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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7069764" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 6: JOURNEY TO THE CRYSTAL CAVE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 3</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 1 April 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The damaged troll airship had been repaired by the statue which until recently had adorned the entryway to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. Now, with the crystalline form of Sapphrina the fairy brought aboard, the heroes were ready to go.</p><p></p><p>"I seldom get to say this without you scowling at me," remarked Sam Crow, looking over at his baabarian friend, "but, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"</p><p></p><p>The airship rose up unsteadily from the ground, wobbling a bit as it finally reached a level plane of orientation, and then sailed off over the tree-tops.</p><p></p><p>"I hope you know where we're going," commented Sam, who, on dint of being aboard a flying ship, had recently designated himself Admiral Sam Crow.</p><p></p><p>"We're heading for the Serpent Isles," Baabby reminded his sidekick.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, I know that, but I have no idea where they might be," replied an irritated Sam.</p><p></p><p>"It doesn't maatter," said Baabby. "As long as <em>he</em> knows."</p><p></p><p>"Indeed I do," replied the statue. "We should be there within the hour." And indeed the next three-quarters of an hour passed without incident, except for the occasional loud banging noises coming from the engine compartment below, which never failed to make Sam flinch. After a few bangs, though, the engine would usually settle down again...just long enough for the next sudden bang to jolt Sam all over again.</p><p></p><p>"Is there supposed to be smoke coming up from the floorboards?" asked Sam hesitantly. The statue looked down at the deck, then returned its gaze to the floating island coming into view before them.</p><p></p><p>"Well, I have good news and bad news," he replied. As both heroes turned to him with worried faces, he said, "Those are the Serpent Isles just ahead. We're definitely going to make it there."</p><p></p><p>"That must be the good news," decided Sam. "...What's the bad news?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure how many pieces we'll be in when we land. BRACE FOR IMPACT!"</p><p></p><p>The bangs coming from belowdecks were joined by a wheezing noise and the unmistakable sound of an explosion. Black smoke now billowed behind them, as it seeped out both sides of the airships's front, where it had originally hit when it crash-landed by the museum.</p><p></p><p>"Typical troll craftsmanship," complained Sam as the continent-sized island rushed up ahead. It was one of the larger chunks of land that floated throughout the Skylands, this one big enough to hold a small ocean in its center, in the middle of which were scattered a clump of small islands. It was to one of these smaller islands that the statue was desperate steering, as the airship dropped altitude at an alarming rate.</p><p></p><p>With a sickening CRUNCH the airship hit the edge of a pebbly beach, just at the edge of the ocean. The back half was in the water, the front half on the beach - except that as an airship, it's probably more accurate to say the aft section was in the water while the foredeck was on land. But the important thing was the ship was still in one piece, and once the engines were shut off the banging noises stopped from the decks below.</p><p></p><p>The ship's passengers were all still in one piece, too, although the crash-landing had pitched them all forward, sprawling on the deck in an undignified fashion.</p><p></p><p>"Is everyone okay?" asked Baabby, getting back to his feet and helping his partner up.</p><p></p><p>"I'm fine," replied Sam, verifying that Sapphrina was still intact. Fortunately, the fairy statue had no cracks in her crystal form, and the stone statue from the museum hadn't smashed his way through the wooden deck when he fell.</p><p></p><p>"I'll attempt to make repairs," said the mobile statue. "But no guarantees."</p><p></p><p>"Where's the Cave of the Crystal Medusa?" asked Baabby, not letting a little thing like the possible loss of their only mode of transportation distract him from his primary mission. The statue pointed off to the left of the airship (wait - the port side!), where Baabby could see a rocky cliffside in the distance, a short way up the beach. "Let's go, Sam!" he cried enthusiastically, leaping over the edge of the railing and onto the pebbly beach.</p><p></p><p>"I'm coming, I'm coming," griped Sam, climbing down a bit less enthusiastically than his partner. He landed next to Baabby and surveyed the land before them. There wasn't much to see: ocean to the left, pebbly shore straight ahead, cliffs off to the right in the distance. Here and there on the beach were scattered clumps of seaweed, and - more excitingly to the avaricious crow - glints of what looked like the occasional gem in amongst the pebbles of the beach.</p><p></p><p>Baabby strode forth in a beeline to the cliffs ahead, while Sam bent to examine the nearest gem. He picked it up, but it was nothing extraordinary - certainly not very valuable, in any case. He sighed in frustration and tossed it aside.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, a clump of seaweed Baabby had just walked by rose up. As it rose, it almost seemed to inflate, changing from an inert clump of flat seaweed to the rotund, familiar form of a chompy! All along the beach, other clumps of seaweed rose up, taking on the forms of what the heroes later decided to call "kelp chompies."</p><p></p><p>"Hey! No fair!" complained Sam as two headed his way. "You know, mutton is <em>very</em> nourishing, and it tastes <em>much</em> better than most poultry dishes...." He let his suggestion trail off once he realized that first of all, the kelp chompies weren't paying him any attention (and probably didn't even understand his words); but more importantly, Baabby wasn't rising to the bait. What fun was teasing your partner if he wasn't even annoyed by it?</p><p></p><p>Baabby had four kelp chompies converging on him, but he said nothing. Instead, he hefted his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> in his hands and made a powerful side-swing that chopped through the first kelp chompy like it wasn't there and continued on to bisect the one standing next to it. As had almost become a tradition with the mighty baabarian, one swing of his magic greatsword meant two enemies slain.</p><p></p><p>Sam wasn't quite up to his friend's level of power, but he was learning to hold his own. Taking a step back to avoid the snapping spine-teeth of the nearest kelp chompy, Sam let fly with an arrow that skewered the little plant-monster and caused it to "deflate" back into a pile of unmoving seaweed - only the little crow had the feeling that particular pile of seaweed wouldn't ever be moving again!</p><p></p><p>Baabby fought off the other two that had waddled up to him, and Sam likewise shot at the other one who was biting at him. But even with these first six slain, another six were wandering up from further down the beach - and, more worryingly, there were more clumps of seaweed being brought to shore by the waves! Sam infused his Dynabow 2.0 with explosive energy and managed to kill three kelp chompies all bunched together in a group, but saw from the corner of his eye that the first of these new clumps were being washed ashore - only to rise up as new kelp chompies.</p><p></p><p>"There are more of them!" Sam cried.</p><p></p><p>"I'm on it!" called back Baabby, finishing off the kelp chompies that had waddled his way. Then, seeing there were only two currently on the beach and each one was far enough from Sam that the little crow could probably handle himself for awhile, the burly baabarian started wading into the ocean. As the waters rose up to his neck, he took a deep breath and continued his pace.</p><p></p><p>Sam ran to the halfway point between the two kelp chompies on the beach, taking aim at one but fumbling the shot with an ill-timed sneeze. The arrow stabbed down at the pebbly sand by the crow's feet as the hungry kelp chompies approached, teeth snapping. Sam was forced to draw his short sword as the two kelp chompies snapped and bit at him, several of the bites hitting their targets. "Ow!" cried Sam Crow. "No fair!"</p><p></p><p>Underwater, Baabby had found what he had been looking for - since the kelp chompies were coming from the sea, it only made sense that there were aquatic chompy pods out here somewhere. The first of them was visible just ahead, so the sheep-man started heading in that direction, not in the least bothered by the fact that his pace wasn't as fast underwater as it was on land. After all, where was the chompy pod going to go? They were immobile, depending upon the mobile chompies they spit forth for defense. But as the chompy pod before him did just that, Baabby smiled to himself as he saw that the kelp chompy thus disgorged had a hard time staying underwater - it rose to the top of the ocean's surface and started paddling frantically towards land. It didn't seem like he was in any particular danger down here at all!</p><p></p><p>Realizing the drag of the water would slow down his sword-strike, Baabby put every ounce of strength into it he had. And what a result! The aquatic chompy pod practically exploded beneath the power of the baabarian's greatsword, chunks of it falling to all sides to be washed harmlessly away by the waves. With a quiet smile of satisfaction, Baabby started making his way to the area where there had to be another chompy pod, based on the directions the sea-borne ones had been floating in.</p><p></p><p>By the time Baabby had taken care of the second chompy pod - and just in time, too, for his single gulp of air was giving out - Sam had taken care of the kelp chompies bothering him and had resumed his use of the bow, starting to take out those farther away (which was where he preferred his enemies: farther away from him!). The baabarian waded up out of the ocean to see the second-to-last kelp chompy get taken out by one of Sam's arrows, and another one getting bitten by a large snake that had slithered up from the direction of the caves. Its mouth opened wide and wicked fangs stabbed down at the kelp chompy, killing it instantly.</p><p></p><p>But the snake apparently wasn't in the mood for a salad, for it spit the dead kelp chompy right out again and looked about for a more nourishing meat dish. Seeing a sheep-man approaching, the serpent slithered over to the walking meal and bit it. Baabby felt the snake's fangs stab into his skin and inject some type of venom, but his powerful baabarian constitution allowed him to shrug off whatever debilitating effects the poison might have had. Instead, he sent his greatsword crashing into the serpent's skull, making the snake suddenly wish to reappraise its choice of dinner. Sam, in a good position to set fly with an explosive arrow, did just that, taking a little chunk of scales off its left side. (No wait, its port side - no, never mind, it's a snake, not a ship! Its left side, then.) Baabby finished it off with another powerful swing of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, and the snake fell dead to the sandy beach.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," said Baabby nonchalantly, as if having to slay a dozen or more chompies and a giant snake were all part of a normal day's events. Sam hurried to keep pace with his burly friend.</p><p></p><p>Soon, the cliffs rose to the side of the beach and Baabby spotted a cave opening along the bottom of a near-vertical stone wall. "Let's check in there," he suggested. There was a faint light inside the cave, probably not bright enough to read by but at least providing enough light to allow them to see. The cave had little side branches all along its winding length, and in the first such side branch to the left, the heroes saw a column of buttery-yellow crystal. It was smooth, like amber, and reached from the ground all the way to the cavern ceiling. A yellowish illumination emanated from the crystal column.</p><p></p><p>"Well, I'm guessing this is the Cave of Crystal Statues," whispered Sam. "But what's it a statue of? A column?"</p><p></p><p>"Let's look around some more," suggested Baabby.</p><p></p><p>In another alcove they found a greenish-glowing crystal column, and another that glowed a bluish hue one side-cavern over. But it was the fourth one that ended up being the most exciting. Whereas the others were all translucent - you could see through them to see the cavern walls behind them - this one was misty and murky. Furthermore, there seemed to be something inside of it: a feminine form with wavy, spiky hair.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, Baabby -- I think there's somebody inside this statue!" Sam called to his friend. "Maybe you can smash it--Hey!" The crow jumped back as the purplish crystal suddenly lunged out at him. In doing so, it left behind the woman it had previously engulfed: <strong>Crystal</strong> the Medusa, who many people thought was called the Crystal Medusa. She had crystalline snakes in place of her hair - each snake a different color, making it look rather like there was a rainbow leaking out of her scalp. Each of the snakes had its eyes closed - something normal serpents, which lacked eyelids, were incapable of doing. But, as the heroes were to soon learn, these were no normal serpents.</p><p></p><p>But first, they had to deal with this ooze-monster that was dripping off of Crystal's body and sliding over towards Sam. Sam shot at it with an arrow, which was absorbed into the ooze's body and looked to get corroded away in an instant.</p><p></p><p>If Baabby had any hesitation about plunging the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> into an acidic crystal ooze, his actions spoke otherwise. With a mighty grunt of effort, he sent his magical greatsword crashing down into the hardened-liquid ooze, cutting a deep groove into its body. "It's kind of like taaffy!" the baabarian said.</p><p></p><p>"Mmmm, I like taffy!" replied Sam. "You ever have the kind that tastes like mint? Those are good - but how about the ones that taste like bananas? I think I like those the best!"</p><p></p><p>"Tell me later!" suggested Baabby to his easily-distracted partner. Then he swung his blade down at the crystal ooze in an overhand blow that cut another groove deep into its body, making an "X" shape with his previous blow, which had yet to reform. The ooze convulsed a little and then seemed to dissolve there on the floor, dribbling away into nothingness.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, thank you for saving me!" said Crystal. "I think that thing was trying to eat me!" Then she looked at Baabby's greatsword with a frown. "Say, I recognize that sword! You aren't <strong>Xacho</strong>'s apprentices, are you? But no, why would he have his apprentices--" She cut herself off in mid-sentence, veering her one-sided conversation in a different direction altogether. "Say, I wonder what year it is?"</p><p></p><p>"Um," began Sam, not sure how to deal with this strange Medusa. He was glad that looking at her (or her looking at him? - he was a little unsure of how that was supposed to work) didn't turn him to stone, although the fact that her hair-serpents all had their eyes closed gave him some suspicions on that front. "Maybe you've heard of us? We have a prophecy and everything: the Crow and the Sheep!"</p><p></p><p>"The Sheep and the Crow!" said both Baabby and Crystal simultaneously.</p><p></p><p>"Whatever," grumbled Sam. "Some people prefer it the other way around...."</p><p></p><p>"I'm grateful for your assistance," said Crystal. "But why are you here? Which one of you is sick, and in need of crystallization?"</p><p></p><p>"Um, nothing like that," said Sam, making sure none of her hair-serpents got any ideas and peeked their eyelids open. "Quite the opposite, in fact. We have this fairy friend, see, named Sapphrina, who's been turned into a crystal statue, and we were told you might be able to turn her back."</p><p></p><p>"Oh," said Crystal. "Oh, I see. Well, yes, I suppose I could...." She turned her head and stroked one of her hair-serpents - one, Baabby and Sam couldn't help but notice, that was the exact same shade of blue as the crystal statue of Sapphrina they had left back on the troll airship.</p><p></p><p>"Great!" agreed Sam. "So, do we bring her to you, or bring you to her, or how does this work?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, don't worry!" Crystal said, still talking to her blue serpent. "You'd grow back soon enough!"</p><p></p><p>"Huh?" said Baabby to Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Are you following this?" asked Sam to Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Very well," stated Crystal with an air of finality. "I'll do it. But I won't do it for free. If you want me to free Sapphrina from her statue form, there's something I need you two to do for me first."</p><p></p><p>"Of course there is," sighed Sam.</p><p></p><p>"I need a piece of the Ocean's Heart," said the Medusa. "Not that big of a piece, just about so big" - and she held her hands out as if holding a loaf of bread or something similarly-sized.</p><p></p><p>"And where's this Ocean's Heart?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Why, it's where you'd expect it to be - at the bottom of the ocean!" explained Crystal. "But don't worry - you won't have to dive down to get it. There are caverns all around this area. One of them leads to an area just below the Ocean's Heart. You'll be able to carve a bit of it off from just beneath it."</p><p></p><p>"I don't suppose these caverns are filled with monsters, by any chance, are they?" asked Sam, not really wanting to hear the answer.</p><p></p><p>"Why, of course they are!" exclaimed Crystal, seemingly surprised at such a silly question.</p><p></p><p>"Of course they are," sighed Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Bring me a piece of the Ocean's Heart and I'll restore you friend," promised Crystal. "The entrance to the cave you need it just down the cliff from here, in a patch of water with a greenish tinge - the cave opening is underwater."</p><p></p><p>"Of course it is," sighed Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" said Baabby, not bothered in the least by this turn of events. Adventure beckoned, and he for one was eager to answer its call.</p><p></p><p>Sam, not so much - but he dutifully followed his friend back out of the cave and down the rocky beach, in search of the greenish-tinged water that would lead to their next big adventure.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan picked up six sheets of paper from our local Michael's craft store: three with a pebble pattern and three blue-marble ones that looked like they might be waves as seen from above. Then he had me make a Word document that was a 1" grid, and I printed off six such copies onto the Michael's craft paper. Then he cut one edge of the pebble paper sheets, such that, when laid over the "water" paper, he formed a little beach scene. That's where the troll airship crashed and where our PCs fought the kelp chompies. (Incidentally, kelp chompies don't exist in the Skylanders game - they're something Logan came up with for our D&D version of the Skylanders universe.) For the Medusa's cavern, he used four Pathfinder Map Cards from their "Ambush" set. And the troll airship was once again the same two Map Cards from their "Armada" set.</p><p></p><p>Harry dealt incredible amounts of damage with Baabby's greatsword, as usual. In the fight with the crystal ooze, it attacked Sam and missed, Baabby did 19 points of damage with a greatsword Power Attack, then Sam shot an arrow at it for 7 points of damage, then it attacked Baabby and missed, and then Baabby dealt it 22 more points of damage. Logan was surprised it went down so quickly. (Invariably, all DMs get to experience similar moments for themselves.) Harry, used to video games, asked which of the monsters we fought was the "boss fight," and was surprised to hear that in D&D there isn't always a "boss fight" in every adventure.</p><p></p><p>But this adventure sent both PCs to 4th level! Harry was psyched about that. We'll have to level them up later this weekend; as I type this, he's happily watching "Legend of Zelda" YouTube videos.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7069764, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 6: JOURNEY TO THE CRYSTAL CAVE[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 3 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 3[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 1 April 2017 - - - The damaged troll airship had been repaired by the statue which until recently had adorned the entryway to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. Now, with the crystalline form of Sapphrina the fairy brought aboard, the heroes were ready to go. "I seldom get to say this without you scowling at me," remarked Sam Crow, looking over at his baabarian friend, "but, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" The airship rose up unsteadily from the ground, wobbling a bit as it finally reached a level plane of orientation, and then sailed off over the tree-tops. "I hope you know where we're going," commented Sam, who, on dint of being aboard a flying ship, had recently designated himself Admiral Sam Crow. "We're heading for the Serpent Isles," Baabby reminded his sidekick. "Yeah, I know that, but I have no idea where they might be," replied an irritated Sam. "It doesn't maatter," said Baabby. "As long as [i]he[/i] knows." "Indeed I do," replied the statue. "We should be there within the hour." And indeed the next three-quarters of an hour passed without incident, except for the occasional loud banging noises coming from the engine compartment below, which never failed to make Sam flinch. After a few bangs, though, the engine would usually settle down again...just long enough for the next sudden bang to jolt Sam all over again. "Is there supposed to be smoke coming up from the floorboards?" asked Sam hesitantly. The statue looked down at the deck, then returned its gaze to the floating island coming into view before them. "Well, I have good news and bad news," he replied. As both heroes turned to him with worried faces, he said, "Those are the Serpent Isles just ahead. We're definitely going to make it there." "That must be the good news," decided Sam. "...What's the bad news?" "I'm not sure how many pieces we'll be in when we land. BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The bangs coming from belowdecks were joined by a wheezing noise and the unmistakable sound of an explosion. Black smoke now billowed behind them, as it seeped out both sides of the airships's front, where it had originally hit when it crash-landed by the museum. "Typical troll craftsmanship," complained Sam as the continent-sized island rushed up ahead. It was one of the larger chunks of land that floated throughout the Skylands, this one big enough to hold a small ocean in its center, in the middle of which were scattered a clump of small islands. It was to one of these smaller islands that the statue was desperate steering, as the airship dropped altitude at an alarming rate. With a sickening CRUNCH the airship hit the edge of a pebbly beach, just at the edge of the ocean. The back half was in the water, the front half on the beach - except that as an airship, it's probably more accurate to say the aft section was in the water while the foredeck was on land. But the important thing was the ship was still in one piece, and once the engines were shut off the banging noises stopped from the decks below. The ship's passengers were all still in one piece, too, although the crash-landing had pitched them all forward, sprawling on the deck in an undignified fashion. "Is everyone okay?" asked Baabby, getting back to his feet and helping his partner up. "I'm fine," replied Sam, verifying that Sapphrina was still intact. Fortunately, the fairy statue had no cracks in her crystal form, and the stone statue from the museum hadn't smashed his way through the wooden deck when he fell. "I'll attempt to make repairs," said the mobile statue. "But no guarantees." "Where's the Cave of the Crystal Medusa?" asked Baabby, not letting a little thing like the possible loss of their only mode of transportation distract him from his primary mission. The statue pointed off to the left of the airship (wait - the port side!), where Baabby could see a rocky cliffside in the distance, a short way up the beach. "Let's go, Sam!" he cried enthusiastically, leaping over the edge of the railing and onto the pebbly beach. "I'm coming, I'm coming," griped Sam, climbing down a bit less enthusiastically than his partner. He landed next to Baabby and surveyed the land before them. There wasn't much to see: ocean to the left, pebbly shore straight ahead, cliffs off to the right in the distance. Here and there on the beach were scattered clumps of seaweed, and - more excitingly to the avaricious crow - glints of what looked like the occasional gem in amongst the pebbles of the beach. Baabby strode forth in a beeline to the cliffs ahead, while Sam bent to examine the nearest gem. He picked it up, but it was nothing extraordinary - certainly not very valuable, in any case. He sighed in frustration and tossed it aside. Suddenly, a clump of seaweed Baabby had just walked by rose up. As it rose, it almost seemed to inflate, changing from an inert clump of flat seaweed to the rotund, familiar form of a chompy! All along the beach, other clumps of seaweed rose up, taking on the forms of what the heroes later decided to call "kelp chompies." "Hey! No fair!" complained Sam as two headed his way. "You know, mutton is [i]very[/i] nourishing, and it tastes [i]much[/i] better than most poultry dishes...." He let his suggestion trail off once he realized that first of all, the kelp chompies weren't paying him any attention (and probably didn't even understand his words); but more importantly, Baabby wasn't rising to the bait. What fun was teasing your partner if he wasn't even annoyed by it? Baabby had four kelp chompies converging on him, but he said nothing. Instead, he hefted his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] in his hands and made a powerful side-swing that chopped through the first kelp chompy like it wasn't there and continued on to bisect the one standing next to it. As had almost become a tradition with the mighty baabarian, one swing of his magic greatsword meant two enemies slain. Sam wasn't quite up to his friend's level of power, but he was learning to hold his own. Taking a step back to avoid the snapping spine-teeth of the nearest kelp chompy, Sam let fly with an arrow that skewered the little plant-monster and caused it to "deflate" back into a pile of unmoving seaweed - only the little crow had the feeling that particular pile of seaweed wouldn't ever be moving again! Baabby fought off the other two that had waddled up to him, and Sam likewise shot at the other one who was biting at him. But even with these first six slain, another six were wandering up from further down the beach - and, more worryingly, there were more clumps of seaweed being brought to shore by the waves! Sam infused his Dynabow 2.0 with explosive energy and managed to kill three kelp chompies all bunched together in a group, but saw from the corner of his eye that the first of these new clumps were being washed ashore - only to rise up as new kelp chompies. "There are more of them!" Sam cried. "I'm on it!" called back Baabby, finishing off the kelp chompies that had waddled his way. Then, seeing there were only two currently on the beach and each one was far enough from Sam that the little crow could probably handle himself for awhile, the burly baabarian started wading into the ocean. As the waters rose up to his neck, he took a deep breath and continued his pace. Sam ran to the halfway point between the two kelp chompies on the beach, taking aim at one but fumbling the shot with an ill-timed sneeze. The arrow stabbed down at the pebbly sand by the crow's feet as the hungry kelp chompies approached, teeth snapping. Sam was forced to draw his short sword as the two kelp chompies snapped and bit at him, several of the bites hitting their targets. "Ow!" cried Sam Crow. "No fair!" Underwater, Baabby had found what he had been looking for - since the kelp chompies were coming from the sea, it only made sense that there were aquatic chompy pods out here somewhere. The first of them was visible just ahead, so the sheep-man started heading in that direction, not in the least bothered by the fact that his pace wasn't as fast underwater as it was on land. After all, where was the chompy pod going to go? They were immobile, depending upon the mobile chompies they spit forth for defense. But as the chompy pod before him did just that, Baabby smiled to himself as he saw that the kelp chompy thus disgorged had a hard time staying underwater - it rose to the top of the ocean's surface and started paddling frantically towards land. It didn't seem like he was in any particular danger down here at all! Realizing the drag of the water would slow down his sword-strike, Baabby put every ounce of strength into it he had. And what a result! The aquatic chompy pod practically exploded beneath the power of the baabarian's greatsword, chunks of it falling to all sides to be washed harmlessly away by the waves. With a quiet smile of satisfaction, Baabby started making his way to the area where there had to be another chompy pod, based on the directions the sea-borne ones had been floating in. By the time Baabby had taken care of the second chompy pod - and just in time, too, for his single gulp of air was giving out - Sam had taken care of the kelp chompies bothering him and had resumed his use of the bow, starting to take out those farther away (which was where he preferred his enemies: farther away from him!). The baabarian waded up out of the ocean to see the second-to-last kelp chompy get taken out by one of Sam's arrows, and another one getting bitten by a large snake that had slithered up from the direction of the caves. Its mouth opened wide and wicked fangs stabbed down at the kelp chompy, killing it instantly. But the snake apparently wasn't in the mood for a salad, for it spit the dead kelp chompy right out again and looked about for a more nourishing meat dish. Seeing a sheep-man approaching, the serpent slithered over to the walking meal and bit it. Baabby felt the snake's fangs stab into his skin and inject some type of venom, but his powerful baabarian constitution allowed him to shrug off whatever debilitating effects the poison might have had. Instead, he sent his greatsword crashing into the serpent's skull, making the snake suddenly wish to reappraise its choice of dinner. Sam, in a good position to set fly with an explosive arrow, did just that, taking a little chunk of scales off its left side. (No wait, its port side - no, never mind, it's a snake, not a ship! Its left side, then.) Baabby finished it off with another powerful swing of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], and the snake fell dead to the sandy beach. "Let's go," said Baabby nonchalantly, as if having to slay a dozen or more chompies and a giant snake were all part of a normal day's events. Sam hurried to keep pace with his burly friend. Soon, the cliffs rose to the side of the beach and Baabby spotted a cave opening along the bottom of a near-vertical stone wall. "Let's check in there," he suggested. There was a faint light inside the cave, probably not bright enough to read by but at least providing enough light to allow them to see. The cave had little side branches all along its winding length, and in the first such side branch to the left, the heroes saw a column of buttery-yellow crystal. It was smooth, like amber, and reached from the ground all the way to the cavern ceiling. A yellowish illumination emanated from the crystal column. "Well, I'm guessing this is the Cave of Crystal Statues," whispered Sam. "But what's it a statue of? A column?" "Let's look around some more," suggested Baabby. In another alcove they found a greenish-glowing crystal column, and another that glowed a bluish hue one side-cavern over. But it was the fourth one that ended up being the most exciting. Whereas the others were all translucent - you could see through them to see the cavern walls behind them - this one was misty and murky. Furthermore, there seemed to be something inside of it: a feminine form with wavy, spiky hair. "Hey, Baabby -- I think there's somebody inside this statue!" Sam called to his friend. "Maybe you can smash it--Hey!" The crow jumped back as the purplish crystal suddenly lunged out at him. In doing so, it left behind the woman it had previously engulfed: [b]Crystal[/b] the Medusa, who many people thought was called the Crystal Medusa. She had crystalline snakes in place of her hair - each snake a different color, making it look rather like there was a rainbow leaking out of her scalp. Each of the snakes had its eyes closed - something normal serpents, which lacked eyelids, were incapable of doing. But, as the heroes were to soon learn, these were no normal serpents. But first, they had to deal with this ooze-monster that was dripping off of Crystal's body and sliding over towards Sam. Sam shot at it with an arrow, which was absorbed into the ooze's body and looked to get corroded away in an instant. If Baabby had any hesitation about plunging the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] into an acidic crystal ooze, his actions spoke otherwise. With a mighty grunt of effort, he sent his magical greatsword crashing down into the hardened-liquid ooze, cutting a deep groove into its body. "It's kind of like taaffy!" the baabarian said. "Mmmm, I like taffy!" replied Sam. "You ever have the kind that tastes like mint? Those are good - but how about the ones that taste like bananas? I think I like those the best!" "Tell me later!" suggested Baabby to his easily-distracted partner. Then he swung his blade down at the crystal ooze in an overhand blow that cut another groove deep into its body, making an "X" shape with his previous blow, which had yet to reform. The ooze convulsed a little and then seemed to dissolve there on the floor, dribbling away into nothingness. "Oh, thank you for saving me!" said Crystal. "I think that thing was trying to eat me!" Then she looked at Baabby's greatsword with a frown. "Say, I recognize that sword! You aren't [b]Xacho[/b]'s apprentices, are you? But no, why would he have his apprentices--" She cut herself off in mid-sentence, veering her one-sided conversation in a different direction altogether. "Say, I wonder what year it is?" "Um," began Sam, not sure how to deal with this strange Medusa. He was glad that looking at her (or her looking at him? - he was a little unsure of how that was supposed to work) didn't turn him to stone, although the fact that her hair-serpents all had their eyes closed gave him some suspicions on that front. "Maybe you've heard of us? We have a prophecy and everything: the Crow and the Sheep!" "The Sheep and the Crow!" said both Baabby and Crystal simultaneously. "Whatever," grumbled Sam. "Some people prefer it the other way around...." "I'm grateful for your assistance," said Crystal. "But why are you here? Which one of you is sick, and in need of crystallization?" "Um, nothing like that," said Sam, making sure none of her hair-serpents got any ideas and peeked their eyelids open. "Quite the opposite, in fact. We have this fairy friend, see, named Sapphrina, who's been turned into a crystal statue, and we were told you might be able to turn her back." "Oh," said Crystal. "Oh, I see. Well, yes, I suppose I could...." She turned her head and stroked one of her hair-serpents - one, Baabby and Sam couldn't help but notice, that was the exact same shade of blue as the crystal statue of Sapphrina they had left back on the troll airship. "Great!" agreed Sam. "So, do we bring her to you, or bring you to her, or how does this work?" "Oh, don't worry!" Crystal said, still talking to her blue serpent. "You'd grow back soon enough!" "Huh?" said Baabby to Sam. "Are you following this?" asked Sam to Baabby. "Very well," stated Crystal with an air of finality. "I'll do it. But I won't do it for free. If you want me to free Sapphrina from her statue form, there's something I need you two to do for me first." "Of course there is," sighed Sam. "I need a piece of the Ocean's Heart," said the Medusa. "Not that big of a piece, just about so big" - and she held her hands out as if holding a loaf of bread or something similarly-sized. "And where's this Ocean's Heart?" asked Baabby. "Why, it's where you'd expect it to be - at the bottom of the ocean!" explained Crystal. "But don't worry - you won't have to dive down to get it. There are caverns all around this area. One of them leads to an area just below the Ocean's Heart. You'll be able to carve a bit of it off from just beneath it." "I don't suppose these caverns are filled with monsters, by any chance, are they?" asked Sam, not really wanting to hear the answer. "Why, of course they are!" exclaimed Crystal, seemingly surprised at such a silly question. "Of course they are," sighed Sam. "Bring me a piece of the Ocean's Heart and I'll restore you friend," promised Crystal. "The entrance to the cave you need it just down the cliff from here, in a patch of water with a greenish tinge - the cave opening is underwater." "Of course it is," sighed Sam. "Let's go!" said Baabby, not bothered in the least by this turn of events. Adventure beckoned, and he for one was eager to answer its call. Sam, not so much - but he dutifully followed his friend back out of the cave and down the rocky beach, in search of the greenish-tinged water that would lead to their next big adventure. - - - Logan picked up six sheets of paper from our local Michael's craft store: three with a pebble pattern and three blue-marble ones that looked like they might be waves as seen from above. Then he had me make a Word document that was a 1" grid, and I printed off six such copies onto the Michael's craft paper. Then he cut one edge of the pebble paper sheets, such that, when laid over the "water" paper, he formed a little beach scene. That's where the troll airship crashed and where our PCs fought the kelp chompies. (Incidentally, kelp chompies don't exist in the Skylanders game - they're something Logan came up with for our D&D version of the Skylanders universe.) For the Medusa's cavern, he used four Pathfinder Map Cards from their "Ambush" set. And the troll airship was once again the same two Map Cards from their "Armada" set. Harry dealt incredible amounts of damage with Baabby's greatsword, as usual. In the fight with the crystal ooze, it attacked Sam and missed, Baabby did 19 points of damage with a greatsword Power Attack, then Sam shot an arrow at it for 7 points of damage, then it attacked Baabby and missed, and then Baabby dealt it 22 more points of damage. Logan was surprised it went down so quickly. (Invariably, all DMs get to experience similar moments for themselves.) Harry, used to video games, asked which of the monsters we fought was the "boss fight," and was surprised to hear that in D&D there isn't always a "boss fight" in every adventure. But this adventure sent both PCs to 4th level! Harry was psyched about that. We'll have to level them up later this weekend; as I type this, he's happily watching "Legend of Zelda" YouTube videos. [/QUOTE]
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