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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6965741" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 27: THE SNOW GLOBE</strong></p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 3 December 2016</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>After nearly a week passing through the Clatspur Mountain Range, the group was glad to be back on level ground again. The wagons rolled forward, pulled by the two mules and two black draft horses, while Finoula and Binkadink rode alongside on their respective mounts. Two hours before noon, a large wooden structure came into view alongside the road, its appearance foreshadowed minutes earlier by the rhythmic sound of hammers pounding on anvils.</p><p></p><p>"We're here!" exclaimed Binkadink with unbridled joy. At long last, he was going to get his masterwork glaive upgraded to a true magic weapon!</p><p></p><p>The hammering came to a stop as the wagons approached and the group dismounted, the weaponsmiths looking up at the newcomers. They were a mixed lot: two burly dwarves, <strong>Nuldurn Bladesmith</strong> and <strong>Sturgar Ironbeard</strong>; a pair of strong-looking humans, <strong>Jon "Hammer" Hooper</strong> and <strong>Katerina Glynn</strong>; and a gnome even shorter than Binkadink, <strong>Norbert Gasperwillock</strong>. "Hey, Sabra, we've got customers!" Norbert called behind him.</p><p></p><p>An attractive human woman entered the workshop from a door in the back and introduced herself as <strong>Sabra Runespeaker</strong>. She wore an ankle-length gown with a low neckline, totally unsuited to work at the anvil, but the ferret perched on her shoulder suggested a familiar, which further suggested she worked in the magical enhancement area rather than the actual crafting of weapons. "I'm afraid we can't really accept new orders at the moment," she apologized. "My master, <strong>Pentaclus</strong>, has gone missing, and until he returns we're unable to do much more than the very basics."</p><p></p><p>"Missing?" echoed Binkadink, crestfallen. "But--when, how...?" He stumbled over his words, his dreams of getting his glaive enhanced falling apart just when it looked like they were finally going to become a reality.</p><p></p><p>"He just came back from the estate sale of one of his wizardly colleagues," Sabra explained. "He was admiring his new purchases in his study. That's the last anybody's seen of him, and that was several hours ago."</p><p></p><p>"Who last to see him?" demanded Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"I was," Sabra replied. "I happened to be walking past his study, and I heard him saying something about tigers – which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me – so I peeked my head in and he was gone. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since."</p><p></p><p>"Can we see study?" Gilbert asked.</p><p></p><p>"Sure," replied Sabra, leading them through the door from which she'd originally emerged. The others followed, leaving Aithanar tending to the draft animals and Obvious and Wrath taking a nap under the warm sun at the front of the workshop. Seeing that Sabra was dealing with the potential customers, the weaponsmiths went back to their work, hammering out the weapons that had previously been ordered by other customers.</p><p></p><p>Pentaclus's study looked like any other wizard's study, with crowded shelves of tomes and scrolls and a small desk and chair. Several magical odds and ends were scattered throughout the room.</p><p></p><p>"What his recent purchases?" asked Gilbert. In response, Sabra piled a few items onto a clear spot on her master's desk. "This <em>wand of light</em>, these tomes, and this <em>crystal ball</em>," she said.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert picked up the wand and examined it closely. It was a rather nice wand, he thought to himself before setting it down and examining the stack of books. Each was dedicated to the study of magic, but none were actual spellbooks - instead, they dealt with theories about component usage among various individual spells, several different styles of magic, and the like.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, meanwhile, picked up the <em>crystal ball</em>. "Hey, there's an image in it!" he said. The others crowded around him looking into the small glass sphere. It was mounted on a round, wooden platform and showed a wintry scene of snow-covered trees. As the curious gnome turned the globe in his hand to look at the scene from different angles, snow started swirling in the scene pictured within.</p><p></p><p>"That isn't a <em>crystal ball</em>," pointed out Finoula. "It's a snow globe!"</p><p></p><p>Binkadink gave the globe a good shake, and sure enough it caused snow to start cascading onto the forest scene. But in shaking it up, he got a glimpse of lettering on the bottom. (He didn't realize it, but his shaking of the snow globe had activated it, so it was ready to accept the command phrase that would trigger its main power.) Turning it over, he saw a simple design carved into the bottom between its three legs: a triangle superimposed over a circle, with the words "TAIGA FORESTSCAPE" carved in the middle of the triangle.</p><p></p><p>"Heh," exclaimed Gilbert Fung as realization struck. "Hey Bink, I dare you to say 'taiga forestscape.'"</p><p></p><p>Immediately after having said the command phrase, Gilbert realized what he'd done. But it was too late: in less than a second, the six heroes from Kordovia, Gilbert's earth elemental familiar Mudpie, Sabra, and her ferret familiar <strong>Sleek</strong> (still perched upon her shoulder) disappeared from Pentaclus's study. The snow globe fell to the floor, then quickly righted itself and floated back up to the top of Pentaclus's desk.</p><p></p><p>Had there been anyone still in the study to examine the image inside the glass sphere, they would have seen the sudden addition of seven humanoid figures and a squatty earth elemental in the middle of a clearing between several clumps of trees.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"What happened?" cried Binkadink, grabbing up his masterwork glaive and looking all around him for enemies. Despite it having been before noon just a moment ago it was now twilight and the group was standing ankle-deep in snow in the middle of a clearing with trees all around them. It felt like the temperature was below freezing, and the strong wind didn't help matters any. Off from the distance came the howling of wolves.</p><p></p><p>"...I probably shouldn't have said that," admitted Gilbert Fung. "I think we inside globe now."</p><p></p><p>"Well then, why'd you say it?" demanded Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"I think it only go off if <em>you</em> say it. You the one holding it!"</p><p></p><p>"Inside the globe? H-how?" asked Sabra, her teeth chattering as she hugged herself to try to keep warm. Of the group, she wore the lightest clothing; Finoula, Ingebold, and Darrien all still wore their cold weather gear from the morning when they'd still been in the mountains and most of the others at least wore heavier travel garb, but the young apprentice's gown did little to keep out the cold.</p><p></p><p>"It some sort of teleport device," mused Gilbert. "It bring us here when I say command phrase. Unless we shrunk down really small and actually inside globe...." Coming to a decision, he ordered Mudpie to pop beneath the ground and check around. The earth elemental complied, returning after a minute or so. "It look normal," he said, his speech patterns based on those of his master even if his voice was a much lower pitch. "Frozen ground, but not magical."</p><p></p><p>"TAIGA FORESTSCAPE!" yelled Binkadink, hoping a repeat of the command phrase might send them back to Pentaclus's study. When that had no effect, he tried "FORESTSCAPE TAIGA!" and "Epacs...tser...of...agiat," mentally spelling the words backwards and doing his best to pronounce the nonsense words thus formed, with similar results. "Crap!" he sputtered. "We're stuck here."</p><p></p><p>"I'm going to see what I can see from one of these trees," said Castillan, choosing one of the tallest and scampering up it like a squirrel. Finoula looked up at him as he climbed. "Anything?" she called.</p><p></p><p>"Just a lot of snow, in all directions," Castillan called back down. "And some trees now and then."</p><p></p><p>Darrien, in the meantime, had been looking at the ground. "Hey guys, prints!" he said, pointing to footprints in the snow that the wind was doing its best to fill back in. "These are probably Pentaclus's!"</p><p></p><p>"Let's see where they lead," said Finoula, following the rapidly-fading imprints. They headed in a fairly straight line for about a hundred feet or so, then stopped abruptly in a wide field of snow.</p><p></p><p>"Uh-oh," said Binkadink. "He may have gotten snatched by some flying monster or something." The gnome turned his gaze skyward, searching for anything that might be flying away with their wayward wizardly weaponsmith.</p><p></p><p>Darrien closely examined the last set of prints. "Look here," he said, pointing to the snow kicked back from the heels. "It looked like he jumped, or was snagged up into the air." He scanned the skies as well, but saw only an overcast sky.</p><p></p><p>"It-- it m-might not be as bad as a we th-think," shivered Sabra. "P-Pentaclus knows the <em>overl-land flight</em> spell."</p><p></p><p>"Let's hope he's okay," said Finoula. "In the meantime, we may as well head in the same direction - maybe we'll run into him." She forged on ahead, the others following.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert made a mental perusal through the spells he'd prepared that morning. "Pfah!" he scoffed. "Would have been nice to know ahead of time we'd end up in snow! Anybody got <em>endure elements</em> spell handy? Sabra turning blue."</p><p></p><p>"I-I'll b-be f-f-fine," shivered Sabra, not wanting to let the others down but certainly not accustomed to the life of an adventurer - and if this was the kind of thing they normally dealt with, they could have it!</p><p></p><p>"Nay," replied Ingebold to the portly wizard's question. "I didnae think I'd be needin' it, this morn."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert just snorted in disgust and cast an <em>unseen servant</em> spell - not that he needed it at the moment, but it could be handy and the spell, once cast, lingered for a decent amount of time.</p><p></p><p>The group trudged on for half an hour or so when the ground before them started heaving upwards. They'd seen something similar before, during an encounter with a bulette in the Vesve Forest many months ago, and while nobody expected a bulette to pop out of the frozen ground they figured it would likely be something similar. Castillan ran to the west of the clustered group while Darrien dashed off to the east, each notching an arrow to their respective bows and pointing them towards the buckling ground. Gilbert fired off the words to a <em>haste</em> spell, affecting everyone but the two archers who had just rushed out of range. At the same time, Ingebold cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell centered on her, thinking it likely to be of use. Sabra wisely staggered to the back of the group, away from the source of danger.</p><p></p><p>Accompanied by the hiss of rapidly-melting snow, an insectoid head popped up out of the ground. A segmented body followed, with a dozen or more centipedelike legs flanking its last half and a red-hot pair of dorsal ridges, flaring out like the hood of a cobra along its head, extending down the length of its upper surface. Multifaceted eyes took in the scene for a brief moment and then the beast struck out at Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>The gnome managed to dodge its snapping jaws, dropping his masterwork glaive to the ground and whipping out his father's normal glaive, well-weathered after many years of use - and not finely crafted enough to accept magical enhancements, making it the weapon he'd be least likely to hate parting with, for the little gnome had heard tales about metal weapons literally melting at the touch of a polar worm, which he was pretty sure was what they were fighting. He swung the glaive up at the worm's jaws, striking a glancing blow and avoiding the red-hot plates along the remorhaz's back.</p><p></p><p>Staring at the worm and backing slowly away, but ready to dive to the side if it attacked her, Finoula felt for the potions at her belt and grabbed up what she knew to be one of Winkidew Dundernoggin's <em>potions of resist fire</em>. She gulped it down, noting that it was more slush than liquid - in this temperature, they wouldn't be able to drink down potions for much longer without access to a heat source to melt their contents!</p><p></p><p>Despite Binkadink's glaive stabbing up at the remorhaz, it struck again at the little gnome, this time grabbing him up in his mouth. Binkadink held his glaive in a death grip, as both ends were sticking out of the sides of the worm's mouth and he thought he might - just might - be able to avoid being swallowed in this fashion. But not too proud to ask for help, he bellowed at his companions to kill the thing, quick!</p><p></p><p>Darrien responded with a trio of arrows racing from his <em>Arachnibow</em>, each striking the polar worm's side and penetrating deep into its flesh. Finoula grabbed up her own shortbow and followed suit. Gilbert cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell that covered both him and Mudpie, then followed up with a tried-and-true <em>magic missile</em> spell straight at the polar worm.</p><p></p><p>A glowing field of energy suddenly appeared before the remorhaz, taking on the familiar shape of a dwarven warhammer; Ingebold directed her <em>spiritual weapon</em> to slam into the worm's head. And, fortunately for Binkadink, who had been mere seconds away from becoming literal worm food, the combined attacks slew the remorhaz before it could swallow down its gnomish meal. Its lifeless body crashed into the snow, causing steam to rise as its still red-hot dorsal plates slowly began to cool. Binkadink crawled out from the beast's mouth and carefully retrieved the glaive from its jaws, then the masterwork glaive he'd dropped in the snow. "Thanks, guys," he said, grateful for the assist.</p><p></p><p>The group huddled around the slain remorhaz, basking in its fleeting warmth as the unnatural heat slowly left its body through its dorsal plates. Sabra's lips were still blue and her skin covered in goosebumps, but she was warmer than she'd been since arriving in this snowy wasteland. Once the heat had mostly left the worm the group moved on, following in the same direction they'd been going and scanning the skies for any signs of Pentaclus.</p><p></p><p>It was a good thing not everyone had their eyes to the skies, for another ten minutes of trudging through the snow led to another encounter with a local denizen. Darrien pointed to the right, where the blowing snow masked a humanoid figure. As it approached, the heroes could see it was much larger than they'd expected - it was sometimes difficult to judge distances in the white snowfields - and as it approached, the blue-white beard and hair marked it as a frost giant. It called out to them in its own language, half of its words eaten by the blowing wind. But Sabra was of some help here, to her great delight; she cast a <em>tongues</em> spell on Castillan allowing him to be able to understand and respond to the giant in his own language.</p><p></p><p>"Who are you?" demanded the frost giant, looking the group over and noticing most of them weren't properly dressed for the climate. "Where are you from, and how did you get here?"</p><p></p><p>"We arrived here by accident," replied Castillan, "Less than an hour ago."</p><p></p><p>"Do you know the way out of here?" demanded the giant. As he'd approached, they could see his features were gaunt, the bone structure of his face quite visible.</p><p></p><p>"That we don't," Castillan admitted. "But we're looking for a way home."</p><p></p><p>"I'll come with you, if you don't mind," the giant said. When Castillan agreed, the frost giant introduced himself as <strong>Kunnir Ice-Stalker</strong>.</p><p></p><p>"I was hunting, off by myself," Kunnir said. "I caught my game and was headed home, when I ran into a barrier that wasn't there before. Completely invisible, and impervious to the blows from my axe. I followed it for a bit, and it curved in a broad circle. I've not traced it all the way around, but I reckon it's got to be 5 miles wide or so, maybe bigger." Castillan whistled in surprise - that was a lot of area to search for their missing wizard!</p><p></p><p>"How long ago was this?" the bounder asked.</p><p></p><p>"Got to be several years back, now," replied Kunnir.</p><p></p><p>"Can you tell me anything about who else is trapped inside this globe?"</p><p></p><p>Kunnir squatted down and drew a circle in the snow with a thick finger. "Here's about where we are now, I figure," he said, poking into the snow with his finger. "There's water along here, and an owlbear lairs in a cave along the shore right about here. Plenty of seals and fish for it to eat. I've been out that way - had to escape on an ice floe once, to avoid a pack of winter wolves. I've killed a few of them since" - and here he pointed to a few skins covering his broad shoulders - "And their numbers aren't what they used to be anymore." He poked his finger to a point opposite the water area. "Stay away from this area," he advised. "There's a great white dragon lairs there. Fortunately, it's been sleeping for a decade or more, but I wouldn't want to be the one who wakes it up."</p><p></p><p>"You look like you haven't eaten in awhile," pointed out Castillan, noting the hunger in the giant's eyes and the way he was occasionally looking over the members of the group as if deciding which one he'd like to eat first, if he thought he'd have a shot at taking on all eight at once.</p><p></p><p>"Game's been getting pretty scarce around these parts," admitted Kunnir.</p><p></p><p>"Well, we killed a polar worm not long ago," said Castillan. "You're welcome to it, if that's something worth eating. As you noticed, we're not from these parts."</p><p></p><p>"Polar worm?" repeated the frost giant, in the same tone he'd have used as if the elf had offered him up a thick, juicy steak with all the trimmings. "Sure! They're fine eating!" Castillan pointed Kunnir in the direction where he'd find the remorhaz's corpse and indicated they'd be pressing on ahead.</p><p></p><p>"No problem," advised Kunnir. "I can follow your tracks, catch up to you later." And in a showing of good faith toward his new allies, he pulled a winter wolf pelt from his shoulder and tossed it to Sabra. "Looks like you can use this more'n I need it," he said, and although the wizard didn't understand his words she caught his meaning well enough. She gratefully scooped up the thick, white pelt and wrapped it around her like a blanket. Kunnir stalked back the way the heroes had come, seeking out his slabs of worm steak.</p><p></p><p>The group pressed on, trudging through the snow.</p><p></p><p>After a few minutes, Darrien stopped short and started fumbling in one of his belt pouches. "I think I'm going to scout around," he said, pulling out a <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> carved in the shape of a common housefly. Calling out the command word, the fly grew to the size of a horse and stood steady as the half-elf ranger climbed atop its hairy back. "Back in a bit!" he called down to the others.</p><p></p><p>Flying almost straight up, Darrien looked about him. He saw no other creatures in the sky - certainly not any flying wizards. Below him was an unending carpet of snow, a few scraggly trees - and at the edge of his vision, an enormous, craggy head carved out of a solid block of bluish ice.</p><p></p><p>Darrien got his bearings and flew down to the group, explaining what he'd seen. They veered off course to the left a bit so they'd meet up with this enormous carving, which they'd likely have missed had they kept going in their original direction. As the only unusual feature in sight from the air, Darrien was hoping that Pentaclus would have investigated it as well, and once they found Pentaclus they could hopefully figure out a way to all get back home.</p><p></p><p>It was another fifteen or twenty minutes of trudging through the snow before the head rose up from the horizon. It stood about 60 feet tall and had been carved in a primitive fashion, all angles and exaggerated features. The carved head had two rectangular openings for eyes, a nose, and a scowling mouth but no ears or hair. Once it was in view, Darrien rose up to about 30 feet on his <em>ebony fly</em> while the rest of his group followed behind on the ground. As Castillan approached, he thought he saw a bit of movement to the right of the massive carving, but he couldn't be sure. Once he got closer, though, he became absolutely sure he'd been correct, for a hairy, white form popped out from behind the giant head and loped toward him, fang-filled mouth open in a hungry growl.</p><p></p><p>From his perch in the air Darrien saw the yeti approach Castillan and sent a flurry of arrows racing down at it. He hit with all three, causing the beast to roar in pain. Castillan brought forth his light crossbow and followed suit, burying a bolt deep into the creature's shoulder. Gilbert finished it off with another <em>magic missile</em> spell and it collapsed to the ground, dead.</p><p></p><p>Castillan was considering skinning the slain yeti, much to Finoula's disgust, but eventually the group jointly decided to explore the interior of the head - for Darrien, peeking through an eye while perched on his magical fly, could see it was hollow. Castillan was willing to try running straight up the exterior of the head - he'd performed similar stunts with solid rock but had yet to try it on an icy surface - but having Darrien shuttle everyone over on the <em>ebony fly</em> made the most sense. After everyone had entered through one of the eye-holes, Darrien released his fly from service and it reverted back to statuette form.</p><p></p><p>For the most part, the interior surface of the head was empty - a set of stairs carved along the outer edges led down to the ground level, and looking up at the ceiling 10 feet above the "eye level" of the carved head Finoula saw a cluster of icicles hanging down, but that seemed to be about it. There were no light sources within, but Binkadink kept a pair of <em>everburning torches</em> tied to the antlers of his helmet so those not blessed with darkvision could see where they were going. As they traversed the stairs single file, moving slowly on the slippery ice, they made two complete circuits before reaching the floor. And there, at the ground level, they found a figure lying unmoving on the icy floor.</p><p></p><p>"That's Pentaclus!" called out Sabra once her master's form came into view. She rushed to his side and saw a slight stream of frozen vapor slide from between his lips. "He's alive -- he's breathing!" she called out in relief. Ingebold stepped forward and applied a healing spell to the unconscious wizard. His eyes fluttered and he sat up, looking around at a circle of unfamiliar faces before seeing the worried face of his apprentice. "Sabra!" he said. "You got caught up in the snow globe, too?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, yeah, kind of," she said.</p><p></p><p>"We help her look for you," added Gilbert Fung.</p><p></p><p>"And you are...?"</p><p></p><p>"Future customers!" chimed in Binkadink, before everyone made their introductions. Pentaclus gave a brief version of his own tale: after having been transported by the snow globe to the arctic wilderness after carelessly reading the command phrase out loud, he had used a bit of fur trim from his cloak and a <em>fabricate</em> spell to create some winter garb for himself, then cast an <em>overland flight</em> spell to try to find a way home. He had spotted the giant head ice carving, entered via an eye-hole...and then slipped on the icy stairs, falling down the central shaft of the hollow structure, knocking himself unconscious. He'd had quite a goose egg on the back of his head, but Ingebold's spells had shrunk it down considerably.</p><p></p><p>"So, I don't suppose you know how to get back home?" prompted Finoula hesitantly.</p><p></p><p>Pentaclus shook his head sadly. "No idea. I hadn't had any intention of coming here - I didn't know I <em>could</em> come here when I bought the silly snow globe." He shrugged. "I just thought it looked kind of cool."</p><p></p><p>While the wizard had been telling his story, Castillan's attention had focused on a set of levers mounted on one of the walls. After checking them for potential traps and finding nothing untoward, he pulled the rightmost lever to the down position. After about 10 seconds, the "mouth" of the statue began lowering into the ground, letting in a blast of cold air from outside. Convinced he now knew the mechanism involved, he flipped the lever back up and saw the mouth close back into place after a moment's pause.</p><p></p><p>"What's the other lever do, do you think?" asked Sabra.</p><p></p><p>Darrien pointed to the floor, where Pentaclus had been lying unconscious moments before. "There's a square line in the floor," he observed. "I'll bet you this can be lowered down to a deeper level."</p><p></p><p>"Climb on, and we'll find out," suggested Castillan. As the entire group wouldn't fit on the square, Ingebold offered up space in her <em>portable hole</em> for Pentaclus and Sabra. Gilbert Fung invited himself and Mudpie to join them, leaving Darrien, Ingebold, Finoula, and Binkadink to stand on the platform while Castillan activated the lever. "Here goes!" he said, then pulled it to the "down" position. Again, after about a 10-second delay (which the elf decided was to allow a sole user to get himself into position), the square sunk into the ground. It lowered itself for about 20 feet before becoming level with the new floor.</p><p></p><p>The group was now in an octagonal room, with two single doors across from each other on two sides and a pair of double doors on opposing walls on either side of them. In between each wall with one or more doors stood an ice sculpture of a hulking armored warrior wielding a halberd.</p><p></p><p>"Uh oh," observed Binkadink as the four guardian ice constructs animated and attacked.</p><p></p><p>The simultaneous attack began with a blast of energy from the statues' eyes, each construct picking one of the four interlopers to strike. Gilbert, head sticking out of the <em>portable hole</em>, observed that these struck as <em>magic missiles</em>, but seemed to channel cold energy. Immediately following the ice-blasts, each construct came to halting life and swung its halberd at its designated foe. Binkadink blocked his foe's halberd strike with his gnomish glaive, then counterattacked, scratching a narrow gash across the ice making up its armored form.</p><p></p><p>Up on the ledge at the ground level floor, Castillan saw what was going on below him. He leaped down the vertical shaft, fingers slowing his fall during the first 10 feet of his rapid descent, where the vertical tunnel was the width of the square upon which his friends stood, before landing just in front of the door to the south. Thinking he'd rather fight from a doorway, he pushed open the doors and wheeled to face the known enemies, after a quick scan of what appeared to be a barely-furnished library showed no new foes in the larger room beyond the central chamber.</p><p></p><p>Darrien echoed Castillan's plan with the door to the north. Pushing it open, his half-elven vision made out a simple cot, a bearskin rug, and a crystal skull on a nightstand. Seeing no enemies, he too turned to face the four ice constructs in the central chamber, while behind him the skull scooted forwards to the edge of the nightstand, sent shafts of ice down over the edge, and grew an ice skeleton in a matter of seconds. While the half-elf ranger shot arrows at the nearest ice guardian in the central room, the newly-formed ice skeleton suddenly launched itself at his back, clawlike fingers made of solid ice digging their way into his flesh. Darrien grunted in pain and surprise and turned to fight off his attacker, all thoughts of combating the armored ice warriors temporarily forgotten.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert Fung and Mudpie leaped heroically from the <em>portable hole</em>...and then scampered off to the double doors to the east. This was a laboratory, and unlike the barely-shelved library and the sparse bedroom, this room was fully stocked with all manner of alchemical and magical equipment. But like the others, once the wizard had determined with a quick glance that there was nothing to bother him in this room, he turned back to the central chamber and blasted one of the ice warriors with another <em>magic missile</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Sabra opted to stay in the relative safety of the <em>portable hole</em>, knowing full well her spell repertoire had been selected for ease of use when dealing with customers, not fighting off ice constructs. She did have a <em>false life</em> spell handy and cast it on herself, thinking she'd take any opportunity to try to survive this battle. Her master, however, felt compelled to do what he could to help these strangers who had come as an inadvertent rescue force. He leaped from the <em>portable hole</em>, pulling his <em>flaming longsword</em> from its scabbard with one hand while casting a <em>displacement</em> spell upon Darrien, who looked like he could use it in his battle with the ice skeleton he had activated merely by stepping foot into the bedroom of whoever had created this structure.</p><p></p><p>Darrien, <em>Arachnibow</em> in hand, put it to use against the ice skeleton despite the cramped quarters - the construct insisted on attacking the ranger with its eye-blasts and its icy claws, and Darrien had no way to back up any further without reentering the central chamber which was still a flurry of fierce combatants. The warrior constructs kept slashing with their frozen halberds while simultaneously sending out pulse after pulse of heat-sapping energy from their eyes. Being constructs, they had each latched onto a particular foe when they had first appeared and each seemed unwilling to change targets.</p><p></p><p>Not so the heroes: Gilbert, from the laboratory doorway to the east, continued sending <em>magic missiles</em> into the ice warrior across the way from him, the one fighting Binkadink. Once Binkadink had finally slashed his foe to pieces, sending it crumbling into hundreds of ice chunks and shards, he immediately switched targets to attack the one in fierce combat with Finoula. She attacked with her variable energy longsword, <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, and even though her blade and Binkadink's seemed less than optimal weapons to use against the hard, icy shells coating these constructs, slowly they whittled chunks off their shared foe. But then Ingebold used her mace to smash her foe to pieces as quickly by herself as it took the gnome fighter and the elf ranger to deal with their shared foe, and the group belatedly realized that bludgeoning weapons were the way to go with these ice constructs.</p><p></p><p>Inside the library, Castillan saw that despite rows and rows of bookshelves, only one was partially filled. He scanned the titles, hoping there might be something conveniently titled "How to Return to the Snow Globe" or something, but the tomes seemed to be mostly about the construction of various animated constructs and treatises on various arctic wildlife. Consigning himself to having to help fight their way past these guardians, he snapped his fingers and had his magical light crossbow pop into place, then put it to use against the ice construct attacking Gilbert with its frozen halberd.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold took the time for a quick <em>prayer</em> spell, then went back to wielding her mace, which had proven to be especially effective against these constructs. She tried channeling a healing spell through her mace across the room to Binkadink, who was looking quite the worse for wear while in battle against these foes, but her ranged spell missed in the rapid ebb and flow of the combat. Cursing, she swung her mace a final time against the nearest ice warrior and waded over to touch Binkadink and ensure no further healing spells were wasted.</p><p></p><p>Finoula had taken a moment's respite from the battle against the ice warrior she and Binkadink had taken down to cast a <em>protection from cold</em> spell on herself, after noting that it was those damned ice blasts that seemed to be doing the most damage to the heroes. As she did that, Pentaclus attacked the ice skeleton that had been attacking Darrien, his flame-covered blade dealing heavy damage to the construct, enough that it shifted targets to him instead of Darrien. While the wizard was fully proficient in the use of his combat weapon, he was more used to wielding it in front of an appreciative audience as an example of the quality of his wares than in actual combat. Still, he was determined to pull his weight in this fight.</p><p></p><p>Castillan's crossbow dealt the final damage to the construct attacking Gilbert and it fell over, smashing to a thousand pieces which scattered across the floor. Then the bounder crossed over to the double doors to the west, confident in the rest of the group's ability to deal with the remaining ice skeleton. He pulled the doors open, saw a lone chest of treasure against the far wall guarded by a quartet of ice carvings of skull-headed serpents, and quickly slammed the doors shut. "We'll deal with them later!" he announced to the others.</p><p></p><p>However, inside the nearly-bare treasure room, one of the ice serpents was undergoing a rapid metamorphosis. It rose up on its serpentine body, which suddenly split such that jagged pieces jutted out and formed rudimentary limbs, the entire creature realigning and taking on a more humanoid form. In mere moments, the crystal skull servitor had switched from an ice serpent to an ice skeleton - and then, with a bony-looking hand of ice...it opened the doors that Castillan had so quickly slammed shut.</p><p></p><p>Looking back at the commotion she'd caught in the corner of her eye, Finoula saw three ice serpents and another ice skeleton lined up in the double-wide doorway to the west. Activating her <em>lightning amulet</em> with the vocal command phrase and a mental image of where she wanted to reincorporate, her body turned into a bolt of lightning which blasted its way through the ice skeleton and the serpent just behind it. Reforming at the back of the treasure room, she saw Castillan was in the way for her to do the same thing from the other direction, so she ran back with her magical longsword in hand, churning with sonic energy. She attacked the ice serpent, which spun around and targeted her with its icicle fangs.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert was fresh out of <em>magic missile</em> spells, which had proven to be especially handy so far this day. Fortunately, he had come prepared and cast a <em>Rary's mnemonic enhancer</em> spell, restoring the <em>magic missile</em> spell he'd just cast. Stepping through the lab doors now that the central chamber wasn't quite so packed with fighting bodies, he cast his recovered spell at the ice skeleton that had been in combat with Darrien and Pentaclus. It shattered upon impact by five missiles of pure force energy.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, meanwhile, had stepped up to the treasury doors. His glaive swung down in an arc, cleaving through the body of the ice serpent Finoula had been fighting. In a single, fluid motion he swung the glaive around in a loop, causing it to crash into another of the ice serpents crowded there in the doorway. This one, too, shattered under the impact, and a wide grin crossed the little gnome's face at his own combat prowess. <em>Just think what I'll be able to do with a magic glaive!</em> he thought to himself.</p><p></p><p>Finoula took down the last of the ice serpents while Gilbert and Pentaclus brought down the treasure guardian that had reshaped itself into an ice skeleton. Then, finally, with combat complete, the heroes took the time to have Ingebold heal the worst of their injuries before exploring the rooms they'd uncovered. The chest proved to hold both coins and diamonds, and Gilbert's appraisal of the lab equipment was that it was generally top-of-the-line and could be resold for a significant sum. As the other members of the group carefully packed it all away and stored it in Ingebold's <em>portable hole</em>, the portly wizard examined the sparse contents of the library. Since they were in a relative down time - and they had nowhere else to go for the moment - he took the opportunity to absorb the written contents of the library into his <em>Omnibook</em>.</p><p></p><p>It was Castillan, exploring the nearly-empty bedroom, who discovered the secret door in the wall. What his elven eyesight caught as a tiny crack in the wall proved to be a section of the ice wall that could be pulled out and set aside, revealing another octagonal chamber, lodged between the bedroom and the laboratory. The floor in this empty room had a carving of a familiar triangle-superimposed-on-a-circle design, similar to the one they'd seen on the bottom of the snow globe, only the only word inscribed inside the triangle was "GLOBE."</p><p></p><p>"Aha!" cried Gilbert in glee when he saw it. "This our way home!"</p><p></p><p>Everybody rushed into the room, ready to be on their way. "Wait a minute," cautioned Castillan. "Let's not forget about Kunnir."</p><p></p><p>"Hell with Kunnir!" scoffed Gilbert. "He a frost giant - likely evil to the core."</p><p></p><p>"We said he could come with us," argued Castillan. "We gave him our word."</p><p></p><p>"I do feel kind of sorry for him," admitted Finoula. "He's been out there for years, trapped in a circle several miles in size, unable to return to his people."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert looked around at his companions, amazed they wanted to waste time helping a frost giant - a <em>frost giant</em>, for pity's sake! - when both of the rangers had taken specialized combat training on how to take down giants. But he could tell from their expressions they were serious about it. "Fine!" he capitulated, casting a <em>fly</em> spell on Castillan. "You go get your giant buddy, we wait here."</p><p></p><p>"Be right back!" the bounder promised, rising up the vertical shaft and out one of the eye-holes. And he was, about 20 minutes later, finding the mouth to the giant head structure wide open to allow Kunnir to enter the structure. He had to "ride" in the <em>portable hole</em> with some of the others to get him to fit through the human-sized secret door, but once everyone was standing inside the triangle-within-a-circle one way or another, Gilbert called out "GLOBE!" in a loud voice and the teleportation room was instantly empty once again.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Kunnir turned his eyes to the sky, shielding them with a massive hand from the sun that was so much brighter than he was accustomed to. He had no idea where his homeland might be, other than it would be north of their present location. After determining which way was north, he gave a grateful nod to those who might, under other circumstances, have been his mortal enemies, and began his long trek home.</p><p></p><p>"I cannot thank you enough for rescuing me - and saving Sabra's life as well," gushed Pentaclus. "I insist - allow me to upgrade a weapon for each of you, on the house."</p><p></p><p>"On th' house?" sputtered Nuldurn Bladesmith, horrified at the very suggestion.</p><p></p><p>"They saved our lives," repeated Pentaclus. In the end, he had his way; it was, after all, his weaponsmith shop and if he wished to give away valuable merchandise there was little his senior dwarven employee could do about it. Plus, Nuldurn immediately got into an argument with Sturgar Ironbeard over who would be personally upgrading Ingebold's light mace. Ingebold seemed embarrassed at having two burly dwarves fuss over her; it brought a smile to Finoula's lips to see her rough, tough "Battle-Sister" acting all shy around the attention.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink happily turned over his masterwork glaive; Darrien, his <em>Arachnibow</em>; Finoula, her trusty <em>Tahlmalaera</em> (which brought a whistle of appreciation from the weaponsmiths over its fine crafting); and Ingebold her <em>light mace of healing</em>. For their parts, Castillan was given a <em>stonepiercing dagger</em> and Gilbert a <em>vampire's fang dagger</em> that Pentaclus happened to have on hand, the results of recent experimentation on his part. The former allowed the bounder to deal extra damage to creatures composed of living stone, while Gilbert's dagger allowed him to channel a <em>vampiric touch</em> spell through it three times a day.</p><p></p><p>After being told the various different "levels" of enchantment a given weapon could attain, Finoula and Binkadink both opted to plunk down enough coin to give their weapons twice the offered "freebie" upgrade. This seemed to pacify Nuldurn - at least the smiths would be getting some actual business from these heroes.</p><p></p><p>"It'll be a week or more before we can have these ready for you," Pentaclus advised. "But feel free to explore the lands around here in the meantime. There a massive lake to the north, Lake Quag, and most of the lands to north here are filled with warring tribes of barbarians, some orc and some human. You won't find much in the way of large cities, though: it's mostly small villages and temporary encampments." Norbert Gasperwillock also gave them rough directions to a gnome potion-maker he knew of not too far away, and the group decided they'd probably give him a visit first thing the next day.</p><p></p><p>On a whim, the group asked the weaponsmiths if they'd heard any stories about a red dragon shaking down villagers for tribute - Gilbert was curious if the story the lamias had told them while in centaur form was all hogwash or if it had been legitimate. Sure enough, the smiths had heard a version of the tale, only they had heard the dragon was fiendish and threatened to drag any villagers foolish enough not to give it tribute down to its lair in the Nine Hells for an eternity of torment. "Cripes - I hope that version not true," muttered the portly wizard.</p><p></p><p>"See you in a week!" called Pentaclus as the Kordovian heroes pulled away from the weaponsmith shop in their carts and on their mounts.</p><p></p><p>"It'll be weird adventuring for a week without my <em>Arachnibow</em>," commented Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"Aye," agreed Ingebold, holding the reins to Franco and Tantrum as they pulled the open wagon along. "But this seems a peaceable land - p'r'aps ye'll not be missin' it as much as ye fear."</p><p></p><p>She was quite wrong, as time would quickly tell.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>For the giant ice head structure, I built a massive, blocky head out of white posterboard. I had pretty much intended for it to look like an Easter Island head, only without any ears. (I don't recall if the stone heads of Easter Island have ears, now that I think about it.) But as Jacob and Joey informed me, I had ended up building a passable representation of Squidward's house from the "Spongebob Squarepants" cartoon, which is apparently a big Tiki head.</p><p></p><p>Also, Dan informed me after the adventure was over that he was glad they had made it out of the snow globe, because having Gilbert trapped in there was giving him claustrophobia! I thought that was a bit unexpected considering Dan, like me, had started his Air Force career as a missileer, pulling alerts 24 hours at a time in underground capsules about half the size of a standard living room. I had no idea this adventure would mess with him the way it apparently did. (Although I have to confess to knowing ahead of time the leeches from the previous adventure would "squick" Vicki out - which they did, but fortunately not to an intolerable level.)</p><p></p><p>Since this adventure involved extra NPCs, I had Vicki run Sabra as well as her own PC Finoula, and when the time came to meet up with Pentaclus I gave Logan his character sheet to run in addition to Binkadink. Ingebold was run by Joey this time, as it was his turn. (We generally pass her NPC folder one player clockwise around the table with each adventure, which means Jacob will be running her as well as Castillan next time we play.)</p><p></p><p>And speaking of "next time," this was our last scheduled adventure of 2016. Our next game day will be on New Year's Day at our house, followed by a two-family dinner and a week-late Christmas gift exchange.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: Not actually a T-shirt this time, but rather a long-sleeved pullover shirt. There's no image on it - it's just a white shirt. I explained to my players that they weren't going to get any hints about the adventure from my shirt this time, but as is often the case I was lying my butt off. The whiteness represented the snow of the taiga wilderness in which the PCs spent the majority of the adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6965741, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 27: THE SNOW GLOBE[/b] Game Session Date: 3 December 2016 - - - After nearly a week passing through the Clatspur Mountain Range, the group was glad to be back on level ground again. The wagons rolled forward, pulled by the two mules and two black draft horses, while Finoula and Binkadink rode alongside on their respective mounts. Two hours before noon, a large wooden structure came into view alongside the road, its appearance foreshadowed minutes earlier by the rhythmic sound of hammers pounding on anvils. "We're here!" exclaimed Binkadink with unbridled joy. At long last, he was going to get his masterwork glaive upgraded to a true magic weapon! The hammering came to a stop as the wagons approached and the group dismounted, the weaponsmiths looking up at the newcomers. They were a mixed lot: two burly dwarves, [b]Nuldurn Bladesmith[/b] and [b]Sturgar Ironbeard[/b]; a pair of strong-looking humans, [b]Jon "Hammer" Hooper[/b] and [b]Katerina Glynn[/b]; and a gnome even shorter than Binkadink, [b]Norbert Gasperwillock[/b]. "Hey, Sabra, we've got customers!" Norbert called behind him. An attractive human woman entered the workshop from a door in the back and introduced herself as [b]Sabra Runespeaker[/b]. She wore an ankle-length gown with a low neckline, totally unsuited to work at the anvil, but the ferret perched on her shoulder suggested a familiar, which further suggested she worked in the magical enhancement area rather than the actual crafting of weapons. "I'm afraid we can't really accept new orders at the moment," she apologized. "My master, [b]Pentaclus[/b], has gone missing, and until he returns we're unable to do much more than the very basics." "Missing?" echoed Binkadink, crestfallen. "But--when, how...?" He stumbled over his words, his dreams of getting his glaive enhanced falling apart just when it looked like they were finally going to become a reality. "He just came back from the estate sale of one of his wizardly colleagues," Sabra explained. "He was admiring his new purchases in his study. That's the last anybody's seen of him, and that was several hours ago." "Who last to see him?" demanded Gilbert. "I was," Sabra replied. "I happened to be walking past his study, and I heard him saying something about tigers – which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me – so I peeked my head in and he was gone. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since." "Can we see study?" Gilbert asked. "Sure," replied Sabra, leading them through the door from which she'd originally emerged. The others followed, leaving Aithanar tending to the draft animals and Obvious and Wrath taking a nap under the warm sun at the front of the workshop. Seeing that Sabra was dealing with the potential customers, the weaponsmiths went back to their work, hammering out the weapons that had previously been ordered by other customers. Pentaclus's study looked like any other wizard's study, with crowded shelves of tomes and scrolls and a small desk and chair. Several magical odds and ends were scattered throughout the room. "What his recent purchases?" asked Gilbert. In response, Sabra piled a few items onto a clear spot on her master's desk. "This [i]wand of light[/i], these tomes, and this [i]crystal ball[/i]," she said. Gilbert picked up the wand and examined it closely. It was a rather nice wand, he thought to himself before setting it down and examining the stack of books. Each was dedicated to the study of magic, but none were actual spellbooks - instead, they dealt with theories about component usage among various individual spells, several different styles of magic, and the like. Binkadink, meanwhile, picked up the [i]crystal ball[/i]. "Hey, there's an image in it!" he said. The others crowded around him looking into the small glass sphere. It was mounted on a round, wooden platform and showed a wintry scene of snow-covered trees. As the curious gnome turned the globe in his hand to look at the scene from different angles, snow started swirling in the scene pictured within. "That isn't a [i]crystal ball[/i]," pointed out Finoula. "It's a snow globe!" Binkadink gave the globe a good shake, and sure enough it caused snow to start cascading onto the forest scene. But in shaking it up, he got a glimpse of lettering on the bottom. (He didn't realize it, but his shaking of the snow globe had activated it, so it was ready to accept the command phrase that would trigger its main power.) Turning it over, he saw a simple design carved into the bottom between its three legs: a triangle superimposed over a circle, with the words "TAIGA FORESTSCAPE" carved in the middle of the triangle. "Heh," exclaimed Gilbert Fung as realization struck. "Hey Bink, I dare you to say 'taiga forestscape.'" Immediately after having said the command phrase, Gilbert realized what he'd done. But it was too late: in less than a second, the six heroes from Kordovia, Gilbert's earth elemental familiar Mudpie, Sabra, and her ferret familiar [b]Sleek[/b] (still perched upon her shoulder) disappeared from Pentaclus's study. The snow globe fell to the floor, then quickly righted itself and floated back up to the top of Pentaclus's desk. Had there been anyone still in the study to examine the image inside the glass sphere, they would have seen the sudden addition of seven humanoid figures and a squatty earth elemental in the middle of a clearing between several clumps of trees. - - - "What happened?" cried Binkadink, grabbing up his masterwork glaive and looking all around him for enemies. Despite it having been before noon just a moment ago it was now twilight and the group was standing ankle-deep in snow in the middle of a clearing with trees all around them. It felt like the temperature was below freezing, and the strong wind didn't help matters any. Off from the distance came the howling of wolves. "...I probably shouldn't have said that," admitted Gilbert Fung. "I think we inside globe now." "Well then, why'd you say it?" demanded Binkadink. "I think it only go off if [i]you[/i] say it. You the one holding it!" "Inside the globe? H-how?" asked Sabra, her teeth chattering as she hugged herself to try to keep warm. Of the group, she wore the lightest clothing; Finoula, Ingebold, and Darrien all still wore their cold weather gear from the morning when they'd still been in the mountains and most of the others at least wore heavier travel garb, but the young apprentice's gown did little to keep out the cold. "It some sort of teleport device," mused Gilbert. "It bring us here when I say command phrase. Unless we shrunk down really small and actually inside globe...." Coming to a decision, he ordered Mudpie to pop beneath the ground and check around. The earth elemental complied, returning after a minute or so. "It look normal," he said, his speech patterns based on those of his master even if his voice was a much lower pitch. "Frozen ground, but not magical." "TAIGA FORESTSCAPE!" yelled Binkadink, hoping a repeat of the command phrase might send them back to Pentaclus's study. When that had no effect, he tried "FORESTSCAPE TAIGA!" and "Epacs...tser...of...agiat," mentally spelling the words backwards and doing his best to pronounce the nonsense words thus formed, with similar results. "Crap!" he sputtered. "We're stuck here." "I'm going to see what I can see from one of these trees," said Castillan, choosing one of the tallest and scampering up it like a squirrel. Finoula looked up at him as he climbed. "Anything?" she called. "Just a lot of snow, in all directions," Castillan called back down. "And some trees now and then." Darrien, in the meantime, had been looking at the ground. "Hey guys, prints!" he said, pointing to footprints in the snow that the wind was doing its best to fill back in. "These are probably Pentaclus's!" "Let's see where they lead," said Finoula, following the rapidly-fading imprints. They headed in a fairly straight line for about a hundred feet or so, then stopped abruptly in a wide field of snow. "Uh-oh," said Binkadink. "He may have gotten snatched by some flying monster or something." The gnome turned his gaze skyward, searching for anything that might be flying away with their wayward wizardly weaponsmith. Darrien closely examined the last set of prints. "Look here," he said, pointing to the snow kicked back from the heels. "It looked like he jumped, or was snagged up into the air." He scanned the skies as well, but saw only an overcast sky. "It-- it m-might not be as bad as a we th-think," shivered Sabra. "P-Pentaclus knows the [i]overl-land flight[/i] spell." "Let's hope he's okay," said Finoula. "In the meantime, we may as well head in the same direction - maybe we'll run into him." She forged on ahead, the others following. Gilbert made a mental perusal through the spells he'd prepared that morning. "Pfah!" he scoffed. "Would have been nice to know ahead of time we'd end up in snow! Anybody got [i]endure elements[/i] spell handy? Sabra turning blue." "I-I'll b-be f-f-fine," shivered Sabra, not wanting to let the others down but certainly not accustomed to the life of an adventurer - and if this was the kind of thing they normally dealt with, they could have it! "Nay," replied Ingebold to the portly wizard's question. "I didnae think I'd be needin' it, this morn." Gilbert just snorted in disgust and cast an [i]unseen servant[/i] spell - not that he needed it at the moment, but it could be handy and the spell, once cast, lingered for a decent amount of time. The group trudged on for half an hour or so when the ground before them started heaving upwards. They'd seen something similar before, during an encounter with a bulette in the Vesve Forest many months ago, and while nobody expected a bulette to pop out of the frozen ground they figured it would likely be something similar. Castillan ran to the west of the clustered group while Darrien dashed off to the east, each notching an arrow to their respective bows and pointing them towards the buckling ground. Gilbert fired off the words to a [i]haste[/i] spell, affecting everyone but the two archers who had just rushed out of range. At the same time, Ingebold cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell centered on her, thinking it likely to be of use. Sabra wisely staggered to the back of the group, away from the source of danger. Accompanied by the hiss of rapidly-melting snow, an insectoid head popped up out of the ground. A segmented body followed, with a dozen or more centipedelike legs flanking its last half and a red-hot pair of dorsal ridges, flaring out like the hood of a cobra along its head, extending down the length of its upper surface. Multifaceted eyes took in the scene for a brief moment and then the beast struck out at Binkadink. The gnome managed to dodge its snapping jaws, dropping his masterwork glaive to the ground and whipping out his father's normal glaive, well-weathered after many years of use - and not finely crafted enough to accept magical enhancements, making it the weapon he'd be least likely to hate parting with, for the little gnome had heard tales about metal weapons literally melting at the touch of a polar worm, which he was pretty sure was what they were fighting. He swung the glaive up at the worm's jaws, striking a glancing blow and avoiding the red-hot plates along the remorhaz's back. Staring at the worm and backing slowly away, but ready to dive to the side if it attacked her, Finoula felt for the potions at her belt and grabbed up what she knew to be one of Winkidew Dundernoggin's [i]potions of resist fire[/i]. She gulped it down, noting that it was more slush than liquid - in this temperature, they wouldn't be able to drink down potions for much longer without access to a heat source to melt their contents! Despite Binkadink's glaive stabbing up at the remorhaz, it struck again at the little gnome, this time grabbing him up in his mouth. Binkadink held his glaive in a death grip, as both ends were sticking out of the sides of the worm's mouth and he thought he might - just might - be able to avoid being swallowed in this fashion. But not too proud to ask for help, he bellowed at his companions to kill the thing, quick! Darrien responded with a trio of arrows racing from his [i]Arachnibow[/i], each striking the polar worm's side and penetrating deep into its flesh. Finoula grabbed up her own shortbow and followed suit. Gilbert cast a [i]mage armor[/i] spell that covered both him and Mudpie, then followed up with a tried-and-true [i]magic missile[/i] spell straight at the polar worm. A glowing field of energy suddenly appeared before the remorhaz, taking on the familiar shape of a dwarven warhammer; Ingebold directed her [i]spiritual weapon[/i] to slam into the worm's head. And, fortunately for Binkadink, who had been mere seconds away from becoming literal worm food, the combined attacks slew the remorhaz before it could swallow down its gnomish meal. Its lifeless body crashed into the snow, causing steam to rise as its still red-hot dorsal plates slowly began to cool. Binkadink crawled out from the beast's mouth and carefully retrieved the glaive from its jaws, then the masterwork glaive he'd dropped in the snow. "Thanks, guys," he said, grateful for the assist. The group huddled around the slain remorhaz, basking in its fleeting warmth as the unnatural heat slowly left its body through its dorsal plates. Sabra's lips were still blue and her skin covered in goosebumps, but she was warmer than she'd been since arriving in this snowy wasteland. Once the heat had mostly left the worm the group moved on, following in the same direction they'd been going and scanning the skies for any signs of Pentaclus. It was a good thing not everyone had their eyes to the skies, for another ten minutes of trudging through the snow led to another encounter with a local denizen. Darrien pointed to the right, where the blowing snow masked a humanoid figure. As it approached, the heroes could see it was much larger than they'd expected - it was sometimes difficult to judge distances in the white snowfields - and as it approached, the blue-white beard and hair marked it as a frost giant. It called out to them in its own language, half of its words eaten by the blowing wind. But Sabra was of some help here, to her great delight; she cast a [i]tongues[/i] spell on Castillan allowing him to be able to understand and respond to the giant in his own language. "Who are you?" demanded the frost giant, looking the group over and noticing most of them weren't properly dressed for the climate. "Where are you from, and how did you get here?" "We arrived here by accident," replied Castillan, "Less than an hour ago." "Do you know the way out of here?" demanded the giant. As he'd approached, they could see his features were gaunt, the bone structure of his face quite visible. "That we don't," Castillan admitted. "But we're looking for a way home." "I'll come with you, if you don't mind," the giant said. When Castillan agreed, the frost giant introduced himself as [b]Kunnir Ice-Stalker[/b]. "I was hunting, off by myself," Kunnir said. "I caught my game and was headed home, when I ran into a barrier that wasn't there before. Completely invisible, and impervious to the blows from my axe. I followed it for a bit, and it curved in a broad circle. I've not traced it all the way around, but I reckon it's got to be 5 miles wide or so, maybe bigger." Castillan whistled in surprise - that was a lot of area to search for their missing wizard! "How long ago was this?" the bounder asked. "Got to be several years back, now," replied Kunnir. "Can you tell me anything about who else is trapped inside this globe?" Kunnir squatted down and drew a circle in the snow with a thick finger. "Here's about where we are now, I figure," he said, poking into the snow with his finger. "There's water along here, and an owlbear lairs in a cave along the shore right about here. Plenty of seals and fish for it to eat. I've been out that way - had to escape on an ice floe once, to avoid a pack of winter wolves. I've killed a few of them since" - and here he pointed to a few skins covering his broad shoulders - "And their numbers aren't what they used to be anymore." He poked his finger to a point opposite the water area. "Stay away from this area," he advised. "There's a great white dragon lairs there. Fortunately, it's been sleeping for a decade or more, but I wouldn't want to be the one who wakes it up." "You look like you haven't eaten in awhile," pointed out Castillan, noting the hunger in the giant's eyes and the way he was occasionally looking over the members of the group as if deciding which one he'd like to eat first, if he thought he'd have a shot at taking on all eight at once. "Game's been getting pretty scarce around these parts," admitted Kunnir. "Well, we killed a polar worm not long ago," said Castillan. "You're welcome to it, if that's something worth eating. As you noticed, we're not from these parts." "Polar worm?" repeated the frost giant, in the same tone he'd have used as if the elf had offered him up a thick, juicy steak with all the trimmings. "Sure! They're fine eating!" Castillan pointed Kunnir in the direction where he'd find the remorhaz's corpse and indicated they'd be pressing on ahead. "No problem," advised Kunnir. "I can follow your tracks, catch up to you later." And in a showing of good faith toward his new allies, he pulled a winter wolf pelt from his shoulder and tossed it to Sabra. "Looks like you can use this more'n I need it," he said, and although the wizard didn't understand his words she caught his meaning well enough. She gratefully scooped up the thick, white pelt and wrapped it around her like a blanket. Kunnir stalked back the way the heroes had come, seeking out his slabs of worm steak. The group pressed on, trudging through the snow. After a few minutes, Darrien stopped short and started fumbling in one of his belt pouches. "I think I'm going to scout around," he said, pulling out a [i]figurine of wondrous power[/i] carved in the shape of a common housefly. Calling out the command word, the fly grew to the size of a horse and stood steady as the half-elf ranger climbed atop its hairy back. "Back in a bit!" he called down to the others. Flying almost straight up, Darrien looked about him. He saw no other creatures in the sky - certainly not any flying wizards. Below him was an unending carpet of snow, a few scraggly trees - and at the edge of his vision, an enormous, craggy head carved out of a solid block of bluish ice. Darrien got his bearings and flew down to the group, explaining what he'd seen. They veered off course to the left a bit so they'd meet up with this enormous carving, which they'd likely have missed had they kept going in their original direction. As the only unusual feature in sight from the air, Darrien was hoping that Pentaclus would have investigated it as well, and once they found Pentaclus they could hopefully figure out a way to all get back home. It was another fifteen or twenty minutes of trudging through the snow before the head rose up from the horizon. It stood about 60 feet tall and had been carved in a primitive fashion, all angles and exaggerated features. The carved head had two rectangular openings for eyes, a nose, and a scowling mouth but no ears or hair. Once it was in view, Darrien rose up to about 30 feet on his [i]ebony fly[/i] while the rest of his group followed behind on the ground. As Castillan approached, he thought he saw a bit of movement to the right of the massive carving, but he couldn't be sure. Once he got closer, though, he became absolutely sure he'd been correct, for a hairy, white form popped out from behind the giant head and loped toward him, fang-filled mouth open in a hungry growl. From his perch in the air Darrien saw the yeti approach Castillan and sent a flurry of arrows racing down at it. He hit with all three, causing the beast to roar in pain. Castillan brought forth his light crossbow and followed suit, burying a bolt deep into the creature's shoulder. Gilbert finished it off with another [i]magic missile[/i] spell and it collapsed to the ground, dead. Castillan was considering skinning the slain yeti, much to Finoula's disgust, but eventually the group jointly decided to explore the interior of the head - for Darrien, peeking through an eye while perched on his magical fly, could see it was hollow. Castillan was willing to try running straight up the exterior of the head - he'd performed similar stunts with solid rock but had yet to try it on an icy surface - but having Darrien shuttle everyone over on the [i]ebony fly[/i] made the most sense. After everyone had entered through one of the eye-holes, Darrien released his fly from service and it reverted back to statuette form. For the most part, the interior surface of the head was empty - a set of stairs carved along the outer edges led down to the ground level, and looking up at the ceiling 10 feet above the "eye level" of the carved head Finoula saw a cluster of icicles hanging down, but that seemed to be about it. There were no light sources within, but Binkadink kept a pair of [i]everburning torches[/i] tied to the antlers of his helmet so those not blessed with darkvision could see where they were going. As they traversed the stairs single file, moving slowly on the slippery ice, they made two complete circuits before reaching the floor. And there, at the ground level, they found a figure lying unmoving on the icy floor. "That's Pentaclus!" called out Sabra once her master's form came into view. She rushed to his side and saw a slight stream of frozen vapor slide from between his lips. "He's alive -- he's breathing!" she called out in relief. Ingebold stepped forward and applied a healing spell to the unconscious wizard. His eyes fluttered and he sat up, looking around at a circle of unfamiliar faces before seeing the worried face of his apprentice. "Sabra!" he said. "You got caught up in the snow globe, too?" "Well, yeah, kind of," she said. "We help her look for you," added Gilbert Fung. "And you are...?" "Future customers!" chimed in Binkadink, before everyone made their introductions. Pentaclus gave a brief version of his own tale: after having been transported by the snow globe to the arctic wilderness after carelessly reading the command phrase out loud, he had used a bit of fur trim from his cloak and a [i]fabricate[/i] spell to create some winter garb for himself, then cast an [i]overland flight[/i] spell to try to find a way home. He had spotted the giant head ice carving, entered via an eye-hole...and then slipped on the icy stairs, falling down the central shaft of the hollow structure, knocking himself unconscious. He'd had quite a goose egg on the back of his head, but Ingebold's spells had shrunk it down considerably. "So, I don't suppose you know how to get back home?" prompted Finoula hesitantly. Pentaclus shook his head sadly. "No idea. I hadn't had any intention of coming here - I didn't know I [i]could[/i] come here when I bought the silly snow globe." He shrugged. "I just thought it looked kind of cool." While the wizard had been telling his story, Castillan's attention had focused on a set of levers mounted on one of the walls. After checking them for potential traps and finding nothing untoward, he pulled the rightmost lever to the down position. After about 10 seconds, the "mouth" of the statue began lowering into the ground, letting in a blast of cold air from outside. Convinced he now knew the mechanism involved, he flipped the lever back up and saw the mouth close back into place after a moment's pause. "What's the other lever do, do you think?" asked Sabra. Darrien pointed to the floor, where Pentaclus had been lying unconscious moments before. "There's a square line in the floor," he observed. "I'll bet you this can be lowered down to a deeper level." "Climb on, and we'll find out," suggested Castillan. As the entire group wouldn't fit on the square, Ingebold offered up space in her [i]portable hole[/i] for Pentaclus and Sabra. Gilbert Fung invited himself and Mudpie to join them, leaving Darrien, Ingebold, Finoula, and Binkadink to stand on the platform while Castillan activated the lever. "Here goes!" he said, then pulled it to the "down" position. Again, after about a 10-second delay (which the elf decided was to allow a sole user to get himself into position), the square sunk into the ground. It lowered itself for about 20 feet before becoming level with the new floor. The group was now in an octagonal room, with two single doors across from each other on two sides and a pair of double doors on opposing walls on either side of them. In between each wall with one or more doors stood an ice sculpture of a hulking armored warrior wielding a halberd. "Uh oh," observed Binkadink as the four guardian ice constructs animated and attacked. The simultaneous attack began with a blast of energy from the statues' eyes, each construct picking one of the four interlopers to strike. Gilbert, head sticking out of the [i]portable hole[/i], observed that these struck as [i]magic missiles[/i], but seemed to channel cold energy. Immediately following the ice-blasts, each construct came to halting life and swung its halberd at its designated foe. Binkadink blocked his foe's halberd strike with his gnomish glaive, then counterattacked, scratching a narrow gash across the ice making up its armored form. Up on the ledge at the ground level floor, Castillan saw what was going on below him. He leaped down the vertical shaft, fingers slowing his fall during the first 10 feet of his rapid descent, where the vertical tunnel was the width of the square upon which his friends stood, before landing just in front of the door to the south. Thinking he'd rather fight from a doorway, he pushed open the doors and wheeled to face the known enemies, after a quick scan of what appeared to be a barely-furnished library showed no new foes in the larger room beyond the central chamber. Darrien echoed Castillan's plan with the door to the north. Pushing it open, his half-elven vision made out a simple cot, a bearskin rug, and a crystal skull on a nightstand. Seeing no enemies, he too turned to face the four ice constructs in the central chamber, while behind him the skull scooted forwards to the edge of the nightstand, sent shafts of ice down over the edge, and grew an ice skeleton in a matter of seconds. While the half-elf ranger shot arrows at the nearest ice guardian in the central room, the newly-formed ice skeleton suddenly launched itself at his back, clawlike fingers made of solid ice digging their way into his flesh. Darrien grunted in pain and surprise and turned to fight off his attacker, all thoughts of combating the armored ice warriors temporarily forgotten. Gilbert Fung and Mudpie leaped heroically from the [i]portable hole[/i]...and then scampered off to the double doors to the east. This was a laboratory, and unlike the barely-shelved library and the sparse bedroom, this room was fully stocked with all manner of alchemical and magical equipment. But like the others, once the wizard had determined with a quick glance that there was nothing to bother him in this room, he turned back to the central chamber and blasted one of the ice warriors with another [i]magic missile[/i] spell. Sabra opted to stay in the relative safety of the [i]portable hole[/i], knowing full well her spell repertoire had been selected for ease of use when dealing with customers, not fighting off ice constructs. She did have a [i]false life[/i] spell handy and cast it on herself, thinking she'd take any opportunity to try to survive this battle. Her master, however, felt compelled to do what he could to help these strangers who had come as an inadvertent rescue force. He leaped from the [i]portable hole[/i], pulling his [i]flaming longsword[/i] from its scabbard with one hand while casting a [i]displacement[/i] spell upon Darrien, who looked like he could use it in his battle with the ice skeleton he had activated merely by stepping foot into the bedroom of whoever had created this structure. Darrien, [i]Arachnibow[/i] in hand, put it to use against the ice skeleton despite the cramped quarters - the construct insisted on attacking the ranger with its eye-blasts and its icy claws, and Darrien had no way to back up any further without reentering the central chamber which was still a flurry of fierce combatants. The warrior constructs kept slashing with their frozen halberds while simultaneously sending out pulse after pulse of heat-sapping energy from their eyes. Being constructs, they had each latched onto a particular foe when they had first appeared and each seemed unwilling to change targets. Not so the heroes: Gilbert, from the laboratory doorway to the east, continued sending [i]magic missiles[/i] into the ice warrior across the way from him, the one fighting Binkadink. Once Binkadink had finally slashed his foe to pieces, sending it crumbling into hundreds of ice chunks and shards, he immediately switched targets to attack the one in fierce combat with Finoula. She attacked with her variable energy longsword, [i]Tahlmalaera[/i], and even though her blade and Binkadink's seemed less than optimal weapons to use against the hard, icy shells coating these constructs, slowly they whittled chunks off their shared foe. But then Ingebold used her mace to smash her foe to pieces as quickly by herself as it took the gnome fighter and the elf ranger to deal with their shared foe, and the group belatedly realized that bludgeoning weapons were the way to go with these ice constructs. Inside the library, Castillan saw that despite rows and rows of bookshelves, only one was partially filled. He scanned the titles, hoping there might be something conveniently titled "How to Return to the Snow Globe" or something, but the tomes seemed to be mostly about the construction of various animated constructs and treatises on various arctic wildlife. Consigning himself to having to help fight their way past these guardians, he snapped his fingers and had his magical light crossbow pop into place, then put it to use against the ice construct attacking Gilbert with its frozen halberd. Ingebold took the time for a quick [i]prayer[/i] spell, then went back to wielding her mace, which had proven to be especially effective against these constructs. She tried channeling a healing spell through her mace across the room to Binkadink, who was looking quite the worse for wear while in battle against these foes, but her ranged spell missed in the rapid ebb and flow of the combat. Cursing, she swung her mace a final time against the nearest ice warrior and waded over to touch Binkadink and ensure no further healing spells were wasted. Finoula had taken a moment's respite from the battle against the ice warrior she and Binkadink had taken down to cast a [i]protection from cold[/i] spell on herself, after noting that it was those damned ice blasts that seemed to be doing the most damage to the heroes. As she did that, Pentaclus attacked the ice skeleton that had been attacking Darrien, his flame-covered blade dealing heavy damage to the construct, enough that it shifted targets to him instead of Darrien. While the wizard was fully proficient in the use of his combat weapon, he was more used to wielding it in front of an appreciative audience as an example of the quality of his wares than in actual combat. Still, he was determined to pull his weight in this fight. Castillan's crossbow dealt the final damage to the construct attacking Gilbert and it fell over, smashing to a thousand pieces which scattered across the floor. Then the bounder crossed over to the double doors to the west, confident in the rest of the group's ability to deal with the remaining ice skeleton. He pulled the doors open, saw a lone chest of treasure against the far wall guarded by a quartet of ice carvings of skull-headed serpents, and quickly slammed the doors shut. "We'll deal with them later!" he announced to the others. However, inside the nearly-bare treasure room, one of the ice serpents was undergoing a rapid metamorphosis. It rose up on its serpentine body, which suddenly split such that jagged pieces jutted out and formed rudimentary limbs, the entire creature realigning and taking on a more humanoid form. In mere moments, the crystal skull servitor had switched from an ice serpent to an ice skeleton - and then, with a bony-looking hand of ice...it opened the doors that Castillan had so quickly slammed shut. Looking back at the commotion she'd caught in the corner of her eye, Finoula saw three ice serpents and another ice skeleton lined up in the double-wide doorway to the west. Activating her [i]lightning amulet[/i] with the vocal command phrase and a mental image of where she wanted to reincorporate, her body turned into a bolt of lightning which blasted its way through the ice skeleton and the serpent just behind it. Reforming at the back of the treasure room, she saw Castillan was in the way for her to do the same thing from the other direction, so she ran back with her magical longsword in hand, churning with sonic energy. She attacked the ice serpent, which spun around and targeted her with its icicle fangs. Gilbert was fresh out of [i]magic missile[/i] spells, which had proven to be especially handy so far this day. Fortunately, he had come prepared and cast a [i]Rary's mnemonic enhancer[/i] spell, restoring the [i]magic missile[/i] spell he'd just cast. Stepping through the lab doors now that the central chamber wasn't quite so packed with fighting bodies, he cast his recovered spell at the ice skeleton that had been in combat with Darrien and Pentaclus. It shattered upon impact by five missiles of pure force energy. Binkadink, meanwhile, had stepped up to the treasury doors. His glaive swung down in an arc, cleaving through the body of the ice serpent Finoula had been fighting. In a single, fluid motion he swung the glaive around in a loop, causing it to crash into another of the ice serpents crowded there in the doorway. This one, too, shattered under the impact, and a wide grin crossed the little gnome's face at his own combat prowess. [i]Just think what I'll be able to do with a magic glaive![/i] he thought to himself. Finoula took down the last of the ice serpents while Gilbert and Pentaclus brought down the treasure guardian that had reshaped itself into an ice skeleton. Then, finally, with combat complete, the heroes took the time to have Ingebold heal the worst of their injuries before exploring the rooms they'd uncovered. The chest proved to hold both coins and diamonds, and Gilbert's appraisal of the lab equipment was that it was generally top-of-the-line and could be resold for a significant sum. As the other members of the group carefully packed it all away and stored it in Ingebold's [i]portable hole[/i], the portly wizard examined the sparse contents of the library. Since they were in a relative down time - and they had nowhere else to go for the moment - he took the opportunity to absorb the written contents of the library into his [i]Omnibook[/i]. It was Castillan, exploring the nearly-empty bedroom, who discovered the secret door in the wall. What his elven eyesight caught as a tiny crack in the wall proved to be a section of the ice wall that could be pulled out and set aside, revealing another octagonal chamber, lodged between the bedroom and the laboratory. The floor in this empty room had a carving of a familiar triangle-superimposed-on-a-circle design, similar to the one they'd seen on the bottom of the snow globe, only the only word inscribed inside the triangle was "GLOBE." "Aha!" cried Gilbert in glee when he saw it. "This our way home!" Everybody rushed into the room, ready to be on their way. "Wait a minute," cautioned Castillan. "Let's not forget about Kunnir." "Hell with Kunnir!" scoffed Gilbert. "He a frost giant - likely evil to the core." "We said he could come with us," argued Castillan. "We gave him our word." "I do feel kind of sorry for him," admitted Finoula. "He's been out there for years, trapped in a circle several miles in size, unable to return to his people." Gilbert looked around at his companions, amazed they wanted to waste time helping a frost giant - a [i]frost giant[/i], for pity's sake! - when both of the rangers had taken specialized combat training on how to take down giants. But he could tell from their expressions they were serious about it. "Fine!" he capitulated, casting a [i]fly[/i] spell on Castillan. "You go get your giant buddy, we wait here." "Be right back!" the bounder promised, rising up the vertical shaft and out one of the eye-holes. And he was, about 20 minutes later, finding the mouth to the giant head structure wide open to allow Kunnir to enter the structure. He had to "ride" in the [i]portable hole[/i] with some of the others to get him to fit through the human-sized secret door, but once everyone was standing inside the triangle-within-a-circle one way or another, Gilbert called out "GLOBE!" in a loud voice and the teleportation room was instantly empty once again. - - - Kunnir turned his eyes to the sky, shielding them with a massive hand from the sun that was so much brighter than he was accustomed to. He had no idea where his homeland might be, other than it would be north of their present location. After determining which way was north, he gave a grateful nod to those who might, under other circumstances, have been his mortal enemies, and began his long trek home. "I cannot thank you enough for rescuing me - and saving Sabra's life as well," gushed Pentaclus. "I insist - allow me to upgrade a weapon for each of you, on the house." "On th' house?" sputtered Nuldurn Bladesmith, horrified at the very suggestion. "They saved our lives," repeated Pentaclus. In the end, he had his way; it was, after all, his weaponsmith shop and if he wished to give away valuable merchandise there was little his senior dwarven employee could do about it. Plus, Nuldurn immediately got into an argument with Sturgar Ironbeard over who would be personally upgrading Ingebold's light mace. Ingebold seemed embarrassed at having two burly dwarves fuss over her; it brought a smile to Finoula's lips to see her rough, tough "Battle-Sister" acting all shy around the attention. Binkadink happily turned over his masterwork glaive; Darrien, his [i]Arachnibow[/i]; Finoula, her trusty [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] (which brought a whistle of appreciation from the weaponsmiths over its fine crafting); and Ingebold her [i]light mace of healing[/i]. For their parts, Castillan was given a [i]stonepiercing dagger[/i] and Gilbert a [i]vampire's fang dagger[/i] that Pentaclus happened to have on hand, the results of recent experimentation on his part. The former allowed the bounder to deal extra damage to creatures composed of living stone, while Gilbert's dagger allowed him to channel a [i]vampiric touch[/i] spell through it three times a day. After being told the various different "levels" of enchantment a given weapon could attain, Finoula and Binkadink both opted to plunk down enough coin to give their weapons twice the offered "freebie" upgrade. This seemed to pacify Nuldurn - at least the smiths would be getting some actual business from these heroes. "It'll be a week or more before we can have these ready for you," Pentaclus advised. "But feel free to explore the lands around here in the meantime. There a massive lake to the north, Lake Quag, and most of the lands to north here are filled with warring tribes of barbarians, some orc and some human. You won't find much in the way of large cities, though: it's mostly small villages and temporary encampments." Norbert Gasperwillock also gave them rough directions to a gnome potion-maker he knew of not too far away, and the group decided they'd probably give him a visit first thing the next day. On a whim, the group asked the weaponsmiths if they'd heard any stories about a red dragon shaking down villagers for tribute - Gilbert was curious if the story the lamias had told them while in centaur form was all hogwash or if it had been legitimate. Sure enough, the smiths had heard a version of the tale, only they had heard the dragon was fiendish and threatened to drag any villagers foolish enough not to give it tribute down to its lair in the Nine Hells for an eternity of torment. "Cripes - I hope that version not true," muttered the portly wizard. "See you in a week!" called Pentaclus as the Kordovian heroes pulled away from the weaponsmith shop in their carts and on their mounts. "It'll be weird adventuring for a week without my [i]Arachnibow[/i]," commented Darrien. "Aye," agreed Ingebold, holding the reins to Franco and Tantrum as they pulled the open wagon along. "But this seems a peaceable land - p'r'aps ye'll not be missin' it as much as ye fear." She was quite wrong, as time would quickly tell. - - - For the giant ice head structure, I built a massive, blocky head out of white posterboard. I had pretty much intended for it to look like an Easter Island head, only without any ears. (I don't recall if the stone heads of Easter Island have ears, now that I think about it.) But as Jacob and Joey informed me, I had ended up building a passable representation of Squidward's house from the "Spongebob Squarepants" cartoon, which is apparently a big Tiki head. Also, Dan informed me after the adventure was over that he was glad they had made it out of the snow globe, because having Gilbert trapped in there was giving him claustrophobia! I thought that was a bit unexpected considering Dan, like me, had started his Air Force career as a missileer, pulling alerts 24 hours at a time in underground capsules about half the size of a standard living room. I had no idea this adventure would mess with him the way it apparently did. (Although I have to confess to knowing ahead of time the leeches from the previous adventure would "squick" Vicki out - which they did, but fortunately not to an intolerable level.) Since this adventure involved extra NPCs, I had Vicki run Sabra as well as her own PC Finoula, and when the time came to meet up with Pentaclus I gave Logan his character sheet to run in addition to Binkadink. Ingebold was run by Joey this time, as it was his turn. (We generally pass her NPC folder one player clockwise around the table with each adventure, which means Jacob will be running her as well as Castillan next time we play.) And speaking of "next time," this was our last scheduled adventure of 2016. Our next game day will be on New Year's Day at our house, followed by a two-family dinner and a week-late Christmas gift exchange. - - - T-Shirt Worn: Not actually a T-shirt this time, but rather a long-sleeved pullover shirt. There's no image on it - it's just a white shirt. I explained to my players that they weren't going to get any hints about the adventure from my shirt this time, but as is often the case I was lying my butt off. The whiteness represented the snow of the taiga wilderness in which the PCs spent the majority of the adventure. [/QUOTE]
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