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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7117867" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 12: THE CLOUD GARDENS OF VALKAR</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 6</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 6</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 14 May 2017</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"Whaddaya mean, 'we're here'?" demanded Sam Crow. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're parked at a cloud!"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, but this is a network of solid clouds," replied Sapphrina. "See the little rainbows? Those are bridges. It's safe to step on any cloud connected by a rainbow like that. Any other clouds are likely to be just...you know, regular clouds. I wouldn't recommend stepping onto those."</p><p></p><p>"You don't say," retorted Sam. He picked up Shelldon from his shoulder and placed him on the railing of the troll airship. "I think you'd better sit this one out, Shelldon," he told his faithful animal companion. "I wouldn't want you falling through a cloud. Snails can't fly."</p><p></p><p>"You can't fly, either," pointed out Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"I can too fly!" retorted Sam, flapping the feathers of his wings. "It's just that so far I've only mastered straight down, at terminal velocity."</p><p></p><p>"Well, we don't want any of that," said Sapphrina, flying over the side of the airship and into the middle of the first cloud. As Baabby and Sam followed, two figures coalesced from the cloudstuff to become humanoid figures of their own size.</p><p></p><p>"Welcome," said the air elementals in unison. "You have been expected. If you are ready, your trial by combat will begin at once."</p><p></p><p>"My whaat now?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"We went over this," said Sapphrina. "The air rune was gathered here, at the Cloud Gardens of <strong>Valkar</strong>. Of course, that was many centuries ago; I doubt Valkar himself is still alive, but his descendants should still be willing to help us."</p><p></p><p>"If you prove yourselves worthy," replied the air elementals. Across two rainbow bridges, a much larger air elemental rose up from the cloud and smacked his fists together in anticipation of a good fight. "Are you ready to begin?" asked the twin air elemental hosts.</p><p></p><p>Baabby and Sam looked at each other, then over at the Large air elemental, and shrugged. "I guess so," said the baabarian.</p><p></p><p>"Good!" said the two air elementals, blasting the two heroes at once.</p><p></p><p>"Hey! No fair!" squawked Sam. "I didn't say I was ready!" But the crow gathered up his Dynabow 3.0 and let loose with an arrow. He had filled it with explosive energy and fired it at the Large air elemental, having assumed he was the one they'd have to prove themselves against. It was a nice explosion, but the air elemental was still alive and apparently not all that harmed when the smoke cleared.</p><p></p><p>After having been blasted by one of the hosts, Baabby immediately understood that the two smaller air elementals were part of the test, so with one cleaving swing of his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> he cut both down to nothingness. Then he and Sam started running across the rainbow bridge to the next cloud island, which was separated by another rainbow bridge from the larger cloud the Large air elemental stood upon.</p><p></p><p>But before they could get there, another combatant appeared from yet another cloud off to the side. This one coalesced into the shape of a large wolf; its body had barely fully formed before it was off like a shot, running across the air straight at the baabarian.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" cried Sam, watching the cloud wolf run right off the island without falling to its death. "No fair!" But then, seeing that the wolf was ignoring him and heading straight towards Baabby, the crow continued his attacks on the Large air elemental. He had to let the explosive energy recharge for a moment so he was limited to normal arrows, and unfortunately those seemed to have even less of an effect against a creature composed of swirling vapors.</p><p></p><p>Baabby, seeing the cloud wolf nearly upon him, brought his blade crashing down upon the beast's head. The creature's cloudlike body parted, and a pitiful whimpering came from the direction of its dissipating form.</p><p></p><p>But that seemed to anger the Large air elemental. It spun into a whirlwind, flew over to Baabby and swept him up. For one fearful moment Sam was convinced the elemental would release Baabby in midair and allow him to plummet to his death, but the whirlwind simply released him in the middle of its own solid cloud island. Baabby went spinning around as he was released, but while the air elemental no doubt thought it was due to dizziness, the canny baabarian brought his greatsword out and turned his spinning frenzy into a greater momentum when his blade slammed into the elemental's midsection. Baabby finally stumbled, dizzy from the maneuver, but he smiled as he saw the elemental dissipate back into nothingness from his mighty stroke.</p><p></p><p>Sam came running over the rainbow bridge to his friend, not wanting them to be separated in this strange environment. Sapphrina flew directly over and the trio looked about in all directions for new enemies to pop up, but all seemed to be clear. "Was that it?" asked Sam. "Is the test over?"</p><p></p><p>"Unlikely," replied Sapphrina. "But we have at least gained access to the castle." And she pointed to the largest rainbow bridge of them all, which curved upwards such that the heroes couldn't see what lay at the other side - all they could see was the bottom of the cloud island attached to the other side of the bridge. As they ascended the rainbow bridge, though, a castle appeared - and judging by the size of the front doors, this was a castle built for a giant!</p><p></p><p>"Um," said Sam. "You didn't mention that this Valkar was a giant."</p><p></p><p>"A cloud giant, yes," answered Sapphrina. "Why? Who did you expect would live on a cloud island?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, I was hoping maybe some magical mice with wish-granting abilities," replied Sam. "Who had a friendly attitude towards visitors on quests."</p><p></p><p>"We're here," said Baabby, striding up to the massive door and banging on it with a meaty fist. The doors were immediately opened by two Medium air elementals. The center of the building went all the way to the back, where a regal-looking cloud giantess sat on a throne. Before her was a blazing fire, and between the fire and the front door was a long, wooden table for dining with giant-sized chairs on either side. Standing near the fire was another Large air elemental. Beside the giantess sat another cloud wolf, its tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth. Sam was slightly worried that it looked a bit hungry, and he thought he saw flashes of electrcity leaping from tooth to tooth.</p><p></p><p>"Greetings," said the cloud giantess. "I am <strong>Mystrala</strong>. I am impressed with your abilities thus far. Are you ready for the rest of the combat to begin?"</p><p></p><p>"The rest?" echoed Baabby, looking around the room. "Aare we supposed to fight these elementaals, too?"</p><p></p><p>"Them, yes," agreed Mystrala. "And <strong>Thundergrowl</strong> here," she added, patting the head of the cloud wolf at her side. "And me, as well."</p><p></p><p>"You, uh, want us to attack you?" asked Sam.</p><p></p><p>"When you're ready," agreed Mystrala. "If you'd like to tend to your present wounds, we can wait until you're finished."</p><p></p><p>As Baabby began casting healing spells upon himself and Sam, the little crow whispered to his friend, "It's kind of creepy how polite they're being."</p><p></p><p>"It's aalmost as if they aaren't the least bit concerned about us being a threat to them," agreed the baabarian in a whisper.</p><p></p><p>"Not particularly," admitted Mystrala, smiling. "If you're ready...?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, I suppose--" started Sam, then broke off in mid-sentence to lob an explosive arrow between Mystrala and her cloud wolf, hoping to take them off guard. The Large air elemental closed the distance between them in a surprising burst of speed and smacked Sam hard with an air-blast fist, sending the little crow reeling. Baabby opted to repeat his slashing move against the two Medium air elementals, but this time he managed to only kill the first one; his blade hit the second one but failed to slay it outright. It turned against Sapphrina, slamming her hard against the wall; the fairy cast a buffing spell that granted her a heartier constitution and flew away from combat, hiding in a corner.</p><p></p><p>Thundergrowl raced across the room, leaped up onto the table, and ran across its length to bite at Sam, sending a jolt of electricity coursing throught the little crow's body. "Bad dog!" Sam scolded. "You get down off that table at once!" He thought by scolding it he might trick it into obeying, but no such luck.</p><p></p><p>Baabby and Sam each looked at their respective opponents and without saying a word between them immediately swapped. The hulking baabarian brought his greatsword down onto Thundergrowl's back, slicing him in twain. The cloud wolf's body fell apart to a fine mist, which then floated across to the back of the room, where it coalesced back into its wolf form. Sam was about to let out a cry of "No fair!" but then noticed the cloud wolf just sat there, observing the rest of the combat with its tongue lolling back out. Apparently it had been defeated in combat and thus wasn't going to attack any more; these were certainly polite foes!</p><p></p><p>Sam lashed out with his short sword, taking out the last remaining Medium air elemental. It, like its partner before it, didn't bother reforming into a humanoid form after being slain; it just disappeared and did not return.</p><p></p><p>The Large air elemental focused its attention on Baabby, slamming the sheep-man twice with its blasting fists. Sam shot it in the back with an explosive arrow, and when the smoke had cleared the elemental was gone - the little crow wasn't sure if Baabby had gotten a swing in as well with his greatsword, but decided then and there that if he hadn't actually see Baabby use his sword then it didn't count and mentally assigned himself full credit for taking the creature down.</p><p></p><p>But by now both Sam and Baabby were hurting. Each had been slammed, blasted, and/or bitten numerous times, and they still had hardly touched Mystrala at all! But talk about polite: the cloud giantess, who had been watching the combat as she strolled unhurriedly from her throne to the dining table, where all the action was, surprised the group with an offer to rest and heal. "You've done admirably," she said. "Please, I insist: take the time to see to your current wounds, and we will resume combat when you're ready."</p><p></p><p>"This isn't how battles go in real life!" said Sam, then shut his beak once he realized he was trying to argue his way out of taking a breather! Baabby cast a few healing spells on the three of them, and then they were ready for combat against the cloud giantess herself.</p><p></p><p>"Are you sure about this?" asked Sam. "It feels kind of weird, attacking the hostess in her own castle like this."</p><p></p><p>"How better to prove your worthiness?' asked Mystrala. "And as you saw with Thundergrowl, no permanent harm will come to me. So, if you're ready...?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I'm ready!" exclaimed Sam, before dashing underneath the wooden table. He raced halfway down its length, barely needing to duck his head, and sent an explosive arrow between the legs of two giant chairs and into Mystrala's rather shapely legs. Baabby ran up to Mystrala with his greatsword swinging; he hit her in the side but she responded with a powerful slam of her fist that sent the baabarian reeling.</p><p></p><p>Following Sam's lead, Sapphrina darted under the table where she would be the safest in the combat to follow. She was able to track the fight between Baabby and Mystrala by the position of their legs, and she darted out between the chairs at one point to cast an <em>enlarge person</em> spell on Baabby before ducking back to the safety of the giant table.</p><p></p><p>"This is kind of like being in a kid's pretend fort," observed Sam.</p><p></p><p>Now the same height as Mystrala, and with consequentially greater strength at his increased size, Baabby found himself on a more equal footing with his foe. The two traded blows, he with his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> and she with her fists, before Mystrala finally called out. "I yield!" she said, and Sam, still under the table, frowned - he had lined up a perfect shot and his Dynabow 3.0 was fully charged up with explosive energy...but Sapphrina gently pushed the bow down. With a sigh, Sam relented - it would be poor sportsmanship indeed to blast the cloud giantess after she'd yielded, especially as she'd been so polite during this whole ordeal.</p><p></p><p>Sam and Sapphrina crawled out from underneath the table. "Ah, there you are!" said Mystrala, smiling. "If ever I had any doubts about the veracity of the tales of the courageous sheep and the cowardly crow, you would certainly have dispelled them!"</p><p></p><p>"Uh, yeah," muttered Sam, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Just living up to my role...."</p><p></p><p>Mystrala took the heroes to a side room, where various items had been put in storage. In the back of the cluttered room there was a visible portal of glowing energy. Baabby knew just what to do: using the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> as a key, he opened up a rift to an extradimensional space and the heroes stepped through. The space was a little cloud island, with puffy clouds floating at waist-height, but they were immediately absorbed into the blade of Baabby's greatsword, and after a blinding flash of energy the Air Rune was filled in.</p><p></p><p>Exiting back into Castle Valkar, the heroes bid Mystrala goodbye. "Farewell, and good luck to you!" she said, waving as they departed back down the rainbow bridge.</p><p></p><p>"Man, it would be nice if all of our opponents were that polite!" said Sam.</p><p></p><p>"Not likely," replied Baabby. "But it waas a refreshing change of pace."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>When the adventure was over, Harry recognized that this was the first adventure we'd gone through that didn't feature any Skylanders opponents at all. The air elementals were straight from the <em>Monster Manual</em>; the cloud wolf was a winter wolf with an added airwalking special ability and its normal frost bite (and breath weapon) swapped out for electricity; and Mystrala had a cloud giant's abilities but a hill giant's physical attributes as she was still young. (Logan had painted a cloud giantess miniature to represent Mystrala; the others were all D&D Miniatures we already owned.) Logan was a little ticked that neither cloud wolf got to use its lightning breath weapon before Baabby slew them, but that's the way it goes sometimes.</p><p></p><p>And he refused to let me call them "air wolves" after I explained "Air Wolf" was an old TV show about a helicopter and its pilot and crew. So: cloud wolves they are, then.</p><p></p><p>The final battle used a Paizo Flip-Mat called "Giant Lairs" for the interior of Castle Valkar. For the initial battles, Logan used a poster board I had done up for a previous campaign: the poster board was a picture of clouds and I had measured off one-inch squares on it using a yardstick. On top of these he placed cloud islands and rainbow bridges he had made out of paper with a one-inch grid printed on them; it was overall a pretty cool effect.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7117867, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 12: THE CLOUD GARDENS OF VALKAR[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 6[/INDENT] [INDENT] Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 6[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 6[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 14 May 2017 - - - "Whaddaya mean, 'we're here'?" demanded Sam Crow. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're parked at a cloud!" "Yes, but this is a network of solid clouds," replied Sapphrina. "See the little rainbows? Those are bridges. It's safe to step on any cloud connected by a rainbow like that. Any other clouds are likely to be just...you know, regular clouds. I wouldn't recommend stepping onto those." "You don't say," retorted Sam. He picked up Shelldon from his shoulder and placed him on the railing of the troll airship. "I think you'd better sit this one out, Shelldon," he told his faithful animal companion. "I wouldn't want you falling through a cloud. Snails can't fly." "You can't fly, either," pointed out Baabby. "I can too fly!" retorted Sam, flapping the feathers of his wings. "It's just that so far I've only mastered straight down, at terminal velocity." "Well, we don't want any of that," said Sapphrina, flying over the side of the airship and into the middle of the first cloud. As Baabby and Sam followed, two figures coalesced from the cloudstuff to become humanoid figures of their own size. "Welcome," said the air elementals in unison. "You have been expected. If you are ready, your trial by combat will begin at once." "My whaat now?" asked Baabby. "We went over this," said Sapphrina. "The air rune was gathered here, at the Cloud Gardens of [B]Valkar[/B]. Of course, that was many centuries ago; I doubt Valkar himself is still alive, but his descendants should still be willing to help us." "If you prove yourselves worthy," replied the air elementals. Across two rainbow bridges, a much larger air elemental rose up from the cloud and smacked his fists together in anticipation of a good fight. "Are you ready to begin?" asked the twin air elemental hosts. Baabby and Sam looked at each other, then over at the Large air elemental, and shrugged. "I guess so," said the baabarian. "Good!" said the two air elementals, blasting the two heroes at once. "Hey! No fair!" squawked Sam. "I didn't say I was ready!" But the crow gathered up his Dynabow 3.0 and let loose with an arrow. He had filled it with explosive energy and fired it at the Large air elemental, having assumed he was the one they'd have to prove themselves against. It was a nice explosion, but the air elemental was still alive and apparently not all that harmed when the smoke cleared. After having been blasted by one of the hosts, Baabby immediately understood that the two smaller air elementals were part of the test, so with one cleaving swing of his [I]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/I] he cut both down to nothingness. Then he and Sam started running across the rainbow bridge to the next cloud island, which was separated by another rainbow bridge from the larger cloud the Large air elemental stood upon. But before they could get there, another combatant appeared from yet another cloud off to the side. This one coalesced into the shape of a large wolf; its body had barely fully formed before it was off like a shot, running across the air straight at the baabarian. "Hey!" cried Sam, watching the cloud wolf run right off the island without falling to its death. "No fair!" But then, seeing that the wolf was ignoring him and heading straight towards Baabby, the crow continued his attacks on the Large air elemental. He had to let the explosive energy recharge for a moment so he was limited to normal arrows, and unfortunately those seemed to have even less of an effect against a creature composed of swirling vapors. Baabby, seeing the cloud wolf nearly upon him, brought his blade crashing down upon the beast's head. The creature's cloudlike body parted, and a pitiful whimpering came from the direction of its dissipating form. But that seemed to anger the Large air elemental. It spun into a whirlwind, flew over to Baabby and swept him up. For one fearful moment Sam was convinced the elemental would release Baabby in midair and allow him to plummet to his death, but the whirlwind simply released him in the middle of its own solid cloud island. Baabby went spinning around as he was released, but while the air elemental no doubt thought it was due to dizziness, the canny baabarian brought his greatsword out and turned his spinning frenzy into a greater momentum when his blade slammed into the elemental's midsection. Baabby finally stumbled, dizzy from the maneuver, but he smiled as he saw the elemental dissipate back into nothingness from his mighty stroke. Sam came running over the rainbow bridge to his friend, not wanting them to be separated in this strange environment. Sapphrina flew directly over and the trio looked about in all directions for new enemies to pop up, but all seemed to be clear. "Was that it?" asked Sam. "Is the test over?" "Unlikely," replied Sapphrina. "But we have at least gained access to the castle." And she pointed to the largest rainbow bridge of them all, which curved upwards such that the heroes couldn't see what lay at the other side - all they could see was the bottom of the cloud island attached to the other side of the bridge. As they ascended the rainbow bridge, though, a castle appeared - and judging by the size of the front doors, this was a castle built for a giant! "Um," said Sam. "You didn't mention that this Valkar was a giant." "A cloud giant, yes," answered Sapphrina. "Why? Who did you expect would live on a cloud island?" "Well, I was hoping maybe some magical mice with wish-granting abilities," replied Sam. "Who had a friendly attitude towards visitors on quests." "We're here," said Baabby, striding up to the massive door and banging on it with a meaty fist. The doors were immediately opened by two Medium air elementals. The center of the building went all the way to the back, where a regal-looking cloud giantess sat on a throne. Before her was a blazing fire, and between the fire and the front door was a long, wooden table for dining with giant-sized chairs on either side. Standing near the fire was another Large air elemental. Beside the giantess sat another cloud wolf, its tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth. Sam was slightly worried that it looked a bit hungry, and he thought he saw flashes of electrcity leaping from tooth to tooth. "Greetings," said the cloud giantess. "I am [B]Mystrala[/B]. I am impressed with your abilities thus far. Are you ready for the rest of the combat to begin?" "The rest?" echoed Baabby, looking around the room. "Aare we supposed to fight these elementaals, too?" "Them, yes," agreed Mystrala. "And [B]Thundergrowl[/B] here," she added, patting the head of the cloud wolf at her side. "And me, as well." "You, uh, want us to attack you?" asked Sam. "When you're ready," agreed Mystrala. "If you'd like to tend to your present wounds, we can wait until you're finished." As Baabby began casting healing spells upon himself and Sam, the little crow whispered to his friend, "It's kind of creepy how polite they're being." "It's aalmost as if they aaren't the least bit concerned about us being a threat to them," agreed the baabarian in a whisper. "Not particularly," admitted Mystrala, smiling. "If you're ready...?" "Well, I suppose--" started Sam, then broke off in mid-sentence to lob an explosive arrow between Mystrala and her cloud wolf, hoping to take them off guard. The Large air elemental closed the distance between them in a surprising burst of speed and smacked Sam hard with an air-blast fist, sending the little crow reeling. Baabby opted to repeat his slashing move against the two Medium air elementals, but this time he managed to only kill the first one; his blade hit the second one but failed to slay it outright. It turned against Sapphrina, slamming her hard against the wall; the fairy cast a buffing spell that granted her a heartier constitution and flew away from combat, hiding in a corner. Thundergrowl raced across the room, leaped up onto the table, and ran across its length to bite at Sam, sending a jolt of electricity coursing throught the little crow's body. "Bad dog!" Sam scolded. "You get down off that table at once!" He thought by scolding it he might trick it into obeying, but no such luck. Baabby and Sam each looked at their respective opponents and without saying a word between them immediately swapped. The hulking baabarian brought his greatsword down onto Thundergrowl's back, slicing him in twain. The cloud wolf's body fell apart to a fine mist, which then floated across to the back of the room, where it coalesced back into its wolf form. Sam was about to let out a cry of "No fair!" but then noticed the cloud wolf just sat there, observing the rest of the combat with its tongue lolling back out. Apparently it had been defeated in combat and thus wasn't going to attack any more; these were certainly polite foes! Sam lashed out with his short sword, taking out the last remaining Medium air elemental. It, like its partner before it, didn't bother reforming into a humanoid form after being slain; it just disappeared and did not return. The Large air elemental focused its attention on Baabby, slamming the sheep-man twice with its blasting fists. Sam shot it in the back with an explosive arrow, and when the smoke had cleared the elemental was gone - the little crow wasn't sure if Baabby had gotten a swing in as well with his greatsword, but decided then and there that if he hadn't actually see Baabby use his sword then it didn't count and mentally assigned himself full credit for taking the creature down. But by now both Sam and Baabby were hurting. Each had been slammed, blasted, and/or bitten numerous times, and they still had hardly touched Mystrala at all! But talk about polite: the cloud giantess, who had been watching the combat as she strolled unhurriedly from her throne to the dining table, where all the action was, surprised the group with an offer to rest and heal. "You've done admirably," she said. "Please, I insist: take the time to see to your current wounds, and we will resume combat when you're ready." "This isn't how battles go in real life!" said Sam, then shut his beak once he realized he was trying to argue his way out of taking a breather! Baabby cast a few healing spells on the three of them, and then they were ready for combat against the cloud giantess herself. "Are you sure about this?" asked Sam. "It feels kind of weird, attacking the hostess in her own castle like this." "How better to prove your worthiness?' asked Mystrala. "And as you saw with Thundergrowl, no permanent harm will come to me. So, if you're ready...?" "Oh, I'm ready!" exclaimed Sam, before dashing underneath the wooden table. He raced halfway down its length, barely needing to duck his head, and sent an explosive arrow between the legs of two giant chairs and into Mystrala's rather shapely legs. Baabby ran up to Mystrala with his greatsword swinging; he hit her in the side but she responded with a powerful slam of her fist that sent the baabarian reeling. Following Sam's lead, Sapphrina darted under the table where she would be the safest in the combat to follow. She was able to track the fight between Baabby and Mystrala by the position of their legs, and she darted out between the chairs at one point to cast an [I]enlarge person[/I] spell on Baabby before ducking back to the safety of the giant table. "This is kind of like being in a kid's pretend fort," observed Sam. Now the same height as Mystrala, and with consequentially greater strength at his increased size, Baabby found himself on a more equal footing with his foe. The two traded blows, he with his [I]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/I] and she with her fists, before Mystrala finally called out. "I yield!" she said, and Sam, still under the table, frowned - he had lined up a perfect shot and his Dynabow 3.0 was fully charged up with explosive energy...but Sapphrina gently pushed the bow down. With a sigh, Sam relented - it would be poor sportsmanship indeed to blast the cloud giantess after she'd yielded, especially as she'd been so polite during this whole ordeal. Sam and Sapphrina crawled out from underneath the table. "Ah, there you are!" said Mystrala, smiling. "If ever I had any doubts about the veracity of the tales of the courageous sheep and the cowardly crow, you would certainly have dispelled them!" "Uh, yeah," muttered Sam, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Just living up to my role...." Mystrala took the heroes to a side room, where various items had been put in storage. In the back of the cluttered room there was a visible portal of glowing energy. Baabby knew just what to do: using the [I]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/I] as a key, he opened up a rift to an extradimensional space and the heroes stepped through. The space was a little cloud island, with puffy clouds floating at waist-height, but they were immediately absorbed into the blade of Baabby's greatsword, and after a blinding flash of energy the Air Rune was filled in. Exiting back into Castle Valkar, the heroes bid Mystrala goodbye. "Farewell, and good luck to you!" she said, waving as they departed back down the rainbow bridge. "Man, it would be nice if all of our opponents were that polite!" said Sam. "Not likely," replied Baabby. "But it waas a refreshing change of pace." - - - When the adventure was over, Harry recognized that this was the first adventure we'd gone through that didn't feature any Skylanders opponents at all. The air elementals were straight from the [I]Monster Manual[/I]; the cloud wolf was a winter wolf with an added airwalking special ability and its normal frost bite (and breath weapon) swapped out for electricity; and Mystrala had a cloud giant's abilities but a hill giant's physical attributes as she was still young. (Logan had painted a cloud giantess miniature to represent Mystrala; the others were all D&D Miniatures we already owned.) Logan was a little ticked that neither cloud wolf got to use its lightning breath weapon before Baabby slew them, but that's the way it goes sometimes. And he refused to let me call them "air wolves" after I explained "Air Wolf" was an old TV show about a helicopter and its pilot and crew. So: cloud wolves they are, then. The final battle used a Paizo Flip-Mat called "Giant Lairs" for the interior of Castle Valkar. For the initial battles, Logan used a poster board I had done up for a previous campaign: the poster board was a picture of clouds and I had measured off one-inch squares on it using a yardstick. On top of these he placed cloud islands and rainbow bridges he had made out of paper with a one-inch grid printed on them; it was overall a pretty cool effect. [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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