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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9175654" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 36: CROSS TOWN TRAFFIC</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 10</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 10</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 25 October 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"Everyone ready?" asked Harlan once the spellcasting had been completed. The others indicated they were, and the paladin gave the signal to attack.</p><p></p><p>The Trained Professional Adventurers had just spent the past week backtracking their way to Ghourmand Vale through the Underdark tunnels being mapped out by the cartographers for whom they'd been hired to provide security; then, once back in the Vale, they gathered up supplies while the mapmakers did likewise, hiring on an additional team of six dwarven boatmen, who had among them two <em>folding boats</em> with which they'd travel down the river they'd seen at the far end of the vast cavern holding what the mapmakers had deemed "Crazytown" - a stone keep on a rising hill in the middle of the cave, with a half-dozen or more clay huts scattered along the bottom of the cavern floor like so many ducklings attending their mother. Now the group, larger than they'd been during their initial explorations, were back in the tunnel overlooking Crazytown. And while the five heroes were ready to go take on the forces in the stone keep below them, the cartographers, dwarven luggers, and dwarven boatmen all assured them they'd stay back in safety until they were told it was safe to enter the cavern.</p><p></p><p>From their higher vantage point, the heroes could see a small pen outside the keep, in which a half dozen or so indiscriminate figures could be seen; from this distance, they couldn't make out the races of the people imprisoned within. But Chaevaris's keen eye could make out two derro figures walking from a clay hut up on the rise leading to the keep, and she had her sights focused on one of the two. The entire cavern was lit by a slight phosphorescence emanating from a bunch of glowing fungi scattered all around the cavern, which had a ceiling height of at least a hundred feet above the stone floor below. The ledge upon which the heroes stood was about 40 feet below the cavern ceiling, 10 feet above the keep ahead of them to the north, and 60 feet above the stone floor.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris let loose with her arrow and, infused with a <em>haste</em> spell Alistair had cast upon everyone, immediately followed it with a second arrow; the two missiles each found their targets and the derro was slain instantly. but by the time Alistair cast his <em>dimension door</em> spell that teleported all but Orchid across half of the cavern to land atop the keep's wide rook, the elven archer had gotten off another arrow at the second derro. Wounded, he ran back and hid behind the hut from which he'd come.</p><p></p><p>Orchid, in the meantime, was flapping her way parallel to the keep, rising up towards the ceiling. In the form of a dire bat, she cast a <em>transmute rock to mud</em> spell at the ceiling directly above the seven huts below her, sending mud and loose stone falling a hundred feet or more and collapsing the clay huts and all the derro within them. Just that quickly, the wildshaped druid had taken care of the majority of the Crazytown derro living in the cavern.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris, now on the roof of the keep and at a much different angle than the ledge overlooking the cavern, had the hiding derro back in her sights. Before he could see he was not at all hidden from her current position, she downed him with a second arrow, this one piercing the side of his head.</p><p></p><p>"Good work, everyone!" Harlan said in a low voice, as he clambered to the edge of the roof and let himself drop to the rock ledge upon which the entire keep sat. Ageratum leapt down beside him, but she had activated her <em>bracelet of invisibility</em> before Alistair had cast the <em>dimension door</em> spell and was hidden from sight. She raced along the back edge of the keep, looking for any other doors or windows. By the time she got all the way back to the front doors, the other PCs had gathered up there - including Orchid, still in her dire bat form, flapping more or less in one place some 20 feet before the keep, where the steps leading to it dropped down below her on a curved path that went past the slave pen and the hut with the two arrow-pierced derro. Ambrose had flown from his master's shoulders to go check out the slave pen, finding five bedraggled-looking svirfneblin trapped within, no doubt waiting to become a mind flayer meal in the near future.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris activated her necklace and caused the door to their extradimensional house to manifest on the side of the keep's wall. Opening it, Alistair ordered Carruthers, their shield guardian, to exit the house and prepare to fight off any enemies they might find inside the keep. The construct stepped out onto the stone floor along the keep and readied himself to do as instructed.</p><p></p><p>"On my mark," Alistair warned the others. "Three, two, one--" and then he said the arcane syllables to the <em>shrink item</em> spell which reduced the western door to a fraction of its former size, transforming it to a canvas-like fabric while doing so. The sorcerer whisked the former door away, revealing a now-open doorway into the stone keep, where they'd hoped to catch the inhabitants unaware.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the two derro Chaevaris had slain were both low-level sorcerers themselves, and the second one had managed to fire off a <em>message</em> spell to the derro sorcerer <strong>Malaganthus</strong> and the two mind flayers who dwelled within. As a result, the three were already expecting an attack of some kind, and as the double doors at the front of their keep was the only was in, they had a pretty good idea from where the attack would emanate.</p><p></p><p>The first mind flayer, <strong>Galagraxis</strong>, cast a <em>charm monster</em> at Harlan, standing in the open doorway. Fortunately for the half-elf paladin, he was saved from the arcane assault by the <em>protection from evil</em> spell he'd cast upon himself back up on the ledge before the heroes moved in on their enemies. Then Orchid released the spell she had prepared, causing a <em>wall of thorns</em> to grow up around the middle section of the keep, engulfing both mind flayers and the derro sorcerer, the tough thorns scratching their bodies as they grew into place. Now at their full size, they'd carve the enemies up nicely if they tried moving from the spaces they currently occupied.</p><p></p><p>The second mind flayer, <strong>Kaalargisanth</strong>, lashed out with a <em>mind blast</em> from the side alcove in which he stood. However, due to the stone walls of the keep blocking the psionic assault from all but Harlan and Alistair, only those two were in its path - and they both managed to keep their mental defenses up enough to prevent the <em>stunning</em> effect from taking effect, at least for this time. They did step aside, though, and let Carruthers make his way through the doorway. As Malaganthus and Galagraxis were both towards the rear of the keep - most of which was one big, open chamber - with 20 feet of <em>wall of thorns</em> between them and him, the shield guardian went for Kaalargisanth, who was in a side alcove to the left but well within the reach of his solid arms. He sent a massive fist crashing through the thorns to collide with the side of the mind flayer's head, scratching his own hand up a bit but nothing his automatic self-healing protocols couldn't handle.</p><p></p><p>Stuck inside the thorns, Malaganthus cast a <em>mass reduce person</em> spell at Harlan and the half-elf shrunk down to half his normal size, which surprised him mightily as he'd never experienced such size-changing magics himself. Then Galagraxis pulsed out another <em>mind blast</em>, catching Harlan and Ageratum in its blast radius. Once again the paladin was immune to the effects, and the invisible halfling managed to deflect the <em>stunning</em> effect away, although it seemed to be quite a bit of effort on her part.</p><p></p><p>Orchid, still in dire bat form, flew into the keep, darting over to the northwestern corner, to the right of the open doorway. She then cast a <em>summon swarm</em> spell, covering Galagraxis in a thousand or so spiders, biting at his rubbery flesh wherever it was exposed to their hungry mandibles. The mind flayer thrashed about as the venom coursed into his system, weakening him a bit as the thorns cut into his body from his thrashing.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum raced across the open room and stabbed her short sword deep into the thorns, catching Kaalargisanth in the thigh, leaving a deep gash which bled freely. The attack returned her to full visibility, but by the time the illithid could see her the damage had already been done. And behind her, on one side of the open doorway, Chaevaris was aiming her next arrow at the same mind flayer's head. Instinctively, Kaalargisanth sent out another <em>mind blast</em>, this time catching all five heroes in its area of effect. Ageratum's mind clenched up immediately, stunned into temporary immobility; the others managed to overcome the intended effects. But the half-size Harlan then charged the mind flayer, slaying him with the <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> that had lost nearly none of its damage potential in being reduced to half its normal size.</p><p></p><p>Alistair stepped forward fully into the keep, raised his <em>metamagic rod</em> towards the remaining mind flayer, and channeled a <em>maximized magic missile</em> his way. Unfortunately, the spell fizzled upon reaching its target, crashing up against the illithid's natural resistance to spell energy. He cursed silently to himself, then noticed Ageratum's immobility and directed Carruthers to take her outside the keep and around the corner, out of harm's way from any spells these two remaining foes might throw her way. The shield guardian moved immediately to comply, scooping the halfling up like a baby and exiting the keep with her cradled in his massive arms.</p><p></p><p>The derro sorcerer cast a <em>slow</em> spell at Harlan, Orchid, and Alistair, but of the three only the half-sized paladin was affected - and all that did was counteract the <em>haste</em> spell Alistair had cast upon all five heroes at the beginning of their assault. Then Galagraxis, spiders crawling all over him, sent another <em>mind blast</em> crashing against Alistair and Orchid, to no discernable effect. The druid responded by casting a <em>giant vermin</em> spell on the swarm of spiders coating the illithid, and two of them suddenly increased to the size of a horse. The sudden growth cut them up as their expanding bodies ran up against innumerable thorns, but then they both managed to bite the mind flayer, although their venom did the illithid no further harm.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris's original next target having been slain in the meantime, the archer stepped fully into the keep and lined up a shot against Malaganthus the derro. Harlan, seeing there was no way to get to either of the remaining foes with all the thorn-bushes in the way, had resheathed his sword and pulled out his longbow. He got a shot off at the derro, but it was deflected by the thorn-covered vines covering the area like barbed wire.</p><p></p><p>Alistair tried blasting a second <em>maximized magic missile</em> through his <em>metamagic rod</em>, and this time he was successful in overcoming Galagraxis's inherent spell resistance. The illithid was struck full-force and he collapsed, unconscious, into the thorn-covered vines, slicing his body up further as he collapsed to the floor of the keep.</p><p></p><p>Carruthers stepped inside the extradimensional doorway and placed Ageratum's unmoving body carefully upon a sofa, then stepped back outside and returned to Alistair to receive further orders. The derro, now the sole remaining foe in the keep, had cast a <em>sound burst</em> spell that managed to stun Chaevaris into temporary immobility, but then Orchid dismissed her <em>wall of thorns</em> spell and dropped a <em>flame strike</em> spell upon the derro. Then, while the normal-sized spiders started feasting upon the flesh of the downed mind flayer, the two larger ones spun at the derro, biting at him with their wicked mandibles.</p><p></p><p>With the thorns no longer in his way, Harlan charged straight at Malaganthus, darting between the two massive arachnids and piercing the derro through the heart with his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em>, channeling Pelor's smiting energy through his blade. Even the magic of the <em>Blood Mirror</em> couldn't save the derro at that point; he fell to the ground, dead.</p><p></p><p>A quick search through the keep uncovered a large chest of coins, a smaller coffer filled with gems, and a handful of arcane spell scrolls: <em>sleep, command undead, magic weapon, explosive runes, dancing lights</em>, and <em>fox's cunning</em>. They also managed to pry a set of magical <em>bracers of armor</em> and a <em>ring of protection</em> from the derro's corpse. There was also a rune carved into the floor of the main room of the keep, which glowed under the effects of Alistair's <em>detect magic</em> spell and which the sorcerer deduced was likely able to <em>plane shift</em> the entire keep to other planes of existence. Activating it was well beyond Alistair's power, however; it likely required the psionic energy of a mind flayer to be put to that use.</p><p></p><p>Ambrose returned to his master's shoulder and informed him of the svirfneblin captives, which Harlan immediately went out to free. The grackle also told Alistair of another thing he'd discovered; a nearby cave with a shimmering field of some sort at its opening, which the bird had feared to approach too close. That had turned out to be a good thing, for the "shimmering field" was not a <em>teleportation gate</em> like Chaevaris had surmised, but a gelatinous cube morphed by the size of the small cave opening to a gumdrop shape, with a black pudding draped over it like a cloak. They had apparently somehow been tamed by the mind flayers or the derro, and awaited their next meal with an inhuman (and nonthinking) patience. (The svirfneblin were able to inform the heroes that after one of their number had had their brain devoured by a mind flayer, the body was then thrown to the gelatinous cube and black pudding for disposal - after the derro had stripped off all the flesh they desired for their own meals.)</p><p></p><p>"Well," said Harlan after the <em>mass reduce person</em> spell had run its course and he'd been restored to his full size, "this keep is as good a place as any to rest up for the night, while the cartographers map out the full extent of this cavern. Then tomorrow we can give that river a try; I know the dwarven boatmen are eager to do their share of the explorations." Alistair went to go fetch the rest of their team to tell them it was safe for them to enter the vast cavern.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This was the second time in two sessions that Vicki's halfling PC got <em>stunned</em> for long enough to be basically taken out of the rest of the adventure. Once again, I passed her over Carruthers's sheet and she got to play the shield guardian for the rest of the night. Dan informs me he has enough material for another three adventures in getting us to the far side of the Lortmil Mountains, the next session having us start out on the river in the two <em>folding boats</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9175654, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 36: CROSS TOWN TRAFFIC[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 10 Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 10 Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 10 Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 10[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 10[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 25 October 2023 - - - "Everyone ready?" asked Harlan once the spellcasting had been completed. The others indicated they were, and the paladin gave the signal to attack. The Trained Professional Adventurers had just spent the past week backtracking their way to Ghourmand Vale through the Underdark tunnels being mapped out by the cartographers for whom they'd been hired to provide security; then, once back in the Vale, they gathered up supplies while the mapmakers did likewise, hiring on an additional team of six dwarven boatmen, who had among them two [i]folding boats[/i] with which they'd travel down the river they'd seen at the far end of the vast cavern holding what the mapmakers had deemed "Crazytown" - a stone keep on a rising hill in the middle of the cave, with a half-dozen or more clay huts scattered along the bottom of the cavern floor like so many ducklings attending their mother. Now the group, larger than they'd been during their initial explorations, were back in the tunnel overlooking Crazytown. And while the five heroes were ready to go take on the forces in the stone keep below them, the cartographers, dwarven luggers, and dwarven boatmen all assured them they'd stay back in safety until they were told it was safe to enter the cavern. From their higher vantage point, the heroes could see a small pen outside the keep, in which a half dozen or so indiscriminate figures could be seen; from this distance, they couldn't make out the races of the people imprisoned within. But Chaevaris's keen eye could make out two derro figures walking from a clay hut up on the rise leading to the keep, and she had her sights focused on one of the two. The entire cavern was lit by a slight phosphorescence emanating from a bunch of glowing fungi scattered all around the cavern, which had a ceiling height of at least a hundred feet above the stone floor below. The ledge upon which the heroes stood was about 40 feet below the cavern ceiling, 10 feet above the keep ahead of them to the north, and 60 feet above the stone floor. Chaevaris let loose with her arrow and, infused with a [i]haste[/i] spell Alistair had cast upon everyone, immediately followed it with a second arrow; the two missiles each found their targets and the derro was slain instantly. but by the time Alistair cast his [i]dimension door[/i] spell that teleported all but Orchid across half of the cavern to land atop the keep's wide rook, the elven archer had gotten off another arrow at the second derro. Wounded, he ran back and hid behind the hut from which he'd come. Orchid, in the meantime, was flapping her way parallel to the keep, rising up towards the ceiling. In the form of a dire bat, she cast a [i]transmute rock to mud[/i] spell at the ceiling directly above the seven huts below her, sending mud and loose stone falling a hundred feet or more and collapsing the clay huts and all the derro within them. Just that quickly, the wildshaped druid had taken care of the majority of the Crazytown derro living in the cavern. Chaevaris, now on the roof of the keep and at a much different angle than the ledge overlooking the cavern, had the hiding derro back in her sights. Before he could see he was not at all hidden from her current position, she downed him with a second arrow, this one piercing the side of his head. "Good work, everyone!" Harlan said in a low voice, as he clambered to the edge of the roof and let himself drop to the rock ledge upon which the entire keep sat. Ageratum leapt down beside him, but she had activated her [i]bracelet of invisibility[/i] before Alistair had cast the [i]dimension door[/i] spell and was hidden from sight. She raced along the back edge of the keep, looking for any other doors or windows. By the time she got all the way back to the front doors, the other PCs had gathered up there - including Orchid, still in her dire bat form, flapping more or less in one place some 20 feet before the keep, where the steps leading to it dropped down below her on a curved path that went past the slave pen and the hut with the two arrow-pierced derro. Ambrose had flown from his master's shoulders to go check out the slave pen, finding five bedraggled-looking svirfneblin trapped within, no doubt waiting to become a mind flayer meal in the near future. Chaevaris activated her necklace and caused the door to their extradimensional house to manifest on the side of the keep's wall. Opening it, Alistair ordered Carruthers, their shield guardian, to exit the house and prepare to fight off any enemies they might find inside the keep. The construct stepped out onto the stone floor along the keep and readied himself to do as instructed. "On my mark," Alistair warned the others. "Three, two, one--" and then he said the arcane syllables to the [i]shrink item[/i] spell which reduced the western door to a fraction of its former size, transforming it to a canvas-like fabric while doing so. The sorcerer whisked the former door away, revealing a now-open doorway into the stone keep, where they'd hoped to catch the inhabitants unaware. Unfortunately, the two derro Chaevaris had slain were both low-level sorcerers themselves, and the second one had managed to fire off a [i]message[/i] spell to the derro sorcerer [b]Malaganthus[/b] and the two mind flayers who dwelled within. As a result, the three were already expecting an attack of some kind, and as the double doors at the front of their keep was the only was in, they had a pretty good idea from where the attack would emanate. The first mind flayer, [b]Galagraxis[/b], cast a [i]charm monster[/i] at Harlan, standing in the open doorway. Fortunately for the half-elf paladin, he was saved from the arcane assault by the [i]protection from evil[/i] spell he'd cast upon himself back up on the ledge before the heroes moved in on their enemies. Then Orchid released the spell she had prepared, causing a [i]wall of thorns[/i] to grow up around the middle section of the keep, engulfing both mind flayers and the derro sorcerer, the tough thorns scratching their bodies as they grew into place. Now at their full size, they'd carve the enemies up nicely if they tried moving from the spaces they currently occupied. The second mind flayer, [b]Kaalargisanth[/b], lashed out with a [i]mind blast[/i] from the side alcove in which he stood. However, due to the stone walls of the keep blocking the psionic assault from all but Harlan and Alistair, only those two were in its path - and they both managed to keep their mental defenses up enough to prevent the [i]stunning[/i] effect from taking effect, at least for this time. They did step aside, though, and let Carruthers make his way through the doorway. As Malaganthus and Galagraxis were both towards the rear of the keep - most of which was one big, open chamber - with 20 feet of [i]wall of thorns[/i] between them and him, the shield guardian went for Kaalargisanth, who was in a side alcove to the left but well within the reach of his solid arms. He sent a massive fist crashing through the thorns to collide with the side of the mind flayer's head, scratching his own hand up a bit but nothing his automatic self-healing protocols couldn't handle. Stuck inside the thorns, Malaganthus cast a [i]mass reduce person[/i] spell at Harlan and the half-elf shrunk down to half his normal size, which surprised him mightily as he'd never experienced such size-changing magics himself. Then Galagraxis pulsed out another [i]mind blast[/i], catching Harlan and Ageratum in its blast radius. Once again the paladin was immune to the effects, and the invisible halfling managed to deflect the [i]stunning[/i] effect away, although it seemed to be quite a bit of effort on her part. Orchid, still in dire bat form, flew into the keep, darting over to the northwestern corner, to the right of the open doorway. She then cast a [i]summon swarm[/i] spell, covering Galagraxis in a thousand or so spiders, biting at his rubbery flesh wherever it was exposed to their hungry mandibles. The mind flayer thrashed about as the venom coursed into his system, weakening him a bit as the thorns cut into his body from his thrashing. Ageratum raced across the open room and stabbed her short sword deep into the thorns, catching Kaalargisanth in the thigh, leaving a deep gash which bled freely. The attack returned her to full visibility, but by the time the illithid could see her the damage had already been done. And behind her, on one side of the open doorway, Chaevaris was aiming her next arrow at the same mind flayer's head. Instinctively, Kaalargisanth sent out another [i]mind blast[/i], this time catching all five heroes in its area of effect. Ageratum's mind clenched up immediately, stunned into temporary immobility; the others managed to overcome the intended effects. But the half-size Harlan then charged the mind flayer, slaying him with the [i]holy flaming burst longsword[/i] that had lost nearly none of its damage potential in being reduced to half its normal size. Alistair stepped forward fully into the keep, raised his [i]metamagic rod[/i] towards the remaining mind flayer, and channeled a [i]maximized magic missile[/i] his way. Unfortunately, the spell fizzled upon reaching its target, crashing up against the illithid's natural resistance to spell energy. He cursed silently to himself, then noticed Ageratum's immobility and directed Carruthers to take her outside the keep and around the corner, out of harm's way from any spells these two remaining foes might throw her way. The shield guardian moved immediately to comply, scooping the halfling up like a baby and exiting the keep with her cradled in his massive arms. The derro sorcerer cast a [i]slow[/i] spell at Harlan, Orchid, and Alistair, but of the three only the half-sized paladin was affected - and all that did was counteract the [i]haste[/i] spell Alistair had cast upon all five heroes at the beginning of their assault. Then Galagraxis, spiders crawling all over him, sent another [i]mind blast[/i] crashing against Alistair and Orchid, to no discernable effect. The druid responded by casting a [i]giant vermin[/i] spell on the swarm of spiders coating the illithid, and two of them suddenly increased to the size of a horse. The sudden growth cut them up as their expanding bodies ran up against innumerable thorns, but then they both managed to bite the mind flayer, although their venom did the illithid no further harm. Chaevaris's original next target having been slain in the meantime, the archer stepped fully into the keep and lined up a shot against Malaganthus the derro. Harlan, seeing there was no way to get to either of the remaining foes with all the thorn-bushes in the way, had resheathed his sword and pulled out his longbow. He got a shot off at the derro, but it was deflected by the thorn-covered vines covering the area like barbed wire. Alistair tried blasting a second [i]maximized magic missile[/i] through his [i]metamagic rod[/i], and this time he was successful in overcoming Galagraxis's inherent spell resistance. The illithid was struck full-force and he collapsed, unconscious, into the thorn-covered vines, slicing his body up further as he collapsed to the floor of the keep. Carruthers stepped inside the extradimensional doorway and placed Ageratum's unmoving body carefully upon a sofa, then stepped back outside and returned to Alistair to receive further orders. The derro, now the sole remaining foe in the keep, had cast a [i]sound burst[/i] spell that managed to stun Chaevaris into temporary immobility, but then Orchid dismissed her [i]wall of thorns[/i] spell and dropped a [i]flame strike[/i] spell upon the derro. Then, while the normal-sized spiders started feasting upon the flesh of the downed mind flayer, the two larger ones spun at the derro, biting at him with their wicked mandibles. With the thorns no longer in his way, Harlan charged straight at Malaganthus, darting between the two massive arachnids and piercing the derro through the heart with his [i]holy flaming burst longsword[/i], channeling Pelor's smiting energy through his blade. Even the magic of the [i]Blood Mirror[/i] couldn't save the derro at that point; he fell to the ground, dead. A quick search through the keep uncovered a large chest of coins, a smaller coffer filled with gems, and a handful of arcane spell scrolls: [i]sleep, command undead, magic weapon, explosive runes, dancing lights[/i], and [i]fox's cunning[/i]. They also managed to pry a set of magical [i]bracers of armor[/i] and a [i]ring of protection[/i] from the derro's corpse. There was also a rune carved into the floor of the main room of the keep, which glowed under the effects of Alistair's [i]detect magic[/i] spell and which the sorcerer deduced was likely able to [i]plane shift[/i] the entire keep to other planes of existence. Activating it was well beyond Alistair's power, however; it likely required the psionic energy of a mind flayer to be put to that use. Ambrose returned to his master's shoulder and informed him of the svirfneblin captives, which Harlan immediately went out to free. The grackle also told Alistair of another thing he'd discovered; a nearby cave with a shimmering field of some sort at its opening, which the bird had feared to approach too close. That had turned out to be a good thing, for the "shimmering field" was not a [i]teleportation gate[/i] like Chaevaris had surmised, but a gelatinous cube morphed by the size of the small cave opening to a gumdrop shape, with a black pudding draped over it like a cloak. They had apparently somehow been tamed by the mind flayers or the derro, and awaited their next meal with an inhuman (and nonthinking) patience. (The svirfneblin were able to inform the heroes that after one of their number had had their brain devoured by a mind flayer, the body was then thrown to the gelatinous cube and black pudding for disposal - after the derro had stripped off all the flesh they desired for their own meals.) "Well," said Harlan after the [i]mass reduce person[/i] spell had run its course and he'd been restored to his full size, "this keep is as good a place as any to rest up for the night, while the cartographers map out the full extent of this cavern. Then tomorrow we can give that river a try; I know the dwarven boatmen are eager to do their share of the explorations." Alistair went to go fetch the rest of their team to tell them it was safe for them to enter the vast cavern. - - - This was the second time in two sessions that Vicki's halfling PC got [i]stunned[/i] for long enough to be basically taken out of the rest of the adventure. Once again, I passed her over Carruthers's sheet and she got to play the shield guardian for the rest of the night. Dan informs me he has enough material for another three adventures in getting us to the far side of the Lortmil Mountains, the next session having us start out on the river in the two [i]folding boats[/i]. [/QUOTE]
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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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