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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9151016" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 34: FREE HAND</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: 27 September 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The next morning found the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers sporting hangovers from their previous night of drinking with E. L. Grimwade. The author herself seemed perfectly fine, though, as they bundled her and her luggage onto the carriage she had hired to take her to various adventuring sites. Now she was heading back to her home city to start writing about what she had seen, and incorporating it into the next "Elfy Danger Silverleaf" book.</p><p></p><p>Alistair waved bravely as his own personal hero was taken away by carriage. He was sad to see her go, but secretly glad he wouldn't be asked to attend any all-night drinking sessions in houses of ill repute, like that Topsy-Curvy Club. He idly wondered if Orchid, as a druid, knew of any hangover cures.</p><p></p><p>But then the young nobleman was jostled out of the way by a group of burly dwarves. "This'll be th' easiest coin we ever earned!" chuckled one, as they approached a group of humans wielding written contracts on individual sheets of parchment. Chaevaris followed them out of curiosity, and saw that the humans were signing on members of an expedition beneath the Lortmil Mountains, seeking out a subterranean passageway that would be quicker than going over and around the mountain peaks. The dwarves were hired on as luggers at once, while Chaevaris observed the group was still looking for a security team. "What do you think?" asked the archer to Harlan, the group's de facto leader.</p><p></p><p>"Well," replied the paladin, "with Miss Grimwade's safety no longer our responsibility, we have a free hand to go where we are needed. Certainly, I think we could sign on to keep the survey team safe." He asked the other members what they thought, and they were all for it. They therefore applied for the positions and were hired on the spot. "We leave in two days," the head surveyor explained. "We'll see you all then."</p><p></p><p>Of course, planning on what all to take on a multi-day trip is much, much easier when you have an extradimensional dwelling that weighs nothing when it's inside the magic amulet Chaevaris wore around her neck. And better yet, the dwelling came with <em>unseen servants</em> who prepared magically-summoned food, so that was not an issue. Did they want to bring extra vials of antitoxin, or <em>potions of cure serious wounds</em>, or flasks of oil? Sure, pick them up and store them inside - they're just a door activation and a pop inside the dwelling away. Their biggest decision was what not to bring - specifically, Orchid decided to leave her timber wolf Shushitan in the care of Holyrood Carp, feeling he'd not fare well in a subterranean setting for days without end. Likewise, the heroes opted not to bring along their riding mounts, although Harlan knew his celestial pegasus Nova was always but a single calling away. As for their new shield guardian, which Alistair had named <strong>Carruthers</strong> (after a particular leg-breaker in the employ of his father, who was set to deal with any intractable problems that got in the way of Lord Ambrose Pastlethwaite's desires), the group decided to bring him along, especially once they discovered that as a construct he could be placed inside their extradimensional dwelling and Chaevaris could then revert it back into her amulet and he'd still be there when the door was next summoned. (They'd learned the hard way that any living creature was "dumped out" of the extradimensional space when the archer sent it back inside her amulet - people couldn't be transported in that fashion, but apparently non-living constructs could.)</p><p></p><p>The plan, as explained by the surveyors, was to do an initial excursion two and a half days in, and then return to Ghourmand Vale for fresh supplies. Then they'd go back and try to go the rest of the way. Alistair didn't understand why they didn't want to just go for it in one fell swoop, but if that was the way they wanted to do things, the pay was the same: 1,000 pieces of gold per adventurer.</p><p></p><p>So, two days after they'd signed on, the five heroes, Ambrose, and Carruthers (the latter of which Ageratum had tried to get hired on for an <em>additional</em> 1,000 gold pieces, to no avail) showed up at the designated spot and met up with the four dwarven luggers and the three human surveyors. The dwarves were already burdened by heavy canvas packs containing food, water, tents, and various supplies, and even the humans carried their maps, fresh rolls of parchments, and measuring equipment. They gave confused looks at the five adventurers and how little they were carrying among themselves, but opted not to push it, although one of the dwarves was overheard grumbling that he wasn't about to share <em>his</em> tent and food with these greenhorns who'd probably never gone spelunking before in their lives and had no clue about what they were getting into. Chaevaris just held her tongue and smiled quietly to herself.</p><p></p><p>They made it to the opening the dwarves had discovered at the base of the Lortmil Mountains and had explored for a full half-day when the lead surveyor called for a lunch break. The dwarves started ripping into their packs, distributing hard loaves of bread and passing along a small keg of ale between themselves and their human bosses, which Chaevaris simply activated the door from her amulet onto the wall of a stone passageway and the five adventurers went inside for their meals in shifts, always ensuring there was enough of a security presence to keep their charges safe. Then they were off again, making ridiculously slow progress, for every hundred feet or so the surveyors wanted to add on to their hand-drawn maps and question the dwarves about any changes in elevation they detected.</p><p></p><p>They got to what Alistair mentally called the "crossroads cavern," for there were three additional passageways jutting off from it: straight ahead, to the left, and to the right. The heroes opted to spilt off and check out each passageway for the next hundred feet or so, to ensure there was nothing dangerous that could possibly try to sneak up on them. Chaevaris strode down the east passageway, Alistair following with his grackle familiar Ambrose perched on his shoulder and his <em>unseen servant</em> Ogilvy holding the archer's bullseye lantern, in which was held Ageratum's stone with the permanent <em>light</em> spell cast upon it. (As instructed by his master, Ambrose faced backwards so he could see behind Alistair, the better to warn him of any dangers from behind.) They saw only clumps of phosphorescent fungus, and then the passageway came to an abrupt end: there was a 40-foot-deep chasm below them, with the subterranean corridor picking back up in a tunnel directly across the chasm, some 12 feet or so away. Chaevaris had no trouble making out the cavern on the other side of the tunnel across the chasm; it looked just as deserted as the crossroads area. Her keen elven hearing also picked up the sound of running water somewhere nearby, down at the bottom of the chasm, although she couldn't pinpoint from which direction it was coming.</p><p></p><p>Harlan strode down the north passageway - the one straight ahead - by himself, his human vision enhanced by the flickering light from his flaming longsword, which he held aloft in front of him like a torch. He, too could see a 10-foot gap in the tunnel, bridging a 40-foot-deep chasm below.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum and Orchid took the passageway to the left, finding a 15-foot gap across the same chasm, although there was a branching tunnel that veered back south before closing back in upon itself, ultimately leading to a dead end. After determining there was nothing in the dead-end passageway, they stationed themself at the point where it branched off and allowed the surveyors to mark off that dead-end section on their maps.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris tied one end of a length of rope to one of her normal arrows and shot it across the gap before slowly pulling it back toward her, hoping to get the arrow caught between two projecting rocks or something. She had no such luck; the arrow dropped over the edge of the far ledge and she pulled it back up to her. That kind of maneuver always seemed to work in the written stories about adventuring; she mentally kicked herself for reading too many of Alistair's "Elfy Danger Silverleaf" books when the young wizard was asleep.</p><p></p><p>Orchid, getting bored while the map-makers did their thing, decided to wildshape into a dire bat and do some exploring a bit further on her own. She flew over the chasm, her blindsense kicking in as she gave an ultrasonic burst from her throat and heard the echoes bounce back. There was something a bit odd coming from a passageway to the north of her current position, although she couldn't quite pinpoint what was so different. Flapping her wings, she headed off in that direction to see for herself.</p><p></p><p>Not having a means of exploring on the other side of his own tunnel, Harlan (not wanting to chance a leap across the chasm in his heavy armor) returned to the crossroads area and did a 360-degree scan for evil. He was pleased when his paladin sense reported back no signs of evil anywhere within range - and that included the four dwarves and three human surveyors. Ageratum was hanging out with them, providing a close protection. Harlan half expected that one of these days the little halfling was going to start "pinging" on his evil detection senses, so eager was she to slit the throats of downed enemies.</p><p></p><p>Once Chaevaris had explained what she had been hoping to accomplish with her arrow trick, Alistair tied the rope to her <em>immovable rod</em> and explained its use to Carruthers, then instructed the shield guardian - for the group had decided it made the most sense for the slightly frail sorcerer to wear the construct's control amulet - to hold the rod out over the chasm as far as he could extend his arm and hold it there. "Now we can swing over on the rope, one by one, Elfy!" Alistair beamed with pride. He had Ogilvy demonstrate the simplicity of the task by swinging over first, then the <em>unseen servant</em> aimed the lantern in all directions, allowing Chaevaris and Alistair to see as much as they could of the far cavern. Chaevaris followed suit almost immediately, landing lightly on her toes beside Ogilvy. Once in place at the far cavern, she could see down a passageway leading north and saw, dozens of feet away, a pair of rust monsters. Fortunately, they had their backs turned and were presently devouring some sort of metallic meal, after their feathery antennae had turned it into reddish-orange dust. So intent were they on their meal they didn't even notice the beam of light spilling over their backs. Chaevaris pulled out one of her special arrows - one of five that had one of Alistair's "shrunken bonfire" pieces of cloth adhered to the arrow-head - and took careful aim, not at either of the rust monsters but at the stretch of cavern floor between them and her, where the tunnel narrowed. She was fairly certain it would block their way as well as a full-fledged <em>wall of fire</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Orchid, in dire bat form, soon discovered what her radar sense had been trying to tell her: there was a gap in the walls between the passageway she was in and the one on the other side of the open gap from where Harlan had been checking out, and in that gap, filling most of it with its cone-shaped body, was one of the most dangerous creatures in the Underdark. Knowing she could no longer speak the Common tongue while a dire bat, but also knowing she had practiced long and hard to be able to cast spells while wildshaped into animal forms, she cast a <em>speak with animals</em> spell and called out, "Roper!" Several passageways over, Ambrose picked up her call and called out, in Common, "Boss: Orchid's encountered a roper!"</p><p></p><p>"I say!" cried Alistair in surprise. Then, realizing what needed to be done, he yelled, "Orchid's fighting a roper! Which way did she go?" Ageratum ran forward and pointed to the sorcerer the way the wildshaped druid had gone, and Alistair started running that way. Given Harlan was nearby, there was enough light in the area for Ambrose to leap from his master's shoulder and fly over the way Ageratum was pointing, so he could be the "forward eyes" for Alistair.</p><p></p><p>By this time, though, the roper had shot a sticky strand from its body that struck Orchid in the center of her mass. A strange, tingling sensation came over the druid's bat body as the strand tried draining away her strength. "I'm caught!" she called out in the language of animals, and Ambrose once again translated for her to the others in the Common tongue.</p><p></p><p>Harlan, not sure if there was a way for him to cross the chasm over by Orchid, ran in the opposite direction. There stood Carruthers, still standing with his arm over the drop, holding the <em>immovable rod</em> with the rope attached. Harlan grabbed the rope and swung across, landing by Chaevaris, who was still aiming at the rust monsters, waiting for one of them to approach - she figured if she were to release the bonfire, it would be nice to catch at least one of them in its initial return-to-normal-size blast. Harlan pushed his way past the archer and found a side passageway leading towards where the roper would have to be.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum tapped her magic bracelet and faded from view. Now fully invisible, she used her <em>cloak of arachnida</em> to walk up the wall and cross the chasm upon the stone ceiling while Alistair was still running in her direction. He didn't really have a plan on how to cross, although there was always the <em>dimension door</em> spell if it came to that....</p><p></p><p>Orchid was still in midair, trying to pull herself free of the roper's strand; she very much looked like a beleaguered kite on a string. Then another pulse came down the length of the strand and this time she succumbed to it, losing about half of her physical strength in one fell swoop. At this rate, the roper would pull her in like a fish on a line in no time; already, it had dragged her 10 feet closer to it, and just below its cyclopean eye its slavering mouth opened up, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, eager to tear into her flesh. Not liking that particular fate, the druid cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell centered on the roper.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris, in the meantime, was getting tired of waiting for the rust monsters to finish their meal and notice the disturbances behind them. She altered her aim, no longer pointing the arrow at the narrow part of the ground between the insectile creatures and her, but focused her aim upon one of the rust monsters itself. Unfortunately, the holy flames dropping down upon the roper did it absolutely no harm (for it had a very powerful innate resistance to all types of spell energy), but it did at least burn through the strand connecting the dire bat to its temporary captor. Free once more, Orchid flapped back the way she had come, putting the curving section of a rock wall between her and the roper as she flew around a winding passageway. "It shrugs off spells!" she called out to Ambrose, who once again translated for the benefit of those who couldn't understand the shared language of animals.</p><p></p><p>Harlan was racing full speed down the corridor, and now, in the light of his flaming sword, could see the back of the roper squeezed in a crevice in the rock walls just ahead. And it was at about this time that another creature entered the scene. To the east of Carruthers' current position, there was an "island" of rock jutting up from the chasm below, and on this rock - around a corner, out of view - had been a strange creature looking like nothing so much as an oversize brain mounted upon four powerful, clawed legs. It easily leaped across the gap and landed by the shield guardian's feet; Carruthers, having been given no instructions involving intellect devourers and having no initiative of his own, merely stood there with his right arm raised to the side over the chasm, as instructed. The intellect devourer scurried on past the construct and headed for the dwarves, intending to take over one of their bodies (dwarves, it knew from past experience, made for easy targets), the better to spy upon these interlopers into the Lightless Lands Below and see why they were here.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately Ageratum, seeing Orchid had broken free of the roper's strand and was flying back in her direction, scampered back across the ceiling the way she had come and saw the brain-thing headed for the dwarves. She ran to meet it, flinging a pebboulder at it with her sling as she closed the distance. That shot missed, the boulder regaining its true size upon impact with the floor immediately before the intellect devourer, at least making it slow its pace to avoid slamming into it.</p><p></p><p>Their meal of metal flakes finished, the rust monsters spun in place, the delicious smell of metal coming from the direction of the corridor to the south, where Chaevaris stood pointing her arrow at them. They started forward eagerly, their eagerness diminished somewhat when the archer released her arrow, to have it explode at the feet of the foremost rust monster and regain its size as a blazing bonfire - a part of the Mistbrenner's blazing farmhouse, as a matter of fact. The first rust monster shrieked in pain and veered off to the west, following a side passageway that still led towards the smell of metal (and even more of it: it was now detecting Harlan's armor). The second rust monster couldn't stop its forward progress in time and ran through the flames, singeing itself a bit as it continued its advance towards Chaevaris and Ogilvy.</p><p></p><p>Alistair had returned to the crossroads chamber after hearing from his familiar that Orchid has freed herself from the roper and no longer needed rescuing, and he saw the intellect devourer scooting around the boulder Ageratum had just fired its way. "Slay that brain thing!" Alistair called out to Carruthers and the shield guardian went immediately to comply, letting go of the <em>immovable rod</em> (which fortunately, having already been activated, hung there in the air where it had been abandoned). The sorcerer, in the meantime, used his metamagic rod to maximize the damage potential of a <em>magic missile</em> spell, which he fired at the intellect devourer, striking it unerringly.</p><p></p><p>"Get away from the brain thing!" Ageratum called to the dwarves, who were having a bit of ale while the humans tended to their maps. The closest dwarf made a face showing utter disbelief, turned the corner, saw the intellect devourer headed his way, and called for his brethren to high-tail it. They backed away around a corner and scrambled for their own weapons.</p><p></p><p>The roper, by then, having been deprived of the dire bat prey it had anticipated eating, spun its cylindrical body around so it faced in the other direction. There it saw two creatures running down two separate tunnels, each one converging into a tunnel heading straight for the roper. In one tunnel was Harlan; in the other, a badly-burned rust monster. With a choice of two such fine potential meals, the roper made its selection and fired off two strands, one from either side of its body, and managed to snag both. The rust monster succumbed immediately to the strength-draining properties of the roper's strand and froze up immediately, no longer having enough control over its own muscles to fight back. Harlan, however, was made of stronger stuff and managed to avoid the draining effect - at least for now.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris activated her <em>boots of speed</em> and fired off three normal arrows in rapid succession at the rust monster fast approaching her, its feelers waving hungrily before it. All three met their marks, but the stubborn beast refused to fall; wounded badly, it pressed on its advance.</p><p></p><p>Orchid flew around the corner, veering away from the intellect devourer and heading towards the roper by the center tunnel that Harlan had originally explored. Once she got the roper in sight, she cast a <em>transmute rock to mud</em> spell at the stone ceiling directly above the Underdark creature, causing a torrent of gloppy mud (and a bunch of chunks of stone that came along with it) dropping down upon the roper's head. Harlan then severed the strand attached to him with his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em>, freeing himself. He cautiously backed around a curve of the tunnel behind him, keeping himself out of immediate view of the roper lest he get targeted again. He figured at the distance between them, he could pop back out of the corner and rush the beast before it could target him again with one of those strands, but he'd have to give the roper a moment to forget about him in the heat of battle against the others.</p><p></p><p>Carruthers had to bend over to bring his massive fists pounding down upon the intellect devourer's back, but he hit it twice, nearly knocking the feet out from beneath its brainlike body. The intellect devourer had been concentrating on casting a psionic <em>cloud mind</em> spell upon Alistair, but the young nobleman's mind was able to avoid the intended effects. Still trying to take over the body of one of the dwarves, the intellect devourer chased after them.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum was now directly above the intellect devourer, still upside-down on the ceiling but now perfectly visible since she'd attacked it earlier with the pebboulder. She dropped down quietly behind it and stabbed the blade of her short sword deep into its wrinkled body. It shrieked in pain - telepathically, it felt like - which brought a wide grin to the halfling's face.</p><p></p><p>The rust monster got to within striking distance of Chaevaris and then wheeled away down a side tunnel, chasing towards Harlan, whose full plate armor was too much metal to resist compared to the few bits Chaevaris wore, her own <em>bespoke armor</em> being composed entirely of tight-fitting vegetable matter. A waving antenna struck Harlan in the back, but fortunately the half-elf had heard the pitter-patter of its footsteps and managed to dodge to the side quickly enough that the feeler did his armor no harm. With a tug upon its strand, the roper dragged the unresisting other rust monster closer to its slavering maw.</p><p></p><p>Alistair cast another <em>maximized magic missile</em> spell through his metamagic rod, striking the intellect devourer right in its brain-body, only to see the spell fizzle out upon contact. "Curse the Fates!" groused the young nobleman. "The stupid thing also resists spells!" Then, seeing the surveyors peeking around the corner to see what all the yelling and fuss was about, Alistair yelled at them to get back and hide while the Trained Professional Adventurers fought off the immediate threats. They didn't need any further encouragement, slinking back the way they'd come as quickly as possible.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris popped around the corner, an adamantine arrow nocked in her bow and ready to shoot. She aimed it at the intellect devourer - across the gap over the chasm - and let fly, watching as it hit home and struck deep. Still powered by her magic boots, she repeated the shot with a second, similar arrow, this one piercing the beast's center and sticking out the other end, slaying it instantly. Then she grabbed up a normal arrow and sent it flying into the rust monster behind her menacing Harlan, sending it deep into a shoulder. Harlan spun about and brought his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> to bear, slicing deep into the rust monster's body and slaying it before its antennae could do any permanent harm to his weapon, shield, or armor. With it dead, he breathed a sigh of relief - he'd have hated to have any of his metal items destroyed so easily!</p><p></p><p>While Ageratum checked to make sure the intellect devourer was truly dead (and finding herself slightly disappointed it had no throat to slit), Orchid advanced over by her and Carruthers while Alistair set himself on guard duty at the crossroads, making sure no other weird monsters could get to the dwarven luggers or human surveyors. The roper, by this time, had tugged the rust monster to within biting range and bent over its prey, swallowing it up in one bite. Chaevaris moved to where she could see the roper and shot another bonfire arrow at it, piercing it with the arrowhead and releasing the bonfire back to its full size and strength, the flaming wood piled all around the mud-spattered beast. Orchid cast a <em>spike stones</em> spell all around the roper, hoping to pierce it if it tried to move away from the flames, but she ran up against its inherent resistance to spell energy and her <em>spike stones</em> failed to manifest.</p><p></p><p>Realizing the danger Chaevaris had put herself in on his behalf, Harlan raised his shield before him and stepped in front of the archer, placing himself as a living shield against the roper's next strand attack - with any luck, it would only snag his shield, which he could release and then go charge the beast with his flaming sword. He cast a <em>bull's strength</em> spell upon himself in preparation for such a maneuver.</p><p></p><p>Alistair, knowing that direct combat spells had next to no chance of affecting the roper, decided to see how much damage Carruthers could do to it - but first he needed to get the shield guardian across the gap over the chasm, and he wasn't confident in the construct's leaping abilities. But as the guardian was nine feet tall and the gap was about a foot over that, he commanded Carruthers to walk to the edge of the tunnel, raise his hands, then tip forward, catch the other side of the tunnel (across the gap), and pull himself up. Carruthers moved to obey his new instructions. He had gotten as far as laying horizontally with his feet on one side of the chasm and his hands gripping the other side when an invisible Ageratum ran across the "shield guardian bridge" and moved herself into position to get in a surprise attack on the roper before becoming visible again. Alistair, since he could see the roper's blazing body just fine, decided to throw caution to the wind and give his metamagic rod its final dose of the day by channeling a <em>maximized scorching ray</em> spell through it at the roper, but once again the spell fizzled out upon contact. The nobleman sighed in disgust and stashed the rod in an inner vest pocket; it would be of no further use to him that day.</p><p></p><p>Behind him, Ogilvy disappeared, the distance between the <em>unseen servant</em> and the sorcerer who had summoned him into being becoming too great. Chaevaris's bullseye lantern settled onto the stone floor with a noticeable clang.</p><p></p><p>The roper crawled out of the bonfire and onto the solid stone of the cavern floor, when Ageratum suddenly popped back into visibility as her magic short sword stabbed deep into the beast's conelike body. It finished the action it had started before getting stabbed - striking Harlan with another strand, which hit him but failed to drain away any of the half-elf's strength - before Chaevaris peppered the roper with her last three bonfire arrows right in a row. It fell over, unconscious, and the heroes allowed the overly-large triple bonfire burn it to death.</p><p></p><p>With the last foe slain, the Trained Professional Adventurers took stock of the situation. Their charges were all unhurt (and the surveyors convinced hiring on the TPA had been a very wise choice on their part), while Alistair ran down his three bonfires and cast a series of three <em>shrink item</em> spells on them, reverting them into three separate pieces of foldable cloth that could be used again. Since he had the spell energy to do so, he went over and recovered the boulder Ageratum had thrown at the intellect devourer, reverting it to a "pebboulder" as well. Then, ensuring the surveyors had finished with the section of map they had been filling in, they advanced once again until the surveyors called for another halt so they could fill in that section of the map, and things advanced at that slow pace for the rest of the day, until they finally called it a night and set up their camp in a wide cavern.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>There wasn't any treasure this time, but Dan retroactively offered up the treasure he'd forgotten to mention that the wizard Elway (from the previous adventure) had had upon him: a pair of <em>bracers of armor +2</em>, <em>ring of protection +1</em>, a <em>wand of shield</em> with 40 charges, and a <em>wand of magic missiles</em> (CL 5th) with 35 charges remaining. We decided to retroactively give the <em>shield</em> wand to Alistair and the <em>magic missile</em> wand to Ageratum, and to have sold the other wondrous items, as none of us could really use them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9151016, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 34: FREE HAND[/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: 27 September 2023 - - - The next morning found the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers sporting hangovers from their previous night of drinking with E. L. Grimwade. The author herself seemed perfectly fine, though, as they bundled her and her luggage onto the carriage she had hired to take her to various adventuring sites. Now she was heading back to her home city to start writing about what she had seen, and incorporating it into the next "Elfy Danger Silverleaf" book. Alistair waved bravely as his own personal hero was taken away by carriage. He was sad to see her go, but secretly glad he wouldn't be asked to attend any all-night drinking sessions in houses of ill repute, like that Topsy-Curvy Club. He idly wondered if Orchid, as a druid, knew of any hangover cures. But then the young nobleman was jostled out of the way by a group of burly dwarves. "This'll be th' easiest coin we ever earned!" chuckled one, as they approached a group of humans wielding written contracts on individual sheets of parchment. Chaevaris followed them out of curiosity, and saw that the humans were signing on members of an expedition beneath the Lortmil Mountains, seeking out a subterranean passageway that would be quicker than going over and around the mountain peaks. The dwarves were hired on as luggers at once, while Chaevaris observed the group was still looking for a security team. "What do you think?" asked the archer to Harlan, the group's de facto leader. "Well," replied the paladin, "with Miss Grimwade's safety no longer our responsibility, we have a free hand to go where we are needed. Certainly, I think we could sign on to keep the survey team safe." He asked the other members what they thought, and they were all for it. They therefore applied for the positions and were hired on the spot. "We leave in two days," the head surveyor explained. "We'll see you all then." Of course, planning on what all to take on a multi-day trip is much, much easier when you have an extradimensional dwelling that weighs nothing when it's inside the magic amulet Chaevaris wore around her neck. And better yet, the dwelling came with [I]unseen servants[/I] who prepared magically-summoned food, so that was not an issue. Did they want to bring extra vials of antitoxin, or [I]potions of cure serious wounds[/I], or flasks of oil? Sure, pick them up and store them inside - they're just a door activation and a pop inside the dwelling away. Their biggest decision was what not to bring - specifically, Orchid decided to leave her timber wolf Shushitan in the care of Holyrood Carp, feeling he'd not fare well in a subterranean setting for days without end. Likewise, the heroes opted not to bring along their riding mounts, although Harlan knew his celestial pegasus Nova was always but a single calling away. As for their new shield guardian, which Alistair had named [B]Carruthers[/B] (after a particular leg-breaker in the employ of his father, who was set to deal with any intractable problems that got in the way of Lord Ambrose Pastlethwaite's desires), the group decided to bring him along, especially once they discovered that as a construct he could be placed inside their extradimensional dwelling and Chaevaris could then revert it back into her amulet and he'd still be there when the door was next summoned. (They'd learned the hard way that any living creature was "dumped out" of the extradimensional space when the archer sent it back inside her amulet - people couldn't be transported in that fashion, but apparently non-living constructs could.) The plan, as explained by the surveyors, was to do an initial excursion two and a half days in, and then return to Ghourmand Vale for fresh supplies. Then they'd go back and try to go the rest of the way. Alistair didn't understand why they didn't want to just go for it in one fell swoop, but if that was the way they wanted to do things, the pay was the same: 1,000 pieces of gold per adventurer. So, two days after they'd signed on, the five heroes, Ambrose, and Carruthers (the latter of which Ageratum had tried to get hired on for an [I]additional[/I] 1,000 gold pieces, to no avail) showed up at the designated spot and met up with the four dwarven luggers and the three human surveyors. The dwarves were already burdened by heavy canvas packs containing food, water, tents, and various supplies, and even the humans carried their maps, fresh rolls of parchments, and measuring equipment. They gave confused looks at the five adventurers and how little they were carrying among themselves, but opted not to push it, although one of the dwarves was overheard grumbling that he wasn't about to share [I]his[/I] tent and food with these greenhorns who'd probably never gone spelunking before in their lives and had no clue about what they were getting into. Chaevaris just held her tongue and smiled quietly to herself. They made it to the opening the dwarves had discovered at the base of the Lortmil Mountains and had explored for a full half-day when the lead surveyor called for a lunch break. The dwarves started ripping into their packs, distributing hard loaves of bread and passing along a small keg of ale between themselves and their human bosses, which Chaevaris simply activated the door from her amulet onto the wall of a stone passageway and the five adventurers went inside for their meals in shifts, always ensuring there was enough of a security presence to keep their charges safe. Then they were off again, making ridiculously slow progress, for every hundred feet or so the surveyors wanted to add on to their hand-drawn maps and question the dwarves about any changes in elevation they detected. They got to what Alistair mentally called the "crossroads cavern," for there were three additional passageways jutting off from it: straight ahead, to the left, and to the right. The heroes opted to spilt off and check out each passageway for the next hundred feet or so, to ensure there was nothing dangerous that could possibly try to sneak up on them. Chaevaris strode down the east passageway, Alistair following with his grackle familiar Ambrose perched on his shoulder and his [I]unseen servant[/I] Ogilvy holding the archer's bullseye lantern, in which was held Ageratum's stone with the permanent [I]light[/I] spell cast upon it. (As instructed by his master, Ambrose faced backwards so he could see behind Alistair, the better to warn him of any dangers from behind.) They saw only clumps of phosphorescent fungus, and then the passageway came to an abrupt end: there was a 40-foot-deep chasm below them, with the subterranean corridor picking back up in a tunnel directly across the chasm, some 12 feet or so away. Chaevaris had no trouble making out the cavern on the other side of the tunnel across the chasm; it looked just as deserted as the crossroads area. Her keen elven hearing also picked up the sound of running water somewhere nearby, down at the bottom of the chasm, although she couldn't pinpoint from which direction it was coming. Harlan strode down the north passageway - the one straight ahead - by himself, his human vision enhanced by the flickering light from his flaming longsword, which he held aloft in front of him like a torch. He, too could see a 10-foot gap in the tunnel, bridging a 40-foot-deep chasm below. Ageratum and Orchid took the passageway to the left, finding a 15-foot gap across the same chasm, although there was a branching tunnel that veered back south before closing back in upon itself, ultimately leading to a dead end. After determining there was nothing in the dead-end passageway, they stationed themself at the point where it branched off and allowed the surveyors to mark off that dead-end section on their maps. Chaevaris tied one end of a length of rope to one of her normal arrows and shot it across the gap before slowly pulling it back toward her, hoping to get the arrow caught between two projecting rocks or something. She had no such luck; the arrow dropped over the edge of the far ledge and she pulled it back up to her. That kind of maneuver always seemed to work in the written stories about adventuring; she mentally kicked herself for reading too many of Alistair's "Elfy Danger Silverleaf" books when the young wizard was asleep. Orchid, getting bored while the map-makers did their thing, decided to wildshape into a dire bat and do some exploring a bit further on her own. She flew over the chasm, her blindsense kicking in as she gave an ultrasonic burst from her throat and heard the echoes bounce back. There was something a bit odd coming from a passageway to the north of her current position, although she couldn't quite pinpoint what was so different. Flapping her wings, she headed off in that direction to see for herself. Not having a means of exploring on the other side of his own tunnel, Harlan (not wanting to chance a leap across the chasm in his heavy armor) returned to the crossroads area and did a 360-degree scan for evil. He was pleased when his paladin sense reported back no signs of evil anywhere within range - and that included the four dwarves and three human surveyors. Ageratum was hanging out with them, providing a close protection. Harlan half expected that one of these days the little halfling was going to start "pinging" on his evil detection senses, so eager was she to slit the throats of downed enemies. Once Chaevaris had explained what she had been hoping to accomplish with her arrow trick, Alistair tied the rope to her [I]immovable rod[/I] and explained its use to Carruthers, then instructed the shield guardian - for the group had decided it made the most sense for the slightly frail sorcerer to wear the construct's control amulet - to hold the rod out over the chasm as far as he could extend his arm and hold it there. "Now we can swing over on the rope, one by one, Elfy!" Alistair beamed with pride. He had Ogilvy demonstrate the simplicity of the task by swinging over first, then the [I]unseen servant[/I] aimed the lantern in all directions, allowing Chaevaris and Alistair to see as much as they could of the far cavern. Chaevaris followed suit almost immediately, landing lightly on her toes beside Ogilvy. Once in place at the far cavern, she could see down a passageway leading north and saw, dozens of feet away, a pair of rust monsters. Fortunately, they had their backs turned and were presently devouring some sort of metallic meal, after their feathery antennae had turned it into reddish-orange dust. So intent were they on their meal they didn't even notice the beam of light spilling over their backs. Chaevaris pulled out one of her special arrows - one of five that had one of Alistair's "shrunken bonfire" pieces of cloth adhered to the arrow-head - and took careful aim, not at either of the rust monsters but at the stretch of cavern floor between them and her, where the tunnel narrowed. She was fairly certain it would block their way as well as a full-fledged [I]wall of fire[/I] spell. Orchid, in dire bat form, soon discovered what her radar sense had been trying to tell her: there was a gap in the walls between the passageway she was in and the one on the other side of the open gap from where Harlan had been checking out, and in that gap, filling most of it with its cone-shaped body, was one of the most dangerous creatures in the Underdark. Knowing she could no longer speak the Common tongue while a dire bat, but also knowing she had practiced long and hard to be able to cast spells while wildshaped into animal forms, she cast a [I]speak with animals[/I] spell and called out, "Roper!" Several passageways over, Ambrose picked up her call and called out, in Common, "Boss: Orchid's encountered a roper!" "I say!" cried Alistair in surprise. Then, realizing what needed to be done, he yelled, "Orchid's fighting a roper! Which way did she go?" Ageratum ran forward and pointed to the sorcerer the way the wildshaped druid had gone, and Alistair started running that way. Given Harlan was nearby, there was enough light in the area for Ambrose to leap from his master's shoulder and fly over the way Ageratum was pointing, so he could be the "forward eyes" for Alistair. By this time, though, the roper had shot a sticky strand from its body that struck Orchid in the center of her mass. A strange, tingling sensation came over the druid's bat body as the strand tried draining away her strength. "I'm caught!" she called out in the language of animals, and Ambrose once again translated for her to the others in the Common tongue. Harlan, not sure if there was a way for him to cross the chasm over by Orchid, ran in the opposite direction. There stood Carruthers, still standing with his arm over the drop, holding the [I]immovable rod[/I] with the rope attached. Harlan grabbed the rope and swung across, landing by Chaevaris, who was still aiming at the rust monsters, waiting for one of them to approach - she figured if she were to release the bonfire, it would be nice to catch at least one of them in its initial return-to-normal-size blast. Harlan pushed his way past the archer and found a side passageway leading towards where the roper would have to be. Ageratum tapped her magic bracelet and faded from view. Now fully invisible, she used her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I] to walk up the wall and cross the chasm upon the stone ceiling while Alistair was still running in her direction. He didn't really have a plan on how to cross, although there was always the [I]dimension door[/I] spell if it came to that.... Orchid was still in midair, trying to pull herself free of the roper's strand; she very much looked like a beleaguered kite on a string. Then another pulse came down the length of the strand and this time she succumbed to it, losing about half of her physical strength in one fell swoop. At this rate, the roper would pull her in like a fish on a line in no time; already, it had dragged her 10 feet closer to it, and just below its cyclopean eye its slavering mouth opened up, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, eager to tear into her flesh. Not liking that particular fate, the druid cast a [I]flame strike[/I] spell centered on the roper. Chaevaris, in the meantime, was getting tired of waiting for the rust monsters to finish their meal and notice the disturbances behind them. She altered her aim, no longer pointing the arrow at the narrow part of the ground between the insectile creatures and her, but focused her aim upon one of the rust monsters itself. Unfortunately, the holy flames dropping down upon the roper did it absolutely no harm (for it had a very powerful innate resistance to all types of spell energy), but it did at least burn through the strand connecting the dire bat to its temporary captor. Free once more, Orchid flapped back the way she had come, putting the curving section of a rock wall between her and the roper as she flew around a winding passageway. "It shrugs off spells!" she called out to Ambrose, who once again translated for the benefit of those who couldn't understand the shared language of animals. Harlan was racing full speed down the corridor, and now, in the light of his flaming sword, could see the back of the roper squeezed in a crevice in the rock walls just ahead. And it was at about this time that another creature entered the scene. To the east of Carruthers' current position, there was an "island" of rock jutting up from the chasm below, and on this rock - around a corner, out of view - had been a strange creature looking like nothing so much as an oversize brain mounted upon four powerful, clawed legs. It easily leaped across the gap and landed by the shield guardian's feet; Carruthers, having been given no instructions involving intellect devourers and having no initiative of his own, merely stood there with his right arm raised to the side over the chasm, as instructed. The intellect devourer scurried on past the construct and headed for the dwarves, intending to take over one of their bodies (dwarves, it knew from past experience, made for easy targets), the better to spy upon these interlopers into the Lightless Lands Below and see why they were here. Fortunately Ageratum, seeing Orchid had broken free of the roper's strand and was flying back in her direction, scampered back across the ceiling the way she had come and saw the brain-thing headed for the dwarves. She ran to meet it, flinging a pebboulder at it with her sling as she closed the distance. That shot missed, the boulder regaining its true size upon impact with the floor immediately before the intellect devourer, at least making it slow its pace to avoid slamming into it. Their meal of metal flakes finished, the rust monsters spun in place, the delicious smell of metal coming from the direction of the corridor to the south, where Chaevaris stood pointing her arrow at them. They started forward eagerly, their eagerness diminished somewhat when the archer released her arrow, to have it explode at the feet of the foremost rust monster and regain its size as a blazing bonfire - a part of the Mistbrenner's blazing farmhouse, as a matter of fact. The first rust monster shrieked in pain and veered off to the west, following a side passageway that still led towards the smell of metal (and even more of it: it was now detecting Harlan's armor). The second rust monster couldn't stop its forward progress in time and ran through the flames, singeing itself a bit as it continued its advance towards Chaevaris and Ogilvy. Alistair had returned to the crossroads chamber after hearing from his familiar that Orchid has freed herself from the roper and no longer needed rescuing, and he saw the intellect devourer scooting around the boulder Ageratum had just fired its way. "Slay that brain thing!" Alistair called out to Carruthers and the shield guardian went immediately to comply, letting go of the [I]immovable rod[/I] (which fortunately, having already been activated, hung there in the air where it had been abandoned). The sorcerer, in the meantime, used his metamagic rod to maximize the damage potential of a [I]magic missile[/I] spell, which he fired at the intellect devourer, striking it unerringly. "Get away from the brain thing!" Ageratum called to the dwarves, who were having a bit of ale while the humans tended to their maps. The closest dwarf made a face showing utter disbelief, turned the corner, saw the intellect devourer headed his way, and called for his brethren to high-tail it. They backed away around a corner and scrambled for their own weapons. The roper, by then, having been deprived of the dire bat prey it had anticipated eating, spun its cylindrical body around so it faced in the other direction. There it saw two creatures running down two separate tunnels, each one converging into a tunnel heading straight for the roper. In one tunnel was Harlan; in the other, a badly-burned rust monster. With a choice of two such fine potential meals, the roper made its selection and fired off two strands, one from either side of its body, and managed to snag both. The rust monster succumbed immediately to the strength-draining properties of the roper's strand and froze up immediately, no longer having enough control over its own muscles to fight back. Harlan, however, was made of stronger stuff and managed to avoid the draining effect - at least for now. Chaevaris activated her [I]boots of speed[/I] and fired off three normal arrows in rapid succession at the rust monster fast approaching her, its feelers waving hungrily before it. All three met their marks, but the stubborn beast refused to fall; wounded badly, it pressed on its advance. Orchid flew around the corner, veering away from the intellect devourer and heading towards the roper by the center tunnel that Harlan had originally explored. Once she got the roper in sight, she cast a [I]transmute rock to mud[/I] spell at the stone ceiling directly above the Underdark creature, causing a torrent of gloppy mud (and a bunch of chunks of stone that came along with it) dropping down upon the roper's head. Harlan then severed the strand attached to him with his [I]holy flaming burst longsword[/I], freeing himself. He cautiously backed around a curve of the tunnel behind him, keeping himself out of immediate view of the roper lest he get targeted again. He figured at the distance between them, he could pop back out of the corner and rush the beast before it could target him again with one of those strands, but he'd have to give the roper a moment to forget about him in the heat of battle against the others. Carruthers had to bend over to bring his massive fists pounding down upon the intellect devourer's back, but he hit it twice, nearly knocking the feet out from beneath its brainlike body. The intellect devourer had been concentrating on casting a psionic [I]cloud mind[/I] spell upon Alistair, but the young nobleman's mind was able to avoid the intended effects. Still trying to take over the body of one of the dwarves, the intellect devourer chased after them. Ageratum was now directly above the intellect devourer, still upside-down on the ceiling but now perfectly visible since she'd attacked it earlier with the pebboulder. She dropped down quietly behind it and stabbed the blade of her short sword deep into its wrinkled body. It shrieked in pain - telepathically, it felt like - which brought a wide grin to the halfling's face. The rust monster got to within striking distance of Chaevaris and then wheeled away down a side tunnel, chasing towards Harlan, whose full plate armor was too much metal to resist compared to the few bits Chaevaris wore, her own [I]bespoke armor[/I] being composed entirely of tight-fitting vegetable matter. A waving antenna struck Harlan in the back, but fortunately the half-elf had heard the pitter-patter of its footsteps and managed to dodge to the side quickly enough that the feeler did his armor no harm. With a tug upon its strand, the roper dragged the unresisting other rust monster closer to its slavering maw. Alistair cast another [I]maximized magic missile[/I] spell through his metamagic rod, striking the intellect devourer right in its brain-body, only to see the spell fizzle out upon contact. "Curse the Fates!" groused the young nobleman. "The stupid thing also resists spells!" Then, seeing the surveyors peeking around the corner to see what all the yelling and fuss was about, Alistair yelled at them to get back and hide while the Trained Professional Adventurers fought off the immediate threats. They didn't need any further encouragement, slinking back the way they'd come as quickly as possible. Chaevaris popped around the corner, an adamantine arrow nocked in her bow and ready to shoot. She aimed it at the intellect devourer - across the gap over the chasm - and let fly, watching as it hit home and struck deep. Still powered by her magic boots, she repeated the shot with a second, similar arrow, this one piercing the beast's center and sticking out the other end, slaying it instantly. Then she grabbed up a normal arrow and sent it flying into the rust monster behind her menacing Harlan, sending it deep into a shoulder. Harlan spun about and brought his [I]holy flaming burst longsword[/I] to bear, slicing deep into the rust monster's body and slaying it before its antennae could do any permanent harm to his weapon, shield, or armor. With it dead, he breathed a sigh of relief - he'd have hated to have any of his metal items destroyed so easily! While Ageratum checked to make sure the intellect devourer was truly dead (and finding herself slightly disappointed it had no throat to slit), Orchid advanced over by her and Carruthers while Alistair set himself on guard duty at the crossroads, making sure no other weird monsters could get to the dwarven luggers or human surveyors. The roper, by this time, had tugged the rust monster to within biting range and bent over its prey, swallowing it up in one bite. Chaevaris moved to where she could see the roper and shot another bonfire arrow at it, piercing it with the arrowhead and releasing the bonfire back to its full size and strength, the flaming wood piled all around the mud-spattered beast. Orchid cast a [I]spike stones[/I] spell all around the roper, hoping to pierce it if it tried to move away from the flames, but she ran up against its inherent resistance to spell energy and her [I]spike stones[/I] failed to manifest. Realizing the danger Chaevaris had put herself in on his behalf, Harlan raised his shield before him and stepped in front of the archer, placing himself as a living shield against the roper's next strand attack - with any luck, it would only snag his shield, which he could release and then go charge the beast with his flaming sword. He cast a [I]bull's strength[/I] spell upon himself in preparation for such a maneuver. Alistair, knowing that direct combat spells had next to no chance of affecting the roper, decided to see how much damage Carruthers could do to it - but first he needed to get the shield guardian across the gap over the chasm, and he wasn't confident in the construct's leaping abilities. But as the guardian was nine feet tall and the gap was about a foot over that, he commanded Carruthers to walk to the edge of the tunnel, raise his hands, then tip forward, catch the other side of the tunnel (across the gap), and pull himself up. Carruthers moved to obey his new instructions. He had gotten as far as laying horizontally with his feet on one side of the chasm and his hands gripping the other side when an invisible Ageratum ran across the "shield guardian bridge" and moved herself into position to get in a surprise attack on the roper before becoming visible again. Alistair, since he could see the roper's blazing body just fine, decided to throw caution to the wind and give his metamagic rod its final dose of the day by channeling a [I]maximized scorching ray[/I] spell through it at the roper, but once again the spell fizzled out upon contact. The nobleman sighed in disgust and stashed the rod in an inner vest pocket; it would be of no further use to him that day. Behind him, Ogilvy disappeared, the distance between the [I]unseen servant[/I] and the sorcerer who had summoned him into being becoming too great. Chaevaris's bullseye lantern settled onto the stone floor with a noticeable clang. The roper crawled out of the bonfire and onto the solid stone of the cavern floor, when Ageratum suddenly popped back into visibility as her magic short sword stabbed deep into the beast's conelike body. It finished the action it had started before getting stabbed - striking Harlan with another strand, which hit him but failed to drain away any of the half-elf's strength - before Chaevaris peppered the roper with her last three bonfire arrows right in a row. It fell over, unconscious, and the heroes allowed the overly-large triple bonfire burn it to death. With the last foe slain, the Trained Professional Adventurers took stock of the situation. Their charges were all unhurt (and the surveyors convinced hiring on the TPA had been a very wise choice on their part), while Alistair ran down his three bonfires and cast a series of three [I]shrink item[/I] spells on them, reverting them into three separate pieces of foldable cloth that could be used again. Since he had the spell energy to do so, he went over and recovered the boulder Ageratum had thrown at the intellect devourer, reverting it to a "pebboulder" as well. Then, ensuring the surveyors had finished with the section of map they had been filling in, they advanced once again until the surveyors called for another halt so they could fill in that section of the map, and things advanced at that slow pace for the rest of the day, until they finally called it a night and set up their camp in a wide cavern. - - - There wasn't any treasure this time, but Dan retroactively offered up the treasure he'd forgotten to mention that the wizard Elway (from the previous adventure) had had upon him: a pair of [I]bracers of armor +2[/I], [I]ring of protection +1[/I], a [I]wand of shield[/I] with 40 charges, and a [I]wand of magic missiles[/I] (CL 5th) with 35 charges remaining. We decided to retroactively give the [I]shield[/I] wand to Alistair and the [I]magic missile[/I] wand to Ageratum, and to have sold the other wondrous items, as none of us could really use them. [/QUOTE]
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