Devils of all shapes and sizes spew out of crimson portals, screaming infernal battle cries: narzugons on infernal steeds charge past the Drow’s Bane and collide with death knights on their nightmares; pit fiends and amnizus fly out and lock onto dracoliches and their riders. Hellfire engines, last to emerge, slowly move out and position themselves ready to unload their deadly cannons upon Orcus’s army.
The War of the Wand has officially begun.
Orcus lets out an abyssal charge to his second in command, the molydeus, to take down Anarchocles now! The huge two headed beast moves to engage the legendary hero’s corporal form; it lets out a battle cry as it swings its gigantic battleaxe striking Anarchocles across the chest. The fiend follows through with a bite from his wolf head and another from his serpent head; both connect with their target. Mordrock feels the pain and also hears the thoughts of Anarchocles, who grips tighter his Rod of Lordly Might as he responds with a vicious blow to the wolf head.
Nong, who is engaged with Orcus, continues to pummel the Prince of Undeath unleashing everything he’s got. Each time Nong swings, Orcus returns with a tail swing. Then Orcus points his wand at Nong, utters a command and a swirling necrotic vortex forms around the monk. Nong realizes he is in a bad predicament as a large skeletal hand flies from Orcus’s wand, causing major necrotic damage to Nong; the skeletal hand hangs off of Nong hindering his ability to heal himself too. The monk is quick to flee the vortex by running across the battlefield towards his comrades. However this does not stop Orcus, who is unrelenting; he continues to cast more skeletal hands that fly across the battlefield and slice through Nong.
Kendall’s dracolich flies past Royce and Naismith and they notice Kendall is not riding it. The huge dracolich drops onto the ground near them, projecting a fierce frightening aura. Unfortunately, the aura does not affect the party thanks to last night’s Heroes Feast.
“Royce, be on the look out for Kendall. He has disappeared again and that means trouble. I don’t sense him near me either.”
“Watch out Naismith!”
Naismith dodges the great maw of the dracolich, somersaulting just in time. Naismith follows up with a jump to the top of the great undead beast and slashes away; the dracolich roars out in pain from the deep wound. Royce strikes next causing radiant energy from Dawn Bringer to rip a gash down the dracolich’s side. The huge beast flaps its wings in response, drawing its large body up into the air, causing a mighty current to knock Royce down.
“Royce watch out!!” screams Mordrock.
The molydeus lifts a huge molten rock with its mind and drops it on top of both clerics. The pain from the weight and molten lava is punishing. Royce responds by attempting to cast a healing spell, only to be countered. He looks around and sees no one responsible for this act. “Damn You Kendall!” screams Royce. Naismith runs past Sithka who finishes casting a spell that instantly engulfs her in a protective globe of energy. “Sithka, use your citadel! We need everything we can get now,” as Naismith points to the citadel. Sithka acknowledges the rogue, even though she does not understand him and vanishes into thin air.
Naismith runs behind one of the Hellfire cannons to catch his breath. He feels a tingling sensation all over his body as the plane of Limbo transforms before his eyes into a giant maze. At the same time, fifty feet in the air, four Kendalls appear from casting a spell. Naismith glances around the labyrinth and remembers a similar description from Nong, who could not escape for an entire fight. “Jimjar, please give me some luck here!” as he concentrates on re-imagining Limbo. Today, luck is on his side as he manages to overcome the image and will himself back onto the plane of Limbo. He pops back onto the battlefield as the scowling four Kendalls look down at him in anger.
The rogue leaps up and flies close by the Kendalls, however, the rogue is not fast enough to strike before the four Kendalls succeed in banishing him back to his home plane. Naismith blinks into existence in the Dock Ward of Waterdeep. “What happened? Why am I…in Waterdeep? NO! This can’t be happening, not now!! Damn you Kendall!” Fear races across his mind as he grabs his necklace,
“Sithka, Sithka! Help Me! I’ve been banished back to Waterdeep in the Dock Ward. Please, you must help me get back to Limbo.”
Moments later he hears Sithka respond, “Naismith, this can’t be. I just positioned the citadel over the battlefield. I’m channeling all of my power into it now. Hold on, I think I know how to get you back.”
Sithka throws the controls over to her comrade and yells back at another to follow her. They run through the citadel, toward a summoning chamber. She races to the center of the room, grabs hands with her comrade, and casts Plane Shift.
Pop! Sithka and her comrade appear over the Dock Ward in Waterdeep. They hover in the air looking for Naismith as surprised Waterdhavians on the dock start pointing up at the githzerai. Sithka’s comrade points down and sees the rogue running toward them. They fly down toward Naismith, grab his hands, then Sithka turns to her comrade,
“Quick, Ansel, get us back to the citadel!”
“Order understood, captain.”
Pop! And the three reappear back in Limbo. However they do not reappear on the citadel, but floating among pieces of a destroyed citadel, at the claws of Kendall’s dracolich, who now sees the group twenty feet away.
“What?! This can’t be. No! My crew!”
“Sithka, the dracolich! Get out of here now!”
The dracolich moves in for a bite, missing Sithka but connecting with Ansel, who screams out in pain as the giant maw severs his body in two.
Naismith jumps across pieces of the destroyed citadel and lands on the dracolich’s head; he furiously slashes away and then flees. The dracolich flies after Naismith and manages to claw and bite him before turning around and flying towards the vulnerable Sithka. Naismith looks up and sees the four Kendalls hovering above him, glaring back at the rogue in bewilderment. The four Kendalls raise there hands and a cone of cold sprays over him.
Anarchocles and Royce continue to strike at the molydeus between lightning attacks from the four Kendalls. The molydeus focuses on Anarchocles, intent on felling the ancient hero’s spirit in duty to his master. Then, the clerics hear Nong cry out as the half-orc gets blasted by a beam of necrotic energy from the wand of Orcus, killing the monk on impact. A deep guttural laugh from Orcus overtakes the battlefield. The Prince of Undeath then points the wand at Nong’s dead body and issues an abyssal command. Moments later, the dead body begins to stir and rise up, now in the form of an undead drooling zombie. Orcus yells out in Common, “Nong my drooling zombie thrall, I command you to eat your comrades’ brains now!” Zombie Nong responds to the command and drags his disfigured body in the direction of the clerics.
There is a look of fear between Mordrock, Royce and Naismith in regards to watching their fallen friend, rise up as a zombie. The good news, is that Zombie Nong is a fraction of his true power, which means he is unable to land a hit on either mighty cleric. Between the mighty rod of Anarchocles, Dawn Bringer and Royce’s spiritual weapon, the clerics manage to take down the molydeus. However, the four Kendalls succeed in taking Naismith down at the same time. Royce is quick to get Naismith back in the fight as the thunderous Prince of Undeath charges toward Anarchocles. The legendary battle between Orcus and Anarchocles ignites for a second time in history. The legendary hero is fast, and Mordrock’s body keeps up, but Orcus is just as mighty, especially wielding the wand.
Mordrock realizes how easily he controls life and death as a cleric and as he dodges Orcus, he strikes Zombie Nong dead. He rushes to the undead body and touches it trying to restore it to natural life. Except, the undead body does not rise up as a living Nong. Only very powerful divine magic can restore an undead body to its original form and bring life to it. But that requires time, and time is not something Mordrock has right now.
The dracolich dives for Sithka and easily swipes both claws at her. Alone, among pieces of her ship and dead comrades, Sithka has few choices to survive. She casts a spherical wall of force around her as a last effort to endure the strength of the dracolich. The wall withstands several strikes, but Sithka realizes it is only a matter of time before she loses her concentration.
Royce looks up to the four Kendalls and attempts to banish them in hopes to turn the tables, but Kendall is quick to notice and counters the attempt. The wizard responds with another lightning spell that lights up Royce.
Royce realizes being in between Orcus, Kendall and eventually the dracolich, they cannot survive for long. The party needs protection and soon. His mind races through idea after idea until he stops, grabs the bag of holding and pulls out Daern’s Instant Fortress. He throws the tiny fortress in the direction of the four Kendalls and Orcus and says the magic word. The fortress transforms into its castle like size clipping Orcus and Kendall in the process; Orcus is pushed back fifteen feet and so is Kendall.
“Quick, get in the fortress now!” screams Royce as he rushes into it, followed by Naismith. Mordrock, however, is too engaged with Orcus to pay attention to the advice.
The battlefield is littered with infernal and abyssal ichor and no side seems to have the upper hand at the moment. But the bold move to unleash Daern’s Instant Fortress, gives advantage to the Drow’s Bane. The fortress provides cover allowing Naismith to shoot down the dracolich moments after its last strike causes Sithka to loose her concentration.
Orcus gets the upper hand with Anarchocles and when the mighty hero and Mordrock fall, the Prince of Undeath stomps on the unconscious body determined to kill it quickly. Royce is quick to intervene with a heal from the fortress window, but Mordrock does not manage to get up before Orcus stomps on his body again causing his eyes to close once more. Orcus is so focused on killing Anarchocles, he does not see Sithka appear near the fortress and cast Reverse Gravity in the direction of the Prince of Undeath and Kendall.
Orcus looses his balance from the spell but manages to grab hold of the ground instead of flying upward, however the four Kendalls are not so lucky and go spinning upward uncontrollably. The opportunity plays into the Drow’s Bane’s hand as Naismith reaches out of the fortress window and successfully casts Faerie Fire on the four Kendalls; and only the real Kendall lights up. As Kendall tries to regain his balance, Naismith lets arrow after arrow fly toward the undead wizard until Kendall eventually stops moving. Moments later, only the robe of stars tumbles to the ground.
Royce seizes the opportunity to get Mordrock back in the fight. The Prince of Undeath cannot regain control of the situation before Royce’s spiritual weapon successfully strikes deep into Orcus’s heart, causing the Prince of Undeath to look out in horror as he collapses to the ground, dead.