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Story Hour
The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7083610" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 8: THE MEDUSA'S HAIRCUT</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 15 April 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"Hey, isn't that Crystal?" asked Sam, squinting his eyes against the sun. Sure enough, it was - and the Medusa had the diamond-hard statue of Sapphrina the fairy tucked underneath one arm.</p><p></p><p>"Hello," said Crystal as she approached the duo (trio, if you counted Shelldon - but nobody but Sam ever seemed to want to count Shelldon). "I thought I'd save you a bit of walking. Come on - we're going this way."</p><p></p><p>"Where are we going?" asked Sam. Baabby didn't seem at all concerned; he was just content knowing that they were heading wherever it was they needed to be heading.</p><p></p><p>"To a nearby gillman fishing village," replied Crystal. "It's not far."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I see," said Sam, without having a clue as to why they needed to go to a gillman fishing village. The gillmen were friendly folks, mostly content with leading the simple lives of fishermen, although one of their number - <strong>Gill Grunt</strong> - had made it into the illustrious ranks of the Skylanders themselves.</p><p></p><p>Silence reigned for a few moments. Then Sam looked down at the gastropod sitting comfortably on his left shoulder and added, "Shelldon wants to know why we're heading towards a gillman fishing village."</p><p></p><p>Crystal hid a smile, seeing through the little crow's subterfuge. "I've helped them in the past, and helping Sapphrina will undo the help I've given the gillmen in the past. I need you two there to redo the help I'm about to undo."</p><p></p><p>"Oh," said Sam. "That makes sense." He slowed down a bit to allow Crystal to walk ahead of him, then looked down at his snail animal companion and made "she's crazy" motions with a finger by the side of his head. Shelldon, as usual, didn't respond.</p><p></p><p>The gillman fishing village wasn't very far away, and within minutes the trio (quartet, if you counted Shelldon, but you're probably not counting him either, are you?) stepped into a group of sturdy-looking wooden huts clustered around an enormous statue of a rearing serpent. Scattered around some of the huts were four statues of dinosaurs. The serpent and the dinosaurs were all the same color crystal as the statue of Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"Yipes! What are those?" asked Sam, looking at the ferocious-looking dinosaurs. Each had a mouth full of sharp teeth and wicked-looking claws, especially one particular curved claw on each foot.</p><p></p><p>"Deinonychi," replied Crystal.</p><p></p><p>"Really?" asked Sam, looking back and forth at the various dinosaurs. "Which one's Dino Mikey, and what are the other ones called?" Crystal chose to ignore the little crow-man and approached the gillman village elder to inform them what she was about to do. Worried looks crossed the villagers' faces, but they trusted Crystal's judgment - she had, after all, helped them out many times in the past - and if she said these two heroes could handle the serpent and the dinosaurs, who were they to judge otherwise?</p><p></p><p>"When I cut off the snake that's the same color as these statues, Sapphrina will return to life - but so will the dinosaurs and the sloth-serpent." The turquoise-colored snake in question gave a visible gulp; apparently a bit nervous about being cut off from the rest of its variously-colored kin growing from Crystal's scalp. Fortunately, its blindfold remained in place, as did those on the rest of Crystal's hair-serpents.</p><p></p><p>"Is thaat a potion shop?" asked Baabby, examining a sign in front of one of the huts.</p><p></p><p>"Why, it sure is!" declared one of the gillmen, stepping forward. "Would you like to buy a few potions?" It sounded like a pretty good idea; Baabby and Sam each picked up a couple of <em>potions of cure serious wounds</em> and Sam splurged on both a <em>potion of resist fire</em> and a <em>potion of resist electricity</em>. "You can never be too careful!" he said to the group at large, and then added "Shelldon agrees" for the benefit of those who didn't speak Snail.</p><p></p><p>There was also an armorer's shop in the small village, so the heroes decided to see what was for sale. Baabby walked away in a new <em>+1 deep crabshell breastplate</em>, and Sam ended up buying a suit of gray <em>+1 studded leather armor</em> that was enhanced with the scales of an elemental chameleon. He was a little worried that the armor was made of tube shark hide; hopefully he'd never meet up with another tube shark and have to explain why he was wearing armor made from the skin of one of their kind.</p><p></p><p>"So whaat's the plaan?" asked Baabby, after buckling on his new breastplate.</p><p></p><p>"I think we ought to do something about some of these Dino-Mikeys before we wake them up," said Sam, pulling out a 50-foot length of rope from his backpack and asking Baabby to do the same. Due to the distances between them, Sam was only able to tie up two of the four dinosaurs, but hopefully the ropes would keep them out of the fight for a bit - al least long enough for Baabby and Sam to take out some of the others. Sam had all kinds of trust in Baabby's ability to handle himself in battle, but he wasn't willing to enter a two-against-five fight if he could help it - especially when all five were so much bigger than both of the two!</p><p></p><p>"Okay, you stand here and get ready to whack this one as soon as he turns back to flesh and blood," suggested Sam. "We'll put Sapphrina behind you, where she's likely to be safest."</p><p></p><p>"Whaat about you?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"You see that hut way back there?" Sam asked, pointing to a little building at the far end of the small village. "I'm going to be right there, on the roof, where I can shoot the Dino-Mikeys from a nice, safe distance!" As Sam trudged over to his designated starting point, the gillmen all locked themselves into their huts until the battle was over. Crystal had a dagger in hand and had walked to the edge of the village where they had first approached - she was willing to sacrifice a hair-serpent (temporarily - it would grow back) but didn't want to get involved in a fight if she could avoid it. After all, cutting off one of her hair-serpents would shut off the power of the others to turn creatures to stone for a matter of some minutes, so Crystal would be all but defenseless during that time.</p><p></p><p>"Ready!" called Sam,an arrow nocked in his Dynabow 2.0.</p><p></p><p>"Ready!" called Baabby, his greatsword held in a two-handed grip, ready to swing.</p><p></p><p>"Shelldon says he's ready, too!" added Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Good luck!" called Crystal, slicing away the turquoise hair-serpent at the root with her dagger. Once cut away from her head, the serpent seemed to dissolve into thin air. The outer, diamond-hard surfaces of the statues were dissolving away as well, revealing the flesh-and-blood creatures hidden within. Before any of the formerly-petrified creatures could react, the heroes struck.</p><p></p><p>Baabby, unfortunately, made such an effort trying to get every ounce of strength behind his sword-swing that he lost sight of his target's location and actually missed. The dinosaur beside him was somewhat surprised to return to life with a sheep-man swinging a massive greatsword deep into the ground by his side. Sam, who had powered up an explosive arrow, let fly and hit the side of the dinosaur nearest him. He grinned at his awesome targeting - and then gulped as the dinosaur spun to face him, a look of extreme anger crossing its reptilian face.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, everyone was in motion. Baabby pulled his greatsword out of the deep channel he'd cut in the ground and swung it again at the dinosaur standing by him, but the moment of surprise had been ruined and the dinosaur easily stepped aside from the baabarian's blow. Behind Baabby, Sapphrina looked about her in surprise, wondering where - and when - in the world she was. The sloth-serpent in the middle of the village plopped to the ground and looked around, hissing. And while the two bound deinonychi struggled with their ropes, the one Sam had shot had no similar restraints: he went bounding across the distance between him and the crow-man. Sam managed to hit him with a regular arrow during his brief travel time, but then the deinonychus was snapping at him with his wicked teeth.</p><p></p><p>Baabby put all of his strength into another swing with the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> and this time he not only connected but chopped halfway through the dinosaur's body. He pulled his sword out as the creature toppled to the ground, dead.</p><p></p><p>"What's going on?" asked Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"You were turned to crystal, but so were these monsters!" explained Baabby. "The only waay to release you was to release them, too!"</p><p></p><p>"Got it!" replied Sapphrina. "We'll talk later!" And then she flew over to the baabarian and touched him on the shoulder. Baabby felt a surge of power rush through his whole body, as the <em>bear's endurance</em> spell took effect. Ignoring the bound dinosaur behind him to his right, he leaped onto the roof of the nearest hut and pulled himself up. Maybe Sam was on to something: why not stay up out of range and take care of business with ranged weapons? He pulled Sam's old shortbow from his back and readied an arrow.</p><p></p><p>The dinosaur that Sam had shot twice now surprised the crow-man by leaping onto the sturdy wood roof of the hut he'd selected as his safe battle place. "Hey! No fair!" called out the crow ranger. The deinonychus snapped at Sam with its wicked teeth again and Sam was forced to abandon the rooftop. He raced away towards a clump of trees, then snapped back and shot the deinonychus for a third time. The arrows were causing the creature pain, anger, and grief, but weren't killing him as quickly as the little crow had hoped!</p><p></p><p>One of the bound dinosaurs finally bit his way out of the ropes and got to its feet. Across the village, the other still struggled to do the same. Sapphrina flew to Baabby's rooftop and surprised the baabarian with another spell: <em>enlarge person</em>. Baabby and his equipment grew to over a dozen feet in height - he could tell it was going to be nice having the fairy on the team!</p><p></p><p>But being a bigger sheep-man also meant being a bigger target. The serpent slithered over and struck out at Baabby, its fangs piercing the flesh of his upper arm. Baabby could feel venom coursing through the wound but he shrugged off whatever effects it might have had and bashed the snake in the face for its effrontery. Hopefully, there wasn't enough time for too much venom to have been pumped into his system. But Baabby followed up with a swing of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> that cut deep into the serpent's side. It hissed like a tea kettle and backed off. But after doing so the serpent was suddenly attacked by the deinonychus that had escaped from its ropes; apparently serpent made just as good a breakfast as sheep-man. The serpent swung around and struck at the deinonychus, sinking its fangs deep into the side of the dinosaur's throat. The sloth-serpent released its grasp on the deinonychus and the dinosaur staggered away, its new lease on life not exactly everything it might have hoped for.</p><p></p><p>Sam's favorite foe seemed to have a lock on him. It leaped down from the rooftop, swiftly covered the distance between them, and sliced the leather-clad crow with its sickle-shaped toe-claw. Sam staggered back a few steps and managed to shoot the deinonychus again, but even after this fourth shot the stupid monster still wasn't dead. Sam realized he was in a bad position; with both of them on the ground, there was nowhere for the crow to go that the deinonychus couldn't follow - and get in multiple attacks with its teeth and claws. Sam briefly considered running into one of the huts, but then remembered they'd told the gillmen to lock themselves in. That wasn't going to work!</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Sapphrina saw Sam's predicament and flew across the battlefield to help him. She was a sorceress, so she couldn't heal him like Baabby could, but she did have spells at hand that would help. Dropping down low enough to touch Sam on the head, she cast a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on him that would hopefully give him a few more moments against his foe before dropping unconscious.</p><p></p><p>Baabby shot an arrow at the snake and leaped down from the roof, moving over behind the deinonychus still bound up in ropes. As it looked like it was about to free itself any moment, this seemed a particularly good time to take care of that threat. But first, Baabby waited to see if the serpent would continue attacking the dinosaur it had bitten or turn to try to get him again.</p><p></p><p>The deinonychus that had been fighting the sloth-serpent decided to run away and live to fight again another day and it did so, albeit in slow motion - revealing the reason for the snake's name. The other deinonychus still in the fight went after Sam again, determined to bring the little crow down. "I taste terrible!" called out Sam, trying to reason with the hungry beast. "It's a perfectly logical assumption to think that I taste like chicken, but I don't! I taste like--" and here Sam scrambled to come up with an unsavory bird "--vulture!" The ploy didn't work; Sam ended up getting bitten and scratched by all four sets of claws. He practically wobbled away, still jabbering at the monster, hoping to draw it away from Sapphrina, who in flying low enough to cast the <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on him had put herself in harm's way.</p><p></p><p>"You know, I'll bet if you look around you can find some dead dinosaurs around here you can eat!" babbled Sam. "Cannibalization doesn't count if you're a dinosaur - I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere!"</p><p></p><p>Rather than crawl after its slow-fleeing prey, the serpent turned again and faced Baabby. He was crouching down behind the still-bound deinonychus, waiting to see what the snake would do. When it started slithering his way, Baabby sprang into action. One swipe of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> into the body of the deinonychus just now ripping through the rope keeping it in place and there was one less monster to worry about in the gillman fishing village. Then Baabby continued his strike, whipping his greatsword around and slicing into the snake's body in one graceful movement. The snake hissed again in pain - which was enough to alert the slow-fleeing deinonychus that maybe sticking around wasn't such a bad idea after all! That giant sheep-man kept killing creatures, but he never stopped to eat what he had killed! Maybe the dinosaur could have himself some serpent breakfast after all....</p><p></p><p>As for the serpent, it had apparently come to a conclusion: the oversized sheep-man needed to die! It focused its full attention on Baabby, striking out again and sliding its venomous fangs into Baabby's neck. The baabarian cried out in pain and dropped his greatsword, trying to pull the snake away from his neck. His legs buckled, the baabarian swayed, and then Baabby crashed to the ground, unconscious. Fortunately, before the snake could position itself to start trying to swallow Baabby from one end, the venom-slowed deinonychus showed back up, using a sickle-claw to score a wound in the snake's body.</p><p></p><p>Sam and his dino-enemy traded another round of one arrow vs. a barrage of snapping teeth and striking claws, and once again Sam came out the worst in that deal. But glancing over at Baabby, Sam called for Sapphrina to go feed him a healing potion from the baabarian's belt. As the fairy flew off to do so, Sam raced in that direction himself, hoping to get close enough to Baabby when he woke back up to get some healing himself. He swigged his own newly-purchased <em>potion of cure serious wounds</em> as he ran, part of his greedy mind wondering if he'd get a discount from the gillmen if he returned the potion bottle once he was done with it, while the rest of his mind panicked, expecting the blasted dinosaur to catch up with him at any moment.</p><p></p><p>The moment came soon enough. Sprinting after his fleeing prey, the deinonychus caught up with Sam and swiped a toe-claw at him, scoring the crow across his back, just below the backpack. "Why are you so fast?" complained Sam. "Are you wearing Dino-Nikes or something?" But then he fell flat to the ground, allowing the dinosaur to leap over him. Sam crouched back up and shot an arrow into the dinosaur's back, which irritated it to no end - but still didn't make it fall.</p><p></p><p>The slowed dinosaur bent down and bit into the snake's body, deciding there was no need to actually wait for the snake to be dead for breakfast to begin. Sapphrina took the opportunity to pull a <em>potion of cure serious wounds</em> from Baabby's belt and pour it down his throat. The shaggy baabarian woke, dazed, but then cleared his head with an effort of willpower and leaped back into battle. Still, he didn't forget his manners: "Thaanks!" he called out to Sapphrina as he sent his blade swinging deep into the serpent's body. The dinosaur, rather than teaming up with Baabby to take out the serpent first and foremost, snapped its teeth at the baabarian, concerned that the sheep-man was after his breakfast. The snake took the opportunity to crawl away from the two brawling brutes, slithering to the south, where other sounds of battle raged. Baabby slammed his greatsword into the envenomed deinonychus, sending it spinning away.</p><p></p><p>Sam's dancing partner spun around and struck out again with the claws on its feet, sending black feathers flying everywhere. "Ow!" cried Sam. He sent another arrow flying into the creature - it had to have been his sixth thus far - and the monster <em>still</em> wouldn't die! "Oh, come on!" complained the archer.</p><p></p><p>But then the deinonychus got a surprise, for the sloth-serpent had slithered up behind it just as it was going to finish off its little crow meal. The snake struck out at the dinosaur, biting it on the back of its neck. But then the snake got a surprise, for Baabby had followed it south and a final swing of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> took the snake's head from its body.</p><p></p><p>And Sapphrina had followed Baabby, her fairy wings carrying her through the air at a height to keep her out of the reach of dinosaurs and snakes. She blasted the deinonychus so intent upon eating Sam - and dropped it with a single spell.</p><p></p><p>"Wow!" exclaimed Sam, amazed that one spell from their new fairy friend killed the Dino-Mikey where six arrows had failed to do the job. "What spell was that?"</p><p></p><p>"A <em>ray of frost</em>," admitted Sapphrina. "It's really my only attack spell."</p><p></p><p>"No fair!" complained Sam. "I get full credit for that kill!" And then, seeing there was still one combatant left on the enemy side still somewhat in the fight, he raced north and put an arrow into the neck of the deinonychus that had traded bites with the sloth-serpent. He had really, really hoped that his arrow would have taken down the dinosaur, but no such luck. Baabby finished it off with his greatsword, as usual. Then, the threat ended, he started banging on doors, letting the gillmen know it was safe to come out from their wooden huts.</p><p></p><p>"I can see you two are quite the formidable force," said Sapphrina, hoping to soothe some ruffled feathers. "It's no wonder you were chosen to wield the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> after Xacho. And you've already gathered three of the runes on your own? Very impressive! Do you know what they all do?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, the water rune adds cold damage to my sword-strikes," began Baabby. "And the undead rune makes it easier to slay undead."</p><p></p><p>"That's right," agreed Sapphrina. "It allows you to overcome the inherent damage reduction found on many undead creatures." Neither Sam nor Baabby were quite sure just what she meant by that, but they let it slide.</p><p></p><p>"We haven't figured out the magic rune yet," admitted Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Why, that's the most important one!" exclaimed the fairy. "This is the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, remember - the magic rune allows you to weave rifts to other places. I can show you how all of that works."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you," said Baabby, ever aware of proper manners.</p><p></p><p>"You know," bragged Sam, "there's a legend about us already: 'The Prophecy of the Crow and the Sheep'."</p><p></p><p>"'The Sheep and the Crow'," corrected Baabby and Sapphrina in unison.</p><p></p><p>"Well, some people prefer it the other way around," grumbled Sam.</p><p></p><p>"So whaat now?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Well, it would probably be a good idea to go find the rest of your runes," said Sapphrina. "You'll need your sword at full power if you're going to take on the enemy prophesied to escape from his bonds and threaten all of Skylands." The fairy looked around her. "Where exactly are we, anyway?"</p><p></p><p>"We're on one of the Serpent Isles," said Sam. "We have an airship over on a beach not far from here. Hopefully it'll be fixed by now."</p><p></p><p>"Fixed?" asked Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, it kind of craashes," said Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"A lot," added Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Well then, let's go see if it's ready to make sail," said Sapphrina, motioning for Baabby to lead the way. "The three of us have a lot to do!"</p><p></p><p>Baabby led the way out the village, the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> resting over one powerful shoulder. They didn't make it more than a dozen steps before Sam amended, "...You mean the four of us. Don't forget Shelldon."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>We used a fold-out map from the D&D Miniatures game, the "Evermelt" map that came with the "Legend of Drizzt" scenario pack you got with the Gargantuan White Dragon mini, for the gillman fishing village. And Harry, ever the analyst, noted this was the first adventure that was just one big fight. He also made note of the fact that Sam hasn't been knocked unconscious since our second adventure.</p><p></p><p>This is probably a good point to mention some of our house rules. Logan's implemented a rule whereby anyone who drops to negative hit points automatically stabilizes at -1 hp, and they can roll a d10 each round to see if they spontaneously wake up at 0 hp on their own. It's his way of trying to eliminate the possibility of PC death from the game while still having consequences for letting yourself get too low on hit points. And with only two PCs, the loss of one could wipe out the whole campaign easily (especially a campaign tracking the progress of two prophesied heroes - kind of hard to switch PCs midstream!).</p><p></p><p>Another thing we do is treat each game session as a completely new day, regardless of how much time has passed in-game. So despite the fact that some adventures take place literally minutes after the events of the previous adventure, Harry gets to pick a full complement of spells for Baabby. (So do I for that matter, but with only one 1st-level ranger spell thus far it's easy just to have <em>longstrider</em> on standby as needed.)</p><p></p><p>As for Sapphrina, she's there primarily as a guide, able to clue us in on important history and background information as needed. Logan built her as a sorcerer, and gave her primarily buff spells to make Baabby an even more impressive combat machine. (So far, Baabby tends to use just about all of his cleric spells on healing, so this allows the party to benefit from the effects of some of the spells he's not otherwise casting.) She's not got many hit points herself, so she definitely will be avoiding combat, leaving Baabby and Sam to take care of that front.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7083610, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 8: THE MEDUSA'S HAIRCUT[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 15 April 2017 - - - "Hey, isn't that Crystal?" asked Sam, squinting his eyes against the sun. Sure enough, it was - and the Medusa had the diamond-hard statue of Sapphrina the fairy tucked underneath one arm. "Hello," said Crystal as she approached the duo (trio, if you counted Shelldon - but nobody but Sam ever seemed to want to count Shelldon). "I thought I'd save you a bit of walking. Come on - we're going this way." "Where are we going?" asked Sam. Baabby didn't seem at all concerned; he was just content knowing that they were heading wherever it was they needed to be heading. "To a nearby gillman fishing village," replied Crystal. "It's not far." "Oh, I see," said Sam, without having a clue as to why they needed to go to a gillman fishing village. The gillmen were friendly folks, mostly content with leading the simple lives of fishermen, although one of their number - [b]Gill Grunt[/b] - had made it into the illustrious ranks of the Skylanders themselves. Silence reigned for a few moments. Then Sam looked down at the gastropod sitting comfortably on his left shoulder and added, "Shelldon wants to know why we're heading towards a gillman fishing village." Crystal hid a smile, seeing through the little crow's subterfuge. "I've helped them in the past, and helping Sapphrina will undo the help I've given the gillmen in the past. I need you two there to redo the help I'm about to undo." "Oh," said Sam. "That makes sense." He slowed down a bit to allow Crystal to walk ahead of him, then looked down at his snail animal companion and made "she's crazy" motions with a finger by the side of his head. Shelldon, as usual, didn't respond. The gillman fishing village wasn't very far away, and within minutes the trio (quartet, if you counted Shelldon, but you're probably not counting him either, are you?) stepped into a group of sturdy-looking wooden huts clustered around an enormous statue of a rearing serpent. Scattered around some of the huts were four statues of dinosaurs. The serpent and the dinosaurs were all the same color crystal as the statue of Sapphrina. "Yipes! What are those?" asked Sam, looking at the ferocious-looking dinosaurs. Each had a mouth full of sharp teeth and wicked-looking claws, especially one particular curved claw on each foot. "Deinonychi," replied Crystal. "Really?" asked Sam, looking back and forth at the various dinosaurs. "Which one's Dino Mikey, and what are the other ones called?" Crystal chose to ignore the little crow-man and approached the gillman village elder to inform them what she was about to do. Worried looks crossed the villagers' faces, but they trusted Crystal's judgment - she had, after all, helped them out many times in the past - and if she said these two heroes could handle the serpent and the dinosaurs, who were they to judge otherwise? "When I cut off the snake that's the same color as these statues, Sapphrina will return to life - but so will the dinosaurs and the sloth-serpent." The turquoise-colored snake in question gave a visible gulp; apparently a bit nervous about being cut off from the rest of its variously-colored kin growing from Crystal's scalp. Fortunately, its blindfold remained in place, as did those on the rest of Crystal's hair-serpents. "Is thaat a potion shop?" asked Baabby, examining a sign in front of one of the huts. "Why, it sure is!" declared one of the gillmen, stepping forward. "Would you like to buy a few potions?" It sounded like a pretty good idea; Baabby and Sam each picked up a couple of [i]potions of cure serious wounds[/i] and Sam splurged on both a [i]potion of resist fire[/i] and a [i]potion of resist electricity[/i]. "You can never be too careful!" he said to the group at large, and then added "Shelldon agrees" for the benefit of those who didn't speak Snail. There was also an armorer's shop in the small village, so the heroes decided to see what was for sale. Baabby walked away in a new [i]+1 deep crabshell breastplate[/i], and Sam ended up buying a suit of gray [i]+1 studded leather armor[/i] that was enhanced with the scales of an elemental chameleon. He was a little worried that the armor was made of tube shark hide; hopefully he'd never meet up with another tube shark and have to explain why he was wearing armor made from the skin of one of their kind. "So whaat's the plaan?" asked Baabby, after buckling on his new breastplate. "I think we ought to do something about some of these Dino-Mikeys before we wake them up," said Sam, pulling out a 50-foot length of rope from his backpack and asking Baabby to do the same. Due to the distances between them, Sam was only able to tie up two of the four dinosaurs, but hopefully the ropes would keep them out of the fight for a bit - al least long enough for Baabby and Sam to take out some of the others. Sam had all kinds of trust in Baabby's ability to handle himself in battle, but he wasn't willing to enter a two-against-five fight if he could help it - especially when all five were so much bigger than both of the two! "Okay, you stand here and get ready to whack this one as soon as he turns back to flesh and blood," suggested Sam. "We'll put Sapphrina behind you, where she's likely to be safest." "Whaat about you?" asked Baabby. "You see that hut way back there?" Sam asked, pointing to a little building at the far end of the small village. "I'm going to be right there, on the roof, where I can shoot the Dino-Mikeys from a nice, safe distance!" As Sam trudged over to his designated starting point, the gillmen all locked themselves into their huts until the battle was over. Crystal had a dagger in hand and had walked to the edge of the village where they had first approached - she was willing to sacrifice a hair-serpent (temporarily - it would grow back) but didn't want to get involved in a fight if she could avoid it. After all, cutting off one of her hair-serpents would shut off the power of the others to turn creatures to stone for a matter of some minutes, so Crystal would be all but defenseless during that time. "Ready!" called Sam,an arrow nocked in his Dynabow 2.0. "Ready!" called Baabby, his greatsword held in a two-handed grip, ready to swing. "Shelldon says he's ready, too!" added Sam. "Good luck!" called Crystal, slicing away the turquoise hair-serpent at the root with her dagger. Once cut away from her head, the serpent seemed to dissolve into thin air. The outer, diamond-hard surfaces of the statues were dissolving away as well, revealing the flesh-and-blood creatures hidden within. Before any of the formerly-petrified creatures could react, the heroes struck. Baabby, unfortunately, made such an effort trying to get every ounce of strength behind his sword-swing that he lost sight of his target's location and actually missed. The dinosaur beside him was somewhat surprised to return to life with a sheep-man swinging a massive greatsword deep into the ground by his side. Sam, who had powered up an explosive arrow, let fly and hit the side of the dinosaur nearest him. He grinned at his awesome targeting - and then gulped as the dinosaur spun to face him, a look of extreme anger crossing its reptilian face. Suddenly, everyone was in motion. Baabby pulled his greatsword out of the deep channel he'd cut in the ground and swung it again at the dinosaur standing by him, but the moment of surprise had been ruined and the dinosaur easily stepped aside from the baabarian's blow. Behind Baabby, Sapphrina looked about her in surprise, wondering where - and when - in the world she was. The sloth-serpent in the middle of the village plopped to the ground and looked around, hissing. And while the two bound deinonychi struggled with their ropes, the one Sam had shot had no similar restraints: he went bounding across the distance between him and the crow-man. Sam managed to hit him with a regular arrow during his brief travel time, but then the deinonychus was snapping at him with his wicked teeth. Baabby put all of his strength into another swing with the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] and this time he not only connected but chopped halfway through the dinosaur's body. He pulled his sword out as the creature toppled to the ground, dead. "What's going on?" asked Sapphrina. "You were turned to crystal, but so were these monsters!" explained Baabby. "The only waay to release you was to release them, too!" "Got it!" replied Sapphrina. "We'll talk later!" And then she flew over to the baabarian and touched him on the shoulder. Baabby felt a surge of power rush through his whole body, as the [i]bear's endurance[/i] spell took effect. Ignoring the bound dinosaur behind him to his right, he leaped onto the roof of the nearest hut and pulled himself up. Maybe Sam was on to something: why not stay up out of range and take care of business with ranged weapons? He pulled Sam's old shortbow from his back and readied an arrow. The dinosaur that Sam had shot twice now surprised the crow-man by leaping onto the sturdy wood roof of the hut he'd selected as his safe battle place. "Hey! No fair!" called out the crow ranger. The deinonychus snapped at Sam with its wicked teeth again and Sam was forced to abandon the rooftop. He raced away towards a clump of trees, then snapped back and shot the deinonychus for a third time. The arrows were causing the creature pain, anger, and grief, but weren't killing him as quickly as the little crow had hoped! One of the bound dinosaurs finally bit his way out of the ropes and got to its feet. Across the village, the other still struggled to do the same. Sapphrina flew to Baabby's rooftop and surprised the baabarian with another spell: [i]enlarge person[/i]. Baabby and his equipment grew to over a dozen feet in height - he could tell it was going to be nice having the fairy on the team! But being a bigger sheep-man also meant being a bigger target. The serpent slithered over and struck out at Baabby, its fangs piercing the flesh of his upper arm. Baabby could feel venom coursing through the wound but he shrugged off whatever effects it might have had and bashed the snake in the face for its effrontery. Hopefully, there wasn't enough time for too much venom to have been pumped into his system. But Baabby followed up with a swing of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] that cut deep into the serpent's side. It hissed like a tea kettle and backed off. But after doing so the serpent was suddenly attacked by the deinonychus that had escaped from its ropes; apparently serpent made just as good a breakfast as sheep-man. The serpent swung around and struck at the deinonychus, sinking its fangs deep into the side of the dinosaur's throat. The sloth-serpent released its grasp on the deinonychus and the dinosaur staggered away, its new lease on life not exactly everything it might have hoped for. Sam's favorite foe seemed to have a lock on him. It leaped down from the rooftop, swiftly covered the distance between them, and sliced the leather-clad crow with its sickle-shaped toe-claw. Sam staggered back a few steps and managed to shoot the deinonychus again, but even after this fourth shot the stupid monster still wasn't dead. Sam realized he was in a bad position; with both of them on the ground, there was nowhere for the crow to go that the deinonychus couldn't follow - and get in multiple attacks with its teeth and claws. Sam briefly considered running into one of the huts, but then remembered they'd told the gillmen to lock themselves in. That wasn't going to work! Fortunately, Sapphrina saw Sam's predicament and flew across the battlefield to help him. She was a sorceress, so she couldn't heal him like Baabby could, but she did have spells at hand that would help. Dropping down low enough to touch Sam on the head, she cast a [i]bear's endurance[/i] spell on him that would hopefully give him a few more moments against his foe before dropping unconscious. Baabby shot an arrow at the snake and leaped down from the roof, moving over behind the deinonychus still bound up in ropes. As it looked like it was about to free itself any moment, this seemed a particularly good time to take care of that threat. But first, Baabby waited to see if the serpent would continue attacking the dinosaur it had bitten or turn to try to get him again. The deinonychus that had been fighting the sloth-serpent decided to run away and live to fight again another day and it did so, albeit in slow motion - revealing the reason for the snake's name. The other deinonychus still in the fight went after Sam again, determined to bring the little crow down. "I taste terrible!" called out Sam, trying to reason with the hungry beast. "It's a perfectly logical assumption to think that I taste like chicken, but I don't! I taste like--" and here Sam scrambled to come up with an unsavory bird "--vulture!" The ploy didn't work; Sam ended up getting bitten and scratched by all four sets of claws. He practically wobbled away, still jabbering at the monster, hoping to draw it away from Sapphrina, who in flying low enough to cast the [i]bear's endurance[/i] spell on him had put herself in harm's way. "You know, I'll bet if you look around you can find some dead dinosaurs around here you can eat!" babbled Sam. "Cannibalization doesn't count if you're a dinosaur - I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere!" Rather than crawl after its slow-fleeing prey, the serpent turned again and faced Baabby. He was crouching down behind the still-bound deinonychus, waiting to see what the snake would do. When it started slithering his way, Baabby sprang into action. One swipe of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] into the body of the deinonychus just now ripping through the rope keeping it in place and there was one less monster to worry about in the gillman fishing village. Then Baabby continued his strike, whipping his greatsword around and slicing into the snake's body in one graceful movement. The snake hissed again in pain - which was enough to alert the slow-fleeing deinonychus that maybe sticking around wasn't such a bad idea after all! That giant sheep-man kept killing creatures, but he never stopped to eat what he had killed! Maybe the dinosaur could have himself some serpent breakfast after all.... As for the serpent, it had apparently come to a conclusion: the oversized sheep-man needed to die! It focused its full attention on Baabby, striking out again and sliding its venomous fangs into Baabby's neck. The baabarian cried out in pain and dropped his greatsword, trying to pull the snake away from his neck. His legs buckled, the baabarian swayed, and then Baabby crashed to the ground, unconscious. Fortunately, before the snake could position itself to start trying to swallow Baabby from one end, the venom-slowed deinonychus showed back up, using a sickle-claw to score a wound in the snake's body. Sam and his dino-enemy traded another round of one arrow vs. a barrage of snapping teeth and striking claws, and once again Sam came out the worst in that deal. But glancing over at Baabby, Sam called for Sapphrina to go feed him a healing potion from the baabarian's belt. As the fairy flew off to do so, Sam raced in that direction himself, hoping to get close enough to Baabby when he woke back up to get some healing himself. He swigged his own newly-purchased [i]potion of cure serious wounds[/i] as he ran, part of his greedy mind wondering if he'd get a discount from the gillmen if he returned the potion bottle once he was done with it, while the rest of his mind panicked, expecting the blasted dinosaur to catch up with him at any moment. The moment came soon enough. Sprinting after his fleeing prey, the deinonychus caught up with Sam and swiped a toe-claw at him, scoring the crow across his back, just below the backpack. "Why are you so fast?" complained Sam. "Are you wearing Dino-Nikes or something?" But then he fell flat to the ground, allowing the dinosaur to leap over him. Sam crouched back up and shot an arrow into the dinosaur's back, which irritated it to no end - but still didn't make it fall. The slowed dinosaur bent down and bit into the snake's body, deciding there was no need to actually wait for the snake to be dead for breakfast to begin. Sapphrina took the opportunity to pull a [i]potion of cure serious wounds[/i] from Baabby's belt and pour it down his throat. The shaggy baabarian woke, dazed, but then cleared his head with an effort of willpower and leaped back into battle. Still, he didn't forget his manners: "Thaanks!" he called out to Sapphrina as he sent his blade swinging deep into the serpent's body. The dinosaur, rather than teaming up with Baabby to take out the serpent first and foremost, snapped its teeth at the baabarian, concerned that the sheep-man was after his breakfast. The snake took the opportunity to crawl away from the two brawling brutes, slithering to the south, where other sounds of battle raged. Baabby slammed his greatsword into the envenomed deinonychus, sending it spinning away. Sam's dancing partner spun around and struck out again with the claws on its feet, sending black feathers flying everywhere. "Ow!" cried Sam. He sent another arrow flying into the creature - it had to have been his sixth thus far - and the monster [i]still[/i] wouldn't die! "Oh, come on!" complained the archer. But then the deinonychus got a surprise, for the sloth-serpent had slithered up behind it just as it was going to finish off its little crow meal. The snake struck out at the dinosaur, biting it on the back of its neck. But then the snake got a surprise, for Baabby had followed it south and a final swing of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] took the snake's head from its body. And Sapphrina had followed Baabby, her fairy wings carrying her through the air at a height to keep her out of the reach of dinosaurs and snakes. She blasted the deinonychus so intent upon eating Sam - and dropped it with a single spell. "Wow!" exclaimed Sam, amazed that one spell from their new fairy friend killed the Dino-Mikey where six arrows had failed to do the job. "What spell was that?" "A [i]ray of frost[/i]," admitted Sapphrina. "It's really my only attack spell." "No fair!" complained Sam. "I get full credit for that kill!" And then, seeing there was still one combatant left on the enemy side still somewhat in the fight, he raced north and put an arrow into the neck of the deinonychus that had traded bites with the sloth-serpent. He had really, really hoped that his arrow would have taken down the dinosaur, but no such luck. Baabby finished it off with his greatsword, as usual. Then, the threat ended, he started banging on doors, letting the gillmen know it was safe to come out from their wooden huts. "I can see you two are quite the formidable force," said Sapphrina, hoping to soothe some ruffled feathers. "It's no wonder you were chosen to wield the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] after Xacho. And you've already gathered three of the runes on your own? Very impressive! Do you know what they all do?" "Well, the water rune adds cold damage to my sword-strikes," began Baabby. "And the undead rune makes it easier to slay undead." "That's right," agreed Sapphrina. "It allows you to overcome the inherent damage reduction found on many undead creatures." Neither Sam nor Baabby were quite sure just what she meant by that, but they let it slide. "We haven't figured out the magic rune yet," admitted Sam. "Why, that's the most important one!" exclaimed the fairy. "This is the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], remember - the magic rune allows you to weave rifts to other places. I can show you how all of that works." "Thank you," said Baabby, ever aware of proper manners. "You know," bragged Sam, "there's a legend about us already: 'The Prophecy of the Crow and the Sheep'." "'The Sheep and the Crow'," corrected Baabby and Sapphrina in unison. "Well, some people prefer it the other way around," grumbled Sam. "So whaat now?" asked Baabby. "Well, it would probably be a good idea to go find the rest of your runes," said Sapphrina. "You'll need your sword at full power if you're going to take on the enemy prophesied to escape from his bonds and threaten all of Skylands." The fairy looked around her. "Where exactly are we, anyway?" "We're on one of the Serpent Isles," said Sam. "We have an airship over on a beach not far from here. Hopefully it'll be fixed by now." "Fixed?" asked Sapphrina. "Yeah, it kind of craashes," said Baabby. "A lot," added Sam. "Well then, let's go see if it's ready to make sail," said Sapphrina, motioning for Baabby to lead the way. "The three of us have a lot to do!" Baabby led the way out the village, the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] resting over one powerful shoulder. They didn't make it more than a dozen steps before Sam amended, "...You mean the four of us. Don't forget Shelldon." - - - We used a fold-out map from the D&D Miniatures game, the "Evermelt" map that came with the "Legend of Drizzt" scenario pack you got with the Gargantuan White Dragon mini, for the gillman fishing village. And Harry, ever the analyst, noted this was the first adventure that was just one big fight. He also made note of the fact that Sam hasn't been knocked unconscious since our second adventure. This is probably a good point to mention some of our house rules. Logan's implemented a rule whereby anyone who drops to negative hit points automatically stabilizes at -1 hp, and they can roll a d10 each round to see if they spontaneously wake up at 0 hp on their own. It's his way of trying to eliminate the possibility of PC death from the game while still having consequences for letting yourself get too low on hit points. And with only two PCs, the loss of one could wipe out the whole campaign easily (especially a campaign tracking the progress of two prophesied heroes - kind of hard to switch PCs midstream!). Another thing we do is treat each game session as a completely new day, regardless of how much time has passed in-game. So despite the fact that some adventures take place literally minutes after the events of the previous adventure, Harry gets to pick a full complement of spells for Baabby. (So do I for that matter, but with only one 1st-level ranger spell thus far it's easy just to have [i]longstrider[/i] on standby as needed.) As for Sapphrina, she's there primarily as a guide, able to clue us in on important history and background information as needed. Logan built her as a sorcerer, and gave her primarily buff spells to make Baabby an even more impressive combat machine. (So far, Baabby tends to use just about all of his cleric spells on healing, so this allows the party to benefit from the effects of some of the spells he's not otherwise casting.) She's not got many hit points herself, so she definitely will be avoiding combat, leaving Baabby and Sam to take care of that front. [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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