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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9181378" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 62: FOX NEWS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 13</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Lady Arabella Vulpina, human aristocrat 2/rogue 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 28 October 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The moogle approaching the dreamwalkers certainly seemed familiar. It was only when she got close enough to reach into the leather mailbag that hung over one shoulder to pull out a sealed envelope that they realized who she was: Lasciva, Lady Arabella Vulpina's personal dream guide. "Hey, kupo!" she said, handing the envelope over to Thurloe. "Lady Arebella asked me to deliver this, kupo!"</p><p></p><p>The spellsword opened the envelope and read over the short letter inside. "She wants us to call on her at her family's home," he said. Turning back to the hovering moogle, he asked, "Why didn't she just contact us in the Material World? Or come talk to us here directly, in the Dreamlands?"</p><p></p><p>"This way's quicker, and quieter, kupo!" Lasciva announced.</p><p></p><p>"Do you know what she wishes to talk to us about?" asked Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"No idea, kupo!" admitted Lasciva. "Do you have any reply, kupo?"</p><p></p><p>"Tell her we will visit her family's estate tomorrow," Wakuren replied.</p><p></p><p>"Will do, kupo! I'll tell her when I see her - but she keeps some strange hours, kupo!" The dreamwalkers all knew that to be true, for Lady Arabella was also the infamous "Fox," a sneak-thief who preyed upon the well-to-do in Port Duralia and left behind a calling card - the footprint of a fox - to let her victims know exactly who it was who had robbed them. Although it was the middle of the night and the five dreamwalkers were all asleep, there was a good chance the Fox was out performing her secret trade.</p><p></p><p>But the next morning, around 11 bells, the six heroes approached the Vulpina family estate, where a servant answered the door and ushered them inside into a lounge, assuring them Lady Arabella would be with them shortly. And she was, arriving in a few minutes dressed in a fashionable dress - not the leather armor she wore during her nighttime excursions. "Thank you for coming to see me so promptly," she said. "I have news that may be of some interest to you. For the past several months, various aristocrats in Port Duralia have gone missing – disappeared without a trace. This being a particular concern of my noble family, I have done a bit of research – both as my normal self and in my other, more nocturnal identity – and determined the disappearances each occurred shortly after a gala was thrown at the home of <strong>Lord Antonio Hasperton</strong>. As of yet, I have no idea how Lord Hasperton is setting up these disappearances, but in each case the missing nobleman was a business rival, so he stands to gain by their sudden vanishing act."</p><p></p><p>She moved over to a sideboard and fetched a set of glass snifters and a bottle of excellent brandy and brought it over to the low table before her guests. Pouring herself a glass and indicating they all should do the same, she continued, "There's another gala scheduled for tomorrow evening. Fortunately, it's a costume party, fancy dress and elaborate masks, so I should be able to sneak us all in – the Fox has liberated a number of invitations. I'd like you to join me in infiltrating the party and seeing if we can find out what Lord Hasperton's been up to. So, what do you say?"</p><p></p><p>The six heroes looked at each other and nodded to themselves. "We'd be happy to help, My Lady," said Alewyth for the group.</p><p></p><p>"Excellent," replied Lady Arabella. "We'll need to get costumes and masks made for you." She rang a bell and several servants filed in, armed with pins, measuring tapes, and rolls of fabric - the young noblewoman had apparently prepared for their acceptance. The next few hours were spent taking measurements so the Vulpina-employed tailors could get down to work in crafting these last-minute costumes. But not everyone needed such work done on their behalf; Wakuren begged off by dint of having his <em>robe of blending</em> allowing him to alter his appearance; he'd decided to wear his <em>shield of Cal</em> strapped on his back and magically grant his armor and robes to take on the form of a turtle costume. Alewyth, however, went all in, having the tailors make her a robed garment of the type typically worn by friars; she planned to place <em>Sjondra</em>'s haft inside her <em>extradimensional candy dish</em> and put the whole thing into a small wooden coffer, to give herself the appearance of a holy woman carrying coins for her church. Zander had a headpiece with an incorporated mask crafted that had a set of antlers rising up from his brow. When asked who he was supposed to be, the elf answered, "The Nightmare King."</p><p></p><p>"Nobody but us knows who that even is!" pointed out Xandro, who was being fitted out with a nobleman's cape and suit, including polished shoes and knee-high pants worn with leggings underneath. He was the only one of the five dreamwalkers whose major weapon, the rapier <em>Deathwhisper</em>, blended in quite naturally with his aristocratic garb. Thurloe was also wearing aristocratic trappings, but he planned on wearing his armor and bringing along his bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em>. "I'll be a nobleman dressed up like an adventurer," he told the others.</p><p></p><p>"Very original," scoffed Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>Lady Arabella laid out their rules of engagement. "I'll have us brought in by carriage," she explained. "Once inside, we'll spread out and see what we can find, but we'll need to be out of there before midnight - that's when everyone unmasks, and if they find commoners crashing Lord Hasperton's party, you'll be thrown out into the streets - if you aren't promptly jailed for trespassing onto a nobleman's property. And we'll surrender our invitations when we first show up, so if any of you get tossed out, I won't have any easy way to get you back in. So do try not to say anything that will out you as commoners."</p><p></p><p>Everyone immediately looked over at Thurloe. "What?" he protested. "I can behave!"</p><p></p><p>He got his chance to prove his assertions the next evening, when the carriage pulled up to the Hasperton manor and the seven infiltrators got out. They walked boldly to the front door, where they surrendered their stolen invitations and declined to have any of their garments hung up in the cloakroom. "Good luck, Lords and Ladies," Lady Arabella said, smiling under her mask and splitting off to the left. The six heroes split up, each going a different way to see what they could find out.</p><p></p><p>Zander had the easiest time of it; he simply activated the <em>scout headband</em> he wore beneath his mask and temporarily granted himself <em>true seeing</em>. Then he made a quick circuit to all of the rooms being occupied by the party: through the foyer, into the dining room, back out and over to the lounge, into the vast ballroom, and even in the men's room. (He opted to leave the women's room for Alewyth and Robin to check out.) And while he got quite a few "pings" as the <em>true seeing</em> found numerous bits of illusory magic about, it all seemed to be minor glamors embedded in the nobles' costumes and masks. That all seemed harmless to Zander, imagining aristocrats spending a bit of coin to better hide their true appearances, so nobody could tell who they were before the unmasking at midnight. After making his rounds, he passed on his findings to the others as he passed them. His pseudodragon familiar Petey sat perched on is shoulder as normal, but the other guests all seemed to think he'd simply added an excellent touch to his costume, and Petey often sat motionless on his master's shoulder for minutes at a time to give the appearance he was nothing more than a stuffed animal, the work of a talented taxidermist.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe had a dragon of his own, but it was actually a stuffed animal - he brought it so he could claim to be a "dragonslayer," like in the early days of the Devlin empire, when the members of the royal Devlin family rid the continent of Armaturia of dragons - or so the official story went, in any case. The stuffed dragon actually saved his bacon that night, too, for a young aristocratic woman approached him and asked if he'd like to dance. As she was quite good looking, the spellsword instantly agreed, and allowed her to lead him to the ballroom, before realizing with a sinking feeling that he had no idea how to perform the intricate maneuvers being demonstrated out on the dance floor. Fearing his lack of knowledge of these aristocrat dances was going to out him as a partycrasher, he "dropped" his stuffed dragon on the floor and made a scene tripping over it, then pretending to have twisted his ankle. "Curse the luck," he said to his eager dancing partner, a young woman no older than twenty with feathers erupting from all sides of her half-mask, wincing in fake pain as he spoke. "I fear I must beg your forgiveness; another time, perhaps." She merely smiled at his clumsiness and sought out a more stable dancing partner.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth saw a man dressed like a harlequin approach her. "I say!" he said. "Wait a minute, you're a dwarf!" he said in a smug, supercilious manner. "Are you sure you were invited, or are you just some miner's wife looking to mingle with her betters?" He immediately started looking around for the two burly butlers Lord Hasperton had hired as bouncers, eager to see this commoner shown to the door. But the dwarven priestess, knowing full well there were no dwarves among Port Duralia's nobility, had an answer at the ready. "My Lord," she said, smiling, "my appearance as a dwarf is but a part of the magic of my costume. Look me up at midnight, and you can see for yourself."</p><p></p><p>"Really? Ah, well," stuttered the harlequin, somewhat saddened that he hadn't in fact caught a gate-crasher. "Very impressive costume, if I may say so. Where did you get it?"</p><p></p><p>"Ah," smiled Alewyth. "A lady must keep her own secrets." And she gave him a fancy curtsey and went off towards the dining room, leaving the harlequin flustered even further.</p><p></p><p>Xandro likewise had to fend off a conversation with a nobleman likely to expose him as a commoner. "I say, old boy," said a nobleman in a domino mask that matched his black costume, both trimmed in gold. "What do you think of <strong>Gomez</strong>'s chances?" He clearly expected an answer from Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"Fairly good, I should think," replied Xandro, hoping that was a sufficient answer, since he had no idea who this "Gomez" fellow might be.</p><p></p><p>"We'll find out in a couple of days if he's up to the task," added the nobleman. "You putting any money on him?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm giving it serious consideration," lied Xandro. "What about you?"</p><p></p><p>"I should think so! Why, he's from a family of champions: his father made old Hasperton quite a bit of money before he was finally put out to stud." And then Xandro realized they had been talking about Lord Hasperton's race horse, who was apparently scheduled to race in a few days' time. He nodded to the nobleman, excused himself, and went to go refill his wine glass, glad to have extricated himself from the conversation.</p><p></p><p>Zander was likewise trying to find a way to escape an unwanted conversation without making a spectacle of himself: he'd been waylaid by a noblewoman in a tight white dress with a pink feather boa and a feathered half-mask that matched. "I'm rather good at seeing through disguises," she told Zander. "I'll bet I can figure out exactly who you are before midnight. Let's see, you're not <strong>Lord Quimbly</strong> – he'd never shave his beard. You're too short to be <strong>Lord Matterling</strong> and much too tall to be <strong>Lord Tulane</strong>...."</p><p></p><p>Zander decided to see if he could get her to leave. "You know," he interrupted, "I heard tell that a member of the Devlin royal family is in attendance in the ballroom," he said, leaning in conspiratorially.</p><p></p><p>"Really?" gasped the white-and-pink busybody. "I-- well-- excuse me!" And she rushed off to see if she could spot the royalty and deduce if he was still single.</p><p></p><p>But Wakuren's encounter was perhaps the most upsetting. "Do you find this all as tedious as I do?" asked a masked man dressed as a devil, complete with red hons and a tail. Wakuren shrugged noncommittally, which the devil-man apparently took as an affirmation. "I'll tell you what would make this evening worthwhile: if we could each manage to get one of the kitchen staff alone and have our way with them. A couple of them are almost worth the effort," he mentioned casually. "I'd take that short-haired girl with the dark eyes. What do you say? We could each have one of the wait-staff and then depart before the midnight unveiling, so they'll never know who it was under the costumes."</p><p></p><p>"Lead on," suggested Wakuren, then followed as the man in the devil costume made his way to the maid he'd picked out. "You," he said in an imperious tone when he'd reached her as she was refilling snacks at the dining room table. "Come with me." The then led her into the kitchen, from which there was a side door leading outside, used mainly as a servants' entrance and to receive deliveries. The young maid frowned in confusion when he opened the door, leading out to the side gardens with tall privacy hedges, not sure what he might need out there. But rather than explain, he grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her along. Wakuren closed the kitchen door behind him. Then, as the man started loosening his belt and the maid realized what he had in store for her, the half-orc took the <em>shield of Cal</em> from his back and clocked the nobleman a good one over the head, knocking him into instant insensibility. Wakuren dragged the half-clad nobleman - whose pants gathered up around his ankles as the half-orc dragged him along - and dropped him unceremoniously behind a hedge. Then he opened the side door back in and indicated for the maid to go back inside. "Best if you not tell anyone about this," he suggested. "I'll see to it that he gets what he deserves. And by no means <em>ever </em>allow a nobleman to order you to do something you do not wish to do."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, thank you, My Lord!" whimpered the young maid, hurrying back into the kitchen. She returned to her duties and Wakuren, returning his shield to his back, went back to the party.</p><p></p><p>The heroes continued mingling with the nobility in their fancy costumes, but they found nothing of interest in the rooms devoted to the party. Thurloe, however, had determined the library, accessible only through the lounge with the large burning fireplace in the corner, was the only major room along the ground floor that was apparently "off limits," for the wooden door was closed and had remained that way all during the party. Not wanting to hunt down everyone - that would be too suspicious, he felt - Thurloe faced the corner and cast a <em>message</em> spell to Lady Arabella and the other heroes, asking them all to make their way to the lounge. He planned to try to sneak into the room, and figured if they formed a wall of chatting partygoers in front of the door, he could likely sneak in without being seen...and if the door was locked, Xandro and his lockpicking skills would be on hand.</p><p></p><p>The others all started making their way to the lounge, but Lady Arabella was trapped in the dining room, being chatted up by a corpulent Lord dressed in various shades of blue, and etiquette prevented her from leaving before he had finished his latest story, which seemed like it wouldn't end anytime soon.</p><p></p><p>"What's up?" whispered Alewyth sotto voce once she got within earshot of the spellsword. As if in answer, there was a sudden "thunk" sound that came from the other side of the door to the library. Xandro, who happened to be standing nearest to the door, looked around, saw nobody looking in his direction at the moment, and made a split-second decision to go for it. He turned the knob, saw that it opened easily, and stepped inside.</p><p></p><p>The room was lined with bookshelves, as befitted a nobleman's library. In the middle of the room stood a masked figure, standing over another masked figure lying on the floor. But oddly enough, the same two figures - or identical versions of them - were also standing along the north wall, and further to the east stood six robed and hooded figures, each with a necklace from which dangled a black pendant of some sort. That was all Xandro needed to see; he returned to the lounge, closing the door behind him.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth stepped up to him immediately and demanded to hear what he'd seen. He briefed her in a low voice, ensuring nobody else was within earshot. Alewyth then cast a <em>sending</em> spell to Lady Arabella - who still hadn't shown up in the lounge - that they'd likely encountered the next "suspicious disappearance" in progress. Thurloe, who'd overheard Xandro's description, realized combat was imminent and set his stuffed dragon on the mantle above the fireplace, casting a surreptitious <em>protection from evil</em> spell upon himself.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself and strode up to the library door, not worried about trying to be surreptitious if there was a potential life on the line. He swung open the door and stepped inside - and noticed the background noise behind him suddenly stopped as if turned off by a switch as he entered the room. The half-orc realized he had likely just stepped into the confines of a <em>silence</em> spell, but had no way to tell the others behind him. Instead, he pulled his shield from his back and prepared for combat.</p><p></p><p>The people had shuffled about since Xandro had entered the room. Two of the robed cultists had picked up the masked man on the floor and were carrying him to the northeast corner, whereas the man who had been standing over the unconscious victim had scooted himself in the southeastern corner. The other two versions of those two had pulled out longswords and were approaching the half-orc, with the four other robed cultists not too far behind.</p><p></p><p>Robin moved towards the library, unstrapping Xandro's <em>Dardolian Lute</em> from her back; as he'd opted not to take it with him, she had decided to borrow it for the evening as her "costume" was that of a noblewoman bard. She got her hands in position, ready to start playing the song of inspirational courage, but hesitated, knowing that to do so would be to draw attention to the fight about to occur in Lord Hasperton's library.</p><p></p><p>Zander stepped into the library and began casting a <em>wall of force</em> spell to wall off the cultists dragging the victim away, but only realized too late the <em>silence</em> effect Wakuren had been unable to warn him about, and the spell failed to take effect. Fortunately, Petey was on the case, telepathically informing the rest of the group that the library was under a <em>silence</em> effect. <em>They should have cast that spell </em>before <em>they let the body fall to the floor</em>, Thurloe thought to himself.</p><p></p><p>Xandro pulled the new <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> from a pocket and tossed it into the library over Zander's head, calling out the command word as he did so. The statuette hit the library's carpeted floor and then sprang up to a full-sized dire tiger, which sent a massive paw ending in razor-sharp claws digging into the flesh of the nearest cultist. The man dropped at once, his life-blood spilling out of the deep gashes torn through his throat, and he died instantly.</p><p></p><p>The duplicate figures attacked Wakuren with their longswords, but the half-orc managed to keep the <em>shield of Cal</em> up before him, blocking their strikes. Three of the cultists pulled out daggers from their robes and headed his way, the ones closest to the tiger giving him a wary wide berth. The two dragging away the unconscious victim seemed to walk through the northern wall, until Wakuren noticed the bookcase there swiveled open like a door, leading to a set of stairs that descended almost at once. From what he recalled of the layout of the lounge, Wakuren assumed the secret passage went behind the burning fireplace in the other room.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth moved to the corner of the lounge, where she could see through the open library door without entering the other room - or the <em>silence</em> spell's area of effect. She cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell, bringing a sheet of flames falling down from the ceiling onto the three nearest cultists and the two masked men fighting Wakuren. The cultists died instantly; the other two were staggered by the sudden assault but managed to stay on their feet. But then Thurloe stepped inside and brought <em>Spellslicer</em> cutting into one of the men's torsos, dropping him instantly - and, as he hit the carpet, his entire body transferred into a gray-skinned figure that Thurloe recognized instantly as a doppelganger. In a leap of logic, the spellsword surmised the figure in the corner was Lord Hasperton (per Lady Arabella's voiced suspicions), the unconscious figure being dragged away by the cultists was the next victim, and these two doppelgangers were in Lord Hasperton's employ; they'd no doubt have replaced the other two in the party, giving plausible deniability to Lord Hasperton's secret dealings and making it seem as if the victim had left the party alive.</p><p></p><p>By then, Lasy Arabella had disengaged herself from the heavyset boor in the dining room and made it to the lounge, where Alewyth quickly brought her up to speed. She immediately started steering curious guests away from the library door, guiding them towards the dining room at the other end of the manor house. Wakuren assisted by momentarily stepping back out of the library, just long enough to cast an <em>obscuring mist</em> spell that filled the lounge up with a thick, cloying fog. Fearing this might be some kind of attack, the remaining visiting guests cleared out of the lounge, leaving the heroes there to be able to use it as a place by which they could attack into the library with spells. </p><p></p><p>Robin figured it was safe to start playing the song of inspirational courage while hidden inside the covering mists, knowing full well those already inside the <em>silence</em>-filled library would gain no benefit; the magical song would at least aid those in the lounge for a bit after they entered the library and had to fight without any sound at all.</p><p></p><p>But Lord Hasperton had chosen his corner wisely, for it was the one place in the library unaffected by his previously-cast <em>silence</em> spell. Unhampered by an inability to cast spells with verbal components, he freely cast a summoning spell which brought forth three bearded devils into his library, spread out defensively before him. They were inside the field of magical <em>silence</em>, but they needed no verbal instructions on what to do; they all raised their glaives and went for Thurloe - only to find their weapons stopped short of hitting the spellsword, covered as he was in a <em>protection from evil</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Zander exited the library and cast a <em>feeblemind</em> spell at Lord Hasperton through the doorway as soon as he heard ambient background noise once again. Unfortunately, the spell failed to overcome the noble's senses, and he remained unharmed. The dire tiger roared silently and swiped at one of the bearded devils, opening a deep gash along the devil's arm. Then Xandro entered the room, swinging <em>Deathwhisper</em> and slaying the second doppelganger, which reverted to its true form in death. The bearded devils whirled upon the dire tiger, glad to see a foe they could actually contact, but before they could attack the great cat they vanished, sent back to Hell by a <em>banishment</em> spell cast by Alewyth from outside the library.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe charged across the room, bringing down one of the two remaining cultists with a swing of <em>Spellslicer</em>. Wakuren charged back into the library, leading with his shield, with which he bashed Lord Hasperton over the head, trying to knock him senseless without breaking his neck, for he wanted him alive for questioning. The nobleman knew he couldn't very well cast any other spells with this shield fellow in his face, so he whipped a mace from the wall and tried to bean the half-orc, with no success. Then Zander tried again with another <em>feeblemind</em> spell, with no better success.</p><p></p><p>Petey, tired of the man's failure to fall sway to his master's spells, decided to enter the fray on his own account, and flapped across the room, his scorpionlike stinger posed over his head and ready to strike. He caught the nobleman in the side of the neck, but even the pseudodragon's sleep venom failed to drop Lord Hasperton.</p><p></p><p>The last desperate cultist tried fending Thurloe off with his dagger, and then reached into his robes and flung a small viper at the spellsword. But Thurloe cut the serpent - the adept's familiar - in midair with his bastard sword. A second viper crawled out from the robes of the cultist Thurloe had just slain, but Wakuren caught it in the corner of his eye and slammed his shield down upon its neck, slaying it before it could bite him. But it was the dire tiger that took out the last cultist, shredding him to ribbons with teeth and claws.</p><p></p><p>Xandro sprinted across the room and engaged Lord Hasperton, stabbing him with <em>Deathwhisper</em>. Alewyth cast a <em>mass cure light wounds</em> spell into the room, healing up the wounds her friends had taken thus far and reviving the unconscious masked figure, who sat up in confusion and pulled his mask up. Thurloe got a blow in with his bastard sword, and Lord Hasperton toppled over, his wounds overcoming him as his <em>silence</em> spell ran its course. "What's going on here?" demanded <strong>Lord Petrius Cantrelli</strong>, staggering back up to his feet. "Who are you people?" Xandro took it upon himself to offer up the explanations, leaving out Lady Arabella so she wouldn't have to explain how she'd smuggled them into the noble estate. But Lord Cantrelli wasn't concerned about that; he gave his unconscious captor a kick in the side for good measure.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren bent over one of the dead cultists and examined the amulets they wore. "Unholy symbols of <strong>Gareth</strong>, God of Betrayal," he told the others.</p><p></p><p>"A secret cleric of Gareth, eh?" scoffed Lord Cantrelli, looking down at Lord Hasperton, then turning his gaze to the secret passageway leading down below the Hasperton estate. "I'd wager there's proof of his affiliations down there," he suggested. "I'll pay you well to take out whatever allies he has down there, to prevent any more of these kidnappings or whatever!"</p><p></p><p>Petey jabbed Lord Hasperton several times in the neck with his tail-stinger, pumping the cleric full of sleep venom until Zander suspected he'd be out for a half hour or more. Still, Thurloe bound his hands and feet tightly with cords he pulled down from the library's curtains before they decided to head downstairs. Lord Cantrelli and Lady Vulpina agreed to keep the other party-goers out of the library while the heroes went down the secret passageway to check out the lower levels. But first they cast the spells they normally used when preparing for battle, most of which they'd had to do without during the silent fight in the library. Alewyth cast <em>magic circle against evil</em> and <em>stoneskin</em> spells on herself, then cast a <em>bless</em> spell on the group. Wakuren cast both <em>air walk</em> and <em>shield of faith</em> spells on himself, then cast <em>freedom of movement</em> and <em>protection from evil</em> spells on Xandro. In return, Xandro imbued Wakuren, Thurloe, and Alewyth - their toughest front-line combatants - with <em>heroism</em> spells, further boosting their combat prowess. Zander cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself and Petey, then used Thurloe's wand to grant himself the benefits of a <em>shield</em> spell after the spellsword had done the same. Then Xandro led the way down the secret passageway behind the pivoting bookcase.</p><p></p><p>The narrow tunnel turned left twice, leading them underneath the front of the Hasperton estate, into an oval chamber carved into a simple chapel, complete with a statue of Gareth in a niche at the far end, with three rows of wooden pews facing the God of Betrayal. Alewyth walked along the perimeter, her keen dwarven senses finding two places where secret doors had been crafted into the walls, one on either side of the Gareth statue. In each case, the door was pushed forward and then pulled sideways into a recession in the stone wall. Wakuren applied his strength to the door on the right of the statue, revealing a short passageway leading into a wide, natural cavern that was filling up with figures entering from a set of natural stone steps leading even further down into darkness. The front ranks were made up of about ten raggedy figures, human in general size and build, wearing filthy rags, their hair matted and their eyes white and unseeing. These grimlocks had grayish skin and each carried a battleaxe at his side. They sniffed the air and frowned in confusion, apparently picking up scents for which they were not accustomed or had not expected.</p><p></p><p>Behind the grimlocks came three very strange creatures indeed, with torsos carrying a turtlelike carapace and insectoid legs complete with natural spikes growing up from the front of their knees. Where their arms would be grew a pair of boneless tentacles ending in four digits, two fingers ending in eyes on top and a thumb on either side, and centered in each palm was a mouth; the zygodacts otherwise had no discernable heads. And then behind them came a pair of illithids, their octopoid heads sprouting four tentacles each; from their demeanor, they were the leaders of this group, sending their lessers before them while they brought up the rear.</p><p></p><p><You're not the normal greeters. Where's our tribute?> came a thought directly into Wakuren's head, and he realized one of the mind flayers had just opened telepathic communication. He also figured he'd determined exactly what would have happened to Lord Cantrelli if they hadn't burst into the library when they did - and why the disappearing noblemen over the past half a year had never been seen again once they went missing.</p><p></p><p>The two groups faced each other in silence for a moment before Robin's fingers danced across the strings of the <em>Dardolian Lute</em> from the back of the chapel and the song of inspirational courage began to fill the chamber. Zander cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the group as the grimlocks frowned in confusion and gripped their axes, ready to fight if combat erupted.</p><p></p><p>Combat erupted when the dire tiger raced forward and sprang at a grimlock, slaying him instantly with his front claws and his powerful jaws. Xandro raced up beside him, <em>Deathwhisper</em> taking out another grimlock standing right next to the one the dire tiger had slain. Then the mind flayers pushed their way forward past their minions, one making his way down the other short tunnel to the still-closed pocket door while the other got among the grimlocks and sent forth a <em>mind blast</em> into the group of enemies. However, Xandro and Wakuren were both protected from the psionic attack by their abjuration spells and the tiger shrugged off the effects, possibly too far into combat mode for him to even have noticed the attempt to stun him. Alewyth cast a <em>searing light</em> spell at the mind flayer among the grimlocks, the burning ray singeing the illithid's robes and the bruise-colored skin beneath.</p><p></p><p>Then the two westmost zygodacts started chanting arcane syllables - each from both of their hand-mouths - and a pair of <em>fireball</em> spells exploded around the dire tiger, Xandro, Wakuren, and even Thurloe, the later of whom was still outside in the chapel. The other zygodact made its way over by the second illithid, preparing to open the sliding door for his master. But Thurloe got there first and opened it from the other side, surprised to see the oddly-shaped creature before him, but not so surprised he wasn't able to bring <em>Spellslicer</em> swinging to strike it across its carapaced torso.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren cast a <em>thunder strike</em> spell - Cal's version of a <em>flame strike</em> spell, for He held dominion over the air - killing five of the remaining grimlocks outright and visibly hurting the two zygodacts who stood nearby. Then, while Robin continued her magical tune behind him, Zander cast an <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> spell that gripped the same two zygodacts and the three remaining grimlocks and the mind flayer up in their black embrace. Struggle as they might, none of the six figures were able to extricate themselves from the rubbery appendages. Then the dire tiger lashed out with his claws, nearly ripping the octopoid head from the neck of the mind flayer caught up at the edge of the spell's effect, well within reach of the vicious carnivore. The illithid slumped forward in death as the constricting tentacles held it fast.</p><p></p><p>But the writhing appendages were hardly an obstacle to Xandro, at least not with a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell enhancing him. He dashed between the tentacles, slicing <em>Deathwhisper</em> into one helpless zygodact body, cutting their tentacle-necks at the base of the protective carapace and slaying the creature instantly.</p><p></p><p>Over by the eastern door, the remaining mind flayer stepped backwards away from the zygodact and unleashed its <em>mind blast</em>, confident its minion could take the assault but hoping to take out Thurloe. But the spellsword's <em>protection from evil</em> spell was still active and kept him shielded from the <em>stunning</em> effect. Robin had no such protection but managed to avoid any <em>stunning</em> by the strength of her own willpower and the concentration on her song. Zander and Petey were likewise protected as they fell underneath Alewyth's <em>magic circle against evil</em> - the very reason he was staying close to the dwarven priestess in the first place.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth cast a <em>harm</em> spell at the mind flayer, but was saddened to see it shatter against the illithid's inherent resistance to spell energy. As the other zygodact tried without success to free itself from the <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> spell, the other one cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> directly at Thurloe, who grunted in pain and then killed the offending monstrosity with a powerful blow from his bastard sword.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren ran across the chapel and came up behind Thurloe, pushing by the spellsword and advancing upon the mind flayer. Zander cast a <em>dimensional anchor</em> spell on the mind flayer, dimly recalling these things could travel through the planes at will and not wanting him to get away, but his spell also failed to take effect as hoped. But then Xandro raced through the field of waving tentacles and came up behind the mind flayer; stabbing him through the back with his enhanced rapier. The tip stuck out of the illithid's chest, and when Xandro pulled it back out the mind flayer fell to the stone floor, dead.</p><p></p><p>Xandro turned back to the imprisoned grimlocks, aware that he was the only one who could get close enough to them for a physical attack, but the tentacles had already crushed the life from them. That left only the sole remaining zygodact, whose turtlelike shell was making it more difficult for the crushing tentacles to squeeze the life out him, so Xandro waded back into the field and helped the tentacles along. When he emerged again, the zygodact was no longer among the living, and Zander dismissed his spell, watching the tentacles shrink back down into the stone floor, the only traces they'd ever been there being the bloodstains forced out of the bodies of their strangled victims and the corpses that fell where they'd been killed.</p><p></p><p>"How far do you think this passageway goes?" wondered Zander aloud.</p><p></p><p>"All the way down to the Underdark, I'd imagine," guessed Wakuren. "That's where the mind flayers are supposed to live, in any case. They must have had a deal going with Lord Hasperton: he fed them a nobleman every month, in exchange for whatever it was he got out of the deal. Magical training? Telepathic support against his enemies? Who knows?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, we put a stop to all that," said Alewyth, "and this will make sure there's no longer any way for a repeat deal." And with that, she cast a <em>wall of stone</em> spell that completely blocked off the access tunnel to the Underdark, filling it with a dozen or more feet of solid stone. Then the group headed back upstairs to brief Lord Cantrelli and Lady Vulpina what they'd encountered and what they'd done.</p><p></p><p>"I owe you my life!" exclaimed Lord Cantrelli, "and I'll see you all well paid. And I will not rest until Lord Hasperton is exposed for the murderer he is!"</p><p></p><p>The heroes ducked out of the party before the midnight unmasking, but Lord Cantrelli was there to explain the party host's actions - and those that had occurred over the past half year. Lady Arabella Vulpina caught up with them the following day, paying them each a thousand pieces of gold in diamonds for their help, on top of the 20,000 pieces of gold Lord Cantrelli paid them for saving his life and exposing Lord Hasperton for the fraud he was. Lord Hasperton, they were informed, had been detained and would likely spend the rest of his days in a prison cell, the nobility being somewhat squeamish about killing members of their own social rank.</p><p></p><p>"It's probably for the best this way," Lady Arabella opined. "Dead, his plans are stopped but so is his suffering. This way, he gets to spend the rest of his days behind bars among the common prisoners, eating the same crap they get to eat and being treated no better than they are. For a man of his station, that's much worse than death."</p><p></p><p>"Well, thanks for inviting us to the party," said Thurloe. "It turned out to be a lot of fun."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan pointed out that we had managed to get in a costume party on the weekend before Hallowe'en, but that hadn't been a conscious effort on my part - like most of my adventures, it had been written months before and with our schedules, I never know exactly when we're going to play. (We try to hit every second Saturday, but the schedules of the two families involved sometimes causes delays between sessions.)</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, Logan told me after the session was over he wanted Wakuren to go back to the side of the house where he had left the nobleman in the red devil suit, so he could cast a <em>bestow curse</em> on him. The specifc curse was that whenever he tried forcing his way upon unwilling partners in the future he'd experience a bout of crippling nausea, kind of like what Alexander DeLarge had had done to him in "A Clockwork Orange" by undergoing the Ludovigo treatment. It seemed an appropriate punishment, so I handwaved it into having happened.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My blue "DAD: Cleverly Disguised as a Responsible Adult" T-shirt, given the nature of the PCs disguising themselves with their masks and costumes during the ball (although it also fit in nicely with the doppelgangers, for that matter).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9181378, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 62: FOX NEWS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 13 Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 7 Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 6 Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 7 Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 13[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Lady Arabella Vulpina, human aristocrat 2/rogue 9 Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 28 October 2023 - - - The moogle approaching the dreamwalkers certainly seemed familiar. It was only when she got close enough to reach into the leather mailbag that hung over one shoulder to pull out a sealed envelope that they realized who she was: Lasciva, Lady Arabella Vulpina's personal dream guide. "Hey, kupo!" she said, handing the envelope over to Thurloe. "Lady Arebella asked me to deliver this, kupo!" The spellsword opened the envelope and read over the short letter inside. "She wants us to call on her at her family's home," he said. Turning back to the hovering moogle, he asked, "Why didn't she just contact us in the Material World? Or come talk to us here directly, in the Dreamlands?" "This way's quicker, and quieter, kupo!" Lasciva announced. "Do you know what she wishes to talk to us about?" asked Alewyth. "No idea, kupo!" admitted Lasciva. "Do you have any reply, kupo?" "Tell her we will visit her family's estate tomorrow," Wakuren replied. "Will do, kupo! I'll tell her when I see her - but she keeps some strange hours, kupo!" The dreamwalkers all knew that to be true, for Lady Arabella was also the infamous "Fox," a sneak-thief who preyed upon the well-to-do in Port Duralia and left behind a calling card - the footprint of a fox - to let her victims know exactly who it was who had robbed them. Although it was the middle of the night and the five dreamwalkers were all asleep, there was a good chance the Fox was out performing her secret trade. But the next morning, around 11 bells, the six heroes approached the Vulpina family estate, where a servant answered the door and ushered them inside into a lounge, assuring them Lady Arabella would be with them shortly. And she was, arriving in a few minutes dressed in a fashionable dress - not the leather armor she wore during her nighttime excursions. "Thank you for coming to see me so promptly," she said. "I have news that may be of some interest to you. For the past several months, various aristocrats in Port Duralia have gone missing – disappeared without a trace. This being a particular concern of my noble family, I have done a bit of research – both as my normal self and in my other, more nocturnal identity – and determined the disappearances each occurred shortly after a gala was thrown at the home of [b]Lord Antonio Hasperton[/b]. As of yet, I have no idea how Lord Hasperton is setting up these disappearances, but in each case the missing nobleman was a business rival, so he stands to gain by their sudden vanishing act." She moved over to a sideboard and fetched a set of glass snifters and a bottle of excellent brandy and brought it over to the low table before her guests. Pouring herself a glass and indicating they all should do the same, she continued, "There's another gala scheduled for tomorrow evening. Fortunately, it's a costume party, fancy dress and elaborate masks, so I should be able to sneak us all in – the Fox has liberated a number of invitations. I'd like you to join me in infiltrating the party and seeing if we can find out what Lord Hasperton's been up to. So, what do you say?" The six heroes looked at each other and nodded to themselves. "We'd be happy to help, My Lady," said Alewyth for the group. "Excellent," replied Lady Arabella. "We'll need to get costumes and masks made for you." She rang a bell and several servants filed in, armed with pins, measuring tapes, and rolls of fabric - the young noblewoman had apparently prepared for their acceptance. The next few hours were spent taking measurements so the Vulpina-employed tailors could get down to work in crafting these last-minute costumes. But not everyone needed such work done on their behalf; Wakuren begged off by dint of having his [i]robe of blending[/i] allowing him to alter his appearance; he'd decided to wear his [i]shield of Cal[/i] strapped on his back and magically grant his armor and robes to take on the form of a turtle costume. Alewyth, however, went all in, having the tailors make her a robed garment of the type typically worn by friars; she planned to place [i]Sjondra[/i]'s haft inside her [i]extradimensional candy dish[/i] and put the whole thing into a small wooden coffer, to give herself the appearance of a holy woman carrying coins for her church. Zander had a headpiece with an incorporated mask crafted that had a set of antlers rising up from his brow. When asked who he was supposed to be, the elf answered, "The Nightmare King." "Nobody but us knows who that even is!" pointed out Xandro, who was being fitted out with a nobleman's cape and suit, including polished shoes and knee-high pants worn with leggings underneath. He was the only one of the five dreamwalkers whose major weapon, the rapier [i]Deathwhisper[/i], blended in quite naturally with his aristocratic garb. Thurloe was also wearing aristocratic trappings, but he planned on wearing his armor and bringing along his bastard sword [i]Spellslicer[/i]. "I'll be a nobleman dressed up like an adventurer," he told the others. "Very original," scoffed Alewyth. Lady Arabella laid out their rules of engagement. "I'll have us brought in by carriage," she explained. "Once inside, we'll spread out and see what we can find, but we'll need to be out of there before midnight - that's when everyone unmasks, and if they find commoners crashing Lord Hasperton's party, you'll be thrown out into the streets - if you aren't promptly jailed for trespassing onto a nobleman's property. And we'll surrender our invitations when we first show up, so if any of you get tossed out, I won't have any easy way to get you back in. So do try not to say anything that will out you as commoners." Everyone immediately looked over at Thurloe. "What?" he protested. "I can behave!" He got his chance to prove his assertions the next evening, when the carriage pulled up to the Hasperton manor and the seven infiltrators got out. They walked boldly to the front door, where they surrendered their stolen invitations and declined to have any of their garments hung up in the cloakroom. "Good luck, Lords and Ladies," Lady Arabella said, smiling under her mask and splitting off to the left. The six heroes split up, each going a different way to see what they could find out. Zander had the easiest time of it; he simply activated the [i]scout headband[/i] he wore beneath his mask and temporarily granted himself [i]true seeing[/i]. Then he made a quick circuit to all of the rooms being occupied by the party: through the foyer, into the dining room, back out and over to the lounge, into the vast ballroom, and even in the men's room. (He opted to leave the women's room for Alewyth and Robin to check out.) And while he got quite a few "pings" as the [i]true seeing[/i] found numerous bits of illusory magic about, it all seemed to be minor glamors embedded in the nobles' costumes and masks. That all seemed harmless to Zander, imagining aristocrats spending a bit of coin to better hide their true appearances, so nobody could tell who they were before the unmasking at midnight. After making his rounds, he passed on his findings to the others as he passed them. His pseudodragon familiar Petey sat perched on is shoulder as normal, but the other guests all seemed to think he'd simply added an excellent touch to his costume, and Petey often sat motionless on his master's shoulder for minutes at a time to give the appearance he was nothing more than a stuffed animal, the work of a talented taxidermist. Thurloe had a dragon of his own, but it was actually a stuffed animal - he brought it so he could claim to be a "dragonslayer," like in the early days of the Devlin empire, when the members of the royal Devlin family rid the continent of Armaturia of dragons - or so the official story went, in any case. The stuffed dragon actually saved his bacon that night, too, for a young aristocratic woman approached him and asked if he'd like to dance. As she was quite good looking, the spellsword instantly agreed, and allowed her to lead him to the ballroom, before realizing with a sinking feeling that he had no idea how to perform the intricate maneuvers being demonstrated out on the dance floor. Fearing his lack of knowledge of these aristocrat dances was going to out him as a partycrasher, he "dropped" his stuffed dragon on the floor and made a scene tripping over it, then pretending to have twisted his ankle. "Curse the luck," he said to his eager dancing partner, a young woman no older than twenty with feathers erupting from all sides of her half-mask, wincing in fake pain as he spoke. "I fear I must beg your forgiveness; another time, perhaps." She merely smiled at his clumsiness and sought out a more stable dancing partner. Alewyth saw a man dressed like a harlequin approach her. "I say!" he said. "Wait a minute, you're a dwarf!" he said in a smug, supercilious manner. "Are you sure you were invited, or are you just some miner's wife looking to mingle with her betters?" He immediately started looking around for the two burly butlers Lord Hasperton had hired as bouncers, eager to see this commoner shown to the door. But the dwarven priestess, knowing full well there were no dwarves among Port Duralia's nobility, had an answer at the ready. "My Lord," she said, smiling, "my appearance as a dwarf is but a part of the magic of my costume. Look me up at midnight, and you can see for yourself." "Really? Ah, well," stuttered the harlequin, somewhat saddened that he hadn't in fact caught a gate-crasher. "Very impressive costume, if I may say so. Where did you get it?" "Ah," smiled Alewyth. "A lady must keep her own secrets." And she gave him a fancy curtsey and went off towards the dining room, leaving the harlequin flustered even further. Xandro likewise had to fend off a conversation with a nobleman likely to expose him as a commoner. "I say, old boy," said a nobleman in a domino mask that matched his black costume, both trimmed in gold. "What do you think of [b]Gomez[/b]'s chances?" He clearly expected an answer from Xandro. "Fairly good, I should think," replied Xandro, hoping that was a sufficient answer, since he had no idea who this "Gomez" fellow might be. "We'll find out in a couple of days if he's up to the task," added the nobleman. "You putting any money on him?" "I'm giving it serious consideration," lied Xandro. "What about you?" "I should think so! Why, he's from a family of champions: his father made old Hasperton quite a bit of money before he was finally put out to stud." And then Xandro realized they had been talking about Lord Hasperton's race horse, who was apparently scheduled to race in a few days' time. He nodded to the nobleman, excused himself, and went to go refill his wine glass, glad to have extricated himself from the conversation. Zander was likewise trying to find a way to escape an unwanted conversation without making a spectacle of himself: he'd been waylaid by a noblewoman in a tight white dress with a pink feather boa and a feathered half-mask that matched. "I'm rather good at seeing through disguises," she told Zander. "I'll bet I can figure out exactly who you are before midnight. Let's see, you're not [b]Lord Quimbly[/b] – he'd never shave his beard. You're too short to be [b]Lord Matterling[/b] and much too tall to be [b]Lord Tulane[/b]...." Zander decided to see if he could get her to leave. "You know," he interrupted, "I heard tell that a member of the Devlin royal family is in attendance in the ballroom," he said, leaning in conspiratorially. "Really?" gasped the white-and-pink busybody. "I-- well-- excuse me!" And she rushed off to see if she could spot the royalty and deduce if he was still single. But Wakuren's encounter was perhaps the most upsetting. "Do you find this all as tedious as I do?" asked a masked man dressed as a devil, complete with red hons and a tail. Wakuren shrugged noncommittally, which the devil-man apparently took as an affirmation. "I'll tell you what would make this evening worthwhile: if we could each manage to get one of the kitchen staff alone and have our way with them. A couple of them are almost worth the effort," he mentioned casually. "I'd take that short-haired girl with the dark eyes. What do you say? We could each have one of the wait-staff and then depart before the midnight unveiling, so they'll never know who it was under the costumes." "Lead on," suggested Wakuren, then followed as the man in the devil costume made his way to the maid he'd picked out. "You," he said in an imperious tone when he'd reached her as she was refilling snacks at the dining room table. "Come with me." The then led her into the kitchen, from which there was a side door leading outside, used mainly as a servants' entrance and to receive deliveries. The young maid frowned in confusion when he opened the door, leading out to the side gardens with tall privacy hedges, not sure what he might need out there. But rather than explain, he grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her along. Wakuren closed the kitchen door behind him. Then, as the man started loosening his belt and the maid realized what he had in store for her, the half-orc took the [i]shield of Cal[/i] from his back and clocked the nobleman a good one over the head, knocking him into instant insensibility. Wakuren dragged the half-clad nobleman - whose pants gathered up around his ankles as the half-orc dragged him along - and dropped him unceremoniously behind a hedge. Then he opened the side door back in and indicated for the maid to go back inside. "Best if you not tell anyone about this," he suggested. "I'll see to it that he gets what he deserves. And by no means [I]ever [/I]allow a nobleman to order you to do something you do not wish to do." "Oh, thank you, My Lord!" whimpered the young maid, hurrying back into the kitchen. She returned to her duties and Wakuren, returning his shield to his back, went back to the party. The heroes continued mingling with the nobility in their fancy costumes, but they found nothing of interest in the rooms devoted to the party. Thurloe, however, had determined the library, accessible only through the lounge with the large burning fireplace in the corner, was the only major room along the ground floor that was apparently "off limits," for the wooden door was closed and had remained that way all during the party. Not wanting to hunt down everyone - that would be too suspicious, he felt - Thurloe faced the corner and cast a [i]message[/i] spell to Lady Arabella and the other heroes, asking them all to make their way to the lounge. He planned to try to sneak into the room, and figured if they formed a wall of chatting partygoers in front of the door, he could likely sneak in without being seen...and if the door was locked, Xandro and his lockpicking skills would be on hand. The others all started making their way to the lounge, but Lady Arabella was trapped in the dining room, being chatted up by a corpulent Lord dressed in various shades of blue, and etiquette prevented her from leaving before he had finished his latest story, which seemed like it wouldn't end anytime soon. "What's up?" whispered Alewyth sotto voce once she got within earshot of the spellsword. As if in answer, there was a sudden "thunk" sound that came from the other side of the door to the library. Xandro, who happened to be standing nearest to the door, looked around, saw nobody looking in his direction at the moment, and made a split-second decision to go for it. He turned the knob, saw that it opened easily, and stepped inside. The room was lined with bookshelves, as befitted a nobleman's library. In the middle of the room stood a masked figure, standing over another masked figure lying on the floor. But oddly enough, the same two figures - or identical versions of them - were also standing along the north wall, and further to the east stood six robed and hooded figures, each with a necklace from which dangled a black pendant of some sort. That was all Xandro needed to see; he returned to the lounge, closing the door behind him. Alewyth stepped up to him immediately and demanded to hear what he'd seen. He briefed her in a low voice, ensuring nobody else was within earshot. Alewyth then cast a [i]sending[/i] spell to Lady Arabella - who still hadn't shown up in the lounge - that they'd likely encountered the next "suspicious disappearance" in progress. Thurloe, who'd overheard Xandro's description, realized combat was imminent and set his stuffed dragon on the mantle above the fireplace, casting a surreptitious [i]protection from evil[/i] spell upon himself. Wakuren cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell upon himself and strode up to the library door, not worried about trying to be surreptitious if there was a potential life on the line. He swung open the door and stepped inside - and noticed the background noise behind him suddenly stopped as if turned off by a switch as he entered the room. The half-orc realized he had likely just stepped into the confines of a [i]silence[/i] spell, but had no way to tell the others behind him. Instead, he pulled his shield from his back and prepared for combat. The people had shuffled about since Xandro had entered the room. Two of the robed cultists had picked up the masked man on the floor and were carrying him to the northeast corner, whereas the man who had been standing over the unconscious victim had scooted himself in the southeastern corner. The other two versions of those two had pulled out longswords and were approaching the half-orc, with the four other robed cultists not too far behind. Robin moved towards the library, unstrapping Xandro's [i]Dardolian Lute[/i] from her back; as he'd opted not to take it with him, she had decided to borrow it for the evening as her "costume" was that of a noblewoman bard. She got her hands in position, ready to start playing the song of inspirational courage, but hesitated, knowing that to do so would be to draw attention to the fight about to occur in Lord Hasperton's library. Zander stepped into the library and began casting a [i]wall of force[/i] spell to wall off the cultists dragging the victim away, but only realized too late the [i]silence[/i] effect Wakuren had been unable to warn him about, and the spell failed to take effect. Fortunately, Petey was on the case, telepathically informing the rest of the group that the library was under a [i]silence[/i] effect. [i]They should have cast that spell [/i]before [i]they let the body fall to the floor[/i], Thurloe thought to himself. Xandro pulled the new [i]figurine of wondrous power[/i] from a pocket and tossed it into the library over Zander's head, calling out the command word as he did so. The statuette hit the library's carpeted floor and then sprang up to a full-sized dire tiger, which sent a massive paw ending in razor-sharp claws digging into the flesh of the nearest cultist. The man dropped at once, his life-blood spilling out of the deep gashes torn through his throat, and he died instantly. The duplicate figures attacked Wakuren with their longswords, but the half-orc managed to keep the [i]shield of Cal[/i] up before him, blocking their strikes. Three of the cultists pulled out daggers from their robes and headed his way, the ones closest to the tiger giving him a wary wide berth. The two dragging away the unconscious victim seemed to walk through the northern wall, until Wakuren noticed the bookcase there swiveled open like a door, leading to a set of stairs that descended almost at once. From what he recalled of the layout of the lounge, Wakuren assumed the secret passage went behind the burning fireplace in the other room. Alewyth moved to the corner of the lounge, where she could see through the open library door without entering the other room - or the [i]silence[/i] spell's area of effect. She cast a [i]flame strike[/i] spell, bringing a sheet of flames falling down from the ceiling onto the three nearest cultists and the two masked men fighting Wakuren. The cultists died instantly; the other two were staggered by the sudden assault but managed to stay on their feet. But then Thurloe stepped inside and brought [i]Spellslicer[/i] cutting into one of the men's torsos, dropping him instantly - and, as he hit the carpet, his entire body transferred into a gray-skinned figure that Thurloe recognized instantly as a doppelganger. In a leap of logic, the spellsword surmised the figure in the corner was Lord Hasperton (per Lady Arabella's voiced suspicions), the unconscious figure being dragged away by the cultists was the next victim, and these two doppelgangers were in Lord Hasperton's employ; they'd no doubt have replaced the other two in the party, giving plausible deniability to Lord Hasperton's secret dealings and making it seem as if the victim had left the party alive. By then, Lasy Arabella had disengaged herself from the heavyset boor in the dining room and made it to the lounge, where Alewyth quickly brought her up to speed. She immediately started steering curious guests away from the library door, guiding them towards the dining room at the other end of the manor house. Wakuren assisted by momentarily stepping back out of the library, just long enough to cast an [i]obscuring mist[/i] spell that filled the lounge up with a thick, cloying fog. Fearing this might be some kind of attack, the remaining visiting guests cleared out of the lounge, leaving the heroes there to be able to use it as a place by which they could attack into the library with spells. Robin figured it was safe to start playing the song of inspirational courage while hidden inside the covering mists, knowing full well those already inside the [i]silence[/i]-filled library would gain no benefit; the magical song would at least aid those in the lounge for a bit after they entered the library and had to fight without any sound at all. But Lord Hasperton had chosen his corner wisely, for it was the one place in the library unaffected by his previously-cast [i]silence[/i] spell. Unhampered by an inability to cast spells with verbal components, he freely cast a summoning spell which brought forth three bearded devils into his library, spread out defensively before him. They were inside the field of magical [i]silence[/i], but they needed no verbal instructions on what to do; they all raised their glaives and went for Thurloe - only to find their weapons stopped short of hitting the spellsword, covered as he was in a [i]protection from evil[/i] spell. Zander exited the library and cast a [i]feeblemind[/i] spell at Lord Hasperton through the doorway as soon as he heard ambient background noise once again. Unfortunately, the spell failed to overcome the noble's senses, and he remained unharmed. The dire tiger roared silently and swiped at one of the bearded devils, opening a deep gash along the devil's arm. Then Xandro entered the room, swinging [i]Deathwhisper[/i] and slaying the second doppelganger, which reverted to its true form in death. The bearded devils whirled upon the dire tiger, glad to see a foe they could actually contact, but before they could attack the great cat they vanished, sent back to Hell by a [i]banishment[/i] spell cast by Alewyth from outside the library. Thurloe charged across the room, bringing down one of the two remaining cultists with a swing of [i]Spellslicer[/i]. Wakuren charged back into the library, leading with his shield, with which he bashed Lord Hasperton over the head, trying to knock him senseless without breaking his neck, for he wanted him alive for questioning. The nobleman knew he couldn't very well cast any other spells with this shield fellow in his face, so he whipped a mace from the wall and tried to bean the half-orc, with no success. Then Zander tried again with another [i]feeblemind[/i] spell, with no better success. Petey, tired of the man's failure to fall sway to his master's spells, decided to enter the fray on his own account, and flapped across the room, his scorpionlike stinger posed over his head and ready to strike. He caught the nobleman in the side of the neck, but even the pseudodragon's sleep venom failed to drop Lord Hasperton. The last desperate cultist tried fending Thurloe off with his dagger, and then reached into his robes and flung a small viper at the spellsword. But Thurloe cut the serpent - the adept's familiar - in midair with his bastard sword. A second viper crawled out from the robes of the cultist Thurloe had just slain, but Wakuren caught it in the corner of his eye and slammed his shield down upon its neck, slaying it before it could bite him. But it was the dire tiger that took out the last cultist, shredding him to ribbons with teeth and claws. Xandro sprinted across the room and engaged Lord Hasperton, stabbing him with [i]Deathwhisper[/i]. Alewyth cast a [i]mass cure light wounds[/i] spell into the room, healing up the wounds her friends had taken thus far and reviving the unconscious masked figure, who sat up in confusion and pulled his mask up. Thurloe got a blow in with his bastard sword, and Lord Hasperton toppled over, his wounds overcoming him as his [i]silence[/i] spell ran its course. "What's going on here?" demanded [b]Lord Petrius Cantrelli[/b], staggering back up to his feet. "Who are you people?" Xandro took it upon himself to offer up the explanations, leaving out Lady Arabella so she wouldn't have to explain how she'd smuggled them into the noble estate. But Lord Cantrelli wasn't concerned about that; he gave his unconscious captor a kick in the side for good measure. Wakuren bent over one of the dead cultists and examined the amulets they wore. "Unholy symbols of [b]Gareth[/b], God of Betrayal," he told the others. "A secret cleric of Gareth, eh?" scoffed Lord Cantrelli, looking down at Lord Hasperton, then turning his gaze to the secret passageway leading down below the Hasperton estate. "I'd wager there's proof of his affiliations down there," he suggested. "I'll pay you well to take out whatever allies he has down there, to prevent any more of these kidnappings or whatever!" Petey jabbed Lord Hasperton several times in the neck with his tail-stinger, pumping the cleric full of sleep venom until Zander suspected he'd be out for a half hour or more. Still, Thurloe bound his hands and feet tightly with cords he pulled down from the library's curtains before they decided to head downstairs. Lord Cantrelli and Lady Vulpina agreed to keep the other party-goers out of the library while the heroes went down the secret passageway to check out the lower levels. But first they cast the spells they normally used when preparing for battle, most of which they'd had to do without during the silent fight in the library. Alewyth cast [i]magic circle against evil[/i] and [i]stoneskin[/i] spells on herself, then cast a [i]bless[/i] spell on the group. Wakuren cast both [i]air walk[/i] and [i]shield of faith[/i] spells on himself, then cast [i]freedom of movement[/i] and [i]protection from evil[/i] spells on Xandro. In return, Xandro imbued Wakuren, Thurloe, and Alewyth - their toughest front-line combatants - with [i]heroism[/i] spells, further boosting their combat prowess. Zander cast a [i]mage armor[/i] spell upon himself and Petey, then used Thurloe's wand to grant himself the benefits of a [i]shield[/i] spell after the spellsword had done the same. Then Xandro led the way down the secret passageway behind the pivoting bookcase. The narrow tunnel turned left twice, leading them underneath the front of the Hasperton estate, into an oval chamber carved into a simple chapel, complete with a statue of Gareth in a niche at the far end, with three rows of wooden pews facing the God of Betrayal. Alewyth walked along the perimeter, her keen dwarven senses finding two places where secret doors had been crafted into the walls, one on either side of the Gareth statue. In each case, the door was pushed forward and then pulled sideways into a recession in the stone wall. Wakuren applied his strength to the door on the right of the statue, revealing a short passageway leading into a wide, natural cavern that was filling up with figures entering from a set of natural stone steps leading even further down into darkness. The front ranks were made up of about ten raggedy figures, human in general size and build, wearing filthy rags, their hair matted and their eyes white and unseeing. These grimlocks had grayish skin and each carried a battleaxe at his side. They sniffed the air and frowned in confusion, apparently picking up scents for which they were not accustomed or had not expected. Behind the grimlocks came three very strange creatures indeed, with torsos carrying a turtlelike carapace and insectoid legs complete with natural spikes growing up from the front of their knees. Where their arms would be grew a pair of boneless tentacles ending in four digits, two fingers ending in eyes on top and a thumb on either side, and centered in each palm was a mouth; the zygodacts otherwise had no discernable heads. And then behind them came a pair of illithids, their octopoid heads sprouting four tentacles each; from their demeanor, they were the leaders of this group, sending their lessers before them while they brought up the rear. <You're not the normal greeters. Where's our tribute?> came a thought directly into Wakuren's head, and he realized one of the mind flayers had just opened telepathic communication. He also figured he'd determined exactly what would have happened to Lord Cantrelli if they hadn't burst into the library when they did - and why the disappearing noblemen over the past half a year had never been seen again once they went missing. The two groups faced each other in silence for a moment before Robin's fingers danced across the strings of the [i]Dardolian Lute[/i] from the back of the chapel and the song of inspirational courage began to fill the chamber. Zander cast a [i]haste[/i] spell on the group as the grimlocks frowned in confusion and gripped their axes, ready to fight if combat erupted. Combat erupted when the dire tiger raced forward and sprang at a grimlock, slaying him instantly with his front claws and his powerful jaws. Xandro raced up beside him, [i]Deathwhisper[/i] taking out another grimlock standing right next to the one the dire tiger had slain. Then the mind flayers pushed their way forward past their minions, one making his way down the other short tunnel to the still-closed pocket door while the other got among the grimlocks and sent forth a [i]mind blast[/i] into the group of enemies. However, Xandro and Wakuren were both protected from the psionic attack by their abjuration spells and the tiger shrugged off the effects, possibly too far into combat mode for him to even have noticed the attempt to stun him. Alewyth cast a [i]searing light[/i] spell at the mind flayer among the grimlocks, the burning ray singeing the illithid's robes and the bruise-colored skin beneath. Then the two westmost zygodacts started chanting arcane syllables - each from both of their hand-mouths - and a pair of [i]fireball[/i] spells exploded around the dire tiger, Xandro, Wakuren, and even Thurloe, the later of whom was still outside in the chapel. The other zygodact made its way over by the second illithid, preparing to open the sliding door for his master. But Thurloe got there first and opened it from the other side, surprised to see the oddly-shaped creature before him, but not so surprised he wasn't able to bring [i]Spellslicer[/i] swinging to strike it across its carapaced torso. Wakuren cast a [i]thunder strike[/i] spell - Cal's version of a [i]flame strike[/i] spell, for He held dominion over the air - killing five of the remaining grimlocks outright and visibly hurting the two zygodacts who stood nearby. Then, while Robin continued her magical tune behind him, Zander cast an [i]Elobar's black tentacles[/i] spell that gripped the same two zygodacts and the three remaining grimlocks and the mind flayer up in their black embrace. Struggle as they might, none of the six figures were able to extricate themselves from the rubbery appendages. Then the dire tiger lashed out with his claws, nearly ripping the octopoid head from the neck of the mind flayer caught up at the edge of the spell's effect, well within reach of the vicious carnivore. The illithid slumped forward in death as the constricting tentacles held it fast. But the writhing appendages were hardly an obstacle to Xandro, at least not with a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell enhancing him. He dashed between the tentacles, slicing [i]Deathwhisper[/i] into one helpless zygodact body, cutting their tentacle-necks at the base of the protective carapace and slaying the creature instantly. Over by the eastern door, the remaining mind flayer stepped backwards away from the zygodact and unleashed its [i]mind blast[/i], confident its minion could take the assault but hoping to take out Thurloe. But the spellsword's [i]protection from evil[/i] spell was still active and kept him shielded from the [i]stunning[/i] effect. Robin had no such protection but managed to avoid any [i]stunning[/i] by the strength of her own willpower and the concentration on her song. Zander and Petey were likewise protected as they fell underneath Alewyth's [i]magic circle against evil[/i] - the very reason he was staying close to the dwarven priestess in the first place. Alewyth cast a [i]harm[/i] spell at the mind flayer, but was saddened to see it shatter against the illithid's inherent resistance to spell energy. As the other zygodact tried without success to free itself from the [i]Elobar's black tentacles[/i] spell, the other one cast a [i]lightning bolt[/i] directly at Thurloe, who grunted in pain and then killed the offending monstrosity with a powerful blow from his bastard sword. Wakuren ran across the chapel and came up behind Thurloe, pushing by the spellsword and advancing upon the mind flayer. Zander cast a [i]dimensional anchor[/i] spell on the mind flayer, dimly recalling these things could travel through the planes at will and not wanting him to get away, but his spell also failed to take effect as hoped. But then Xandro raced through the field of waving tentacles and came up behind the mind flayer; stabbing him through the back with his enhanced rapier. The tip stuck out of the illithid's chest, and when Xandro pulled it back out the mind flayer fell to the stone floor, dead. Xandro turned back to the imprisoned grimlocks, aware that he was the only one who could get close enough to them for a physical attack, but the tentacles had already crushed the life from them. That left only the sole remaining zygodact, whose turtlelike shell was making it more difficult for the crushing tentacles to squeeze the life out him, so Xandro waded back into the field and helped the tentacles along. When he emerged again, the zygodact was no longer among the living, and Zander dismissed his spell, watching the tentacles shrink back down into the stone floor, the only traces they'd ever been there being the bloodstains forced out of the bodies of their strangled victims and the corpses that fell where they'd been killed. "How far do you think this passageway goes?" wondered Zander aloud. "All the way down to the Underdark, I'd imagine," guessed Wakuren. "That's where the mind flayers are supposed to live, in any case. They must have had a deal going with Lord Hasperton: he fed them a nobleman every month, in exchange for whatever it was he got out of the deal. Magical training? Telepathic support against his enemies? Who knows?" "Well, we put a stop to all that," said Alewyth, "and this will make sure there's no longer any way for a repeat deal." And with that, she cast a [i]wall of stone[/i] spell that completely blocked off the access tunnel to the Underdark, filling it with a dozen or more feet of solid stone. Then the group headed back upstairs to brief Lord Cantrelli and Lady Vulpina what they'd encountered and what they'd done. "I owe you my life!" exclaimed Lord Cantrelli, "and I'll see you all well paid. And I will not rest until Lord Hasperton is exposed for the murderer he is!" The heroes ducked out of the party before the midnight unmasking, but Lord Cantrelli was there to explain the party host's actions - and those that had occurred over the past half year. Lady Arabella Vulpina caught up with them the following day, paying them each a thousand pieces of gold in diamonds for their help, on top of the 20,000 pieces of gold Lord Cantrelli paid them for saving his life and exposing Lord Hasperton for the fraud he was. Lord Hasperton, they were informed, had been detained and would likely spend the rest of his days in a prison cell, the nobility being somewhat squeamish about killing members of their own social rank. "It's probably for the best this way," Lady Arabella opined. "Dead, his plans are stopped but so is his suffering. This way, he gets to spend the rest of his days behind bars among the common prisoners, eating the same crap they get to eat and being treated no better than they are. For a man of his station, that's much worse than death." "Well, thanks for inviting us to the party," said Thurloe. "It turned out to be a lot of fun." - - - Logan pointed out that we had managed to get in a costume party on the weekend before Hallowe'en, but that hadn't been a conscious effort on my part - like most of my adventures, it had been written months before and with our schedules, I never know exactly when we're going to play. (We try to hit every second Saturday, but the schedules of the two families involved sometimes causes delays between sessions.) Incidentally, Logan told me after the session was over he wanted Wakuren to go back to the side of the house where he had left the nobleman in the red devil suit, so he could cast a [i]bestow curse[/i] on him. The specifc curse was that whenever he tried forcing his way upon unwilling partners in the future he'd experience a bout of crippling nausea, kind of like what Alexander DeLarge had had done to him in "A Clockwork Orange" by undergoing the Ludovigo treatment. It seemed an appropriate punishment, so I handwaved it into having happened. - - - T-shirt worn: My blue "DAD: Cleverly Disguised as a Responsible Adult" T-shirt, given the nature of the PCs disguising themselves with their masks and costumes during the ball (although it also fit in nicely with the doppelgangers, for that matter). [/QUOTE]
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