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Story Hour
Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9214890" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 39: YGBSM</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><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><p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 10</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 30 November 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"What's it say?" asked Ageratum, trying to look over Alistair's shoulder and irritated that she had to stand on a chair to do so.</p><p></p><p>"It's a invitation to a celebration in our honor, for the successful completion of our task finding a safe route under the Lortmil Mountains, at a compound on the edge of the Vale owned by the envoy of Chendl, capital of Furyondy," replied the young sorcerer, opening and reading the sealed card that had just been delivered via courier to the Dark and Light Club.</p><p></p><p>"When?" asked Orchid.</p><p></p><p>"Tonight," replied Alistair. "It even gives directions to his compound."</p><p></p><p>"Do we go?" asked Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"It would be ill manners to turn down such an invitation from the envoy to a neighboring kingdom," replied Harlan, taking the invitation and reading it over for himself. "And it says he wishes to discuss another mission during the celebration - another opportunity to do good."</p><p></p><p>"And earn more coin," added Ageratum, hopping down from the chair.</p><p></p><p>The celebration was to start at twilight, and the compound was on the eastern outskirts of town, a good half hour's walk but less than half of that on horseback, so well before sundown the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers found themselves riding east with the setting sun at their backs. Orchid once again rode upon Law, Harlan's heavy warhorse, as the paladin had summoned his celestial pegasus Nova for his mount, the better to arrive in style. Shushitan, Orchid's loyal timber wolf, loped along beside his mistress, glad to once again be included in her exploits now that she was finished with her week of Underdark exploration. The group all wore their adventuring gear, for they were being hailed as successful adventurers and it would be best to look the part. But as they approached the compound, mists started rising from either side of the road, soon covering their steeds' legs and getting thicker with every moment. Harlan, whose paladin training had taught him many things about combatting the forces of evil, detected the unmistakable tang of evil in the rising mists as they quickly rose to a full-blown fog. "This isn't natural!" he called to the others behind him.</p><p></p><p>But as quickly as the mists had risen, they started fading away with equal speed. Before long the mists were no more, leaving the group of heroes traveling down a similar road with the rising sun just ahead of them, and an ever-present dry heat telling them they were no longer in Ghourmand Vale. There was still a dwelling ahead of them, some 150 feet away, but it was no longer the compound of the envoy of Chendl; rather, it was a walled enclosure around a series of interconnected buildings, with a set of heavy gates in the middle of the wall, at the very end of the road the group traveled.</p><p></p><p>"We have been in these lands before," Harlan surmised, noting the trees visible were not the oaks and maples which populated Ghourmand Vale, but palm trees as they'd last seen in the lands of Jasgund Singh; somehow, they'd once again been transported to the strange lands ruled by the rakshasa who sought to capture Harlan's <em>Blood Mirror</em> for himself. The paladin called for a halt while he explained his beliefs.</p><p></p><p>"But how?" demanded Ageratum. "Last time, we passed through a <em>planar gate</em> in the middle of one of the mine passageways Kasselban had us checking out for him. I didn't see any <em>planar gate</em> this time."</p><p></p><p>"To be fair, none of us saw it last time, either," pointed out Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"The mists are another way of traveling between the planes," Harlan explained. "Those turban-wearing kidnappers we met up with who were working with the bugbears claimed they had passed into our world through the mists, remember?"</p><p></p><p>"So now what do we do?" asked Orchid. She looked behind her, the way they had come, but saw no mists nor any recognizable landmarks. Wherever they were, they had no idea in which direction lay their home - nor whether it was even accessible from their current position.</p><p></p><p>"We check out the building ahead," reasoned Harlan, for it was the only dwelling within sight. "But if Jasgund Singh is responsible for bringing us here, we'd best deal with him with all haste, lest he have time to prepare too many defenses." Alistair took that to mean they wouldn't be spending the normal time to cast all of the "preparing for combat" spells they preferred to be able to cast, but he focused upon the paladin's use of the word "haste" and cast that spell upon the assembled group, including Shushitan but excluding Law, for he was not yet powerful enough a spellcaster to encompass all five heroes, all five of their riding mounts, and Orchid's faithful timber wolf as well, and if he knew the druid, she'd soon be wildshaping into some sort of animal in any moment and wouldn't have the need for an extra-speedy horse. Harlan cast a <em>bless</em> spell upon the assembled group before they started branching out into slightly different directions.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, Orchid almost immediately shed her elven form and became an eagle, flapping her wings and soaring up into the air. Ambrose followed, sent by his master to scout ahead for danger, while Chaevaris spurred on Talkacha and raced towards the gated wall. As the archer approached, she climbed up onto her steed's back and leaped upwards as the horse came to a stop before the wall, pulling herself up and over the crenellations. She landed on her feet in a crouch, then cautiously peeked over the far side into the compound below. There was a bald man below, with the dusky skin like those of Jasgund's people, wearing a loose, cloth garment around his waist that looked like nothing so much as a large diaper. He seemed to be unarmed, so Chaevaris didn't deem it necessary to get a bead on him with her bow and arrow.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum followed Chaevaris's plan of attack while riding Munson, and although she had a higher span to jump to make it all the way to the top of the 15-foot wall, she also didn't need to make it all the way, for she activated her <em>cloak of arachnida</em> on the way up and simply scampered up the rest of the wall. However, while Chaevaris had leaped up to the part of the wall north of the gate, the little halfling chose to climb up to the other section, south of the gate. She looked over the wall and saw the bald man as well, plus another creature Chaevaris had missed from her vantage point: a large tiger, partially hidden behind a palm tree and a clump of brush near its base. The tiger rose up on all fours from a sitting position, sniffing the air and apparently picking up unknown scents that warned it of possible danger.</p><p></p><p>Zephyr approached the wall at full speed and Alistair leaped up beside Chaevaris, struggling to pull himself the rest of the way over the wall when he didn't make it quite as high as he had hoped. And over the empathic link he shared with his grackle familiar, he sensed excitement and worry as Ambrose spotted the tiger, the bald laborer, and five young girls inside a roofed enclosure at the front part of the multiple building wings making up the dwelling beyond the gate, all from his aerial vantage point.</p><p></p><p>The bald servant looked up and spotted Ageratum looking down at him. Without a word, he started heading for the gate as the tiger roared a challenge behind him. Harlan, astride Nova who had taken wing, detected evil coming not only from the tiger and the bald man, but also from the trees, the building, and every local landmark within sight - the entire environment screamed of its evil nature. This only reinforced his belief that they were not even on the same plane as that which contained Ghourmand Vale, but another entire plane, or possibly demiplane, where evil was the norm.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris was giving the dwelling beyond a good look-over. It was made of adobe, stood a single story tall, and was constructed rather like a squared-off letter "C" with a gazebo in the middle - a gazebo in which five young girls, dressed identically in red saris, stood in a formation, looking expectantly towards the front gate. Still unable to see the tiger from her vantage point, she pointed her readied arrow down at the bald laborer, who walked unhurriedly toward the gate as if to open it. Orchid wasn't sure why the man would do so - to release the tigers upon their mounts, perhaps? - and cast a <em>spike stones</em> spell around the front half of the building, including directly underneath the areas in which the servant and the tiger stood. The man stepped forward, trod upon the unseen spikes, and howled in pain, stopping short.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum, in the meantime, had taken out the <em>wand of magic missiles</em> and was aiming it at the tiger. She tried firing off a shot, but her experience with such things was still mainly untried, and she was unable to coax forth the spellcraft needed to discharge a blast of missiles from the wand. While she was busy trying to get the blasted thing to work, one of the servant girls opened a door to the south and exited into the building's interior, closing the door behind her. Unseen by the heroes, a line of more servant girls made their way through the building, heading through the northern wing.</p><p></p><p>Alistair felt a wave of shock and excitement over his link with Ambrose as the grackle, from his aerial view, saw the sudden appearance of a canopy, 10 feet to a side, arrive in the exact middle of the gazebo. Standing directly beneath it was a regal figure, dressed in opulent gowns and wearing rings upon his fingers - and, of more immediate note, he had the head of a tiger on the body otherwise conforming to that of a man, save for the fact that his right hand seemed to be attached to his left wrist and vice-versa. Alistair didn't get any of the details of his familiar's observations, merely that something exciting and unusual had occurred in the vicinity of the gazebo.</p><p></p><p>Harlan cast a <em>bull's strength</em> spell upon himself as Nova hovered in place. Law, perhaps not wanting to be left behind with Shushitan, headed over towards the wall at a leisurely trot, the timber wolf (who saw it as his duty to keep the riding mounts safe), loping along at the white horse's side.</p><p></p><p>Clambering all the way over the embankment, Alistair cast a <em>cat's grace</em> spell upon himself, wishing he'd done so before his leap up to the ramparts of the crenellated wall. "I say, Elfy, do you see anything?" he whispered to Chaevaris, who was pointing her nocked arrow at something the sorcerer couldn't see on the other side of the wall. He could hear the rants of the laborer below, complaining about the sudden stabbing pains in his feet as a result of having stepped into the field of <em>spike stones</em> all around him.</p><p></p><p>Then the tiger moved as well, taking a creeping step forward, hitting the hidden spikes (which elicited a yowl of pain), and then leaping up at the southern part of the wall. His leap was much more impressive than had been Alistair's and the great cat pulled himself up and over the wall, standing in the 5-foot-wide gap between the two crenellated structures on either side to him, to the east and west. And directly to his north stood Ageratum, useless wand in one hand while the other grabbed frantically at her short sword. He lashed out with a set of wicked claws before she could fend him off, then leaned forward and bit at the halfling as well. His jaws crunched through the living branches of her <em>bespoke armor</em> and his fangs pierced the flesh of her arm.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris released her arrow, sending it unerringly down at the bald servant's eye, where it slew him instantly, sending his lifeless corpse falling backwards to be pierced by dozens of <em>spike stones</em>. But Orchid, seeing Ageratum's predicament, cast a <em>wall of thorns</em> spell that extended from right before the little halfling to all the way down the length of the southern wall to the point where it made a right turn to the west. The tiger found himself surrounded by long, painful thorns sticking into his flesh and fur from all directions, and his roar of surprise allowed Ageratum to extract her arm from his mouth. Orchid, still in eagle form, flew to the top of a palm tree to observe her handiwork.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum stabbed her blade into the <em>wall of thorns</em>, far enough in to pierce the tiger's flesh without placing her own hand inside the area of the spell's effect. With the <em>haste</em> spell still in effect, she was able to stab him repeatedly several times before he could do anything about it.</p><p></p><p>Down at the gazebo, a door from the north opened up and a line of servant girls entered the open area, as the door to the south opened back up and the girl who had gone inside came back outside. There were now a full ten such servants, each dressed the same in red saris, and they took up positions around the rakshasa, willing placing themselves in harm's way as human shields, the better to protect their unholy master. Ambrose saw all of this and returned to his master's shoulder to report what he had seen.</p><p></p><p>Nova flew around to the south side of the wall, near enough that Harlan could lean over and stab at the tiger with his <em>Starblade</em>, the sword piercing his flesh and the flames singeing his fur. From the other side of the gate, Alistair cast a <em>maximized scorching ray</em> spell at the tiger, both blasts striking the beast in the head. It roared again and made a lunge at Ageratum, the act causing countless thorns to pierce his hide, but Ageratum was able to leap back onto the gate, out of harm's way. Then, <em>spider climbing</em> from the power of her magical cloak, she walked along the wall's western edge and stepped back up to the tiger's side, stabbing at it again with her trusty blade. But this time the thorns got in her way, inadvertently deflecting the thrust of her blade and ruining her sneak attack. By then, Chaevaris had nocked another arrow into place and was aiming it carefully at the tiger's right eye.</p><p></p><p>Orchid flapped over from one palm tree to another, one close enough to give her a good look at the rakshasa in the enclosure nearby. She cast a <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell at the humanoid tiger, hoping to force him into the harmless shape of a tiger kitten, but the spell had no effect; apparently rakshasas enjoyed an inherent resistance to spell energy, as many of the creatures she'd fought in the past months (especially those in the Underdark) seemed to have. In retaliation, the druid felt some sort of mental attack spell head her way, but she likewise managed to shake it off and remained unaffected.</p><p></p><p>While Nova flapped in more or less one place, Harlan got in a couple of good hits with his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em>. The tiger tried to free himself from the thorns, to no avail - he was stuck like a spider in a web, an easy target for the paladin's blade. The same held true for Chaevaris's arrow, which she released to have it cross the distance between her bow and the tiger's right eye in the span of a blink, piercing the feline's eye and burying itself up to the feathered end in its shaggy head. But the archer was shocked to see the tiger still up and about - she would have thought it would have fallen long before this, with as much damage as it had taken from swords, arrow, and spell. This was no ordinary tiger, she reasoned, but some fabled beast out of legend!</p><p></p><p>Alistair, with Ambrose in place on his shoulder, cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell that teleported the two of them to the top of the roof directly behind the rakshasa, who seemed to fail to notice their sudden presence behind him. But then the area all around the rakshasa was suddenly covered in thousands of biting spiders, the result of a <em>summon swarm</em> spell cast by Orchid. The rakshasa wriggled under the discomfort of their numerous bites but did not seem overly concerned with their venom. Orchid was nonplussed by the failure of the spiders to overtly harm the rakshasa, for the casting of that spell was but the first step in a two-stage attack, for she next planned to greatly increase the size of a pair of the spiders to that of a horse. <em>Let's see how nonchalant he can be with two giant monstrous spiders chewing at his neck!</em> she thought with a mental grin.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum stabbed again and again into the <em>wall of thorns</em> with her short sword, bloodying the tiger's fur even further, but still it refused to drop. Harlan kept up his attack from the other side of the wall, and although it remained on all fours it at least looked to be ready to drop at any moment. Nova, wings tired from holding them in one place more of less, flew over by the gate for a bit to stretch his feathered appendages, just as the tiger gave a final attempt to free himself from the thorns imprisoning him...but the effort merely caused that much more damage to his battered flesh, and it was finally too much for the regal feline, who collapsed into unconsciousness (the very act piercing him even worse with more thorn damage).</p><p></p><p>Jasgund Singh stepped away from the spider swarm but otherwise did nothing, seemingly willing to let his tiger do his all of the fighting on his behalf. Behind him, Alistair frowned in confusion; surely a rakshasa had powerful spells of its own it could be bringing to bear? Such had been the case in the tales spun by the bard Holyrood Carp. But while Alistair stood pondering this bit of unexpected behavior, Ambrose noticed something his master had overlooked: one of the servant girls - the one who had stepped inside for a moment before returning - was moving her hands in a surreptitious manner as if trying to cast a spell of her own.</p><p></p><p>Alistair made a decision and cast a <em>maximized touch of idiocy</em> spell upon his familiar, whispering for Ambrose to go trigger it on the rakshasa below. "That girl over there's also casting spells, Master!" Ambrose replied in a low voice. "Maybe I should try to take her out first?" Alistair thought a moment and then agreed, for they all knew rakshasas had an innate resistance to spells; perhaps this girl - if that was truly what she was, and not some wildshaped or polymorphed spellcaster in a little girl's form - would prove to be more receptive to an attack spell. With a fluttering of wings the grackle was off, flying down to the girl, touching her hair with his claws, and discharging his master's spell - which fizzled harmlessly against her. <em>Curse the Fates!</em> thought Alistair - <em>the little wench is likewise protected!</em></p><p></p><p>But now Ambrose had been noticed not only by the girl he had tried to attack, but Jasgund Singh himself, for the girl was off to his right and a bit before him since he had stepped back out of the swarm of spiders. Fearing his familiar was about to be attacked by one or more spellcasters, Alistair did his level best to distract the rakshasa by breaking into song: specifically, the song he had written for Holyrood Carp about Singh himself. "Jasgund Singh...is a stuffy, old boar...tricked into marrying a whore...everybody laughed and mocked him so he turned around and socked 'em...." But the rakshasa didn't deign to turn the sorcerer's way...which suited Chaevaris just fine, as she had loaded another arrow into her composite longbow and had it aimed in his direction.</p><p></p><p>Orchid cast her <em>giant vermin</em> spell and two spiders grew to enormous size, each skittering over to whichever servant girl happened to be closest and biting at her with their wicked mandibles. The girls easily avoided the arachnids' bites, while refusing to step away from the protective circle they had formed around their rakshasa master. But the swarm surged forward, once again encompassing the rakshasa and two of his devoted minions. The girls, at least, were not immune to the spider venom dripping from their fangs, although they steadfastly refused to move from their spaces in the circle about Jasgund Singh; they seemed willing to die to help protect their beloved master.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum, well aware of the <em>spike stones</em> spell still in effect on the ground around the dwelling, cast a <em>web</em> spell reaching from the side of the wall to the side of the building and crept along it, prevented from being caught in its sticky strands by the power of her magic cloak. Once at the end, she leaped over a bush and landed on an unspiked stretch of ground past the <em>spike stones</em> spell's area of effect.</p><p></p><p>A sudden blurring in the corner of the gazebo occurred as the formerly invisible efreeti (who'd been standing there the whole time, keeping the illusion of the rakshasa moving about as needed) cast a <em>wall of fire</em> spell along the entire front wall, to include across the still-closed gates. Chaevaris was instantly engulfed on the north side of the wall, as was the unconscious form of the legendary tiger who lay unmoving along the southern section, the flames setting his fur ablaze and killing him; for once, Ageratum would not need to apply her blade to its throat after combat had finished.</p><p></p><p>Seeing a new threat, Nova flew in a diving charge at the efreeti and kicked out at him, only discovering he was sheathed in an aura of flames when it was too late. Harlan had swung out at the red-skinned fire genie at the same time as his celestial pegasus made his own attack, and he too was burned by the efreeti's <em>fire shield</em> spell he'd cast earlier as a precaution.</p><p></p><p>Ambrose flapped desperately away from the servant girl he'd attacked, saw her cast a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell at Harlan (which hit and drained the paladin of a portion of his physical strength), and belatedly realized it was she who was the true rakshasa Jasgund Singh, hidden in plain view among his living human shield camouflage. He was almost bitten by one of the giant spiders before making it safely back to his master's shoulder. Then Alistair ran across the rooftops in a counterclockwise rotation, lining himself up so his <em>cone of cold</em> spell would hit not only the efreeti and the true Jasgund Singh, but all of his willing human shields as well. The spell was a good tactic, for it slew the girls all at once (with the exception of Jasgund Singh himself, in the guise of one of his own devoted servants) and the efreeti as well, <em>fire shield</em> spell notwithstanding. Upon the efreeti's death and immediate disappearance (in the manner of all summoned creatures), the illusion of the tiger-headed rakshasa disappeared as well. Alistair was not surprised to see the sole remaining servant girl completely unharmed by his spell, and he now knew the reason for Ambrose's delivered <em>maximized touch of idiocy</em> spell failure. But he continued on where he had left off, singing, "Jasgund Singh...likes to call himself a Lord...and he wants to be adored...wears a filthy, smelly turban; what he does is quite disturbin'" and was pleased to see the little girl's face scrunch up into a wicked scowl.</p><p></p><p>Orchid mentally dismissed her <em>spike stones</em> spell - for the spikes no longer served any purpose - and cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell at the "little girl," encompassing her in a sheet of flames dropping down from above. It was apparent that the spell hadn't dealt as much damage as it could have, but it was a start. Chaevaris, seeing the spikes dissolve below her, dropped down from the wall, rolled the flames off of her, and got up in a sprint headed for the gazebo, nocking another arrow into place as she did so. Ageratum activated her <em>bracelet of invisibility</em> and headed over to the pavilion herself.</p><p></p><p>Nova flew into the area beneath the gazebo in a bee-line for Jasgund Singh, Harlan stabbing his <em>Starblade</em> point first into the "girl's" chest after having channeled a burst of Pelor's smiting energy through it. Nova kicked out with a hoof, connecting but seeming to deal no damage at all to the rakshasa's sturdy form. A smirk upon the face of the little girl whose shape he wore, Jasgund Singh touched an amulet and was flooded by a burst of healing energy, the triggered <em>heal</em> spell - one of the three wishes he'd gotten from the efreeti (the other two being the service of a legendary tiger and that of the efreeti for a year and a day) - restoring him to full combat strength.</p><p></p><p>Undeterred, Alistair ran back along the rooftop the way he'd come, to line up another <em>cone of cold</em> spell down at the shape-altered rakshasa without hitting Harlan or Nova. This time, the spell seemed to overcome the rakshasa's natural resistance, for he cried out in pain from the blast. Rather than continue on with his song, Alistair called down, "At least you've got the 'cry like a little girl' part down pat, Jasgund!"</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris entered the pavilion, lining up her next shot, as Orchid cast a <em>produce flame</em> spell that caused a small ball of fire energy to manifest in one eagle's claw. She threw it at Jasgund, but it fizzled into nothingness upon striking its target. Ageratum fared no better when she raced into the pavilion and stabbed at the rakshasa, failing to overcome the protection of his thick pelt (even if it wasn't visible in his current form) and basically doing nothing but popping back into sudden visibility once again. But then Harlan leaped down from the broad back of his celestial pegasus and stabbed at Jasgund Singh again with his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> enhanced for a second time with Pelor's smiting energy, and this was enough to finally slay the rakshasa who'd been trying to get his mismatched hands upon the <em>Blood Mirror</em> the paladin wore in a pocket at his belt.</p><p></p><p>Upon the death of Jasgund Singh, his shapechanged body exploded into mist and he started dissipating in the wind, as a sudden earthquake struck the grounds of his dwelling. Tiles started falling from the rooftop, and Harlan realized the very land about them was breaking up, perhaps somehow tied in to the rakshasa's life force. More ceiling tiles fell and broke, before the whole structure started turning to mist as well. One object caught Ageratum's eye and she made a grab for it, an ornate bottle that the clever halfling deduced might have been the vessel inside which the efreeti had lived; it could easily be worth a large sum of coins in the right hands!</p><p></p><p>There was a sudden sharp cracking noise near Harlan and the paladin looked down at his belt pouch, pulling out the <em>Blood Mirror</em>, which now had a large crack in it. A seeping coldness rose from the shattered gemstone.</p><p></p><p>"We need to get out of here!" called Harlan, leaping back onto Nova's back and ushering the others to flee for the gates. But as they made their hasty retreat, the gates themselves vanished into mist, as did the burning wall on either side of it; by the time the heroes made it to where the wall had stood they were greeted by their frightened mounts and Shushitan, who growled in all directions. Once they had mounted up, though, the earthquakes diminished, the mists receded, and the heroes were once more on the road in Ghourmand Vale leading to the estate of the envoy of Chendl. The sun was back to setting behind them as they faced east.</p><p></p><p>"Is everyone okay?" asked Orchid, applying haling spells from her magic staff to those who needed them.</p><p></p><p>"I'll live," replied Harlan, laying on hands to heal the burns he'd taken from the efreeti. He held his other hand out in front of him, tipping it over and releasing a stream of dusty sand from his palm. "But it looks like the <em>Blood Mirror</em> is no more."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Dan had decided this was the week he'd put an end to the Jasgund Singh plotline before we got to a high enough level that a rakshasa would no longer pose a decent threat. But it was the legendary tiger that gave us the most trouble.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, when asked for the name of this adventure, Dan said "YGBSM" - which apparently stands for "You've Gotta Be Sh*tting Me".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9214890, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 39: YGBSM[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 10[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 10[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 30 November 2023 - - - "What's it say?" asked Ageratum, trying to look over Alistair's shoulder and irritated that she had to stand on a chair to do so. "It's a invitation to a celebration in our honor, for the successful completion of our task finding a safe route under the Lortmil Mountains, at a compound on the edge of the Vale owned by the envoy of Chendl, capital of Furyondy," replied the young sorcerer, opening and reading the sealed card that had just been delivered via courier to the Dark and Light Club. "When?" asked Orchid. "Tonight," replied Alistair. "It even gives directions to his compound." "Do we go?" asked Chaevaris. "It would be ill manners to turn down such an invitation from the envoy to a neighboring kingdom," replied Harlan, taking the invitation and reading it over for himself. "And it says he wishes to discuss another mission during the celebration - another opportunity to do good." "And earn more coin," added Ageratum, hopping down from the chair. The celebration was to start at twilight, and the compound was on the eastern outskirts of town, a good half hour's walk but less than half of that on horseback, so well before sundown the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers found themselves riding east with the setting sun at their backs. Orchid once again rode upon Law, Harlan's heavy warhorse, as the paladin had summoned his celestial pegasus Nova for his mount, the better to arrive in style. Shushitan, Orchid's loyal timber wolf, loped along beside his mistress, glad to once again be included in her exploits now that she was finished with her week of Underdark exploration. The group all wore their adventuring gear, for they were being hailed as successful adventurers and it would be best to look the part. But as they approached the compound, mists started rising from either side of the road, soon covering their steeds' legs and getting thicker with every moment. Harlan, whose paladin training had taught him many things about combatting the forces of evil, detected the unmistakable tang of evil in the rising mists as they quickly rose to a full-blown fog. "This isn't natural!" he called to the others behind him. But as quickly as the mists had risen, they started fading away with equal speed. Before long the mists were no more, leaving the group of heroes traveling down a similar road with the rising sun just ahead of them, and an ever-present dry heat telling them they were no longer in Ghourmand Vale. There was still a dwelling ahead of them, some 150 feet away, but it was no longer the compound of the envoy of Chendl; rather, it was a walled enclosure around a series of interconnected buildings, with a set of heavy gates in the middle of the wall, at the very end of the road the group traveled. "We have been in these lands before," Harlan surmised, noting the trees visible were not the oaks and maples which populated Ghourmand Vale, but palm trees as they'd last seen in the lands of Jasgund Singh; somehow, they'd once again been transported to the strange lands ruled by the rakshasa who sought to capture Harlan's [I]Blood Mirror[/I] for himself. The paladin called for a halt while he explained his beliefs. "But how?" demanded Ageratum. "Last time, we passed through a [I]planar gate[/I] in the middle of one of the mine passageways Kasselban had us checking out for him. I didn't see any [I]planar gate[/I] this time." "To be fair, none of us saw it last time, either," pointed out Alistair. "The mists are another way of traveling between the planes," Harlan explained. "Those turban-wearing kidnappers we met up with who were working with the bugbears claimed they had passed into our world through the mists, remember?" "So now what do we do?" asked Orchid. She looked behind her, the way they had come, but saw no mists nor any recognizable landmarks. Wherever they were, they had no idea in which direction lay their home - nor whether it was even accessible from their current position. "We check out the building ahead," reasoned Harlan, for it was the only dwelling within sight. "But if Jasgund Singh is responsible for bringing us here, we'd best deal with him with all haste, lest he have time to prepare too many defenses." Alistair took that to mean they wouldn't be spending the normal time to cast all of the "preparing for combat" spells they preferred to be able to cast, but he focused upon the paladin's use of the word "haste" and cast that spell upon the assembled group, including Shushitan but excluding Law, for he was not yet powerful enough a spellcaster to encompass all five heroes, all five of their riding mounts, and Orchid's faithful timber wolf as well, and if he knew the druid, she'd soon be wildshaping into some sort of animal in any moment and wouldn't have the need for an extra-speedy horse. Harlan cast a [I]bless[/I] spell upon the assembled group before they started branching out into slightly different directions. Sure enough, Orchid almost immediately shed her elven form and became an eagle, flapping her wings and soaring up into the air. Ambrose followed, sent by his master to scout ahead for danger, while Chaevaris spurred on Talkacha and raced towards the gated wall. As the archer approached, she climbed up onto her steed's back and leaped upwards as the horse came to a stop before the wall, pulling herself up and over the crenellations. She landed on her feet in a crouch, then cautiously peeked over the far side into the compound below. There was a bald man below, with the dusky skin like those of Jasgund's people, wearing a loose, cloth garment around his waist that looked like nothing so much as a large diaper. He seemed to be unarmed, so Chaevaris didn't deem it necessary to get a bead on him with her bow and arrow. Ageratum followed Chaevaris's plan of attack while riding Munson, and although she had a higher span to jump to make it all the way to the top of the 15-foot wall, she also didn't need to make it all the way, for she activated her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I] on the way up and simply scampered up the rest of the wall. However, while Chaevaris had leaped up to the part of the wall north of the gate, the little halfling chose to climb up to the other section, south of the gate. She looked over the wall and saw the bald man as well, plus another creature Chaevaris had missed from her vantage point: a large tiger, partially hidden behind a palm tree and a clump of brush near its base. The tiger rose up on all fours from a sitting position, sniffing the air and apparently picking up unknown scents that warned it of possible danger. Zephyr approached the wall at full speed and Alistair leaped up beside Chaevaris, struggling to pull himself the rest of the way over the wall when he didn't make it quite as high as he had hoped. And over the empathic link he shared with his grackle familiar, he sensed excitement and worry as Ambrose spotted the tiger, the bald laborer, and five young girls inside a roofed enclosure at the front part of the multiple building wings making up the dwelling beyond the gate, all from his aerial vantage point. The bald servant looked up and spotted Ageratum looking down at him. Without a word, he started heading for the gate as the tiger roared a challenge behind him. Harlan, astride Nova who had taken wing, detected evil coming not only from the tiger and the bald man, but also from the trees, the building, and every local landmark within sight - the entire environment screamed of its evil nature. This only reinforced his belief that they were not even on the same plane as that which contained Ghourmand Vale, but another entire plane, or possibly demiplane, where evil was the norm. Chaevaris was giving the dwelling beyond a good look-over. It was made of adobe, stood a single story tall, and was constructed rather like a squared-off letter "C" with a gazebo in the middle - a gazebo in which five young girls, dressed identically in red saris, stood in a formation, looking expectantly towards the front gate. Still unable to see the tiger from her vantage point, she pointed her readied arrow down at the bald laborer, who walked unhurriedly toward the gate as if to open it. Orchid wasn't sure why the man would do so - to release the tigers upon their mounts, perhaps? - and cast a [I]spike stones[/I] spell around the front half of the building, including directly underneath the areas in which the servant and the tiger stood. The man stepped forward, trod upon the unseen spikes, and howled in pain, stopping short. Ageratum, in the meantime, had taken out the [I]wand of magic missiles[/I] and was aiming it at the tiger. She tried firing off a shot, but her experience with such things was still mainly untried, and she was unable to coax forth the spellcraft needed to discharge a blast of missiles from the wand. While she was busy trying to get the blasted thing to work, one of the servant girls opened a door to the south and exited into the building's interior, closing the door behind her. Unseen by the heroes, a line of more servant girls made their way through the building, heading through the northern wing. Alistair felt a wave of shock and excitement over his link with Ambrose as the grackle, from his aerial view, saw the sudden appearance of a canopy, 10 feet to a side, arrive in the exact middle of the gazebo. Standing directly beneath it was a regal figure, dressed in opulent gowns and wearing rings upon his fingers - and, of more immediate note, he had the head of a tiger on the body otherwise conforming to that of a man, save for the fact that his right hand seemed to be attached to his left wrist and vice-versa. Alistair didn't get any of the details of his familiar's observations, merely that something exciting and unusual had occurred in the vicinity of the gazebo. Harlan cast a [I]bull's strength[/I] spell upon himself as Nova hovered in place. Law, perhaps not wanting to be left behind with Shushitan, headed over towards the wall at a leisurely trot, the timber wolf (who saw it as his duty to keep the riding mounts safe), loping along at the white horse's side. Clambering all the way over the embankment, Alistair cast a [I]cat's grace[/I] spell upon himself, wishing he'd done so before his leap up to the ramparts of the crenellated wall. "I say, Elfy, do you see anything?" he whispered to Chaevaris, who was pointing her nocked arrow at something the sorcerer couldn't see on the other side of the wall. He could hear the rants of the laborer below, complaining about the sudden stabbing pains in his feet as a result of having stepped into the field of [I]spike stones[/I] all around him. Then the tiger moved as well, taking a creeping step forward, hitting the hidden spikes (which elicited a yowl of pain), and then leaping up at the southern part of the wall. His leap was much more impressive than had been Alistair's and the great cat pulled himself up and over the wall, standing in the 5-foot-wide gap between the two crenellated structures on either side to him, to the east and west. And directly to his north stood Ageratum, useless wand in one hand while the other grabbed frantically at her short sword. He lashed out with a set of wicked claws before she could fend him off, then leaned forward and bit at the halfling as well. His jaws crunched through the living branches of her [I]bespoke armor[/I] and his fangs pierced the flesh of her arm. Chaevaris released her arrow, sending it unerringly down at the bald servant's eye, where it slew him instantly, sending his lifeless corpse falling backwards to be pierced by dozens of [I]spike stones[/I]. But Orchid, seeing Ageratum's predicament, cast a [I]wall of thorns[/I] spell that extended from right before the little halfling to all the way down the length of the southern wall to the point where it made a right turn to the west. The tiger found himself surrounded by long, painful thorns sticking into his flesh and fur from all directions, and his roar of surprise allowed Ageratum to extract her arm from his mouth. Orchid, still in eagle form, flew to the top of a palm tree to observe her handiwork. Ageratum stabbed her blade into the [I]wall of thorns[/I], far enough in to pierce the tiger's flesh without placing her own hand inside the area of the spell's effect. With the [I]haste[/I] spell still in effect, she was able to stab him repeatedly several times before he could do anything about it. Down at the gazebo, a door from the north opened up and a line of servant girls entered the open area, as the door to the south opened back up and the girl who had gone inside came back outside. There were now a full ten such servants, each dressed the same in red saris, and they took up positions around the rakshasa, willing placing themselves in harm's way as human shields, the better to protect their unholy master. Ambrose saw all of this and returned to his master's shoulder to report what he had seen. Nova flew around to the south side of the wall, near enough that Harlan could lean over and stab at the tiger with his [I]Starblade[/I], the sword piercing his flesh and the flames singeing his fur. From the other side of the gate, Alistair cast a [I]maximized scorching ray[/I] spell at the tiger, both blasts striking the beast in the head. It roared again and made a lunge at Ageratum, the act causing countless thorns to pierce his hide, but Ageratum was able to leap back onto the gate, out of harm's way. Then, [I]spider climbing[/I] from the power of her magical cloak, she walked along the wall's western edge and stepped back up to the tiger's side, stabbing at it again with her trusty blade. But this time the thorns got in her way, inadvertently deflecting the thrust of her blade and ruining her sneak attack. By then, Chaevaris had nocked another arrow into place and was aiming it carefully at the tiger's right eye. Orchid flapped over from one palm tree to another, one close enough to give her a good look at the rakshasa in the enclosure nearby. She cast a [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell at the humanoid tiger, hoping to force him into the harmless shape of a tiger kitten, but the spell had no effect; apparently rakshasas enjoyed an inherent resistance to spell energy, as many of the creatures she'd fought in the past months (especially those in the Underdark) seemed to have. In retaliation, the druid felt some sort of mental attack spell head her way, but she likewise managed to shake it off and remained unaffected. While Nova flapped in more or less one place, Harlan got in a couple of good hits with his [I]holy flaming burst longsword[/I]. The tiger tried to free himself from the thorns, to no avail - he was stuck like a spider in a web, an easy target for the paladin's blade. The same held true for Chaevaris's arrow, which she released to have it cross the distance between her bow and the tiger's right eye in the span of a blink, piercing the feline's eye and burying itself up to the feathered end in its shaggy head. But the archer was shocked to see the tiger still up and about - she would have thought it would have fallen long before this, with as much damage as it had taken from swords, arrow, and spell. This was no ordinary tiger, she reasoned, but some fabled beast out of legend! Alistair, with Ambrose in place on his shoulder, cast a [I]dimension door[/I] spell that teleported the two of them to the top of the roof directly behind the rakshasa, who seemed to fail to notice their sudden presence behind him. But then the area all around the rakshasa was suddenly covered in thousands of biting spiders, the result of a [I]summon swarm[/I] spell cast by Orchid. The rakshasa wriggled under the discomfort of their numerous bites but did not seem overly concerned with their venom. Orchid was nonplussed by the failure of the spiders to overtly harm the rakshasa, for the casting of that spell was but the first step in a two-stage attack, for she next planned to greatly increase the size of a pair of the spiders to that of a horse. [I]Let's see how nonchalant he can be with two giant monstrous spiders chewing at his neck![/I] she thought with a mental grin. Ageratum stabbed again and again into the [I]wall of thorns[/I] with her short sword, bloodying the tiger's fur even further, but still it refused to drop. Harlan kept up his attack from the other side of the wall, and although it remained on all fours it at least looked to be ready to drop at any moment. Nova, wings tired from holding them in one place more of less, flew over by the gate for a bit to stretch his feathered appendages, just as the tiger gave a final attempt to free himself from the thorns imprisoning him...but the effort merely caused that much more damage to his battered flesh, and it was finally too much for the regal feline, who collapsed into unconsciousness (the very act piercing him even worse with more thorn damage). Jasgund Singh stepped away from the spider swarm but otherwise did nothing, seemingly willing to let his tiger do his all of the fighting on his behalf. Behind him, Alistair frowned in confusion; surely a rakshasa had powerful spells of its own it could be bringing to bear? Such had been the case in the tales spun by the bard Holyrood Carp. But while Alistair stood pondering this bit of unexpected behavior, Ambrose noticed something his master had overlooked: one of the servant girls - the one who had stepped inside for a moment before returning - was moving her hands in a surreptitious manner as if trying to cast a spell of her own. Alistair made a decision and cast a [I]maximized touch of idiocy[/I] spell upon his familiar, whispering for Ambrose to go trigger it on the rakshasa below. "That girl over there's also casting spells, Master!" Ambrose replied in a low voice. "Maybe I should try to take her out first?" Alistair thought a moment and then agreed, for they all knew rakshasas had an innate resistance to spells; perhaps this girl - if that was truly what she was, and not some wildshaped or polymorphed spellcaster in a little girl's form - would prove to be more receptive to an attack spell. With a fluttering of wings the grackle was off, flying down to the girl, touching her hair with his claws, and discharging his master's spell - which fizzled harmlessly against her. [I]Curse the Fates![/I] thought Alistair - [I]the little wench is likewise protected![/I] But now Ambrose had been noticed not only by the girl he had tried to attack, but Jasgund Singh himself, for the girl was off to his right and a bit before him since he had stepped back out of the swarm of spiders. Fearing his familiar was about to be attacked by one or more spellcasters, Alistair did his level best to distract the rakshasa by breaking into song: specifically, the song he had written for Holyrood Carp about Singh himself. "Jasgund Singh...is a stuffy, old boar...tricked into marrying a whore...everybody laughed and mocked him so he turned around and socked 'em...." But the rakshasa didn't deign to turn the sorcerer's way...which suited Chaevaris just fine, as she had loaded another arrow into her composite longbow and had it aimed in his direction. Orchid cast her [I]giant vermin[/I] spell and two spiders grew to enormous size, each skittering over to whichever servant girl happened to be closest and biting at her with their wicked mandibles. The girls easily avoided the arachnids' bites, while refusing to step away from the protective circle they had formed around their rakshasa master. But the swarm surged forward, once again encompassing the rakshasa and two of his devoted minions. The girls, at least, were not immune to the spider venom dripping from their fangs, although they steadfastly refused to move from their spaces in the circle about Jasgund Singh; they seemed willing to die to help protect their beloved master. Ageratum, well aware of the [I]spike stones[/I] spell still in effect on the ground around the dwelling, cast a [I]web[/I] spell reaching from the side of the wall to the side of the building and crept along it, prevented from being caught in its sticky strands by the power of her magic cloak. Once at the end, she leaped over a bush and landed on an unspiked stretch of ground past the [I]spike stones[/I] spell's area of effect. A sudden blurring in the corner of the gazebo occurred as the formerly invisible efreeti (who'd been standing there the whole time, keeping the illusion of the rakshasa moving about as needed) cast a [I]wall of fire[/I] spell along the entire front wall, to include across the still-closed gates. Chaevaris was instantly engulfed on the north side of the wall, as was the unconscious form of the legendary tiger who lay unmoving along the southern section, the flames setting his fur ablaze and killing him; for once, Ageratum would not need to apply her blade to its throat after combat had finished. Seeing a new threat, Nova flew in a diving charge at the efreeti and kicked out at him, only discovering he was sheathed in an aura of flames when it was too late. Harlan had swung out at the red-skinned fire genie at the same time as his celestial pegasus made his own attack, and he too was burned by the efreeti's [I]fire shield[/I] spell he'd cast earlier as a precaution. Ambrose flapped desperately away from the servant girl he'd attacked, saw her cast a [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] spell at Harlan (which hit and drained the paladin of a portion of his physical strength), and belatedly realized it was she who was the true rakshasa Jasgund Singh, hidden in plain view among his living human shield camouflage. He was almost bitten by one of the giant spiders before making it safely back to his master's shoulder. Then Alistair ran across the rooftops in a counterclockwise rotation, lining himself up so his [I]cone of cold[/I] spell would hit not only the efreeti and the true Jasgund Singh, but all of his willing human shields as well. The spell was a good tactic, for it slew the girls all at once (with the exception of Jasgund Singh himself, in the guise of one of his own devoted servants) and the efreeti as well, [I]fire shield[/I] spell notwithstanding. Upon the efreeti's death and immediate disappearance (in the manner of all summoned creatures), the illusion of the tiger-headed rakshasa disappeared as well. Alistair was not surprised to see the sole remaining servant girl completely unharmed by his spell, and he now knew the reason for Ambrose's delivered [I]maximized touch of idiocy[/I] spell failure. But he continued on where he had left off, singing, "Jasgund Singh...likes to call himself a Lord...and he wants to be adored...wears a filthy, smelly turban; what he does is quite disturbin'" and was pleased to see the little girl's face scrunch up into a wicked scowl. Orchid mentally dismissed her [I]spike stones[/I] spell - for the spikes no longer served any purpose - and cast a [I]flame strike[/I] spell at the "little girl," encompassing her in a sheet of flames dropping down from above. It was apparent that the spell hadn't dealt as much damage as it could have, but it was a start. Chaevaris, seeing the spikes dissolve below her, dropped down from the wall, rolled the flames off of her, and got up in a sprint headed for the gazebo, nocking another arrow into place as she did so. Ageratum activated her [I]bracelet of invisibility[/I] and headed over to the pavilion herself. Nova flew into the area beneath the gazebo in a bee-line for Jasgund Singh, Harlan stabbing his [I]Starblade[/I] point first into the "girl's" chest after having channeled a burst of Pelor's smiting energy through it. Nova kicked out with a hoof, connecting but seeming to deal no damage at all to the rakshasa's sturdy form. A smirk upon the face of the little girl whose shape he wore, Jasgund Singh touched an amulet and was flooded by a burst of healing energy, the triggered [I]heal[/I] spell - one of the three wishes he'd gotten from the efreeti (the other two being the service of a legendary tiger and that of the efreeti for a year and a day) - restoring him to full combat strength. Undeterred, Alistair ran back along the rooftop the way he'd come, to line up another [I]cone of cold[/I] spell down at the shape-altered rakshasa without hitting Harlan or Nova. This time, the spell seemed to overcome the rakshasa's natural resistance, for he cried out in pain from the blast. Rather than continue on with his song, Alistair called down, "At least you've got the 'cry like a little girl' part down pat, Jasgund!" Chaevaris entered the pavilion, lining up her next shot, as Orchid cast a [I]produce flame[/I] spell that caused a small ball of fire energy to manifest in one eagle's claw. She threw it at Jasgund, but it fizzled into nothingness upon striking its target. Ageratum fared no better when she raced into the pavilion and stabbed at the rakshasa, failing to overcome the protection of his thick pelt (even if it wasn't visible in his current form) and basically doing nothing but popping back into sudden visibility once again. But then Harlan leaped down from the broad back of his celestial pegasus and stabbed at Jasgund Singh again with his [I]holy flaming burst longsword[/I] enhanced for a second time with Pelor's smiting energy, and this was enough to finally slay the rakshasa who'd been trying to get his mismatched hands upon the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] the paladin wore in a pocket at his belt. Upon the death of Jasgund Singh, his shapechanged body exploded into mist and he started dissipating in the wind, as a sudden earthquake struck the grounds of his dwelling. Tiles started falling from the rooftop, and Harlan realized the very land about them was breaking up, perhaps somehow tied in to the rakshasa's life force. More ceiling tiles fell and broke, before the whole structure started turning to mist as well. One object caught Ageratum's eye and she made a grab for it, an ornate bottle that the clever halfling deduced might have been the vessel inside which the efreeti had lived; it could easily be worth a large sum of coins in the right hands! There was a sudden sharp cracking noise near Harlan and the paladin looked down at his belt pouch, pulling out the [I]Blood Mirror[/I], which now had a large crack in it. A seeping coldness rose from the shattered gemstone. "We need to get out of here!" called Harlan, leaping back onto Nova's back and ushering the others to flee for the gates. But as they made their hasty retreat, the gates themselves vanished into mist, as did the burning wall on either side of it; by the time the heroes made it to where the wall had stood they were greeted by their frightened mounts and Shushitan, who growled in all directions. Once they had mounted up, though, the earthquakes diminished, the mists receded, and the heroes were once more on the road in Ghourmand Vale leading to the estate of the envoy of Chendl. The sun was back to setting behind them as they faced east. "Is everyone okay?" asked Orchid, applying haling spells from her magic staff to those who needed them. "I'll live," replied Harlan, laying on hands to heal the burns he'd taken from the efreeti. He held his other hand out in front of him, tipping it over and releasing a stream of dusty sand from his palm. "But it looks like the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] is no more." - - - Dan had decided this was the week he'd put an end to the Jasgund Singh plotline before we got to a high enough level that a rakshasa would no longer pose a decent threat. But it was the legendary tiger that gave us the most trouble. Incidentally, when asked for the name of this adventure, Dan said "YGBSM" - which apparently stands for "You've Gotta Be Sh*tting Me". [/QUOTE]
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