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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7603782" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 61: VERMINUS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 17</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 17</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 17</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 17</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 17</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 17</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 4 May 2019</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>The Vistani wagon slowed as the garrison building came into view. Aithanar brought the two black draft horses, Castor and Pollux, to a full halt before lines of armed and armored men being given weapons instruction by a large, burly half-orc with a vast assortment of weapons hanging on his belt and strapped to his back. Aerik Battershield leaped from the seat of the wagon at Aithanar's side as Gilbert, Mudpie, Malrin, and Hagan opened the back of the wagon and exited, eager to see what it was the dwarf had brought them to see. Castillan and Darrien slid down from the wagon's roof while Finoula dismounted from Daisy's saddle, carrying the basket of loaves of bread Helga had baked earlier that morning, while Binkadink likewise dropped down from Obvious's saddle and joined the others.</p><p></p><p>"Slayer!" Aerik called over to the assembly of fighting men as the heroes gathered around him. "Brought th' men some loaves, an' I wantcha t' meet some o' me friends!" The half-orc approached, streaks of gray at the temples of his dark hair. The heroes easily recognized him as the former King Galrich but he seemed not to recognize them. Aerik started the introductions but Slayer went immediately to Finoula, approaching her with his burly arms held out wide.</p><p></p><p>"Feron!" he cried with a wide grin, grabbing the elf in a bear hug that would have caused her to drop Helga's basket if not for Aerik's timely assistance. "Glad to see you! What brings you to this part of the world?"</p><p></p><p>"Uh," replied Finoula, unsure of what to say. She knew she and her half-elf sister Feron bore a remarkable resemblance to each other, but she also knew King Galrich's mind was no longer all it had once been and his memory of recent events was all but shot. Was it better to correct him or to play along with his assumption?</p><p></p><p>"She's helpin' out th' kingdom, same as you," interjected Aerik, leaving the elf's identity up for the half-orc's own determination. He then introduced the rest of the heroes to the man who until recently had served as their king, referring to their former liege only as "Slayer." They played along with the introductions, neither of them giving any indication that they had known him for years - or that he was personally responsible for their status as Kordovia's adventuring group in the first place. Aerik waved one of the men over to take the basket of baked goods and then allowed Slayer to get back to training the men stationed at the garrison.</p><p></p><p>"'is mind's deterioratin' fairly rapidly," Aerik confided to the others, once back out of earshot of the former king. "'e don't rightly recall most o' th' last twenty years or so - but his weapon prowess's as good as it ever were. I talked it over with th' Queen, an' she agrees 'twere best if 'e finishes out what days're left 'im as a mercenary. Most o' th' men here know who 'e really is - or at least suspect it - but they're a good lot and they'll not be lettin' th' secret out t' any outsiders. An' 'e truly enjoys leadin' these warriors; 'e still got plenty 'e c'n teach 'em. And nothin'll give 'im greater pleasure than leadin' these men into battle against th' next wave o' orcs 'n' goblins what decide t' show their ugly faces 'round these parts!"</p><p></p><p>"He's quite the fighter," observed Binkadink, watching Slayer demonstrate a move with a greataxe that likely weighed more than the little gnome, swinging it easily in wide arcs before him. Galrich might not have any memories of being king, but his days as a barbarian adventurer were obviously still fresh in his mind.</p><p></p><p>"That 'e is," agreed Aerik. "Anyway, I thought ye'd best be knowin' what's up with 'im. Ye get on back now; I'll be stayin' th' day with 'im, make sure 'e's okay. I'll catch up with ye tonight."</p><p></p><p>The group returned to the Vistani wagon, Aithanar climbing back up to the front seat and picking up the reins; Darrien and Castillan climbing back up onto the roof; and Hagan, Malrin, and Gilbert - along with their familiars, Wezhley and Mudpie - took their seats in the wagon's interior. Binkadink climbed back onto his jackalope's saddle and Finoula remounted Daisy, her timber wolf Wrath climbing back out from the shade beneath the wagon to trot alongside his mistress on the way back. Then, with a final wave to Aerik and the garrison men, they retraced their way back to Battershield Keep.</p><p></p><p>"It's sad to see King Galrich in such a state," Finoula said as they approached the keep. The drawbridge was still down, as they had left it; at Gilbert's instructions, MARCI had remained behind and could raise it in a moment at the first sign of danger.</p><p></p><p>"I don't know about that," countered Castillan. "He seems happy enough training with the other warriors. It sure beats lying in a sickbed, waiting for old age to take him."</p><p></p><p>"What's that?" Darrien interrupted, shielding his eyes and looking up to the sky. It was a cloudless day, yet a shadow had fallen over the Vistani wagon and its passengers. At the same time, the ranger became aware of a droning sound. Squinting into the overhead sun, he could make out a dark cloud of flying bodies swooping down from one of the keep's towers and seemingly heading right towards him.</p><p></p><p>From her vantage point, Finoula could see better than Darrien what was heading his way: a swarm of flying insects, beetles of some type, by the looks of them. Tapping into the magical energy of nature all around her, she caused a wall of wind to wrap around the approaching swarm, spinning around in a cylinder she hoped would keep them immobilized in place.</p><p></p><p>Castor and Pollux slowed as they approached the lowered drawbridge, bothered by the droning of the beetle's wings. Aithanar pulled back on their reins; if this was some sort of attack - perhaps by some as-yet-unseen summoner - it would be best if the group had the maneuvering room outside the keep rather than being boxed in. Once the wagon stopped its forward motion, Hagan and Gilbert exited the vehicle via its back door, Mudpie following after his portly master and Wezhley perched on the half-orc's shoulders. Gilbert immediately frowned upon seeing the black beetles flying higher and higher, seeking a way out of Finoula's <em>wind wall</em> spell, for his magically-enhanced vision identified the insects as undead creatures.</p><p></p><p>Castillan wasted no time; he leaped off the top of the wagon and raced into the keep; once there, he ran up the northeastern tower, pulling himself up over the ramparts and looking about in all directions, seeking a potential wizard enemy directing the swarm's movements. He saw none but that meant nothing, for he'd been up against invisible foes many times before in his life.</p><p></p><p>The swarm spilled out over the top of the <em>wind wall</em> spell, flowing over the outer edge and heading straight for Darrien once again. Realizing how useless his primary weapon - the <em>Arachnibow</em> - was against a swarm of flying scarabs, Darrien plucked a crystal from his necklace, aimed it at the center of the swarm's mass, and activated it. Instantly, the crystal vanished, becoming a <em>lightning bolt</em> that burned its way through the the midst of the scarabs, sending empty husks falling to the ground. Seated on Obvious's saddle, Binkadink did the same using his own <em>necklace of lightning crystals</em>, as his own glaive would likewise be all but useless against a bunch of undead insects each no bigger than his thumb.</p><p></p><p>However, despite their best efforts, the swarm - somewhat diminished in numbers - engulfed Darrien in its midst. The half-elf ranger found himself coated in a layer of crawling, biting insects, the ones skittering onto his face blinding him and trying to burrow into his nostrils and mouth.</p><p></p><p>Standing up on Obvious's saddle, Binkadink didn't dare use another <em>lightning crystal</em> for fear of hitting Darrien, and, realizing his weapons were useless against the beetles, he decided the best thing he could do was try to collect one for further study; maybe Gilbert would know something about these black scarabs - he had an eerie knowledge about undead things. The gnome leaped from the jackalope's saddle onto the top of the Vistani wagon by Darrien, grabbed a beetle and hugged it close to his chest - and then promptly fell off the side of the wagon's curving roof, landing hard on the dirt road leading to the keep. He at least had the presence of mind to keep the beetle pressed closely to the chestplate of his dragonhide armor; no sense in letting his captured "prisoner" escape after all he'd gone through to catch him in the first place!</p><p></p><p>Darrien, hardly able to see through the layers of undead scarabs covering his face, knew the general location of the wagon and ran along the roof, leaping blindly at the end and hoping he'd accurately aimed himself for the moat spanning the keep and not the lowered drawbridge - if he'd guessed wrong, he was in for a world of pain! But the cooling waters encompassed him as he sank into the moat and he figured the beetles would soon either be fleeing back to the surface or drowning where they were; either was fine with him! He felt his hidden gill-slits open at the sides of his neck and breathing became that much easier, despite the scarabs covering his nose and mouth.</p><p></p><p>Topside, Hagan had been about to cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the beetle swarm when they unerringly dived into the moat, following after Darrien. "Well, that's weird!" the sorcerer exclaimed - in his experience, flying insects usually avoided going underwater.</p><p></p><p>"They undead," Gilbert explained, cautiously approaching the moat and preparing a spell for when the beetles returned to the air. He wasn't overly concerned about Darrien being underwater this long, the ranger's father had been an aquatic elf and Gilbert knew the half-elf could pretty much stay down there as long as necessary.</p><p></p><p>Darrien felt the beetles skittering all around him, but they weren't evacuating as he had expected: they were crawling over to the front of his body and somehow merging into themselves. Hidden from view from the rest of his friends, Darrien saw a horrific form materialize before him: a skeletal face with skin stretched tightly across the skull, brown teeth providing the rictus of a grin as the mummy slammed his bony fingers around the ranger's neck. Darrien gave a wordless scream as his mind froze into panicked paralysis, the two bodies floating slowly together to the bottom of the moat.</p><p></p><p>But while Gilbert, Hagan and the others couldn't see what was going on in the moat, Castillan had a much clearer view from his perch at the top of the keep's northeastern tower. "There's someone in there with him!" he cried out, not being able to make out much of the other figure besides the fact that he seemed to be moving behind Darrien, who wasn't putting up any kind of a fight. The bounder wasted no time; leaping over the side of the tower, he dove headfirst into the moat, straining to see who was attacking Darrien and in what manner. It was some sort of undead, that was clear: a lich, maybe, or a mummy. Regardless, seeing that Darrien was unmoving, Castillan decided that the first goal was to get the ranger away from his attacker, so he grabbed hold of Darrien's arm with one hand and activated the power of his ring.</p><p></p><p>In an instant, Castillan had <em>dimension doored</em> back up to the keep's interior, just inside the raised portcullis beside MARCI. By holding onto Darrien's arm, Castillan had brought the half-elf along for the ride; the paralyzed ranger fell to the ground upon his return to solid ground, his legs unable to support him in his current state. And then the bounder got a good look at the mummy who had also come along for the ride, by dint of holding tightly to Darrien's back as he was whisked away by the <em>dimension door</em> spell from Castillan's ring. The mummy ignored Castillan completely as he rolled Darrien over onto his front and bent over his still form, fiddling with the ranger's <em>Arachnibow</em> on his back.</p><p></p><p>Finoula had dismounted Daisy and had been trying to see over the edge of the moat when she saw the trio suddenly appear in the open entrance to the keep. An undead figure was bending over Darrien; instinctively, Finoula touched her <em>lightning amulet</em> and sent herself - in the form of a <em>lightning bolt</em> - across the span and through the mummy, to reform in her normal elven body on the keep's open grounds. The mummy had been aware of the blast of electrical energy coursing through his undead body, but it didn't deter him from his task: pulling the <em>Arachnibow</em> from Darrien's back.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>polar ray</em> spell at the undead thing bending over Darrien, but the mummy had some sort of spell protection in place, for the ray of frozen energy fizzled away into nothingness upon impact.</p><p></p><p>"At last!" the mummy cried in glee, raising the <em>Arachnibow</em> above his head in triumph. The bow writhed in his hand, reshaping itself into a living spider; as Darrien was the bow's true owner, anyone else attempting to wield it caused it to transform into a spider the size of a small dog, who would have to be slain first before a new owner could be established. If the mummy was concerned about this he gave no indication; still laughing, he snapped out a single word of power and vanished from view, taking the spider with him.</p><p></p><p>Finoula rushed to Darrien's unmoving form and was relieved to see he was still breathing, but his skin had taken on an unhealthy tone. With a sudden realization, she cried out, "Mummy rot! MARCI -- is he okay?"</p><p></p><p>MARCI bent over the half-elf, the red beam from her sole eye scanning Darrien's body from head to toe in a long sweep. "Inconclusive," the construct replied. Malrin raced up as well, her <em>staff of healing</em> in hand. "If it's mummy rot, I should cast a <em>remove disease</em> spell on him," she declared.</p><p></p><p>"Stand aside," commanded Gilbert, pushing the others out of his way as he flipped to the back inside cover of his <em>Omnibook</em>, then started pushing aside images of scrolls until he got to the one he wanted. "He need <em>break enchantment</em> spell first," the wizard declared, beginning the words to the spell. Once finished, he turned to Malrin and indicated she should cast her spell now. Soon after, the paralyzation effect ran its course and Darrien sat up under his own power.</p><p></p><p>"Who was that?" he asked. "What did he want with me?"</p><p></p><p>"He was after your <em>Arachnibow</em>," Castillan answered. "Got it, too - although he was fighting it in its spider form when he <em>teleported</em> out of here."</p><p></p><p>"Well, he not keep it for long," vowed Gilbert Fung, pulling his <em>crystal ball</em> from a pocket of his robes. "We find him quick, then we go get your bow back." He passed a hand over the globe and it suddenly turned black. Gilbert, holding the undead beetle Binkadink had provided as a close tie to the mummy - something that should have made it easier to scry upon the undead form - frowned at the lack of an image. "It not working," he grumbled. "It supposed to show me mummy man - all I see is shadowy outline, nothing else."</p><p></p><p>"What are you talking about?" asked Hagan, looking over the portly mage's shoulder. "He's right there, in some kind of cavern, bending over a dead spider. You're probably seeing his outline due to the <em>detect undead</em> spell effect on your eyeballs." Hagan was well aware of Gilbert's arcane upgrade he'd performed upon himself years ago.</p><p></p><p>"You see all that through blackness?" demanded Gilbert, amazed that the half-orc's darkvision worked so well through the arcane sensor tied to his <em>crystal ball</em>. "You be able to <em>teleport</em> us all there?"</p><p></p><p>"Sure, no problem," muttered Hagan, still watching the darkened image in the sphere only he could see. "It's turned back into the bow again," he said, narrating the undead figure's moves. "Now he's picking it back up. Sorry, Darrien - it looks like he's got your weapon attuned to him now."</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" snarled Darrien. He wanted his <em>Arachnibow</em> back.</p><p></p><p>"Prep spells first," admonished Gilbert, casting a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself and Mudpie, then following it up with a <em>stoneskin</em> spell. Mudpie received a <em>mage armor</em> spell from his master while the two rangers each cast <em>barkskin</em> upon themselves. Then Gilbert finished their preparations off with a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell encompassing all of the heroes but Malrin. "You stay out of fight with mummy," Gilbert admonished the elven druid. "Your job heal us as needed. We take care of mummy."</p><p></p><p>"You're welcome to him," Malrin commented before wildshaping into an owl and alighting upon her brother's shoulder; the decreased size and weight made it easier for Hagan to <em>teleport</em> everyone in at one time. For the same reason, Gilbert used his <em>slingshot of rock shrinking</em> on Mudpie, diminishing him to the size of a small pebble and depositing him into a front pocket of his robes. MARCI stepped into the extradimensional space of the <em>portable hole</em>, Binkadink and Obvious following only after each taking a big breath of air. Then Hagan scooped up the hole and said the words that should have <em>teleported</em> the group inside the dark cavern the half-orc had seen through the <em>crystal ball</em>.</p><p></p><p>However, instead, the group was suddenly standing outside at the base of a mountain with a wide cave opening yawning before them. "Wait--this isn't right!" observed Hagan at once.</p><p></p><p>"Mummy probably got protections around lair," Gilbert mused. "We probably lucky it redirect spell just to outside lair, not into lava pit or something."</p><p></p><p>Castillan immediately started looking for a way into the dungeon cavern complex Hagan had seen in Gilbert's <em>crystal ball</em>. The cave before them was only about 20 feet deep, but there was a glowing rune of some type carved into the back wall. Curious, the bounder cautiously approached. Some sixth-sense warning alerted him to danger immediately upon brushing up against some webbing and he jerked back before getting stuck. "Invisible webs of some sort," he told the others.</p><p></p><p>"We see about that!" Gilbert said, casting a <em>see invisibility</em> spell upon his eyes. Then he confirmed, "Sure enough. Invisible spider webs all along back of cave. Not sure why, though."</p><p></p><p>Hagan, in the meantime, had dropped the <em>portable hole</em> to the ground and let Binkadink ride Obvious out into the open air. MARCI stepped out behind them. "What's up?" the gnome asked.</p><p></p><p>"Who are you? What do you want?" asked a voice from behind them. Turning, the group of heroes saw a human villager approach, staggering like he was drunk. "Who are you? What do you want?" he repeated.</p><p></p><p>"We're a group of adventurers--" Finoula began before getting cut off by another approaching stranger, who seemed to have just staggered out of the mountainside a dozen feet or so behind his companion. "It's a good thing you happened by," he said.</p><p></p><p>Another figure stumbled out through the mountainside wall - obviously a permanent illusion of some sort. This one was an elf, dressed in finery. "No! No! Nooooo!" he cried.</p><p></p><p>The heroes closest to these drunks exchanged dubious looks among themselves. Then, as one, they took up defensive stances, weapons out as the strangers staggered slowly in their direction. "Who are you? What do you want?" asked the first one for the third time. "It's a good thing you happened by," observed the one behind him, while the elf continued screaming "No! No! Nooooo!" Gilbert loaded Mudpie into his slingshot and fired him at the ground before him, restoring the earth elemental to his full size: all of four feet or so. Still, the familiar stepped protectively before the wizard, defending him from these potential foes.</p><p></p><p>As they got within reach, the staggerers attacked, their fingers curved into claws. Binkadink had his glaive at the ready and sliced at the first one in line, catching it right at the base of the neck. Blood spurted in a high arc from the wound, but the victim, nonplussed, continued its queries as to the heroes' identities and desires. "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked as his body fell forward to collapse onto the ground.</p><p></p><p>The head, however, did not follow the same path. Instead, it lurched at Binkadink, the head followed immediately by a segmented body with far too many legs which crawled out of the neck-stump of the slain figure. The human-headed centipede-thing continued chattering, "Who are you? What do you want?" as the gnome gave a bleat of surprise (and no small amount of terror) and took an involuntary step backwards.</p><p></p><p>Mudpie slammed into the one closest to him, feeling ribs crack from the force of his punch, but all the swaying fellow could say was, "It's a good thing you happened by." Finoula stabbed out with her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em> at the elf who continued screaming.</p><p></p><p>Darrien had been busy removing his <em>cloak of protection</em>, folding it up into his backpack, and putting on his <em>cloak of the white spider</em> in order to try some experiments with the invisible webbing at the back of the cave when he saw the commotion off to his right. Stepping to the side of the attacking trio, he activated another crystal from his necklace and sent a bolt of electricity coursing through all three. But now he could see another three or four stepping out from the <em>illusory wall</em> shielding another cave opening into the mountainside. These figures also stumbled about, speaking nonsense ("By Pelor's grace!" "What the Hell is <em>that</em>?" "We'll have you out of there in a jiffy"). Castillan dodged past the one fighting Mudpie to stab his short sword into one of the new arrivals, and it showed no sign of the pain its body must have felt judging by the spray of blood.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>fireball</em> spell directly into the mass of shambling figures, burning away the host bodies and forcing the human-headed centipedes out into the open. The sorcerer noted their insectoid bodies were covered in spines and that stabbing one with a handheld weapon would likely deal a bit of damage to yourself. Binkadink noted the same thing and extended his glaive to its full length, cutting through three of the abominations in rapid succession. Finoula slashed at the horrors with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>, trusting in the weapon's great reach to protect her from any spine damage.</p><p></p><p>The nonsensical mutterings came to a sudden stop almost all at once, as the centipede-things each opened up their mouths wide and sent acidic fluids spewing at the heroes. The attack was as disgusting as it was unexpected, but it was the only time the hybrid creatures would get to perform such an attack, for Hagan slew several more with a <em>chain lightning</em> spell, leaving Binkadink to pick off the others with his glaive.</p><p></p><p>"Those things were <em>disgusting</em>!" groused Finoula, wiping acidic spew from her face and flinging it to the ground. Malrin provided healing to those who had taken the worst of the damage from the acid and the spines of their attackers, and then Castillan opted to take point to see what was behind the <em>illusory wall</em>. With the others following behind him, he entered a narrow tunnel that widened out on one side, the wider section filled with barrels and crates looking to have been looted from passing caravans. But there was a closed door at the back of the passageway, and that's where Castillan focused his attention.</p><p></p><p>Observing no obvious traps, the bounder silently opened the door and found a large cavern, in the back of which looked to be some sort of bloated ankheg, in the process of laying eggs. The enormous, chitin-covered monstrosity looked directly at him, and he immediately activated his ring, casting a <em>dimension door</em> spell that took him clear across the cavern behind the insectoid monster.</p><p></p><p>Darrien was the next to react, pumping a barrage of arrows at the thing using his spare (and nonmagical) longbow. The thing hissed in irritation and pain, then scrambled over to the door on her insectoid legs with surprising speed. She caught the half-elf ranger in her mandibles, crushing him tightly but unable to maneuver him further into her mouth so she could swallow him whole. Finoula rushed forward to aid her friend, using <em>Tahlmalaera</em> to carve a deep groove into the chitin protecting the monster's side. From further back, Gilbert cast a <em>vampiric touch</em> spell on Mudpie and commanded his familiar to earth glide below the ground to activate the spell on the insect-thing.</p><p></p><p>Hagan was also further back in the line and unable to reach the monster insect. But all he needed was to see her to be able to cast a spell at her, so he sent a <em>polar ray</em> shooting past Finoula's head. Unfortunately, through some unknown set of circumstances the spell was reflected right back at the half-orc sorcerer and he got the full force of his <em>polar ray</em> right smack in the kisser. Growling in irritation, his anger sent Wezhley scurrying from shoulder to shoulder in agitation.</p><p></p><p>Malrin, still in owl form and not wanting to rush into battle, landed on Binkadink's shoulder briefly, spending her time there casing a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on the little gnome. After all, if she knew Bink, he'd be eagerly trying to find a way past his friends so he could wade into battle with the deviant ankheg-thing.</p><p></p><p>Darrien wriggled from the beast's mouthparts and skipped to her right as Finoula stabbed at her from the left. The thing responded by snapping her mandibles at Finoula, catching the ranger in her mouth but once again having trouble swallowing her prey. Finoula didn't make it any easier for the insect, slashing at the delicate mouthparts with her longsword. And then Mudpie popped up from the ground below her, touching her bloated abdomen and discharging the <em>vampiric touch</em> spell Gilbert had infused in his familiar. Castillan stabbed the creature from behind, his short sword going in deep and releasing a yellowish ichor.</p><p></p><p>Unable to reach the battle from his jackalope's back, Binkadink dropped down to the floor before Obvious and stabbed through the doorway with his glaive, the blade slicing into the top of the creature's head. Then Obvious ducked his head, catching the little gnome under his antlers, and flipped him into the air, sailing over the insectoid enemy. Binkadink just barely landed on his feet behind the creature, right beside Castillan.</p><p></p><p>Not wanting to risk having another target-specific spell reflected back at him, Hagan cast a <em>wall of fire</em> spell just past the doorway in the cavern beyond, catching the insect across the middle. (The spell also caught Binkadink and Castillan in its heat effect, but the gnome's armor absorbed the damage; Castillan had no such protection but was willing to put up with a little pain to get this guardian beast slain.)</p><p></p><p>It was getting crowded in the front of the cavern, so Darrien activated one of the powers of his robe and <em>spider climbed</em> up the cavern wall, where he could shoot down at the monster with his arrows. Gilbert called Mudpie back to his side and loaded his familiar up with another <em>vampiric touch</em> spell, pleased with the results of the tactic the first time it had been employed. But before Mudpie could earth glide back to the chitinous foe, Castillan had slain her with his blade. Her insectoid legs buckled, her mandibles opened slackly, and Finoula was able to crawl back out of the slain beast's mouth.</p><p></p><p>Hagan dismissed his <em>wall of fire</em> now that it was serving no purpose and Binkadink stepped further into the chamber, looking for other exits. There were two: one was a door along the back wall, the other a natural tunnel leading into a larger chamber. Peering down this tunnel, Binkadink was rewarded with the sight of their foe: the mummy who had stolen Darrien's <em>Arachnibow</em>. But the gnome was a tad too late in discovering the undead foe, for the mummy had the <em>Arachnibow</em> up and aimed in his direction and by the time Binkadink realized he was in danger the arrow had already been loosed and was protruding from the shoulder-joint of his red dragonhide plate armor. The gnome staggered backwards from the force of the blow while the undead mummy proclaimed, "I <em>love</em> this bow!"</p><p></p><p>MARCI had stepped up to Hagan and was injecting him with a healing fluid to restore the worst of the effects from his own reflected <em>polar ray</em> spell when Obvious leaped forward, Binkadink leaped into the saddle (pulling the arrow from his armor and tossing it to the side in contempt as he did so), and then the two hippity-hopped their way down the narrow tunnel, racing toward their undead foe - hopefully before he could get off another shot.</p><p></p><p>Hagan extracted himself from MARCI's attention, stepped to the front of the tunnel, and saw the mummy standing holding the <em>Arachnibow</em> and aiming it at Binkadink and Obvious. He cast forth another <em>polar ray</em>, sending it past the jackalope's flank to strike the undead archer. However, <strong>Verminus</strong> was no mere mummy but a mummy lord, dedicated to the worship of Vecna, the God of Secrets. As such, he had spells of his own at hand, and several such were already woven around the undead thing's form, protecting him in a number of ways. Once such spell was the <em>spell reflection</em> which sent Hagan's <em>polar ray</em> right back at him, for the second time in as many minutes. Wezhley held his ears in his front paws to block the sound of his normally good-natured master cursing in fluent Orcish.</p><p></p><p>Finoula used her <em>lightning amulet</em> to convert herself into a blast of electrical energy which passed harmlessly through Verminus. When she reformed into her elven body behind the mummy lord, she was surprised to see no reaction from him; the <em>protection from energy</em> spell he had cast upon himself before fetching the <em>Arachnibow</em> was still in effect.</p><p></p><p>Feeling protective of his fellow elf, Castillan used the last daily charge of his magic ring to <em>dimension door</em> himself to Finoula's side; he knew the undead couldn't be dealt particularly damaging blows to critical points like a living foe could, but perhaps he could still get in a surprise attack before the mummy lord registered his presence.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert approached down the tunnel, casting an <em>undeath to death</em> spell from a scroll stored in the back of his <em>Omnibook</em>. He had hoped to destroy Verminus in one fell swoop, but on that front he was unsuccessful, for the mummy lord was far too powerful to be affected by such a spell. However, the same was not true of the hundreds of undead scarab beetles Verminus had pocketed in shallow holes all along this central cavern of his, waiting to be summoned to battle. But now it was too late, for undead insect husks rained down from all sides of the cavern, crunching beneath the feet of the approaching heroes.</p><p></p><p>Darrien was still back in the cavern with the slain ankheg-thing and decided to give the closed door in the back of the room a try. It opened at his touch, revealing a square chamber carved out of the stone of the mountain. Runes inscribed in the floor indicated this was some sort of ritual chamber; Darrien dropped his <em>ebony fly</em> into the room to see if it would activate anything; it didn't. Darrien cautiously stepped into the room, ready to race back if he triggered anything. But the magic in the room was inert and he walked its length to the short corridor he found on the other side. This way was blocked by a large boulder, and at this point the half-elf decided he'd best not do any further exploring on his own; if there was something he couldn't handle by himself on the other side of the the boulder, he'd have no way to quickly put it back in place (assuming he could even budge it on his own in the first place). He mounted the fly and sent it speeding down the corridor to just behind Gilbert, Mudpie, and MARCI.</p><p></p><p><Found a back door,> he announced over the mental link.</p><p></p><p><Kind of busy here!> was the brusque reply.</p><p></p><p>Verminus spun about and cast a <em>slay living</em> spell on Finoula, indicating he had been aware of her presence all along. Fortunately, she gutted out the spell and avoided the worst of its effects. But by focusing on the elf, the mummy lord had turned his back on Binkadink and Obvious - a bad move! Binkadink's glaive pierced all the way through the mummy lord and only fear of hitting one of the elves prevented the gnome from slamming it further through the mummy's undead flesh. But he swung the glaive to the side, dragging Verminus with him, away from the others. That set up a perfect shot for Hagan, who took an educated guess on what he knew about <em>spell reflection</em> spells - that they could only cast back a certain amount of spell energy before they fizzled out - gritted his teeth, whispered "Here goes!" to himself, and cast another <em>polar ray</em> spell at the mummy lord. He winced immediately thereafter, half expecting it to bounce back in his face, but it didn't; instead, Verminus took the full force of one of the half-orc sorcerer's most powerful spells. He dropped off the end of Binkadink's glaive, collapsing to the cavern floor in a pile of bones and funeral wrappings.</p><p></p><p>"Finally!" Hagan said, glad to not be the victim of his own spellcasting for once. Darrien flew up to Verminus and bent to pick up his <em>Arachnibow</em>, noticing at once that it looked different. "He's put rubies into some of its eyes!" he exclaimed, aghast that someone would have altered his primary weapon against his wishes.</p><p></p><p>"They magical," Gilbert announced after casting a quick <em>detect magic</em> spell. Of course, the entire <em>Arachnibow</em> was magical, but he could see auras of transmutation magic emanating from the ruby eyes on the spider-head that formed the middle part of the longbow.</p><p></p><p>"Let' see what all he's done to my bow," Darrien said, fully expecting the <em>Arachnibow</em> to transform into a spider the size of a small dog when he tried picking it up, now that it had been reattuned to Verminus.</p><p></p><p>It didn't. It transformed into spider bigger than a draft horse. But it was still no match for Darrien and his magic scimitar, and after the ranger had slain it and it had transformed back into a longbow, he found he was able to pick it up without further incident.</p><p></p><p>That wasn't the only change Verminus had made to the <em>Arachnibow</em>. Based on notes they found in a back room (and subsequent experimentation), Darrien found he could now not only turn an arrow into a strand of spider-silk in mid-flight, he could optionally turn it into a full-fledged <em>web</em> spell at the point of impact. He could also shoot an arrow at a foe and have the arrow transform into a tiny spider after it had hit. Furthermore, as long as Darrien was holding the bow, he could walk unimpeded along any of the webs he had created with the <em>Arachnibow</em>, as if under the effects of a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>"Stupid mummy do you favor, stealing your bow," observed Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"It would seem so," agreed Darrien.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>The group explored the rest of Verminus's lair, finding his treasure without having had to do much in the way of fighting to get it. (I had a cool Colossal monstrous scorpion Verminus could have summoned besides the four undead scarab swarms hidden in the pockmark-cavities in his main cavern, but the PCs killed him off before I could get to any of that.)</p><p></p><p>Poor Harry was majorly bummed about his spells getting reflected back at Hagan, not only when fighting the mockery monarch bug but then immediately again from Verminus himself. I took pity on him and told him that Verminus's <em>spell reflection</em> spell had been burned off reflecting the last spell (as it had) so it was safe for him to attack him again. I think it helped that his final spell finished off the mummy lord; he was getting pretty frustrated up to that point.</p><p></p><p>And this was the first time we've played in this campaign for seven full weeks! I hope we can avoid such lengthy gaps in the future.</p><p></p><p>By the way, I had several possible alternate titles for this adventure. One was "Taking a Bow," which is exactly what Verminus did. Another was "Spider-Man vs. the Beetle," since Darrien's becoming somewhat of a spider-themed character (he not only wields the <em>Arachnibow</em> but also has a <em>cloak of the white spider</em>) and Verminus was a mummy lord swarm-shifter capable of becoming a swarm of undead scarab beetles. But I ultimately just named it after the villain - in part so I could "leak" the hint about the next adventure to the players that the last seven letters of the adventure's title were "-E-R-M-I-N-U-S." That got Vicki worried that her old friend Malaterminus might be making a quite unexpected return appearance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7603782, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 61: VERMINUS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 17[/INDENT] [INDENT] Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 17[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 17[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 17[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 17[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 17[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] MARCI, humanoid construct[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 4 May 2019 - - - The Vistani wagon slowed as the garrison building came into view. Aithanar brought the two black draft horses, Castor and Pollux, to a full halt before lines of armed and armored men being given weapons instruction by a large, burly half-orc with a vast assortment of weapons hanging on his belt and strapped to his back. Aerik Battershield leaped from the seat of the wagon at Aithanar's side as Gilbert, Mudpie, Malrin, and Hagan opened the back of the wagon and exited, eager to see what it was the dwarf had brought them to see. Castillan and Darrien slid down from the wagon's roof while Finoula dismounted from Daisy's saddle, carrying the basket of loaves of bread Helga had baked earlier that morning, while Binkadink likewise dropped down from Obvious's saddle and joined the others. "Slayer!" Aerik called over to the assembly of fighting men as the heroes gathered around him. "Brought th' men some loaves, an' I wantcha t' meet some o' me friends!" The half-orc approached, streaks of gray at the temples of his dark hair. The heroes easily recognized him as the former King Galrich but he seemed not to recognize them. Aerik started the introductions but Slayer went immediately to Finoula, approaching her with his burly arms held out wide. "Feron!" he cried with a wide grin, grabbing the elf in a bear hug that would have caused her to drop Helga's basket if not for Aerik's timely assistance. "Glad to see you! What brings you to this part of the world?" "Uh," replied Finoula, unsure of what to say. She knew she and her half-elf sister Feron bore a remarkable resemblance to each other, but she also knew King Galrich's mind was no longer all it had once been and his memory of recent events was all but shot. Was it better to correct him or to play along with his assumption? "She's helpin' out th' kingdom, same as you," interjected Aerik, leaving the elf's identity up for the half-orc's own determination. He then introduced the rest of the heroes to the man who until recently had served as their king, referring to their former liege only as "Slayer." They played along with the introductions, neither of them giving any indication that they had known him for years - or that he was personally responsible for their status as Kordovia's adventuring group in the first place. Aerik waved one of the men over to take the basket of baked goods and then allowed Slayer to get back to training the men stationed at the garrison. "'is mind's deterioratin' fairly rapidly," Aerik confided to the others, once back out of earshot of the former king. "'e don't rightly recall most o' th' last twenty years or so - but his weapon prowess's as good as it ever were. I talked it over with th' Queen, an' she agrees 'twere best if 'e finishes out what days're left 'im as a mercenary. Most o' th' men here know who 'e really is - or at least suspect it - but they're a good lot and they'll not be lettin' th' secret out t' any outsiders. An' 'e truly enjoys leadin' these warriors; 'e still got plenty 'e c'n teach 'em. And nothin'll give 'im greater pleasure than leadin' these men into battle against th' next wave o' orcs 'n' goblins what decide t' show their ugly faces 'round these parts!" "He's quite the fighter," observed Binkadink, watching Slayer demonstrate a move with a greataxe that likely weighed more than the little gnome, swinging it easily in wide arcs before him. Galrich might not have any memories of being king, but his days as a barbarian adventurer were obviously still fresh in his mind. "That 'e is," agreed Aerik. "Anyway, I thought ye'd best be knowin' what's up with 'im. Ye get on back now; I'll be stayin' th' day with 'im, make sure 'e's okay. I'll catch up with ye tonight." The group returned to the Vistani wagon, Aithanar climbing back up to the front seat and picking up the reins; Darrien and Castillan climbing back up onto the roof; and Hagan, Malrin, and Gilbert - along with their familiars, Wezhley and Mudpie - took their seats in the wagon's interior. Binkadink climbed back onto his jackalope's saddle and Finoula remounted Daisy, her timber wolf Wrath climbing back out from the shade beneath the wagon to trot alongside his mistress on the way back. Then, with a final wave to Aerik and the garrison men, they retraced their way back to Battershield Keep. "It's sad to see King Galrich in such a state," Finoula said as they approached the keep. The drawbridge was still down, as they had left it; at Gilbert's instructions, MARCI had remained behind and could raise it in a moment at the first sign of danger. "I don't know about that," countered Castillan. "He seems happy enough training with the other warriors. It sure beats lying in a sickbed, waiting for old age to take him." "What's that?" Darrien interrupted, shielding his eyes and looking up to the sky. It was a cloudless day, yet a shadow had fallen over the Vistani wagon and its passengers. At the same time, the ranger became aware of a droning sound. Squinting into the overhead sun, he could make out a dark cloud of flying bodies swooping down from one of the keep's towers and seemingly heading right towards him. From her vantage point, Finoula could see better than Darrien what was heading his way: a swarm of flying insects, beetles of some type, by the looks of them. Tapping into the magical energy of nature all around her, she caused a wall of wind to wrap around the approaching swarm, spinning around in a cylinder she hoped would keep them immobilized in place. Castor and Pollux slowed as they approached the lowered drawbridge, bothered by the droning of the beetle's wings. Aithanar pulled back on their reins; if this was some sort of attack - perhaps by some as-yet-unseen summoner - it would be best if the group had the maneuvering room outside the keep rather than being boxed in. Once the wagon stopped its forward motion, Hagan and Gilbert exited the vehicle via its back door, Mudpie following after his portly master and Wezhley perched on the half-orc's shoulders. Gilbert immediately frowned upon seeing the black beetles flying higher and higher, seeking a way out of Finoula's [I]wind wall[/I] spell, for his magically-enhanced vision identified the insects as undead creatures. Castillan wasted no time; he leaped off the top of the wagon and raced into the keep; once there, he ran up the northeastern tower, pulling himself up over the ramparts and looking about in all directions, seeking a potential wizard enemy directing the swarm's movements. He saw none but that meant nothing, for he'd been up against invisible foes many times before in his life. The swarm spilled out over the top of the [I]wind wall[/I] spell, flowing over the outer edge and heading straight for Darrien once again. Realizing how useless his primary weapon - the [I]Arachnibow[/I] - was against a swarm of flying scarabs, Darrien plucked a crystal from his necklace, aimed it at the center of the swarm's mass, and activated it. Instantly, the crystal vanished, becoming a [I]lightning bolt[/I] that burned its way through the the midst of the scarabs, sending empty husks falling to the ground. Seated on Obvious's saddle, Binkadink did the same using his own [I]necklace of lightning crystals[/I], as his own glaive would likewise be all but useless against a bunch of undead insects each no bigger than his thumb. However, despite their best efforts, the swarm - somewhat diminished in numbers - engulfed Darrien in its midst. The half-elf ranger found himself coated in a layer of crawling, biting insects, the ones skittering onto his face blinding him and trying to burrow into his nostrils and mouth. Standing up on Obvious's saddle, Binkadink didn't dare use another [I]lightning crystal[/I] for fear of hitting Darrien, and, realizing his weapons were useless against the beetles, he decided the best thing he could do was try to collect one for further study; maybe Gilbert would know something about these black scarabs - he had an eerie knowledge about undead things. The gnome leaped from the jackalope's saddle onto the top of the Vistani wagon by Darrien, grabbed a beetle and hugged it close to his chest - and then promptly fell off the side of the wagon's curving roof, landing hard on the dirt road leading to the keep. He at least had the presence of mind to keep the beetle pressed closely to the chestplate of his dragonhide armor; no sense in letting his captured "prisoner" escape after all he'd gone through to catch him in the first place! Darrien, hardly able to see through the layers of undead scarabs covering his face, knew the general location of the wagon and ran along the roof, leaping blindly at the end and hoping he'd accurately aimed himself for the moat spanning the keep and not the lowered drawbridge - if he'd guessed wrong, he was in for a world of pain! But the cooling waters encompassed him as he sank into the moat and he figured the beetles would soon either be fleeing back to the surface or drowning where they were; either was fine with him! He felt his hidden gill-slits open at the sides of his neck and breathing became that much easier, despite the scarabs covering his nose and mouth. Topside, Hagan had been about to cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the beetle swarm when they unerringly dived into the moat, following after Darrien. "Well, that's weird!" the sorcerer exclaimed - in his experience, flying insects usually avoided going underwater. "They undead," Gilbert explained, cautiously approaching the moat and preparing a spell for when the beetles returned to the air. He wasn't overly concerned about Darrien being underwater this long, the ranger's father had been an aquatic elf and Gilbert knew the half-elf could pretty much stay down there as long as necessary. Darrien felt the beetles skittering all around him, but they weren't evacuating as he had expected: they were crawling over to the front of his body and somehow merging into themselves. Hidden from view from the rest of his friends, Darrien saw a horrific form materialize before him: a skeletal face with skin stretched tightly across the skull, brown teeth providing the rictus of a grin as the mummy slammed his bony fingers around the ranger's neck. Darrien gave a wordless scream as his mind froze into panicked paralysis, the two bodies floating slowly together to the bottom of the moat. But while Gilbert, Hagan and the others couldn't see what was going on in the moat, Castillan had a much clearer view from his perch at the top of the keep's northeastern tower. "There's someone in there with him!" he cried out, not being able to make out much of the other figure besides the fact that he seemed to be moving behind Darrien, who wasn't putting up any kind of a fight. The bounder wasted no time; leaping over the side of the tower, he dove headfirst into the moat, straining to see who was attacking Darrien and in what manner. It was some sort of undead, that was clear: a lich, maybe, or a mummy. Regardless, seeing that Darrien was unmoving, Castillan decided that the first goal was to get the ranger away from his attacker, so he grabbed hold of Darrien's arm with one hand and activated the power of his ring. In an instant, Castillan had [I]dimension doored[/I] back up to the keep's interior, just inside the raised portcullis beside MARCI. By holding onto Darrien's arm, Castillan had brought the half-elf along for the ride; the paralyzed ranger fell to the ground upon his return to solid ground, his legs unable to support him in his current state. And then the bounder got a good look at the mummy who had also come along for the ride, by dint of holding tightly to Darrien's back as he was whisked away by the [I]dimension door[/I] spell from Castillan's ring. The mummy ignored Castillan completely as he rolled Darrien over onto his front and bent over his still form, fiddling with the ranger's [I]Arachnibow[/I] on his back. Finoula had dismounted Daisy and had been trying to see over the edge of the moat when she saw the trio suddenly appear in the open entrance to the keep. An undead figure was bending over Darrien; instinctively, Finoula touched her [I]lightning amulet[/I] and sent herself - in the form of a [I]lightning bolt[/I] - across the span and through the mummy, to reform in her normal elven body on the keep's open grounds. The mummy had been aware of the blast of electrical energy coursing through his undead body, but it didn't deter him from his task: pulling the [I]Arachnibow[/I] from Darrien's back. Hagan cast a [I]polar ray[/I] spell at the undead thing bending over Darrien, but the mummy had some sort of spell protection in place, for the ray of frozen energy fizzled away into nothingness upon impact. "At last!" the mummy cried in glee, raising the [I]Arachnibow[/I] above his head in triumph. The bow writhed in his hand, reshaping itself into a living spider; as Darrien was the bow's true owner, anyone else attempting to wield it caused it to transform into a spider the size of a small dog, who would have to be slain first before a new owner could be established. If the mummy was concerned about this he gave no indication; still laughing, he snapped out a single word of power and vanished from view, taking the spider with him. Finoula rushed to Darrien's unmoving form and was relieved to see he was still breathing, but his skin had taken on an unhealthy tone. With a sudden realization, she cried out, "Mummy rot! MARCI -- is he okay?" MARCI bent over the half-elf, the red beam from her sole eye scanning Darrien's body from head to toe in a long sweep. "Inconclusive," the construct replied. Malrin raced up as well, her [I]staff of healing[/I] in hand. "If it's mummy rot, I should cast a [I]remove disease[/I] spell on him," she declared. "Stand aside," commanded Gilbert, pushing the others out of his way as he flipped to the back inside cover of his [I]Omnibook[/I], then started pushing aside images of scrolls until he got to the one he wanted. "He need [I]break enchantment[/I] spell first," the wizard declared, beginning the words to the spell. Once finished, he turned to Malrin and indicated she should cast her spell now. Soon after, the paralyzation effect ran its course and Darrien sat up under his own power. "Who was that?" he asked. "What did he want with me?" "He was after your [I]Arachnibow[/I]," Castillan answered. "Got it, too - although he was fighting it in its spider form when he [I]teleported[/I] out of here." "Well, he not keep it for long," vowed Gilbert Fung, pulling his [I]crystal ball[/I] from a pocket of his robes. "We find him quick, then we go get your bow back." He passed a hand over the globe and it suddenly turned black. Gilbert, holding the undead beetle Binkadink had provided as a close tie to the mummy - something that should have made it easier to scry upon the undead form - frowned at the lack of an image. "It not working," he grumbled. "It supposed to show me mummy man - all I see is shadowy outline, nothing else." "What are you talking about?" asked Hagan, looking over the portly mage's shoulder. "He's right there, in some kind of cavern, bending over a dead spider. You're probably seeing his outline due to the [I]detect undead[/I] spell effect on your eyeballs." Hagan was well aware of Gilbert's arcane upgrade he'd performed upon himself years ago. "You see all that through blackness?" demanded Gilbert, amazed that the half-orc's darkvision worked so well through the arcane sensor tied to his [I]crystal ball[/I]. "You be able to [I]teleport[/I] us all there?" "Sure, no problem," muttered Hagan, still watching the darkened image in the sphere only he could see. "It's turned back into the bow again," he said, narrating the undead figure's moves. "Now he's picking it back up. Sorry, Darrien - it looks like he's got your weapon attuned to him now." "Let's go!" snarled Darrien. He wanted his [I]Arachnibow[/I] back. "Prep spells first," admonished Gilbert, casting a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell upon himself and Mudpie, then following it up with a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell. Mudpie received a [I]mage armor[/I] spell from his master while the two rangers each cast [I]barkskin[/I] upon themselves. Then Gilbert finished their preparations off with a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell encompassing all of the heroes but Malrin. "You stay out of fight with mummy," Gilbert admonished the elven druid. "Your job heal us as needed. We take care of mummy." "You're welcome to him," Malrin commented before wildshaping into an owl and alighting upon her brother's shoulder; the decreased size and weight made it easier for Hagan to [I]teleport[/I] everyone in at one time. For the same reason, Gilbert used his [I]slingshot of rock shrinking[/I] on Mudpie, diminishing him to the size of a small pebble and depositing him into a front pocket of his robes. MARCI stepped into the extradimensional space of the [I]portable hole[/I], Binkadink and Obvious following only after each taking a big breath of air. Then Hagan scooped up the hole and said the words that should have [I]teleported[/I] the group inside the dark cavern the half-orc had seen through the [I]crystal ball[/I]. However, instead, the group was suddenly standing outside at the base of a mountain with a wide cave opening yawning before them. "Wait--this isn't right!" observed Hagan at once. "Mummy probably got protections around lair," Gilbert mused. "We probably lucky it redirect spell just to outside lair, not into lava pit or something." Castillan immediately started looking for a way into the dungeon cavern complex Hagan had seen in Gilbert's [I]crystal ball[/I]. The cave before them was only about 20 feet deep, but there was a glowing rune of some type carved into the back wall. Curious, the bounder cautiously approached. Some sixth-sense warning alerted him to danger immediately upon brushing up against some webbing and he jerked back before getting stuck. "Invisible webs of some sort," he told the others. "We see about that!" Gilbert said, casting a [I]see invisibility[/I] spell upon his eyes. Then he confirmed, "Sure enough. Invisible spider webs all along back of cave. Not sure why, though." Hagan, in the meantime, had dropped the [I]portable hole[/I] to the ground and let Binkadink ride Obvious out into the open air. MARCI stepped out behind them. "What's up?" the gnome asked. "Who are you? What do you want?" asked a voice from behind them. Turning, the group of heroes saw a human villager approach, staggering like he was drunk. "Who are you? What do you want?" he repeated. "We're a group of adventurers--" Finoula began before getting cut off by another approaching stranger, who seemed to have just staggered out of the mountainside a dozen feet or so behind his companion. "It's a good thing you happened by," he said. Another figure stumbled out through the mountainside wall - obviously a permanent illusion of some sort. This one was an elf, dressed in finery. "No! No! Nooooo!" he cried. The heroes closest to these drunks exchanged dubious looks among themselves. Then, as one, they took up defensive stances, weapons out as the strangers staggered slowly in their direction. "Who are you? What do you want?" asked the first one for the third time. "It's a good thing you happened by," observed the one behind him, while the elf continued screaming "No! No! Nooooo!" Gilbert loaded Mudpie into his slingshot and fired him at the ground before him, restoring the earth elemental to his full size: all of four feet or so. Still, the familiar stepped protectively before the wizard, defending him from these potential foes. As they got within reach, the staggerers attacked, their fingers curved into claws. Binkadink had his glaive at the ready and sliced at the first one in line, catching it right at the base of the neck. Blood spurted in a high arc from the wound, but the victim, nonplussed, continued its queries as to the heroes' identities and desires. "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked as his body fell forward to collapse onto the ground. The head, however, did not follow the same path. Instead, it lurched at Binkadink, the head followed immediately by a segmented body with far too many legs which crawled out of the neck-stump of the slain figure. The human-headed centipede-thing continued chattering, "Who are you? What do you want?" as the gnome gave a bleat of surprise (and no small amount of terror) and took an involuntary step backwards. Mudpie slammed into the one closest to him, feeling ribs crack from the force of his punch, but all the swaying fellow could say was, "It's a good thing you happened by." Finoula stabbed out with her longsword [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] at the elf who continued screaming. Darrien had been busy removing his [I]cloak of protection[/I], folding it up into his backpack, and putting on his [I]cloak of the white spider[/I] in order to try some experiments with the invisible webbing at the back of the cave when he saw the commotion off to his right. Stepping to the side of the attacking trio, he activated another crystal from his necklace and sent a bolt of electricity coursing through all three. But now he could see another three or four stepping out from the [I]illusory wall[/I] shielding another cave opening into the mountainside. These figures also stumbled about, speaking nonsense ("By Pelor's grace!" "What the Hell is [I]that[/I]?" "We'll have you out of there in a jiffy"). Castillan dodged past the one fighting Mudpie to stab his short sword into one of the new arrivals, and it showed no sign of the pain its body must have felt judging by the spray of blood. Hagan cast a [I]fireball[/I] spell directly into the mass of shambling figures, burning away the host bodies and forcing the human-headed centipedes out into the open. The sorcerer noted their insectoid bodies were covered in spines and that stabbing one with a handheld weapon would likely deal a bit of damage to yourself. Binkadink noted the same thing and extended his glaive to its full length, cutting through three of the abominations in rapid succession. Finoula slashed at the horrors with her [I]flaming whip of thorns[/I], trusting in the weapon's great reach to protect her from any spine damage. The nonsensical mutterings came to a sudden stop almost all at once, as the centipede-things each opened up their mouths wide and sent acidic fluids spewing at the heroes. The attack was as disgusting as it was unexpected, but it was the only time the hybrid creatures would get to perform such an attack, for Hagan slew several more with a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell, leaving Binkadink to pick off the others with his glaive. "Those things were [I]disgusting[/I]!" groused Finoula, wiping acidic spew from her face and flinging it to the ground. Malrin provided healing to those who had taken the worst of the damage from the acid and the spines of their attackers, and then Castillan opted to take point to see what was behind the [I]illusory wall[/I]. With the others following behind him, he entered a narrow tunnel that widened out on one side, the wider section filled with barrels and crates looking to have been looted from passing caravans. But there was a closed door at the back of the passageway, and that's where Castillan focused his attention. Observing no obvious traps, the bounder silently opened the door and found a large cavern, in the back of which looked to be some sort of bloated ankheg, in the process of laying eggs. The enormous, chitin-covered monstrosity looked directly at him, and he immediately activated his ring, casting a [I]dimension door[/I] spell that took him clear across the cavern behind the insectoid monster. Darrien was the next to react, pumping a barrage of arrows at the thing using his spare (and nonmagical) longbow. The thing hissed in irritation and pain, then scrambled over to the door on her insectoid legs with surprising speed. She caught the half-elf ranger in her mandibles, crushing him tightly but unable to maneuver him further into her mouth so she could swallow him whole. Finoula rushed forward to aid her friend, using [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] to carve a deep groove into the chitin protecting the monster's side. From further back, Gilbert cast a [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell on Mudpie and commanded his familiar to earth glide below the ground to activate the spell on the insect-thing. Hagan was also further back in the line and unable to reach the monster insect. But all he needed was to see her to be able to cast a spell at her, so he sent a [I]polar ray[/I] shooting past Finoula's head. Unfortunately, through some unknown set of circumstances the spell was reflected right back at the half-orc sorcerer and he got the full force of his [I]polar ray[/I] right smack in the kisser. Growling in irritation, his anger sent Wezhley scurrying from shoulder to shoulder in agitation. Malrin, still in owl form and not wanting to rush into battle, landed on Binkadink's shoulder briefly, spending her time there casing a [I]bear's endurance[/I] spell on the little gnome. After all, if she knew Bink, he'd be eagerly trying to find a way past his friends so he could wade into battle with the deviant ankheg-thing. Darrien wriggled from the beast's mouthparts and skipped to her right as Finoula stabbed at her from the left. The thing responded by snapping her mandibles at Finoula, catching the ranger in her mouth but once again having trouble swallowing her prey. Finoula didn't make it any easier for the insect, slashing at the delicate mouthparts with her longsword. And then Mudpie popped up from the ground below her, touching her bloated abdomen and discharging the [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell Gilbert had infused in his familiar. Castillan stabbed the creature from behind, his short sword going in deep and releasing a yellowish ichor. Unable to reach the battle from his jackalope's back, Binkadink dropped down to the floor before Obvious and stabbed through the doorway with his glaive, the blade slicing into the top of the creature's head. Then Obvious ducked his head, catching the little gnome under his antlers, and flipped him into the air, sailing over the insectoid enemy. Binkadink just barely landed on his feet behind the creature, right beside Castillan. Not wanting to risk having another target-specific spell reflected back at him, Hagan cast a [I]wall of fire[/I] spell just past the doorway in the cavern beyond, catching the insect across the middle. (The spell also caught Binkadink and Castillan in its heat effect, but the gnome's armor absorbed the damage; Castillan had no such protection but was willing to put up with a little pain to get this guardian beast slain.) It was getting crowded in the front of the cavern, so Darrien activated one of the powers of his robe and [I]spider climbed[/I] up the cavern wall, where he could shoot down at the monster with his arrows. Gilbert called Mudpie back to his side and loaded his familiar up with another [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell, pleased with the results of the tactic the first time it had been employed. But before Mudpie could earth glide back to the chitinous foe, Castillan had slain her with his blade. Her insectoid legs buckled, her mandibles opened slackly, and Finoula was able to crawl back out of the slain beast's mouth. Hagan dismissed his [I]wall of fire[/I] now that it was serving no purpose and Binkadink stepped further into the chamber, looking for other exits. There were two: one was a door along the back wall, the other a natural tunnel leading into a larger chamber. Peering down this tunnel, Binkadink was rewarded with the sight of their foe: the mummy who had stolen Darrien's [I]Arachnibow[/I]. But the gnome was a tad too late in discovering the undead foe, for the mummy had the [I]Arachnibow[/I] up and aimed in his direction and by the time Binkadink realized he was in danger the arrow had already been loosed and was protruding from the shoulder-joint of his red dragonhide plate armor. The gnome staggered backwards from the force of the blow while the undead mummy proclaimed, "I [I]love[/I] this bow!" MARCI had stepped up to Hagan and was injecting him with a healing fluid to restore the worst of the effects from his own reflected [I]polar ray[/I] spell when Obvious leaped forward, Binkadink leaped into the saddle (pulling the arrow from his armor and tossing it to the side in contempt as he did so), and then the two hippity-hopped their way down the narrow tunnel, racing toward their undead foe - hopefully before he could get off another shot. Hagan extracted himself from MARCI's attention, stepped to the front of the tunnel, and saw the mummy standing holding the [I]Arachnibow[/I] and aiming it at Binkadink and Obvious. He cast forth another [I]polar ray[/I], sending it past the jackalope's flank to strike the undead archer. However, [B]Verminus[/B] was no mere mummy but a mummy lord, dedicated to the worship of Vecna, the God of Secrets. As such, he had spells of his own at hand, and several such were already woven around the undead thing's form, protecting him in a number of ways. Once such spell was the [I]spell reflection[/I] which sent Hagan's [I]polar ray[/I] right back at him, for the second time in as many minutes. Wezhley held his ears in his front paws to block the sound of his normally good-natured master cursing in fluent Orcish. Finoula used her [I]lightning amulet[/I] to convert herself into a blast of electrical energy which passed harmlessly through Verminus. When she reformed into her elven body behind the mummy lord, she was surprised to see no reaction from him; the [I]protection from energy[/I] spell he had cast upon himself before fetching the [I]Arachnibow[/I] was still in effect. Feeling protective of his fellow elf, Castillan used the last daily charge of his magic ring to [I]dimension door[/I] himself to Finoula's side; he knew the undead couldn't be dealt particularly damaging blows to critical points like a living foe could, but perhaps he could still get in a surprise attack before the mummy lord registered his presence. Gilbert approached down the tunnel, casting an [I]undeath to death[/I] spell from a scroll stored in the back of his [I]Omnibook[/I]. He had hoped to destroy Verminus in one fell swoop, but on that front he was unsuccessful, for the mummy lord was far too powerful to be affected by such a spell. However, the same was not true of the hundreds of undead scarab beetles Verminus had pocketed in shallow holes all along this central cavern of his, waiting to be summoned to battle. But now it was too late, for undead insect husks rained down from all sides of the cavern, crunching beneath the feet of the approaching heroes. Darrien was still back in the cavern with the slain ankheg-thing and decided to give the closed door in the back of the room a try. It opened at his touch, revealing a square chamber carved out of the stone of the mountain. Runes inscribed in the floor indicated this was some sort of ritual chamber; Darrien dropped his [I]ebony fly[/I] into the room to see if it would activate anything; it didn't. Darrien cautiously stepped into the room, ready to race back if he triggered anything. But the magic in the room was inert and he walked its length to the short corridor he found on the other side. This way was blocked by a large boulder, and at this point the half-elf decided he'd best not do any further exploring on his own; if there was something he couldn't handle by himself on the other side of the the boulder, he'd have no way to quickly put it back in place (assuming he could even budge it on his own in the first place). He mounted the fly and sent it speeding down the corridor to just behind Gilbert, Mudpie, and MARCI. <Found a back door,> he announced over the mental link. <Kind of busy here!> was the brusque reply. Verminus spun about and cast a [I]slay living[/I] spell on Finoula, indicating he had been aware of her presence all along. Fortunately, she gutted out the spell and avoided the worst of its effects. But by focusing on the elf, the mummy lord had turned his back on Binkadink and Obvious - a bad move! Binkadink's glaive pierced all the way through the mummy lord and only fear of hitting one of the elves prevented the gnome from slamming it further through the mummy's undead flesh. But he swung the glaive to the side, dragging Verminus with him, away from the others. That set up a perfect shot for Hagan, who took an educated guess on what he knew about [I]spell reflection[/I] spells - that they could only cast back a certain amount of spell energy before they fizzled out - gritted his teeth, whispered "Here goes!" to himself, and cast another [I]polar ray[/I] spell at the mummy lord. He winced immediately thereafter, half expecting it to bounce back in his face, but it didn't; instead, Verminus took the full force of one of the half-orc sorcerer's most powerful spells. He dropped off the end of Binkadink's glaive, collapsing to the cavern floor in a pile of bones and funeral wrappings. "Finally!" Hagan said, glad to not be the victim of his own spellcasting for once. Darrien flew up to Verminus and bent to pick up his [I]Arachnibow[/I], noticing at once that it looked different. "He's put rubies into some of its eyes!" he exclaimed, aghast that someone would have altered his primary weapon against his wishes. "They magical," Gilbert announced after casting a quick [I]detect magic[/I] spell. Of course, the entire [I]Arachnibow[/I] was magical, but he could see auras of transmutation magic emanating from the ruby eyes on the spider-head that formed the middle part of the longbow. "Let' see what all he's done to my bow," Darrien said, fully expecting the [I]Arachnibow[/I] to transform into a spider the size of a small dog when he tried picking it up, now that it had been reattuned to Verminus. It didn't. It transformed into spider bigger than a draft horse. But it was still no match for Darrien and his magic scimitar, and after the ranger had slain it and it had transformed back into a longbow, he found he was able to pick it up without further incident. That wasn't the only change Verminus had made to the [I]Arachnibow[/I]. Based on notes they found in a back room (and subsequent experimentation), Darrien found he could now not only turn an arrow into a strand of spider-silk in mid-flight, he could optionally turn it into a full-fledged [I]web[/I] spell at the point of impact. He could also shoot an arrow at a foe and have the arrow transform into a tiny spider after it had hit. Furthermore, as long as Darrien was holding the bow, he could walk unimpeded along any of the webs he had created with the [I]Arachnibow[/I], as if under the effects of a [I]freedom of movement[/I] spell. "Stupid mummy do you favor, stealing your bow," observed Gilbert. "It would seem so," agreed Darrien. - - - The group explored the rest of Verminus's lair, finding his treasure without having had to do much in the way of fighting to get it. (I had a cool Colossal monstrous scorpion Verminus could have summoned besides the four undead scarab swarms hidden in the pockmark-cavities in his main cavern, but the PCs killed him off before I could get to any of that.) Poor Harry was majorly bummed about his spells getting reflected back at Hagan, not only when fighting the mockery monarch bug but then immediately again from Verminus himself. I took pity on him and told him that Verminus's [I]spell reflection[/I] spell had been burned off reflecting the last spell (as it had) so it was safe for him to attack him again. I think it helped that his final spell finished off the mummy lord; he was getting pretty frustrated up to that point. And this was the first time we've played in this campaign for seven full weeks! I hope we can avoid such lengthy gaps in the future. By the way, I had several possible alternate titles for this adventure. One was "Taking a Bow," which is exactly what Verminus did. Another was "Spider-Man vs. the Beetle," since Darrien's becoming somewhat of a spider-themed character (he not only wields the [I]Arachnibow[/I] but also has a [I]cloak of the white spider[/I]) and Verminus was a mummy lord swarm-shifter capable of becoming a swarm of undead scarab beetles. But I ultimately just named it after the villain - in part so I could "leak" the hint about the next adventure to the players that the last seven letters of the adventure's title were "-E-R-M-I-N-U-S." That got Vicki worried that her old friend Malaterminus might be making a quite unexpected return appearance. [/QUOTE]
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