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Dreams of Erthe
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8869902" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 41: FOX ON THE RUN</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 9</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Lady Arabella Vulpina, human aristocrat 2/rogue 9</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 18 December 2022</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The five dreamwalkers were standing in the Corridor of Dreams with their instructor Mogo when another moogle - one they'd never seen before - fluttered up. This one was female and carried a leather satchel slung over one shoulder. "I have a message for you, kupo!" she said.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth took the sealed piece of parchment proffered by the little moogle, broke open the seal, and unfolded it. Then she read the message aloud to the others. It read:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"The Fox is a dreamwalker, like us?" blurted out Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"She is, kupo!" affirmed <strong>Lasciva</strong>, who was hanging around to learn of the dreamwalkers' location on the Mortal Plane.</p><p></p><p>"The Fox is Lady Vulpina, isn't she?" asked Wakuren. "After all, Lady Vulpina helped us out with Teresa Theringold, not 'The Fox.'"</p><p></p><p>"If she wanted you to know her real name, she would have signed the letter with her real name, kupo!" replied Lasciva. "But she needs your help, kupo!"</p><p></p><p>Alewyth turned to the moogle, hovering on her tiny bat wings to keep her head at eye level with the dreamwalkers, and said, "We're on our way to a little village called Ebliston, on the edge of Lake Eblis. We're camped about two hours away, approaching from the west."</p><p></p><p>"Thanks, kupo!" replied Lasciva. "As soon as the Fox falls asleep and enters the Dreamlands, I'll let her know where you'll be waiting for her, kupo! You can expect her to catch up with you at Ebliston as soon as she can, kupo!" And with that, the little moogle spun about and flew back the way she had come.</p><p></p><p>Mogo, slightly irritated at the interruption, got the dreamwalkers back onto the task at hand. "Tonight, we're going to try something different, kupo!" he said. "You've tried altering individual dreamscapes with varied success, but tonight we're going to start trying to change yourselves and how you appear to others in dreams, kupo!" He explained how to perform the maneuver, which ended up being very much like the <em>disguise self</em> spell, and then they spent their dreamtime entering a selection of individual dreams and interacting with the dreamers. Inside the dreams, they took turns making themselves look differently than they normally did, sometimes trying to become duplicates of the dreamer.</p><p></p><p>But the next morning, when they awoke, they hurried to get back on the road, for they had no idea how long it would take the Fox to make it to Ebliston and they wanted to get there in plenty of time to be there for her. The land on the sides of the road started to become swampy, and before too long the road was the only bit of dry land rising up from a full-fledged marsh. The group fell into single file on the narrow strip of land, with Thurloe on Horse in the lead, followed by the mule-wagon ridden by the two half-orcs, then Zander on Eddy, Xandro on White, and Alewyth riding her dire goat Pyrite bringing up the rear. Off to the right, the waters of Lake Eblis came into view. Xandro had his <em>Dardolian lute</em> out, playing a merry tune. Thurloe and Zander had <em>mage armor</em> spells in effect - for the duration of the spell was long enough they habitually cast it upon themselves each morning - and Alewyth likewise had cast a <em>magic vestment</em> spell on herself. They weren't expecting any particular danger, but it never hurt to be prepared.</p><p></p><p>The wisdom of their automatic preparations became clear when, from the lake side of the road, several figures stepped forward from between the overhanging willow trees growing in the shallow waters by the shore. These looked very much like larger-than-normal herons, each taller than a man, with white feathers save for the ends of each wing, all down the chest and long neck, and a crest at the top of the head, all of which were a darker gray shading to black, with a tuft of red feathers at the crown. Four such creatures stepped forth, as well as a fifth such creature composed entirely of bone. From the skeletal eblis erupted a <em>scare</em> spell aimed at the various riding mounts; the leader hoped to get the mules in a panic, so they'd crash the wagon between a pair of large boulders in the road just ahead, where most carts and wagons had to go very slowly to ensure they could fit between the rocks. But the skeletal eblis hadn't counted on the reassuring presence of Wakuren, whose paladin training provided a palpable aura of courage that helped buoy the resolve of his nearby friends and allies. As a result, the <em>scare</em> tactic did nothing but make the riding mounts slightly nervous - as well as announcing the eblis's approach and identify themselves as attempted ambushers.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren cast an <em>air walk</em> spell upon himself and stepped off the side of the wagon into the air to the side of the road and started walking above the surface of the lake, toward the approaching eblises. A casual examination of their auras - for once not prompted by Thurloe - revealed a definite evil bent among the avian foes. "They're evil!" he called back to his friends, and that was all Zander needed to hear; he cast a <em>fireball</em> straight into the center of the eblis formation, slaying three of the five outright, leaving only the skeletal leader and one of its nestmates still standing. Xandro spun his magical lute around and aimed it at the skeletal eblis, blasting him with a <em>sonic burst</em>. The blast hit the skeleton and he jolted when hit, invisible feathers flying from his body and becoming visible as he froze up, stunned. That told the bard several things: despite its skeletal appearance, the eblis leader was quite alive, and his fearsome appearance was likely the work of some illusion magic.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe spun around in the saddle and grabbed up his shortbow. Fitting an arrow into place, he sent it flying at the eblis that <em>didn't</em> look like an animated skeleton - the leader's undead status was still somewhat up in the air as far as Thurloe was concerned, so he was going to aim at a definitely living target that he knew would be affected by his arrow. The arrow struck true, and the squawk of pain erupting from the eblis's throat was a good indicator that he'd dealt it some damage.</p><p></p><p>As Alewyth cast a <em>bless</em> spell on the group, the wounded eblis waded up and attacked Wakuren with its sharp beak. The half-orc deflected the incoming attack with his shield, then brought it around and slammed it into the bird's head, shattering its skull. Zander shot a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the skeletal leader, and he too fell over into the lake water, quite dead. Then the group, which had universally halted their train while fighting off the eponymous eblises which gave the lake (and the town) its name, moved on, Scarlie taking extra care to maneuver the wagon between the two boulders protruding onto the narrow road before continuing on to Ebliston.</p><p></p><p>Arriving in town less than half an hour later, it was apparent that fishing on the lake was how many of the townsfolk made their living. Asking around, they were able to find the name and location of the dream victim for whom they'd come to aid; it was a boy named <strong>Frankie Tusswallop</strong>, whose parents owned a tobacco shop. Heading straight for the shop (for they'd received no word from the moogles through their dreamstones that Lady Arabella Vulpina had yet received their message), they were met by the boy's parents, <strong>Portney</strong> and <strong>Edna Tusswallop</strong>. Portney informed them little Frankie had been asleep now for three and a half weeks, and upon hearing the dreamwalkers believed they should be able to awaken his son, he hung a "CLOSED" sign on the window of his shop, locked the front door, and led the group upstairs.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, as usual, explained to the family what they would be doing as the guys pulled Frankie's bed into the middle of the room and the priestess affixed a leather headband around the boy's head, into which she placed a dreamstone. "What shall we do?" asked Portney.</p><p></p><p>"Just make sure we're not disturbed," answered Thurloe, tying his own headband into place.</p><p></p><p>Zander activated his <em>jade cooshee</em> and set the elven dog onto guard duty as well. "My cooshee will keep you company," the elven sorcerer advised the Tusswallops. Then he joined the others in sitting around Frankie's bed in the lotus position and willing himself to sleep.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, kupo," Mogo greeted them in the Corridor of Dreams. "Here's the dream, kupo." The little moogle opened the door to Frankie Tusswallop's dream and the five dreamwalkers stepped inside.</p><p></p><p>This time, they didn't actually enter the dreamscape scene as if walking onto a stage; they passed through the doorway and were instantly already immersed into the dream. They were sitting on a sofa, a love seat, and a stuffed chair, and Alewyth found herself sitting beside a sleepy-looking Frankie. "I'm supposed to go to bed," he told her, apparently not at all concerned that there were five strangers in the room with him. "But I can't get to my room, because the floor is lava."</p><p></p><p>Looking down at the floor of the room, the heroes could see that it was indeed made of bubbling lava. But as this was a dream, and the dream of a six-year-old boy whose knowledge of how lava worked was rudimentary at best, the floor looked to be covered in a bubbling tomato sauce - had it been actual lava, the heat would likely have already killed them at this distance, to say nothing of burning up the furniture.</p><p></p><p>"Where's your room, honey?" asked Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"Down the hall."</p><p></p><p>"Well, don't you worry - we'll get you to your bedroom and tuck you into bed."</p><p></p><p>"Okay."</p><p></p><p>Zander took the blanket off the back of the sofa and cautiously draped it onto the floor. As expected, it landed and spread out exactly like it would on an ordinary floor made of wood, instead of bursting into flames or sinking into the liquid magma. Hesitantly, he put his weight upon it and found he was perfectly fine. Still hanging onto the corners of the blanket, he walked up to the edge of the blanket where it hit the floor and started walking. "This should work out just fine," he told the others. "Here, hop on board."</p><p></p><p>Xandro, being the closest to Zander, stepped onto the blanket and the two shuffled down the hallway, looking for Frankie's bedroom. It was at the end of the hallway, to the right. Just to be sure there was nothing untoward, they walked the blanket all the way to the bedroom, peeked inside and saw no further dangers, and then turned around and walked back to the room in which they had started.</p><p></p><p>By then, Thurloe had grabbed up two stuffed pillows and was cautiously making his way towards the hallway, stepping on one, setting the other further down the way he was going, crossing over to that pillow, and then picking up the pillow in the rear and repeating the process. Wakuren and Alewyth had each found another blanket and were following the style of movement Zander had demonstrated.</p><p></p><p>"Would you like to hop on my back and I'll carry you piggyback to your room?" Alewyth offered.</p><p></p><p>"Okay," agreed Frankie.</p><p></p><p>Together, the group made their way down the hallway and into Frankie's bedroom, where Alewyth lowered the boy onto his bed and then, still standing on the blanket she'd used as a defense against the "lava floor," tucked the covers up to Frankie's chin. "You don't look a lot like my mom," Frankie confided, "but you look a lot more like her than the others do." Then, giving her a smile, he rolled over and faced the wall. The walls of the dreamscape immediately started melting, which was the indicator that the dream was ending and Frankie was waking up. Each of the five dreamwalkers took that as their cue to wake themselves up from the Dreamlands as well.</p><p></p><p>The Tusswallops were overjoyed when Frankie sat up in his bed and stretched. "Oh, thank you!" gushed Edna. "Portney, go fetch them a reward for waking up Frankie!" The tobacconist went back downstairs and returned with a handful of cigars, which he doled out, one to each of the dreamwalkers. "Portney!" chided Edna upon seeing his proffered reward. "You go right back down those stairs and fetch some money from the safe!"</p><p></p><p>"A reward is not necessary," interjected Alewyth. "Waking others trapped in their dreams is more or less our job." Thurloe cast her an immediate "Are you crazy?" look, but Zander supported the dwarven priestess by saying, "Actually, another of these cigars would be reward enough." Portney, glad to get out of having to fork over any of the money in their safe, hastily complied. Thurloe snorted in disgust - but took the second proffered cigar.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, kupo!" came a familiar voice, seemingly from several places at once: Thurloe's bastard sword, Alewyth's hammer, Xandro's lute, and Wakuren's shield. It was Mogo's voice, being broadcast through the dreamstones attached to their signature items (and would have come from the eyes attached to the statue form of the <em>jade cooshee</em> if the elven dog wasn't currently in full physical canine form at the moment). "Lasciva says the Fox has received your message and will head over to Ebliston immediately, kupo! She says to see if there are any churches or temples there with <em>hallowed</em> grounds, kupo!"</p><p></p><p>Wakuren turned to the Tusswallops, a query in his expression - for the couple had heard Mogo's voice as well.</p><p></p><p>"We've just the one temple, dedicated to Clem, Demigod of Fishing," replied Portney. He gave them directions to the Temple of Clem, which Wakuren repeated for Mogo's benefit. "I'll let Lasciva know, kupo!" the moogle promised before signing off.</p><p></p><p>The group departed the tobacco shop and headed immediately to the Temple of Clem, a building on the shore of Lake Eblis with a three-story lighthouse rising up at the back. There they found the head cleric, <strong>Milo Lagos</strong>, in attendance. There were also three women praying in the chapel for the safe return of their husbands, each of them out on a fishing expedition on the lake. Alewyth explained the situation and Milo convinced the three women to return to their homes and then, at the heroes' urging, went to the safety of his own rooms in the temple, where the <em>hallow</em> effect that permeated the temple would hopefully keep him safe from the assassin devil on the way. With any luck, the devil wouldn't be able to even enter the temple and Lady Vulpina would be able to escape the fiend's constant attacks.</p><p></p><p>Once the cleric had retired to his rooms and the others were opening the double doors at the front of the building, Thurloe turned to Wakuren and asked, "So? Is that Milo guy evil?" He was a firm believer that as Wakuren had the standard paladin's ability to sense evil in others, he should constantly be "checking out" the auras of everyone he met. Wakuren, on the other hand, was a firm believer in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt until they proved to be untrustworthy. It was an ongoing argument between the two, and despite Wakuren's insistence he wasn't going to suspect everyone they met was evil, Thurloe expected him to do just that. Frankly, the half-orc was getting tired of the questioning from the suspicious spellsword.</p><p></p><p>So he pulled back his gauntleted fist and popped Thurloe an unexpected blow to the face. "Hard to tell," he told the surprised swordsman, who was feeling the stream of blood dripping down from his nose. "I'm not evil, but I just punched you in the face." Then he turned his back on the spellsword and started making preparations for the Fox's imminent arrival. Thurloe merely narrowed his eyes and swore to himself this affront would be paid back, in time.</p><p></p><p>"I'm going up to the top of that roof," Zander said, pointing to a building in front of the Temple of Clem. It faced the main street of the village, through which the Fox would likely be speeding on horseback. "It'll give me a good vantage point from which to cast spells at the assassin devil." He headed off to the building to find the best way to scramble up to the rooftop.</p><p></p><p>"I'll be right here," Alewyth replied, standing to one side of the opened doors. The doorway was wide enough Lady Vulpina would be able to ride the horse right into the temple, should she need to. Xandro offered that he'd be over on the other side of the double doors, ready to attack. Thurloe stood in the middle of the doorway, his bastard sword out and ready. Wakuren was about to activate his <em>ring of invisibility</em> when he thought better of it. "You might want to borrow this," he suggested, dropping the ring into Xandro's hand. "It might give you an edge against the devil."</p><p></p><p>"It certainly will!" Xandro agreed, placing the ring on his finger and activating it. Once no longer visible, he stepped further out into the street and off to one side. At least his first attack should take the devil by surprise!</p><p></p><p>In preparation for an imminent battle, Wakuren cast <em>align weapon</em> spells upon <em>Sjondra</em>, <em>Spellslicer</em>, and his own <em>shield of Cal</em>; by temporarily granting them holy properties, he knew the three weapons would be able to bypass some of the magical protections inherent in most devils. Alewyth cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon herself and a <em>prayer</em> spell on the group, while Xandro cast a <em>heroism</em> spell upon Wakuren. Wakuren buffed himself up even further by casting the spells <em>shield of faith</em>, <em>entropic shield</em>, and <em>divine power</em> on himself and his combat gear. And then they waited.</p><p></p><p>"Lady Vulpina ever say how she was getting all the way here from Port Duralia?" Alewyth asked.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Teleporting</em>, I'd imagine," answered Wakuren. "She probably knows about the shrines to Delphyne, and I think there was one in Centralvale. That's not too long a ride from there, especially at top speed on a good horse."</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, it wasn't too long before the sounds of pounding hooves presaged the arrival of Lady Arabella Vulpina, wearing a set of combat leathers and urging her stolen horse to top speed. She had a short sword in one hand and kept it busy trying to deflect the incoming attacks from the assassin devil that kept <em>teleporting</em> to either side of her. The many rents in her armor gave ample evidence that the assassin devil had made it past the noblewoman's defenses on several occasions.</p><p></p><p>From his perch on the nearby rooftop, Zander cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the group (all except for Xandro, who had moved too far forward while invisible and thus was out of range of the spell at the time of its casting). But he did manage to include his still-active cooshee, who was waiting outside the open doors to the temple beside Wakuren, and even Lady Vulpina as she brought her horse racing straight for the temple. Then he looked up and saw something odd: a raven or a crow flying in the Fox's wake, paralleling her trail from behind, off to the right, and several dozen feet higher than its target.</p><p></p><p>As the horse reached the steps of the temple, Wakuren cast a <em>searing light</em> spell at the assassin devil, who was on foot but keeping pace with a series of short-distance <em>dimension door</em> spells. The half-orc frowned when the spell failed to have any effect, the assassin devil's inherent resistance to spell energy causing it to fizzle to nothingness upon impact. Then she was gone - for Wakuren had definitely noted a feminine build to the devil, despite the goatlike build of her legs - having <em>teleported</em> directly at Lady Vulpina in an attempt to pull her from the horse's saddle before she could enter the temple. She missed, and went crashing to the dirt of the street before the temple steps.</p><p></p><p>Xandro was upon her in an instant, popping back into visibility as he charged her, striking her deep in the torso with his <em>frost short sword</em>. Thurloe likewise stepped up and brought his bastard sword crashing down upon her. Zander, in the meantime, was more focused upon the raven, figuring its intense focus upon the Fox likely meant it was no simple bird, but either an imp in disguise of maybe even a wizard's familiar. (He was wrong in that assumption, by the way, for the raven was in fact both an imp and a wizard's familiar.) He blasted it with a <em>magic missile</em> spell which caused it to wobble in the air erratically before it regained its balance, but it confirmed the sorcerer's suspicions, for he knew no common crow could take such a blast and still live.</p><p></p><p>The imp changed its shape as it altered course on a bee-line towards Zander. By the time he reached his target, he was in full imp form, striking at the sorcerer with its scorpionlike tail. So fast was the strike Zander - even with the benefit of the <em>haste</em> spell - had no time to dodge the stab, but at least he managed to overcome the venom's effects.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth had a <em>dismissal</em> spell ready and cast it at the assassin devil, hoping to banish her to whatever Hell she'd been called from. Unfortunately for the dwarven priestess, her spell was no more effective than had been Wakuren's <em>searing light</em> spell, simple bouncing off her spell resistance without harm. But if nothing else, it kept the assassin devil's focus away from Lady Arabella long enough for the noblewoman to scramble off her stolen horse and run up the steps into the temple, while the horse took a right turn and ran off down a side street.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren lifted his shield up over his head and brought its edge crashing down upon the assassin devil - or dogai, as he now recalled they were called. (The name had been bugging him.) He struck her, but then just that fast she was gone again, <em>dimension dooring</em> into the temple beside Lady Arabella (the <em>hallow</em> effect likewise not being powerful enough to bar her entry), bringing her cold iron longsword stabbing at the leather-clad noblewoman. With a cry of pain, Lady Arabella fell to the floor of the temple, bleeding from the deep gash in her side.</p><p></p><p>It was already getting crowded there by the doors to the temple, so Xandro brought out his <em>Dardolian lute</em> and began the initial chords to his song of inspirational courage. Thurloe thundered his way up the steps and brought <em>Spellslicer</em> down at the dogai, intent upon being the one to bring her down. <em>That</em> would teach the upstart half-orc a thing or two about fighting evil!</p><p></p><p>Up on the rooftop, Zander backed away from the flying imp and cast a <em>summon swarm</em> spell. Instantly, a vast cloud of black shapes appeared all around the imp, as bats swooped in, biting at random. The cooshee barked up at the imp from the street below, eager to help his master but unable to gain the rooftop on his own. The imp, now sporting several bleeding wounds from the bats' bites, flew out of the swarm and went straight for Zander again, hitting with his pointed stinger but failing to fully envenom the elf.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth followed the action into the temple, running over to Lady Arabella and casting a <em>cure moderate wounds</em> spell on her. She then pulled her away from the assassin devil. However, now that she outnumbered her attacker, Lady Arabella ran right back into the fray, stabbing at the fiend with her short sword. And it was at that exact moment that an older human wizard <em>teleported</em> into the temple entrance. "Where's my egg, you thieving bitch?" he demanded of Lady Arabella.</p><p></p><p><strong>Columbrando</strong> was not a man to be trifled with. When he discovered the notorious thief known as the Fox in his arcane laboratory, stealing the metal-filigree egg he'd been painstakingly crafting over the past two months, he tried to stop her, but she grabbed it up and made her way out the nearest window before he could stop her. He had put a lot of time and effort into crafting that egg; when it was finished, it was bound for destruction anyway, but when hurled to the ground it would open a permanent <em>planar gate</em> to the Nine Hells, as he'd promised those fiends who had aided him in his mastery of the arcane arts. And so, unable to give chase himself, he did the next best thing: he sent his imp familiar after her, then called up an assassin devil from the Lower Planes to track down the Fox. She'd evaded the devil time and again, but with the aid of his familiar she'd always managed to get back onto her trail soon enough.</p><p></p><p>And now that she'd been cornered in some backwater fishing temple in a podunk little village on a lake, Columbrando was ready to <em>teleport</em> in and take back what was his.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren slammed his <em>shield of Cal</em> into the dogai again, and while it struck true, she managed to wriggle around it and make her way to her designated target, slashing at Lady Arabella with her cold iron longsword, the weapon with which she'd killed innumerable targets before in her eternal life of service to the devils above her in the hierarchy of Hell. Staggering on her feet, Lady Arabella finally gave in. "Okay, I'll let you guys handle her," she admitted, not too proud to know when she was outclassed. She stumbled away into the aisle between the wooden pews in the chapel.</p><p></p><p>Xandro had seen Columbrando <em>teleport</em> in, although the wizard had been focused upon Lady Arabella. Determined not to let the old wizard see him, he reactivated Wakuren's ring and slipped back into invisibility, stopping his lute playing so he could silently make his way over behind Columbrando. Thurloe cast a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell at the dogai, but once again her spell resistance rendered the attack harmless. The spellsword snarled his disgust at fiends and their ability to shrug off spell effects.</p><p></p><p>Up on the rooftop, Zander backed up as far as he could and cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the imp. Unfortunately, it managed to weave beneath the bolt of electrical energy and made it through unscathed. But then the bat swarm had caught back up to it, a great number of individual bats swooping in, biting, and moving on. The imp's wings fluttered feebly and it started to lose altitude, nearly dropping onto the rooftop beside Zander. The elf could see the imp wore some sort of magical amulet around its neck, although what its purpose might be was beyond him. Still, the little fiend seemed to be on his last legs - that was good! It flapped away, veering off in a different direction, away from Zander and away from his master down in the Temple of Clem, apparently trying to flee for its own horrid life.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth gripped <em>Sjondra</em> tightly and brought the dwarven warhammer crashing into the assassin devil, swinging with all of her strength. Behind her in the chapel, Lady Arabella staggered back towards the altar and pulled a healing potion from her belt, finally able to provide herself a bit of healing now that she had a moment without constant attacks by her own personal assassin. But as Alewyth was blocking the entrance to the chapel, Columbrando decided to take her out first so he could get to the Fox. He cast a <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell at the dwarven priestess, and then snarled in irritation when Alewyth failed to transform into a rabbit. <em>Curse all dwarves and their hearty constitutions!</em> he swore to himself.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren moved past Alewyth into the chapel and touched Lady Arabella with his hand, releasing the spell he'd been casting at the same time. Immediately, the noblewoman thief's body dissipated into a fine mist, as the <em>gaseous form</em> spell took effect. Now, as a cloud of vapors, she couldn't be harmed by the assassin devil or the old wizard, so if nothing else he'd bought her the length of time before the spell ran out.</p><p></p><p>Not wasting any time with fury, the assassin devil simply switched targets and attacked Wakuren with her sword, realizing she'd need to take out her target's protectors if she was going to be able to get her when the <em>gaseous form</em> spell ran its course. The half-orc deflected the attack with his shield, while Xandro popped back into visibility when he brought his <em>frost short sword</em> stabbing into the old wizard's back. However, he could feel a lot of resistance tempering his strike, and he realized the old codger must be under the effects of a <em>stoneskin</em> spell. That would certainly expand the length of time it would take to take him down!</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, tired of spells failing him, turned back to his bastard sword and brought it swinging in to the dogai. Alewyth likewise attacked her with <em>Sjondra</em>. Zander, in the meantime, lowered himself down from the rooftop by hanging by his fingertips and then letting go. His cooshee, seeing the imp fly off, went running into the temple, where the action was taking place. Zander hurried to follow at his own best speed, while behind him the imp bled out in midair and went crashing to the street below. The bats went scattering to all corners, returning to their own abodes now that they were no longer needed.</p><p></p><p>Columbrando backed away from his attackers, giving himself enough room to cast a spell without interruption. Since the dwarf had proven to have a healthy constitution, he decided to target the half-orc; casting a <em>flesh to stone</em> spell at Wakuren, he cursed aloud (in the Fiendish tongue, no less) when he saw the half-orc fail to petrify to solid rock. But then Xandro and the cooshee were attacking him, the former with his magic short sword and the latter with his claws and teeth. Finally, Wakuren just leaped forward and grappled the old wizard, getting a good grip on the back of his bald head and slamming his face into the nearest wall.</p><p></p><p>The dogai stabbed at Alewyth with her sword, but the dwarf caught the blade with the business end of her warhammer and deflected the blade away from her. Then Xandro spun in place and sent his own blade deep into the devil's side, while Thurloe delivered the killing blow with his bastard sword. Just like that, the assassin devil crumpled to the floor, her life's blood spilling out onto the temple foyer.</p><p></p><p>Zander entered the temple and tried casting a <em>touch of idiocy</em> spell at Columbrando, but the wizard's body was in motion - back and forth, as Wakuren slammed his face into the temple wall again and again - and his spell failed to connect. Alewyth turned and brought <em>Sjondra</em> to bear against the wizard's back, sure she heard at least a few ribs crack from the force of her blow. In desperation, and unable to escape Wakuren's iron grip, he tried casting a <em>blindness/deafness</em> spell at the half-orc, thinking the sudden loss of sight might make him loosen his grip, but once again his spell had no effect, for Wakuren's mind was now in a blood-red rage and he slammed the wizard's face into the wall over and over again - if the spell would have taken his sight, it's questionable whether he would have even noticed. Eventually, his face now a smashed blob of pain, Comunbrando's spirit left his body and started the long journey to Hell, but Wakuren kept bashing the man's head into the wall until Thurloe finally had to pull him away (nearly resulting in another smash to the face himself, until the half-orc finally mastered his rage and calmed down).</p><p></p><p>Seeing the danger was over, Lady Arabella Vulpina dismissed the <em>gaseous form</em> spell effect and returned to a more physical existence. "Thank you - thank you all," she said, looking at each of her allies. Alewyth went over to her immediately and cast additional healing spells until she was back to the peak of health - although her slashed combat leathers would need the attention of several <em>mending</em> spells, by the look of it. Lady Arabella filled them in on the reason behind the attack and pulled the silver-filigree egg from an extradimensional pouch she wore on her belt. After Wakuren confirmed it was not yet magical - for Columbrando had been unable to finish his arcane project - Alewyth took it from her, laid it upon the floor, and destroyed it beyond recognition with <em>Sjondra</em>.</p><p></p><p>Lady Arabella was rummaging in her pouch again, pulling out bags of diamonds. "A reward for your services," she said, handing them over. "And yes, by now you're all well aware I'm the Fox. I'd appreciate if you kept that bit of knowledge to yourselves."</p><p></p><p>"But you're more than that - you're a dreamwalker, like us!" gushed Xandro. "Are you being trained in the Dreamlands, too?"</p><p></p><p>"To some extent," agreed Lady Arabella. "But I'm a noblewoman of Port Duralia - I can't go traipsing around the continent waking up people stuck in their dreams, like you do."</p><p></p><p>"We all play our parts," offered up Zander, thinking about Garth Mankin, who had showed up to take the five dreamstones they'd had carved per the instructions of the Queen of Dreams and deliver them to where they were needed.</p><p></p><p>"And we've something for you in return," said Alewyth, reaching into her pouch for one of the spare dreamstones they carried - and left on the foreheads of the dreamers they were unable to awaken. It had happened three times thus far: a dwarven miner in Deepshaft, a human bard in Baron's Haven, and a human paladin in Devlinshire. She handed the dreamstone to Lady Arabella. "If you bring this to a gemcutter named Iriadorrista in the city of Baron's Haven, she can attach it to the hilt of your sword."</p><p></p><p>"To what end?" Lady Arabella asked.</p><p></p><p>In response, Alewyth hefted the business end of her dwarven warhammer to her head, bringing one of the two dreamstones she had had attached to either side of the stone hammer-head, near the weapon's shaft. "Can you hear me?" she called out.</p><p></p><p>"Loud and clear, kupo!" came the response from the Dreamlands.</p><p></p><p>The noblewoman's eyebrows raised in astonishment. "Impressive," she admitted.</p><p></p><p>"It will be a way we can communicate back and forth between each other," Alewyth replied. "In case either of us gets into a spot of trouble and needs the assistance of the other, we can communicate through the moogles. They always have someone on duty, and they'll be able to pass on messages as needed."</p><p></p><p>"I can see how that would be a benefit," Lady Arabella agreed. "Very well, I'll do so." She looked around and saw no sign of the horse she'd stolen to try to escape from the assassin devil Columbrando had set on her - it had fled far away while they'd been fighting in the Temple of Clem. "...I don't suppose there's a shrine to Delphyne in this little village?" she hazarded.</p><p></p><p>"This Temple of Clem is all they have here," Thurloe answered.</p><p></p><p>"Hmm. I don't suppose you can give a fellow dreamwalker a ride to the nearest city of decent size? Or to somewhere I might at least rent a horse?"</p><p></p><p>"Not a problem, My Lady," replied Wakuren, back to his old gentle self now that the red rage of battle-lust had once again been extinguished. "You can ride in the wagon with Scarlie and me."</p><p></p><p>"Delightful."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>I was worried the players were going to blow through this adventure in record time, since they took out my eblises without much effort at all, and then Joe turned out to be an "expert" at "the floor is lava" - which I had the players act out, by moving the action from my man-cave where we play over to the family room, where I had everyone sit on the sofa, loveseat, and recliner before explaining to them they all had to return to the man-cave without touching the floor directly. Joe grabbed up a blanket and walked his way to the end of the hall like a pro and then returned to do it again, only this time with Harry on his back, Harry laughing his head off the whole way. (Joe's well over six feet tall, while Harry's just a tad bit under my own 5' 8" and probably weighs less than half of what Joe weighs.) I had envisioned the group making a string of "islands" with pillows and blankets, moving the back "island" to the front by passing it along the group, but the blanket-walking proved to be much quicker. Fortunately, the fight at the end took a lot of time, especially once Columbrando and the imp showed up.</p><p></p><p>As always, I had a series of episodes of "Music from the Hearts of Space" playing in the background on my computer as we went through this session, but I started it off in an appropriate fashion by beginning the playlist with Sweet's "Fox on the Run."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My black Dalek T-shirt with the caption "Exterminate" - since that was exactly what the assassin devil had been set to do to Lady Arabella Vulpina, AKA "the Fox."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8869902, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 41: FOX ON THE RUN[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 9[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Lady Arabella Vulpina, human aristocrat 2/rogue 9[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 18 December 2022 - - - The five dreamwalkers were standing in the Corridor of Dreams with their instructor Mogo when another moogle - one they'd never seen before - fluttered up. This one was female and carried a leather satchel slung over one shoulder. "I have a message for you, kupo!" she said. Alewyth took the sealed piece of parchment proffered by the little moogle, broke open the seal, and unfolded it. Then she read the message aloud to the others. It read: "The Fox is a dreamwalker, like us?" blurted out Xandro. "She is, kupo!" affirmed [B]Lasciva[/B], who was hanging around to learn of the dreamwalkers' location on the Mortal Plane. "The Fox is Lady Vulpina, isn't she?" asked Wakuren. "After all, Lady Vulpina helped us out with Teresa Theringold, not 'The Fox.'" "If she wanted you to know her real name, she would have signed the letter with her real name, kupo!" replied Lasciva. "But she needs your help, kupo!" Alewyth turned to the moogle, hovering on her tiny bat wings to keep her head at eye level with the dreamwalkers, and said, "We're on our way to a little village called Ebliston, on the edge of Lake Eblis. We're camped about two hours away, approaching from the west." "Thanks, kupo!" replied Lasciva. "As soon as the Fox falls asleep and enters the Dreamlands, I'll let her know where you'll be waiting for her, kupo! You can expect her to catch up with you at Ebliston as soon as she can, kupo!" And with that, the little moogle spun about and flew back the way she had come. Mogo, slightly irritated at the interruption, got the dreamwalkers back onto the task at hand. "Tonight, we're going to try something different, kupo!" he said. "You've tried altering individual dreamscapes with varied success, but tonight we're going to start trying to change yourselves and how you appear to others in dreams, kupo!" He explained how to perform the maneuver, which ended up being very much like the [I]disguise self[/I] spell, and then they spent their dreamtime entering a selection of individual dreams and interacting with the dreamers. Inside the dreams, they took turns making themselves look differently than they normally did, sometimes trying to become duplicates of the dreamer. But the next morning, when they awoke, they hurried to get back on the road, for they had no idea how long it would take the Fox to make it to Ebliston and they wanted to get there in plenty of time to be there for her. The land on the sides of the road started to become swampy, and before too long the road was the only bit of dry land rising up from a full-fledged marsh. The group fell into single file on the narrow strip of land, with Thurloe on Horse in the lead, followed by the mule-wagon ridden by the two half-orcs, then Zander on Eddy, Xandro on White, and Alewyth riding her dire goat Pyrite bringing up the rear. Off to the right, the waters of Lake Eblis came into view. Xandro had his [I]Dardolian lute[/I] out, playing a merry tune. Thurloe and Zander had [I]mage armor[/I] spells in effect - for the duration of the spell was long enough they habitually cast it upon themselves each morning - and Alewyth likewise had cast a [I]magic vestment[/I] spell on herself. They weren't expecting any particular danger, but it never hurt to be prepared. The wisdom of their automatic preparations became clear when, from the lake side of the road, several figures stepped forward from between the overhanging willow trees growing in the shallow waters by the shore. These looked very much like larger-than-normal herons, each taller than a man, with white feathers save for the ends of each wing, all down the chest and long neck, and a crest at the top of the head, all of which were a darker gray shading to black, with a tuft of red feathers at the crown. Four such creatures stepped forth, as well as a fifth such creature composed entirely of bone. From the skeletal eblis erupted a [I]scare[/I] spell aimed at the various riding mounts; the leader hoped to get the mules in a panic, so they'd crash the wagon between a pair of large boulders in the road just ahead, where most carts and wagons had to go very slowly to ensure they could fit between the rocks. But the skeletal eblis hadn't counted on the reassuring presence of Wakuren, whose paladin training provided a palpable aura of courage that helped buoy the resolve of his nearby friends and allies. As a result, the [I]scare[/I] tactic did nothing but make the riding mounts slightly nervous - as well as announcing the eblis's approach and identify themselves as attempted ambushers. Wakuren cast an [I]air walk[/I] spell upon himself and stepped off the side of the wagon into the air to the side of the road and started walking above the surface of the lake, toward the approaching eblises. A casual examination of their auras - for once not prompted by Thurloe - revealed a definite evil bent among the avian foes. "They're evil!" he called back to his friends, and that was all Zander needed to hear; he cast a [I]fireball[/I] straight into the center of the eblis formation, slaying three of the five outright, leaving only the skeletal leader and one of its nestmates still standing. Xandro spun his magical lute around and aimed it at the skeletal eblis, blasting him with a [I]sonic burst[/I]. The blast hit the skeleton and he jolted when hit, invisible feathers flying from his body and becoming visible as he froze up, stunned. That told the bard several things: despite its skeletal appearance, the eblis leader was quite alive, and his fearsome appearance was likely the work of some illusion magic. Thurloe spun around in the saddle and grabbed up his shortbow. Fitting an arrow into place, he sent it flying at the eblis that [I]didn't[/I] look like an animated skeleton - the leader's undead status was still somewhat up in the air as far as Thurloe was concerned, so he was going to aim at a definitely living target that he knew would be affected by his arrow. The arrow struck true, and the squawk of pain erupting from the eblis's throat was a good indicator that he'd dealt it some damage. As Alewyth cast a [I]bless[/I] spell on the group, the wounded eblis waded up and attacked Wakuren with its sharp beak. The half-orc deflected the incoming attack with his shield, then brought it around and slammed it into the bird's head, shattering its skull. Zander shot a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the skeletal leader, and he too fell over into the lake water, quite dead. Then the group, which had universally halted their train while fighting off the eponymous eblises which gave the lake (and the town) its name, moved on, Scarlie taking extra care to maneuver the wagon between the two boulders protruding onto the narrow road before continuing on to Ebliston. Arriving in town less than half an hour later, it was apparent that fishing on the lake was how many of the townsfolk made their living. Asking around, they were able to find the name and location of the dream victim for whom they'd come to aid; it was a boy named [B]Frankie Tusswallop[/B], whose parents owned a tobacco shop. Heading straight for the shop (for they'd received no word from the moogles through their dreamstones that Lady Arabella Vulpina had yet received their message), they were met by the boy's parents, [B]Portney[/B] and [B]Edna Tusswallop[/B]. Portney informed them little Frankie had been asleep now for three and a half weeks, and upon hearing the dreamwalkers believed they should be able to awaken his son, he hung a "CLOSED" sign on the window of his shop, locked the front door, and led the group upstairs. Alewyth, as usual, explained to the family what they would be doing as the guys pulled Frankie's bed into the middle of the room and the priestess affixed a leather headband around the boy's head, into which she placed a dreamstone. "What shall we do?" asked Portney. "Just make sure we're not disturbed," answered Thurloe, tying his own headband into place. Zander activated his [I]jade cooshee[/I] and set the elven dog onto guard duty as well. "My cooshee will keep you company," the elven sorcerer advised the Tusswallops. Then he joined the others in sitting around Frankie's bed in the lotus position and willing himself to sleep. "Hey, kupo," Mogo greeted them in the Corridor of Dreams. "Here's the dream, kupo." The little moogle opened the door to Frankie Tusswallop's dream and the five dreamwalkers stepped inside. This time, they didn't actually enter the dreamscape scene as if walking onto a stage; they passed through the doorway and were instantly already immersed into the dream. They were sitting on a sofa, a love seat, and a stuffed chair, and Alewyth found herself sitting beside a sleepy-looking Frankie. "I'm supposed to go to bed," he told her, apparently not at all concerned that there were five strangers in the room with him. "But I can't get to my room, because the floor is lava." Looking down at the floor of the room, the heroes could see that it was indeed made of bubbling lava. But as this was a dream, and the dream of a six-year-old boy whose knowledge of how lava worked was rudimentary at best, the floor looked to be covered in a bubbling tomato sauce - had it been actual lava, the heat would likely have already killed them at this distance, to say nothing of burning up the furniture. "Where's your room, honey?" asked Alewyth. "Down the hall." "Well, don't you worry - we'll get you to your bedroom and tuck you into bed." "Okay." Zander took the blanket off the back of the sofa and cautiously draped it onto the floor. As expected, it landed and spread out exactly like it would on an ordinary floor made of wood, instead of bursting into flames or sinking into the liquid magma. Hesitantly, he put his weight upon it and found he was perfectly fine. Still hanging onto the corners of the blanket, he walked up to the edge of the blanket where it hit the floor and started walking. "This should work out just fine," he told the others. "Here, hop on board." Xandro, being the closest to Zander, stepped onto the blanket and the two shuffled down the hallway, looking for Frankie's bedroom. It was at the end of the hallway, to the right. Just to be sure there was nothing untoward, they walked the blanket all the way to the bedroom, peeked inside and saw no further dangers, and then turned around and walked back to the room in which they had started. By then, Thurloe had grabbed up two stuffed pillows and was cautiously making his way towards the hallway, stepping on one, setting the other further down the way he was going, crossing over to that pillow, and then picking up the pillow in the rear and repeating the process. Wakuren and Alewyth had each found another blanket and were following the style of movement Zander had demonstrated. "Would you like to hop on my back and I'll carry you piggyback to your room?" Alewyth offered. "Okay," agreed Frankie. Together, the group made their way down the hallway and into Frankie's bedroom, where Alewyth lowered the boy onto his bed and then, still standing on the blanket she'd used as a defense against the "lava floor," tucked the covers up to Frankie's chin. "You don't look a lot like my mom," Frankie confided, "but you look a lot more like her than the others do." Then, giving her a smile, he rolled over and faced the wall. The walls of the dreamscape immediately started melting, which was the indicator that the dream was ending and Frankie was waking up. Each of the five dreamwalkers took that as their cue to wake themselves up from the Dreamlands as well. The Tusswallops were overjoyed when Frankie sat up in his bed and stretched. "Oh, thank you!" gushed Edna. "Portney, go fetch them a reward for waking up Frankie!" The tobacconist went back downstairs and returned with a handful of cigars, which he doled out, one to each of the dreamwalkers. "Portney!" chided Edna upon seeing his proffered reward. "You go right back down those stairs and fetch some money from the safe!" "A reward is not necessary," interjected Alewyth. "Waking others trapped in their dreams is more or less our job." Thurloe cast her an immediate "Are you crazy?" look, but Zander supported the dwarven priestess by saying, "Actually, another of these cigars would be reward enough." Portney, glad to get out of having to fork over any of the money in their safe, hastily complied. Thurloe snorted in disgust - but took the second proffered cigar. "Hey, kupo!" came a familiar voice, seemingly from several places at once: Thurloe's bastard sword, Alewyth's hammer, Xandro's lute, and Wakuren's shield. It was Mogo's voice, being broadcast through the dreamstones attached to their signature items (and would have come from the eyes attached to the statue form of the [I]jade cooshee[/I] if the elven dog wasn't currently in full physical canine form at the moment). "Lasciva says the Fox has received your message and will head over to Ebliston immediately, kupo! She says to see if there are any churches or temples there with [I]hallowed[/I] grounds, kupo!" Wakuren turned to the Tusswallops, a query in his expression - for the couple had heard Mogo's voice as well. "We've just the one temple, dedicated to Clem, Demigod of Fishing," replied Portney. He gave them directions to the Temple of Clem, which Wakuren repeated for Mogo's benefit. "I'll let Lasciva know, kupo!" the moogle promised before signing off. The group departed the tobacco shop and headed immediately to the Temple of Clem, a building on the shore of Lake Eblis with a three-story lighthouse rising up at the back. There they found the head cleric, [B]Milo Lagos[/B], in attendance. There were also three women praying in the chapel for the safe return of their husbands, each of them out on a fishing expedition on the lake. Alewyth explained the situation and Milo convinced the three women to return to their homes and then, at the heroes' urging, went to the safety of his own rooms in the temple, where the [I]hallow[/I] effect that permeated the temple would hopefully keep him safe from the assassin devil on the way. With any luck, the devil wouldn't be able to even enter the temple and Lady Vulpina would be able to escape the fiend's constant attacks. Once the cleric had retired to his rooms and the others were opening the double doors at the front of the building, Thurloe turned to Wakuren and asked, "So? Is that Milo guy evil?" He was a firm believer that as Wakuren had the standard paladin's ability to sense evil in others, he should constantly be "checking out" the auras of everyone he met. Wakuren, on the other hand, was a firm believer in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt until they proved to be untrustworthy. It was an ongoing argument between the two, and despite Wakuren's insistence he wasn't going to suspect everyone they met was evil, Thurloe expected him to do just that. Frankly, the half-orc was getting tired of the questioning from the suspicious spellsword. So he pulled back his gauntleted fist and popped Thurloe an unexpected blow to the face. "Hard to tell," he told the surprised swordsman, who was feeling the stream of blood dripping down from his nose. "I'm not evil, but I just punched you in the face." Then he turned his back on the spellsword and started making preparations for the Fox's imminent arrival. Thurloe merely narrowed his eyes and swore to himself this affront would be paid back, in time. "I'm going up to the top of that roof," Zander said, pointing to a building in front of the Temple of Clem. It faced the main street of the village, through which the Fox would likely be speeding on horseback. "It'll give me a good vantage point from which to cast spells at the assassin devil." He headed off to the building to find the best way to scramble up to the rooftop. "I'll be right here," Alewyth replied, standing to one side of the opened doors. The doorway was wide enough Lady Vulpina would be able to ride the horse right into the temple, should she need to. Xandro offered that he'd be over on the other side of the double doors, ready to attack. Thurloe stood in the middle of the doorway, his bastard sword out and ready. Wakuren was about to activate his [I]ring of invisibility[/I] when he thought better of it. "You might want to borrow this," he suggested, dropping the ring into Xandro's hand. "It might give you an edge against the devil." "It certainly will!" Xandro agreed, placing the ring on his finger and activating it. Once no longer visible, he stepped further out into the street and off to one side. At least his first attack should take the devil by surprise! In preparation for an imminent battle, Wakuren cast [I]align weapon[/I] spells upon [I]Sjondra[/I], [I]Spellslicer[/I], and his own [I]shield of Cal[/I]; by temporarily granting them holy properties, he knew the three weapons would be able to bypass some of the magical protections inherent in most devils. Alewyth cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell upon herself and a [I]prayer[/I] spell on the group, while Xandro cast a [I]heroism[/I] spell upon Wakuren. Wakuren buffed himself up even further by casting the spells [I]shield of faith[/I], [I]entropic shield[/I], and [I]divine power[/I] on himself and his combat gear. And then they waited. "Lady Vulpina ever say how she was getting all the way here from Port Duralia?" Alewyth asked. "[I]Teleporting[/I], I'd imagine," answered Wakuren. "She probably knows about the shrines to Delphyne, and I think there was one in Centralvale. That's not too long a ride from there, especially at top speed on a good horse." Sure enough, it wasn't too long before the sounds of pounding hooves presaged the arrival of Lady Arabella Vulpina, wearing a set of combat leathers and urging her stolen horse to top speed. She had a short sword in one hand and kept it busy trying to deflect the incoming attacks from the assassin devil that kept [I]teleporting[/I] to either side of her. The many rents in her armor gave ample evidence that the assassin devil had made it past the noblewoman's defenses on several occasions. From his perch on the nearby rooftop, Zander cast a [I]haste[/I] spell on the group (all except for Xandro, who had moved too far forward while invisible and thus was out of range of the spell at the time of its casting). But he did manage to include his still-active cooshee, who was waiting outside the open doors to the temple beside Wakuren, and even Lady Vulpina as she brought her horse racing straight for the temple. Then he looked up and saw something odd: a raven or a crow flying in the Fox's wake, paralleling her trail from behind, off to the right, and several dozen feet higher than its target. As the horse reached the steps of the temple, Wakuren cast a [I]searing light[/I] spell at the assassin devil, who was on foot but keeping pace with a series of short-distance [I]dimension door[/I] spells. The half-orc frowned when the spell failed to have any effect, the assassin devil's inherent resistance to spell energy causing it to fizzle to nothingness upon impact. Then she was gone - for Wakuren had definitely noted a feminine build to the devil, despite the goatlike build of her legs - having [I]teleported[/I] directly at Lady Vulpina in an attempt to pull her from the horse's saddle before she could enter the temple. She missed, and went crashing to the dirt of the street before the temple steps. Xandro was upon her in an instant, popping back into visibility as he charged her, striking her deep in the torso with his [I]frost short sword[/I]. Thurloe likewise stepped up and brought his bastard sword crashing down upon her. Zander, in the meantime, was more focused upon the raven, figuring its intense focus upon the Fox likely meant it was no simple bird, but either an imp in disguise of maybe even a wizard's familiar. (He was wrong in that assumption, by the way, for the raven was in fact both an imp and a wizard's familiar.) He blasted it with a [I]magic missile[/I] spell which caused it to wobble in the air erratically before it regained its balance, but it confirmed the sorcerer's suspicions, for he knew no common crow could take such a blast and still live. The imp changed its shape as it altered course on a bee-line towards Zander. By the time he reached his target, he was in full imp form, striking at the sorcerer with its scorpionlike tail. So fast was the strike Zander - even with the benefit of the [I]haste[/I] spell - had no time to dodge the stab, but at least he managed to overcome the venom's effects. Alewyth had a [I]dismissal[/I] spell ready and cast it at the assassin devil, hoping to banish her to whatever Hell she'd been called from. Unfortunately for the dwarven priestess, her spell was no more effective than had been Wakuren's [I]searing light[/I] spell, simple bouncing off her spell resistance without harm. But if nothing else, it kept the assassin devil's focus away from Lady Arabella long enough for the noblewoman to scramble off her stolen horse and run up the steps into the temple, while the horse took a right turn and ran off down a side street. Wakuren lifted his shield up over his head and brought its edge crashing down upon the assassin devil - or dogai, as he now recalled they were called. (The name had been bugging him.) He struck her, but then just that fast she was gone again, [I]dimension dooring[/I] into the temple beside Lady Arabella (the [I]hallow[/I] effect likewise not being powerful enough to bar her entry), bringing her cold iron longsword stabbing at the leather-clad noblewoman. With a cry of pain, Lady Arabella fell to the floor of the temple, bleeding from the deep gash in her side. It was already getting crowded there by the doors to the temple, so Xandro brought out his [I]Dardolian lute[/I] and began the initial chords to his song of inspirational courage. Thurloe thundered his way up the steps and brought [I]Spellslicer[/I] down at the dogai, intent upon being the one to bring her down. [I]That[/I] would teach the upstart half-orc a thing or two about fighting evil! Up on the rooftop, Zander backed away from the flying imp and cast a [I]summon swarm[/I] spell. Instantly, a vast cloud of black shapes appeared all around the imp, as bats swooped in, biting at random. The cooshee barked up at the imp from the street below, eager to help his master but unable to gain the rooftop on his own. The imp, now sporting several bleeding wounds from the bats' bites, flew out of the swarm and went straight for Zander again, hitting with his pointed stinger but failing to fully envenom the elf. Alewyth followed the action into the temple, running over to Lady Arabella and casting a [I]cure moderate wounds[/I] spell on her. She then pulled her away from the assassin devil. However, now that she outnumbered her attacker, Lady Arabella ran right back into the fray, stabbing at the fiend with her short sword. And it was at that exact moment that an older human wizard [I]teleported[/I] into the temple entrance. "Where's my egg, you thieving bitch?" he demanded of Lady Arabella. [B]Columbrando[/B] was not a man to be trifled with. When he discovered the notorious thief known as the Fox in his arcane laboratory, stealing the metal-filigree egg he'd been painstakingly crafting over the past two months, he tried to stop her, but she grabbed it up and made her way out the nearest window before he could stop her. He had put a lot of time and effort into crafting that egg; when it was finished, it was bound for destruction anyway, but when hurled to the ground it would open a permanent [I]planar gate[/I] to the Nine Hells, as he'd promised those fiends who had aided him in his mastery of the arcane arts. And so, unable to give chase himself, he did the next best thing: he sent his imp familiar after her, then called up an assassin devil from the Lower Planes to track down the Fox. She'd evaded the devil time and again, but with the aid of his familiar she'd always managed to get back onto her trail soon enough. And now that she'd been cornered in some backwater fishing temple in a podunk little village on a lake, Columbrando was ready to [I]teleport[/I] in and take back what was his. Wakuren slammed his [I]shield of Cal[/I] into the dogai again, and while it struck true, she managed to wriggle around it and make her way to her designated target, slashing at Lady Arabella with her cold iron longsword, the weapon with which she'd killed innumerable targets before in her eternal life of service to the devils above her in the hierarchy of Hell. Staggering on her feet, Lady Arabella finally gave in. "Okay, I'll let you guys handle her," she admitted, not too proud to know when she was outclassed. She stumbled away into the aisle between the wooden pews in the chapel. Xandro had seen Columbrando [I]teleport[/I] in, although the wizard had been focused upon Lady Arabella. Determined not to let the old wizard see him, he reactivated Wakuren's ring and slipped back into invisibility, stopping his lute playing so he could silently make his way over behind Columbrando. Thurloe cast a [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] spell at the dogai, but once again her spell resistance rendered the attack harmless. The spellsword snarled his disgust at fiends and their ability to shrug off spell effects. Up on the rooftop, Zander backed up as far as he could and cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the imp. Unfortunately, it managed to weave beneath the bolt of electrical energy and made it through unscathed. But then the bat swarm had caught back up to it, a great number of individual bats swooping in, biting, and moving on. The imp's wings fluttered feebly and it started to lose altitude, nearly dropping onto the rooftop beside Zander. The elf could see the imp wore some sort of magical amulet around its neck, although what its purpose might be was beyond him. Still, the little fiend seemed to be on his last legs - that was good! It flapped away, veering off in a different direction, away from Zander and away from his master down in the Temple of Clem, apparently trying to flee for its own horrid life. Alewyth gripped [I]Sjondra[/I] tightly and brought the dwarven warhammer crashing into the assassin devil, swinging with all of her strength. Behind her in the chapel, Lady Arabella staggered back towards the altar and pulled a healing potion from her belt, finally able to provide herself a bit of healing now that she had a moment without constant attacks by her own personal assassin. But as Alewyth was blocking the entrance to the chapel, Columbrando decided to take her out first so he could get to the Fox. He cast a [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell at the dwarven priestess, and then snarled in irritation when Alewyth failed to transform into a rabbit. [I]Curse all dwarves and their hearty constitutions![/I] he swore to himself. Wakuren moved past Alewyth into the chapel and touched Lady Arabella with his hand, releasing the spell he'd been casting at the same time. Immediately, the noblewoman thief's body dissipated into a fine mist, as the [I]gaseous form[/I] spell took effect. Now, as a cloud of vapors, she couldn't be harmed by the assassin devil or the old wizard, so if nothing else he'd bought her the length of time before the spell ran out. Not wasting any time with fury, the assassin devil simply switched targets and attacked Wakuren with her sword, realizing she'd need to take out her target's protectors if she was going to be able to get her when the [I]gaseous form[/I] spell ran its course. The half-orc deflected the attack with his shield, while Xandro popped back into visibility when he brought his [I]frost short sword[/I] stabbing into the old wizard's back. However, he could feel a lot of resistance tempering his strike, and he realized the old codger must be under the effects of a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell. That would certainly expand the length of time it would take to take him down! Thurloe, tired of spells failing him, turned back to his bastard sword and brought it swinging in to the dogai. Alewyth likewise attacked her with [I]Sjondra[/I]. Zander, in the meantime, lowered himself down from the rooftop by hanging by his fingertips and then letting go. His cooshee, seeing the imp fly off, went running into the temple, where the action was taking place. Zander hurried to follow at his own best speed, while behind him the imp bled out in midair and went crashing to the street below. The bats went scattering to all corners, returning to their own abodes now that they were no longer needed. Columbrando backed away from his attackers, giving himself enough room to cast a spell without interruption. Since the dwarf had proven to have a healthy constitution, he decided to target the half-orc; casting a [I]flesh to stone[/I] spell at Wakuren, he cursed aloud (in the Fiendish tongue, no less) when he saw the half-orc fail to petrify to solid rock. But then Xandro and the cooshee were attacking him, the former with his magic short sword and the latter with his claws and teeth. Finally, Wakuren just leaped forward and grappled the old wizard, getting a good grip on the back of his bald head and slamming his face into the nearest wall. The dogai stabbed at Alewyth with her sword, but the dwarf caught the blade with the business end of her warhammer and deflected the blade away from her. Then Xandro spun in place and sent his own blade deep into the devil's side, while Thurloe delivered the killing blow with his bastard sword. Just like that, the assassin devil crumpled to the floor, her life's blood spilling out onto the temple foyer. Zander entered the temple and tried casting a [I]touch of idiocy[/I] spell at Columbrando, but the wizard's body was in motion - back and forth, as Wakuren slammed his face into the temple wall again and again - and his spell failed to connect. Alewyth turned and brought [I]Sjondra[/I] to bear against the wizard's back, sure she heard at least a few ribs crack from the force of her blow. In desperation, and unable to escape Wakuren's iron grip, he tried casting a [I]blindness/deafness[/I] spell at the half-orc, thinking the sudden loss of sight might make him loosen his grip, but once again his spell had no effect, for Wakuren's mind was now in a blood-red rage and he slammed the wizard's face into the wall over and over again - if the spell would have taken his sight, it's questionable whether he would have even noticed. Eventually, his face now a smashed blob of pain, Comunbrando's spirit left his body and started the long journey to Hell, but Wakuren kept bashing the man's head into the wall until Thurloe finally had to pull him away (nearly resulting in another smash to the face himself, until the half-orc finally mastered his rage and calmed down). Seeing the danger was over, Lady Arabella Vulpina dismissed the [I]gaseous form[/I] spell effect and returned to a more physical existence. "Thank you - thank you all," she said, looking at each of her allies. Alewyth went over to her immediately and cast additional healing spells until she was back to the peak of health - although her slashed combat leathers would need the attention of several [I]mending[/I] spells, by the look of it. Lady Arabella filled them in on the reason behind the attack and pulled the silver-filigree egg from an extradimensional pouch she wore on her belt. After Wakuren confirmed it was not yet magical - for Columbrando had been unable to finish his arcane project - Alewyth took it from her, laid it upon the floor, and destroyed it beyond recognition with [I]Sjondra[/I]. Lady Arabella was rummaging in her pouch again, pulling out bags of diamonds. "A reward for your services," she said, handing them over. "And yes, by now you're all well aware I'm the Fox. I'd appreciate if you kept that bit of knowledge to yourselves." "But you're more than that - you're a dreamwalker, like us!" gushed Xandro. "Are you being trained in the Dreamlands, too?" "To some extent," agreed Lady Arabella. "But I'm a noblewoman of Port Duralia - I can't go traipsing around the continent waking up people stuck in their dreams, like you do." "We all play our parts," offered up Zander, thinking about Garth Mankin, who had showed up to take the five dreamstones they'd had carved per the instructions of the Queen of Dreams and deliver them to where they were needed. "And we've something for you in return," said Alewyth, reaching into her pouch for one of the spare dreamstones they carried - and left on the foreheads of the dreamers they were unable to awaken. It had happened three times thus far: a dwarven miner in Deepshaft, a human bard in Baron's Haven, and a human paladin in Devlinshire. She handed the dreamstone to Lady Arabella. "If you bring this to a gemcutter named Iriadorrista in the city of Baron's Haven, she can attach it to the hilt of your sword." "To what end?" Lady Arabella asked. In response, Alewyth hefted the business end of her dwarven warhammer to her head, bringing one of the two dreamstones she had had attached to either side of the stone hammer-head, near the weapon's shaft. "Can you hear me?" she called out. "Loud and clear, kupo!" came the response from the Dreamlands. The noblewoman's eyebrows raised in astonishment. "Impressive," she admitted. "It will be a way we can communicate back and forth between each other," Alewyth replied. "In case either of us gets into a spot of trouble and needs the assistance of the other, we can communicate through the moogles. They always have someone on duty, and they'll be able to pass on messages as needed." "I can see how that would be a benefit," Lady Arabella agreed. "Very well, I'll do so." She looked around and saw no sign of the horse she'd stolen to try to escape from the assassin devil Columbrando had set on her - it had fled far away while they'd been fighting in the Temple of Clem. "...I don't suppose there's a shrine to Delphyne in this little village?" she hazarded. "This Temple of Clem is all they have here," Thurloe answered. "Hmm. I don't suppose you can give a fellow dreamwalker a ride to the nearest city of decent size? Or to somewhere I might at least rent a horse?" "Not a problem, My Lady," replied Wakuren, back to his old gentle self now that the red rage of battle-lust had once again been extinguished. "You can ride in the wagon with Scarlie and me." "Delightful." - - - I was worried the players were going to blow through this adventure in record time, since they took out my eblises without much effort at all, and then Joe turned out to be an "expert" at "the floor is lava" - which I had the players act out, by moving the action from my man-cave where we play over to the family room, where I had everyone sit on the sofa, loveseat, and recliner before explaining to them they all had to return to the man-cave without touching the floor directly. Joe grabbed up a blanket and walked his way to the end of the hall like a pro and then returned to do it again, only this time with Harry on his back, Harry laughing his head off the whole way. (Joe's well over six feet tall, while Harry's just a tad bit under my own 5' 8" and probably weighs less than half of what Joe weighs.) I had envisioned the group making a string of "islands" with pillows and blankets, moving the back "island" to the front by passing it along the group, but the blanket-walking proved to be much quicker. Fortunately, the fight at the end took a lot of time, especially once Columbrando and the imp showed up. As always, I had a series of episodes of "Music from the Hearts of Space" playing in the background on my computer as we went through this session, but I started it off in an appropriate fashion by beginning the playlist with Sweet's "Fox on the Run." - - - T-shirt worn: My black Dalek T-shirt with the caption "Exterminate" - since that was exactly what the assassin devil had been set to do to Lady Arabella Vulpina, AKA "the Fox." [/QUOTE]
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