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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7188493" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 36: HOMECOMING</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 11</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 11 (Moradin)</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 29 July 2017</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Getting Mudpie on board the dragonfly vessel was easy: Gilbert had him step into the opened <em>portable hole</em>, closed it up, tucked it into his belt, climbed the rope ladder leading up to the upper deck, and then released him once there. Mudpie opted to climb down into the hold, where he wouldn't see air all around him - not a comfortable view for an earth elemental! - when they took off.</p><p></p><p>Getting Grumps Junior on board the dragonfly was significantly more difficult as the dire bear cub had no intention of walking into a big old magical hole. Plus, he had the intellect of a dire bear cub - it wasn't as if Darrien could reason with him. And there was no way he could climb up a rope ladder on his own, nor could anybody lift him and do the climbing for him, even had the bear allowed such a thing. In the end, it took Gilbert casting a <em>fly</em> spell on the bear and having Darrien climb the rope ladder with a tasty bit of fish in his hand to get Grumps Junior up on his hind legs, stretching to reach the morsel. Darrien kept it just out of reach, forcing the bear to jump up to try to snap the fish into his mouth. Without realizing it, Grumps Junior left the ground while chasing the bite of fish up a rope ladder; finally, when Darrien and his dire bear cub both made it up the ladder and onto the deck of the dragonfly vessel the ranger passed over the tasty morsel. "Here you go, Grumps," he said. "You earned it." The group fashioned a harness out of ropes and lowered the bear down into the hold, thinking it the safest place for the baby bruin during travel.</p><p></p><p>Finoula once again took the helm, reasoning it was better for one of the rangers to give up a day's worth of spellcasting rather than either Gilbert or Ingebold. And the decreased top speed of a secondary spellcaster compared to a primary spellcaster was minimal when inside a planet's atmosphere. Out there in wildspace or the phlogiston spellcasting ability made a much bigger difference in spelljamming speeds, but the group had pretty much decided this ship - one to which they really ought to give a name, one of these days! - was probably never going to experience wildspace again. Nobody wanted to take the chance of not being able to find their way home again.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, finding their way back to Kordovia wasn't a major problem. They knew it lay on a continent to the west and they had recently discovered just how big Lake Quag really was. Finoula figured by flying high enough they could find Lake Quag and then Kordovia was south of it, below the Clatspur Mountains, following the Velverdyva River. Piece of cake!</p><p></p><p>The flight was mostly uneventful, with the exception of traveling over the massive Vesve Forest. About halfway across its length, Finoula's helm-enhanced senses picked up a shape rising up from the forest on an intercept course. Binkadink and Castillan were on the upper deck and the elven bounder spotted the figure approaching the ship on leathery wings. It was dragon, somewhat larger than a draft horse by the look of it, and in the fading sunlight Castillan thought he could make out a greenish tinge to the reptile's scales. "Green dragon!" he called to Binkadink, but the bounder's words were carried away by the winds; Binkadink remained facing the front of the vessel, oblivious to the dragon rapidly approaching from the ship's rear.</p><p></p><p>Castillan popped open the hatch to one of the loading doors and called down "Green dragon approaching!" to those below. Darrien pulled Grumps Junior to the back of the cargo bay, scooting around barrels and crates and odds bits of wood and canvas scraps scattered about. Mudpie moved back with them.</p><p></p><p>Inside the head of the dragonfly, Finoula called out a warning to the rest of the heroes and then raised the ship even higher, hoping to outrace the approaching dragon. No such luck; the green dragon's top speed was faster than that of the ship - Finoula's only hope was that she could outlast it, for the vessel ran on the power of spellcasting ability and could fly for the better part of a day, whereas the dragon's wings would (hopefully!) eventually get tired.</p><p></p><p>The dragon, however, dashed that hope by landing gracefully on the deck by Castillan. Binkadink whirled around, magical glaive at the ready, but the dragon didn't look particularly combat-ready; rather, it swung its head out around appreciatively. "Just what exactly <em>is</em> this?" in enquired, speaking in the Common tongue.</p><p></p><p>Castillan, who had been ready to reply in the Draconic language, gladly switched to Common. "It's a spelljamming vessel, capable of flight through wildspace," he offered.</p><p></p><p>"Amazing," replied the dragon. He'd followed the shape that flew over his self-proclaimed territory, thinking to chase off a competitor, but once he got closer he saw it was some sort of man-made flying vessel. The things these humanoids came up with!</p><p></p><p>"So, why are you in my territory?" asked the dragon.</p><p></p><p>"We...were not aware it was your territory," the bounder explained. "We offer our apologies for the transgression, but we are just passing through. Er, over, I guess."</p><p></p><p>"Apologies are more easily accepted with tribute," responded the dragon. "Give me a couple hundred gold and you can go about your way unharmed."</p><p></p><p>Castillan knew full well that the group wouldn't miss a few hundred gold pieces from all of the treasure they had amassed from Captain Skunkbeard's hoard, but he also knew fetching it from the <em>portable hole</em> would show the dragon just how much more treasure they had stored in there. Plus, the bounder didn't like giving away gold if he didn't have to, and while he wasn't willing to combat a dragon over a few hundred gold pieces he thought he had a way to avoid both combat and extortion.</p><p></p><p>"I say," he said, "You're quite a good-looking specimen of green dragonkind. You wouldn't happen to be related to our good friend Clauguthrax, would you?" Clauguthrax was the green dragon Princess Kaelanna had been secretly communicating with and who she had dragged the heroes along with to visit. "Friends" wasn't perhaps the most accurate term to describe the relationship between Clauguthrax and the Kordovian adventurers, but this dragon didn't have to know that - and the bounder had a <em>very</em> good poker face.</p><p></p><p>"Why yes - he's my cousin!" declared the green dragon. "You're friends of Clauguthrax, huh? Well, okay, I'll let you off with a warning this time. But next time, let me know when you want to fly over my territory."</p><p></p><p>"Will do," promised Castillan, giving the dragon a military salute as it leaped from the deck and flapped away. Binkadink just looked at the bounder and they both shrugged. Gilbert, stomping up the stairs to the upper deck to help deal with the dragon, was just in time to see it fly away. "We took care of it," Castillan called over the roaring wind.</p><p></p><p>An hour or so later, Finoula brought the dragonfly ship down in a clearing behind Battershield Keep. "It ought to be safe here," she said, and she was likely right - Battershield Keep was at the outskirts of Kordovia, one of the closest buildings to the Vesve Forest. The likelihood of anybody wandering around and discovering the ship was negligible. "I cannae wait t' see me folks," gushed Ingebold as she climbed down the rope ladder and the group made their way to the front of the stone keep. They'd been away, in wildspace, for the last four months or so and it was good to finally be back home.</p><p></p><p>Walking to the front of the keep, the heroes were surprised to see the drawbridge in the raised position. Normally, Aerik kept the bridge down, relying upon the iron portcullis to keep outsiders at bay; that was a much easier system for a keep not staffed by a large contingent of soldiers or functionaries. "Hey!" yelled Ingebold, cupping her hands around her mouth as she approached the moat around the keep. "It's us! We're back!" Her yells caused the goats inside to start bleating, and Wrath started howling at that ruckus. Before long, the heroes could hear the clomping of heavy boots walking along the battlements to the front of the keep. And shortly thereafter, in the moonlight, they could make out Aerik's familiar face looking down at them from the ramparts.</p><p></p><p>"What's goin' on down there?" he demanded.</p><p></p><p>"It us!" called back Gilbert Fung. "Open up, let us in!"</p><p></p><p>The dwarf shook his head. "Now's not a good time fer visitin'. Me wife's not feelin' up to visitors right about now. Why dinnae ye go visit yer own families fer a bit? Come back in a week or so – we'll be happy to entertain ye then."</p><p></p><p>Ingebold opened her mouth to respond but Gilbert cut her off. "Fair enough," he called back. "Maybe we go stay with Cousin Thorax. He still live in next keep over?"</p><p></p><p>"Never heard of him," replied Aerik, looking over his shoulder and making a shooing motion with his hand, urging everybody to leave. Gilbert took the hint, leading everyone back down the entry road to the keep, as if heading back to town.</p><p></p><p>"What was that all about?" demanded Ingebold. "Why wouldn't me father let us in?"</p><p></p><p>"Not sure," admitted Gilbert. "But I wanted to see if that your father or not. If it impostor, he probably agree we stay with Cousin Thorax."</p><p></p><p>"Who's Cousin Thorax?" asked Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"Nobody. I make him up."</p><p></p><p>"I still want t' know why he'd not let us in," replied Ingebold, looking worriedly back at the keep.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe I can help you," said a strange voice. The heroes spun around and saw a figure approaching from the trees at the side of the road. He wore a hooded robe and carried a tall staff; when he pulled back the hood he displayed a face that hinted rather strongly at orcish features. "My name is <strong>Hagan</strong>. I assume you are Ingebold Battershield and the rest of the guild?"</p><p></p><p>"Aye," replied the dwarf, looking suspiciously at the half-orc. There was a quick movement at his shoulder; it turned out to be a weasel, looking nervously back and forth at the assembled group of heavily-armed adventurers forming a half-circle around Hagan.</p><p></p><p>"It's okay, <strong>Wezhley</strong>," comforted Hagan to his familiar. "These are friends - or they will be, soon enough." He turned to the others. "I should tell you what's happened in your absence, while you were out hunting down pirate treasure."</p><p></p><p>Hagan told a strange story indeed. He had been walking through the Vesve Forest with his familiar, at night - his darkvision let him see perfectly fine during the night hours, and he was less likely to be bothered by those unwilling to give a good-natured half-orc the benefit of the doubt - when all of a sudden he was surrounded by a wave of orcs and goblins. They were heading to Kordovia to assault the kingdom and assumed he, Hagan, was one of their number separated from his normal squad. Hagan was herded along with a group of orcs and goblins that split off from the main army to attack Battershield Keep. Hagan went along with it, realizing he was vastly outnumbered, but once they got to their target and made it over the walls, he took it upon himself to take out as many of the invaders as he could. His presence was fortunate, as it turned out, for besides Aerik and Helga, the only other person there to help defend the keep was Aithanar Ivenheart, still bereft of normal speech and staying in his brother's room awaiting his return (although Obvious and Wrath both did their parts as well). Aerik was so pleased with Hagan's initiative he invited him to stay on, hoping to introduce him to the rest of the adventuring team upon their return and then petition King Galrich to allow him to join their ranks. In the meantime, he'd been allowed to stay in Ingebold's quarters.</p><p></p><p>"In <em>me</em> quarters?" piped up Ingebold. "Whyever mine?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't know, that's what your parents offered me," replied Hagan. "We've taken good care of the place during our stay." Ingebold narrowed her eyes, not sure if she liked the idea of a half-orc she didn't even know - and a weasel! - being allowed to sleep in her bed. She'd be talking to her mother about this, and definitely changing the sheets before she took up residency in the room once again.</p><p></p><p>"So why aren't you there now?" asked Castillan. "And why did Aerik give us the bum's rush?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm getting to that part," replied Hagan. "It only just happened about a week ago. I was outside the keep, cutting firewood, when a stranger landed in the middle of the courtyard, on a really weird riding mount. It was difficult to see - it kept sliding in and out of view - but whatever it was, it was big, with batlike wings.</p><p></p><p>"The rider - Aerik told me later his name was <strong>Burroc</strong> - was wounded, and he needed help in tending to his injuries. Just like that, he did something to make both Helga and Aithanar his mental slaves. He probably tried the same with Aerik, but he's a tough old guy."</p><p></p><p>"That he be," agreed Ingebold. "Is me ma okay?"</p><p></p><p>"As far as I know, yes. He hasn't done anything to them, just make them tend to his every need. Except - well, he had the two mules slaughtered, for food for him and the invisible flying mount." Looks of horror passed across the heroes' faces at the thought of the deaths of Franco and Tantrum, the mules who had dutifully pulled Aerik's wagon since the beginning of their adventuring careers. "And Aerik, he's been off to work at the castle every day, just like normal. I've gotten to speak with him a bit as he leaves the keep. He thinks Burroc can read minds, but he's done his best to keep knowledge of me buried deep whenever he's near Burroc. And he's had me camp nearby, outside the keep, awaiting your return, so I can let you know the situation. Aerik says he can't let anyone at the castle know; he's afraid they'll try an immediate rescue attempt and Burroc will kill Helga if anybody tries anything."</p><p></p><p>"So what does he want us to do?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"He trusts you guys to take out Burroc without letting anything happen to Helga," Hagan said. "And I'm willing to assist in any way I can."</p><p></p><p>"Sounds like we need to make sure this Burroc can't detect us," reasoned Castillan. "Gilbert, does your mom still have that <em>ring of mind shielding</em>?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes," Gilbert replied. They'd given it to her in case any of the Kozakuran assassins went scrying upon her to see if she'd been resurrected after being slain. Instead, she'd been reincarnated into an orc body - but a <em>hat of disguise</em> allowed her to look human, if not exactly her old self. "But what good that do? That only shield one person."</p><p></p><p>"I'm thinking we'll have one person sneak inside. The rest of you will be inside the <em>portable hole</em>."</p><p></p><p>"'The rest of us?'" repeated Darrien. "I take it you'll be the one wearing the ring?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm the sneakiest, and the one best suited to get across the moat and climb up over the walls, so yes, me."</p><p></p><p>"I go get ring," replied Gilbert, heading back towards where the dragonfly ship was parked.</p><p></p><p>"I'll fly you over there," offered Finoula. "My spellcasting's already shot. No sense in wiping out your abilities, too - we may need them before you have a chance to rest up."</p><p></p><p>While they took off on a low course towards the small village where Gilbert's parents lived, the others gathered around in the clearing and made plans. By the time the spelljamming vessel returned, Castillan had everything worked out to his satisfaction.</p><p></p><p>But not to Gilbert's satisfaction. He agreed about the multiple <em>protection from evil</em> and <em>magic circle against evil</em> spells to ensure everyone could be protected from mind control; he agreed that having Castillan ferry everyone over in the <em>portable hole</em> while he was not only wearing the <em>ring of mind shielding</em> but also covered in a <em>greater invisibility</em> spell was a good idea; he just drew the line at entering the <em>portable hole</em> himself. "I not going in there," he insisted. "What if you get taken out? Then everybody stuck inside hole. Guess what? There no air in there!"</p><p></p><p>"They can hold their breath," argued Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"They can - I not. I be outside, with <em>fly</em> spell active. I be distraction, so you sneak in easy."</p><p></p><p>"We can't both be wearing the ring," countered Castillan. "What good is a distraction whose thoughts can be read? Burroc will pick up 'I just a distraction - hope Burroc no find out about invisible guy sneaking in with <em>portable hole</em> full of assault team' right out of that oversized noggin of yours."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe I stay out of range."</p><p></p><p>"That would be great, if we knew what his range was."</p><p></p><p>"Guys," interjected Finoula. "Let's all get some sleep. None of this plan will work if we don't get a good night's sleep - especially the spellcasters. We have some specific spells we need prepared in the morning, if we're to have any chance of success at all."</p><p></p><p>"I'll take first guard shift," offered Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Me next," suggested Castillan. As he and the little gnome had no spellcasting power whatsoever, they were better suited to dealing with a lesser amount of rest.</p><p></p><p>"I'll take a shift, too," offered Hagan. At the surprised looks he got, he added, "I'm a sorcerer. No spell studying needed. I'm already set to go."</p><p></p><p>"We'll get up with the dawn," suggested Finoula. "So we're ready to go when they lower the drawbridge when Aerik heads off to the castle."</p><p></p><p>Dawn came, and the heroes made their preparations. Gilbert pored over the pages of his <em>Omnibook</em>, setting the sigils in his mind that would allow him to cast the spells he'd need in the upcoming day. Ingebold prayed to Moradin, not only asking for the spells she'd need but for the Dwarven Forgefather to guide the group's efforts to get her parents and Aithanar safely out from this Burroc's grasp. Finoula and Darrien prepared their own few spells and then the group left the dragonfly ship and once again approached the front of the keep, keeping to the edge of the trees to avoid being spotted by the invisible flying mount, which could in theory be anywhere nearby. Aerik should be lowering the drawbridge at any moment and Gilbert wanted to confer with him before they began the assault.</p><p></p><p>At the sounds of the drawbridge being lowered, the spellcasters began frantically casting spells on those designated to have them: Binkadink and Castillan were the targets of <em>magic circle against evil</em> spells, while Darrien and Gilbert each received a <em>protection from evil</em> spell; Hagan, Gilbert, and Mudpie each got a <em>mage armor</em> spell, while Finoula cast a <em>barkskin</em> spell on herself; finally, right as he followed the others (save Gilbert, of course) into the <em>portable hole</em>, Hagan cast a <em>greater invisibility</em> spell on Castillan. The bounder was already wearing the <em>ring of mind shielding</em>, so as he disappeared from visible sight he was already blocked from mental detection. And while he personally had no qualms about his ability to leap the moat and scale the walls of the keep, this was no time for overconfidence: the bounder gulped down the contents of a <em>potion of spider climbing</em>.</p><p></p><p>Aerik clomped over the wooden drawbridge, his face a worried scowl. Gilbert stepped forward, cleverly in the guise of a traveling potion salesman. "Good morning," he said cheerily to the dwarf. "Perhaps I interest you in purchase of fine potions?" When Aerik didn't reply, Gilbert walked at his side as the dwarf headed down the road in the direction of the castle. Once he deemed them safely out of earshot, he lowered his voice and asked, "Where Burroc holed up?"</p><p></p><p>"In me study," came the brusque reply. "He's got me Helga there with 'im, tendin' t' his wounds, an' actin' as a hostage to me good behavior."</p><p></p><p>"Study. Got it," said a disembodied voice nearby. Then the invisible bounder dashed back across the clearing, to land lightly on the now-rising drawbridge. He scampered down its length as his brother Aithanar cranked the mechanism to raise it back up to its fully upright position. Then, not wanting to risk detection, Castillan scampered quickly across the open courtyard - noticing dried bloodstains in the dirt, no doubt the remains of Franco and Tantrum - slid open the door to the main entry hall, and closed it quietly behind him. Aithanar's back was still turned, dealing with the drawbridge, so he didn't see the opening and closing of the door, seemingly by itself.</p><p></p><p>"You want to join us in attack?" Gilbert asked Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"I dinnae dare," replied Aerik. "I'm too much a known quantity t' 'im - I'm afraid he'd pick up me presence in a heartbeat. I'll tell ye what, though: once I git to' th' castle, I'll round up a bunch 'f th' guards and we'll hightail it back here. That way, if ye're not successful, we'll take 'im out. Just...just don't let 'im do anything t' me Helga." The look on the old dwarf's face expressed how much he wanted to come to her rescue, and how hard it was to realize her best bet lay in him staying away.</p><p></p><p>"We got this," promised Gilbert. Then, as the dwarf made his best speed down the road to the castle, the stout wizard cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself, ready to be a diversion. Mudpie was stashed away in the <em>portable hole</em> with the others and thus temporarily blocked from their shared empathic link, but Gilbert knew as soon as his familiar exited the extradimensional space, the link would be reestablished and he'd know they were in place.</p><p></p><p>Castillan saw the entry hall was empty, so he tiptoed down its length and listened at the door at the end, the one leading into the meeting hall. Hearing nothing, he opened the door, verified the room was empty, and closed the door behind him. He then did the same to the door across the room; on the other side, he could hear Helga's voice talking, but no audible response.</p><p></p><p>However, up on the top of the northeastern tower of Battershield Keep, Burroc's mount looked down in confusion. It had sensed a rapid movement in the courtyard below, something beyond the ability of its eyes to pick up. But the winged creature fully understood the concept of invisibility - it was, after all, one of its own greatest defensive and offensive abilities. Casting the full strength of its blindsense into the courtyard, it saw only the drone its master had ordered to close up the keep's entry upon the departure of the strong-minded one, but managed to note the closing of the door to the main entry hall. It hadn't been in time to catch with its blindsense whoever had opened and closed the door, but this was worth mentioning to Burroc. The dutiful mount gave its master a mental update of a possible invisible intruder upon the premises.</p><p></p><p>Then, twisting its armored body to look outside the confines of the keep, it saw the strong-minded one making a rapid departure down the road - and another figure standing in the road. Burroc had forbidden the mount from devouring any of the keep's inhabitants until they had been offered up (it hoped they'd be eating the jackalope next), but said nothing about those outside the keep. With a flap of its massive wings, the invisible beast leaped from the tower's roof and headed straight for this delicious-looking morsel.</p><p></p><p>Castillan knew he'd have to open the door to the study to gain entry, but he hoped he could do so without arousing too much suspicion - and quickly, too, for those inside the <em>portable hole</em> were all holding their breath in there. He backtracked and opened he door to the meeting hall, then returned to the study door and opened it slowly, as if it hadn't been latched properly. He got a surprise when he looked into the room: Burroc was standing, with a dagger placed at Helga's throat. Helga blinked rapidly as if awakening from a bad dream; the bounder realized she was now standing within range of his <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell and thus was no longer under Burroc's mental thrall. However, Helga was no fool; with a dagger at her throat, she stood perfectly still, afraid to move in the slightest.</p><p></p><p>However, it was Burroc that captured the bounder's immediate attention, for he was like nobody else the elf had even seen. He was completely bald, but there were tattoos or similar lines all over his skin, parallel lines going front to back and others going side to side, leaving the man's skin covered in geometric shapes. He wore dark leather armor, with a truncheon of some sort in his right hand and a see-through shield hanging off his left forearm. He held the dagger in his left hand, and it had a serrated blade that looked like it could easily slice through Helga's throat with but a flick of his wrist.</p><p></p><p><Who's there?> demanded Burroc, and it took Castillan a moment to realize the bald man's mouth hadn't moved at all, but rather that he'd heard his question directly in his mind. The bounder didn't respond, but it spurred him into action; by now, the lack of air inside the <em>portable hole</em> might be causing some difficulties to those hidden within. Still under the effects of the <em>spider climb</em> potion, Castillan quietly crept up the wall, through the open doorway along its topmost section, across the ceiling, and back down behind Burroc. He slid the rolled-up <em>portable hole</em> from his belt and allowed it to adhere to the wall directly behind him. There was now a 10-foot-diameter hole in the wall, inside of which could be seen a handful of seasoned adventurers - and one earth elemental.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert's link to Mudpie popped back into existence and the wizard knew at once that his familiar was out of the <em>portable hole</em>, but at the moment he had other, more pressing concerns. Before he'd been able to fly up over the walls of Battershield Keep, he'd been slammed by an invisible force. Said invisible force then clamped down on his shoulder with a pair of invisible teeth, and then wrapped a flexible, invisible body around Gilbert's torso, pinning his arms to his sides and squeezing the life out of him. Unable to cast any spells in this configuration, he called out to his familiar for help.</p><p></p><p>Back in the keep, Mudpie heard the summons. He stepped out of the <em>portable hole</em> and sank through the floor, earth gliding through the ground in the direction of his master. Crossing below the courtyard, he could feel Aithanar above him at the stables, opening doors and releasing some of the animals kept within, but that wasn't the elemental's concern.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert, in the meantime, realized he still had a <em>fly</em> spell active even if he couldn't cast any further spells, and used it to its best effect. Whatever was constricting him had large, leathery wings keeping it aloft, but that didn't mean the wizard couldn't counteract its desired flight path. He brought the two of them back down to the ground and then dragged them over towards the keep, so Mudpie would have a quicker time catching up to them.</p><p></p><p>Finoula and Darrien were the two closest to the front of the <em>portable hole</em>'s opening. They each readied their weapons - she wielding <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, he gripping his <em>Arachnibow</em> - but Burroc heard them, either audible or mentally. He turned his head in their direction - inadvertently looking straight at the still-invisible Castillan, without realizing it - and sent a mind blast in their direction. Everyone in the <em>portable hole</em> was within the area of effect, as was the unseen bounder. Fortunately, of the assembled heroes only Hagan and Darrien were affected. The half-elf ranger let his magical bow slip from his fingers as Burroc spun around to face this new threat from an unexpected direction. He backed up, taking Helga out of the range of Castillan's <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell without even intending to. She immediately snapped back to Burroc's mental domination - as was Aithanar, apparently, for he stepped up from the meeting hall with sword drawn and Burroc passed Helga over to him. The elven fighter put his sword against Helga's throat. <Kill her if anybody tries anything!> Burroc commanded, the telepathic words entering everyone's minds at once.</p><p></p><p>"Fight it, Aithanar!" called out Binkadink, pushing the still-stunned Darrien out of the way and rushing forward. Fortunately, although he couldn't see Castillan, the bounder was not standing directly in front of him so his way was unhindered. And despite holding his glaive at the ready, the gnome didn't even take a swing at Burroc (in fact, he didn't even dodge the slam of Burroc's truncheon as he got within range) - his only goal was to get close enough to Aithanar and Helga to encompass the two of them in the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell currently active and centered upon his gnomish frame. Both blinked in confusion, and Aithanar hurriedly lowered the sword from Helga's throat.</p><p></p><p>Outside the keep, Mudpie suddenly popped up from the ground. There was his master, hovering just above the ground on his back, thrashing around furiously. Gilbert had tried pulling himself out of the grip of the invisible mount's coils, but to no avail. However, he did manage to get one hand close enough to a wand at his belt to pull it out. He could feel by the touch that it was his <em>wand of burning hands</em>, so he pushed it as far against the creature's body - and away from his own - as he could before activating it. Flames erupted from the wand, scorching the wizard' leg but doing substantially more damage to his invisible foe. And with his <em>fly</em> spell keeping the grappling opponents close to the ground, Mudpie was able to slam into the invisible beast's armored body.</p><p></p><p>Stepping from the <em>portable hole</em>, Ingebold intended to crush the bald man's skull with her warhammer now that her mother was out of harm's way. She, however, <em>was</em> standing directly behind the invisible Castillan without realizing it, and her momentum sent the unseen bounder crashing forward into Burroc, who had stepped closer to the foes he could see. The bald intruder was having a difficult time picking up individual thoughts from this mass of newcomers to the scene, getting instead a chaotic mess of conflicting plans and strategies. But it didn't matter in the end, for Castillan had instinctively reacted to being bumped by Ingebold, turning a jostling from behind into a sneak attack maneuver. Invisible to both sight and mental detection due to Hagan's <em>greater invisibility</em> and Harriet Fung's magic ring, Castillan sent his swords deep into Burroc's body without his victim having any sense whatsoever of the impending attacks. In a matter of a mere second or two, the man with the geometric markings lay dead upon the floor of Aerik's study.</p><p></p><p>Castillan immediately dropped the <em>greater invisibility</em> spell so his friends could see him. Ingebold ran forward and embraced her mother, the two bursting into instant tears upon their reunion. Binkadink went outside to the courtyard for his own reunion - and there, scampering in the courtyard, was Obvious, whom he hadn't seen for months. Finoula similarly reacquainted herself with Daisy and Wrath. Back in the study, Wezhley had crawled up onto Hagan's shoulder and nibbled carefully on his master's nose, eventually snapping the half-orc out of the stunning he'd received at Burroc's mental blast. They similarly helped Darrien back to full awareness, and then the joined the others in the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, where's Gilbert and Mudpie?" asked Darrien, looking around. The others, caught up in their homecoming reunions with their loved ones, sheepishly looked around. Nobody wanted to admit they had lost track of Gilbert or failed to notice his absence, but there it was.... Fortunately, about that time Gilbert came flying up over the Keep and landed in the courtyard; shortly thereafter, Mudpie surfaced from the ground, having burrowed beneath the ground.</p><p></p><p>"Don't worry about me - I fine!" griped Gilbert. "I take care of invisible worm all by myself!" Once it had been slain, the invisible creature reverted to normal opacity, exposing itself as a segmented worm with leathery bat wings, a light bluish-white in color.</p><p></p><p>"Awesome diversion," commented Castillan.</p><p></p><p>They brought the wizard up to speed and everyone agreed they wanted more answers than were currently available. So, employing a <em>gentle repose</em> spell on Burroc's corpse, they planned to have Ingebold cast <em>speak with dead</em> on him in the morning. In addition, she promised Aithanar she'd cast <em>heal</em> on him, now that she was powerful enough to do so. "That should hopefully clear yer affliction," she said to the elf.</p><p></p><p>"Shombaddy cafloozle," replied Aithanar, casting a quick glance over at Finoula.</p><p></p><p>Shortly thereafter, Aerik returned with a dozen burly dwarven castle guards, and he was pleased to see that none of them were needed. "Praise be t' Moradin!" he cried, sweeping Helga into his arms. Then he embraced his daughter, who heartily embraced him back. Then, recalling what she'd learned, she asked, "What's this about havin' Hagan and his weasel stayin' in m' room?"</p><p></p><p>Binkadink offered that, as a gnome, he took up less room than the others and Hagan and Wezhley were welcome to bunk with him. The half-orc went to gather up his meager possessions from the campsite he'd made outside the keep, and Helga (as well as a shanghaied Ingebold, who for once didn't grumble about being pressed into kitchen duty by her ma) kept busy preparing a welcome home feast for the team. The rest of the day was devoted to settling back in to the team's headquarters, with stories shared about what had happened during the heroes' months-long absence from the kingdom - and, the others were shocked to learn, from the planet itself.</p><p></p><p>The next day, though, they were back to the business at hand. Ingebold cast her <em>speak with dead</em> spell upon Burroc, and a ghostly representation of the bald man with the geometric patterns on his skin materialized. His expression said he was there under duress, though, and they'd likely not get much from him in the way of helpful answers if he could prevent it.</p><p></p><p>The group having decided ahead of time on what questions to ask, Ingebold began with the first. "How'd ye get those scars ye first showed up with?" Upon first arriving at the keep, he'd had a long gash across one thigh and smaller gashes along his side.</p><p></p><p><In battle> thought Burroc - even under the effects of the <em>speak with dead</em> spell, he didn't so much as speak as project his answers mentally, as was apparently his custom.</p><p></p><p><em>That wasn't very helpful!</em> thought Ingebold, but pressed on with the next question. "What are your people commonly called?" None of the adventurers had ever seen or even heard of anybody like Burroc - even Gilbert came up empty after consulting his <em>Omnibook</em>; the closest possible match he could find were the hordelings of the lower planes, no two of which were said to be alike.</p><p></p><p><Thought masters> replied Burroc's spirit, managing to tinge his mental reply with a level of noticeable disdain.</p><p></p><p>"Snobby sort," muttered Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Where do your people come from?" was Ingebold's next question. Gilbert Fung leaned forward, eager to hear the response. He was willing to put money down that Burroc hailed from an outer plane, but he had no real idea which one was the likeliest candidate.</p><p></p><p><The Queenslands> replied Burroc, and Gilbert sniffed in contempt - a likely technically correct answer that still left them in the dark.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold's final question was, "Why did ye not just ask me parents fer help when ye arrived, instead 'f dominatin' me ma and Aithanar?" The response surprised nobody: <They are lesser beings, suitable only as slaves.> "Well, that's all I have fer ye," responded Ingebold. "I hope ye rot in whatever Hell ye've earned." And with that, the spell was finished and Burroc's spirit dissipated away to nothingness, the smug look of superiority never once leaving his face.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold let out a sigh of exasperation, then turned to Aithanar. "Ye're next," she said. "Are ye ready?"</p><p></p><p>"Bonticky findaboodle!" the elf replied, an eager expression on his face. He looked over at his older brother, who nodded his encouragement at him. Castillan had full trust in Ingebold's healing abilities; she'd cured him of the affliction of lycanthropy in the past. He was sure her <em>heal</em> spell would work.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold said the words to the spell and Aithanar was suffused in a warm, golden light that rapidly dissipated; it lingered the longest around his head, covering him in a halo before winking out. The elf opened his mouth as if to speak, but then apparently changed his mind and closed it again. He smiled at Ingebold in gratitude and touched the side of her face in a simple gesture of friendship, but then turned and stood directly before Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Finoula Cloudshadow," he said, taking her hands, "it has been unending torture to be this close to you for so long but be unable to speak my thoughts aloud in a coherent fashion. Now that I am finally able to do so, I wish to say what I’ve wanted to say to you since the moment I first lay eyes upon you. You are, without a doubt, the loveliest creature I've ever seen. Your eyes sparkle like sunlight on a running brook; your hair is like spun moonlight. And your battle-prowess with your sword is a true beauty to behold.</p><p></p><p>"I don't want you to feel obligated to respond in any particular way, but I desperately want you to know exactly how I feel, and how I've felt about you since we first met. And I will live with the hope that, perhaps someday, you might feel for me the way I feel for you.</p><p></p><p>"In the meantime, if there is ever anything I can do for you, you have only to ask. My answer will always be 'yes.'"</p><p></p><p>Finoula looked at the handsome elf who had diligently looked after her pony, Daisy, during their earlier adventures. "I...I don't know what to say," she replied.</p><p></p><p>"Hit him up for big loan," suggested Gilbert. "You already know he going to say yes!"</p><p></p><p>Finoula gave an exasperated look at the portly wizard. "Way to kill the mood!" she complained.</p><p></p><p>"No matter," said Aithanar, dropping the ranger's hands. "I've said what I wanted to; there's no need for an immediate response." And then he gave Finoula another smile before returning to Ingebold and belatedly thanking her for her help.</p><p></p><p>"Not to change the subject or anything," piped up Binkadink, "but if we're going to keep using the dragonfly ship, we really ought to have a designated pilot. Somebody who can cast spells, but who we won't mind losing out on their spellcasting abilities on a regular basis."</p><p></p><p>"You got name in mind, gnome?" asked Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Well, yeah - my cousin Jinkadoodle."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, exactly what needed - another gnome!"</p><p></p><p>"And a pranktastic one at that," pointed out Darrien. "You haven't forgotten that big fart he set off in your butt in front of the king, have you?"</p><p></p><p>"No," replied Binkadink through gritted teeth, never liking being reminded of the most humiliating moment of his life. "But one: he won't have any spells at hand with which to waste on pranks if he's constantly flying us around. And two: it will allow our normal spellcasters to keep their spells while we go off and do amazing things." He kept to himself his private <em>and three: Jink'll always be ready at hand for me to prank him back</em>.</p><p></p><p>"Makes sense," interjected Finoula. "Although I have to admit, flying the ship is pretty cool."</p><p></p><p>But although there were two rooms inside the dragonfly vessel set aside for bunkrooms, they were already pretty tight quarters. Adding Jinkadoodle and Hagan to the mix - to say nothing of Mudpie, Obvious, Wrath, Grumps Junior, Wezhley, and possibly even Daisy, as well as Aithanar (who had volunteered to accompany the group to continue his care of the group's animals, although it was quite transparent that the real reason for his eagerness had less to do with the animals and more to do with continued nearness to one Finoula Cloudshadow) - would put quite a strain on the bunking arrangements. Fortunately, there was a cargo hold in the back of the ship, along the lengthy tail section of the dragonfly's body. It was currently filled with junk from the previous owners, but if they cleared it out that was additional space that could be devoted to living quarters.</p><p></p><p>And so it was that a major cleanup of the cargo hold occurred. In doing so, Darrien's keen eyes picked up a detail they'd missed thus far: there were scratches on the boards of one of the wooden slats making up the floor, which, when viewed at the correct angle, formed a word: "MALVAER." Due to his recent tutoring in the Draconic language from Caliandra from the equally small kingdom to the south of Kordovia, the ranger recognized this as a word meaning "secret cave." "Guys!" he said, pointing to the floor. "Somebody carved 'MALVAER' on the floor!"</p><p></p><p>Upon utterance of the command word, a 5-foot-square section of the cargo deck floor disappeared. In its place was a set of stairs leading down. Those in the immediate vicinity could see they went on for about 15 feet, which they realized would normally have put them beyond the outer surface of the bottom of the ship. These stairs were apparently extradimensional in nature!</p><p></p><p>Castillan took the lead, his elven heritage allowing him to see in the murky darkness, although there seemed to be some low level of illumination at the bottom of the stairs, which opened up into a large room filled with comfortable-looking sofas and chairs. There were a few bookcases along the walls and black candles flickering in candelabra around the expansive room. There were eight doors along three of the walls, while the fourth - directly across from the stairs - had two open doorways, beyond which the bounder could see a long banquet table overflowing with food. "Come check this out!" he called eagerly to his companions.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert stepped hesitantly into the larger room, looking about in awe. "This is a <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em>!" he declared. "And what looks to be a permanent effect, no less!" In his awe, he had failed to notice he'd slipped out of the pidgin-Common accent he normally affected. Then, he suddenly jumped back, surprised at the ghostly visage floating into existence directly in front of him. It was a dark, insubstantial shape, with the hint - at certain angles - of a skull in place of a face. Several of these beings floated here and there about the room. The wizard concentrated on his magically-enhanced eyesight, then breathed a sigh of relief once he noted the floating apparitions did not trigger his <em>detect undead</em> senses. "That a relief!" he stated, slipping back into his sing-song pidgin. "They just the <em>unseen servants</em> inside <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em>."</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah?" asked Castillan. "Hey! Servant! Fetch me a glass of wine!" Immediately, one of the forms went streaking across the room to the banquet hall, returning with a filled glass of wine - of a distinctly fine elven vintage, no less. "I like this!" the bounder enthused.</p><p></p><p>"Let's see what's behind all of these doors," suggested Finoula, opening the door in the northwestern corner. While she did so, Grumps Junior bounded across the room, following his nose to the tantalizing aromas of food on the banquet table. Darrien, who had been quite proud of himself for tricking his dire bear cub into backing up and falling into the open <em>portable hole</em> and then being dumped into the cargo hold once he'd brought it up there, suddenly regretted his actions when the hungry bruin knocked over a platter of carved roast to the floor and then bent over it and started gobbling it up. Wezhley followed suit, nibbling at fruits that had fallen from the table when Grumps Junior slapped the meat platter to the floor.</p><p></p><p>Four of the doors led to separate bedrooms, not surprisingly when the heroes recalled the ship's previous owners had been a quartet of necromancers. (That also explained the black <em>everburning candles</em> in the candelabra and the skull faces on the <em>unseen servants</em>.) One held a four-poster bed with a carved skull on each post; one of these was a defensive, floating skull that sent <em>magic missiles</em> blasting from its eye sockets at Hagan, who was the first to enter that particular room. He returned fire with attack spells of his own until the skull had been destroyed. Another room held an ornate rug on the floor; when Gilbert examined it with a <em>detect magic</em> spell it not only radiated fairly strong magic, but when he tentatively lifted a corner with his staff, a carving of the same design was on the floor immediately below it.</p><p></p><p>"That weird," the wizard mused. "And look, there a word woven into design: 'umerguth'." But saying the word had no apparent effect.</p><p></p><p>"Let me see that," suggested Binkadink, pulling the rug from the floor and plopping it onto the bed. Then he stood on the carved design on the floor and repeated, "umerguth." He immediately teleported over to the rug on the bed. "Umerguth," he said again, and was transported to the carving on the floor again.</p><p></p><p>"I think we find easy way to get animals onto and off of ship," declared Gilbert, but the gnome wasn't listening. Instead, he was repeating "umerguth" as fast as he could, teleporting back and forth between the two locations until Gilbert tipped over the carpet and sent the gnome flying to the floor when he reappeared on the rug. "You giving me headache!" Gilbert complained.</p><p></p><p>Another bedroom seemed pretty normal, although there was a shelf on the bottom of a nightstand that had an interesting property: anything placed there became invisible to all but the one who had placed it there. Hagan discovered this by accidentally knocking over the <em>dagger of venom</em> that had been hidden there by the room's former occupant. The fourth bedroom was nearly empty, save for a simple cot, a few pegs on the walls holding robes, and an elaborate wall-hanging of Vecna, God of Secrets. Castillan appraised the depiction as being worth several hundred pieces of gold to an interested buyer.</p><p></p><p>Other doors from the main room led to two privies and a bathing chamber, complete with <em>unseen servants</em> to scrub your back and dry you off upon completion of the bath. But it was Castillan who found the deadliest, and most disturbing, room yet.</p><p></p><p>Opening the easternmost door on the northern wall, the bounder saw a large room filled with dissecting tables and other tools of the necromantic trade - including a stitched-together form that served as both lab assistant and guardian against intruders. Expecting the creature to lurch in his direction, the bounder got quite a shock as it dashed in his direction, causing the elf to bleat in terror and slam the door shut. He held the knob, but the creature didn't follow, apparently set to fight off intruders but "reset" once no intruders were in sight.</p><p></p><p>Calling the others to him and briefing them on what was on the other side of the door, Castillan got ready to open the door a second time. This time, though, he had a small army of adventurers at his back. Swinging the door open and leaping inside and to the left, he was followed immediately by Binkadink's glaive, which was followed in turn by the rest of the gnome fighter. Swinging it around at the onrushing blaspheme, Binkadink got in a good slash - and then was shocked as the swift creature slid around his weapon and bit down hard on the side of the gnome's neck. The gnome froze up immediately, dazed, and Castillan decided discretion was the better part of valor, rushing back out of the room but dragging the gnome with him by the collar.</p><p></p><p>Finoula stepped into Castillan's place, swinging <em>Tahlmalaera</em> into the undead's side. Darrien sent a slew of arrows in past his fellow ranger, smiling grimly as they buried themselves up to the feathers in undead flesh. Calling for Finoula to fall back - which she did - Hagan and Gilbert sent a <em>fireball</em> and a set of <em>scorching rays</em> crashing in on the blaspheme. It took some doing, but eventually the undead beast fell.</p><p></p><p>There was another room off of the necromancy lab: 10 feet to a side, it radiated an unnatural cold. Gilbert surmised it was for the storage of dead flesh for the necromancers' experiments. He offered is as a cooler to keep their beverages cold, but the others weren't as eager to drink anything that had been stored in a room that once held corpses.</p><p></p><p>That left only the banquet room, which thus far had only been explored by Grumps Junior and Wezhley, who had expanded the mess on the floor by dint of sending more food crashing to easier reach. There were two obvious surprises in the room: the entire southern wall was a mirror, and along the northern wall was a large glass container holding a floating human brain. A sign above the brain-jar read:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"<strong>Timothy Amattox</strong>?" asked Darrien, and the others glared at him as it turned out to once again be a command word of sorts. Immediately, the fluids in the brain-jar began to bubble. "Stop saying command words out loud until we figure out what they might do!" chided Castillan.</p><p></p><p><Ask thy questions> demanded a voice in the heads of the heroes - rather uncomfortably so, given their recent experience with Burroc. But Binkadink wasn't paying particular attention, he was more interested in the mirror and its placement on the south wall...and the fact that all of the letters in the sign over the brain-in-a-jar could be reflected along a vertical axis. Completely ignoring Castillan's recent complaint to Darrien, the gnome looked at the sign through the mirror and repeated what he saw reflected there: "wov a yawa timov!"</p><p></p><p>Immediately, the mirror shimmered in place and vanished, revealing a hidden room behind the mirror - and an animated hulking corpse standing as a barrier in front of the riches visible in what was apparently a treasure vault.</p><p></p><p>"Oh come on!" complained Castillan, looking back to see what trouble the curious gnome had gotten them into - and just after he had cautioned Darrien against such impulsiveness! He snapped his fingers, causing the weapons held in his <em>gloves of storing</em> to pop into his hands and turned to meet the towering undead threatening Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>Darrien, however, opted to take the brain in a jar up on his offer. "What's that creature back there?" he asked.</p><p></p><p><A hulking corpse> responded the preserved brain of Timothy Amattox, a human sage once under the employ of the four necromancers who had previously owned the dragonfly ship.</p><p></p><p>"How do we best kill it?" Darrien inquired.</p><p></p><p><The easiest method is to bludgeon it to death></p><p></p><p>"Is there any way we can control it instead?"</p><p></p><p><No> came the telepathic reply.</p><p></p><p>"Use bludgeoning weapons against it!" called Darrien to the others. Binkadink had been using his trusty magical glaive, and while the undead flesh seemed somewhat resistant to damage from the slashing blade, Binkadink's surprising strength did manage to do a fair amount of damage to the creature. Finoula had been slashing at it from a safe distance using her <em>whip of thorns</em>, but it lurched out at her and bit her with its ghastly teeth, grabbed her with its ragged claws, and then used its incredible strength to rend her armor and the flesh beneath it. She staggered out of its grasp and fell back, dazed and bleeding profusely. Ingebold stepped up immediately to heal her Battle-Sister.</p><p></p><p>"Hang on!" called out Gilbert Fung, casting a <em>wall of force</em> across the opening to the treasure vault once Binkadink managed to push the hulking corpse back with his glaive. The spell effect stretched from one side of the doorway to the other, leaving a gap at the top and the bottom for weapons and spells to reach in without allowing the hulking corpse room to attack back. As the <em>wall of force</em> was invisible, Gilbert had to explain to the others where its effects began and ended. Castillan dropped to his knees and stabbed at the undead brute's ankles below the invisible wall, causing a blackish ichor to leak out like blood.</p><p></p><p>Darrien came up with what he thought was another brilliant plan. Turning away from the floating brain, he addressed the <em>unseen servants</em> that hovered in the room next door. "Start removing the treasure from the vault and piling it out here in the banquet room!" he commanded. At once, a trio of gliding shapes floated over to the hulking corpse, slid down to the gap along the floor, and began ferrying out coins and gems. Darrien smiled at his own brilliance and helped get Grumps Junior away from the area of carnage, since the dire bear cub had ignored the undead form in one-way battle against the heroes while there was still food to be devoured from the banquet table. Hagan likewise scooped up Wezhley from his feast, depositing him on his shoulder before sending a <em>fireball</em> spell under the gap to explode around the undead vault guardian.</p><p></p><p>Unable to effectively fight back, it was merely a matter of time before the hulking corpse was destroyed. Castillan began the tedious (but not at all unpleasant) task of counting up the total value of the treasure the necromancers had been hoarding.</p><p></p><p>"Phew!" exclaimed Gilbert, holding his nose. "We going to have to air this place out!"</p><p></p><p>Despite his own even more powerful sense of smell, Grumps Junior gave no indication of agreeing. He had returned to the feast on the floor of the banquet room, chuffing in contentment.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>This was my ten-year-old nephew Harry's first time playing with us. (Harry lives with us full time.) He'd been invited for the past several years, since both Jacob and Joey first joined our ranks when they were eight years old and he had turned eight two years earlier. But it wasn't until Logan started up a homebrew Skylanders D&D campaign for Harry and I that he fell in love with the concept of role-playing games, and then one day out of the blue decided he was ready to start playing "regular D&D" with us. Going through the options with him, he decided almost immediately on a half-orc sorcerer. He was originally going to name Hagan's familiar "Wesley," but he used his "cutesy" voice when having Hagan talk to his familiar and so "Wesley" soon officially became "Wezhley."</p><p></p><p>My wife worried that Harry's attention span wouldn't last for the full five-and-a-half hours that our game sessions usually span, as two hours (or just slightly over that) was the norm for our Skylanders D&D sessions - by design, since Logan had built them taking Harry's attention span into account. But he had no real problems, even though he had to sit through the whole dragon encounter with nothing to do. (I had told him he could roll the dice for the dragon's attacks, but then some quick thinking on Jacob's part turned my planned combat encounter into a diplomatic encounter instead.)</p><p></p><p>Still, I was pleased with the back story Harry and I had come up with to graft Hagan into the campaign; we were lucky in that Harry joined the group just as the PCs were returning from four months of wildspace adventuring. That made Hagan's entry into the campaign relatively easy, and it brought with it an implied "pre-approval" from Aerik.</p><p></p><p>I do still have a few concerns, though. We all had to cut back - significantly - on the bad language that normally occurs during our game sessions, caused either by bad dice rolls or lewd/crude side comments at the table. Fortunately, the few times a bad word got by us we instantly apologized, so we shouldn't be corrupting Harry's vocabulary. (Plus, he already chides me for using the word "crap," which he considers a bad word. I don't think he'll be picking up cussing as a bad habit from us any time soon. He's pretty close to Lawful Good.) However, I have an adventure coming up that'd undoubtedly get an "R" rating if it were a movie. I'm either going to have to tone that one down significantly or else convince Harry that it might not be a great idea for him to participate in that particular adventure. (I already have a good excuse for Hagan's absence, too: he'll be busy helping school Harriet Fung in the intricacies of the Orc language, to better prepare her for the infiltration scheme King Galrich's got planned.) And he already excuses himself from watching TV shows with us if he thinks they'll be too scary; he passes on specific episodes of the special effects make-up contest show <em>Face Off</em> if the contestants will be making too scary monsters that week. So we'll see how it goes - that adventure is still a ways away.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: My "What Would Daryl Do?" shirt featuring Daryl Dixon from "The Walking Dead." Not only did it hint at the presence of undead when the PCs explored the hidden levels of their dragonfly ship, but it also depicts "a badass with a crossbow" - which could be an apt description of Hagan (who didn't have a reason to use his light crossbow this adventure).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7188493, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 36: HOMECOMING[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 11[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 11 (Moradin)[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 29 July 2017 - - - Getting Mudpie on board the dragonfly vessel was easy: Gilbert had him step into the opened [I]portable hole[/I], closed it up, tucked it into his belt, climbed the rope ladder leading up to the upper deck, and then released him once there. Mudpie opted to climb down into the hold, where he wouldn't see air all around him - not a comfortable view for an earth elemental! - when they took off. Getting Grumps Junior on board the dragonfly was significantly more difficult as the dire bear cub had no intention of walking into a big old magical hole. Plus, he had the intellect of a dire bear cub - it wasn't as if Darrien could reason with him. And there was no way he could climb up a rope ladder on his own, nor could anybody lift him and do the climbing for him, even had the bear allowed such a thing. In the end, it took Gilbert casting a [I]fly[/I] spell on the bear and having Darrien climb the rope ladder with a tasty bit of fish in his hand to get Grumps Junior up on his hind legs, stretching to reach the morsel. Darrien kept it just out of reach, forcing the bear to jump up to try to snap the fish into his mouth. Without realizing it, Grumps Junior left the ground while chasing the bite of fish up a rope ladder; finally, when Darrien and his dire bear cub both made it up the ladder and onto the deck of the dragonfly vessel the ranger passed over the tasty morsel. "Here you go, Grumps," he said. "You earned it." The group fashioned a harness out of ropes and lowered the bear down into the hold, thinking it the safest place for the baby bruin during travel. Finoula once again took the helm, reasoning it was better for one of the rangers to give up a day's worth of spellcasting rather than either Gilbert or Ingebold. And the decreased top speed of a secondary spellcaster compared to a primary spellcaster was minimal when inside a planet's atmosphere. Out there in wildspace or the phlogiston spellcasting ability made a much bigger difference in spelljamming speeds, but the group had pretty much decided this ship - one to which they really ought to give a name, one of these days! - was probably never going to experience wildspace again. Nobody wanted to take the chance of not being able to find their way home again. Fortunately, finding their way back to Kordovia wasn't a major problem. They knew it lay on a continent to the west and they had recently discovered just how big Lake Quag really was. Finoula figured by flying high enough they could find Lake Quag and then Kordovia was south of it, below the Clatspur Mountains, following the Velverdyva River. Piece of cake! The flight was mostly uneventful, with the exception of traveling over the massive Vesve Forest. About halfway across its length, Finoula's helm-enhanced senses picked up a shape rising up from the forest on an intercept course. Binkadink and Castillan were on the upper deck and the elven bounder spotted the figure approaching the ship on leathery wings. It was dragon, somewhat larger than a draft horse by the look of it, and in the fading sunlight Castillan thought he could make out a greenish tinge to the reptile's scales. "Green dragon!" he called to Binkadink, but the bounder's words were carried away by the winds; Binkadink remained facing the front of the vessel, oblivious to the dragon rapidly approaching from the ship's rear. Castillan popped open the hatch to one of the loading doors and called down "Green dragon approaching!" to those below. Darrien pulled Grumps Junior to the back of the cargo bay, scooting around barrels and crates and odds bits of wood and canvas scraps scattered about. Mudpie moved back with them. Inside the head of the dragonfly, Finoula called out a warning to the rest of the heroes and then raised the ship even higher, hoping to outrace the approaching dragon. No such luck; the green dragon's top speed was faster than that of the ship - Finoula's only hope was that she could outlast it, for the vessel ran on the power of spellcasting ability and could fly for the better part of a day, whereas the dragon's wings would (hopefully!) eventually get tired. The dragon, however, dashed that hope by landing gracefully on the deck by Castillan. Binkadink whirled around, magical glaive at the ready, but the dragon didn't look particularly combat-ready; rather, it swung its head out around appreciatively. "Just what exactly [I]is[/I] this?" in enquired, speaking in the Common tongue. Castillan, who had been ready to reply in the Draconic language, gladly switched to Common. "It's a spelljamming vessel, capable of flight through wildspace," he offered. "Amazing," replied the dragon. He'd followed the shape that flew over his self-proclaimed territory, thinking to chase off a competitor, but once he got closer he saw it was some sort of man-made flying vessel. The things these humanoids came up with! "So, why are you in my territory?" asked the dragon. "We...were not aware it was your territory," the bounder explained. "We offer our apologies for the transgression, but we are just passing through. Er, over, I guess." "Apologies are more easily accepted with tribute," responded the dragon. "Give me a couple hundred gold and you can go about your way unharmed." Castillan knew full well that the group wouldn't miss a few hundred gold pieces from all of the treasure they had amassed from Captain Skunkbeard's hoard, but he also knew fetching it from the [I]portable hole[/I] would show the dragon just how much more treasure they had stored in there. Plus, the bounder didn't like giving away gold if he didn't have to, and while he wasn't willing to combat a dragon over a few hundred gold pieces he thought he had a way to avoid both combat and extortion. "I say," he said, "You're quite a good-looking specimen of green dragonkind. You wouldn't happen to be related to our good friend Clauguthrax, would you?" Clauguthrax was the green dragon Princess Kaelanna had been secretly communicating with and who she had dragged the heroes along with to visit. "Friends" wasn't perhaps the most accurate term to describe the relationship between Clauguthrax and the Kordovian adventurers, but this dragon didn't have to know that - and the bounder had a [I]very[/I] good poker face. "Why yes - he's my cousin!" declared the green dragon. "You're friends of Clauguthrax, huh? Well, okay, I'll let you off with a warning this time. But next time, let me know when you want to fly over my territory." "Will do," promised Castillan, giving the dragon a military salute as it leaped from the deck and flapped away. Binkadink just looked at the bounder and they both shrugged. Gilbert, stomping up the stairs to the upper deck to help deal with the dragon, was just in time to see it fly away. "We took care of it," Castillan called over the roaring wind. An hour or so later, Finoula brought the dragonfly ship down in a clearing behind Battershield Keep. "It ought to be safe here," she said, and she was likely right - Battershield Keep was at the outskirts of Kordovia, one of the closest buildings to the Vesve Forest. The likelihood of anybody wandering around and discovering the ship was negligible. "I cannae wait t' see me folks," gushed Ingebold as she climbed down the rope ladder and the group made their way to the front of the stone keep. They'd been away, in wildspace, for the last four months or so and it was good to finally be back home. Walking to the front of the keep, the heroes were surprised to see the drawbridge in the raised position. Normally, Aerik kept the bridge down, relying upon the iron portcullis to keep outsiders at bay; that was a much easier system for a keep not staffed by a large contingent of soldiers or functionaries. "Hey!" yelled Ingebold, cupping her hands around her mouth as she approached the moat around the keep. "It's us! We're back!" Her yells caused the goats inside to start bleating, and Wrath started howling at that ruckus. Before long, the heroes could hear the clomping of heavy boots walking along the battlements to the front of the keep. And shortly thereafter, in the moonlight, they could make out Aerik's familiar face looking down at them from the ramparts. "What's goin' on down there?" he demanded. "It us!" called back Gilbert Fung. "Open up, let us in!" The dwarf shook his head. "Now's not a good time fer visitin'. Me wife's not feelin' up to visitors right about now. Why dinnae ye go visit yer own families fer a bit? Come back in a week or so – we'll be happy to entertain ye then." Ingebold opened her mouth to respond but Gilbert cut her off. "Fair enough," he called back. "Maybe we go stay with Cousin Thorax. He still live in next keep over?" "Never heard of him," replied Aerik, looking over his shoulder and making a shooing motion with his hand, urging everybody to leave. Gilbert took the hint, leading everyone back down the entry road to the keep, as if heading back to town. "What was that all about?" demanded Ingebold. "Why wouldn't me father let us in?" "Not sure," admitted Gilbert. "But I wanted to see if that your father or not. If it impostor, he probably agree we stay with Cousin Thorax." "Who's Cousin Thorax?" asked Darrien. "Nobody. I make him up." "I still want t' know why he'd not let us in," replied Ingebold, looking worriedly back at the keep. "Maybe I can help you," said a strange voice. The heroes spun around and saw a figure approaching from the trees at the side of the road. He wore a hooded robe and carried a tall staff; when he pulled back the hood he displayed a face that hinted rather strongly at orcish features. "My name is [B]Hagan[/B]. I assume you are Ingebold Battershield and the rest of the guild?" "Aye," replied the dwarf, looking suspiciously at the half-orc. There was a quick movement at his shoulder; it turned out to be a weasel, looking nervously back and forth at the assembled group of heavily-armed adventurers forming a half-circle around Hagan. "It's okay, [B]Wezhley[/B]," comforted Hagan to his familiar. "These are friends - or they will be, soon enough." He turned to the others. "I should tell you what's happened in your absence, while you were out hunting down pirate treasure." Hagan told a strange story indeed. He had been walking through the Vesve Forest with his familiar, at night - his darkvision let him see perfectly fine during the night hours, and he was less likely to be bothered by those unwilling to give a good-natured half-orc the benefit of the doubt - when all of a sudden he was surrounded by a wave of orcs and goblins. They were heading to Kordovia to assault the kingdom and assumed he, Hagan, was one of their number separated from his normal squad. Hagan was herded along with a group of orcs and goblins that split off from the main army to attack Battershield Keep. Hagan went along with it, realizing he was vastly outnumbered, but once they got to their target and made it over the walls, he took it upon himself to take out as many of the invaders as he could. His presence was fortunate, as it turned out, for besides Aerik and Helga, the only other person there to help defend the keep was Aithanar Ivenheart, still bereft of normal speech and staying in his brother's room awaiting his return (although Obvious and Wrath both did their parts as well). Aerik was so pleased with Hagan's initiative he invited him to stay on, hoping to introduce him to the rest of the adventuring team upon their return and then petition King Galrich to allow him to join their ranks. In the meantime, he'd been allowed to stay in Ingebold's quarters. "In [I]me[/I] quarters?" piped up Ingebold. "Whyever mine?" "I don't know, that's what your parents offered me," replied Hagan. "We've taken good care of the place during our stay." Ingebold narrowed her eyes, not sure if she liked the idea of a half-orc she didn't even know - and a weasel! - being allowed to sleep in her bed. She'd be talking to her mother about this, and definitely changing the sheets before she took up residency in the room once again. "So why aren't you there now?" asked Castillan. "And why did Aerik give us the bum's rush?" "I'm getting to that part," replied Hagan. "It only just happened about a week ago. I was outside the keep, cutting firewood, when a stranger landed in the middle of the courtyard, on a really weird riding mount. It was difficult to see - it kept sliding in and out of view - but whatever it was, it was big, with batlike wings. "The rider - Aerik told me later his name was [B]Burroc[/B] - was wounded, and he needed help in tending to his injuries. Just like that, he did something to make both Helga and Aithanar his mental slaves. He probably tried the same with Aerik, but he's a tough old guy." "That he be," agreed Ingebold. "Is me ma okay?" "As far as I know, yes. He hasn't done anything to them, just make them tend to his every need. Except - well, he had the two mules slaughtered, for food for him and the invisible flying mount." Looks of horror passed across the heroes' faces at the thought of the deaths of Franco and Tantrum, the mules who had dutifully pulled Aerik's wagon since the beginning of their adventuring careers. "And Aerik, he's been off to work at the castle every day, just like normal. I've gotten to speak with him a bit as he leaves the keep. He thinks Burroc can read minds, but he's done his best to keep knowledge of me buried deep whenever he's near Burroc. And he's had me camp nearby, outside the keep, awaiting your return, so I can let you know the situation. Aerik says he can't let anyone at the castle know; he's afraid they'll try an immediate rescue attempt and Burroc will kill Helga if anybody tries anything." "So what does he want us to do?" asked Finoula. "He trusts you guys to take out Burroc without letting anything happen to Helga," Hagan said. "And I'm willing to assist in any way I can." "Sounds like we need to make sure this Burroc can't detect us," reasoned Castillan. "Gilbert, does your mom still have that [I]ring of mind shielding[/I]?" "Yes," Gilbert replied. They'd given it to her in case any of the Kozakuran assassins went scrying upon her to see if she'd been resurrected after being slain. Instead, she'd been reincarnated into an orc body - but a [I]hat of disguise[/I] allowed her to look human, if not exactly her old self. "But what good that do? That only shield one person." "I'm thinking we'll have one person sneak inside. The rest of you will be inside the [I]portable hole[/I]." "'The rest of us?'" repeated Darrien. "I take it you'll be the one wearing the ring?" "I'm the sneakiest, and the one best suited to get across the moat and climb up over the walls, so yes, me." "I go get ring," replied Gilbert, heading back towards where the dragonfly ship was parked. "I'll fly you over there," offered Finoula. "My spellcasting's already shot. No sense in wiping out your abilities, too - we may need them before you have a chance to rest up." While they took off on a low course towards the small village where Gilbert's parents lived, the others gathered around in the clearing and made plans. By the time the spelljamming vessel returned, Castillan had everything worked out to his satisfaction. But not to Gilbert's satisfaction. He agreed about the multiple [I]protection from evil[/I] and [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spells to ensure everyone could be protected from mind control; he agreed that having Castillan ferry everyone over in the [I]portable hole[/I] while he was not only wearing the [I]ring of mind shielding[/I] but also covered in a [I]greater invisibility[/I] spell was a good idea; he just drew the line at entering the [I]portable hole[/I] himself. "I not going in there," he insisted. "What if you get taken out? Then everybody stuck inside hole. Guess what? There no air in there!" "They can hold their breath," argued Castillan. "They can - I not. I be outside, with [I]fly[/I] spell active. I be distraction, so you sneak in easy." "We can't both be wearing the ring," countered Castillan. "What good is a distraction whose thoughts can be read? Burroc will pick up 'I just a distraction - hope Burroc no find out about invisible guy sneaking in with [I]portable hole[/I] full of assault team' right out of that oversized noggin of yours." "Maybe I stay out of range." "That would be great, if we knew what his range was." "Guys," interjected Finoula. "Let's all get some sleep. None of this plan will work if we don't get a good night's sleep - especially the spellcasters. We have some specific spells we need prepared in the morning, if we're to have any chance of success at all." "I'll take first guard shift," offered Binkadink. "Me next," suggested Castillan. As he and the little gnome had no spellcasting power whatsoever, they were better suited to dealing with a lesser amount of rest. "I'll take a shift, too," offered Hagan. At the surprised looks he got, he added, "I'm a sorcerer. No spell studying needed. I'm already set to go." "We'll get up with the dawn," suggested Finoula. "So we're ready to go when they lower the drawbridge when Aerik heads off to the castle." Dawn came, and the heroes made their preparations. Gilbert pored over the pages of his [I]Omnibook[/I], setting the sigils in his mind that would allow him to cast the spells he'd need in the upcoming day. Ingebold prayed to Moradin, not only asking for the spells she'd need but for the Dwarven Forgefather to guide the group's efforts to get her parents and Aithanar safely out from this Burroc's grasp. Finoula and Darrien prepared their own few spells and then the group left the dragonfly ship and once again approached the front of the keep, keeping to the edge of the trees to avoid being spotted by the invisible flying mount, which could in theory be anywhere nearby. Aerik should be lowering the drawbridge at any moment and Gilbert wanted to confer with him before they began the assault. At the sounds of the drawbridge being lowered, the spellcasters began frantically casting spells on those designated to have them: Binkadink and Castillan were the targets of [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spells, while Darrien and Gilbert each received a [I]protection from evil[/I] spell; Hagan, Gilbert, and Mudpie each got a [I]mage armor[/I] spell, while Finoula cast a [I]barkskin[/I] spell on herself; finally, right as he followed the others (save Gilbert, of course) into the [I]portable hole[/I], Hagan cast a [I]greater invisibility[/I] spell on Castillan. The bounder was already wearing the [I]ring of mind shielding[/I], so as he disappeared from visible sight he was already blocked from mental detection. And while he personally had no qualms about his ability to leap the moat and scale the walls of the keep, this was no time for overconfidence: the bounder gulped down the contents of a [I]potion of spider climbing[/I]. Aerik clomped over the wooden drawbridge, his face a worried scowl. Gilbert stepped forward, cleverly in the guise of a traveling potion salesman. "Good morning," he said cheerily to the dwarf. "Perhaps I interest you in purchase of fine potions?" When Aerik didn't reply, Gilbert walked at his side as the dwarf headed down the road in the direction of the castle. Once he deemed them safely out of earshot, he lowered his voice and asked, "Where Burroc holed up?" "In me study," came the brusque reply. "He's got me Helga there with 'im, tendin' t' his wounds, an' actin' as a hostage to me good behavior." "Study. Got it," said a disembodied voice nearby. Then the invisible bounder dashed back across the clearing, to land lightly on the now-rising drawbridge. He scampered down its length as his brother Aithanar cranked the mechanism to raise it back up to its fully upright position. Then, not wanting to risk detection, Castillan scampered quickly across the open courtyard - noticing dried bloodstains in the dirt, no doubt the remains of Franco and Tantrum - slid open the door to the main entry hall, and closed it quietly behind him. Aithanar's back was still turned, dealing with the drawbridge, so he didn't see the opening and closing of the door, seemingly by itself. "You want to join us in attack?" Gilbert asked Aerik. "I dinnae dare," replied Aerik. "I'm too much a known quantity t' 'im - I'm afraid he'd pick up me presence in a heartbeat. I'll tell ye what, though: once I git to' th' castle, I'll round up a bunch 'f th' guards and we'll hightail it back here. That way, if ye're not successful, we'll take 'im out. Just...just don't let 'im do anything t' me Helga." The look on the old dwarf's face expressed how much he wanted to come to her rescue, and how hard it was to realize her best bet lay in him staying away. "We got this," promised Gilbert. Then, as the dwarf made his best speed down the road to the castle, the stout wizard cast a [I]fly[/I] spell upon himself, ready to be a diversion. Mudpie was stashed away in the [I]portable hole[/I] with the others and thus temporarily blocked from their shared empathic link, but Gilbert knew as soon as his familiar exited the extradimensional space, the link would be reestablished and he'd know they were in place. Castillan saw the entry hall was empty, so he tiptoed down its length and listened at the door at the end, the one leading into the meeting hall. Hearing nothing, he opened the door, verified the room was empty, and closed the door behind him. He then did the same to the door across the room; on the other side, he could hear Helga's voice talking, but no audible response. However, up on the top of the northeastern tower of Battershield Keep, Burroc's mount looked down in confusion. It had sensed a rapid movement in the courtyard below, something beyond the ability of its eyes to pick up. But the winged creature fully understood the concept of invisibility - it was, after all, one of its own greatest defensive and offensive abilities. Casting the full strength of its blindsense into the courtyard, it saw only the drone its master had ordered to close up the keep's entry upon the departure of the strong-minded one, but managed to note the closing of the door to the main entry hall. It hadn't been in time to catch with its blindsense whoever had opened and closed the door, but this was worth mentioning to Burroc. The dutiful mount gave its master a mental update of a possible invisible intruder upon the premises. Then, twisting its armored body to look outside the confines of the keep, it saw the strong-minded one making a rapid departure down the road - and another figure standing in the road. Burroc had forbidden the mount from devouring any of the keep's inhabitants until they had been offered up (it hoped they'd be eating the jackalope next), but said nothing about those outside the keep. With a flap of its massive wings, the invisible beast leaped from the tower's roof and headed straight for this delicious-looking morsel. Castillan knew he'd have to open the door to the study to gain entry, but he hoped he could do so without arousing too much suspicion - and quickly, too, for those inside the [I]portable hole[/I] were all holding their breath in there. He backtracked and opened he door to the meeting hall, then returned to the study door and opened it slowly, as if it hadn't been latched properly. He got a surprise when he looked into the room: Burroc was standing, with a dagger placed at Helga's throat. Helga blinked rapidly as if awakening from a bad dream; the bounder realized she was now standing within range of his [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell and thus was no longer under Burroc's mental thrall. However, Helga was no fool; with a dagger at her throat, she stood perfectly still, afraid to move in the slightest. However, it was Burroc that captured the bounder's immediate attention, for he was like nobody else the elf had even seen. He was completely bald, but there were tattoos or similar lines all over his skin, parallel lines going front to back and others going side to side, leaving the man's skin covered in geometric shapes. He wore dark leather armor, with a truncheon of some sort in his right hand and a see-through shield hanging off his left forearm. He held the dagger in his left hand, and it had a serrated blade that looked like it could easily slice through Helga's throat with but a flick of his wrist. <Who's there?> demanded Burroc, and it took Castillan a moment to realize the bald man's mouth hadn't moved at all, but rather that he'd heard his question directly in his mind. The bounder didn't respond, but it spurred him into action; by now, the lack of air inside the [I]portable hole[/I] might be causing some difficulties to those hidden within. Still under the effects of the [I]spider climb[/I] potion, Castillan quietly crept up the wall, through the open doorway along its topmost section, across the ceiling, and back down behind Burroc. He slid the rolled-up [I]portable hole[/I] from his belt and allowed it to adhere to the wall directly behind him. There was now a 10-foot-diameter hole in the wall, inside of which could be seen a handful of seasoned adventurers - and one earth elemental. Gilbert's link to Mudpie popped back into existence and the wizard knew at once that his familiar was out of the [I]portable hole[/I], but at the moment he had other, more pressing concerns. Before he'd been able to fly up over the walls of Battershield Keep, he'd been slammed by an invisible force. Said invisible force then clamped down on his shoulder with a pair of invisible teeth, and then wrapped a flexible, invisible body around Gilbert's torso, pinning his arms to his sides and squeezing the life out of him. Unable to cast any spells in this configuration, he called out to his familiar for help. Back in the keep, Mudpie heard the summons. He stepped out of the [I]portable hole[/I] and sank through the floor, earth gliding through the ground in the direction of his master. Crossing below the courtyard, he could feel Aithanar above him at the stables, opening doors and releasing some of the animals kept within, but that wasn't the elemental's concern. Gilbert, in the meantime, realized he still had a [I]fly[/I] spell active even if he couldn't cast any further spells, and used it to its best effect. Whatever was constricting him had large, leathery wings keeping it aloft, but that didn't mean the wizard couldn't counteract its desired flight path. He brought the two of them back down to the ground and then dragged them over towards the keep, so Mudpie would have a quicker time catching up to them. Finoula and Darrien were the two closest to the front of the [I]portable hole[/I]'s opening. They each readied their weapons - she wielding [I]Tahlmalaera[/I], he gripping his [I]Arachnibow[/I] - but Burroc heard them, either audible or mentally. He turned his head in their direction - inadvertently looking straight at the still-invisible Castillan, without realizing it - and sent a mind blast in their direction. Everyone in the [I]portable hole[/I] was within the area of effect, as was the unseen bounder. Fortunately, of the assembled heroes only Hagan and Darrien were affected. The half-elf ranger let his magical bow slip from his fingers as Burroc spun around to face this new threat from an unexpected direction. He backed up, taking Helga out of the range of Castillan's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell without even intending to. She immediately snapped back to Burroc's mental domination - as was Aithanar, apparently, for he stepped up from the meeting hall with sword drawn and Burroc passed Helga over to him. The elven fighter put his sword against Helga's throat. <Kill her if anybody tries anything!> Burroc commanded, the telepathic words entering everyone's minds at once. "Fight it, Aithanar!" called out Binkadink, pushing the still-stunned Darrien out of the way and rushing forward. Fortunately, although he couldn't see Castillan, the bounder was not standing directly in front of him so his way was unhindered. And despite holding his glaive at the ready, the gnome didn't even take a swing at Burroc (in fact, he didn't even dodge the slam of Burroc's truncheon as he got within range) - his only goal was to get close enough to Aithanar and Helga to encompass the two of them in the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell currently active and centered upon his gnomish frame. Both blinked in confusion, and Aithanar hurriedly lowered the sword from Helga's throat. Outside the keep, Mudpie suddenly popped up from the ground. There was his master, hovering just above the ground on his back, thrashing around furiously. Gilbert had tried pulling himself out of the grip of the invisible mount's coils, but to no avail. However, he did manage to get one hand close enough to a wand at his belt to pull it out. He could feel by the touch that it was his [I]wand of burning hands[/I], so he pushed it as far against the creature's body - and away from his own - as he could before activating it. Flames erupted from the wand, scorching the wizard' leg but doing substantially more damage to his invisible foe. And with his [I]fly[/I] spell keeping the grappling opponents close to the ground, Mudpie was able to slam into the invisible beast's armored body. Stepping from the [I]portable hole[/I], Ingebold intended to crush the bald man's skull with her warhammer now that her mother was out of harm's way. She, however, [I]was[/I] standing directly behind the invisible Castillan without realizing it, and her momentum sent the unseen bounder crashing forward into Burroc, who had stepped closer to the foes he could see. The bald intruder was having a difficult time picking up individual thoughts from this mass of newcomers to the scene, getting instead a chaotic mess of conflicting plans and strategies. But it didn't matter in the end, for Castillan had instinctively reacted to being bumped by Ingebold, turning a jostling from behind into a sneak attack maneuver. Invisible to both sight and mental detection due to Hagan's [I]greater invisibility[/I] and Harriet Fung's magic ring, Castillan sent his swords deep into Burroc's body without his victim having any sense whatsoever of the impending attacks. In a matter of a mere second or two, the man with the geometric markings lay dead upon the floor of Aerik's study. Castillan immediately dropped the [I]greater invisibility[/I] spell so his friends could see him. Ingebold ran forward and embraced her mother, the two bursting into instant tears upon their reunion. Binkadink went outside to the courtyard for his own reunion - and there, scampering in the courtyard, was Obvious, whom he hadn't seen for months. Finoula similarly reacquainted herself with Daisy and Wrath. Back in the study, Wezhley had crawled up onto Hagan's shoulder and nibbled carefully on his master's nose, eventually snapping the half-orc out of the stunning he'd received at Burroc's mental blast. They similarly helped Darrien back to full awareness, and then the joined the others in the courtyard. "Hey, where's Gilbert and Mudpie?" asked Darrien, looking around. The others, caught up in their homecoming reunions with their loved ones, sheepishly looked around. Nobody wanted to admit they had lost track of Gilbert or failed to notice his absence, but there it was.... Fortunately, about that time Gilbert came flying up over the Keep and landed in the courtyard; shortly thereafter, Mudpie surfaced from the ground, having burrowed beneath the ground. "Don't worry about me - I fine!" griped Gilbert. "I take care of invisible worm all by myself!" Once it had been slain, the invisible creature reverted to normal opacity, exposing itself as a segmented worm with leathery bat wings, a light bluish-white in color. "Awesome diversion," commented Castillan. They brought the wizard up to speed and everyone agreed they wanted more answers than were currently available. So, employing a [I]gentle repose[/I] spell on Burroc's corpse, they planned to have Ingebold cast [I]speak with dead[/I] on him in the morning. In addition, she promised Aithanar she'd cast [I]heal[/I] on him, now that she was powerful enough to do so. "That should hopefully clear yer affliction," she said to the elf. "Shombaddy cafloozle," replied Aithanar, casting a quick glance over at Finoula. Shortly thereafter, Aerik returned with a dozen burly dwarven castle guards, and he was pleased to see that none of them were needed. "Praise be t' Moradin!" he cried, sweeping Helga into his arms. Then he embraced his daughter, who heartily embraced him back. Then, recalling what she'd learned, she asked, "What's this about havin' Hagan and his weasel stayin' in m' room?" Binkadink offered that, as a gnome, he took up less room than the others and Hagan and Wezhley were welcome to bunk with him. The half-orc went to gather up his meager possessions from the campsite he'd made outside the keep, and Helga (as well as a shanghaied Ingebold, who for once didn't grumble about being pressed into kitchen duty by her ma) kept busy preparing a welcome home feast for the team. The rest of the day was devoted to settling back in to the team's headquarters, with stories shared about what had happened during the heroes' months-long absence from the kingdom - and, the others were shocked to learn, from the planet itself. The next day, though, they were back to the business at hand. Ingebold cast her [I]speak with dead[/I] spell upon Burroc, and a ghostly representation of the bald man with the geometric patterns on his skin materialized. His expression said he was there under duress, though, and they'd likely not get much from him in the way of helpful answers if he could prevent it. The group having decided ahead of time on what questions to ask, Ingebold began with the first. "How'd ye get those scars ye first showed up with?" Upon first arriving at the keep, he'd had a long gash across one thigh and smaller gashes along his side. <In battle> thought Burroc - even under the effects of the [I]speak with dead[/I] spell, he didn't so much as speak as project his answers mentally, as was apparently his custom. [I]That wasn't very helpful![/I] thought Ingebold, but pressed on with the next question. "What are your people commonly called?" None of the adventurers had ever seen or even heard of anybody like Burroc - even Gilbert came up empty after consulting his [I]Omnibook[/I]; the closest possible match he could find were the hordelings of the lower planes, no two of which were said to be alike. <Thought masters> replied Burroc's spirit, managing to tinge his mental reply with a level of noticeable disdain. "Snobby sort," muttered Finoula. "Where do your people come from?" was Ingebold's next question. Gilbert Fung leaned forward, eager to hear the response. He was willing to put money down that Burroc hailed from an outer plane, but he had no real idea which one was the likeliest candidate. <The Queenslands> replied Burroc, and Gilbert sniffed in contempt - a likely technically correct answer that still left them in the dark. Ingebold's final question was, "Why did ye not just ask me parents fer help when ye arrived, instead 'f dominatin' me ma and Aithanar?" The response surprised nobody: <They are lesser beings, suitable only as slaves.> "Well, that's all I have fer ye," responded Ingebold. "I hope ye rot in whatever Hell ye've earned." And with that, the spell was finished and Burroc's spirit dissipated away to nothingness, the smug look of superiority never once leaving his face. Ingebold let out a sigh of exasperation, then turned to Aithanar. "Ye're next," she said. "Are ye ready?" "Bonticky findaboodle!" the elf replied, an eager expression on his face. He looked over at his older brother, who nodded his encouragement at him. Castillan had full trust in Ingebold's healing abilities; she'd cured him of the affliction of lycanthropy in the past. He was sure her [I]heal[/I] spell would work. Ingebold said the words to the spell and Aithanar was suffused in a warm, golden light that rapidly dissipated; it lingered the longest around his head, covering him in a halo before winking out. The elf opened his mouth as if to speak, but then apparently changed his mind and closed it again. He smiled at Ingebold in gratitude and touched the side of her face in a simple gesture of friendship, but then turned and stood directly before Finoula. "Finoula Cloudshadow," he said, taking her hands, "it has been unending torture to be this close to you for so long but be unable to speak my thoughts aloud in a coherent fashion. Now that I am finally able to do so, I wish to say what I’ve wanted to say to you since the moment I first lay eyes upon you. You are, without a doubt, the loveliest creature I've ever seen. Your eyes sparkle like sunlight on a running brook; your hair is like spun moonlight. And your battle-prowess with your sword is a true beauty to behold. "I don't want you to feel obligated to respond in any particular way, but I desperately want you to know exactly how I feel, and how I've felt about you since we first met. And I will live with the hope that, perhaps someday, you might feel for me the way I feel for you. "In the meantime, if there is ever anything I can do for you, you have only to ask. My answer will always be 'yes.'" Finoula looked at the handsome elf who had diligently looked after her pony, Daisy, during their earlier adventures. "I...I don't know what to say," she replied. "Hit him up for big loan," suggested Gilbert. "You already know he going to say yes!" Finoula gave an exasperated look at the portly wizard. "Way to kill the mood!" she complained. "No matter," said Aithanar, dropping the ranger's hands. "I've said what I wanted to; there's no need for an immediate response." And then he gave Finoula another smile before returning to Ingebold and belatedly thanking her for her help. "Not to change the subject or anything," piped up Binkadink, "but if we're going to keep using the dragonfly ship, we really ought to have a designated pilot. Somebody who can cast spells, but who we won't mind losing out on their spellcasting abilities on a regular basis." "You got name in mind, gnome?" asked Gilbert. "Well, yeah - my cousin Jinkadoodle." "Oh, exactly what needed - another gnome!" "And a pranktastic one at that," pointed out Darrien. "You haven't forgotten that big fart he set off in your butt in front of the king, have you?" "No," replied Binkadink through gritted teeth, never liking being reminded of the most humiliating moment of his life. "But one: he won't have any spells at hand with which to waste on pranks if he's constantly flying us around. And two: it will allow our normal spellcasters to keep their spells while we go off and do amazing things." He kept to himself his private [I]and three: Jink'll always be ready at hand for me to prank him back[/I]. "Makes sense," interjected Finoula. "Although I have to admit, flying the ship is pretty cool." But although there were two rooms inside the dragonfly vessel set aside for bunkrooms, they were already pretty tight quarters. Adding Jinkadoodle and Hagan to the mix - to say nothing of Mudpie, Obvious, Wrath, Grumps Junior, Wezhley, and possibly even Daisy, as well as Aithanar (who had volunteered to accompany the group to continue his care of the group's animals, although it was quite transparent that the real reason for his eagerness had less to do with the animals and more to do with continued nearness to one Finoula Cloudshadow) - would put quite a strain on the bunking arrangements. Fortunately, there was a cargo hold in the back of the ship, along the lengthy tail section of the dragonfly's body. It was currently filled with junk from the previous owners, but if they cleared it out that was additional space that could be devoted to living quarters. And so it was that a major cleanup of the cargo hold occurred. In doing so, Darrien's keen eyes picked up a detail they'd missed thus far: there were scratches on the boards of one of the wooden slats making up the floor, which, when viewed at the correct angle, formed a word: "MALVAER." Due to his recent tutoring in the Draconic language from Caliandra from the equally small kingdom to the south of Kordovia, the ranger recognized this as a word meaning "secret cave." "Guys!" he said, pointing to the floor. "Somebody carved 'MALVAER' on the floor!" Upon utterance of the command word, a 5-foot-square section of the cargo deck floor disappeared. In its place was a set of stairs leading down. Those in the immediate vicinity could see they went on for about 15 feet, which they realized would normally have put them beyond the outer surface of the bottom of the ship. These stairs were apparently extradimensional in nature! Castillan took the lead, his elven heritage allowing him to see in the murky darkness, although there seemed to be some low level of illumination at the bottom of the stairs, which opened up into a large room filled with comfortable-looking sofas and chairs. There were a few bookcases along the walls and black candles flickering in candelabra around the expansive room. There were eight doors along three of the walls, while the fourth - directly across from the stairs - had two open doorways, beyond which the bounder could see a long banquet table overflowing with food. "Come check this out!" he called eagerly to his companions. Gilbert stepped hesitantly into the larger room, looking about in awe. "This is a [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I]!" he declared. "And what looks to be a permanent effect, no less!" In his awe, he had failed to notice he'd slipped out of the pidgin-Common accent he normally affected. Then, he suddenly jumped back, surprised at the ghostly visage floating into existence directly in front of him. It was a dark, insubstantial shape, with the hint - at certain angles - of a skull in place of a face. Several of these beings floated here and there about the room. The wizard concentrated on his magically-enhanced eyesight, then breathed a sigh of relief once he noted the floating apparitions did not trigger his [I]detect undead[/I] senses. "That a relief!" he stated, slipping back into his sing-song pidgin. "They just the [I]unseen servants[/I] inside [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I]." "Oh yeah?" asked Castillan. "Hey! Servant! Fetch me a glass of wine!" Immediately, one of the forms went streaking across the room to the banquet hall, returning with a filled glass of wine - of a distinctly fine elven vintage, no less. "I like this!" the bounder enthused. "Let's see what's behind all of these doors," suggested Finoula, opening the door in the northwestern corner. While she did so, Grumps Junior bounded across the room, following his nose to the tantalizing aromas of food on the banquet table. Darrien, who had been quite proud of himself for tricking his dire bear cub into backing up and falling into the open [I]portable hole[/I] and then being dumped into the cargo hold once he'd brought it up there, suddenly regretted his actions when the hungry bruin knocked over a platter of carved roast to the floor and then bent over it and started gobbling it up. Wezhley followed suit, nibbling at fruits that had fallen from the table when Grumps Junior slapped the meat platter to the floor. Four of the doors led to separate bedrooms, not surprisingly when the heroes recalled the ship's previous owners had been a quartet of necromancers. (That also explained the black [I]everburning candles[/I] in the candelabra and the skull faces on the [I]unseen servants[/I].) One held a four-poster bed with a carved skull on each post; one of these was a defensive, floating skull that sent [I]magic missiles[/I] blasting from its eye sockets at Hagan, who was the first to enter that particular room. He returned fire with attack spells of his own until the skull had been destroyed. Another room held an ornate rug on the floor; when Gilbert examined it with a [I]detect magic[/I] spell it not only radiated fairly strong magic, but when he tentatively lifted a corner with his staff, a carving of the same design was on the floor immediately below it. "That weird," the wizard mused. "And look, there a word woven into design: 'umerguth'." But saying the word had no apparent effect. "Let me see that," suggested Binkadink, pulling the rug from the floor and plopping it onto the bed. Then he stood on the carved design on the floor and repeated, "umerguth." He immediately teleported over to the rug on the bed. "Umerguth," he said again, and was transported to the carving on the floor again. "I think we find easy way to get animals onto and off of ship," declared Gilbert, but the gnome wasn't listening. Instead, he was repeating "umerguth" as fast as he could, teleporting back and forth between the two locations until Gilbert tipped over the carpet and sent the gnome flying to the floor when he reappeared on the rug. "You giving me headache!" Gilbert complained. Another bedroom seemed pretty normal, although there was a shelf on the bottom of a nightstand that had an interesting property: anything placed there became invisible to all but the one who had placed it there. Hagan discovered this by accidentally knocking over the [I]dagger of venom[/I] that had been hidden there by the room's former occupant. The fourth bedroom was nearly empty, save for a simple cot, a few pegs on the walls holding robes, and an elaborate wall-hanging of Vecna, God of Secrets. Castillan appraised the depiction as being worth several hundred pieces of gold to an interested buyer. Other doors from the main room led to two privies and a bathing chamber, complete with [I]unseen servants[/I] to scrub your back and dry you off upon completion of the bath. But it was Castillan who found the deadliest, and most disturbing, room yet. Opening the easternmost door on the northern wall, the bounder saw a large room filled with dissecting tables and other tools of the necromantic trade - including a stitched-together form that served as both lab assistant and guardian against intruders. Expecting the creature to lurch in his direction, the bounder got quite a shock as it dashed in his direction, causing the elf to bleat in terror and slam the door shut. He held the knob, but the creature didn't follow, apparently set to fight off intruders but "reset" once no intruders were in sight. Calling the others to him and briefing them on what was on the other side of the door, Castillan got ready to open the door a second time. This time, though, he had a small army of adventurers at his back. Swinging the door open and leaping inside and to the left, he was followed immediately by Binkadink's glaive, which was followed in turn by the rest of the gnome fighter. Swinging it around at the onrushing blaspheme, Binkadink got in a good slash - and then was shocked as the swift creature slid around his weapon and bit down hard on the side of the gnome's neck. The gnome froze up immediately, dazed, and Castillan decided discretion was the better part of valor, rushing back out of the room but dragging the gnome with him by the collar. Finoula stepped into Castillan's place, swinging [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] into the undead's side. Darrien sent a slew of arrows in past his fellow ranger, smiling grimly as they buried themselves up to the feathers in undead flesh. Calling for Finoula to fall back - which she did - Hagan and Gilbert sent a [I]fireball[/I] and a set of [I]scorching rays[/I] crashing in on the blaspheme. It took some doing, but eventually the undead beast fell. There was another room off of the necromancy lab: 10 feet to a side, it radiated an unnatural cold. Gilbert surmised it was for the storage of dead flesh for the necromancers' experiments. He offered is as a cooler to keep their beverages cold, but the others weren't as eager to drink anything that had been stored in a room that once held corpses. That left only the banquet room, which thus far had only been explored by Grumps Junior and Wezhley, who had expanded the mess on the floor by dint of sending more food crashing to easier reach. There were two obvious surprises in the room: the entire southern wall was a mirror, and along the northern wall was a large glass container holding a floating human brain. A sign above the brain-jar read: "[B]Timothy Amattox[/B]?" asked Darrien, and the others glared at him as it turned out to once again be a command word of sorts. Immediately, the fluids in the brain-jar began to bubble. "Stop saying command words out loud until we figure out what they might do!" chided Castillan. <Ask thy questions> demanded a voice in the heads of the heroes - rather uncomfortably so, given their recent experience with Burroc. But Binkadink wasn't paying particular attention, he was more interested in the mirror and its placement on the south wall...and the fact that all of the letters in the sign over the brain-in-a-jar could be reflected along a vertical axis. Completely ignoring Castillan's recent complaint to Darrien, the gnome looked at the sign through the mirror and repeated what he saw reflected there: "wov a yawa timov!" Immediately, the mirror shimmered in place and vanished, revealing a hidden room behind the mirror - and an animated hulking corpse standing as a barrier in front of the riches visible in what was apparently a treasure vault. "Oh come on!" complained Castillan, looking back to see what trouble the curious gnome had gotten them into - and just after he had cautioned Darrien against such impulsiveness! He snapped his fingers, causing the weapons held in his [I]gloves of storing[/I] to pop into his hands and turned to meet the towering undead threatening Binkadink. Darrien, however, opted to take the brain in a jar up on his offer. "What's that creature back there?" he asked. <A hulking corpse> responded the preserved brain of Timothy Amattox, a human sage once under the employ of the four necromancers who had previously owned the dragonfly ship. "How do we best kill it?" Darrien inquired. <The easiest method is to bludgeon it to death> "Is there any way we can control it instead?" <No> came the telepathic reply. "Use bludgeoning weapons against it!" called Darrien to the others. Binkadink had been using his trusty magical glaive, and while the undead flesh seemed somewhat resistant to damage from the slashing blade, Binkadink's surprising strength did manage to do a fair amount of damage to the creature. Finoula had been slashing at it from a safe distance using her [I]whip of thorns[/I], but it lurched out at her and bit her with its ghastly teeth, grabbed her with its ragged claws, and then used its incredible strength to rend her armor and the flesh beneath it. She staggered out of its grasp and fell back, dazed and bleeding profusely. Ingebold stepped up immediately to heal her Battle-Sister. "Hang on!" called out Gilbert Fung, casting a [I]wall of force[/I] across the opening to the treasure vault once Binkadink managed to push the hulking corpse back with his glaive. The spell effect stretched from one side of the doorway to the other, leaving a gap at the top and the bottom for weapons and spells to reach in without allowing the hulking corpse room to attack back. As the [I]wall of force[/I] was invisible, Gilbert had to explain to the others where its effects began and ended. Castillan dropped to his knees and stabbed at the undead brute's ankles below the invisible wall, causing a blackish ichor to leak out like blood. Darrien came up with what he thought was another brilliant plan. Turning away from the floating brain, he addressed the [I]unseen servants[/I] that hovered in the room next door. "Start removing the treasure from the vault and piling it out here in the banquet room!" he commanded. At once, a trio of gliding shapes floated over to the hulking corpse, slid down to the gap along the floor, and began ferrying out coins and gems. Darrien smiled at his own brilliance and helped get Grumps Junior away from the area of carnage, since the dire bear cub had ignored the undead form in one-way battle against the heroes while there was still food to be devoured from the banquet table. Hagan likewise scooped up Wezhley from his feast, depositing him on his shoulder before sending a [I]fireball[/I] spell under the gap to explode around the undead vault guardian. Unable to effectively fight back, it was merely a matter of time before the hulking corpse was destroyed. Castillan began the tedious (but not at all unpleasant) task of counting up the total value of the treasure the necromancers had been hoarding. "Phew!" exclaimed Gilbert, holding his nose. "We going to have to air this place out!" Despite his own even more powerful sense of smell, Grumps Junior gave no indication of agreeing. He had returned to the feast on the floor of the banquet room, chuffing in contentment. - - - This was my ten-year-old nephew Harry's first time playing with us. (Harry lives with us full time.) He'd been invited for the past several years, since both Jacob and Joey first joined our ranks when they were eight years old and he had turned eight two years earlier. But it wasn't until Logan started up a homebrew Skylanders D&D campaign for Harry and I that he fell in love with the concept of role-playing games, and then one day out of the blue decided he was ready to start playing "regular D&D" with us. Going through the options with him, he decided almost immediately on a half-orc sorcerer. He was originally going to name Hagan's familiar "Wesley," but he used his "cutesy" voice when having Hagan talk to his familiar and so "Wesley" soon officially became "Wezhley." My wife worried that Harry's attention span wouldn't last for the full five-and-a-half hours that our game sessions usually span, as two hours (or just slightly over that) was the norm for our Skylanders D&D sessions - by design, since Logan had built them taking Harry's attention span into account. But he had no real problems, even though he had to sit through the whole dragon encounter with nothing to do. (I had told him he could roll the dice for the dragon's attacks, but then some quick thinking on Jacob's part turned my planned combat encounter into a diplomatic encounter instead.) Still, I was pleased with the back story Harry and I had come up with to graft Hagan into the campaign; we were lucky in that Harry joined the group just as the PCs were returning from four months of wildspace adventuring. That made Hagan's entry into the campaign relatively easy, and it brought with it an implied "pre-approval" from Aerik. I do still have a few concerns, though. We all had to cut back - significantly - on the bad language that normally occurs during our game sessions, caused either by bad dice rolls or lewd/crude side comments at the table. Fortunately, the few times a bad word got by us we instantly apologized, so we shouldn't be corrupting Harry's vocabulary. (Plus, he already chides me for using the word "crap," which he considers a bad word. I don't think he'll be picking up cussing as a bad habit from us any time soon. He's pretty close to Lawful Good.) However, I have an adventure coming up that'd undoubtedly get an "R" rating if it were a movie. I'm either going to have to tone that one down significantly or else convince Harry that it might not be a great idea for him to participate in that particular adventure. (I already have a good excuse for Hagan's absence, too: he'll be busy helping school Harriet Fung in the intricacies of the Orc language, to better prepare her for the infiltration scheme King Galrich's got planned.) And he already excuses himself from watching TV shows with us if he thinks they'll be too scary; he passes on specific episodes of the special effects make-up contest show [I]Face Off[/I] if the contestants will be making too scary monsters that week. So we'll see how it goes - that adventure is still a ways away. - - - T-Shirt Worn: My "What Would Daryl Do?" shirt featuring Daryl Dixon from "The Walking Dead." Not only did it hint at the presence of undead when the PCs explored the hidden levels of their dragonfly ship, but it also depicts "a badass with a crossbow" - which could be an apt description of Hagan (who didn't have a reason to use his light crossbow this adventure). [/QUOTE]
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