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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7384969" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 46: GRAND THEFT AIRSHIP</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 13</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 13 (Moradin)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jinkadoodle Dundernoggin, gnome illusionist 5</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 24 March 2018</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>A group of adventurers arrived in the courtyard of Battershield Keep in the blink of an eye, courtesy of Hagan's <em>teleport</em> spell. While he wasn't yet powerful enough to transport everyone all at once, Ingebold carried with her the group's <em>portable hole</em>. Spreading it out on the side of the keep's wall immediately upon arriving, the others stepped out of the extradimensional space and into the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>"Are we sure we don't want to <em>teleport</em> to the ship quick, just to see what's what?" asked the half-orc sorcerer.</p><p></p><p>"No," replied Gilbert. "Better we wait until morning - when we all at full strength, with all spells ready to go." Hagan just scowled at this decision - as a sorcerer, spellcasting came naturally to him, so he was somewhat disdainful about the whole concept of having to prepare spells ahead of time. Then again, the more spells were available at hand the greater chance of success, and the half-orc had used up some of his more powerful ones today already. It made some sense to be at full force after all, even if it did mean waiting until morning until trying to get back what had been taken from them.</p><p></p><p>"What about Aithanar?" asked Finoula in a fretful voice.</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Jinkadoodle in his most reassuring voice. "I'm pretty sure they didn't mean to harm him - they'll want him undamaged, if only to have a replacement body to use." If the gnome's words were meant to be reassuring, it was wasted on the elven ranger - the thought of Aithanar's body being invaded by one of those blood puddings made her feel sick to her stomach.</p><p></p><p>None of the adventurers slept particularly well that night, but morning began with their new ritual: a <em>heroes' feast</em> spell cast by Ingebold, to hearten the adventurers for the trials and tribulations of the day to come. Gilbert had dumped his divination spells to stock up on attacks and protections. "We ready?" he asked as the last of the feast was consumed.</p><p></p><p>They were. Next came the rounds of preparatory spells the group liked to apply before imminent battle. Gilbert cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell that linked him to Binkadink, Castillan, Finoula, and Hagan. Ingebold had prayed for a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell for each of the heroes save herself; upon the expected argument from her Battle-Sister, the proud cleric replied, "I'll be in th' back lines 'f combat, more than likely, seein' t'th' healin' 'f those what need it. Best ye all be prevented from constraints, more'n me." Finoula knew better than to continue the argument, having seen the look of determination on Ingebold's face.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>protection from energy</em> spell on each of them, choosing to shield them from fire-based attacks, guessing those to be the most likely to be used. Both rangers cast their personal <em>barkskin</em> spells to toughen up their bodies, while Ingebold made herself the focus of a <em>magic circle against evil</em>, planning to move around as needed on the battlefield to encompass whoever needed it the most within the effects of her protective spell. And with that, the spellcasters declared themselves ready to go.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink unrolled the <em>teleport carpet</em>, stepped onto it with Castillan, and said the command word. Instead of instantly being transported to the hidden, extradimensional level of the dragonfly vessel, the two found themselves remaining exactly where they were. "That's not good," observed the gnome fighter.</p><p></p><p>"No, but may not be as bad as we think," replied Gilbert. "Maybe they scratch out runes on floor of deck, but maybe they only block the runes with something. One way to find out: Ingebold, unroll <em>hole</em>!" Once the <em>portable hole</em> was once again in position on the inside wall of the keep, the hefty mage and Castillan walked into its extradimensional space, each taking a deep breath before doing so, for there was no air inside the unearthly space. Once they were both inside, Ingebold quickly rolled the hole back up and Hagan teleported the rest of the group to the top of the dragonfly vessel.</p><p></p><p>That approach worked like normal. The dwarven cleric unrolled the hole on the deck floor, allowing Gilbert and Castillan to climb out. But approaching from the rear of the vessel was an enormous winged creature, built like a horned ogre. "She was right!" the nycaloth grinned, flapping his wings to attack the nearest of the heroes. But the front line had enough warning for Finoula to strike out with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em> and Binkadink to stab at the approaching fiend with his magic glaive. The nycaloth had expected neither attack and roared in pain at the effrontery as much as the actual wounds sustained.</p><p></p><p>With a fiendish roar, the nycaloth tore into Binkadink with a set of wickedly-sharp claws. But as he did so, Castillan was ducking and weaving around the fiend, to backstab it with his magic short sword once in position. Black ichor - the fiend's blood - gushed from the area of its kidneys when he removed his blade from the wound. Finoula kept her whip flicking at the nycaloth, striking it repeatedly in the face with her barbed weapon, coming dangerously close to piercing an eye on multiple occasions. Finally, after having suffered the indignation of such attacks by mere mortals, the nycaloth suffered the further humiliation of being slain by a lowly <em>magic missile</em> spell cast by Hagan. Its body exploded into a puff of rancid gas upon its death.</p><p></p><p>The wounds Binkadink had sustained from the nycaloth's claws continued to bleed. Ingebold stopped the blood loss with the application of a healing spell.</p><p></p><p>"Just where exactly are we?" asked Darrien, looking about him. The dragonfly vessel was not in flight; rather, it had been parked on a flat landing area jutting out from the top of a mountain. There was a single-story castle keep just ahead, flanked at each corner with a three-story, rounded tower. Between the landing area and the castle keep was a wide platform, on the left of which were wooden stables that looked to have seen their best days some decades ago. The landing area and the stables were all bounded by stone walls with crenelations at the top.</p><p></p><p>However, it was the sky that had been puzzling the young half-elf ranger. While he could see the blue morning skies all around him, he could also see a series of transparent outlines of continuing mountainscapes. "<em>Hallucinatory terrain</em>," explained Gilbert. "From outside, this whole place look just like more mountains. Nobody be able to tell this place even here unless they already know about it."</p><p></p><p>"I'll go check downstairs," offered Darrien, feeling bad that the fight with the nycaloth had been over before he could even fire a shot. Sure enough, the bedroom with the teleport runes carved into the floor - the ones linked to the <em>teleport carpet</em> - had been rendered unusable by the simple measure of moving the bed from the grooves in the floor that prevented it from moving around while the ship was in flight, and moving it directly over the carved runes in the floor. He moved the bed back into position, stepped onto the runes, and said the command word that sent him back to the <em>teleport carpet</em> back at Battershield Keep, kept unrolled for that very purpose.</p><p></p><p>"Is everything okay?" asked Jinkadoodle, who had stayed behind until the group came to fetch him to pilot the dragonfly ship once it was safe to do so.</p><p></p><p>"Looks so," confirmed Darrien. "Let's go." Standing on the carpet, the two <em>teleported</em> back to the dragonfly vessel. Finoula was down there, checking on the animals they had left in place in the lower level of the ship. They were unharmed, other than not having been fed since the previous day. Finoula brought them food from the banquet area, knowing that this was normally one of Aithanar's chores. She hoped he was still okay.</p><p></p><p>Back up on top of the ship, Castillan was the first to climb down. "Let's go check out that keep," he suggested - but as soon as his foot touched the natural stone floor of the landing area, a rumble presaged the arrival of an enormous earth elemental, whose exceptional size and bulk gave him the standard nomenclature of "earth titan." The creature rose to its full height - some 32 feet tall - and looked down expectantly at the bounder. "Um...hello?" greeted Castillan.</p><p></p><p>It obviously wasn't the response the earth titan had been expecting, for it raised a boulderlike fist and smashed it down at the elf. Castillan managed to roll with the blow, but there was no ignoring the power behind it.</p><p></p><p>Hagan responded with his favorite attack spell, <em>chain lightning</em>, even though there was but the sole enemy to fight and thus nobody else for the spell to "arc out" to. Still, judging from the way solid chunks of stone fell from the earth titan's chest as a result of the electrical blast, it seemed the spell choice had been a good one. In fact, seeing how the blast of lightning had harmed the elemental, Finoula opted to follow Hagan's blast with one of her own: touching her amulet, she transformed her body into an arc of lightning that blasted through the earth titan and then she reformed into her elven body at the end of the lightning bolt's arc, on the side of the southwestern tower's curved wall (where she hung like a spider, courtesy of her magical boots).</p><p></p><p>Darrien started peppering the earth titan with arrows, hoping they were doing some damage - it was hard to tell against a creature that didn't actually bleed. Behind the archer, Gilbert activated his twin <em>jade foo lions</em>, Hachi and Tsumezhao, and sent them charging at their elemental foe. Ingebold cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell, the force energy taking the form of a dwarven warhammer which went slamming into the earth titan's chest with a reverberating blow. Finally, Binkadink went charging into the air off the side of the dragonfly vessel, stabbing at the elemental with the point of his magical glaive, "riding" his weapon down the elemental's body as the glaive's blade scraped down and through its earth-and-stone torso.</p><p></p><p>In retaliation, the earth titan swung its massive fists at two of its numerous enemies, one slamming hard into Hachi and the other grazing the little gnome. Seeing how much damage this massive brute could deal, Castillan decided he definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of its fists any more and activated his ring. The subsequent <em>dimension door</em> spell whisked him away to immediately in front of the closed doors to the castle keep. From this close, he could see the words "SANCTUM AETERNUM" etched above the doors.</p><p></p><p>The earth titan took another round of attacks from multiple sources: Binkadink's glaive, the teeth and claws of the twin foo lions, Darrien's arrows - but once again it was a <em>magic missile</em> spell from Hagan that brought the enemy down. "The trick is knowing just when to use it," the half-orc replied to an obviously-astonished Darrien.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the group departed from the dragonfly vessel and waved Jinkadoodle away. The gnome pilot brought the ship up into the air and through the <em>hallucinatory terrain</em> spell to go find a safe place to park it on the mountaintops until the group <em>teleported</em> back onto the vessel - hopefully with a rescued Aithanar and as many of Lord Cavelthorne's troops as they could rescue from the blood puddings. Wishing them well, Jinkadoodle waved back at them through the porthole and then devoted his attention to finding a safe place to park the ship.</p><p></p><p>Castillan had checked the entry doors to the castle for traps and found none. But now he heard a noise behind him; turning around, he saw the head of a stag poke out of the stable doors - or rather the open doorway, for the doors to that entrance had apparently collapsed to the stone floor some time ago. The creature emerged fully from the partially-ruined building, revealing the rest of its body to be that of an enormous eagle, complete with wings. Finoula stepped down from her perch on the tower and crossed the sagging wooden rooftop, flicking her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em> at the peryton as it rushed towards the castle to get at Castillan. But before it could reach its prey, Darrien brought it down with a flurry of arrows fired from his <em>Arachnibow</em>.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, three more perytons were visible through the stable doorway, aroused by the sounds of combat outside. Hachi was there to bite at the first one, blocking the doorway with his own golden-furred body. Binkadink ran past the foo lion, opening a more intact set of doors just beyond. This allowed him to approach another peryton from behind, slaying it with one thrust of his glaive.</p><p></p><p>But another of the eagle-stags attacked Hachi with its antlers and claws, slaying the loyal beast. Upon its "death," Hachi simply reverted to statuette form, a <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> once again. But Tsumezhao was there to take the place of its fallen brother, blocking the doorway and preventing the two remaining perytons from exiting that way out into the open.</p><p></p><p>Hagan, seeing an opening, cast a <em>scorching ray</em> at one of the two remaining perytons, slaying it instantly. The rooftop, weakened by Finoula's weight, gave through, and the ranger fell to the stable's floor below. She managed to not only keep her balance but strike out with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>, putting an end to the final peryton's life.</p><p></p><p>With that threat defeated, the rest of the group lined up behind Castillan as he picked the locks to the castle. Unbeknownst to any of the group, when the ranger had first stepped foot onto the landing area and failed to say the pass-phrase, he not only caused the earth titan guardian to check out the disturbance but also triggered a silent <em>alarm</em> spell that warned the four blood pudding spellcasters currently inhabiting four of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers of intruders in the area. That gave them more than ample time for some "imminent combat" preparatory spell of their own.</p><p></p><p>Outside the doors, Gilbert cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself and Mudpie, the last of his own "imminent combat" spells.</p><p></p><p>"Got it!" whispered Castillan, successfully picking the lock and ready to open the doors. That was the signal he had arranged with Ingebold; upon cue, she cast a <em>silence</em> spell on Binkadink, who was sitting astride Darrien's activated <em>ebony fly</em>. The plan was for Binkadink to ride the fly into the room and get as close to as many of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers as he could, hoping to prevent them from casting any spells requiring verbal components in the area of effect emanating around him.</p><p></p><p>But many plans fall apart once implemented on the battlefield. Castillan pushed open the doors and saw the room before him was shaped somewhat like an hourglass, with two areas at the sides pushing into what would otherwise be a rectangular room with the door to a round tower at each corner. In the center of the room, the part where it was the narrowest, an open fire pit lay exposed, its fires died down to mere embers. But the room was well-lit with <em>everburning torches</em> in sconces around the room, enough that the bounder could see no obvious enemies and thus move across to the nearest door, the one to the southeastern tower.</p><p></p><p>As planned, Binkadink rode the <em>ebony fly</em> straight through the room, looking for spellcasting enemies to thwart with his magical silence. There was a statue directly ahead of him along the back wall, that of an enormous, emaciated hand gripping a giant tiger's eye gem in its withered palm. But before the gnome could wonder where he'd seen such an image before, the embers directly below him whooshed up into a full-blown fire elemental, which at nine feet tall was nearly half the height of the ceiling. The flames from the elemental's body scorched the bottom of the <em>ebony fly</em>; Binkadink could feel the heat through the bottoms of his own boots.</p><p></p><p>But then the gnome had much more to worry about than scorched feet, for four of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers popped out from hiding along the back diagonal walls. Caliandra cast a spell of some sort before the radius of the <em>silence</em> spell reached her; Binkadink wasn't sure what spell it might have been until he noticed his skin and armor turning to stone. His own cries of astonishment were absorbed by the silence[/i] spell, and in the wink of an eye the <em>ebony fly</em> carried on its back not a gnome fighter but a very detailed stone statue of one.</p><p></p><p>At the same time, Jorg Battleborn, normally a heavily-armored half-orc fighter but now wearing street clothes and casting spells like he was born to do so, cast a spell across the room at Castillan, attempting to deprive the bounder of his vision. Fortunately, Castillan was able to shrug off the effects of the <em>blindness</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Thomas the Seeker, normally a human monk with no spellcasting power, now stepped into view and tried casting a spell at the back of the room at Finoula; however, he was unlucky enough to have stepped into the radius of the <em>silence</em> spell that seemed to work just as well when centered upon a petrified gnome as on a living one. However, Vance Pelorian stepped just behind Thomas and was thus just outside the invisible boundary of Ingebold's <em>silence</em> spell; furthermore, his <em>feeblemind</em> spell was effective against its intended target, and Finoula suddenly felt all coherent thoughts slip away. Faced with the confusion of battle erupting all around her and not knowing what to do, she backed up against the wall of the stables just outside the double doors and plopped down to the floor, crying in place.</p><p></p><p>In the first opening seconds of battle, the blood puddings had managed to neutralize two of the intruders - and do so in ways that potentially saved the victims as potential future "mounts," not that the gnome was big enough for such use.</p><p></p><p>However, the <em>ebony fly</em> was now a loose cannon. No longer being guided by its rider and being attacked by a fire elemental from below - whose opening strike had been a signal for the others to attack - the giant insect changed directions at once and landed on the floor at the back of the room. Binkadink was safely strapped in so he had only a minimal risk of tipping over and shattering, but in the meantime the effects of the <em>silence</em> spell were dependent upon the whims of a giant fly looking after its own safety.</p><p></p><p>Caliandra cast a <em>greater invisibility</em> spell upon herself and vanished from view. She immediately moved away from where she'd been standing, lest anybody target that spot with an area-of-effect spell.</p><p></p><p>Kizzie Birdsong hadn't had an attack readied, nor was she linked in with the others on their own <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell. But she had been <em>charmed</em> by the blood pudding wearing Jorg's body into believing the intruders were enemies wearing the forms of their friends to try to trick them. She dashed across the room from her hiding spot to behind the giant carving of the hand holding an eye.</p><p></p><p>Hagan stepped into the castle's large, open room and cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell on the fire elemental, arcing off to hit the other four enemy spellcasters controlling the bodies of their adventuring compatriots. The spell had its full effect on the main target, but all of the spellcasters had shielded themselves with <em>protection from energy</em> and <em>resist energy</em> spells, many of them focused on warding away electrical damage. (Others had focused their efforts on fire and cold damage, since none of the spellcasters knew exactly what they could expect.)</p><p></p><p>Ingebold repositioned her <em>spiritual hammer</em> to attack Thomas, then rushed to her Battle-Sister's side to cast a <em>heal</em> spell that restored her to her full intellect. But Thomas lashed out with a <em>blindness</em> spell at the elven ranger, hoping to take her right back out of the fight. Fortunately, Finoula managed to shrug off the spell's effects. But now she was angry and ready to take her aggression out on these infernal blood puddings, no matter whose bodies they currently wore!</p><p></p><p>Jorg cast an <em>enervation</em> spell on Castillan, draining the bounder of several stages of vitality. But immediately thereafter, Gilbert Fung cast a spell that had the biggest effect on the tide of battle yet: an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell, which caused writhing, ebon appendages to spring up from the back of the room, engulfing Jorg, Vance, the fire elemental, and even little Kizzie hiding behind the statue of the unholy symbol of Vecna. Thomas managed to evade the tentacles' grasp, and it was assumed that Caliandra hadn't been in the area of effect - which covered the back half of the room save for an area of safety just outside each of the tower doors at the northern end of the greatroom.</p><p></p><p>Vance struggled in vain to free himself from the tentacles' iron embrace, to no effect. Darrien took potshots at Jorg with arrows from his <em>Arachnibow</em>, not having to worry about shooting into combat for once. All the while, the <em>ebony fly</em> wandered over to the castle's front doors - accidentally catching the heroes in the front half of the room in the radius of the <em>silence</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>The fire elemental was the first to escape from the black tentacles - and, as it was on the front edge of the spell's effect, it was able to leave the area of effect entirely and attack Gilbert Fung. But Tsumezhao was there to protect his master, and bit at the flaming foe. His teeth clamped down on the burning enemy, and although this attack caused the foo lion to erupt into flames himself it didn't let up from its attack. Even while realizing this was just a <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> acting on his own instructions, Gilbert couldn't help but be touched by the creature's unwavering loyalty to his master.</p><p></p><p>Castillan spotted Vance struggling with the black tentacles and used his ring to <em>dimension door</em> directly behind the cleric of Pelor. He ended up within the area of effect of the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell himself, but as he was still under the protection of a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell, the writhing appendages couldn't get a grip on him.</p><p></p><p>Finoula activated her <em>amulet of lightning</em> for a second time that day and blasted through Jorg's body as he struggled to free himself. She reformed into her elf body by the door to the northwestern tower, in one of the pockets of safety from the black tentacles. She heard the distinctive sounds of spellcasting but wasn't able to discern the exact location or what specific spell was being cast. (It was the still-invisible Caliandra attempting to dispel the effects of the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell and failing.) Behind the statue, Kizzie tried freeing herself from the tentacles but the halfling bard was constrained by her small size and relative lack of strength.</p><p></p><p>But then the statue came to life, triggered by a vocal command from Vance, who had the presence of mind to do so while feebly struggling to free himself from the dreaded tentacles. From the Eye of Vecna depicted in the statue came a blast of magical energy, hitting Hagan full in the chest. Fortunately for the half-orc, the effect was random and this time happened to mirror a <em>poison</em> spell, to which the sorcerer was currently immune, thanks to the <em>heroes' feast</em> he'd eaten that morning.</p><p></p><p>Retaliating in kind, Hagan raised his <em>staff of fire</em> and sent a <em>fireball</em> spell into the back of the room by Finoula, confident that the <em>protection from energy</em> spell he'd cast upon her that morning would keep her safe. The <em>fireball</em> did not, in fact, singe a single, silver hair on the elven ranger's head, but Kizzie, Jorg, and the invisible Caliandra were not so lucky. Again, some had been partially protected from fire damage before the battle had begun, but not all of them.</p><p></p><p>Thomas cast a <em>levitate</em> spell upon himself to keep out of range of the grasping tentacles before they could entangle him. Ingebold's <em>spiritual hammer</em> followed the monk to the ceiling, hammering away at him even while the dwarven cleric shot at Vance with her light crossbow. Below the levitating monk, who flipped himself up and over so his feet were now on the ceiling, Jorg managed to wrest himself free from the tentacles' embrace and step back to the zone of safety just outside the northwestern tower door. He cast a <em>feeblemind</em> spell at Castillan, who managed to avoid the spell's effects.</p><p></p><p>Under no control but its own, the <em>ebony fly</em> wandered out the front doors, taking the petrified Binkadink - and the <em>silence</em> spell - with it.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>Bigby's forceful hand</em> spell to keep the fire elemental at bay - for by now the creature had slain Tsumezhao as well, reverting him back to statuette form.</p><p></p><p>Inside the field of waving, ebon tentacles, Vance continued to try to free himself, to no avail. Worse yet, Castillan was in place to backstab himwith a quick thrust of his magic short sword. The enchanted blade did its job all too well, slaying the cleric of Pelor instantly. His lifeless body stopped struggling, allowing the tentacles to wrap around him fully. From the other side of the tentacle mass, Darrien shot arrows at Jorg. Finoula used her magic amulet for the third and final time that day, blasting though Thomas as a bolt of lightning, landing beside him on the ceiling and hanging there upside-down with her <em>boots of spider climbing</em>.</p><p></p><p>Unnoticed by the rest, the door to the northwestern tower opened and closed, as Caliandra, trapped by the tentacle mass in her way, entered the tower to fetch an ally.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast another <em>fireball</em> spell from his staff, engulfing Kizzie and Jorg in flames.</p><p></p><p>Up on the ceiling, Thomas started running. Hanging upside-down beside him, Finoula struck out with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>. Her whip struck true, but failed to trip the fleeing monk. Instead he spun around and from his ceiling perch cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell of his own, targeting Gilbert as the primary and arcing out to hit Hagan, Ingebold, and Darrien as secondary targets.</p><p></p><p>Incensed by the attack, Ingebold responded with a <em>holy word</em> spell. The effects were instantaneous and quite impressive: Thomas, Jorg, and even Caliandra another room away were all deafened; Thomas and Jorg were both blinded as well, and not only did the fire elemental vanish, banished immediately to its home plane, but so did the water elemental Caliandra had just brought from the laundry area to go attack the intruders.</p><p></p><p>From the exterior of the tentacle mass, a blind Jorg ran willingly into the writhing appendages, vainly attempting to grab hold of Ingebold, who he knew had been standing just on the other side of the spells' effect. He didn't quite reach her, but was instead engulfed by ebon tentacles wrapping themselves around his body. But that was no matter; since this body had been effectively rendered useless, the blood pudding inside Jorg's body - once a human wizard named <strong>Jarbanian</strong> - oozed its way from the half-orc's nose, mouth, eyes, and pores, sliding around the writhing tentacles that couldn't manage to get a grasp on the creature's liquid body, and over to Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>Over at the other end of the tentacle mass, the blood pudding who had once been a human cleric of Vecna named <strong>Shanzibar</strong> had come to a similar conclusion: its host body had been slain by Castillan, so he would make a more-than-suitable replacement. It oozed out of the body of the slain cleric of Pelor and onto the bounder.</p><p></p><p>Castillan panicked at the sight of the blood pudding crawling up his body. At his fastest speed, he ran through the field of black tentacles, crying out "Get it off! Get it off!" for as long as he could before the blood pudding filled his mouth and he could no longer scream. Gilbert's enhanced eyes saw the blood pudding covering Castillan was giving off that particular glow that identified it as an undead creature. "It undead!" he cried, and Ingebold spun around, turning the two loose blood puddings - for the one on Castillan had not yet fully entered the bounder's body - with the power of Moradin emanating from her raised holy symbol.</p><p></p><p>The effects were immediate. Both blood puddings began fleeing, the one on Castillan dripping down his body and squeezing underneath the door to the southeastern tower, while the one from Jorg's body following not far behind.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>haste</em> spell upon the assembled heroes, thinking the combat advantages the spell provided would likely give them the edge they'd need to finish this battle and come out on top. Darrien shot a barrage of arrows at Thomas; the monk contemptuously slapped the first one away but was hit by the others.</p><p></p><p>Up on the ceiling, Finoula stabbed at Thomas with her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em>. The monk was slain instantly, the <em>levitate</em> spell no longer in effect now that he could no longer concentrate upon it. He crashed to the ground, and not surprisingly, the blood spilling out of his facial orifices and pores coalesced into an unharmed blood pudding, this one a former human necromancer named <strong>Gornak</strong>.</p><p></p><p>That left Jorg and Caliandra to deal with - plus Kizzie, but she had merely been <em>charmed</em>, not taken over. The Vecna hand-and-eye statue blasted at Finoula, affecting her with an <em>inflict serious wounds</em> spell. Now that the fire elemental was no more, Gilbert redirected his <em>Bigby's forceful hand</em> spell to block the statue; from the side, it looked as if two giant hands were playing patty cake.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>wall of fire</em> spell from his staff, sending it diagonally through the field of tentacles, to fry Jorg - for in the heat of battle, the half-orc sorcerer had failed to notice that Jorg's blood pudding host had already abandoned him and was indeed the second blood pudding to head over to the door that had been Castillan's initial destination upon entering the Sanctum Aeternum.</p><p></p><p>The blood pudding Gornak, however, oozed its way over to Gilbert Fung. The heavyset mage responded by casting a <em>polymorph</em> spell upon himself, reducing himself to halfling size and shape - now too small to be inhabited by a blood pudding! In frustration, Gornak climbed onto Castillan instead. The bounder responded by trying to scrape the undead mass off his body with his own blade. Meanwhile, Finoula had been chasing after the blood pudding Jarbanian, striking it again and again with her whip, finally slaying it. </p><p></p><p>Halfling-sized Gilbert cast a <em>wall of force</em> spell that blocked off access to the northwestern tower, where he was fairly certain the blood pudding running Caliandra's body was currently located. Ingebold turned the Gornak blood pudding, and once again Castillan felt the relief of having a blood pudding ooze its way <em>off</em> of his body. Hagan cast a <em>fireball</em> spell at Gornak, only to learn that these undead things had an innate spell resistance that he had failed to surpass this time. Gornak successfully oozed beneath the door to the southeastern tower, following the blood-trail left by Shanzibar.</p><p></p><p>Darrien guzzled down a <em>potion of spider climb</em>, thinking the ceiling might be the safest place to avoid having a blood pudding ooze its way inside of you. Halfling Gilbert cast a <em>fire shield</em> spell upon himself, then he and Mudpie went into the southeastern tower, finding a library on the bottom floor and a set of stairs leading up to the floors above. The Shanzibar and Gornak puddings were oozing up the stairs, so Gilbert burn-wrestled one of them to death while Mudpie learned of the laborious tediousness of pounding the other ooze to death.</p><p></p><p>With all but Caliandra taken care of - for Kizzie had been strangled by the black tentacles before having her body burned by the <em>wall of fire</em> - the group split up to search the three towers not sealed off by the <em>wall of force</em>. Gilbert, still in halfling form, went to cast a <em>break enchantment</em> spell on poor petrified Binkadink; ten minutes later, the gnome fighter had been restored to life and bummed that he'd missed out on most of the action.</p><p></p><p>Finoula found Aithanar shackled to the wall of the top floor of the southwestern tower; both rejoiced upon seeing the other before Finoula ran back downstairs to fetch Castillan, who soon managed to free his brother with his masterwork lockpicks. Each tower held the bedrooms of a master and an apprentice, although one such pair apparently shared a room, directly beneath the cell in which Aithanar had been found. But that accounted for all eight of the blood puddings: the four master spellcasters that had overtaken Lord Cavelthorne's troops and the four apprentices the Kordovians had slain back in the Dungeon of Eternity.</p><p></p><p>After the three towers had been searched thoroughly, the group reassembled by the northwestern tower door. The <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> and <em>wall of fire</em> spells had been dismissed; now halfling-Gilbert dismissed the <em>wall of force</em> spell as well. "Be careful," the half-pint wizard warned the rest of the group.</p><p></p><p>"And remember that's Caliandra whose body's being used," reminded Darrien. He kind of had a thing for the human sorcerer and didn't want to see her dealt any damage if at all possible.</p><p></p><p>Castillan led the search. He opened the door on the second floor, expecting it to be locked and surprised to see it wasn't. He was further surprised to see their target, Caliandra, lying on an elaborate bed, apparently passed out - if the fancy (and empty) bottle of vintage elven wine was any indication. "That's odd," commented the bounder - just as the blood pudding, a former human wizard named <strong>Madame Valtrusia</strong>, dropped from the wall above him directly onto his head. Immediately, the undead thing began seeping into his nostrils, into his eyelids, into his ears, and down his throat; all Castillan could do was give a garbled cry of alarm to let the others behind him know he was in danger of being taken over.</p><p></p><p>There followed a mad scramble to get the blood pudding off of him before it could fully enter the bounder and be impossible to reach. Darrien, standing immediately behind Castillan, grabbed him by his belt and yanked him down the stairs, hoping one of the spellcasters below could do something for the bounder. Thinking quickly, Gilbert cast a <em>flesh to stone</em> spell on Castillan as soon as his tumble down the stairs came to an end; Madame Valtrusia had no way to take over a petrified statue, so she was forced to reverse course and start oozing back out of the bounder's now-stone orifices.</p><p></p><p>The blood pudding found itself surrounded by heroes madly trying to kill it. Binkadink stabbed at it with his magical glaive while Finoula whipped it time and again, the fire of her flaming whip dealing more damage to the undead ooze than the thorns. Ingebold, using the logic of fighting undead creatures, cast a healing spell on the blood pudding that caused parts of its body to boil away into nothingness as if the spell had had an acidic effect. But once again it was a <em>magic missile</em> spell cast by Hagan that dealt the killing blow. "You just need to know when to cast the low-level spells," the half-orc sorcerer reiterated.</p><p></p><p>A more thorough search through the rooms - this time for valuables more so than opponents - led to the discovery of quite a treasure hoard in a storage room. There were eight barrels, each marked "GRIFFON FEED" (likely explaining the original use of the ramshackle wooden stables outside) and each protected in a different manner (most with <em>arcane lock</em>, one with <em>explosive runes</em>, one with a <em>symbol of fear</em>, and one with a vial of drow contact poison that would spill all over the coins within if not properly disarmed). Castillan (once he'd been restored to flesh) had his hands full overcoming the various traps and protections, but it was well worth the effort, for there was an accumulated amount of wealth that went into the tens of thousands of gold coins in value.</p><p></p><p>"Dinnae be too greedy about th' loot," reminded Ingebold. "We'll be needin' some o' this coin to restore th' slain adventurers t' life." Gilbert originally objected to this plan, on the argument that it wasn't <em>their</em> fault that Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers had run afoul of blood puddings and thus shouldn't be <em>their</em> responsibility to revive them, but he was shouted down by the others. Begrudgingly, he agreed to restore them to life - but only via <em>raise dead</em> spells, which were cheaper to cast than full <em>resurrections</em>.</p><p></p><p>Thus, the bodies of the dead adventurers were piled into the <em>portable hole</em>, while a crispy-fried (but still living, for the half-orc was made of stern stuff!) Jorg and a drunk and unconscious Caliandra were helped back to the landing platform outside. Hagan <em>teleported</em> over to the dragonfly vessel, and with minutes Jinkadoodle brought the ship to a safe landing. Hagan dropped the rope ladder over the side and the others climbed up, Darrien making sure he was the one to carry an unconscious Caliandra over his shoulder as he did so.</p><p></p><p>"Lord Cavelthorne's never going to believe all this," muttered Jorg, pulling his armor back into place - for they had found all of the gear originally worn by the half-orc fighter and his comrades.</p><p></p><p>"What?" asked Castillan. "Being taken over by blood puddings?"</p><p></p><p>"Being taken over by blood puddings, being rescued by you guys, this flying vessel - all of it. It's all just so incredible!"</p><p></p><p>"We <em>are</em> incredible!" insisted Gilbert, now back to his full size. "What so hard to believe about that?"</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Jacob didn't join us for this adventure, only the second one he'd missed - this time because he just got a new job in college and was likely to be busy for quite a few weekends in the near future; rather than hold up our adventure sessions indefinitely, he agreed to have his dad run Castillan for him. (We did something similar when Logan went to college in the middle of our Wing Three campaign.) Logan ran Ingebold, which turned out to be very good thing once Binkadink was taken out early on by a <em>flesh to stone</em> spell. (It's kind of ironic that the PC with the highest Fortitude save bonus of all the PCs is the one who habitually fails his Fortitude saves.)</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: One of my two Red Cross shirts (the white one - I also have a light blue one), to represent the blood puddings the PCs dealt with in this adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7384969, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 46: GRAND THEFT AIRSHIP[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 13 Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 13 Darrien, half-elf ranger 13 Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 13 Gilbert Fung, human wizard 13 Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 13[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 3 Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 13 (Moradin) Jinkadoodle Dundernoggin, gnome illusionist 5[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 24 March 2018 - - - A group of adventurers arrived in the courtyard of Battershield Keep in the blink of an eye, courtesy of Hagan's [i]teleport[/i] spell. While he wasn't yet powerful enough to transport everyone all at once, Ingebold carried with her the group's [i]portable hole[/i]. Spreading it out on the side of the keep's wall immediately upon arriving, the others stepped out of the extradimensional space and into the courtyard. "Are we sure we don't want to [i]teleport[/i] to the ship quick, just to see what's what?" asked the half-orc sorcerer. "No," replied Gilbert. "Better we wait until morning - when we all at full strength, with all spells ready to go." Hagan just scowled at this decision - as a sorcerer, spellcasting came naturally to him, so he was somewhat disdainful about the whole concept of having to prepare spells ahead of time. Then again, the more spells were available at hand the greater chance of success, and the half-orc had used up some of his more powerful ones today already. It made some sense to be at full force after all, even if it did mean waiting until morning until trying to get back what had been taken from them. "What about Aithanar?" asked Finoula in a fretful voice. "I'm sure he'll be fine," said Jinkadoodle in his most reassuring voice. "I'm pretty sure they didn't mean to harm him - they'll want him undamaged, if only to have a replacement body to use." If the gnome's words were meant to be reassuring, it was wasted on the elven ranger - the thought of Aithanar's body being invaded by one of those blood puddings made her feel sick to her stomach. None of the adventurers slept particularly well that night, but morning began with their new ritual: a [i]heroes' feast[/i] spell cast by Ingebold, to hearten the adventurers for the trials and tribulations of the day to come. Gilbert had dumped his divination spells to stock up on attacks and protections. "We ready?" he asked as the last of the feast was consumed. They were. Next came the rounds of preparatory spells the group liked to apply before imminent battle. Gilbert cast a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell that linked him to Binkadink, Castillan, Finoula, and Hagan. Ingebold had prayed for a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell for each of the heroes save herself; upon the expected argument from her Battle-Sister, the proud cleric replied, "I'll be in th' back lines 'f combat, more than likely, seein' t'th' healin' 'f those what need it. Best ye all be prevented from constraints, more'n me." Finoula knew better than to continue the argument, having seen the look of determination on Ingebold's face. Hagan cast a [i]protection from energy[/i] spell on each of them, choosing to shield them from fire-based attacks, guessing those to be the most likely to be used. Both rangers cast their personal [i]barkskin[/i] spells to toughen up their bodies, while Ingebold made herself the focus of a [i]magic circle against evil[/i], planning to move around as needed on the battlefield to encompass whoever needed it the most within the effects of her protective spell. And with that, the spellcasters declared themselves ready to go. Binkadink unrolled the [i]teleport carpet[/i], stepped onto it with Castillan, and said the command word. Instead of instantly being transported to the hidden, extradimensional level of the dragonfly vessel, the two found themselves remaining exactly where they were. "That's not good," observed the gnome fighter. "No, but may not be as bad as we think," replied Gilbert. "Maybe they scratch out runes on floor of deck, but maybe they only block the runes with something. One way to find out: Ingebold, unroll [i]hole[/i]!" Once the [i]portable hole[/i] was once again in position on the inside wall of the keep, the hefty mage and Castillan walked into its extradimensional space, each taking a deep breath before doing so, for there was no air inside the unearthly space. Once they were both inside, Ingebold quickly rolled the hole back up and Hagan teleported the rest of the group to the top of the dragonfly vessel. That approach worked like normal. The dwarven cleric unrolled the hole on the deck floor, allowing Gilbert and Castillan to climb out. But approaching from the rear of the vessel was an enormous winged creature, built like a horned ogre. "She was right!" the nycaloth grinned, flapping his wings to attack the nearest of the heroes. But the front line had enough warning for Finoula to strike out with her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i] and Binkadink to stab at the approaching fiend with his magic glaive. The nycaloth had expected neither attack and roared in pain at the effrontery as much as the actual wounds sustained. With a fiendish roar, the nycaloth tore into Binkadink with a set of wickedly-sharp claws. But as he did so, Castillan was ducking and weaving around the fiend, to backstab it with his magic short sword once in position. Black ichor - the fiend's blood - gushed from the area of its kidneys when he removed his blade from the wound. Finoula kept her whip flicking at the nycaloth, striking it repeatedly in the face with her barbed weapon, coming dangerously close to piercing an eye on multiple occasions. Finally, after having suffered the indignation of such attacks by mere mortals, the nycaloth suffered the further humiliation of being slain by a lowly [i]magic missile[/i] spell cast by Hagan. Its body exploded into a puff of rancid gas upon its death. The wounds Binkadink had sustained from the nycaloth's claws continued to bleed. Ingebold stopped the blood loss with the application of a healing spell. "Just where exactly are we?" asked Darrien, looking about him. The dragonfly vessel was not in flight; rather, it had been parked on a flat landing area jutting out from the top of a mountain. There was a single-story castle keep just ahead, flanked at each corner with a three-story, rounded tower. Between the landing area and the castle keep was a wide platform, on the left of which were wooden stables that looked to have seen their best days some decades ago. The landing area and the stables were all bounded by stone walls with crenelations at the top. However, it was the sky that had been puzzling the young half-elf ranger. While he could see the blue morning skies all around him, he could also see a series of transparent outlines of continuing mountainscapes. "[i]Hallucinatory terrain[/i]," explained Gilbert. "From outside, this whole place look just like more mountains. Nobody be able to tell this place even here unless they already know about it." "I'll go check downstairs," offered Darrien, feeling bad that the fight with the nycaloth had been over before he could even fire a shot. Sure enough, the bedroom with the teleport runes carved into the floor - the ones linked to the [i]teleport carpet[/i] - had been rendered unusable by the simple measure of moving the bed from the grooves in the floor that prevented it from moving around while the ship was in flight, and moving it directly over the carved runes in the floor. He moved the bed back into position, stepped onto the runes, and said the command word that sent him back to the [i]teleport carpet[/i] back at Battershield Keep, kept unrolled for that very purpose. "Is everything okay?" asked Jinkadoodle, who had stayed behind until the group came to fetch him to pilot the dragonfly ship once it was safe to do so. "Looks so," confirmed Darrien. "Let's go." Standing on the carpet, the two [i]teleported[/i] back to the dragonfly vessel. Finoula was down there, checking on the animals they had left in place in the lower level of the ship. They were unharmed, other than not having been fed since the previous day. Finoula brought them food from the banquet area, knowing that this was normally one of Aithanar's chores. She hoped he was still okay. Back up on top of the ship, Castillan was the first to climb down. "Let's go check out that keep," he suggested - but as soon as his foot touched the natural stone floor of the landing area, a rumble presaged the arrival of an enormous earth elemental, whose exceptional size and bulk gave him the standard nomenclature of "earth titan." The creature rose to its full height - some 32 feet tall - and looked down expectantly at the bounder. "Um...hello?" greeted Castillan. It obviously wasn't the response the earth titan had been expecting, for it raised a boulderlike fist and smashed it down at the elf. Castillan managed to roll with the blow, but there was no ignoring the power behind it. Hagan responded with his favorite attack spell, [i]chain lightning[/i], even though there was but the sole enemy to fight and thus nobody else for the spell to "arc out" to. Still, judging from the way solid chunks of stone fell from the earth titan's chest as a result of the electrical blast, it seemed the spell choice had been a good one. In fact, seeing how the blast of lightning had harmed the elemental, Finoula opted to follow Hagan's blast with one of her own: touching her amulet, she transformed her body into an arc of lightning that blasted through the earth titan and then she reformed into her elven body at the end of the lightning bolt's arc, on the side of the southwestern tower's curved wall (where she hung like a spider, courtesy of her magical boots). Darrien started peppering the earth titan with arrows, hoping they were doing some damage - it was hard to tell against a creature that didn't actually bleed. Behind the archer, Gilbert activated his twin [i]jade foo lions[/i], Hachi and Tsumezhao, and sent them charging at their elemental foe. Ingebold cast a [i]spiritual weapon[/i] spell, the force energy taking the form of a dwarven warhammer which went slamming into the earth titan's chest with a reverberating blow. Finally, Binkadink went charging into the air off the side of the dragonfly vessel, stabbing at the elemental with the point of his magical glaive, "riding" his weapon down the elemental's body as the glaive's blade scraped down and through its earth-and-stone torso. In retaliation, the earth titan swung its massive fists at two of its numerous enemies, one slamming hard into Hachi and the other grazing the little gnome. Seeing how much damage this massive brute could deal, Castillan decided he definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of its fists any more and activated his ring. The subsequent [i]dimension door[/i] spell whisked him away to immediately in front of the closed doors to the castle keep. From this close, he could see the words "SANCTUM AETERNUM" etched above the doors. The earth titan took another round of attacks from multiple sources: Binkadink's glaive, the teeth and claws of the twin foo lions, Darrien's arrows - but once again it was a [i]magic missile[/i] spell from Hagan that brought the enemy down. "The trick is knowing just when to use it," the half-orc replied to an obviously-astonished Darrien. The rest of the group departed from the dragonfly vessel and waved Jinkadoodle away. The gnome pilot brought the ship up into the air and through the [i]hallucinatory terrain[/i] spell to go find a safe place to park it on the mountaintops until the group [i]teleported[/i] back onto the vessel - hopefully with a rescued Aithanar and as many of Lord Cavelthorne's troops as they could rescue from the blood puddings. Wishing them well, Jinkadoodle waved back at them through the porthole and then devoted his attention to finding a safe place to park the ship. Castillan had checked the entry doors to the castle for traps and found none. But now he heard a noise behind him; turning around, he saw the head of a stag poke out of the stable doors - or rather the open doorway, for the doors to that entrance had apparently collapsed to the stone floor some time ago. The creature emerged fully from the partially-ruined building, revealing the rest of its body to be that of an enormous eagle, complete with wings. Finoula stepped down from her perch on the tower and crossed the sagging wooden rooftop, flicking her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i] at the peryton as it rushed towards the castle to get at Castillan. But before it could reach its prey, Darrien brought it down with a flurry of arrows fired from his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. Unfortunately, three more perytons were visible through the stable doorway, aroused by the sounds of combat outside. Hachi was there to bite at the first one, blocking the doorway with his own golden-furred body. Binkadink ran past the foo lion, opening a more intact set of doors just beyond. This allowed him to approach another peryton from behind, slaying it with one thrust of his glaive. But another of the eagle-stags attacked Hachi with its antlers and claws, slaying the loyal beast. Upon its "death," Hachi simply reverted to statuette form, a [i]figurine of wondrous power[/i] once again. But Tsumezhao was there to take the place of its fallen brother, blocking the doorway and preventing the two remaining perytons from exiting that way out into the open. Hagan, seeing an opening, cast a [i]scorching ray[/i] at one of the two remaining perytons, slaying it instantly. The rooftop, weakened by Finoula's weight, gave through, and the ranger fell to the stable's floor below. She managed to not only keep her balance but strike out with her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i], putting an end to the final peryton's life. With that threat defeated, the rest of the group lined up behind Castillan as he picked the locks to the castle. Unbeknownst to any of the group, when the ranger had first stepped foot onto the landing area and failed to say the pass-phrase, he not only caused the earth titan guardian to check out the disturbance but also triggered a silent [i]alarm[/i] spell that warned the four blood pudding spellcasters currently inhabiting four of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers of intruders in the area. That gave them more than ample time for some "imminent combat" preparatory spell of their own. Outside the doors, Gilbert cast a [i]mage armor[/i] spell upon himself and Mudpie, the last of his own "imminent combat" spells. "Got it!" whispered Castillan, successfully picking the lock and ready to open the doors. That was the signal he had arranged with Ingebold; upon cue, she cast a [i]silence[/i] spell on Binkadink, who was sitting astride Darrien's activated [i]ebony fly[/i]. The plan was for Binkadink to ride the fly into the room and get as close to as many of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers as he could, hoping to prevent them from casting any spells requiring verbal components in the area of effect emanating around him. But many plans fall apart once implemented on the battlefield. Castillan pushed open the doors and saw the room before him was shaped somewhat like an hourglass, with two areas at the sides pushing into what would otherwise be a rectangular room with the door to a round tower at each corner. In the center of the room, the part where it was the narrowest, an open fire pit lay exposed, its fires died down to mere embers. But the room was well-lit with [i]everburning torches[/i] in sconces around the room, enough that the bounder could see no obvious enemies and thus move across to the nearest door, the one to the southeastern tower. As planned, Binkadink rode the [i]ebony fly[/i] straight through the room, looking for spellcasting enemies to thwart with his magical silence. There was a statue directly ahead of him along the back wall, that of an enormous, emaciated hand gripping a giant tiger's eye gem in its withered palm. But before the gnome could wonder where he'd seen such an image before, the embers directly below him whooshed up into a full-blown fire elemental, which at nine feet tall was nearly half the height of the ceiling. The flames from the elemental's body scorched the bottom of the [i]ebony fly[/i]; Binkadink could feel the heat through the bottoms of his own boots. But then the gnome had much more to worry about than scorched feet, for four of Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers popped out from hiding along the back diagonal walls. Caliandra cast a spell of some sort before the radius of the [i]silence[/i] spell reached her; Binkadink wasn't sure what spell it might have been until he noticed his skin and armor turning to stone. His own cries of astonishment were absorbed by the silence[/i] spell, and in the wink of an eye the [i]ebony fly[/i] carried on its back not a gnome fighter but a very detailed stone statue of one. At the same time, Jorg Battleborn, normally a heavily-armored half-orc fighter but now wearing street clothes and casting spells like he was born to do so, cast a spell across the room at Castillan, attempting to deprive the bounder of his vision. Fortunately, Castillan was able to shrug off the effects of the [i]blindness[/i] spell. Thomas the Seeker, normally a human monk with no spellcasting power, now stepped into view and tried casting a spell at the back of the room at Finoula; however, he was unlucky enough to have stepped into the radius of the [i]silence[/i] spell that seemed to work just as well when centered upon a petrified gnome as on a living one. However, Vance Pelorian stepped just behind Thomas and was thus just outside the invisible boundary of Ingebold's [i]silence[/i] spell; furthermore, his [i]feeblemind[/i] spell was effective against its intended target, and Finoula suddenly felt all coherent thoughts slip away. Faced with the confusion of battle erupting all around her and not knowing what to do, she backed up against the wall of the stables just outside the double doors and plopped down to the floor, crying in place. In the first opening seconds of battle, the blood puddings had managed to neutralize two of the intruders - and do so in ways that potentially saved the victims as potential future "mounts," not that the gnome was big enough for such use. However, the [i]ebony fly[/i] was now a loose cannon. No longer being guided by its rider and being attacked by a fire elemental from below - whose opening strike had been a signal for the others to attack - the giant insect changed directions at once and landed on the floor at the back of the room. Binkadink was safely strapped in so he had only a minimal risk of tipping over and shattering, but in the meantime the effects of the [i]silence[/i] spell were dependent upon the whims of a giant fly looking after its own safety. Caliandra cast a [i]greater invisibility[/i] spell upon herself and vanished from view. She immediately moved away from where she'd been standing, lest anybody target that spot with an area-of-effect spell. Kizzie Birdsong hadn't had an attack readied, nor was she linked in with the others on their own [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell. But she had been [i]charmed[/i] by the blood pudding wearing Jorg's body into believing the intruders were enemies wearing the forms of their friends to try to trick them. She dashed across the room from her hiding spot to behind the giant carving of the hand holding an eye. Hagan stepped into the castle's large, open room and cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell on the fire elemental, arcing off to hit the other four enemy spellcasters controlling the bodies of their adventuring compatriots. The spell had its full effect on the main target, but all of the spellcasters had shielded themselves with [i]protection from energy[/i] and [i]resist energy[/i] spells, many of them focused on warding away electrical damage. (Others had focused their efforts on fire and cold damage, since none of the spellcasters knew exactly what they could expect.) Ingebold repositioned her [i]spiritual hammer[/i] to attack Thomas, then rushed to her Battle-Sister's side to cast a [i]heal[/i] spell that restored her to her full intellect. But Thomas lashed out with a [i]blindness[/i] spell at the elven ranger, hoping to take her right back out of the fight. Fortunately, Finoula managed to shrug off the spell's effects. But now she was angry and ready to take her aggression out on these infernal blood puddings, no matter whose bodies they currently wore! Jorg cast an [i]enervation[/i] spell on Castillan, draining the bounder of several stages of vitality. But immediately thereafter, Gilbert Fung cast a spell that had the biggest effect on the tide of battle yet: an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell, which caused writhing, ebon appendages to spring up from the back of the room, engulfing Jorg, Vance, the fire elemental, and even little Kizzie hiding behind the statue of the unholy symbol of Vecna. Thomas managed to evade the tentacles' grasp, and it was assumed that Caliandra hadn't been in the area of effect - which covered the back half of the room save for an area of safety just outside each of the tower doors at the northern end of the greatroom. Vance struggled in vain to free himself from the tentacles' iron embrace, to no effect. Darrien took potshots at Jorg with arrows from his [i]Arachnibow[/i], not having to worry about shooting into combat for once. All the while, the [i]ebony fly[/i] wandered over to the castle's front doors - accidentally catching the heroes in the front half of the room in the radius of the [i]silence[/i] spell. The fire elemental was the first to escape from the black tentacles - and, as it was on the front edge of the spell's effect, it was able to leave the area of effect entirely and attack Gilbert Fung. But Tsumezhao was there to protect his master, and bit at the flaming foe. His teeth clamped down on the burning enemy, and although this attack caused the foo lion to erupt into flames himself it didn't let up from its attack. Even while realizing this was just a [i]figurine of wondrous power[/i] acting on his own instructions, Gilbert couldn't help but be touched by the creature's unwavering loyalty to his master. Castillan spotted Vance struggling with the black tentacles and used his ring to [i]dimension door[/i] directly behind the cleric of Pelor. He ended up within the area of effect of the [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell himself, but as he was still under the protection of a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell, the writhing appendages couldn't get a grip on him. Finoula activated her [i]amulet of lightning[/i] for a second time that day and blasted through Jorg's body as he struggled to free himself. She reformed into her elf body by the door to the northwestern tower, in one of the pockets of safety from the black tentacles. She heard the distinctive sounds of spellcasting but wasn't able to discern the exact location or what specific spell was being cast. (It was the still-invisible Caliandra attempting to dispel the effects of the [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell and failing.) Behind the statue, Kizzie tried freeing herself from the tentacles but the halfling bard was constrained by her small size and relative lack of strength. But then the statue came to life, triggered by a vocal command from Vance, who had the presence of mind to do so while feebly struggling to free himself from the dreaded tentacles. From the Eye of Vecna depicted in the statue came a blast of magical energy, hitting Hagan full in the chest. Fortunately for the half-orc, the effect was random and this time happened to mirror a [i]poison[/i] spell, to which the sorcerer was currently immune, thanks to the [i]heroes' feast[/i] he'd eaten that morning. Retaliating in kind, Hagan raised his [i]staff of fire[/i] and sent a [i]fireball[/i] spell into the back of the room by Finoula, confident that the [i]protection from energy[/i] spell he'd cast upon her that morning would keep her safe. The [i]fireball[/i] did not, in fact, singe a single, silver hair on the elven ranger's head, but Kizzie, Jorg, and the invisible Caliandra were not so lucky. Again, some had been partially protected from fire damage before the battle had begun, but not all of them. Thomas cast a [i]levitate[/i] spell upon himself to keep out of range of the grasping tentacles before they could entangle him. Ingebold's [i]spiritual hammer[/i] followed the monk to the ceiling, hammering away at him even while the dwarven cleric shot at Vance with her light crossbow. Below the levitating monk, who flipped himself up and over so his feet were now on the ceiling, Jorg managed to wrest himself free from the tentacles' embrace and step back to the zone of safety just outside the northwestern tower door. He cast a [i]feeblemind[/i] spell at Castillan, who managed to avoid the spell's effects. Under no control but its own, the [i]ebony fly[/i] wandered out the front doors, taking the petrified Binkadink - and the [i]silence[/i] spell - with it. Gilbert cast a [i]Bigby's forceful hand[/i] spell to keep the fire elemental at bay - for by now the creature had slain Tsumezhao as well, reverting him back to statuette form. Inside the field of waving, ebon tentacles, Vance continued to try to free himself, to no avail. Worse yet, Castillan was in place to backstab himwith a quick thrust of his magic short sword. The enchanted blade did its job all too well, slaying the cleric of Pelor instantly. His lifeless body stopped struggling, allowing the tentacles to wrap around him fully. From the other side of the tentacle mass, Darrien shot arrows at Jorg. Finoula used her magic amulet for the third and final time that day, blasting though Thomas as a bolt of lightning, landing beside him on the ceiling and hanging there upside-down with her [i]boots of spider climbing[/i]. Unnoticed by the rest, the door to the northwestern tower opened and closed, as Caliandra, trapped by the tentacle mass in her way, entered the tower to fetch an ally. Hagan cast another [i]fireball[/i] spell from his staff, engulfing Kizzie and Jorg in flames. Up on the ceiling, Thomas started running. Hanging upside-down beside him, Finoula struck out with her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i]. Her whip struck true, but failed to trip the fleeing monk. Instead he spun around and from his ceiling perch cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell of his own, targeting Gilbert as the primary and arcing out to hit Hagan, Ingebold, and Darrien as secondary targets. Incensed by the attack, Ingebold responded with a [i]holy word[/i] spell. The effects were instantaneous and quite impressive: Thomas, Jorg, and even Caliandra another room away were all deafened; Thomas and Jorg were both blinded as well, and not only did the fire elemental vanish, banished immediately to its home plane, but so did the water elemental Caliandra had just brought from the laundry area to go attack the intruders. From the exterior of the tentacle mass, a blind Jorg ran willingly into the writhing appendages, vainly attempting to grab hold of Ingebold, who he knew had been standing just on the other side of the spells' effect. He didn't quite reach her, but was instead engulfed by ebon tentacles wrapping themselves around his body. But that was no matter; since this body had been effectively rendered useless, the blood pudding inside Jorg's body - once a human wizard named [b]Jarbanian[/b] - oozed its way from the half-orc's nose, mouth, eyes, and pores, sliding around the writhing tentacles that couldn't manage to get a grasp on the creature's liquid body, and over to Ingebold. Over at the other end of the tentacle mass, the blood pudding who had once been a human cleric of Vecna named [b]Shanzibar[/b] had come to a similar conclusion: its host body had been slain by Castillan, so he would make a more-than-suitable replacement. It oozed out of the body of the slain cleric of Pelor and onto the bounder. Castillan panicked at the sight of the blood pudding crawling up his body. At his fastest speed, he ran through the field of black tentacles, crying out "Get it off! Get it off!" for as long as he could before the blood pudding filled his mouth and he could no longer scream. Gilbert's enhanced eyes saw the blood pudding covering Castillan was giving off that particular glow that identified it as an undead creature. "It undead!" he cried, and Ingebold spun around, turning the two loose blood puddings - for the one on Castillan had not yet fully entered the bounder's body - with the power of Moradin emanating from her raised holy symbol. The effects were immediate. Both blood puddings began fleeing, the one on Castillan dripping down his body and squeezing underneath the door to the southeastern tower, while the one from Jorg's body following not far behind. Gilbert cast a [i]haste[/i] spell upon the assembled heroes, thinking the combat advantages the spell provided would likely give them the edge they'd need to finish this battle and come out on top. Darrien shot a barrage of arrows at Thomas; the monk contemptuously slapped the first one away but was hit by the others. Up on the ceiling, Finoula stabbed at Thomas with her longsword [i]Tahlmalaera[/i]. The monk was slain instantly, the [i]levitate[/i] spell no longer in effect now that he could no longer concentrate upon it. He crashed to the ground, and not surprisingly, the blood spilling out of his facial orifices and pores coalesced into an unharmed blood pudding, this one a former human necromancer named [b]Gornak[/b]. That left Jorg and Caliandra to deal with - plus Kizzie, but she had merely been [i]charmed[/i], not taken over. The Vecna hand-and-eye statue blasted at Finoula, affecting her with an [i]inflict serious wounds[/i] spell. Now that the fire elemental was no more, Gilbert redirected his [i]Bigby's forceful hand[/i] spell to block the statue; from the side, it looked as if two giant hands were playing patty cake. Hagan cast a [i]wall of fire[/i] spell from his staff, sending it diagonally through the field of tentacles, to fry Jorg - for in the heat of battle, the half-orc sorcerer had failed to notice that Jorg's blood pudding host had already abandoned him and was indeed the second blood pudding to head over to the door that had been Castillan's initial destination upon entering the Sanctum Aeternum. The blood pudding Gornak, however, oozed its way over to Gilbert Fung. The heavyset mage responded by casting a [i]polymorph[/i] spell upon himself, reducing himself to halfling size and shape - now too small to be inhabited by a blood pudding! In frustration, Gornak climbed onto Castillan instead. The bounder responded by trying to scrape the undead mass off his body with his own blade. Meanwhile, Finoula had been chasing after the blood pudding Jarbanian, striking it again and again with her whip, finally slaying it. Halfling-sized Gilbert cast a [i]wall of force[/i] spell that blocked off access to the northwestern tower, where he was fairly certain the blood pudding running Caliandra's body was currently located. Ingebold turned the Gornak blood pudding, and once again Castillan felt the relief of having a blood pudding ooze its way [i]off[/i] of his body. Hagan cast a [i]fireball[/i] spell at Gornak, only to learn that these undead things had an innate spell resistance that he had failed to surpass this time. Gornak successfully oozed beneath the door to the southeastern tower, following the blood-trail left by Shanzibar. Darrien guzzled down a [i]potion of spider climb[/i], thinking the ceiling might be the safest place to avoid having a blood pudding ooze its way inside of you. Halfling Gilbert cast a [i]fire shield[/i] spell upon himself, then he and Mudpie went into the southeastern tower, finding a library on the bottom floor and a set of stairs leading up to the floors above. The Shanzibar and Gornak puddings were oozing up the stairs, so Gilbert burn-wrestled one of them to death while Mudpie learned of the laborious tediousness of pounding the other ooze to death. With all but Caliandra taken care of - for Kizzie had been strangled by the black tentacles before having her body burned by the [i]wall of fire[/i] - the group split up to search the three towers not sealed off by the [i]wall of force[/i]. Gilbert, still in halfling form, went to cast a [i]break enchantment[/i] spell on poor petrified Binkadink; ten minutes later, the gnome fighter had been restored to life and bummed that he'd missed out on most of the action. Finoula found Aithanar shackled to the wall of the top floor of the southwestern tower; both rejoiced upon seeing the other before Finoula ran back downstairs to fetch Castillan, who soon managed to free his brother with his masterwork lockpicks. Each tower held the bedrooms of a master and an apprentice, although one such pair apparently shared a room, directly beneath the cell in which Aithanar had been found. But that accounted for all eight of the blood puddings: the four master spellcasters that had overtaken Lord Cavelthorne's troops and the four apprentices the Kordovians had slain back in the Dungeon of Eternity. After the three towers had been searched thoroughly, the group reassembled by the northwestern tower door. The [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] and [i]wall of fire[/i] spells had been dismissed; now halfling-Gilbert dismissed the [i]wall of force[/i] spell as well. "Be careful," the half-pint wizard warned the rest of the group. "And remember that's Caliandra whose body's being used," reminded Darrien. He kind of had a thing for the human sorcerer and didn't want to see her dealt any damage if at all possible. Castillan led the search. He opened the door on the second floor, expecting it to be locked and surprised to see it wasn't. He was further surprised to see their target, Caliandra, lying on an elaborate bed, apparently passed out - if the fancy (and empty) bottle of vintage elven wine was any indication. "That's odd," commented the bounder - just as the blood pudding, a former human wizard named [b]Madame Valtrusia[/b], dropped from the wall above him directly onto his head. Immediately, the undead thing began seeping into his nostrils, into his eyelids, into his ears, and down his throat; all Castillan could do was give a garbled cry of alarm to let the others behind him know he was in danger of being taken over. There followed a mad scramble to get the blood pudding off of him before it could fully enter the bounder and be impossible to reach. Darrien, standing immediately behind Castillan, grabbed him by his belt and yanked him down the stairs, hoping one of the spellcasters below could do something for the bounder. Thinking quickly, Gilbert cast a [i]flesh to stone[/i] spell on Castillan as soon as his tumble down the stairs came to an end; Madame Valtrusia had no way to take over a petrified statue, so she was forced to reverse course and start oozing back out of the bounder's now-stone orifices. The blood pudding found itself surrounded by heroes madly trying to kill it. Binkadink stabbed at it with his magical glaive while Finoula whipped it time and again, the fire of her flaming whip dealing more damage to the undead ooze than the thorns. Ingebold, using the logic of fighting undead creatures, cast a healing spell on the blood pudding that caused parts of its body to boil away into nothingness as if the spell had had an acidic effect. But once again it was a [i]magic missile[/i] spell cast by Hagan that dealt the killing blow. "You just need to know when to cast the low-level spells," the half-orc sorcerer reiterated. A more thorough search through the rooms - this time for valuables more so than opponents - led to the discovery of quite a treasure hoard in a storage room. There were eight barrels, each marked "GRIFFON FEED" (likely explaining the original use of the ramshackle wooden stables outside) and each protected in a different manner (most with [i]arcane lock[/i], one with [i]explosive runes[/i], one with a [i]symbol of fear[/i], and one with a vial of drow contact poison that would spill all over the coins within if not properly disarmed). Castillan (once he'd been restored to flesh) had his hands full overcoming the various traps and protections, but it was well worth the effort, for there was an accumulated amount of wealth that went into the tens of thousands of gold coins in value. "Dinnae be too greedy about th' loot," reminded Ingebold. "We'll be needin' some o' this coin to restore th' slain adventurers t' life." Gilbert originally objected to this plan, on the argument that it wasn't [i]their[/i] fault that Lord Cavelthorne's adventurers had run afoul of blood puddings and thus shouldn't be [i]their[/i] responsibility to revive them, but he was shouted down by the others. Begrudgingly, he agreed to restore them to life - but only via [i]raise dead[/i] spells, which were cheaper to cast than full [i]resurrections[/i]. Thus, the bodies of the dead adventurers were piled into the [i]portable hole[/i], while a crispy-fried (but still living, for the half-orc was made of stern stuff!) Jorg and a drunk and unconscious Caliandra were helped back to the landing platform outside. Hagan [i]teleported[/i] over to the dragonfly vessel, and with minutes Jinkadoodle brought the ship to a safe landing. Hagan dropped the rope ladder over the side and the others climbed up, Darrien making sure he was the one to carry an unconscious Caliandra over his shoulder as he did so. "Lord Cavelthorne's never going to believe all this," muttered Jorg, pulling his armor back into place - for they had found all of the gear originally worn by the half-orc fighter and his comrades. "What?" asked Castillan. "Being taken over by blood puddings?" "Being taken over by blood puddings, being rescued by you guys, this flying vessel - all of it. It's all just so incredible!" "We [i]are[/i] incredible!" insisted Gilbert, now back to his full size. "What so hard to believe about that?" - - - Jacob didn't join us for this adventure, only the second one he'd missed - this time because he just got a new job in college and was likely to be busy for quite a few weekends in the near future; rather than hold up our adventure sessions indefinitely, he agreed to have his dad run Castillan for him. (We did something similar when Logan went to college in the middle of our Wing Three campaign.) Logan ran Ingebold, which turned out to be very good thing once Binkadink was taken out early on by a [i]flesh to stone[/i] spell. (It's kind of ironic that the PC with the highest Fortitude save bonus of all the PCs is the one who habitually fails his Fortitude saves.) - - - T-Shirt Worn: One of my two Red Cross shirts (the white one - I also have a light blue one), to represent the blood puddings the PCs dealt with in this adventure. [/QUOTE]
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