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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7142504" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 14: THE GEODE CAVERNS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 7</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 7</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 10 June 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>After an arduous, sweaty hike through the rain forest, the heroes found themselves at last at the Perilous Plateau. And as luck would have it, immediately before them was the opening to a cave; Sam would not have been surprised to find the cave opening to the Geode Caverns at the very top, requiring a lengthy climb. But no: there it was, a dark opening at ground level of the plateau, with glittering light within hinting at the possibility of sparkling geodes just out of sight.</p><p></p><p>"Finally!" gasped Sam. "Let's go!"</p><p></p><p>However, he only managed to take a single step forward before everything went wonky. There was a brief moment of dizziness, followed by a lingering sensation of <em>wrongness</em> - as if the universe suddenly tasted purple. And there, writhing in front of the heroes, was the apparent cause of the weirdness: a wriggling tentacle with an eyeball at its tip, rising up from a rift in the ground that hadn't been there a moment before.</p><p></p><p><Welcome!> said a buzzing in the back of the three adventurers' heads. <I look forward to tasting your fears! Especially yours, Xacho - it's been so long!></p><p></p><p>"Well, you just made a major fool out of yourself, Don," commented Sam. "Does that eyeball of yours even work? Does he" - and here he pointed at Baabby - "look <em>anything</em> like Xacho? Why don't you just wear an 'I'm an idiot' sign around your neck?"</p><p></p><p>There was no reply from the eyeball-tentacle, except perhaps the telepathic equivalent of spluttering noises.</p><p></p><p>"Ah--got it! No neck!" replied Sam, answering his own question. "If you like, Don, we could probably fashion a dunce cap or something for you to wear on your eyeball. Or - here's an idea - maybe we'll just blow you up to kingdom come!" And with that, Sam sent an explosive arrow flying at the monstrosity. The explosion caused yowls of pain to manifest in the back of the heroes' heads as the abomination mentally cried out, but then Baabby stepped up and cut the thing in two with a perfectly-aimed strike of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. The rest of the tentacle pulled back into the rift, and the baabarian used his magic greatsword to close the rift behind it.</p><p></p><p>"Well, we're off to an interesting staart," he commented. "Waas that really the Devourer of Nightmares?"</p><p></p><p>"A part of him, likely," answered Sapphrina. "He's still supposed to be locked away, though - it's disturbing that he's able to open rifts, even small ones that allow him to poke part of him outside his prison."</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's not dwell on it," suggested Baabby, leading the way into the cave. "We've got an Earth Rune to fetch."</p><p></p><p>After a short passageway of normal rock, the cavern opened up into a massive geode, with purple crystals like giant amethysts jutting from every surface. Blending in with the crystals were two creatures of the same color and seemingly made of the same substance. Scorpionlike in build, they skittered forward aggressively at the heroes' approach.</p><p></p><p>"Crysmals!" Sapphrina exclaimed before they struck. As Baabby was in the lead, he got the brunt of both attacks. Raising their tails in a manner reminiscent of a scorpion, they fired beams of purple energy from their tips. Each struck Baabby in the torso, causing him to cry out in pain.</p><p></p><p>Sam stepped up and fired an explosive arrow at the purple crysmal on the right - which, he could see, was the closest to the other exit from this cavern, and thus the way they needed to go. The crysmal was engulfed in the explosion, but as the smoke cleared Sam could see the crystalline being seemed not to have been harmed by the fire of the explosion, merely the concussive blast. Bummer! - he wasn't likely to get as much mileage as he was used to with his Dynabow 3.0 against these creatures!</p><p></p><p>At the crow's side, Sapphrina flew up and fired off a <em>ray of frost</em> spell. All she needed to do was hit the crysmal with her spell for it to take effect, but it went wild, striking a crystal projection off to the left of the beast. But Baabby had better luck with his attack, his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> chipping a few chunks off the crysmal's crystalline hide by the force of his blow. In response, the creature's tail pointed at the baabarian and another blast of energy was sent his way. The other crysmal, meanwhile, was suddenly no longer where it had been but was now immediately behind the baabarian, lining up a tail-strike.</p><p></p><p>With his Dynabow 3.0 needing time to recharge, Sam sent a flurry of three normal arrows at the crysmal behind Baabby. Those that hit bounced off the creature's hide, but it flinched as if they had at least hurt somewhat. Sapphrina followed Sam's attack with one of her own, another <em>ray of frost</em> - which missed in just as spectacular a fashion as her last shot. "What's up with you?" demanded Sam. "Do you need glasses all of a sudden?"</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Baabby had the situation well in hand. He brought his blade down onto the wounded crysmal, finishing it off, and then spun in place and sent his greatsword slashing into the side of the one who had <em>teleported</em> behind him. The crysmal retaliated by stabbing forward with the sharp point of its tail. Sam sent another trio of arrows crashing into the crysmal's body and Baabby finished it off with a final swing of his sword. Sore from where he'd been blasted by the crysmals' tail-beams, the baabarian cast a quick healing spell upon himself and deemed himself ready to move on.</p><p></p><p>The rock tunnel led to another massive geode, this one yellow with crystals the appearance of topaz. Standing in the middle of the chamber was a Large earth elemental, parts of its body filled with chips of topaz. At its side was what might have been its pet: another crysmal, this one similarly sporting a yellowish tinge to its crystalline body. Upon spotting the heroes, the elemental lumbered over. However, its speed left something to be desired, for before it could close the distance Sam sent an explosive arrow crashing into its midsection. Sapphrina flew up to Baabby, put a hand on his shoulder, and channeled an <em>enlarge person</em> spell into him. He grew to the same size as the charging elemental, causing the fairy to look over at Sam and declare, "I'm still plenty useful!"</p><p></p><p>"Just think about getting those glasses, that's all I'm saying," retorted Sam. "There's nothing wrong with the 'hot librarian' look!"</p><p></p><p>Baabby raced towards the approaching earth elemental at a much faster pace and swung his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> into its side, eliciting a grunt of pain from the rocky foe. Behind its master, the yellowish crysmal skittered sideways and shot its tail-beam at Baabby. Sam sent three arrows at the earth elemental, but he could tell by the way they snapped in pieces as they hit they weren't doing a lick of good.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina flew forward between Baabby and Sam and cast a <em>haste</em> spell that affected all three of them. "Useful!" she repeated.</p><p></p><p>Now that the two hulking behemoths were face-to-face, the elemental wasted no time going on the offensive. Twin fists slammed into Baabby's head and side, staggering him from the powerful blows. But he responded with an overhead strike with his greatsword, putting every ounce of strength into it. It was enough; the earth elemental crumbled apart into large chunks of rock and a plethora of gravel.</p><p></p><p>Her confidence back, Sapphrina targeted the crysmal with another <em>ray of frost</em> spell - and, to her dismay, missed for a third time. "Not as useful!" carped Sam, sending some normal arrows into the crysmal, since he knew they were at least vulnerable to being hit by them. But again it was Baabby who dealt the final blow.</p><p></p><p>Waving away suggestions of healing, Baabby raced into the next geode cavern. This one was green, with emeralds jutting out at weird angles from the walls, ceiling, and floor. There were three crysmals facing them, each green like the surrounding crystals, but the one in the middle was easily twice the size of the two on its flanks. With a battle cry, Baabby charged into the chamber, swinging his greatsword at the Large creature in the middle (the one Sam dubbed "Mommy Crysmal"). It reacted by shooting its tail-laser at Baabby's face, an act which did not endear it to the screaming sheep-man. Sapphrina cast a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on Baabby to keep him in the fight longer, because both she and Sam knew he was their best bet at beating Mommy Crysmal; the baabarian's companions would have all they could do dealing with the two smaller ones.</p><p></p><p>The smaller crysmals both instinctively took Baabby, twice the size of his companions, as the biggest threat they faced, so each targeted the sheep-man with their tail-blasts. Sam saw an opportunity and shot an explosive arrow at the ground between Mommy Crysmal and one of her offspring, engulfing them both in an explosive blast that at least did some concussive damage, if the fire effects were ignored. Baabby swung again at the Large crysmal, only to have his blade skitter across the crystalline surface of the creature's skin, affecting it not in the least. Mommy Crysmal and the farthest offspring both shot tail-lasers at Baabby, whereas the other one retaliated against Sam by targeting him. "Hey!" squawked Sam. "No fair!"</p><p></p><p>Three arrows clanged against the offending crysmal's body, an indication of Sam's irritation at having been lasered. Baabby got in a couple of good strikes with his blade, wounding the Large crysmal to the point it was wobbling on its arachnoid legs. Sapphrina flew up, touched her thumbs together while otherwise spreading her fingers, and used an old fairy trick to convert a <em>burning hands</em> spell into <em>acidic hands</em>, squirting streams of acid onto Mommy Crysmal and the one that had shot Sam. "Useful yet again!" she called out.</p><p></p><p>"I concede the point!" called out Sam, not wanting to hear about every time their fairy friend helped in battle. He shot another bunch of arrows at the little crysmal, finally killing it.</p><p></p><p>Mommy Crysmal, in the meantime, swung her tail into Baabby's face again and blasted him for all she was worth. With a look of abject surprise on his face, the hulking baabarian fell backwards, knocked out from the damage.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, crap!" cried out Sam. "We're never gonna beat that thing without him! Quick! Feed him one of his potions!" Sapphrina flew over to comply, pulling out a twice-normal-size potion flask from the baabarian's twice-normal-size belt, pulling the twice-normal-size cork off the end, and spilling it into the twice-normal-size mouth of their unconscious combat machine. Baabby sat up, sputtered, and got an immediate sense of the situation. "Thaanks!" he called, grabbing up the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> and allowing the rage to overcome him. His blow cut Mommy Crysmal in two and then the blade cleaved into the remaining crysmal's body for good measure. Sam shot the crysmal, the crysmal shot Baabby, Baabby cut the crysmal in half with his greatsword, and then that was that. The only excitement after that was calming Baabby out of his rage long enough for him to cast healing spells upon himself.</p><p></p><p>The next geode was bluish in color, but none of the heroes even gave the sapphire crystals a moment's notice - their focus was on the eyeball-tipped tentacle jutting up from a rift on the floor. <I do so look forward to the taste of your fears> the tentacle-thing thought at the heroes.</p><p></p><p>"You know my greatest fear?" taunted Sam. "That my good friend Don's eyeball might get sat on by an elephant - and the tip of the tentacle, unable to blink, will get a close-up view of the latter part of the elephant's digestive tract!" He was purposely trying to think of off-putting images - serves anybody right for poking around in his mind, where they didn't belong!</p><p></p><p><My name is not "Don"!> came the telepathic reply, and the irritation that came along with the statement showed Sam was hitting a nerve. Another indicator was the beam of energy that shot out from the eyeball, hitting Sam Crow square in the chest. The archer felt a familiar draining of his life energy. <You like that?> came the taunting, telepathic reply. <I'll be continually feasting upon your essence as I deal with your friends!></p><p></p><p>"Maybe," replied Sam, grabbing an arrow and charging it up with his Dynabow 3.0. "But I bet you won't be doing much draining once we blow you up!" The explosion made a rather decent bit of punctuation, the little crow thought.</p><p></p><p>Once again, Baabby stepped up as the explosion ran its course and as soon as the smoke had cleared his greatsword came slicing in for a precision strike, expertly slicing the tentacle halfway down its exposed length. The tip of the tentacle flopped around on the ground like a caught fish, then Baabby used his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> to close the rift into which the rest of the tentacle had retreated. As the rift closed, Sam felt the draining turn off as if somebody had turned off a switch. "That's much better," he said. "Thanks, Baabby!" The baabarian followed up with a few healing spells to get Sam back up to his full strength, and then the group was ready to move on.</p><p></p><p>The next geode was red in color, with ruby-crystals extending from all surfaces. In the middle of the geode stood an enormous earth elemental studded with rubies throughout its surface. Baabby was still twice his normal size, the result of Sapphrina's <em>enlarge person</em> spell, but this creature was at least another entire Baabby taller!</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" called out Sam as the creature started lumbering their way. "We've killed a whole bunch of elementals and crysmals before getting here! What makes you think you'll be any different? Howzabout you just stand back and let us pass, and you can go about whatever it is you do all day when not fighting dashing-looking heroes?" The elemental's plodding speed did not decrease in the least. "Oh well, it was worth a try!" said Sam, turning to comment to Baabby at his side.</p><p></p><p>That was a mistake! Having taken his eye off the enemy - even momentarily - Sam found himself the target of a massive fist almost as big as he was! Sam practically flew backwards and made a mental note to stand <em>behind</em> Baabby from now on when he was going to allow his attention to wander.</p><p></p><p>"My master will not allow it!" roared the elemental, long enough after Sam's comment that the heroes had to think back to what their foe was referring to. More than a bit big, this elemental, but more than a bit thick - in both senses of the word!</p><p></p><p>"Your master isn't named 'Don' by any chance, is it?" asked Sam as he sent an explosive arrow blasting into the earth elemental's torso while Baabby stepped back out of range. "Because we've already beaten him twice already today. I hate to mention it, but he's kind fo a wuss. You might want to go find somebody a little tougher for your next master. Say! I think I know where you might find a chompy...."</p><p></p><p>"SHUT UP!" cried the earth elemental. "Bird-thing talk too much!"</p><p></p><p>"That's not actually my fault," countered Sam. "I'm part parrot on my mother's side...." As the archer was keeping the earth elemental distracted, Baabby stepped up and swung the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> at their foe, but for once the blade did little but glance off the creature's stony hide. Sapphrina, seeing her original spell fade, recast <em>haste</em> on the three heroes, which definitely helped.</p><p></p><p>As if noticing the sheep-man for the first time (and as Sam had backed off out of range), the earth elemental slammed Baabby with its massive fists. While Baabby reeled, Sam sent three arrows flying at the elemental, but even as they struck he knew they wouldn't be doing anything but possibly irritating the massive foe. Baabby hit the elemental with his greatsword, this time doing some damage, but the elemental's retaliation sent consciousness fleeing from the baabarian at its fastest possible speed.</p><p></p><p>"Not again!" cried Sam, rushing forward and using one of his own healing potions to revive the baabarian, their only real hope in defeating the earth elemental. Sapphrina flew up and cast a <em>bear's endurance</em> on Baabby as well and together the two measures managed to revive him. Baabby continued the fight, chipping away at the elemental's form bit by bit until he finally laid the final blow that shattered the creature into thousands of chunks of rock and ruby. With its last moment of movement, it glanced down at its slayer as if seeing him truly for the first time, and begged, "Free the <strong>Stonefather</strong>...."</p><p></p><p>Nobody was sure what that necessarily meant, but it sure sounded like the elemental had been siding with the Devourer of Nightmares against his will - and that another of his kind was similarly imprisoned, mentally or otherwise. After healing spells brought the heroes to their full fighting trim, they moved on to what would turn out to be the last geode cavern in the entire complex.</p><p></p><p>This last one was filled with diamonds, and the light was bright enough to cause the heroes to have to squint. Another earth elemental, this one large enough to be given the nomenclature "Earth Titan" (at least, according to Sapphrina) was apparently the Stonefather. If so, the ruby-elemental's plea to free him was a literal one, for his limbs and torso were bound in two massive tentacles that squeezed him as he struggled fruitlessly to get free. Two more tentacles rose up from rifts in the ground, but these two had the now-familiar eyeballs at their tips. And every now and then, as the Stonfather struggled to free himself, Sam and Sapphrina could see through his legs a hovering, robed figure at the back of the chamber.</p><p></p><p>The eyeballs each shot out a ray of life draining; each hit Baabby and absorbed some of his life energy, but the experience did not shake the baabarian's resolve in the least. Sam stepped out from behind Baabby and shot an explosive arrow at the leftmost eyeball-tentacle, grinning as it went up in flames. Baabby raced into the room and swung absently at the other eyeball-tentacle as he passed it, but the thing was nimble and the blade swooshed by without making contact. Sapphrina, realizing every bit of damage they could deal to their foes would get them that much closer to gaining the Earth Rune for Baabby's greatsword, flew up to the leftmost eyeball tentacle and let fly with an <em>acidic hands</em> spell variant. Sam followed her attack up with three normal arrows, but as each one hit and bounced off with a solid thunk, the crow realized just what kind of spell punk was floating there at the back of the room - and what they could do for their allies.</p><p></p><p>"Baabby!" he called. "Get the spell punk! He's covered the other enemies in <em>stoneskin</em> spells!"</p><p></p><p><You're too late!> came a telepathic taunt from the eyeballs. <You will be defeated, and I will savor the taste of your nightmares for days on end!></p><p></p><p>"Ha!" scoffed Sam, readying another explosive arrow. "Says the mighty Don, who we've already beaten twice -- today!"</p><p></p><p><You won't best me again!> came the telepathic reply. <I know your capabilities, little crow, and they fail to impress! After all...you're part "Don" on your father's side!></p><p></p><p>"Pffft!" cried Sam. "Is that all you've got? You're just trying to scare me with ridiculous ideas about my family tree - which you are in no way a part of!" And he let fly with his arrow, which exploded nicely around the rightmost eyeball tentacle.</p><p></p><p>Baabby, in the meantime, had skirted around the struggling Stonefather and send the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> crashing down on the earth spell punk fiddling around with a closed rift in the back of the chamber, trying to get it opened up. By the time he was aware of the baabarian's approach, it was far too late for the spell punk. He died after one strike, and the <em>stoneskins</em> protecting his allies all died with him. Baabby turned his greatsword to the task of freeing the Stonefather by slicing into one of the two massive tentacles pinning him in place.</p><p></p><p>"That's more like it!" agreed Sapphrina, sending another <em>acidic hands</em> spell squirting acid into the leftmost eyeball tentacle. At this range it was hard to miss - but it was also easy to see that the center of the eyeball's pupil was ringed with teeth! "Yecch!" she cried in disgust.</p><p></p><p>For her efforts, she was blasted by a beam from the leftmost eyeball, just as Baabby was hit with a similar blast from the one on the right. Sam shot another three arrows into the left eyeball, and this time they managed to inflict no small amount of pain.</p><p></p><p>Another acidic attack from Sapphrina and another barrage of arrows from Sam left the leftmost eyeball-tentacle staggering and just about to fall. But then Baabby finally cut through the tentacle he'd been working on and shifted over to work on the other one. Freed from half of his wrestling opponents, the Stonefather was able to better apply his own grappling attempts against the lone tentacle remaining, and at last it too had been severed.</p><p></p><p>"Took you long enough!" grumbled the Stonefather. "I've been trapped here for centuries!"</p><p></p><p>"I only just recently got the sword!" replied Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"You're not Xacho?"</p><p></p><p>"No, I'm Baabby!"</p><p></p><p>"Eh, you little humanoids all look alike to me...." The Stonefather and Baabby turned as one, facing the only remaining foes in the diamond geode: two eyeball-tentacles poking up out of rifts from the floor. Each eyeball looked at the other one and then in unison each retracted back through its respective rift.</p><p></p><p>"Oh no, you don't!" called Sam as he raced to the rightmost rift. "Sapphrina! Face the wall!" he commanded.</p><p></p><p>"Why?"</p><p></p><p>"Just do it! It's important!" cried Sam as he skidded to a halt at the lip of the rightmost rift and started unbuckling his pants. Then, seeing that their fairy friend's head was averted as requested, he dropped his trousers and squatted over the rift. "Hey Don!" he called. "Specially delivery!" And then he let fly with a disgusting stream of whitish bird poop.</p><p></p><p>"Heh heh heh!" the archer smirked, incredibly pleased with himself. After hitching his pants back into position, he told the fairy it was safe to look again.</p><p></p><p>"I don't think I even want to know," she said as Baabby used his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> to close each rift in turn.</p><p></p><p>That only left the rift in the back of the chamber, the one the earth spell punk had been fiddling with. Baabby unlocked it with his blade, opening a rift into an extradimensional space. Sapphrina had to dismiss the <em>enlarge person</em> spell so Baabby was able to fit, but all three passed through the rift into a smaller geode with numerous crystals of different colors throughout. The fairy used her powers to channel the Earth energy from the area, and it coalesced into the Earth Rune, which promptly adhered itself to the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>.</p><p></p><p>"Mission accomplished," Baabby said with some pride.</p><p></p><p>The heroes returned to the diamond geode, where the Stonefather thanked them for freeing him. As a tangible form of appreciation, he gave them about 20,000 gold pieces each worth of diamonds from his own geode. "Whoa!" gasped Sam, carefully shoveling each stone into his extradimensional backpack.</p><p></p><p>"This has been the best adventure yet!" gushed Sam. "The best treasure, <em>and</em> an opportunity to crap on Don in his own prison!"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, tell me you didn't!" said the fairy, her nose squinching in disgust. Sam just smiled at her and deliberately did not tell her he hadn't.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>According to Logan, the next adventure will find our heroes in an appropriately large city with a substantial library, where Sapphrina does research on the possible location of the Tech rune, while Sam and Baabby go shopping!</p><p></p><p>For the geodes, Logan purchased a pack of sparkly sheets of paper of different color, then measured out 1-inch squares with a yardstick and drew over the pencil marks with a black Sharpie. The connecting tunnels were more tunnel maps from a Paizo Map Pack set. We used D&D Miniatures for the elementals and Logan had me make up crysmal tokens of the two different sizes. For the eyeball-tentacles, he used some purple, clear-plastic tentacle miniatures he picked up from a game shop some time ago. (We use them to designate the central area of effect of <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spells, which the wizard in our standard D&D campaign uses frequently.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7142504, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 14: THE GEODE CAVERNS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 7 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 7[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 7[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 10 June 2017 - - - After an arduous, sweaty hike through the rain forest, the heroes found themselves at last at the Perilous Plateau. And as luck would have it, immediately before them was the opening to a cave; Sam would not have been surprised to find the cave opening to the Geode Caverns at the very top, requiring a lengthy climb. But no: there it was, a dark opening at ground level of the plateau, with glittering light within hinting at the possibility of sparkling geodes just out of sight. "Finally!" gasped Sam. "Let's go!" However, he only managed to take a single step forward before everything went wonky. There was a brief moment of dizziness, followed by a lingering sensation of [i]wrongness[/i] - as if the universe suddenly tasted purple. And there, writhing in front of the heroes, was the apparent cause of the weirdness: a wriggling tentacle with an eyeball at its tip, rising up from a rift in the ground that hadn't been there a moment before. <Welcome!> said a buzzing in the back of the three adventurers' heads. <I look forward to tasting your fears! Especially yours, Xacho - it's been so long!> "Well, you just made a major fool out of yourself, Don," commented Sam. "Does that eyeball of yours even work? Does he" - and here he pointed at Baabby - "look [i]anything[/i] like Xacho? Why don't you just wear an 'I'm an idiot' sign around your neck?" There was no reply from the eyeball-tentacle, except perhaps the telepathic equivalent of spluttering noises. "Ah--got it! No neck!" replied Sam, answering his own question. "If you like, Don, we could probably fashion a dunce cap or something for you to wear on your eyeball. Or - here's an idea - maybe we'll just blow you up to kingdom come!" And with that, Sam sent an explosive arrow flying at the monstrosity. The explosion caused yowls of pain to manifest in the back of the heroes' heads as the abomination mentally cried out, but then Baabby stepped up and cut the thing in two with a perfectly-aimed strike of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. The rest of the tentacle pulled back into the rift, and the baabarian used his magic greatsword to close the rift behind it. "Well, we're off to an interesting staart," he commented. "Waas that really the Devourer of Nightmares?" "A part of him, likely," answered Sapphrina. "He's still supposed to be locked away, though - it's disturbing that he's able to open rifts, even small ones that allow him to poke part of him outside his prison." "Well, let's not dwell on it," suggested Baabby, leading the way into the cave. "We've got an Earth Rune to fetch." After a short passageway of normal rock, the cavern opened up into a massive geode, with purple crystals like giant amethysts jutting from every surface. Blending in with the crystals were two creatures of the same color and seemingly made of the same substance. Scorpionlike in build, they skittered forward aggressively at the heroes' approach. "Crysmals!" Sapphrina exclaimed before they struck. As Baabby was in the lead, he got the brunt of both attacks. Raising their tails in a manner reminiscent of a scorpion, they fired beams of purple energy from their tips. Each struck Baabby in the torso, causing him to cry out in pain. Sam stepped up and fired an explosive arrow at the purple crysmal on the right - which, he could see, was the closest to the other exit from this cavern, and thus the way they needed to go. The crysmal was engulfed in the explosion, but as the smoke cleared Sam could see the crystalline being seemed not to have been harmed by the fire of the explosion, merely the concussive blast. Bummer! - he wasn't likely to get as much mileage as he was used to with his Dynabow 3.0 against these creatures! At the crow's side, Sapphrina flew up and fired off a [i]ray of frost[/i] spell. All she needed to do was hit the crysmal with her spell for it to take effect, but it went wild, striking a crystal projection off to the left of the beast. But Baabby had better luck with his attack, his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] chipping a few chunks off the crysmal's crystalline hide by the force of his blow. In response, the creature's tail pointed at the baabarian and another blast of energy was sent his way. The other crysmal, meanwhile, was suddenly no longer where it had been but was now immediately behind the baabarian, lining up a tail-strike. With his Dynabow 3.0 needing time to recharge, Sam sent a flurry of three normal arrows at the crysmal behind Baabby. Those that hit bounced off the creature's hide, but it flinched as if they had at least hurt somewhat. Sapphrina followed Sam's attack with one of her own, another [i]ray of frost[/i] - which missed in just as spectacular a fashion as her last shot. "What's up with you?" demanded Sam. "Do you need glasses all of a sudden?" Fortunately, Baabby had the situation well in hand. He brought his blade down onto the wounded crysmal, finishing it off, and then spun in place and sent his greatsword slashing into the side of the one who had [i]teleported[/i] behind him. The crysmal retaliated by stabbing forward with the sharp point of its tail. Sam sent another trio of arrows crashing into the crysmal's body and Baabby finished it off with a final swing of his sword. Sore from where he'd been blasted by the crysmals' tail-beams, the baabarian cast a quick healing spell upon himself and deemed himself ready to move on. The rock tunnel led to another massive geode, this one yellow with crystals the appearance of topaz. Standing in the middle of the chamber was a Large earth elemental, parts of its body filled with chips of topaz. At its side was what might have been its pet: another crysmal, this one similarly sporting a yellowish tinge to its crystalline body. Upon spotting the heroes, the elemental lumbered over. However, its speed left something to be desired, for before it could close the distance Sam sent an explosive arrow crashing into its midsection. Sapphrina flew up to Baabby, put a hand on his shoulder, and channeled an [i]enlarge person[/i] spell into him. He grew to the same size as the charging elemental, causing the fairy to look over at Sam and declare, "I'm still plenty useful!" "Just think about getting those glasses, that's all I'm saying," retorted Sam. "There's nothing wrong with the 'hot librarian' look!" Baabby raced towards the approaching earth elemental at a much faster pace and swung his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] into its side, eliciting a grunt of pain from the rocky foe. Behind its master, the yellowish crysmal skittered sideways and shot its tail-beam at Baabby. Sam sent three arrows at the earth elemental, but he could tell by the way they snapped in pieces as they hit they weren't doing a lick of good. Sapphrina flew forward between Baabby and Sam and cast a [i]haste[/i] spell that affected all three of them. "Useful!" she repeated. Now that the two hulking behemoths were face-to-face, the elemental wasted no time going on the offensive. Twin fists slammed into Baabby's head and side, staggering him from the powerful blows. But he responded with an overhead strike with his greatsword, putting every ounce of strength into it. It was enough; the earth elemental crumbled apart into large chunks of rock and a plethora of gravel. Her confidence back, Sapphrina targeted the crysmal with another [i]ray of frost[/i] spell - and, to her dismay, missed for a third time. "Not as useful!" carped Sam, sending some normal arrows into the crysmal, since he knew they were at least vulnerable to being hit by them. But again it was Baabby who dealt the final blow. Waving away suggestions of healing, Baabby raced into the next geode cavern. This one was green, with emeralds jutting out at weird angles from the walls, ceiling, and floor. There were three crysmals facing them, each green like the surrounding crystals, but the one in the middle was easily twice the size of the two on its flanks. With a battle cry, Baabby charged into the chamber, swinging his greatsword at the Large creature in the middle (the one Sam dubbed "Mommy Crysmal"). It reacted by shooting its tail-laser at Baabby's face, an act which did not endear it to the screaming sheep-man. Sapphrina cast a [i]bear's endurance[/i] spell on Baabby to keep him in the fight longer, because both she and Sam knew he was their best bet at beating Mommy Crysmal; the baabarian's companions would have all they could do dealing with the two smaller ones. The smaller crysmals both instinctively took Baabby, twice the size of his companions, as the biggest threat they faced, so each targeted the sheep-man with their tail-blasts. Sam saw an opportunity and shot an explosive arrow at the ground between Mommy Crysmal and one of her offspring, engulfing them both in an explosive blast that at least did some concussive damage, if the fire effects were ignored. Baabby swung again at the Large crysmal, only to have his blade skitter across the crystalline surface of the creature's skin, affecting it not in the least. Mommy Crysmal and the farthest offspring both shot tail-lasers at Baabby, whereas the other one retaliated against Sam by targeting him. "Hey!" squawked Sam. "No fair!" Three arrows clanged against the offending crysmal's body, an indication of Sam's irritation at having been lasered. Baabby got in a couple of good strikes with his blade, wounding the Large crysmal to the point it was wobbling on its arachnoid legs. Sapphrina flew up, touched her thumbs together while otherwise spreading her fingers, and used an old fairy trick to convert a [i]burning hands[/i] spell into [i]acidic hands[/i], squirting streams of acid onto Mommy Crysmal and the one that had shot Sam. "Useful yet again!" she called out. "I concede the point!" called out Sam, not wanting to hear about every time their fairy friend helped in battle. He shot another bunch of arrows at the little crysmal, finally killing it. Mommy Crysmal, in the meantime, swung her tail into Baabby's face again and blasted him for all she was worth. With a look of abject surprise on his face, the hulking baabarian fell backwards, knocked out from the damage. "Oh, crap!" cried out Sam. "We're never gonna beat that thing without him! Quick! Feed him one of his potions!" Sapphrina flew over to comply, pulling out a twice-normal-size potion flask from the baabarian's twice-normal-size belt, pulling the twice-normal-size cork off the end, and spilling it into the twice-normal-size mouth of their unconscious combat machine. Baabby sat up, sputtered, and got an immediate sense of the situation. "Thaanks!" he called, grabbing up the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] and allowing the rage to overcome him. His blow cut Mommy Crysmal in two and then the blade cleaved into the remaining crysmal's body for good measure. Sam shot the crysmal, the crysmal shot Baabby, Baabby cut the crysmal in half with his greatsword, and then that was that. The only excitement after that was calming Baabby out of his rage long enough for him to cast healing spells upon himself. The next geode was bluish in color, but none of the heroes even gave the sapphire crystals a moment's notice - their focus was on the eyeball-tipped tentacle jutting up from a rift on the floor. <I do so look forward to the taste of your fears> the tentacle-thing thought at the heroes. "You know my greatest fear?" taunted Sam. "That my good friend Don's eyeball might get sat on by an elephant - and the tip of the tentacle, unable to blink, will get a close-up view of the latter part of the elephant's digestive tract!" He was purposely trying to think of off-putting images - serves anybody right for poking around in his mind, where they didn't belong! <My name is not "Don"!> came the telepathic reply, and the irritation that came along with the statement showed Sam was hitting a nerve. Another indicator was the beam of energy that shot out from the eyeball, hitting Sam Crow square in the chest. The archer felt a familiar draining of his life energy. <You like that?> came the taunting, telepathic reply. <I'll be continually feasting upon your essence as I deal with your friends!> "Maybe," replied Sam, grabbing an arrow and charging it up with his Dynabow 3.0. "But I bet you won't be doing much draining once we blow you up!" The explosion made a rather decent bit of punctuation, the little crow thought. Once again, Baabby stepped up as the explosion ran its course and as soon as the smoke had cleared his greatsword came slicing in for a precision strike, expertly slicing the tentacle halfway down its exposed length. The tip of the tentacle flopped around on the ground like a caught fish, then Baabby used his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] to close the rift into which the rest of the tentacle had retreated. As the rift closed, Sam felt the draining turn off as if somebody had turned off a switch. "That's much better," he said. "Thanks, Baabby!" The baabarian followed up with a few healing spells to get Sam back up to his full strength, and then the group was ready to move on. The next geode was red in color, with ruby-crystals extending from all surfaces. In the middle of the geode stood an enormous earth elemental studded with rubies throughout its surface. Baabby was still twice his normal size, the result of Sapphrina's [i]enlarge person[/i] spell, but this creature was at least another entire Baabby taller! "Hey!" called out Sam as the creature started lumbering their way. "We've killed a whole bunch of elementals and crysmals before getting here! What makes you think you'll be any different? Howzabout you just stand back and let us pass, and you can go about whatever it is you do all day when not fighting dashing-looking heroes?" The elemental's plodding speed did not decrease in the least. "Oh well, it was worth a try!" said Sam, turning to comment to Baabby at his side. That was a mistake! Having taken his eye off the enemy - even momentarily - Sam found himself the target of a massive fist almost as big as he was! Sam practically flew backwards and made a mental note to stand [i]behind[/i] Baabby from now on when he was going to allow his attention to wander. "My master will not allow it!" roared the elemental, long enough after Sam's comment that the heroes had to think back to what their foe was referring to. More than a bit big, this elemental, but more than a bit thick - in both senses of the word! "Your master isn't named 'Don' by any chance, is it?" asked Sam as he sent an explosive arrow blasting into the earth elemental's torso while Baabby stepped back out of range. "Because we've already beaten him twice already today. I hate to mention it, but he's kind fo a wuss. You might want to go find somebody a little tougher for your next master. Say! I think I know where you might find a chompy...." "SHUT UP!" cried the earth elemental. "Bird-thing talk too much!" "That's not actually my fault," countered Sam. "I'm part parrot on my mother's side...." As the archer was keeping the earth elemental distracted, Baabby stepped up and swung the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] at their foe, but for once the blade did little but glance off the creature's stony hide. Sapphrina, seeing her original spell fade, recast [i]haste[/i] on the three heroes, which definitely helped. As if noticing the sheep-man for the first time (and as Sam had backed off out of range), the earth elemental slammed Baabby with its massive fists. While Baabby reeled, Sam sent three arrows flying at the elemental, but even as they struck he knew they wouldn't be doing anything but possibly irritating the massive foe. Baabby hit the elemental with his greatsword, this time doing some damage, but the elemental's retaliation sent consciousness fleeing from the baabarian at its fastest possible speed. "Not again!" cried Sam, rushing forward and using one of his own healing potions to revive the baabarian, their only real hope in defeating the earth elemental. Sapphrina flew up and cast a [i]bear's endurance[/i] on Baabby as well and together the two measures managed to revive him. Baabby continued the fight, chipping away at the elemental's form bit by bit until he finally laid the final blow that shattered the creature into thousands of chunks of rock and ruby. With its last moment of movement, it glanced down at its slayer as if seeing him truly for the first time, and begged, "Free the [b]Stonefather[/b]...." Nobody was sure what that necessarily meant, but it sure sounded like the elemental had been siding with the Devourer of Nightmares against his will - and that another of his kind was similarly imprisoned, mentally or otherwise. After healing spells brought the heroes to their full fighting trim, they moved on to what would turn out to be the last geode cavern in the entire complex. This last one was filled with diamonds, and the light was bright enough to cause the heroes to have to squint. Another earth elemental, this one large enough to be given the nomenclature "Earth Titan" (at least, according to Sapphrina) was apparently the Stonefather. If so, the ruby-elemental's plea to free him was a literal one, for his limbs and torso were bound in two massive tentacles that squeezed him as he struggled fruitlessly to get free. Two more tentacles rose up from rifts in the ground, but these two had the now-familiar eyeballs at their tips. And every now and then, as the Stonfather struggled to free himself, Sam and Sapphrina could see through his legs a hovering, robed figure at the back of the chamber. The eyeballs each shot out a ray of life draining; each hit Baabby and absorbed some of his life energy, but the experience did not shake the baabarian's resolve in the least. Sam stepped out from behind Baabby and shot an explosive arrow at the leftmost eyeball-tentacle, grinning as it went up in flames. Baabby raced into the room and swung absently at the other eyeball-tentacle as he passed it, but the thing was nimble and the blade swooshed by without making contact. Sapphrina, realizing every bit of damage they could deal to their foes would get them that much closer to gaining the Earth Rune for Baabby's greatsword, flew up to the leftmost eyeball tentacle and let fly with an [i]acidic hands[/i] spell variant. Sam followed her attack up with three normal arrows, but as each one hit and bounced off with a solid thunk, the crow realized just what kind of spell punk was floating there at the back of the room - and what they could do for their allies. "Baabby!" he called. "Get the spell punk! He's covered the other enemies in [i]stoneskin[/i] spells!" <You're too late!> came a telepathic taunt from the eyeballs. <You will be defeated, and I will savor the taste of your nightmares for days on end!> "Ha!" scoffed Sam, readying another explosive arrow. "Says the mighty Don, who we've already beaten twice -- today!" <You won't best me again!> came the telepathic reply. <I know your capabilities, little crow, and they fail to impress! After all...you're part "Don" on your father's side!> "Pffft!" cried Sam. "Is that all you've got? You're just trying to scare me with ridiculous ideas about my family tree - which you are in no way a part of!" And he let fly with his arrow, which exploded nicely around the rightmost eyeball tentacle. Baabby, in the meantime, had skirted around the struggling Stonefather and send the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] crashing down on the earth spell punk fiddling around with a closed rift in the back of the chamber, trying to get it opened up. By the time he was aware of the baabarian's approach, it was far too late for the spell punk. He died after one strike, and the [i]stoneskins[/i] protecting his allies all died with him. Baabby turned his greatsword to the task of freeing the Stonefather by slicing into one of the two massive tentacles pinning him in place. "That's more like it!" agreed Sapphrina, sending another [i]acidic hands[/i] spell squirting acid into the leftmost eyeball tentacle. At this range it was hard to miss - but it was also easy to see that the center of the eyeball's pupil was ringed with teeth! "Yecch!" she cried in disgust. For her efforts, she was blasted by a beam from the leftmost eyeball, just as Baabby was hit with a similar blast from the one on the right. Sam shot another three arrows into the left eyeball, and this time they managed to inflict no small amount of pain. Another acidic attack from Sapphrina and another barrage of arrows from Sam left the leftmost eyeball-tentacle staggering and just about to fall. But then Baabby finally cut through the tentacle he'd been working on and shifted over to work on the other one. Freed from half of his wrestling opponents, the Stonefather was able to better apply his own grappling attempts against the lone tentacle remaining, and at last it too had been severed. "Took you long enough!" grumbled the Stonefather. "I've been trapped here for centuries!" "I only just recently got the sword!" replied Baabby. "You're not Xacho?" "No, I'm Baabby!" "Eh, you little humanoids all look alike to me...." The Stonefather and Baabby turned as one, facing the only remaining foes in the diamond geode: two eyeball-tentacles poking up out of rifts from the floor. Each eyeball looked at the other one and then in unison each retracted back through its respective rift. "Oh no, you don't!" called Sam as he raced to the rightmost rift. "Sapphrina! Face the wall!" he commanded. "Why?" "Just do it! It's important!" cried Sam as he skidded to a halt at the lip of the rightmost rift and started unbuckling his pants. Then, seeing that their fairy friend's head was averted as requested, he dropped his trousers and squatted over the rift. "Hey Don!" he called. "Specially delivery!" And then he let fly with a disgusting stream of whitish bird poop. "Heh heh heh!" the archer smirked, incredibly pleased with himself. After hitching his pants back into position, he told the fairy it was safe to look again. "I don't think I even want to know," she said as Baabby used his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] to close each rift in turn. That only left the rift in the back of the chamber, the one the earth spell punk had been fiddling with. Baabby unlocked it with his blade, opening a rift into an extradimensional space. Sapphrina had to dismiss the [i]enlarge person[/i] spell so Baabby was able to fit, but all three passed through the rift into a smaller geode with numerous crystals of different colors throughout. The fairy used her powers to channel the Earth energy from the area, and it coalesced into the Earth Rune, which promptly adhered itself to the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. "Mission accomplished," Baabby said with some pride. The heroes returned to the diamond geode, where the Stonefather thanked them for freeing him. As a tangible form of appreciation, he gave them about 20,000 gold pieces each worth of diamonds from his own geode. "Whoa!" gasped Sam, carefully shoveling each stone into his extradimensional backpack. "This has been the best adventure yet!" gushed Sam. "The best treasure, [i]and[/i] an opportunity to crap on Don in his own prison!" "Oh, tell me you didn't!" said the fairy, her nose squinching in disgust. Sam just smiled at her and deliberately did not tell her he hadn't. - - - According to Logan, the next adventure will find our heroes in an appropriately large city with a substantial library, where Sapphrina does research on the possible location of the Tech rune, while Sam and Baabby go shopping! For the geodes, Logan purchased a pack of sparkly sheets of paper of different color, then measured out 1-inch squares with a yardstick and drew over the pencil marks with a black Sharpie. The connecting tunnels were more tunnel maps from a Paizo Map Pack set. We used D&D Miniatures for the elementals and Logan had me make up crysmal tokens of the two different sizes. For the eyeball-tentacles, he used some purple, clear-plastic tentacle miniatures he picked up from a game shop some time ago. (We use them to designate the central area of effect of [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spells, which the wizard in our standard D&D campaign uses frequently.) [/QUOTE]
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