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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8436424" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 20: THE MISSING DREAMER (PART 1)</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 2/paladin 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 16 October 2021</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"I think you'll be pleased with the way they turned out," said <strong>Iriadorrista</strong>, the elven gemcutter selected by the group to perform the necessary carving that turned the solid dreamstone they'd taken from the hilt of the longsword buried with Lord Tannenheim in his crypt into the smaller pieces needed to upgrade the heroes' signature items. "If you have the selected items with you, I can get them mounted properly," she added with a smile.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren smiled back at the young-looking elf, wishing he wasn't as fearsome-looking as he knew he was to most people. But whether through not wanting to insult a paying customer or simply due to an overall pleasant demeanor, the lovely elf didn't seem at all disturbed by having a half-orc in full armor in her shop. At her request, he handed over his shield and watched as she attached a narrow sliver of carved dreamstone, oval in shape but pointed at top and bottom, to the upper part of its front surface. "It won't get jostled off?" he asked warily.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Sovereign glue</em>," explained Iriadorrista. "It'll take much more than a weapon strike to dislodge it."</p><p></p><p>In turn, the elven gemsmith attached all of the smaller dreamstone pieces she'd carved from the larger whole into the items as had been directed by the Queen of Dreams. Zander Quilson's <em>figurine of wondrous power</em>, a <em>jade cooshee</em>, had a pair of tiny dreamstone eyes glued into place. A round dreamstone was attached to either side of Alewyth's warhammer <em>Sjondra</em>, on the longer sides where they wouldn't interfere with the business ends of the weapon. Thurloe's bastard sword<em> Spellslicer</em> received a dreamstone along the bottom of the blade, right above the cross guards. And a final dreamstone, cut into the shape of an oval, was mounted at the bottom of Xandro's lute, just below the strings. Well and truly satisfied with the work that had been done, the heroes happily paid over the money they owed Iriadorrista and the elf said she hoped they'd keep her in mind if they ever had any similar gemcutting needs. That had been the last of the day's purchases, for earlier that morning they'd swung by the Temples of Delphyne and Cal and picked up the wands Thurloe and Wakuren had ordered three days ago, a <em>wand of magic missile</em> for the neophyte wizard and a <em>wand of cure light wounds</em> for the half-orc cleric-paladin.</p><p></p><p>As they exited Iriadorrista's shop, Thurloe almost collided with a man in a hooded robe headed his way. He looked at the group - two humans, a dwarf, an elf, and a half-orc - and nodded to himself as if he'd found the right group. But just to be sure, he asked them, "Excuse me, but are you the dream-wakers?"</p><p></p><p>"Never heard that exact term before," admitted Thurloe with a smirk, "but yeah, we're them. Why? You got somebody needs waking?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, yes we do!" the hooded man exclaimed with relief in his voice. "The head of our temple had heard of your exploits and asked me to find you and bring you back with me. We've had a visitor collapse into sleep and we cannot awaken him."</p><p></p><p>"Which temple is this?" asked Alewyth. She wouldn't be thrilled to find herself entering another Temple of Desdemona anytime soon.</p><p></p><p>"The Temple of Akari," the man replied, leading the way and making sure the others were following. The group had worked with the Temple of Akari back in Port Duralia, where they'd overseen the return to life of a member of the minor nobility. Their leader had been a rather impressive sort: "Father Bones," a walking, talking skeleton of a type they called a "lich," as was perfectly reasonable given Akari was the God of Death and Undeath. He wore a distinctive black top hat as a badge of office.</p><p></p><p>"So what can you tell us about this dreamer?" asked Thurloe as they headed over to the Godswalk, where the majority of the city's shrines and temples were located. "He a regular in your temple?"</p><p></p><p>"No, quite the opposite: he'd come in once or twice in the past week, but before that we hadn't seen him before. And he never came in during the normal services, just sat himself in a pew and prayed quietly to himself." The Akari cleric provided a description of the man, although he was fairly nondescript: light hair, gray eyes, average build, wearing dark clothes and a hooded cloak.</p><p></p><p>When they got to the Temple of Akari the cleric led them straight through the chapel and into the rooms in the back. There was an office area off to the left at the back of the building and sitting behind the larger of the two desks was none other than Father Bones himself. "What are you doing here?" sputtered Alewyth despite herself.</p><p></p><p>"My child, I am the head of this temple," Father Bones replied. Then he realized her confusion. "You have met another Father Bones elsewhere, haven't you?"</p><p></p><p>"In Port Duralia," the dwarven priestess replied.</p><p></p><p>"'Father Bones' is a title bestowed upon the head cleric of the God of Death and Undeath," the skeletal being explained. "Every major temple of Akari will have its own Father Bones. But thank you for coming." He stood up from his desk. "We took the sleeping parishioner downstairs so he'd be out of the way. If you'd like to follow me?"</p><p></p><p>Father Bones led the group through a back door and down a set of winding stairs leading to a level beneath the temple. Wakuren couldn't help himself; while it would have been rude to try to <em>detect evil</em> in the presence of Father Bones in his office, the half-orc cleric-paladin felt more comfortable doing so when the lich's back was turned. As he'd hoped, there was no telltale taint of evil in the head cleric's aura; Wakuren had heard there were good liches as well as those turned to the ways of evil and was pleased this Father Bones was of the former persuasion.</p><p></p><p>"He's in here," Father Bones said, stepping into the church's morgue. There were four wheeled gurneys in the room, all of them empty. "What?" gasped Father Bones. "Where did he go?"</p><p></p><p>The others piled into the room. "He was there, on that slab," Father Bones said, pointing to the gurney in the far corner. "I saw him myself not half an hour ago!"</p><p></p><p>"Are you certain he was asleep?" asked Zander. "Maybe he just woke up."</p><p></p><p>"He was fast asleep, and we tried everything from <em>remove paralysis</em> to <em>neutralize poison</em> to <em>heal</em> - all with no success."</p><p></p><p>"Where did you first find him?" asked Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Upstairs, asleep in one of the pews," replied Father Bones. He turned to the cleric who had brought the "dream-wakers" here to the Temple of Akari. "Go back upstairs and see if anyone saw him back awake - and have the brothers search the temple for him." Turning back to the five adventurers, there was an apologetic tone in his voice - Alewyth got the idea he'd be blushing if he'd had any skin on his skull. "I'm terribly sorry about this," he apologized. "I didn't mean to bring you here for nothing."</p><p></p><p>"Let's look around," suggested Thurloe, looking tellingly at Alewyth and Zander. As a dwarf, Alewyth Putterpye had a preternatural understanding of stone construction and would have a pretty good chance of finding out if the stone walls in the room held any secret passages. And with his keen elven senses, Zander Quilson was also their best bet at discovering any hidden doors in the area - although it was unlikely the room held any hidden passageways unknown to the head of the temple. They found nothing and expanded their search out into the hallway.</p><p></p><p>"Found something," Alewyth called out at the bottom of the spiral steps.</p><p></p><p>"Hidden door?" guessed Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Blob of something," Alewyth replied, lifting a dab of something white she'd picked up with her finger. Holding it up close, she grimaced. "It's bat guano!" she complained, wiping it back on the edge of the step where she'd found it.</p><p></p><p>That got Thurloe thinking. "I think bat guano's used in casting the <em>fireball</em> spell," he said, recalling what he'd read in Mistress Jandoval's beginner's book of spells.</p><p></p><p>"So what are you thinking, that a wizard came in here and stole the sleeping guy?" asked Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"It's possible," Thurloe replied.</p><p></p><p>"It's also possible the wizard has a bat familiar who took a dump on the stairs," added Zander. "That makes more sense than him dropping the spell component to a <em>fireball</em> spell - which he'd have no need of casting in here."</p><p></p><p>"Nonetheless, it suggests an intruder was present in our temple," said Father Bones. "I will cast a <em>commune</em> spell and see what I can find out." As the casting time for that spell took a good ten minutes, the others had plenty of time to talk among themselves and come up with ten good questions they wanted answered, ten questions being the limit to Father Bones' spellcasting abilities. During that time, the results of the search throughout the temple came back negative: the missing dreamer was not anywhere within the confines of the building, on either of its two levels.</p><p></p><p>Casting the <em>commune</em> spell was kind of creepy in any case, Alewyth and Wakuren knew, for during the spellcasting the cleric asked his questions and then another entity took temporary control over his body and answered using his own voice. The creepiness factor only intensified when the caster was already an animated skeleton wearing a black robe and a tall, black top hat with a pair of crossed bones on the silk ribbon along its brim.</p><p></p><p>"Was the sleeper really asleep?" asked Father Bones, reciting the first of his questions. Then he answered himself in a much deeper, booming voice: "YES." Xandro jotted the answer down on a piece of parchment he'd prepared to record the results of the spell interrogation.</p><p></p><p>"Was the sleeper affected by the dream sickness?" Father Bones asked next, as it was possible he'd just been in some other type of heavy sleep from which waking him was difficult. There was a moment's pause, and then the answer, "YES."</p><p></p><p>"Is the missing dreamer currently awake?" Again, there was a moment's pause and then Father Bones answered "NO." Xandro jotted down the answer as the head cleric asked his next question.</p><p></p><p>"Is the missing dreamer within the city of Baron's Haven?" If this had been a simple kidnapping, there was every chance he was still here within the city, given the limited time the kidnapper would have had to work. "NO." Well, that meant there was probably some kind of magic at work - and in a city where unauthorized spellcasting was prohibited.</p><p></p><p>"Is the missing dreamer still on the Material Plane?" If extraplanar travel were at play here, it would be very difficult to track the hapless dreamer. "YES." That made it somewhat easier.</p><p></p><p>"Was the missing dreamer forcibly removed from the Temple of Akari?" This was a logical assumption, but it was always a good idea to confirm one's initial beliefs. "YES."</p><p></p><p>There were four questions remaining to the spell. "Was the missing dreamer taken for nefarious reasons?" Again, it was likely that he had been but it was nice to confirm. "YES."</p><p></p><p>The next question was a follow-on from the third, which had confirmed the dreamer was no longer asleep, and it had particularly importance to Father Bones. "Is the missing dreamer still alive?" Alewyth found herself leaning forward in anticipation of the answer. "YES." Well, that was a relief!</p><p></p><p>"Was the missing dreamer taken by a living being?" If they were up against the undead, that would be worth noting. "YES."</p><p></p><p>For the final question, Father Bones asked, "Did the missing dreamer and the one who took him <em>teleport</em> out of the temple?" After a pause, he answered in the deeper, foreign voice, "NO." The head cleric's skull slumped in weariness as the spell finished, as if it had taken a toll on him.</p><p></p><p>Xandro read back the questions and answers to the others. "Now what?" asked Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"Now we go see if anybody in the local area saw anyone walking out of the temple with a sleeping figure over their shoulder," suggested Xandro. It helped that the Temple of Akari had but the sole entrance, leading out onto the Godswalk. And sure enough, they hit pay dirt almost immediately, for across the street sat a homeless man in the shade in the span between two buildings.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, I seen a guy carrying another guy out of the temple," replied <strong>Gilfrey</strong>. "I seen where he took him, too. What's it worth to you?"</p><p></p><p>Zander sighed and pulled out a gold coin. "Uh uh uh," Gilfrey replied, shaking a finger at the elf. "You pay me in coins, I get robbed before I can use 'em. Tell you what: I got a craving for some meat. You go take that coin and buy me a pair of chicken legs, and I'll tell you what I know."</p><p></p><p>"I'll do it," offered Alewyth. Gilfrey gave her directions to a local vendor who sold chicken from a hand cart a few blocks away. When she returned, she had four chicken legs wrapped in a cloth. She handed a pair over to Gilfrey, who gobbled them up as if his life depended on them. And he ate his way down to the bone of each chicken leg, not letting a scrap of edible matter go to waste. Then he wrapped the bones up in a dirty handkerchief and stuffed them in his pocket.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, then," Gilfrey said, his meal completed. He pointed down the street. "The guy took the other guy there into the Shrine of Delphyne. And there ain't but the one way in or out of the shrine and I haven't seen 'em come back out, so they're still in there, far as I can tell." He gave them a quick description of the man who had been carrying the missing dreamer - dark hair and beard, black clothes with silver skull symbols on his shoulders and knees, dark cloak - and then the group was off towards the Shrine of Delphyne, Alewyth lagging behind just long enough to pass over the other two chicken legs. "You've been very helpful," she told Gilfrey.</p><p></p><p>The Shrine of Delphyne was fairly small - square, only about ten feet to a side, but two stories high due to the black marble statue of Delphyne in the back of the building. The Goddess of Magic was on her knees before a <em>magic circle</em> inscribed on the floor before her, with a staff in one hand. The statue was about 15 feet tall and floating around in the air before her were several <em>driftglobes</em>, providing illumination as they flitted about (out of range of any would-be thieves). The entire shrine was just one big room with a single open doorway providing access, and it was empty.</p><p></p><p>"There's nobody here," said Zander, pointing out the obvious.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe they <em>teleported</em> away," suggested Xandro. "All we know from the <em>commune</em> spell is that they didn't <em>teleport</em> from the Temple of Akari."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren stepped inside the <em>magic circle</em> to see if it would <em>teleport</em> him somewhere, with no luck. Perhaps it needed a command word or phrase? "Teleport," he tried. "Delphyne. Magic." He tried another couple of words but quickly realized he was grasping at straws.</p><p></p><p>"Found something!" Alewyth said, examining the back wall of the shrine. "There's a secret passage here - you can see the seam where this wall opens!" However, try as she might she couldn't find the opening mechanism. But after a few moments Zander had found it: a fake brick which hinged open, allowing the secret door mechanism to be activated. The room beyond wasn't very big, though: not even three feet deep, although it spanned the full ten-foot width of the building. It was pitch black inside, save for what light from the temple spilled through the hidden door.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren went in, as he had no difficulties seeing in little (or even no) light. "There's a book on a pedestal at the end of the passageway," he called back to the others. "Pages are made of metal. There's a picture of a statue of Delphyne - just her head and shoulders - and some words carved above them. He flipped through the book, keeping his finger in the place where it had been left open so he wouldn't lose his place. "The whole book's that way," he said. "Different statues, different words on each page."</p><p></p><p>"It's a means of teleportation!" hazarded Alewyth. "Bring the book out here, so we can all look at it!"</p><p></p><p>"I can't," Wakuren explained. "it's chained to the pedestal. Hang on, though, I'll copy the words from the page it was open to." Borrowing parchment and ink pen from Xandro, Wakuren meticulously copied the inscription on the page and brought it back for the others to see. It read:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Wakuren tried reading the words aloud (with several different possible pronunciations, just in case) and got nowhere. "Maybe you have to be touching the book when you say the command phrase," Thurloe suggested, so Wakuren tried that but it didn't help. He tried saying the words backwards, but that was even harder to pronounce.</p><p></p><p>"We're missing something," Thurloe observed.</p><p></p><p>"Obviously," added Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"What are we missing?" the fighter-wizard mused. He tried counting the number of letters in each word and then going to that letter in the alphabet, but that ended up with unpronounceable gibberish. "That alphabet's got to be there for a reason," he thought aloud.</p><p></p><p>"Delphyne's the Goddess of Magic," Zander observed. "Maybe we need to apply some magic to the puzzle." He cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell on Wakuren's hand-written copy and saw nothing, then realized it would make more sense checking out the original book itself. Bringing along a lit sunrod so he could see better, he looked over the open page and called out, "Hey! Some of the letters are just illusions - they're not really on the page at all! Somebody bring me the parchment!"</p><p></p><p>Scribbling through the illusory letters - all of which had been in the alphabet section - the parchment now looked like this:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"So..." prompted Thurloe, not seeing how this was any better.</p><p></p><p>"So if we get rid of the illusory letters in the message below," offered Zander, scribbling through the appropriate letters, "We might get the command phrase!" It looked like he was on to something, for the parchment now read:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Let's try that!" Zander said, taking the parchment back into the narrow passageway. It looked plausible, for he knew "appaport" was an archaic word for "teleport" and "ley two seven" sounded like a coordinate on a ley line network. "Appaport desti ley two seven" he called out with his hand on the book chained to the pedestal.</p><p></p><p>Instantly, all five of the heroes disappeared. The hidden door silently slid back into place and locked. To all appearances, nobody had been by to disturb the Shrine of Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>From the heroes' point of view, however, the Shrine of Delphyne disappeared around them, to be replaced by a similar building. This one, despite having the same basic floor plan, was only a single story tall for the statue of Delphyne in the back was merely a bust, depicting the Goddess of Magic from the shoulders up. It was planted in place on a raided pedestal. Alewyth, Xandro, Wakuren and Thurloe were inside the shrine in the same places they had occupied in the shrine in Baron's Haven they'd just departed; Zander, however, was no longer in the hidden space behind the shrine but in the street just outside the open entrance.</p><p></p><p>There was a moaning sound behind him. Looking back, he saw a zombie lurching in his direction, a look of undying hunger in the dead thing's eyes. From the moans emanating all around them, the elven sorcerer guessed this wasn't the only zombie stumbling around in this city of the dead. But it made sense that the necromancer who'd stolen the missing dreamer (for whatever unknown purpose) would make his headquarters in a place surrounded by undead forces.</p><p></p><p>"Guys?" Zander called out to his friends. "We've got a problem...."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Since "Dregs" had been a short adventure, I figured we would get this far into the adventure that followed and then call it a session. The reason: the rest of this adventure involves exploring a city of the undead, because not only do they need to hunt down the necromancer and the missing dreamer but also the book of teleport command phrases because this Shrine of Delphyne is missing its copy. (The players don't know this for sure, but the necromancer took it with him and has hidden it somewhere nearby to ensure only he can use the teleport network hidden in select Shrines of Delphyne.) I figure this second part of "The Missing Dreamer" will likely go 4-5 hours. Plus, as this is the last planned 4th-level adventure for this campaign; after we finish the adventure next session we'll follow up by advancing the PCs to 5th level.</p><p> </p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" T-shirt, to represent the undead in the Deadlands - but mostly because I was still wearing it from the last adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8436424, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 20: THE MISSING DREAMER (PART 1)[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 2/paladin 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 16 October 2021 - - - "I think you'll be pleased with the way they turned out," said [B]Iriadorrista[/B], the elven gemcutter selected by the group to perform the necessary carving that turned the solid dreamstone they'd taken from the hilt of the longsword buried with Lord Tannenheim in his crypt into the smaller pieces needed to upgrade the heroes' signature items. "If you have the selected items with you, I can get them mounted properly," she added with a smile. Wakuren smiled back at the young-looking elf, wishing he wasn't as fearsome-looking as he knew he was to most people. But whether through not wanting to insult a paying customer or simply due to an overall pleasant demeanor, the lovely elf didn't seem at all disturbed by having a half-orc in full armor in her shop. At her request, he handed over his shield and watched as she attached a narrow sliver of carved dreamstone, oval in shape but pointed at top and bottom, to the upper part of its front surface. "It won't get jostled off?" he asked warily. "[I]Sovereign glue[/I]," explained Iriadorrista. "It'll take much more than a weapon strike to dislodge it." In turn, the elven gemsmith attached all of the smaller dreamstone pieces she'd carved from the larger whole into the items as had been directed by the Queen of Dreams. Zander Quilson's [I]figurine of wondrous power[/I], a [I]jade cooshee[/I], had a pair of tiny dreamstone eyes glued into place. A round dreamstone was attached to either side of Alewyth's warhammer [I]Sjondra[/I], on the longer sides where they wouldn't interfere with the business ends of the weapon. Thurloe's bastard sword[I] Spellslicer[/I] received a dreamstone along the bottom of the blade, right above the cross guards. And a final dreamstone, cut into the shape of an oval, was mounted at the bottom of Xandro's lute, just below the strings. Well and truly satisfied with the work that had been done, the heroes happily paid over the money they owed Iriadorrista and the elf said she hoped they'd keep her in mind if they ever had any similar gemcutting needs. That had been the last of the day's purchases, for earlier that morning they'd swung by the Temples of Delphyne and Cal and picked up the wands Thurloe and Wakuren had ordered three days ago, a [I]wand of magic missile[/I] for the neophyte wizard and a [I]wand of cure light wounds[/I] for the half-orc cleric-paladin. As they exited Iriadorrista's shop, Thurloe almost collided with a man in a hooded robe headed his way. He looked at the group - two humans, a dwarf, an elf, and a half-orc - and nodded to himself as if he'd found the right group. But just to be sure, he asked them, "Excuse me, but are you the dream-wakers?" "Never heard that exact term before," admitted Thurloe with a smirk, "but yeah, we're them. Why? You got somebody needs waking?" "Yes, yes we do!" the hooded man exclaimed with relief in his voice. "The head of our temple had heard of your exploits and asked me to find you and bring you back with me. We've had a visitor collapse into sleep and we cannot awaken him." "Which temple is this?" asked Alewyth. She wouldn't be thrilled to find herself entering another Temple of Desdemona anytime soon. "The Temple of Akari," the man replied, leading the way and making sure the others were following. The group had worked with the Temple of Akari back in Port Duralia, where they'd overseen the return to life of a member of the minor nobility. Their leader had been a rather impressive sort: "Father Bones," a walking, talking skeleton of a type they called a "lich," as was perfectly reasonable given Akari was the God of Death and Undeath. He wore a distinctive black top hat as a badge of office. "So what can you tell us about this dreamer?" asked Thurloe as they headed over to the Godswalk, where the majority of the city's shrines and temples were located. "He a regular in your temple?" "No, quite the opposite: he'd come in once or twice in the past week, but before that we hadn't seen him before. And he never came in during the normal services, just sat himself in a pew and prayed quietly to himself." The Akari cleric provided a description of the man, although he was fairly nondescript: light hair, gray eyes, average build, wearing dark clothes and a hooded cloak. When they got to the Temple of Akari the cleric led them straight through the chapel and into the rooms in the back. There was an office area off to the left at the back of the building and sitting behind the larger of the two desks was none other than Father Bones himself. "What are you doing here?" sputtered Alewyth despite herself. "My child, I am the head of this temple," Father Bones replied. Then he realized her confusion. "You have met another Father Bones elsewhere, haven't you?" "In Port Duralia," the dwarven priestess replied. "'Father Bones' is a title bestowed upon the head cleric of the God of Death and Undeath," the skeletal being explained. "Every major temple of Akari will have its own Father Bones. But thank you for coming." He stood up from his desk. "We took the sleeping parishioner downstairs so he'd be out of the way. If you'd like to follow me?" Father Bones led the group through a back door and down a set of winding stairs leading to a level beneath the temple. Wakuren couldn't help himself; while it would have been rude to try to [I]detect evil[/I] in the presence of Father Bones in his office, the half-orc cleric-paladin felt more comfortable doing so when the lich's back was turned. As he'd hoped, there was no telltale taint of evil in the head cleric's aura; Wakuren had heard there were good liches as well as those turned to the ways of evil and was pleased this Father Bones was of the former persuasion. "He's in here," Father Bones said, stepping into the church's morgue. There were four wheeled gurneys in the room, all of them empty. "What?" gasped Father Bones. "Where did he go?" The others piled into the room. "He was there, on that slab," Father Bones said, pointing to the gurney in the far corner. "I saw him myself not half an hour ago!" "Are you certain he was asleep?" asked Zander. "Maybe he just woke up." "He was fast asleep, and we tried everything from [I]remove paralysis[/I] to [I]neutralize poison[/I] to [I]heal[/I] - all with no success." "Where did you first find him?" asked Thurloe. "Upstairs, asleep in one of the pews," replied Father Bones. He turned to the cleric who had brought the "dream-wakers" here to the Temple of Akari. "Go back upstairs and see if anyone saw him back awake - and have the brothers search the temple for him." Turning back to the five adventurers, there was an apologetic tone in his voice - Alewyth got the idea he'd be blushing if he'd had any skin on his skull. "I'm terribly sorry about this," he apologized. "I didn't mean to bring you here for nothing." "Let's look around," suggested Thurloe, looking tellingly at Alewyth and Zander. As a dwarf, Alewyth Putterpye had a preternatural understanding of stone construction and would have a pretty good chance of finding out if the stone walls in the room held any secret passages. And with his keen elven senses, Zander Quilson was also their best bet at discovering any hidden doors in the area - although it was unlikely the room held any hidden passageways unknown to the head of the temple. They found nothing and expanded their search out into the hallway. "Found something," Alewyth called out at the bottom of the spiral steps. "Hidden door?" guessed Thurloe. "Blob of something," Alewyth replied, lifting a dab of something white she'd picked up with her finger. Holding it up close, she grimaced. "It's bat guano!" she complained, wiping it back on the edge of the step where she'd found it. That got Thurloe thinking. "I think bat guano's used in casting the [I]fireball[/I] spell," he said, recalling what he'd read in Mistress Jandoval's beginner's book of spells. "So what are you thinking, that a wizard came in here and stole the sleeping guy?" asked Xandro. "It's possible," Thurloe replied. "It's also possible the wizard has a bat familiar who took a dump on the stairs," added Zander. "That makes more sense than him dropping the spell component to a [I]fireball[/I] spell - which he'd have no need of casting in here." "Nonetheless, it suggests an intruder was present in our temple," said Father Bones. "I will cast a [I]commune[/I] spell and see what I can find out." As the casting time for that spell took a good ten minutes, the others had plenty of time to talk among themselves and come up with ten good questions they wanted answered, ten questions being the limit to Father Bones' spellcasting abilities. During that time, the results of the search throughout the temple came back negative: the missing dreamer was not anywhere within the confines of the building, on either of its two levels. Casting the [I]commune[/I] spell was kind of creepy in any case, Alewyth and Wakuren knew, for during the spellcasting the cleric asked his questions and then another entity took temporary control over his body and answered using his own voice. The creepiness factor only intensified when the caster was already an animated skeleton wearing a black robe and a tall, black top hat with a pair of crossed bones on the silk ribbon along its brim. "Was the sleeper really asleep?" asked Father Bones, reciting the first of his questions. Then he answered himself in a much deeper, booming voice: "YES." Xandro jotted the answer down on a piece of parchment he'd prepared to record the results of the spell interrogation. "Was the sleeper affected by the dream sickness?" Father Bones asked next, as it was possible he'd just been in some other type of heavy sleep from which waking him was difficult. There was a moment's pause, and then the answer, "YES." "Is the missing dreamer currently awake?" Again, there was a moment's pause and then Father Bones answered "NO." Xandro jotted down the answer as the head cleric asked his next question. "Is the missing dreamer within the city of Baron's Haven?" If this had been a simple kidnapping, there was every chance he was still here within the city, given the limited time the kidnapper would have had to work. "NO." Well, that meant there was probably some kind of magic at work - and in a city where unauthorized spellcasting was prohibited. "Is the missing dreamer still on the Material Plane?" If extraplanar travel were at play here, it would be very difficult to track the hapless dreamer. "YES." That made it somewhat easier. "Was the missing dreamer forcibly removed from the Temple of Akari?" This was a logical assumption, but it was always a good idea to confirm one's initial beliefs. "YES." There were four questions remaining to the spell. "Was the missing dreamer taken for nefarious reasons?" Again, it was likely that he had been but it was nice to confirm. "YES." The next question was a follow-on from the third, which had confirmed the dreamer was no longer asleep, and it had particularly importance to Father Bones. "Is the missing dreamer still alive?" Alewyth found herself leaning forward in anticipation of the answer. "YES." Well, that was a relief! "Was the missing dreamer taken by a living being?" If they were up against the undead, that would be worth noting. "YES." For the final question, Father Bones asked, "Did the missing dreamer and the one who took him [I]teleport[/I] out of the temple?" After a pause, he answered in the deeper, foreign voice, "NO." The head cleric's skull slumped in weariness as the spell finished, as if it had taken a toll on him. Xandro read back the questions and answers to the others. "Now what?" asked Alewyth. "Now we go see if anybody in the local area saw anyone walking out of the temple with a sleeping figure over their shoulder," suggested Xandro. It helped that the Temple of Akari had but the sole entrance, leading out onto the Godswalk. And sure enough, they hit pay dirt almost immediately, for across the street sat a homeless man in the shade in the span between two buildings. "Yeah, I seen a guy carrying another guy out of the temple," replied [B]Gilfrey[/B]. "I seen where he took him, too. What's it worth to you?" Zander sighed and pulled out a gold coin. "Uh uh uh," Gilfrey replied, shaking a finger at the elf. "You pay me in coins, I get robbed before I can use 'em. Tell you what: I got a craving for some meat. You go take that coin and buy me a pair of chicken legs, and I'll tell you what I know." "I'll do it," offered Alewyth. Gilfrey gave her directions to a local vendor who sold chicken from a hand cart a few blocks away. When she returned, she had four chicken legs wrapped in a cloth. She handed a pair over to Gilfrey, who gobbled them up as if his life depended on them. And he ate his way down to the bone of each chicken leg, not letting a scrap of edible matter go to waste. Then he wrapped the bones up in a dirty handkerchief and stuffed them in his pocket. "Okay, then," Gilfrey said, his meal completed. He pointed down the street. "The guy took the other guy there into the Shrine of Delphyne. And there ain't but the one way in or out of the shrine and I haven't seen 'em come back out, so they're still in there, far as I can tell." He gave them a quick description of the man who had been carrying the missing dreamer - dark hair and beard, black clothes with silver skull symbols on his shoulders and knees, dark cloak - and then the group was off towards the Shrine of Delphyne, Alewyth lagging behind just long enough to pass over the other two chicken legs. "You've been very helpful," she told Gilfrey. The Shrine of Delphyne was fairly small - square, only about ten feet to a side, but two stories high due to the black marble statue of Delphyne in the back of the building. The Goddess of Magic was on her knees before a [I]magic circle[/I] inscribed on the floor before her, with a staff in one hand. The statue was about 15 feet tall and floating around in the air before her were several [I]driftglobes[/I], providing illumination as they flitted about (out of range of any would-be thieves). The entire shrine was just one big room with a single open doorway providing access, and it was empty. "There's nobody here," said Zander, pointing out the obvious. "Maybe they [I]teleported[/I] away," suggested Xandro. "All we know from the [I]commune[/I] spell is that they didn't [I]teleport[/I] from the Temple of Akari." Wakuren stepped inside the [I]magic circle[/I] to see if it would [I]teleport[/I] him somewhere, with no luck. Perhaps it needed a command word or phrase? "Teleport," he tried. "Delphyne. Magic." He tried another couple of words but quickly realized he was grasping at straws. "Found something!" Alewyth said, examining the back wall of the shrine. "There's a secret passage here - you can see the seam where this wall opens!" However, try as she might she couldn't find the opening mechanism. But after a few moments Zander had found it: a fake brick which hinged open, allowing the secret door mechanism to be activated. The room beyond wasn't very big, though: not even three feet deep, although it spanned the full ten-foot width of the building. It was pitch black inside, save for what light from the temple spilled through the hidden door. Wakuren went in, as he had no difficulties seeing in little (or even no) light. "There's a book on a pedestal at the end of the passageway," he called back to the others. "Pages are made of metal. There's a picture of a statue of Delphyne - just her head and shoulders - and some words carved above them. He flipped through the book, keeping his finger in the place where it had been left open so he wouldn't lose his place. "The whole book's that way," he said. "Different statues, different words on each page." "It's a means of teleportation!" hazarded Alewyth. "Bring the book out here, so we can all look at it!" "I can't," Wakuren explained. "it's chained to the pedestal. Hang on, though, I'll copy the words from the page it was open to." Borrowing parchment and ink pen from Xandro, Wakuren meticulously copied the inscription on the page and brought it back for the others to see. It read: [CENTER][/CENTER] Wakuren tried reading the words aloud (with several different possible pronunciations, just in case) and got nowhere. "Maybe you have to be touching the book when you say the command phrase," Thurloe suggested, so Wakuren tried that but it didn't help. He tried saying the words backwards, but that was even harder to pronounce. "We're missing something," Thurloe observed. "Obviously," added Xandro. "What are we missing?" the fighter-wizard mused. He tried counting the number of letters in each word and then going to that letter in the alphabet, but that ended up with unpronounceable gibberish. "That alphabet's got to be there for a reason," he thought aloud. "Delphyne's the Goddess of Magic," Zander observed. "Maybe we need to apply some magic to the puzzle." He cast a [I]detect magic[/I] spell on Wakuren's hand-written copy and saw nothing, then realized it would make more sense checking out the original book itself. Bringing along a lit sunrod so he could see better, he looked over the open page and called out, "Hey! Some of the letters are just illusions - they're not really on the page at all! Somebody bring me the parchment!" Scribbling through the illusory letters - all of which had been in the alphabet section - the parchment now looked like this: [CENTER][/CENTER] "So..." prompted Thurloe, not seeing how this was any better. "So if we get rid of the illusory letters in the message below," offered Zander, scribbling through the appropriate letters, "We might get the command phrase!" It looked like he was on to something, for the parchment now read: [CENTER][/CENTER] "Let's try that!" Zander said, taking the parchment back into the narrow passageway. It looked plausible, for he knew "appaport" was an archaic word for "teleport" and "ley two seven" sounded like a coordinate on a ley line network. "Appaport desti ley two seven" he called out with his hand on the book chained to the pedestal. Instantly, all five of the heroes disappeared. The hidden door silently slid back into place and locked. To all appearances, nobody had been by to disturb the Shrine of Delphyne. From the heroes' point of view, however, the Shrine of Delphyne disappeared around them, to be replaced by a similar building. This one, despite having the same basic floor plan, was only a single story tall for the statue of Delphyne in the back was merely a bust, depicting the Goddess of Magic from the shoulders up. It was planted in place on a raided pedestal. Alewyth, Xandro, Wakuren and Thurloe were inside the shrine in the same places they had occupied in the shrine in Baron's Haven they'd just departed; Zander, however, was no longer in the hidden space behind the shrine but in the street just outside the open entrance. There was a moaning sound behind him. Looking back, he saw a zombie lurching in his direction, a look of undying hunger in the dead thing's eyes. From the moans emanating all around them, the elven sorcerer guessed this wasn't the only zombie stumbling around in this city of the dead. But it made sense that the necromancer who'd stolen the missing dreamer (for whatever unknown purpose) would make his headquarters in a place surrounded by undead forces. "Guys?" Zander called out to his friends. "We've got a problem...." - - - Since "Dregs" had been a short adventure, I figured we would get this far into the adventure that followed and then call it a session. The reason: the rest of this adventure involves exploring a city of the undead, because not only do they need to hunt down the necromancer and the missing dreamer but also the book of teleport command phrases because this Shrine of Delphyne is missing its copy. (The players don't know this for sure, but the necromancer took it with him and has hidden it somewhere nearby to ensure only he can use the teleport network hidden in select Shrines of Delphyne.) I figure this second part of "The Missing Dreamer" will likely go 4-5 hours. Plus, as this is the last planned 4th-level adventure for this campaign; after we finish the adventure next session we'll follow up by advancing the PCs to 5th level. - - - T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" T-shirt, to represent the undead in the Deadlands - but mostly because I was still wearing it from the last adventure. [/QUOTE]
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