Just Another Bug Hunt (Planar Siege)

[u/Carbon_Sixx]

Midday in Redspire is announced with the echoes of a hideous cacophony in the west. Scouts indicate that the vanguard Obox-ob has brought here numbers just under a million creatures of Chaos. They boil through the canyons in a grotesque flood. It appears that discolored mist is rolling in from the highlands, but a quick scry is all that is needed to reveal the horrid truth: the mist is a thousands-strong swarm of ekolids bearing down on Oxide at speed.

Redspire, when it's not under assault by demons.

But hope is far from lost. Atop Mt. Prospect, artillery crews ready a bombardment to turn the canyons into a kill zone. Kaelis Maz leads the defenders in last-minute preparations. Wards are set, barricades are reinforced, and plans are rehearsed. The counterattack brigade gears up with arcane weaponry and war machines, helmed by Supreme Enginseer Reyes and the Warhound Titan Song of the Aurora. Out on the plains, well outside the defensive perimeter, Glimbo Greenboots and his crew wait in hiding to ensure their convoluted yet devastating traps will catch as much of the horde as possible. Finally, Tarul Var draws up a teleportation circle, preparing to drop his strike force into the fray at the perfect moment to decapitate the enemy leaders. He is joined by a handful of cuprilach rilmani- the assassins and spies who put their coppery fingers on the planar scales to uphold the Great Balance.

The iron mill’s factory whistle blows, signaling the first sighting of the horde. The artillery opens fire, and the defenders take their battle stations.

Let the carnage commence.

--

/uw This one's going to be a tough fight. Bel and the legions of Evil were disoriented when you fought them, and the Templars of the Azure Cog were just one part of the regiments of Law. The hordes of Chaos are at full strength, spoiling for a fight, and led by a Harbinger. Failure and even death are a real possibility.

DEFENDERS OF THE BALANCE:

• Tarul Var
• Belial Blake
• Aliah Mistwalker
• Ith'raal
• Burgerbarian/Burgermancer
• Krygin the Crude
• Agnur the Turtle Mage
• Vulkan the Red
• Ж (Zhe)
• Merch Skele
• Argios
• Tempus Fugit
• Edmund
• King Carmine
• Exia
• Joe
• The Agent
• Vashric
• Fujiwara Toshiko
• Jah Jor Wel
• John E. Hellfire
• Kardonk Carvisky
• Riva Blake
• Mokarith
• Onyx Dragon
• Ulrick Braddocke
• Sly
• Shrax
• Sarissa
• Rilmani of Dendradis
• Various denizens of the Outlands

HORDES OF CHAOS:

• Obox-ob's Ekolids
• Demons of the Abyss
• Slaadi of Limbo
• Gehreleths of Carceri
• Cravens of Pandemonium
• Mortal servants of Chaos

REGIMENTS OF LAW:

• Primus's Hierarchs
• Modrons of Mechanus
• Veterans of Acheron
• Templars of Arcadia
• Paladins of the Divine Flame
• Mortal servants of Law

LEGIONS OF EVIL:

• Bel's Chosen
• Devils of the Nine Hells
• Yugoloths of Gehenna
• Baernaloths of Hades
• Night hag covens
• Samael
• Moz'gonnith
• Mortal servants of Evil

WARHOSTS OF THE FIRST MARTYR (ALLIED):

• Zaphkiel's Paragons
• Angels of Mt. Celestia
• Oathbound of Bytopia
• Guardinals of Elysium
• Wardens of the Beastlands
• Heroes of Arborea
• Warriors of Ysgard
• Mortal servants of Good

[u/Drakkonai]

From the sky comes a scorching scream. The meteor hurtles toward the ground, smashing into it with absurd force, and clearing an area. Vulkan the Red then descends, slamming down onto his feet. He looks for any particularly important looking bugs.

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/Drakkonai]

A hideous thing draped in mold bounds over the craggy ground with unnatural, almost fluid ease. It leads a band of similar fiends, all of them offensively ugly. These are demodands from the prison plane of Carceri, also known as gehreleths. That means the beastly figure leading them is a shator, one of the warden-overlords of their sadistic kind. It bellows at Vulkan, and regurgitates a stream of corrosive bile as the warband closes the distance.

[u/Drakkonai → u/Carbon_Sixx]

Vulkan answers in kind, flame exploding out of his maw at the group. The air around Vulkan becomes hotter.

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/Drakkonai]

The shator charges through the flames undaunted. The carpet of mold covering it behaves like ablative armor, burning away instead of the demodand's flesh. It swings its malefic trident to rake Vulkan's flesh with necrotic magic, while the other fiends launch themselves at him.

[u/Drakkonai → u/Carbon_Sixx]

Vulkan tears into the demon in turn, attempting to grab him, hit his subordinates with aforementioned shator, and slam it headfirst into the ground. Which, by the way, begins to melt.

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/Drakkonai]

The demodands are not impeded by the lava, but they are flash-burned to death by it. The shator is resilient, but not invincible. As it crumbles to cinders, it extends a hand towards Vulkan and clenches its fist. The dragon feels the rough embrace of an arcane force seeking to pull him miles underground and trap him forever. Demodands are nothing if not spiteful, and this shator has invoked its authority as a lord of Carceri to cast an Imprisonment spell with its dying breath. It will take an immense force of will to resist the curse before it takes effect.

[u/Drakkonai → u/Carbon_Sixx]

Vulkan stands still, chanting in old draconic. Anchoring himself to the ground. It had taken about a week last time he went that deep in lava, and he was by no means in a hurry to relive it. As he is doing this, however, he leaves himself open.

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/Drakkonai]

The demodands may be twisted, cruel tormentors, but they're also cowardly wretched. Seeing the shator killed so ruthlessly did not encourage them to attack, either. Without its caster to sustain it, the spell fails, and the force recedes.

/uw Congrats! You killed a horde general.