The Cursed: Tyranthraxus

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Getting tricked (and a fireball to the face) from a goblin was so humiliating for Tyranthraxus, he had to flee. This gave the team time to compose themselves with Shelumu providing healing before giving chase, fighting through his priests, hell hounds and margoyles before reaching him in his upstairs chamber where he waited with an army.

When in doubt, bring an army.

Sir Siegfried was familiar with this setup and quickly ordered everyone back through the doorway. Faeris was too slow though, catching a Tyranthraxus thrown lightning bolt (and it's bounce back), killing the ranger instantly.

Kelaide provided the stinking cloud while Gavion and Siegfried held the door, with Gevlon using all his accumulated wands to throw spells across into the swarm of margoyles. Eventually the herd thinned, and Tyranthraxus himself barged through the frame - killing Kelaide with a stomp and Gavion with a punch.

Still, the focused attacks weakened the demon giant, and Sir Siegfried finally brings him down and kills him.

The Cursed: Middle Finger

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

After escaping the spiders, Faeris leads the team through the trees into the city proper where they avoid hell hounds and wandering rakshasas, ducking into what turns out to be a massive temple. There at the entrance, the old man/demon now in possession of an ice giant waited for them, activating their cursed bond immediately.

Behold my purple power!

"Welcome my puppets! Thanks to you, I - Tyranthraxus shall be invincible! Now, hand over all the artifacts you were absentmindedly collecting - all those items that are the only threat to my existence."

To their horror, each of them started dropping various trinkets before their demon master, not even knowing where or when they had picked them up. Into the pile Tyranthraxus also throws a piece of paper with a single word.

"That is the word that will free you," he laughed manically before turning to a nearby, robed priest of small stature. "Servant, burn these in front of my new slaves."

The little priest wandered over, and without hesitation picked up the paper and read the word aloud. In a flash, the party was free! "WHAT!?" exclaimed Tyranthraxus.

The "priest" threw back his hood, revealing an ugly goblin face - it was Gevlon. The real priest was dead in the corner with a slit throat. "You never bound me you piece of shit!" he exclaimed waving a middle finger at the giant with one hand and a wand of fireballs in the other.

The Cursed: Full Circle

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

With Moander defeated, all the monsters including swarms of vegepygmies that had skulked away earlier came on the offensive and the party had to fight their way tooth and nail out of that pit but followed Dragonbait's nose to finally reach daylight.

Tiny plant men. Ridiculous.

Once there Alleon's contingent headed to the river to meet up with Ragner and Rollo and their stolen ferry which they used to escape upstream to Daggerfall (wait what?). Reinforcements in the form of Faeris, Kelaide, Shelumu and Gavion joined the squad here and a visit to the magic shop saw them loading up with expensive gear to hunt down the last curse master.

Before they could depart, alarm bells rang throughout the town as a mob of ettins had descended from the nearby hills to attack! The party leaped into action, driving them back but Mercedes was brutally squashed by a giant club in the encounter.

Alias and Dragonbait opted to remain to hunt down the troublesome ettin tribe, leaving the rest to board the ferry once more and sail down the river fork, almost back to Tilverton. From there Alleon instructed Ragner and Rollo to go find reinforcements while the remainder began the march up to the standing stones that Siegfried heard Dynrigg speak of back at Hap.

The Cursed: Mobilization

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The King himself shows up in the sewers to rescue his daughter, who somehow avoided being turned into ash. While he is thankful to Nesturs team for the aid, he can't trust them and banishes all of them, except Assagh who died from becoming a arrow pincushion, from Tilverton.

He's a very hands on King.

The rest of the team make their way up the road and eventually find an inn, but it is under attack by displacer beasts! Magic is used to slaughter the beasts but one of the tentacle cats manages to rip Thellaphes in two before it is put down. For their efforts, the inn keep lets them stay for free while they recover. During this time Nesturs orders Pendrianne to summon his other champions.

Wizard Phiruno and rangers Dynrigg and Faeris arrive in a few days, confirming that the others are also branded the same way and have started searching for a remedy across the land. Nesturs gives Faeris some instructions and sends him back as the messenger while Phiruno and Dynrigg join the party to do the same.

On their travels they come across a set of standing stones that are home to a strange old man. The fellow seems to know about their predicament, stating that they are servants to four more masters, the next of whom is to the South.

Eador: In Space, Size Matters

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

On the next shard Faeris meets the forces of a new master, the fairy Queen Vianta, who preaches all about love and joy - freely giving resources to Nesturs representatives. The good will is broken when she suddenly demands tribute in return, but at that point Faeris had developed the lands enough to accumulate lots of magic crystals (which power spells).

Getting crowded out here.

The wizard Pendrainne is recruited to use said crystals to flatten Vianta's citadel, followed by defeating Oinor's weak forces once more - the swamps he put his citadel in didn't leave him much gold for defenses.

Beleth, seeing that this victory let Nesturs mainland surpass that of the necromancers own suddenly becomes a sniveling coward, offering some form of "alliance" against the other lords. This is because Nesturs can now assault other master's mainlands directly. More land = more power. Nesturs is tempted to silence Beleth for good but first decides to return the favor to his first invader: Doh-Gor.

Eador: Annoying Invaders

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

The wizard Phiruno competes against Oinor on the next small shard, and is almost defeated when Oinor's warrior champion Tharmun and his lizardman force manage to snake their way to Nesturs stronghold! Fortunately the adventurers hired to defend the place are worth their salt, driving Tharmun away.

Phiruno then makes use of the integrated Holy Lands to bypass Oinor's defenses and destroy his castle, achieving victory. His task isn't complete though, for as soon as the shard is captured, Doh-Gor attacks Nesturs mainland! On the defense, Oinor has the advantage of seeing through the fog of war but still needs to build up the capital and recapture territories again. Annoying.

Scout Faeris is recruited to help manage the populace (and even manages to ally with the rich halflings) while Phiruno learns a great AoE spell called Stone Rain. They once again leverage the Holy Inquisition for passage, and both manage to smash Doh-Gor's centaurs and arrow tower guarded castle, driving him off Nestur's mainland.

A better example of OP magic.