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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9297411" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 70: THE BRIDE OF KAPOONA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 14</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 16 March 2024</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The day began like any other now that the heroes were on the continent of Talonia: Alewyth and Wakuren cast their <em>endure elements</em> spells on those who depended upon them to remain comfortable in the jungle environment, and then the dwarf cast the <em>heroes' feast</em> spell that invigorated all who partook of it - namely, the six visitors from Armaturia, Beetle Darkcloud, their halfling guide, and Petey, Zander's pseudodragon familiar who had a particular taste for the sweet fruits and pastries. Beetle realized he'd probably end up putting on a few pounds if he were going to start each day off with such a feast, but considered it a fringe benefit of escorting this many people across the continent to the Forbidden Lands, a trip he'd personally prefer not to be making. But a promise was a promise, and so not long after the sun was up the group was on its way, Wakuren's bonehead mount once again abandoned in place of the half-orc's air element warhorse; Persistance (<em>What a strange name for a bonehead</em>, thought Beetle!) tied by his bridle to the saddle of Robin's own mount.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren rode directly above Beetle, who rode on his own mount Yellow-Belly, leaving the halfling guide quite glad the cloud-steed had no need for normal biological functions. But from his elevated vantage point, Wakuren was able to see potential threats from much farther away than he would be able to otherwise. Case in point: the team was traveling through fields of tall grasses, and up ahead and to the left lay the downed corpse of a tyrannosaurus. Surrounding it were a dozen or more man-sized birds, each with sharp beaks that tore at the dead dinosaur's flesh and swallowed it down. Wakuren brought Nimbus down near to ground level so he could quietly warn the others of the impending threat.</p><p></p><p>Without thinking about what she was doing, Robin pulled the lute from her back and started strumming the initial chords of the song of inspirational courage - so much for trying to sneak by the herd of axebeaks! But the five or so birds on this side of the dinosaur's corpse turned at the strange sound of the bard's music, ready to defend their prey from any who would challenge them for it. Seeing the inevitability of combat, Xandro cast a <em>heroism</em> spell and channeled it into Alewyth by touching her shoulder as she rode her bonehead Lapis beside him. Alewyth nodded her thanks and urged Lapis forward, casting a <em>magic vestment</em> spell upon herself as she did so. Beetle spurred Yellow-Belly to the back of the group's formation, the leader of the group when scouting forth but more than happy to stay in the back once combat began.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe used his <em>wand of shield</em> to fortify his own defenses and then passed it over to Zander so the elf could do the same. Wakuren and Nimbus rose back up about 30 feet into the air and approached the avian herd. Testing a theory, he cast a <em>cause fear</em> spell upon one of the closest axebeaks, wondering whether if he could get it to flee, the others might mindlessly follow. But his experiment met with little success, for although he easily broke his target's will, sending it racing away at full speed, the other axebeaks were not so quick to abandon their meal. There were four axebeaks heading over towards the dinosaur carcass, and they turned to watch their fleeing herd-member run by, but then they resumed their original course.</p><p></p><p>That suited Zander just fine, as he enjoyed watching the effects of a <em>prismatic spray</em> spell on large groups of foes. Riding his bonehead Pachy forward, he spread his arms wide and intoned the words of the spell, sending a rainbow of colors spreading out before him. The spell blinded the five axebeaks in front of the dead tyrannosaur and several of those behind it, and the secondary effects caused one to go insane, another to disappear through a sudden rift to another plane of existence, one to drop dead of a virulent poison that coated its body, one to get electrocuted to death, and another to be momentarily covered in a gout of flames that burned it almost to death. The spell, Zander smiled to himself, never ceased to amuse him.</p><p></p><p>Petey suddenly flew off from his master's shoulder and stabbed at the blinded axebeak whose feathers had been momentarily set ablaze. The pseudodragon's stinger penetrated past the seared feathers along the bird's neck, injecting the sleep poison common to his draconic race. The axebeak staggered for a moment and then fell over, deeply asleep. Petey landed on its sleeping form and savagely bit through its throat, rising up afterwards with a draconic smirk on his face (and no small amount of blood), as if he'd slain the axebeak entirely on his own. Zander smiled and let Petey have his moment of victory; it was well-earned.</p><p></p><p>The strains of Robin's song of courage still flowed from back where she and Beetle sat upon their respective mounts, as Xander spurred his own bonehead mount Ceph forward, his magic rapier <em>Deathwhisper</em> out and stabbing into a blinded axebeak's body, dropping it instantly. Thurloe, not wanting to be outdone, opted to do the same, charging and slaying another axebeak with his bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em>. Alewyth cast a <em>sound burst</em> spell into the midst of about five of the upright raptors, wounding them but failing to bring any of them down.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren had Nimbus land in a clear space behind the axebeaks, but then happened to look over at a nearby stone carving rising up from the fields of grasses and noted the other eight or so axebeaks who had been resting in the shade of the great statue of some primitive god. That changed things: he had Nimbus quickly rise straight back up to a height of 30 feet, well out of the range of any of the avians' attacks. He cast a <em>shield of faith</em> upon himself for good measure, though.</p><p></p><p>Three of the axebeaks moving up to join the feast instead opted to go attack Thurloe on his bonehead Boney. The spellsword fended off the snapping beasts with his bastard sword. But the eight that had been resting in the shade all got to their feet, five of them heading over towards Thurloe and the other three taking the other way around the stone carving, headed more toward Zander and Pachy.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast an <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> spell that caused dozens, if not scores, of ebony appendages to rise up among the swaying grasses, entangling the axebeaks in the area of effect. Xandro managed to slay another of the blinded avians, stabbing it into the side with his blade. Alewyth summoned forth a celestial bison to intercede with the three headed towards Zander, and that's when Wakuren, whose paladin senses told him none of these axebeaks were of an evil nature, had enough of the pointless bloodshed. "Let's go around!" he called out to the others, leading the way from 30 feet in the air. At Beetle's recommendation, they took the time to collect one of the slain axebeaks - they tasted delicious, according to the halfling - and shunt it inside the extradimensional space of <em>Hesperna's lamp</em>, where Alewyth stowed it in the chest the night hag had kept in her dwelling that shrunk creatures to a fraction of their size. It would be fine there until she could pray for a <em>gentle repose</em> spell to keep it from decomposing too quickly. Then the group took a long detour around the tyrannosaur carcass, and Zander dismissed his gripping tentacles before they crushed the life out of the axebeaks they had been entangling. The group went on their way, Beetle once again in the lead on Yellow-Belly, headed west.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the day was relatively uneventful up until nearly twilight, when they heard the sound of a gong ringing, three times in a row. Looking over to their right, where a ridge of low mountains or tall hills had cut them off from the path Beetle had originally planned to take before they'd been diverted over many miles by the army ant swarms, they saw a wooden wall of vertical tree trunks cutting off a section of land surrounded by near-vertical stone cliffs; a waterfall fell from the tall hill in the back. As they watched, the massive doors in the middle of this wall, each door a good 20 feet wide and a bit more than that tall, were pulled inwards, until they were perpendicular to the rest of the palisade wall. They stopped when they met up with a stone building, the structure which housed the gong they had just heard sounding thrice. Up on top of the wall, the doors, and the stone building stood dozens of gray-skinned orcs, and down at the middle of the stone building, tied at her wrists by vines attached to sturdy poles set into the stone at her sides, stood a drow woman, struggling to free herself amid the hoots and hollers of the orcs.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren called down to his friends from his air element steed, pointing over at the orc enclave some 500 feet away. "We've got to go save her!" he cried.</p><p></p><p>"We've 'got' to do no such thing!" countered Beetle. "This has nothing to do with us, and what are you going to do, attack an entire orc army, just the six of you? Be sensible!" He doubted his words would have any effect - he'd known this group long enough to realize they were easily distracted from their overall goal, to get to the Forbidden Lands - but he held out hope that one of these days these foreigners would listen to reason.</p><p></p><p>Sadly, today was not that day. Robin immediately began playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute as four other boneheads were turned toward the orc structure and kicked into full speed. Wakuren, riding on Nimbus above them, went even faster than those stuck with ground travel.</p><p></p><p>Xandro, realizing it would take a bit of time to cross the distance, cast a <em>heroism</em> spell upon himself as Ceph ran forward at top speed. Alewyth recast a <em>magic vestment</em> spell upon herself, the one she'd cast that morning having long since expired. Thurloe used up another charge from his <em>wand of shield</em> for the same reason, but was far enough away from Zander that he couldn't hand it over to the elf for him to use it as well. Wakuren, traveling much faster than the others and quickly pulling far ahead, was the first to see a large hole in the ground about 200 feet away from the open doors to the orc fortress; apparently whatever had been summoned by the gong to come devour the struggling drow woman lived down there. The half-orc cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself, just in case.</p><p></p><p>And just then, the inhabitant of the hole in the ground made himself known. Crawling slowly out of his subterranean dwelling, a massive lizard, covered in golden-yellow scales banded in a darker brown, scuttled forth, dragging his massive body forward in halting spurts of action. At his presence, a great cry came up from the orc ranks: "Kapoona! Kapoona! Kapoona!" The drow captive, looking in fear at the beast intended to devour her, struggled all the more fiercely against her bonds, but to no avail - she was bound too tightly.</p><p></p><p>Xandro, Thurloe, Alewyth, and Zander spurred their mounts on, and the dwarven priestess realized she was within range to give a <em>hold monster</em> spell a shot. Casting the spell, she was relieved to see the massive lizard's body freeze up, one foreleg raised to take a step forward. So the spell worked! That would give them a few moments' respite, although there was no telling how long the spell would stay in effect, as the victim's mind would immediately try to fight the spell energy and allow the creature to move freely of its own volition once more.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe got tired of being so far behind Wakuren and Nimbus and activated the <em>fly</em> property of his <em>celestial armor</em>, leaping from his bonehead's saddle and darting forward in a horizontal leap, pulling away from Boney, who kept forward at his normal pace just to be close to the other dinosaurs with which he had grown up.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren was now close enough to the giant banded lizard to check out its aura for any tell-tale signs of evil; as expected, he found none - this was just a mindless lizard, no doubt trained by the orcs to respond to the gong for some free food. Still, he wasn't about to let the drow woman be devoured; he was too far away from her to be able to read her aura, but even if she were evil to the core it wasn't right for an intelligent being to be fed to a hungry animal for the entertainment of a band of orcs. He saw that the lizard - apparently named <strong>Kapoona</strong>, judging by what the orc were chanting - had frozen in mid-stride, but he decided to try foisting a <em>bestow curse</em> spell upon it as well. Reaching down from Nimbus's broad back, he touched the yellowish scales and set off his spell, but it felt as if the spell failed to have any effect. He'd have to see whether his curse of indecisiveness would have any effect if and when Kapoona freed himself from the effects of Alewyth's <em>hold monster</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Now the cries of "Kapoona!" broke off, as the orcs saw strangers attacking their tribal god. Calling out orders to his tribe, <strong>Durdok</strong> watched as his eight strongest barbarians and a pair of warriors went scrambling down the ladders along each side of the wall, the barbarians sprinting over to the ankylosaur pen and the warriors running to close the right-side door so the armored dinosaurs could get past and outside; right now, the doors were configured such that Kapoona couldn't enter the compound once he'd devoured his current bride.</p><p></p><p>Zander estimated he was still out of range of the orc wall, so he held the spell he wished to cast at the ready, not wanting to waste it by casting it prematurely. Plus, he wanted to wait until after Wakuren had attacked them; if the half-orc, with his paladin senses, attacked the orcs it was a fair guess he'd found them to be of an evil bent. This whole situation - setting up a drow woman (and a rather scantily-clad one at that, the elf couldn't help but notice) to be eaten by a giant lizard certainly <em>seemed</em> like something an evil orc tribe would do, but you never knew: maybe the drow was some famed killer or something and this was their method of capital punishment. Talonia was certainly different than the Armaturia he'd grown up in!</p><p></p><p>Robin's song of inspirational courage could still be heard as the heroes got closer to the wall, but it was starting to be a strain to hear the full tune as the winds shifted. Xandro finally got Ceph close enough to charge right by Kapoona's side, allowing the rogue to stab <em>Deathwhisper</em> deep into the lizard's side as he rode by. Alewyth cast another spell at it, hoping to end the fight once and for all with a <em>slay living</em> spell, but the magic failed to take its full effect; apparently the great beast's body was much tougher than its mind, which made perfect sense after the fact, Alewyth decided. Thurloe made do with a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell, siphoning off a small portion of Kapoona's strength for if and when he finally got to enter battle himself.</p><p></p><p>Nimbus continued his comet-streaking trail to the orc wall, a rolling mass of thunderclouds in the shape of a horse. Sitting astride him, Wakuren was now able to sense evil emanating from all along the top of the wall - there was no longer any doubt about it, these orcs were evil to the core! Without any feelings of guilt whatsoever, the cleric/paladin of Cal cast a <em>thunder strike</em> spell that killed several orcs from atop the wall, sending them falling back inside the fortress or just collapsing where they stood up at the top. Several of the orcs tossed javelins his way, but at that range he was in little danger of any of them hitting.</p><p></p><p>However, Zander had watched the half-orc's attack and saw that as his go ahead to cast the spell he'd had on temporary hold. Arcane syllables spilling from his lips, he sent a <em>chain lightning</em> spell flying from his fingertips to strike an orc along the gate door slowly being swung back closed, slaying that orc instantly and arcing off to kill - or at least badly singe - close to a dozen others.</p><p></p><p>Lapis pulled up shortly as Kapoona suddenly returned to mobility, his lizard brain finally fighting off the <em>hold monster</em> spell. He snapped his great jaws at Alewyth and her mount, but they managed to dart back out of the way just in time. Xandro was there on the lizard's other side, stabbing it again with <em>Deathwhisper</em> as it focused its attention on Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>But Alewyth pulled Lapis far out of range of the slow-moving banded lizard and set her on a course towards the orc fortress. Seeing the one gate door now closed and the head of an ankylosaurus approaching from around the corner, her first instinct was to cast a <em>wall of stone</em> spell to cover the gate doors...but she realized the spell required the wall to be attached to pre-existing stone, and the fortress's walls were crafted of tree trunks. However, she could see quite well that the building behind the struggling drow captive was crafted of stone, so she cast her spell anyway, creating not a wall so much as a ramp, the width of the opening caused by the left gate being perpendicular to the rest of the wall. This prevented the ankylosaur from getting out (she didn't realize it at the time, but the orcs had eight such dinosaurs they rode out into battle, not just the one) and also stopped the left gate from being able to be closed. The end result was the orcish cavalry was now trapped inside their fortress, leaving their tribal god Kapoona to deal with his attackers on his own.</p><p></p><p>And he wasn't faring too well on that front. Zander cast a <em>prismatic spray</em> spell at him, coating him in a virulent poison, but the lizard was tough enough that it didn't have too much of an effect. It snapped ineffectively at Zander and his bonehead, but moved too slowly to catch either in his maw. Xandro stabbed at it again, his blade sinking deep, and Alewyth spun Lapis back around to focus on attacking the lizard, swinging <em>Sjondra</em> into his side in a strike that had to have broken a rib or two. Thurloe even cast a <em>shout</em> spell at Kapoona in passing, and while it only did a smaller amount of damage than normal it was still yet another attack that was slowly cutting the tribal god down to size.</p><p></p><p>As Thurloe turned from Kapoona and flew closer to the orc rampart, Wakuren and Nimbus were already there, dipping underneath the ramp to help the drow captive. Upon seeing the half-orc and his air element warhorse, her eyes opened wide in terror and she let out a scream. "Nia! Nia Mourta!" she cried, tugging frantically at the vines binding her wrists. Thinking she was afraid of his orcish heritage, Wakuren used the powers of his <em>robe of blending</em> to take on the appearance of a drow male, but <strong>Ilyraena</strong> was looking in fear not at him but at Nimbus - not only had she never seen a horse, she'd never seen <em>any</em> creature made up of cloud-stuff, and to her this was some sort of scaleless lizard: a zombie, in other words, and the rider therefore a manifestation of Death. Not speaking a shared language, Wakuren tried calming her with his tone if not his words, and then realized his desire not to wield weapons meant he had no way to cut the vines binding her. Instead, he was forced to untie the knots, which was made all the more difficult by how hard she'd been trying to free her wrists, which had only tightened them that much harder. But he finally got her free, grabbed her around the waist, and said the phrase that shunted the two of them inside <em>Hesperna's lamp</em>. (This, naturally, was an additional cause for fright to Ilyraena, unaccustomed as she was to extradimensional travel.) But Wakuren raised his empty hands to show her everything was going to be okay, then said the phrase that returned him back to the Material Plane, where he scooped up the lamp and leaped back onto Nimbus's back.</p><p></p><p>Nimbus had been partially protected by the stone ramp overhead, but he'd been subjected to javelin throws by the orc rangers up on the one wall who could still see him. Nimbus rose straight up, allowing the orc barbarian riding the closest ankylosaur and the orcs up on the wall above to get in some attacks with their weapons as they passed, but Wakuren was able to block most of them with his shield. But in rising up, he caught sight of three separate cages in the back of the fortress beside the ankylosaurus pen, and in each of these cages stood a male drow - they'd need to get rescued as well, for while the half-orc sensed waves of evil coming from the auras of the assembled orcs, he detected none from these drow.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast an <em>enervation</em> spell at Kapoona that all but drained the life out of the lizard; it was surely on its last legs now. It spun and made an awkward attack at Xandro, but once again it was too slow to connect. Ceph raced far enough away from Kapoona's mouth to not be in much danger, and then Xandro leaned over and stabbed the lizard again with his rapier. Alewyth and Thurloe, seeing the giant banded lizard wasn't long for this world, turned to head over to the orc fortress to see if they could be of more use there. The spellsword cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell that took out a few orcs still on the open gate, while the dwarven priestess cast a <em>tongues</em> spell so she could speak with what remained of the orc army. But they found Nimbus heading the other way; Wakuren used the bottom edge of his <em>shield of Cal</em> to bash in the top of Kapoona's skull, and the tribal god collapsed there where he stood, his tail still down the sloping passageway up from his hole.</p><p></p><p>Naturally, this had quite a demoralizing effect upon the remaining orcs - it's never a good thing to see your god slain in front of you. Alewyth, calling up to them in their own language, demanded the immediate cessation of any attacks, telling them they would be allowed to live. "However," Alewyth added as Wakuren flew Nimbus into the fortress to free the three imprisoned drow men, "you are to cease all ritual sacrifices, from this day forth. If you take up this practice again after we let you live, we will return to slay every member of your wretched tribe. Am I understood!"</p><p></p><p>It turns out she was understood only all too well, and after Wakuren had the three drow men safely inside <em>Hesperna's lamp</em> with Ilyraena and had returned to Nimbus's back, the heroes returned to Beetle and Robin, so they could continue on for several miles before making camp for the night. As they left earshot of the fortress, the only sounds they could hear was the squabbling among the barbarians about who among them would be the new leader, for Durdok had been slain by Zander's <em>chain lightning</em> spell after just having barely survived Wakuren's <em>thunder strike</em> spell. </p><p></p><p>Beetle was just glad these strangers had all made it out of there in one piece. He shook his head in amazement; if he got them all to the Forbidden Lands in one piece it would be a miracle!</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>I made up the section of fortress wall - complete with working gates - and the stone building with the gong on it, all out of thick craft paper. The outer surface of the wall and gates had a layer of craft paper onto which I had printed parallel logs, which I cut to points at the top, so from the exterior the players all got a pretty accurate picture of what their PCs were seeing. It's nice to be able to go the extra mile like that every once in a while.</p><p></p><p>Joe was home for spring break the week earlier, so he was able to attend the session and run Zander for once. And at the end of the game session, everyone leveled up their PC to 15th.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My red Iron Man (the superhero, not the triathlon) T-shirt, because one of his nicknames is "the Armored Avenger" and the ankylosaurus is an armored dinosaur.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9297411, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 70: THE BRIDE OF KAPOONA[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 14 Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 8 Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 7 Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 8 Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 14[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5 Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 16 March 2024 - - - The day began like any other now that the heroes were on the continent of Talonia: Alewyth and Wakuren cast their [i]endure elements[/i] spells on those who depended upon them to remain comfortable in the jungle environment, and then the dwarf cast the [i]heroes' feast[/i] spell that invigorated all who partook of it - namely, the six visitors from Armaturia, Beetle Darkcloud, their halfling guide, and Petey, Zander's pseudodragon familiar who had a particular taste for the sweet fruits and pastries. Beetle realized he'd probably end up putting on a few pounds if he were going to start each day off with such a feast, but considered it a fringe benefit of escorting this many people across the continent to the Forbidden Lands, a trip he'd personally prefer not to be making. But a promise was a promise, and so not long after the sun was up the group was on its way, Wakuren's bonehead mount once again abandoned in place of the half-orc's air element warhorse; Persistance ([i]What a strange name for a bonehead[/i], thought Beetle!) tied by his bridle to the saddle of Robin's own mount. Wakuren rode directly above Beetle, who rode on his own mount Yellow-Belly, leaving the halfling guide quite glad the cloud-steed had no need for normal biological functions. But from his elevated vantage point, Wakuren was able to see potential threats from much farther away than he would be able to otherwise. Case in point: the team was traveling through fields of tall grasses, and up ahead and to the left lay the downed corpse of a tyrannosaurus. Surrounding it were a dozen or more man-sized birds, each with sharp beaks that tore at the dead dinosaur's flesh and swallowed it down. Wakuren brought Nimbus down near to ground level so he could quietly warn the others of the impending threat. Without thinking about what she was doing, Robin pulled the lute from her back and started strumming the initial chords of the song of inspirational courage - so much for trying to sneak by the herd of axebeaks! But the five or so birds on this side of the dinosaur's corpse turned at the strange sound of the bard's music, ready to defend their prey from any who would challenge them for it. Seeing the inevitability of combat, Xandro cast a [i]heroism[/i] spell and channeled it into Alewyth by touching her shoulder as she rode her bonehead Lapis beside him. Alewyth nodded her thanks and urged Lapis forward, casting a [i]magic vestment[/i] spell upon herself as she did so. Beetle spurred Yellow-Belly to the back of the group's formation, the leader of the group when scouting forth but more than happy to stay in the back once combat began. Thurloe used his [i]wand of shield[/i] to fortify his own defenses and then passed it over to Zander so the elf could do the same. Wakuren and Nimbus rose back up about 30 feet into the air and approached the avian herd. Testing a theory, he cast a [i]cause fear[/i] spell upon one of the closest axebeaks, wondering whether if he could get it to flee, the others might mindlessly follow. But his experiment met with little success, for although he easily broke his target's will, sending it racing away at full speed, the other axebeaks were not so quick to abandon their meal. There were four axebeaks heading over towards the dinosaur carcass, and they turned to watch their fleeing herd-member run by, but then they resumed their original course. That suited Zander just fine, as he enjoyed watching the effects of a [i]prismatic spray[/i] spell on large groups of foes. Riding his bonehead Pachy forward, he spread his arms wide and intoned the words of the spell, sending a rainbow of colors spreading out before him. The spell blinded the five axebeaks in front of the dead tyrannosaur and several of those behind it, and the secondary effects caused one to go insane, another to disappear through a sudden rift to another plane of existence, one to drop dead of a virulent poison that coated its body, one to get electrocuted to death, and another to be momentarily covered in a gout of flames that burned it almost to death. The spell, Zander smiled to himself, never ceased to amuse him. Petey suddenly flew off from his master's shoulder and stabbed at the blinded axebeak whose feathers had been momentarily set ablaze. The pseudodragon's stinger penetrated past the seared feathers along the bird's neck, injecting the sleep poison common to his draconic race. The axebeak staggered for a moment and then fell over, deeply asleep. Petey landed on its sleeping form and savagely bit through its throat, rising up afterwards with a draconic smirk on his face (and no small amount of blood), as if he'd slain the axebeak entirely on his own. Zander smiled and let Petey have his moment of victory; it was well-earned. The strains of Robin's song of courage still flowed from back where she and Beetle sat upon their respective mounts, as Xander spurred his own bonehead mount Ceph forward, his magic rapier [i]Deathwhisper[/i] out and stabbing into a blinded axebeak's body, dropping it instantly. Thurloe, not wanting to be outdone, opted to do the same, charging and slaying another axebeak with his bastard sword [i]Spellslicer[/i]. Alewyth cast a [i]sound burst[/i] spell into the midst of about five of the upright raptors, wounding them but failing to bring any of them down. Wakuren had Nimbus land in a clear space behind the axebeaks, but then happened to look over at a nearby stone carving rising up from the fields of grasses and noted the other eight or so axebeaks who had been resting in the shade of the great statue of some primitive god. That changed things: he had Nimbus quickly rise straight back up to a height of 30 feet, well out of the range of any of the avians' attacks. He cast a [i]shield of faith[/i] upon himself for good measure, though. Three of the axebeaks moving up to join the feast instead opted to go attack Thurloe on his bonehead Boney. The spellsword fended off the snapping beasts with his bastard sword. But the eight that had been resting in the shade all got to their feet, five of them heading over towards Thurloe and the other three taking the other way around the stone carving, headed more toward Zander and Pachy. Zander cast an [i]Elobar's black tentacles[/i] spell that caused dozens, if not scores, of ebony appendages to rise up among the swaying grasses, entangling the axebeaks in the area of effect. Xandro managed to slay another of the blinded avians, stabbing it into the side with his blade. Alewyth summoned forth a celestial bison to intercede with the three headed towards Zander, and that's when Wakuren, whose paladin senses told him none of these axebeaks were of an evil nature, had enough of the pointless bloodshed. "Let's go around!" he called out to the others, leading the way from 30 feet in the air. At Beetle's recommendation, they took the time to collect one of the slain axebeaks - they tasted delicious, according to the halfling - and shunt it inside the extradimensional space of [i]Hesperna's lamp[/i], where Alewyth stowed it in the chest the night hag had kept in her dwelling that shrunk creatures to a fraction of their size. It would be fine there until she could pray for a [i]gentle repose[/i] spell to keep it from decomposing too quickly. Then the group took a long detour around the tyrannosaur carcass, and Zander dismissed his gripping tentacles before they crushed the life out of the axebeaks they had been entangling. The group went on their way, Beetle once again in the lead on Yellow-Belly, headed west. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful up until nearly twilight, when they heard the sound of a gong ringing, three times in a row. Looking over to their right, where a ridge of low mountains or tall hills had cut them off from the path Beetle had originally planned to take before they'd been diverted over many miles by the army ant swarms, they saw a wooden wall of vertical tree trunks cutting off a section of land surrounded by near-vertical stone cliffs; a waterfall fell from the tall hill in the back. As they watched, the massive doors in the middle of this wall, each door a good 20 feet wide and a bit more than that tall, were pulled inwards, until they were perpendicular to the rest of the palisade wall. They stopped when they met up with a stone building, the structure which housed the gong they had just heard sounding thrice. Up on top of the wall, the doors, and the stone building stood dozens of gray-skinned orcs, and down at the middle of the stone building, tied at her wrists by vines attached to sturdy poles set into the stone at her sides, stood a drow woman, struggling to free herself amid the hoots and hollers of the orcs. Wakuren called down to his friends from his air element steed, pointing over at the orc enclave some 500 feet away. "We've got to go save her!" he cried. "We've 'got' to do no such thing!" countered Beetle. "This has nothing to do with us, and what are you going to do, attack an entire orc army, just the six of you? Be sensible!" He doubted his words would have any effect - he'd known this group long enough to realize they were easily distracted from their overall goal, to get to the Forbidden Lands - but he held out hope that one of these days these foreigners would listen to reason. Sadly, today was not that day. Robin immediately began playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute as four other boneheads were turned toward the orc structure and kicked into full speed. Wakuren, riding on Nimbus above them, went even faster than those stuck with ground travel. Xandro, realizing it would take a bit of time to cross the distance, cast a [i]heroism[/i] spell upon himself as Ceph ran forward at top speed. Alewyth recast a [i]magic vestment[/i] spell upon herself, the one she'd cast that morning having long since expired. Thurloe used up another charge from his [i]wand of shield[/i] for the same reason, but was far enough away from Zander that he couldn't hand it over to the elf for him to use it as well. Wakuren, traveling much faster than the others and quickly pulling far ahead, was the first to see a large hole in the ground about 200 feet away from the open doors to the orc fortress; apparently whatever had been summoned by the gong to come devour the struggling drow woman lived down there. The half-orc cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell upon himself, just in case. And just then, the inhabitant of the hole in the ground made himself known. Crawling slowly out of his subterranean dwelling, a massive lizard, covered in golden-yellow scales banded in a darker brown, scuttled forth, dragging his massive body forward in halting spurts of action. At his presence, a great cry came up from the orc ranks: "Kapoona! Kapoona! Kapoona!" The drow captive, looking in fear at the beast intended to devour her, struggled all the more fiercely against her bonds, but to no avail - she was bound too tightly. Xandro, Thurloe, Alewyth, and Zander spurred their mounts on, and the dwarven priestess realized she was within range to give a [i]hold monster[/i] spell a shot. Casting the spell, she was relieved to see the massive lizard's body freeze up, one foreleg raised to take a step forward. So the spell worked! That would give them a few moments' respite, although there was no telling how long the spell would stay in effect, as the victim's mind would immediately try to fight the spell energy and allow the creature to move freely of its own volition once more. Thurloe got tired of being so far behind Wakuren and Nimbus and activated the [i]fly[/i] property of his [i]celestial armor[/i], leaping from his bonehead's saddle and darting forward in a horizontal leap, pulling away from Boney, who kept forward at his normal pace just to be close to the other dinosaurs with which he had grown up. Wakuren was now close enough to the giant banded lizard to check out its aura for any tell-tale signs of evil; as expected, he found none - this was just a mindless lizard, no doubt trained by the orcs to respond to the gong for some free food. Still, he wasn't about to let the drow woman be devoured; he was too far away from her to be able to read her aura, but even if she were evil to the core it wasn't right for an intelligent being to be fed to a hungry animal for the entertainment of a band of orcs. He saw that the lizard - apparently named [b]Kapoona[/b], judging by what the orc were chanting - had frozen in mid-stride, but he decided to try foisting a [i]bestow curse[/i] spell upon it as well. Reaching down from Nimbus's broad back, he touched the yellowish scales and set off his spell, but it felt as if the spell failed to have any effect. He'd have to see whether his curse of indecisiveness would have any effect if and when Kapoona freed himself from the effects of Alewyth's [i]hold monster[/i] spell. Now the cries of "Kapoona!" broke off, as the orcs saw strangers attacking their tribal god. Calling out orders to his tribe, [b]Durdok[/b] watched as his eight strongest barbarians and a pair of warriors went scrambling down the ladders along each side of the wall, the barbarians sprinting over to the ankylosaur pen and the warriors running to close the right-side door so the armored dinosaurs could get past and outside; right now, the doors were configured such that Kapoona couldn't enter the compound once he'd devoured his current bride. Zander estimated he was still out of range of the orc wall, so he held the spell he wished to cast at the ready, not wanting to waste it by casting it prematurely. Plus, he wanted to wait until after Wakuren had attacked them; if the half-orc, with his paladin senses, attacked the orcs it was a fair guess he'd found them to be of an evil bent. This whole situation - setting up a drow woman (and a rather scantily-clad one at that, the elf couldn't help but notice) to be eaten by a giant lizard certainly [i]seemed[/i] like something an evil orc tribe would do, but you never knew: maybe the drow was some famed killer or something and this was their method of capital punishment. Talonia was certainly different than the Armaturia he'd grown up in! Robin's song of inspirational courage could still be heard as the heroes got closer to the wall, but it was starting to be a strain to hear the full tune as the winds shifted. Xandro finally got Ceph close enough to charge right by Kapoona's side, allowing the rogue to stab [i]Deathwhisper[/i] deep into the lizard's side as he rode by. Alewyth cast another spell at it, hoping to end the fight once and for all with a [i]slay living[/i] spell, but the magic failed to take its full effect; apparently the great beast's body was much tougher than its mind, which made perfect sense after the fact, Alewyth decided. Thurloe made do with a [i]ray of enfeeblement[/i] spell, siphoning off a small portion of Kapoona's strength for if and when he finally got to enter battle himself. Nimbus continued his comet-streaking trail to the orc wall, a rolling mass of thunderclouds in the shape of a horse. Sitting astride him, Wakuren was now able to sense evil emanating from all along the top of the wall - there was no longer any doubt about it, these orcs were evil to the core! Without any feelings of guilt whatsoever, the cleric/paladin of Cal cast a [i]thunder strike[/i] spell that killed several orcs from atop the wall, sending them falling back inside the fortress or just collapsing where they stood up at the top. Several of the orcs tossed javelins his way, but at that range he was in little danger of any of them hitting. However, Zander had watched the half-orc's attack and saw that as his go ahead to cast the spell he'd had on temporary hold. Arcane syllables spilling from his lips, he sent a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell flying from his fingertips to strike an orc along the gate door slowly being swung back closed, slaying that orc instantly and arcing off to kill - or at least badly singe - close to a dozen others. Lapis pulled up shortly as Kapoona suddenly returned to mobility, his lizard brain finally fighting off the [i]hold monster[/i] spell. He snapped his great jaws at Alewyth and her mount, but they managed to dart back out of the way just in time. Xandro was there on the lizard's other side, stabbing it again with [i]Deathwhisper[/i] as it focused its attention on Alewyth. But Alewyth pulled Lapis far out of range of the slow-moving banded lizard and set her on a course towards the orc fortress. Seeing the one gate door now closed and the head of an ankylosaurus approaching from around the corner, her first instinct was to cast a [i]wall of stone[/i] spell to cover the gate doors...but she realized the spell required the wall to be attached to pre-existing stone, and the fortress's walls were crafted of tree trunks. However, she could see quite well that the building behind the struggling drow captive was crafted of stone, so she cast her spell anyway, creating not a wall so much as a ramp, the width of the opening caused by the left gate being perpendicular to the rest of the wall. This prevented the ankylosaur from getting out (she didn't realize it at the time, but the orcs had eight such dinosaurs they rode out into battle, not just the one) and also stopped the left gate from being able to be closed. The end result was the orcish cavalry was now trapped inside their fortress, leaving their tribal god Kapoona to deal with his attackers on his own. And he wasn't faring too well on that front. Zander cast a [i]prismatic spray[/i] spell at him, coating him in a virulent poison, but the lizard was tough enough that it didn't have too much of an effect. It snapped ineffectively at Zander and his bonehead, but moved too slowly to catch either in his maw. Xandro stabbed at it again, his blade sinking deep, and Alewyth spun Lapis back around to focus on attacking the lizard, swinging [i]Sjondra[/i] into his side in a strike that had to have broken a rib or two. Thurloe even cast a [i]shout[/i] spell at Kapoona in passing, and while it only did a smaller amount of damage than normal it was still yet another attack that was slowly cutting the tribal god down to size. As Thurloe turned from Kapoona and flew closer to the orc rampart, Wakuren and Nimbus were already there, dipping underneath the ramp to help the drow captive. Upon seeing the half-orc and his air element warhorse, her eyes opened wide in terror and she let out a scream. "Nia! Nia Mourta!" she cried, tugging frantically at the vines binding her wrists. Thinking she was afraid of his orcish heritage, Wakuren used the powers of his [i]robe of blending[/i] to take on the appearance of a drow male, but [b]Ilyraena[/b] was looking in fear not at him but at Nimbus - not only had she never seen a horse, she'd never seen [i]any[/i] creature made up of cloud-stuff, and to her this was some sort of scaleless lizard: a zombie, in other words, and the rider therefore a manifestation of Death. Not speaking a shared language, Wakuren tried calming her with his tone if not his words, and then realized his desire not to wield weapons meant he had no way to cut the vines binding her. Instead, he was forced to untie the knots, which was made all the more difficult by how hard she'd been trying to free her wrists, which had only tightened them that much harder. But he finally got her free, grabbed her around the waist, and said the phrase that shunted the two of them inside [i]Hesperna's lamp[/i]. (This, naturally, was an additional cause for fright to Ilyraena, unaccustomed as she was to extradimensional travel.) But Wakuren raised his empty hands to show her everything was going to be okay, then said the phrase that returned him back to the Material Plane, where he scooped up the lamp and leaped back onto Nimbus's back. Nimbus had been partially protected by the stone ramp overhead, but he'd been subjected to javelin throws by the orc rangers up on the one wall who could still see him. Nimbus rose straight up, allowing the orc barbarian riding the closest ankylosaur and the orcs up on the wall above to get in some attacks with their weapons as they passed, but Wakuren was able to block most of them with his shield. But in rising up, he caught sight of three separate cages in the back of the fortress beside the ankylosaurus pen, and in each of these cages stood a male drow - they'd need to get rescued as well, for while the half-orc sensed waves of evil coming from the auras of the assembled orcs, he detected none from these drow. Zander cast an [i]enervation[/i] spell at Kapoona that all but drained the life out of the lizard; it was surely on its last legs now. It spun and made an awkward attack at Xandro, but once again it was too slow to connect. Ceph raced far enough away from Kapoona's mouth to not be in much danger, and then Xandro leaned over and stabbed the lizard again with his rapier. Alewyth and Thurloe, seeing the giant banded lizard wasn't long for this world, turned to head over to the orc fortress to see if they could be of more use there. The spellsword cast a [i]lightning bolt[/i] spell that took out a few orcs still on the open gate, while the dwarven priestess cast a [i]tongues[/i] spell so she could speak with what remained of the orc army. But they found Nimbus heading the other way; Wakuren used the bottom edge of his [i]shield of Cal[/i] to bash in the top of Kapoona's skull, and the tribal god collapsed there where he stood, his tail still down the sloping passageway up from his hole. Naturally, this had quite a demoralizing effect upon the remaining orcs - it's never a good thing to see your god slain in front of you. Alewyth, calling up to them in their own language, demanded the immediate cessation of any attacks, telling them they would be allowed to live. "However," Alewyth added as Wakuren flew Nimbus into the fortress to free the three imprisoned drow men, "you are to cease all ritual sacrifices, from this day forth. If you take up this practice again after we let you live, we will return to slay every member of your wretched tribe. Am I understood!" It turns out she was understood only all too well, and after Wakuren had the three drow men safely inside [i]Hesperna's lamp[/i] with Ilyraena and had returned to Nimbus's back, the heroes returned to Beetle and Robin, so they could continue on for several miles before making camp for the night. As they left earshot of the fortress, the only sounds they could hear was the squabbling among the barbarians about who among them would be the new leader, for Durdok had been slain by Zander's [i]chain lightning[/i] spell after just having barely survived Wakuren's [i]thunder strike[/i] spell. Beetle was just glad these strangers had all made it out of there in one piece. He shook his head in amazement; if he got them all to the Forbidden Lands in one piece it would be a miracle! - - - I made up the section of fortress wall - complete with working gates - and the stone building with the gong on it, all out of thick craft paper. The outer surface of the wall and gates had a layer of craft paper onto which I had printed parallel logs, which I cut to points at the top, so from the exterior the players all got a pretty accurate picture of what their PCs were seeing. It's nice to be able to go the extra mile like that every once in a while. Joe was home for spring break the week earlier, so he was able to attend the session and run Zander for once. And at the end of the game session, everyone leveled up their PC to 15th. - - - T-shirt worn: My red Iron Man (the superhero, not the triathlon) T-shirt, because one of his nicknames is "the Armored Avenger" and the ankylosaurus is an armored dinosaur. [/QUOTE]
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