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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9109828" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 31: TROLLS BE HIR</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 9</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 9</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 25 August 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Returning from the Stone Keep, after dispatching the vrock imprisoned in the <em>iron flask</em> that had been hidden inside E. L. Grimwade's pocketbook, the group returned to the upper story of the Dark and Light Club to see the dwarven miner Kasselban Picksmart waiting for them. He was not a patient dwarf and seemed offended that the heroes weren't there waiting for him just in case he might show up. But he got down immediately to business.</p><p></p><p>"Got me a proposal fer ye," he said without preamble, not even bothering to question the appearance of an elderly human woman among their number. The author had taken out her notepad and was scribbling furiously, trying to get everything down. "We sealed up that tunnel on th' lower level, what had that rift or whatever innit, only now we figgered we'd tap into th' existing mines from a diff'rent d'rection, like. We got th' area mapped out where we wanna start th' diggin' only here's th' catch - the valley's got a band 'f trolls, what went an' ate a few o' me surveyors an' chased off th' others. So if we're t' start diggin' there, I need them trolls taken out first, like. Whaddaya say? I'll pay good coin fer th' job."</p><p></p><p>"Define 'good coin,' if you please," countered Alistair. The young nobleman had a dislike of the dwarven skinflint, knowing his desire not to spend a single copper piece that wasn't absolutely necessary. "And why haven't you taken your proposal to the new Ghourmand Vale Rangers?"</p><p></p><p>"Bah!" scoffed the old dwarf. "They wanna charge me 5,000 gold fer th' job, an' we all know full well th' trolls'll make short work o' them newbies - we might as well dip 'em all in barbecue sauce afore we send 'em out into battle. Nah, I figger you folks are th' ones fer the job, an' 4,000 gold's a much better sum in any case."</p><p></p><p>"Better for you, that is," smirked Ageratum.</p><p></p><p>"How many trolls are we looking at?" asked Harlan.</p><p></p><p>"Well, that's th' thing - not quite sure o' that," admitted Kasselban. "Th' surveyors what made it back with their skin still intact, they kin say fer sure there's at least two, prolly more."</p><p></p><p>"So are you paying 2,000 a head?" asked Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"No, I'm payin' 4,000 fer the job: take out th' dangblasted trolls, no matter how many o' them there be!"</p><p></p><p>"4,000 pieces of gold to take out two, or even four trolls, seems sufficient," admitted Alistair. "But suppose there are really eight? Or twelve? Are you still only paying 4,000 for the lot?" A fierce haggling erupted shortly thereafter, with the final determination that Kasselban would pay 4,000 pieces of gold for the slaying of the first four trolls they might encounter in the valley where he wanted to dig, with an additional 500 pieces of gold for each troll thereafter. "But I want th' job done right away!" demanded Kasselban. "I'm not gonna give you a week or more ' go hunt up as many troll heads as ye can!"</p><p></p><p>"I assure you, we will not take advantage of the arrangement we have all agreed upon," assured Harlan. "We will head out this very morning and see to your troll trouble."</p><p></p><p>"And I insist upon accompanying you," piped up Miss Grimwade. "A troll hunt - this will be most enlightening!"</p><p></p><p>"It's likely to be very dangerous," warned Orchid. "Trolls are quite vicious." But the author would not be dissuaded, and she had Alistair on her side; the devoted fan of her works found it difficult to deny the author anything. He promised to keep her safe - and he had some ideas about how they could best take the trolls down easily. So, before they went to the valley to confront the trolls - a journey of about an hour on horseback, according to Kasselban - he took the group shopping, purchasing four flasks of oil, each in a cork-stoppered glass tube, and a vast amount of firewood. With the latter, he set about building four blazing bonfires - Chaevaris and Orchid had to assist him in getting them blazing just right, as they had each had years more experience in such things - and then the sorcerer shrunk each blazing fire down to a piece of cloth with four <em>shrink item</em> spells. Each cloth was then rolled up and inserted into an oil flask, and the four flasks were turned over to Ageratum, the group's most accurate item flinger. (She was also given the day's small pouch of "pebboulders" - boulders that had undergone their own magical shrinking several days ago and which would regain their normal size if not used up by the end of the day in any case.)</p><p></p><p>After Miss Grimwade assured everyone she could ride a horse and promised she would stay back from danger, she was allowed to saddle up on Law, Harlan's warhorse that Orchid often rode now that he had Nova, the celestial pegasus, to serve as his aerial steed. Orchid didn't mind giving up the horse she usually rode; she simply wildshaped into an eagle and joined Ambrose in flying ahead, ensuring the way was safe, and then waiting for the others to arrive on horseback before taking wing again. And in this manner, the group made it to the valley where the troll band was said to lair.</p><p></p><p>The valley had seen better days. Many of the trees were knocked over, as if something much larger than a troll had passed that way. And great patches of grass were blackened and burned. To Orchid's practiced eye, it looked as if it has been burned by lightning, as she explained once resuming her elven form upon reaching their destination.</p><p></p><p>"There's the cave where the trolls are said to lair," pointed out Chaevaris, indicating a narrow opening in the side of a rocky hill. It was only about three feet wide but stood a good eight feet tall - just barely large enough for a troll to squeeze into.</p><p></p><p>"We'd best prep for combat," suggested Harlan. He cast a <em>bull's strength</em> spell upon himself and a <em>bless</em> spell over the assembled group. Alistair cast <em>mage armor</em> spells upon himself and on Miss Grimwade, a <em>shield</em> spell upon himself, a <em>flame arrow</em> spell upon the group's various ammunition, and a series of five <em>cat's grace</em> spells upon each of the adventurers. Orchid cast a <em>barkskin</em> spell upon herself and another on Harlan, a <em>longstrider</em> spell on herself, and then followed them up with a <em>greater magic fang</em> spell on herself as well.</p><p></p><p>"Wait, not on Shushitan?" Chaevaris asked, surprised.</p><p></p><p>"No, this way I can be more effective in wildshaped forms," the druid replied. But she cast a <em>flame blade</em> spell in the meantime, expecting to initiate combat with the trolls in her elven form.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum passed a potion over to Miss Grimwade and suggested the author drink it down. "You'll become a slow-moving cloud of gas," she explained. "You won't be able to write down any notes, but you'll be pretty much safe from anything the trolls can try to do to you," she said. "And you can deactivate it at will, but once you do so, there's no going back to gaseous form, so only do so when the threat is over."</p><p></p><p>"I shall keep all my notes up here," E. L. Grimwade promised, tapping her temple before chugging down the potion and becoming a vaporous cloud. Harlan instructed Nova to keep the animals safe, Orchid told Shushitan the same, and Alistair had Ambrose remain with them and let him know if anything tried to bother them while the adventurers went into the cave network inside the hill. And then, single file, the heroes entered the troll den - after Alistair cast a <em>haste</em> spell upon them all.</p><p></p><p>Orchid went first, guided by the light from her <em>flame blade</em> spell. The passageway split almost at once; she chose to go to the right, and found herself in a wider cavern that split off into two different directions as well. Continuing on the right-hand path, she entered another cavern and could see a vast network of linked, smaller caves off to her left. She cast a <em>spike stones</em> spell, sending it out as far as it would go to the west. Chaevaris moved up beside her fellow elf as she was casting her spell and saw a pair of trolls at the edge of her vision. She quickly aimed her first arrow at one of them. Ageratum walked up beside Chaevaris, but she was halfway up the wall, standing sideways due to the power of her <em>cloak of arachnida</em>. She held the first of what Alistair had dubbed "troll grenades" in her hand, ready to throw.</p><p></p><p>Harlan was the next to step up to the rest of the group, the fiery arrow loaded into the <em>flaming composite longbow</em> he had taken from the body of an erinyes devil providing him all the light he needed. With the combined light sources, even his human eyes could make out the two shapes of the trolls in the distance, and he let fly with his arrow, striking one troll in the chest. Chaevaris held her own shot, waiting for the perfect moment. Alistair came up last, and he brought the words to a <em>scorching ray</em> spell to his lips, but squinted into the darkness, trying to make out which shapes were trolls and which were merely stone columns, the fused pillars formed by a stalactite and a stalagmite growing together.</p><p></p><p>The first of these two trolls started to run forward and was instantly struck by Chaevaris's released arrow, the shaft burying itself up to its feathers in the massive brute's chest. It also felt pain in the bottom of its feet as it raced forward over the <em>spike stones</em>, but didn't let a simple thing like temporary pain stop it - trolls well knew their tough hides regenerated such paltry damage in mere moments. But before it could close with Harlan, who stood in the front of the formation, Ageratum tossed her first "troll grenade" and struck the beast head-on. The glass vial shattered, spraying oil all over the troll, while the rolled-up cloth that had been inside plopped to the cave floor - and instantly resumed it full size as a roaring bonfire. The troll exploded in flames, roaring in surprise, fury, and a great deal of pain. Alistair then launched his twin <em>scorching rays</em> at it, stoking the fire with two additional gouts of flame of his own. The troll collapsed onto the cavern floor, piercing itself several more times over with hard-to-see spikes growing up from the solid stone beneath it. It passed out into merciful oblivion, its oil-drenched flesh still burning merrily away.</p><p></p><p>The second troll took off to the northeast, passing through and out of the <em>spike stones</em> area of effect (and leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind it). It met up with two others who had been fighting among themselves over the bones and scraps of the dwarven surveyors, and upon learning there were intruders in their den, raced around the corner to approach the heroes from the north. What luck! Food that delivered itself right to their mouths!</p><p></p><p>Orchid stepped back a bit and cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell down upon the two closest trolls, burning them in holy fire. Chaevaris spun in place and sent three arrows in rapid succession into the body of the closest troll, one arrow catching him literally right through the eye; he collapsed onto the floor as well, unconscious but stable due to the <em>Blood Mirror</em> in Harlan's belt pouch. Ageratum scampered up to the ceiling - out of reach of the trolls unless they could leap higher than she imagined - and tossed a second "troll grenade" onto the other troll to have been burned up in Orchid's <em>flame strike</em> spell. It broke against its warty flesh, covered the area all around him in oil, and it all went up in flames when the bonfire assumed its full size and shape. The troll cried out curses in its Giant dialect.</p><p></p><p>Harlan stepped to the side where he could get a bead on this burning troll and shot another two <em>flaming arrows</em> into its gut, relying upon the enhanced strength granted to him by the <em>bull's strength</em> spell to even be able to pull the erinyes' bowstring to its full length. A third arrow went astray, shattering against a back wall. And then Alistair brought it down with another <em>scorching ray</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>The last remaining troll, still leaving bloody footprints from all the spikes it had trodden upon, ran forward in a sprint and leaped over the burning corpse of one of its horrid kin, landing on a patch of oil-burning flame, and ended up close to Alistair (who gave a startled bleat of terror he hoped Miss Grimwade didn't hear). But then Orchid cast a <em>produce flame</em> spell and tossed the small ball of fire at the approaching troll, hitting him in his belly. Chaevaris hit him twice with two more burning arrows, and then Ageratum tossed the last two remaining "troll grenades" his way. They both struck true, some of the oil splashing onto the body of one of the unconscious trolls already spread out on the cavern floor, and the dual bonfires set both bodies ablaze. All four trolls were now unconscious and burning up, with the fire likely outpacing their ability to regenerate.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the heroes didn't get a chance to verify that the trolls were all done for, or that in fact these four were the only trolls to be found in the cave network, for Alistair got a sudden shiver of fear running down his spine over the empathic link he shared with his grackle familiar. "Ambrose is in trouble!" he cried, turning to race back out of the troll lair the way he'd come.</p><p></p><p>Harlan made it outside first, and he quickly noted the animals had all raced away - and also the reason for their sudden panic, for there in the valley stood a massive, multilegged lizard, its body slim and serpentine, covered in scales of an iridescent blue. A forked tongue flickered in and out of the creature's wide mouth, as it tasted the burning troll flesh in the air. It turned to face Harlan, and the paladin let fly with a <em>flaming arrow</em> that struck the behir in its lower throat.</p><p></p><p>Alistair was beside the paladin in a moment, casting an <em>ice storm</em> spell that had hailstones crashing down upon the behir and extending in a circle reaching toward the heroes. <em>That way,</em> thought the sorcerer, <em>if it tries coming at us it should be slowed up by the falling hail.</em> Sure enough, the behir tried heading towards the adventurers, its many clawed feet slipping and sliding in the spell's area of effect as it continued dropping hailstones down upon the hapless beast. It breathed in, ready to send a flash of electricity bursting from its mouth - but before it could do so, Chaevaris shot a <em>sleep arrow</em> at the behir, striking it in its jaw. Unfortunately for the heroes, it managed to resist the magical sleep effect of the arrow - and then also overcame Orchid's attempt to turn it into a helpless rabbit with a <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell - but then Ageratum sent a "pebboulder" flying at it with her sling, the pebble striking its jaw and attaining its full, boulder size upon doing so. Harlan pumped another three <em>flaming arrows</em> into it in rapid succession, noting offhandedly that its aura was absent the telltale presence of evil he so often found among those he fought. Alistair finally dropped the behir where it stood with another casting of <em>scorching ray</em>, both gouts of flame striking it without fail.</p><p></p><p>"Well, that's a relief," Ageratum said as she marched over and went to slit its throat to make sure it was dead. In doing so, she unearthed a troll arm in its gizzard. "Ew!" she cried. "This thing's been eating trolls!"</p><p></p><p>"It's probably responsible for the blackened grass, too," suggested Orchid. "Smell that ozone in the air? I think the thing shoots lightning from its mouth, like a blue dragon." But with the behir dead (and the animals rounded back up), the heroes opted to return to the troll den to ensure none of the trolls had survived their burning. They hadn't, and a full exploration of the cavern system revealed a total of six troll nests but just the four dead trolls; it was assumed the other two had been eaten by the behir, whose stomach acid would have been just as effective in overcoming the famed troll regeneration as did fire.</p><p></p><p>"It's safe to return to human form, now, Miss Grimwade," suggested Alistair to the human-shaped cloud of smoke drifting nearby. E. L. Grimwade did just that, exclaiming, "That was quite a fight! I shall have to jot down my notes while they're fresh in my mind!" And then, turning to Alistair, she said, "And you can call me <strong>Edna Louise</strong> if you like, dear. All my friends do."</p><p></p><p>Alistair almost fainted right there on the spot upon realizing the author of the Elfy Danger Silverleaf books considered him a friend. He managed to remain conscious, but his throat dried up and he was visibly weak in the knees.</p><p></p><p>Orchid volunteered to wildshape back into an eagle and fly back to tell Kasselban the job had been completed. An hour and a half later, he showed up riding a mule with another mule behind him, loaded down with their promised gold. "Hmm, not bad, not bad," he exclaimed, looking over the heroes' handiwork.</p><p></p><p>"Money well spent, I should think," commented Alistair, who had found his voice in the meantime. "When you want a job done right, sometimes you really need a group of Trained Professional Adventurers!"</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This adventure was unique in that none of the monsters - four trolls and a behir - managed to even close with us, let alone cause even a single hit point of damage. The "troll grenades" worked out rather well, we all agreed. And with the money we earned, some of us finally got the amounts we'd been saving for to upgrade our equipment: Harlan's having the <em>holy</em> weapon property added to his <em>+1 flaming burst longsword</em> (maybe now would be a good time to finally give the blade a name!); Ageratum's having a <em>ring of invisibility</em> made for her, but as she already wears two rings she's having it made in the form of a bracelet instead; and Alistair's finally got enough money to purchase a <em>lesser metamagic rod of maximize spell</em>, which ought to come in rather handy in the adventures to come.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9109828, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 31: TROLLS BE HIR[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 9[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 9[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 25 August 2023 - - - Returning from the Stone Keep, after dispatching the vrock imprisoned in the [I]iron flask[/I] that had been hidden inside E. L. Grimwade's pocketbook, the group returned to the upper story of the Dark and Light Club to see the dwarven miner Kasselban Picksmart waiting for them. He was not a patient dwarf and seemed offended that the heroes weren't there waiting for him just in case he might show up. But he got down immediately to business. "Got me a proposal fer ye," he said without preamble, not even bothering to question the appearance of an elderly human woman among their number. The author had taken out her notepad and was scribbling furiously, trying to get everything down. "We sealed up that tunnel on th' lower level, what had that rift or whatever innit, only now we figgered we'd tap into th' existing mines from a diff'rent d'rection, like. We got th' area mapped out where we wanna start th' diggin' only here's th' catch - the valley's got a band 'f trolls, what went an' ate a few o' me surveyors an' chased off th' others. So if we're t' start diggin' there, I need them trolls taken out first, like. Whaddaya say? I'll pay good coin fer th' job." "Define 'good coin,' if you please," countered Alistair. The young nobleman had a dislike of the dwarven skinflint, knowing his desire not to spend a single copper piece that wasn't absolutely necessary. "And why haven't you taken your proposal to the new Ghourmand Vale Rangers?" "Bah!" scoffed the old dwarf. "They wanna charge me 5,000 gold fer th' job, an' we all know full well th' trolls'll make short work o' them newbies - we might as well dip 'em all in barbecue sauce afore we send 'em out into battle. Nah, I figger you folks are th' ones fer the job, an' 4,000 gold's a much better sum in any case." "Better for you, that is," smirked Ageratum. "How many trolls are we looking at?" asked Harlan. "Well, that's th' thing - not quite sure o' that," admitted Kasselban. "Th' surveyors what made it back with their skin still intact, they kin say fer sure there's at least two, prolly more." "So are you paying 2,000 a head?" asked Alistair. "No, I'm payin' 4,000 fer the job: take out th' dangblasted trolls, no matter how many o' them there be!" "4,000 pieces of gold to take out two, or even four trolls, seems sufficient," admitted Alistair. "But suppose there are really eight? Or twelve? Are you still only paying 4,000 for the lot?" A fierce haggling erupted shortly thereafter, with the final determination that Kasselban would pay 4,000 pieces of gold for the slaying of the first four trolls they might encounter in the valley where he wanted to dig, with an additional 500 pieces of gold for each troll thereafter. "But I want th' job done right away!" demanded Kasselban. "I'm not gonna give you a week or more ' go hunt up as many troll heads as ye can!" "I assure you, we will not take advantage of the arrangement we have all agreed upon," assured Harlan. "We will head out this very morning and see to your troll trouble." "And I insist upon accompanying you," piped up Miss Grimwade. "A troll hunt - this will be most enlightening!" "It's likely to be very dangerous," warned Orchid. "Trolls are quite vicious." But the author would not be dissuaded, and she had Alistair on her side; the devoted fan of her works found it difficult to deny the author anything. He promised to keep her safe - and he had some ideas about how they could best take the trolls down easily. So, before they went to the valley to confront the trolls - a journey of about an hour on horseback, according to Kasselban - he took the group shopping, purchasing four flasks of oil, each in a cork-stoppered glass tube, and a vast amount of firewood. With the latter, he set about building four blazing bonfires - Chaevaris and Orchid had to assist him in getting them blazing just right, as they had each had years more experience in such things - and then the sorcerer shrunk each blazing fire down to a piece of cloth with four [I]shrink item[/I] spells. Each cloth was then rolled up and inserted into an oil flask, and the four flasks were turned over to Ageratum, the group's most accurate item flinger. (She was also given the day's small pouch of "pebboulders" - boulders that had undergone their own magical shrinking several days ago and which would regain their normal size if not used up by the end of the day in any case.) After Miss Grimwade assured everyone she could ride a horse and promised she would stay back from danger, she was allowed to saddle up on Law, Harlan's warhorse that Orchid often rode now that he had Nova, the celestial pegasus, to serve as his aerial steed. Orchid didn't mind giving up the horse she usually rode; she simply wildshaped into an eagle and joined Ambrose in flying ahead, ensuring the way was safe, and then waiting for the others to arrive on horseback before taking wing again. And in this manner, the group made it to the valley where the troll band was said to lair. The valley had seen better days. Many of the trees were knocked over, as if something much larger than a troll had passed that way. And great patches of grass were blackened and burned. To Orchid's practiced eye, it looked as if it has been burned by lightning, as she explained once resuming her elven form upon reaching their destination. "There's the cave where the trolls are said to lair," pointed out Chaevaris, indicating a narrow opening in the side of a rocky hill. It was only about three feet wide but stood a good eight feet tall - just barely large enough for a troll to squeeze into. "We'd best prep for combat," suggested Harlan. He cast a [I]bull's strength[/I] spell upon himself and a [I]bless[/I] spell over the assembled group. Alistair cast [I]mage armor[/I] spells upon himself and on Miss Grimwade, a [I]shield[/I] spell upon himself, a [I]flame arrow[/I] spell upon the group's various ammunition, and a series of five [I]cat's grace[/I] spells upon each of the adventurers. Orchid cast a [I]barkskin[/I] spell upon herself and another on Harlan, a [I]longstrider[/I] spell on herself, and then followed them up with a [I]greater magic fang[/I] spell on herself as well. "Wait, not on Shushitan?" Chaevaris asked, surprised. "No, this way I can be more effective in wildshaped forms," the druid replied. But she cast a [I]flame blade[/I] spell in the meantime, expecting to initiate combat with the trolls in her elven form. Ageratum passed a potion over to Miss Grimwade and suggested the author drink it down. "You'll become a slow-moving cloud of gas," she explained. "You won't be able to write down any notes, but you'll be pretty much safe from anything the trolls can try to do to you," she said. "And you can deactivate it at will, but once you do so, there's no going back to gaseous form, so only do so when the threat is over." "I shall keep all my notes up here," E. L. Grimwade promised, tapping her temple before chugging down the potion and becoming a vaporous cloud. Harlan instructed Nova to keep the animals safe, Orchid told Shushitan the same, and Alistair had Ambrose remain with them and let him know if anything tried to bother them while the adventurers went into the cave network inside the hill. And then, single file, the heroes entered the troll den - after Alistair cast a [I]haste[/I] spell upon them all. Orchid went first, guided by the light from her [I]flame blade[/I] spell. The passageway split almost at once; she chose to go to the right, and found herself in a wider cavern that split off into two different directions as well. Continuing on the right-hand path, she entered another cavern and could see a vast network of linked, smaller caves off to her left. She cast a [I]spike stones[/I] spell, sending it out as far as it would go to the west. Chaevaris moved up beside her fellow elf as she was casting her spell and saw a pair of trolls at the edge of her vision. She quickly aimed her first arrow at one of them. Ageratum walked up beside Chaevaris, but she was halfway up the wall, standing sideways due to the power of her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I]. She held the first of what Alistair had dubbed "troll grenades" in her hand, ready to throw. Harlan was the next to step up to the rest of the group, the fiery arrow loaded into the [I]flaming composite longbow[/I] he had taken from the body of an erinyes devil providing him all the light he needed. With the combined light sources, even his human eyes could make out the two shapes of the trolls in the distance, and he let fly with his arrow, striking one troll in the chest. Chaevaris held her own shot, waiting for the perfect moment. Alistair came up last, and he brought the words to a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell to his lips, but squinted into the darkness, trying to make out which shapes were trolls and which were merely stone columns, the fused pillars formed by a stalactite and a stalagmite growing together. The first of these two trolls started to run forward and was instantly struck by Chaevaris's released arrow, the shaft burying itself up to its feathers in the massive brute's chest. It also felt pain in the bottom of its feet as it raced forward over the [I]spike stones[/I], but didn't let a simple thing like temporary pain stop it - trolls well knew their tough hides regenerated such paltry damage in mere moments. But before it could close with Harlan, who stood in the front of the formation, Ageratum tossed her first "troll grenade" and struck the beast head-on. The glass vial shattered, spraying oil all over the troll, while the rolled-up cloth that had been inside plopped to the cave floor - and instantly resumed it full size as a roaring bonfire. The troll exploded in flames, roaring in surprise, fury, and a great deal of pain. Alistair then launched his twin [I]scorching rays[/I] at it, stoking the fire with two additional gouts of flame of his own. The troll collapsed onto the cavern floor, piercing itself several more times over with hard-to-see spikes growing up from the solid stone beneath it. It passed out into merciful oblivion, its oil-drenched flesh still burning merrily away. The second troll took off to the northeast, passing through and out of the [I]spike stones[/I] area of effect (and leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind it). It met up with two others who had been fighting among themselves over the bones and scraps of the dwarven surveyors, and upon learning there were intruders in their den, raced around the corner to approach the heroes from the north. What luck! Food that delivered itself right to their mouths! Orchid stepped back a bit and cast a [I]flame strike[/I] spell down upon the two closest trolls, burning them in holy fire. Chaevaris spun in place and sent three arrows in rapid succession into the body of the closest troll, one arrow catching him literally right through the eye; he collapsed onto the floor as well, unconscious but stable due to the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] in Harlan's belt pouch. Ageratum scampered up to the ceiling - out of reach of the trolls unless they could leap higher than she imagined - and tossed a second "troll grenade" onto the other troll to have been burned up in Orchid's [I]flame strike[/I] spell. It broke against its warty flesh, covered the area all around him in oil, and it all went up in flames when the bonfire assumed its full size and shape. The troll cried out curses in its Giant dialect. Harlan stepped to the side where he could get a bead on this burning troll and shot another two [I]flaming arrows[/I] into its gut, relying upon the enhanced strength granted to him by the [I]bull's strength[/I] spell to even be able to pull the erinyes' bowstring to its full length. A third arrow went astray, shattering against a back wall. And then Alistair brought it down with another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell. The last remaining troll, still leaving bloody footprints from all the spikes it had trodden upon, ran forward in a sprint and leaped over the burning corpse of one of its horrid kin, landing on a patch of oil-burning flame, and ended up close to Alistair (who gave a startled bleat of terror he hoped Miss Grimwade didn't hear). But then Orchid cast a [I]produce flame[/I] spell and tossed the small ball of fire at the approaching troll, hitting him in his belly. Chaevaris hit him twice with two more burning arrows, and then Ageratum tossed the last two remaining "troll grenades" his way. They both struck true, some of the oil splashing onto the body of one of the unconscious trolls already spread out on the cavern floor, and the dual bonfires set both bodies ablaze. All four trolls were now unconscious and burning up, with the fire likely outpacing their ability to regenerate. Unfortunately, the heroes didn't get a chance to verify that the trolls were all done for, or that in fact these four were the only trolls to be found in the cave network, for Alistair got a sudden shiver of fear running down his spine over the empathic link he shared with his grackle familiar. "Ambrose is in trouble!" he cried, turning to race back out of the troll lair the way he'd come. Harlan made it outside first, and he quickly noted the animals had all raced away - and also the reason for their sudden panic, for there in the valley stood a massive, multilegged lizard, its body slim and serpentine, covered in scales of an iridescent blue. A forked tongue flickered in and out of the creature's wide mouth, as it tasted the burning troll flesh in the air. It turned to face Harlan, and the paladin let fly with a [I]flaming arrow[/I] that struck the behir in its lower throat. Alistair was beside the paladin in a moment, casting an [I]ice storm[/I] spell that had hailstones crashing down upon the behir and extending in a circle reaching toward the heroes. [I]That way,[/I] thought the sorcerer, [I]if it tries coming at us it should be slowed up by the falling hail.[/I] Sure enough, the behir tried heading towards the adventurers, its many clawed feet slipping and sliding in the spell's area of effect as it continued dropping hailstones down upon the hapless beast. It breathed in, ready to send a flash of electricity bursting from its mouth - but before it could do so, Chaevaris shot a [I]sleep arrow[/I] at the behir, striking it in its jaw. Unfortunately for the heroes, it managed to resist the magical sleep effect of the arrow - and then also overcame Orchid's attempt to turn it into a helpless rabbit with a [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell - but then Ageratum sent a "pebboulder" flying at it with her sling, the pebble striking its jaw and attaining its full, boulder size upon doing so. Harlan pumped another three [I]flaming arrows[/I] into it in rapid succession, noting offhandedly that its aura was absent the telltale presence of evil he so often found among those he fought. Alistair finally dropped the behir where it stood with another casting of [I]scorching ray[/I], both gouts of flame striking it without fail. "Well, that's a relief," Ageratum said as she marched over and went to slit its throat to make sure it was dead. In doing so, she unearthed a troll arm in its gizzard. "Ew!" she cried. "This thing's been eating trolls!" "It's probably responsible for the blackened grass, too," suggested Orchid. "Smell that ozone in the air? I think the thing shoots lightning from its mouth, like a blue dragon." But with the behir dead (and the animals rounded back up), the heroes opted to return to the troll den to ensure none of the trolls had survived their burning. They hadn't, and a full exploration of the cavern system revealed a total of six troll nests but just the four dead trolls; it was assumed the other two had been eaten by the behir, whose stomach acid would have been just as effective in overcoming the famed troll regeneration as did fire. "It's safe to return to human form, now, Miss Grimwade," suggested Alistair to the human-shaped cloud of smoke drifting nearby. E. L. Grimwade did just that, exclaiming, "That was quite a fight! I shall have to jot down my notes while they're fresh in my mind!" And then, turning to Alistair, she said, "And you can call me [B]Edna Louise[/B] if you like, dear. All my friends do." Alistair almost fainted right there on the spot upon realizing the author of the Elfy Danger Silverleaf books considered him a friend. He managed to remain conscious, but his throat dried up and he was visibly weak in the knees. Orchid volunteered to wildshape back into an eagle and fly back to tell Kasselban the job had been completed. An hour and a half later, he showed up riding a mule with another mule behind him, loaded down with their promised gold. "Hmm, not bad, not bad," he exclaimed, looking over the heroes' handiwork. "Money well spent, I should think," commented Alistair, who had found his voice in the meantime. "When you want a job done right, sometimes you really need a group of Trained Professional Adventurers!" - - - This adventure was unique in that none of the monsters - four trolls and a behir - managed to even close with us, let alone cause even a single hit point of damage. The "troll grenades" worked out rather well, we all agreed. And with the money we earned, some of us finally got the amounts we'd been saving for to upgrade our equipment: Harlan's having the [I]holy[/I] weapon property added to his [I]+1 flaming burst longsword[/I] (maybe now would be a good time to finally give the blade a name!); Ageratum's having a [I]ring of invisibility[/I] made for her, but as she already wears two rings she's having it made in the form of a bracelet instead; and Alistair's finally got enough money to purchase a [I]lesser metamagic rod of maximize spell[/I], which ought to come in rather handy in the adventures to come. [/QUOTE]
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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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