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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8490124" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 48: A COLORFUL INVESTIGATION</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 15/psychic warrior 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 16</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 15 December 2021</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"Ah," said the man wearing the gray robes of a cleric of Boccob, God of Magic, a smile on his face as he welcomed the five former slaves of Overreach. "Are you here to answer the call for adventurers?"</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok turned his head to the side in puzzlement and then looked over to Utred - the burly dwarven barbarian usually had the answers. But this time Utred was as much in the dark as the lizardfolk. Still, he opted to agree with the man and see where this led. "Yes, yes we are," he told the elderly cleric. "I was told this was a paying job...?" Naturally, he had been told no such thing but it never hurt to throw your line in the water and see what kind of fish you could catch.</p><p></p><p>"Of course, a quite sizeable sum if I do say so myself, but well worth the cost to rid the Guilded City of the sole remaining holdouts of the Seekers of Eternity. To think how close they had come to overthrowing our entire government!"</p><p></p><p>"I know!" agreed Cramer quickly, catching onto the make-it-up-as-we-go plan to pass themselves off as adventurers answering an advertisement of some sort. All attempts to divine the location of the Gate of Radravossk having failed, the Mithral Redeemers - a good sect of the Seekers of Eternity who had allied with Greenvale - suggested the party start by going to the Guilded City to gather information closer to the source, since they had never heard of a Writhing Gate in the Azure Glade. This seemed as good of a cover story as any to the gnome cleric.</p><p></p><p>"Bless me, where are my manners? My name is <strong>Tevin</strong>," added the gray-robed man as he led his new charges to the Temple of Boccob. Cramer made the introductions as they walked. Jhasspok was surprised the man didn't seem the least bit taken aback to see a lizardman in with the other four adventurers. When they got to the Temple, they saw a small crowd of adventurers like themselves, of numerous races - although all of them seemingly mammals, Jhasspok noted sadly. They were offered refreshments and then a temple cleric began briefing the assembled group on the plan.</p><p></p><p>"We intend to wipe out the remaining Seekers of Eternity in the Azure Glade in one fell swoop. They have scattered and are in hiding, no doubt hoping to avoid detection long enough for them to find a way to regroup. To that end, you will each be given a specific target and everyone will be teleported by our spellcasters to your designated foes. We will strike at them simultaneously, so they'll all be too busy fighting for their own lives to be able to aid each other." Maps were handed out to the groups and temple clerics gathered among them to explain the individual plans. Tevin explained the color coding of the map-marks the five ex-slaves had been given. "Red stands for Transmutation; Black is for Necromancy; White is Divination; Blue stands for Evocation; and Purple is Enchantment," he explained. "You five will each be taking on one of these targets when we attack tomorrow at dawn."</p><p></p><p>"Wait, five separate targets for the five of us?" asked Khari. "So we won't be fighting together?"</p><p></p><p>"No, one on one," confirmed Tevin. "You'd do best to decide which of you is best suited against the specialist wizards you'll be taking out."</p><p></p><p>"What can you tell us about these specific targets?" Marlo asked.</p><p></p><p>Tevin explained all that they knew. The Necromancer was likely to be guarded by undead so it was decided they'd give that assignment to Cramer. The Transmuter was holed up in a golem construction lab - the biggest of the five areas they'd be attacking - so Utred was given that one; if there were additional golems guarding the wizard the dwarven barbarian was the best suited to be able to take them down and survive to tell the tale. The Evoker had a traitorous member of the Azure Guard with him - a fighter/wizard used as part of the police force in the Azure Glade - so to counter the extra firepower the group opted to send Marlo after them; after all, she had the most offensive spellcasting power of anyone in the group. The Diviner was believed to be alone; Khari was assigned to take him out. And that left Jhasspok going up against the Enchanter and his likely <em>charmed</em> minions.</p><p></p><p>"Wait, sending Jhasspok against someone who can <em>charm</em> the weak-willed? Is that really a good idea?" asked Khari. "Maybe we should switch."</p><p></p><p>"We'll set him up with a <em>protection from evil</em> spell," promised Cramer. "That will prevent anyone from trying to take over his mind." In a much lower voice, he added to himself, "...such as it is."</p><p></p><p>The adventurers were released with instructions to regroup at the Temple of Boccob an hour before sunrise so the priests there could prepare the focused teleportation rituals that would send each attacker to his or her designated target location and then back again after 10 minutes. There would also be a contingency added into the ritual; if any of the attack force were slain the body would be instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob so resurrections could be prepared.</p><p></p><p>"Seems they thought of everything," Utred commented, impressed.</p><p></p><p>"We'd best see to lodging," Cramer decided. "We'll be getting up early tomorrow."</p><p></p><p>The next day did indeed start early; earlier than anticipated for all but Cramer, who had decided to get everyone up in enough time for them all to partake in a <em>heroes' feast</em> before they set off to the temple. That provided each of the heroes immunity to poison and a boost to their combat abilities. Then, once they'd arrived at the temple, the spellcasters among them applied a variety of pre-combat spells before they'd be teleported to their separate locales. Cramer cast a <em>protection from evil</em> spell upon Utred and a <em>magic circle against evil</em> on himself. "I thought you were going to cast that on Jhasspok," Marlo chided; Cramer just shrugged in a "what does it matter?" gesture. Marlo then cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> on Jhasspok, another on herself, and a third on Khari, then cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell on everyone but Cramer, who waved her off saying he didn't need it. The sorceress then cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the group so they could update each other on their situations as needed. "Cramer and I can cast a <em>teleport</em> spell if anybody finds themselves up against more than they can handle," she told the others. (Jhasspok noted a few glances his way as she said that.) Cramer used his <em>wand of owl's wisdom</em> on each of the five, then cast a bevy of protective spells upon himself: <em>death ward</em>, <em>longstrider</em>, <em>resist energy (cold)</em>, <em>spell immunity</em>, <em>moment of prescience</em>, <em>shield of faith</em>, <em>invisibility purge</em>, <em>spell resistance</em>, and <em>spell turning</em>. Then he used Utred's last purchased scroll to cast a <em>death ward</em> spell on the barbarian as well.</p><p></p><p>"You think that's enough to keep you safe?" taunted Khari, activating his psionic <em>offensive prescience</em> that would help guide his hammer-blows. "You'd think you were afraid of a simple one-on-one fight."</p><p></p><p>"It doesn't hurt to be prepared," countered the gnome cleric. But there was no time for any further comments as the <em>teleportation</em> effect kicked in at that moment and the whole temple of adventurers were whisked away to their individual combats.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok materialized in an L-shaped chamber, where a full third of the room - one end of the "L" - was taken up by a massive bed. Standing by the bed was a man in purple robes: the Enchanter Jhasspok had been sent to kill. However, standing in the crook of the "L" before him were two human women, one in full plate mail armor and another in combat leathers, each wielding impressive swords. It seems the lizardfolk's arrival had not been entirely unanticipated!</p><p></p><p>"Kill him!" commanded the Enchanter and Jhasspok raised his turtle-shell shield anticipating their incoming attacks. But it was possible Fharlanghn had been looking after the lizardfolk in having Cramer cast his <em>protection from evil</em> spell upon Utred instead of on Jhasspok, for as the two armed women approached the humanoid reptile they slowed in confusion. "I have a spell on me that prevents people from taking over my mind," Jhasspok explained to the women as the <em>charm person</em> spells they had been under were temporarily suppressed. They turned in hatred at the Enchanter, who was screaming at them to slay the intruder.</p><p></p><p>"I'm supposed to kill the man in the purple robes," Jhasspok explained helpfully. "You can help me if you like." Then, realizing he needed to stick close to the women if he was going to keep their minds free, he threw his <em>flaming spear</em> at the Enchanter.</p><p></p><p>"We'll need to stick close together for the duration," advised the fighter clad in plate-mail, gripping her longsword. "But yeah, let's get him!"</p><p></p><p>The Enchanter cried out in pain and then retaliated by casting a <em>greater shadow evocation</em> spell in the form of <em>chain lightning</em>, targeting the lizardfolk and then arcing off to his traitorous mind-slaves. But the spell didn't stop their coordinated charge across the room and the wizard soon found himself pierced by a fighter's longsword, a rogue's short sword, and a lizardman's battleaxe, the latter of which also discharged the <em>vampiric touch</em> spell Marlo had loaded into it the night before. The weapons were all that were holding him up at that point; when the trio removed them the man slid down the wall to land in a heap on the floor, leaving a trail of blood along the wall in his wake. The rogue gave his head a kick for good measure. "Creep!" she snarled.</p><p></p><p>Seeing his goal had already been attained, Jhasspok opened the satchel at his hip and pulled out a dried dung beetle. He offered a snack to the two women but it turned out neither of them was hungry.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Marlo appeared in a small room with two blue-clad men: an Evoker in wizard's robes and a member of the Azure Guard wearing blue armor covered in glowing runes. She didn't hesitate a moment to cast an <em>empowered maximized scorching ray</em> at the pair. One ray hit each of the two but the third ray went astray. Marlo scowled at the missed opportunity to dish out additional pain.</p><p></p><p>The Azure Guard cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at Marlo in retaliation and it was all the sorceress could do not to laugh in his face; she'd faced <em>much</em> more powerful spellcasters than this before! The Evoker also cast a ray spell - a <em>polar ray</em> if Marlo wasn't mistaken - but it also missed its target. The sorceress elevated herself close to the ceiling with her <em>boots of levitation</em> and sent an <em>empowered maximized fireball</em> spell down at her opponents. The blast had both foes crumpling dead to the ground, burned to a crisp.</p><p></p><p><I got mine!> Marlo called over the telepathic link to her friends. <Anybody need any help?></p><p></p><p><Mine's already dead,> Jhasspok reported in. The rogue, after having satisfied that the Enchanter was in fact dead, was teaching Jhasspok how to play gambling games and the lizardfolk had already lost a few coins to her but was determined to do better.</p><p></p><p><I could use a hand!> replied an exasperated-sounding Khari. Marlo said the words and teleported away, concentrating on a mental image of Khari to lead her to where she needed to be.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>At first, Khari thought this task wouldn't be too difficult. He'd teleported into a square room, empty of all but the white-robed Diviner before him. However, the dwarf scowled in noting the worked stone of the floor below him; his <em>earthglide warhammer</em> wouldn't be able to allow him to burrow through the ground like he preferred to be able to do so. Still, how hard could it be to kill one wizard?</p><p></p><p>He found out almost immediately, for after striking his first blow the Diviner cast a <em>time stop</em> spell and all of a sudden he was now in the opposite corner and a greater fire elemental stood towering between him and the dwarven fighter. The massive creature of flame raised a blazing fist and brought it down towards the dwarf...only to be unable to finish the blow, due to the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell Marlo had cast upon him, for it prevented summoned creatures from being able to approach the dwarf.</p><p></p><p>Khari skirted right past the elemental - knowing full well to do so meant undoing the protection against summoned creatures, but so be it - and brought his warhammer crashing down upon the Diviner again, this time with disappointing results - it seems the bugger had cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself during the <em>time stop</em> as well. Then the white-clad wizard cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell directly into Khari's bearded face. And now no longer prevented from striking her summoner's enemy, the fire elemental brought her flaming fist down upon the dwarf's helmeted head. Khari staggered back, wondering how he was going to take the two of them out by himself.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately he didn't have to, for at that time Marlo made her query across the mental link between the five adventurers. A moment later the sorceress was by his side, ready to aid her friend.</p><p></p><p>The Diviner ran past the pair of adventurers, taking hits from both the dwarf's <em>earthglide warhammer</em> and the sorceress's <em>arcane blade</em> - which by this time in her career struck like a bastard sword. He was staggered by their combined assault and decided he'd at least take out the enemy spellcaster before he fell, casting a <em>Mordenkainen's sword</em> before slipping into unconsciousness. But Khari dashed up and bashed in the Diviner's head with his hammer and then Marlo, realizing there was no need to stick around to fight a fire elemental whose time on the Material Plane was limited, touched Khari on the shoulder and teleported the two of them away. Jhasspok had already said he was fine and Cramer had so many spells on him he'd likely be doing just fine, so she concentrated on Utred's face as the two of them disappeared.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Utred materialized in the middle of a large, square chamber, his battle-trained senses allowing him to notice a few details at once.</p><p></p><p>There was a man in red wizard's robes on the floor across the room from him, before a set of double doors. It didn't look like he was breathing.</p><p></p><p>There were four stone statues in the corner of the room, each about nine feet tall.</p><p></p><p>The statues were moving.</p><p></p><p>That's all Utred was able to focus upon before he found himself in combat with the four stone golems. He flew straight at the nearest one, his <em>Elderwood greenflame greataxe</em> taking a few chunks out of it before it was able to slam him with its stone fists. Then the others were approaching, trying to pen him in.</p><p></p><p>Thoughts raced across the barbarian's mind as he battled the stone constructs. One dealt with the magic-suppressing properties of the Null Axe, and without further consideration he whipped off the protective wrapping around it at his belt and he whipped it into the body of the golem he'd been fighting. The Null Axe, embedded in the construct's chest, brought it to immediate immobility. <em>That's one less to have to deal with right now,</em> Utred thought to himself. Then, as much fun as tussling with three stone golems all at once sounded, he recalled the task at hand. He wasn't sure what was up with the dead wizard in red robes but there was no doubt of his status as one of the golems had trodden upon his head on its approach towards Utred. But it was certainly possible he was either a decoy or a lackey and the true target was on the other side of those doors. With that thought in mind, the barbarian activated his <em>winged boots</em> and flew up over the heads of the stone golems, dropping down before the doors and swinging them open - but not before having taken a few hits from the constructs as he flew above them.</p><p></p><p>On the other side of the doors stood a much smaller room, with a much smaller construct made of mithral and wood, much like a shield guardian made to human scale. It tried casting a <em>disintegrate</em> spell but fumbled the somatic components, the Transmuter not yet being accustomed to his new form. With two stone golems swinging their fists at his back, Utred charged the warforged Transmuter. The doorway was small enough only one stone golem could fit through it at a time, so that at least lessened the threat from behind while Utred dealt with the main target.</p><p></p><p>And then suddenly Marlo and Khari were in the smaller room with him. A grin broke across the dwarven barbarian's face as he thought about how much trouble this warforged Transmuter was in now.</p><p></p><p>Khari brought his warhammer crashing down upon the warforged's back as the Transmuter cast a second <em>disintegrate</em> spell at Utred, this time getting it right. To his consternation, however, the spell left the dwarf damaged but still in place; he'd gutted through the worst of the spell's effects, damn him! Utred finished him off with a series of blows from his own enchanted greataxe. Then the first stone golem through the doorway was up to Utred and slammed him with a fist.</p><p></p><p>"We ready to go?" asked Marlo.</p><p></p><p>"Need t' grab my Null Axe - it's in the other room!" Utred replied, swinging his greataxe into the stone golem before him.</p><p></p><p>"Say no more," replied Marlo and all of a sudden all three of them were back in the larger chamber, before the immobilized stone golem. Khari grabbed up the protective wrapping used to shield the Null Axe's powers during transport, ready to plop it over the weapon as soon as Utred pulled it from the construct's chest. Then, the Null Axe temporarily neutralized, Marlo cast another <em>teleport</em> spell, this one taking the three of them to Cramer.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>By this time, Jhasspok was getting frustrated at the gambling game being taught to him by the leather-clad woman. "You were really close this time," she assured the lizardfolk as he handed over another coin. "Let's try again: now what number am I thinking about?"</p><p></p><p>Three hadn't worked earlier, and neither had seven. "Eight," Jhasspok guessed.</p><p></p><p>"Nope - pay up," said the thief, smiling.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Cramer teleported into a room filled with a pile of bodies before getting attacked by the four dread wraiths formed by the merging of their undead spirits. Fortunately, his <em>death ward</em> spell prevented their incorporeal touches from draining him of his life-essence; they had to content themselves with the normal physical damage their undead touch caused.</p><p></p><p>The little gnome moved over to one side of the room, instinctively wanting the protection of a solid wall on one side before realizing walls were no barrier to incorporeal souls. He took two hits in getting to his new position, but at least it allowed him to cast forth a blaze of positive energy through his upraised holy symbol of Fharlanghn. The turning attempt caused one of the dread wraiths to flee, passing through a back wall as if it wasn't even there. But the other three floated up and struck again.</p><p></p><p>Scooting over to a corner, Cramer cast a <em>mass cure critical wounds</em>, the spell healing up some of the damage he'd sustained thus far as well as harming the undead spirits before him. One of the dread wraiths backed off a bit, allowing the other two to glide forward to the attack.</p><p></p><p>Cramer repeated his former tactic, this time converting one of his prepared spells into a <em>mass cure serious wounds</em>. That healed him and hurt them, a process the gnome cleric was prepared to repeat all day if he had to - or until he ran out of spells of the appropriate level. The process repeated again, with more attacks from the incorporeal undead dealing damage to the cleric's physical form. While mentally flipping through his current spell repertoire for a good one to convert to healing energy, he came across <em>ethereal jaunt</em> and realized if he cast it upon himself he'd be fighting the dread wraiths on their own plane, where they'd no longer have the advantage of being incorporeal. That sounded like a good idea to the gnome so he cast the spell as normally intended upon himself.</p><p></p><p>That did indeed have the desired effect, for the dreads wraiths found it much more difficult dealing the cleric any damage now that they had to take his armor into account. It was a three-on-one battle on the Ethereal Plane there for a while, with the gnome putting his mace to good use, when Marlo teleported into the room with the two dwarves.</p><p></p><p>While they were still on the Material Plane, the new arrivals could see Cramer and the three dread wraiths and did what they could to aid their friend, even if it was inherently difficult to catch an incorporeal creature just right to actually connect with them. Still, the dwarves gave it their all, attacking with warhammer and greataxe to their best ability.</p><p></p><p>The dread wraiths quickly learned the newcomers made for much easier targets, as not all of them were shielded with <em>death ward</em> spells. Of the three, only Utred was so protected, as two of the dread wraiths learned to their disappointment after having targeted the barbarian. The other had gone for Khari and he managed to shrug off the worst of the life-draining attacks of his unearthly foe.</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell on the entire area, confident that his spell, cast upon the Ethereal Plane, would affect the wraiths but not his friends. Marlo, realizing what tactics Cramer was using, cast her own <em>ethereal jaunt</em> spell upon herself and joined him.</p><p></p><p>Khari's warhammer made contact with one of the wraiths and Utred managed to finish it off with his greataxe, then swung into another nearby undead as well. The wraiths tried counterattacking, to no success. While Cramer helped the dwarves fight off the remaining two dread wraiths, Marlo decided to see what was on the other side of the door in the large chamber. Passing through it incorporeally, she saw a lich sitting at a desk, apparently unable to sense her. She backed into the larger room and finished off one wraith with a <em>maximized magic missile</em> while Khari polished off the other one with his warhammer.</p><p></p><p>Utred was in no mood to hold off any possible investigations; powered by his rage he burst through the door, saw the lich before him, and leaped up onto the desk as he brought his weapon's axe-head down in an overhead stroke. Cramer deactivated his <em>ethereal jaunt</em> spell and cast a <em>mass cure critical wounds</em> spell, affecting all but Marlo - who was still on the Ethereal Plane - and the lich, who was out of range. But the three male heroes all appreciated the surge of healing energy.</p><p></p><p>The lich Necromancer cast a <em>cone of cold</em> out at the three heroes before him, Marlo once again immune from spells being cast on an entirely different plane of existence from the one she inhabited at present. But then she popped back to the Material Plane and took the lich out with a single casting of an <em>empowered maximized scorching ray</em>, sending all three rays blazing into the lich's skeletal body, immolating it in an instant.</p><p></p><p>"There's bound to be a phylactery around here somewhere," Cramer advised the others. Some searching found it hidden in a crevice in the wall, in the form of a spellbook. Another spell from Marlo and it too was a blazing mass of ashes.</p><p></p><p>After a full ten minutes had passed, the adventurers were instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob where the various adventurers were passing on their reports and getting their pay. After the five had done likewise, they were approached by <strong>Khier</strong>, the head of the Temple of Boccob in the Azure Glade. "I believe you have need of my knowledge," he said by way of introduction.</p><p></p><p>"Can you tell us anything about a Writhing Gate hidden in the Azure Glade?" Cramer asked. He described the Writhing Gates and gave the head cleric an overview of their task in slaying the Dying One and taking out the Writhing Gates that would otherwise allow his return to the planet with catastrophic consequences.</p><p></p><p>"I have never heard of such devices," Khier admitted, before adding, "but I know of something that meets your description." He told the group something very much like a Writhing Gate had been unearthed a couple of centuries before, with all attempts to destroy it meeting in failure. "Eventually, it fell into the hands of the vampiric faction of the Seekers of Eternity," Khier explained. "As they have broken off from the rest of the Seekers, they were not involved in the attempt to overthrow our government and thus were not part of our raid this morning. But the Council of Guilds at the time worked to seal the evil away - vampires and tentacles alike. Knowing you have a means of destroying the vile thing once and for all" - and here he looked down at the Null Axe wrapped in its protective blanket at Utred's hip - "I am more than willing to guide you to its location so it can finally be dealt with."</p><p></p><p>"Excellent," grinned Cramer.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This was an interesting experiment, although Jhasspok came off the winner in the "ease of overcoming his designated target" front, given I was inadvertently given two assistants. (Among ourselves around the gaming table, we referred to the Enchanter's former mind-slaves as "Jhasspok's Angels.") I think I was an active PC for all of two rounds in the whole session, but it was fun watching everyone fight off their own targets. And despite how going from location to location made for a better way to describe it in a Story Hour, in-game we went round to round across all of the combatants in all five locations.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8490124, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 48: A COLORFUL INVESTIGATION[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 15/psychic warrior 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 16[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 15 December 2021 - - - "Ah," said the man wearing the gray robes of a cleric of Boccob, God of Magic, a smile on his face as he welcomed the five former slaves of Overreach. "Are you here to answer the call for adventurers?" Jhasspok turned his head to the side in puzzlement and then looked over to Utred - the burly dwarven barbarian usually had the answers. But this time Utred was as much in the dark as the lizardfolk. Still, he opted to agree with the man and see where this led. "Yes, yes we are," he told the elderly cleric. "I was told this was a paying job...?" Naturally, he had been told no such thing but it never hurt to throw your line in the water and see what kind of fish you could catch. "Of course, a quite sizeable sum if I do say so myself, but well worth the cost to rid the Guilded City of the sole remaining holdouts of the Seekers of Eternity. To think how close they had come to overthrowing our entire government!" "I know!" agreed Cramer quickly, catching onto the make-it-up-as-we-go plan to pass themselves off as adventurers answering an advertisement of some sort. All attempts to divine the location of the Gate of Radravossk having failed, the Mithral Redeemers - a good sect of the Seekers of Eternity who had allied with Greenvale - suggested the party start by going to the Guilded City to gather information closer to the source, since they had never heard of a Writhing Gate in the Azure Glade. This seemed as good of a cover story as any to the gnome cleric. "Bless me, where are my manners? My name is [B]Tevin[/B]," added the gray-robed man as he led his new charges to the Temple of Boccob. Cramer made the introductions as they walked. Jhasspok was surprised the man didn't seem the least bit taken aback to see a lizardman in with the other four adventurers. When they got to the Temple, they saw a small crowd of adventurers like themselves, of numerous races - although all of them seemingly mammals, Jhasspok noted sadly. They were offered refreshments and then a temple cleric began briefing the assembled group on the plan. "We intend to wipe out the remaining Seekers of Eternity in the Azure Glade in one fell swoop. They have scattered and are in hiding, no doubt hoping to avoid detection long enough for them to find a way to regroup. To that end, you will each be given a specific target and everyone will be teleported by our spellcasters to your designated foes. We will strike at them simultaneously, so they'll all be too busy fighting for their own lives to be able to aid each other." Maps were handed out to the groups and temple clerics gathered among them to explain the individual plans. Tevin explained the color coding of the map-marks the five ex-slaves had been given. "Red stands for Transmutation; Black is for Necromancy; White is Divination; Blue stands for Evocation; and Purple is Enchantment," he explained. "You five will each be taking on one of these targets when we attack tomorrow at dawn." "Wait, five separate targets for the five of us?" asked Khari. "So we won't be fighting together?" "No, one on one," confirmed Tevin. "You'd do best to decide which of you is best suited against the specialist wizards you'll be taking out." "What can you tell us about these specific targets?" Marlo asked. Tevin explained all that they knew. The Necromancer was likely to be guarded by undead so it was decided they'd give that assignment to Cramer. The Transmuter was holed up in a golem construction lab - the biggest of the five areas they'd be attacking - so Utred was given that one; if there were additional golems guarding the wizard the dwarven barbarian was the best suited to be able to take them down and survive to tell the tale. The Evoker had a traitorous member of the Azure Guard with him - a fighter/wizard used as part of the police force in the Azure Glade - so to counter the extra firepower the group opted to send Marlo after them; after all, she had the most offensive spellcasting power of anyone in the group. The Diviner was believed to be alone; Khari was assigned to take him out. And that left Jhasspok going up against the Enchanter and his likely [I]charmed[/I] minions. "Wait, sending Jhasspok against someone who can [I]charm[/I] the weak-willed? Is that really a good idea?" asked Khari. "Maybe we should switch." "We'll set him up with a [I]protection from evil[/I] spell," promised Cramer. "That will prevent anyone from trying to take over his mind." In a much lower voice, he added to himself, "...such as it is." The adventurers were released with instructions to regroup at the Temple of Boccob an hour before sunrise so the priests there could prepare the focused teleportation rituals that would send each attacker to his or her designated target location and then back again after 10 minutes. There would also be a contingency added into the ritual; if any of the attack force were slain the body would be instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob so resurrections could be prepared. "Seems they thought of everything," Utred commented, impressed. "We'd best see to lodging," Cramer decided. "We'll be getting up early tomorrow." The next day did indeed start early; earlier than anticipated for all but Cramer, who had decided to get everyone up in enough time for them all to partake in a [I]heroes' feast[/I] before they set off to the temple. That provided each of the heroes immunity to poison and a boost to their combat abilities. Then, once they'd arrived at the temple, the spellcasters among them applied a variety of pre-combat spells before they'd be teleported to their separate locales. Cramer cast a [I]protection from evil[/I] spell upon Utred and a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] on himself. "I thought you were going to cast that on Jhasspok," Marlo chided; Cramer just shrugged in a "what does it matter?" gesture. Marlo then cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] on Jhasspok, another on herself, and a third on Khari, then cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell on everyone but Cramer, who waved her off saying he didn't need it. The sorceress then cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on the group so they could update each other on their situations as needed. "Cramer and I can cast a [I]teleport[/I] spell if anybody finds themselves up against more than they can handle," she told the others. (Jhasspok noted a few glances his way as she said that.) Cramer used his [I]wand of owl's wisdom[/I] on each of the five, then cast a bevy of protective spells upon himself: [I]death ward[/I], [I]longstrider[/I], [I]resist energy (cold)[/I], [I]spell immunity[/I], [I]moment of prescience[/I], [I]shield of faith[/I], [I]invisibility purge[/I], [I]spell resistance[/I], and [I]spell turning[/I]. Then he used Utred's last purchased scroll to cast a [I]death ward[/I] spell on the barbarian as well. "You think that's enough to keep you safe?" taunted Khari, activating his psionic [I]offensive prescience[/I] that would help guide his hammer-blows. "You'd think you were afraid of a simple one-on-one fight." "It doesn't hurt to be prepared," countered the gnome cleric. But there was no time for any further comments as the [I]teleportation[/I] effect kicked in at that moment and the whole temple of adventurers were whisked away to their individual combats. - - - Jhasspok materialized in an L-shaped chamber, where a full third of the room - one end of the "L" - was taken up by a massive bed. Standing by the bed was a man in purple robes: the Enchanter Jhasspok had been sent to kill. However, standing in the crook of the "L" before him were two human women, one in full plate mail armor and another in combat leathers, each wielding impressive swords. It seems the lizardfolk's arrival had not been entirely unanticipated! "Kill him!" commanded the Enchanter and Jhasspok raised his turtle-shell shield anticipating their incoming attacks. But it was possible Fharlanghn had been looking after the lizardfolk in having Cramer cast his [I]protection from evil[/I] spell upon Utred instead of on Jhasspok, for as the two armed women approached the humanoid reptile they slowed in confusion. "I have a spell on me that prevents people from taking over my mind," Jhasspok explained to the women as the [I]charm person[/I] spells they had been under were temporarily suppressed. They turned in hatred at the Enchanter, who was screaming at them to slay the intruder. "I'm supposed to kill the man in the purple robes," Jhasspok explained helpfully. "You can help me if you like." Then, realizing he needed to stick close to the women if he was going to keep their minds free, he threw his [I]flaming spear[/I] at the Enchanter. "We'll need to stick close together for the duration," advised the fighter clad in plate-mail, gripping her longsword. "But yeah, let's get him!" The Enchanter cried out in pain and then retaliated by casting a [I]greater shadow evocation[/I] spell in the form of [I]chain lightning[/I], targeting the lizardfolk and then arcing off to his traitorous mind-slaves. But the spell didn't stop their coordinated charge across the room and the wizard soon found himself pierced by a fighter's longsword, a rogue's short sword, and a lizardman's battleaxe, the latter of which also discharged the [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell Marlo had loaded into it the night before. The weapons were all that were holding him up at that point; when the trio removed them the man slid down the wall to land in a heap on the floor, leaving a trail of blood along the wall in his wake. The rogue gave his head a kick for good measure. "Creep!" she snarled. Seeing his goal had already been attained, Jhasspok opened the satchel at his hip and pulled out a dried dung beetle. He offered a snack to the two women but it turned out neither of them was hungry. - - - Marlo appeared in a small room with two blue-clad men: an Evoker in wizard's robes and a member of the Azure Guard wearing blue armor covered in glowing runes. She didn't hesitate a moment to cast an [I]empowered maximized scorching ray[/I] at the pair. One ray hit each of the two but the third ray went astray. Marlo scowled at the missed opportunity to dish out additional pain. The Azure Guard cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at Marlo in retaliation and it was all the sorceress could do not to laugh in his face; she'd faced [I]much[/I] more powerful spellcasters than this before! The Evoker also cast a ray spell - a [I]polar ray[/I] if Marlo wasn't mistaken - but it also missed its target. The sorceress elevated herself close to the ceiling with her [I]boots of levitation[/I] and sent an [I]empowered maximized fireball[/I] spell down at her opponents. The blast had both foes crumpling dead to the ground, burned to a crisp. <I got mine!> Marlo called over the telepathic link to her friends. <Anybody need any help?> <Mine's already dead,> Jhasspok reported in. The rogue, after having satisfied that the Enchanter was in fact dead, was teaching Jhasspok how to play gambling games and the lizardfolk had already lost a few coins to her but was determined to do better. <I could use a hand!> replied an exasperated-sounding Khari. Marlo said the words and teleported away, concentrating on a mental image of Khari to lead her to where she needed to be. - - - At first, Khari thought this task wouldn't be too difficult. He'd teleported into a square room, empty of all but the white-robed Diviner before him. However, the dwarf scowled in noting the worked stone of the floor below him; his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] wouldn't be able to allow him to burrow through the ground like he preferred to be able to do so. Still, how hard could it be to kill one wizard? He found out almost immediately, for after striking his first blow the Diviner cast a [I]time stop[/I] spell and all of a sudden he was now in the opposite corner and a greater fire elemental stood towering between him and the dwarven fighter. The massive creature of flame raised a blazing fist and brought it down towards the dwarf...only to be unable to finish the blow, due to the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell Marlo had cast upon him, for it prevented summoned creatures from being able to approach the dwarf. Khari skirted right past the elemental - knowing full well to do so meant undoing the protection against summoned creatures, but so be it - and brought his warhammer crashing down upon the Diviner again, this time with disappointing results - it seems the bugger had cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon himself during the [I]time stop[/I] as well. Then the white-clad wizard cast a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell directly into Khari's bearded face. And now no longer prevented from striking her summoner's enemy, the fire elemental brought her flaming fist down upon the dwarf's helmeted head. Khari staggered back, wondering how he was going to take the two of them out by himself. Fortunately he didn't have to, for at that time Marlo made her query across the mental link between the five adventurers. A moment later the sorceress was by his side, ready to aid her friend. The Diviner ran past the pair of adventurers, taking hits from both the dwarf's [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] and the sorceress's [I]arcane blade[/I] - which by this time in her career struck like a bastard sword. He was staggered by their combined assault and decided he'd at least take out the enemy spellcaster before he fell, casting a [I]Mordenkainen's sword[/I] before slipping into unconsciousness. But Khari dashed up and bashed in the Diviner's head with his hammer and then Marlo, realizing there was no need to stick around to fight a fire elemental whose time on the Material Plane was limited, touched Khari on the shoulder and teleported the two of them away. Jhasspok had already said he was fine and Cramer had so many spells on him he'd likely be doing just fine, so she concentrated on Utred's face as the two of them disappeared. - - - Utred materialized in the middle of a large, square chamber, his battle-trained senses allowing him to notice a few details at once. There was a man in red wizard's robes on the floor across the room from him, before a set of double doors. It didn't look like he was breathing. There were four stone statues in the corner of the room, each about nine feet tall. The statues were moving. That's all Utred was able to focus upon before he found himself in combat with the four stone golems. He flew straight at the nearest one, his [I]Elderwood greenflame greataxe[/I] taking a few chunks out of it before it was able to slam him with its stone fists. Then the others were approaching, trying to pen him in. Thoughts raced across the barbarian's mind as he battled the stone constructs. One dealt with the magic-suppressing properties of the Null Axe, and without further consideration he whipped off the protective wrapping around it at his belt and he whipped it into the body of the golem he'd been fighting. The Null Axe, embedded in the construct's chest, brought it to immediate immobility. [I]That's one less to have to deal with right now,[/I] Utred thought to himself. Then, as much fun as tussling with three stone golems all at once sounded, he recalled the task at hand. He wasn't sure what was up with the dead wizard in red robes but there was no doubt of his status as one of the golems had trodden upon his head on its approach towards Utred. But it was certainly possible he was either a decoy or a lackey and the true target was on the other side of those doors. With that thought in mind, the barbarian activated his [I]winged boots[/I] and flew up over the heads of the stone golems, dropping down before the doors and swinging them open - but not before having taken a few hits from the constructs as he flew above them. On the other side of the doors stood a much smaller room, with a much smaller construct made of mithral and wood, much like a shield guardian made to human scale. It tried casting a [I]disintegrate[/I] spell but fumbled the somatic components, the Transmuter not yet being accustomed to his new form. With two stone golems swinging their fists at his back, Utred charged the warforged Transmuter. The doorway was small enough only one stone golem could fit through it at a time, so that at least lessened the threat from behind while Utred dealt with the main target. And then suddenly Marlo and Khari were in the smaller room with him. A grin broke across the dwarven barbarian's face as he thought about how much trouble this warforged Transmuter was in now. Khari brought his warhammer crashing down upon the warforged's back as the Transmuter cast a second [I]disintegrate[/I] spell at Utred, this time getting it right. To his consternation, however, the spell left the dwarf damaged but still in place; he'd gutted through the worst of the spell's effects, damn him! Utred finished him off with a series of blows from his own enchanted greataxe. Then the first stone golem through the doorway was up to Utred and slammed him with a fist. "We ready to go?" asked Marlo. "Need t' grab my Null Axe - it's in the other room!" Utred replied, swinging his greataxe into the stone golem before him. "Say no more," replied Marlo and all of a sudden all three of them were back in the larger chamber, before the immobilized stone golem. Khari grabbed up the protective wrapping used to shield the Null Axe's powers during transport, ready to plop it over the weapon as soon as Utred pulled it from the construct's chest. Then, the Null Axe temporarily neutralized, Marlo cast another [I]teleport[/I] spell, this one taking the three of them to Cramer. - - - By this time, Jhasspok was getting frustrated at the gambling game being taught to him by the leather-clad woman. "You were really close this time," she assured the lizardfolk as he handed over another coin. "Let's try again: now what number am I thinking about?" Three hadn't worked earlier, and neither had seven. "Eight," Jhasspok guessed. "Nope - pay up," said the thief, smiling. - - - Cramer teleported into a room filled with a pile of bodies before getting attacked by the four dread wraiths formed by the merging of their undead spirits. Fortunately, his [I]death ward[/I] spell prevented their incorporeal touches from draining him of his life-essence; they had to content themselves with the normal physical damage their undead touch caused. The little gnome moved over to one side of the room, instinctively wanting the protection of a solid wall on one side before realizing walls were no barrier to incorporeal souls. He took two hits in getting to his new position, but at least it allowed him to cast forth a blaze of positive energy through his upraised holy symbol of Fharlanghn. The turning attempt caused one of the dread wraiths to flee, passing through a back wall as if it wasn't even there. But the other three floated up and struck again. Scooting over to a corner, Cramer cast a [I]mass cure critical wounds[/I], the spell healing up some of the damage he'd sustained thus far as well as harming the undead spirits before him. One of the dread wraiths backed off a bit, allowing the other two to glide forward to the attack. Cramer repeated his former tactic, this time converting one of his prepared spells into a [I]mass cure serious wounds[/I]. That healed him and hurt them, a process the gnome cleric was prepared to repeat all day if he had to - or until he ran out of spells of the appropriate level. The process repeated again, with more attacks from the incorporeal undead dealing damage to the cleric's physical form. While mentally flipping through his current spell repertoire for a good one to convert to healing energy, he came across [I]ethereal jaunt[/I] and realized if he cast it upon himself he'd be fighting the dread wraiths on their own plane, where they'd no longer have the advantage of being incorporeal. That sounded like a good idea to the gnome so he cast the spell as normally intended upon himself. That did indeed have the desired effect, for the dreads wraiths found it much more difficult dealing the cleric any damage now that they had to take his armor into account. It was a three-on-one battle on the Ethereal Plane there for a while, with the gnome putting his mace to good use, when Marlo teleported into the room with the two dwarves. While they were still on the Material Plane, the new arrivals could see Cramer and the three dread wraiths and did what they could to aid their friend, even if it was inherently difficult to catch an incorporeal creature just right to actually connect with them. Still, the dwarves gave it their all, attacking with warhammer and greataxe to their best ability. The dread wraiths quickly learned the newcomers made for much easier targets, as not all of them were shielded with [I]death ward[/I] spells. Of the three, only Utred was so protected, as two of the dread wraiths learned to their disappointment after having targeted the barbarian. The other had gone for Khari and he managed to shrug off the worst of the life-draining attacks of his unearthly foe. Cramer cast a [I]flame strike[/I] spell on the entire area, confident that his spell, cast upon the Ethereal Plane, would affect the wraiths but not his friends. Marlo, realizing what tactics Cramer was using, cast her own [I]ethereal jaunt[/I] spell upon herself and joined him. Khari's warhammer made contact with one of the wraiths and Utred managed to finish it off with his greataxe, then swung into another nearby undead as well. The wraiths tried counterattacking, to no success. While Cramer helped the dwarves fight off the remaining two dread wraiths, Marlo decided to see what was on the other side of the door in the large chamber. Passing through it incorporeally, she saw a lich sitting at a desk, apparently unable to sense her. She backed into the larger room and finished off one wraith with a [I]maximized magic missile[/I] while Khari polished off the other one with his warhammer. Utred was in no mood to hold off any possible investigations; powered by his rage he burst through the door, saw the lich before him, and leaped up onto the desk as he brought his weapon's axe-head down in an overhead stroke. Cramer deactivated his [I]ethereal jaunt[/I] spell and cast a [I]mass cure critical wounds[/I] spell, affecting all but Marlo - who was still on the Ethereal Plane - and the lich, who was out of range. But the three male heroes all appreciated the surge of healing energy. The lich Necromancer cast a [I]cone of cold[/I] out at the three heroes before him, Marlo once again immune from spells being cast on an entirely different plane of existence from the one she inhabited at present. But then she popped back to the Material Plane and took the lich out with a single casting of an [I]empowered maximized scorching ray[/I], sending all three rays blazing into the lich's skeletal body, immolating it in an instant. "There's bound to be a phylactery around here somewhere," Cramer advised the others. Some searching found it hidden in a crevice in the wall, in the form of a spellbook. Another spell from Marlo and it too was a blazing mass of ashes. After a full ten minutes had passed, the adventurers were instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob where the various adventurers were passing on their reports and getting their pay. After the five had done likewise, they were approached by [B]Khier[/B], the head of the Temple of Boccob in the Azure Glade. "I believe you have need of my knowledge," he said by way of introduction. "Can you tell us anything about a Writhing Gate hidden in the Azure Glade?" Cramer asked. He described the Writhing Gates and gave the head cleric an overview of their task in slaying the Dying One and taking out the Writhing Gates that would otherwise allow his return to the planet with catastrophic consequences. "I have never heard of such devices," Khier admitted, before adding, "but I know of something that meets your description." He told the group something very much like a Writhing Gate had been unearthed a couple of centuries before, with all attempts to destroy it meeting in failure. "Eventually, it fell into the hands of the vampiric faction of the Seekers of Eternity," Khier explained. "As they have broken off from the rest of the Seekers, they were not involved in the attempt to overthrow our government and thus were not part of our raid this morning. But the Council of Guilds at the time worked to seal the evil away - vampires and tentacles alike. Knowing you have a means of destroying the vile thing once and for all" - and here he looked down at the Null Axe wrapped in its protective blanket at Utred's hip - "I am more than willing to guide you to its location so it can finally be dealt with." "Excellent," grinned Cramer. - - - This was an interesting experiment, although Jhasspok came off the winner in the "ease of overcoming his designated target" front, given I was inadvertently given two assistants. (Among ourselves around the gaming table, we referred to the Enchanter's former mind-slaves as "Jhasspok's Angels.") I think I was an active PC for all of two rounds in the whole session, but it was fun watching everyone fight off their own targets. And despite how going from location to location made for a better way to describe it in a Story Hour, in-game we went round to round across all of the combatants in all five locations. [/QUOTE]
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