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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9238490" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 42: MARSH PIT</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 style="margin-left: 20px"> Orchid, elf druid 10</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 3 January 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>After finding out where the escaping cultists went to hole up, Ambrose returned to his master at the partially ruined amphitheater where the Ministry of the Father had performed their revival and recruitment drive. The cultists, the grackle reported, had gone to a group of huts about 30 minutes down the road and apparently camped out there for the night. Deciding to get a good night's rest and hit up these huts in the morning, the heroes entered their extradimensional home after Chaevaris activated the door onto a wall of the amphitheater. Then, at dawn the following morning, they geared back up, saddled their mounts, and were off, Ambrose leading the way.</p><p></p><p>There had been one bit of a snag the evening before, however: when healing everyone back up after their fight with the Ministry's forces, Nova's leg wound resisted all magical efforts to heal it at first. It wasn't until Orchid took the time to examine his leg and perform some old-fashioned doctoring with some herbs from her medicinal pouch that the leg, once poulticed and bound with clean linens, became susceptible to the advanced healing of magical <em>cure</em> spells. Such, the heroes learned, were the dangers of sparring with clay golems.</p><p></p><p>But now Nova's leg didn't bother him in the least, and he ran down the road alongside the other horses just so he didn't leave them behind as he would have had he taken to the air as was his nature. But Harlan saw the advantages of keeping the group all together, and as such they arrived as one unit to the cluster of huts Ambrose had spotted the night before.</p><p></p><p>The mules were still there beside the wagons, where they'd been tied for the night, and the sacks of grain and other foodstuffs were still loaded in the backs of the three vehicles. The cultists, it seemed, had done nothing since arriving to these huts the night before but unhitch the mules from the wagons.</p><p></p><p>Ambrose took to the air, as he was the least obvious aerial scout on the team; anyone spotting Harlan astride a flying celestial pegasus would know there were heroes about, but nobody gave much thought at the sight of a common grackle. He soon flew back to Alistair's shoulder, reporting there was one cultist on the other side of a low hill, gathering together dead bodies in robes and tossing them into a hole - a hole, he added, where a nearby stream cascaded its waters. The earth around this hole wound around and around the hole like a snail's shell, lowering in elevation with every turn.</p><p></p><p>"Robed bodies?" asked Alistair. "You mean, like dead cultists?"</p><p></p><p>"That's what it looked like," admitted Ambrose. "And underneath the man's robes I caught the glint of armor. And he had a longsword hanging from a scabbard from his belt."</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris activated the door from her magical amulet and the sorcerer opened it, bidding Carruthers to come out. "Gather up the bags of food and place them inside our home," he commanded the shield guardian, and Carruthers moved to obey. "Let's go check out the robed guy," the sorcerer suggested to the others.</p><p></p><p>"I think we'd best prep for battle," advised Harlan, casting a <em>bull's strength</em> spell on himself, then following it up with an <em>eagle's splendor</em> and finally a <em>bless</em> spell he cast upon the group. Alistair cast his usual <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spells on himself, then granted everyone the benefit of a <em>cat's grace</em> spell and their ammunition a <em>flame arrow</em> spell, before casting a <em>haste</em> spell upon the group. Orchid cast six <em>resistance</em> spells upon the heroes and Nova, an <em>air walk</em> spell upon Chaevaris, and a <em>barkskin</em> spell upon herself. Ageratum slapped her <em>bracelet of invisibility</em> and faded from view, heading south where Ambrose had said the well-armed cultist was dumping bodies into a hole.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris <em>air walked</em> up into the sky, stopping once she hit an altitude of about 30 feet up, from where she could see the cultist just fine. Sure enough, there were about six bodies on the ground beside him, and as she watched he bent over, picked one up by his armpits, dragged him over to the hole, and pitched him in. There was the sound of a splash as the body hit the water from the stream filling up part of the hole. Nocking an arrow to her bow, Chaevaris took careful aim at the cultist, silently betting whether she could pull off another called shot to his eye - that had become a sort of signature move for her of late.</p><p></p><p>Orchid cast a <em>longstrider</em> spell upon herself and headed south, careful not to be seen by the lone cultist. Shushitan loped along beside her, easily keeping pace and moving as silently as a wolf on the hunt. Harlan and Nova took to the skies, flying high enough up that they cultist would be unlikely to spot them from the corner of his eye - unlikely, as he seemed to have his entire attention focused on the task at hand. Alistair moved straight south, directly towards their target whereas Orchid and her wolf angled off to the west.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum was the first to hit the change in level caused by the winding spiral around the sinkhole. Confident in her invisibility, she <em>spider climbed</em> down the 10-foot drop, using the powers of her <em>cloak of arachnida</em>. She had another drop ahead of her, this one more like 5 feet down, before she'd find herself on the same level as her unwitting foe, who gave no notice her was slowly being surrounded by enemies. Instead, he lugged a second corpse from the pile on the ground, tossing it into the hole with another "plunk" from below as it hit water.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris made a quick whistle from the air to draw the cultist's attention and when he instinctively looked up at her, she let loose with her arrow, which found its target in his right eye. "Assassins!" he croaked, although it was indeterminate whether he was warning an unseen ally or just crying out on his own. He ducked and cringed, seemingly unstable on his feet and ready to fall over.</p><p></p><p>Orchid and Shushitan continued their flanking move to the west, while Harlan brought Nova charging out of the sky straight at the cultist, who was belatedly fumbling at the sword hanging at his hip. The pegasus kicked out with a sharp hoof that struck the cultist in the head, snapping his head back and dropping him among his corpses. He was now but one robed dead body among several, the only difference between them the drawn sword in his right hand and the scabbard dangling from his belt - and the fact he had an arrow sticking out of his right eye socket, as the other dead bodies held only slashed throats indicating their means of demise.</p><p></p><p>Alistair scrambled down the closest drop, ending up next to Ageratum (although he had no way of knowing that, as the halfling was still invisible). Ageratum scrambled forward and performed her standard finishing move, slitting the cultist's throat with her short sword, although it was less necessary to do so now that the <em>Blood Mirror</em> was no more. Still, the act returned her to full visibility, and the others saw her take the sword from the dead man's grasp and return it to his scabbard, only to unbuckle the scabbard from the cultist's belt and feel around to see if he carried any other valuables upon him.</p><p></p><p>"I say," remarked Alistair, "that was rather a quick--" but was cut off from finishing his sentence - he'd been about to say "fight" - when a black dragon flew up from the hole below and hovered 30 feet in the air, taking stock of the situation. Apparently the cultist's cry of "Assassins!" hadn't been meant just for himself after all.</p><p></p><p>The dragon was slightly larger than any of the heroes' mounts, even Nova, and its batlike wings flapped in a seemingly effortless fashion, keeping him as level as a hummingbird as he scoped out his foes. Most of the heroes felt a shiver of fear run down their spines at the sight of such offhand power; the dragon's eyes blazed with an evil, calculating intelligence that said it already knew it could kill all of these heroes in an instant, and just had to decide which ones to slay first. Harlan, as a paladin, was immune to such fears, and he stared back at his foe with equal intensity, but in his case he was merely confirming the evil he had suspected lay unseen from most people hidden in the reptile's aura.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris was the first to react after the dragon's sudden appearance. Raising her composite longbow, she pointed her readied arrow at the dragon and locked on with her gaze, staring down the shaft's length to line up her next shot at the dragon's eye. She, alone among the other heroes besides Harlan, was the only one seemingly unaffected by the dragon's frightful presence.</p><p></p><p>An arrow was suddenly let loose and it found its target in the dragon's belly, but it hadn't been Chaevaris who shot it, but rather Orchid, whose spell selection that morning had been based on the assumption she'd be fighting cultists on the ground, where <em>entangle</em> and <em>spike stones</em> spells would have been effective strategies. Harlan had Nova charge the dragon in midair, but neither had counted on the dragon's greater reach with its serpentine neck, and as the pegasus approached the dragon shot out at him, biting Nova on his neck. The celestial pegasus kicked out with a powerful hoof at his draconian foe, as Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy into his <em>Starblade</em> and swung for all he was worth, uncharacteristically missing with his attack.</p><p></p><p>From the ground below, Alistair raised his <em>metamagic rod</em> and channeled a <em>maximized scorching ray</em> up at the dragon. Both gouts of flame hit their mark, scorching the dragon's undersides and causing him no small amount of pain. "Seek safety!" the sorcerer hissed to his familiar, and Ambrose didn't need any additional coaxing - he fled from his master's shoulder and made a break for it back over by the horses and Carruthers, who was dutifully still loading bags of grain into their extradimensional dwelling.</p><p></p><p>Beside the sorcerer, Ageratum placed a pebboulder into her sling and sent it flying up at the dragon, but it missed - as did the second one she attempted. Her target was no longer entirely stationary, however, for it bobbed around in the air as it fought with Nova and his rider.</p><p></p><p>But then it brought out its most feared attack: a belching blast of corrosive acid, which poured over both Harlan and Nova. At that range, neither was able to avoid the attack, and Nova lost conscious immediately, dropping to the ground with a bone-crunching sound. Harlan fell beside his loyal mount, and was pleased to see the pegasus's massive chest rise and fall as it continued to breathe, but the fight was not yet over for the paladin, who rose to his feet and readied his sword for an attack should the dragon be foolish enough to get within the range of his blade once more. He gave instant thought to releasing his mount from the Mortal Plane, allowing Nova to return to the Celestial Realms where he lived when not called to the paladin's service, but he saw Orchid running towards the fallen mount with her <em>staff of healing</em> at the ready and trusted she'd take care of the worst of his mount's wounds, perhaps to the point the two of them could bring the fight back to the dragon in his aerial element.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris released her arrow and struck the dragon in the head, but failed to penetrate his eye as she'd hoped. She instantly grabbed up another arrow from her quiver and reloaded her bow for another attempt. Then she went for quantity over quality, sending a flurry of three arrows rapid-fire at the dragon, each one hitting the reptile's thick hide but only one managing to pierce it; the others struck at an angle and fell to the ground.</p><p></p><p>As Orchid reached across the stream with her staff and healed up enough of Nova's wounds to allow the pegasus to return to consciousness, the dragon made the tactical mistake of engaging the paladin while it waited to build up enough of its corrosive bile for another breath weapon attack. Dropping down before the paladin, hovering just over the hole from which he had at first emerged, the dragon was surprised when Harlan dashed forward, his <em>Starblade</em> powered up with another dose of Pelor's evil-smiting power, and the <em>hasted</em> half-elf got in three good hits before the dragon could even respond; it only just managed to flinch back from the third attack at the last moment. But as Nova struggled to his feet, Harlan didn't like how tentatively the pegasus was moving, and he mentally dismissed his steed from the rest of the fight. "Heal up, friend - we will need you fierce and strong in the days to come!" he called as Nova obediently faded from view.</p><p></p><p>Alistair struck the dragon with another <em>maximized scorching ray</em> spell before he could bite back at Harlan or bring his terrible claws to bear, and the powerful blast of energy robbed the dragon of the last shreds of consciousness. Its wings gave out and it fell into the hole below with a splash that sent water flying up like a geyser. Ageratum ran up to the hole and looked down; the unmoving dragon was floating face-down in the water, either dead or unconscious. Without hesitation, she ran down the vertical side of the hole, noting it met up with the ceiling of an underwater cavern about 10 feet down, and then there was another 10-foot span to the top of the churning water. With the grace of a ballerina, the little halfling leaped from the side of the hole onto the dragon's broad back, landing in a roll between his drooping wings. She then struck at the base of the creature's neck with her short sword, sinking the blade in as deep as it could go. There was no uncertainty after that - the dragon was definitely dead now if it hadn't been before.</p><p></p><p>"He's dead!" Ageratum called up to her friends, and then noted something of immediate note: there was a ledge nearby upon which the dragon apparently kept his hoard! Chuckling in glee, she leaped over to the side of the cavern wall above the water line and ran up to the ledge, opening up her <em>bag of holding</em> as she did so. "Gathering up its loot!" she amended her report to the others, scooping up coins, gems, a shining helmet, some sort of mummified hand on a leather cord, and a scroll tube. Then she made her way back up to the others and opened the <em>bag of holding</em>, exposing the heroes' take for this excursion.</p><p></p><p>"What's the deal with the mummified hand?" asked Orchid, her face twisted in an expression of extreme distaste.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Hand of the mage</em>," I daresay," replied Alistair, who likewise found the idea of wearing the severed body part of some poor victim too gauche for a man of his upbringing. "Perhaps we can sell it in the next town of decent size, should we find a magic shop dealing in such wares." He opened the scroll tube to see if there was an arcane scroll filled with powerful spells, and found instead a sheet of parchment inscribed with words he could not read. A <em>detect magic</em> spell revealed the parchment was not magical in nature, but the helmet was and so was one of the gems, a bright blue one that glowed softly in darkness.</p><p></p><p>"Try on the helmet," suggested Ageratum. If it was magical, it would likely automatically resize itself to fit the head of its current wearer, but the little halfling was in no mood to offer herself up for such potential experimentation. She'd heard tales of cursed helmets which completely altered your world view if you placed them on your head, and she had no desire to suddenly see the acquisition of stolen items as a grave sin, nor did she want to find herself feeling the urge to start tithing a portion of her earnings to the local churches. But Alistair seemed no different with the helm on his head - other than looking somewhat ridiculous, wearing a gleaming helmet along with his fancy nobleman's clothes.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, I can read this now!" he exclaimed, looking down at the sheet of parchment which moments earlier had seemed utterly impenetrable. With the <em>helm of comprehend languages and read magic</em> on his head, he was able to read the following to his fellow adventurers:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">A pact between <strong>Bilebight</strong>, an adult dragon of the blackest skin, heart, and soul (hereafter "The Dragon") and the Ministry of the Father (hereafter "MoF"): The MoF shall provide human, elven, and dwarven victuals of not less than eight (8) beings per day for thirty (30) days beginning the first day of the season of Harvester and ending on the second day of Patchwall.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">The Dragon agrees to destroy, by vile breath, and under cover of night, at least one flock, field, or orchard, every second night in the domain of Crockport and its supporting areas.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">It is further agreed the Dragon shall not harm or molest members of the MoF, unless such members are yielded to the Dragon as payment in part of completion of the pact.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">It is further agreed and stipulated that the MoF makes no pact, guarantee, or surrenders any property belonging to <strong>Bannerman Mulgrave</strong>, Demon Procurement Officer of the 13th Abyssal Legion and that the Dragon stipulates no claim on said property and is not bound by this pact to any term of service to Bannerman Mulgrave.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Agreed to and affirmed this 25th day of Goodmonth.</p><p></p><p>"There are signatures on the bottom, belonging to one <strong>Pecunnius Fecitus</strong> and this Bilebight bloke - apparently the black dragon we just slew," Alistair replied, slipping off the magic helm. As he had feared, his hair now stood up after removing the helm; he vowed not to volunteer to wear the silly thing if he could get another to wear it in his stead.</p><p></p><p>"Then we now have proof that the Ministry of the Father is behind the farmers' blight," Harlan said. "We must show this to the local churches, and warn them of the treachery of this phony cult."</p><p></p><p>"Let's start with Chendl," suggested Ageratum. "They'll have a lot of churches and temples there." Left unsaid was that they would also have magic shops and weaponsmiths capable of making a deadly blade even more so; she already had some ideas on how she wanted her own <em>silver human bane short sword</em> upgraded.</p><p></p><p>"We should focus on the towns around Crockport," argued Harlan, "but yes, we should hit Chendl as well." That was enough to bring a broad grin to the halfling's freckled face.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The black dragon came as a surprise to the other players; it had come as a surprise to me too when Dan first mentioned what minis and initiative cards he needed me to set aside for the week's session; since we play at my house and I've got all the minis and cards we use, we decided early on that I'd have to be brought into the loop ahead of time, but sometimes he plants additional creatures that aren't needed for an adventure so I won't know exactly what all we'll be facing. But I make it a point not to have Alistair gain any benefit from my foreknowledge of what we'll be fighting; it would have been quite out of character for him to cast <em>resist energy (acid)</em> spells on everyone when for all we knew we'd be up against more cultists, as an example.</p><p></p><p>Dan used a Paizo Flip-Mat for our battle map for this session, a gift he'd gotten for Christmas from his son Joe. And Joe, still home for Christmas break, came as an extra player to this gaming session, even though he'd never been able to do so before. We let him run Orchid, a PC we made for my granddaughter for when she comes to visit. He did fine, and this was in fact the first time he'd gotten to see his father in the DM role, as this is Dan's first 3.5 campaign and Joe's usually in college when we play our Wednesday night sessions.</p><p></p><p>And we all leveled up to 11th at the end of this session. Joe rolled for Orchid's new hit points but left the other decisions to my son Logan, who normally runs Orchid as well as Chaevaris during my granddaughter's absences.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9238490, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 42: MARSH PIT[/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] [INDENT] Orchid, elf druid 10[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 3 January 2024 - - - After finding out where the escaping cultists went to hole up, Ambrose returned to his master at the partially ruined amphitheater where the Ministry of the Father had performed their revival and recruitment drive. The cultists, the grackle reported, had gone to a group of huts about 30 minutes down the road and apparently camped out there for the night. Deciding to get a good night's rest and hit up these huts in the morning, the heroes entered their extradimensional home after Chaevaris activated the door onto a wall of the amphitheater. Then, at dawn the following morning, they geared back up, saddled their mounts, and were off, Ambrose leading the way. There had been one bit of a snag the evening before, however: when healing everyone back up after their fight with the Ministry's forces, Nova's leg wound resisted all magical efforts to heal it at first. It wasn't until Orchid took the time to examine his leg and perform some old-fashioned doctoring with some herbs from her medicinal pouch that the leg, once poulticed and bound with clean linens, became susceptible to the advanced healing of magical [I]cure[/I] spells. Such, the heroes learned, were the dangers of sparring with clay golems. But now Nova's leg didn't bother him in the least, and he ran down the road alongside the other horses just so he didn't leave them behind as he would have had he taken to the air as was his nature. But Harlan saw the advantages of keeping the group all together, and as such they arrived as one unit to the cluster of huts Ambrose had spotted the night before. The mules were still there beside the wagons, where they'd been tied for the night, and the sacks of grain and other foodstuffs were still loaded in the backs of the three vehicles. The cultists, it seemed, had done nothing since arriving to these huts the night before but unhitch the mules from the wagons. Ambrose took to the air, as he was the least obvious aerial scout on the team; anyone spotting Harlan astride a flying celestial pegasus would know there were heroes about, but nobody gave much thought at the sight of a common grackle. He soon flew back to Alistair's shoulder, reporting there was one cultist on the other side of a low hill, gathering together dead bodies in robes and tossing them into a hole - a hole, he added, where a nearby stream cascaded its waters. The earth around this hole wound around and around the hole like a snail's shell, lowering in elevation with every turn. "Robed bodies?" asked Alistair. "You mean, like dead cultists?" "That's what it looked like," admitted Ambrose. "And underneath the man's robes I caught the glint of armor. And he had a longsword hanging from a scabbard from his belt." Chaevaris activated the door from her magical amulet and the sorcerer opened it, bidding Carruthers to come out. "Gather up the bags of food and place them inside our home," he commanded the shield guardian, and Carruthers moved to obey. "Let's go check out the robed guy," the sorcerer suggested to the others. "I think we'd best prep for battle," advised Harlan, casting a [I]bull's strength[/I] spell on himself, then following it up with an [I]eagle's splendor[/I] and finally a [I]bless[/I] spell he cast upon the group. Alistair cast his usual [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] spells on himself, then granted everyone the benefit of a [I]cat's grace[/I] spell and their ammunition a [I]flame arrow[/I] spell, before casting a [I]haste[/I] spell upon the group. Orchid cast six [I]resistance[/I] spells upon the heroes and Nova, an [I]air walk[/I] spell upon Chaevaris, and a [I]barkskin[/I] spell upon herself. Ageratum slapped her [I]bracelet of invisibility[/I] and faded from view, heading south where Ambrose had said the well-armed cultist was dumping bodies into a hole. Chaevaris [I]air walked[/I] up into the sky, stopping once she hit an altitude of about 30 feet up, from where she could see the cultist just fine. Sure enough, there were about six bodies on the ground beside him, and as she watched he bent over, picked one up by his armpits, dragged him over to the hole, and pitched him in. There was the sound of a splash as the body hit the water from the stream filling up part of the hole. Nocking an arrow to her bow, Chaevaris took careful aim at the cultist, silently betting whether she could pull off another called shot to his eye - that had become a sort of signature move for her of late. Orchid cast a [I]longstrider[/I] spell upon herself and headed south, careful not to be seen by the lone cultist. Shushitan loped along beside her, easily keeping pace and moving as silently as a wolf on the hunt. Harlan and Nova took to the skies, flying high enough up that they cultist would be unlikely to spot them from the corner of his eye - unlikely, as he seemed to have his entire attention focused on the task at hand. Alistair moved straight south, directly towards their target whereas Orchid and her wolf angled off to the west. Ageratum was the first to hit the change in level caused by the winding spiral around the sinkhole. Confident in her invisibility, she [I]spider climbed[/I] down the 10-foot drop, using the powers of her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I]. She had another drop ahead of her, this one more like 5 feet down, before she'd find herself on the same level as her unwitting foe, who gave no notice her was slowly being surrounded by enemies. Instead, he lugged a second corpse from the pile on the ground, tossing it into the hole with another "plunk" from below as it hit water. Chaevaris made a quick whistle from the air to draw the cultist's attention and when he instinctively looked up at her, she let loose with her arrow, which found its target in his right eye. "Assassins!" he croaked, although it was indeterminate whether he was warning an unseen ally or just crying out on his own. He ducked and cringed, seemingly unstable on his feet and ready to fall over. Orchid and Shushitan continued their flanking move to the west, while Harlan brought Nova charging out of the sky straight at the cultist, who was belatedly fumbling at the sword hanging at his hip. The pegasus kicked out with a sharp hoof that struck the cultist in the head, snapping his head back and dropping him among his corpses. He was now but one robed dead body among several, the only difference between them the drawn sword in his right hand and the scabbard dangling from his belt - and the fact he had an arrow sticking out of his right eye socket, as the other dead bodies held only slashed throats indicating their means of demise. Alistair scrambled down the closest drop, ending up next to Ageratum (although he had no way of knowing that, as the halfling was still invisible). Ageratum scrambled forward and performed her standard finishing move, slitting the cultist's throat with her short sword, although it was less necessary to do so now that the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] was no more. Still, the act returned her to full visibility, and the others saw her take the sword from the dead man's grasp and return it to his scabbard, only to unbuckle the scabbard from the cultist's belt and feel around to see if he carried any other valuables upon him. "I say," remarked Alistair, "that was rather a quick--" but was cut off from finishing his sentence - he'd been about to say "fight" - when a black dragon flew up from the hole below and hovered 30 feet in the air, taking stock of the situation. Apparently the cultist's cry of "Assassins!" hadn't been meant just for himself after all. The dragon was slightly larger than any of the heroes' mounts, even Nova, and its batlike wings flapped in a seemingly effortless fashion, keeping him as level as a hummingbird as he scoped out his foes. Most of the heroes felt a shiver of fear run down their spines at the sight of such offhand power; the dragon's eyes blazed with an evil, calculating intelligence that said it already knew it could kill all of these heroes in an instant, and just had to decide which ones to slay first. Harlan, as a paladin, was immune to such fears, and he stared back at his foe with equal intensity, but in his case he was merely confirming the evil he had suspected lay unseen from most people hidden in the reptile's aura. Chaevaris was the first to react after the dragon's sudden appearance. Raising her composite longbow, she pointed her readied arrow at the dragon and locked on with her gaze, staring down the shaft's length to line up her next shot at the dragon's eye. She, alone among the other heroes besides Harlan, was the only one seemingly unaffected by the dragon's frightful presence. An arrow was suddenly let loose and it found its target in the dragon's belly, but it hadn't been Chaevaris who shot it, but rather Orchid, whose spell selection that morning had been based on the assumption she'd be fighting cultists on the ground, where [I]entangle[/I] and [I]spike stones[/I] spells would have been effective strategies. Harlan had Nova charge the dragon in midair, but neither had counted on the dragon's greater reach with its serpentine neck, and as the pegasus approached the dragon shot out at him, biting Nova on his neck. The celestial pegasus kicked out with a powerful hoof at his draconian foe, as Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy into his [I]Starblade[/I] and swung for all he was worth, uncharacteristically missing with his attack. From the ground below, Alistair raised his [I]metamagic rod[/I] and channeled a [I]maximized scorching ray[/I] up at the dragon. Both gouts of flame hit their mark, scorching the dragon's undersides and causing him no small amount of pain. "Seek safety!" the sorcerer hissed to his familiar, and Ambrose didn't need any additional coaxing - he fled from his master's shoulder and made a break for it back over by the horses and Carruthers, who was dutifully still loading bags of grain into their extradimensional dwelling. Beside the sorcerer, Ageratum placed a pebboulder into her sling and sent it flying up at the dragon, but it missed - as did the second one she attempted. Her target was no longer entirely stationary, however, for it bobbed around in the air as it fought with Nova and his rider. But then it brought out its most feared attack: a belching blast of corrosive acid, which poured over both Harlan and Nova. At that range, neither was able to avoid the attack, and Nova lost conscious immediately, dropping to the ground with a bone-crunching sound. Harlan fell beside his loyal mount, and was pleased to see the pegasus's massive chest rise and fall as it continued to breathe, but the fight was not yet over for the paladin, who rose to his feet and readied his sword for an attack should the dragon be foolish enough to get within the range of his blade once more. He gave instant thought to releasing his mount from the Mortal Plane, allowing Nova to return to the Celestial Realms where he lived when not called to the paladin's service, but he saw Orchid running towards the fallen mount with her [I]staff of healing[/I] at the ready and trusted she'd take care of the worst of his mount's wounds, perhaps to the point the two of them could bring the fight back to the dragon in his aerial element. Chaevaris released her arrow and struck the dragon in the head, but failed to penetrate his eye as she'd hoped. She instantly grabbed up another arrow from her quiver and reloaded her bow for another attempt. Then she went for quantity over quality, sending a flurry of three arrows rapid-fire at the dragon, each one hitting the reptile's thick hide but only one managing to pierce it; the others struck at an angle and fell to the ground. As Orchid reached across the stream with her staff and healed up enough of Nova's wounds to allow the pegasus to return to consciousness, the dragon made the tactical mistake of engaging the paladin while it waited to build up enough of its corrosive bile for another breath weapon attack. Dropping down before the paladin, hovering just over the hole from which he had at first emerged, the dragon was surprised when Harlan dashed forward, his [I]Starblade[/I] powered up with another dose of Pelor's evil-smiting power, and the [I]hasted[/I] half-elf got in three good hits before the dragon could even respond; it only just managed to flinch back from the third attack at the last moment. But as Nova struggled to his feet, Harlan didn't like how tentatively the pegasus was moving, and he mentally dismissed his steed from the rest of the fight. "Heal up, friend - we will need you fierce and strong in the days to come!" he called as Nova obediently faded from view. Alistair struck the dragon with another [I]maximized scorching ray[/I] spell before he could bite back at Harlan or bring his terrible claws to bear, and the powerful blast of energy robbed the dragon of the last shreds of consciousness. Its wings gave out and it fell into the hole below with a splash that sent water flying up like a geyser. Ageratum ran up to the hole and looked down; the unmoving dragon was floating face-down in the water, either dead or unconscious. Without hesitation, she ran down the vertical side of the hole, noting it met up with the ceiling of an underwater cavern about 10 feet down, and then there was another 10-foot span to the top of the churning water. With the grace of a ballerina, the little halfling leaped from the side of the hole onto the dragon's broad back, landing in a roll between his drooping wings. She then struck at the base of the creature's neck with her short sword, sinking the blade in as deep as it could go. There was no uncertainty after that - the dragon was definitely dead now if it hadn't been before. "He's dead!" Ageratum called up to her friends, and then noted something of immediate note: there was a ledge nearby upon which the dragon apparently kept his hoard! Chuckling in glee, she leaped over to the side of the cavern wall above the water line and ran up to the ledge, opening up her [I]bag of holding[/I] as she did so. "Gathering up its loot!" she amended her report to the others, scooping up coins, gems, a shining helmet, some sort of mummified hand on a leather cord, and a scroll tube. Then she made her way back up to the others and opened the [I]bag of holding[/I], exposing the heroes' take for this excursion. "What's the deal with the mummified hand?" asked Orchid, her face twisted in an expression of extreme distaste. "[I]Hand of the mage[/I]," I daresay," replied Alistair, who likewise found the idea of wearing the severed body part of some poor victim too gauche for a man of his upbringing. "Perhaps we can sell it in the next town of decent size, should we find a magic shop dealing in such wares." He opened the scroll tube to see if there was an arcane scroll filled with powerful spells, and found instead a sheet of parchment inscribed with words he could not read. A [I]detect magic[/I] spell revealed the parchment was not magical in nature, but the helmet was and so was one of the gems, a bright blue one that glowed softly in darkness. "Try on the helmet," suggested Ageratum. If it was magical, it would likely automatically resize itself to fit the head of its current wearer, but the little halfling was in no mood to offer herself up for such potential experimentation. She'd heard tales of cursed helmets which completely altered your world view if you placed them on your head, and she had no desire to suddenly see the acquisition of stolen items as a grave sin, nor did she want to find herself feeling the urge to start tithing a portion of her earnings to the local churches. But Alistair seemed no different with the helm on his head - other than looking somewhat ridiculous, wearing a gleaming helmet along with his fancy nobleman's clothes. "Hey, I can read this now!" he exclaimed, looking down at the sheet of parchment which moments earlier had seemed utterly impenetrable. With the [I]helm of comprehend languages and read magic[/I] on his head, he was able to read the following to his fellow adventurers: [INDENT]A pact between [B]Bilebight[/B], an adult dragon of the blackest skin, heart, and soul (hereafter "The Dragon") and the Ministry of the Father (hereafter "MoF"): The MoF shall provide human, elven, and dwarven victuals of not less than eight (8) beings per day for thirty (30) days beginning the first day of the season of Harvester and ending on the second day of Patchwall.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]The Dragon agrees to destroy, by vile breath, and under cover of night, at least one flock, field, or orchard, every second night in the domain of Crockport and its supporting areas.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]It is further agreed the Dragon shall not harm or molest members of the MoF, unless such members are yielded to the Dragon as payment in part of completion of the pact.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]It is further agreed and stipulated that the MoF makes no pact, guarantee, or surrenders any property belonging to [B]Bannerman Mulgrave[/B], Demon Procurement Officer of the 13th Abyssal Legion and that the Dragon stipulates no claim on said property and is not bound by this pact to any term of service to Bannerman Mulgrave.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]Agreed to and affirmed this 25th day of Goodmonth.[/INDENT] "There are signatures on the bottom, belonging to one [B]Pecunnius Fecitus[/B] and this Bilebight bloke - apparently the black dragon we just slew," Alistair replied, slipping off the magic helm. As he had feared, his hair now stood up after removing the helm; he vowed not to volunteer to wear the silly thing if he could get another to wear it in his stead. "Then we now have proof that the Ministry of the Father is behind the farmers' blight," Harlan said. "We must show this to the local churches, and warn them of the treachery of this phony cult." "Let's start with Chendl," suggested Ageratum. "They'll have a lot of churches and temples there." Left unsaid was that they would also have magic shops and weaponsmiths capable of making a deadly blade even more so; she already had some ideas on how she wanted her own [I]silver human bane short sword[/I] upgraded. "We should focus on the towns around Crockport," argued Harlan, "but yes, we should hit Chendl as well." That was enough to bring a broad grin to the halfling's freckled face. - - - The black dragon came as a surprise to the other players; it had come as a surprise to me too when Dan first mentioned what minis and initiative cards he needed me to set aside for the week's session; since we play at my house and I've got all the minis and cards we use, we decided early on that I'd have to be brought into the loop ahead of time, but sometimes he plants additional creatures that aren't needed for an adventure so I won't know exactly what all we'll be facing. But I make it a point not to have Alistair gain any benefit from my foreknowledge of what we'll be fighting; it would have been quite out of character for him to cast [I]resist energy (acid)[/I] spells on everyone when for all we knew we'd be up against more cultists, as an example. Dan used a Paizo Flip-Mat for our battle map for this session, a gift he'd gotten for Christmas from his son Joe. And Joe, still home for Christmas break, came as an extra player to this gaming session, even though he'd never been able to do so before. We let him run Orchid, a PC we made for my granddaughter for when she comes to visit. He did fine, and this was in fact the first time he'd gotten to see his father in the DM role, as this is Dan's first 3.5 campaign and Joe's usually in college when we play our Wednesday night sessions. And we all leveled up to 11th at the end of this session. Joe rolled for Orchid's new hit points but left the other decisions to my son Logan, who normally runs Orchid as well as Chaevaris during my granddaughter's absences. [/QUOTE]
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