy
to the public. He promised that the villins would be tracked down, but
offered no information as to who they might be.
In addition, the Dragon Emperor also chose this time to announce
a repeal of the Second Dragon Edict, which prevented discrimination
against and persecution of psionics.
Tha Advocate feels that this action was carried out by our arch-foes,
the mind-flayers. We have no explanation why the Emperor did not mention
the mind-flayers in his speach, nor why he repealed the Second Dragon Edict.
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The House of Kilgrade Wants YOU!
The House of Kilgrade wishes to apologize for any delays in responding
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The House of Kilgrade is still looking for men and women to
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Contact: The Reagency of Athron, P.O. Box #1
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--
Brian A. Ehrmantraut
Ad Maioram Gloriam Hasturi!
UUCP: {allegra, astrovax, princeton, twg} !fisher!bae
BELL: (609) 452-8991 / (609) 734-7761
USnail: 184 Little Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544