View From the Bushes

Before I continue my story I should mention that our publishing schedule this month will be slightly delayed. Wil Upchurch's next adventure is completely 3.5 compatible, but since he's a big shot freelancer and I'm a lowly PDF publisher I'm not going to have access to 3.5 until Friday so I'm going to wait until then to publish it to make sure I have everything right. Also the adventure after that "She Loves Me Not" by Luke Johnson won't be released until after I get back from GenCon most likely the 29th, but we'll still get our three adventures a month out, never fear. Now on with the story.

With none of my spells having any effect I cast around to see if had any equipment that might be more efficacious. That's when my eye fell upon a Staff of Power... Dave Noonan, one of my favorite guys over at WoTC, was running the combat, so I ask him if SR applies vs. a retributive strike. He gives me this weird look, but gives me the answer I was hoping for, "No...". The plan began to form, but I still had one problem how do I blow up Orcus without blowing up the rest of the party.

There was actually a perfect spot to break the staff, the back of the alcove Orcus was standing in front of. Unfortunately moving past Orcus was not an option, one AoO and I was a goner. Glancing through my remaining spells I searched in vain for a dimension door, but I did have a teleport. I used it to go 30 feet as I recall, what had to be the shortest teleport in history, and then I broke my fully charged Staff of Power. The only thing I absolutely sure of was that I was dead. Luckily 20+ rounds of combat had taken their toll and the 200 points of damage from the retributive strike were enough to finish him off. As a reward I got one of Monte Cook's famous "Orc and Pie" T-shirts (it turns out the final encounter had been Orcus and pi.) So as you can see I wasn't lying. Last year I won the Dungeon Delve. True story.

Carpe Deim Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross