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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7089939" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 9: THE LIFE-GIVER'S GROVE</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: 22 April 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Two days later, the adventurers approached another Skylands floating island in their troll airship. When they had returned to the vessel after leaving the gillman fishing village, they had found it fully repaired by the animated statue that Sapphrina identified as a likeness of Xacho's son. They had immediately set course for a two-day trip to an island the fairy said contained the Life-Giver's Grove, their next destination and, not coincidentally, the location where Baabby could gain the powers of the Life Rune for the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>.</p><p></p><p>It had been an interesting two days. Sapphrina, despite having been trapped as an inanimate crystal statue for hundreds of years, was a veritable font of information. She explained that her master, Xacho, was the creator and first wielder of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>; that it had originally been called the <em>Sword of the Elements</em>; that he had formed a group of magical scholars who called themselves the Rift-Weavers, after the rifts they had learned to carve into reality; that Xacho had sealed a great evil inside a rift, and that should the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> ever be destroyed the great evil would surely escape to threaten all of Skylands; that there were others attempting to aid the great evil in escaping the rift in which he was imprisoned; and that over time the Rift-Weavers became known throughout the Skylands as Portal Masters. Even Sam had heard of Portal Masters: the most powerful good Portal Master was <strong>Eon</strong>, who helped the Skylanders combat the machinations of <strong>Kaos</strong>, an evil Portal master who wished to destroy the Core of Light which kept darkness at bay throughout the Skylands.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina also let it drop that she was capable of enhancing weapons with magical properties, which overjoyed Sam to no end - up until she mentioned she did so by absorbing coins and transforming the energy thus gained into the magical effects she desired. Still, Sam paid her 2,000 of his gold coins to have her upgrade his Dynabow 2.0, so that he could fire explosive arrows while moving and also increase the power of the explosions a bit. He said a sad farewell to his pile of coins as they vanished, but was pleased with the upgrade to his primary weapon.</p><p></p><p>"So whaat are you going to call it now?" asked Baabby. "Dynabow 2.5?"</p><p></p><p>"Nah," replied Sam. "I'm going all the way to Dynabow 3.0 - that way it still rhymes."</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina also warned the duo that she couldn't touch the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, upon pain of possible death. Fairies, she explained, were especially attuned to the elements, and the extreme elemental power of the magical greatsword could easily overwhelm her. </p><p></p><p>"Yipes!" exclaimed Sam. "That's...kinda not so good." Then, to change the subject, he asked her about their destination.</p><p></p><p>"The Life-Giver's Grove is part of a vast forest covering nearly the entirety of a small floating island," the fairy explained. "It's guarded by literally thousands of protectors who keep it safe from harm."</p><p></p><p>"Whaat kind of protectors?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Chompies," replied Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, <em>this</em> ought to be fun!" exclaimed Sam.</p><p></p><p>The airship landed without incident for once, and Baabby and Sam strode down the gangplank, Sapphrina flying behind them. They were met almost immediately by forest and Sapphrina was forced to lower her elevation in order to not fly into low-hanging branches. They followed a winding path, and then Sam saw a pair of eyestalks peering out at them from behind the foliage to their left.</p><p></p><p>The chompy stepped out onto the path in front of the heroes. Then, incredibly, it did something neither hero had expected: it spoke!</p><p></p><p>"Help!" it cried, its stumpy arms waving in consternation. "Save us!"</p><p></p><p>"Well, <em>this</em> is new," commented Sam, not sure of what to make of a talking chompy and not sure if he trusted this not to be a trap. He kept an arrow nocked into his Dynabow 3.0 just in case, and asked, "Do we trust this guy?"</p><p></p><p>"Of course," replied Sapphrina, surprised at the question. "They're the guardians of the Life-Giver's Grove."</p><p></p><p>"Let's follow him," said Baabby, immediately putting his full trust into Sapphrina's judgment. Sam wasn't quite so quick to follow his friend's lead in trusting the chompy, but he followed the others as they followed the chompy to a small clearing. "Keep your eyes peeled," Sam advised Shelldon, riding on his usual place on the little crow's left shoulder.</p><p></p><p>The chompy came to a halt before three more of his kind and explained the newcomers were heroes.</p><p></p><p>"Hooray!" called one of the chompies.</p><p></p><p>"We're saved!" cried another one. Sam was amazed; he'd never in his wildest dreams envisioned chompies being happy to see him and his hulking baabarian friend, given the dozens of chompies they'd slain over the course of their recent adventures. "This is a weird day," he mentioned to Shelldon; the snail didn't disagree.</p><p></p><p>"Who's been attaacking you?" asked Baabby, looking around for potential enemies.</p><p></p><p>"Undead! Horrible, horrible undead!" cried the chompy guide who'd brought them here.</p><p></p><p>"Where is the rest of your number?" asked Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"We're all that's left!" cried the chompy guide. "And we can't leave now, because <strong>Leafy</strong>'s started to take root!" Sure enough, one of the chompies no longer had visible legs - they'd dug deep into the ground, rooting him in place. "Once he transforms into a chompy pod, we'll be able to expand our numbers once again - but until then, we're vulnerable to the undead who have been wiping us out!"</p><p></p><p>Sam gulped and looked around for enemies just as Baabby had done. "How many undead are around here?" he whispered, not wanting these hordes of undead forces to hear him and come running.</p><p></p><p>"At least--six!" replied the chompy guide, shuddering at the thought of so many enemies.</p><p></p><p>"Six?" gasped Sam, aghast at how powerful these undead must be for six of their number to have wiped out thousands of chompy guardians. But then he recalled how easy it was to kill a chompy; Baabby habitually killed several at once with a single stroke of his greatsword, and even the crow archer had managed to slay a chompy with a single arrow. (Annoyingly, the creatures they'd been fighting lately required many, many arrows to bring them down!)</p><p></p><p>"We'll take caare of them for you!" promised Baabby, leading the way back the way they'd come and moving further into the forest. Sam and Sapphrina followed.</p><p></p><p>Before too long, they got their first sight of the undead menace. They were four bone chompies and two humanoid skeletons wielding bows and arrows made of bone. "Bone 'n' arrows!" Baabby identified them.</p><p></p><p>"<em>That's</em> what you call them?" asked Sam, skeptical. "Why not just skeletons?"</p><p></p><p>"Because they're called bone 'n' arrows!" insisted Baabby. Sam just shrugged and took aim at the nearest skeletal archer (that's what <em>he</em> was going to call them). He charged it up with explosive energy, eager to see what his upgraded Dynabow 3.0 could do - and in his eagerness, fumbled the shot. The arrow went high and exploded after hitting a low-hanging branch. "Hey!" complained the former member of the Sons of Archery. "No fair!"</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina, in the meantime, put a hand upon Baabby's shoulder and cast an <em>enlarge person</em> spell on him. Instantly, the already-hulking baabarian hulked like he'd never hulked before - for there he stood, nearly 13 feet tall, having to crouch over to keep his head from getting entangled in the branches. His <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> had doubled in size as well and he was eager to test out its damage potential at this new size.</p><p></p><p>He didn't have long to wait. A pair of bone chompies advanced, sharp teeth clicking together as if eager to strip the flesh off the baabarian's hide (or at least his knees, which was about all they could reach). Baabby swung his greatsword into the first chompy, cutting it completely in two as his blade rushed into the skeletal body of its neighbor, doing likewise. The baabarian chuckled in delight - he could tell having Sapphrina around was going to be fun!</p><p></p><p>The skeletal archer Sam had shot at sent an arrow of bone across the distance between the heroes, striking Baabby - the group's largest target by far - in the shoulder. The grinning sheep-man hardly even seemed to notice as he advanced upon the bone 'n' arrow.</p><p></p><p>"You're next!" said Sapphrina, flying over to Sam and casting a spell upon him. "All right!" cried Sam, eager to double in size like Baabby had done and be able to strike out with extra strength and power. Instead, he saw the world around him get larger, as his feathered body shrunk to half its size. Shelldon, however, did not shrink and he became an unwieldy weight upon the little crow's shoulder; Sam had to shift him to his head for balance, wearing him like a warrior's helmet.</p><p></p><p>"What just happened?" demanded Sam, embarrassed by the squeaky little voice that came out of his beak. "Did your spell backfire?"</p><p></p><p>"No, this is a good thing," advised Sapphrina. "You'll be glad to be small, believe me!" Sam wasn't so sure about that; now even the bone chompies were taller than he was! But he shot off an arrow at the skeletal archer that had just shot Baabby, and his targeting capability was noticeably enhanced at this size; after all, the target he was trying to hit suddenly seemed much bigger to him! "Hmm," considered the crow-man, watching as his arrow struck true but failed to do any real damage to its target. Sam scampered behind Baabby, over to the other side of the clearing so that the two remaining bone chompies wouldn't get him.</p><p></p><p>That part of his plan worked; what Sam hadn't considered that by casting the <em>reduce person</em> spell on him, Sapphrina had flown low to the ground and made herself a perfectly fine target. One bone chompy snapped at the fairy sorceress, clamping onto an arm with its sharp, pointed teeth. Sapphrina barely had time to cry out in pain before the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> came slicing down, cutting the bone chompy in two. Likewise, the fairy barely had time to get out a mumbled thanks to Baabby before his greatsword was slicing the other approaching bone chompy's body in twain as well. <em>Bigger sword, greater strength, and a larger reach - this <em>enlarge person</em> business is FUN!</em> thought Baabby.</p><p></p><p>So far, the group had only been dealing with one bone 'n' arrow, but as Baabby advanced upon him he saw a second one perched on a tree stump off to the right. They were too far apart for the baabarian to be able to attack both, even with the enhanced reach of his greatsword, so he stuck to his original target. Sapphrina, meanwhile, staggered along a different path and called out to Sam. "Over here!" she said, and the little archer went to investigate. There, standing in front of a large pit of some kind, was an undead spell punk! Baabby and Sam had encountered one of these strange little creatures back in the Museum of Mystical Mysteries, so Sam knew they could summon bone chompies from thin air. The archer took aim and sent an explosive arrow flying in the direction of the spell punk - and this time his aim was true. The spell punk, floating over the ground, was momentarily encompassed by a small gout of flame and smoke, and his robes were blackened and singed when the smoke dissipated. "What? Who?" he sputtered, having failed to see the half-size Sam Crow down one of the paths leading to the crater.</p><p></p><p>Both bone 'n' arrows got in clean shots on Baabby as he raced to his target, but that didn't stop him from taking the skull clean off of the original archer who had first shot at the group of heroes. That one clattered to the ground in a pile of bones, while the other took aim at the baabarian again and fired another round.</p><p></p><p>"Aha!" cried the undead spell punk suddenly, having spotted his foe at last. He raised his pointed limbs and sent a ball of grayish energy hurling in Sam's direction. But fortunately for the crow he was a much smaller target than normal and it was easy enough to dodge the attack. Sam replied with an arrow - a regular one, as his Dynabow 3.0 still needed time to recharge its explosive energy - that sent the spell punk staggering on its last breath.</p><p></p><p>But then the hovering mage caught sight of Baabby and his enchanted greatsword, and all thoughts of his own personal discomfort were set instantly aside. "The great blade!" he cried aloud, "I must have it, for my master!" Dazed, he flew off in a drunken fashion towards Baabby, channeling another gray-energy-ball attack as he did so. The energy hit Baabby in the back, siphoning away some of his very life force. He spun to face this new threat, turning his back on the remaining bone 'n' arrow (who took the opportunity to send another bone shaft into Baabby's broad back), and charged at the undead spell punk. The floating combatant didn't stand a chance, and his robes fluttered to the ground in two pieces after Baabby's swing cut the little fellow in half.</p><p></p><p>"Aw, I was going to kill that thing!" squeaked Sam in irritation, running over to Baabby's location and seeing that once again all of his whittle-down-the-enemy groundwork had been set up just to have somebody else make the final blow. In anger, he fired off a shot at the remaining skeletal archer. It hit, but the skeleton remained standing just long enough for Baabby to run it through with the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. "Figures!" squeaked Sam.</p><p></p><p>With the enemies all slain, Baabby took the opportunity to cast some healing spells on those who needed them. Then the chompy waddled up. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" it gushed. "You have slain the horrible, horrible undead! Thank you!" It then offered to escort them to the Life-Giver's Grove, where Baabby would be able to gain the Life Rune for his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>.</p><p></p><p>Following the little chompy (and regaining their normal sizes as the fairy's spells wore off), Baabby and Sam saw their little guide's eyestalks go bolting straight up in surprise. "Eep!" it exclaimed. "It was a diversion!" Rushing up alongside the chompy to see what all of the commotion was about, the heroes looked into the clearing just ahead, where they saw five figures scattered around a large tree. They each had bluish-green skin and long, pointed ears; four of them - the males - each held a longspear, while the sole female wore a witch's robes.</p><p></p><p>"Drow!" cried out the chompy. "They're attacking the Life-Giver!"</p><p></p><p>"Where?" asked Sam, looking around for the Life-Giver but failing to spot him. He imagined a wizened old man with a long, white beard, probably wearing tattered robes and holding a wooden staff. "All I see are five drow around a tree!"</p><p></p><p>"The tree <em>is</em> the Life-Giver!" hissed Sapphrina, trying to keep her voice down. But it was too late; the chompy's excited exclamations had caught the attention of the sharp-eared drow, who all turned in the direction of the heroes. "Get them!" commanded the drow witch and the spearmen moved to comply. With another "Eep!" the chompy rapidly shuffled backwards, behind the rest of the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Sam immediately shot one of the advancing drow spearmen with an explosive arrow and was pleased to see him actually fall to the ground, dead. "Hey! I actually got one!" he cried triumphantly, surprised at his unexpected success.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina, seeing how effective her ploy had been in the last battle, cast an <em>enlarge person</em> spell on Baabby. The sheep-man grinned as he doubled his size, taking a single step forward and slicing down another drow spearman like a farmer scything wheat. The other two spearmen advanced on Baabby, obviously taking him as their biggest threat. The witch, in the meantime, hiked up her robe with one hand and advanced on the trio of heroes. Dropping her hem, she shot both hands out at them and a sheet of flames came bursting forth from her fingertips, engulfing them in flames. Sam cried out in pain; Baabby barely grunted in acknowledgement of the damage he'd sustained; but Sapphrina swayed and nearly fell, her skin blistering from the attack.</p><p></p><p>Baabby, who had intended to take out the spearmen by himself, changed tactics in mid-swing and redirected the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> to the drow witch, herself the greatest threat to the heroes. His blade hit true, and continued its arc to slice into the side of one of the drow spearmen as well. Once again, Baabby had cut down two enemies with one strike of his magic blade.</p><p></p><p>"Show off," muttered Sam to himself.</p><p></p><p>That left a single drow spearman remaining in the fight. He moved as if to attack Baabby, then thought better of it and high-tailed it in the opposite direction.</p><p></p><p>"Hey! He's getting away!" yelled Sam, firing off an arrow at the fleeing drow with no effect. But there was nothing for it; the drow was running faster than the heroes would be able to follow, and more importantly, Sapphrina needed healing - now!</p><p></p><p>Baabby cast his most powerful healing spell on Sapphrina, causing the blisters on her fair skin to disappear. "Thank you," she said to the baabarian, who once again had returned to his normal size at the end of her spell's duration.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go check out that tree," suggested Baabby.</p><p></p><p>There was a doorway of sorts on one side of the tree's trunk, which the drow witch had been investigating when they approached. It led down beneath the massive tree's roots, but there was nothing mystical or enchanted about the natural opening beneath the tree. It would make a good place for a fox or a badger to make its home, but nothing more.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, try sticking your sword in there," suggested Sam. "Maybe it'll work like a key."</p><p></p><p>It did more than that. When Baabby stuck the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> into the depression underneath the tree's trunk it ripped a hole through the fabric of reality, revealing an extra-dimensional portal within. "Now we're talking!" enthused Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" said Baabby, practically leaping through the portal he'd just opened.</p><p></p><p>The others followed their enthusiastic baabarian friend. They found the other side of the portal to be a very small floating island, a mere dozen or so paces from end to end. They entered through a stone arch rising up from one end of the island, before them was a hulking brute of a drow, easily a dozen feet tall, his massive back turned to the heroes. He held a spiked shield in each hand, covering his arms up to the elbows.</p><p></p><p>"A goliath drow!" said Baabby as way of introduction to the others; he let his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> do his actual introduction to the goliath drow before him, carving a deep gouge across the monster's spine. Sam took a step to the side so as not to hit Baabby, and let loose with an explosive arrow that practically knocked the brute off his feet. In a matter of a few seconds, the mighty goliath drow had gone from full strength to on his last legs - and wobbly legs at that!</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina cast a final <em>enlarge person</em> spell on Baabby, increasing his own size to that of the foe he faced. However, as the brute spun around in rage and pain, he was encompassed by a greenish glow and his wounds immediately began healing up. "Hey! No fair!" complained Sam. "How's he doing that?"</p><p></p><p>The answer became apparent once the heroes saw the life spell punk floating behind its massive bodyguard. "Go get 'em!" the hovering mage called to his partner. The goliath drow snarled in response and struck out with his spiked shields, but Baabby was ready for the attack and managed to duck beneath them, infuriating the giant drow even further.</p><p></p><p>Then, to make matters even worse, Baabby decided to show his foe exactly how it was done. Entering a baabaric rage himself, Baabby channeled every ounce of strength into a crushing blow from his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. Muscles straining, he brought the greatsword crashing down onto the goliath drow, cutting through his armor, through his shoulder, and halfway through his apelike chest before the sword finally came to a halt. The baabarian had to put his own foot onto the slain enemy's chest and give his sword a great tug to get it out of the goliath drow's corpse before it went crashing to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Sam shot a normal arrow at the life spell punk, who stared in shock at how quickly his battle-partner had been taken out of the fight. Sapphrina flew off the edge of the little island, sending a <em>ray of frost</em> spell at the spell punk. Both attacks hit the floating mage, but he shrugged them off by absorbing natural power from the island, healing over his wounds. Then he gathered up a greenish ball of energy from the very air and sent it hurtling in Baabby's direction. It hit the baabarian square on, and he grunted from the magical assault. But then he retaliated with a swipe of his sword that just barely cut through the spell punk's robe as it hurriedly backed away. Sam shot an explosive arrow at the spell punk, but again it healed itself almost automatically. Then it repeated its attack on Baabby, again sending a ball of green energy flying his way. This time he missed, Baabby turning away at the last moment.</p><p></p><p>But that was the last of the missing for the rest of the fight. Sapphrina cast another <em>ray of frost</em> at the spell punk and hit. Sam shot a normal arrow at the spell punk and hit. Baabby stepped up and hit the spell punk with his greatsword, and this was one attack too many for the floating mage to withstand. "My master will avenge me..." he croaked as he died.</p><p></p><p>"Now whaat?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Hold up your greatsword, like this," said Sapphrina, demonstrating through pantomime. Baabby raised the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> over his head in a one-handed grip, and just as the life spell punk had channeled the life energy of the extradimensional space to heal himself and the goliath drow in the battle moments ago, the fairy channeled the inherent power into the raised blade. Sam winced as a great light burst forth from the greatsword, momentarily blinding him. After blinking the spots away from his eyes, he saw the Life Rune had now joined the other three runes Baabby had gathered thus far: Magic, Undead, and Water.</p><p></p><p>"Haalfway there," the sheep-man said, grinning.</p><p></p><p>Returning to the Life-Giver's Grove, the group met back up with their chompy guide, who led them back to where Leafy had taken root. "It won't be long now!" enthused the chompies, noting Leafy had already nearly doubled in size as he began the metamorphosis that would end up with him becoming an immobile chompy pod. In celebration of the heroes' success, the other two chompies scampered off into the forest for a moment and returned dragging large cloth sacks behind them. "Here," they said, offering the sacks to the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Sam peered inside and saw the unmistakable glint of gold from the coins contained therein. "Talking chompies who give away treasure for a job well done?" he asked aloud. "You guys are the <em>best chompies ever!</em></p><p></p><p>Perched up on the little crow's shoulder, Shelldon didn't disagree.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan used a couple of fold-out Pathfinder forest maps for the bits of forest where we had our various battles; the extradimensional space at the end was a card from the "Extradimensional Spaces" Map Pack set. He used a couple of toilet paper rolls and a paper towel roll to represent the Life-Giver, which was a kind of beacon tree that transmitted life energy to the Skylands in the vicinity.</p><p></p><p>And this adventure put the PCs over the limit into 5th level. The fact that Harry's been enjoying this campaign was evidenced by the fact that as soon as we were finished up he went running upstairs to tell my wife all about the events that transpired in-game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7089939, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 9: THE LIFE-GIVER'S GROVE[/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: 22 April 2017 - - - Two days later, the adventurers approached another Skylands floating island in their troll airship. When they had returned to the vessel after leaving the gillman fishing village, they had found it fully repaired by the animated statue that Sapphrina identified as a likeness of Xacho's son. They had immediately set course for a two-day trip to an island the fairy said contained the Life-Giver's Grove, their next destination and, not coincidentally, the location where Baabby could gain the powers of the Life Rune for the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. It had been an interesting two days. Sapphrina, despite having been trapped as an inanimate crystal statue for hundreds of years, was a veritable font of information. She explained that her master, Xacho, was the creator and first wielder of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]; that it had originally been called the [i]Sword of the Elements[/i]; that he had formed a group of magical scholars who called themselves the Rift-Weavers, after the rifts they had learned to carve into reality; that Xacho had sealed a great evil inside a rift, and that should the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] ever be destroyed the great evil would surely escape to threaten all of Skylands; that there were others attempting to aid the great evil in escaping the rift in which he was imprisoned; and that over time the Rift-Weavers became known throughout the Skylands as Portal Masters. Even Sam had heard of Portal Masters: the most powerful good Portal Master was [b]Eon[/b], who helped the Skylanders combat the machinations of [b]Kaos[/b], an evil Portal master who wished to destroy the Core of Light which kept darkness at bay throughout the Skylands. Sapphrina also let it drop that she was capable of enhancing weapons with magical properties, which overjoyed Sam to no end - up until she mentioned she did so by absorbing coins and transforming the energy thus gained into the magical effects she desired. Still, Sam paid her 2,000 of his gold coins to have her upgrade his Dynabow 2.0, so that he could fire explosive arrows while moving and also increase the power of the explosions a bit. He said a sad farewell to his pile of coins as they vanished, but was pleased with the upgrade to his primary weapon. "So whaat are you going to call it now?" asked Baabby. "Dynabow 2.5?" "Nah," replied Sam. "I'm going all the way to Dynabow 3.0 - that way it still rhymes." Sapphrina also warned the duo that she couldn't touch the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], upon pain of possible death. Fairies, she explained, were especially attuned to the elements, and the extreme elemental power of the magical greatsword could easily overwhelm her. "Yipes!" exclaimed Sam. "That's...kinda not so good." Then, to change the subject, he asked her about their destination. "The Life-Giver's Grove is part of a vast forest covering nearly the entirety of a small floating island," the fairy explained. "It's guarded by literally thousands of protectors who keep it safe from harm." "Whaat kind of protectors?" asked Baabby. "Chompies," replied Sapphrina. "Oh, [i]this[/i] ought to be fun!" exclaimed Sam. The airship landed without incident for once, and Baabby and Sam strode down the gangplank, Sapphrina flying behind them. They were met almost immediately by forest and Sapphrina was forced to lower her elevation in order to not fly into low-hanging branches. They followed a winding path, and then Sam saw a pair of eyestalks peering out at them from behind the foliage to their left. The chompy stepped out onto the path in front of the heroes. Then, incredibly, it did something neither hero had expected: it spoke! "Help!" it cried, its stumpy arms waving in consternation. "Save us!" "Well, [i]this[/i] is new," commented Sam, not sure of what to make of a talking chompy and not sure if he trusted this not to be a trap. He kept an arrow nocked into his Dynabow 3.0 just in case, and asked, "Do we trust this guy?" "Of course," replied Sapphrina, surprised at the question. "They're the guardians of the Life-Giver's Grove." "Let's follow him," said Baabby, immediately putting his full trust into Sapphrina's judgment. Sam wasn't quite so quick to follow his friend's lead in trusting the chompy, but he followed the others as they followed the chompy to a small clearing. "Keep your eyes peeled," Sam advised Shelldon, riding on his usual place on the little crow's left shoulder. The chompy came to a halt before three more of his kind and explained the newcomers were heroes. "Hooray!" called one of the chompies. "We're saved!" cried another one. Sam was amazed; he'd never in his wildest dreams envisioned chompies being happy to see him and his hulking baabarian friend, given the dozens of chompies they'd slain over the course of their recent adventures. "This is a weird day," he mentioned to Shelldon; the snail didn't disagree. "Who's been attaacking you?" asked Baabby, looking around for potential enemies. "Undead! Horrible, horrible undead!" cried the chompy guide who'd brought them here. "Where is the rest of your number?" asked Sapphrina. "We're all that's left!" cried the chompy guide. "And we can't leave now, because [b]Leafy[/b]'s started to take root!" Sure enough, one of the chompies no longer had visible legs - they'd dug deep into the ground, rooting him in place. "Once he transforms into a chompy pod, we'll be able to expand our numbers once again - but until then, we're vulnerable to the undead who have been wiping us out!" Sam gulped and looked around for enemies just as Baabby had done. "How many undead are around here?" he whispered, not wanting these hordes of undead forces to hear him and come running. "At least--six!" replied the chompy guide, shuddering at the thought of so many enemies. "Six?" gasped Sam, aghast at how powerful these undead must be for six of their number to have wiped out thousands of chompy guardians. But then he recalled how easy it was to kill a chompy; Baabby habitually killed several at once with a single stroke of his greatsword, and even the crow archer had managed to slay a chompy with a single arrow. (Annoyingly, the creatures they'd been fighting lately required many, many arrows to bring them down!) "We'll take caare of them for you!" promised Baabby, leading the way back the way they'd come and moving further into the forest. Sam and Sapphrina followed. Before too long, they got their first sight of the undead menace. They were four bone chompies and two humanoid skeletons wielding bows and arrows made of bone. "Bone 'n' arrows!" Baabby identified them. "[i]That's[/i] what you call them?" asked Sam, skeptical. "Why not just skeletons?" "Because they're called bone 'n' arrows!" insisted Baabby. Sam just shrugged and took aim at the nearest skeletal archer (that's what [i]he[/i] was going to call them). He charged it up with explosive energy, eager to see what his upgraded Dynabow 3.0 could do - and in his eagerness, fumbled the shot. The arrow went high and exploded after hitting a low-hanging branch. "Hey!" complained the former member of the Sons of Archery. "No fair!" Sapphrina, in the meantime, put a hand upon Baabby's shoulder and cast an [i]enlarge person[/i] spell on him. Instantly, the already-hulking baabarian hulked like he'd never hulked before - for there he stood, nearly 13 feet tall, having to crouch over to keep his head from getting entangled in the branches. His [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] had doubled in size as well and he was eager to test out its damage potential at this new size. He didn't have long to wait. A pair of bone chompies advanced, sharp teeth clicking together as if eager to strip the flesh off the baabarian's hide (or at least his knees, which was about all they could reach). Baabby swung his greatsword into the first chompy, cutting it completely in two as his blade rushed into the skeletal body of its neighbor, doing likewise. The baabarian chuckled in delight - he could tell having Sapphrina around was going to be fun! The skeletal archer Sam had shot at sent an arrow of bone across the distance between the heroes, striking Baabby - the group's largest target by far - in the shoulder. The grinning sheep-man hardly even seemed to notice as he advanced upon the bone 'n' arrow. "You're next!" said Sapphrina, flying over to Sam and casting a spell upon him. "All right!" cried Sam, eager to double in size like Baabby had done and be able to strike out with extra strength and power. Instead, he saw the world around him get larger, as his feathered body shrunk to half its size. Shelldon, however, did not shrink and he became an unwieldy weight upon the little crow's shoulder; Sam had to shift him to his head for balance, wearing him like a warrior's helmet. "What just happened?" demanded Sam, embarrassed by the squeaky little voice that came out of his beak. "Did your spell backfire?" "No, this is a good thing," advised Sapphrina. "You'll be glad to be small, believe me!" Sam wasn't so sure about that; now even the bone chompies were taller than he was! But he shot off an arrow at the skeletal archer that had just shot Baabby, and his targeting capability was noticeably enhanced at this size; after all, the target he was trying to hit suddenly seemed much bigger to him! "Hmm," considered the crow-man, watching as his arrow struck true but failed to do any real damage to its target. Sam scampered behind Baabby, over to the other side of the clearing so that the two remaining bone chompies wouldn't get him. That part of his plan worked; what Sam hadn't considered that by casting the [i]reduce person[/i] spell on him, Sapphrina had flown low to the ground and made herself a perfectly fine target. One bone chompy snapped at the fairy sorceress, clamping onto an arm with its sharp, pointed teeth. Sapphrina barely had time to cry out in pain before the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] came slicing down, cutting the bone chompy in two. Likewise, the fairy barely had time to get out a mumbled thanks to Baabby before his greatsword was slicing the other approaching bone chompy's body in twain as well. [i]Bigger sword, greater strength, and a larger reach - this [i]enlarge person[/i] business is FUN![/i] thought Baabby. So far, the group had only been dealing with one bone 'n' arrow, but as Baabby advanced upon him he saw a second one perched on a tree stump off to the right. They were too far apart for the baabarian to be able to attack both, even with the enhanced reach of his greatsword, so he stuck to his original target. Sapphrina, meanwhile, staggered along a different path and called out to Sam. "Over here!" she said, and the little archer went to investigate. There, standing in front of a large pit of some kind, was an undead spell punk! Baabby and Sam had encountered one of these strange little creatures back in the Museum of Mystical Mysteries, so Sam knew they could summon bone chompies from thin air. The archer took aim and sent an explosive arrow flying in the direction of the spell punk - and this time his aim was true. The spell punk, floating over the ground, was momentarily encompassed by a small gout of flame and smoke, and his robes were blackened and singed when the smoke dissipated. "What? Who?" he sputtered, having failed to see the half-size Sam Crow down one of the paths leading to the crater. Both bone 'n' arrows got in clean shots on Baabby as he raced to his target, but that didn't stop him from taking the skull clean off of the original archer who had first shot at the group of heroes. That one clattered to the ground in a pile of bones, while the other took aim at the baabarian again and fired another round. "Aha!" cried the undead spell punk suddenly, having spotted his foe at last. He raised his pointed limbs and sent a ball of grayish energy hurling in Sam's direction. But fortunately for the crow he was a much smaller target than normal and it was easy enough to dodge the attack. Sam replied with an arrow - a regular one, as his Dynabow 3.0 still needed time to recharge its explosive energy - that sent the spell punk staggering on its last breath. But then the hovering mage caught sight of Baabby and his enchanted greatsword, and all thoughts of his own personal discomfort were set instantly aside. "The great blade!" he cried aloud, "I must have it, for my master!" Dazed, he flew off in a drunken fashion towards Baabby, channeling another gray-energy-ball attack as he did so. The energy hit Baabby in the back, siphoning away some of his very life force. He spun to face this new threat, turning his back on the remaining bone 'n' arrow (who took the opportunity to send another bone shaft into Baabby's broad back), and charged at the undead spell punk. The floating combatant didn't stand a chance, and his robes fluttered to the ground in two pieces after Baabby's swing cut the little fellow in half. "Aw, I was going to kill that thing!" squeaked Sam in irritation, running over to Baabby's location and seeing that once again all of his whittle-down-the-enemy groundwork had been set up just to have somebody else make the final blow. In anger, he fired off a shot at the remaining skeletal archer. It hit, but the skeleton remained standing just long enough for Baabby to run it through with the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. "Figures!" squeaked Sam. With the enemies all slain, Baabby took the opportunity to cast some healing spells on those who needed them. Then the chompy waddled up. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" it gushed. "You have slain the horrible, horrible undead! Thank you!" It then offered to escort them to the Life-Giver's Grove, where Baabby would be able to gain the Life Rune for his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. Following the little chompy (and regaining their normal sizes as the fairy's spells wore off), Baabby and Sam saw their little guide's eyestalks go bolting straight up in surprise. "Eep!" it exclaimed. "It was a diversion!" Rushing up alongside the chompy to see what all of the commotion was about, the heroes looked into the clearing just ahead, where they saw five figures scattered around a large tree. They each had bluish-green skin and long, pointed ears; four of them - the males - each held a longspear, while the sole female wore a witch's robes. "Drow!" cried out the chompy. "They're attacking the Life-Giver!" "Where?" asked Sam, looking around for the Life-Giver but failing to spot him. He imagined a wizened old man with a long, white beard, probably wearing tattered robes and holding a wooden staff. "All I see are five drow around a tree!" "The tree [i]is[/i] the Life-Giver!" hissed Sapphrina, trying to keep her voice down. But it was too late; the chompy's excited exclamations had caught the attention of the sharp-eared drow, who all turned in the direction of the heroes. "Get them!" commanded the drow witch and the spearmen moved to comply. With another "Eep!" the chompy rapidly shuffled backwards, behind the rest of the heroes. Sam immediately shot one of the advancing drow spearmen with an explosive arrow and was pleased to see him actually fall to the ground, dead. "Hey! I actually got one!" he cried triumphantly, surprised at his unexpected success. Sapphrina, seeing how effective her ploy had been in the last battle, cast an [i]enlarge person[/i] spell on Baabby. The sheep-man grinned as he doubled his size, taking a single step forward and slicing down another drow spearman like a farmer scything wheat. The other two spearmen advanced on Baabby, obviously taking him as their biggest threat. The witch, in the meantime, hiked up her robe with one hand and advanced on the trio of heroes. Dropping her hem, she shot both hands out at them and a sheet of flames came bursting forth from her fingertips, engulfing them in flames. Sam cried out in pain; Baabby barely grunted in acknowledgement of the damage he'd sustained; but Sapphrina swayed and nearly fell, her skin blistering from the attack. Baabby, who had intended to take out the spearmen by himself, changed tactics in mid-swing and redirected the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] to the drow witch, herself the greatest threat to the heroes. His blade hit true, and continued its arc to slice into the side of one of the drow spearmen as well. Once again, Baabby had cut down two enemies with one strike of his magic blade. "Show off," muttered Sam to himself. That left a single drow spearman remaining in the fight. He moved as if to attack Baabby, then thought better of it and high-tailed it in the opposite direction. "Hey! He's getting away!" yelled Sam, firing off an arrow at the fleeing drow with no effect. But there was nothing for it; the drow was running faster than the heroes would be able to follow, and more importantly, Sapphrina needed healing - now! Baabby cast his most powerful healing spell on Sapphrina, causing the blisters on her fair skin to disappear. "Thank you," she said to the baabarian, who once again had returned to his normal size at the end of her spell's duration. "Let's go check out that tree," suggested Baabby. There was a doorway of sorts on one side of the tree's trunk, which the drow witch had been investigating when they approached. It led down beneath the massive tree's roots, but there was nothing mystical or enchanted about the natural opening beneath the tree. It would make a good place for a fox or a badger to make its home, but nothing more. "Hey, try sticking your sword in there," suggested Sam. "Maybe it'll work like a key." It did more than that. When Baabby stuck the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] into the depression underneath the tree's trunk it ripped a hole through the fabric of reality, revealing an extra-dimensional portal within. "Now we're talking!" enthused Sam. "Let's go!" said Baabby, practically leaping through the portal he'd just opened. The others followed their enthusiastic baabarian friend. They found the other side of the portal to be a very small floating island, a mere dozen or so paces from end to end. They entered through a stone arch rising up from one end of the island, before them was a hulking brute of a drow, easily a dozen feet tall, his massive back turned to the heroes. He held a spiked shield in each hand, covering his arms up to the elbows. "A goliath drow!" said Baabby as way of introduction to the others; he let his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] do his actual introduction to the goliath drow before him, carving a deep gouge across the monster's spine. Sam took a step to the side so as not to hit Baabby, and let loose with an explosive arrow that practically knocked the brute off his feet. In a matter of a few seconds, the mighty goliath drow had gone from full strength to on his last legs - and wobbly legs at that! Sapphrina cast a final [i]enlarge person[/i] spell on Baabby, increasing his own size to that of the foe he faced. However, as the brute spun around in rage and pain, he was encompassed by a greenish glow and his wounds immediately began healing up. "Hey! No fair!" complained Sam. "How's he doing that?" The answer became apparent once the heroes saw the life spell punk floating behind its massive bodyguard. "Go get 'em!" the hovering mage called to his partner. The goliath drow snarled in response and struck out with his spiked shields, but Baabby was ready for the attack and managed to duck beneath them, infuriating the giant drow even further. Then, to make matters even worse, Baabby decided to show his foe exactly how it was done. Entering a baabaric rage himself, Baabby channeled every ounce of strength into a crushing blow from his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. Muscles straining, he brought the greatsword crashing down onto the goliath drow, cutting through his armor, through his shoulder, and halfway through his apelike chest before the sword finally came to a halt. The baabarian had to put his own foot onto the slain enemy's chest and give his sword a great tug to get it out of the goliath drow's corpse before it went crashing to the ground. Sam shot a normal arrow at the life spell punk, who stared in shock at how quickly his battle-partner had been taken out of the fight. Sapphrina flew off the edge of the little island, sending a [i]ray of frost[/i] spell at the spell punk. Both attacks hit the floating mage, but he shrugged them off by absorbing natural power from the island, healing over his wounds. Then he gathered up a greenish ball of energy from the very air and sent it hurtling in Baabby's direction. It hit the baabarian square on, and he grunted from the magical assault. But then he retaliated with a swipe of his sword that just barely cut through the spell punk's robe as it hurriedly backed away. Sam shot an explosive arrow at the spell punk, but again it healed itself almost automatically. Then it repeated its attack on Baabby, again sending a ball of green energy flying his way. This time he missed, Baabby turning away at the last moment. But that was the last of the missing for the rest of the fight. Sapphrina cast another [i]ray of frost[/i] at the spell punk and hit. Sam shot a normal arrow at the spell punk and hit. Baabby stepped up and hit the spell punk with his greatsword, and this was one attack too many for the floating mage to withstand. "My master will avenge me..." he croaked as he died. "Now whaat?" asked Baabby. "Hold up your greatsword, like this," said Sapphrina, demonstrating through pantomime. Baabby raised the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] over his head in a one-handed grip, and just as the life spell punk had channeled the life energy of the extradimensional space to heal himself and the goliath drow in the battle moments ago, the fairy channeled the inherent power into the raised blade. Sam winced as a great light burst forth from the greatsword, momentarily blinding him. After blinking the spots away from his eyes, he saw the Life Rune had now joined the other three runes Baabby had gathered thus far: Magic, Undead, and Water. "Haalfway there," the sheep-man said, grinning. Returning to the Life-Giver's Grove, the group met back up with their chompy guide, who led them back to where Leafy had taken root. "It won't be long now!" enthused the chompies, noting Leafy had already nearly doubled in size as he began the metamorphosis that would end up with him becoming an immobile chompy pod. In celebration of the heroes' success, the other two chompies scampered off into the forest for a moment and returned dragging large cloth sacks behind them. "Here," they said, offering the sacks to the heroes. Sam peered inside and saw the unmistakable glint of gold from the coins contained therein. "Talking chompies who give away treasure for a job well done?" he asked aloud. "You guys are the [i]best chompies ever![/i] Perched up on the little crow's shoulder, Shelldon didn't disagree. - - - Logan used a couple of fold-out Pathfinder forest maps for the bits of forest where we had our various battles; the extradimensional space at the end was a card from the "Extradimensional Spaces" Map Pack set. He used a couple of toilet paper rolls and a paper towel roll to represent the Life-Giver, which was a kind of beacon tree that transmitted life energy to the Skylands in the vicinity. And this adventure put the PCs over the limit into 5th level. The fact that Harry's been enjoying this campaign was evidenced by the fact that as soon as we were finished up he went running upstairs to tell my wife all about the events that transpired in-game. [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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