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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7561267" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 37: MIST YA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galen Thorne, human paladin 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Syngaard, human fighter 12</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 6 February 2019</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"Wait, what?" asked Syngaard, stepping into the <em>Enchanted Flagon</em> after having been summoned there by Skevros. "What's <em>she</em> doing here?"</p><p></p><p>"Purchasing your services," purred Serenity, indicating a bag of coins on the table. Syngaard picked one up and looked at it - it was shiny and much thicker than a normal coin.</p><p></p><p>"Silver?" scoffed Syngaard, looking down at the bag. "Can't be more than a hundred silver coins in there. What's the catch?"</p><p></p><p>"Look closer," suggested the succubus. "Those aren't silver - they're mithral. Each of those coins is worth 100 pieces of gold. That's the equivalent of 10,000 gold pieces, two grand for each of the five of you. Interested?"</p><p></p><p>"Hell, yeah!" Syngaard quickly agreed, taking a seat at the table. In anticipation of his normal request, Karen set a tankard of ale in front of him.</p><p></p><p>"What is the nature of our mission?" asked Kaspar, sitting beside the bald fighter. "I assume it has something to do with Ashfall?"</p><p></p><p>"It does. Three days ago, a dark mist fell over a small farming village. Those sent to investigate never returned. As a result, I was called back from my sentry duties in the Baator's Breath Mountains to investigate the situation with another group. Unfortunately, as I approached the mist, I was mentally assaulted - it's hard to explain, it was a sort of...shouting whispers, if that makes any sense."</p><p></p><p>"Not really," admitted Syngaard, taking a swig from his tankard. He didn't mind, though - a lot of the group's missions didn't make a whole lot of sense to the scarred fighter. Usually all he cared about was being pointed in the direction of whoever needed killing, and then getting paid at the end.</p><p></p><p>"Fortunately, the people I was with were unaffected and they were able to drag me away from the mist," Serenity continued. "I believe it was my telepathic nature that made me susceptible to the mist's effects."</p><p></p><p><em>If you're so telepathic, can you tell what I'm thinking right now?</em> thought Galen, staring at the shapely reformed demon before him. He may have been a paladin of Hieroneous, but he was also a red-blooded male in the prime of his youth.</p><p></p><p>"I certainly can," Serenity smiled, looking straight at Galen, causing a look of confusion to pass between Orion and Daleth at the nonsequitur. They looked over at the paladin, wondering what was causing him to suddenly blush so.</p><p></p><p>"In any case," the succubus continued, smirking at Galen's embarrassment, "it was decided to send in the Heroes of Ashfall to check out the situation - hence my presence and the payment from a grateful kingdom. To earn the mithral coins, you need only enter the mist, determine what's causing it, put a stop to it, and hopefully prevent it from occurring again." She looked around at the assembled group. "Any questions?"</p><p></p><p>Skevros looked expectantly at Syngaard, but for once his most burning question had already been answered - this was indeed a paying mission. He gave the last of his ale his undivided attention while the rest of the group made their preparations. Orion whistled for Carl to manifest and he did so, the <em>ghost touch saddle</em> already in place. The little halfling was glad to see that the spirit of her riding dog had attuned enough to the magic saddle that when he was slain - as had been the case last week when Karlo Maladucci had demonstrated his half-fiend powers by killing Carl and paralyzing Orion - the saddle went with him. That was much simpler than having to fetch it and hold onto it until the next time her ghost-dog manifested. Climbing up into the saddle, Orion unstoppered a <em>potion of mage armor</em> and Carl happily lapped it up.</p><p></p><p>Daleth cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the group - all but Kaspar, that is. The wizard had decided his fellow elf was best-prepared to handle things on his own without mental discussion with the others, given that Daleth's mastery of the spell thus far only allowed him to link together four minds. "I'll be fine," Kaspar reassured the wizard.</p><p></p><p>Galen dithered over whether or not to summon his dire lion Burt right away or wait until he was needed; eventually he opted for the latter choice. "We about done?" Syngaard finally asked, setting down his empty mug. "We're burnin' daylight. Sooner we get this done, sooner we get paid."</p><p></p><p>Upon the group's acknowledgement of readiness, Skevros walked with them to the edge of the kingdom; he stayed within the confines of Durnhill while they stepped across the border - and, more importantly, outside the wards that prevented teleportation magic from functioning within Durnhill. Then the king's adviser cast a <em>teleport</em> spell on the assembled conscripts and they disappeared from sight. "I wish them well!" said Serenity, before disappearing herself, vanishing in a puff of smoke.</p><p></p><p>"I don't see no cloud of mist," Syngaard observed upon suddenly appearing in an open field.</p><p></p><p>"It's this way, Syngaard," pointed out Kaspar, turning the fighter - who'd arrived with his back to the obscured village - around. Or at least, the elf monk assumed it was the village; it was, at the very least, a large, oily mass of vapors that could easily hide a small farming village within its boundaries.</p><p></p><p>Todd immediately started panicking. <Voices!> he cried out telepathically, not only to his master but to the other conscripts as well. <Dozens--hundreds! Whispering! Screaming! Talking over each other!> Daleth cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself and the pseudodragon settled down at once. <That's much better--thanks!> Todd said. He shuddered, shaking his head at the memory of the cacophony of mental voices.</p><p></p><p>"I think you'd better stay away from the mist," Daleth suggested to his familiar. "Serenity said you'd be particularly vulnerable."</p><p></p><p><I'd probably be okay if I stayed within the radius of your spell.></p><p></p><p>"True, but if anything happened...I think I'd feel better if you were safely outside of the mist. I'll tell you what, though - you can be on aerial patrol, and let me know if you see anyone approaching while we're all inside the cloud."</p><p></p><p><Deal!> answered Todd, before taking wing and flying high above the mist-covered farming village.</p><p></p><p>Galen cast his own <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, certain that whatever they might find lurking inside the mist would undoubtedly be of an evil nature - and, in fact, the very mist itself was triggering his ability to <em>detect evil</em>. Then, as an experiment, he stepped up to the border of the mist. Where his spell radius overlapped the mist, it lightened to a grayish color; stepping back, the mist darkened back to almost black. "Visibility's going to be rather limited in there," the paladin noted. He pulled out a few sunrods from his backpack and offered them to the others, activating one of them himself.</p><p></p><p>"I'm good," replied Syngaard, holding his <em>flaming brilliant energy morningstar</em> in his right hand like a torch. Beside him, Daleth cast a <em>light</em> spell on the end of his <em>metamagic rod of empower</em>. Orion took a proffered sunrod from the paladin with a nod of thanks, but Kaspar turned down the offer - despite the increased light it would provide, he preferred to keep his hands free for combat. Besides, if he needed light, he could activate the flames of his <em>tenryutsume</em> into being at will.</p><p></p><p>"We ready?" Syngaard asked.</p><p></p><p>"You are ready...are ready...ready..." answered a series of echoing voices from the mist. "Well, that's just creepy," the bald fighter observed.</p><p></p><p>As if in response, Kaspar sped straight ahead into the mist, being swallowed by the dark cloud almost instantly. He found himself just south of a large building. He also found being surrounded by the mist was somewhat debilitating: breathing in the dark vapors hurt the elf's lungs. But there was no way to investigate the village without exposing oneself to the mists, so the monk mentally shrugged and pressed on, sure that his great speed would allow him to race outside of the mist's boundaries if he got himself into too much trouble.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard was the next to enter the mist; he ended up on the other side of the building from Kaspar. He also noted the pain caused by inhaling the dark vapors and passed that information on to the rest of the group via the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell before pressing on ahead.</p><p></p><p><Interesting,> replied Daleth, putting together the two facts about the pain of breathing in the mist and that it had answered a question. <It would seem the mist has many of the properties of osteovox! It might very well be somehow related. I wonder: how we might protect ourselves from its debilitating effects?></p><p></p><p><You are already protected...are already protected...already protected...protected....> came the voices from the fog. <em>That's certainly handy!</em> thought the elf to himself. He assumed it was the <em>magic circle against evil</em> that would protect him from the osteovox cloud...if the voices in the mist could actually be trusted to be telling the truth. Not willing to believe the mist himself, Galen drank down a <em>potion of delay poison</em> and offered Daleth a <em>potion of neutralize poison</em>, which the elf gratefully accepted.</p><p></p><p><Visibility's about 10 feet or so,> Syngaard observed from inside the cloud of dark vapors. <I got movement up ahead...It's a skeleton!> Sure enough, stumbling out of the darkness and into the radius of the light from Syngaard's morningstar came an animated human skeleton. It wore no armor and wielded no weapon, but approached the fighter with claws ready to scratch at Syngaard's eyes. He raised the mithral shield in his left hand and readied the magic morningstar in his hand to crash into the skull of the rushing skeleton as soon as it got into range. Then, suddenly, the mist no longer burned the fighter's throat as he heard the clanking of Galen's armor approach from behind him. It seemed like the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell did keep the osteovox's acidic nature at bay.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard swung at the skeleton, who had clawed at the fighter but missed. Galen stepped up beside Syngaard, seeing three more skeletons approach the two warriors. Then there was a swirling of the mists and Orion passed by, riding on Carl's back. She brought her <em>flaming short sword</em> crashing into the skeleton that had attacked Syngaard, bringing it collapsing to the ground in a pile of unconnected bones. Syngaard was surprised at the halfling's immediate success, until he recalled the ritual she had performed with the ashes of the slain nymph Autumn Rose - the halfling could now see the weak spots in the necromantic energy-web that kept corporeal undead animated.</p><p></p><p>But then the light from Orion's flaming weapon picked up another combatant - and this one much worse than any mere animated skeleton. This was a pulsating blob of pink flesh, a slow-moving heap of body parts all fused together into one disgusting mass. While the halfling stared in frozen horror, the ooze lifted a slimy pseudopod - one that had parts of faces and wobbling, boneless fingers growing out of it! - and slammed it into the halfling. She screamed as some of her skin was peeled away at the tentacle's retraction - it was if she had suffered a bad sunburn and was peeling, only the removed skin was being absorbed into the flesh ooze! Indeed, Orion's magically-enhanced sight saw a brief flash of necromantic energy cascade across the ooze's body, as some of her stolen life-force was used to make the quivering mass grow more powerful. "Back, Carl!" Orion cried out and the ghost-dog was more than happy to comply.</p><p></p><p>On the other side of the building, Kaspar heard Orion's panicked scream and ran to her rescue. Of course, while most people would have run around the building between them, the monk saw no need not to go via the shortest distance, even if that meant running up the side of the building and across its roof. As he approached the wooden structure he saw a black-robed figure standing inside, facing the back of what seemed like a simple church. But then Kaspar's momentum took him up the wall, across the roof, and dropping down among the others. Upon landing beside Galen, the monk reached inside his robes and flung a shuriken at the flesh ooze, his <em>tenryutsume</em> infusing the metal weapon with fire and electricity before it struck the mass of flesh. "There's a necromancer inside that church," Kaspar commented to the others.</p><p></p><p>"I got him!" Syngaard called out. "I'd use ranged attacks on that thing," he suggested, "--Hey, where's Wizard-Pants?" <Wizard-Pants! Get in here! We got a job for you!> Then he was gone, running up to the church door and crashing through it. Sure enough, there was a black-clad wizard standing at the back of the room, already starting to turn at the sound of Syngaard's entrance. Not wanting to allow him to cast any spells if he could help it, Syngaard threw his <em>returning javelin</em> at the necromancer. The wizard, Alexandros, had just cast a <em>protection from good</em> spell on himself to help him avoid damage from these interlopers, but this time it failed as the hurled javelin pierced the front of his robes and lodged between his ribs before <em>teleporting</em> back to Syngaard's hand. However, the <em>disguise self</em> spell he'd cast earlier prevented Syngaard from recognizing the most recent form of the Mithral Mage.</p><p></p><p>Daleth finally entered the mist at Galen's telepathic urging, racing up behind the paladin and casting an <em>empowered fireball</em> at the flesh ooze. The sudden burst of flames exploded outward, engulfing not only the quivering mass of flesh but also all three of the skeletons - and a few more skeletons that had been behind the flesh ooze, outside the range of illumination. All in all, four skeletons were destroyed by the elf wizard's spell.</p><p></p><p>Knowing the flesh ooze was best dealt with by ranged attacks and he was more geared for hand-to-hand fighting, Galen burst through one of the church's side windows to go help Syngaard deal with the black-robed necromancer. Then, ironically, he got a glimpse of bone flickering through the illusion of flesh and, realizing this was likely an undead being, the paladin used his <em>illumium scabbard</em> to channel Hieroneous's positive energy in a ranged attack upon the lich. Alexandros burned under the paladin's attack and he dropped the <em>disguise self</em> spell, revealing himself in all of his skeletal glory. "Idiots!" he hissed. "I'm trying to figure this out and put an end to it!"</p><p></p><p>Outside in the mists, the remaining skeletons were moving in to attack Carl and Orion. Of course, those that attacked the ghost-dog had their bony claws pass right through the incorporeal spirit's body; fortunately, those attacking Orion weren't any more successful. But now three more skeletons stepped forward into the pool of illumination provided by the halfling's flaming weapon. Orion stood in the saddle and urged Carl to attack; the dog raced forward at the skeleton directly before him and passed right through its bones; as it turned to follow the motion, Orion, who had leaped from the saddle, dropped to the ground and slew it with a single stab of her blade. She then raced into the church, slamming the door closed behind her to prevent the ooze from following. Carl followed by simply racing through the wall of the building.</p><p></p><p>Seeking a new target now that the halfling was out of its sensory range, the flesh ooze turned toward the elves. It sent a pseudopod slamming into the wizard, draining Daleth of some of his life energy and healing its burns in the process. Kaspar sent a flurry of shuriken into the flesh-blob's form, being sure to stay back out of range of its flailing tentacles. Daleth staggered backwards as well and retaliated with a <em>chain lightning</em> spell targeted directly at the flesh ooze and arcing off to strike all of the animated skeletons the wizard could see.</p><p></p><p>Inside the church, Alexandros cast a spell and disappeared. "Crap!" swore Syngaard. "Did he just <em>teleport</em> away?"</p><p></p><p>"No..." replied the voices in the mist. "He has turned invisible...turned invisible...invisible...." With a smirk that the stupid osteovox mist was helping them kill the Mithral Mage, Syngaard sent his <em>flaming brilliant energy morningstar</em> crashing into the area where he thought Alexandros might be standing. He missed - the lich wasn't where he had thought he'd be. "Where the Hell did he go?" Syngaard cried out loud.</p><p></p><p>"Out the window...the window...window...." answered the tattle-tale mist. Galen ran to the broken window on the south side of the building and looked out. Not surprisingly, all he saw was mist. So he cast his senses across the planes and called to his dire lion mount. "Burt," he said. "Come to me!"</p><p></p><p>Burt manifested outside the church, surrounded by mist, and snorted violently through his nostrils as if unpleased by the sensation. "Invisible lich!" Galen called to his mount. "Sniff him out, Burt!" Burt needed no further prompting; he took a few steps to the southeast and swiped at the mist with the claws of his foreleg, striking something solid in mid-air. "I thought I turned you into a mithral statue!" griped Alexandros, clearly agitated.</p><p></p><p>Orion leaped back onto Carl's saddle and prompted the ghost-dog to fade into the Ethereal Plane. That was a bad idea: the mist became much thicker as soon as he had done so, and there was indecipherable whispering all around the halfling, sometimes seeming as if someone - or several someones at once - were speaking directly into her ears. The halfling had Carl pass through the church's southern wall and return to the Material Plane, beside Burt and his invisible foe.</p><p></p><p>On the northern side of the church, the flesh ooze made a lunge at Kaspar, but the nimble monk easily avoided the tentacle-mass that swung his way. Skipping back a few steps, he let fly with a flurry of shuriken, each of the barbed throwing stars powered by both fire and electricity as they struck the mass of discarded flesh. The monk recalled the time the conscripts had been sent to gather flowers to craft osteovox for the first time, and the fact that if consumed, osteovox would slough the skin right off of you. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew where the flesh making up this abomination had come from, and why there had been animated skeletons about.</p><p></p><p>Alexandros tossed a <em>fireball</em> spell at the midpoint of the assembled heroes trying to fight him; the fiery explosion caught Burt, Galen, and Syngaard - the latter two having just climbed out of the broken window - in its blast radius. Syngaard was the farthest away from the likely source of the <em>fireball</em> spell and didn't feel like playing the "guess where the invisible lich is" game, so he reached into his pants and pulled out his griffon statuette, giving it a quick rub. He threw it in the likely direction of the invisible lich, calling out, "Get 'im, Dick!" The griffon expanded to full size in mid-throw and could sense the location of Alexandros by the unmistakable scent of blood on his unseen robes. Flapping unerringly to his invisible prey, the griffon bit down hard with his beak and clawed the lich's ribs. Alexandros retaliated with a <em>quickened scorching ray</em>, but he only managed to hit the griffon with two of the fiery blasts.</p><p></p><p><We're fighting an invisible guy over here, Wizard-Pants!> called Galen over the mental link. <Get over here and use your <em>true seeing</em> on one of us!> The paladin knew Daleth could cast the spell through his <em>Azurewood staff of divination</em>, and that the spell would allow its recipient to be able to pierce through the <em>invisibility</em> spell with ease. That was exactly what was needed; Burt and Dick seemed able to sniff out their foe with ease, but the two humans and the halfling would just be striking at their best guesses as to the lich's location.</p><p></p><p>Daleth was hit by a sudden decision paralysis. Should he go do as Galen had said, or stay here and combat the flesh ooze? The quivering mass was best fought with ranged attacks, of which the elf wizard was the best qualified. But would it be better to take down the lich, who was their primary foe? He stood there, unmoving and confused, until Kaspar yelled, "Do something, Daleth!" Snapped out of his indecisiveness, Daleth cast a <em>cone of cold</em> at the flesh ooze, opting to stay where he was and finish his first mission before moving on to the next one. The elven wizard was thus an excellent example of someone with a staggering intellect but a distinct lack of common sense, as the flesh ooze had already demonstrated it could only move along the ground at a ridiculously slow speed - slow enough that it could easily be outpaced without even breaking into a run. And yet Daleth took a step forward toward the blob as he cast his spell, perhaps wishing to ensure he hit the thing.</p><p></p><p>He hit the thing, all right: chunks of its suddenly-frozen flesh sloughed off and smashed against the ground like an iceberg calving. But there was still plenty of fleshy ooze-pulp beneath the frozen layers, and the thing lashed out at the wizard, easily catching him with a pseudopod as he had obligingly moved closer to the dangerous blob. Kaspar stepped forward to help extricate his fellow elf from the flesh-mass and was struck himself for his efforts. But then Kaspar lashed out with a flurry of blows - he figured he might as well, since he was already in contact with the blob - and it quivered under each strike, the monk's fists and feet causing ripples of energy to vibrate through the flesh-blob's entire mass.</p><p></p><p>Galen leaped atop Burt's broad back, figuring that since his dire lion could unerringly determine the lich's location by scent, it would be best for the paladin to go along for the ride and always have a pretty good idea of Alexandros's location. In fact, Burt charged forward once the paladin was seated upon his back, crashing into the unseen lich with both sets of front claws and biting at him with his oversized fangs. Galen swung his <em>sword of Zehkar</em> directly in front of Burt's face and felt the satisfying <em>thunk!</em> noise of forged steel on bone. Orion and Carl moved into position to flank the lich, but unfortunately the halfling's sword-strike failed to connect.</p><p></p><p>However, the lich was now being attacked on all sides by a dire lion, a paladin of Hieroneous wielding a sword containing the spirit of the lich's hated brother, a griffon, and a halfling riding the ghost of a riding dog. So, for some reason, he opted to suddenly strike out at Syngaard, still some distance away as he ran to join the free-for-all, hitting the scarred fighter with a <em>reduce person</em> spell. Syngaard once again - for the third time in his adventuring career - found himself shrinking down to halfling size. That meant short, stumpy legs that wouldn't propel him nearly as fast as when he was at human size and weaker, shorter arms and a smaller weapon size that would ensure he did much less damage to his foes if he did manage to catch up to them and hit them. "What the Hell--?" cried Syngaard, offended and confused all at once.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Reduce person...person...</em>" responded the helpful osteovox cloud to the fighter's involuntary question. Syngaard threw his teeny-tiny <em>returning javelin</em> in the lich's general direction out of sheer frustration, but of course it missed.</p><p></p><p>Alexandros cast a <em>quickened scorching ray</em> at Galen, blasting the hated paladin on his perch atop the dire lion. At the same time, Daleth cast a <em>scorching ray</em> of his own, this one channeled through his <em>metamagic rod</em>, and the quivering flesh ooze quivered no more, becoming a burning mass of twisted, dead flesh.</p><p></p><p>Dick and Burt continued to harry the lich, as did Galen and Orion, although with varying levels of success. Kaspar, seeing the burning death of the flesh ooze, sprinted in front of the church and found the others still in combat. Deducing the lich's likely position, the monk dove feet-first into the melee, his foot striking invisible bone as he unerringly kicked Alexandros's jaw. Crying out in shock, the invisible foe started the words to a spell, and everyone within range struck at him at once, trying to put an end to him before whatever spell he cast took effect. But it soon became clear the lich was no longer among them. "Where'd he go?" Orion cried out.</p><p></p><p>Obligingly, the osteovox answered the question put before it, this time non-verbally. A part opened up in the clouds of vapor, leading unerringly across the open square of the town to a spot on the other side, presumably where Alexandros had just <em>dimension doored</em>. To make his location even more clear, tendrils of condensed mist coiled around the lich, giving away his exact position.</p><p></p><p>"Kill the bastard, Dick!" Syngaard called from behind the group. The griffon flew across the open square and crashed into the lich with its front talons, staggering the lich back. Syngaard sped after his griffon, but his stumpy little halfling-sized legs didn't get him very far and he swore in anger. That damned spell had likely taken him out of this entire fight!</p><p></p><p>Finally recalling Galen's instructions but now finding himself standing all alone by the flaming corpse of the flesh ooze, Daleth used his staff to cast a <em>true seeing</em> spell upon himself. Instantly, Alexandros popped back into his view: the lich was barely standing, his robe torn and ripped, and - inexplicably to the elf wizard - its insides covered in congealing blood. Also surprising to Daleth was the fact that the osteovox seemingly disappeared from view as well - it was if the elf now stood in the middle of the desolate farming village in full daylight.</p><p></p><p>Burt ran across the village square towards Alexandros, Galen still in position upon his back. Orion followed on Carl, taking pity on a half-sized Syngaard and pulling him up onto the saddle behind her as she passed him. That didn't do much to appease the wronged fighter, who muttered, "Great - now I'm part of the freakin' halfling cavalry!" under his breath. It was also unnerving sitting directly behind Orion and seeing the halfling's head as high up as his; it only served to remind the fighter of his reduced size. <em>Bastard's gonna pay!</em> Syngaard swore to himself, realizing at the same time that there was little chance he'd be able to make good on that promise at his current size.</p><p></p><p>Alexandros saw the end was near, but still got off a final <em>fireball</em> spell that engulfed all but Daleth, who was too far away from the others. Syngaard wasn't quite sure how she did it, but somehow Orion ducked her head and the flames seemed to pass right by her, leaving her unscathed. Carl was similarly unfazed, but he was incorporeal - that at least made sense to the scarred fighter. Syngaard didn't witness it directly, but Kaspar, with his monk's training, also managed to twist with the flow of fiery energy and slide between the flames, landing catlike on his feet without any damage. But the <em>fireball</em> took out Dick, who dropped back to the ground in statuette form, and Galen and Burt both looked as singed as Syngaard felt.</p><p></p><p>Then Daleth pointed his <em>metamagic rod</em> at the lich and channeled a simple <em>magic missile</em> spell at him. That was all it took before Alexandros crumbled into a pile of loose bones within his robe.</p><p></p><p>"We haven't seen the last of him, have we?" asked Orion as Carl slowed to a stop and sniffed at the lich's pile of bones.</p><p></p><p>"You have not...have not...not..." the osteovox responded to the spoken question.</p><p></p><p>The group spread out and looked for survivors in the abandoned houses, but of course there were none. However, they did find a discarded silver robe lying in the middle of the village square, leaving them with even more questions. And except for Daleth, whose <em>true seeing</em> spell allowed him to ignore the osteovox cloud, the others were still seemingly surrounded by the dark mist.</p><p></p><p>"I don't want to phrase this as a question," began Galen, "but I recall Skevros saying using osteovox was dangerous. It makes me wonder if we should avoid asking the osteovox mist itself how to get rid of it."</p><p></p><p>"It would seem as if that were the most efficient method, however," added Daleth.</p><p></p><p>"Thus far, it has answered all of our questions truthfully," pointed out Kaspar. Syngaard had nothing to add to the conversation; he was too busy using his original morningstar to smash each of the lich's bones into splinters - and this only after using his <em>flaming brilliant energy morningstar</em> at first, forgetting that it passed harmlessly through unliving matter (which did nothing to increase the pleasantness of his mood). If he couldn't kill the damned lich, then by the gods he'd kill his damned bones!</p><p></p><p>"How would we best destroy the osteovox cloud surrounding this village?" asked Kaspar, going for broke.</p><p></p><p>"Write a question...a question...question," answered the voices from the mist. "Wrap it around a skull...around a skull...a skull...."</p><p></p><p>"That makes sense," observed Galen. "Basically, perform an osteovox ritual."</p><p></p><p>"What question should we write?" asked Daleth, failing to anticipate the inevitable response from the osteovox voices: "Whatever you like...you like...like...." Frowning - he should have realized that would happen - Daleth pulled out a piece of parchment and a writing pen from a pouch at his belt. He scribbled a quick question - "What caused the osteovox cloud to form?" - and folded it into a long strip. The he walked over to Syngaard. "I need the lich's skull," he said.</p><p></p><p>"This one's taken," Syngaard replied, striking it a blow with his morningstar - he had saved the skull for last. "Go find another one!" With a sigh of irritation, Daleth picked through the remains of the animated skeletons he'd slain with his <em>chain lightning</em> spell. He wrapped the strip of paper around the skull, then stepped back and waited. "This usually takes about an hour, when the osteovox is in liquid form," he reminded the others. But it played out differently this time: the mists all flew at the skull from all directions, becoming instantly absorbed into the bone. In a matter of seconds, the sun shone unhindered upon the little farming village, showing the conscripts the whole village at once: the still-burning remains of the flesh ooze, the collapsed piles of bones of the animated skeletons, and the shattered remains of the lich's most recent skeleton. With a flapping of small wings, Todd alit on the ground beside his master. <Much better!> the pseudodragon said.</p><p></p><p>"What's it say?" Orion asked, looking over at the parchment - and for once her question wasn't answered in whispered echoes. But before Daleth could reach down for the parchment, the skull's jaws opened up and it spoke in a clear, resonant voice. "Alexandros and a necromancer assistant came to turn the entire village population to mithral - as he did every time Hirek killed him - but the power was too great for his host body, causing the osteovox to explode outward, creating the mist. The necromancer assistant voluntarily became Alexandros's new host body. Alexandros was attempting to bring the osteovox back under control since it is the medium through which his soul manifests." And with that, the skull and the parchment wrapped around it crumbled to dust, blowing away in the slight breeze.</p><p></p><p>"'Bout damn time!" came Syngaard's sudden voice from behind the rest of the group. Looking over at him, the others saw he had regained his normal size - apparently the duration of the <em>reduce person</em> spell had finally expired. "Come on, let's get back home and grab up them mithral coins!"</p><p></p><p>There was nothing like money to help the scarred fighter forget about his tribulations. Kaspar reached inside his robes and pulled out the <em>ring of return</em> that would bring the conscripts back to the border of Durnhill.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This was a cool adventure, with an interesting premise - right up until the "dick move" of Alexandros casting <em>reduce person</em> on Syngaard. That was completely out of the blue and made no sense in-game; after all, the lich was surrounded by four active combatants who could harm him (Carl doesn't count), and Syngaard wasn't even near him at that point, nor had he demonstrated any ability to do the lich any appreciable harm. So for Alexandros to shrink Syngaard down to halfling size seemed like nothing more than a "screw you" move on the part of the DM to one of his players - namely me. Logan argued (the next day, when we discussed the previous night's game over dinner) that at that point Alexandros knew this body wasn't going to last for long and thus decided to "go for the humiliation" - but I countered with the facts that: 1) there shouldn't be any way Alexandros knew that Syngaard absolutely <em>hated</em> being shrunk down to halfling size (or worse yet, <em>polymorphed</em> into a halfling); and 2) Alexandros had already stated earlier in the game that he was trying to figure out how to stop the osteovox cloud on his own. It would be pretty difficult for him to do so after we'd killed him, now, wouldn't it? And the fact that the very next round he cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell indicated he still had a means of escape from the four foes pummeling him.</p><p></p><p>Logan assures me the fact that Alexandros knows about Syngaard's dislike for size reduction makes sense in-game, but it's for a reason we don't currently know about. If so, fair enough - but it still seemed like a stupid course of action for a lich trying to stay alive long enough to "fix" the osteovox cloud - which, if it "came" from him (as the skull explained at the end of the adventure), could have been a major problem for the lich. (What if we just left the mist in place? Would that mean Alexandros was unable to take over any other willing hosts from that point on?) Anyway, that "dick move" effectively took me right out of the game; from that point on, I couldn't even move fast enough to catch up with the combat, so I might as well not have been there (other than to run Dick, up until he died). That would have been perfectly fine if Alexandros had taken me out for a logical reason, but this just seemed ham-handed and arbitrary. (Dan swung by my office the next day to ask if I had really been as mad as I had seemed during the end of the adventure the previous night - apparently I was wearing my full fury on my face.)</p><p></p><p>Anyway, despite Alexandros's questionable "screw you" tactics, it was a fun adventure. The osteovox cloud was a cool idea, and the fact that it answered any questions put to it allowed us to use it to our advantage, which made for a quite different combat indeed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7561267, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 37: MIST YA[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 11 Galen Thorne, human paladin 12 Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 12 Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 12 Syngaard, human fighter 12[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 6 February 2019 - - - "Wait, what?" asked Syngaard, stepping into the [i]Enchanted Flagon[/i] after having been summoned there by Skevros. "What's [i]she[/i] doing here?" "Purchasing your services," purred Serenity, indicating a bag of coins on the table. Syngaard picked one up and looked at it - it was shiny and much thicker than a normal coin. "Silver?" scoffed Syngaard, looking down at the bag. "Can't be more than a hundred silver coins in there. What's the catch?" "Look closer," suggested the succubus. "Those aren't silver - they're mithral. Each of those coins is worth 100 pieces of gold. That's the equivalent of 10,000 gold pieces, two grand for each of the five of you. Interested?" "Hell, yeah!" Syngaard quickly agreed, taking a seat at the table. In anticipation of his normal request, Karen set a tankard of ale in front of him. "What is the nature of our mission?" asked Kaspar, sitting beside the bald fighter. "I assume it has something to do with Ashfall?" "It does. Three days ago, a dark mist fell over a small farming village. Those sent to investigate never returned. As a result, I was called back from my sentry duties in the Baator's Breath Mountains to investigate the situation with another group. Unfortunately, as I approached the mist, I was mentally assaulted - it's hard to explain, it was a sort of...shouting whispers, if that makes any sense." "Not really," admitted Syngaard, taking a swig from his tankard. He didn't mind, though - a lot of the group's missions didn't make a whole lot of sense to the scarred fighter. Usually all he cared about was being pointed in the direction of whoever needed killing, and then getting paid at the end. "Fortunately, the people I was with were unaffected and they were able to drag me away from the mist," Serenity continued. "I believe it was my telepathic nature that made me susceptible to the mist's effects." [i]If you're so telepathic, can you tell what I'm thinking right now?[/i] thought Galen, staring at the shapely reformed demon before him. He may have been a paladin of Hieroneous, but he was also a red-blooded male in the prime of his youth. "I certainly can," Serenity smiled, looking straight at Galen, causing a look of confusion to pass between Orion and Daleth at the nonsequitur. They looked over at the paladin, wondering what was causing him to suddenly blush so. "In any case," the succubus continued, smirking at Galen's embarrassment, "it was decided to send in the Heroes of Ashfall to check out the situation - hence my presence and the payment from a grateful kingdom. To earn the mithral coins, you need only enter the mist, determine what's causing it, put a stop to it, and hopefully prevent it from occurring again." She looked around at the assembled group. "Any questions?" Skevros looked expectantly at Syngaard, but for once his most burning question had already been answered - this was indeed a paying mission. He gave the last of his ale his undivided attention while the rest of the group made their preparations. Orion whistled for Carl to manifest and he did so, the [i]ghost touch saddle[/i] already in place. The little halfling was glad to see that the spirit of her riding dog had attuned enough to the magic saddle that when he was slain - as had been the case last week when Karlo Maladucci had demonstrated his half-fiend powers by killing Carl and paralyzing Orion - the saddle went with him. That was much simpler than having to fetch it and hold onto it until the next time her ghost-dog manifested. Climbing up into the saddle, Orion unstoppered a [i]potion of mage armor[/i] and Carl happily lapped it up. Daleth cast a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell on the group - all but Kaspar, that is. The wizard had decided his fellow elf was best-prepared to handle things on his own without mental discussion with the others, given that Daleth's mastery of the spell thus far only allowed him to link together four minds. "I'll be fine," Kaspar reassured the wizard. Galen dithered over whether or not to summon his dire lion Burt right away or wait until he was needed; eventually he opted for the latter choice. "We about done?" Syngaard finally asked, setting down his empty mug. "We're burnin' daylight. Sooner we get this done, sooner we get paid." Upon the group's acknowledgement of readiness, Skevros walked with them to the edge of the kingdom; he stayed within the confines of Durnhill while they stepped across the border - and, more importantly, outside the wards that prevented teleportation magic from functioning within Durnhill. Then the king's adviser cast a [i]teleport[/i] spell on the assembled conscripts and they disappeared from sight. "I wish them well!" said Serenity, before disappearing herself, vanishing in a puff of smoke. "I don't see no cloud of mist," Syngaard observed upon suddenly appearing in an open field. "It's this way, Syngaard," pointed out Kaspar, turning the fighter - who'd arrived with his back to the obscured village - around. Or at least, the elf monk assumed it was the village; it was, at the very least, a large, oily mass of vapors that could easily hide a small farming village within its boundaries. Todd immediately started panicking. <Voices!> he cried out telepathically, not only to his master but to the other conscripts as well. <Dozens--hundreds! Whispering! Screaming! Talking over each other!> Daleth cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell upon himself and the pseudodragon settled down at once. <That's much better--thanks!> Todd said. He shuddered, shaking his head at the memory of the cacophony of mental voices. "I think you'd better stay away from the mist," Daleth suggested to his familiar. "Serenity said you'd be particularly vulnerable." <I'd probably be okay if I stayed within the radius of your spell.> "True, but if anything happened...I think I'd feel better if you were safely outside of the mist. I'll tell you what, though - you can be on aerial patrol, and let me know if you see anyone approaching while we're all inside the cloud." <Deal!> answered Todd, before taking wing and flying high above the mist-covered farming village. Galen cast his own [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell, certain that whatever they might find lurking inside the mist would undoubtedly be of an evil nature - and, in fact, the very mist itself was triggering his ability to [i]detect evil[/i]. Then, as an experiment, he stepped up to the border of the mist. Where his spell radius overlapped the mist, it lightened to a grayish color; stepping back, the mist darkened back to almost black. "Visibility's going to be rather limited in there," the paladin noted. He pulled out a few sunrods from his backpack and offered them to the others, activating one of them himself. "I'm good," replied Syngaard, holding his [i]flaming brilliant energy morningstar[/i] in his right hand like a torch. Beside him, Daleth cast a [i]light[/i] spell on the end of his [i]metamagic rod of empower[/i]. Orion took a proffered sunrod from the paladin with a nod of thanks, but Kaspar turned down the offer - despite the increased light it would provide, he preferred to keep his hands free for combat. Besides, if he needed light, he could activate the flames of his [i]tenryutsume[/i] into being at will. "We ready?" Syngaard asked. "You are ready...are ready...ready..." answered a series of echoing voices from the mist. "Well, that's just creepy," the bald fighter observed. As if in response, Kaspar sped straight ahead into the mist, being swallowed by the dark cloud almost instantly. He found himself just south of a large building. He also found being surrounded by the mist was somewhat debilitating: breathing in the dark vapors hurt the elf's lungs. But there was no way to investigate the village without exposing oneself to the mists, so the monk mentally shrugged and pressed on, sure that his great speed would allow him to race outside of the mist's boundaries if he got himself into too much trouble. Syngaard was the next to enter the mist; he ended up on the other side of the building from Kaspar. He also noted the pain caused by inhaling the dark vapors and passed that information on to the rest of the group via the [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell before pressing on ahead. <Interesting,> replied Daleth, putting together the two facts about the pain of breathing in the mist and that it had answered a question. <It would seem the mist has many of the properties of osteovox! It might very well be somehow related. I wonder: how we might protect ourselves from its debilitating effects?> <You are already protected...are already protected...already protected...protected....> came the voices from the fog. [i]That's certainly handy![/i] thought the elf to himself. He assumed it was the [i]magic circle against evil[/i] that would protect him from the osteovox cloud...if the voices in the mist could actually be trusted to be telling the truth. Not willing to believe the mist himself, Galen drank down a [i]potion of delay poison[/i] and offered Daleth a [i]potion of neutralize poison[/i], which the elf gratefully accepted. <Visibility's about 10 feet or so,> Syngaard observed from inside the cloud of dark vapors. <I got movement up ahead...It's a skeleton!> Sure enough, stumbling out of the darkness and into the radius of the light from Syngaard's morningstar came an animated human skeleton. It wore no armor and wielded no weapon, but approached the fighter with claws ready to scratch at Syngaard's eyes. He raised the mithral shield in his left hand and readied the magic morningstar in his hand to crash into the skull of the rushing skeleton as soon as it got into range. Then, suddenly, the mist no longer burned the fighter's throat as he heard the clanking of Galen's armor approach from behind him. It seemed like the [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell did keep the osteovox's acidic nature at bay. Syngaard swung at the skeleton, who had clawed at the fighter but missed. Galen stepped up beside Syngaard, seeing three more skeletons approach the two warriors. Then there was a swirling of the mists and Orion passed by, riding on Carl's back. She brought her [i]flaming short sword[/i] crashing into the skeleton that had attacked Syngaard, bringing it collapsing to the ground in a pile of unconnected bones. Syngaard was surprised at the halfling's immediate success, until he recalled the ritual she had performed with the ashes of the slain nymph Autumn Rose - the halfling could now see the weak spots in the necromantic energy-web that kept corporeal undead animated. But then the light from Orion's flaming weapon picked up another combatant - and this one much worse than any mere animated skeleton. This was a pulsating blob of pink flesh, a slow-moving heap of body parts all fused together into one disgusting mass. While the halfling stared in frozen horror, the ooze lifted a slimy pseudopod - one that had parts of faces and wobbling, boneless fingers growing out of it! - and slammed it into the halfling. She screamed as some of her skin was peeled away at the tentacle's retraction - it was if she had suffered a bad sunburn and was peeling, only the removed skin was being absorbed into the flesh ooze! Indeed, Orion's magically-enhanced sight saw a brief flash of necromantic energy cascade across the ooze's body, as some of her stolen life-force was used to make the quivering mass grow more powerful. "Back, Carl!" Orion cried out and the ghost-dog was more than happy to comply. On the other side of the building, Kaspar heard Orion's panicked scream and ran to her rescue. Of course, while most people would have run around the building between them, the monk saw no need not to go via the shortest distance, even if that meant running up the side of the building and across its roof. As he approached the wooden structure he saw a black-robed figure standing inside, facing the back of what seemed like a simple church. But then Kaspar's momentum took him up the wall, across the roof, and dropping down among the others. Upon landing beside Galen, the monk reached inside his robes and flung a shuriken at the flesh ooze, his [i]tenryutsume[/i] infusing the metal weapon with fire and electricity before it struck the mass of flesh. "There's a necromancer inside that church," Kaspar commented to the others. "I got him!" Syngaard called out. "I'd use ranged attacks on that thing," he suggested, "--Hey, where's Wizard-Pants?" <Wizard-Pants! Get in here! We got a job for you!> Then he was gone, running up to the church door and crashing through it. Sure enough, there was a black-clad wizard standing at the back of the room, already starting to turn at the sound of Syngaard's entrance. Not wanting to allow him to cast any spells if he could help it, Syngaard threw his [i]returning javelin[/i] at the necromancer. The wizard, Alexandros, had just cast a [i]protection from good[/i] spell on himself to help him avoid damage from these interlopers, but this time it failed as the hurled javelin pierced the front of his robes and lodged between his ribs before [i]teleporting[/i] back to Syngaard's hand. However, the [i]disguise self[/i] spell he'd cast earlier prevented Syngaard from recognizing the most recent form of the Mithral Mage. Daleth finally entered the mist at Galen's telepathic urging, racing up behind the paladin and casting an [i]empowered fireball[/i] at the flesh ooze. The sudden burst of flames exploded outward, engulfing not only the quivering mass of flesh but also all three of the skeletons - and a few more skeletons that had been behind the flesh ooze, outside the range of illumination. All in all, four skeletons were destroyed by the elf wizard's spell. Knowing the flesh ooze was best dealt with by ranged attacks and he was more geared for hand-to-hand fighting, Galen burst through one of the church's side windows to go help Syngaard deal with the black-robed necromancer. Then, ironically, he got a glimpse of bone flickering through the illusion of flesh and, realizing this was likely an undead being, the paladin used his [i]illumium scabbard[/i] to channel Hieroneous's positive energy in a ranged attack upon the lich. Alexandros burned under the paladin's attack and he dropped the [i]disguise self[/i] spell, revealing himself in all of his skeletal glory. "Idiots!" he hissed. "I'm trying to figure this out and put an end to it!" Outside in the mists, the remaining skeletons were moving in to attack Carl and Orion. Of course, those that attacked the ghost-dog had their bony claws pass right through the incorporeal spirit's body; fortunately, those attacking Orion weren't any more successful. But now three more skeletons stepped forward into the pool of illumination provided by the halfling's flaming weapon. Orion stood in the saddle and urged Carl to attack; the dog raced forward at the skeleton directly before him and passed right through its bones; as it turned to follow the motion, Orion, who had leaped from the saddle, dropped to the ground and slew it with a single stab of her blade. She then raced into the church, slamming the door closed behind her to prevent the ooze from following. Carl followed by simply racing through the wall of the building. Seeking a new target now that the halfling was out of its sensory range, the flesh ooze turned toward the elves. It sent a pseudopod slamming into the wizard, draining Daleth of some of his life energy and healing its burns in the process. Kaspar sent a flurry of shuriken into the flesh-blob's form, being sure to stay back out of range of its flailing tentacles. Daleth staggered backwards as well and retaliated with a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell targeted directly at the flesh ooze and arcing off to strike all of the animated skeletons the wizard could see. Inside the church, Alexandros cast a spell and disappeared. "Crap!" swore Syngaard. "Did he just [i]teleport[/i] away?" "No..." replied the voices in the mist. "He has turned invisible...turned invisible...invisible...." With a smirk that the stupid osteovox mist was helping them kill the Mithral Mage, Syngaard sent his [i]flaming brilliant energy morningstar[/i] crashing into the area where he thought Alexandros might be standing. He missed - the lich wasn't where he had thought he'd be. "Where the Hell did he go?" Syngaard cried out loud. "Out the window...the window...window...." answered the tattle-tale mist. Galen ran to the broken window on the south side of the building and looked out. Not surprisingly, all he saw was mist. So he cast his senses across the planes and called to his dire lion mount. "Burt," he said. "Come to me!" Burt manifested outside the church, surrounded by mist, and snorted violently through his nostrils as if unpleased by the sensation. "Invisible lich!" Galen called to his mount. "Sniff him out, Burt!" Burt needed no further prompting; he took a few steps to the southeast and swiped at the mist with the claws of his foreleg, striking something solid in mid-air. "I thought I turned you into a mithral statue!" griped Alexandros, clearly agitated. Orion leaped back onto Carl's saddle and prompted the ghost-dog to fade into the Ethereal Plane. That was a bad idea: the mist became much thicker as soon as he had done so, and there was indecipherable whispering all around the halfling, sometimes seeming as if someone - or several someones at once - were speaking directly into her ears. The halfling had Carl pass through the church's southern wall and return to the Material Plane, beside Burt and his invisible foe. On the northern side of the church, the flesh ooze made a lunge at Kaspar, but the nimble monk easily avoided the tentacle-mass that swung his way. Skipping back a few steps, he let fly with a flurry of shuriken, each of the barbed throwing stars powered by both fire and electricity as they struck the mass of discarded flesh. The monk recalled the time the conscripts had been sent to gather flowers to craft osteovox for the first time, and the fact that if consumed, osteovox would slough the skin right off of you. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew where the flesh making up this abomination had come from, and why there had been animated skeletons about. Alexandros tossed a [i]fireball[/i] spell at the midpoint of the assembled heroes trying to fight him; the fiery explosion caught Burt, Galen, and Syngaard - the latter two having just climbed out of the broken window - in its blast radius. Syngaard was the farthest away from the likely source of the [i]fireball[/i] spell and didn't feel like playing the "guess where the invisible lich is" game, so he reached into his pants and pulled out his griffon statuette, giving it a quick rub. He threw it in the likely direction of the invisible lich, calling out, "Get 'im, Dick!" The griffon expanded to full size in mid-throw and could sense the location of Alexandros by the unmistakable scent of blood on his unseen robes. Flapping unerringly to his invisible prey, the griffon bit down hard with his beak and clawed the lich's ribs. Alexandros retaliated with a [i]quickened scorching ray[/i], but he only managed to hit the griffon with two of the fiery blasts. <We're fighting an invisible guy over here, Wizard-Pants!> called Galen over the mental link. <Get over here and use your [i]true seeing[/i] on one of us!> The paladin knew Daleth could cast the spell through his [i]Azurewood staff of divination[/i], and that the spell would allow its recipient to be able to pierce through the [i]invisibility[/i] spell with ease. That was exactly what was needed; Burt and Dick seemed able to sniff out their foe with ease, but the two humans and the halfling would just be striking at their best guesses as to the lich's location. Daleth was hit by a sudden decision paralysis. Should he go do as Galen had said, or stay here and combat the flesh ooze? The quivering mass was best fought with ranged attacks, of which the elf wizard was the best qualified. But would it be better to take down the lich, who was their primary foe? He stood there, unmoving and confused, until Kaspar yelled, "Do something, Daleth!" Snapped out of his indecisiveness, Daleth cast a [i]cone of cold[/i] at the flesh ooze, opting to stay where he was and finish his first mission before moving on to the next one. The elven wizard was thus an excellent example of someone with a staggering intellect but a distinct lack of common sense, as the flesh ooze had already demonstrated it could only move along the ground at a ridiculously slow speed - slow enough that it could easily be outpaced without even breaking into a run. And yet Daleth took a step forward toward the blob as he cast his spell, perhaps wishing to ensure he hit the thing. He hit the thing, all right: chunks of its suddenly-frozen flesh sloughed off and smashed against the ground like an iceberg calving. But there was still plenty of fleshy ooze-pulp beneath the frozen layers, and the thing lashed out at the wizard, easily catching him with a pseudopod as he had obligingly moved closer to the dangerous blob. Kaspar stepped forward to help extricate his fellow elf from the flesh-mass and was struck himself for his efforts. But then Kaspar lashed out with a flurry of blows - he figured he might as well, since he was already in contact with the blob - and it quivered under each strike, the monk's fists and feet causing ripples of energy to vibrate through the flesh-blob's entire mass. Galen leaped atop Burt's broad back, figuring that since his dire lion could unerringly determine the lich's location by scent, it would be best for the paladin to go along for the ride and always have a pretty good idea of Alexandros's location. In fact, Burt charged forward once the paladin was seated upon his back, crashing into the unseen lich with both sets of front claws and biting at him with his oversized fangs. Galen swung his [i]sword of Zehkar[/i] directly in front of Burt's face and felt the satisfying [i]thunk![/i] noise of forged steel on bone. Orion and Carl moved into position to flank the lich, but unfortunately the halfling's sword-strike failed to connect. However, the lich was now being attacked on all sides by a dire lion, a paladin of Hieroneous wielding a sword containing the spirit of the lich's hated brother, a griffon, and a halfling riding the ghost of a riding dog. So, for some reason, he opted to suddenly strike out at Syngaard, still some distance away as he ran to join the free-for-all, hitting the scarred fighter with a [i]reduce person[/i] spell. Syngaard once again - for the third time in his adventuring career - found himself shrinking down to halfling size. That meant short, stumpy legs that wouldn't propel him nearly as fast as when he was at human size and weaker, shorter arms and a smaller weapon size that would ensure he did much less damage to his foes if he did manage to catch up to them and hit them. "What the Hell--?" cried Syngaard, offended and confused all at once. "[i]Reduce person...person...[/i]" responded the helpful osteovox cloud to the fighter's involuntary question. Syngaard threw his teeny-tiny [i]returning javelin[/i] in the lich's general direction out of sheer frustration, but of course it missed. Alexandros cast a [i]quickened scorching ray[/i] at Galen, blasting the hated paladin on his perch atop the dire lion. At the same time, Daleth cast a [i]scorching ray[/i] of his own, this one channeled through his [i]metamagic rod[/i], and the quivering flesh ooze quivered no more, becoming a burning mass of twisted, dead flesh. Dick and Burt continued to harry the lich, as did Galen and Orion, although with varying levels of success. Kaspar, seeing the burning death of the flesh ooze, sprinted in front of the church and found the others still in combat. Deducing the lich's likely position, the monk dove feet-first into the melee, his foot striking invisible bone as he unerringly kicked Alexandros's jaw. Crying out in shock, the invisible foe started the words to a spell, and everyone within range struck at him at once, trying to put an end to him before whatever spell he cast took effect. But it soon became clear the lich was no longer among them. "Where'd he go?" Orion cried out. Obligingly, the osteovox answered the question put before it, this time non-verbally. A part opened up in the clouds of vapor, leading unerringly across the open square of the town to a spot on the other side, presumably where Alexandros had just [i]dimension doored[/i]. To make his location even more clear, tendrils of condensed mist coiled around the lich, giving away his exact position. "Kill the bastard, Dick!" Syngaard called from behind the group. The griffon flew across the open square and crashed into the lich with its front talons, staggering the lich back. Syngaard sped after his griffon, but his stumpy little halfling-sized legs didn't get him very far and he swore in anger. That damned spell had likely taken him out of this entire fight! Finally recalling Galen's instructions but now finding himself standing all alone by the flaming corpse of the flesh ooze, Daleth used his staff to cast a [i]true seeing[/i] spell upon himself. Instantly, Alexandros popped back into his view: the lich was barely standing, his robe torn and ripped, and - inexplicably to the elf wizard - its insides covered in congealing blood. Also surprising to Daleth was the fact that the osteovox seemingly disappeared from view as well - it was if the elf now stood in the middle of the desolate farming village in full daylight. Burt ran across the village square towards Alexandros, Galen still in position upon his back. Orion followed on Carl, taking pity on a half-sized Syngaard and pulling him up onto the saddle behind her as she passed him. That didn't do much to appease the wronged fighter, who muttered, "Great - now I'm part of the freakin' halfling cavalry!" under his breath. It was also unnerving sitting directly behind Orion and seeing the halfling's head as high up as his; it only served to remind the fighter of his reduced size. [i]Bastard's gonna pay![/i] Syngaard swore to himself, realizing at the same time that there was little chance he'd be able to make good on that promise at his current size. Alexandros saw the end was near, but still got off a final [i]fireball[/i] spell that engulfed all but Daleth, who was too far away from the others. Syngaard wasn't quite sure how she did it, but somehow Orion ducked her head and the flames seemed to pass right by her, leaving her unscathed. Carl was similarly unfazed, but he was incorporeal - that at least made sense to the scarred fighter. Syngaard didn't witness it directly, but Kaspar, with his monk's training, also managed to twist with the flow of fiery energy and slide between the flames, landing catlike on his feet without any damage. But the [i]fireball[/i] took out Dick, who dropped back to the ground in statuette form, and Galen and Burt both looked as singed as Syngaard felt. Then Daleth pointed his [i]metamagic rod[/i] at the lich and channeled a simple [i]magic missile[/i] spell at him. That was all it took before Alexandros crumbled into a pile of loose bones within his robe. "We haven't seen the last of him, have we?" asked Orion as Carl slowed to a stop and sniffed at the lich's pile of bones. "You have not...have not...not..." the osteovox responded to the spoken question. The group spread out and looked for survivors in the abandoned houses, but of course there were none. However, they did find a discarded silver robe lying in the middle of the village square, leaving them with even more questions. And except for Daleth, whose [i]true seeing[/i] spell allowed him to ignore the osteovox cloud, the others were still seemingly surrounded by the dark mist. "I don't want to phrase this as a question," began Galen, "but I recall Skevros saying using osteovox was dangerous. It makes me wonder if we should avoid asking the osteovox mist itself how to get rid of it." "It would seem as if that were the most efficient method, however," added Daleth. "Thus far, it has answered all of our questions truthfully," pointed out Kaspar. Syngaard had nothing to add to the conversation; he was too busy using his original morningstar to smash each of the lich's bones into splinters - and this only after using his [i]flaming brilliant energy morningstar[/i] at first, forgetting that it passed harmlessly through unliving matter (which did nothing to increase the pleasantness of his mood). If he couldn't kill the damned lich, then by the gods he'd kill his damned bones! "How would we best destroy the osteovox cloud surrounding this village?" asked Kaspar, going for broke. "Write a question...a question...question," answered the voices from the mist. "Wrap it around a skull...around a skull...a skull...." "That makes sense," observed Galen. "Basically, perform an osteovox ritual." "What question should we write?" asked Daleth, failing to anticipate the inevitable response from the osteovox voices: "Whatever you like...you like...like...." Frowning - he should have realized that would happen - Daleth pulled out a piece of parchment and a writing pen from a pouch at his belt. He scribbled a quick question - "What caused the osteovox cloud to form?" - and folded it into a long strip. The he walked over to Syngaard. "I need the lich's skull," he said. "This one's taken," Syngaard replied, striking it a blow with his morningstar - he had saved the skull for last. "Go find another one!" With a sigh of irritation, Daleth picked through the remains of the animated skeletons he'd slain with his [i]chain lightning[/i] spell. He wrapped the strip of paper around the skull, then stepped back and waited. "This usually takes about an hour, when the osteovox is in liquid form," he reminded the others. But it played out differently this time: the mists all flew at the skull from all directions, becoming instantly absorbed into the bone. In a matter of seconds, the sun shone unhindered upon the little farming village, showing the conscripts the whole village at once: the still-burning remains of the flesh ooze, the collapsed piles of bones of the animated skeletons, and the shattered remains of the lich's most recent skeleton. With a flapping of small wings, Todd alit on the ground beside his master. <Much better!> the pseudodragon said. "What's it say?" Orion asked, looking over at the parchment - and for once her question wasn't answered in whispered echoes. But before Daleth could reach down for the parchment, the skull's jaws opened up and it spoke in a clear, resonant voice. "Alexandros and a necromancer assistant came to turn the entire village population to mithral - as he did every time Hirek killed him - but the power was too great for his host body, causing the osteovox to explode outward, creating the mist. The necromancer assistant voluntarily became Alexandros's new host body. Alexandros was attempting to bring the osteovox back under control since it is the medium through which his soul manifests." And with that, the skull and the parchment wrapped around it crumbled to dust, blowing away in the slight breeze. "'Bout damn time!" came Syngaard's sudden voice from behind the rest of the group. Looking over at him, the others saw he had regained his normal size - apparently the duration of the [i]reduce person[/i] spell had finally expired. "Come on, let's get back home and grab up them mithral coins!" There was nothing like money to help the scarred fighter forget about his tribulations. Kaspar reached inside his robes and pulled out the [i]ring of return[/i] that would bring the conscripts back to the border of Durnhill. - - - This was a cool adventure, with an interesting premise - right up until the "dick move" of Alexandros casting [i]reduce person[/i] on Syngaard. That was completely out of the blue and made no sense in-game; after all, the lich was surrounded by four active combatants who could harm him (Carl doesn't count), and Syngaard wasn't even near him at that point, nor had he demonstrated any ability to do the lich any appreciable harm. So for Alexandros to shrink Syngaard down to halfling size seemed like nothing more than a "screw you" move on the part of the DM to one of his players - namely me. Logan argued (the next day, when we discussed the previous night's game over dinner) that at that point Alexandros knew this body wasn't going to last for long and thus decided to "go for the humiliation" - but I countered with the facts that: 1) there shouldn't be any way Alexandros knew that Syngaard absolutely [i]hated[/i] being shrunk down to halfling size (or worse yet, [i]polymorphed[/i] into a halfling); and 2) Alexandros had already stated earlier in the game that he was trying to figure out how to stop the osteovox cloud on his own. It would be pretty difficult for him to do so after we'd killed him, now, wouldn't it? And the fact that the very next round he cast a [i]dimension door[/i] spell indicated he still had a means of escape from the four foes pummeling him. Logan assures me the fact that Alexandros knows about Syngaard's dislike for size reduction makes sense in-game, but it's for a reason we don't currently know about. If so, fair enough - but it still seemed like a stupid course of action for a lich trying to stay alive long enough to "fix" the osteovox cloud - which, if it "came" from him (as the skull explained at the end of the adventure), could have been a major problem for the lich. (What if we just left the mist in place? Would that mean Alexandros was unable to take over any other willing hosts from that point on?) Anyway, that "dick move" effectively took me right out of the game; from that point on, I couldn't even move fast enough to catch up with the combat, so I might as well not have been there (other than to run Dick, up until he died). That would have been perfectly fine if Alexandros had taken me out for a logical reason, but this just seemed ham-handed and arbitrary. (Dan swung by my office the next day to ask if I had really been as mad as I had seemed during the end of the adventure the previous night - apparently I was wearing my full fury on my face.) Anyway, despite Alexandros's questionable "screw you" tactics, it was a fun adventure. The osteovox cloud was a cool idea, and the fact that it answered any questions put to it allowed us to use it to our advantage, which made for a quite different combat indeed. [/QUOTE]
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