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Story Hour
The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6895951" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 23: RIMBULE THE METAMORPH</strong></p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 10 September 2016</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>I'm going to break one of my own self-imposed rules for this campaign - and this Story Hour - and detail the events of our next adventure, "Rimbule the Metamorph." I had originally fully intended not to use any published material for the entirety of this campaign, but "Rimbule the Metamorph" is an adventure I had written and submitted to <em>Dungeon</em> magazine, where it was rejected - but then subsequently printed in Mongoose Publishing's <em>Signs & Portents</em> magazine when I decided to give it a shot there. Hopefully, those of you reading this write-up won't be running your own PCs through this adventure, but given that it was published in 2004 back in issue #7 of a magazine that's now been out of print for years, I'm hoping my spilling these details will have a very minimal impact on anyone reading this.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>After returning Princess Kaelanna to the castle, it was kind of pointless to head back out again given the scant amount of daylight left in the day, so the Kordovian Adventurers Guild members opted to spend the night at Battershield Keep and get a fresh start in the morning. Now, several hours past the light of the new dawn, the team was once again traveling through the Vesve Forest - but Ingebold, in the mule-driven wagon, opted to avoid the roads that would take them anywhere near the lair of Clauguthrax. Aithanar followed her lead in the Vistani wagon, while Binkadink and Finoula rode their respective mounts to either side as usual, Wrath loping alongside the pony of his mistress.</p><p></p><p>A sudden scream from just ahead brought both wagons to an immediate halt. Binkadink, riding on Obvious on the right side of the dirt road near where the scream had come from, sent his jackalope scampering over to the underbrush, seeking the point of origin of the scream. They arrived just in time to see a young woman's face twisted in apparent agony, her right hand clawing at the ground in an attempt to stop being pulled backwards into the scrub - and then she was gone.</p><p></p><p>"Over here!" called the gnome to his companions, before sending Obvious plunging through the undergrowth.</p><p></p><p>Castillan, who had been riding on top of the Vistani wagon's roof as a lookout, leaped down to the right and went scouting ahead towards where Binkadink and his jackalope mount had left the road - and where further screams were now emanating, including what sounded like a gasp of surprise from the gnomish fighter. The door at the back of the Vistani wagon opened and Gilbert Fung stepped out, grumbling about having stopped. He stormed over toward the mule wagon, but came to an abrupt halt at the movement along the growths between the trees to the side of the road, as eight dark figures stepped out from the forest. Each was the size of a man, but stood in a hunched posture as better fit their ratlike build. Whiskers twitching, pink tails dragging behind them, their faces grimaced in what were apparently broad smiles as they called out to each other.</p><p></p><p>"Dibs on the fat one!"</p><p></p><p>"I got the one in the wagon!"</p><p></p><p>"The dwarf chick's mine!"</p><p></p><p>"Guys, there are plenty to go around! We'll all get points for this lot!"</p><p></p><p>Darrien, having gathered from their conversation that these ratmen meant them no good, stood up in the back of the mule wagon where he'd been riding, took aim with his <em>Arachnibow</em>, and placed a second arrow into the chest of a ratman before the creature had even noticed the first arrow the ranger had placed there but a second prior. With a high-pitched squeal of pain and surprise, the ratman fell backwards, dead.</p><p></p><p>Finoula led her pony Daisy around the back of the Vistani wagon, uncoiling her <em>whip of thorns</em>. Wrath followed her, then made a rush for the ratman the furthest back from his fellows. As the ranger's whip caught up the second ratman in line and pulled him prone, the wolf bit deep into the first ratman's leg and dragged him to the ground. Between the wolf's teeth and the whip's thorns, neither of the two ratmen got back up again alive.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold dropped the mules' reins and leaped to the ground, her warhammer in hand. "Dwarf chick, eh?" she repeated, swinging her weapon menacingly.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, three of the ratmen had surrounded Castillan in a semicircle and had gotten in a few bites, causing the bounder - with the threat of wolf lycanthropy still hanging over his head - to wonder if he was facing wererats, and if so, what would happen if he caught rat lycanthropy on top of the wolven strain he'd likely already picked up. The bounder snapped his weapons into his hands and went to stab at the ratman at his left, only to have him drop to the ground, one of Darrien's arrows embedded in his throat. Castillan switched targets over to the next one, only to have the same thing happen. He was quicker than the ranger the third time, though, his short sword plunging into the ratman's side. "Nice of you to leave me one!" he called back to his friend.</p><p></p><p>Past the ring of roadside trees, Binkadink and Obvious saw who was pulling the woman back - and just how much of a "woman" she really was. The aggressor was a male centaur with elven facial features, tugging on a rope tied to the woman's back leg. But her back leg was that of a tortoise, as was her other leg and her left arm and hand - complete with a hardened shell covering her entire body. Only her head and her right arm and hand were still human. But, odd hybrid creature or not, Binkadink was moved by her screams to do what he could to help - which consisted of encouraging Obvious forward enough to bring his gnomish glaive to bear, slicing the rope in twain with a single downward thrust. The centaur staggered backward, and Obvious turned to face him. Binkadink raised his glaive to ward off the centaur, but the tortoise-woman called out, "Don't hurt him! He's been <em>charmed</em> into preventing my escape!"</p><p></p><p>Back at the roadside, Gilbert cast a <em>burning hands</em> spell over Ingebold's head to set the fur of an approaching ratman ablaze, while the cleric brought down the last of the eight with her warhammer. Seeing no further threats, the group jointly decided to leave Aithanar and the animals with the wagons, while they went to find Binkadink and Obvious on foot.</p><p></p><p>Stepping between the trees, Gilbert's highly-attuned magic senses were triggered. "This an illusion," he said, indicating the trees and heavy undergrowth all around them. It was a very accurately-cast <em>hallucinatory terrain</em> spell, or rather a series of overlapping spells of the same type, cast to prevent anyone from outside the perimeter of the ring of spells from being able to see inside. Only once inside the ring did the hidden grove come into view.</p><p></p><p>A broad clearing, roughly circular, covered hundreds of feet straight ahead. Right about in its center stood a two-story, circular stone keep surrounded by a palisade and a moat. There was a pond nearby and a small obelisk, with a few figures here and there. But of immediate interest were the tortoise-woman and the centaur directly in front of Obvious and Binkadink. "What the Hell?" asked Gilbert Fung, never one to let his true feelings be hidden. "What you supposed to be?"</p><p></p><p>My name is--well, you might as well call me <strong>Turtle</strong>," said the hybrid. "The centaur is named <strong>Valgard</strong>. Until recently, he was an elf." Valgard nodded his agreement, or possibly it was intended as a welcome, for he was not actively trying to fight the heroes, as none of them were attempting to leave the hidden grove.</p><p></p><p>"There are a few more freaks up ahead," said Turtle. "I'll introduce you to them." And she started crawling towards the pond and the obelisk at tortoise speed. Valgard and the heroes followed her.</p><p></p><p>"All of us were, at one time or another, captured by a wizard named <strong>Rimbule</strong>, or by the ratmen he has in his employ," began Turtle.</p><p></p><p>"We killed eight of them on the road," offered Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"You did? Did you happen to remove their rings?" At the bounder's negative reply, Turtle explained: "The ratmen are the only ones allowed to exit the grove. There are magical alarm symbols hidden all the way throughout the edges of the grove. Once you get too close, they start causing you intense pain, which gets increasingly worse with every step you take towards safety. I was trying to fight my way past the pain and get out, but Valgard dragged me back. He's been <em>charmed</em> by Rimbule to keep those of us with our own free wills from escaping. So has <strong>Gandlebain</strong> here, too, another elf captive." Another beast-man loped up to the group, his upper body that of an elf, his lower half that of a goat. "Rimbule's made a satyr out of him."</p><p></p><p>"So what were ye supposed to be?" asked Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"The gods only know," lamented Turtle. "Some sort of humanoid turtle, I imagine. I was one of his earliest human test subjects. As you can see, he got increasingly better over the years. Come on down here, <strong>Jolinda</strong>, they're not here to hurt us." A bird-woman flapped her wings and alit from the top of the nine-foot-tall obelisk, landing on the ground by Turtle. "Jolinda was a trader, traveling through the forest, before she was abducted by the ratmen and turned into a fake harpy." The heroes could see that despite the harpy build, Jolinda's human part was quite beautiful - unlike any true harpies, who were universally ugly in appearance. She was also a harpy in build only, lacking any of the magical song-based abilities of a true harpy.</p><p></p><p>"This is another one of Rimbule's early works: we just call him <strong>Snake</strong>." Turtle pointed out a shambling form, a man-sized reptile with a human left leg and right arm jutting out from an otherwise serpentine form; the creature tried walking upright like a man, shuffling along on his one leg and using his curved snake body as an impromptu second standing limb. "Snake's mind's all gone," Turtle said, as Jolinda flapped her wings and made for the safety of the top of the obelisk once again. "He'll try to eat you, but he's slow enough we can all pretty much avoid him."</p><p></p><p>Turtle led the others to another hulking form, this one looking like a man-sized minotaur - until he turned around, exposing the udders hanging between his legs. "We call this one <strong>Minotaur</strong>," Turtle said. "His mind's that of a cow. He's a nice enough sort, does nothing but eat, sleep, and low when he wants milked." Castillan couldn't help sneering at the concept.</p><p></p><p>"And that's all of us, except for <strong>Tukio</strong>," said Turtle, changing direction and heading for the pond. "She doesn't need to be <em>charmed</em> to stay where she's at, as you'll see." A ripple in the middle of the pond became an arrow-shaped wave as an unseen form headed towards the group. Surfacing, the heroes saw a lovely young woman, with almond eyes like Gilbert's...and the lower half of a giant trout. "Rimbule's very own mermaid," Turtle commented.</p><p></p><p>"So, I assume this Rimbule lives over in the keep?" asked Binkadink. "Maybe we can convince him to change you all back."</p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure if that's even possible," lamented Turtle. "But we'd all appreciate it if you were able to."</p><p></p><p>"What can you tell us about him?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"He's a wizard - a transmuter, not surprisingly. He has three women helping him. I don't know what their deal is, but he never uses them for his experiments."</p><p></p><p>"Watch out for the dark-haired one," offered Tukio. "Her name's <strong>Tchiu</strong> -- she's crazy!"</p><p></p><p>"You can't miss her: she has a demon-skull tattoo across half of her face," added Turtle.</p><p></p><p>"Sounds lovely," muttered Darrien.</p><p></p><p>Turtle picked up a stick and started drawing a map of the keep in the dirt. "There are two floors above, and at least one level underground," she said. "I've only ever been in the upper rooms, back before...you know." She explained the layout she'd drawn, pointing out the rooms where Rimbule spent most of his time.</p><p></p><p>"We'll have to get past the moat, and the wall around the keep," pointed out Darrien, squinting at the keep.</p><p></p><p>"There's an owlbear in the moat," warned Turtle. "The ratmen feed him spare parts from Rimbule's experiments."</p><p></p><p>"What their deal?" asked Gilbert. "He turn them into monsters - why they work for him?"</p><p></p><p>"They have an exclusive deal with Rimbule," explained Jolinda from her perch. "They can buy their way back to human form - after a ratman supplies Rimbule with ten victims, he'll return him to his human form."</p><p></p><p>"So he say," scoffed Gilbert. "And they believe him?"</p><p></p><p>"I've seen it happen, at least twice," countered Turtle. "Each time, the former ratman strolled out of the grove a free man."</p><p></p><p>"Hmmm," Gilbert mused. Then, changing subjects, he turned towards Jolinda. "You! Bird-girl! You think you can fly to top of keep carrying gnome?"</p><p></p><p>Jolinda blanched at the very thought, and rapidly shook her head. "No way. That's too high! I'm...I don't like heights." Gilbert rolled his eyes and made a rude noise with his lips.</p><p></p><p>"I know of another way in," offered Tukio. That got everyone's attention, and they turned to face the young mermaid.</p><p></p><p>"At the bottom of the pond, there's an underwater passageway that leads to the keep," she said. It ends at a well, in a pitch-black room somewhere in the keep's lower level." Darrien looked over at the keep, judging the distance. "I don't know," he said. "That's an awful long distance for us to be holding our breath underwater," he began.</p><p></p><p>"Not so hard if we inside <em>portable hole</em>!" replied Gilbert, turning to Ingebold. "Open up hole, so we all climb inside!" The dwarven cleric scowled at Gilbert's choice of words, but pulled out the <em>portable hole</em> - which she kept rolled up in a scroll case at her belt - and explained its usage to Tukio. The mermaid agreed to roll up the item, swim to the well, and open the <em>hole</em> on the side of the well.</p><p></p><p>"You stay here, and look after the others," said Binkadink to Obvious in the burrowing-mammal language they shared. The jackalope nodded its antlered head in response, and hippity-hopped over by Turtle.</p><p></p><p>"Anything else we should know about before we go in?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>Turtle and Tukio looked at each other, thinking, before they both blurted out "<strong>Batcat</strong>!"</p><p></p><p>"Rimbule's got a cat familiar that he upgraded," explained Turtle. "Now it has bat wings and a bat's head. It's a creepy little thing. Anyway, he often spies on us, making sure we're not up to anything, and reports back to Rimbule."</p><p></p><p>"If you see it, kill it," recommended Tukio. And with that, the heroes stepped into the extradimensional space of the <em>portable hole</em>, Tukio rolled it up, and they waited while she swam through the underwater tunnel to the keep. There wasn't much air inside the space, and the air that was there was stale, but at least the two <em>everburning torches</em> on Binkadink's helmet-antlers gave them enough light to see by. After several minutes, there was a breeze of equally-stale air, bringing with it the smell of fresh water. "There you go," said Tukio," and suddenly, there she was, her wet skin gleaming in the light of Binkadink's torches as she spread the <em>portable hole</em> open along the side of the well's interior. "Good luck!" she called to the heroes before ducking back down beneath the surface of the water.</p><p></p><p>Darrien stepped up to the edge of the <em>hole</em>, now in a vertical orientation although it had been flat on the ground when they stepped into it. Aiming at the ceiling in the magical torchlight with his <em>Arachnibow</em>, he shot an arrow that became a web-strand by the time it hit. He gave it a good tug to make sure it was secure, then passed it over to Castillan, their resident climbing expert. The bounder was up the line in no time, kicking himself over the top of the well and looking around in the dim light. The room wasn't much bigger than the well, with just enough room to walk around it. But then, as Darrien started climbing up the web-line, Castillan's keen elven senses detected a hidden door along one wall. As Castillan worked out how to open it, Gilbert called back to Darrien to fold up the <em>portable hole</em> on his way up the web-line.</p><p></p><p>"Anything to prevent a little effort on your part," scoffed Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Actually, that <em>was</em> a pretty good idea," remarked Binkadink. "I wasn't really looking forward to climbing that line in this armor."</p><p></p><p>"Nor I, now that ye come t' mention it," added Ingebold. Finoula just shrugged and waited for the extradimensional portal to open back up. By the time they climbed out, they were no longer in the well room - they were in the room on the other side of the secret door Castillan had unearthed. This was a storage room of some sort, filled with clutter from a half-dozen merchant wagons - likely those attacked by the ratmen while in search of victims for their master's experiments. Now that the adventurers were out of the magical <em>hole</em>, the bounder wasted no time filling the extradimensional space with everything of value he could find in the room. Elven wine, chain mail armor, assorted weapons, blankets, pottery, carved stone gargoyle statuettes - in it all went. "We'll sort through it all later," he explained.</p><p></p><p>After rolling the <em>portable hole</em> back up, Castillan opened the only door leading out of the room a crack and peered out. There were <em>everburning torches</em> in sconces along the wall, providing enough illumination to see a couple of doors on either side of a short hallway and a set of stairs leading up to the upper levels. "Clear," he said, just as the sound of a slamming door came from the door to the left.</p><p></p><p>Quickly tiptoeing up to the door, Castillan opened it an inch and peered through. The narrow corridor on the other side was curved like a rainbow, with a series of four metal cell doors visible - and probably another two or three around the bend that the bounder couldn't see. Castillan heard a feminine voice say, "That should hold you for awhile," then a rattle of keys.</p><p></p><p>Quickly whispering the details of what he'd seen to the others, they decided to set up station for an ambush. Finoula went halfway up the stairs to keep watch for any intruders from that direction, while a few steps lower Darrien had his <em>Arachnibow</em> trained on the door to the cell block. Castillan had the best position for which to strike the jailer; as soon as the door opened and she stepped through, he'd be able to strike with both blades. The others were out of immediate visibility but ready to strike out as needed.</p><p></p><p>They weren't needed; as soon as the jailer stepped through the doorway, Castillan struck. Seeing a very good-looking redhead standing before him, though, he had a sudden change of heart and swung his blades around before striking her with them; as a result, he struck her with the blunt ends of his weapon-hilts, one at each temple, and she crumpled in his arms.</p><p></p><p>"Give me a hand with her," he hissed to the others. Gilbert stepped forward and grabbed her legs, and they carried her back into the storage room. There, she was thoroughly bound and gagged and stashed in the corner.</p><p></p><p>"And just what do you plan to do with her now?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"I want to interrogate her," replied Castillan. "I only gagged her in case she wakes up before we're ready. Ingebold, do you have a <em>zone of truth</em> spell prepared?"</p><p></p><p>"Aye," replied the dwarven cleric, beginning the words to the spell. At the same time, Gilbert cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself, then stood over at the other end of the room. "We see if her answers change once I walk forward and she in spell's range," he declared.</p><p></p><p>The young woman's eyelids began to flutter and she looked around her in sudden fear, finding a group of strangers huddled around her. Castillan stepped forward. "We're not going to hurt you," he said. "I'm going to remove the gag from your mouth. You won't scream, will you?" The frightened woman shook her head rapidly and the bounder released the gag. "What's your name?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"<strong>Morghan</strong>," she responded in a fearful voice.</p><p></p><p>"Why you helping Rimbule?"</p><p></p><p>"I--I don't want to end up a hybrid freak, like those others."</p><p></p><p>"How many others does Rimbule have working for him?"</p><p></p><p>"Two others, like me," Morghan replied. "Their names are Tchiu and <strong>Kharn</strong>." Even without the <em>zone of truth</em> spell active, Tchiu's name tracked with what Tukio and Turtle had told the group earlier. "And he has a bunch of rat-people working for him, too."</p><p></p><p>"We took care of them earlier," Castillan reassured her.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert stepped forward and took over the questioning. "You spellcaster?" he demanded.</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"You a cleric?"</p><p></p><p>"No."</p><p></p><p>"What you do before you work for Rimbule?"</p><p></p><p>Morghan took a moment to compose her thoughts before answering, which Finoula noticed immediately and attributed to her trying to evade the truth while under a spell preventing her from out-and-out lying. "We traveled, the three of us," she said. "We had various interactions with different people along the way."</p><p> </p><p>"That's a pretty evasive answer," pointed out Finoula, already placing Morghan firmly on the "people we shouldn't trust" list.</p><p></p><p>"Who guys in cells?" continued Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"They're future experiment victims," Morghan replied. "They were captured by the ratmen."</p><p></p><p>"Why Rimbule make freaks?" demanded the wizard.</p><p></p><p>"He wants to learn transmutation, build himself more powerful body," replied the redheaded captive. "But he wants lots of practice first. He doesn't want to make any mistakes when he's putting his own body on the line."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert leaned forward, pressing into the captive's personal space. "What you do if we kill Rimbule?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"Escape from here, and move on," replied Morghan, with a wistful tone to her voice. "We never expected to be in this position."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert turned to the others. "I think we hear enough," he declared. "Now listen," he said, turning back to Morghan. "We put gag back on you, put you in cell until business done with Rimbule. We come back and get you after we done." The redhead hastily nodded her agreement to this plan and willingly opened her mouth so the wizard could put the gag back in. Then she was carried back to the curving hallway, Darrien fumbling with the ring of keys they'd taken from her until he found the one that opened the first cell. Morghan was placed inside, then locked in. The cell was wedge-shaped, with a solid iron door containing only a small, barred window with which to look inside.</p><p></p><p>"Who's there?" called out a voice from the next cell. Gilbert ambled over and looked inside the window. "Who you?"</p><p></p><p>"My name's <strong>Roger</strong>," he replied. "The guy in the next cell over's <strong>Walthern</strong>. Are you setting us free?"</p><p></p><p>"Maybe later," replied Gilbert. "First we deal with wizard Rimbule. Then, after that, we come back, let you out."</p><p></p><p>"Okay," agreed Roger, not really wanting to help deal with a wizard who could turn people into ratmen - or worse. "Just don't forget about us, okay?"</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," said Binkadink, leading the way up the stairs, his gnomish glaive at the ready. All of this talking had been necessary but boring; he was eager for some wizard-stabbing!</p><p></p><p>The first door they opened on the ground level led into a large dining room, with a dozen elaborately-carved chairs around an equally impressive table. But it was empty of enemies; Binkadink closed the door with a frown and moved on to the next room.</p><p></p><p>This was the kitchen, and it had an open doorway rather than a door. As Binkadink rounded the corner into the room, he heard a soft, feminine humming. Darrien raised his bow at the ready, and Castillan placed a hand on the gnome fighter's shoulder, holding him back. Through hand signals, he indicated he wanted to sneak up on her rather than alert her to their presence through the clanking of the gnome's metal armor. Binkadink tightened his grip around his glaive in anger, but nodded his acceptance of the bounder's logic and gestured with his head for Castillan to go on in.</p><p></p><p>The bounder got a single, silent step into the kitchen when the humming stopped and Tchiu spun around, favoring the bounder with the demon-tattooed half of her face first. The tattoo covered the entire right half of her face, seeming to pull her mouth into a twisted grin filled with razor-sharp teeth. Castillan froze for a moment in shock, but Darrien had no such qualms - he sent an arrow flying across the room, to the left of the bounder, to impale the right side of Tchiu's upper torso, just below the shoulder. Without a word, Tchiu bent her neck at an awkward angle, glanced down at the offending shaft, then turned her gaze back at Castillan with her half-demonic grin, her head still at a tilt. Castillan was wondering just what kind of a fiend he was up against when Tchiu suddenly dropped to her haunches and scurried up the chimney.</p><p></p><p>Snapping out of his frozen trance, the bounder dashed across the kitchen to the fireplace and looked up. There was a humanoid shape scurrying up its length above, headed for the upper level. Castillan braced himself against the opposite walls of the narrow chimney and started to follow, when his instincts told him there was something coming down the chimney at him, fast. He dropped back to the bottom of the fireplace, only to have Darrien's arrow plunk harmlessly off his shoulder, Tchiu apparently having plucked it out and discarded it on her way up.</p><p></p><p>"She's going up the chimney!" Castillan shouted to the others while he started back up himself. Binkadink, elevated to his full height on his <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em>, raced back to the stairs; across from the stairs to the dungeons was another set leading up to the top floor of the keep. Finoula followed behind the gnome, with Darrien, Gilbert, and Ingebold trailing behind her. As the gnome raced up the curved stairwell, he visualized in his head exactly where on the upper floor the chimney would lead to. There were two possibilities: Rimbule's study or his bedroom. The study was the closer to the top of the stairs, so that's the door he kicked open first.</p><p></p><p>The wizard Rimbule was ready for him. He cast a quick spell at the gnome, who through sheer force of will managed to shrug it off - although he got the impression the transmuter had just tried to alter his body in some way. Finoula dashed in behind and around the gnome, spotting Tchiu crawling up out of the study's fireplace. As she ran towards the transmuter responsible for the half-animal hybrids outside, she managed to get a close look at the necklace Tchiu was wearing: it was a wire necklace, through which several fishhooks had been attached; to most of these, a live mouse had been impaled, and their writhing attempts to escape made the whole thing jostle this way and that. Seeing Finoula's gaze and enjoying her discomfort, Tchiu's human smile widened almost to that of her facial tattoo.</p><p></p><p>Finoula's temporary distraction cost her a shot at the transmuter. Rimbule opened the door behind him - which led to his arcane library - and cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell that sent multiple streaks of energy cascading into the elven ranger's chest. Then he casually kicked the door shut before him. Behind her, Tchiu began battering Finoula with fists that struck blows as solid as those from a mace or hammer. Then, climbing out of the fireplace, Castillan stabbed Rimbule's raven-haired assistant from behind, his short sword impaling her through the stomach.</p><p></p><p>As the bounder pulled his blood-soaked blade back out of Tchiu's body, Finoula saw her features start to melt. The tattoo soaked back into her flesh, along with her nose and her hair - and, even more surprisingly, her clothes. What fell to the floor dead was a gray-skinned, bald humanoid with an oversized head.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink missed all of this occurring mere feet away from him, for he was focused on kicking open the door to the library and stabbing at the transmuter with his glaive. He was successful at both, but after a line of blood was ripped across the transmuter's chest, he staggered away with a grunt - and then disappeared from view. Binkadink swore a gnomish oath, thinking the wizard had just <em>teleported</em> away.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, another figure came into the battle. Emerging from a set of stairs that led to the roof, a blonde woman wielding a crossbow pointed her weapon at Darrien, but the half-elf archer was quicker than she, and arrows suddenly peppered her body before she could even get off a single shot. She fell to the floor, her voluptuous body undergoing the same sort of transformation as Tchiu's had done mere moments earlier. "They doppelgangers!" Gilbert called out to the others, getting a first good look at the corpses littering the floors.</p><p></p><p>"If they're both doppelgangers," reasoned Finoula, "how much do you want to bet that Morghan tramp downstairs is one as well?"</p><p></p><p>"We worry about that later!" advised Gilbert, trying in vain to open the door from the stairwell into the library - where it sounded like Binkadink had trapped Rimbule. But it was no luck - the door was apparently <em>arcane locked</em>.</p><p></p><p>Inside the library, Binkadink had a sudden idea and started swinging his glaive out horizontally, making sweeps across the room. One swing hit an invisible form - not with the blade, curse the luck, but with the wooden shaft - but it was enough for the gnome to determine Rimbule was still in the room with them. "He's in here, invisible!" he called to his friends, but then heard the muttered words of another spell emanating from the library.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert rushed the long way towards the library, through the transmuter's study. "Everyone stay out of library!" he called, preparing the words to an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell. But he was promptly ignored by Finoula, who burst into the room to help Binkadink find their invisible foe with their slashing blades. Neither of her blades hit.</p><p></p><p>Cursing his teammates' refusal to follow his directions, Gilbert switched spells at the last moment. If he couldn't cast an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell to capture the transmuter, he could at least undo the effects of his <em>greater invisibility</em> spell, and put all of the combatants on the same level. With that thought in mind, Gilbert cast a <em>darkness</em> spell in the room. He mostly got the effect he wanted, but only by nullifying the <em>everburning torches</em> in sconces around the room - as well as the two tied to the antlers of Binkadink's helmet. A bit of light leaked in from Rimbule's study.</p><p></p><p>"Close the door!" advised Binkadink, aware of what the heavyset wizard had intended. Gilbert turned to do so, but a flitting noise whizzed by his head. "I think he invisible hummingbird now!" reasoned Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>Rimbule was indeed a hummingbird, having <em>polymorphed</em> into that shape while still under the effects of his <em>greater invisibility</em> spell. He wasn't sure who these adventurers were or how they'd gotten into his keep - blast that Batcat anyway, what had he been doing to keep him from warning his master? - but he wasn't going to worry about that now. The first order of business was to escape; he could always sneak back afterwards and pick them off one by one while they were otherwise engaged. These thoughts filled his hummingbird brain as he flew past Gilbert, angled out of the study, and flew past Darrien and Castillan.</p><p></p><p>But Castillan had heard Gilbert's warning, and his keen elven hearing helped him to pinpoint the location of his invisible foe. He swung with his short sword, hitting something in midair and sending it staggering away. Darrien dropped the <em>Arachnibow</em>, pulled out the scimitar at his belt, and tried to follow suit, but his blade-swings were uneventful - at first, anyway. A lucky strike managed to hit the dazed wizard in his hummingbird form, and he dropped to the corner of the stairwell, dead.</p><p></p><p>With Rimbule and two of his doppelganger assistants slain, Finoula wanted to go back to the dungeon cells immediately to check on Morghan. Sure enough, the cell was empty, save for the discarded gag and ropes that had bound her. As a doppelganger, Finoula realized, it would have been a simple matter to transform into a much smaller form - like that of a goblin or halfling - shrug out of the ropes, and them change into something that could either fit through the barred window or reach the lock to open it. Whether it was something extremely thin and flexible or something with long arms, the doppelganger had managed to open her cell door and escape while the heroes had been busy with fighting Rimbule above.</p><p></p><p>After a room-by-room sweep for treasure - carried out under Castillan's watchful eye, so that they wouldn't miss anything of value - the group released Roger and Walthern from their cells. They were glad to have been released, and even more thankful that they had not been turned into ratmen or anything worse.</p><p></p><p>While the others had been looting the rest of the keep, Gilbert had spent the time transferring the contents of Rimbule's library into his <em>Omnibook</em>. In doing so, he'd discovered Rimbule's spellbooks, and found a couple of spells as of yet unknown to the portly wizard. Gilbert smiled at the thought of deciphering their contents and learning how to cast those spells, increasing his own spell repertoire.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the wizard found nothing in the way of restoring Rimbule's previous victims to their normal selves. He had several ideas - there were a number of spells that could alter a person's appearance, but all of the ones he had personal knowledge of were only temporary - so it looked like Turtle and the others would remain trapped in their current forms until a more permanent solution could be devised.</p><p></p><p>This came as a major disappointment to the victims, once Gilbert explained the situation - especially Turtle, whose form was the most debilitating of those who had retained their normal intellect. (Snake's form was equally clumsy, but his mind was gone, and the group universally decided he's be left behind when they all departed.) The hybrids were able to confirm that Morghan had indeed escaped, as they saw her fly off on Rimbule's hovershell, a magical crossbreeding of a large turtle and a giant dragonfly. That at least suggested that the group could escape the pain-inducing defenses of the hidden grove by flying over them, so the decision was made to place everyone but Binkadink into the <em>portable hole</em>, after the gnome had received spells from Gilbert that nor only increased his inherent constitution (and thus pain tolerance), but also granted him the ability to fly. The gnome had the time of his life flying over the treetops of the hidden grove, and would have continued doing loop-de-loops in the air if not for the thought of the minimal air supply inside the <em>portable hole</em> - it would have done no good for him to have suffocated all of his friends, including his faithful jackalope, while he had fun flying about. So he landed by an astonished Aithanar and opened the <em>hole</em> allowing the heroes and the unfortunate experiment victims out.</p><p></p><p>"Where shall we go?" asked Gandlebain the pseudo-satyr.</p><p></p><p>"We'll take ye back to Kordovia with us," decided Ingebold. "I'm sure ye can stay at th' Temple of Moradin, while we do what we can to find a way t' return ye t' yer normal forms." And so that was what happened; the temple clerics agreed to look after those victims who needed tending to - like Minotaur, who grazed contentedly on the grass behind the temple and provided fresh milk for breakfast to the clerics. Valgard and Gandlebain needed no tending to; they opted to explore the Vesve Forest in their current forms, and check back occasionally with the temple to see if any progress had been made. Turtle and Jolinda stayed at the Temple of Moradin, desiring the protection a dwarven temple could provide; Turtle didn't want to interact with the rest of society in her present form, while Jolinda feared being mistaken for an actual harpy and slain on the spot. But she took a liking to the dwarven temple chants, and soon added her own voice to their ceremonies - a strange sight indeed: a bird woman perched on the back of a stone pew chanting the words to a dwarven hymn.</p><p></p><p>Tukio's condition required her to remain wet, or her fish-scales started to dry out and cause her pain. She ended up "living" in the largest fountain of the king's castle, where she was a favored addition. The mermaid spent her time partly on exhibition but mostly in conversation with those who came to see her. While still desiring her human form back, she decided to make the best of her situation and came to enjoy the frequent visits.</p><p></p><p>"You know," said King Galrich, several days after Rimbule's "freaks" had been incorporated into the kingdom, "the neighboring lands already refer to Kordovia as 'The Monster Kingdom.'"</p><p></p><p>"Do they, Your Majesty?" asked Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"They do. After all, we have an orc for a king and a dragon-elf as a princess."</p><p></p><p>"Half-orc," corrected Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"Orc, half-orc - it's all the same to most people," responded King Galrich. "And now we have a mermaid in our castle, a minotaur, harpy, and...whatever that Turtle woman is, living in our largest temple, with a centaur and a satyr coming into the kingdom at will and the possibility of a green dragon allying with us...it's no wonder they call us that."</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps some good will come of this, Your Majesty," suggested Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps; we shall see," said King Galrich.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: We went through this adventure on the same day we finished up "An Audience with the Princess," so I was still wearing my green dragon T-shirt. And, as I had nothing particularly appropriate for "Rimbule the Metamorph," I was fine with not changing into anything else.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6895951, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 23: RIMBULE THE METAMORPH[/b] Game Session Date: 10 September 2016 - - - I'm going to break one of my own self-imposed rules for this campaign - and this Story Hour - and detail the events of our next adventure, "Rimbule the Metamorph." I had originally fully intended not to use any published material for the entirety of this campaign, but "Rimbule the Metamorph" is an adventure I had written and submitted to [i]Dungeon[/i] magazine, where it was rejected - but then subsequently printed in Mongoose Publishing's [i]Signs & Portents[/i] magazine when I decided to give it a shot there. Hopefully, those of you reading this write-up won't be running your own PCs through this adventure, but given that it was published in 2004 back in issue #7 of a magazine that's now been out of print for years, I'm hoping my spilling these details will have a very minimal impact on anyone reading this. - - - After returning Princess Kaelanna to the castle, it was kind of pointless to head back out again given the scant amount of daylight left in the day, so the Kordovian Adventurers Guild members opted to spend the night at Battershield Keep and get a fresh start in the morning. Now, several hours past the light of the new dawn, the team was once again traveling through the Vesve Forest - but Ingebold, in the mule-driven wagon, opted to avoid the roads that would take them anywhere near the lair of Clauguthrax. Aithanar followed her lead in the Vistani wagon, while Binkadink and Finoula rode their respective mounts to either side as usual, Wrath loping alongside the pony of his mistress. A sudden scream from just ahead brought both wagons to an immediate halt. Binkadink, riding on Obvious on the right side of the dirt road near where the scream had come from, sent his jackalope scampering over to the underbrush, seeking the point of origin of the scream. They arrived just in time to see a young woman's face twisted in apparent agony, her right hand clawing at the ground in an attempt to stop being pulled backwards into the scrub - and then she was gone. "Over here!" called the gnome to his companions, before sending Obvious plunging through the undergrowth. Castillan, who had been riding on top of the Vistani wagon's roof as a lookout, leaped down to the right and went scouting ahead towards where Binkadink and his jackalope mount had left the road - and where further screams were now emanating, including what sounded like a gasp of surprise from the gnomish fighter. The door at the back of the Vistani wagon opened and Gilbert Fung stepped out, grumbling about having stopped. He stormed over toward the mule wagon, but came to an abrupt halt at the movement along the growths between the trees to the side of the road, as eight dark figures stepped out from the forest. Each was the size of a man, but stood in a hunched posture as better fit their ratlike build. Whiskers twitching, pink tails dragging behind them, their faces grimaced in what were apparently broad smiles as they called out to each other. "Dibs on the fat one!" "I got the one in the wagon!" "The dwarf chick's mine!" "Guys, there are plenty to go around! We'll all get points for this lot!" Darrien, having gathered from their conversation that these ratmen meant them no good, stood up in the back of the mule wagon where he'd been riding, took aim with his [i]Arachnibow[/i], and placed a second arrow into the chest of a ratman before the creature had even noticed the first arrow the ranger had placed there but a second prior. With a high-pitched squeal of pain and surprise, the ratman fell backwards, dead. Finoula led her pony Daisy around the back of the Vistani wagon, uncoiling her [i]whip of thorns[/i]. Wrath followed her, then made a rush for the ratman the furthest back from his fellows. As the ranger's whip caught up the second ratman in line and pulled him prone, the wolf bit deep into the first ratman's leg and dragged him to the ground. Between the wolf's teeth and the whip's thorns, neither of the two ratmen got back up again alive. Ingebold dropped the mules' reins and leaped to the ground, her warhammer in hand. "Dwarf chick, eh?" she repeated, swinging her weapon menacingly. In the meantime, three of the ratmen had surrounded Castillan in a semicircle and had gotten in a few bites, causing the bounder - with the threat of wolf lycanthropy still hanging over his head - to wonder if he was facing wererats, and if so, what would happen if he caught rat lycanthropy on top of the wolven strain he'd likely already picked up. The bounder snapped his weapons into his hands and went to stab at the ratman at his left, only to have him drop to the ground, one of Darrien's arrows embedded in his throat. Castillan switched targets over to the next one, only to have the same thing happen. He was quicker than the ranger the third time, though, his short sword plunging into the ratman's side. "Nice of you to leave me one!" he called back to his friend. Past the ring of roadside trees, Binkadink and Obvious saw who was pulling the woman back - and just how much of a "woman" she really was. The aggressor was a male centaur with elven facial features, tugging on a rope tied to the woman's back leg. But her back leg was that of a tortoise, as was her other leg and her left arm and hand - complete with a hardened shell covering her entire body. Only her head and her right arm and hand were still human. But, odd hybrid creature or not, Binkadink was moved by her screams to do what he could to help - which consisted of encouraging Obvious forward enough to bring his gnomish glaive to bear, slicing the rope in twain with a single downward thrust. The centaur staggered backward, and Obvious turned to face him. Binkadink raised his glaive to ward off the centaur, but the tortoise-woman called out, "Don't hurt him! He's been [i]charmed[/i] into preventing my escape!" Back at the roadside, Gilbert cast a [i]burning hands[/i] spell over Ingebold's head to set the fur of an approaching ratman ablaze, while the cleric brought down the last of the eight with her warhammer. Seeing no further threats, the group jointly decided to leave Aithanar and the animals with the wagons, while they went to find Binkadink and Obvious on foot. Stepping between the trees, Gilbert's highly-attuned magic senses were triggered. "This an illusion," he said, indicating the trees and heavy undergrowth all around them. It was a very accurately-cast [i]hallucinatory terrain[/i] spell, or rather a series of overlapping spells of the same type, cast to prevent anyone from outside the perimeter of the ring of spells from being able to see inside. Only once inside the ring did the hidden grove come into view. A broad clearing, roughly circular, covered hundreds of feet straight ahead. Right about in its center stood a two-story, circular stone keep surrounded by a palisade and a moat. There was a pond nearby and a small obelisk, with a few figures here and there. But of immediate interest were the tortoise-woman and the centaur directly in front of Obvious and Binkadink. "What the Hell?" asked Gilbert Fung, never one to let his true feelings be hidden. "What you supposed to be?" My name is--well, you might as well call me [b]Turtle[/b]," said the hybrid. "The centaur is named [b]Valgard[/b]. Until recently, he was an elf." Valgard nodded his agreement, or possibly it was intended as a welcome, for he was not actively trying to fight the heroes, as none of them were attempting to leave the hidden grove. "There are a few more freaks up ahead," said Turtle. "I'll introduce you to them." And she started crawling towards the pond and the obelisk at tortoise speed. Valgard and the heroes followed her. "All of us were, at one time or another, captured by a wizard named [b]Rimbule[/b], or by the ratmen he has in his employ," began Turtle. "We killed eight of them on the road," offered Castillan. "You did? Did you happen to remove their rings?" At the bounder's negative reply, Turtle explained: "The ratmen are the only ones allowed to exit the grove. There are magical alarm symbols hidden all the way throughout the edges of the grove. Once you get too close, they start causing you intense pain, which gets increasingly worse with every step you take towards safety. I was trying to fight my way past the pain and get out, but Valgard dragged me back. He's been [i]charmed[/i] by Rimbule to keep those of us with our own free wills from escaping. So has [b]Gandlebain[/b] here, too, another elf captive." Another beast-man loped up to the group, his upper body that of an elf, his lower half that of a goat. "Rimbule's made a satyr out of him." "So what were ye supposed to be?" asked Ingebold. "The gods only know," lamented Turtle. "Some sort of humanoid turtle, I imagine. I was one of his earliest human test subjects. As you can see, he got increasingly better over the years. Come on down here, [b]Jolinda[/b], they're not here to hurt us." A bird-woman flapped her wings and alit from the top of the nine-foot-tall obelisk, landing on the ground by Turtle. "Jolinda was a trader, traveling through the forest, before she was abducted by the ratmen and turned into a fake harpy." The heroes could see that despite the harpy build, Jolinda's human part was quite beautiful - unlike any true harpies, who were universally ugly in appearance. She was also a harpy in build only, lacking any of the magical song-based abilities of a true harpy. "This is another one of Rimbule's early works: we just call him [b]Snake[/b]." Turtle pointed out a shambling form, a man-sized reptile with a human left leg and right arm jutting out from an otherwise serpentine form; the creature tried walking upright like a man, shuffling along on his one leg and using his curved snake body as an impromptu second standing limb. "Snake's mind's all gone," Turtle said, as Jolinda flapped her wings and made for the safety of the top of the obelisk once again. "He'll try to eat you, but he's slow enough we can all pretty much avoid him." Turtle led the others to another hulking form, this one looking like a man-sized minotaur - until he turned around, exposing the udders hanging between his legs. "We call this one [b]Minotaur[/b]," Turtle said. "His mind's that of a cow. He's a nice enough sort, does nothing but eat, sleep, and low when he wants milked." Castillan couldn't help sneering at the concept. "And that's all of us, except for [b]Tukio[/b]," said Turtle, changing direction and heading for the pond. "She doesn't need to be [i]charmed[/i] to stay where she's at, as you'll see." A ripple in the middle of the pond became an arrow-shaped wave as an unseen form headed towards the group. Surfacing, the heroes saw a lovely young woman, with almond eyes like Gilbert's...and the lower half of a giant trout. "Rimbule's very own mermaid," Turtle commented. "So, I assume this Rimbule lives over in the keep?" asked Binkadink. "Maybe we can convince him to change you all back." "I'm not sure if that's even possible," lamented Turtle. "But we'd all appreciate it if you were able to." "What can you tell us about him?" asked Finoula. "He's a wizard - a transmuter, not surprisingly. He has three women helping him. I don't know what their deal is, but he never uses them for his experiments." "Watch out for the dark-haired one," offered Tukio. "Her name's [b]Tchiu[/b] -- she's crazy!" "You can't miss her: she has a demon-skull tattoo across half of her face," added Turtle. "Sounds lovely," muttered Darrien. Turtle picked up a stick and started drawing a map of the keep in the dirt. "There are two floors above, and at least one level underground," she said. "I've only ever been in the upper rooms, back before...you know." She explained the layout she'd drawn, pointing out the rooms where Rimbule spent most of his time. "We'll have to get past the moat, and the wall around the keep," pointed out Darrien, squinting at the keep. "There's an owlbear in the moat," warned Turtle. "The ratmen feed him spare parts from Rimbule's experiments." "What their deal?" asked Gilbert. "He turn them into monsters - why they work for him?" "They have an exclusive deal with Rimbule," explained Jolinda from her perch. "They can buy their way back to human form - after a ratman supplies Rimbule with ten victims, he'll return him to his human form." "So he say," scoffed Gilbert. "And they believe him?" "I've seen it happen, at least twice," countered Turtle. "Each time, the former ratman strolled out of the grove a free man." "Hmmm," Gilbert mused. Then, changing subjects, he turned towards Jolinda. "You! Bird-girl! You think you can fly to top of keep carrying gnome?" Jolinda blanched at the very thought, and rapidly shook her head. "No way. That's too high! I'm...I don't like heights." Gilbert rolled his eyes and made a rude noise with his lips. "I know of another way in," offered Tukio. That got everyone's attention, and they turned to face the young mermaid. "At the bottom of the pond, there's an underwater passageway that leads to the keep," she said. It ends at a well, in a pitch-black room somewhere in the keep's lower level." Darrien looked over at the keep, judging the distance. "I don't know," he said. "That's an awful long distance for us to be holding our breath underwater," he began. "Not so hard if we inside [i]portable hole[/i]!" replied Gilbert, turning to Ingebold. "Open up hole, so we all climb inside!" The dwarven cleric scowled at Gilbert's choice of words, but pulled out the [i]portable hole[/i] - which she kept rolled up in a scroll case at her belt - and explained its usage to Tukio. The mermaid agreed to roll up the item, swim to the well, and open the [i]hole[/i] on the side of the well. "You stay here, and look after the others," said Binkadink to Obvious in the burrowing-mammal language they shared. The jackalope nodded its antlered head in response, and hippity-hopped over by Turtle. "Anything else we should know about before we go in?" asked Finoula. Turtle and Tukio looked at each other, thinking, before they both blurted out "[b]Batcat[/b]!" "Rimbule's got a cat familiar that he upgraded," explained Turtle. "Now it has bat wings and a bat's head. It's a creepy little thing. Anyway, he often spies on us, making sure we're not up to anything, and reports back to Rimbule." "If you see it, kill it," recommended Tukio. And with that, the heroes stepped into the extradimensional space of the [i]portable hole[/i], Tukio rolled it up, and they waited while she swam through the underwater tunnel to the keep. There wasn't much air inside the space, and the air that was there was stale, but at least the two [i]everburning torches[/i] on Binkadink's helmet-antlers gave them enough light to see by. After several minutes, there was a breeze of equally-stale air, bringing with it the smell of fresh water. "There you go," said Tukio," and suddenly, there she was, her wet skin gleaming in the light of Binkadink's torches as she spread the [i]portable hole[/i] open along the side of the well's interior. "Good luck!" she called to the heroes before ducking back down beneath the surface of the water. Darrien stepped up to the edge of the [i]hole[/i], now in a vertical orientation although it had been flat on the ground when they stepped into it. Aiming at the ceiling in the magical torchlight with his [i]Arachnibow[/i], he shot an arrow that became a web-strand by the time it hit. He gave it a good tug to make sure it was secure, then passed it over to Castillan, their resident climbing expert. The bounder was up the line in no time, kicking himself over the top of the well and looking around in the dim light. The room wasn't much bigger than the well, with just enough room to walk around it. But then, as Darrien started climbing up the web-line, Castillan's keen elven senses detected a hidden door along one wall. As Castillan worked out how to open it, Gilbert called back to Darrien to fold up the [i]portable hole[/i] on his way up the web-line. "Anything to prevent a little effort on your part," scoffed Finoula. "Actually, that [i]was[/i] a pretty good idea," remarked Binkadink. "I wasn't really looking forward to climbing that line in this armor." "Nor I, now that ye come t' mention it," added Ingebold. Finoula just shrugged and waited for the extradimensional portal to open back up. By the time they climbed out, they were no longer in the well room - they were in the room on the other side of the secret door Castillan had unearthed. This was a storage room of some sort, filled with clutter from a half-dozen merchant wagons - likely those attacked by the ratmen while in search of victims for their master's experiments. Now that the adventurers were out of the magical [i]hole[/i], the bounder wasted no time filling the extradimensional space with everything of value he could find in the room. Elven wine, chain mail armor, assorted weapons, blankets, pottery, carved stone gargoyle statuettes - in it all went. "We'll sort through it all later," he explained. After rolling the [i]portable hole[/i] back up, Castillan opened the only door leading out of the room a crack and peered out. There were [i]everburning torches[/i] in sconces along the wall, providing enough illumination to see a couple of doors on either side of a short hallway and a set of stairs leading up to the upper levels. "Clear," he said, just as the sound of a slamming door came from the door to the left. Quickly tiptoeing up to the door, Castillan opened it an inch and peered through. The narrow corridor on the other side was curved like a rainbow, with a series of four metal cell doors visible - and probably another two or three around the bend that the bounder couldn't see. Castillan heard a feminine voice say, "That should hold you for awhile," then a rattle of keys. Quickly whispering the details of what he'd seen to the others, they decided to set up station for an ambush. Finoula went halfway up the stairs to keep watch for any intruders from that direction, while a few steps lower Darrien had his [i]Arachnibow[/i] trained on the door to the cell block. Castillan had the best position for which to strike the jailer; as soon as the door opened and she stepped through, he'd be able to strike with both blades. The others were out of immediate visibility but ready to strike out as needed. They weren't needed; as soon as the jailer stepped through the doorway, Castillan struck. Seeing a very good-looking redhead standing before him, though, he had a sudden change of heart and swung his blades around before striking her with them; as a result, he struck her with the blunt ends of his weapon-hilts, one at each temple, and she crumpled in his arms. "Give me a hand with her," he hissed to the others. Gilbert stepped forward and grabbed her legs, and they carried her back into the storage room. There, she was thoroughly bound and gagged and stashed in the corner. "And just what do you plan to do with her now?" asked Finoula. "I want to interrogate her," replied Castillan. "I only gagged her in case she wakes up before we're ready. Ingebold, do you have a [i]zone of truth[/i] spell prepared?" "Aye," replied the dwarven cleric, beginning the words to the spell. At the same time, Gilbert cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell upon himself, then stood over at the other end of the room. "We see if her answers change once I walk forward and she in spell's range," he declared. The young woman's eyelids began to flutter and she looked around her in sudden fear, finding a group of strangers huddled around her. Castillan stepped forward. "We're not going to hurt you," he said. "I'm going to remove the gag from your mouth. You won't scream, will you?" The frightened woman shook her head rapidly and the bounder released the gag. "What's your name?" he asked. "[b]Morghan[/b]," she responded in a fearful voice. "Why you helping Rimbule?" "I--I don't want to end up a hybrid freak, like those others." "How many others does Rimbule have working for him?" "Two others, like me," Morghan replied. "Their names are Tchiu and [b]Kharn[/b]." Even without the [i]zone of truth[/i] spell active, Tchiu's name tracked with what Tukio and Turtle had told the group earlier. "And he has a bunch of rat-people working for him, too." "We took care of them earlier," Castillan reassured her. Gilbert stepped forward and took over the questioning. "You spellcaster?" he demanded. "No." "You a cleric?" "No." "What you do before you work for Rimbule?" Morghan took a moment to compose her thoughts before answering, which Finoula noticed immediately and attributed to her trying to evade the truth while under a spell preventing her from out-and-out lying. "We traveled, the three of us," she said. "We had various interactions with different people along the way." "That's a pretty evasive answer," pointed out Finoula, already placing Morghan firmly on the "people we shouldn't trust" list. "Who guys in cells?" continued Gilbert. "They're future experiment victims," Morghan replied. "They were captured by the ratmen." "Why Rimbule make freaks?" demanded the wizard. "He wants to learn transmutation, build himself more powerful body," replied the redheaded captive. "But he wants lots of practice first. He doesn't want to make any mistakes when he's putting his own body on the line." Gilbert leaned forward, pressing into the captive's personal space. "What you do if we kill Rimbule?" he asked. "Escape from here, and move on," replied Morghan, with a wistful tone to her voice. "We never expected to be in this position." Gilbert turned to the others. "I think we hear enough," he declared. "Now listen," he said, turning back to Morghan. "We put gag back on you, put you in cell until business done with Rimbule. We come back and get you after we done." The redhead hastily nodded her agreement to this plan and willingly opened her mouth so the wizard could put the gag back in. Then she was carried back to the curving hallway, Darrien fumbling with the ring of keys they'd taken from her until he found the one that opened the first cell. Morghan was placed inside, then locked in. The cell was wedge-shaped, with a solid iron door containing only a small, barred window with which to look inside. "Who's there?" called out a voice from the next cell. Gilbert ambled over and looked inside the window. "Who you?" "My name's [b]Roger[/b]," he replied. "The guy in the next cell over's [b]Walthern[/b]. Are you setting us free?" "Maybe later," replied Gilbert. "First we deal with wizard Rimbule. Then, after that, we come back, let you out." "Okay," agreed Roger, not really wanting to help deal with a wizard who could turn people into ratmen - or worse. "Just don't forget about us, okay?" "Let's go," said Binkadink, leading the way up the stairs, his gnomish glaive at the ready. All of this talking had been necessary but boring; he was eager for some wizard-stabbing! The first door they opened on the ground level led into a large dining room, with a dozen elaborately-carved chairs around an equally impressive table. But it was empty of enemies; Binkadink closed the door with a frown and moved on to the next room. This was the kitchen, and it had an open doorway rather than a door. As Binkadink rounded the corner into the room, he heard a soft, feminine humming. Darrien raised his bow at the ready, and Castillan placed a hand on the gnome fighter's shoulder, holding him back. Through hand signals, he indicated he wanted to sneak up on her rather than alert her to their presence through the clanking of the gnome's metal armor. Binkadink tightened his grip around his glaive in anger, but nodded his acceptance of the bounder's logic and gestured with his head for Castillan to go on in. The bounder got a single, silent step into the kitchen when the humming stopped and Tchiu spun around, favoring the bounder with the demon-tattooed half of her face first. The tattoo covered the entire right half of her face, seeming to pull her mouth into a twisted grin filled with razor-sharp teeth. Castillan froze for a moment in shock, but Darrien had no such qualms - he sent an arrow flying across the room, to the left of the bounder, to impale the right side of Tchiu's upper torso, just below the shoulder. Without a word, Tchiu bent her neck at an awkward angle, glanced down at the offending shaft, then turned her gaze back at Castillan with her half-demonic grin, her head still at a tilt. Castillan was wondering just what kind of a fiend he was up against when Tchiu suddenly dropped to her haunches and scurried up the chimney. Snapping out of his frozen trance, the bounder dashed across the kitchen to the fireplace and looked up. There was a humanoid shape scurrying up its length above, headed for the upper level. Castillan braced himself against the opposite walls of the narrow chimney and started to follow, when his instincts told him there was something coming down the chimney at him, fast. He dropped back to the bottom of the fireplace, only to have Darrien's arrow plunk harmlessly off his shoulder, Tchiu apparently having plucked it out and discarded it on her way up. "She's going up the chimney!" Castillan shouted to the others while he started back up himself. Binkadink, elevated to his full height on his [i]gnomish stilt-boots[/i], raced back to the stairs; across from the stairs to the dungeons was another set leading up to the top floor of the keep. Finoula followed behind the gnome, with Darrien, Gilbert, and Ingebold trailing behind her. As the gnome raced up the curved stairwell, he visualized in his head exactly where on the upper floor the chimney would lead to. There were two possibilities: Rimbule's study or his bedroom. The study was the closer to the top of the stairs, so that's the door he kicked open first. The wizard Rimbule was ready for him. He cast a quick spell at the gnome, who through sheer force of will managed to shrug it off - although he got the impression the transmuter had just tried to alter his body in some way. Finoula dashed in behind and around the gnome, spotting Tchiu crawling up out of the study's fireplace. As she ran towards the transmuter responsible for the half-animal hybrids outside, she managed to get a close look at the necklace Tchiu was wearing: it was a wire necklace, through which several fishhooks had been attached; to most of these, a live mouse had been impaled, and their writhing attempts to escape made the whole thing jostle this way and that. Seeing Finoula's gaze and enjoying her discomfort, Tchiu's human smile widened almost to that of her facial tattoo. Finoula's temporary distraction cost her a shot at the transmuter. Rimbule opened the door behind him - which led to his arcane library - and cast a [i]magic missile[/i] spell that sent multiple streaks of energy cascading into the elven ranger's chest. Then he casually kicked the door shut before him. Behind her, Tchiu began battering Finoula with fists that struck blows as solid as those from a mace or hammer. Then, climbing out of the fireplace, Castillan stabbed Rimbule's raven-haired assistant from behind, his short sword impaling her through the stomach. As the bounder pulled his blood-soaked blade back out of Tchiu's body, Finoula saw her features start to melt. The tattoo soaked back into her flesh, along with her nose and her hair - and, even more surprisingly, her clothes. What fell to the floor dead was a gray-skinned, bald humanoid with an oversized head. Binkadink missed all of this occurring mere feet away from him, for he was focused on kicking open the door to the library and stabbing at the transmuter with his glaive. He was successful at both, but after a line of blood was ripped across the transmuter's chest, he staggered away with a grunt - and then disappeared from view. Binkadink swore a gnomish oath, thinking the wizard had just [i]teleported[/i] away. In the meantime, another figure came into the battle. Emerging from a set of stairs that led to the roof, a blonde woman wielding a crossbow pointed her weapon at Darrien, but the half-elf archer was quicker than she, and arrows suddenly peppered her body before she could even get off a single shot. She fell to the floor, her voluptuous body undergoing the same sort of transformation as Tchiu's had done mere moments earlier. "They doppelgangers!" Gilbert called out to the others, getting a first good look at the corpses littering the floors. "If they're both doppelgangers," reasoned Finoula, "how much do you want to bet that Morghan tramp downstairs is one as well?" "We worry about that later!" advised Gilbert, trying in vain to open the door from the stairwell into the library - where it sounded like Binkadink had trapped Rimbule. But it was no luck - the door was apparently [i]arcane locked[/i]. Inside the library, Binkadink had a sudden idea and started swinging his glaive out horizontally, making sweeps across the room. One swing hit an invisible form - not with the blade, curse the luck, but with the wooden shaft - but it was enough for the gnome to determine Rimbule was still in the room with them. "He's in here, invisible!" he called to his friends, but then heard the muttered words of another spell emanating from the library. Gilbert rushed the long way towards the library, through the transmuter's study. "Everyone stay out of library!" he called, preparing the words to an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell. But he was promptly ignored by Finoula, who burst into the room to help Binkadink find their invisible foe with their slashing blades. Neither of her blades hit. Cursing his teammates' refusal to follow his directions, Gilbert switched spells at the last moment. If he couldn't cast an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell to capture the transmuter, he could at least undo the effects of his [i]greater invisibility[/i] spell, and put all of the combatants on the same level. With that thought in mind, Gilbert cast a [i]darkness[/i] spell in the room. He mostly got the effect he wanted, but only by nullifying the [i]everburning torches[/i] in sconces around the room - as well as the two tied to the antlers of Binkadink's helmet. A bit of light leaked in from Rimbule's study. "Close the door!" advised Binkadink, aware of what the heavyset wizard had intended. Gilbert turned to do so, but a flitting noise whizzed by his head. "I think he invisible hummingbird now!" reasoned Gilbert. Rimbule was indeed a hummingbird, having [i]polymorphed[/i] into that shape while still under the effects of his [i]greater invisibility[/i] spell. He wasn't sure who these adventurers were or how they'd gotten into his keep - blast that Batcat anyway, what had he been doing to keep him from warning his master? - but he wasn't going to worry about that now. The first order of business was to escape; he could always sneak back afterwards and pick them off one by one while they were otherwise engaged. These thoughts filled his hummingbird brain as he flew past Gilbert, angled out of the study, and flew past Darrien and Castillan. But Castillan had heard Gilbert's warning, and his keen elven hearing helped him to pinpoint the location of his invisible foe. He swung with his short sword, hitting something in midair and sending it staggering away. Darrien dropped the [i]Arachnibow[/i], pulled out the scimitar at his belt, and tried to follow suit, but his blade-swings were uneventful - at first, anyway. A lucky strike managed to hit the dazed wizard in his hummingbird form, and he dropped to the corner of the stairwell, dead. With Rimbule and two of his doppelganger assistants slain, Finoula wanted to go back to the dungeon cells immediately to check on Morghan. Sure enough, the cell was empty, save for the discarded gag and ropes that had bound her. As a doppelganger, Finoula realized, it would have been a simple matter to transform into a much smaller form - like that of a goblin or halfling - shrug out of the ropes, and them change into something that could either fit through the barred window or reach the lock to open it. Whether it was something extremely thin and flexible or something with long arms, the doppelganger had managed to open her cell door and escape while the heroes had been busy with fighting Rimbule above. After a room-by-room sweep for treasure - carried out under Castillan's watchful eye, so that they wouldn't miss anything of value - the group released Roger and Walthern from their cells. They were glad to have been released, and even more thankful that they had not been turned into ratmen or anything worse. While the others had been looting the rest of the keep, Gilbert had spent the time transferring the contents of Rimbule's library into his [i]Omnibook[/i]. In doing so, he'd discovered Rimbule's spellbooks, and found a couple of spells as of yet unknown to the portly wizard. Gilbert smiled at the thought of deciphering their contents and learning how to cast those spells, increasing his own spell repertoire. Unfortunately, the wizard found nothing in the way of restoring Rimbule's previous victims to their normal selves. He had several ideas - there were a number of spells that could alter a person's appearance, but all of the ones he had personal knowledge of were only temporary - so it looked like Turtle and the others would remain trapped in their current forms until a more permanent solution could be devised. This came as a major disappointment to the victims, once Gilbert explained the situation - especially Turtle, whose form was the most debilitating of those who had retained their normal intellect. (Snake's form was equally clumsy, but his mind was gone, and the group universally decided he's be left behind when they all departed.) The hybrids were able to confirm that Morghan had indeed escaped, as they saw her fly off on Rimbule's hovershell, a magical crossbreeding of a large turtle and a giant dragonfly. That at least suggested that the group could escape the pain-inducing defenses of the hidden grove by flying over them, so the decision was made to place everyone but Binkadink into the [i]portable hole[/i], after the gnome had received spells from Gilbert that nor only increased his inherent constitution (and thus pain tolerance), but also granted him the ability to fly. The gnome had the time of his life flying over the treetops of the hidden grove, and would have continued doing loop-de-loops in the air if not for the thought of the minimal air supply inside the [i]portable hole[/i] - it would have done no good for him to have suffocated all of his friends, including his faithful jackalope, while he had fun flying about. So he landed by an astonished Aithanar and opened the [i]hole[/i] allowing the heroes and the unfortunate experiment victims out. "Where shall we go?" asked Gandlebain the pseudo-satyr. "We'll take ye back to Kordovia with us," decided Ingebold. "I'm sure ye can stay at th' Temple of Moradin, while we do what we can to find a way t' return ye t' yer normal forms." And so that was what happened; the temple clerics agreed to look after those victims who needed tending to - like Minotaur, who grazed contentedly on the grass behind the temple and provided fresh milk for breakfast to the clerics. Valgard and Gandlebain needed no tending to; they opted to explore the Vesve Forest in their current forms, and check back occasionally with the temple to see if any progress had been made. Turtle and Jolinda stayed at the Temple of Moradin, desiring the protection a dwarven temple could provide; Turtle didn't want to interact with the rest of society in her present form, while Jolinda feared being mistaken for an actual harpy and slain on the spot. But she took a liking to the dwarven temple chants, and soon added her own voice to their ceremonies - a strange sight indeed: a bird woman perched on the back of a stone pew chanting the words to a dwarven hymn. Tukio's condition required her to remain wet, or her fish-scales started to dry out and cause her pain. She ended up "living" in the largest fountain of the king's castle, where she was a favored addition. The mermaid spent her time partly on exhibition but mostly in conversation with those who came to see her. While still desiring her human form back, she decided to make the best of her situation and came to enjoy the frequent visits. "You know," said King Galrich, several days after Rimbule's "freaks" had been incorporated into the kingdom, "the neighboring lands already refer to Kordovia as 'The Monster Kingdom.'" "Do they, Your Majesty?" asked Aerik. "They do. After all, we have an orc for a king and a dragon-elf as a princess." "Half-orc," corrected Aerik. "Orc, half-orc - it's all the same to most people," responded King Galrich. "And now we have a mermaid in our castle, a minotaur, harpy, and...whatever that Turtle woman is, living in our largest temple, with a centaur and a satyr coming into the kingdom at will and the possibility of a green dragon allying with us...it's no wonder they call us that." "Perhaps some good will come of this, Your Majesty," suggested Aerik. "Perhaps; we shall see," said King Galrich. - - - T-Shirt Worn: We went through this adventure on the same day we finished up "An Audience with the Princess," so I was still wearing my green dragon T-shirt. And, as I had nothing particularly appropriate for "Rimbule the Metamorph," I was fine with not changing into anything else. [/QUOTE]
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