ADVENTURE 25: GETTING STONED
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 29 October 2016
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Traveling north back through the Clatspur Mountain pass in the Vistani wagon, the group met up with Aithanar heading south in the mule wagon, Daisy the pony, Wrath the timber wolf, and Obvious the jackalope all following behind. The two groups formed back into one: Aithanar swapped wagons and took his accustomed place back driving the Vistani wagon while Ingebold took up the reins of her father's mules; Binkadink and Finoula mounted Obvious and Daisy, respectively; and Gilbert Fung sat inside the Vistani wagon ignoring everything but the pages of his Omnibook, researching variations of the ritual used to summon a familiar to service. Then they resumed their northern journey, Binkadink especially eager to meet up with the group of weaponsmiths and wizards specializing in magic weapon enhancements, rumored to be just north of the Clatspur Mountain range.
The rest of the day was uneventful and the group found a nice clearing in which to camp out for the night. Ingebold got a campfire going while the two rangers scouted out some fresh meat for dinner. Aithanar tended to the draft animals, paying special attention to Daisy, knowing that doing so would win him a smile and a few sweet words of gratitude from Finoula. Gilbert continued his studies.
After dinner, Gilbert announced he was ready to prepare for his familiar-summoning ritual. He found a clear area a few yards from the campsite and, consulting the pages of his Omnibook, began tracing images in the dirt with a stick.
"Is that all you need?" asked Binkadink. "I thought magic circles were supposed to be made out of inlaid silver, or something."
"You thinking permanent magic circles," scoffed Gilbert. "This one serve purpose just fine."
"What are you going to summon?" asked the gnome. "A toad? I could see you with a toad. My cousin Jinkadoodle has a toad familiar." When the heavyset wizard continued to ignore him, he added, "His name's 'Croaky'."
"There!" announced Gilbert, looking down on his handiwork and oblivious to Binkadink's tales of Croaky the toad familiar. The others stepped up to watch what would happen next. Gilbert tossed aside the stick with which he'd inscribed his runes along the magic circle, closed the Omnibook, and began speaking the words to an ages-old ritual by memory. Binkadink leaned forward, eager to see what would show up in the circle.
What the group hadn't expected was for the ground beneath the circle to start buckling and heaving, then erupt up and out as a squat, humanoid being rose up from the ground as if he'd been buried there. In a gravelly voice, the stocky earth elemental, standing at his full four-foot height, said the first words of his existence since being summoned from the Elemental Plane of Earth: "How I serve you, Master?--wait, why I all pink?"
It was true: the dirt and rocks making up the earth elemental's body were a universal pink in color - a shocking, almost nauseatingly bright pink. Gilbert looked down in shock, then started flipping back through the pages of the Omnibook. "I wonder..." he mumbled to himself, while Binkadink gave a wide smile. "A pink elemental!" he announced, impressed. "That's a whole lot better than a toad!"
"I say words right..." mumbled the wizard, frowning. "Diagram right, too..." He snapped the book closed. "This same trick as hair color changes!" he announced, then shook a meaty fist to the skies. "Stupid faeries! You leave Mudpie alone!"
"So this not permanent?" asked Mudpie, looking down at his pink arms.
"No, you be back to normal soon enough," consoled Gilbert Fung.
"Good. I no like being pink," grumbled Mudpie.
"Check it out," whispered Castillan. "He talk just like Gilbert."
"Great," grumbled Finoula. "That's just what we needed."
- - -
The next morning the group continued their travels north - only this time, Mudpie (now his normal coloration) sat in the Vistani wagon as well as Gilbert. Castillan sat in his customary perch on top of the roofed wagon, acting as a lookout. But the road the group was following was becoming narrower, and before long they were traveling single file, with no way for another wagon to pass them in the opposite direction, as the cliff wall to the left was nearly vertical and the mountain to the right rose up at a steep angle as well. Binkadink and Obvious took point, followed in turn by Ingebold driving the mule wagon with Darrien in the back, then Aithanar driving the Vistani wagon, and Finoula, Daisy, and Wrath acting as rear guard.
Suddenly, there was an incoherent roar of rage from above and a boulder came crashing down in front of the Vistani wagon, narrowly missing Castor and Pollux, who both reared up in fright.
"Thieves!" cried a deep voice from above. "Steal my treasure from me, would you? My silver, my gems – my daughter? You'll die for this effrontery!"
From his vantage atop the Vistani wagon, Castillan could see the bald head of a giant on a ledge he judged to be about 30 feet up the mountainside to the right. "We mean you no harm!" the bounder called up to the angry giant. "And we're just now arriving here - we've never met you before, nor have we taken anything belonging to you!"
"Lies!" was his only answer, as Fjordak Cragbrow bent down to pick up another boulder. Darrien nocked an arrow to his Arachnibow and aimed up at the giant, but the ledge blocked his shot. Still, he was ready to release his arrow just as soon as the giant gave him a target.
Binkadink grabbed up a potion from his belt and uncorked it. It was one of Uncle Winkidew's potions of spider climbing, and the gnome knew from past experience his uncle hadn't properly ground the spiders' legs as he should have. But he wasn't planning on picking spiders' legs out from between his teeth - he had a better idea. "Hey, Obvious," he said in the language of burrowing mammals, "Would you like to be able to hop all the way up to that ledge?"
"Sure!" agreed the jackalope, and the gnome leaned forward and poured the contents of the potion vial down his mount's throat. "Let's go!" he cried, leaning forward and getting a good grip on the jackalope's horns as Obvious hippity-hopped up the near-vertical mountainside. They arrived at the other end of the ledge from where the stone giant was lifting the next boulder he'd thrown down at his enemies.
At the back of the wagon train, Finoula had seen Obvious and Binkadink loping up the side of the mountain and surmised how they'd done it. That gave her an idea: she pulled out a potion of her own, advised Wrath to stay where he was and guard Daisy, and then swigged it down. Immediately, her body broke apart into tiny particles, and a vaguely Finoula-shaped cloud of mist started floating over to the mountainside and rising up towards the giant's ledge.
"Look, we're not here to hurt anybody," advised Binkadink in his most calm, soothing voice - but just in case, he gripped his masterwork glaive and readied himself for trouble.
"I know why you're here!" roared Fjordak, tossing his boulder. Obvious scooted to the side and it missed, bouncing down the cliffside and coming to a hard stop against the mule wagon. Darrien leaped down from the wagon to examine it for any damage, but it was okay - and he had Ingebold drive the wagon up a ways, hopefully out of range of any other thrown rocks, or at least far enough away that they wouldn't be a primary target. Once far enough away, the dwarven cleric called for Franco and Tantrum to halt, then tied off the reins and ran back towards the others.
Below the giant's ledge, Castor and Pollux paced in place nervously, the first thrown boulder blocking their way. It was big enough that the wagon couldn't get past it, and in the narrow channel there was no way to turn the wagon around; they'd either have to back the wagon the way it had come or move the boulder - and neither action was one the group had time to deal with at the present.
The back of the Vistani wagon popped open, and out stepped Gilbert and Mudpie. "What all the commotion out here?" groused the wizard, as he stormed over to the front of the wagon to see Aithanar having abandoned his post in the rider's seat and unbuckling Castor from his harness. "What you doing?" he demanded of the elf, knowing in advance he'd get only gibberish in response.
"Quinta shebodder!" replied Aithanar, pointing up to the ledge and continuing to free Castor. He might not be able to get the wagon out of harm's way, but he could certainly save their horses!
Up above, Fjordak didn't bother with another rock; instead, he rushed forward and struck Obvious two hard blows with fists as hard as stone. The jackalope staggered, and Binkadink leapt from his mount's back, glaive already swinging in retaliation. Standing on the Vistani wagon trying to get a view of what was going on, Castillan heard the sounds of battle and decided his attempts at diplomacy were of no further use. So, backing up as far as he could, he sped across the wagon's roof, leapt to the side of the mountain, and allowed his momentum to propel him high enough up the nearly-vertical slope that he could pull himself up to the ledge. Crawling up, he saw he was behind the stone giant, whose attention was focused on Obvious and Binkadink. The gnome, for once, wasn't elevated to human height in his stilt-boots; apparently when up against a giant he preferred to use his short stature to his advantage.
A snap of his fingers brought Castillan's weapons to hand, and the bounder quietly stepped forward.
Binkadink swung his glaive at the giant, catching him across his broad chest. In his peripheral vision, he saw a cave opening to his left, although the only way in seemed to be across a wide pit. There was a long slab of stone placed along its center, but it looked fairly wobbly. Still, the little gnome figured it made for a retractable access point to the giant's cavern network, which seemed eminently practical. While trading blows with the giant, he managed to see Obvious still woozy from the giant's blows, and called for him to go back down to the ground, to find Ingebold. The gnome was certain she'd take the time to heal his friend.
Finoula continued rising up the side of the mountain, frustrated at the slow speed with which she could get her misty form to rise. Gilbert, Mudpie, Ingebold, and Darrien were the only combatants still on the ground, and Darrien soon excused himself from their number by summoning his giant mantis and riding it up to the ledge, arriving in the same spot Obvious had first chosen. The jackalope bounded down to Ingebold's side, and she gave him a quick prayer of healing which mended his wounds. Then, fearful of thrown boulders, she cast an entropic shield upon herself. She always felt bad casting protective spells when she was the only recipient, but there was nobody in range she could heal now that she'd tended to the jackalope's wounds, and as the others had drilled into her head on repeated occasions, they relied upon her for healing so it was in their own best interests that she kept herself safe.
During this time, Gilbert had had his familiar help him up onto the top of the tossed boulder blocking the draft horses from passing by. Looking up at what he could see of the combat up above, he tried casting a charm monster spell on the stone giant, but Fjordak apparently shrugged it off. The wizard then cast a haste spell encompassing Binkadink, Castillan, and Darrien. Then, jumping back down from the boulder, he asked Mudpie, "There some way you get me up there?"
In reply, the earth elemental grabbed his master's robes by the back of the neck and approached the cliff. Using his ability to "swim" through solid rock, the elemental did so while keeping one hand - the one holding Gilbert's robes - exposed to the air. As a result, Gilbert found himself being dragged up the mountainside, feeling every projection and extrusion of rock hit his body along the way. Battered and bruised, he stood up on the ledge - just in time to see Fjordak fall over it, his dead body plunging to the ground below after having been toppled by the forces fighting him. He might have been a powerful stone giant, but he was no match for a gnome's masterwork glaive, a giant mantis's swift-striking claws, a bounder's sneak attacks with his swords, and an archer's arrows - at least, not all at once.
Ingebold hesitantly approached Fjordak's body, unsure if he was really dead or just faking, but the closer she got the more sure she was of his death. She noted he wore little but a loincloth in the way of clothing, yet had on an impressive-looking pair of fingerless leather gloves sporting leather studs. On a whim, she pulled one glove off the giant's hand and was pleased to see it magically resize to the dimensions of her own hand. So it is magical, she surmised, pulling off the other one and stashing them in a belt pouch, not wanting to wear them in case they were responsible for the giant's erratic behavior. Then she gestured for Obvious to approach, and pointed up to ledge. She couldn't speak to the jackalope like Binkadink could, but she got her intentions transmitted through pantomime. Awkwardly climbing onto his back (for she was only slightly taller than Binkadink, and didn't have the advantage of a pair of gnomish stilt-boots), she kicked with her legs and soon the jackalope was hippity-hopping back up the mountainside, this time with a dwarven cleric gripping his antlers in terror.
Finoula had finally made it to the top of the ledge in gaseous form, but opted not to resume her corporeal form just yet - there was that pit trap to cross first.
"Looks wobbly," remarked Binkadink.
"So how'd the giant get across it?" asked Castillan.
"Easy - his arms would be long enough to steady himself on the side walls," replied the gnome. "We wouldn't have that option." He looked down into the pit. "Looks about 30 feet deep," he observed.
"That's as low as the surface of the road below," observed Castillan. "I wonder if there's a hidden passage at ground level?"
"That only get us into bottom of pit," pointed out Gilbert. "We still need way out of pit."
"So what do you suggest?" asked the bounder.
"I'll show you how to get across," boasted Darrien, climbing back onto his mantis and having it fly across. They landed in a cavern about double the size as the ledge outside. The cavern wasn't empty, though - there was a cave cricket perched up on a high ledge. It began chirping immediately - for all of a few seconds, the time it took for Darrien to pepper it with arrows. But that was long enough for it to have awakened something in the next cavern over: the ranger heard a distinct "Whuff?" of something being roused from sleep and a deep growl of irritation.
"Uh oh," said Darrien.
Castillan looked at the stone slab, decided speed would be to his advantage, and raced across the span, his bounder training keeping him balanced and safe. The elf then readied his swords for the moment the creature in the room beyond made an appearance. Binkadink realized Obvious's temporary spider climb abilities would keep him perched on the stone slab even if it jostled a bit, and had his jackalope escort both him and Ingebold in one trip. Finoula simply floated across the bridge in mist form, then resumed her physical form in the cavern with the dead cave cricket. And Gilbert had Mudpie repeat his trick of gliding through solid stone while dragging him along by an extended hand, this time strolling through the wall and dangling the wizard over the open pit.
By then, the cave was getting a bit crowded. It got even more so when the dire bear, Thick-Pelt, ambled out of the cave where he'd been sleeping, the one he shared with Fjordak Cragbrow, to investigate the strange sounds and even strange scents he'd noticed emanating from this cave. He was rewarded for his efforts with a narrow blade slicing deep into the side of one furry cheek. Enraged by the pain, Thick-Pelt reared up and swiped at the offending elf with a long-clawed paw. His swipe cut deep into Castillan's side, and the great bruin pulled the bounder in for a hug. Castillan screamed in pain as he felt several ribs crack.
The next to react was the giant mantis, which struck out again lightning-fast with its claws. They struck true, but the bear's size and his thick fur helped prevent him from being caught and stuck in the mantis's embrace in the same way the elf was caught in his own. Ingebold voiced a quick prayer and a spiritual hammer manifested directly behind the dire bear, striking at it with uncanny accuracy. Darrien began shooting arrows into the bear's side, glad that the beast was big enough he had plenty of target to shoot at far enough away from Castillan that he wasn't risking accidentally hitting his friend. Binkadink used his glaive's long reach to poke at the bear, soaking its fur in its own blood. Ingebold pulled out her magic mace from her belt, pointed it in Castillan's direction, and channeled positive energy - which would have otherwise powered one of her strongest spells - through the mace and into the bounder. While still caught up in the bear's embrace, the elf felt vitality coursing through his system, knitting his ribs and healing the claw marks ripped through the side of his torso.
In the midst of this combat, nobody noticed a thin ray striking out from the darkness of the caverns not yet explored. It struck the mantis, which sat on its four back legs and looked at the combat before with uncaring, multifaceted eyes. To its insect brain, the combat ahead had nothing to do with it; it wasn't hungry, so why waste energy fighting?
Attacked from all quarters, Thick-Pelt hung on to the morsel it already had in its grasp; strengthening his hold on Castillan, he snapped his teeth down on the bounder's shoulder. Castillan again screamed in pain, realizing that Ingebold's recent healing was the only thing that had kept him alive thus far - and he was desperate for some more of it, pronto! Mudpie entered the fracas, slamming at the bear with his stony fists; Finoula stabbed at it with her twin swords; and those attacks, as well as the arrows and spiritual hammer, soon took the great bear down. Castillan groaned in pain as the beast collapsed on top of him, and Finoula sheathed her swords to help pull him out from underneath the slain bruin.
The battle over, Gilbert stepped past the bear's corpse to check out the cave from which it had emerged to fight the heroes. It was a simple cave, its walls painted with a series of geometric designs, and a few furs on the floor making up crude beds. In the meantime, realizing the light from the cavern system's outer opening was doing little this far back and Binkadink's helmet was presently their only light source, Darrien activated one of the sun rods in his backpack. Then he stepped past the slain dire bear and walked into a much larger cavern beyond.
There were two indistinct shapes to his left and straight ahead, each easily 10 feet tall, but the ranger ignored them - they didn't really even enter his consciousness. Instead, he was struck by a simple realization: his "friends" were simply waiting for the right time to kill him and steal all of his belongings! He spun about, seeing Mudpie ambling up to stand beside him. Of course! thought Darrien. Who ever heard of a walking pile of dirt and rocks? This was obviously an assassin in a ridiculous costume, hoping to get past the ranger's guard.
"It won't work!" screamed Darrien, stepping back and firing arrow after arrow into Mudpie's thick body. Some were deflected off the harder, rockier parts of the elemental's form, while others impaled themselves deep into those sections comprised mainly of dirt. "I'm on to your tricks!" the half-elf ranger screamed, reaching into his quiver for another arrow, while Mudpie looked back at Gilbert for instructions. The wizard waved him back to him, so he could transfer a spell onto his familiar. Mudpie shrugged, not understanding the workings of this strange group yet, and headed back to heed his master's call.
Binkadink and Finoula looked at each other, realizing something had affected their friend. Each taking a deep breath in case it was due to something he'd inhaled - the gnome remembered the strength-sapping mushroom spores they'd encountered in the lizardfolk cave; this might be something similar - they leaped forward, weapons drawn. Not having breathed in the nearly-invisible spores in the cavern, they were able to fully focus their attention on the two fungoid monstrosities standing in the cavern before them.
The one on the left was roughly humanoid in shape, with a wide mushroom cap forming a hat of sorts at the top of its head. It pointed a stumpy appendage at Binkadink and a stream of particles struck him in the chest, exploding into a fine mist of spores. But the gnome clamped down even harder on his lips, willing himself not to breathe, all the while realizing that these spores now covered the front of his armor; eventually, he'd have to take a breath....
The creature on the right was built more like a mushroom, only one with half a dozen or so hard, wooden stalks acting as legs. Its cap was raised upwards on all sides, forming a sort of cup of gargantuan proportions. It, too, leaked spore from its body, and the elven ranger feared what would happen if she were foolish enough to breathe them in.
Choosing their target as one, Binkadink sent his glaive swinging at the basidirond, even as Finoula danced forward and slashed out at it with her swords. Before the six-limbed fungal beast could retaliate, sudden danger came from an unexpected direction.
"You're a part of it!" screamed Darrien, sending four arrows in swift sequence darting at Finoula, each striking true. The elf stumbled, dropping to one knee, and it took all of her willpower not to breathe in as a response to the sudden attack. Above her head, the spiritual hammer went streaking by, Ingebold having redirected it at the basidirond.
Gilbert stepped forward, took in the situation at a glance, and cast an Evard's black tentacles spell at the back of the cavern - which, he noted, ended in an open space leading down to unknown depths. Ebon, rubbery tentacles sprang up from the ground, trying to entangle the basidirond and the myconid circle leader. Their initial attacks were unsuccessful; the basidirond ambled forward, out of the spell's range, and kicked a wooden appendage at the gnome fighter, as the humanoid myconid made its way slowly forward, eager to be out of the range of the grasping tentacles.
Binkadink stepped back and stabbed at the basidirond, killing it; the creature's oblong body went crashing backwards into the reach of the grasping tentacles, where it was eventually pulled apart.
Castillan, still sorely wounded by the bear's attack, took a deep breath and raced past the tentacles to his left. He dodged past Darrien, standing in a passageway that looked to have a set of natural stairs leading down, and into a different cave opening. His elven eyes could make out two smaller, fungoid forms menacing a cringing shape trying her best to hide underneath a blanket made of thick, woolly furs. Although this was a female stone giant - Fjordak's daughter, Bodelka - who would have towered over the myconids if she stood up, she seemed paralyzed with absolute terror.
One of the myconids turned to swipe a malformed limb at the bounder, who easily dodged it; the other backed up in shock and began exuding spores at a rapid rate. Although the bounder didn't realize it - he held his breath, fearful of ill effects if he breathed in the spores - these were merely the myconids' way of alerting others of their kind that danger was present. And Bodelka's fear, although induced not by the myconid guards threatening her now but rather by spores emanating from the basidirond when it first entered the giants' lair through the rift at the back of their cavern network, had run its course. Shaking her head furiously as if angry at her earlier fear, she threw the furs away from her, stood to her full height, and took in the situation with a clear head.
There were two of the strange mushroom-people in her room, as well as an elf in leather armor. Outside her sleeping cave she could see two women, one an elf and the other a dwarf, both as much a trespasser as the fungoid beings. And behind them stepped a male gnome, swinging a bladed weapon at something she couldn't see.
Bodelka's course was clear: she must rid her home of these intruders, and the best way to do that was to get to her father and their trained dire bear so the three of them could stand together. She raised her hand to the amulet she wore around her neck, spoke a command word, and her body vanished, transformed instantly into a lightning bolt which shot across the cavern, catching all three humanoids and one of the little fungus-men in her room. The three adventurers merely staggered under the sudden onslaught; only the fungus-man had the good grace to die. And then, less than a second after her sudden transformation, she reformed into her normal body, this time standing at the opening of her father's cave - from which she could see the slain corpse of Thick-Pelt.
Gilbert, standing inside Fjordak's sleeping cave, was astonished at the sudden arrival of a bald stone giantess before him; fortunately, he had finished the spell he'd been casting at the time, and Mudpie's body was polymorphed into a larger version of himself, one standing four times his normal height. He raised a massive fist to strike at the giantess, but as he did so the myconid circle leader stepped just behind her, advancing upon Binkadink. Judging the myconids to be the invaders and the real threat here, Gilbert sent his temporarily 16-foot familiar to attack the circle leader instead of Bodelka. One slam of his fist smashed the myconid's entire head from its body, and the circle leader fell back into the embrace of the Evard's black tentacles spell.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the myconid threat. Rising up from the rift was an even larger myconid, this one the sovereign, the leader of the entire invasion force. Having been driven off by greater threats in the vast Underdark, the shattered remains of a small group of myconid colonies had traveled this close to the surface before finding a place of relative safety - and if the current occupants needed to be evicted, then so be it. The myconid sovereign, under the same spider climb effect he'd bestowed upon the rest of his shattered circle via the touch-wand he'd created from a slender shoot of his own body, reached the level of the cavern floor but found it filled with waving, ebon tentacles. That would never do! Fortunately, the bodiless appendages only rose about halfway to the cavern's 20-foot ceiling, so the sovereign simply climbed higher up the rift wall before entering the cavern above the waving tentacles.
Gilbert saw this new threat and sent his earth elemental familiar to deal with it. Mudpie merged into the stone wall of the cavern, swim-climbing through the ceiling of the adjacent cavern, to pop out of the opposite wall where moments earlier the myconid sovereign had been standing sideways. However, by the time the elemental had traversed that distance, the sovereign had moved past the range of the tentacles and stood in a place of relative safety: Bodelka's sleeping cavern, still occupied by Castillan and the remaining myconid guard. This smaller myconid swung a fist at the bounder, who had been hurt enough earlier by Thick-Pelt that he didn't relish a fight, even with a fungus-man smaller than himself. As the sovereign entered the cave via the wall near the ceiling, Castillan ducked beneath and exited the chamber, heading towards the natural stairs leading down he'd passed earlier.
The top of these stairs were currently occupied by Darrien, whose spore hallucinations still convinced him his so-called "friends" were plotting to kill him and steal all of his worldly possessions. While getting a few shots off at Binkadink, he saw Finoula pull the whip of thorns from her belt and send its coils lashing out at his feet. While a part of his mind noted the thorns had not been activated, the rest of his addled brain dismissed this fact as insignificant - the elf was still attacking him, wasn't she? Proof of her betrayal! Finoula got the ends of her whip wrapped around Darrien's ankles and pulled his feet out from beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground. She had hoped she might knock him out, so maybe the spores would burn out of his system by the time he woke up, but no such luck - the ranger untangled the whip from his ankles and scrambled back to his feet. Seeing himself surrounded by three of his adventuring enemies, he chose the nearest target and sent an arrow flying at Castillan, who barely dodged it in time.
"Watch it!" demanded the bounder, aiming his swords at Darrien and ready to strike back if necessary.
Seeing Castillan's wounds were keeping the bounder from being at his full fighting strength, Binkadink stepped forward, his stilt-boots elevating him to a height better geared toward fighting a half-elf. Darrien, without a moment's hesitation, shot an arrow at the gnome fighter; Binkadink, with any hesitation on his part, sent his glaive slashing at the ranger.
"No!" screamed Finoula, fearful that the gnome would kill Darrien to keep the rest of the party safe. But she needn't have worried; at the last moment, Binkadink had twisted his weapon so the flat of the blade slammed into the side of Darrien's head. Eyes rolling up into his head, Darrien dropped backwards down the stairs, unconscious but still breathing. Seeing a way clear of battle, Castillan leaped after him, jumping from wall to wall above his friend's body and dropping back down to the natural stone steps - only to find an even smaller myconid form waiting there for him. This was an elder worker, part of a group of four such beings that had traveled down to the lower level of the cavern network to explore its contents. Not wanting to deal with the creature, the bounder leaped over its head and landed in the wider cavern at the bottom of the stone steps - and seeing three more elder workers in battle with a giant snail. I can't catch a break! the bounder thought to himself, looking for a safe place to drink down a potion of healing.
Back at the top of the stairs, Bodelka cried a wordless cry of rage and grief and struck out at the target nearest the body of her pet dire bear - Ingebold - with her rock-hard fists. Ingebold retargeted her spiritual hammer at the giantess, then followed its attack up with a few of her own with her warhammer. Bodelka snarled and touched her amulet for a second time; her body became a lightning bolt and passed through the dwarven cleric and Finoula before reshaping itself back to stone giantess form less than a second later, stopping at the top of the stairs.
In her sleeping cave, the myconid sovereign was in a blow-by-blow battle with an enlarged Mudpie. The battle was rather lopsided, though, given that the earth elemental had no need to breathe and was immune to the myconid's spores; furthermore, he attacked while most of his body was still "earth gliding" within the stone wall of Bodelka's cave. The myconid soon fell to the floor dead, its plans of finding a new safe haven for its circle as demolished as its fungal body.
Bodelka used the powers of her lightning amulet for the third and final time that day, sending her in lightning bolt form down the stone steps, through the bodies of Binkadink, Castillan, and the elder worker at the bottom of the steps. Once again, this was enough to slay the myconid, while the others simply soaked up their damage and looked ready to fight some more. Bodelka found herself back in her stone giant form standing next to the flail snail her father had allowed to lair in the cavern, protecting their herd from intruders.
Before the stone giantess could do anything further, Castillan was off in a shot. He raced past the two remaining myconid elder workers (one of whom was slain by the flail snail as he ran past), through a trio of stalagmites, and into what felt like a much, much larger cavern than any others he'd seen in this entire complex. Far away from any light sources, even Castillan's elven eyes could make out little more than dark shapes in the cavern. But the place had the stink of a barnyard - and this soon proved to be an apt comparison, as a shaggy-pelted bovine wandered up to the startled elf and bellowed at him. On a whim, Castillan put his hand out and patted the side of the enormous, shaggy head of the being stooping down to him. The rothé mooed in contentment, drawing a few more such creatures towards them. Relieved to no longer be among enemies, Castillan passed around head-pats and scratches behind the ear while he pulled the "Winkidew Special" healing potion from his belt and tried to swig it down. It took him a few seconds to work up the resolve to actually drink it down, for it smelled worse than the dung-filled cavern of over half a dozen stench kows, but he managed to drink it down - only to heave it all up a few seconds later. Unimpressed by the elf's gastrointestinal discomfort, the rothé gathered around to be petted.
Mudpie's fist suddenly slammed out from the cavern wall and smashed into Bodelka. The earth elemental stepped out from the wall, pleased with its sudden combat power in this new, larger form. But its overconfidence was soon brought to a halt when the stone giantess proved her own strength with a series of punches that brought Mudpie crashing to the ground with a massive crash. The flail snail slithered onto his back, hoping to use this higher elevation to its own advantage.
At the top of the stone steps, Ingebold bent over the unconscious Darrien and cast one of her most powerful healing spells. He fluttered his eyes, sat up, and looked confused - but he showed no signs of wanting to attack his companions, which was certainly a good sign. Binkadink squeezed past the ranger and raced to the bottom of the steps, only to take a series of well-placed strikes from the giant gastropod's writhing appendages, each bearing more than a passing resemblance to a mace. Behind him, Finoula used the gnome's body as a shield to slip past the flail snail and stab at Bodelka with her swords.
Gilbert stepped to the top of the stairs and peered down, looking for his familiar - whose cry of pain and mental anguish had been transmitted through the mental link the portly wizard had with his stocky familiar. Bodelka was within sight, so he sent a blast of five magic missiles flying down at her. As Binkadink stabbed at the snail with his gnomish glaive, Darrien re-entered the fight, this time alongside his adventuring partners, and sent a flurry of arrows at Bodelka. The giantess stepped back from the stairs, moving further into the snail's cavern and out of immediate sight of half of her opponents.
Ingebold and Darrien took this opportunity to go down the steps and into the snail's cavern. The cleric headed immediately to Mudpie's fallen form, confident in Binkadink's ability to keep the flail snail, perched on the earth elemental's body, sufficiently focused on fending off his glaive to give her the chance to cast a spell of healing upon the familiar. Her spell woke the elemental immediately; standing up - the flail snail sliding effortlessly off his body in the process - and heeding Gilbert's frantic gestures to return to the wizard's side, Mudpie felt yet another of his master's spells being granted to him. Obeying Gilbert's orders, Mudpie sank back into the stone floor of the cavern, traveled to just underneath where Bodelka was standing, and popped back up - simultaneously releasing the vampiric touch spell Gilbert had passed his way.
Ingebold went running to the back of the cavern, looking for Castillan, who she knew could use some healing. Bodelka, leaping away from Mudpie's unexpected attack, found herself standing beside the dwarven cleric and struck out at her. Ingebold ducked and cringed as if warding off the giantess's next blow, but it was a fake-out and her spiritual hammer slammed into the back of Bodelka's head, vanishing immediately afterward as the spell had run its course.
Darrien's arrows finally brought the stone giant crashing to the ground, dead, while Castillan - having gotten over the dry heaves caused by Winkidew's faulty healing potion - was ready to return to battle and sent an arrow from his own shortbow into one of the cracks in the flail snail's shell, killing it.
"Is that it?" asked Finoula, looking around for enemies and finding none. That was because the last remaining myconid elder worker, having seen the rest of his troop fall before these powerful enemies, had slipped into the hoped-for safety of the rothé cavern - where he had been promptly eaten by two of the massive stench kows.
A thorough search of the cavern complex unearthed the "silver and gems" Fjordak had been ranting about while under the effects of the basidirond's spores, as well as a series of delicately-carved stone figures in Bodelka's room - she had apparently been quite the sculptress. Castillan insisted on checking out the rothé cavern under proper lighting, and unearthed three clear diamonds, each nearly the size of his palm and practically invisible at the bottom of the clear pool of fresh water at the back of the stench kows' cavern. Finoula claimed Bodelka's lightning amulet, having recognized the command words as an elven phrase meaning "lightning-bridge rider." As the amulet had apparently been crafted by an elf, she felt it only appropriate that she put it to good use from that point on. And once Gilbert identified the gloves Fjordak Cragbrow had been wearing as gauntlets of ogre power, the group handed them over to Binkadink, who argued he could best use the magical boost to his natural strength, given he had only his own strength powering the blows of his weapons. Gilbert ended up with the touch-wand of spider climb from the myconid sovereign.
After having explored the entire cave network, Obvious's spider climb spell effect had worn off, and the pacified giant mantis had returned to the magical stasis inside Darrien's own necklace. Rather than use up a charge from Gilbert's new touch-wand, Ingebold unrolled the group's portable hole and everyone but Castillan stepped inside, allowing the bounder to cross the wobbly bridge across the entrance pit and back down the cliffside to his brother Aithanar, who had returned the draft horses to their harnesses once all of the fighting had left the immediate vicinity and taken place deeper into the mountain's interior.
Finally, with everyone back out of the portable hole and healed by Ingebold's remaining spells, the group got the thrown boulders - and Fjordak's corpse - out of the way enough to allow the Vistani wagon to pass by.
"Back on the road again," said Castillan with a smile at his little brother.
But Aithanar wasn't smiling back. "Goonton winwicky!" he said, pointing at his brother's head.
"What?" asked Castillan, turning to see if Aithanar had been pointing to something behind him. But he hadn't; Aithanar had been pointing at Castillan's hair, which had abruptly changed to the bright red of a poppy.
"Getting tired of this nonsense!" yelled Gilbert to the surrounding air, but the surrounding air gave no response back.
- - -
At the beginning of this adventure I had Dan roll a Spellcraft check when having Gilbert Fung summon his advanced familiar. Dan had, weeks earlier, bought a Large earth elemental and painstakingly painted it in natural stone colors, planning on using it to represent Mudpie when polymorphed into Large size (something Gilbert plans to make permanent once he learns the permanency spell - it's listed in one of the spellbooks he's acquired, but Dan rolled a "1" when Gilbert was attempting to learn that spell after attaining 9th level).
Wouldn't you know it? - Dan rolled a "1" when making the Spellcraft roll. We were prepared to use a galeb duhr miniature to represent Mudpie when he was in his normal, Small earth elemental form, but I had come prepared for the eventuality of a botched Spellcraft roll. Palming the galeb duhr in the same hand I had already hidden another figure, I gave Mudpie's introductory speech before plopping the second figure onto the table - a pink Jigglypuff Pokemon figure I had picked up from somewhere years ago. I think I had everyone believing for a moment or two that Mudpie was going to be permanently pink due to a botched Spellcraft check, before informing the group that Mudpie's odd coloration wore off after about an hour - whereupon the group realized it was apparently the same cause as whatever had been playing around with their hair color the last 10 adventures or so. (The story behind that little mystery will be revealed during the course of the next adventure, no doubt to the relief of my players.)
- - -
T-Shirt Worn: I was originally just going to wear my gray T-shirt to represent the "stone" part of this adventure, before realizing I had a more creative option. Instead, I wore my Einstein T-shirt, which has him smoking a pipe and the smoke taking on the form of colorful galaxies behind him. That represented "getting stoned" fairly well, I thought - and best of all, it was only obvious in hindsight, so it gave my players no real hint as to what they might expect to show up in the session's adventure.
In fact, it had quite the opposite effect: Logan "misread" the meaning behind my T-shirt, realizing I do not own a red dragon T-shirt, realizing also that he painted two red dragon miniatures for me recently, and realizing that red dragons lair in the mountains, he put those facts together and surmised the PCs would be facing a red dragon (or dragons) at some point in this adventure. In fact, this bit of meta-gaming might have had some detrimental effects on the PCs' overall success, because after Logan's reasoning was spelled out at the table, Dan opted to forego having Gilbert Fung prepare any fireball spells for this adventure (and then voicing his regret about having done so later on).
Coincidence? You be the judge.
PC Roster:
Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 9
Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 9
Darrien, half-elf ranger 9
Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 9
Gilbert Fung, human wizard 9
Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 9
Darrien, half-elf ranger 9
Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 9
Gilbert Fung, human wizard 9
NPC Roster:
Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 2
Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 8 (Moradin)
Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 8 (Moradin)
Game Session Date: 29 October 2016
- - -
Traveling north back through the Clatspur Mountain pass in the Vistani wagon, the group met up with Aithanar heading south in the mule wagon, Daisy the pony, Wrath the timber wolf, and Obvious the jackalope all following behind. The two groups formed back into one: Aithanar swapped wagons and took his accustomed place back driving the Vistani wagon while Ingebold took up the reins of her father's mules; Binkadink and Finoula mounted Obvious and Daisy, respectively; and Gilbert Fung sat inside the Vistani wagon ignoring everything but the pages of his Omnibook, researching variations of the ritual used to summon a familiar to service. Then they resumed their northern journey, Binkadink especially eager to meet up with the group of weaponsmiths and wizards specializing in magic weapon enhancements, rumored to be just north of the Clatspur Mountain range.
The rest of the day was uneventful and the group found a nice clearing in which to camp out for the night. Ingebold got a campfire going while the two rangers scouted out some fresh meat for dinner. Aithanar tended to the draft animals, paying special attention to Daisy, knowing that doing so would win him a smile and a few sweet words of gratitude from Finoula. Gilbert continued his studies.
After dinner, Gilbert announced he was ready to prepare for his familiar-summoning ritual. He found a clear area a few yards from the campsite and, consulting the pages of his Omnibook, began tracing images in the dirt with a stick.
"Is that all you need?" asked Binkadink. "I thought magic circles were supposed to be made out of inlaid silver, or something."
"You thinking permanent magic circles," scoffed Gilbert. "This one serve purpose just fine."
"What are you going to summon?" asked the gnome. "A toad? I could see you with a toad. My cousin Jinkadoodle has a toad familiar." When the heavyset wizard continued to ignore him, he added, "His name's 'Croaky'."
"There!" announced Gilbert, looking down on his handiwork and oblivious to Binkadink's tales of Croaky the toad familiar. The others stepped up to watch what would happen next. Gilbert tossed aside the stick with which he'd inscribed his runes along the magic circle, closed the Omnibook, and began speaking the words to an ages-old ritual by memory. Binkadink leaned forward, eager to see what would show up in the circle.
What the group hadn't expected was for the ground beneath the circle to start buckling and heaving, then erupt up and out as a squat, humanoid being rose up from the ground as if he'd been buried there. In a gravelly voice, the stocky earth elemental, standing at his full four-foot height, said the first words of his existence since being summoned from the Elemental Plane of Earth: "How I serve you, Master?--wait, why I all pink?"
It was true: the dirt and rocks making up the earth elemental's body were a universal pink in color - a shocking, almost nauseatingly bright pink. Gilbert looked down in shock, then started flipping back through the pages of the Omnibook. "I wonder..." he mumbled to himself, while Binkadink gave a wide smile. "A pink elemental!" he announced, impressed. "That's a whole lot better than a toad!"
"I say words right..." mumbled the wizard, frowning. "Diagram right, too..." He snapped the book closed. "This same trick as hair color changes!" he announced, then shook a meaty fist to the skies. "Stupid faeries! You leave Mudpie alone!"
"So this not permanent?" asked Mudpie, looking down at his pink arms.
"No, you be back to normal soon enough," consoled Gilbert Fung.
"Good. I no like being pink," grumbled Mudpie.
"Check it out," whispered Castillan. "He talk just like Gilbert."
"Great," grumbled Finoula. "That's just what we needed."
- - -
The next morning the group continued their travels north - only this time, Mudpie (now his normal coloration) sat in the Vistani wagon as well as Gilbert. Castillan sat in his customary perch on top of the roofed wagon, acting as a lookout. But the road the group was following was becoming narrower, and before long they were traveling single file, with no way for another wagon to pass them in the opposite direction, as the cliff wall to the left was nearly vertical and the mountain to the right rose up at a steep angle as well. Binkadink and Obvious took point, followed in turn by Ingebold driving the mule wagon with Darrien in the back, then Aithanar driving the Vistani wagon, and Finoula, Daisy, and Wrath acting as rear guard.
Suddenly, there was an incoherent roar of rage from above and a boulder came crashing down in front of the Vistani wagon, narrowly missing Castor and Pollux, who both reared up in fright.
"Thieves!" cried a deep voice from above. "Steal my treasure from me, would you? My silver, my gems – my daughter? You'll die for this effrontery!"
From his vantage atop the Vistani wagon, Castillan could see the bald head of a giant on a ledge he judged to be about 30 feet up the mountainside to the right. "We mean you no harm!" the bounder called up to the angry giant. "And we're just now arriving here - we've never met you before, nor have we taken anything belonging to you!"
"Lies!" was his only answer, as Fjordak Cragbrow bent down to pick up another boulder. Darrien nocked an arrow to his Arachnibow and aimed up at the giant, but the ledge blocked his shot. Still, he was ready to release his arrow just as soon as the giant gave him a target.
Binkadink grabbed up a potion from his belt and uncorked it. It was one of Uncle Winkidew's potions of spider climbing, and the gnome knew from past experience his uncle hadn't properly ground the spiders' legs as he should have. But he wasn't planning on picking spiders' legs out from between his teeth - he had a better idea. "Hey, Obvious," he said in the language of burrowing mammals, "Would you like to be able to hop all the way up to that ledge?"
"Sure!" agreed the jackalope, and the gnome leaned forward and poured the contents of the potion vial down his mount's throat. "Let's go!" he cried, leaning forward and getting a good grip on the jackalope's horns as Obvious hippity-hopped up the near-vertical mountainside. They arrived at the other end of the ledge from where the stone giant was lifting the next boulder he'd thrown down at his enemies.
At the back of the wagon train, Finoula had seen Obvious and Binkadink loping up the side of the mountain and surmised how they'd done it. That gave her an idea: she pulled out a potion of her own, advised Wrath to stay where he was and guard Daisy, and then swigged it down. Immediately, her body broke apart into tiny particles, and a vaguely Finoula-shaped cloud of mist started floating over to the mountainside and rising up towards the giant's ledge.
"Look, we're not here to hurt anybody," advised Binkadink in his most calm, soothing voice - but just in case, he gripped his masterwork glaive and readied himself for trouble.
"I know why you're here!" roared Fjordak, tossing his boulder. Obvious scooted to the side and it missed, bouncing down the cliffside and coming to a hard stop against the mule wagon. Darrien leaped down from the wagon to examine it for any damage, but it was okay - and he had Ingebold drive the wagon up a ways, hopefully out of range of any other thrown rocks, or at least far enough away that they wouldn't be a primary target. Once far enough away, the dwarven cleric called for Franco and Tantrum to halt, then tied off the reins and ran back towards the others.
Below the giant's ledge, Castor and Pollux paced in place nervously, the first thrown boulder blocking their way. It was big enough that the wagon couldn't get past it, and in the narrow channel there was no way to turn the wagon around; they'd either have to back the wagon the way it had come or move the boulder - and neither action was one the group had time to deal with at the present.
The back of the Vistani wagon popped open, and out stepped Gilbert and Mudpie. "What all the commotion out here?" groused the wizard, as he stormed over to the front of the wagon to see Aithanar having abandoned his post in the rider's seat and unbuckling Castor from his harness. "What you doing?" he demanded of the elf, knowing in advance he'd get only gibberish in response.
"Quinta shebodder!" replied Aithanar, pointing up to the ledge and continuing to free Castor. He might not be able to get the wagon out of harm's way, but he could certainly save their horses!
Up above, Fjordak didn't bother with another rock; instead, he rushed forward and struck Obvious two hard blows with fists as hard as stone. The jackalope staggered, and Binkadink leapt from his mount's back, glaive already swinging in retaliation. Standing on the Vistani wagon trying to get a view of what was going on, Castillan heard the sounds of battle and decided his attempts at diplomacy were of no further use. So, backing up as far as he could, he sped across the wagon's roof, leapt to the side of the mountain, and allowed his momentum to propel him high enough up the nearly-vertical slope that he could pull himself up to the ledge. Crawling up, he saw he was behind the stone giant, whose attention was focused on Obvious and Binkadink. The gnome, for once, wasn't elevated to human height in his stilt-boots; apparently when up against a giant he preferred to use his short stature to his advantage.
A snap of his fingers brought Castillan's weapons to hand, and the bounder quietly stepped forward.
Binkadink swung his glaive at the giant, catching him across his broad chest. In his peripheral vision, he saw a cave opening to his left, although the only way in seemed to be across a wide pit. There was a long slab of stone placed along its center, but it looked fairly wobbly. Still, the little gnome figured it made for a retractable access point to the giant's cavern network, which seemed eminently practical. While trading blows with the giant, he managed to see Obvious still woozy from the giant's blows, and called for him to go back down to the ground, to find Ingebold. The gnome was certain she'd take the time to heal his friend.
Finoula continued rising up the side of the mountain, frustrated at the slow speed with which she could get her misty form to rise. Gilbert, Mudpie, Ingebold, and Darrien were the only combatants still on the ground, and Darrien soon excused himself from their number by summoning his giant mantis and riding it up to the ledge, arriving in the same spot Obvious had first chosen. The jackalope bounded down to Ingebold's side, and she gave him a quick prayer of healing which mended his wounds. Then, fearful of thrown boulders, she cast an entropic shield upon herself. She always felt bad casting protective spells when she was the only recipient, but there was nobody in range she could heal now that she'd tended to the jackalope's wounds, and as the others had drilled into her head on repeated occasions, they relied upon her for healing so it was in their own best interests that she kept herself safe.
During this time, Gilbert had had his familiar help him up onto the top of the tossed boulder blocking the draft horses from passing by. Looking up at what he could see of the combat up above, he tried casting a charm monster spell on the stone giant, but Fjordak apparently shrugged it off. The wizard then cast a haste spell encompassing Binkadink, Castillan, and Darrien. Then, jumping back down from the boulder, he asked Mudpie, "There some way you get me up there?"
In reply, the earth elemental grabbed his master's robes by the back of the neck and approached the cliff. Using his ability to "swim" through solid rock, the elemental did so while keeping one hand - the one holding Gilbert's robes - exposed to the air. As a result, Gilbert found himself being dragged up the mountainside, feeling every projection and extrusion of rock hit his body along the way. Battered and bruised, he stood up on the ledge - just in time to see Fjordak fall over it, his dead body plunging to the ground below after having been toppled by the forces fighting him. He might have been a powerful stone giant, but he was no match for a gnome's masterwork glaive, a giant mantis's swift-striking claws, a bounder's sneak attacks with his swords, and an archer's arrows - at least, not all at once.
Ingebold hesitantly approached Fjordak's body, unsure if he was really dead or just faking, but the closer she got the more sure she was of his death. She noted he wore little but a loincloth in the way of clothing, yet had on an impressive-looking pair of fingerless leather gloves sporting leather studs. On a whim, she pulled one glove off the giant's hand and was pleased to see it magically resize to the dimensions of her own hand. So it is magical, she surmised, pulling off the other one and stashing them in a belt pouch, not wanting to wear them in case they were responsible for the giant's erratic behavior. Then she gestured for Obvious to approach, and pointed up to ledge. She couldn't speak to the jackalope like Binkadink could, but she got her intentions transmitted through pantomime. Awkwardly climbing onto his back (for she was only slightly taller than Binkadink, and didn't have the advantage of a pair of gnomish stilt-boots), she kicked with her legs and soon the jackalope was hippity-hopping back up the mountainside, this time with a dwarven cleric gripping his antlers in terror.
Finoula had finally made it to the top of the ledge in gaseous form, but opted not to resume her corporeal form just yet - there was that pit trap to cross first.
"Looks wobbly," remarked Binkadink.
"So how'd the giant get across it?" asked Castillan.
"Easy - his arms would be long enough to steady himself on the side walls," replied the gnome. "We wouldn't have that option." He looked down into the pit. "Looks about 30 feet deep," he observed.
"That's as low as the surface of the road below," observed Castillan. "I wonder if there's a hidden passage at ground level?"
"That only get us into bottom of pit," pointed out Gilbert. "We still need way out of pit."
"So what do you suggest?" asked the bounder.
"I'll show you how to get across," boasted Darrien, climbing back onto his mantis and having it fly across. They landed in a cavern about double the size as the ledge outside. The cavern wasn't empty, though - there was a cave cricket perched up on a high ledge. It began chirping immediately - for all of a few seconds, the time it took for Darrien to pepper it with arrows. But that was long enough for it to have awakened something in the next cavern over: the ranger heard a distinct "Whuff?" of something being roused from sleep and a deep growl of irritation.
"Uh oh," said Darrien.
Castillan looked at the stone slab, decided speed would be to his advantage, and raced across the span, his bounder training keeping him balanced and safe. The elf then readied his swords for the moment the creature in the room beyond made an appearance. Binkadink realized Obvious's temporary spider climb abilities would keep him perched on the stone slab even if it jostled a bit, and had his jackalope escort both him and Ingebold in one trip. Finoula simply floated across the bridge in mist form, then resumed her physical form in the cavern with the dead cave cricket. And Gilbert had Mudpie repeat his trick of gliding through solid stone while dragging him along by an extended hand, this time strolling through the wall and dangling the wizard over the open pit.
By then, the cave was getting a bit crowded. It got even more so when the dire bear, Thick-Pelt, ambled out of the cave where he'd been sleeping, the one he shared with Fjordak Cragbrow, to investigate the strange sounds and even strange scents he'd noticed emanating from this cave. He was rewarded for his efforts with a narrow blade slicing deep into the side of one furry cheek. Enraged by the pain, Thick-Pelt reared up and swiped at the offending elf with a long-clawed paw. His swipe cut deep into Castillan's side, and the great bruin pulled the bounder in for a hug. Castillan screamed in pain as he felt several ribs crack.
The next to react was the giant mantis, which struck out again lightning-fast with its claws. They struck true, but the bear's size and his thick fur helped prevent him from being caught and stuck in the mantis's embrace in the same way the elf was caught in his own. Ingebold voiced a quick prayer and a spiritual hammer manifested directly behind the dire bear, striking at it with uncanny accuracy. Darrien began shooting arrows into the bear's side, glad that the beast was big enough he had plenty of target to shoot at far enough away from Castillan that he wasn't risking accidentally hitting his friend. Binkadink used his glaive's long reach to poke at the bear, soaking its fur in its own blood. Ingebold pulled out her magic mace from her belt, pointed it in Castillan's direction, and channeled positive energy - which would have otherwise powered one of her strongest spells - through the mace and into the bounder. While still caught up in the bear's embrace, the elf felt vitality coursing through his system, knitting his ribs and healing the claw marks ripped through the side of his torso.
In the midst of this combat, nobody noticed a thin ray striking out from the darkness of the caverns not yet explored. It struck the mantis, which sat on its four back legs and looked at the combat before with uncaring, multifaceted eyes. To its insect brain, the combat ahead had nothing to do with it; it wasn't hungry, so why waste energy fighting?
Attacked from all quarters, Thick-Pelt hung on to the morsel it already had in its grasp; strengthening his hold on Castillan, he snapped his teeth down on the bounder's shoulder. Castillan again screamed in pain, realizing that Ingebold's recent healing was the only thing that had kept him alive thus far - and he was desperate for some more of it, pronto! Mudpie entered the fracas, slamming at the bear with his stony fists; Finoula stabbed at it with her twin swords; and those attacks, as well as the arrows and spiritual hammer, soon took the great bear down. Castillan groaned in pain as the beast collapsed on top of him, and Finoula sheathed her swords to help pull him out from underneath the slain bruin.
The battle over, Gilbert stepped past the bear's corpse to check out the cave from which it had emerged to fight the heroes. It was a simple cave, its walls painted with a series of geometric designs, and a few furs on the floor making up crude beds. In the meantime, realizing the light from the cavern system's outer opening was doing little this far back and Binkadink's helmet was presently their only light source, Darrien activated one of the sun rods in his backpack. Then he stepped past the slain dire bear and walked into a much larger cavern beyond.
There were two indistinct shapes to his left and straight ahead, each easily 10 feet tall, but the ranger ignored them - they didn't really even enter his consciousness. Instead, he was struck by a simple realization: his "friends" were simply waiting for the right time to kill him and steal all of his belongings! He spun about, seeing Mudpie ambling up to stand beside him. Of course! thought Darrien. Who ever heard of a walking pile of dirt and rocks? This was obviously an assassin in a ridiculous costume, hoping to get past the ranger's guard.
"It won't work!" screamed Darrien, stepping back and firing arrow after arrow into Mudpie's thick body. Some were deflected off the harder, rockier parts of the elemental's form, while others impaled themselves deep into those sections comprised mainly of dirt. "I'm on to your tricks!" the half-elf ranger screamed, reaching into his quiver for another arrow, while Mudpie looked back at Gilbert for instructions. The wizard waved him back to him, so he could transfer a spell onto his familiar. Mudpie shrugged, not understanding the workings of this strange group yet, and headed back to heed his master's call.
Binkadink and Finoula looked at each other, realizing something had affected their friend. Each taking a deep breath in case it was due to something he'd inhaled - the gnome remembered the strength-sapping mushroom spores they'd encountered in the lizardfolk cave; this might be something similar - they leaped forward, weapons drawn. Not having breathed in the nearly-invisible spores in the cavern, they were able to fully focus their attention on the two fungoid monstrosities standing in the cavern before them.
The one on the left was roughly humanoid in shape, with a wide mushroom cap forming a hat of sorts at the top of its head. It pointed a stumpy appendage at Binkadink and a stream of particles struck him in the chest, exploding into a fine mist of spores. But the gnome clamped down even harder on his lips, willing himself not to breathe, all the while realizing that these spores now covered the front of his armor; eventually, he'd have to take a breath....
The creature on the right was built more like a mushroom, only one with half a dozen or so hard, wooden stalks acting as legs. Its cap was raised upwards on all sides, forming a sort of cup of gargantuan proportions. It, too, leaked spore from its body, and the elven ranger feared what would happen if she were foolish enough to breathe them in.
Choosing their target as one, Binkadink sent his glaive swinging at the basidirond, even as Finoula danced forward and slashed out at it with her swords. Before the six-limbed fungal beast could retaliate, sudden danger came from an unexpected direction.
"You're a part of it!" screamed Darrien, sending four arrows in swift sequence darting at Finoula, each striking true. The elf stumbled, dropping to one knee, and it took all of her willpower not to breathe in as a response to the sudden attack. Above her head, the spiritual hammer went streaking by, Ingebold having redirected it at the basidirond.
Gilbert stepped forward, took in the situation at a glance, and cast an Evard's black tentacles spell at the back of the cavern - which, he noted, ended in an open space leading down to unknown depths. Ebon, rubbery tentacles sprang up from the ground, trying to entangle the basidirond and the myconid circle leader. Their initial attacks were unsuccessful; the basidirond ambled forward, out of the spell's range, and kicked a wooden appendage at the gnome fighter, as the humanoid myconid made its way slowly forward, eager to be out of the range of the grasping tentacles.
Binkadink stepped back and stabbed at the basidirond, killing it; the creature's oblong body went crashing backwards into the reach of the grasping tentacles, where it was eventually pulled apart.
Castillan, still sorely wounded by the bear's attack, took a deep breath and raced past the tentacles to his left. He dodged past Darrien, standing in a passageway that looked to have a set of natural stairs leading down, and into a different cave opening. His elven eyes could make out two smaller, fungoid forms menacing a cringing shape trying her best to hide underneath a blanket made of thick, woolly furs. Although this was a female stone giant - Fjordak's daughter, Bodelka - who would have towered over the myconids if she stood up, she seemed paralyzed with absolute terror.
One of the myconids turned to swipe a malformed limb at the bounder, who easily dodged it; the other backed up in shock and began exuding spores at a rapid rate. Although the bounder didn't realize it - he held his breath, fearful of ill effects if he breathed in the spores - these were merely the myconids' way of alerting others of their kind that danger was present. And Bodelka's fear, although induced not by the myconid guards threatening her now but rather by spores emanating from the basidirond when it first entered the giants' lair through the rift at the back of their cavern network, had run its course. Shaking her head furiously as if angry at her earlier fear, she threw the furs away from her, stood to her full height, and took in the situation with a clear head.
There were two of the strange mushroom-people in her room, as well as an elf in leather armor. Outside her sleeping cave she could see two women, one an elf and the other a dwarf, both as much a trespasser as the fungoid beings. And behind them stepped a male gnome, swinging a bladed weapon at something she couldn't see.
Bodelka's course was clear: she must rid her home of these intruders, and the best way to do that was to get to her father and their trained dire bear so the three of them could stand together. She raised her hand to the amulet she wore around her neck, spoke a command word, and her body vanished, transformed instantly into a lightning bolt which shot across the cavern, catching all three humanoids and one of the little fungus-men in her room. The three adventurers merely staggered under the sudden onslaught; only the fungus-man had the good grace to die. And then, less than a second after her sudden transformation, she reformed into her normal body, this time standing at the opening of her father's cave - from which she could see the slain corpse of Thick-Pelt.
Gilbert, standing inside Fjordak's sleeping cave, was astonished at the sudden arrival of a bald stone giantess before him; fortunately, he had finished the spell he'd been casting at the time, and Mudpie's body was polymorphed into a larger version of himself, one standing four times his normal height. He raised a massive fist to strike at the giantess, but as he did so the myconid circle leader stepped just behind her, advancing upon Binkadink. Judging the myconids to be the invaders and the real threat here, Gilbert sent his temporarily 16-foot familiar to attack the circle leader instead of Bodelka. One slam of his fist smashed the myconid's entire head from its body, and the circle leader fell back into the embrace of the Evard's black tentacles spell.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the myconid threat. Rising up from the rift was an even larger myconid, this one the sovereign, the leader of the entire invasion force. Having been driven off by greater threats in the vast Underdark, the shattered remains of a small group of myconid colonies had traveled this close to the surface before finding a place of relative safety - and if the current occupants needed to be evicted, then so be it. The myconid sovereign, under the same spider climb effect he'd bestowed upon the rest of his shattered circle via the touch-wand he'd created from a slender shoot of his own body, reached the level of the cavern floor but found it filled with waving, ebon tentacles. That would never do! Fortunately, the bodiless appendages only rose about halfway to the cavern's 20-foot ceiling, so the sovereign simply climbed higher up the rift wall before entering the cavern above the waving tentacles.
Gilbert saw this new threat and sent his earth elemental familiar to deal with it. Mudpie merged into the stone wall of the cavern, swim-climbing through the ceiling of the adjacent cavern, to pop out of the opposite wall where moments earlier the myconid sovereign had been standing sideways. However, by the time the elemental had traversed that distance, the sovereign had moved past the range of the tentacles and stood in a place of relative safety: Bodelka's sleeping cavern, still occupied by Castillan and the remaining myconid guard. This smaller myconid swung a fist at the bounder, who had been hurt enough earlier by Thick-Pelt that he didn't relish a fight, even with a fungus-man smaller than himself. As the sovereign entered the cave via the wall near the ceiling, Castillan ducked beneath and exited the chamber, heading towards the natural stairs leading down he'd passed earlier.
The top of these stairs were currently occupied by Darrien, whose spore hallucinations still convinced him his so-called "friends" were plotting to kill him and steal all of his worldly possessions. While getting a few shots off at Binkadink, he saw Finoula pull the whip of thorns from her belt and send its coils lashing out at his feet. While a part of his mind noted the thorns had not been activated, the rest of his addled brain dismissed this fact as insignificant - the elf was still attacking him, wasn't she? Proof of her betrayal! Finoula got the ends of her whip wrapped around Darrien's ankles and pulled his feet out from beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground. She had hoped she might knock him out, so maybe the spores would burn out of his system by the time he woke up, but no such luck - the ranger untangled the whip from his ankles and scrambled back to his feet. Seeing himself surrounded by three of his adventuring enemies, he chose the nearest target and sent an arrow flying at Castillan, who barely dodged it in time.
"Watch it!" demanded the bounder, aiming his swords at Darrien and ready to strike back if necessary.
Seeing Castillan's wounds were keeping the bounder from being at his full fighting strength, Binkadink stepped forward, his stilt-boots elevating him to a height better geared toward fighting a half-elf. Darrien, without a moment's hesitation, shot an arrow at the gnome fighter; Binkadink, with any hesitation on his part, sent his glaive slashing at the ranger.
"No!" screamed Finoula, fearful that the gnome would kill Darrien to keep the rest of the party safe. But she needn't have worried; at the last moment, Binkadink had twisted his weapon so the flat of the blade slammed into the side of Darrien's head. Eyes rolling up into his head, Darrien dropped backwards down the stairs, unconscious but still breathing. Seeing a way clear of battle, Castillan leaped after him, jumping from wall to wall above his friend's body and dropping back down to the natural stone steps - only to find an even smaller myconid form waiting there for him. This was an elder worker, part of a group of four such beings that had traveled down to the lower level of the cavern network to explore its contents. Not wanting to deal with the creature, the bounder leaped over its head and landed in the wider cavern at the bottom of the stone steps - and seeing three more elder workers in battle with a giant snail. I can't catch a break! the bounder thought to himself, looking for a safe place to drink down a potion of healing.
Back at the top of the stairs, Bodelka cried a wordless cry of rage and grief and struck out at the target nearest the body of her pet dire bear - Ingebold - with her rock-hard fists. Ingebold retargeted her spiritual hammer at the giantess, then followed its attack up with a few of her own with her warhammer. Bodelka snarled and touched her amulet for a second time; her body became a lightning bolt and passed through the dwarven cleric and Finoula before reshaping itself back to stone giantess form less than a second later, stopping at the top of the stairs.
In her sleeping cave, the myconid sovereign was in a blow-by-blow battle with an enlarged Mudpie. The battle was rather lopsided, though, given that the earth elemental had no need to breathe and was immune to the myconid's spores; furthermore, he attacked while most of his body was still "earth gliding" within the stone wall of Bodelka's cave. The myconid soon fell to the floor dead, its plans of finding a new safe haven for its circle as demolished as its fungal body.
Bodelka used the powers of her lightning amulet for the third and final time that day, sending her in lightning bolt form down the stone steps, through the bodies of Binkadink, Castillan, and the elder worker at the bottom of the steps. Once again, this was enough to slay the myconid, while the others simply soaked up their damage and looked ready to fight some more. Bodelka found herself back in her stone giant form standing next to the flail snail her father had allowed to lair in the cavern, protecting their herd from intruders.
Before the stone giantess could do anything further, Castillan was off in a shot. He raced past the two remaining myconid elder workers (one of whom was slain by the flail snail as he ran past), through a trio of stalagmites, and into what felt like a much, much larger cavern than any others he'd seen in this entire complex. Far away from any light sources, even Castillan's elven eyes could make out little more than dark shapes in the cavern. But the place had the stink of a barnyard - and this soon proved to be an apt comparison, as a shaggy-pelted bovine wandered up to the startled elf and bellowed at him. On a whim, Castillan put his hand out and patted the side of the enormous, shaggy head of the being stooping down to him. The rothé mooed in contentment, drawing a few more such creatures towards them. Relieved to no longer be among enemies, Castillan passed around head-pats and scratches behind the ear while he pulled the "Winkidew Special" healing potion from his belt and tried to swig it down. It took him a few seconds to work up the resolve to actually drink it down, for it smelled worse than the dung-filled cavern of over half a dozen stench kows, but he managed to drink it down - only to heave it all up a few seconds later. Unimpressed by the elf's gastrointestinal discomfort, the rothé gathered around to be petted.
Mudpie's fist suddenly slammed out from the cavern wall and smashed into Bodelka. The earth elemental stepped out from the wall, pleased with its sudden combat power in this new, larger form. But its overconfidence was soon brought to a halt when the stone giantess proved her own strength with a series of punches that brought Mudpie crashing to the ground with a massive crash. The flail snail slithered onto his back, hoping to use this higher elevation to its own advantage.
At the top of the stone steps, Ingebold bent over the unconscious Darrien and cast one of her most powerful healing spells. He fluttered his eyes, sat up, and looked confused - but he showed no signs of wanting to attack his companions, which was certainly a good sign. Binkadink squeezed past the ranger and raced to the bottom of the steps, only to take a series of well-placed strikes from the giant gastropod's writhing appendages, each bearing more than a passing resemblance to a mace. Behind him, Finoula used the gnome's body as a shield to slip past the flail snail and stab at Bodelka with her swords.
Gilbert stepped to the top of the stairs and peered down, looking for his familiar - whose cry of pain and mental anguish had been transmitted through the mental link the portly wizard had with his stocky familiar. Bodelka was within sight, so he sent a blast of five magic missiles flying down at her. As Binkadink stabbed at the snail with his gnomish glaive, Darrien re-entered the fight, this time alongside his adventuring partners, and sent a flurry of arrows at Bodelka. The giantess stepped back from the stairs, moving further into the snail's cavern and out of immediate sight of half of her opponents.
Ingebold and Darrien took this opportunity to go down the steps and into the snail's cavern. The cleric headed immediately to Mudpie's fallen form, confident in Binkadink's ability to keep the flail snail, perched on the earth elemental's body, sufficiently focused on fending off his glaive to give her the chance to cast a spell of healing upon the familiar. Her spell woke the elemental immediately; standing up - the flail snail sliding effortlessly off his body in the process - and heeding Gilbert's frantic gestures to return to the wizard's side, Mudpie felt yet another of his master's spells being granted to him. Obeying Gilbert's orders, Mudpie sank back into the stone floor of the cavern, traveled to just underneath where Bodelka was standing, and popped back up - simultaneously releasing the vampiric touch spell Gilbert had passed his way.
Ingebold went running to the back of the cavern, looking for Castillan, who she knew could use some healing. Bodelka, leaping away from Mudpie's unexpected attack, found herself standing beside the dwarven cleric and struck out at her. Ingebold ducked and cringed as if warding off the giantess's next blow, but it was a fake-out and her spiritual hammer slammed into the back of Bodelka's head, vanishing immediately afterward as the spell had run its course.
Darrien's arrows finally brought the stone giant crashing to the ground, dead, while Castillan - having gotten over the dry heaves caused by Winkidew's faulty healing potion - was ready to return to battle and sent an arrow from his own shortbow into one of the cracks in the flail snail's shell, killing it.
"Is that it?" asked Finoula, looking around for enemies and finding none. That was because the last remaining myconid elder worker, having seen the rest of his troop fall before these powerful enemies, had slipped into the hoped-for safety of the rothé cavern - where he had been promptly eaten by two of the massive stench kows.
A thorough search of the cavern complex unearthed the "silver and gems" Fjordak had been ranting about while under the effects of the basidirond's spores, as well as a series of delicately-carved stone figures in Bodelka's room - she had apparently been quite the sculptress. Castillan insisted on checking out the rothé cavern under proper lighting, and unearthed three clear diamonds, each nearly the size of his palm and practically invisible at the bottom of the clear pool of fresh water at the back of the stench kows' cavern. Finoula claimed Bodelka's lightning amulet, having recognized the command words as an elven phrase meaning "lightning-bridge rider." As the amulet had apparently been crafted by an elf, she felt it only appropriate that she put it to good use from that point on. And once Gilbert identified the gloves Fjordak Cragbrow had been wearing as gauntlets of ogre power, the group handed them over to Binkadink, who argued he could best use the magical boost to his natural strength, given he had only his own strength powering the blows of his weapons. Gilbert ended up with the touch-wand of spider climb from the myconid sovereign.
After having explored the entire cave network, Obvious's spider climb spell effect had worn off, and the pacified giant mantis had returned to the magical stasis inside Darrien's own necklace. Rather than use up a charge from Gilbert's new touch-wand, Ingebold unrolled the group's portable hole and everyone but Castillan stepped inside, allowing the bounder to cross the wobbly bridge across the entrance pit and back down the cliffside to his brother Aithanar, who had returned the draft horses to their harnesses once all of the fighting had left the immediate vicinity and taken place deeper into the mountain's interior.
Finally, with everyone back out of the portable hole and healed by Ingebold's remaining spells, the group got the thrown boulders - and Fjordak's corpse - out of the way enough to allow the Vistani wagon to pass by.
"Back on the road again," said Castillan with a smile at his little brother.
But Aithanar wasn't smiling back. "Goonton winwicky!" he said, pointing at his brother's head.
"What?" asked Castillan, turning to see if Aithanar had been pointing to something behind him. But he hadn't; Aithanar had been pointing at Castillan's hair, which had abruptly changed to the bright red of a poppy.
"Getting tired of this nonsense!" yelled Gilbert to the surrounding air, but the surrounding air gave no response back.
- - -
At the beginning of this adventure I had Dan roll a Spellcraft check when having Gilbert Fung summon his advanced familiar. Dan had, weeks earlier, bought a Large earth elemental and painstakingly painted it in natural stone colors, planning on using it to represent Mudpie when polymorphed into Large size (something Gilbert plans to make permanent once he learns the permanency spell - it's listed in one of the spellbooks he's acquired, but Dan rolled a "1" when Gilbert was attempting to learn that spell after attaining 9th level).
Wouldn't you know it? - Dan rolled a "1" when making the Spellcraft roll. We were prepared to use a galeb duhr miniature to represent Mudpie when he was in his normal, Small earth elemental form, but I had come prepared for the eventuality of a botched Spellcraft roll. Palming the galeb duhr in the same hand I had already hidden another figure, I gave Mudpie's introductory speech before plopping the second figure onto the table - a pink Jigglypuff Pokemon figure I had picked up from somewhere years ago. I think I had everyone believing for a moment or two that Mudpie was going to be permanently pink due to a botched Spellcraft check, before informing the group that Mudpie's odd coloration wore off after about an hour - whereupon the group realized it was apparently the same cause as whatever had been playing around with their hair color the last 10 adventures or so. (The story behind that little mystery will be revealed during the course of the next adventure, no doubt to the relief of my players.)
- - -
T-Shirt Worn: I was originally just going to wear my gray T-shirt to represent the "stone" part of this adventure, before realizing I had a more creative option. Instead, I wore my Einstein T-shirt, which has him smoking a pipe and the smoke taking on the form of colorful galaxies behind him. That represented "getting stoned" fairly well, I thought - and best of all, it was only obvious in hindsight, so it gave my players no real hint as to what they might expect to show up in the session's adventure.
In fact, it had quite the opposite effect: Logan "misread" the meaning behind my T-shirt, realizing I do not own a red dragon T-shirt, realizing also that he painted two red dragon miniatures for me recently, and realizing that red dragons lair in the mountains, he put those facts together and surmised the PCs would be facing a red dragon (or dragons) at some point in this adventure. In fact, this bit of meta-gaming might have had some detrimental effects on the PCs' overall success, because after Logan's reasoning was spelled out at the table, Dan opted to forego having Gilbert Fung prepare any fireball spells for this adventure (and then voicing his regret about having done so later on).
Coincidence? You be the judge.
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