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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9329042" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 50: EMISSARIES OF THE SHRINE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 12</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 24 April 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers exited the Ghourmand Vale town council with a bad taste in their collective mouths. They'd been summoned to explain what all had gone on at Anastasia's Curiosities of the World and why they had felt it necessary to slay the proprietress who had made a deal with the council members to allow her traveling collection of oddities to be displayed before the Ghourmand Vale residents. It was quite apparent that some of the council members - Mackrel Slade in particular - wanted to try to find a way to fine the heroes, but fortunately wiser heads prevailed and after Harlan and Alistair had thoroughly explained the reasons they'd dealt with Anastasia as they had, the matter was dropped.</p><p></p><p>But another of their least-favorite people - Kasselban Picksmart, the leader of the local mine - approached them on an entirely different matter. "You lot, ye're th' ones what made th' agreement with th' stone giant clan what's providin' stone fer th' building projects goin' on here in th' Vale, right?" he asked. "Well, their latest shipment's nearly a week overdue. Ye'd not know anythin' about it, would ye?" Harlan explained they'd not heard anything about it until just now. "Well then," suggested the dwarf, "might be a good idear if'n ye were t' go an' check up on'm, see if they've mebbe got themselves in a bit o' trouble or whatnot."</p><p></p><p>"We'll be glad to check out the situation," the paladin assured the mine leader. The Karkaletch stone giant clan worked in a quarry a good two days' travel from Ghourmand Vale, over in the Lortmil Mountains. But the adventurers now had a means by which they could shorten the time it took to get there; the first time, they'd had to stop and make camp at the end of the day and continue on in the morning, but this time, when the sun went down, Chaevaris simply opened the door to their extradimensional dwelling and let the shield guardian Carruthers out, then moved the door onto the tower shield he carried, and the adventurers and their mounts were ushered inside the dwelling (all but Nova that is - Harlan simply dismissed his celestial pegasus back to the Upper Realms until needed again the next morning). Then, while they all relaxed inside the extradimensional space overnight, Carruthers continued on the road to the quarry, trudging all through the night without complaint. The next morning, the heroes got up, had their breakfast, dressed themselves in armor and clothing as appropriate, Alistair used a <em>prestidigitation</em> spell to clear up after the horses, and everyone was ushered back outside into the Material Plane again. Then Carruthers was returned to the interior of the dwelling, Chaevaris returned it to the amulet she wore, and they traveled on again on their steeds.</p><p></p><p>"We've only got another hour or so until we arrive at the quarry," Harlan declared, checking out the familiar landmarks. He mounted upon Nova and they flew about 40 feet up - above the treetops on either side of the road - while the others rode below them. Alistair had cast his traditional <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself and Ambrose (who sat perched upon his shoulder) and Orchid had likewise cast a <em>longstrider</em> spell upon herself even though she rode upon Harlan's warhorse Law. Shushitan, as always, trotted along beside his mistress.</p><p></p><p>As the group approached a "Y" in the road ahead, Harlan saw the rightmost fork was occupied by a quartet of stone giants - all male - headed their way. None of them were recognizable as members of the Karkaletch clan, and there were but three male adults left in that tribe after the deprivations they'd suffered under the red dragon and his hill giant minions from which the Trained Professional Adventurers had rescued the tribe. Out of habit, the paladin scanned their auras and was surprised to see the stain of evil covering them. He called down to his friends, "All four ping" - which he knew they'd know meant they'd shown up as evil to his temple-trained senses. As a result of Harlan's warning, Alistair cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the rest of the group and their mounts, Harlan and Nova being too far away to include in his spell.</p><p></p><p>The four giants all wore hide armor and carried greatclubs; two of them wore elaborate torcs, one made of gold and the other constructed of iron, with the latter sporting a large agate in the middle. The stone giant with the golden torc also wore a pair of ruby-studded bracers. As Nova flew over to the right, above the forest trees where it would be more difficult for the giants to reach him with their clubs (they didn't seem to have any ranged weapons on them), one giant approached the center of the "Y" and called out a few words in the Giant tongue. None of the heroes understood that language, but Ageratum wore a magical helm which translated the giant's words into the Common tongue so she could understand what he was saying - although it didn't provide her with an ability to reply in the same tongue as that which was spoken. "He says they're emissaries of the shrine of <strong>Rheelbo</strong> and they're looking for the stone giant quarry that's supposed to be somewhere around here," she translated for the benefit of the others. After a quick look at her companions, all of whom held distrustful expressions on their faces at these evil giants, the little halfling looked back at the speaker and shrugged her shoulders. None of them wanted to let these evil stone giants learn the whereabouts of the Karkaletch tribe, as none trusted they were on the up and up.</p><p></p><p>But the giant with the iron torc heard her words and stepped forward. "I speak your language," he said. "My name is <strong>Boulder Arlanur</strong>, and we wish to strike an alliance with the stone giants of the quarry." Silently, Orchid prepared the words to a <em>spike stones</em> spell, in case any of these giants tried anything. Chaevaris let her hands stray over to her quiver, ready to pluck an arrow into her bow; she had her attention focused upon the giant with the golden torc, as she assumed her was the leader. If he tried anything, she was ready to let him have it.</p><p></p><p>The other giants moved up, occupying the entire center of the road. The giant with the bracers and golden torc added, in the Common tongue, "I am <strong>Prince Raul Rurar</strong>, and you seem a bit nervous. Have no fears; you may travel with us if you like or leave us be."</p><p></p><p>"I think we'll be moving on," announced Harlan, sending Nova flying forward above the giants and above the fork to the left, which led to the quarry. With the others and their mounts under a <em>haste</em> spell, he knew they could easily outpace the giants and figured if he started them on their path the others would follow his lead. That way, they'd get to the quarry in plenty of time to give the Karkaletch clan ample warning before these evil stone giants showed up.</p><p></p><p>Alistair understood Harlan's plans immediately, and called out, "Good luck with your search!" to the giants as he steered his horse Zephyr off between the trees to the left of the stretch of road he was on. But as they were about to enter the field of trees, the golden-torced giant made a movement with his right hand to grab something from his left bracer and pull it back as if to throw it at the group. That was all Chaevaris had been waiting for; quick as a wink, she pulled an arrow from her quiver, loaded it into her magical longbow, and fired it at the giant's right hand. He cried out in pain and dropped the <em>fireball bead</em> he'd been holding, which fell to the ground at his feet and exploded in a ball of flame - which engulfed all four giants but reached none of the heroes. At the same time, Orchid cast her readied spell, causing sharp stones to rise up from the ground all around the four giants.</p><p></p><p>"I say!" declared Alistair, seeing the explosion of flame and deducing what had happened. Rather than follow towards Harlan and Nova, he reined his horse to a stop and cast a new spell he'd figured out: <em>chain lightning</em>, aiming it at the bead fumbler and arcing bolts of electricity off from him to the other three stone giants. In a way he was glad of the giant's attack, for it relieved him of any guilt that would come of attacking them first based just upon Harlan's aura reading. The sorcerer's spell elicited cries of pain as the lightning jumped from foe to foe.</p><p></p><p>One of the giants tossed a coiled rope at Orchid, still sitting astride Law. The rope struck the druid and then started uncoiling and wrapping itself around the elf's body, binding her arms tightly to her sides. It was a <em>rope of entanglement</em>, she realized, and until she could escape from its tightening grasp, casting any further spells would be somewhat difficult!</p><p></p><p>Ageratum spurred her pony Munson forward over by Alistair, pulling out her <em>wand of burning hands</em> and firing off a charge at the closest stone giant. The gout of flame seemed pretty feeble compared to the sorcerer's new spell, and the stone giant hardly seemed discomforted by the brief blast at all. The little halfling vowed she'd get some means of dealing a significant amount of damage from a distance one of these days, but in the meantime, every little bit helped take down their common foes.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris had another arrow nocked and was taking careful aim at Prince Raul, while Boulder ran 20 feet forward towards Ageratum, howling in pain as he sliced up the soles of feet on the <em>spike stones</em> spell he was just now discovering was in place, but still managing to conk the halfling over the head with his greatclub. She was almost thrown from the saddle by the force of the blow but managed to stay mounted.</p><p></p><p>"Can somebody give me a hand?" called Orchid as her struggles to free herself from the <em>rope of entanglement</em> proved to be hopeless.</p><p></p><p>"I'll be right there!" promised Alistair, figuring he could touch her and then cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell that would teleport the two of them - but not the rope - over to the far side of the <em>spike stones</em> spell, where they could hurl spells at the giants from behind. In the meantime, the druid let the words to an <em>insect plague</em> come to the forefront of her mind, ready to cast it as soon as her arms and hands were free.</p><p></p><p>Shushitan ran forward and sank his teeth into the leg of the giant who'd tied up his mistress, dodging a swinging greatclub on the way there. He tried his best to trip the giant, but the size difference between them was too great. The stone giant kicked his leg free from the wolf's mouth and stepped forward to swing his massive club at Orchid, slicing up the bottoms of his feet in the process but clobbering the druid a good one as she struggled to get free.</p><p></p><p>Prince Raul charged at Alistair, ignoring the pain from his feet as he did so, and brought his greatclub down in an overhand swing at the sorcerer. Alistair felt the blow hit and slice through his robes and <em>vest of charisma</em> - but that wasn't right! How could a bludgeoning weapon cut so straight a line through his clothing and flesh (for a pool of the young nobleman's blood was now seeping from the wound)? Frowning in concentration, Alistair saw the four giants seem to melt in place and reassemble into their true countenances: Prince Raul and Boulder were not bald, greatclub-wielding stone giants but red-haired fire giants with greatswords, and the other two beside them were ogres. (The ogres, at least, held the same weapons as their illusions, and the giants' torcs and bracers were the same in both forms.) "We're fighting fire giants and ogres!" Alistair called out to his friends, to help them in seeing past the <em>veil</em> spell as he had just done.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris released her arrow and sent it flying straight into Prince Raul's right eye, blinding him on that side. Harlan and Nova had turned around in mid-air by this point, and now the flying pegasus came crashing down into the nearest ogre, <strong>Frag</strong>. Harlan's sword-swing severed the head from Frag's neck, causing the headless torso to plop to the ground where he stood.</p><p></p><p>Alistair had Zephyr backing up from the attacking fire giant, and although he'd promised to go free Orchid, he felt he needed to deal with this more immediate threat first. Once out of range of the reach of the fire giant's sword, he cast a second <em>chain lightning</em> spell, targeting it directly into the fire giant prince's face. The blast slew him immediately, then arced off to strike Boulder and the second ogre, <strong>Grot</strong>. The secondary blast was enough to slay Grot as well, leaving Boulder as the sole remaining foe still standing. "Come to me, Law!" called Alistair, hoping to get Harlan's warhorse away from the range of the fire giant where he'd have a better chance of rescuing Orchid. The druid, in the meantime, had tried wildshaping into a dire bat, thinking the creature's naturally enhanced dexterity might give her the edge needed to escape on her own, but it was no use - the rope merely shifted along with her own body to imprison her new form as easily as it had her old one.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum activated her <em>bracelet of invisibility</em>, stood upon Munson's back, and leaped onto the branch of the nearest tree, using her <em>spider climb</em> ability from her <em>cloak of arachnidia</em> to ensure she remained steady as she ran down its length, hoping to get close enough to Boulder to be able to leap down upon him. Her silver short sword was out and ready to strike. But then Boulder suddenly grew the back half of an arrow-shaft in his left eye (or so it seemed), as Chaevaris shot at him from her own horse, Talkacha.</p><p></p><p>Crying tears of blood from his wounded eye, Boulder bent down to the corpse of his slain prince and plucked a <em>fireball bead</em> from the <em>necklace of fireballs</em> he wore wrapped around his bracer. Aiming as best as he could with his one remaining eye, he tossed it such that it landed on the road between Orchid and Alistair, catching their own mounts as well as Ambrose and Munson in the blast. Ageratum's pony collapsed into unconsciousness from the blast. "The ladies will repay you all in kind!" promised Boulder, in what would prove to be his final words, for almost immediately thereafter Nova and Harlan flew in to attack him with hooves and <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> (after the paladin channeled a burst of Pelor's mighty smiting energy through the blade), and then Alistair dropped him with a simple <em>magic missile</em> spell. Just to be sure, Ageratum leaped down from her tree branch and landed on Boulder's back, stabbing him through the skull with her short sword. There was no doubt about it after that - he was quite dead.</p><p></p><p>Alistair finally <em>dimension doored</em> himself and Orchid a short distance away and the <em>rope of entanglement</em> flopped inert off the side of Law's saddle. Ageratum quickly claimed it as her own, figuring she could duplicate the ogre's trick and toss it at any future spellcasters that crossed them. She was also awarded the <em>necklace of fireballs</em>, which at this point had only three beads remaining. They stripped the fire giants of their torcs, bracers, hide armor, and weapons, tossing them inside their extradimensional dwelling. "After all," replied Harlan, "I'm sure the members of the Karkaletch clan can put them to good use."</p><p></p><p>"And maybe they can shave off a bit from the price of their next shipment," suggested Alistair. But a <em>detect magic</em> spell led to an unpleasant discovery: both torcs were magical in nature, but while the golden one gave off an aura of evocation magic - leading the sorcerer to believe it had a <em>fire shield</em> property in effect - the other one held an aura of divination. "Uh oh," he declared.</p><p></p><p>"What is it?" asked Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"The agate holds a fairly strong source of divination magic, Elfy."</p><p></p><p>"Okay, so?"</p><p></p><p>"It's the type often used by hags. This may very well be a <em>hag's eye</em> - it means it would allow a covey of hags the ability to <em>scry</em> through it and see everything that went on around it."</p><p></p><p>"So they would have seen who it was who slew their emissaries," deduced Orchid.</p><p></p><p>"That's right," agreed Alistair. "And a hag covey would likely have the ability to cast a <em>veil</em> spell upon their minions, to give them the appearance of stone giants."</p><p></p><p>"We'd better go warn the clan," Harlan suggested.</p><p></p><p>"Agreed," replied Alistair. But before we do...." He wrapped the iron torc with the magical agate in a heavy blanket before placing it inside their extradimensional dwelling. No sense in allowing the hags to see anything else of interest during their trip to the Karkaletch quarry!</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Dan and Vicki's youngest son Joe bought his dad a bunch of Pathfinder maps for Christmas, and one of them is of an abandoned shrine. Dan says that's what we'll be using next adventure, so that's likely where the hag covey has set up camp.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9329042, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 50: EMISSARIES OF THE SHRINE[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12 Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12 Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12 Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 12[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 24 April 2024 - - - The five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers exited the Ghourmand Vale town council with a bad taste in their collective mouths. They'd been summoned to explain what all had gone on at Anastasia's Curiosities of the World and why they had felt it necessary to slay the proprietress who had made a deal with the council members to allow her traveling collection of oddities to be displayed before the Ghourmand Vale residents. It was quite apparent that some of the council members - Mackrel Slade in particular - wanted to try to find a way to fine the heroes, but fortunately wiser heads prevailed and after Harlan and Alistair had thoroughly explained the reasons they'd dealt with Anastasia as they had, the matter was dropped. But another of their least-favorite people - Kasselban Picksmart, the leader of the local mine - approached them on an entirely different matter. "You lot, ye're th' ones what made th' agreement with th' stone giant clan what's providin' stone fer th' building projects goin' on here in th' Vale, right?" he asked. "Well, their latest shipment's nearly a week overdue. Ye'd not know anythin' about it, would ye?" Harlan explained they'd not heard anything about it until just now. "Well then," suggested the dwarf, "might be a good idear if'n ye were t' go an' check up on'm, see if they've mebbe got themselves in a bit o' trouble or whatnot." "We'll be glad to check out the situation," the paladin assured the mine leader. The Karkaletch stone giant clan worked in a quarry a good two days' travel from Ghourmand Vale, over in the Lortmil Mountains. But the adventurers now had a means by which they could shorten the time it took to get there; the first time, they'd had to stop and make camp at the end of the day and continue on in the morning, but this time, when the sun went down, Chaevaris simply opened the door to their extradimensional dwelling and let the shield guardian Carruthers out, then moved the door onto the tower shield he carried, and the adventurers and their mounts were ushered inside the dwelling (all but Nova that is - Harlan simply dismissed his celestial pegasus back to the Upper Realms until needed again the next morning). Then, while they all relaxed inside the extradimensional space overnight, Carruthers continued on the road to the quarry, trudging all through the night without complaint. The next morning, the heroes got up, had their breakfast, dressed themselves in armor and clothing as appropriate, Alistair used a [i]prestidigitation[/i] spell to clear up after the horses, and everyone was ushered back outside into the Material Plane again. Then Carruthers was returned to the interior of the dwelling, Chaevaris returned it to the amulet she wore, and they traveled on again on their steeds. "We've only got another hour or so until we arrive at the quarry," Harlan declared, checking out the familiar landmarks. He mounted upon Nova and they flew about 40 feet up - above the treetops on either side of the road - while the others rode below them. Alistair had cast his traditional [i]mage armor[/i] spell on himself and Ambrose (who sat perched upon his shoulder) and Orchid had likewise cast a [i]longstrider[/i] spell upon herself even though she rode upon Harlan's warhorse Law. Shushitan, as always, trotted along beside his mistress. As the group approached a "Y" in the road ahead, Harlan saw the rightmost fork was occupied by a quartet of stone giants - all male - headed their way. None of them were recognizable as members of the Karkaletch clan, and there were but three male adults left in that tribe after the deprivations they'd suffered under the red dragon and his hill giant minions from which the Trained Professional Adventurers had rescued the tribe. Out of habit, the paladin scanned their auras and was surprised to see the stain of evil covering them. He called down to his friends, "All four ping" - which he knew they'd know meant they'd shown up as evil to his temple-trained senses. As a result of Harlan's warning, Alistair cast a [i]haste[/i] spell on the rest of the group and their mounts, Harlan and Nova being too far away to include in his spell. The four giants all wore hide armor and carried greatclubs; two of them wore elaborate torcs, one made of gold and the other constructed of iron, with the latter sporting a large agate in the middle. The stone giant with the golden torc also wore a pair of ruby-studded bracers. As Nova flew over to the right, above the forest trees where it would be more difficult for the giants to reach him with their clubs (they didn't seem to have any ranged weapons on them), one giant approached the center of the "Y" and called out a few words in the Giant tongue. None of the heroes understood that language, but Ageratum wore a magical helm which translated the giant's words into the Common tongue so she could understand what he was saying - although it didn't provide her with an ability to reply in the same tongue as that which was spoken. "He says they're emissaries of the shrine of [b]Rheelbo[/b] and they're looking for the stone giant quarry that's supposed to be somewhere around here," she translated for the benefit of the others. After a quick look at her companions, all of whom held distrustful expressions on their faces at these evil giants, the little halfling looked back at the speaker and shrugged her shoulders. None of them wanted to let these evil stone giants learn the whereabouts of the Karkaletch tribe, as none trusted they were on the up and up. But the giant with the iron torc heard her words and stepped forward. "I speak your language," he said. "My name is [b]Boulder Arlanur[/b], and we wish to strike an alliance with the stone giants of the quarry." Silently, Orchid prepared the words to a [i]spike stones[/i] spell, in case any of these giants tried anything. Chaevaris let her hands stray over to her quiver, ready to pluck an arrow into her bow; she had her attention focused upon the giant with the golden torc, as she assumed her was the leader. If he tried anything, she was ready to let him have it. The other giants moved up, occupying the entire center of the road. The giant with the bracers and golden torc added, in the Common tongue, "I am [b]Prince Raul Rurar[/b], and you seem a bit nervous. Have no fears; you may travel with us if you like or leave us be." "I think we'll be moving on," announced Harlan, sending Nova flying forward above the giants and above the fork to the left, which led to the quarry. With the others and their mounts under a [i]haste[/i] spell, he knew they could easily outpace the giants and figured if he started them on their path the others would follow his lead. That way, they'd get to the quarry in plenty of time to give the Karkaletch clan ample warning before these evil stone giants showed up. Alistair understood Harlan's plans immediately, and called out, "Good luck with your search!" to the giants as he steered his horse Zephyr off between the trees to the left of the stretch of road he was on. But as they were about to enter the field of trees, the golden-torced giant made a movement with his right hand to grab something from his left bracer and pull it back as if to throw it at the group. That was all Chaevaris had been waiting for; quick as a wink, she pulled an arrow from her quiver, loaded it into her magical longbow, and fired it at the giant's right hand. He cried out in pain and dropped the [i]fireball bead[/i] he'd been holding, which fell to the ground at his feet and exploded in a ball of flame - which engulfed all four giants but reached none of the heroes. At the same time, Orchid cast her readied spell, causing sharp stones to rise up from the ground all around the four giants. "I say!" declared Alistair, seeing the explosion of flame and deducing what had happened. Rather than follow towards Harlan and Nova, he reined his horse to a stop and cast a new spell he'd figured out: [i]chain lightning[/i], aiming it at the bead fumbler and arcing bolts of electricity off from him to the other three stone giants. In a way he was glad of the giant's attack, for it relieved him of any guilt that would come of attacking them first based just upon Harlan's aura reading. The sorcerer's spell elicited cries of pain as the lightning jumped from foe to foe. One of the giants tossed a coiled rope at Orchid, still sitting astride Law. The rope struck the druid and then started uncoiling and wrapping itself around the elf's body, binding her arms tightly to her sides. It was a [i]rope of entanglement[/i], she realized, and until she could escape from its tightening grasp, casting any further spells would be somewhat difficult! Ageratum spurred her pony Munson forward over by Alistair, pulling out her [i]wand of burning hands[/i] and firing off a charge at the closest stone giant. The gout of flame seemed pretty feeble compared to the sorcerer's new spell, and the stone giant hardly seemed discomforted by the brief blast at all. The little halfling vowed she'd get some means of dealing a significant amount of damage from a distance one of these days, but in the meantime, every little bit helped take down their common foes. Chaevaris had another arrow nocked and was taking careful aim at Prince Raul, while Boulder ran 20 feet forward towards Ageratum, howling in pain as he sliced up the soles of feet on the [i]spike stones[/i] spell he was just now discovering was in place, but still managing to conk the halfling over the head with his greatclub. She was almost thrown from the saddle by the force of the blow but managed to stay mounted. "Can somebody give me a hand?" called Orchid as her struggles to free herself from the [i]rope of entanglement[/i] proved to be hopeless. "I'll be right there!" promised Alistair, figuring he could touch her and then cast a [i]dimension door[/i] spell that would teleport the two of them - but not the rope - over to the far side of the [i]spike stones[/i] spell, where they could hurl spells at the giants from behind. In the meantime, the druid let the words to an [i]insect plague[/i] come to the forefront of her mind, ready to cast it as soon as her arms and hands were free. Shushitan ran forward and sank his teeth into the leg of the giant who'd tied up his mistress, dodging a swinging greatclub on the way there. He tried his best to trip the giant, but the size difference between them was too great. The stone giant kicked his leg free from the wolf's mouth and stepped forward to swing his massive club at Orchid, slicing up the bottoms of his feet in the process but clobbering the druid a good one as she struggled to get free. Prince Raul charged at Alistair, ignoring the pain from his feet as he did so, and brought his greatclub down in an overhand swing at the sorcerer. Alistair felt the blow hit and slice through his robes and [i]vest of charisma[/i] - but that wasn't right! How could a bludgeoning weapon cut so straight a line through his clothing and flesh (for a pool of the young nobleman's blood was now seeping from the wound)? Frowning in concentration, Alistair saw the four giants seem to melt in place and reassemble into their true countenances: Prince Raul and Boulder were not bald, greatclub-wielding stone giants but red-haired fire giants with greatswords, and the other two beside them were ogres. (The ogres, at least, held the same weapons as their illusions, and the giants' torcs and bracers were the same in both forms.) "We're fighting fire giants and ogres!" Alistair called out to his friends, to help them in seeing past the [i]veil[/i] spell as he had just done. Chaevaris released her arrow and sent it flying straight into Prince Raul's right eye, blinding him on that side. Harlan and Nova had turned around in mid-air by this point, and now the flying pegasus came crashing down into the nearest ogre, [b]Frag[/b]. Harlan's sword-swing severed the head from Frag's neck, causing the headless torso to plop to the ground where he stood. Alistair had Zephyr backing up from the attacking fire giant, and although he'd promised to go free Orchid, he felt he needed to deal with this more immediate threat first. Once out of range of the reach of the fire giant's sword, he cast a second [i]chain lightning[/i] spell, targeting it directly into the fire giant prince's face. The blast slew him immediately, then arced off to strike Boulder and the second ogre, [b]Grot[/b]. The secondary blast was enough to slay Grot as well, leaving Boulder as the sole remaining foe still standing. "Come to me, Law!" called Alistair, hoping to get Harlan's warhorse away from the range of the fire giant where he'd have a better chance of rescuing Orchid. The druid, in the meantime, had tried wildshaping into a dire bat, thinking the creature's naturally enhanced dexterity might give her the edge needed to escape on her own, but it was no use - the rope merely shifted along with her own body to imprison her new form as easily as it had her old one. Ageratum activated her [i]bracelet of invisibility[/i], stood upon Munson's back, and leaped onto the branch of the nearest tree, using her [i]spider climb[/i] ability from her [i]cloak of arachnidia[/i] to ensure she remained steady as she ran down its length, hoping to get close enough to Boulder to be able to leap down upon him. Her silver short sword was out and ready to strike. But then Boulder suddenly grew the back half of an arrow-shaft in his left eye (or so it seemed), as Chaevaris shot at him from her own horse, Talkacha. Crying tears of blood from his wounded eye, Boulder bent down to the corpse of his slain prince and plucked a [i]fireball bead[/i] from the [i]necklace of fireballs[/i] he wore wrapped around his bracer. Aiming as best as he could with his one remaining eye, he tossed it such that it landed on the road between Orchid and Alistair, catching their own mounts as well as Ambrose and Munson in the blast. Ageratum's pony collapsed into unconsciousness from the blast. "The ladies will repay you all in kind!" promised Boulder, in what would prove to be his final words, for almost immediately thereafter Nova and Harlan flew in to attack him with hooves and [i]holy flaming burst longsword[/i] (after the paladin channeled a burst of Pelor's mighty smiting energy through the blade), and then Alistair dropped him with a simple [i]magic missile[/i] spell. Just to be sure, Ageratum leaped down from her tree branch and landed on Boulder's back, stabbing him through the skull with her short sword. There was no doubt about it after that - he was quite dead. Alistair finally [i]dimension doored[/i] himself and Orchid a short distance away and the [i]rope of entanglement[/i] flopped inert off the side of Law's saddle. Ageratum quickly claimed it as her own, figuring she could duplicate the ogre's trick and toss it at any future spellcasters that crossed them. She was also awarded the [i]necklace of fireballs[/i], which at this point had only three beads remaining. They stripped the fire giants of their torcs, bracers, hide armor, and weapons, tossing them inside their extradimensional dwelling. "After all," replied Harlan, "I'm sure the members of the Karkaletch clan can put them to good use." "And maybe they can shave off a bit from the price of their next shipment," suggested Alistair. But a [i]detect magic[/i] spell led to an unpleasant discovery: both torcs were magical in nature, but while the golden one gave off an aura of evocation magic - leading the sorcerer to believe it had a [i]fire shield[/i] property in effect - the other one held an aura of divination. "Uh oh," he declared. "What is it?" asked Chaevaris. "The agate holds a fairly strong source of divination magic, Elfy." "Okay, so?" "It's the type often used by hags. This may very well be a [i]hag's eye[/i] - it means it would allow a covey of hags the ability to [i]scry[/i] through it and see everything that went on around it." "So they would have seen who it was who slew their emissaries," deduced Orchid. "That's right," agreed Alistair. "And a hag covey would likely have the ability to cast a [i]veil[/i] spell upon their minions, to give them the appearance of stone giants." "We'd better go warn the clan," Harlan suggested. "Agreed," replied Alistair. But before we do...." He wrapped the iron torc with the magical agate in a heavy blanket before placing it inside their extradimensional dwelling. No sense in allowing the hags to see anything else of interest during their trip to the Karkaletch quarry! - - - Dan and Vicki's youngest son Joe bought his dad a bunch of Pathfinder maps for Christmas, and one of them is of an abandoned shrine. Dan says that's what we'll be using next adventure, so that's likely where the hag covey has set up camp. [/QUOTE]
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