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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7545323" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 57: GILBERT FUNGUS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 16</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 16</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 1 January 2019</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>The sun was just coming fully up when Binkadink Dundernoggin returned to Battershield Keep. He did his best to keep the smile from his face, but every time he thought about the prank he'd just pulled he couldn't help himself from smirking. Early that morning, he'd gotten up and snuck out of the keep to go down to the marketplace in the city, arriving there just as the merchants were setting up their stalls. He'd adjusted the <em>hat of disguise</em> he'd recently purchased - for this very reason - and concentrated on altering his appearance in a very specific way. From the neck up, his facial features altered to mimic those of his cousin Jinkadoodle until he had became his virtual twin. As the magic hat allowed him to change the appearance of the clothing he wore as well, he'd mentally commanded it to make it look as if he was wearing...nothing. Despite being garbed in a set of his normal clothing, to all appearances he had at that point looked like a naked version of his cousin.</p><p></p><p>But that hadn't been enough for the little gnome. He'd taken stock of his apparent nakedness and made some final adjustments: shrinking the genitals considerably and then adding some warts and seeping sores for good measure. And the final piece to his revenge prank had been changing the appearance of the <em>hat of disguise</em> itself; he turned it into a large-brimmed, floppy hat with an ostentatious purple feather and the name "JINKY" proudly embroidered on the front in large letters. Finally satisfied, he then made a point to streak up and down the marketplace several times, making sure he'd been seen by all who were up at that early hour. Then, before getting caught, he had dodged into an alley and reverted back to his normal appearance, exiting back onto the main street several blocks over and sauntering back to the keep with an unhurried gait.</p><p></p><p><em>That</em> ought to be sufficient retaliation for Jinkadoodle's recent illusion of Binkadink engaged in a gnome-on-goat dalliance in the Battershield Keep stables!</p><p></p><p>Binkadink headed over the keep's kitchen well in time for breakfast; Helga Battershield was just putting out the plates and cutlery and the little gnome was in such a good mood he gave her a hand with the preparations. Jinkadoodle wasn't about; he'd spent the night in the dragonfly vessel as he often did, but Binkadink was certain it wouldn't take long for the accusations (and snickering) to hit his cousin. He was now in the pleasant span of time between prank application and victim realization - this would be a great day!</p><p></p><p>As the rest of the adventuring group sauntered over to breakfast, Binkadink's good mood caused him to pull out an old trick he'd used on several occasions before, but never on Hagan - all of a sudden, while everyone was eating, Wezhley's fur took on a bright purple hue to the consternation of the half-orc sorcerer the weasel served as a familiar.</p><p></p><p>"Bink!" scolded Finoula, well aware that the cause of the weasel's sudden color change was Binkadink's inherent ability to cast <em>prestidigitation</em> once a day. The little gnome put on his best "Who, me?" face but soon enough copped up to the prank to Hagan. "It'll turn back to its normal color in about an hour," the gnome promised.</p><p></p><p>It was about an hour after breakfast had been finished up that the next bit of the day's excitement hit. Since the adventurers were present in the keep, they had the drawbridge down and the portcullis raised - nobody was liable to cause them any trouble. After all, Binkadink and Obvious were in the courtyard, as were Darrien and his dire bear cub, Grumps Junior. Hagan and Wezhley (who sure enough, had had his fur return to its normal color) were up on the rooftop of the keep's northwestern tower, where the half-orc was feeding his weasel treats as he stood up on his hind legs and begged. Castillan stood at the top of the northeastern tower and scanned the horizon, his thoughts his own. Finoula and her timber wolf Wrath were playing just outside the keep's front entrance, and thus were the first to talk to the merchant who rode up to the keep in his one-horse cart. "This Battershield Keep?" he asked the elven ranger, keeping a wary eye on the full-grown wolf at her side.</p><p></p><p>"It is indeed," she answered.</p><p></p><p>"There's supposed to be a Gilbert Fung living here," the merchant said, pulling out a package wrapped in paper and tied with twine. "Is he in?"</p><p></p><p>"I'll get him," Finoula offered, heading back to the kitchen area, where Gilbert Fung had remained after breakfast, slowly polishing off the rest of the muffins while he read through his <em>Omnibook</em>. "You've got a package," she told the portly mage.</p><p></p><p>"You right about that," smirked the wizard, leering at the elf suggestively. But he rose, closed his <em>Omnibook</em>, and stored it in its leather pouch at his side as he ambled out to see what the merchant might have brought him. The man explained he made rounds along the southern edge of the Vesve Forest and that he'd been given a package for Gilbert from another merchant, who in turn had been given it by a man in Izlen, a village at the northeastern edge of the vast forest. Gilbert took the proffered package from the merchant and looked up at him when the man didn't immediately leave. "You get paid to bring this to me?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"I was paid a small fee, yes," admitted the merchant, putting emphasis on the "small" part to hint to the wizard that any additional payment for his troubles would not only be greatly appreciated but only fair, really.</p><p></p><p>"If you already paid, then off you go," shooed Gilbert, turning from the man and walking back over the drawbridge back into the keep. There was a folded sheet of parchment tied by twine to the wrapped package. Pulling it out and reading it silently to himself, Gilbert snorted in derision a couple of times. "This guy laying it on thick," he observed.</p><p></p><p>The letter read:"So? Are you going to open it?" Binkadink asked. He and his jackalope, Obvious, had sidled up to the portly wizard as he was reading through the letter; the gnome had even activated his <em>stilt-boots</em> so he could read over the much-taller human's shoulder.</p><p></p><p>"Give me chance, gnome!" Gilbert chided, cutting through the twine with the edge of his dagger. He let the paper fall to the ground as he opened the leather-bound book. Once he touched the front cover the book sprang fully open of its own accord; furthermore, the pages at the front were folded over several times and these began automatically flipping open, flipping open again, then flipping up and flipping down as overlapping parts of a large, many-folded sheet unfurled to its full size. The sheet unfolded to a 3-foot-by-3-foot square, the entire page holding an intricate diagram looking similar to a <em>magic circle</em> drawing - although many of the symbols looked like snails and insects and the circle itself was transcribed by a writhing line of earthworms drawn on the page. The borders were dotted with mushrooms and toadstools in green, brown, and black.</p><p></p><p>And then the ants start crawling out.</p><p></p><p>It wasn't just an ant or two crawling forth out of the now-active <em>magic circle</em> in the open book Gilbert held in his hands: it was a torrent of ants that scrambled forward off the pages, onto his hands and arms, and up his robes, biting with their wicked mandibles. They brought with them an odor of mildew and decay, which wasn't surprising once Gilbert noted that there was fungus growing from the backs and heads of the ants. And if he had had any further doubts about the matter, his magically-enhanced vision registered the swarm of ants as undead creatures.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert dropped the book at his feet and frantically started slapping the fungal ant zombies away. Waves of ants continued spilling from the book, engulfing Binkadink and Obvious and continuing forward out of the keep towards Finoula and Wrath as well as back into the deeper recesses of the keep's courtyard, where Darrien and Grumps Junior gaped in wonder. Up on the top of the front towers, Castillan, Hagan, and Wezhley heard the strangled cries from below and looked over into the courtyard to see what was transpiring. Darrien hurriedly opened the stable doors and ushered his dire bear cub inside, closing the door once he was in; hopefully, the ants would stay out of the stables if they couldn't see an easy way in.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert felt nauseated from the onrush of undead insects; the growths on their dorsal sides gave off a cloud of spores that he had unwittingly inhaled. He found it difficult to stay on his feet; fortunately, he had a trusty earth elemental familiar who could help him in that regard. Calling out to Mudpie, he felt the elemental rising up from the earth beneath his feet, lifting the considerable weight of the portly mage in his hands over his head as he earthglided his way to the front of the keep's courtyard by the lowered drawbridge. Once there, he unceremoniously tossed his master into the moat, hoping that would be the easiest way to rid him of the ant zombies covering his body. Of course, during his maneuvering Mudpie had picked up a coating of undead ants himself, but the earth elemental didn't need to breathe and couldn't be poisoned, so the creatures' spores held no threat to the elemental.</p><p></p><p>Splashing into the moat, Gilbert retained enough awareness to keep himself afloat and saw that most of the ants covering him had indeed been washed off by the sudden submersion. He failed to note the quiet "plunk" of an unseen object falling into the moat by his side.</p><p></p><p>Back in the courtyard, Binkadink shook the ants off him as best he could as he backed up towards the rear half of the keep; Obvious followed suit. Then, reaching up and plucking a crystal from the necklace he wore, the little gnome held it low to the ground, activated it, and sent a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell blasting a line through the mass of undead ants in the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>Up at the top of the northwestern tower, Hagan bent over the battlements and sent a precisely-positioned <em>fireball</em> down into the courtyard, frying a bunch of the ants without hitting any of his friends or their animals below.</p><p></p><p>Outside the keep, Finoula saw the <em>lightning bolt</em> scorching its way out of the drawbridge and decided to follow up with her own <em>lightning amulet</em>. Calling for Wrath to stay outside, she activated the amulet and became a bolt of lightning herself, scorching her way through a bunch of the ants and reforming into her normal elven body at the rear end of the courtyard, beside Darrien, Binkadink, and Obvious. However, she inadvertently inhaled a lungful of spores before her maneuver and stood coughing when she reappeared.</p><p></p><p>Castillan bounded down the side of the northeastern tower, using the tower's wall to slow his fall. He landed nimbly in the courtyard, raced across to the dropped book (which was still open, but without any more ants emerging; apparently all that were coming out had already done so), scooped it up, and was running up the wall of the stables before too many ants could climb onto him - but not, unfortunately, before he too got a lungful of fungal spores. He heard a sudden buzzing in his ears, as if some insect flew straight at him, but saw nothing - and then the sound was gone.</p><p></p><p>As <em>lightning bolts</em> seemed to be an effective strategy thus far, Darrien plucked a crystal from his own necklace, held it down low, and activated it, blasting a bunch more of the undead swarms of fungal zombie ants, killing scores if not hundreds of the creatures. But the remaining ants surged forward, one clump reaching Darrien while another group climbed up the stable walls to engulf Castillan. (A third swarm still covered Mudpie, but the earth elemental didn't seem to even notice. He was actually making himself bait for the undead insects, knowing any ant zombies wasting their time attacking him weren't attacking anybody else.)</p><p></p><p>Gilbert, treading water in the moat, cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell - as it required only verbal components that he could sputter while still keeping himself afloat - and ended up on the top of the northwestern tower beside Hagan. He looked down over the crenellations to see Binkadink using another crystal from his necklace to blast away some of the ants approaching Darrien. Hagan raced south along the walkway between the western towers, casting another <em>fireball</em> spell down at the ants, crisping them black while avoiding any damage to Darrien (although he cut it fairly close!). Finoula blasted herself through the remaining ants in <em>lightning bolt</em> form again, returning to her original position beside her wolf at the end of her electrical arc. That pretty much did it for the ants in the courtyard, save those climbing onto Castillan. Still, Darrien scampered up the stone steps leading to the top of the southeastern tower, stepping off onto the roof of the one-story building that housed the keep's dining area. It felt safer here, higher up. He flicked a few stragglers off his sleeve and crushed them under his boot heel on the stone roof of the kitchen building.</p><p></p><p>Castillan stubbornly ignored the biting zombie ants and concentrated on folding the <em>magic circle</em> page back up, then tucked the closed book between his arm and body and used the corner between the wall of the tower and the exterior wall to race up to the tower's roof, climbing over the battlements alongside Gilbert. "Here," he said, handing the book back to the wizard. But the ants climbed up the tower wall behind him, surprising both Castillan and Gilbert as they swarmed over the battlements. "Not again!" Gilbert cried, casting a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and then leaping over the edge of the tower, flying back down into the moat (but far enough away from his initial point of entry that he wouldn't likely be bumping into any floating ants from his first plunge into the moat).</p><p></p><p>Binkadink leaped upon Obvious's back and the two raced back out across the drawbridge, the gnome wielding his glaive although he realized how poor a weapon this was when fighting swarms of ants. He met up with Finoula and Wrath, who likewise weren't overly equipped to fighting individual ants. (The elven ranger had her <em>lightning amulet</em>, but it only had one more use for the day.) Hagan was almost to the southwestern tower when he heard the commotion behind him and spun around, heading back the way he'd come. On his shoulder, Wezhley gave a frightened hiss; he didn't like undead things!</p><p></p><p>His legs already covered in crawling ants, Castillan raced to the western edge of the tower and plunged over the side, turning his fall into a graceful dive into the moat. The ants still on the northwestern tower, as one, spun about and started heading toward Hagan and Wezhley, now the nearest living targets. But Hagan responded with the arcane syllables that caused a <em>fireball</em> spell to flash from his fingertips, screaming across the distance between them and flash-frying the remaining undead ants in a fiery ball of death. At the spell's end, there were no longer any zombie ants on the battlements of Battershield Keep.</p><p></p><p>The threat apparently contained, the heroes regrouped back down in the courtyard. "What was that all about?" Darrien asked, releasing Grumps Junior from the stables and having to coax him out. "An assassination attempt?"</p><p></p><p>"No!" cried Gilbert Fung suddenly, feeling the empty leather pouch at his side where his <em>Omnibook</em> resided when it wasn't in use. "Thievery! Somebody stole my book!" And then he began coughing convulsively, the spores having taken quite a toll on the heavyset wizard.</p><p></p><p>"We need healing," decided Castillan. Binkadink ran up to Gilbert's room to fetch MARCI, but the construct poked a sample of the fungus with a needlelike extension from one of her metal fingers and analyzed it. "I am unable to properly analyze the poison," she announced, scanning her red eye-beam across Gilbert's body.</p><p></p><p>"It probably only part poison, part curse - like mummy rot!" Gilbert deduced. "Stupid undead!"</p><p></p><p>"We need Malrin," Castillan announced. "She might be able to help us." As his little sister still lived across town with their parents in Ivenheart Manor, Hagan offered to <em>teleport</em> everyone there. Once MARCI announced Obvious and Grumps Junior were free of the affliction, they were left behind in the courtyard, since the likely next step after being healed up was to go through the <em>magic circle</em> in the book Gilbert had been sent, and those two animals simply wouldn't fit through the circle. (As it was, Gilbert himself was going to be a tight squeeze!)</p><p></p><p>Castillan ran inside to fetch Malrin once they arrived in the yard behind Ivenheart Manor. MARCI determined the only ones afflicted with the strange fungal disease were Gilbert, Finoula, and Castillan - the latter still coughing as he arrived with his sister in tow. Malrin had yet to prepare her spells for the day, so after Castillan explained to her what had happened, she sat down by a tree to meditate and prepare the spells she'd need. At her stage of training, her mind could only hold five <em>lesser restoration</em> spells and these were just enough to get the three afflicted heroes back up to their full strength. "That's at least overcoming the symptoms," Malrin announced. "I'm not sure if I've actually taken care of the disease itself."</p><p></p><p>"I guess we'll find out if you three start sprouting mushrooms," Binkadink joked. "So now what?"</p><p></p><p>"Now we go in and get <em>Omnibook</em> back!" Gilbert roared, opening the book back up and exposing the <em>magic circle</em> again as it automatically unfolded to its full size. Everyone winced a bit, half-expecting more fungal zombie ants to come racing out, but the oversize page remained clear of undead. "You go in first, Bink!" Gilbert suggested.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink stuck his head - and only his head - through the <em>magic circle</em>. He found he was now looking through a hole in a wall of an enclosed cylinder, about halfway between the floor and the ceiling, which was some 15 feet high. There was nothing of particular interest to see in the darkened room, although the <em>everburning torches</em> tied to the antlers of the little gnome's helmet gave off enough illumination to see by. There were discolorations along the floor and walls and the overwhelming scent of mold and mildew, but nothing else was in view. Binkadink pulled his head back and reported, between coughs, what he'd seen. "If this is where the ants were staged from, I'll bet the place is filled with those fungal spores," he said. "Before we all go in, we might want to stop by my uncle's potion shop and stock up on <em>delay poison</em> potions. No sense on us all catching whatever it is these three caught."</p><p></p><p>Upon their entry into his shop, Winkidew Dundernoggin reminded everyone that he was primarily a businessman and no, they weren't getting any bulk discount prices for seven <em>potions of delay poison</em>. They paid him the full amount, he handed them over, and everyone swigged one down. Winkidew begrudgingly paid them each a small amount of coin for returning the empty potion vials for reuse and then Binkadink announced they were ready to go.</p><p></p><p>"Hang on!" Hagan said suddenly, passing his weasel familiar over to Uncle Winky. "I don't want Wezhley getting exposed to any dangerous spores. Would you mind watching him?" Despite a fierce show of grumbling at the inconvenience, Winkidew eventually agreed to keep an eye on the half-orc's familiar. (Once they were out of the shop his grumpy demeanor changed immediately and he dashed downstairs to get some treats for the weasel.)</p><p></p><p>"Okay, here goes!" Binkadink announced and stepped through the portal. He dropped to the bottom of the enclosed cylinder, looking around in vain for a door. Castillan, the second one in, found it: it was only about three feet tall and set along the top edge of the cylinder, the door's top flush with the ceiling.</p><p></p><p>"That stupid place for door!" grumbled Gilbert once he had entered the room. "How we supposed to get up there?" Without a word, Finoula demonstrated by walking straight up the wall, her <em>boots of spider climbing</em> making it as easy as walking along the ground. Once at the top she listened at the door, heard only birdsong, and pried it open with her blade - there was no doorknob on the inside. She found herself about 20 feet in the air, but there was a solid wooden platform at the bottom of the door and a ladder beneath it leading down.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, but how rest of us get up there?" Gilbert groused. Darrien took aim with his <em>Arachnibow</em> and shot a silken web-line up by the ceiling. He then shouldered his bow and walked up the wall, hanging onto his line with both hands. The others followed suit, leaving a grumbling Gilbert to climb up last of all.</p><p></p><p>Stepping onto the platform, Finoula announced with sudden realization, "This is a water tower!"</p><p></p><p>"An empty water tower," corrected Darrien. "Where'd all the water go?"</p><p></p><p>"At a guess -- right there," replied Finoula, pointing straight down. The ground beneath the water tower was a muddy morass; at some point in the not-too-distant past the water had apparently been emptied to turn the tower into a fungal zombie ant staging area.</p><p></p><p>Climbing down the narrow ladder one at a time, the heroes landed in the squelchy mud - all but Gilbert that is, who sent Mudpie down first and then stepped onto his upraised hands, allowing his familiar to escort him past the vast mud puddle - and looked around. They were in a hilly land, with several doors visible set into the sides of the nearby hills. In the distance sat a wooden building looking like a giant cornucopia. "This looks like a halfling village!" Finoula announced.</p><p></p><p>They opted to go check out the cornucopia. As they approached it, curiosity won out over caution and Binkadink cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Is anybody here?" The fact that they could see plenty of halfling structures but not a single halfling was starting to creep the little gnome out - it was like they were in a ghost town or something.</p><p></p><p>But they weren't the only living things present in the seemingly-abandoned village, as evidenced when the front door to the cornucopia building slammed open and a half dozen halfling-sized creatures spilled out. These were no halflings, though; their skin was greenish with veins and patches of brown; their dirty heads capped with thick dreadlocks of ropy, brown vines. Each held a shortspear at the ready as they peered at the approaching enemies.</p><p></p><p>Finoula didn't like the look of these primitive - and presumably hostile - beings. She cast an <em>entangle</em> spell at the area just beyond the door to the building, catching the first five in the spell's area of effect. (The sixth was still in the open doorway and opted to stay there once he saw his companions being entangled by the grass at their feet.) Castillan immediately began sprinting past the group, heading along the north side of the building before any of the green-skinned warriors thought to try throwing their spears at him.</p><p></p><p>Darrien, seeing a captive set of enemies, cast a <em>spike growth</em> spell overlapping the same area of effect of his fellow ranger's <em>entangle</em> spell. But then Hagan, unaware of Darrien's actions, cast a <em>fireball</em> spell that slew all five of the captive vegepygmies. If either of the rangers had thought to capture an enemy for questioning, the bloodthirsty half-orc sorcerer took that approach right off the table!</p><p></p><p>Actually, there was still one member of the original six vegepygmies available for questioning - the one still in the doorway. He took one look at the carnage before him and slammed the door back shut, fleeing further into the halfling temple. Gilbert called out to him, "Hey! I want my book back, thief!" as he cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink raced up to the front door in his <em>gnomish stilt-boots </em>once he saw Finoula and Darrien dismiss their respective spells. Malrin was right there by him and she opened the door. Once she saw the vegepygmy wasn't still right there in the doorway, she entered the darkened room with her scimitar out and ready. A few streams of light filtered in from narrow windows up by the top of the curved roof, but the candle-chandeliers hanging from the rafters overhead were unlit. Still, the elf druidess could determine the foe was no longer in the entry room of the temple, which in true halfling fashion consisted of a long table and a pair of long benches. The vegepygmies had apparently been eating a meal of dead squirrels when they heard Binkadink's questioning call, based on the half-eaten corpses scattered along the tabletop.</p><p></p><p>Outside, Castillan raced up the side of the curved building and approached the chimney. There was no smoke emanating from it, so he looked down the vertical shaft, determined he could fit through it without getting stuck, and did just that. Scurrying down the chimney, he dropped to the fireplace floor in a puff of old ashes. The fireplace was shared by the front mess hall and the kitchen just behind it; the bounder opted to pop out in the mess hall side, where he could see his sister approaching and Binkadink just entering the temple. There was an open doorway on either side of the two-way fireplace and Castillan dashed through one of them, surprising the lone vegepygmy who had survived their initial assault. Castillan stabbed at the plant creature with his short sword, drawing a line of what looked like sap from his chest. The plant-thing retaliated with his shortspear and took a step back, bleeding heavily from the bounder's wound. But then Hagan entered the temple and he could see the vegepygmy through the double fireplace; one <em>magic missile</em> brought him crashing to the kitchen floor, dead.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink ran into the kitchen. The roof lowered the further back it went in the kitchen, which narrowed in width the farther back it went as well. At the very back was a curved stairwell leading down into the earth; Binkadink took the stairs two at a time. The lower level consisted of a large, open area with three smaller rooms jutting off from it; one of these was a small alcove containing a statue of a halfling woman and standing before it, in apparent consternation, was a female vegepygmy. She held a shortspear in her hand but didn't seem particularly keen on using it. She looked inquisitively at Binkadink upon his approach, her brow furrowed, and the gnome fighter didn't have it in him to attack her. "Um, hello?" he said tentatively. "Can you understand me?"</p><p></p><p>The plant-woman nodded but said nothing. She pointed to her mouth and shook her head, as if explaining she couldn't speak aloud. But then she pointed to the statue and then back at herself, and Binkadink got the idea she was explaining she was once a halfling woman like the goddess whose statue stood in the alcove.</p><p></p><p>"You were the priestess here? In the temple?" Binkadink asked, and the woman nodded in confirmation.</p><p></p><p>By this time, the other heroes had followed their gnome companion down the stairs. Through questioning and pantomime, and finally drawing on paper the heroes provided the plant-woman, the former halfling cleric explained what had happened: three witches had overtaken the small village, turning the halflings into vegepygmies. The plant-woman sketched out a quick map showing the witches' dwelling, but warned they had powerful guardians.</p><p></p><p>"They the ones who took my <em>Omnibook</em>," Gilbert cursed. "We go get it back!"</p><p></p><p>Following the directions they'd been given, the group headed away from the halfling village and toward the forest. A few miles away they approached a large hogan built of wood, with a slanted, thatched roof - it looked more than a little like an oversized, wooden igloo, for it was a round structure with a section in the front that jutted out, with a woven rug hanging in the front doorway keeping out the worst of the cold. The front opening was flanked by a pair of primitive, barely-humanoid carvings, each nine feet or so high. There were four other primitive totems, two on either side of the hogan, each little more than a carefully-stacked pile of stones with only the vaguest sense of a humanoid shape.</p><p></p><p>"Those probably guardians," Gilbert suggested to the group in a whisper. Then he cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on all but Malrin, the most he could encompass with that spell at one time. <They probably golems. That mean most spells useless against them.></p><p></p><p><Let's go see,> offered Castillan over the mental link as he cautiously approached the hogan. He could see there was a pond off to the right of the hogan, looking to come all the way up to the wooden structure. There were cattails and wooden reeds growing up out of it, and the sounds of frogs could be heard coming from that direction. But as the bounder crept forward, all senses on full alert, there was no movement from any of the six stone guardian totems.</p><p></p><p>Finoula approached behind her fellow elf, her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em> gripped in her right hand and her uncoiled <em>flaming whip of thorns</em> in her left. <So far, so good,> she thought to the others.</p><p></p><p><I try something,> Gilbert announced, using his <em>slingshot of rock shrinking</em> on his earth elemental familiar. Shrinking Mudpie to the size of a small pebble, the wizard picked him up, loaded him into his weapon, and shot him at the hanging rug. Mudpie impacted the rug with a "thwack," regaining his true size as he fell to his feet on the ground before the hogan's entrance. But still the stone totems failed to animate and attack. Hagan took the opportunity to cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell on himself.</p><p></p><p>At Binkadink's request, Darrien activated his <em>ebony fly</em> and turned it over to the gnome's use - the little fighter was used to mounted combat and it irritated him that Obvious had been too big to fit through the <em>magic circle</em> in the book. After having done so, the archer nocked an arrow into his <em>Arachnibow</em> and cautiously stepped forward.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink mounted the <em>ebony fly</em> and had it fly forward at full speed, landing on the ground just in front of the hogan's entrance, beside Mudpie. That was apparently the signal the guardians had been waiting for, for they animated at once and struck out at the intruders. The primitive stone golem to Binkadink's right stepped forward to slam the little gnome; fortunately, he had enough time to swing his magical glaive in the golem's direction and score a hit on it as it approached. At the same time, the golem on the other side of the hogan's entrance animated and swung a stony fist at Finoula's head.</p><p></p><p>The piles of stacked stones also animated and attacked. One primitive stone construct stepped forward and attacked Binkadink, while the one by its side scrambled in Hagan's direction. The two on the other side of the hogan each attacked Finoula; battered by three separate animated stone guardians, the elf ranger almost dropped to a knee as she fought to remain conscious.</p><p></p><p>Malrin stepped beside Finoula and cast a healing spell upon her fellow elf, then stepped back away from combat and wildshaped into an owl. Castillan activated his ring and <em>dimension doored</em> to the top of the hogan, the thatched roof supporting the elf bounder's weight with ease. Unlike the halfling temple's chimney, this one was producing smoke; the elf took a deep breath and stuck his face over the top of the chimney opening, seeing what he could see. Through the smoke from a cauldron on a cook fire directly below him, he could see an extremely large young woman standing by the cauldron, a worried expression on her face as she heard the commotion out the front of the hogan. By her light blue skin and her size Castillan guessed she was a frost giant; by her peasant garb, he assumed she was a servant to the witches who laired here. But then he decided that was likely what he was <em>supposed</em> to think; surely a member of a coven of witches would find disguising herself in an inoffensive form a simple but effective defense? For despite her size, this frost giant held no weapon but a broom, which she held close to her as if trying to hide behind it.</p><p></p><p>Attacked on three sides by creatures of stone, Finoula concentrated her attacks on the biggest one, the one seemingly carved - crudely - from a solid block of stone. Her whip lashed out at the creature's leg while her longsword scratched a series of sparks against its chest. Gilbert, seeing her plight, cast an invisible <em>wall of force</em> that separated Finoula and Malrin from the two primitive stone constructs - there was no way to shield the ranger from all three combatants, so Gilbert chose to let her focus on the one she was already actively fighting. A barrage of arrows streaked over the ranger's shoulder, striking the primitive stone golem, showing Finoula that Darrien had her back in this battle.</p><p></p><p>As one of the other primitive stone constructs approached Hagan, he cast a <em>polar ray</em> at it - one of the half-orc's most powerful spells. The ray completely destroyed the animated guardian in a way Hagan hadn't expected, for as it fell backwards in a heap, the stones seemed to dissipate, leaving behind a three-legged creature that had the appearance of an ogre-sized mobile fungus.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, still astride the <em>ebony fly</em>, slew the primitive stone golem that had been attacking him while Mudpie fought off the slightly smaller stone construct. The gnome's slain foe also transformed in death; no longer looking like some sort of half-carved gorilla, it now appeared as a rough humanoid the size of a hill giant but composed primarily of fungus. "They're not stone!" the gnome called out to his companions. "They're some sort of fungal giants!"</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, now that the group was aware of the deception, it was easier to pierce through the <em>veil</em> spell that had hidden them behind illusions of stone. The "primitive stone golem" that was attacking Finoula now stood revealed as a fungal giant - but that didn't make the strike of its massive fist any less threatening! Finoula just barely dodged the incoming slam, which pounded violently into the ground at her feet.</p><p></p><p>The "pile of stacked stones" also attacking Binkadink was now evident as one of those three-legged fungal ogres - or that's what Binkadink now thought of them as. Two more of them tried slamming their fists into Malrin and Finoula, but were blocked by Gilbert's invisible <em>wall of force</em>. Each of those two fungal ogres felt their way in opposite directions along the unseen barrier, seeking a way around it. Not wanting to wait for their arrival, Malrin flapped her owl's wings and flew up to the hogan's rooftop to alight beside her older brother.</p><p></p><p>Castillan, for his part, decided to put his suspicions to the test, and dropped through the opening in the roof, landing directly behind the apparently frightened frost giant servant. He thrust at her lower back with his <em>short sword of wounding</em>, stabbing into her kidney. She cried out in pain, dropping all attempts at maintaining the illusion; standing before the bounder was no longer a frost giant maiden but a withered old crone - an annis hag, the leader of this particular covey of hags, <strong>Mother Dumpling</strong>. Her cries were echoed by her familiar, an owl named <strong>Mousecatcher</strong> that stood on a wooden perch beside a cot large enough to support the large hag leader. The owl shrieked again in anger, crossing the distance to claw at the bounder with its talons.</p><p></p><p>And they weren't the only creatures inside the hogan, Castillan quickly learned - for crawling out from under the cot were two more fungal creatures, each no larger than an upright raccoon. The fungal leshies scampered towards the bounder, limbs flailing in apparent anger. As Castillan was fending off their attacks, the other two hags rose up out of the pool of water on the eastern side of the hogan - apparently the floor in that section had been dug deep to allow the waters of the pond outside to encroach into the building. The greenhag, <strong>Snizzletooth</strong>, crept up behind Castillan and slashed him with a set of nails that would do a tiger proud. The sea hag, <strong>Grizelda</strong>, stayed back in the pond with water halfway up her shins as she concentrated on giving the elf intruder the evil eye. But fortunately for Castillan, he was able to mentally shrug off its intended effects. He realized he was in some trouble, though, and called out to his friends over their shared link, <Guys! I'm fighting all three hags in here!></p><p></p><p>Finoula was unable to do anything about Castillan's predicament - it was all she could do to keep the marauding fungal giant at bay. While Gilbert cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself in preparation for battle with the hag covey inside their hogan, Hagan decided to see what he could do about finishing up the fight outside. He targeted Finoula's fungal giant with a <em>chain lightning</em> spell, sending arcs of electricity out to the three remaining fungal ogres. His spell slew the sole remaining fungal giant and the fungal ogre that had been in battle with Binkadink and Mudpie, leaving them and Finoula free of immediate enemies. Without a pause, Darrien switched targets to one of the two remaining fungal ogres, peppering it with arrows as he'd been doing to the fungal giant in combat with Finoula. It silently turned on him and lumbered forward, eager to slay the half-elf archer.</p><p></p><p>The other fungal ogre, rounding the <em>wall of force</em>, surged forward and attacked Finoula. Seeing this, Malrin flew down to the ranger's side, cast a quick healing spell delivered through a wing, and then returned to the top of the hogan's roof, out of range of attack.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink lowered his glaive into "lance position" and had the <em>ebony fly</em> charge straight into the hogan. They ripped through both the outer and inner hanging rugs, then the gnome skewered the seriously-wounded Mother Dumpling before she could scarcely register his presence. Snizzletooth kept her focus on Castillan, slashing her claws at him again and biting down on his shoulder with a mouth full of pointed teeth, causing him to cry out in pain. But Grizelda turned at Binkadink's sudden appearance, focusing her evil eye on the rampaging gnome. Binkadink had a final moment of horror - <Not again!> he cried over the shared mental link - before his mind, dazed, closed off all further thought.</p><p></p><p>Castillan saw Binkadink's predicament and recalled the gnome had once before succumbed to a sea hag's evil eye attack. Knowing full well the gnome was useless for the rest of this fight, he bounder tumbled across the room, scooped him up in his arms, and activated his ring, using a second <em>dimension door</em> spell to transport the two back out of the hogan and onto the open field immediately before it. MARCI stood nearby alongside Gilbert and Castillan called out to her, "Watch over him!" With a quizzical tilt of her head, the automaton stepped over to the gnome, scanning his unmoving form with the red ray from her eye.</p><p></p><p>Finoula brought down the fungal ogre she'd been fighting with a skillful application of both sword and whip. Gilbert called Mudpie over to him, imbued his familiar with a <em>vampiric touch</em> spell, and had him glide under the earth to deliver the spell to the sole remaining fungal ogre by a touch from below. The spell was all it took to slay the plant-thing, which had been near death by this point in any case.</p><p></p><p>Seeing Binkadink safely back outside, Darrien called his <em>ebony fly</em> back to him. The giant insect, with no thoughts of combat itself, retraced its flight back outside the hogan's entrance, arriving by its master. The archer climbed onto the fly's back and sent him up into the air.</p><p></p><p>"I am unable to return this victim to mobility," MARCI announced after having completed her examination of Binkadink. "I can, however, tend to his physical wounds. She inserted a thin needle from the tip of one mechanical finger into the gnome's skin near a deep bruise, infusing his flesh with a compound that would aid in rapid cellular regeneration.</p><p></p><p>Malrin peered down through the hole in the roof and decided to aid in the fight from her place of relative safety. She cast a <em>produce flame</em> spell and dropped a ball of fire directly onto one of the fungus leshies. The top of its fungal cap blazed with flames, causing it to run frantically around the hogan. But the death of their leader seemed to have disheartened the other two hags; with a quick look at each other, the sea hag ducked back into the pond waters while Snizzletooth the greenhag simply disappeared from view. Malrin saw her sudden disappearance but was unsure whether she had <em>teleported</em> away or simply turned invisible, and since she wasn't part of the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell and couldn't speak while wildshaped into an owl, she had no way to tell the rest of the group what she had seen.</p><p></p><p>For their part, now that the combat outside had been brought to a successful conclusion, the heroes advanced cautiously upon the hogan. Castillan ran up the side of the hogan, settling alongside his sister who was still in owl form; she took the opportunity to return to elven form and tell him that the sea hag had gone back into the water. Castillan passed this information to the others over the link; Hagan, after a moment's thought, targeted the pond itself with a <em>chain lightning</em> spell and moments later the lifeless corpse of Snizzletooth floated to the surface of the water outside the hogan.</p><p></p><p>Darrien brought his <em>ebony fly</em> to a landing near the pair on the roof and together, the three peered inside the structure. Malrin continued dropping balls of fire down upon the fungus leshies. But then Castillan spotted the over-large cot being raised by no visible means and assumed it was the invisible greenhag climbing beneath it. Dropping through the hole once again, he stabbed down at the area beneath the cot and felt resistance from his blade as it skewered the unseen hag. Grizelda spun and tried catching Castillan with a set of wicked claws, but he had her pinned in place with his blade. Worse yet, her attack had popped her back into visibility; Darrien had no difficulty slaying her from above with a well-placed arrow, then did likewise with the two fungus leshies. In a matter of seconds, the archer had slain all of the remaining foes inside the hogan.</p><p></p><p>Dragging Grizelda away from the cot, Castillan reached beneath the bed frame and pulled out Gilbert's <em>Omnibook</em> as the portly mage entered the wooden building. He sighed in satisfaction at getting his master spellbook - and entire reference library - back.</p><p></p><p>After that, the group tore the hogan apart looking for treasure. One rickety bookshelf along the wall revealed not only Mother Dumpling's own spellbooks - Gilbert noted with disappointment that he already knew all of the spells listed therein - but also tomes of notes about the processes used in transforming the halflings into vegepygmies and the ogres and hill giants into fungal versions of themselves, as well as the strain of fungus used on the zombie ants. One book on the shelf was a fake, with a hollowed-out interior hiding a small tuning fork engraved with the word "Mithardir" on its side; one of the notebooks hinted that details of the fungal disease (and its cure) could be found there, in one of the layers of the outer plane of Arborea. (There were also hints that the cure to the halflings’ vegepygmy state could be found there.) A <em>crystal ball</em> sat on one shelf, in plain view. Mother Dumpling's robe turned out to be a <em>robe of useful items</em>. Finally, there was a suspicious patch of dirt along the wall between the front door and the encroaching pond that hinted at a recent burial; digging in that area unearthed a metal chest filled with numerous gold pieces.</p><p></p><p>"So now what?" asked Hagan. "Are we going to this Mithardir plane?"</p><p></p><p>"Not yet," Gilbert replied. "I need to prepare <em>plane shift</em> spell another day, but we wait for Bink to snap out of it first. Last time it take three days."</p><p></p><p>"But what about the transformed halflings?" Finoula asked.</p><p></p><p>"They been vegepygmies who knows how long? Couple more days not kill them."</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>teleport</em> spell to get everyone back to Battershield Keep rather than returning via the <em>teleportation circle</em> hidden in the halfling village's water tower.</p><p></p><p>Three days later, though, not only had Binkadink overcome his magical affliction, but Gilbert Fung had prepared a <em>plane shift</em> spell and everyone was ready to go. "I read up on Mithardir," Gilbert announced. "It gritty desert, but we survive there okay. Won't need <em>attune form</em> spells." Then, striking the tuning fork they'd taken from the hag covey's hogan, he cast the spell and the assorted heroes stood amid the gritty wasteland of Mithardir.</p><p></p><p>There was white sand in every direction, under a burning sun overhead. Mithardir was an infinite plane of scattered ruins. Malrin took to owl form and flew up, scanning the distance in all directions. There was only one set of ruins visible, even to her sensitive eyes, so that was the direction the group headed.</p><p></p><p>When they got to the side of the last dune before the ruins would be upon them, the druidess cast <em>delay poison</em> spells on Binkadink, Castillan, Finoula, Obvious, and Grumps Junior - they were the most likely front-line attackers, and thus the ones most likely to be hit by any venomous attacks. Gilbert cast his standard <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell, linking the heroes together, and then they crested the final dune and the set of ruins stood before them.</p><p></p><p>The buildings that had once stood in this location had crumbled almost to nothingness; a random assortment of still-standing walls gave one the general idea of the building's size and shape, but it purpose was no longer evident. The roof was missing, as were great chunks form most of the walls, not one of which stood more than ten feet tall.</p><p></p><p>As the group approached, a figure stepped away from the ruins and gazed at them. He was garbed in dark clothing with a floppy-brimmed hat shielding his face from the sun burning down overhead; he held a light mace in his hand. But rather than lift the weapon to a ready position, he did something unexpected: he began to sing.</p><p></p><p>The notes of his song were doleful and dire; none of the heroes understood the language in which the dirge was sung, but its meaning transcended language altogether. He pointed at finger at Finoula and she felt the tingling sensation of a magical spell effect, but she was able to shrug it off with effort. She gripped her two primary weapons, ready to race up and counterattack in a more physical manner; seeing this, the ruin chanter backed off, retreating to the rear of the ruins.</p><p></p><p>Darrien cast an <em>animal growth</em> spell, causing Wezhley, Grumps Junior, and Obvious to each double in size. Gilbert followed that spell up with an <em>enlarge person</em> spell on the gnome fighter, allowing Binkadink, now the size of a human, to sit comfortably astride his enormous jackalope. Obvious hippity-hopped forward along the outskirts of the ruins, headed for the ruin chanter. Castillan ran parallel to the jackalope, racing forward through the sand and dodging between partially-fallen walls to work his way to the center of the ruins. The ruin chanter cast an unknown spell at Binkadink as he approached, but the gnome was able to shrug off the intended effect as well as Finoula had just moments before. And then the pair was close enough for combat, with the gnome's glaive being thrust at the dark-clad guardian like a lance.</p><p></p><p>Hagan and Wezhley approached the ruins, the weasel now too large to sit upon the half-orc's shoulder as normal. Malrin alit upon a partially-collapsed wall, not wishing to go attack the ruin chanter herself but wanting to see what happened, so she could dart in and provide healing to whoever might need it. Finoula entered the ruins behind Castillan, following the same general path but unable to keep up with the speedy bounder.</p><p></p><p>And then suddenly, piles of cascaded chunks of walls and collapsed columns rose up from being half-buried in the sands and took on the semblance of a pair of roughly humanoid forms. The first of these ruin elementals struck a stony fist at Castillan, hitting him hard from behind and practically bouncing him off a wall. The other formed too far away from anyone to be able to strike at once, so it headed towards Hagan, its nearest potential target.</p><p></p><p>Darrien, astride his enlarged dire bear cub, wasted no time; he immediately shot the ruin elemental attacking Castillan with a barrage of arrows from his <em>Arachnibow</em>. The bounder, although woozy, managed to tumble around the ruin elemental, making feints and dodges to wind his way behind the hulking behemoth. Then, using his <em>stonepiercer dagger</em>, he thrust deep into the back of the elemental's leg, causing a series of cracks to radiate out from the entry point of his weapon. Gilbert cast a <em>maximized cone of cold</em> at the same target, blasting it up high so he wouldn't accidentally hit Castillan in case he bounded over to the front of the creature. The elemental staggered under this magical assault.</p><p></p><p>But then the ruin chanter, racing around the back of the ruins to escape Binkadink and Obvious, found himself facing Castillan and sent another of his thus-far-ineffectual spell attacks at the elf. He had no further success this third time than he had with his first two attempts, and he swore in some unknown language at his terrible luck thus far.</p><p></p><p>Hagan, seeing the success Gilbert had with his cold-based spell, decided to follow suit with a <em>polar ray</em> spell at the ruin elemental bearing down on him. His wasn't maximized as Gilbert's had been, but it was a more powerful spell overall and the sorcerer was pleased to see the construct stagger under its power. But still it came on, forcing the half-orc to back away from it lest it be able to pound him into the burning sands.</p><p></p><p>Malrin flew down from her perch to briefly alight upon her brother's shoulders, taking the opportunity to deliver a healing spell through her talons before taking wing again. Fortunately, at this time Finoula had the ruin elemental's full attention, attacking it with her enchanted longsword and her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>, so the owl-druid was in no particular danger of retaliation from the massive construct. But Finoula was certainly in danger, a fact made all the more obvious when a massive fist slammed into her, causing the air to expel from her lungs and nearly send her flying.</p><p></p><p>Obvious leaped over the crumbling wall between him and the ruin chanter, landing expertly before his foe, allowing Binkadink to send the blade of his magic glaive slicing a line of pain across the ruin chanter's chest. Blood spilled in an arc onto the white sand.</p><p></p><p>With Finoula temporarily out of the picture, the first ruin elemental turned to strike at Castillan once again, catching the bounder with a powerful slam that sent him reeling. The other one caught up to Hagan and smashed a powerful fist down at the half-orc, catching him on the shoulder. Hagan roared in pain as his entire arm went numb; he was momentarily worried he might have a broken bone or two from the powerful blow but he ignored the pain and used his other hand to point at his enemy, sending another <em>polar ray</em> blasting up at the elemental. Wezhley hissed in anger at the attack on his master and dashed around the elemental's feet, hoping to trip him up. Gilbert, having seen the power behind the blows from these ruin elementals, covered himself with a <em>stoneskin</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Darrien continued pumping arrows into the first elemental, refusing to give it a moment's respite. It turned to face the half-elf ranger, giving Castillan another opportunity to dodge around it and stab his <em>stonepiercer dagger</em> deep into one of the chunks of rock making up the construct's limbs.</p><p></p><p>The ruin chanter tried switching tactics; all three of his first magic attacks had been geared toward diminishing his opponents' physical abilities; now he focused his next magical attack on the giant jackalope before him, targeting his mental attributes. This time he succeeded and Obvious fell under the sway of a <em>confusion</em> effect. Binkadink, astride his trusted battle mount, understood at once that something was wrong when Obvious suddenly veered off in a different direction, as if distracted by a cloud or something - very out-of-character behavior for the gnome's trusty mount, who had been the veteran of a dozen or more lethal combats. Suspecting magical interference, the gnome pulled out his <em>horn of goodness</em> and sounded it, covering himself in a <em>magic circle against evil</em> effect which radiated out from him for ten feet in all directions - which had the intended result of temporarily negating the <em>confusion</em> effect affecting his jackalope friend. Obvious spun to face their foe once more, causing the ruin chanter to visibly blanch at the undoing of his one spell success thus far.</p><p></p><p>Finoula renewed her attack on the first ruin elemental, striking with her sword and whip as Darrien continued his barrage of arrows and Castillan kept chipping away at it from behind with his magical dagger. Seeing its massive fist about to strike Finoula down, Gilbert cast a <em>quickened ray of enfeeblement</em> at the ruin elemental; he couldn't prevent it from striking the elven ranger but he could rob the blow of much of its power. </p><p></p><p>Obvious, no longer confused, sprang out at his foe and caught him between a pair of rodent teeth. Then he shook him back and forth like a rag doll, literally shaking the ruin chanter to death. He finally let him go, and the black-clad guardian fell in a boneless heap in the desert sands, facedown and unmoving.</p><p></p><p>Hagan took another glancing blow from the ruin elemental who persisted in chasing him down; he retaliated with the last <em>polar ray</em> in his inventory, causing parts of the elemental's body to ice over and tremble as if about to collapse. But it still held itself together, and as the <em>polar rays</em> were Hagan's most powerful spells, he turned tail and ran from the massive creature at full speed. Gilbert cast a <em>disintegrate</em> spell at the thing, hoping to take it out once and for all, but while a chunk of the elemental went missing it failed to fall to pieces as the wizard had intended. However, the ruin elemental did change targets, ceasing its pursuit of Hagan to stomp over in Gilbert's direction.</p><p></p><p>Grumps Junior, even at this size, wasn't a combat-trained riding mount, so he wasn't all that keen to leap into battle like Obvious. But at Darrien's urging, he moved along the ruin wall to get closer to the ruin elemental, making it even easier for Darrien to hit it with his arrows. Castillan was still going to town on the thing with his dagger; with every strike, chunks of rubble fell from the elemental's patchwork form. Finoula activated her amulet and sent herself, as a blast of lightning, through the ruin elemental to re-form as an elf on its far side. Then Obvious raced up, getting close enough for Binkadink to attack it with a powerful stroke of his glaive. The better part of the creature's arm fell to the ground with a heavy THUNK! - and then the jackalope darted in, catching the stump in his mouth and pulling it to pieces. The creature eventually discorporated, its various chunks of marble and granite falling apart in a heap in the white sands of Mithardir.</p><p></p><p>Darrien switched targets to the only other remaining ruin elemental without missing a beat. Castillan staggered over towards his sister, in desperate need of healing before he felt ready to go face the other elemental. His sister obliged by taking wing to land on his shoulder and send healing energy flowing through her talons and into the wounded bounder's body.</p><p></p><p>Not trusting his <em>stoneskin</em> spell alone to keep him safe from this hulking monstrosity, Gilbert cast a <em>false life</em> spell on himself while rapidly backing away. It came just in time, too - right before a swift punch from a fist as big as he was came crashing down on him. But seeing how weak the elemental now looked - there were visible gaps in its mish-mash body - Hagan brought the thing down with a simple <em>magic missile</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>With their enemies all dead, the group took time for healing - Malrin reassumed her elven form and cast what spells she had available, while MARCI examined the heroes with her red eye-beam and applied injections as needed. Then Gilbert was off to explore the ruins, their reason for coming to this desert wasteland in the first place.</p><p></p><p>The wizard found what he was looking for in the form of runes carved over a still-intact arch. "These planar runes," he observed. "I bet this a planar gate." To test the theory, he stepped through the archway - and disappeared from view.</p><p></p><p>"Gilbert!" cried Binkadink, following the heavyset mage's path through the arch and disappearing as well. The others followed suit, finding themselves in a pocket dimension very different from the harsh desert realm they had just left. This was a lush, wet place, dripping with greenery: ferns and fronds circling a pool of sparkling, clear water which was being filled from a small waterfall. On a a hunch, Gilbert waded into the pool, submerged himself completely, and felt better than he had for days - since before experiencing the zombie ant fungus, as a matter of fact.</p><p></p><p>"Come in - water fine!" he called to the others. They each joined him in the pool, even the animals - all but MARCI, who stated she had not been designed for total immersion in a liquid element, but they decided she wouldn't have had need to be healed in a magical pool in any case.</p><p></p><p>"I'll bet the vegepygmies would be healed if they came in here," Finoula offered.</p><p></p><p>"I not going back for them!" Gilbert protested. "That means trip back home, then another trip here, then another trip home! That three more <em>plane shift</em> spells! No way!"</p><p></p><p>"How long do you think the water's powers would last if we took it to the halfling village?" Hagan asked.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert thought it over. "At least hour," he guessed. "No more than a day, in any case." So the half-orc proposed removing everything they had stored in their <em>portable hole</em> - at least everything they didn't mind getting wet - and then filling it up with the waters from the pool. That way, they could allow the vegepygmies to bathe in the restorative liquid and be returned to their halfling selves. "The village cleric ought to be able to convince them," Hagan reasoned.</p><p></p><p>And he was right.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>I used an unusual miniature for the fight with the covey of hags: an actual hogan model Harry had made last year in his fifth-grade class; we used modeling clay for the ground, from which we planted a circle of cinnamon sticks to represent the upright, wooden logs; the removable roof was made of cardboard and covered with strips of construction paper to represent the thatch. But when it was completed, I thought to myself that it would make a cool place to fight enemies in a D&D adventure, so this adventure was written around that concept.</p><p></p><p>And Binkadink ended up victim to a sea hag's evil eye again! He's faced a grand total of two sea hags in his life, and both combats left him dazed and completely useless for three days - and he has the highest Constitution of anybody in the party! Logan took over running Malrin for the rest of the adventure (even the last bit, after Binkadink had been restored to full awareness).</p><p></p><p>And speaking of Malrin, she leveled up to 10th as a result of this adventure.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: My black "Chaotic Evil Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry" T-shirt, as it indicated the hags' alignments.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7545323, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 57: GILBERT FUNGUS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 16[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 16[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 9[/INDENT] [INDENT] MARCI, humanoid construct[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 1 January 2019 - - - The sun was just coming fully up when Binkadink Dundernoggin returned to Battershield Keep. He did his best to keep the smile from his face, but every time he thought about the prank he'd just pulled he couldn't help himself from smirking. Early that morning, he'd gotten up and snuck out of the keep to go down to the marketplace in the city, arriving there just as the merchants were setting up their stalls. He'd adjusted the [I]hat of disguise[/I] he'd recently purchased - for this very reason - and concentrated on altering his appearance in a very specific way. From the neck up, his facial features altered to mimic those of his cousin Jinkadoodle until he had became his virtual twin. As the magic hat allowed him to change the appearance of the clothing he wore as well, he'd mentally commanded it to make it look as if he was wearing...nothing. Despite being garbed in a set of his normal clothing, to all appearances he had at that point looked like a naked version of his cousin. But that hadn't been enough for the little gnome. He'd taken stock of his apparent nakedness and made some final adjustments: shrinking the genitals considerably and then adding some warts and seeping sores for good measure. And the final piece to his revenge prank had been changing the appearance of the [I]hat of disguise[/I] itself; he turned it into a large-brimmed, floppy hat with an ostentatious purple feather and the name "JINKY" proudly embroidered on the front in large letters. Finally satisfied, he then made a point to streak up and down the marketplace several times, making sure he'd been seen by all who were up at that early hour. Then, before getting caught, he had dodged into an alley and reverted back to his normal appearance, exiting back onto the main street several blocks over and sauntering back to the keep with an unhurried gait. [I]That[/I] ought to be sufficient retaliation for Jinkadoodle's recent illusion of Binkadink engaged in a gnome-on-goat dalliance in the Battershield Keep stables! Binkadink headed over the keep's kitchen well in time for breakfast; Helga Battershield was just putting out the plates and cutlery and the little gnome was in such a good mood he gave her a hand with the preparations. Jinkadoodle wasn't about; he'd spent the night in the dragonfly vessel as he often did, but Binkadink was certain it wouldn't take long for the accusations (and snickering) to hit his cousin. He was now in the pleasant span of time between prank application and victim realization - this would be a great day! As the rest of the adventuring group sauntered over to breakfast, Binkadink's good mood caused him to pull out an old trick he'd used on several occasions before, but never on Hagan - all of a sudden, while everyone was eating, Wezhley's fur took on a bright purple hue to the consternation of the half-orc sorcerer the weasel served as a familiar. "Bink!" scolded Finoula, well aware that the cause of the weasel's sudden color change was Binkadink's inherent ability to cast [I]prestidigitation[/I] once a day. The little gnome put on his best "Who, me?" face but soon enough copped up to the prank to Hagan. "It'll turn back to its normal color in about an hour," the gnome promised. It was about an hour after breakfast had been finished up that the next bit of the day's excitement hit. Since the adventurers were present in the keep, they had the drawbridge down and the portcullis raised - nobody was liable to cause them any trouble. After all, Binkadink and Obvious were in the courtyard, as were Darrien and his dire bear cub, Grumps Junior. Hagan and Wezhley (who sure enough, had had his fur return to its normal color) were up on the rooftop of the keep's northwestern tower, where the half-orc was feeding his weasel treats as he stood up on his hind legs and begged. Castillan stood at the top of the northeastern tower and scanned the horizon, his thoughts his own. Finoula and her timber wolf Wrath were playing just outside the keep's front entrance, and thus were the first to talk to the merchant who rode up to the keep in his one-horse cart. "This Battershield Keep?" he asked the elven ranger, keeping a wary eye on the full-grown wolf at her side. "It is indeed," she answered. "There's supposed to be a Gilbert Fung living here," the merchant said, pulling out a package wrapped in paper and tied with twine. "Is he in?" "I'll get him," Finoula offered, heading back to the kitchen area, where Gilbert Fung had remained after breakfast, slowly polishing off the rest of the muffins while he read through his [I]Omnibook[/I]. "You've got a package," she told the portly mage. "You right about that," smirked the wizard, leering at the elf suggestively. But he rose, closed his [I]Omnibook[/I], and stored it in its leather pouch at his side as he ambled out to see what the merchant might have brought him. The man explained he made rounds along the southern edge of the Vesve Forest and that he'd been given a package for Gilbert from another merchant, who in turn had been given it by a man in Izlen, a village at the northeastern edge of the vast forest. Gilbert took the proffered package from the merchant and looked up at him when the man didn't immediately leave. "You get paid to bring this to me?" he asked. "I was paid a small fee, yes," admitted the merchant, putting emphasis on the "small" part to hint to the wizard that any additional payment for his troubles would not only be greatly appreciated but only fair, really. "If you already paid, then off you go," shooed Gilbert, turning from the man and walking back over the drawbridge back into the keep. There was a folded sheet of parchment tied by twine to the wrapped package. Pulling it out and reading it silently to himself, Gilbert snorted in derision a couple of times. "This guy laying it on thick," he observed. The letter read:"So? Are you going to open it?" Binkadink asked. He and his jackalope, Obvious, had sidled up to the portly wizard as he was reading through the letter; the gnome had even activated his [I]stilt-boots[/I] so he could read over the much-taller human's shoulder. "Give me chance, gnome!" Gilbert chided, cutting through the twine with the edge of his dagger. He let the paper fall to the ground as he opened the leather-bound book. Once he touched the front cover the book sprang fully open of its own accord; furthermore, the pages at the front were folded over several times and these began automatically flipping open, flipping open again, then flipping up and flipping down as overlapping parts of a large, many-folded sheet unfurled to its full size. The sheet unfolded to a 3-foot-by-3-foot square, the entire page holding an intricate diagram looking similar to a [I]magic circle[/I] drawing - although many of the symbols looked like snails and insects and the circle itself was transcribed by a writhing line of earthworms drawn on the page. The borders were dotted with mushrooms and toadstools in green, brown, and black. And then the ants start crawling out. It wasn't just an ant or two crawling forth out of the now-active [I]magic circle[/I] in the open book Gilbert held in his hands: it was a torrent of ants that scrambled forward off the pages, onto his hands and arms, and up his robes, biting with their wicked mandibles. They brought with them an odor of mildew and decay, which wasn't surprising once Gilbert noted that there was fungus growing from the backs and heads of the ants. And if he had had any further doubts about the matter, his magically-enhanced vision registered the swarm of ants as undead creatures. Gilbert dropped the book at his feet and frantically started slapping the fungal ant zombies away. Waves of ants continued spilling from the book, engulfing Binkadink and Obvious and continuing forward out of the keep towards Finoula and Wrath as well as back into the deeper recesses of the keep's courtyard, where Darrien and Grumps Junior gaped in wonder. Up on the top of the front towers, Castillan, Hagan, and Wezhley heard the strangled cries from below and looked over into the courtyard to see what was transpiring. Darrien hurriedly opened the stable doors and ushered his dire bear cub inside, closing the door once he was in; hopefully, the ants would stay out of the stables if they couldn't see an easy way in. Gilbert felt nauseated from the onrush of undead insects; the growths on their dorsal sides gave off a cloud of spores that he had unwittingly inhaled. He found it difficult to stay on his feet; fortunately, he had a trusty earth elemental familiar who could help him in that regard. Calling out to Mudpie, he felt the elemental rising up from the earth beneath his feet, lifting the considerable weight of the portly mage in his hands over his head as he earthglided his way to the front of the keep's courtyard by the lowered drawbridge. Once there, he unceremoniously tossed his master into the moat, hoping that would be the easiest way to rid him of the ant zombies covering his body. Of course, during his maneuvering Mudpie had picked up a coating of undead ants himself, but the earth elemental didn't need to breathe and couldn't be poisoned, so the creatures' spores held no threat to the elemental. Splashing into the moat, Gilbert retained enough awareness to keep himself afloat and saw that most of the ants covering him had indeed been washed off by the sudden submersion. He failed to note the quiet "plunk" of an unseen object falling into the moat by his side. Back in the courtyard, Binkadink shook the ants off him as best he could as he backed up towards the rear half of the keep; Obvious followed suit. Then, reaching up and plucking a crystal from the necklace he wore, the little gnome held it low to the ground, activated it, and sent a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell blasting a line through the mass of undead ants in the courtyard. Up at the top of the northwestern tower, Hagan bent over the battlements and sent a precisely-positioned [I]fireball[/I] down into the courtyard, frying a bunch of the ants without hitting any of his friends or their animals below. Outside the keep, Finoula saw the [I]lightning bolt[/I] scorching its way out of the drawbridge and decided to follow up with her own [I]lightning amulet[/I]. Calling for Wrath to stay outside, she activated the amulet and became a bolt of lightning herself, scorching her way through a bunch of the ants and reforming into her normal elven body at the rear end of the courtyard, beside Darrien, Binkadink, and Obvious. However, she inadvertently inhaled a lungful of spores before her maneuver and stood coughing when she reappeared. Castillan bounded down the side of the northeastern tower, using the tower's wall to slow his fall. He landed nimbly in the courtyard, raced across to the dropped book (which was still open, but without any more ants emerging; apparently all that were coming out had already done so), scooped it up, and was running up the wall of the stables before too many ants could climb onto him - but not, unfortunately, before he too got a lungful of fungal spores. He heard a sudden buzzing in his ears, as if some insect flew straight at him, but saw nothing - and then the sound was gone. As [I]lightning bolts[/I] seemed to be an effective strategy thus far, Darrien plucked a crystal from his own necklace, held it down low, and activated it, blasting a bunch more of the undead swarms of fungal zombie ants, killing scores if not hundreds of the creatures. But the remaining ants surged forward, one clump reaching Darrien while another group climbed up the stable walls to engulf Castillan. (A third swarm still covered Mudpie, but the earth elemental didn't seem to even notice. He was actually making himself bait for the undead insects, knowing any ant zombies wasting their time attacking him weren't attacking anybody else.) Gilbert, treading water in the moat, cast a [I]dimension door[/I] spell - as it required only verbal components that he could sputter while still keeping himself afloat - and ended up on the top of the northwestern tower beside Hagan. He looked down over the crenellations to see Binkadink using another crystal from his necklace to blast away some of the ants approaching Darrien. Hagan raced south along the walkway between the western towers, casting another [I]fireball[/I] spell down at the ants, crisping them black while avoiding any damage to Darrien (although he cut it fairly close!). Finoula blasted herself through the remaining ants in [I]lightning bolt[/I] form again, returning to her original position beside her wolf at the end of her electrical arc. That pretty much did it for the ants in the courtyard, save those climbing onto Castillan. Still, Darrien scampered up the stone steps leading to the top of the southeastern tower, stepping off onto the roof of the one-story building that housed the keep's dining area. It felt safer here, higher up. He flicked a few stragglers off his sleeve and crushed them under his boot heel on the stone roof of the kitchen building. Castillan stubbornly ignored the biting zombie ants and concentrated on folding the [I]magic circle[/I] page back up, then tucked the closed book between his arm and body and used the corner between the wall of the tower and the exterior wall to race up to the tower's roof, climbing over the battlements alongside Gilbert. "Here," he said, handing the book back to the wizard. But the ants climbed up the tower wall behind him, surprising both Castillan and Gilbert as they swarmed over the battlements. "Not again!" Gilbert cried, casting a [I]fly[/I] spell upon himself and then leaping over the edge of the tower, flying back down into the moat (but far enough away from his initial point of entry that he wouldn't likely be bumping into any floating ants from his first plunge into the moat). Binkadink leaped upon Obvious's back and the two raced back out across the drawbridge, the gnome wielding his glaive although he realized how poor a weapon this was when fighting swarms of ants. He met up with Finoula and Wrath, who likewise weren't overly equipped to fighting individual ants. (The elven ranger had her [I]lightning amulet[/I], but it only had one more use for the day.) Hagan was almost to the southwestern tower when he heard the commotion behind him and spun around, heading back the way he'd come. On his shoulder, Wezhley gave a frightened hiss; he didn't like undead things! His legs already covered in crawling ants, Castillan raced to the western edge of the tower and plunged over the side, turning his fall into a graceful dive into the moat. The ants still on the northwestern tower, as one, spun about and started heading toward Hagan and Wezhley, now the nearest living targets. But Hagan responded with the arcane syllables that caused a [I]fireball[/I] spell to flash from his fingertips, screaming across the distance between them and flash-frying the remaining undead ants in a fiery ball of death. At the spell's end, there were no longer any zombie ants on the battlements of Battershield Keep. The threat apparently contained, the heroes regrouped back down in the courtyard. "What was that all about?" Darrien asked, releasing Grumps Junior from the stables and having to coax him out. "An assassination attempt?" "No!" cried Gilbert Fung suddenly, feeling the empty leather pouch at his side where his [I]Omnibook[/I] resided when it wasn't in use. "Thievery! Somebody stole my book!" And then he began coughing convulsively, the spores having taken quite a toll on the heavyset wizard. "We need healing," decided Castillan. Binkadink ran up to Gilbert's room to fetch MARCI, but the construct poked a sample of the fungus with a needlelike extension from one of her metal fingers and analyzed it. "I am unable to properly analyze the poison," she announced, scanning her red eye-beam across Gilbert's body. "It probably only part poison, part curse - like mummy rot!" Gilbert deduced. "Stupid undead!" "We need Malrin," Castillan announced. "She might be able to help us." As his little sister still lived across town with their parents in Ivenheart Manor, Hagan offered to [I]teleport[/I] everyone there. Once MARCI announced Obvious and Grumps Junior were free of the affliction, they were left behind in the courtyard, since the likely next step after being healed up was to go through the [I]magic circle[/I] in the book Gilbert had been sent, and those two animals simply wouldn't fit through the circle. (As it was, Gilbert himself was going to be a tight squeeze!) Castillan ran inside to fetch Malrin once they arrived in the yard behind Ivenheart Manor. MARCI determined the only ones afflicted with the strange fungal disease were Gilbert, Finoula, and Castillan - the latter still coughing as he arrived with his sister in tow. Malrin had yet to prepare her spells for the day, so after Castillan explained to her what had happened, she sat down by a tree to meditate and prepare the spells she'd need. At her stage of training, her mind could only hold five [I]lesser restoration[/I] spells and these were just enough to get the three afflicted heroes back up to their full strength. "That's at least overcoming the symptoms," Malrin announced. "I'm not sure if I've actually taken care of the disease itself." "I guess we'll find out if you three start sprouting mushrooms," Binkadink joked. "So now what?" "Now we go in and get [I]Omnibook[/I] back!" Gilbert roared, opening the book back up and exposing the [I]magic circle[/I] again as it automatically unfolded to its full size. Everyone winced a bit, half-expecting more fungal zombie ants to come racing out, but the oversize page remained clear of undead. "You go in first, Bink!" Gilbert suggested. Binkadink stuck his head - and only his head - through the [I]magic circle[/I]. He found he was now looking through a hole in a wall of an enclosed cylinder, about halfway between the floor and the ceiling, which was some 15 feet high. There was nothing of particular interest to see in the darkened room, although the [I]everburning torches[/I] tied to the antlers of the little gnome's helmet gave off enough illumination to see by. There were discolorations along the floor and walls and the overwhelming scent of mold and mildew, but nothing else was in view. Binkadink pulled his head back and reported, between coughs, what he'd seen. "If this is where the ants were staged from, I'll bet the place is filled with those fungal spores," he said. "Before we all go in, we might want to stop by my uncle's potion shop and stock up on [I]delay poison[/I] potions. No sense on us all catching whatever it is these three caught." Upon their entry into his shop, Winkidew Dundernoggin reminded everyone that he was primarily a businessman and no, they weren't getting any bulk discount prices for seven [I]potions of delay poison[/I]. They paid him the full amount, he handed them over, and everyone swigged one down. Winkidew begrudgingly paid them each a small amount of coin for returning the empty potion vials for reuse and then Binkadink announced they were ready to go. "Hang on!" Hagan said suddenly, passing his weasel familiar over to Uncle Winky. "I don't want Wezhley getting exposed to any dangerous spores. Would you mind watching him?" Despite a fierce show of grumbling at the inconvenience, Winkidew eventually agreed to keep an eye on the half-orc's familiar. (Once they were out of the shop his grumpy demeanor changed immediately and he dashed downstairs to get some treats for the weasel.) "Okay, here goes!" Binkadink announced and stepped through the portal. He dropped to the bottom of the enclosed cylinder, looking around in vain for a door. Castillan, the second one in, found it: it was only about three feet tall and set along the top edge of the cylinder, the door's top flush with the ceiling. "That stupid place for door!" grumbled Gilbert once he had entered the room. "How we supposed to get up there?" Without a word, Finoula demonstrated by walking straight up the wall, her [I]boots of spider climbing[/I] making it as easy as walking along the ground. Once at the top she listened at the door, heard only birdsong, and pried it open with her blade - there was no doorknob on the inside. She found herself about 20 feet in the air, but there was a solid wooden platform at the bottom of the door and a ladder beneath it leading down. "Okay, but how rest of us get up there?" Gilbert groused. Darrien took aim with his [I]Arachnibow[/I] and shot a silken web-line up by the ceiling. He then shouldered his bow and walked up the wall, hanging onto his line with both hands. The others followed suit, leaving a grumbling Gilbert to climb up last of all. Stepping onto the platform, Finoula announced with sudden realization, "This is a water tower!" "An empty water tower," corrected Darrien. "Where'd all the water go?" "At a guess -- right there," replied Finoula, pointing straight down. The ground beneath the water tower was a muddy morass; at some point in the not-too-distant past the water had apparently been emptied to turn the tower into a fungal zombie ant staging area. Climbing down the narrow ladder one at a time, the heroes landed in the squelchy mud - all but Gilbert that is, who sent Mudpie down first and then stepped onto his upraised hands, allowing his familiar to escort him past the vast mud puddle - and looked around. They were in a hilly land, with several doors visible set into the sides of the nearby hills. In the distance sat a wooden building looking like a giant cornucopia. "This looks like a halfling village!" Finoula announced. They opted to go check out the cornucopia. As they approached it, curiosity won out over caution and Binkadink cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Is anybody here?" The fact that they could see plenty of halfling structures but not a single halfling was starting to creep the little gnome out - it was like they were in a ghost town or something. But they weren't the only living things present in the seemingly-abandoned village, as evidenced when the front door to the cornucopia building slammed open and a half dozen halfling-sized creatures spilled out. These were no halflings, though; their skin was greenish with veins and patches of brown; their dirty heads capped with thick dreadlocks of ropy, brown vines. Each held a shortspear at the ready as they peered at the approaching enemies. Finoula didn't like the look of these primitive - and presumably hostile - beings. She cast an [I]entangle[/I] spell at the area just beyond the door to the building, catching the first five in the spell's area of effect. (The sixth was still in the open doorway and opted to stay there once he saw his companions being entangled by the grass at their feet.) Castillan immediately began sprinting past the group, heading along the north side of the building before any of the green-skinned warriors thought to try throwing their spears at him. Darrien, seeing a captive set of enemies, cast a [I]spike growth[/I] spell overlapping the same area of effect of his fellow ranger's [I]entangle[/I] spell. But then Hagan, unaware of Darrien's actions, cast a [I]fireball[/I] spell that slew all five of the captive vegepygmies. If either of the rangers had thought to capture an enemy for questioning, the bloodthirsty half-orc sorcerer took that approach right off the table! Actually, there was still one member of the original six vegepygmies available for questioning - the one still in the doorway. He took one look at the carnage before him and slammed the door back shut, fleeing further into the halfling temple. Gilbert called out to him, "Hey! I want my book back, thief!" as he cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon himself. Binkadink raced up to the front door in his [I]gnomish stilt-boots [/I]once he saw Finoula and Darrien dismiss their respective spells. Malrin was right there by him and she opened the door. Once she saw the vegepygmy wasn't still right there in the doorway, she entered the darkened room with her scimitar out and ready. A few streams of light filtered in from narrow windows up by the top of the curved roof, but the candle-chandeliers hanging from the rafters overhead were unlit. Still, the elf druidess could determine the foe was no longer in the entry room of the temple, which in true halfling fashion consisted of a long table and a pair of long benches. The vegepygmies had apparently been eating a meal of dead squirrels when they heard Binkadink's questioning call, based on the half-eaten corpses scattered along the tabletop. Outside, Castillan raced up the side of the curved building and approached the chimney. There was no smoke emanating from it, so he looked down the vertical shaft, determined he could fit through it without getting stuck, and did just that. Scurrying down the chimney, he dropped to the fireplace floor in a puff of old ashes. The fireplace was shared by the front mess hall and the kitchen just behind it; the bounder opted to pop out in the mess hall side, where he could see his sister approaching and Binkadink just entering the temple. There was an open doorway on either side of the two-way fireplace and Castillan dashed through one of them, surprising the lone vegepygmy who had survived their initial assault. Castillan stabbed at the plant creature with his short sword, drawing a line of what looked like sap from his chest. The plant-thing retaliated with his shortspear and took a step back, bleeding heavily from the bounder's wound. But then Hagan entered the temple and he could see the vegepygmy through the double fireplace; one [I]magic missile[/I] brought him crashing to the kitchen floor, dead. Binkadink ran into the kitchen. The roof lowered the further back it went in the kitchen, which narrowed in width the farther back it went as well. At the very back was a curved stairwell leading down into the earth; Binkadink took the stairs two at a time. The lower level consisted of a large, open area with three smaller rooms jutting off from it; one of these was a small alcove containing a statue of a halfling woman and standing before it, in apparent consternation, was a female vegepygmy. She held a shortspear in her hand but didn't seem particularly keen on using it. She looked inquisitively at Binkadink upon his approach, her brow furrowed, and the gnome fighter didn't have it in him to attack her. "Um, hello?" he said tentatively. "Can you understand me?" The plant-woman nodded but said nothing. She pointed to her mouth and shook her head, as if explaining she couldn't speak aloud. But then she pointed to the statue and then back at herself, and Binkadink got the idea she was explaining she was once a halfling woman like the goddess whose statue stood in the alcove. "You were the priestess here? In the temple?" Binkadink asked, and the woman nodded in confirmation. By this time, the other heroes had followed their gnome companion down the stairs. Through questioning and pantomime, and finally drawing on paper the heroes provided the plant-woman, the former halfling cleric explained what had happened: three witches had overtaken the small village, turning the halflings into vegepygmies. The plant-woman sketched out a quick map showing the witches' dwelling, but warned they had powerful guardians. "They the ones who took my [I]Omnibook[/I]," Gilbert cursed. "We go get it back!" Following the directions they'd been given, the group headed away from the halfling village and toward the forest. A few miles away they approached a large hogan built of wood, with a slanted, thatched roof - it looked more than a little like an oversized, wooden igloo, for it was a round structure with a section in the front that jutted out, with a woven rug hanging in the front doorway keeping out the worst of the cold. The front opening was flanked by a pair of primitive, barely-humanoid carvings, each nine feet or so high. There were four other primitive totems, two on either side of the hogan, each little more than a carefully-stacked pile of stones with only the vaguest sense of a humanoid shape. "Those probably guardians," Gilbert suggested to the group in a whisper. Then he cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on all but Malrin, the most he could encompass with that spell at one time. <They probably golems. That mean most spells useless against them.> <Let's go see,> offered Castillan over the mental link as he cautiously approached the hogan. He could see there was a pond off to the right of the hogan, looking to come all the way up to the wooden structure. There were cattails and wooden reeds growing up out of it, and the sounds of frogs could be heard coming from that direction. But as the bounder crept forward, all senses on full alert, there was no movement from any of the six stone guardian totems. Finoula approached behind her fellow elf, her longsword [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] gripped in her right hand and her uncoiled [I]flaming whip of thorns[/I] in her left. <So far, so good,> she thought to the others. <I try something,> Gilbert announced, using his [I]slingshot of rock shrinking[/I] on his earth elemental familiar. Shrinking Mudpie to the size of a small pebble, the wizard picked him up, loaded him into his weapon, and shot him at the hanging rug. Mudpie impacted the rug with a "thwack," regaining his true size as he fell to his feet on the ground before the hogan's entrance. But still the stone totems failed to animate and attack. Hagan took the opportunity to cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell on himself. At Binkadink's request, Darrien activated his [I]ebony fly[/I] and turned it over to the gnome's use - the little fighter was used to mounted combat and it irritated him that Obvious had been too big to fit through the [I]magic circle[/I] in the book. After having done so, the archer nocked an arrow into his [I]Arachnibow[/I] and cautiously stepped forward. Binkadink mounted the [I]ebony fly[/I] and had it fly forward at full speed, landing on the ground just in front of the hogan's entrance, beside Mudpie. That was apparently the signal the guardians had been waiting for, for they animated at once and struck out at the intruders. The primitive stone golem to Binkadink's right stepped forward to slam the little gnome; fortunately, he had enough time to swing his magical glaive in the golem's direction and score a hit on it as it approached. At the same time, the golem on the other side of the hogan's entrance animated and swung a stony fist at Finoula's head. The piles of stacked stones also animated and attacked. One primitive stone construct stepped forward and attacked Binkadink, while the one by its side scrambled in Hagan's direction. The two on the other side of the hogan each attacked Finoula; battered by three separate animated stone guardians, the elf ranger almost dropped to a knee as she fought to remain conscious. Malrin stepped beside Finoula and cast a healing spell upon her fellow elf, then stepped back away from combat and wildshaped into an owl. Castillan activated his ring and [I]dimension doored[/I] to the top of the hogan, the thatched roof supporting the elf bounder's weight with ease. Unlike the halfling temple's chimney, this one was producing smoke; the elf took a deep breath and stuck his face over the top of the chimney opening, seeing what he could see. Through the smoke from a cauldron on a cook fire directly below him, he could see an extremely large young woman standing by the cauldron, a worried expression on her face as she heard the commotion out the front of the hogan. By her light blue skin and her size Castillan guessed she was a frost giant; by her peasant garb, he assumed she was a servant to the witches who laired here. But then he decided that was likely what he was [I]supposed[/I] to think; surely a member of a coven of witches would find disguising herself in an inoffensive form a simple but effective defense? For despite her size, this frost giant held no weapon but a broom, which she held close to her as if trying to hide behind it. Attacked on three sides by creatures of stone, Finoula concentrated her attacks on the biggest one, the one seemingly carved - crudely - from a solid block of stone. Her whip lashed out at the creature's leg while her longsword scratched a series of sparks against its chest. Gilbert, seeing her plight, cast an invisible [I]wall of force[/I] that separated Finoula and Malrin from the two primitive stone constructs - there was no way to shield the ranger from all three combatants, so Gilbert chose to let her focus on the one she was already actively fighting. A barrage of arrows streaked over the ranger's shoulder, striking the primitive stone golem, showing Finoula that Darrien had her back in this battle. As one of the other primitive stone constructs approached Hagan, he cast a [I]polar ray[/I] at it - one of the half-orc's most powerful spells. The ray completely destroyed the animated guardian in a way Hagan hadn't expected, for as it fell backwards in a heap, the stones seemed to dissipate, leaving behind a three-legged creature that had the appearance of an ogre-sized mobile fungus. Binkadink, still astride the [I]ebony fly[/I], slew the primitive stone golem that had been attacking him while Mudpie fought off the slightly smaller stone construct. The gnome's slain foe also transformed in death; no longer looking like some sort of half-carved gorilla, it now appeared as a rough humanoid the size of a hill giant but composed primarily of fungus. "They're not stone!" the gnome called out to his companions. "They're some sort of fungal giants!" Sure enough, now that the group was aware of the deception, it was easier to pierce through the [I]veil[/I] spell that had hidden them behind illusions of stone. The "primitive stone golem" that was attacking Finoula now stood revealed as a fungal giant - but that didn't make the strike of its massive fist any less threatening! Finoula just barely dodged the incoming slam, which pounded violently into the ground at her feet. The "pile of stacked stones" also attacking Binkadink was now evident as one of those three-legged fungal ogres - or that's what Binkadink now thought of them as. Two more of them tried slamming their fists into Malrin and Finoula, but were blocked by Gilbert's invisible [I]wall of force[/I]. Each of those two fungal ogres felt their way in opposite directions along the unseen barrier, seeking a way around it. Not wanting to wait for their arrival, Malrin flapped her owl's wings and flew up to the hogan's rooftop to alight beside her older brother. Castillan, for his part, decided to put his suspicions to the test, and dropped through the opening in the roof, landing directly behind the apparently frightened frost giant servant. He thrust at her lower back with his [I]short sword of wounding[/I], stabbing into her kidney. She cried out in pain, dropping all attempts at maintaining the illusion; standing before the bounder was no longer a frost giant maiden but a withered old crone - an annis hag, the leader of this particular covey of hags, [B]Mother Dumpling[/B]. Her cries were echoed by her familiar, an owl named [B]Mousecatcher[/B] that stood on a wooden perch beside a cot large enough to support the large hag leader. The owl shrieked again in anger, crossing the distance to claw at the bounder with its talons. And they weren't the only creatures inside the hogan, Castillan quickly learned - for crawling out from under the cot were two more fungal creatures, each no larger than an upright raccoon. The fungal leshies scampered towards the bounder, limbs flailing in apparent anger. As Castillan was fending off their attacks, the other two hags rose up out of the pool of water on the eastern side of the hogan - apparently the floor in that section had been dug deep to allow the waters of the pond outside to encroach into the building. The greenhag, [B]Snizzletooth[/B], crept up behind Castillan and slashed him with a set of nails that would do a tiger proud. The sea hag, [B]Grizelda[/B], stayed back in the pond with water halfway up her shins as she concentrated on giving the elf intruder the evil eye. But fortunately for Castillan, he was able to mentally shrug off its intended effects. He realized he was in some trouble, though, and called out to his friends over their shared link, <Guys! I'm fighting all three hags in here!> Finoula was unable to do anything about Castillan's predicament - it was all she could do to keep the marauding fungal giant at bay. While Gilbert cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon himself in preparation for battle with the hag covey inside their hogan, Hagan decided to see what he could do about finishing up the fight outside. He targeted Finoula's fungal giant with a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell, sending arcs of electricity out to the three remaining fungal ogres. His spell slew the sole remaining fungal giant and the fungal ogre that had been in battle with Binkadink and Mudpie, leaving them and Finoula free of immediate enemies. Without a pause, Darrien switched targets to one of the two remaining fungal ogres, peppering it with arrows as he'd been doing to the fungal giant in combat with Finoula. It silently turned on him and lumbered forward, eager to slay the half-elf archer. The other fungal ogre, rounding the [I]wall of force[/I], surged forward and attacked Finoula. Seeing this, Malrin flew down to the ranger's side, cast a quick healing spell delivered through a wing, and then returned to the top of the hogan's roof, out of range of attack. Binkadink lowered his glaive into "lance position" and had the [I]ebony fly[/I] charge straight into the hogan. They ripped through both the outer and inner hanging rugs, then the gnome skewered the seriously-wounded Mother Dumpling before she could scarcely register his presence. Snizzletooth kept her focus on Castillan, slashing her claws at him again and biting down on his shoulder with a mouth full of pointed teeth, causing him to cry out in pain. But Grizelda turned at Binkadink's sudden appearance, focusing her evil eye on the rampaging gnome. Binkadink had a final moment of horror - <Not again!> he cried over the shared mental link - before his mind, dazed, closed off all further thought. Castillan saw Binkadink's predicament and recalled the gnome had once before succumbed to a sea hag's evil eye attack. Knowing full well the gnome was useless for the rest of this fight, he bounder tumbled across the room, scooped him up in his arms, and activated his ring, using a second [I]dimension door[/I] spell to transport the two back out of the hogan and onto the open field immediately before it. MARCI stood nearby alongside Gilbert and Castillan called out to her, "Watch over him!" With a quizzical tilt of her head, the automaton stepped over to the gnome, scanning his unmoving form with the red ray from her eye. Finoula brought down the fungal ogre she'd been fighting with a skillful application of both sword and whip. Gilbert called Mudpie over to him, imbued his familiar with a [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell, and had him glide under the earth to deliver the spell to the sole remaining fungal ogre by a touch from below. The spell was all it took to slay the plant-thing, which had been near death by this point in any case. Seeing Binkadink safely back outside, Darrien called his [I]ebony fly[/I] back to him. The giant insect, with no thoughts of combat itself, retraced its flight back outside the hogan's entrance, arriving by its master. The archer climbed onto the fly's back and sent him up into the air. "I am unable to return this victim to mobility," MARCI announced after having completed her examination of Binkadink. "I can, however, tend to his physical wounds. She inserted a thin needle from the tip of one mechanical finger into the gnome's skin near a deep bruise, infusing his flesh with a compound that would aid in rapid cellular regeneration. Malrin peered down through the hole in the roof and decided to aid in the fight from her place of relative safety. She cast a [I]produce flame[/I] spell and dropped a ball of fire directly onto one of the fungus leshies. The top of its fungal cap blazed with flames, causing it to run frantically around the hogan. But the death of their leader seemed to have disheartened the other two hags; with a quick look at each other, the sea hag ducked back into the pond waters while Snizzletooth the greenhag simply disappeared from view. Malrin saw her sudden disappearance but was unsure whether she had [I]teleported[/I] away or simply turned invisible, and since she wasn't part of the [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell and couldn't speak while wildshaped into an owl, she had no way to tell the rest of the group what she had seen. For their part, now that the combat outside had been brought to a successful conclusion, the heroes advanced cautiously upon the hogan. Castillan ran up the side of the hogan, settling alongside his sister who was still in owl form; she took the opportunity to return to elven form and tell him that the sea hag had gone back into the water. Castillan passed this information to the others over the link; Hagan, after a moment's thought, targeted the pond itself with a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell and moments later the lifeless corpse of Snizzletooth floated to the surface of the water outside the hogan. Darrien brought his [I]ebony fly[/I] to a landing near the pair on the roof and together, the three peered inside the structure. Malrin continued dropping balls of fire down upon the fungus leshies. But then Castillan spotted the over-large cot being raised by no visible means and assumed it was the invisible greenhag climbing beneath it. Dropping through the hole once again, he stabbed down at the area beneath the cot and felt resistance from his blade as it skewered the unseen hag. Grizelda spun and tried catching Castillan with a set of wicked claws, but he had her pinned in place with his blade. Worse yet, her attack had popped her back into visibility; Darrien had no difficulty slaying her from above with a well-placed arrow, then did likewise with the two fungus leshies. In a matter of seconds, the archer had slain all of the remaining foes inside the hogan. Dragging Grizelda away from the cot, Castillan reached beneath the bed frame and pulled out Gilbert's [I]Omnibook[/I] as the portly mage entered the wooden building. He sighed in satisfaction at getting his master spellbook - and entire reference library - back. After that, the group tore the hogan apart looking for treasure. One rickety bookshelf along the wall revealed not only Mother Dumpling's own spellbooks - Gilbert noted with disappointment that he already knew all of the spells listed therein - but also tomes of notes about the processes used in transforming the halflings into vegepygmies and the ogres and hill giants into fungal versions of themselves, as well as the strain of fungus used on the zombie ants. One book on the shelf was a fake, with a hollowed-out interior hiding a small tuning fork engraved with the word "Mithardir" on its side; one of the notebooks hinted that details of the fungal disease (and its cure) could be found there, in one of the layers of the outer plane of Arborea. (There were also hints that the cure to the halflings’ vegepygmy state could be found there.) A [I]crystal ball[/I] sat on one shelf, in plain view. Mother Dumpling's robe turned out to be a [I]robe of useful items[/I]. Finally, there was a suspicious patch of dirt along the wall between the front door and the encroaching pond that hinted at a recent burial; digging in that area unearthed a metal chest filled with numerous gold pieces. "So now what?" asked Hagan. "Are we going to this Mithardir plane?" "Not yet," Gilbert replied. "I need to prepare [I]plane shift[/I] spell another day, but we wait for Bink to snap out of it first. Last time it take three days." "But what about the transformed halflings?" Finoula asked. "They been vegepygmies who knows how long? Couple more days not kill them." Hagan cast a [I]teleport[/I] spell to get everyone back to Battershield Keep rather than returning via the [I]teleportation circle[/I] hidden in the halfling village's water tower. Three days later, though, not only had Binkadink overcome his magical affliction, but Gilbert Fung had prepared a [I]plane shift[/I] spell and everyone was ready to go. "I read up on Mithardir," Gilbert announced. "It gritty desert, but we survive there okay. Won't need [I]attune form[/I] spells." Then, striking the tuning fork they'd taken from the hag covey's hogan, he cast the spell and the assorted heroes stood amid the gritty wasteland of Mithardir. There was white sand in every direction, under a burning sun overhead. Mithardir was an infinite plane of scattered ruins. Malrin took to owl form and flew up, scanning the distance in all directions. There was only one set of ruins visible, even to her sensitive eyes, so that was the direction the group headed. When they got to the side of the last dune before the ruins would be upon them, the druidess cast [I]delay poison[/I] spells on Binkadink, Castillan, Finoula, Obvious, and Grumps Junior - they were the most likely front-line attackers, and thus the ones most likely to be hit by any venomous attacks. Gilbert cast his standard [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell, linking the heroes together, and then they crested the final dune and the set of ruins stood before them. The buildings that had once stood in this location had crumbled almost to nothingness; a random assortment of still-standing walls gave one the general idea of the building's size and shape, but it purpose was no longer evident. The roof was missing, as were great chunks form most of the walls, not one of which stood more than ten feet tall. As the group approached, a figure stepped away from the ruins and gazed at them. He was garbed in dark clothing with a floppy-brimmed hat shielding his face from the sun burning down overhead; he held a light mace in his hand. But rather than lift the weapon to a ready position, he did something unexpected: he began to sing. The notes of his song were doleful and dire; none of the heroes understood the language in which the dirge was sung, but its meaning transcended language altogether. He pointed at finger at Finoula and she felt the tingling sensation of a magical spell effect, but she was able to shrug it off with effort. She gripped her two primary weapons, ready to race up and counterattack in a more physical manner; seeing this, the ruin chanter backed off, retreating to the rear of the ruins. Darrien cast an [I]animal growth[/I] spell, causing Wezhley, Grumps Junior, and Obvious to each double in size. Gilbert followed that spell up with an [I]enlarge person[/I] spell on the gnome fighter, allowing Binkadink, now the size of a human, to sit comfortably astride his enormous jackalope. Obvious hippity-hopped forward along the outskirts of the ruins, headed for the ruin chanter. Castillan ran parallel to the jackalope, racing forward through the sand and dodging between partially-fallen walls to work his way to the center of the ruins. The ruin chanter cast an unknown spell at Binkadink as he approached, but the gnome was able to shrug off the intended effect as well as Finoula had just moments before. And then the pair was close enough for combat, with the gnome's glaive being thrust at the dark-clad guardian like a lance. Hagan and Wezhley approached the ruins, the weasel now too large to sit upon the half-orc's shoulder as normal. Malrin alit upon a partially-collapsed wall, not wishing to go attack the ruin chanter herself but wanting to see what happened, so she could dart in and provide healing to whoever might need it. Finoula entered the ruins behind Castillan, following the same general path but unable to keep up with the speedy bounder. And then suddenly, piles of cascaded chunks of walls and collapsed columns rose up from being half-buried in the sands and took on the semblance of a pair of roughly humanoid forms. The first of these ruin elementals struck a stony fist at Castillan, hitting him hard from behind and practically bouncing him off a wall. The other formed too far away from anyone to be able to strike at once, so it headed towards Hagan, its nearest potential target. Darrien, astride his enlarged dire bear cub, wasted no time; he immediately shot the ruin elemental attacking Castillan with a barrage of arrows from his [I]Arachnibow[/I]. The bounder, although woozy, managed to tumble around the ruin elemental, making feints and dodges to wind his way behind the hulking behemoth. Then, using his [I]stonepiercer dagger[/I], he thrust deep into the back of the elemental's leg, causing a series of cracks to radiate out from the entry point of his weapon. Gilbert cast a [I]maximized cone of cold[/I] at the same target, blasting it up high so he wouldn't accidentally hit Castillan in case he bounded over to the front of the creature. The elemental staggered under this magical assault. But then the ruin chanter, racing around the back of the ruins to escape Binkadink and Obvious, found himself facing Castillan and sent another of his thus-far-ineffectual spell attacks at the elf. He had no further success this third time than he had with his first two attempts, and he swore in some unknown language at his terrible luck thus far. Hagan, seeing the success Gilbert had with his cold-based spell, decided to follow suit with a [I]polar ray[/I] spell at the ruin elemental bearing down on him. His wasn't maximized as Gilbert's had been, but it was a more powerful spell overall and the sorcerer was pleased to see the construct stagger under its power. But still it came on, forcing the half-orc to back away from it lest it be able to pound him into the burning sands. Malrin flew down from her perch to briefly alight upon her brother's shoulders, taking the opportunity to deliver a healing spell through her talons before taking wing again. Fortunately, at this time Finoula had the ruin elemental's full attention, attacking it with her enchanted longsword and her [I]flaming whip of thorns[/I], so the owl-druid was in no particular danger of retaliation from the massive construct. But Finoula was certainly in danger, a fact made all the more obvious when a massive fist slammed into her, causing the air to expel from her lungs and nearly send her flying. Obvious leaped over the crumbling wall between him and the ruin chanter, landing expertly before his foe, allowing Binkadink to send the blade of his magic glaive slicing a line of pain across the ruin chanter's chest. Blood spilled in an arc onto the white sand. With Finoula temporarily out of the picture, the first ruin elemental turned to strike at Castillan once again, catching the bounder with a powerful slam that sent him reeling. The other one caught up to Hagan and smashed a powerful fist down at the half-orc, catching him on the shoulder. Hagan roared in pain as his entire arm went numb; he was momentarily worried he might have a broken bone or two from the powerful blow but he ignored the pain and used his other hand to point at his enemy, sending another [I]polar ray[/I] blasting up at the elemental. Wezhley hissed in anger at the attack on his master and dashed around the elemental's feet, hoping to trip him up. Gilbert, having seen the power behind the blows from these ruin elementals, covered himself with a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell. Darrien continued pumping arrows into the first elemental, refusing to give it a moment's respite. It turned to face the half-elf ranger, giving Castillan another opportunity to dodge around it and stab his [I]stonepiercer dagger[/I] deep into one of the chunks of rock making up the construct's limbs. The ruin chanter tried switching tactics; all three of his first magic attacks had been geared toward diminishing his opponents' physical abilities; now he focused his next magical attack on the giant jackalope before him, targeting his mental attributes. This time he succeeded and Obvious fell under the sway of a [I]confusion[/I] effect. Binkadink, astride his trusted battle mount, understood at once that something was wrong when Obvious suddenly veered off in a different direction, as if distracted by a cloud or something - very out-of-character behavior for the gnome's trusty mount, who had been the veteran of a dozen or more lethal combats. Suspecting magical interference, the gnome pulled out his [I]horn of goodness[/I] and sounded it, covering himself in a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] effect which radiated out from him for ten feet in all directions - which had the intended result of temporarily negating the [I]confusion[/I] effect affecting his jackalope friend. Obvious spun to face their foe once more, causing the ruin chanter to visibly blanch at the undoing of his one spell success thus far. Finoula renewed her attack on the first ruin elemental, striking with her sword and whip as Darrien continued his barrage of arrows and Castillan kept chipping away at it from behind with his magical dagger. Seeing its massive fist about to strike Finoula down, Gilbert cast a [I]quickened ray of enfeeblement[/I] at the ruin elemental; he couldn't prevent it from striking the elven ranger but he could rob the blow of much of its power. Obvious, no longer confused, sprang out at his foe and caught him between a pair of rodent teeth. Then he shook him back and forth like a rag doll, literally shaking the ruin chanter to death. He finally let him go, and the black-clad guardian fell in a boneless heap in the desert sands, facedown and unmoving. Hagan took another glancing blow from the ruin elemental who persisted in chasing him down; he retaliated with the last [I]polar ray[/I] in his inventory, causing parts of the elemental's body to ice over and tremble as if about to collapse. But it still held itself together, and as the [I]polar rays[/I] were Hagan's most powerful spells, he turned tail and ran from the massive creature at full speed. Gilbert cast a [I]disintegrate[/I] spell at the thing, hoping to take it out once and for all, but while a chunk of the elemental went missing it failed to fall to pieces as the wizard had intended. However, the ruin elemental did change targets, ceasing its pursuit of Hagan to stomp over in Gilbert's direction. Grumps Junior, even at this size, wasn't a combat-trained riding mount, so he wasn't all that keen to leap into battle like Obvious. But at Darrien's urging, he moved along the ruin wall to get closer to the ruin elemental, making it even easier for Darrien to hit it with his arrows. Castillan was still going to town on the thing with his dagger; with every strike, chunks of rubble fell from the elemental's patchwork form. Finoula activated her amulet and sent herself, as a blast of lightning, through the ruin elemental to re-form as an elf on its far side. Then Obvious raced up, getting close enough for Binkadink to attack it with a powerful stroke of his glaive. The better part of the creature's arm fell to the ground with a heavy THUNK! - and then the jackalope darted in, catching the stump in his mouth and pulling it to pieces. The creature eventually discorporated, its various chunks of marble and granite falling apart in a heap in the white sands of Mithardir. Darrien switched targets to the only other remaining ruin elemental without missing a beat. Castillan staggered over towards his sister, in desperate need of healing before he felt ready to go face the other elemental. His sister obliged by taking wing to land on his shoulder and send healing energy flowing through her talons and into the wounded bounder's body. Not trusting his [I]stoneskin[/I] spell alone to keep him safe from this hulking monstrosity, Gilbert cast a [I]false life[/I] spell on himself while rapidly backing away. It came just in time, too - right before a swift punch from a fist as big as he was came crashing down on him. But seeing how weak the elemental now looked - there were visible gaps in its mish-mash body - Hagan brought the thing down with a simple [I]magic missile[/I] spell. With their enemies all dead, the group took time for healing - Malrin reassumed her elven form and cast what spells she had available, while MARCI examined the heroes with her red eye-beam and applied injections as needed. Then Gilbert was off to explore the ruins, their reason for coming to this desert wasteland in the first place. The wizard found what he was looking for in the form of runes carved over a still-intact arch. "These planar runes," he observed. "I bet this a planar gate." To test the theory, he stepped through the archway - and disappeared from view. "Gilbert!" cried Binkadink, following the heavyset mage's path through the arch and disappearing as well. The others followed suit, finding themselves in a pocket dimension very different from the harsh desert realm they had just left. This was a lush, wet place, dripping with greenery: ferns and fronds circling a pool of sparkling, clear water which was being filled from a small waterfall. On a a hunch, Gilbert waded into the pool, submerged himself completely, and felt better than he had for days - since before experiencing the zombie ant fungus, as a matter of fact. "Come in - water fine!" he called to the others. They each joined him in the pool, even the animals - all but MARCI, who stated she had not been designed for total immersion in a liquid element, but they decided she wouldn't have had need to be healed in a magical pool in any case. "I'll bet the vegepygmies would be healed if they came in here," Finoula offered. "I not going back for them!" Gilbert protested. "That means trip back home, then another trip here, then another trip home! That three more [I]plane shift[/I] spells! No way!" "How long do you think the water's powers would last if we took it to the halfling village?" Hagan asked. Gilbert thought it over. "At least hour," he guessed. "No more than a day, in any case." So the half-orc proposed removing everything they had stored in their [I]portable hole[/I] - at least everything they didn't mind getting wet - and then filling it up with the waters from the pool. That way, they could allow the vegepygmies to bathe in the restorative liquid and be returned to their halfling selves. "The village cleric ought to be able to convince them," Hagan reasoned. And he was right. - - - I used an unusual miniature for the fight with the covey of hags: an actual hogan model Harry had made last year in his fifth-grade class; we used modeling clay for the ground, from which we planted a circle of cinnamon sticks to represent the upright, wooden logs; the removable roof was made of cardboard and covered with strips of construction paper to represent the thatch. But when it was completed, I thought to myself that it would make a cool place to fight enemies in a D&D adventure, so this adventure was written around that concept. And Binkadink ended up victim to a sea hag's evil eye again! He's faced a grand total of two sea hags in his life, and both combats left him dazed and completely useless for three days - and he has the highest Constitution of anybody in the party! Logan took over running Malrin for the rest of the adventure (even the last bit, after Binkadink had been restored to full awareness). And speaking of Malrin, she leveled up to 10th as a result of this adventure. - - - T-Shirt Worn: My black "Chaotic Evil Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry" T-shirt, as it indicated the hags' alignments. [/QUOTE]
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