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Story Hour
Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9037763" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 24: DOWN ON THE FARM</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 8</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 8</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 31 May 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"There's some elf chick looking for you," said one of the bartenders of the Dark and Light Club.</p><p></p><p>"I say! An elven woman? Looking for me?" repeated Alistair with surprise.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, a good-lookin' one, too. But she was specifically looking for Ageratum and Chaevaris."</p><p></p><p>Alistair's look of excitement and surprise turned to one of disappointment and puzzlement. "Oh. I wonder what--Ah! It's probably the delivery of their armor made out of plants! How long ago was this? Do you know where she went?" Alistair realized the elf would have a difficult time finding the women, given the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken to living inside the extradimensional space linked to Chaevaris's magic amulet - the entrance to which was a removable door only the four of them could see. The bartender gave Alistair a quick description of the elf and told him where she was last seen, and the young nobleman high-tailed it from the nightclub as quickly as he could.</p><p></p><p>Eventually their paths crossed, and Alistair came up short when he saw she had a full-grown timber wolf trotting at her side - the bartender hadn't mentioned anything about a wolf! Since the last "wolf" the sorcerer had encountered had turned out to be a barghest intent upon his death, Alistair brought the words to a <em>magic missile</em> spell to the tip of his tongue before the young elven woman called out his name.</p><p></p><p>"Ah! You must be Alistair!" she said. "You look just like the description I was given. My name is <strong>Orchid</strong>. I have the armor from the druids of Haven for Ageratum and Chaevaris. Are they nearby?"</p><p></p><p>"They are indeed," Alistair replied, looking nervously down at the wolf.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, don't worry about <strong>Shushitan</strong>," scoffed Orchid. "He won't attack anyone unless I tell him to, or if they're trying to hurt me." Shushitan let his tongue loll out of one side of his mouth, and Alistair had to agree it made him look more like a friendly dog than a vicious predator. "Very well, then, this way, if you please," he said to Orchid, leading her down to the end of an alleyway in one of the rougher parts of Ghourmand Vale. Seeing it was a dead end, Orchid started to become a little suspicious of the sorcerer's intentions, but upon reaching the end of the alley he reached out and opened a door that hadn't been there a moment before and ushered Orchid and her wolf inside.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum and Chaevaris were excited at the arrival of their new <em>bespoke armor</em> and excused themselves, rushing off into their respective bedrooms to change. Harlan approached while they were changing, and Alistair made the introductions. Orchid offered up that she was a druid herself, a friend to the druids responsible for the crafting of the <em>bespoke armor</em>. "But you choose not to wear such armor yourself?" Harlan asked.</p><p></p><p>"I've never really seen the need," Orchid replied. "I'm pretty much just a traveler, not really an adventurer - although I certainly would be willing to give the adventuring lifestyle a chance, given the opportunity."</p><p></p><p>"You know, we could use a full-time healer on the team," suggested Alistair. "Someone to tend to our wounds during battle, instead of having to rely upon you or a couple of potions."</p><p></p><p>"I do have a <em>staff of healing</em>, fully charged," pointed out Orchid, causing Harlan to smirk out of the side of his mouth.</p><p></p><p>"You volunteered to deliver the armor for the druids of Haven specifically for an opportunity to join a band of adventurers, didn't you?" he accused with a smile.</p><p></p><p>"Well..." Orchid stalled for time. Fortunately, Ageratum and Chaevaris returned from their rooms wearing their new armor and asked the men what they thought. Harlan expressed the view that the armor looked to be comfortable and agreed with Chaevaris's assertion that the armor would make it easier for her to blend into the background in a forest environment. Alistair thought they looked like a couple of deranged tree-huggers, but recalling the <em>human bane</em> enchantment on one of Ageratum's blades and the little halfling's dislike for being mocked, he wisely chose to hide his views. However, his mind started putting together a few lyrics to a potential new song about their plant-based armor....</p><p></p><p>"So, what's on the agenda today, Harlan?" Chaevaris asked. The paladin had spent the last week poring over the pages of the <em>manual of gainful exercise</em> they'd unearthed among the aboleth's treasures - which had included this very dwelling.</p><p></p><p>"Ageratum's been scouring the town, seeing what's been going on. Ageratum? Anything to report?"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, Funk's men have continued dumping bodies over at the Mistbrenner Farm. The Wild Coast Club has been on lockdown since we broke in and recovered Blorkane's stuff - they only go out at least in pairs now, armed, and always with a cleric on hand. Seems they're aware there's a vampire in town, and that he's been inside their little clubhouse. The Cuthbertians, including Father Kilkenny himself, went up to Mitrek to consult with the Archcleric up there. They left a skeleton crew at the Stone Fort, but Porceline's still in custody there until they decide her permanent punishment for her trafficking in slaves with that aboleth we killed. And speaking of pigs..." - here Ageratum smirked at her own little joke, for it was no secret she had no love for Blorkane's sister Porceline Trotter - "...the merchants are complaining about the ongoing pork shortage. With almost all of the local cows relegated to dairy, they've been eating mainly goat and an owlbear some of the hunters managed to bring down."</p><p></p><p>"Any leads on the whereabouts of the vampire?" Harlan asked.</p><p></p><p>"Nope."</p><p></p><p>"What's with the pork shortage?" asked Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"No idea. Apparently the Mistbrenners haven't been sending any of their pigs down for slaughter."</p><p></p><p>"Let's go talk to <strong>Karl Armbust</strong>," decided Harlan. "He's the merchant leader and head of the farmer's guild." The paladin turned to Orchid. "You and your wolf are welcome to accompany us if you wish."</p><p></p><p>"Sure!" agreed Orchid, and Shushitan picked up on her mood and began wagging his tail.</p><p></p><p>Karl gave the heroes directions to the Mistbrenner Farm so they could speak to the husband and wife who ran the farm - where they raised pigs, goats, and chickens - and see for themselves what the problem might be. The farm ended up being a mere fifteen minutes or so past the Stone Keep, by horseback. As Orion had traveled on foot to Ghourmand Vale with her wolf, Harlan offered her the use of his horse, Law. "Thank you, but what will you ride?" asked the elven druid.</p><p></p><p>In response, Harlan raised his hands out above him and called down a celestial pegasus from the heavens above. "This," he replied, climbing up onto the winged horse's back. "It's a shame his first task will be to remain earthbound as we all ride to the farm, but so be it - I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to ride through the skies with him in the future."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, by all means - go ahead and take him for a spin," suggested Alistair, and with a grin, Harlan did just that. Upon doing a couple of overhead passes, the pegasus returned to the ground and led the procession to the Mistbrenner farm. "I've decided to call him <strong>Nova</strong>," Harlan told the group.</p><p></p><p>Upon arriving at the farm, the first thing everyone noticed was the complete lack of people and the sound of hungry pigs calling out from their pen at the back. Alistair send Ambrose out for a quick scout around the buildings - there was a farmhouse, chicken coop, barn, and goat enclosure, along with a well - and the grackle returned with reports of not having seen any farm workers. Orchid volunteered to go see what was going on and cast a <em>speak with animals</em> spell as she approached the pen on the far side of the barn, where dozens of rather large pigs were stomping around, noses buried in the mud, looking for food. Leaving Nova to watch over the mounts, the others headed over by their new druid companion to see what they could learn.</p><p></p><p>"They're hungry - they haven't been fed in days," Orchid reported. "The farmers who work here have been ignoring them. They were last seen going into their farmhouse, several days ago." Upon hearing a question from Harlan and asking the hogs, the druid said the meat normally fed to the pigs had usually been already dead when plopped into their pen for consumption - usually, but not always. Harlan detected evil on the hogs, just to be sure, but they were just normal animals - very hungry animals, about to eat some of their own if they didn't get some food soon. Orchid promised they'd go look for the farmers and get the pigs some food if they'd just be patient for a little longer.</p><p></p><p>With her spell still active, Orchid led the group to go see what the goats had to say. They were doing much better, for they had bales of hay in their pen which they had yet to finish. But they reinforced that they'd not seen the farmers for several days. The chickens in the coop complained their eggs had not been taken for several days; as a stopgap measure, the heroes gathered up the eggs that had been laid thus far and took them over to the pigs, promising there would be more food soon. But when asked if anything ever came out of the well - for Harlan had wondered if some creature had arisen from there who had slain the farmers - the goats responded with, "The farmer, sometimes."</p><p></p><p>That bore investigation. Activating her <em>cloak of arachnida</em>, Ageratum climbed over the top of the well and walked down its interior. It went down for 10 or 12 feet and was bone dry, but she noted there was a passageway at the bottom leading south, towards the henhouse. She shone Chaevaris's bullseye lantern - into which the stone with the permanent <em>light</em> spell had been placed - but the tunnel extended past the range of her illumination, the passageway sinking lower into the ground as it went. She returned to the surface and explained what she had seen to the others.</p><p></p><p>"Shall we check out the farmhouse first or the dry well?" asked Harlan.</p><p></p><p>"I vote the well," replied Alistair. "It seems suspicious." The others concurred, and they started getting ready for potential battle with whatever evil forces were interfering with the normal operation of the farm. Alistair cast his traditional <em>flame arrow</em> spell upon the group's combined ammunition (now including the arrows in Orchid's quiver) and both a <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spell upon himself, before summoning Ogilvy with an <em>unseen servant</em> spell. Ogilvy accepted the two things he was usually asked to carry: the bullseye lantern and a pouch containing four shrunken boulders, now each the size of a small sling stone. Harlan cast <em>protection from evil</em> and <em>bull's strength</em> spells upon himself and a <em>bless</em> spell upon the group, while Orchid cast a <em>barkskin</em> spell on Harlan, a <em>goodberry</em> spell upon a handful of berries she brought forth from a belt pouch, and a <em>greater magic fang</em> spell upon Shushitan. Alistair decided he didn't want Ambrose hampered in a subterranean environment and sent him over to watch over the mounts with Nova.</p><p></p><p>Then it was a matter of getting down the well. Fortunately, there was a study rope attached to a bucket at one end and a wooden support beam overhead, so climbing down wasn't too difficult. Ageratum went first, then Harlan, then Orchid. The druid then called up for her wolf to leap down at her and Shushitan willing obliged, getting caught by his mistress with an assist by Harlan. Chaevaris climbed down next, followed by Alistair and Ogilvy, who clung to the sorcerer's back on the way down.</p><p></p><p>Heading down the sloping passageway, with Harlan and Ogilvy - holder of the group's two light sources, the lantern and the paladin's <em>flaming burst longsword</em>. held at the ready with fire sputtering along the blade - in the front, the group found a ladder leading up after about 50 feet. They took a brief moment while Ageratum scampered up it, found it led to a trap door, took a peek around in the room above, and returned to report that it appeared to be a secret entrance to a bedroom with a rather rich carpet on the floor beside the bed; the trap door was apparently underneath said bed. She had scooted forward just enough to see four windows along the front half of the room, and this was enough to identify it as the easternmost part of the farmhouse, for they'd seen the same four windows from the outside when they were over by the chicken coop. They group pressed on, going further down the sloping tunnel past the ladder.</p><p></p><p>Harlan's ability to detect evil at a range suddenly alerted him to the presence of evil beings ahead: at least three of them. The tunnel ahead was blocked by a hanging curtain of pig-hide, right where it narrowed to the point they'd have to traverse it single file. Waving the others to silence, Harlan crept up upon the pig-hide curtain, ready to brush it to the side and charge into the room. But as he swept the curtain aside with his shield arm, he found himself staring into the face of an armed and armored man, with two animated zombie corpses standing just behind him. The fighter caught the paladin's initial sword-strike on his own weapon and slid it aside, then counterattacked with his own blade, only to have Harlan catch it on his shield. Neither was able to make much progress in overcoming his foe, until Harlan managed to get in a lucky strike that passed by the fighter's defenses, catching him in the side of his belly. But still he stood fighting, blood now flowing freely down the left side of his torso.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum activated her magic cloak again and ran up the side of the wall. The ceiling was 20 feet up, so she was able to run along it without the combatants beneath her getting in her way. But once into the large cavern beyond the pig-hide curtain, her mind found itself under immediate attack. <That's right,> said a telepathic voice in her head, <continue approaching me along the ceiling.> Looking down from her upside-down perch, Ageratum could see the telepathic summons came from a man standing in the middle of the cavern, near a small pile of bones upon which something black sat.</p><p></p><p>Orchid cast a <em>spike stones</em> spell, causing sharp shards of stone to burrow up from the ground in the cavern beyond. It did nothing to those already on the cavern, but it would prevent them from moving around without harm. Behind the druid, Chaevaris leaped up and activated the <em>immovable rod</em> strapped to her belt, allowing her to hang in midair so she could target the wounded fighter currently in battle with Harlan. The archer sent an arrow whizzing past Harlan, grazing the side of the head of the man he was fighting - <strong>Lurgen Mistbrenner</strong>, as it turned out. But that was enough to send him falling over backwards, where he was impaled upon a bunch of the stone spikes rising up from the cavern's floor.</p><p></p><p>Alistair sent a <em>magic missile</em> spell blasting past Harlan to strike one of the zombies behind where Lurgen had stood. Then he got a shock, for in the light of Ogilvy's held lantern, the sorcerer recognized the man he had shot: surely that was none other than Shambles McGuffin, a man they'd killed weeks ago in the market district of Ghourmand Vale. The shambling corpse grunted as the missiles struck, but he remained standing afterward. Alistair sent Ogilvy forward into the cavern, certain that as a magical collection of force energy in the rough shape of a man, he would not be impeded by the <em>spike stones</em> spell. The zombies ignored the floating lantern and pouch of pebbles as they floated right past them.</p><p></p><p>Shambles shambled forward, getting caught up in the spikes and pitching forward, impaling himself and remaining motionless thereafter, apparently having done himself in just by trying to move forward. The other one shuffled over, blocking the doorway where Lurgen had once stood, and where he now faced Harlan Starblade with his <em>flaming burst longsword</em> out and ready. Just past them, up on the ceiling, Ageratum reached the point just above her roguish master and, telepathic command fulfilled, stood awaiting further orders. She looked down at Lurgen and found an ever-increasing pool of blood seeping out from his prone body, which was unusual: was there something impeding the <em>Blood Mirror</em>'s normal powers? Usually its presence healed up the wounds of the unconscious in the vicinity, and with Harlan standing right there he was certainly close enough to be within the radius of its effect.</p><p></p><p>But Harlan noticed no such thing - he was busy cutting down the zombie with his flaming blade. After attacking, he took a step back, knowing the slow-moving undead thing would allow him to get in several strikes before it could get close enough to try to attack the paladin itself. But then Orchid cast a <em>produce flame</em> spell and tossed a ball of fire at the zombie's face, and Chaevaris fired a pair of arrows through its head in rapid succession. It toppled over, the filthy turban now planted firmly on its head by the protruding arrow shafts. Harlan looked into the cavern and saw the other zombie had also been wearing a turban - were these Jasgund Singh's men?</p><p></p><p>Alistair stepped up to the cavern entrance but feared to enter it while the <em>stone spikes</em> spell was still in effect. However, he could see the dark figure standing directly below a strangely quiescent Ageratum Purslane, and he cast a <em>scorching ray</em> spell his way, causing the man's entire body and clothes to immolate, right as he was giving the halfling a further set of orders. And then, strangely, the man's body discorporated, the flames going out as he drifted further back into the cavern as a vaguely man-shaped cloud of mist. "I say!" cried out Alistair in surprise. "He's a vampire!" Ageratum ignored the sorcerer, walking along the ceiling (as instructed) to the back of the cavern, where she was to alert the master that there were intruders needing to be dealt with.</p><p></p><p>Ogilvy turned his lantern to keep illuminated the floating mist of what had once been <strong>Roy Hinkley</strong>, the thief the heroes had seen get attacked by the vampire as they rowed out of the Wild Coast Club thieves guild - he'd been turned into an undead minion by the master vampire, none other than Father Coltrane, the cleric from Mitrek who had earlier sired Carly as his previous vampire spawn. With no more visible foes in the cavern, Orchid dismissed her <em>spike stones</em> spell, the shards sinking back into the cavern floor.</p><p></p><p>Harlan immediately charged into the room, for he had sensed the <em>darkskull</em> sitting on the pile of bones was radiating a particularly strong aura of evil. But as he got close to the skull he was overcome by a powerful stench that almost made him miss with his sword-strike. Fortunately, it didn't come to that and the flaming blade of his longsword sundered the <em>darkskull</em> in twain, shutting off the necromantic effects it had been providing to those within the cavern - like suppressing the effects of the <em>Blood Mirror</em>. Unseen by the others, Lurgen stabilized immediately, his wounds sealing up although his unconsciousness state remained.</p><p></p><p>But then the cause of the horrid stench revealed themselves: a pair of ghasts rose up from the ground, a thin covering of dirt spiling from them as they stood and exited the twin depressions in which their bodies had been stored. Harlan recognized the bodies as they attacked, despite the alterations to their faces caused by the transformation into ghastdom: these were Gurdeep and Gurpeet, the two weretigers they'd killed at the same time Shambles met his own demise. They were in their human forms rather than the hybrid forms in which they'd been when Harlan last fought them, but that made sense, for they'd resumed human form upon death and undeath had apparently stripped them of their animalistic forms. Harlan brought his flaming blade crashing down upon Gurpeet as she scrambled to her feet; she lashed out at him with her claws but was unable to connect. Gurleen approached, snarling and slashing with her own ragged claws, but Harlan brushed her attacks away with his shield.</p><p></p><p>Orchid entered the cavern, tossing another ball of fire from her palm at one of the ghasts. Shushitan was at her side but was quickly overcome by the overpowering ghast stench; he snapped at Gurpeet but was unable to connect. Then Chaevaris sent an arrow directly into the middle of Gurpeet's forehead, dropping her instantly. The elven archer spun in place and sent another arrow into Gurleen's chest, piercing her heart but failing to drop the undead monstrosity.</p><p></p><p>Past the cavern in which the fights were currently occurring, Ageratum reached a dead end on the ceiling where she'd been told to stay. A set of double doors stood on the wall below her, but the 20-foot ceiling, her short stature, and her <em>dominated</em> orders to stay on the ceiling prevented her from opening the doors and alerting "the master" - whoever he might be. So, no longer under her own will, she stood in place on the ceiling and awaited further instructions. Behind her, the gaseous form of Roy Hinkley continued its slow passage through the air towards her - for the vampire spawn's coffin was on the other side of the double doors, beside his master's.</p><p></p><p>Back in the cavern, Alistair cast a <em>scorching ray</em> spell that engulfed Gurleen's undead form, causing her to fall in place upon the stone floor, her undead flesh burning. Then, combat currently curtailed, Harlan, Orchid, and Shushitan headed over towards the back of the cavern, entering a diagonal tunnel which ended in a pair of double doors. Chaevaris deactivated her <em>immovable rod</em> and activated her <em>boots of speed</em>, using her faster movement to catch up to the others. With Ageratum away, Alistair took it upon himself to first slit Lurgen's throat before moving to catch up with the others, doing so with the very tip of his rapier's blade so as to ensure he didn't get any blood on his clothes or boots. Ogilvy silently followed, bringing up the rear.</p><p></p><p>Arriving at the wooden doors, Harlan cast his senses forward and detected two distinct auras of evil behind them. Pulling the left door with his shield hand, he found an empty room just beyond, with enough ritual runes inscribed on the floor to convince him this is where the corpses had been restored to an unholy semblance of life. But there was another door on the far wall, and the paladin stormed towards it, pushing it open as well. The room beyond held a coffin in the middle of the room, and mist was spilling across the floor from an open doorway in which another coffin could be seen. He sensed an invisible enemy behind the door and swung his blade at where he thought it might be, but failed to connect with anything solid. Orchid came up to the door behind the paladin and saw him attacking an unseen enemy, so she flung another ball of flame in that direction, but she also failed to connect.</p><p></p><p>Then Shushitan entered the room beside his mistress, and his lupine senses allowed him to detect precisely where the invisible foe stood. He clamped his teeth along an invisible shin and tripped the unseen foe, dropping her to the floor. Chaevaris took a shot at the unseen foe but missed, while Alistair and Ogilvy took the opportunity to enter the zombie preparation room behind the others.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly the foe on the floor became fully visible as she cast an <em>inflict light wounds</em> spell at the wolf chewing on her leg, revealing herself to be a human woman wearing the robes of a cleric of Iuz - <strong>Bea Mistbrenner</strong>, in fact. And two sets of mist continued rolling toward each other, one - Roy - heading for the first coffin while the other - Father Coltrane - sought to escape from the area before these heroes could slay him; Ageratum had failed to warn him of the intruders but the sudden "death" of the link between him and his vampire spawn Roy informed him all the same.</p><p></p><p>Harlan, sensing Bea's aura of evil, hit her prone form twice in rapid succession with his flaming blade, the flames flaring up with his second strike and slaying her instantly. Orchid moved through the open doorway to the second coffin and dropped another ball of fire onto it, setting the wood ablaze. Grinning in admiration at the ploy, Chaevaris did the same to the first coffin with a <em>flaming arrow</em>, and soon both wooden coffins were burning rather nicely. This was particularly bad news for Roy, for he, having been rendered unconscious by having his physical form overcome by damage, was now "auto-piloting" his way back to his coffin to recover. When he reformed inside his burning coffin, his once-again physical form started burning, destroying the spawn irrevocably.</p><p></p><p>Father Coltrane resumed physical form, realizing he needed to slay these intruders so he could put out the flames burning his own coffin before it was too late. But Harlan was there in a flash, swinging his flaming blade into the vampire's side with his full strength behind the blow. Orchid threw another ball of flame at the vampire, catching his sleeve on fire. Chaevaris shot a silver arrow at Father Coltrane, the shaft catching him in the chest and apparently causing him excruciating pain. Alistair tried another <em>scorching ray</em> spell but the gouts of fire went by either side of the vampire's head without hitting him, causing the sorcerer to cry out "Bugger!" in disgust. Father Coltrane took a step away from his enemies and healed himself up a bit with an <em>inflict</em> spell, but it only prolonged his eventual death, for Harlan hit him twice again with his <em>flaming burst longsword</em> (with one attack infused with Pelor's smiting energy for good measure), and then Chaevaris pumped three more arrows into him in rapid succession, her speed powered by her magic boots. That was enough to cause him to burst into mist, which moved involuntarily to his blazing coffin. His screams of torment when he remanifested into solid form in a wooden coffin already engulfed in flames were quickly cut off when his solid form was burned alive.</p><p></p><p>A quick search of the two coffin rooms unearthed a bit of treasure, and a full exploration of the farmhouse revealed a bit more. (Ageratum, her mind her own after the final slaying of the vampire spawn responsible for her <em>domination</em>, was particularly helpful in that regard.) Orchid took one of the suits of magic studded leather armor form one of the ghasts for herself, and then the heroes took a bit of time to drag the corpses they'd slain (several of them for the second time) up to feed to the starving pigs.</p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure I'd wish to eat a pig that has feasted upon undead flesh," observed Alistair, blanching slightly at the thought.</p><p></p><p>"You're welcome to dine upon owlbear," Chaevaris pointed out.</p><p></p><p>"Or take up a vegetarian lifestyle," suggested Orchid.</p><p></p><p>Alistair thought over both options. "I think I'll take my chances on the pork," he decided.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Dan rolled up a druid NPC as an addition to the party, after deciding we needed a permanent healer. It was scheduled to work out rather well, for my granddaughter Samantha was in town on the day we were originally to play through this adventure, but then a sudden business trip emerged that I had to go on, and the adventure session got bumped by a week - at which point Sami had already flown back to Pennsylvania. But now she has an NPC that can be swapped over to PC status any time she's in town. (She chose her druid's name, the image on her initiative card, and chose and named a wolf as her animal companion. Her only requirement to Dan was she wanted Orchid to have a longbow.) But Logan ran her at the beginning this first outing, since his own PC is also a female elf. (We've decided that orchid will be sharing Chaevaris's room in the extradimensional house connected to the magic amulet the elven archer wears - after all, neither one sleeps, so they can share elven reverie together.) However, once Ageratum was <em>dominated</em> and pretty much taken out of the game, Vicki ran Orchid for the rest of the session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9037763, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 24: DOWN ON THE FARM[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 8[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 8[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 8[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 8[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 8[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 31 May 2023 - - - "There's some elf chick looking for you," said one of the bartenders of the Dark and Light Club. "I say! An elven woman? Looking for me?" repeated Alistair with surprise. "Yeah, a good-lookin' one, too. But she was specifically looking for Ageratum and Chaevaris." Alistair's look of excitement and surprise turned to one of disappointment and puzzlement. "Oh. I wonder what--Ah! It's probably the delivery of their armor made out of plants! How long ago was this? Do you know where she went?" Alistair realized the elf would have a difficult time finding the women, given the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken to living inside the extradimensional space linked to Chaevaris's magic amulet - the entrance to which was a removable door only the four of them could see. The bartender gave Alistair a quick description of the elf and told him where she was last seen, and the young nobleman high-tailed it from the nightclub as quickly as he could. Eventually their paths crossed, and Alistair came up short when he saw she had a full-grown timber wolf trotting at her side - the bartender hadn't mentioned anything about a wolf! Since the last "wolf" the sorcerer had encountered had turned out to be a barghest intent upon his death, Alistair brought the words to a [I]magic missile[/I] spell to the tip of his tongue before the young elven woman called out his name. "Ah! You must be Alistair!" she said. "You look just like the description I was given. My name is [B]Orchid[/B]. I have the armor from the druids of Haven for Ageratum and Chaevaris. Are they nearby?" "They are indeed," Alistair replied, looking nervously down at the wolf. "Oh, don't worry about [B]Shushitan[/B]," scoffed Orchid. "He won't attack anyone unless I tell him to, or if they're trying to hurt me." Shushitan let his tongue loll out of one side of his mouth, and Alistair had to agree it made him look more like a friendly dog than a vicious predator. "Very well, then, this way, if you please," he said to Orchid, leading her down to the end of an alleyway in one of the rougher parts of Ghourmand Vale. Seeing it was a dead end, Orchid started to become a little suspicious of the sorcerer's intentions, but upon reaching the end of the alley he reached out and opened a door that hadn't been there a moment before and ushered Orchid and her wolf inside. Ageratum and Chaevaris were excited at the arrival of their new [I]bespoke armor[/I] and excused themselves, rushing off into their respective bedrooms to change. Harlan approached while they were changing, and Alistair made the introductions. Orchid offered up that she was a druid herself, a friend to the druids responsible for the crafting of the [I]bespoke armor[/I]. "But you choose not to wear such armor yourself?" Harlan asked. "I've never really seen the need," Orchid replied. "I'm pretty much just a traveler, not really an adventurer - although I certainly would be willing to give the adventuring lifestyle a chance, given the opportunity." "You know, we could use a full-time healer on the team," suggested Alistair. "Someone to tend to our wounds during battle, instead of having to rely upon you or a couple of potions." "I do have a [I]staff of healing[/I], fully charged," pointed out Orchid, causing Harlan to smirk out of the side of his mouth. "You volunteered to deliver the armor for the druids of Haven specifically for an opportunity to join a band of adventurers, didn't you?" he accused with a smile. "Well..." Orchid stalled for time. Fortunately, Ageratum and Chaevaris returned from their rooms wearing their new armor and asked the men what they thought. Harlan expressed the view that the armor looked to be comfortable and agreed with Chaevaris's assertion that the armor would make it easier for her to blend into the background in a forest environment. Alistair thought they looked like a couple of deranged tree-huggers, but recalling the [I]human bane[/I] enchantment on one of Ageratum's blades and the little halfling's dislike for being mocked, he wisely chose to hide his views. However, his mind started putting together a few lyrics to a potential new song about their plant-based armor.... "So, what's on the agenda today, Harlan?" Chaevaris asked. The paladin had spent the last week poring over the pages of the [I]manual of gainful exercise[/I] they'd unearthed among the aboleth's treasures - which had included this very dwelling. "Ageratum's been scouring the town, seeing what's been going on. Ageratum? Anything to report?" "Yeah, Funk's men have continued dumping bodies over at the Mistbrenner Farm. The Wild Coast Club has been on lockdown since we broke in and recovered Blorkane's stuff - they only go out at least in pairs now, armed, and always with a cleric on hand. Seems they're aware there's a vampire in town, and that he's been inside their little clubhouse. The Cuthbertians, including Father Kilkenny himself, went up to Mitrek to consult with the Archcleric up there. They left a skeleton crew at the Stone Fort, but Porceline's still in custody there until they decide her permanent punishment for her trafficking in slaves with that aboleth we killed. And speaking of pigs..." - here Ageratum smirked at her own little joke, for it was no secret she had no love for Blorkane's sister Porceline Trotter - "...the merchants are complaining about the ongoing pork shortage. With almost all of the local cows relegated to dairy, they've been eating mainly goat and an owlbear some of the hunters managed to bring down." "Any leads on the whereabouts of the vampire?" Harlan asked. "Nope." "What's with the pork shortage?" asked Chaevaris. "No idea. Apparently the Mistbrenners haven't been sending any of their pigs down for slaughter." "Let's go talk to [B]Karl Armbust[/B]," decided Harlan. "He's the merchant leader and head of the farmer's guild." The paladin turned to Orchid. "You and your wolf are welcome to accompany us if you wish." "Sure!" agreed Orchid, and Shushitan picked up on her mood and began wagging his tail. Karl gave the heroes directions to the Mistbrenner Farm so they could speak to the husband and wife who ran the farm - where they raised pigs, goats, and chickens - and see for themselves what the problem might be. The farm ended up being a mere fifteen minutes or so past the Stone Keep, by horseback. As Orion had traveled on foot to Ghourmand Vale with her wolf, Harlan offered her the use of his horse, Law. "Thank you, but what will you ride?" asked the elven druid. In response, Harlan raised his hands out above him and called down a celestial pegasus from the heavens above. "This," he replied, climbing up onto the winged horse's back. "It's a shame his first task will be to remain earthbound as we all ride to the farm, but so be it - I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to ride through the skies with him in the future." "Oh, by all means - go ahead and take him for a spin," suggested Alistair, and with a grin, Harlan did just that. Upon doing a couple of overhead passes, the pegasus returned to the ground and led the procession to the Mistbrenner farm. "I've decided to call him [B]Nova[/B]," Harlan told the group. Upon arriving at the farm, the first thing everyone noticed was the complete lack of people and the sound of hungry pigs calling out from their pen at the back. Alistair send Ambrose out for a quick scout around the buildings - there was a farmhouse, chicken coop, barn, and goat enclosure, along with a well - and the grackle returned with reports of not having seen any farm workers. Orchid volunteered to go see what was going on and cast a [I]speak with animals[/I] spell as she approached the pen on the far side of the barn, where dozens of rather large pigs were stomping around, noses buried in the mud, looking for food. Leaving Nova to watch over the mounts, the others headed over by their new druid companion to see what they could learn. "They're hungry - they haven't been fed in days," Orchid reported. "The farmers who work here have been ignoring them. They were last seen going into their farmhouse, several days ago." Upon hearing a question from Harlan and asking the hogs, the druid said the meat normally fed to the pigs had usually been already dead when plopped into their pen for consumption - usually, but not always. Harlan detected evil on the hogs, just to be sure, but they were just normal animals - very hungry animals, about to eat some of their own if they didn't get some food soon. Orchid promised they'd go look for the farmers and get the pigs some food if they'd just be patient for a little longer. With her spell still active, Orchid led the group to go see what the goats had to say. They were doing much better, for they had bales of hay in their pen which they had yet to finish. But they reinforced that they'd not seen the farmers for several days. The chickens in the coop complained their eggs had not been taken for several days; as a stopgap measure, the heroes gathered up the eggs that had been laid thus far and took them over to the pigs, promising there would be more food soon. But when asked if anything ever came out of the well - for Harlan had wondered if some creature had arisen from there who had slain the farmers - the goats responded with, "The farmer, sometimes." That bore investigation. Activating her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I], Ageratum climbed over the top of the well and walked down its interior. It went down for 10 or 12 feet and was bone dry, but she noted there was a passageway at the bottom leading south, towards the henhouse. She shone Chaevaris's bullseye lantern - into which the stone with the permanent [I]light[/I] spell had been placed - but the tunnel extended past the range of her illumination, the passageway sinking lower into the ground as it went. She returned to the surface and explained what she had seen to the others. "Shall we check out the farmhouse first or the dry well?" asked Harlan. "I vote the well," replied Alistair. "It seems suspicious." The others concurred, and they started getting ready for potential battle with whatever evil forces were interfering with the normal operation of the farm. Alistair cast his traditional [I]flame arrow[/I] spell upon the group's combined ammunition (now including the arrows in Orchid's quiver) and both a [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] spell upon himself, before summoning Ogilvy with an [I]unseen servant[/I] spell. Ogilvy accepted the two things he was usually asked to carry: the bullseye lantern and a pouch containing four shrunken boulders, now each the size of a small sling stone. Harlan cast [I]protection from evil[/I] and [I]bull's strength[/I] spells upon himself and a [I]bless[/I] spell upon the group, while Orchid cast a [I]barkskin[/I] spell on Harlan, a [I]goodberry[/I] spell upon a handful of berries she brought forth from a belt pouch, and a [I]greater magic fang[/I] spell upon Shushitan. Alistair decided he didn't want Ambrose hampered in a subterranean environment and sent him over to watch over the mounts with Nova. Then it was a matter of getting down the well. Fortunately, there was a study rope attached to a bucket at one end and a wooden support beam overhead, so climbing down wasn't too difficult. Ageratum went first, then Harlan, then Orchid. The druid then called up for her wolf to leap down at her and Shushitan willing obliged, getting caught by his mistress with an assist by Harlan. Chaevaris climbed down next, followed by Alistair and Ogilvy, who clung to the sorcerer's back on the way down. Heading down the sloping passageway, with Harlan and Ogilvy - holder of the group's two light sources, the lantern and the paladin's [I]flaming burst longsword[/I]. held at the ready with fire sputtering along the blade - in the front, the group found a ladder leading up after about 50 feet. They took a brief moment while Ageratum scampered up it, found it led to a trap door, took a peek around in the room above, and returned to report that it appeared to be a secret entrance to a bedroom with a rather rich carpet on the floor beside the bed; the trap door was apparently underneath said bed. She had scooted forward just enough to see four windows along the front half of the room, and this was enough to identify it as the easternmost part of the farmhouse, for they'd seen the same four windows from the outside when they were over by the chicken coop. They group pressed on, going further down the sloping tunnel past the ladder. Harlan's ability to detect evil at a range suddenly alerted him to the presence of evil beings ahead: at least three of them. The tunnel ahead was blocked by a hanging curtain of pig-hide, right where it narrowed to the point they'd have to traverse it single file. Waving the others to silence, Harlan crept up upon the pig-hide curtain, ready to brush it to the side and charge into the room. But as he swept the curtain aside with his shield arm, he found himself staring into the face of an armed and armored man, with two animated zombie corpses standing just behind him. The fighter caught the paladin's initial sword-strike on his own weapon and slid it aside, then counterattacked with his own blade, only to have Harlan catch it on his shield. Neither was able to make much progress in overcoming his foe, until Harlan managed to get in a lucky strike that passed by the fighter's defenses, catching him in the side of his belly. But still he stood fighting, blood now flowing freely down the left side of his torso. Ageratum activated her magic cloak again and ran up the side of the wall. The ceiling was 20 feet up, so she was able to run along it without the combatants beneath her getting in her way. But once into the large cavern beyond the pig-hide curtain, her mind found itself under immediate attack. <That's right,> said a telepathic voice in her head, <continue approaching me along the ceiling.> Looking down from her upside-down perch, Ageratum could see the telepathic summons came from a man standing in the middle of the cavern, near a small pile of bones upon which something black sat. Orchid cast a [I]spike stones[/I] spell, causing sharp shards of stone to burrow up from the ground in the cavern beyond. It did nothing to those already on the cavern, but it would prevent them from moving around without harm. Behind the druid, Chaevaris leaped up and activated the [I]immovable rod[/I] strapped to her belt, allowing her to hang in midair so she could target the wounded fighter currently in battle with Harlan. The archer sent an arrow whizzing past Harlan, grazing the side of the head of the man he was fighting - [B]Lurgen Mistbrenner[/B], as it turned out. But that was enough to send him falling over backwards, where he was impaled upon a bunch of the stone spikes rising up from the cavern's floor. Alistair sent a [I]magic missile[/I] spell blasting past Harlan to strike one of the zombies behind where Lurgen had stood. Then he got a shock, for in the light of Ogilvy's held lantern, the sorcerer recognized the man he had shot: surely that was none other than Shambles McGuffin, a man they'd killed weeks ago in the market district of Ghourmand Vale. The shambling corpse grunted as the missiles struck, but he remained standing afterward. Alistair sent Ogilvy forward into the cavern, certain that as a magical collection of force energy in the rough shape of a man, he would not be impeded by the [I]spike stones[/I] spell. The zombies ignored the floating lantern and pouch of pebbles as they floated right past them. Shambles shambled forward, getting caught up in the spikes and pitching forward, impaling himself and remaining motionless thereafter, apparently having done himself in just by trying to move forward. The other one shuffled over, blocking the doorway where Lurgen had once stood, and where he now faced Harlan Starblade with his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I] out and ready. Just past them, up on the ceiling, Ageratum reached the point just above her roguish master and, telepathic command fulfilled, stood awaiting further orders. She looked down at Lurgen and found an ever-increasing pool of blood seeping out from his prone body, which was unusual: was there something impeding the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]'s normal powers? Usually its presence healed up the wounds of the unconscious in the vicinity, and with Harlan standing right there he was certainly close enough to be within the radius of its effect. But Harlan noticed no such thing - he was busy cutting down the zombie with his flaming blade. After attacking, he took a step back, knowing the slow-moving undead thing would allow him to get in several strikes before it could get close enough to try to attack the paladin itself. But then Orchid cast a [I]produce flame[/I] spell and tossed a ball of fire at the zombie's face, and Chaevaris fired a pair of arrows through its head in rapid succession. It toppled over, the filthy turban now planted firmly on its head by the protruding arrow shafts. Harlan looked into the cavern and saw the other zombie had also been wearing a turban - were these Jasgund Singh's men? Alistair stepped up to the cavern entrance but feared to enter it while the [I]stone spikes[/I] spell was still in effect. However, he could see the dark figure standing directly below a strangely quiescent Ageratum Purslane, and he cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell his way, causing the man's entire body and clothes to immolate, right as he was giving the halfling a further set of orders. And then, strangely, the man's body discorporated, the flames going out as he drifted further back into the cavern as a vaguely man-shaped cloud of mist. "I say!" cried out Alistair in surprise. "He's a vampire!" Ageratum ignored the sorcerer, walking along the ceiling (as instructed) to the back of the cavern, where she was to alert the master that there were intruders needing to be dealt with. Ogilvy turned his lantern to keep illuminated the floating mist of what had once been [B]Roy Hinkley[/B], the thief the heroes had seen get attacked by the vampire as they rowed out of the Wild Coast Club thieves guild - he'd been turned into an undead minion by the master vampire, none other than Father Coltrane, the cleric from Mitrek who had earlier sired Carly as his previous vampire spawn. With no more visible foes in the cavern, Orchid dismissed her [I]spike stones[/I] spell, the shards sinking back into the cavern floor. Harlan immediately charged into the room, for he had sensed the [I]darkskull[/I] sitting on the pile of bones was radiating a particularly strong aura of evil. But as he got close to the skull he was overcome by a powerful stench that almost made him miss with his sword-strike. Fortunately, it didn't come to that and the flaming blade of his longsword sundered the [I]darkskull[/I] in twain, shutting off the necromantic effects it had been providing to those within the cavern - like suppressing the effects of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]. Unseen by the others, Lurgen stabilized immediately, his wounds sealing up although his unconsciousness state remained. But then the cause of the horrid stench revealed themselves: a pair of ghasts rose up from the ground, a thin covering of dirt spiling from them as they stood and exited the twin depressions in which their bodies had been stored. Harlan recognized the bodies as they attacked, despite the alterations to their faces caused by the transformation into ghastdom: these were Gurdeep and Gurpeet, the two weretigers they'd killed at the same time Shambles met his own demise. They were in their human forms rather than the hybrid forms in which they'd been when Harlan last fought them, but that made sense, for they'd resumed human form upon death and undeath had apparently stripped them of their animalistic forms. Harlan brought his flaming blade crashing down upon Gurpeet as she scrambled to her feet; she lashed out at him with her claws but was unable to connect. Gurleen approached, snarling and slashing with her own ragged claws, but Harlan brushed her attacks away with his shield. Orchid entered the cavern, tossing another ball of fire from her palm at one of the ghasts. Shushitan was at her side but was quickly overcome by the overpowering ghast stench; he snapped at Gurpeet but was unable to connect. Then Chaevaris sent an arrow directly into the middle of Gurpeet's forehead, dropping her instantly. The elven archer spun in place and sent another arrow into Gurleen's chest, piercing her heart but failing to drop the undead monstrosity. Past the cavern in which the fights were currently occurring, Ageratum reached a dead end on the ceiling where she'd been told to stay. A set of double doors stood on the wall below her, but the 20-foot ceiling, her short stature, and her [I]dominated[/I] orders to stay on the ceiling prevented her from opening the doors and alerting "the master" - whoever he might be. So, no longer under her own will, she stood in place on the ceiling and awaited further instructions. Behind her, the gaseous form of Roy Hinkley continued its slow passage through the air towards her - for the vampire spawn's coffin was on the other side of the double doors, beside his master's. Back in the cavern, Alistair cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell that engulfed Gurleen's undead form, causing her to fall in place upon the stone floor, her undead flesh burning. Then, combat currently curtailed, Harlan, Orchid, and Shushitan headed over towards the back of the cavern, entering a diagonal tunnel which ended in a pair of double doors. Chaevaris deactivated her [I]immovable rod[/I] and activated her [I]boots of speed[/I], using her faster movement to catch up to the others. With Ageratum away, Alistair took it upon himself to first slit Lurgen's throat before moving to catch up with the others, doing so with the very tip of his rapier's blade so as to ensure he didn't get any blood on his clothes or boots. Ogilvy silently followed, bringing up the rear. Arriving at the wooden doors, Harlan cast his senses forward and detected two distinct auras of evil behind them. Pulling the left door with his shield hand, he found an empty room just beyond, with enough ritual runes inscribed on the floor to convince him this is where the corpses had been restored to an unholy semblance of life. But there was another door on the far wall, and the paladin stormed towards it, pushing it open as well. The room beyond held a coffin in the middle of the room, and mist was spilling across the floor from an open doorway in which another coffin could be seen. He sensed an invisible enemy behind the door and swung his blade at where he thought it might be, but failed to connect with anything solid. Orchid came up to the door behind the paladin and saw him attacking an unseen enemy, so she flung another ball of flame in that direction, but she also failed to connect. Then Shushitan entered the room beside his mistress, and his lupine senses allowed him to detect precisely where the invisible foe stood. He clamped his teeth along an invisible shin and tripped the unseen foe, dropping her to the floor. Chaevaris took a shot at the unseen foe but missed, while Alistair and Ogilvy took the opportunity to enter the zombie preparation room behind the others. Suddenly the foe on the floor became fully visible as she cast an [I]inflict light wounds[/I] spell at the wolf chewing on her leg, revealing herself to be a human woman wearing the robes of a cleric of Iuz - [B]Bea Mistbrenner[/B], in fact. And two sets of mist continued rolling toward each other, one - Roy - heading for the first coffin while the other - Father Coltrane - sought to escape from the area before these heroes could slay him; Ageratum had failed to warn him of the intruders but the sudden "death" of the link between him and his vampire spawn Roy informed him all the same. Harlan, sensing Bea's aura of evil, hit her prone form twice in rapid succession with his flaming blade, the flames flaring up with his second strike and slaying her instantly. Orchid moved through the open doorway to the second coffin and dropped another ball of fire onto it, setting the wood ablaze. Grinning in admiration at the ploy, Chaevaris did the same to the first coffin with a [I]flaming arrow[/I], and soon both wooden coffins were burning rather nicely. This was particularly bad news for Roy, for he, having been rendered unconscious by having his physical form overcome by damage, was now "auto-piloting" his way back to his coffin to recover. When he reformed inside his burning coffin, his once-again physical form started burning, destroying the spawn irrevocably. Father Coltrane resumed physical form, realizing he needed to slay these intruders so he could put out the flames burning his own coffin before it was too late. But Harlan was there in a flash, swinging his flaming blade into the vampire's side with his full strength behind the blow. Orchid threw another ball of flame at the vampire, catching his sleeve on fire. Chaevaris shot a silver arrow at Father Coltrane, the shaft catching him in the chest and apparently causing him excruciating pain. Alistair tried another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell but the gouts of fire went by either side of the vampire's head without hitting him, causing the sorcerer to cry out "Bugger!" in disgust. Father Coltrane took a step away from his enemies and healed himself up a bit with an [I]inflict[/I] spell, but it only prolonged his eventual death, for Harlan hit him twice again with his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I] (with one attack infused with Pelor's smiting energy for good measure), and then Chaevaris pumped three more arrows into him in rapid succession, her speed powered by her magic boots. That was enough to cause him to burst into mist, which moved involuntarily to his blazing coffin. His screams of torment when he remanifested into solid form in a wooden coffin already engulfed in flames were quickly cut off when his solid form was burned alive. A quick search of the two coffin rooms unearthed a bit of treasure, and a full exploration of the farmhouse revealed a bit more. (Ageratum, her mind her own after the final slaying of the vampire spawn responsible for her [I]domination[/I], was particularly helpful in that regard.) Orchid took one of the suits of magic studded leather armor form one of the ghasts for herself, and then the heroes took a bit of time to drag the corpses they'd slain (several of them for the second time) up to feed to the starving pigs. "I'm not sure I'd wish to eat a pig that has feasted upon undead flesh," observed Alistair, blanching slightly at the thought. "You're welcome to dine upon owlbear," Chaevaris pointed out. "Or take up a vegetarian lifestyle," suggested Orchid. Alistair thought over both options. "I think I'll take my chances on the pork," he decided. - - - Dan rolled up a druid NPC as an addition to the party, after deciding we needed a permanent healer. It was scheduled to work out rather well, for my granddaughter Samantha was in town on the day we were originally to play through this adventure, but then a sudden business trip emerged that I had to go on, and the adventure session got bumped by a week - at which point Sami had already flown back to Pennsylvania. But now she has an NPC that can be swapped over to PC status any time she's in town. (She chose her druid's name, the image on her initiative card, and chose and named a wolf as her animal companion. Her only requirement to Dan was she wanted Orchid to have a longbow.) But Logan ran her at the beginning this first outing, since his own PC is also a female elf. (We've decided that orchid will be sharing Chaevaris's room in the extradimensional house connected to the magic amulet the elven archer wears - after all, neither one sleeps, so they can share elven reverie together.) However, once Ageratum was [I]dominated[/I] and pretty much taken out of the game, Vicki ran Orchid for the rest of the session. [/QUOTE]
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