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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8295583" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 8: ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1/paladin 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 2</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 5 June 2021</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The group had been on the road for several days, but at long last they passed a wooden sign at the side of the road welcoming them to the small farming town of Moon Creek. This, they well knew, was the location of the next dream victim they were to rescue, according to the instructions they'd received in the dreamlands from the Queen of Dreams herself.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, while the Queen could sense the locations of each of the dreamers entering her realm - and could step into any dream she chose to observe it playing out - not even she could always get a good look at the actual dreamer or learn his or her actual identity. "Our best bet's to check in at the local tavern," suggested Xandro, astride his black horse White, named perhaps because of the white patch on the beast's muzzle but more likely because the bard had an unusual sense of humor.</p><p></p><p>His strategy paid off, though, for the tavernkeeper was indeed well aware of someone in town who had fallen asleep weeks ago and had not been able to be awakened since. He gave Xandro directions to the home of one <strong>Olliffer Pelham</strong> and the bard thanked him for his time, tipping him a silver piece and returning to tell the others what he'd learned.</p><p></p><p>The door to Olliffer's home was answered by a good-looking young woman of about twenty summers; she introduced herself as Olliffer's granddaughter, <strong>Jervilla</strong>. "He's back here, in his bedroom," she told them, leading them down the short hallway in the rear of the small dwelling after they'd explained why they'd come. There in bed lay a man in his early sixties, tangled in his bedsheets and blanket. "He tosses and turns quite frequently," she informed the group. "And sometimes he lets out this weird moan. But he's been asleep now for...it must be four weeks by now! He's had nothing to eat and nothing to drink in all that time, but he doesn't look to have lost any weight at all. I try moving him from one side of the bed to the other on occasion, so he doesn't get sores, but other than that there's not been much in the way of caring for him. Just, you know, keeping his house and his farm in order while he sleeps. Did you say you thought you could wake him up?"</p><p></p><p>Wakuren smiled his best smile at the young woman - he'd practiced it quite often in the mirror, hoping to lessen the impact of his bestial features - and explained how they'd already rescued a wizard from a similar situation several days back. As he recounted to Jervilla what they'd be doing, the others pulled the old man's bed into the middle of the room while Alewyth set about affixing a dreamstone to his forehead, binding it in place with a bandana. Then she passed a dreamstone to each of her companions as they took up positions around the bed, at the five points of a star.</p><p></p><p>"What shall I do?" Jervilla asked.</p><p></p><p>"Just see that we're not disturbed, please," Wakuren replied. The young woman nodded her agreement and stepped back into the doorway, watching as the five adventurers crossed their legs where they sat and closed their eyes, their hands each cupped around a shiny stone. Their breathing slowed and silence covered the room, broken only by Olliffer's occasional grunt or moan.</p><p></p><p>In the dreamlands, each of the adventurers suddenly manifested in their own individual dreamscapes and were met by their own private moogle guides. "Hey there, kupo!" called out Doc as Thurloe Pulver suddenly appeared before the flying kitten-thing. How Doc knew exactly where the young fighter would show up was a mystery to Thurloe, but he'd learned things were often pretty strange in the dream-lands. "Lead on, Doc," he said and without any further discussion the moogle spun about in mid-air and started flapping off in a random direction. Thurloe followed.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, all five of the dreamwalkers met up with each other as their five moogle guides brought them to the endless hallways of doors - where each door opened to a specific dream currently being played out. There was another moogle waiting there for them and with a nod of his fuzzy head (which set the pom-pom at the end of his antenna bouncing) he dismissed the other moogles, who each then flapped away down the hallway, chatting with the others.</p><p></p><p>"This dream's in a kind of continuous loop, like the last one with the dream fox, kupo!" said Mogo, their primary dream instructor. "But the people keep changing around - you'll see, kupo!" Mogo opened the door and ushered the five inside.</p><p></p><p>"Aren't you coming with us?" Xandro asked as he followed the others into the dreamscape of Olliffer Pelham, practically walking straight into Zander Quilson, who had stopped short at what he saw before him.</p><p></p><p>"I'll wait out here, kupo!" Mogo replied, closing the door in the bard's face.</p><p></p><p>Xandro turned around at the sound of Alewyth's stifled gasp of surprise - and found himself stifling one of his own. There, standing before him, were twenty beautiful young women, all human but otherwise looking nothing like each other, for there were blondes, brunettes, redheads, and those with raven-black hair; a bevy of various skin tones; some wearing elaborate makeup on their faces and some with faces as natural as the day they were born.</p><p></p><p>And not a one of them wore even a scrap of clothing.</p><p></p><p>Xandro turned away, embarrassed. The women were grouped in a tight circle, watching in awe and anticipation at the coupling going on in the center of their ring; Thurloe immediately recognized Olliffer's grunts and moans as the old man got about to the business at hand. None of the figures seemed aware of the entrance of the five dreamwalkers into their midst.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren was the first to snap out of the sudden shock of the dream orgy going on before him. Focusing his vision as he'd been taught back at the temple of Cal, he did his best to try to discern any evil in the auras of those assembled before him, worried at the possibility these women might actually be a score of succubi or something similar. But while he detected no evil emanations coming from them, he also knew he could not count on these senses giving him accurate readings while in the midst of a dream, for each dream had the opportunity of making up its own rules on how exactly things worked - in a dream, a succubus might truly seem as innocent and pure as she wanted others to believe.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe unsheathed his bastard sword, just in case (idly recalling having his throat ripped out by a dream fox), and started circling the group of women in a counterclockwise direction. He tried to see if any of them were identical, but each of the twenty seemed to be a unique individual.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth was the first to try to break up the dream. "Excuse me," she said to Olliffer. "Olliffer Pelham? We're here to--"</p><p></p><p>She was cut off in mid-sentence. "You'll have to wait your turn, just like the others!" Olliffer called back to the dwarven priestess, not even once glancing in her direction - focused, instead, on the rhythmic coupling with the gorgeous redhead currently beneath him. A beautiful brunette at his side could no longer keep away from the sixty-something man before her, rubbing her hands over his bony shoulders, as if encouraging him in his efforts.</p><p></p><p>Zander finally stepped forward and tried to pull the woman away from Olliffer. To his surprise, as soon as he touched her she popped like a bubble, much in the same way he'd read happened when one dealt with an illusory <em>mirror image</em> from the spell of the same name - one moment she was bending over Olliffer Pelham, stroking his shoulders, and the next it was as if she had never existed. Zander stumbled, nearly falling over at the sudden disappearance of the woman he thought he'd be pulling away from the sixtyish grandfather.</p><p></p><p>"What the--?" exclaimed Thurloe, who had seen the woman disappear. He touched the shoulder of the blonde standing before him and she too vanished without a trace. Alewyth stepped forward and touched the two women to either side of her, popping them out of immediate existence as well. She nodded in appreciation; it would be very useful indeed, she thought, if she could get rid of irritating people in the real world as easy as it was in this particular dream.</p><p></p><p>But now the remaining women finally broke away from their fascination at Olliffer's sexual exploits and noticed the strangers standing among them. With a unified shriek of terror and surprise, they backed away and started running in all directions. Neither Olliffer nor his current partner seemed to notice their distress, however, their focus solely on each other for the moment.</p><p></p><p>Zander dashed forward and popped away another two women, causing the others to veer away from him, shrieking all the while. Thurloe thought about giving pursuit but then decided he'd do what he could to get Olliffer's attention; this was, after all, the old man's dream and as such he should be their main focus. Thinking it the best way to get Olliffer to shift his attention to Thurloe, the fighter bent over and touched the woman beneath the old man on the head. She vanished at once and Olliffer collapsed in a heap on the ground, no longer supported by a young, supple body bearing his weight.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth tapped him on the shoulder as he struggled to his hands and knees, indignant at the interruption. He whirled around, caught the dwarven priestess in his sight, and demanded, "What the Hell, woman? Why ain't you nekkid? Get to it!"</p><p></p><p>Zander, Wakuren, and - at the urging of the other two - Xandro chased down the remaining women, popping them into nonexistence with a mere touch, while Thurloe and Alewyth confronted the furious Olliffer. But before he could get out a word, the last of his dream harem disappeared and just like that his dreamscape started disappearing around him as well. "He's waking up!" Thurloe warned the others. "Let's go! Awaken, everyone!"</p><p></p><p>Using the dream training they'd received from Mogo and had practiced ever since, the five dreamwalkers awakened themselves from the vanishing dream and found their consciousnesses back in their bodies in the mortal world, sitting in a ring around Olliffer Pelham's bed. "Grandfather!" exclaimed Jervilla, beaming with joy. "They did it! You're awake!"</p><p></p><p>That was certainly the case, for Olliffer Pelham was now sitting upright in his bed and staring down at the five interlopers blinking awake all around him. "You <em>bastards!</em>" he screamed. "What in the--? Why the Hell did you--? Of all the--!" He sputtered over his words in his anger, unable to complete a sentence so great was his fury.</p><p></p><p>"Grandfather!" chided Jervilla, then turned to the five heroes as they stood up. "I'm so sorry," she apologized to them. "I don't know why he's like this! He's usually very soft spoken...."</p><p></p><p>"Get the Hell out of my house!" roared Olliffer, his fury giving him the voice of a man half his age. "If I ever see you again, I'll string you up myself! Of all the--! I was--! Now I--!" He started sputtering again as the five heroes got to their feet and with a look askance at each other, wordlessly slid out of the old man's bedroom, Alewyth taking the opportunity to slide the bandana off the old man's head as she passed and recovering the dreamstone in that fashion. Then they were out of the old man's house and leaping back onto their horses, Alewyth and Wakuren climbing up onto the mule-driven wagon instead.</p><p></p><p>"Now where?" asked Zander. They hadn't had the opportunity to pin down their next dream victim yet; they'd expected to do that this coming evening, perhaps at the tavern in the center of Moon Creek whose owner had helpfully directed them to the Pelham house. But not now; now it seemed best to put as much distance between themselves and Olliffer Pelham as possible.</p><p></p><p>"Let's keep going on down the road in the direction we were heading," Thurloe suggested, leading the way astride his horse, Horse. "I doubt if the Queen would have us backtracking. We'll hole up in the next town and get directions to our next assignment from there."</p><p></p><p>The fighter mused silently to himself for a bit, then threw out the following question, which had been bothering him since exiting Olliffer's dream: "Why would somebody want to trap an old man in a dream about having as much sex as he wants with a whole ton of hot women? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense."</p><p></p><p>"You're assuming somebody's doing this purposefully," pointed out Wakuren. "It could be something that occurs naturally."</p><p></p><p>"What, like some sort of weird disease?" asked Thurloe. "Nah, can't be - the Queen of Dreams already said you can't catch it from somebody else."</p><p></p><p>"'Don't seem to be able to,' you mean," corrected the half-orc. "So far, I don't think that's definitely been proven."</p><p></p><p>"Well, whichever, we now have two data points," Alewyth interjected. "As we rescue more people from their dreams, maybe some sort of pattern will emerge."</p><p></p><p>"Give me a choice between being chased by a dream fox and being surrounded by a bunch of naked women, I know which dream I'd want to get stuck in!" added Zander, turning to the bard. Xandro's face just reddened and he remained silent.</p><p></p><p>Before the group made it out of town, they were hailed by a man approaching them from the side of the road. He had jet-black hair just starting to gray at the temples and introduced himself as <strong>Counselor Lugendorf</strong>. "I was told we had visitors," he said, being drawn to the emblem on Wakuren's shield. "A cleric of Cal?" he asked. "Are you here to follow up after the other one who was by here last week?"</p><p></p><p>Wakuren admitted he was unaware of any other members of his order in the neighborhood and Counselor Lugendorf filled him in. A week or so ago a cleric of Cal came into town, accompanied by a fighter; both were human and fairly young. The Moon Creek Council hired them on the spot to deal with their recent needlefolk problem, for in the prior several weeks a few of these strange, cactuslike plant-people had wandered into some of the fields and attacked the farmers working there on several occasions. In the week since the two men had gone off to deal with the needlefolk, sightings of the creatures had greatly diminished, although every couple of days one or two of the plant-men had still been spotted. "Seems like they must have gotten most of the pack, but they never came back for the reward yet. I figure, good folk that they are, they want to make sure they've taken care of every last needlefolk before they return for their earnings."</p><p></p><p>"Out of curiosity, how much were these earnings?" asked Thurloe. He was already working out a way to get the five heroes tucked into the agreement as an auxiliary needlefolk eradication force, but Wakuren nipped that in the bud by reinforcing they had not been sent by the other two, merely crossing paths out of sheer coincidence. Thurloe fumed silently at the half-orc's irritating default of full-fledged honesty; he'd have to have a talk with him later about not turning down lucrative opportunities that insisted on just throwing themselves in their way.</p><p></p><p>But Counselor Lugendorf volunteered the information anyway. "It was 50 pieces of gold, about all we could afford," he said. "Like I said, we still see the occasional needlefolk, so maybe those other two fellows could use your help - I'll leave it to you all to decide how to split up the payment. But every encounter with them plant-people has started with them coming from the direction of the old silver mine." He gave them directions to the mine, long since abandoned after the veins of ore dried up.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren had one additional question before they left. "What were the names of the two men?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"The cleric was <strong>Peter Dublinson</strong>," Counselor Lugendorf replied, "and the other one just went by <strong>Gryff</strong>." At that, Wakuren's face froze in a grin, the half-orc not wanting to let his true feelings to show. Instead, he smiled at the town councilman and thanked him for the information. Then they turned their wagon and horses and headed off towards the old silver mine.</p><p></p><p>"Those names mean anything to you?" Alewyth asked. She'd caught on to the half-orc's sudden facial paralysis as he held back a grimace.</p><p></p><p>"Not the Gryff guy," replied Wakuren. "But Peter Dublinson was one of the adepts who beat me up and got me kicked out of the temple right before we were to all have become ordained as clerics." He didn't mind helping out the Moon Creek Council - or even Peter - with their needlefolk problem, but he planned to have a few choice words with his fellow cleric when he saw him!</p><p></p><p>The mine was easy to find, about forty minutes of riding down the end of a little-used road now becoming clogged with weeds as nature slowly took back what had been hers. There were several sun-bleached, wooden buildings scattered around a dark opening into the side of a hill, what could only be the main mine entrance. Off to the side of the entrance was a statue of a dwarf, much taller than any dwarf or any human who had ever lived. Alewyth halted the mules off to the side of the road and the others dismounted their horses, leaving them tied to nearby trees with plenty of lead so they could graze contentedly while the adventurers checked the place out on foot.</p><p></p><p>Zander headed over to the well to see if it still had a bucket at the end of the rope dangling down its shaft, for he was thirsty from the ride. The others spread out, each heading to a different building. But before any of them reached their intended destination a group of four bodies entered the area, each slipping around the edge of a different building. These were skeletal-thin bodies wrapped in hard, green flesh, from which protruded hundreds of spikes and spines of various sizes: the group was meeting up with their first needlefolk!</p><p></p><p>Almost as one, the plant-men stiffened, turned their heads to face Zander Quilson, and then started sprinting in his direction. Their faces held no expressions but the elf nonetheless got the impression they wanted him, specifically, dead.</p><p></p><p>Zander ducked as one reached within striking distance to the elf and brought a spine-covered hand swiping at him in a lateral swing. Another ran up beside the first and tried bringing its two fists crashing down onto the elf's head. Zander scrambled backwards and quickly cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself, wanting the extra protection it afforded, as Thurloe stepped forward, bastard sword in hand, and interposed himself between the two needlefolk and their intended target. He wasted no time in bringing his blade swinging forward and slicing through the torso of the first needlefolk, ripping it open and letting a fibrous filling spill out, as well as watery juices no doubt serving the plant as some sort of blood equivalent. But even split open as it was, the creature retained its footing and clawed feebly at the fighter, trying to rip out his eyes with the thick thorns at the end of each finger.</p><p></p><p>Xandro, seeing combat was already in full swing, brought out neither of his primary weapons - the rapier he wore at his hip nor the light crossbow he wore on his back - but instead brought his trusty lute to bear. He began the words to a song of inspiration, knowing the subtle magics he wove into his song would aid his fellows in their combat endeavors, allowing him to contribute to the entire group's success in an almost background fashion.</p><p></p><p>And it worked; Alewyth felt buoyed by the song's magic as she brought her warhammer crashing down upon another of these needlefolk who seemed so intent on slaying Zander. (<em>Why him?</em> she wondered briefly in the back of her mind, before dismissing her curiosity as a needless distraction.) Her weapon crushed the spines of the plant-monster she fought, cracking open its hardened outer shell and causing it to likewise leak its watery life-fluid.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren stepped beside Zander and cast a <em>virtue</em> spell on the frightened elf, hopefully keeping him in the fight just that much longer. The elf stepped behind the powerfully-built half-orc, feeling safer now that there were two of his friends these plant-things would need to get past before they could get to him.</p><p></p><p>The two needlefolk who had originally tried killing Zander were now both focused on Alewyth and the dwarf grunted in pain as thorns cut the flesh of her hands where she gripped her weapon. The other two tensed their bodies and suddenly flung needles at Thurloe, but those which hit glanced off his armor to little effect.</p><p></p><p>Zander spoke the words to a <em>magic missile</em> spell and slew one of the needlefolk fighting Alewyth, the one Thurloe had cut wide open with his blade. Thurloe closed the distance between him and one of the needlefolk who had just flung needles in his direction, getting in a glancing blow that nonetheless had spines and quills flying off to the side from the strength of his blow. But seeing as how these creatures could throw their needles about, Xandro walked cautiously behind a weathered building, still playing his tune - but out of direct line of sight of any of the plant men.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth's warhammer slew the other needlefolk attacking her and as it collapsed in a heap she looked about her for new foes. Wakuren slammed his shield into one of the two remaining needlefolk and in return it staggered backwards and launched a volley of needles in his direction, most of which the half-orc cleric blocked with the shield that was both an important part of his defenses and also his primary weapon. The other one shot more needles at Thurloe, but was subsequently blasted by a <em>magic missile</em> from Zander's fingertip and then taken down by a final blow from Thurloe's bastard sword. The last one still standing was soon thereafter slain by Alewyth's warhammer and the five heroes looked about them to see if there were any more of these cactus-people wandering about. It didn't look to be so.</p><p></p><p>Xandro finished up his tune of courage as Wakuren and Alewyth applied healing spells to those needing them. Then they split up again, wanting to check out the various abandoned buildings. Zander went back to the well and was pleased to see it was in fact fully intact; he applied himself to the hand-crank with full vigor, raising up a bucket of cool, clear water. While Xander poked at the needlefolk corpses, Thurloe opened the door to what must have once been a shed full of tools but was now home only to a few dismal spider webs and the long-since-drained carcasses of flies. Alewyth walked over to examine the statue outside the mine entrance, confirming to her satisfaction this was a depiction of her god, Aerik. It made sense to her, for Aerik was the god of both protection and of earth and stone, a fitting patron guardian for a mining expedition. She idly wondered if it had been dwarves involved in this mining endeavor; the statue of Aerik definitely sported dwarven features, but that in and of itself meant nothing, for Aerik was often thus depicted even by members of other races and she hadn't seen any dwarves in the small farming village of Moon Creek or anywhere along the road to the mines. The carving had been nicely done, though, with a fine attention to detail.</p><p></p><p>A brief motion caught the corner of Alewyth's eye and she looked down the dark shaft of the mine, seeing something she hadn't expected to see: a flowering shrub of some sort, deep within the shadows of the mine. There was a human-sized figure even further back, behind the plant, but he shifted to the side and was lost to her view. "Hello?" she called out tentatively to the figure she'd seen, but got no reply. Behind her, Zander was trying to open a door to a building off to the left of the mine entrance, but the wood had warped in place and he was having a difficult time forcing it open. Seeing the dwarven priestess's attention at something down the mine shaft, he cast a <em>dancing lights</em> spell that lit the place up, revealing the yellow-flowered plant whose fronds waved back and forth as if in the wind, although there was no wind present the elf could detect.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren, in the meantime, had been about to open the door to a weathered building when a horse suddenly rounded the corner from behind it. The horse was saddled and ready for riding and, incongruously, seemed to have a row of yellow flowers pleated into its mane - not something he would have expected either Peter or his fighting partner to have spent the time doing. Then the half-orc noticed something that has escaped his initial notice: one of the flowers was not poking out between the hairs of the creature's mane like the rest of them but was actually growing out of the horse's neck.</p><p></p><p>"Guys?" Wakuren called to the others. "Weird horse over here!" Then he activated the <em>ring of invisibility</em> he wore and faded from view.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe had sheathed his bastard sword and gotten out his bow, an arrow nocked and ready to shoot. Seeing the horse as it approached from behind the building, he raised his bow, took aim, and sent an arrow flying into the creature's neck, striking within inches of where the flower's stalk erupted from the equine flesh. The horse barely even noticed, but Wakuren could clearly see a greenish sap oozing out of the wound instead of the red blood he'd expected. Whatever this thing was now, it was clearly no longer a horse!</p><p></p><p>Xandro started playing his song of courage again, seeing as how combat had apparently started back up around him. The horse-thing continued its approach, bumping into the invisible half-orc. Wakuren replied with a bash of his shield, returning to visibility as he did so. The horse lashed out with a sharp hoof in retaliation, but it was a half-hearted assault the cleric of Cal easily avoided. But as the yellow-flowered plant didn't seem to be doing much in the mine shaft and the hidden figure behind it gave no indication of wanting to come forward, Alewyth left the mine entrance and headed over to help fight this odd horse Wakuren was going on about.</p><p></p><p>By the time the dwarven priestess had made it over that way, though, the creature was dead, brought down by a second arrow from Thurloe's bow, this shaft going straight through one of the horse's eyes. Alewyth noted with puzzlement the flowers growing directly out of the slain horse's body and the greenish sap oozing from its wounds. "Is this some sort of needlefolk thing?" she wondered aloud. The horse's body didn't seem to have any thorns or quills growing out of it, just those few stalks ending in the yellow flowers. But she explained to the others the plant growth she and Zander had found inside the mine entrance and everyone headed back that way, this time as a group. Xandro, not trusting that combat was truly over, continued the tune upon his lute as he took up position behind the building with the stuck door.</p><p></p><p>The door didn't remain stuck for long, though, as Wakuren's broad shoulders were more than up to the task of bursting it open. Inside, the building proved to be one large room - no doubt the main office when the mine had still been in operation, for there were a few desks and chairs, a cabinet for notes and reports and whatnot, and - most importantly to Wakuren - a map of the mine nailed to the back wall on yellowing paper. Most of the mine consisted of parallel and perpendicular shafts carved into the hillside, but a natural chasm had been pierced at two points by tunnels that broached the diagonal structure at its westernmost end and about three-fourths of the way down its eastern side.</p><p></p><p>While Wakuren and Zander examined the office interior, Alewyth returned to the front of the mine entrance, peering mistrustingly at the yellow-flowered plant that had no business growing deep in the dark of the mine shaft, for it was a good thirty or forty feet back from the tunnel entrance, where no sunlight could ever reach it. She also kept an eye out for the figure she'd seen behind the plant, but he made no attempt at stepping back into view.</p><p></p><p>Just then another figure came darting into view, popping around a side corridor branching off from the main shaft. This was an armored human wearing a chain shirt and wielding a sword as long as the one Thurloe wielded. Saying not a single word, the figure brought his bastard sword crashing down at Alewyth, who managed to deflect the majority of the blade's momentum off the side of her own armored forearm, raising a clatter of metal on metal as she did so.</p><p></p><p>Zander stepped back out of the doorway to the mining office and wasted no time in firing off a <em>magic missile</em> at the man attacking his dwarven friend. Alewyth responded with a strike at the armored foe with her warhammer, catching him in the chest with a blow powerful enough, the dwarven priestess hoped, to break a rib or two. But no expression crossed the man's face at the wounds he'd just received, nor did it change in the slightest as his shoulder suddenly sprouted one of Thurloe's arrows, the arrowhead finding its way between the chain links of the fighter's armor. Wakuren stepped up to the man and slammed his shield into his side, the blow spinning him around and revealing the yellow flower growing out of his lower back, just above his belt. Not sure if this man had been transformed into a plant or some undead mockery of life, the half-orc raised his holy symbol of Cal and channeled a blast of positive energy at it. The man gave no reaction, leading Wakuren to believe whatever it was, it wasn't some strange sort of undead.</p><p></p><p>His song finished - and its magic still certain to buoy up the heroes' efforts for a bit longer after the bard had finished playing - Xandro pulled the light crossbow from his back and set a bolt into place. But before he could fire, Zander finished the man off with a second <em>magic missile</em> spell. He collapsed face-first onto the ground, the bastard sword spilling from his unliving fingers. Thurloe couldn't help but notice the sword's fine craftsmanship and bent over to retrieve it; after a moment he sheathed his own sword and hefted this new one, liking the feel of it.</p><p></p><p>Zander was intrigued by the plant's role in all of this and stepped forward to get a better look at it. He crossed some sort of proximity trigger in doing so, however, for the plant responded by turning one of its flower-fronds over in his direction and disgorging a long stream of yellowish pollen, causing the elf to double over, coughing. Alewyth stepped up beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder and asking if he was all right. Zander didn't answer, continuing to cough and sputter. Alewyth started to try to pull him back and then noticed the plant's roots, which weren't sunken into the stone of the mine interior but were instead sunken into the festering corpses of several people all piled in a heap at the creeper's foot, while various vines and fronds branched out from the plant's core, terminating in thick, dark leaves and the occasional yellow flower.</p><p></p><p>"We ought to burn that thing," Wakuren suggested, lighting a torch with a tindertwig. He used it to light another torch, passing it to Alewyth. But as the dwarf turned to take the proffered torch from her fellow cleric, Zander shrugged his shoulder out from beneath Alewyth's hand and wandered slowly down the mine tunnel, headed directly for the plant, which almost seemed to quiver with anticipation. Before the others had noted his disappearance, he had made it to the side of the plant and it had dropped a frond onto the elf's face. Zander stood motionless and unconcerned as it drained away part of his own intellect.</p><p></p><p>And now the figure stepped from behind the plant, its last line of defense: a man Wakuren recognized immediately as Peter Dublinson, wearing full plate armor and holding a heavy mace and a shield bearing the image of Cal's holy symbol. Peter, Wakuren recalled, had been from a wealthy family and apparently only the best was good enough for their son, even if he was entering service as a cleric and should have been above such things as material wealth.</p><p></p><p>"We got t' get Zander out o' there," Alewyth said to the others, her dwarven accent coming to the forefront as emotion roiled over her - she wasn't sure what exactly the plant was doing to the elven sorcerer, but it couldn't be good! She cast a <em>bless</em> spell over the group in readiness for a concentrated assault.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe charged forward down the mine entrance tunnel past Peter - who swung at the fighter with his mace but missed - and used his new bastard sword to slice down through the frond connecting Zander to the yellow musk creeper. No longer tethered to the creeper, Zander nonetheless stood there in a dazed stupor. Seeing this, Wakuren ran past Peter as well and grabbed up Zander in his arms, dragging him back out of the mine - for Peter had stepped forward to engage Alewyth in battle and the dwarven priestess had strategically stepped away from the mine entrance, luring the yellow musk zombie that had once been one of Wakuren's tormentors out into the sunlight and open air.</p><p></p><p>The creeper hadn't been inactive during this time, however: sensing another potential recruit within range, it blasted a puff of musk into Thurloe's face, causing the fighter to bend over, choking and coughing. When he stood back fully upright, though, he felt much better: not a care in the world bothered him, now that he was in the presence of his new master.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth seemed to be handling the plant-zombie-thing okay and Wakuren had pulled Zander back to safety, so Xandro decided to take out the root cause of this fight and sent a crossbow bolt flying directly into the center mass of the yellow musk creeper. But then Wakuren cried out in alarm, for as soon as he'd gotten Zander to safety outside the mine and released him, the elf started wandering back towards the plant. Seeing this, Alewyth backed off from combat with Peter, pulled at a tanglefoot bag from the back of her belt, and hurled it at Zander's feet. It burst as it hit and exploded in all directions, covering the elf's boots and pants with a sticky substance that quickly hardened in the air, cementing the elf in place - she didn't have time to deal with him, as Peter was once again bringing his heavy mace down upon her.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren sighed in frustration: they had just rescued Zander and now it looked like Thurloe had fallen sway to the yellow plant's mental influence. He pulled the cloak from his back as he raced back down the mine entrance, setting it ablaze with his burning torch as he did so. Then he flung the entire burning mass onto the yellow musk creeper, right as it had been about to attach a frond to the unmoving fighter's head. The fiery cloak began burning the creeper's leaves but it wasn't out of the fight just yet, blasting another stream of pollen-spores into the half-orc's face. A few moments of choking and coughing and Wakuren had joined Thurloe among the ranks of willing victims to their new vegetable master.</p><p></p><p>"Crap!" Xandro cursed, firing another bolt into the yellow musk creeper. They had to take this thing out - and fast, if they weren't going to all fall under its dominance and become no better than this half-plant thing currently trading blows with Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Zander soon regained his senses and was able to rejoin the fight - although he had to do so from where he was standing, for he seemed to have been glued into place by a hardened shell around his legs! He fired the last of his <em>magic missile</em> spells at Peter, hoping to take him down so Alewyth could go rescue Thurloe and Wakuren. Alewyth mirrored Wakuren's attack, faking a strike with her warhammer just to get her burning torch into play, setting fire to the tabard Peter wore over his armor. But she also realized the urgency of the situation, for even now the creeper was placing a frond onto Thurloe's forehead, draining him in whatever way it did.</p><p></p><p>Xandro cursed as his next crossbow bolt went flying over the yellow musk creeper without so much as parting a leaf. But while he was doing his best to take down the creeper, Alewyth and Zander were still concentrating their attacks on Peter, although the elf sorcerer was now out of <em>magic missiles</em> and was resorting to <em>acid splash</em> spells instead.</p><p></p><p>Finally, Alewyth realized they were running out of time and taking down Peter Dublinson was taking far too long. Pushing her way past the cleric (who swung at her one last time with his mace as she sped past him), Alewyth tried to tackle Thurloe, hoping to pull him free from the frond still draining his intellect. Behind her, Peter's tabard was now burning fiercely, engulfing him in a cloak of flames, but he hardly noticed, following the dwarven priestess back towards his master to protect it as best he still could. Alewyth had knocked Thurloe aside and was doing her best to pull the fronds from his face when she too succumbed to a musk puff from the still-burning creeper, not even her dwarven constitution tough enough to withstand this big of a dose from this close of a range.</p><p></p><p>Back outside the mine, Xandro fired a final bolt at the creeper before deciding he'd have to go into the mine himself and try to save the others. Zander had no better way of extracting himself from the hardened tanglefoot bag than to wriggle out his boots and climb out of his pants, leaving behind the lower half of a bizarre sculpture as he ran toward the mine entrance in his bare feet, his short robe flapping behind him. The sorcerer sent another <em>acid splash</em> spell into the back of Peter's head, hoping to take him out before he could put out the fire that would eventually (or so Zander fervently hoped) engulf the yellow musk creeper.</p><p></p><p>The creeper was slowing down now, as more of its body was engulfed in flames. It was still attached to Thurloe and it concentrated on making him one of its minions before trying to attach one of its remaining fronds to the other two potential slaves standing patiently before it, awaiting their turns at transformation into plant creatures focused solely upon the creeper's survival. But the connection was suddenly severed as Xandro's rapier cut the frond connecting Thurloe to the yellow musk creeper, and shortly thereafter the fighter regained his own mental freedom, although his mind was fuzzy and he had no idea exactly what was going on all around him. Had he been drinking again? It was hard to remember.</p><p></p><p>Peter was now a blazing inferno, his hybrid body - part plant but still partially animal - all but consumed in the flames. It approached the creeper, trying to find a way to put out the flames consuming its master without making matters even worse by the touch of his own blazing body. Zander sent another <em>acid splash</em> spell his way, as Thurloe suddenly cut loose and raced down a side corridor, to the east. Once out of spore range, he shook his head, frantically trying to recall where he was and what he was doing, when his attention was diverted by a commotion behind him. He recognized several of the figures as his friends; the dwarven woman was standing unmoving while some burning plant thing attached a frond to her forehead. Thurloe couldn't remember why that was a bad thing but he was pretty sure it was, so he went racing back the way he'd come, bastard sword held over his head in both hands for an overhead blow. A man he remembered was called Xandro was stabbing at the plant mass with his rapier.</p><p></p><p>Zander, now out of even his least powerful spells, threw a dagger at Peter Dublinson's burning form - why the Hell wouldn't he just die already? But then the thing that had been Peter did finally collapse to the floor, although whether it had been the result of Zander's thrown dagger or the fire finally engulfing him totally was difficult to say. He dropped his mace and his shield, the fire not having done anything to either yet beyond warming them up considerably.</p><p></p><p>With a roar of fury, Thurloe charged into the yellow musk creeper, his new bastard sword slicing it from top to bottom, cleaving it in twain as half of it burned away to nothingness. Upon its destruction, Alewyth and Wakuren snapped back to full consciousness, shaking themselves out of their stupors. "Let's get out of here!" suggested Xandro, leading the way back south to the open air. The others followed suit, Wakuren taking the time to grab up Peter's fallen shield on the way - no reason for a shield of such quality workmanship to go to waste!</p><p></p><p>Once back outside, the five heroes took stock. Both Zander and Thurloe had been drained of a portion of their intellect, the elf having fared much better on that front than the human, while Alewyth had been completely able to resist the creeper's efforts even after it had attached a frond to her face. After having examined the two of them, she announced it was likely they'd gradually be restored to their normal level of mental acuity, although it was possible the recovery time would be measured in days. "There are spells that can speed up the process, but they're currently beyond my ability to cast," she explained, and Wakuren admitted they were currently outside his own spellcasting abilities as well.</p><p></p><p>As a group, they decided to give the outer buildings a thorough exploration, partly because they had yet to hit them all but mostly to allow the yellow musk creeper and its minions a chance to burn fully to the point there'd be no chance of any of them reviving. There wasn't much to see, though; the unexplored buildings proved to be the abandoned remains of a bunkhouse, a mess hall (with attached kitchen and pantry, both bare save for some old stains), and a latrine pit. Zander discovered a deck of playing cards tied together with a bit of twine and was pleased at his discovery, pocketing them into his robes.</p><p></p><p>"Do you want to take time out to go get some pants?" Alewyth asked, and the elf looked down at his bare legs. "Oh yeah, good idea," he answered, trotting back to the wagon to fetch a spare pair of trousers from his gear. He didn't have any spare footwear, though, so he'd have to go barefoot until they could find a pair for purchase somewhere. Wakuren set down his old shield, wielding the one Peter Dublinson had carried; it was of much finer craftsmanship and the half-orc considered it just payment for the treatment he'd received at the hands of Peter and his band of like-minded bigots who couldn't stomach the idea of a half-orc mongrel being initiated as a cleric of the All-Father.</p><p></p><p>Once Wakuren and Alewyth had seen to any necessary healing spells, the group opted to check out the rest of the mines, just in case there were any needlefolk still about - or worse still, any other creatures hanging about with yellow flowers growing out of their bodies. But once at the ashes of the yellow musk creeper, Thurloe opted to go to the right - the same way he'd run when first freed from the creeper's embrace - while Alewyth, Wakuren, and Xandro wanted to check out the natural chasm. Zander opted to go with Thurloe, despite being warned it would be better to stick together.</p><p></p><p>As a result, while the other three climbed down into the lower chasm that had been breached by the mine tunnels, Thurloe and Zander struck off on their own, going first east and then north along another perpendicular tunnel. This one would have also pierced the natural chasm had it extended another 20 or 30 feet or so, but it came to an abrupt dead end, the vein of silver apparently having given out there. And thus it was they were off by themselves when the two intruders who had made the abandoned silver mine their temporary lair came to see what had been causing all of the racket here at the front of the mines.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe and Zander were facing the dead end when they were made aware of the presence of the other two by a javelin crashing against the dead end wall, missing Thurloe's ear by a matter of inches. Spinning around to face this new threat, the sorcerer and fighter saw a strange sight indeed, for blocking their way out of the dead-end tunnel was a hulking bugbear, morningstar in one hand and another hand raised at shoulder level. Behind him, riding in some sort of leather harness, was a green-skinned woman of hideous countenance, passing another javelin to him from a quiver she wore on her back. The bugbear took the proffered javelin and readied his arm for another throw. Thurloe couldn't reason why this should be - it was so hard for thoughts to flow since he'd been fighting that plant thing! - but both the bugbear and the hag on his back had a stripe of thick paint or something down their foreheads.</p><p></p><p>But although Thurloe's reasoning capabilities were currently hampered, his combat instincts were still very much in place. Before the bugbear could throw his second javelin, Thurloe had charged down the tunnel and sliced down the bugbear's torso with a sword-strike that cut him diagonally from chest to hip, blood spurting from the wound like a fountain had just been activated. He stepped back, not wanting to be painted in the bugbear's blood or slip on it beneath his feet, and as he did so a dagger came flying from behind him to strike the bugbear in the throat. Just that quickly, <strong>Skullcleaver</strong> fell onto the stone floor of the mine, quite dead.</p><p></p><p>Over in the chasm, the other three heroes were exploring; Alewyth's keen darkvision had picked up a natural pool of water and they were heading over to check it out, when all of a sudden the ground before them split silently open and a strange monstrosity was vomited forth from the earth. The squat thing was built like a barrel, with three thick legs, three sturdy arms, three eyes spaced equidistantly around its body, and a single, gaping maw filled with sharp, almost crystalline-looking teeth at the top of its body. Its dark eyes gleaming in the light of the clerics' torches (for Xandro, being a mere human, lacked the darkvision both of the clerics enjoyed as part of their respective racial heritages), it bent towards them and rasped in a barely-discernable version of the common dialect, "Eat you? Eat you leg?"</p><p></p><p>"No, you may not eat my leg!" Alewyth replied, but Xandro wasn't in the mood for any discussions; he let fly with a crossbow bolt that bounced harmlessly off the xorn's thick-plated exoskeleton. Wakuren crossed the distance between them and tried bringing his new shield crashing down upon the xorn's head, but the odd creature was surprisingly spry for having such a squat, bulky build and it easily dodged out of the way. "Eat you shield?" it suggested, perhaps thinking the half-orc's actions had been nothing more than the offering of a snack. Xandro shot another bolt at the thing but missed it entirely.</p><p></p><p><strong>Grindelzia</strong> the green hag looked up from the harness on the back of her just-slain bugbear companion and complained at Thurloe and Zander, "You little idiots! You just killed my riding mount! Which one of you two is going to take his place?" And it was at that moment the two heroes looked down at the hideous crone's legs and saw both ended just below the knees.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe's instincts kicked in again; in some ways the lack of being able to overthink things was almost an advantage. Without fully processing the concepts that hags were generally of an evil bent, Thurloe decided this one needed to die and he brought his sword crashing down upon her. But the leather harness had a quick-release strap and Grindelzia had it in hand as she'd spoken; quick as a wink, she had scrambled across her slain mount's body and Thurloe's bastard sword did nothing more than further desecrate Skullcleaver's already sliced-up body.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe hefted his sword back over his shoulder for another overhand swing when he saw the green hag was no longer anywhere to be seen. Instead, there on the floor before him was a little girl of maybe eight years. "Oh, thank goodness!" the little girl cried. "I thought that big, hairy man was going to eat me! He put some kind of spell on me to make me look scary, but you saved me from him! Thank you, oh, thank you!"</p><p></p><p>Zander scowled down at the little girl and pointed a thumb at Thurloe. "He may have lost most of his marbles," the elf said, "but I've got enough common sense left to know you're not pulling a fast one on us that easily, witch!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, and even I know you're the witch!" Thurloe added, before turning to the sorcerer and asking, "She is, right?" Zander nodded in response. "I knew it!" Thurloe declared triumphantly.</p><p></p><p>Back in the chasm, Wakuren had come to the realization the xorn wasn't trying to eat them, it was just hungry - and hungry for metal, not for flesh. Alewyth pulled a handful of silver coins from her purse and tossed them to the xorn, who gobbled them up greedily. "Silver good," it enthused. "Gold better," it added, hoping these fleshy beings could take a hint. It turned out they could; Xandro and Wakuren each fished out four pieces of gold and tossed them at the xorn, making themselves its new best friends in the process.</p><p></p><p>"I'll bet you this guy's the reason the mine closed," Wakuren opined. "He probably ate the veins of ore!"</p><p></p><p>"No," the xorn answered. "Flesh things gone, I come. Scraps left only. Lost, no home." The xorn's vocabulary was limited, but it managed to get across the idea it had come to this world by accident (probably through a temporary rift between the planes, Alewyth suggested) and that the mine had already been abandoned when it arrived. It survived by eating the unmined scraps left behind when the miners shut down their operations. Wakuren decided he didn't like the way the xorn kept looking at his and Alewyth's metal armor or his new shield, and offered up there was a set of armor available on the body of Gryff, if the xorn was interested in a little variety in its diet. "It's steel, not silver," the half-orc promised.</p><p></p><p>"Steel good," the xorn agreed. The trio returned the way they'd come, their new friend in tow.</p><p></p><p>Zander, in the meantime, had tried slipping past the "little girl" but Grindelzia was having none of it. She swiped at him with her ragged claws, her body dropping the illusion she'd summoned. Not only did her claws strike true, but Zander felt the strength draining from his body. "You! The other one!" Grindelzia called to Thurloe. "I'll gut your pal here if you don't do as I say!"</p><p></p><p>But Thurloe was beyond simple reasoning at this point and answered with the blade of his weapon. "You wouldn't hit a poor, defenseless cripple, would you?" pleaded the green hag, putting every ounce of pathos into her voice as she could.</p><p></p><p>"Yep, I would," Thurloe replied, raising his sword for another strike. Zander took the opportunity to scramble backwards out of range.</p><p></p><p>"Wait!" called Grindelzia, scrambling for another tactic. "If you kill me, you'll never find the hidden treasure!"</p><p></p><p>"What treasure?" Thurloe asked, curious despite himself. Even with his limited intellectual capabilities at present, he recalled very distinctly that money was a very good thing to have.</p><p></p><p>"Thousands of gold pieces! All buried away where you'll never find it! But I know where it is, and I can get it for you! But I can't do that if I'm dead, can I?" Thurloe gave it some thought and try as he might, he couldn't dispute that logic at all.</p><p></p><p>"Where is it?" Thurloe demanded.</p><p></p><p>"It's at the bottom of the xorn's pool of water!" Grindelzia explained, wanting more than anything to gain the freedom of the pool of water, where she knew they wouldn't be able to follow but where she, with her waterbreathing capabilities, could easily wait until they went away, frustrated. But first she had to explain to these two idiots what a xorn was and how to get to the pool of water. "One of you will have to carry me, though," the green hag added, putting all the sadness and helplessness she could into her voice.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, although it was hard to say whether the mentally-drained pair of heroes were about to be convinced to follow the green hag's scheme, the other heroes (and their new xorn friend) arrived on the scene. Alewyth scowled in puzzlement at the sight of the crippled green hag - surely Thurloe and Zander hadn't done that to her? "What's going on here?" the dwarf demanded.</p><p></p><p>Zander had his dagger out, having retrieved it from the bugbear's throat. "This witch is trying to trick us," he said almost nonchalantly, before advancing upon Grindelzia with his dagger in hand.</p><p></p><p>"Wait!" demanded Grindelzia. "Let me say one last thing in my defense!" When the heroes hesitated, the green hag smirked and called out, "<em>Aktivatikus!</em> Destroy every living thing with feet in the mine complex!"</p><p></p><p>"What's that?" Alewyth cried out, hearing the heavy tread of footsteps echoing from behind her. Then, sudden realization dawning upon her, she ran back to the intersection where the side tunnel hit the main entrance and sure enough, the statue of Aerik had come to a modicum of life, clomping down the tunnel to slay all within - all but Grindelzia, that is, who had no feet and could easily prove it. "That's just not right!" the priestess swore, as Xandro fired a crossbow bolt at the animated statue of Alewyth's god.</p><p></p><p>"Give me safe passage out of here and I'll shut it down," the green hag promised. Wakuren activated his <em>ring of invisibility</em> and started a slow and careful approach towards the green hag. Thurloe advanced upon the green hag with sword held high, but a swipe at his ankles with her jagged claws kept him at bay. "Ah-ah-ah, naughty boy!" Grindelzia chided. Then, not wanting to wait for these clowns to realize their best interests led to keeping her alive, she started crawling in the direction of the natural chasm and the pool of water that would likely become her only salvation in this situation.</p><p></p><p>"I can't keep it back!" Xandro called to the others as the animated statue reached the ashes of the yellow musk creeper. The bard backed away as the Aerik statue stomped into view.</p><p></p><p>"Make it stop," Thurloe told the green hag. "We'll agree to your truce."</p><p></p><p>"I don't think so," Alewyth interrupted, casting a <em>sanctuary</em> spell upon herself. The spell, she realized, had one chance to work upon anyone wanting to attack her - it could work fine on one person but be completely ineffective against the next. But if it held against any one individual wanting to cause her harm, that person would be unable to attack her from that point on until the spell's full duration ran out. Of course, if she herself attacked anyone while the spell was still in effect the magic drained away at once, but Alewyth wasn't planning on attacking anyone.</p><p></p><p>Instead, she stepped directly into the path of the animated statue of Aerik, God of Earth and Protection, her patron deity. In her heart, she was certain her god would not let a dutiful priestess in His service die in such a manner. And in that she was correct, for the statue was apparently unwilling to strike at her as it had been commanded to do, and with Alewyth standing in the middle of the tunnel it was unable to get by her to get to the others it could clearly see behind her. Unable to follow its instructions, it remained motionless before the priestess wearing the same holy symbol around her neck as the statue had carved into his stone armor.</p><p></p><p>"Uh oh," Grindelzia said, knowing what this event presaged. And she was right, for Thurloe's bastard sword came crashing down, slaying her instantly.</p><p></p><p>"The armor's out there, outside of the mine," Xandro told the xorn. "You'll need to get past the statue thing, though." Without another word, the xorn slipped into the rock at its feet (and the stone floor sealed up seamlessly above it, the bard noticed with puzzlement), and the xorn earth glided its way beneath the Aerik statue, not rising until it had found it way outside, where it happily began dismantling Gryff's charred chain shirt armor one bite at a time.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, knowing the limited duration of her <em>sanctuary</em> spell, volunteered to lead the animated statue on a merry goose chase if the others wanted to give the rest of the mine a quick check-out to ensure there were no other needlefolk about. She ran back towards the natural chasm, secure in the knowledge that as the person currently closest to it, it would naturally come after her first. She slid down the side of the chasm, hearing the statue clomping behind her as she ran down the length of the chasm. She scrambled back up the rise, knowing her weight was nothing compared to that of the statue, which she hoped meant it would have a slightly more difficult time in climbing back up out of the chasm, as the sloping rock face broke away beneath its greater weight. Sure enough, events played out as she'd envisioned and she met back up with the rest of the group some scant minutes later.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" Xandro enthused, eager to be back out in the sunshine.</p><p></p><p>"Find anything else?" Alewyth wanted to know.</p><p></p><p>"The hag had some stuff," Wakuren answered as they exited the mine.</p><p></p><p>"What's going to happen to the statue?" Xandro wanted to know.</p><p></p><p>"Eventually, it'll get out of the chasm, discover there's nothing inside the mine with feet, and it'll resume its post outside the mine," Alewyth answered, hoping she was right. She hated the idea that she'd been responsible for trapping an animated statue of her deity inside the chasm. Even if the mine was no longer in use, a statue of Aerik deserved to be stationed outside the area it was protecting.</p><p></p><p>"Now where?" Zander asked as they returned to the horses, mules, and wagon. He was hoping the next town over would have a place he could buy another pair of boots, or failing that, at least some sandals.</p><p></p><p>But even Thurloe's currently diminished intellectual capabilities weren't enough to allow him to forget something as important as money. "No!" he called out. "We have to go back to Moon Creek - they still haven't paid us for taking care of their needlefolk problem! That money's all ours now!</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Ah, it was good to be back to our gaming sessions! Now that school's out and we've all been vaccinated, we're going to try for a weekly schedule as the default, skipping weeks as needed as events come up. (Case in point: while we're planning on gaming next Saturday, on the one after that Dan and Vicki will have relatives visiting so we'll skip that weekend. And Logan's "Raiders of the Overreach" sessions will start back up this Wednesday, but then skipping the week after that because I'll be out of town on a trip for work.)</p><p></p><p>Much like I did in the "Kordovian Adventurers Guild" campaign, I decided I wanted each PC to have a sort of "signature magic item" fairly early in this campaign. Thurloe's <em>+1 bastard sword</em> and Wakuren's <em>+1 heavy steel shield</em> are the first two such items, with others to follow in the next couple of adventures. And all five of these items will increase in powers and abilities over the course of the campaign.</p><p></p><p>This was a fun adventure to run to get us back into the swing of things after a five-month break. I was somewhat surprised that the yellow musk creeper and zombies gave the PCs as much of a problem as they did, and then that the bugbear and green hag combo went down without much effort at all. But we all had a good time with the adventure, even if Thurloe ended up with a 5 Intelligence and Zander had a 10 Intelligence and a 7 Strength after running up against not only the creeper but the green hag as well. Still, despite not having access to <em>restoration</em> spells, the way this campaign is set up we can easily fast-forward a sufficient number of days having passed before the next adventure for everyone to be restored to their normal ability scores.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, the stripes on the foreheads of the bugbear and green hag were made up of an alchemical paste that granted them the equivalent of a <em>hide from undead</em> spell effect that worked against plants instead of undead. Thus, with their paste in place, they could pass right by their yellow musk guardians without triggering any attacks. The PCs gathered up a jug of the stuff; we'll see if it comes into play at all in the future. They also gathered up the hag's notebooks, where she'd been working on a regenerative formula she hoped would grow back her legs, which had been bitten off by the bulette that wiped out her covey, leaving her as the only survivor. Some of the ingredients were needlefolk plant matter and the remains of a human slain and subsequently transformed into a yellow musk zombie, that had subsequently collapsed into deliquescence. I doubt <em>that's</em> going to be of much use the PCs, but if they ever need a yellow musk creeper there's one growing, unnoticed, out of the corpse of the horse the PCs slew....</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: Lacking anything more appropriate, I went with my "Chaotic evil means never having to say you're sorry" T-shirt - it meshed well with the bugbear and green hag that were the main opponents in this adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8295583, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 8: ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1/paladin 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 2[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 5 June 2021 - - - The group had been on the road for several days, but at long last they passed a wooden sign at the side of the road welcoming them to the small farming town of Moon Creek. This, they well knew, was the location of the next dream victim they were to rescue, according to the instructions they'd received in the dreamlands from the Queen of Dreams herself. Unfortunately, while the Queen could sense the locations of each of the dreamers entering her realm - and could step into any dream she chose to observe it playing out - not even she could always get a good look at the actual dreamer or learn his or her actual identity. "Our best bet's to check in at the local tavern," suggested Xandro, astride his black horse White, named perhaps because of the white patch on the beast's muzzle but more likely because the bard had an unusual sense of humor. His strategy paid off, though, for the tavernkeeper was indeed well aware of someone in town who had fallen asleep weeks ago and had not been able to be awakened since. He gave Xandro directions to the home of one [B]Olliffer Pelham[/B] and the bard thanked him for his time, tipping him a silver piece and returning to tell the others what he'd learned. The door to Olliffer's home was answered by a good-looking young woman of about twenty summers; she introduced herself as Olliffer's granddaughter, [B]Jervilla[/B]. "He's back here, in his bedroom," she told them, leading them down the short hallway in the rear of the small dwelling after they'd explained why they'd come. There in bed lay a man in his early sixties, tangled in his bedsheets and blanket. "He tosses and turns quite frequently," she informed the group. "And sometimes he lets out this weird moan. But he's been asleep now for...it must be four weeks by now! He's had nothing to eat and nothing to drink in all that time, but he doesn't look to have lost any weight at all. I try moving him from one side of the bed to the other on occasion, so he doesn't get sores, but other than that there's not been much in the way of caring for him. Just, you know, keeping his house and his farm in order while he sleeps. Did you say you thought you could wake him up?" Wakuren smiled his best smile at the young woman - he'd practiced it quite often in the mirror, hoping to lessen the impact of his bestial features - and explained how they'd already rescued a wizard from a similar situation several days back. As he recounted to Jervilla what they'd be doing, the others pulled the old man's bed into the middle of the room while Alewyth set about affixing a dreamstone to his forehead, binding it in place with a bandana. Then she passed a dreamstone to each of her companions as they took up positions around the bed, at the five points of a star. "What shall I do?" Jervilla asked. "Just see that we're not disturbed, please," Wakuren replied. The young woman nodded her agreement and stepped back into the doorway, watching as the five adventurers crossed their legs where they sat and closed their eyes, their hands each cupped around a shiny stone. Their breathing slowed and silence covered the room, broken only by Olliffer's occasional grunt or moan. In the dreamlands, each of the adventurers suddenly manifested in their own individual dreamscapes and were met by their own private moogle guides. "Hey there, kupo!" called out Doc as Thurloe Pulver suddenly appeared before the flying kitten-thing. How Doc knew exactly where the young fighter would show up was a mystery to Thurloe, but he'd learned things were often pretty strange in the dream-lands. "Lead on, Doc," he said and without any further discussion the moogle spun about in mid-air and started flapping off in a random direction. Thurloe followed. Eventually, all five of the dreamwalkers met up with each other as their five moogle guides brought them to the endless hallways of doors - where each door opened to a specific dream currently being played out. There was another moogle waiting there for them and with a nod of his fuzzy head (which set the pom-pom at the end of his antenna bouncing) he dismissed the other moogles, who each then flapped away down the hallway, chatting with the others. "This dream's in a kind of continuous loop, like the last one with the dream fox, kupo!" said Mogo, their primary dream instructor. "But the people keep changing around - you'll see, kupo!" Mogo opened the door and ushered the five inside. "Aren't you coming with us?" Xandro asked as he followed the others into the dreamscape of Olliffer Pelham, practically walking straight into Zander Quilson, who had stopped short at what he saw before him. "I'll wait out here, kupo!" Mogo replied, closing the door in the bard's face. Xandro turned around at the sound of Alewyth's stifled gasp of surprise - and found himself stifling one of his own. There, standing before him, were twenty beautiful young women, all human but otherwise looking nothing like each other, for there were blondes, brunettes, redheads, and those with raven-black hair; a bevy of various skin tones; some wearing elaborate makeup on their faces and some with faces as natural as the day they were born. And not a one of them wore even a scrap of clothing. Xandro turned away, embarrassed. The women were grouped in a tight circle, watching in awe and anticipation at the coupling going on in the center of their ring; Thurloe immediately recognized Olliffer's grunts and moans as the old man got about to the business at hand. None of the figures seemed aware of the entrance of the five dreamwalkers into their midst. Wakuren was the first to snap out of the sudden shock of the dream orgy going on before him. Focusing his vision as he'd been taught back at the temple of Cal, he did his best to try to discern any evil in the auras of those assembled before him, worried at the possibility these women might actually be a score of succubi or something similar. But while he detected no evil emanations coming from them, he also knew he could not count on these senses giving him accurate readings while in the midst of a dream, for each dream had the opportunity of making up its own rules on how exactly things worked - in a dream, a succubus might truly seem as innocent and pure as she wanted others to believe. Thurloe unsheathed his bastard sword, just in case (idly recalling having his throat ripped out by a dream fox), and started circling the group of women in a counterclockwise direction. He tried to see if any of them were identical, but each of the twenty seemed to be a unique individual. Alewyth was the first to try to break up the dream. "Excuse me," she said to Olliffer. "Olliffer Pelham? We're here to--" She was cut off in mid-sentence. "You'll have to wait your turn, just like the others!" Olliffer called back to the dwarven priestess, not even once glancing in her direction - focused, instead, on the rhythmic coupling with the gorgeous redhead currently beneath him. A beautiful brunette at his side could no longer keep away from the sixty-something man before her, rubbing her hands over his bony shoulders, as if encouraging him in his efforts. Zander finally stepped forward and tried to pull the woman away from Olliffer. To his surprise, as soon as he touched her she popped like a bubble, much in the same way he'd read happened when one dealt with an illusory [I]mirror image[/I] from the spell of the same name - one moment she was bending over Olliffer Pelham, stroking his shoulders, and the next it was as if she had never existed. Zander stumbled, nearly falling over at the sudden disappearance of the woman he thought he'd be pulling away from the sixtyish grandfather. "What the--?" exclaimed Thurloe, who had seen the woman disappear. He touched the shoulder of the blonde standing before him and she too vanished without a trace. Alewyth stepped forward and touched the two women to either side of her, popping them out of immediate existence as well. She nodded in appreciation; it would be very useful indeed, she thought, if she could get rid of irritating people in the real world as easy as it was in this particular dream. But now the remaining women finally broke away from their fascination at Olliffer's sexual exploits and noticed the strangers standing among them. With a unified shriek of terror and surprise, they backed away and started running in all directions. Neither Olliffer nor his current partner seemed to notice their distress, however, their focus solely on each other for the moment. Zander dashed forward and popped away another two women, causing the others to veer away from him, shrieking all the while. Thurloe thought about giving pursuit but then decided he'd do what he could to get Olliffer's attention; this was, after all, the old man's dream and as such he should be their main focus. Thinking it the best way to get Olliffer to shift his attention to Thurloe, the fighter bent over and touched the woman beneath the old man on the head. She vanished at once and Olliffer collapsed in a heap on the ground, no longer supported by a young, supple body bearing his weight. Alewyth tapped him on the shoulder as he struggled to his hands and knees, indignant at the interruption. He whirled around, caught the dwarven priestess in his sight, and demanded, "What the Hell, woman? Why ain't you nekkid? Get to it!" Zander, Wakuren, and - at the urging of the other two - Xandro chased down the remaining women, popping them into nonexistence with a mere touch, while Thurloe and Alewyth confronted the furious Olliffer. But before he could get out a word, the last of his dream harem disappeared and just like that his dreamscape started disappearing around him as well. "He's waking up!" Thurloe warned the others. "Let's go! Awaken, everyone!" Using the dream training they'd received from Mogo and had practiced ever since, the five dreamwalkers awakened themselves from the vanishing dream and found their consciousnesses back in their bodies in the mortal world, sitting in a ring around Olliffer Pelham's bed. "Grandfather!" exclaimed Jervilla, beaming with joy. "They did it! You're awake!" That was certainly the case, for Olliffer Pelham was now sitting upright in his bed and staring down at the five interlopers blinking awake all around him. "You [I]bastards![/I]" he screamed. "What in the--? Why the Hell did you--? Of all the--!" He sputtered over his words in his anger, unable to complete a sentence so great was his fury. "Grandfather!" chided Jervilla, then turned to the five heroes as they stood up. "I'm so sorry," she apologized to them. "I don't know why he's like this! He's usually very soft spoken...." "Get the Hell out of my house!" roared Olliffer, his fury giving him the voice of a man half his age. "If I ever see you again, I'll string you up myself! Of all the--! I was--! Now I--!" He started sputtering again as the five heroes got to their feet and with a look askance at each other, wordlessly slid out of the old man's bedroom, Alewyth taking the opportunity to slide the bandana off the old man's head as she passed and recovering the dreamstone in that fashion. Then they were out of the old man's house and leaping back onto their horses, Alewyth and Wakuren climbing up onto the mule-driven wagon instead. "Now where?" asked Zander. They hadn't had the opportunity to pin down their next dream victim yet; they'd expected to do that this coming evening, perhaps at the tavern in the center of Moon Creek whose owner had helpfully directed them to the Pelham house. But not now; now it seemed best to put as much distance between themselves and Olliffer Pelham as possible. "Let's keep going on down the road in the direction we were heading," Thurloe suggested, leading the way astride his horse, Horse. "I doubt if the Queen would have us backtracking. We'll hole up in the next town and get directions to our next assignment from there." The fighter mused silently to himself for a bit, then threw out the following question, which had been bothering him since exiting Olliffer's dream: "Why would somebody want to trap an old man in a dream about having as much sex as he wants with a whole ton of hot women? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense." "You're assuming somebody's doing this purposefully," pointed out Wakuren. "It could be something that occurs naturally." "What, like some sort of weird disease?" asked Thurloe. "Nah, can't be - the Queen of Dreams already said you can't catch it from somebody else." "'Don't seem to be able to,' you mean," corrected the half-orc. "So far, I don't think that's definitely been proven." "Well, whichever, we now have two data points," Alewyth interjected. "As we rescue more people from their dreams, maybe some sort of pattern will emerge." "Give me a choice between being chased by a dream fox and being surrounded by a bunch of naked women, I know which dream I'd want to get stuck in!" added Zander, turning to the bard. Xandro's face just reddened and he remained silent. Before the group made it out of town, they were hailed by a man approaching them from the side of the road. He had jet-black hair just starting to gray at the temples and introduced himself as [B]Counselor Lugendorf[/B]. "I was told we had visitors," he said, being drawn to the emblem on Wakuren's shield. "A cleric of Cal?" he asked. "Are you here to follow up after the other one who was by here last week?" Wakuren admitted he was unaware of any other members of his order in the neighborhood and Counselor Lugendorf filled him in. A week or so ago a cleric of Cal came into town, accompanied by a fighter; both were human and fairly young. The Moon Creek Council hired them on the spot to deal with their recent needlefolk problem, for in the prior several weeks a few of these strange, cactuslike plant-people had wandered into some of the fields and attacked the farmers working there on several occasions. In the week since the two men had gone off to deal with the needlefolk, sightings of the creatures had greatly diminished, although every couple of days one or two of the plant-men had still been spotted. "Seems like they must have gotten most of the pack, but they never came back for the reward yet. I figure, good folk that they are, they want to make sure they've taken care of every last needlefolk before they return for their earnings." "Out of curiosity, how much were these earnings?" asked Thurloe. He was already working out a way to get the five heroes tucked into the agreement as an auxiliary needlefolk eradication force, but Wakuren nipped that in the bud by reinforcing they had not been sent by the other two, merely crossing paths out of sheer coincidence. Thurloe fumed silently at the half-orc's irritating default of full-fledged honesty; he'd have to have a talk with him later about not turning down lucrative opportunities that insisted on just throwing themselves in their way. But Counselor Lugendorf volunteered the information anyway. "It was 50 pieces of gold, about all we could afford," he said. "Like I said, we still see the occasional needlefolk, so maybe those other two fellows could use your help - I'll leave it to you all to decide how to split up the payment. But every encounter with them plant-people has started with them coming from the direction of the old silver mine." He gave them directions to the mine, long since abandoned after the veins of ore dried up. Wakuren had one additional question before they left. "What were the names of the two men?" he asked. "The cleric was [B]Peter Dublinson[/B]," Counselor Lugendorf replied, "and the other one just went by [B]Gryff[/B]." At that, Wakuren's face froze in a grin, the half-orc not wanting to let his true feelings to show. Instead, he smiled at the town councilman and thanked him for the information. Then they turned their wagon and horses and headed off towards the old silver mine. "Those names mean anything to you?" Alewyth asked. She'd caught on to the half-orc's sudden facial paralysis as he held back a grimace. "Not the Gryff guy," replied Wakuren. "But Peter Dublinson was one of the adepts who beat me up and got me kicked out of the temple right before we were to all have become ordained as clerics." He didn't mind helping out the Moon Creek Council - or even Peter - with their needlefolk problem, but he planned to have a few choice words with his fellow cleric when he saw him! The mine was easy to find, about forty minutes of riding down the end of a little-used road now becoming clogged with weeds as nature slowly took back what had been hers. There were several sun-bleached, wooden buildings scattered around a dark opening into the side of a hill, what could only be the main mine entrance. Off to the side of the entrance was a statue of a dwarf, much taller than any dwarf or any human who had ever lived. Alewyth halted the mules off to the side of the road and the others dismounted their horses, leaving them tied to nearby trees with plenty of lead so they could graze contentedly while the adventurers checked the place out on foot. Zander headed over to the well to see if it still had a bucket at the end of the rope dangling down its shaft, for he was thirsty from the ride. The others spread out, each heading to a different building. But before any of them reached their intended destination a group of four bodies entered the area, each slipping around the edge of a different building. These were skeletal-thin bodies wrapped in hard, green flesh, from which protruded hundreds of spikes and spines of various sizes: the group was meeting up with their first needlefolk! Almost as one, the plant-men stiffened, turned their heads to face Zander Quilson, and then started sprinting in his direction. Their faces held no expressions but the elf nonetheless got the impression they wanted him, specifically, dead. Zander ducked as one reached within striking distance to the elf and brought a spine-covered hand swiping at him in a lateral swing. Another ran up beside the first and tried bringing its two fists crashing down onto the elf's head. Zander scrambled backwards and quickly cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell on himself, wanting the extra protection it afforded, as Thurloe stepped forward, bastard sword in hand, and interposed himself between the two needlefolk and their intended target. He wasted no time in bringing his blade swinging forward and slicing through the torso of the first needlefolk, ripping it open and letting a fibrous filling spill out, as well as watery juices no doubt serving the plant as some sort of blood equivalent. But even split open as it was, the creature retained its footing and clawed feebly at the fighter, trying to rip out his eyes with the thick thorns at the end of each finger. Xandro, seeing combat was already in full swing, brought out neither of his primary weapons - the rapier he wore at his hip nor the light crossbow he wore on his back - but instead brought his trusty lute to bear. He began the words to a song of inspiration, knowing the subtle magics he wove into his song would aid his fellows in their combat endeavors, allowing him to contribute to the entire group's success in an almost background fashion. And it worked; Alewyth felt buoyed by the song's magic as she brought her warhammer crashing down upon another of these needlefolk who seemed so intent on slaying Zander. ([I]Why him?[/I] she wondered briefly in the back of her mind, before dismissing her curiosity as a needless distraction.) Her weapon crushed the spines of the plant-monster she fought, cracking open its hardened outer shell and causing it to likewise leak its watery life-fluid. Wakuren stepped beside Zander and cast a [I]virtue[/I] spell on the frightened elf, hopefully keeping him in the fight just that much longer. The elf stepped behind the powerfully-built half-orc, feeling safer now that there were two of his friends these plant-things would need to get past before they could get to him. The two needlefolk who had originally tried killing Zander were now both focused on Alewyth and the dwarf grunted in pain as thorns cut the flesh of her hands where she gripped her weapon. The other two tensed their bodies and suddenly flung needles at Thurloe, but those which hit glanced off his armor to little effect. Zander spoke the words to a [I]magic missile[/I] spell and slew one of the needlefolk fighting Alewyth, the one Thurloe had cut wide open with his blade. Thurloe closed the distance between him and one of the needlefolk who had just flung needles in his direction, getting in a glancing blow that nonetheless had spines and quills flying off to the side from the strength of his blow. But seeing as how these creatures could throw their needles about, Xandro walked cautiously behind a weathered building, still playing his tune - but out of direct line of sight of any of the plant men. Alewyth's warhammer slew the other needlefolk attacking her and as it collapsed in a heap she looked about her for new foes. Wakuren slammed his shield into one of the two remaining needlefolk and in return it staggered backwards and launched a volley of needles in his direction, most of which the half-orc cleric blocked with the shield that was both an important part of his defenses and also his primary weapon. The other one shot more needles at Thurloe, but was subsequently blasted by a [I]magic missile[/I] from Zander's fingertip and then taken down by a final blow from Thurloe's bastard sword. The last one still standing was soon thereafter slain by Alewyth's warhammer and the five heroes looked about them to see if there were any more of these cactus-people wandering about. It didn't look to be so. Xandro finished up his tune of courage as Wakuren and Alewyth applied healing spells to those needing them. Then they split up again, wanting to check out the various abandoned buildings. Zander went back to the well and was pleased to see it was in fact fully intact; he applied himself to the hand-crank with full vigor, raising up a bucket of cool, clear water. While Xander poked at the needlefolk corpses, Thurloe opened the door to what must have once been a shed full of tools but was now home only to a few dismal spider webs and the long-since-drained carcasses of flies. Alewyth walked over to examine the statue outside the mine entrance, confirming to her satisfaction this was a depiction of her god, Aerik. It made sense to her, for Aerik was the god of both protection and of earth and stone, a fitting patron guardian for a mining expedition. She idly wondered if it had been dwarves involved in this mining endeavor; the statue of Aerik definitely sported dwarven features, but that in and of itself meant nothing, for Aerik was often thus depicted even by members of other races and she hadn't seen any dwarves in the small farming village of Moon Creek or anywhere along the road to the mines. The carving had been nicely done, though, with a fine attention to detail. A brief motion caught the corner of Alewyth's eye and she looked down the dark shaft of the mine, seeing something she hadn't expected to see: a flowering shrub of some sort, deep within the shadows of the mine. There was a human-sized figure even further back, behind the plant, but he shifted to the side and was lost to her view. "Hello?" she called out tentatively to the figure she'd seen, but got no reply. Behind her, Zander was trying to open a door to a building off to the left of the mine entrance, but the wood had warped in place and he was having a difficult time forcing it open. Seeing the dwarven priestess's attention at something down the mine shaft, he cast a [I]dancing lights[/I] spell that lit the place up, revealing the yellow-flowered plant whose fronds waved back and forth as if in the wind, although there was no wind present the elf could detect. Wakuren, in the meantime, had been about to open the door to a weathered building when a horse suddenly rounded the corner from behind it. The horse was saddled and ready for riding and, incongruously, seemed to have a row of yellow flowers pleated into its mane - not something he would have expected either Peter or his fighting partner to have spent the time doing. Then the half-orc noticed something that has escaped his initial notice: one of the flowers was not poking out between the hairs of the creature's mane like the rest of them but was actually growing out of the horse's neck. "Guys?" Wakuren called to the others. "Weird horse over here!" Then he activated the [I]ring of invisibility[/I] he wore and faded from view. Thurloe had sheathed his bastard sword and gotten out his bow, an arrow nocked and ready to shoot. Seeing the horse as it approached from behind the building, he raised his bow, took aim, and sent an arrow flying into the creature's neck, striking within inches of where the flower's stalk erupted from the equine flesh. The horse barely even noticed, but Wakuren could clearly see a greenish sap oozing out of the wound instead of the red blood he'd expected. Whatever this thing was now, it was clearly no longer a horse! Xandro started playing his song of courage again, seeing as how combat had apparently started back up around him. The horse-thing continued its approach, bumping into the invisible half-orc. Wakuren replied with a bash of his shield, returning to visibility as he did so. The horse lashed out with a sharp hoof in retaliation, but it was a half-hearted assault the cleric of Cal easily avoided. But as the yellow-flowered plant didn't seem to be doing much in the mine shaft and the hidden figure behind it gave no indication of wanting to come forward, Alewyth left the mine entrance and headed over to help fight this odd horse Wakuren was going on about. By the time the dwarven priestess had made it over that way, though, the creature was dead, brought down by a second arrow from Thurloe's bow, this shaft going straight through one of the horse's eyes. Alewyth noted with puzzlement the flowers growing directly out of the slain horse's body and the greenish sap oozing from its wounds. "Is this some sort of needlefolk thing?" she wondered aloud. The horse's body didn't seem to have any thorns or quills growing out of it, just those few stalks ending in the yellow flowers. But she explained to the others the plant growth she and Zander had found inside the mine entrance and everyone headed back that way, this time as a group. Xandro, not trusting that combat was truly over, continued the tune upon his lute as he took up position behind the building with the stuck door. The door didn't remain stuck for long, though, as Wakuren's broad shoulders were more than up to the task of bursting it open. Inside, the building proved to be one large room - no doubt the main office when the mine had still been in operation, for there were a few desks and chairs, a cabinet for notes and reports and whatnot, and - most importantly to Wakuren - a map of the mine nailed to the back wall on yellowing paper. Most of the mine consisted of parallel and perpendicular shafts carved into the hillside, but a natural chasm had been pierced at two points by tunnels that broached the diagonal structure at its westernmost end and about three-fourths of the way down its eastern side. While Wakuren and Zander examined the office interior, Alewyth returned to the front of the mine entrance, peering mistrustingly at the yellow-flowered plant that had no business growing deep in the dark of the mine shaft, for it was a good thirty or forty feet back from the tunnel entrance, where no sunlight could ever reach it. She also kept an eye out for the figure she'd seen behind the plant, but he made no attempt at stepping back into view. Just then another figure came darting into view, popping around a side corridor branching off from the main shaft. This was an armored human wearing a chain shirt and wielding a sword as long as the one Thurloe wielded. Saying not a single word, the figure brought his bastard sword crashing down at Alewyth, who managed to deflect the majority of the blade's momentum off the side of her own armored forearm, raising a clatter of metal on metal as she did so. Zander stepped back out of the doorway to the mining office and wasted no time in firing off a [I]magic missile[/I] at the man attacking his dwarven friend. Alewyth responded with a strike at the armored foe with her warhammer, catching him in the chest with a blow powerful enough, the dwarven priestess hoped, to break a rib or two. But no expression crossed the man's face at the wounds he'd just received, nor did it change in the slightest as his shoulder suddenly sprouted one of Thurloe's arrows, the arrowhead finding its way between the chain links of the fighter's armor. Wakuren stepped up to the man and slammed his shield into his side, the blow spinning him around and revealing the yellow flower growing out of his lower back, just above his belt. Not sure if this man had been transformed into a plant or some undead mockery of life, the half-orc raised his holy symbol of Cal and channeled a blast of positive energy at it. The man gave no reaction, leading Wakuren to believe whatever it was, it wasn't some strange sort of undead. His song finished - and its magic still certain to buoy up the heroes' efforts for a bit longer after the bard had finished playing - Xandro pulled the light crossbow from his back and set a bolt into place. But before he could fire, Zander finished the man off with a second [I]magic missile[/I] spell. He collapsed face-first onto the ground, the bastard sword spilling from his unliving fingers. Thurloe couldn't help but notice the sword's fine craftsmanship and bent over to retrieve it; after a moment he sheathed his own sword and hefted this new one, liking the feel of it. Zander was intrigued by the plant's role in all of this and stepped forward to get a better look at it. He crossed some sort of proximity trigger in doing so, however, for the plant responded by turning one of its flower-fronds over in his direction and disgorging a long stream of yellowish pollen, causing the elf to double over, coughing. Alewyth stepped up beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder and asking if he was all right. Zander didn't answer, continuing to cough and sputter. Alewyth started to try to pull him back and then noticed the plant's roots, which weren't sunken into the stone of the mine interior but were instead sunken into the festering corpses of several people all piled in a heap at the creeper's foot, while various vines and fronds branched out from the plant's core, terminating in thick, dark leaves and the occasional yellow flower. "We ought to burn that thing," Wakuren suggested, lighting a torch with a tindertwig. He used it to light another torch, passing it to Alewyth. But as the dwarf turned to take the proffered torch from her fellow cleric, Zander shrugged his shoulder out from beneath Alewyth's hand and wandered slowly down the mine tunnel, headed directly for the plant, which almost seemed to quiver with anticipation. Before the others had noted his disappearance, he had made it to the side of the plant and it had dropped a frond onto the elf's face. Zander stood motionless and unconcerned as it drained away part of his own intellect. And now the figure stepped from behind the plant, its last line of defense: a man Wakuren recognized immediately as Peter Dublinson, wearing full plate armor and holding a heavy mace and a shield bearing the image of Cal's holy symbol. Peter, Wakuren recalled, had been from a wealthy family and apparently only the best was good enough for their son, even if he was entering service as a cleric and should have been above such things as material wealth. "We got t' get Zander out o' there," Alewyth said to the others, her dwarven accent coming to the forefront as emotion roiled over her - she wasn't sure what exactly the plant was doing to the elven sorcerer, but it couldn't be good! She cast a [I]bless[/I] spell over the group in readiness for a concentrated assault. Thurloe charged forward down the mine entrance tunnel past Peter - who swung at the fighter with his mace but missed - and used his new bastard sword to slice down through the frond connecting Zander to the yellow musk creeper. No longer tethered to the creeper, Zander nonetheless stood there in a dazed stupor. Seeing this, Wakuren ran past Peter as well and grabbed up Zander in his arms, dragging him back out of the mine - for Peter had stepped forward to engage Alewyth in battle and the dwarven priestess had strategically stepped away from the mine entrance, luring the yellow musk zombie that had once been one of Wakuren's tormentors out into the sunlight and open air. The creeper hadn't been inactive during this time, however: sensing another potential recruit within range, it blasted a puff of musk into Thurloe's face, causing the fighter to bend over, choking and coughing. When he stood back fully upright, though, he felt much better: not a care in the world bothered him, now that he was in the presence of his new master. Alewyth seemed to be handling the plant-zombie-thing okay and Wakuren had pulled Zander back to safety, so Xandro decided to take out the root cause of this fight and sent a crossbow bolt flying directly into the center mass of the yellow musk creeper. But then Wakuren cried out in alarm, for as soon as he'd gotten Zander to safety outside the mine and released him, the elf started wandering back towards the plant. Seeing this, Alewyth backed off from combat with Peter, pulled at a tanglefoot bag from the back of her belt, and hurled it at Zander's feet. It burst as it hit and exploded in all directions, covering the elf's boots and pants with a sticky substance that quickly hardened in the air, cementing the elf in place - she didn't have time to deal with him, as Peter was once again bringing his heavy mace down upon her. Wakuren sighed in frustration: they had just rescued Zander and now it looked like Thurloe had fallen sway to the yellow plant's mental influence. He pulled the cloak from his back as he raced back down the mine entrance, setting it ablaze with his burning torch as he did so. Then he flung the entire burning mass onto the yellow musk creeper, right as it had been about to attach a frond to the unmoving fighter's head. The fiery cloak began burning the creeper's leaves but it wasn't out of the fight just yet, blasting another stream of pollen-spores into the half-orc's face. A few moments of choking and coughing and Wakuren had joined Thurloe among the ranks of willing victims to their new vegetable master. "Crap!" Xandro cursed, firing another bolt into the yellow musk creeper. They had to take this thing out - and fast, if they weren't going to all fall under its dominance and become no better than this half-plant thing currently trading blows with Alewyth. Fortunately, Zander soon regained his senses and was able to rejoin the fight - although he had to do so from where he was standing, for he seemed to have been glued into place by a hardened shell around his legs! He fired the last of his [I]magic missile[/I] spells at Peter, hoping to take him down so Alewyth could go rescue Thurloe and Wakuren. Alewyth mirrored Wakuren's attack, faking a strike with her warhammer just to get her burning torch into play, setting fire to the tabard Peter wore over his armor. But she also realized the urgency of the situation, for even now the creeper was placing a frond onto Thurloe's forehead, draining him in whatever way it did. Xandro cursed as his next crossbow bolt went flying over the yellow musk creeper without so much as parting a leaf. But while he was doing his best to take down the creeper, Alewyth and Zander were still concentrating their attacks on Peter, although the elf sorcerer was now out of [I]magic missiles[/I] and was resorting to [I]acid splash[/I] spells instead. Finally, Alewyth realized they were running out of time and taking down Peter Dublinson was taking far too long. Pushing her way past the cleric (who swung at her one last time with his mace as she sped past him), Alewyth tried to tackle Thurloe, hoping to pull him free from the frond still draining his intellect. Behind her, Peter's tabard was now burning fiercely, engulfing him in a cloak of flames, but he hardly noticed, following the dwarven priestess back towards his master to protect it as best he still could. Alewyth had knocked Thurloe aside and was doing her best to pull the fronds from his face when she too succumbed to a musk puff from the still-burning creeper, not even her dwarven constitution tough enough to withstand this big of a dose from this close of a range. Back outside the mine, Xandro fired a final bolt at the creeper before deciding he'd have to go into the mine himself and try to save the others. Zander had no better way of extracting himself from the hardened tanglefoot bag than to wriggle out his boots and climb out of his pants, leaving behind the lower half of a bizarre sculpture as he ran toward the mine entrance in his bare feet, his short robe flapping behind him. The sorcerer sent another [I]acid splash[/I] spell into the back of Peter's head, hoping to take him out before he could put out the fire that would eventually (or so Zander fervently hoped) engulf the yellow musk creeper. The creeper was slowing down now, as more of its body was engulfed in flames. It was still attached to Thurloe and it concentrated on making him one of its minions before trying to attach one of its remaining fronds to the other two potential slaves standing patiently before it, awaiting their turns at transformation into plant creatures focused solely upon the creeper's survival. But the connection was suddenly severed as Xandro's rapier cut the frond connecting Thurloe to the yellow musk creeper, and shortly thereafter the fighter regained his own mental freedom, although his mind was fuzzy and he had no idea exactly what was going on all around him. Had he been drinking again? It was hard to remember. Peter was now a blazing inferno, his hybrid body - part plant but still partially animal - all but consumed in the flames. It approached the creeper, trying to find a way to put out the flames consuming its master without making matters even worse by the touch of his own blazing body. Zander sent another [I]acid splash[/I] spell his way, as Thurloe suddenly cut loose and raced down a side corridor, to the east. Once out of spore range, he shook his head, frantically trying to recall where he was and what he was doing, when his attention was diverted by a commotion behind him. He recognized several of the figures as his friends; the dwarven woman was standing unmoving while some burning plant thing attached a frond to her forehead. Thurloe couldn't remember why that was a bad thing but he was pretty sure it was, so he went racing back the way he'd come, bastard sword held over his head in both hands for an overhead blow. A man he remembered was called Xandro was stabbing at the plant mass with his rapier. Zander, now out of even his least powerful spells, threw a dagger at Peter Dublinson's burning form - why the Hell wouldn't he just die already? But then the thing that had been Peter did finally collapse to the floor, although whether it had been the result of Zander's thrown dagger or the fire finally engulfing him totally was difficult to say. He dropped his mace and his shield, the fire not having done anything to either yet beyond warming them up considerably. With a roar of fury, Thurloe charged into the yellow musk creeper, his new bastard sword slicing it from top to bottom, cleaving it in twain as half of it burned away to nothingness. Upon its destruction, Alewyth and Wakuren snapped back to full consciousness, shaking themselves out of their stupors. "Let's get out of here!" suggested Xandro, leading the way back south to the open air. The others followed suit, Wakuren taking the time to grab up Peter's fallen shield on the way - no reason for a shield of such quality workmanship to go to waste! Once back outside, the five heroes took stock. Both Zander and Thurloe had been drained of a portion of their intellect, the elf having fared much better on that front than the human, while Alewyth had been completely able to resist the creeper's efforts even after it had attached a frond to her face. After having examined the two of them, she announced it was likely they'd gradually be restored to their normal level of mental acuity, although it was possible the recovery time would be measured in days. "There are spells that can speed up the process, but they're currently beyond my ability to cast," she explained, and Wakuren admitted they were currently outside his own spellcasting abilities as well. As a group, they decided to give the outer buildings a thorough exploration, partly because they had yet to hit them all but mostly to allow the yellow musk creeper and its minions a chance to burn fully to the point there'd be no chance of any of them reviving. There wasn't much to see, though; the unexplored buildings proved to be the abandoned remains of a bunkhouse, a mess hall (with attached kitchen and pantry, both bare save for some old stains), and a latrine pit. Zander discovered a deck of playing cards tied together with a bit of twine and was pleased at his discovery, pocketing them into his robes. "Do you want to take time out to go get some pants?" Alewyth asked, and the elf looked down at his bare legs. "Oh yeah, good idea," he answered, trotting back to the wagon to fetch a spare pair of trousers from his gear. He didn't have any spare footwear, though, so he'd have to go barefoot until they could find a pair for purchase somewhere. Wakuren set down his old shield, wielding the one Peter Dublinson had carried; it was of much finer craftsmanship and the half-orc considered it just payment for the treatment he'd received at the hands of Peter and his band of like-minded bigots who couldn't stomach the idea of a half-orc mongrel being initiated as a cleric of the All-Father. Once Wakuren and Alewyth had seen to any necessary healing spells, the group opted to check out the rest of the mines, just in case there were any needlefolk still about - or worse still, any other creatures hanging about with yellow flowers growing out of their bodies. But once at the ashes of the yellow musk creeper, Thurloe opted to go to the right - the same way he'd run when first freed from the creeper's embrace - while Alewyth, Wakuren, and Xandro wanted to check out the natural chasm. Zander opted to go with Thurloe, despite being warned it would be better to stick together. As a result, while the other three climbed down into the lower chasm that had been breached by the mine tunnels, Thurloe and Zander struck off on their own, going first east and then north along another perpendicular tunnel. This one would have also pierced the natural chasm had it extended another 20 or 30 feet or so, but it came to an abrupt dead end, the vein of silver apparently having given out there. And thus it was they were off by themselves when the two intruders who had made the abandoned silver mine their temporary lair came to see what had been causing all of the racket here at the front of the mines. Thurloe and Zander were facing the dead end when they were made aware of the presence of the other two by a javelin crashing against the dead end wall, missing Thurloe's ear by a matter of inches. Spinning around to face this new threat, the sorcerer and fighter saw a strange sight indeed, for blocking their way out of the dead-end tunnel was a hulking bugbear, morningstar in one hand and another hand raised at shoulder level. Behind him, riding in some sort of leather harness, was a green-skinned woman of hideous countenance, passing another javelin to him from a quiver she wore on her back. The bugbear took the proffered javelin and readied his arm for another throw. Thurloe couldn't reason why this should be - it was so hard for thoughts to flow since he'd been fighting that plant thing! - but both the bugbear and the hag on his back had a stripe of thick paint or something down their foreheads. But although Thurloe's reasoning capabilities were currently hampered, his combat instincts were still very much in place. Before the bugbear could throw his second javelin, Thurloe had charged down the tunnel and sliced down the bugbear's torso with a sword-strike that cut him diagonally from chest to hip, blood spurting from the wound like a fountain had just been activated. He stepped back, not wanting to be painted in the bugbear's blood or slip on it beneath his feet, and as he did so a dagger came flying from behind him to strike the bugbear in the throat. Just that quickly, [B]Skullcleaver[/B] fell onto the stone floor of the mine, quite dead. Over in the chasm, the other three heroes were exploring; Alewyth's keen darkvision had picked up a natural pool of water and they were heading over to check it out, when all of a sudden the ground before them split silently open and a strange monstrosity was vomited forth from the earth. The squat thing was built like a barrel, with three thick legs, three sturdy arms, three eyes spaced equidistantly around its body, and a single, gaping maw filled with sharp, almost crystalline-looking teeth at the top of its body. Its dark eyes gleaming in the light of the clerics' torches (for Xandro, being a mere human, lacked the darkvision both of the clerics enjoyed as part of their respective racial heritages), it bent towards them and rasped in a barely-discernable version of the common dialect, "Eat you? Eat you leg?" "No, you may not eat my leg!" Alewyth replied, but Xandro wasn't in the mood for any discussions; he let fly with a crossbow bolt that bounced harmlessly off the xorn's thick-plated exoskeleton. Wakuren crossed the distance between them and tried bringing his new shield crashing down upon the xorn's head, but the odd creature was surprisingly spry for having such a squat, bulky build and it easily dodged out of the way. "Eat you shield?" it suggested, perhaps thinking the half-orc's actions had been nothing more than the offering of a snack. Xandro shot another bolt at the thing but missed it entirely. [B]Grindelzia[/B] the green hag looked up from the harness on the back of her just-slain bugbear companion and complained at Thurloe and Zander, "You little idiots! You just killed my riding mount! Which one of you two is going to take his place?" And it was at that moment the two heroes looked down at the hideous crone's legs and saw both ended just below the knees. Thurloe's instincts kicked in again; in some ways the lack of being able to overthink things was almost an advantage. Without fully processing the concepts that hags were generally of an evil bent, Thurloe decided this one needed to die and he brought his sword crashing down upon her. But the leather harness had a quick-release strap and Grindelzia had it in hand as she'd spoken; quick as a wink, she had scrambled across her slain mount's body and Thurloe's bastard sword did nothing more than further desecrate Skullcleaver's already sliced-up body. Thurloe hefted his sword back over his shoulder for another overhand swing when he saw the green hag was no longer anywhere to be seen. Instead, there on the floor before him was a little girl of maybe eight years. "Oh, thank goodness!" the little girl cried. "I thought that big, hairy man was going to eat me! He put some kind of spell on me to make me look scary, but you saved me from him! Thank you, oh, thank you!" Zander scowled down at the little girl and pointed a thumb at Thurloe. "He may have lost most of his marbles," the elf said, "but I've got enough common sense left to know you're not pulling a fast one on us that easily, witch!" "Yeah, and even I know you're the witch!" Thurloe added, before turning to the sorcerer and asking, "She is, right?" Zander nodded in response. "I knew it!" Thurloe declared triumphantly. Back in the chasm, Wakuren had come to the realization the xorn wasn't trying to eat them, it was just hungry - and hungry for metal, not for flesh. Alewyth pulled a handful of silver coins from her purse and tossed them to the xorn, who gobbled them up greedily. "Silver good," it enthused. "Gold better," it added, hoping these fleshy beings could take a hint. It turned out they could; Xandro and Wakuren each fished out four pieces of gold and tossed them at the xorn, making themselves its new best friends in the process. "I'll bet you this guy's the reason the mine closed," Wakuren opined. "He probably ate the veins of ore!" "No," the xorn answered. "Flesh things gone, I come. Scraps left only. Lost, no home." The xorn's vocabulary was limited, but it managed to get across the idea it had come to this world by accident (probably through a temporary rift between the planes, Alewyth suggested) and that the mine had already been abandoned when it arrived. It survived by eating the unmined scraps left behind when the miners shut down their operations. Wakuren decided he didn't like the way the xorn kept looking at his and Alewyth's metal armor or his new shield, and offered up there was a set of armor available on the body of Gryff, if the xorn was interested in a little variety in its diet. "It's steel, not silver," the half-orc promised. "Steel good," the xorn agreed. The trio returned the way they'd come, their new friend in tow. Zander, in the meantime, had tried slipping past the "little girl" but Grindelzia was having none of it. She swiped at him with her ragged claws, her body dropping the illusion she'd summoned. Not only did her claws strike true, but Zander felt the strength draining from his body. "You! The other one!" Grindelzia called to Thurloe. "I'll gut your pal here if you don't do as I say!" But Thurloe was beyond simple reasoning at this point and answered with the blade of his weapon. "You wouldn't hit a poor, defenseless cripple, would you?" pleaded the green hag, putting every ounce of pathos into her voice as she could. "Yep, I would," Thurloe replied, raising his sword for another strike. Zander took the opportunity to scramble backwards out of range. "Wait!" called Grindelzia, scrambling for another tactic. "If you kill me, you'll never find the hidden treasure!" "What treasure?" Thurloe asked, curious despite himself. Even with his limited intellectual capabilities at present, he recalled very distinctly that money was a very good thing to have. "Thousands of gold pieces! All buried away where you'll never find it! But I know where it is, and I can get it for you! But I can't do that if I'm dead, can I?" Thurloe gave it some thought and try as he might, he couldn't dispute that logic at all. "Where is it?" Thurloe demanded. "It's at the bottom of the xorn's pool of water!" Grindelzia explained, wanting more than anything to gain the freedom of the pool of water, where she knew they wouldn't be able to follow but where she, with her waterbreathing capabilities, could easily wait until they went away, frustrated. But first she had to explain to these two idiots what a xorn was and how to get to the pool of water. "One of you will have to carry me, though," the green hag added, putting all the sadness and helplessness she could into her voice. Fortunately, although it was hard to say whether the mentally-drained pair of heroes were about to be convinced to follow the green hag's scheme, the other heroes (and their new xorn friend) arrived on the scene. Alewyth scowled in puzzlement at the sight of the crippled green hag - surely Thurloe and Zander hadn't done that to her? "What's going on here?" the dwarf demanded. Zander had his dagger out, having retrieved it from the bugbear's throat. "This witch is trying to trick us," he said almost nonchalantly, before advancing upon Grindelzia with his dagger in hand. "Wait!" demanded Grindelzia. "Let me say one last thing in my defense!" When the heroes hesitated, the green hag smirked and called out, "[I]Aktivatikus![/I] Destroy every living thing with feet in the mine complex!" "What's that?" Alewyth cried out, hearing the heavy tread of footsteps echoing from behind her. Then, sudden realization dawning upon her, she ran back to the intersection where the side tunnel hit the main entrance and sure enough, the statue of Aerik had come to a modicum of life, clomping down the tunnel to slay all within - all but Grindelzia, that is, who had no feet and could easily prove it. "That's just not right!" the priestess swore, as Xandro fired a crossbow bolt at the animated statue of Alewyth's god. "Give me safe passage out of here and I'll shut it down," the green hag promised. Wakuren activated his [I]ring of invisibility[/I] and started a slow and careful approach towards the green hag. Thurloe advanced upon the green hag with sword held high, but a swipe at his ankles with her jagged claws kept him at bay. "Ah-ah-ah, naughty boy!" Grindelzia chided. Then, not wanting to wait for these clowns to realize their best interests led to keeping her alive, she started crawling in the direction of the natural chasm and the pool of water that would likely become her only salvation in this situation. "I can't keep it back!" Xandro called to the others as the animated statue reached the ashes of the yellow musk creeper. The bard backed away as the Aerik statue stomped into view. "Make it stop," Thurloe told the green hag. "We'll agree to your truce." "I don't think so," Alewyth interrupted, casting a [I]sanctuary[/I] spell upon herself. The spell, she realized, had one chance to work upon anyone wanting to attack her - it could work fine on one person but be completely ineffective against the next. But if it held against any one individual wanting to cause her harm, that person would be unable to attack her from that point on until the spell's full duration ran out. Of course, if she herself attacked anyone while the spell was still in effect the magic drained away at once, but Alewyth wasn't planning on attacking anyone. Instead, she stepped directly into the path of the animated statue of Aerik, God of Earth and Protection, her patron deity. In her heart, she was certain her god would not let a dutiful priestess in His service die in such a manner. And in that she was correct, for the statue was apparently unwilling to strike at her as it had been commanded to do, and with Alewyth standing in the middle of the tunnel it was unable to get by her to get to the others it could clearly see behind her. Unable to follow its instructions, it remained motionless before the priestess wearing the same holy symbol around her neck as the statue had carved into his stone armor. "Uh oh," Grindelzia said, knowing what this event presaged. And she was right, for Thurloe's bastard sword came crashing down, slaying her instantly. "The armor's out there, outside of the mine," Xandro told the xorn. "You'll need to get past the statue thing, though." Without another word, the xorn slipped into the rock at its feet (and the stone floor sealed up seamlessly above it, the bard noticed with puzzlement), and the xorn earth glided its way beneath the Aerik statue, not rising until it had found it way outside, where it happily began dismantling Gryff's charred chain shirt armor one bite at a time. Alewyth, knowing the limited duration of her [I]sanctuary[/I] spell, volunteered to lead the animated statue on a merry goose chase if the others wanted to give the rest of the mine a quick check-out to ensure there were no other needlefolk about. She ran back towards the natural chasm, secure in the knowledge that as the person currently closest to it, it would naturally come after her first. She slid down the side of the chasm, hearing the statue clomping behind her as she ran down the length of the chasm. She scrambled back up the rise, knowing her weight was nothing compared to that of the statue, which she hoped meant it would have a slightly more difficult time in climbing back up out of the chasm, as the sloping rock face broke away beneath its greater weight. Sure enough, events played out as she'd envisioned and she met back up with the rest of the group some scant minutes later. "Let's go!" Xandro enthused, eager to be back out in the sunshine. "Find anything else?" Alewyth wanted to know. "The hag had some stuff," Wakuren answered as they exited the mine. "What's going to happen to the statue?" Xandro wanted to know. "Eventually, it'll get out of the chasm, discover there's nothing inside the mine with feet, and it'll resume its post outside the mine," Alewyth answered, hoping she was right. She hated the idea that she'd been responsible for trapping an animated statue of her deity inside the chasm. Even if the mine was no longer in use, a statue of Aerik deserved to be stationed outside the area it was protecting. "Now where?" Zander asked as they returned to the horses, mules, and wagon. He was hoping the next town over would have a place he could buy another pair of boots, or failing that, at least some sandals. But even Thurloe's currently diminished intellectual capabilities weren't enough to allow him to forget something as important as money. "No!" he called out. "We have to go back to Moon Creek - they still haven't paid us for taking care of their needlefolk problem! That money's all ours now! - - - Ah, it was good to be back to our gaming sessions! Now that school's out and we've all been vaccinated, we're going to try for a weekly schedule as the default, skipping weeks as needed as events come up. (Case in point: while we're planning on gaming next Saturday, on the one after that Dan and Vicki will have relatives visiting so we'll skip that weekend. And Logan's "Raiders of the Overreach" sessions will start back up this Wednesday, but then skipping the week after that because I'll be out of town on a trip for work.) Much like I did in the "Kordovian Adventurers Guild" campaign, I decided I wanted each PC to have a sort of "signature magic item" fairly early in this campaign. Thurloe's [I]+1 bastard sword[/I] and Wakuren's [I]+1 heavy steel shield[/I] are the first two such items, with others to follow in the next couple of adventures. And all five of these items will increase in powers and abilities over the course of the campaign. This was a fun adventure to run to get us back into the swing of things after a five-month break. I was somewhat surprised that the yellow musk creeper and zombies gave the PCs as much of a problem as they did, and then that the bugbear and green hag combo went down without much effort at all. But we all had a good time with the adventure, even if Thurloe ended up with a 5 Intelligence and Zander had a 10 Intelligence and a 7 Strength after running up against not only the creeper but the green hag as well. Still, despite not having access to [I]restoration[/I] spells, the way this campaign is set up we can easily fast-forward a sufficient number of days having passed before the next adventure for everyone to be restored to their normal ability scores. Incidentally, the stripes on the foreheads of the bugbear and green hag were made up of an alchemical paste that granted them the equivalent of a [I]hide from undead[/I] spell effect that worked against plants instead of undead. Thus, with their paste in place, they could pass right by their yellow musk guardians without triggering any attacks. The PCs gathered up a jug of the stuff; we'll see if it comes into play at all in the future. They also gathered up the hag's notebooks, where she'd been working on a regenerative formula she hoped would grow back her legs, which had been bitten off by the bulette that wiped out her covey, leaving her as the only survivor. Some of the ingredients were needlefolk plant matter and the remains of a human slain and subsequently transformed into a yellow musk zombie, that had subsequently collapsed into deliquescence. I doubt [I]that's[/I] going to be of much use the PCs, but if they ever need a yellow musk creeper there's one growing, unnoticed, out of the corpse of the horse the PCs slew.... - - - T-shirt worn: Lacking anything more appropriate, I went with my "Chaotic evil means never having to say you're sorry" T-shirt - it meshed well with the bugbear and green hag that were the main opponents in this adventure. [/QUOTE]
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