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Thursday Night Pathfinder: Thornhold vs Zelbinion: Fight!!!

The party gathered their armies and placed them around and behind the keep, awaiting the arrival of the Zelbinion.  Barbarians lined the ground behind the keep.  Fighters with bows hid in the treeline overlooking the cliff over the harbor.  Cannons were positioned in and above the cave.  Archers and caster waited on the keep's walls and towers.  Row boats carrying some 50 kegs of black powder were docked all along the harbor.  Barrels above the cliff sat ready to soak the stairs need they require disabling.

The Zelbinion sailed just barely into range when a deep dense fog started pouring from it, filling the ocean within sight up 20, 40, 60, 80 feet, and higher until nearly nothing below the cliff was visible, not even the sails and masts of the great ship.

Casters took orders and sent a gust of wind across the scene, slowly pushing the fog away. The Zelbinion was revealed, perhaps 120 feet out from the keep, broadside toward the harbor.  The wizard, scraggly and white haired appeared on a magic carpet flying about the ship.

Those with good sight could see the teleport circle etched into the main deck of the ship, as two groups of men began appearing in various locations on land every few seconds.  First there were 80 guards on the road above the cliff and harbor.

Barbarians began moving toward the new arrivals.  Archers, buffed by clerics, and fighter went to action.  The battle began.  Archers, casters, fighters, and barbarians pounded at the oncoming troops.  Cannons hit the Zelbinion and blackened its sides.  The old wizard disintegrated a section of wall to form a hole through from the harbor-side.  Spells bounced off his globe of invulnerability.

Melee forces from the keep chewed their way through newly appearing forces.  Lightning bolts exchanged and incoming casters from the ship quickly fell.  Clerics controlling the seas sent the ship spinning.  The ship's blade barrier was activated and some of the ships crew fell into the blades.  Ballistas hammered at the ship's crew as they tried to teleport away.  Rogue enemy troops and casters appeared on the towers and outside the hole in the keep.  Clerics and others decimated their numbers on the ground.

The wizard started a ritual and turned invisible.  The ship morphed sending the last remnants of crew and army into the sea.  The Zelbinion was no more and in its place was a large tentacled, winged creature.  Khaleel identified it as a star-spawn of Cthulu.  Many of those on the closest tower began fleeing in terror.

Corrail blasted the creature with arrows, deeply injuring its head.  The quick thinking monk, Ali, flew a broom from Felix up to the ballistas and got a lift from one ballista bolt out towards the creature.  He leaped and flew and began pounding at it with his bare fists, hurting it more.

The monk pulled back and creature headed for the shore where the keep folks set off the rowboats full of explosives.  The blasts obliterated the creature.  In the chaos, many of the ship's crew, army members,  and the old wizards escaped.

The keep was left with a large hole in the side.  The stairs to the harbor were destroyed by the blast and part of the cliff collapsed into the harbor.  It will need to be cleared for ships to use it again.

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