And then, there were the elves.
When I learned what they were planning, I rolled my eyes at what a Cha 50 half-drow alu'ri-turned-succubus could do, especially after being anointed as a Favored of the Goddess of Silver Magic.
She had recruited them all. Most of that power sucked out of the fungi zones wasn't for the Elixirs, which got their power from the Mu Goop. Nope, it was to help alter the elves.
Elf exchanged into vohr, linked to alu'ri, and so into native Soulborn succubus.
Yeah, it meant a gender change for half the elves, who were much less hung up on gender to start with. It exchanged their Ten Elven Racial Levels for Lilithi Levels.
Now, they didn't get all the demonic goodies, particularly the spell-like abilites, like teleporting at will. What happened there was all those Elven Caster Levels they had were transmuted into Sorceress Levels, with a Celestial Bloodline indicating Sylune's approval. Then, the extra two Levels left from the Eight of a base Succubus were linked to the standard Lilithi Favored Levels.
All such Caster Levels powered by Charisma. And who had just received a +20 bonus to Charisma?
Levels in non-Favored, non-Sorceress Levels were converted to those, keeping Caster Levels constant with Levels, their AB as Outsiders equaled their Racial Level, so their combat ability also went up, and while Succubi weren't massively strong at +4 (only twice as strong as they looked, natch!), the +8 Dex and +10 Con were massive bonuses.
And so, the entire company of elves were now silver-haired, starry-eyed, silver-winged (feathered!) Favored/Sorceresses, with devastatingly potent magic, and a lot more of it.
They all broke the Ten Level. They'd be forever locked to Fourteen when they reached it, barring Divine intervention, but that just meant they'd be more powerful than their King and Queen were now. Exemplar Lite came in, and since they didn't have side Racial Levels, there was no problem, it applied perfectly.
Yes, Sylune now had a full corps of maturing, devastatingly beautiful winged angelic vohr in the model of the delighted Wayfair, who was naturally the head of their new Order. How about that?
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Just to hasten the process of clearing, Exemplar-boosted lightning bolts were exploding down the length of the tunnel, frying and burning the giants who had little way to resist or dodge. It was merely to make the killing of those behind easier, as they swarmed in fearlessly on the giants and ogres, who found, to their great dismay, that their much smaller opponents were now just as strong, or even stronger, then they were!
The howls and growls coming from down the hacked-through corridor easily matched up to bellows and shouts of the ogres and giants eager to press their way in. The only problem was that the line in front of them was not moving, and the sounds of the fighting seemed to be getting closer...
Then the crackle and boom of lightning lit up the area ahead of them, and the Hagspawn, who actually had a modicum of intelligence compared to their kin, blinked in shock. That magic didn't have nearly the range to go the length of the tunnel, so what was happening?
Why was the growling and roaring getting closer?
The quintuple roars of dragons overwhelmed all the yelling giants, sending shivers down the spines of even the most battle-hungry brute with how it seemed to echo and drag on. Even as it faded, the hunting howl of a wolf, filled with unnatural power, chilled the blood, and was instantly joined by a chorus of other howls so powerful it was shaking the mushroom walls and ground.
And then the lions rang out, and even the giants had to wonder what they heck they had stirred up by doing this...
Fire, cold, and lightning filled the tunnel ahead of them, now visible to those outside, incredibly strong. Some of the wiser hagspawn and their mothers backed away, telling those with them to prepare rocks and spears for throwing. They were finally realizing that those within were coming out, and they could only be doing that over the dead bodies of the hundreds who had swarmed in there earlier...
Right about then is when my team showed up. All that noise and light was a great distraction for a wedge of Forsaken coming in at sixty mph, and lighting into the back of them.
Coming in through the ravaged air and decaying mushroom forest, we hit the back of the giant lines and ripped them open. There was a distance to go to reach the primary force around their tunnel, but that was fine. Letting them know we were coming was the whole idea, as was splitting their attention. If they wanted to be holding onto rocks when we plowed into them, that was their own choice. It just helped them die all the quicker.
The slaughter was similar to that which we had executed earlier, but our targets were a) anyone nice enough to think about throwing things at the company coming out of that tunnel, and b) any Hags, of course. Brother Firesword volunteered for Hag-hunting duty, it was politely passed to him, and he was gone, flitting over and through the mass of giants, hunting down sources of magic. Oh, he ran into some shaman Casters, too, and politely disposed of them as well, but his zigzag course was taking him from Hag to Hag, who were not at all happy to see him coming.
We hit the line of rock and spear tossers, and hilarity ensued. It was a good thing we kept moving, because the amount of bodies that were falling was creating all sorts of impediments to travel, and if the vivic fire hadn't been eating them, wow, there would have been blood literally everywhere.
A One-Two cleared the tunnel of anything living with deep screams and a lot of smell of burning flesh, and the company came screaming out.
The berserkers led the way, all of them with golden fur and streaming manes, clawed, toothed, and a good foot taller, meaning the least of them was over seven feet tall now. They were fast, they were powerful, and they were having a really good time. The Exemplar Lite DR of 5/- stacked on the normal 10/silver of a werebeast, but that was okay, because Crystal Dragon DR also stacked with all other types, which meant they were sitting on at least DR 20/Silver or so at this point... and the giants didn't have silver weapons, oddly enough.
Yeah, giants hit hard, usually in the neighborhood of 20-30 points for the varieties that were here, but combine that level of Damage Reduction with 5 points of Fast Healing every six seconds, and those berserkers could last an incredibly long time.
The Rockborn came next, moving at a pace you just don't expect on anything that short, and were about as resistible as moving boulders... with spikes. Their beards bristled even more than before, all their eyes were golden, and they moved with even greater natural teamwork and coordination. They pushed, and pushed, and ogres and giants were forced back in disbelief, hanging on the Spears impaling them, as the dwarves cleared the way and set up the safe zone for everyone else.
Ironblood to the sides, eye-poppingly beautiful angelic vohr down the middle. Bows that had for some reason been magically empowered in the past to match the strength of their wielders sent burning arrows out with brutal power and accuracy over the heads of the dwarves, building a wall of burning corpses in front of them that started to grow with amazing speed. Ever obdurate, the dwarves advanced up the corpses, their foes two to four times their height came pounding up for some fun, and the elves shot over the dwarves' heads with impunity at basically an open field of targets.
The Ironblood savagely opened up the fighting area, fully confident of being able to take on all but the Exemplars of the other side... and such only needed a moment of attention from a dozen or so vohr archers to lay that problem to rest.
Growls, snarls, and roars competed with the aghast giants, watching these short folk shredding them.
Then the dragons, hellpoodles, and griffons, plus riders, came stalking out of the tunnel.
Even the giants knew they were in for a bad time when they saw the magnificent creatures. They moved with supernatural grace, ease, and deftness, idealized versions of their species, showing natural power and magical strength that they'd only seen on the Blessed Legion, and now realized where the horrible strength of these little people came from.
The griffons moved to secure flanks, while the hellpoodles moved up to secure the lines of the dwarves... and unload fire, cold, and lightning right into the faces of the giants with elemental fury the vohr were quick to capitalize on.
The ground began to pound. The elves began to subtly part, opening a path as they focused to either side. The giants heard the sound of massive feet hitting the ground, looked around in the chaos to see who was running so fast –
Elder Arg came hurtling out of the tunnel with a roar so deep it made the dragons look small. The dwarves in the way literally leapt out of the way with astonishing alacrity, ending up standing on top of their brethren blithely as the massive Primordial gorilla, his silver-tipped black fur now black-tipped silver fur, muscles rippling like quicksilver, and tusks gleaming like precious metal, slammed right into the giants that he towered over.
Behind him came a tidal wave of massive chakon and champa-ka. The latter were of a size with ogres, and even stronger, while the former were as massive as any of the giants, and also stronger. Their magical gauntlets shimmered with lightning and banefire, discharging in massive cracks of electricity as the howling horde slammed into and through the giants with vicious, brutal force.
And yet, wild and chaotic as it was, there was incredible, impossible order.
A combination of luck and instinct, and apes were moving as they grappled ogres and giants, presenting obdurate skulls for arrows whistling in to impale them. Ironblood were sweeping in to hack at spines and throats, while apes grabbed and threw giants onto waiting Spears. Dragons were whirlwinds of claws, teeth, wings, and tails, which always seemed to send the victims into the way of attacks from those flanking them. Moving like boneless serpents, their lancers came into repeated reach of Jotuns, and sharp points plunged deep with brutal force.
Breath of frost, fire, or lightning coursed out, ripping apart ogres and wounding giants, never catching an ape or human, and the wounded died within breaths to watching and waiting vohr sending out an arrow a heartbeat. Indeed, the breath attacks were staggered so that the vohr only needed to reacquire to the next target zone.
It was a level of wild carnage and coordinated teamwork the giants were completely unable to compensate for or deal with, Warlording at its devastating finest. Those closest to the slaughter began to back away... only to find there was death at their back as well.
The moving morass of the interwoven Helices swallowed giants and spat out corpses. Burning shafts of light in the hue of their own blood were spitting in all directions, raising great wounds or even killing unlucky ogres straight off. Who or what was doing the slaying was actually almost impossible to see, only blurs of motion, truly bone-chilling cracks of impact and giants going flying, and that unceasing fusillade of fire and light taking its toll as giants shouted defiantly in desperate fear... and fell into the swirls.
There were no orders coming in any organized fashion, for the Hags who commanded all had their own dire problems, although not for long. One short biped aswirl in all the colors of the rainbow was sliding through the giants as if they were not there, closing on each Hag and in a blur of motion passing her by, leaving a shattered, eroding witch to fall dead behind him as he proceeded unerringly to the next one.
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-Don't eat the ogres or swamp giants. Watch for tainted bloodlines. Ogres inbreed and pick up polluted bloodlines. The Hagspawn are your best bets if you can't resist for now. Mark any giant that's greenish. We'll be killing dinos and crocs to fill your bellies.- After all, the boundary wall behind us wasn't that far away.
The apes were freaking starving. Their mass had increased by a factor of eight, and all that material had to come out of somewhere. For now, that was ectoplasm, but it had to be replaced by 'real' material as soon as possible.
The gnomes and hyn were already scavenging, heaping up crude gold jewelry and any magical stuff they found on the giants onto waiting Disks. As they finished, each corpse was set on vivic fire, which rapidly began to spread across the battlefield.
The giants broke before we could kill them all. The onrushing apes, the towering titan that was Elder Arg, and five dragons like something out of legend, combined with an impossibly strong and fast set of little folk who could maul them so handily? Massive figures sprinted in all directions as fast as their legs could carry them, and I had to repeat a few times for the apes to cease chasing them and bringing a last few unlucky ones down for a quick mauling.
A few dozen choice heads were stacked up for Baneskulls, but basically the Ironblood got around quickly to looting, and the apes hurried to help, lifting big bodies as gnomes pointed to rip off the bracelets, belt buckles, rings, earrings, torcs, and similar things. A few of the hungriest apes ripped into some relatively clean giants to stuff themselves with a hundred pounds or so of meat and take the worst edge off of their hunger. The chakon were literally going to need a ton of meat before the urge to eat vanished, so we needed a meat source fast... and these guys were basically vegetarians most of the time, so that was saying something.
At least post-combat healing was MUCH easier, as in nobody needed it. Within five minutes of the end of the fight, everyone's Health was back to full. Soak would be slower, but most of that wasn't really depleted all that much, given how much damage reduction was at work, and how thick certain hides now were.
The Warlocks were already winging back to scout for suitable prey, like a big walk of sauropods. A few brontosaurs at least were going to be needed to assuage everyone...
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I watched Briggs drink down the Elixir. The Wolf and Lion had guarded the Disks holding the extras that had been made, the two of them wandering out to look over the carnage wrought by those of their bloodlines. Even two Exemplars were impressed by the capability for slaughter they witnessed, and quite happy they had nothing to fear from their own bloodlines, who were literally incapable of attacking them.
Of course, the Brothers didn't take the wereblood route, although they did take the Lesser Exemplar Elixir. They were instinctive racial purists, and not interested in evolving through another such bloodline template. That was something for others. Their instincts said that such changes would just be cleansed out of their bodies by their Voids, so it was useless.
The all-around improvements of the Lesser Exemplar Template, on the other hand, weren't something to be turned down. Idealized Voids were a thing, and weren't they already beloved by the Land?
Briggs, of course, had taken another route. After all, Elder Arg was Right There, also a legendary bloodline. It was just none of the humans wanted to take an Ape bloodline. Cat? Sure. Dog? Sure. Monkey? What, and look like an Ancient instead of a cool cat-man or dog-man?
Briggs didn't have any problem with it, of course. The difference was that he wasn't going to gain in size like a true Ape would, such as our monkey escort now currently glutting themselves on several wako with broken necks and sauropods whose heads had been cut off and then pulled out of the water by dozens of hungry ubermonkeys. The blood that had poured out of the dinos had brought in the wako, who became appetizers as Elder Arg stomped on them and snapped their necks with casual experience.
"Sense of smell is sharper. I think my canines are getting longer." He spread his lips, I looked at his teeth, and nodded. "I can feel the power in my limbs. If I get bigger, I bet it would just explode." His stomach suddenly rumbled. "I think I need to go eat more food than my stomach can hold."
I grinned despite myself. He should be sitting on at least +12 Strength and Con, and +10 to Dex, truly impressive physical buffs. The power would catalyze if his size increased, as long as he continued taking the Racial Levels, which I was sure he would. A Potion of Growth or two, and my, wouldn't his opponents be surprised when he got even faster...
The only other ones who hadn't taken a Bloodline were myself, the girls, and the Amazon, Trilla, whose Amazon Pact would just return her to human perfection if she were to imbibe one. Yes, dear, that can be drawbacks to being an Amazon...
Of course, Wayfair hadn't a Bloodline either, it being no more relevant to her than to the dragons or griffons. However, she had been offered and accepted a Lesser Exemplar Elixir, somewhat astonished that we would even offer it to her. It would lock her into her status as a lilithi, meaning she'd never become a lilitu, but since she didn't want to become an eyeless murder queen, that wasn't so much an issue. She was already on very good terms with a big sister goddess, she didn't need to be a succubi queen.
Of course, when you give someone with a base 42 Cha, +4 from Mark, and now another +4 from Lesser Exemplar, well... let's say she really had to tamp it down, or nobody was going to be able to take their eyes off of her...