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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9058049" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 25: RAIDS AND RUINS</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: 21 June 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>It had been a week since the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken down the evil forces at the Mistbrenner farm. During that time, they had come to an arrangement with the owner of the Dark and Light Club and had made the upper floor their semi-permanent headquarters - that is, that's where Chaevaris "parked" the door to the extradimensional space leading into the <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em>-like spell effect. The elven archer had designated the owner and a few selected individuals who worked at the club as "door-worthy" - she allowed the door to be visible to those people in addition to the adventurers who lived inside the extradimensional space - that way, anyone seeking the TPA could inquire at the Dark and Light Club and those members could see where the door was, unobtrusively positioned along the back wall, out of the way, to knock upon it and summon the adventurers.</p><p></p><p>Alistair sat at a table on the upper floor of the club, struggling with ink and parchment with the lyrics to his next song. It seemed only fair that Orchid should be the focus of his next tune, but he didn't really know her all that well yet and was having difficulty coming up with anything beyond the first four lines. Fortunately, a pair of visitors gave him a good reason to put it away and worry about it later.</p><p></p><p>"'Scuse me," said Brother Scrimshaw, "but if ye've a mind to it, Karl Armbust here's got a bit o' trouble he'd like ye and yer friends t' look into fer him," the cleric of Cuthbert said. Karl, Alistair knew, was Ghourmand Vale's head of the Farmers Guild, and he looked to be nearly in tears. "One minute, please," requested the young sorcerer, as he gathered up his writing implements and scurried off to the extradimensional door. "I shall fetch the team." To the confused farm leader, it appeared as if the young aristocrat simply stepped through the wall and disappeared. But he took it as a good sign that the man he was hoping could put an end to his guild's problems was so obviously powerful he could simply disappear at will.</p><p></p><p>Alistair returned a few moments later with the rest of the team, including their new addition Orchid and her wolf Shushitan, who gave Karl a bit of a start when he first saw him exit from the wall. Alistair waved the two to the table at which he'd been sitting moments ago and said, "Perhaps you'd like to start at the beginning."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, well," stammered Karl, "there have been attacks on a number of farmhouses in the past week or so - five, to be exact. In each case, the raiders killed everyone on the farm, and then stripped the flesh of all but one of them, which they used to leave a message, carved into his belly or across his chest."</p><p></p><p>Harlan frowned at the barbarity of the attacks, but he steeled himself to hear more. "What were the messages?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"The first one, from an attack six days ago, was simply 'MEDDLERS.' On the second raid, five days ago, they left 'COME OUT OF YOUR LAIR' carved on the dead victim's stomach. Four days ago, it was 'HUNT OR BE HUNTED.' Naturally, once the guild found out what was going on, we warned the other farmers in the area and sent out a party of men to try to hunt down the raiders. They never came back - we're not sure what happened to them, but we fear the worst. Three days ago there was another raid, and the message sent was 'SLAVES OF THE TWISTED CAT.'" That got the team's attention, for they immediately realized the "twisted cat" could be a reference to a rakshasa - likely Jasgund Singh, who was one faction they knew of seeking to gain control of the <em>Blood Mirror</em> Harlan kept with him at all times. Karl continued with his tale. "The fifth raid occurred just yesterday, and was intercepted by a team of Cuthbertians from the Stone Keep we'd asked to look into the situation - only they didn't fare too well; of the team, only one of them made it back, and he says he's not sure what happened to the rest of his team, but he was lucky to get out alive."</p><p></p><p>"Did he see the bandits?" asked Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"Aye, an' 'e says they was hobgoblins," replied Brother Scrimshaw.</p><p></p><p>"Was there a message from that last raid?" asked Ageratum.</p><p></p><p>"Sure enough: 'GIVE ME MY STONE' was carved onto a dead man's forehead."</p><p></p><p>"Jasgund Singh!" swore Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"Unlikely," corrected Harlan. "Remember the quip about the 'twisted cat' - it's likely this is another faction seeking the <em>Blood Mirror</em>, in opposition to Singh."</p><p></p><p>"Ah, quite, yes," agreed Alistair, feeling stupid that he'd already forgotten that clue.</p><p></p><p>"So that vampire guy, from north of Greyhawk," surmised Ageratum. "The one whose vampire wife and mummy servant we killed."</p><p></p><p>"That would be my guess," agreed Harlan. He pulled out a hand-drawn map of the local area from a pouch at his belt. "Can you show me where these attacks occurred?" Karl pointed out the general vicinity of each farmhouse that had been attacked; they were all about four to eight hours west of Ghourmand Vale and, more importantly, were each less than two hours from an old, abandoned watch station perched more or less in the middle of the five farmhouses. "I'd recommend we check this place out first," the half-elf paladin suggested. "It's the obvious place for the bandits' lair."</p><p></p><p>"Isn't that a bit <em>too</em> obvious?" Alistair asked.</p><p></p><p>"They're leaving messages, most likely intended for us," Harlan reasoned. "I'd imagine they <em>want</em> us to be able to find them without too much trouble, if they're looking at getting hold of the <em>Blood Mirror</em>."</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps we should leave it behind when we go," offered up Orchid. "Not that I don't think we can handle the bandits ourselves, but if they're allied with a vampire, well...we don't want him to get it in his possession, do we?" Harlan thought it over, then decided it was worth the risk bringing it along, for its healing properties had proven to be too useful in the past for him to want to leave it behind.</p><p></p><p>"It's about one in the afternoon," the half-elf announced. "If we head out immediately, we can make it there with still an hour or more left of sunlight." The group went to fetch their mounts - although Harlan merely had to step outside and summon Nova from the celestial planes - and then they were off, headed west. The paladin had once again offered to let Orchid ride Law, his more terrestrial mount, but she demurred, opting instead to wildshape into an eagle and fly off ahead, scouting the area. Suitably impressed, Alistair made a mental note to add that ability to the song he was working on in the back of his mind.</p><p></p><p>Once they got to the abandoned watch station, Orchid and Ambrose flew over and around it, looking to see if anybody was there. The grackle dropped to the ground and listened at each of the doors, straining to pick up sounds of inhabitation. When he returned to his perch on his master's shoulders, he was able to report he'd heard the sounds of a single person in a room at the middle of the south part of the building, and two or more in the next room over to the west, all speaking some sort of guttural language.</p><p></p><p>The group had been tying up their mounts to trees as close as they dared approach the watch tower; a good 50 yards of open clearing stood between them and the two-story, stone building. There was nothing to do but make a dash for it, and when they hit the main gate - the only way in at ground level, according to Ambrose, Orchid was there, back in her elven form, opening it just enough for them to sneak in one by one.</p><p></p><p>The center part of the watchtower was a courtyard open to the air, with an enclosed stables in the northeastern corner. But as Ambrose had heard voices from the south, that's the way the group went. Alistair cloaked himself in <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spells and then cast another spell to bring Ogilvy into being; the <em>unseen servant</em> was handed the traditional bullseye lantern into which had been placed a stone with a permanent <em>light</em> spell cast upon it. Then, gathering up the group's assembled ammunition, the sorcerer cast a <em>flame arrow</em> spell upon the whole lot. Ageratum received her daily pouch of four stones, each of which was a boulder upon which a <em>shrink item</em> spell had been previously cast. Orchid cast a <em>barkskin</em> spell upon Harlan, a <em>magic fang</em> spell upon Shushitan, and then <em> bull's strength</em> and <em>greater magic fang</em> spells upon herself, thinking they could come in handy if she wildshaped into a more fearsome creature to fight it out with these hobgoblins. Finally, Harlan cast a <em>bless</em> spell upon the entire group, then led them to a door to the south.</p><p></p><p>The room beyond was filled with dusty, unused bunks, but there was a set of stairs leading up to the barbican along the top of the southern wall, which led to the room in which Ambrose had heard a single individual stretching and yawning. Another set of stairs to the north led across the barbican over the gate and to a door into the stables; Ageratum checked it out to make sure there was nobody there to sneak up on them while they went south and, seeing the stables were empty, the halfling retraced her steps and followed the others.</p><p></p><p>Orchid was the first to reach the door leading into the room they sought, but rather than open it she wildshaped again, this time into a three-foot-long viper. Shushitan loped right behind her, apparently unfazed by the sudden change in form of his mistress. Harlan stepped over the viper and cast his senses toward the door; sure enough, he got a distinct sense of evil from the other side. Ageratum then approached by having walked straight up the side wall and onto the barbican, courtesy of her <em>cloak of arachnida</em>. She readied her short swords and nodded at Harlan to open it. Chaevaris stood behind Harlan, bow readied to send an arrow into whoever might be on the other side of the door, and Alistair ambled up behind the archer, not wanting to get in the way of her aiming. </p><p></p><p>After a moment's concentration told Harlan there was but a single source of evil behind the door, he swung it open and bumped into something almost immediately. That turned out to be a hobgoblin, who had been about to open the door from the other side, but who instead was bumped down over the edge of the raised platform to land on a table in the room below. He started bellowing at once in his guttural language, and was answered by similar voices from the room beyond. Without a moment's hesitation, Harlan made the leap onto the table behind the hobgoblin, swinging with his <em>flaming burst longsword</em>. His single sword-stroke brought the raider to unconsciousness, although the <em>Blood Mirror</em> prevented him from bleeding out. Up on the ledge from which Harlan had just leaped, Ageratum made a sly smile to herself - she'd be undoing the <em>Blood Mirror</em>'s work soon enough.</p><p></p><p>Orchid slithered off the edge of the platform, landing on the floor below and raising her head to strike at any foe who might come in through one of the doors to the west. Shushitan leaped down beside his mistress, growling at the doors for good measure. Ageratum leaped down onto the table since Harlan had by that time vacated it, and she slid the blade of her sword along the hobgoblin's neck, nearly severing it. He died, drowning in his own blood, and the halfling took a moment to wipe her sword on his armor before hopping down off the table beside Harlan.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris went down the steps and opened a door over at the northeast corner and found a small gallery, empty of foes. The statues and paintings stored here were covered in dust, so she closed the door and returned to the banquet room. Alistair stood at the top of hall, up on the platform with the stairs leading down, where he figured he'd have a good shot at any hobgoblins charging into the banquet room. At his master's direction, Ogilvy shone the lantern onto a door to the west, from where the hobgoblin shouts seemed to be emanating. The sorcerer also sent Ambrose back outside, to patrol the area and report back if anyone started advancing upon the guard station.</p><p></p><p>Harlan was concentrating on separating the overlapping auras of evil he sensed from the other side of the wooden door - there seemed to be six in all. Pulling open the door, he saw a large, mostly empty room with a raised platform supporting a long table along the south wall. He ran up the short flight of steps to get over by the table, where he figured he'd have a height advantage over the approaching hobgoblin raiders. Shushitan leaped up onto the platform as well, as Orchid slithered over into the back corner of the room and cast a <em>spike stones</em> spell across the floor of the entire chamber. The hobgoblins all yelled in pain as their momentum brought their feet down upon numerous spikes and their mad rush across the room suddenly came to an abrupt halt, as the druid had been sure it would.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum entered the chamber, avoiding the <em>spike stones</em> by climbing up the wall and across the ceiling, courtesy of her magic cloak. She stood directly above a hobgoblin and dropped a pebble onto his head, the small stone reverting to boulder size upon impact. The raider cried out in pain but feared to step away, not being able to see where the magic spikes covering the floor were actually located. But each hobgoblin carried a javelin, and they all realized at about the same time that they could throw them without moving from their individual spots. Three went flying at Harlan, who ducked behind his shield in time and was unscathed by the attack, while the other three were thrown up at Ageratum. Of these, one pierced the little halfling in the top of her shoulder, upside-down as she was.</p><p></p><p>By then, Chaevaris had maneuvered over to another door and opened it, finding herself behind the hobgoblins who were all facing Harlan at the front of the chamber. She silently placed an arrow into her longbow and lined up her shot. In the meantime, Alistair came down the stairs to stand in the doorway Harlan had used to enter the chamber, and he cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at one of the hobgoblin raiders, knocking him out and causing him to fall forward, where he impaled himself on a cluster of <em>spikes stones</em> which penetrated his skull and killed him outright.</p><p></p><p>With a snarl (and a Halfling curse), Ageratum plucked the javelin from her shoulder and threw it back at one of the hobgoblins below her, following it up with one of the kobold shortspears she carried with her. She had the grim satisfaction of watching both thrown weapons hit for full impact, slaying the raider outright.</p><p></p><p>Having thrown their only ranged weapons, the hobgoblins started tentatively trying to move forward, but found the spikes everywhere they tried to step. Chaevaris released her arrow and brought down another hobgoblin with a well-placed arrow through the skull, while Alistair's second <em>magic missile</em> spell killed another after he fell over unconscious, face-first into the spikes. Knowing the hobgoblins, who couldn't see the magic spikes in any case, likewise wouldn't know they were no longer there, Orchid dismissed her <em>spike stones</em> spell and slithered forward to bite one of the two remaining hobgoblins on the thigh, dropping him with a combination of the successful bite and the virulent venom she pumped into his system immediately thereafter. Ageratum killed the remaining raider with two more kobold shortspears, and the group suddenly found themselves without any enemies to fight.</p><p></p><p>But that didn't last long, for a door across the way from where Chaevaris stood suddenly opened, and while the archer readied another arrow to shoot at whoever might enter the room, nobody seemed to do so. That wasn't actually the case, though, for two hobgoblin sergeants and a barghest, the latter of which had just cast an <em>invisibility sphere</em> spell on the trio, had just silently entered the room and were sizing up the heroes. The barghest started off combat by using a <em>crushing despair</em> spell-like ability, affecting everyone who stood in the front of the chamber but Alistair. Of course, this magical attack rendered the three visible; to the heroes, it was as if they had suddenly just materialized in the room with them. But Chaevaris shot her readied arrow, reloaded with a silver arrow from the quiver on her back, pulled back the string, and sent it arrow streaking towards the barghest, an oversized wolf with a goblin's face, all in the matter of a second or two. The arrows struck true, striking the foul creature's left shoulder. It howled in pain and surprise.</p><p></p><p>Alistair cast an <em>ice storm</em> spell into the back half of the chamber, knocking both hobgoblins to the floor, unconscious. The barghest was also struck but managed to stay on its legs in an upright position, at least until Harlan came charging across the room, slicing into the goblin-faced fiend across its broad, lupine chest with his <em>flaming burst longsword</em>. Then it, too, lay unconscious on the floor, until Ageratum advanced and brought all three lives to a final close with her own blade. She tut-tutted to herself when she found nothing worth looting upon their bodies.</p><p></p><p>There was a set of stairs leading down to a lower level and, after a quick perusal around the other rooms on the ground floor, the group headed down. Harlan led the way, with Ogilvy just behind him shining the way with Chaevaris's borrowed bullseye lantern.</p><p></p><p>At the bottom of the stairs was a large, open room filled with cobwebs and dust - and a conference room table and chairs in the middle of the room, all of which had seen better days. There were two passageways leading off from the chamber, one heading north and one off to the east. There were small prison cells interspersed along the corridor to the east, which is where Harlan led the others. But Alistair, not wanting anything to come sneaking up behind them, went peeking down the north passageway before Ogilvy's light got too far away and while he couldn't see anything, he could distinctly hear the sounds of footsteps approaching from the darkness. Hissing quietly to the others, he moved to just around the corner from the northern passageway, the words to a <em>magic missile</em> spell ready at the tip of his tongue. Harlan redirected the group that way and Ogilvy's lantern beam shone down the corridor, revealing an armored figure turning a corner from the east. Pierced in the light, the figure found himself the recipient of Alistair's released spell and an arrow through the throat courtesy of Chaevaris. His eyes flashed in anger and pain and he thrust out a hand, attempting to <em>dominate</em> Chaevaris into submission, but the stubborn archer's willpower was too strong. Her eyesight much better than that of a human in low-light conditions, she recognized the figure as Father Brewster, one of the Cuthbertian clerics from the Stone Keep who had been sent out as part of the group seeking to put an end to the farmhouse raids - he'd apparently been taken down by the vampire and turned into one of his undead minions in the meantime.</p><p></p><p>Alistair cast a <em>scorching ray</em> spell at Father Brewster's undead corpse and set it ablaze for a brief moment before it collapsed into a column of mist that went slowly wafting back down the side corridor from which it had come. Keeping pace - for they knew it would be heading straight for its coffin - the group followed. Ageratum pulled out a vial of <em>silversheen</em> as they did so and passed it over to Harlan, who applied the magic substance to the blade of his flaming longsword. Orchid resumed her elven form, realizing snake venom would be useless against a vampire, and they were hoping to find the vampire who had brought Father Brewster to his undead state, for he was the likely leader of this gang of farmhouse raiders.</p><p></p><p>The side corridor led to a large, open chamber. By the lantern light, they could see a coffin on a raised platform in the back of the room, and the fact that Brewster's gaseous mist-form was headed straight for it led them to believe it was his. Harlan searched for evil emanations in the room (specifically the back half, where the coffin stood) and found nothing. Casting a <em>produce flame</em> spell that caused a ball of flame to appear in her palm, Orchid stepped up to the wooden coffin and set it ablaze. In doing so, she saw a line of several iron maidens standing along the north wall of the chamber, and a human-sized figure in the southwestern corner. Alistair approached the supine figure (bringing Ogilvy along with the light source), and recognized it as Brother Caspian, another Stone Keep Cuthbertian. He, too, had been slain and was now awaiting the full conversion to a vampire spawn. But Harlan prevented that from happening by severing the slain cleric's head from his body with one slash of his flaming blade. Then, as the paladin went over to detect evil emanations he was picking up from the first iron maiden, Alistair pocketed a holy symbol of Saint Cuthbert that had been lying upon the ground beside Caspian's now-headless body.</p><p></p><p>As Orchid supervised the burning of Father Brewster's coffin - ensuring a permanent end to the vampire spawn when his misty form re-entered it and reverted to solid form, which blazed brightly as it caught flame and then burned to a crisp - Harlan directed Ageratum's attentions to the first iron maiden. It took her only a moment to uncover a hidden latch that allowed the entire torture device to swing forward like a door - but then, to her great surprise, she saw a pack of wolves lined up on the other side of the secret door. She tried slamming it closed, but a wolf on the other side was pushing it towards her, preventing her from relatching it into place. Harlan helped her slam it shut and heard it click into place. "Good luck opening that back up without any thumbs!" he scoffed - and was thereby quite surprised when he could hear the wolves attempting to do just that. Chaevaris came over and readied an arrow to shoot into the pack of wolves if they made it through the secret door, while Alistair prepared to cast a <em>scorching ray</em> spell in the same direction if they made it through. Through the closed iron maiden, Harlan could sense a strong source of evil on the other side - but just the one.</p><p></p><p>The iron maiden suddenly burst forward, as the wolves not only managed to unlatch the secret door mechanism but push it back open despite the best efforts of Ageratum and Harlan to keep it closed. The first wolf bounded into the room, dodging past Harlan's swinging sword blade but not Chaevaris's arrow, which struck him along the side of his neck. Alistair caught the wolf with both blasts of his <em>scorching ray</em> spell, although when Orchid tossed a ball of flame at it she missed.</p><p></p><p>The wolf loped further into the room and Ageratum swung at him with her silver short sword, catching him in the left shoulder. He howled in pain and bounded past the halfling, reverting to his once-human form as he approached Chaevaris. By his black armor, the elven archer recognized this must be Balaur, who had been depicted in a series of tapestries back at his own ruined keep, many days north of Greyhawk City, where they'd slain his vampiric wife and his mummified servant. Behind him, eight other wolves loped into the room, tongues lolling in hunger for a potential meal.</p><p></p><p>Orchid threw another ball of fire Balaur's way, this one striking true. Beside her, Shushitan bit at an approaching wolf, catching it on the leg and pulling it down to the ground, where it quickly exposed its neck in an "I surrender" motion - these wolves weren't inherently evil, merely summoned by the vampire who until recently had been wearing the form of a wolf himself. But Ageratum swung her silver blade at another wolf approaching her with a hungry look on its face; she had no intention of becoming his snack!</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris took a rapid step away from Balaur and raised her bow at him, shooting him at almost point-blank range with a pair of silver arrows shot in rapid sequence due to her <em>boots of speed</em>. Alistair sent another <em>scorching ray</em> spell Balaur's way, hitting with only one but that one causing enough damage to - judging by the look of pain on the vampire's face - nearly cause him to release his own solid form into mindless mist. Hissing in pain and fury, Balaur brought a dark sword of his own swinging at the young sorcerer while his other hand, balled into a fist, struck at Alistair from the opposite direction. The sorcerer dodged the undead fist but the black-bladed sword cut into his side, draining a portion of his vitality in the process.</p><p></p><p>Harlan found himself under attack from a wolf, while two more ganged up on Ageratum and another three went for Chaevaris. None did any significant damage, nor did the two going after Alistair. Harlan accepted a pair of snapping jaws as he raced past two wolves to bring his flaming blade down upon their undead master, Pelor's smiting energy coursing through the weapon. The cut caused Balaur to burst into mist, just as his minion Father Brewster had done earlier. And, just like his vampire spawn, once in mist form Balaur had no choice but to make a bee-line for his closest coffin, in this case passing back through the still-open iron maiden secret door.</p><p></p><p>Balaur's sudden death had an immediate effect upon the wolves; shaking their heads in irritation as if coming out of a fugue, they one by one retreated back the way they'd come, no longer interested in trying to take down a group of well-armed and well-armored adventurers. The heroes followed the mist's slow drift through the secret door, and fortunately for them his coffin was hidden just around the corner. After removing what they could from his now-solid-but-unmoving body (it would take him hours to regenerate enough to bring him to full wakefulness), Orchid set the coffin ablaze with a few flame-balls from her still-active spell, and then the vampire Balaur was no more. Harlan decided he'd wear the vampire's magic full-plate armor, which offered better protection than his own, while Ageratum took custody of the <em>ring of force shield</em> he wore. As for his blade, the group decided to turn it over to the clerics of the Stone Keep, as they'd be heading that way after leaving the watch tower; Alistair wanted to cast some <em>shrink item</em> spells on the bodies of the slain Cuthbertian cleric and paladin for proper burial. After all, it wasn't their fault they'd been turned - or were in the process of being turned - into undead monstrosities.</p><p></p><p>Once Alistair had converted the dead bodies into small pieces of cloth (which he then rolled up and stashed in a pouch at his belt), Harlan announced it was time to saddle up. "We'll spend the night at Stone Keep and then report back to the Vale in the morning," he decided. It sounded like a good plan to the others.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This "short" adventure went much longer than Dan had planned - we normally try to end up around 9:00 PM, but this one went past 10:00 PM and Vicki was really feeling it towards the end. Dan used both sides of a Paizo Flip-Map he'd purchased for this adventure ("Watch Station"), and it was a pretty cool set of maps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9058049, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 25: RAIDS AND RUINS[/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: 21 June 2023 - - - It had been a week since the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken down the evil forces at the Mistbrenner farm. During that time, they had come to an arrangement with the owner of the Dark and Light Club and had made the upper floor their semi-permanent headquarters - that is, that's where Chaevaris "parked" the door to the extradimensional space leading into the [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I]-like spell effect. The elven archer had designated the owner and a few selected individuals who worked at the club as "door-worthy" - she allowed the door to be visible to those people in addition to the adventurers who lived inside the extradimensional space - that way, anyone seeking the TPA could inquire at the Dark and Light Club and those members could see where the door was, unobtrusively positioned along the back wall, out of the way, to knock upon it and summon the adventurers. Alistair sat at a table on the upper floor of the club, struggling with ink and parchment with the lyrics to his next song. It seemed only fair that Orchid should be the focus of his next tune, but he didn't really know her all that well yet and was having difficulty coming up with anything beyond the first four lines. Fortunately, a pair of visitors gave him a good reason to put it away and worry about it later. "'Scuse me," said Brother Scrimshaw, "but if ye've a mind to it, Karl Armbust here's got a bit o' trouble he'd like ye and yer friends t' look into fer him," the cleric of Cuthbert said. Karl, Alistair knew, was Ghourmand Vale's head of the Farmers Guild, and he looked to be nearly in tears. "One minute, please," requested the young sorcerer, as he gathered up his writing implements and scurried off to the extradimensional door. "I shall fetch the team." To the confused farm leader, it appeared as if the young aristocrat simply stepped through the wall and disappeared. But he took it as a good sign that the man he was hoping could put an end to his guild's problems was so obviously powerful he could simply disappear at will. Alistair returned a few moments later with the rest of the team, including their new addition Orchid and her wolf Shushitan, who gave Karl a bit of a start when he first saw him exit from the wall. Alistair waved the two to the table at which he'd been sitting moments ago and said, "Perhaps you'd like to start at the beginning." "Yes, well," stammered Karl, "there have been attacks on a number of farmhouses in the past week or so - five, to be exact. In each case, the raiders killed everyone on the farm, and then stripped the flesh of all but one of them, which they used to leave a message, carved into his belly or across his chest." Harlan frowned at the barbarity of the attacks, but he steeled himself to hear more. "What were the messages?" he asked. "The first one, from an attack six days ago, was simply 'MEDDLERS.' On the second raid, five days ago, they left 'COME OUT OF YOUR LAIR' carved on the dead victim's stomach. Four days ago, it was 'HUNT OR BE HUNTED.' Naturally, once the guild found out what was going on, we warned the other farmers in the area and sent out a party of men to try to hunt down the raiders. They never came back - we're not sure what happened to them, but we fear the worst. Three days ago there was another raid, and the message sent was 'SLAVES OF THE TWISTED CAT.'" That got the team's attention, for they immediately realized the "twisted cat" could be a reference to a rakshasa - likely Jasgund Singh, who was one faction they knew of seeking to gain control of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] Harlan kept with him at all times. Karl continued with his tale. "The fifth raid occurred just yesterday, and was intercepted by a team of Cuthbertians from the Stone Keep we'd asked to look into the situation - only they didn't fare too well; of the team, only one of them made it back, and he says he's not sure what happened to the rest of his team, but he was lucky to get out alive." "Did he see the bandits?" asked Chaevaris. "Aye, an' 'e says they was hobgoblins," replied Brother Scrimshaw. "Was there a message from that last raid?" asked Ageratum. "Sure enough: 'GIVE ME MY STONE' was carved onto a dead man's forehead." "Jasgund Singh!" swore Alistair. "Unlikely," corrected Harlan. "Remember the quip about the 'twisted cat' - it's likely this is another faction seeking the [I]Blood Mirror[/I], in opposition to Singh." "Ah, quite, yes," agreed Alistair, feeling stupid that he'd already forgotten that clue. "So that vampire guy, from north of Greyhawk," surmised Ageratum. "The one whose vampire wife and mummy servant we killed." "That would be my guess," agreed Harlan. He pulled out a hand-drawn map of the local area from a pouch at his belt. "Can you show me where these attacks occurred?" Karl pointed out the general vicinity of each farmhouse that had been attacked; they were all about four to eight hours west of Ghourmand Vale and, more importantly, were each less than two hours from an old, abandoned watch station perched more or less in the middle of the five farmhouses. "I'd recommend we check this place out first," the half-elf paladin suggested. "It's the obvious place for the bandits' lair." "Isn't that a bit [I]too[/I] obvious?" Alistair asked. "They're leaving messages, most likely intended for us," Harlan reasoned. "I'd imagine they [I]want[/I] us to be able to find them without too much trouble, if they're looking at getting hold of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]." "Perhaps we should leave it behind when we go," offered up Orchid. "Not that I don't think we can handle the bandits ourselves, but if they're allied with a vampire, well...we don't want him to get it in his possession, do we?" Harlan thought it over, then decided it was worth the risk bringing it along, for its healing properties had proven to be too useful in the past for him to want to leave it behind. "It's about one in the afternoon," the half-elf announced. "If we head out immediately, we can make it there with still an hour or more left of sunlight." The group went to fetch their mounts - although Harlan merely had to step outside and summon Nova from the celestial planes - and then they were off, headed west. The paladin had once again offered to let Orchid ride Law, his more terrestrial mount, but she demurred, opting instead to wildshape into an eagle and fly off ahead, scouting the area. Suitably impressed, Alistair made a mental note to add that ability to the song he was working on in the back of his mind. Once they got to the abandoned watch station, Orchid and Ambrose flew over and around it, looking to see if anybody was there. The grackle dropped to the ground and listened at each of the doors, straining to pick up sounds of inhabitation. When he returned to his perch on his master's shoulders, he was able to report he'd heard the sounds of a single person in a room at the middle of the south part of the building, and two or more in the next room over to the west, all speaking some sort of guttural language. The group had been tying up their mounts to trees as close as they dared approach the watch tower; a good 50 yards of open clearing stood between them and the two-story, stone building. There was nothing to do but make a dash for it, and when they hit the main gate - the only way in at ground level, according to Ambrose, Orchid was there, back in her elven form, opening it just enough for them to sneak in one by one. The center part of the watchtower was a courtyard open to the air, with an enclosed stables in the northeastern corner. But as Ambrose had heard voices from the south, that's the way the group went. Alistair cloaked himself in [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] spells and then cast another spell to bring Ogilvy into being; the [I]unseen servant[/I] was handed the traditional bullseye lantern into which had been placed a stone with a permanent [I]light[/I] spell cast upon it. Then, gathering up the group's assembled ammunition, the sorcerer cast a [I]flame arrow[/I] spell upon the whole lot. Ageratum received her daily pouch of four stones, each of which was a boulder upon which a [I]shrink item[/I] spell had been previously cast. Orchid cast a [I]barkskin[/I] spell upon Harlan, a [I]magic fang[/I] spell upon Shushitan, and then [I] bull's strength[/I] and [I]greater magic fang[/I] spells upon herself, thinking they could come in handy if she wildshaped into a more fearsome creature to fight it out with these hobgoblins. Finally, Harlan cast a [I]bless[/I] spell upon the entire group, then led them to a door to the south. The room beyond was filled with dusty, unused bunks, but there was a set of stairs leading up to the barbican along the top of the southern wall, which led to the room in which Ambrose had heard a single individual stretching and yawning. Another set of stairs to the north led across the barbican over the gate and to a door into the stables; Ageratum checked it out to make sure there was nobody there to sneak up on them while they went south and, seeing the stables were empty, the halfling retraced her steps and followed the others. Orchid was the first to reach the door leading into the room they sought, but rather than open it she wildshaped again, this time into a three-foot-long viper. Shushitan loped right behind her, apparently unfazed by the sudden change in form of his mistress. Harlan stepped over the viper and cast his senses toward the door; sure enough, he got a distinct sense of evil from the other side. Ageratum then approached by having walked straight up the side wall and onto the barbican, courtesy of her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I]. She readied her short swords and nodded at Harlan to open it. Chaevaris stood behind Harlan, bow readied to send an arrow into whoever might be on the other side of the door, and Alistair ambled up behind the archer, not wanting to get in the way of her aiming. After a moment's concentration told Harlan there was but a single source of evil behind the door, he swung it open and bumped into something almost immediately. That turned out to be a hobgoblin, who had been about to open the door from the other side, but who instead was bumped down over the edge of the raised platform to land on a table in the room below. He started bellowing at once in his guttural language, and was answered by similar voices from the room beyond. Without a moment's hesitation, Harlan made the leap onto the table behind the hobgoblin, swinging with his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I]. His single sword-stroke brought the raider to unconsciousness, although the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] prevented him from bleeding out. Up on the ledge from which Harlan had just leaped, Ageratum made a sly smile to herself - she'd be undoing the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]'s work soon enough. Orchid slithered off the edge of the platform, landing on the floor below and raising her head to strike at any foe who might come in through one of the doors to the west. Shushitan leaped down beside his mistress, growling at the doors for good measure. Ageratum leaped down onto the table since Harlan had by that time vacated it, and she slid the blade of her sword along the hobgoblin's neck, nearly severing it. He died, drowning in his own blood, and the halfling took a moment to wipe her sword on his armor before hopping down off the table beside Harlan. Chaevaris went down the steps and opened a door over at the northeast corner and found a small gallery, empty of foes. The statues and paintings stored here were covered in dust, so she closed the door and returned to the banquet room. Alistair stood at the top of hall, up on the platform with the stairs leading down, where he figured he'd have a good shot at any hobgoblins charging into the banquet room. At his master's direction, Ogilvy shone the lantern onto a door to the west, from where the hobgoblin shouts seemed to be emanating. The sorcerer also sent Ambrose back outside, to patrol the area and report back if anyone started advancing upon the guard station. Harlan was concentrating on separating the overlapping auras of evil he sensed from the other side of the wooden door - there seemed to be six in all. Pulling open the door, he saw a large, mostly empty room with a raised platform supporting a long table along the south wall. He ran up the short flight of steps to get over by the table, where he figured he'd have a height advantage over the approaching hobgoblin raiders. Shushitan leaped up onto the platform as well, as Orchid slithered over into the back corner of the room and cast a [I]spike stones[/I] spell across the floor of the entire chamber. The hobgoblins all yelled in pain as their momentum brought their feet down upon numerous spikes and their mad rush across the room suddenly came to an abrupt halt, as the druid had been sure it would. Ageratum entered the chamber, avoiding the [I]spike stones[/I] by climbing up the wall and across the ceiling, courtesy of her magic cloak. She stood directly above a hobgoblin and dropped a pebble onto his head, the small stone reverting to boulder size upon impact. The raider cried out in pain but feared to step away, not being able to see where the magic spikes covering the floor were actually located. But each hobgoblin carried a javelin, and they all realized at about the same time that they could throw them without moving from their individual spots. Three went flying at Harlan, who ducked behind his shield in time and was unscathed by the attack, while the other three were thrown up at Ageratum. Of these, one pierced the little halfling in the top of her shoulder, upside-down as she was. By then, Chaevaris had maneuvered over to another door and opened it, finding herself behind the hobgoblins who were all facing Harlan at the front of the chamber. She silently placed an arrow into her longbow and lined up her shot. In the meantime, Alistair came down the stairs to stand in the doorway Harlan had used to enter the chamber, and he cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at one of the hobgoblin raiders, knocking him out and causing him to fall forward, where he impaled himself on a cluster of [I]spikes stones[/I] which penetrated his skull and killed him outright. With a snarl (and a Halfling curse), Ageratum plucked the javelin from her shoulder and threw it back at one of the hobgoblins below her, following it up with one of the kobold shortspears she carried with her. She had the grim satisfaction of watching both thrown weapons hit for full impact, slaying the raider outright. Having thrown their only ranged weapons, the hobgoblins started tentatively trying to move forward, but found the spikes everywhere they tried to step. Chaevaris released her arrow and brought down another hobgoblin with a well-placed arrow through the skull, while Alistair's second [I]magic missile[/I] spell killed another after he fell over unconscious, face-first into the spikes. Knowing the hobgoblins, who couldn't see the magic spikes in any case, likewise wouldn't know they were no longer there, Orchid dismissed her [I]spike stones[/I] spell and slithered forward to bite one of the two remaining hobgoblins on the thigh, dropping him with a combination of the successful bite and the virulent venom she pumped into his system immediately thereafter. Ageratum killed the remaining raider with two more kobold shortspears, and the group suddenly found themselves without any enemies to fight. But that didn't last long, for a door across the way from where Chaevaris stood suddenly opened, and while the archer readied another arrow to shoot at whoever might enter the room, nobody seemed to do so. That wasn't actually the case, though, for two hobgoblin sergeants and a barghest, the latter of which had just cast an [I]invisibility sphere[/I] spell on the trio, had just silently entered the room and were sizing up the heroes. The barghest started off combat by using a [I]crushing despair[/I] spell-like ability, affecting everyone who stood in the front of the chamber but Alistair. Of course, this magical attack rendered the three visible; to the heroes, it was as if they had suddenly just materialized in the room with them. But Chaevaris shot her readied arrow, reloaded with a silver arrow from the quiver on her back, pulled back the string, and sent it arrow streaking towards the barghest, an oversized wolf with a goblin's face, all in the matter of a second or two. The arrows struck true, striking the foul creature's left shoulder. It howled in pain and surprise. Alistair cast an [I]ice storm[/I] spell into the back half of the chamber, knocking both hobgoblins to the floor, unconscious. The barghest was also struck but managed to stay on its legs in an upright position, at least until Harlan came charging across the room, slicing into the goblin-faced fiend across its broad, lupine chest with his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I]. Then it, too, lay unconscious on the floor, until Ageratum advanced and brought all three lives to a final close with her own blade. She tut-tutted to herself when she found nothing worth looting upon their bodies. There was a set of stairs leading down to a lower level and, after a quick perusal around the other rooms on the ground floor, the group headed down. Harlan led the way, with Ogilvy just behind him shining the way with Chaevaris's borrowed bullseye lantern. At the bottom of the stairs was a large, open room filled with cobwebs and dust - and a conference room table and chairs in the middle of the room, all of which had seen better days. There were two passageways leading off from the chamber, one heading north and one off to the east. There were small prison cells interspersed along the corridor to the east, which is where Harlan led the others. But Alistair, not wanting anything to come sneaking up behind them, went peeking down the north passageway before Ogilvy's light got too far away and while he couldn't see anything, he could distinctly hear the sounds of footsteps approaching from the darkness. Hissing quietly to the others, he moved to just around the corner from the northern passageway, the words to a [I]magic missile[/I] spell ready at the tip of his tongue. Harlan redirected the group that way and Ogilvy's lantern beam shone down the corridor, revealing an armored figure turning a corner from the east. Pierced in the light, the figure found himself the recipient of Alistair's released spell and an arrow through the throat courtesy of Chaevaris. His eyes flashed in anger and pain and he thrust out a hand, attempting to [I]dominate[/I] Chaevaris into submission, but the stubborn archer's willpower was too strong. Her eyesight much better than that of a human in low-light conditions, she recognized the figure as Father Brewster, one of the Cuthbertian clerics from the Stone Keep who had been sent out as part of the group seeking to put an end to the farmhouse raids - he'd apparently been taken down by the vampire and turned into one of his undead minions in the meantime. Alistair cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell at Father Brewster's undead corpse and set it ablaze for a brief moment before it collapsed into a column of mist that went slowly wafting back down the side corridor from which it had come. Keeping pace - for they knew it would be heading straight for its coffin - the group followed. Ageratum pulled out a vial of [I]silversheen[/I] as they did so and passed it over to Harlan, who applied the magic substance to the blade of his flaming longsword. Orchid resumed her elven form, realizing snake venom would be useless against a vampire, and they were hoping to find the vampire who had brought Father Brewster to his undead state, for he was the likely leader of this gang of farmhouse raiders. The side corridor led to a large, open chamber. By the lantern light, they could see a coffin on a raised platform in the back of the room, and the fact that Brewster's gaseous mist-form was headed straight for it led them to believe it was his. Harlan searched for evil emanations in the room (specifically the back half, where the coffin stood) and found nothing. Casting a [I]produce flame[/I] spell that caused a ball of flame to appear in her palm, Orchid stepped up to the wooden coffin and set it ablaze. In doing so, she saw a line of several iron maidens standing along the north wall of the chamber, and a human-sized figure in the southwestern corner. Alistair approached the supine figure (bringing Ogilvy along with the light source), and recognized it as Brother Caspian, another Stone Keep Cuthbertian. He, too, had been slain and was now awaiting the full conversion to a vampire spawn. But Harlan prevented that from happening by severing the slain cleric's head from his body with one slash of his flaming blade. Then, as the paladin went over to detect evil emanations he was picking up from the first iron maiden, Alistair pocketed a holy symbol of Saint Cuthbert that had been lying upon the ground beside Caspian's now-headless body. As Orchid supervised the burning of Father Brewster's coffin - ensuring a permanent end to the vampire spawn when his misty form re-entered it and reverted to solid form, which blazed brightly as it caught flame and then burned to a crisp - Harlan directed Ageratum's attentions to the first iron maiden. It took her only a moment to uncover a hidden latch that allowed the entire torture device to swing forward like a door - but then, to her great surprise, she saw a pack of wolves lined up on the other side of the secret door. She tried slamming it closed, but a wolf on the other side was pushing it towards her, preventing her from relatching it into place. Harlan helped her slam it shut and heard it click into place. "Good luck opening that back up without any thumbs!" he scoffed - and was thereby quite surprised when he could hear the wolves attempting to do just that. Chaevaris came over and readied an arrow to shoot into the pack of wolves if they made it through the secret door, while Alistair prepared to cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell in the same direction if they made it through. Through the closed iron maiden, Harlan could sense a strong source of evil on the other side - but just the one. The iron maiden suddenly burst forward, as the wolves not only managed to unlatch the secret door mechanism but push it back open despite the best efforts of Ageratum and Harlan to keep it closed. The first wolf bounded into the room, dodging past Harlan's swinging sword blade but not Chaevaris's arrow, which struck him along the side of his neck. Alistair caught the wolf with both blasts of his [I]scorching ray[/I] spell, although when Orchid tossed a ball of flame at it she missed. The wolf loped further into the room and Ageratum swung at him with her silver short sword, catching him in the left shoulder. He howled in pain and bounded past the halfling, reverting to his once-human form as he approached Chaevaris. By his black armor, the elven archer recognized this must be Balaur, who had been depicted in a series of tapestries back at his own ruined keep, many days north of Greyhawk City, where they'd slain his vampiric wife and his mummified servant. Behind him, eight other wolves loped into the room, tongues lolling in hunger for a potential meal. Orchid threw another ball of fire Balaur's way, this one striking true. Beside her, Shushitan bit at an approaching wolf, catching it on the leg and pulling it down to the ground, where it quickly exposed its neck in an "I surrender" motion - these wolves weren't inherently evil, merely summoned by the vampire who until recently had been wearing the form of a wolf himself. But Ageratum swung her silver blade at another wolf approaching her with a hungry look on its face; she had no intention of becoming his snack! Chaevaris took a rapid step away from Balaur and raised her bow at him, shooting him at almost point-blank range with a pair of silver arrows shot in rapid sequence due to her [I]boots of speed[/I]. Alistair sent another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell Balaur's way, hitting with only one but that one causing enough damage to - judging by the look of pain on the vampire's face - nearly cause him to release his own solid form into mindless mist. Hissing in pain and fury, Balaur brought a dark sword of his own swinging at the young sorcerer while his other hand, balled into a fist, struck at Alistair from the opposite direction. The sorcerer dodged the undead fist but the black-bladed sword cut into his side, draining a portion of his vitality in the process. Harlan found himself under attack from a wolf, while two more ganged up on Ageratum and another three went for Chaevaris. None did any significant damage, nor did the two going after Alistair. Harlan accepted a pair of snapping jaws as he raced past two wolves to bring his flaming blade down upon their undead master, Pelor's smiting energy coursing through the weapon. The cut caused Balaur to burst into mist, just as his minion Father Brewster had done earlier. And, just like his vampire spawn, once in mist form Balaur had no choice but to make a bee-line for his closest coffin, in this case passing back through the still-open iron maiden secret door. Balaur's sudden death had an immediate effect upon the wolves; shaking their heads in irritation as if coming out of a fugue, they one by one retreated back the way they'd come, no longer interested in trying to take down a group of well-armed and well-armored adventurers. The heroes followed the mist's slow drift through the secret door, and fortunately for them his coffin was hidden just around the corner. After removing what they could from his now-solid-but-unmoving body (it would take him hours to regenerate enough to bring him to full wakefulness), Orchid set the coffin ablaze with a few flame-balls from her still-active spell, and then the vampire Balaur was no more. Harlan decided he'd wear the vampire's magic full-plate armor, which offered better protection than his own, while Ageratum took custody of the [I]ring of force shield[/I] he wore. As for his blade, the group decided to turn it over to the clerics of the Stone Keep, as they'd be heading that way after leaving the watch tower; Alistair wanted to cast some [I]shrink item[/I] spells on the bodies of the slain Cuthbertian cleric and paladin for proper burial. After all, it wasn't their fault they'd been turned - or were in the process of being turned - into undead monstrosities. Once Alistair had converted the dead bodies into small pieces of cloth (which he then rolled up and stashed in a pouch at his belt), Harlan announced it was time to saddle up. "We'll spend the night at Stone Keep and then report back to the Vale in the morning," he decided. It sounded like a good plan to the others. - - - This "short" adventure went much longer than Dan had planned - we normally try to end up around 9:00 PM, but this one went past 10:00 PM and Vicki was really feeling it towards the end. Dan used both sides of a Paizo Flip-Map he'd purchased for this adventure ("Watch Station"), and it was a pretty cool set of maps. [/QUOTE]
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