Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7625224" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 63: NIGHTWINGS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 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 style="margin-left: 20px">Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 22 June 2019</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The sun was setting as Aithanar pulled the Vistani wagon to a halt at the side of the road. The door opened at the back of the wagon, allowing Gilbert and Hagan to exit, each of the two spellcasters carrying their respective familiars: Wezhley the weasel perched upon the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder and Mudpie reduced to the size of a pebble inside the a pocket of the hefty wizard's robe. Darrien dropped from the top of the wagon, where he'd been sitting in Castillan's normal spot; the elven bounder was off at one of the taverns, no doubt, well into a game of cards and keeping an ear to any scuttlebutt he might pick up. The half-elf ranger hurried to catch up to the other two.</p><p></p><p>As they started up the winding path to the garrison keep, they were passed by Finoula on her pony Daisy, with her timber wolf Wrath trotting in her wake, and Binkadink riding his jackalope, Obvious. They made much better time than the three striking out on foot, and by the time the trio made it up to the keep Finoula and Binkadink had already dismounted and were in a discussion with Aerik Battershield, who had asked the group to swing by this evening. Behind him, by the stone keep, Slayer led a small group of mercenaries in weapons practice before they went out on patrol that night.</p><p></p><p>"What...all this about?" wheezed Gilbert when he got to the top of the hill. He was quite winded from the hike and had seriously considered using a <em>teleport</em> or <em>dimension door</em> spell to save himself the effort of getting all the way to the top.</p><p></p><p>"We've been havin' a problem with retention among th' hired soldiers," Aerik explained in a quiet voice, not wanting to be overheard by any of the garrison troops. "There's been no complaints about th' wages, th' hours, or th' weapons an' armor provided; nonetheless, we seem to have several mercenaries desertin' every week. They just wander off an' are never seen again. I'd like ye t' look into it, if'n ye would."</p><p></p><p>"When have they gone missing?" Finoula asked.</p><p></p><p>"Always it's when they're on patrol," Aerik answered. "They go off on their patrol schedule, an' they dinnae come back."</p><p></p><p>"How many patrol together?" asked Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"Teams o' two - a buddy system, t' prevent anyone from gettin' th' drop on a lone soldier. An' it's always both o' the soldiers goin' missin' at th' same time, too. We tried rotatin' th' men around so's they dinnae get to used t' th' same partner all th' time, in case one disgruntled soldier talks 'is buddy into desertin' with 'im, but so far it's had no effect."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe need three people together, not just two," suggested Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe these aren't desertions," pointed out Binkadink reasonably. "Could someone - or something - have been attacking them?"</p><p></p><p>"Each o' th' soldiers got hisself a signalin' horn in case o' trouble," Aerik argued. "Nobody's used 'em. An' there's been no signs o' combat on th' patrol routes."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe we interview garrison men, see what we learn from them," suggested Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Be me guest," offered the gruff dwarf. Then his attitude lightened and he called out, "A good evenin' to ye, Mr. Dulorro!" Gilbert turned and watched an elderly man trudging up the path to the garrison keep. He looked to be sixty years old or more and walked with the aid of a cane, but he carried a picnic basket in his other hand and didn't seem nearly as winded walking up the hill as Gilbert had been, despite his advanced years. Gilbert took an immediate dislike to him and glared at the old man with his magically-enhanced vision, trying to see if he were some form of undead. He wasn't - but that didn't let him off the hook, Gilbert decided.</p><p></p><p>"Good evening, gentlemen - and a good evening to you, too, young miss!" the old man amended upon seeing Finoula; she just smiled, realizing the elderly human had no idea that the silver-haired elven maiden before him was actually much older than he was. "I brought the troops some baked goods." Aerik called over to the men and Slayer immediately called a halt to their weapons training. One of the soldiers ran into the keep, returning with an empty picnic basket to trade for the one the old man carried. "Just some rolls and biscuits," he apologized, passing the basket over to the eager recruit. "My little way of giving thanks to the troops protecting us from the orcs and goblins of the forest."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert insisted on looking at the contents of the basket, lifting the cloth covering the baked goods to do so. To his irritation, there was nothing untoward about the basket's contents - in fact, the biscuits smelled quite good...and was that a scent of baked-in honey? The mage's mouth started watering. "Who you, exactly?" he demanded to the old man.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, please forgive my manners - my name is <strong>Stefan Dulorro</strong>, I live just inside the forest. A retired baker by trade; now I make the rounds among the garrison forts, passing along my good wishes and the occasional basket of biscuits and such."</p><p></p><p>"That's very generous of you," said Finoula with a smile.</p><p></p><p>"Well, it keeps me busy and gets me out of the house every now and again," Stefan replied, matching the elf's friendly smile with one of his own.</p><p></p><p>"I wonder, have you heard anything about any garrison soldiers missing over the last few weeks?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"Missing?" Stefan scratched his head while he thought. "No, but I have heard a few of them wondering aloud what the pay is for a similar post in the kingdom to the south. There was a name mentioned, Lord...Castlethorne? Something like that, in any case. Apparently he's paying top coin for the services of mercenaries."</p><p></p><p>"Cavelthorne!" snarled Gilbert. "Little rat buying our mercenaries out from under us!" Aerik confirmed that the missing men had all been posted at the three southernmost garrison forts - those closest to Lord Cavelthorne's kingdom. "Come on - we talk to men while they stuff faces with biscuits!" Stefan waved his farewells and started his trek back down the hill path, while Gilbert led the other heroes in questioning the garrison soldiers.</p><p></p><p>The interrogations brought about some useful information. "Yeah, I heard Lord Cavelthorne's paying out a bunch of gold to go guard his kingdom instead of this one. Haven't heard no specific prices, though," said one recruit. "I knew one of the guys who went missing," offered another. "He didn't give any indication he was dissatisfied with the pay for this job." Another insisted one of the missing men had family in Kordovia - there was no way he'd desert his post for more money elsewhere and leave them behind to face the next orc and goblin attack, especially since a recent wave had actually made it into the city proper. "You ask me, there’s somethin' in that forest besides orcs an' goblins pickin' 'em off," mused a grizzled soldier. "Th' other week, I coulda swore I heard leathery wings flappin' – likely a dragon, you just see if I ain't right. Prolly a smaller one, sure, but a dragon's a dragon – wouldn't have to be no bigger'n a horse or so to polish off two soldiers all by itself."</p><p></p><p>But the best possible lead came from a rather thin-looking soldier, all but buried under his heavy armor. "I might've been one of the last guys to have seen <strong>Horace</strong> alive, come to think on it. See this ring here? Ain't worth much, but I won it off him at cards, the night he went missin', right before we was off on our patrols."</p><p></p><p>"Lemme see ring!" demanded Gilbert, holding out a pudgy hand. The soldier, at a nod from Aerik, dropped the ring into the wizard's hand. The soldier was right, the ring was practically worthless - but as a physical link to a recently-missing troop, it could be invaluable in determining Horace's fate. Gilbert pulled the <em>crystal ball</em> from his robes and passed a hand over it. It clouded over as he concentrated on Horace, holding the man's ring in his hand.</p><p></p><p>Immediately, the <em>crystal ball</em> turned black. "Stupid thing!" snarled Gilbert, shaking it like a snow globe to try to get an image to appear. But Hagan reached over and steadied Gilbert's hand. "It's working fine," the half-orc explained. "Horace is bound, hand and foot, in a cavern of some sort, by a pool of water." This was the second time in recent history that Gilbert had scried upon a scene of utter darkness, leaving his human eyes unable to see anything, while Hagan's half-orc ancestry gave him a full view.</p><p></p><p>"You get good enough view you can teleport us there?" Gilbert asked. Hagan examined the image in the dark crystal sphere and nodded. "Sure," he said, "just not all of us at once."</p><p></p><p>After some discussion, the group decided to return to Battershield Keep and teleport from there. For one thing, Aithanar would be staying behind with Daisy and Wrath; for another, the <em>carpet of teleportation</em> that linked to their dragonfly vessel was stored there, and it would be quicker for some of the heroes to wait on the spelljamming vessel for Hagan and a small group to teleport over, bringing the carpet with them.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> on the group, then sent Binkadink to go fetch the carpet. While the gnome did that, Gilbert cast <em>stoneskin</em> and <em>magic circle against evil</em> spells upon himself and Mudpie (who was still pebble-sized inside a pocket of the wizard's robes). Malrin cast a <em>goodberry</em> spell, resulting in almost a dozen healing berries, which she placed in a belt pouch at her hip. At Binkadink's request, she cast a <em>reduce animal</em> spell on Obvious, halving his size and making it easier for the jackalope - usually the size of a large draft horse - to be brought along with Hagan when he teleported the group over to the lightless cavern where Horace was being held captive. She followed that spell up with <em>greater magic fang</em> and <em>stoneskin</em> spells on the jackalope, turning him into a pony-sized combat machine. The gnome climbed up onto his mount's saddle and Gilbert noted, "You look less silly on smaller mount, gnome."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert stepped onto the <em>carpet of teleportation</em> and over to the dragonfly vessel to wait for the all-clear signal telling him the carpet had been laid out flat in the cavern and it was safe to step through again. He had MARCI come with him, and Malrin followed suit. Then Hagan, standing beside Finoula, Darrien, and Binkadink astride Obvious, cast his <em>teleport</em> spell and the group was instantaneously transported across the miles into a dark cavern, with the flickering illusory flames of the <em>everlasting torches</em> tied to the antlers of the little gnome's helmet providing the only illumination.</p><p></p><p>Finoula spotted Horace at once beside her and bent over him to ascertain his condition. His wrists and ankles were tied together by strips of cloth and he was covered in bites and scratches, but he was still breathing and merely unconscious, not dead as she had originally feared. He had been stripped of his armor, but she saw it propped up against the wall on the other side of a pool of water beside him. She felt the pulse at his neck - it was faint, but steady - and saw numerous puncture marks at his throat. "Vampires!" she gasped to herself, and then noticed how close together some of the bite-marks were. If the marks were the work of vampires, then some of them must have been mere babies, given how close together they were!</p><p></p><p>As their eyes adjusted to the gloom of the cavern, the heroes could see five human-sized figures scattered around the massive cavern, turning their way in surprise at the sudden influx of light. They hissed and chittered in irritation, and Darrien, assuming that anything guarding a human captive must be in cahoots with the instigator if not the culprit himself, sent a volley of arrows at the dark figure nearest him. He couldn't even see fully just what it was he was shooting at - it was just a shape at this point - but it spread wide a pair of dragonlike wings as some of the archer's arrows struck true.</p><p></p><p>Hagan wasted no time in dropping the rolled-up carpet and sending it unrolling with a kick of his feet. <Carpet's ready!> Hagan called over the link. <Looks like werebats - five, at least!> Indeed, the half-orc's darkvision had given him a good look at what they were facing: humanoid bats at least as big as he was, with wings made of leathery flaps of skin stretched tight over oversized fingers. Gilbert arrived onto the carpet at once, having spent the time waiting on the dragonfly vessel casting a <em>shield</em> spell on himself and Mudpie. Gilbert was really only comfortable stepping into combat with as many protective spells as he could manage to cast already in place; to the irritation of his companions, he often spent time in combat providing himself additional defenses instead of taking out the enemy. But he stepped forward at once, if only to allow MARCI and Malrin to follow behind him.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Obvious could see well enough for the gnome to send his mount hippity-hopping forward in a surge of speed, and he brought his glaive stabbing forward into the chest of a werebat at the far side of the cavern. The creature shrieked in pain, his yells echoing across the cavernous space all around them, almost seeming to increase in volume as they reverberated around the vast, open space - strangely enough, accompanied by the sounds of flapping wings. Then all was made clear as scores - if not hundreds - of bats flapped around the heroes, one group dive-bombing Binkadink and Obvious while another swarmed over and among Hagan, Finoula, Darrien, and the prone Horace. Claws ripped and fangs pierced flesh in a chaotic frenzy of bloodletting.</p><p></p><p>While Darrien's attention was thus distracted, the werebat he had shot crossed the gulf between him and bit at the archer as he hovered over the pool of water beside the ranger. Two more werebats raced up to aid the one being stabbed by Binkadink, while another closed the distance between him and Gilbert. But the portly wizard was having none of that; with a few hastily spoken syllables, he brought a <em>quickened wall of force</em> into existence between them, extending all the way across the pool of water to the far wall, effectively sealing Binkadink and Obvious on one side of the magical barrier with four werebats and a swarm of bats, and the rest of the group over in a smaller section of the cavern with but one bat swarm and a heavily-wounded werebat. Of course, the <em>wall of force</em> was only 20 feet high, a mere fourth of the way to the cavern's ceiling, but that wouldn't do much to help those incapable of flight.</p><p></p><p>Malrin caused her hand to sprout a ball of fire, courtesy of a <em>produce flame</em> spell, and threw it at the werebat attacking Darrien. Finoula, not liking at all being surrounded on all sides by a swarm of biting bats, activated her <em>lightning amulet</em> and turned her body into a blast of electricity, frying the bats all around her as she blasted straight up at the cavern's ceiling, where she reverted to elven form and stuck to the stone roof by the <em>boots of spider climbing</em> she wore. Below her, scorched bats fell from the air in a rain of death to create a macabre tripping hazard. Darrien managed to keep his footing while he shot at the werebat with his <em>Arachnibow</em>. As the lycanthrope fell dead into the pool of water below him, the half-elf ranger followed suit, seeing the pool as the only way for him to cross over to Binkadink's side of the <em>wall of force</em>.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>fly</em> spell and crossed over the wall to join the ranger there. But their presence wasn't entirely needed, as Binkadink brought his magical glaive killing the wounded werebat before him, then swung it on either side of him in rapid succession, impaling the two werebats who had foolishly rushed in to aid their comrade. In as many seconds, all three lycanthropes had fallen lifelessly to the stone floor of the cavern.</p><p></p><p>That left only one werebat remaining of the original group, the one who had failed to reach Gilbert before the wizard put the <em>wall of force</em> in his way. After convincing himself that he couldn't get to the heavyset morsel, the werebat turned and, seeing his companions all dead, tried to flee only to be gored by Obvious's antlers as the jackalope raced to the only remaining potential threat. The swarm of bats followed, swooping in to bite at Binkadink and Obvious, but the jackalope was protected by the <em>stoneskin</em> spell Malrin had cast upon him earlier. Ignoring the flitting bats all around him, the gnome brought his glaive down on the fleeing werebat, slicing through a wing and shoulder and bringing the beast crashing to the ground, dead. With the last of their masters slain, the bats immediately lost interest in combat and returned to their roosts among the stalactites among the cavern's ceiling.</p><p></p><p>With combat behind them, Gilbert dismissed his <em>wall of force</em> spell and strolled over to Horace, indicating for MARCI to follow. Finoula walked down the cavern wall to return to her previous position beside the bound soldier and cut his bonds. As she poured a healing potion down his throat, bringing him coughing back into consciousness, Gilbert instructed MARCI to inject the former captive with a dose of truth serum.</p><p></p><p>"Gilbert--what the Hell?" demanded Finoula, astonished at the level of distrust the portly mage had for everyone he didn't personally know. "What did you do that for?"</p><p></p><p>"Want to make sure he only tell us the truth," Gilbert answered.</p><p></p><p>"You're fat!" exclaimed Horace, rubbing his wrists where the binds had bitten into them. Gilbert shrugged; it was an indicator that the serum was working. "Tell us about other missing soldiers," he demanded.</p><p></p><p>Horace told them what he knew. He and his combat partner had been ambushed by a great swarm of rats pouring out of the Vesve Forest; while Horace had been fighting them off, a bald man had stepped forward and apparently put his fellow soldier under some sort of spell. The bald creep drank the soldier's blood until sated, then turned him over to a quartet of werebats. He commanded the rats to leave, then Horace and the other soldier had been flown, each in the grip of two werebats, here to the cavern. There the captives had been used as food sources for the hungry werebats and the bald vampire, who drank their blood and then, upon the deaths of the other captives, had their corpses butchered for meat for the lycanthropes. That would have been Horace's fate as well, had the heroes not found their way here to rescue him.</p><p></p><p>"You remember that," Gilbert reminded Horace. "We save your butt. Now we take you someplace safe while we deal with rest of threat." He had Finoula take him to the dragonfly ship via the <em>carpet of teleportation</em>. She returned minutes later, informing the group that Aithanar would look after him until they returned there themselves. Hagan rolled the carpet back up and placed it into the <em>portable hole</em> Malrin kept in her pack.</p><p></p><p>"Now what?" Darrien asked.</p><p></p><p>"Now we find bald vampire and any other werebats living here," Gilbert replied.</p><p></p><p>"Then I'm going to shift into something a little less conspicuous," Malrin announced, wildshaping into an animal form. She often spent much of her combat time as an owl, appreciating its greater mobility (and, truth be told, smaller target space); this time, though, her body shrank down to the configuration not of an owl, but rather of a bat. <I ought to blend in just fine in this form!> she said over the telepathic link Gilbert had set up earlier.</p><p></p><p>There was a short passageway carved into the natural stone cavern at the northwestern end, leading to a winding set of stairs heading up. Finoula led the group up the stairs, making a full eight rotations before opening to a room with a closed door. Opening it cautiously, the ranger found herself in a library stocked with books on shelves along the walls. There was a closed door on the walls to the east and west and a set of stairs leading up to a higher level. All in all, this looked like a room in a manor house of at least minor nobility. Finoula listened at the eastern door and, hearing nothing, opened the door. This led to a front room, with two suits of armor along the wall and what must be the front door facing south; the room opened into another room around the corner at the north. Half expecting the armor to animate and attack her, Finoula stepped into the room, her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em> in one hand and her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em> in the other, but despite her premonitions nothing untoward happened. With a shrug, the elf returned to the library and checked out the door to the west. </p><p></p><p>This led to a kitchen, laid out with all manner of baking supplies. A faint scent of freshly-baked rolls lingered in the air and Finoula groaned inwardly. <Mr. Dulorro!> she gasped over the link. <That nice old man is a part of all of this!></p><p></p><p><Not necessarily,> argued Hagan, unlike Gilbert willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. <Or if he is, it might not be under his own will. Vampires can charm people into doing their bidding, remember.></p><p></p><p><Why vampire charm baker, force him to give free goodies to soldiers?> demanded Gilbert. <Out of goodness of unbeating heart?></p><p></p><p><It could be a type of intelligence-gathering,> suggested Darrien. <Find out who's going to be on what patrol routes, that sort of thing.></p><p></p><p><If anybody here need to start gathering some intelligence...> began Gilbert, before mentally trailing off. <Hmm. Look at books on shelves: Theocracy of the Pale. Lycanthropes. Folktales of the Living Dead.></p><p></p><p>Darrien walked through the kitchen, confirming that it was a dining room connecting to the front-room - all empty of inhabitants - and finding a back door - locked from the inside - from the kitchen before returning back to the library. By then, Hagan and Wezhley had entered from the winding stairs, followed by Binkadink and Obvious - the latter of which wouldn't have made it up the stairwell in his normal size. "I'm going to announce our presence," stated the gnome, lifting his <em>horn of goodness and evil</em> to his lips. He gave the musical instrument a big blow, sending a "BLATT!" reverberating throughout the manor as a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell took place around the gnome.</p><p></p><p>"Nice job, stupid gnome!" groused Gilbert. "There go any element of surprise we might have had!"</p><p></p><p>"They're going to find out we're here soon enough anyway," countered Binkadink, leading Obvious up the stairs to the second floor of the building. Malrin followed in bat form. There was a doorway around the corner from the stairwell; pulling it open, Binkadink was simultaneously attacked by the three werebats hiding within the room. Hearing the commotion, Finoula bounded up the stairs, followed by Darrien and Hagan, with Gilbert and MARCI bringing up the rear. By the time Finoula had rounded the corner Binkadink had already slain the three werebats; it was so much easier wielding his glaive in close quarters now that he'd had the shaft made to be extendable and retractable with a spoken command word!</p><p></p><p>Moving past the gnome and his jackalope, Finoula went around the corner and opened the next door. There was another werebat waiting in that room, and, to the ranger's surprise, yet another one lurking around the other corner of the hallway. Finoula found herself pinned between two heartier werebats than the ones they'd encountered thus far, these two working in concert to ensure one of them was able to plunge its fangs into the elf's throat and suck forth a great quantity of blood.</p><p></p><p>A dozen thoughts went racing through the elf's mind at once: she should have checked the end of the hallway before opening the door; these werebats must have had some sort of formal training in their human lives (if they were even human and not, say, elves); was it possible that this bite would spread the contagion of lycanthropy to Finoula, such that she'd transform into a werebat herself on the nights of the full moon? But then she focused on the task at hand: taking these beasts down before they did the same to her. As she was already facing the one standing in the doorway she focused her attention on him, stabbing at him with <em>Tahlmalaera</em> and flicking her whip at him, while trying not to let the other one overbalance her and send her crashing to the floor. She felt another form flick past her, but this was just Malrin, casting a healing spell on her fellow elf in passing, the better to help Finoula remain standing as long as possible. Down the hall, Darrien sent a cluster of arrows bristling into the werebat facing Finoula, causing him to hiss in pain and spill blood from his mouth.</p><p></p><p>Hagan and Gilbert were still stuck on the stairs, unable to move further into the hallway by the press of bodies before them. Still, they put the time to good use, Hagan casting a <em>stoneskin</em> spell on himself and Wezhley while Gilbert cast a <em>see invisibility</em> spell on his own eyes, just in case.</p><p></p><p>The werebats focused their attacks on Finoula, as she was already at hand. But then Binkadink brought his glaive down on the one in the doorway, practically slicing his head from his neck. Obvious surged forward toward Finoula and the remaining werebat attacking her from behind. A ball of flames suddenly appeared above the wings of the little bat flitting at the end of the hallway, and Malrin sent it flying into the werebat, singeing its fur. Finoula wrestled the werebat off her back and spun to face him, stabbing out with her longsword and piercing one of his leathery wings. Several arrows went streaking past her head, to bury themselves in the werebat's body as he shrieked in pain. Wezhley reminded his master that Hagan still had a <em>fly</em> spell active, and he went soaring over Gilbert's head as the wizard finished up the casting of a <em>fire shield</em> spell that would protect him and Mudpie from cold-based attacks. Hagan landed beside Darrien, who was still pulling arrows from his quiver and loading up the <em>Arachnibow</em>.</p><p></p><p>Seeing the number of enemies intent on his death, the werebat rogue turned to fly up the stairs at his end of the hallway - and was promptly cut down by Binkadink's glaive.</p><p></p><p><Thanks, guys!> Finoula offered over the link. Malrin landed on the elf's shoulder and examined the wounds on her neck brought on by the werebat's wicked fangs. <I'm no expert,> the druid explained, <but I don't think there's much chance of the bat-lycanthropy having been spread through the bite.></p><p></p><p><Let's hope you're right!> replied Finoula, leading the way up the stairs to the third level of the building. There was still no sign of the bald vampire apparently behind these attacks on the Kordovian garrison soldiers.</p><p></p><p>There was a door at the end of the third-floor hallway; Finoula stationed herself just past it with her longsword at the ready as Binkadink reached over from his perch on Obvious's back and opened the door. All was blackness within, and the illumination spilling from the gnome's helmet did nothing to dispel it. <Magical darkness,> he reported over the link. <I'm going in.></p><p></p><p>Despite the lack of vision, Finoula could hear the crackling of flames from the room within, as well as various heavy bits of furniture being moved around as Obvious bumped blindly into them. Darrien followed the pair into the room, but while they crisscrossed it looking for hidden enemies, the ranger kept his hand on the wall to his right and followed it to the far side of the room. By the increased sounds of crackling, he deduced the fireplace was just off to his left when he found a doorknob. He tried to turn it, but it was locked. This was a conundrum; even if Castillan had been here, he'd have had a rather difficult time picking a lock in absolute darkness! <Gilbert! You have any way of lighting up this darkness?> the half-elf asked over the link.</p><p></p><p><Hold your horses, I coming,> groused Gilbert. He stepped into the doorway and cast a <em>dispel magic</em> spell targeting the <em>deeper darkness</em> effect. Immediately, the magical darkness was dissipated, allowing the room to be illuminated from the flames of the lit fireplace along the western wall. This allowed the group to see the mess Obvious had made of the furniture - but more importantly, it illuminated the <em>mirror of opposition</em> attached to the wall directly across from the room's entry door.</p><p></p><p>Four figures stepped out of the magic mirror, one after another: virtual duplicates of Binkadink astride Obvious, Darrien, and Gilbert Fung. Each was a perfect mirror image of their respective targets, and each wore an expression of abject hatred for their "original model." Before any of the heroes in the room could react, the gnome and jackalope attacked their counterparts, the mirror-Obvious biting at the neck of the real thing while the faux Binkadink brought his own magical glaive down upon the real gnome fighter. Then the mirror-Gilbert, whose mind was filled with the same spells as his original, cast an <em>Otto's irresistible dance</em> at Gilbert; with mounting horror, Gilbert started capering and dancing about, despite his best efforts to stop it and do something useful instead. The counterfeit Darrien sent a flurry of arrows from his own <em>Arachnibow</em> streaking across the room to the real Darrien, who managed to snatch two of them out of the air before they struck thanks to his <em>gloves of arrow snaring</em>, but the others struck true with as much force as the ranger himself would have been able to provide. </p><p></p><p>The mirror-Gilbert then stepped forward, wheeled, and cast a <em>maximized cone of cold</em> spell at the real versions of Gilbert, Binkadink and Obvious, Darrien, and even Finoula from through the doorway. The sudden blast of cold energy almost dropped Finoula there on the spot; she staggered to stay upright and only a <em>mass cure light wounds</em> spell from Malrin kept her standing. The spell was a welcome touch to the others in the room as well, all of whom had been greatly harmed by the powerful spell. MARCI then stepped forward beside Finoula. "I am unable to inject the normal healing mixture as I am currently out of stock," she announced. "I can, however, inject you with a stimdose that will aid you in retaining consciousness." She jabbed a needle into the elf woman's neck, injecting a cooled substance that made the her feel more alert and powerful as it coursed through her system. Meanwhile, while Gilbert danced in place helplessly, he seethed at the logical brilliance of this insidious trap, especially assuming it had been put into place by the bald vampire, who didn't even cast a reflection and thus couldn't trigger the trap himself!</p><p></p><p>Inside the room, as Binkadink and Obvious traded blows and bites with their counterparts and the two Darriens peppered each other with arrows to see which one would fall first, unseen in the chaos, the locked closet door opened and out stepped the bald vampire. He sent a set of wicked claws scratching at Darrien, whose attention was elsewhere; that certainly got the ranger to stop worrying about what his mirror-clone was up to! With mounting horror, Darrien realized this bald man before him was a vampire - although he didn't look like any vampire the ranger has ever heard of. Despite the complete hairlessness on his gleaming scalp, the vampire made up for it with a pair of the longest, bushiest eyebrows Darrien had even seen! And when he opened his mouth, no doubt in preparation of plunging his fangs into the half-elf's neck, Darrien saw their placement: instead of being sharpened eye teeth, as he would have expected, the bald vampire's fangs were his two front teeth!</p><p></p><p>Still shaky on her feet, Finoula activated the <em>heal</em> spell stored in her sword and felt a surge of energy course through her body, unlimbering muscles clenched up by the <em>cone of cold</em> spell Gilbert's mirror duplicate had cast. She stepped into the room, her whip uncoiled in her hand as she prepared herself for some retaliation.</p><p></p><p>Hagan followed Finoula into the room and made a tactical decision: taking out the evil Gilbert was currently the top priority. He sent a <em>power word stun</em> spell crashing into the portly mage, causing him to cease all actions and just stand there, dumbfounded. <That's a good look for you, Gilbert!> the half-orc teased, but Gilbert made no reply, his full concentration currently centered on dancing about.</p><p></p><p>The mirror versions of Binkadink and Obvious attacked their real-life counterparts, and while the real Obvious followed suit in attacking his duplicate, Binkadink broke with tradition and also targeted the other jackalope, hoping that together, they could bring him down much sooner than the gnome would be able to bring down the fake gnome, who, Binkadink was well aware, had an <em>amulet of health</em> just as powerful as his own likely to keep him in the fight that much longer.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps surprised at this unexpected maneuver, the fake Obvious's attention faltered, allowing the real Obvious to clamp down on his duplicate's neck and pull him to the floor, forcing the fake Binkadink to leap from the saddle to keep from falling prone. But even that measure brought with it some peril, for in doing so the fake gnome was unable to ward off the real Binkadink's striking glaive, cutting deep into the fake's red dragonhide armor.</p><p></p><p>The nosferatu vampire had failed to grapple Darrien, but now his attention was diverted by the silver-haired elf who had just stepped into the room. A firm traditionalist, the undead beast preferred female victims whenever possible; the soldiers had been exclusively male but this had been balanced by their easy availability. Now, with Finoula standing before him, her lovely neck exposed, the nosferatu turned from Darrien without a further thought and directed his gaze - and the full force of his will - at the female elf.</p><p></p><p>It wasn't enough; as lovely as Finoula might be, she was no fragile female victim - she'd proven her ruggedness time after time over the course of her adventuring career. Perhaps aided by her elven heritage, she shrugged off the nosferatu's attempts at mental domination without any seeming effort.</p><p></p><p>A <em>flame strike</em> spell suddenly erupted over the mirror-duplicates of Binkadink, Obvious, and Darrien, proof that even while in bat form Malrin could contribute to the destruction of the group's enemies. But even with wisps of smoke streaming from his body, the half-elven mirror image was focused solely on slaying his original form and he continued sending arrows at Darrien. Darrien, for his part, opted to do his best to ignore these attacks for a moment as he brought his own <em>Arachnibow</em> to bear on the nosferatu menacing Finoula (or trying to, anyway, for all the good it was doing him). Then Finoula turned and looked at the undead monstrosity right in the eye, demonstrating her fearlessness or her complete contempt for the threat he posed. She slowly raised a hand to her neck, drawing the vampire's attention, but her fingers stopped at the amulet she wore there; in an instant, her body was a lightning bolt crashing through the nosferatu's undead form. She reappeared beside Darrien, who now felt he could return his attention to his own duplicate.</p><p></p><p>Not sure off the top of his head whether the undead could be stunned, Hagan decided to cast his next <em>power word stun</em> on the fake Darrien instead; he, at least, shouldn't be immune! Sure enough, he wasn't - as evidenced by the fact that he froze up immediately, dropping the <em>Arachnibow</em> at his feet. He made a nice, slack-jawed partner to the fake Gilbert standing beside him, while the real Gilbert continued his frantic dancing.</p><p></p><p>The Binkadinks attacked each other violently, with the two jackalopes following suit. But one jackalope finally got the better of the other one, causing his enemy to fall lifelessly to the ground, his throat all but ripped open and spilling his life's blood out onto the floor. The fact that the dead jackalope then faded from existence proved that it was the original Obvious who had defeated his foe and not the other way around.</p><p></p><p>With a snarl of hatred, the nosferatu sent a fist slamming into Finoula's face, then uttered a guttural word and the room fell once again into darkness. Unseen by the others, his body turned to mist and he wafted back through the open closet door, where there was a narrow slit in the outer wall allowing him access to the open air outside. Once out in the moonlight, he could feel all of the damage he had taken thus far healing up instantly.</p><p></p><p>Nobody seemed willing to stay inside a pitch-black room if they could help it. Malrin was the first to exit, flapping her bat-wings to propel her out into the hallway by MARCI, who had been standing by until she was needed - or until she was told what to do by Gilbert, the human whose orders she always obeyed to the best of her ability. Darrien was the next to exit, following along the wall until he found the doorway.</p><p></p><p><Gilbert! Can you dispel the darkness again?> called out Finoula, but there was no answer from the wizard, still dancing away. So the ranger figured a way to do it herself: she'd noted a small globe in the center of the ceiling, like an embedded chandelier; assuming this was the source of the magical darkness, she walked up the wall with her <em>boots of spider climbing</em>, pulling open the <em>bag of holding</em> at her belt as she did so. Then placing the open bag over the ceiling fixture, she stepped onto the edge of the bag carefully with each foot, such that she stood with each boot half on the ceiling and half on the bag. The end result was a cessation of the <em>deeper darkness</em> effect, while Finoula hung upside-down from the ceiling like a bat, her silvery hair hanging down and her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em> snapping again and again at the still-stunned mirror-Gilbert. Realizing this was a magic effect and not a true person, she indulged in a whim and concentrated on flaying the skin from the fat wizard's face with the barbed lash.</p><p></p><p>With the darkness negated, it was apparent the nosferatu was no longer present, although where he might have gotten to was anybody's guess. Hagan made the best of it by casting a <em>chain lightning</em> spell on the three remaining mirror duplicates, making the gnome his primary target. The fake Binkadink continued his attack on his gnomish original and was retaliated against in kind not only by the real Binkadink but by Obvious as well.</p><p></p><p>But then the nosferatu re-entered the fray, seeping into an arrow-slit in the hallway just before the stairwell leading back down to the second floor and resuming his normal, humanoid form. Darrien was the closest victim at hand, and while he'd rather sip from the silver-haired elf's neck, in a pinch this male half-breed would do. He tried to dominate the ranger but once again, frustratingly, had no success of that front. (Unbeknownst to either of them, Darrien was still standing close enough to the still-capering Gilbert that the corpulent mage's <em>magic circle against evil</em> protected him from all forms of mental domination.)</p><p></p><p><He's here!> came a chorus of voices over the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell, sounding like Darrien and Malrin in unison. Then Darrien brought his <em>Arachnibow</em> up and the bald vampire with the funny teeth found himself being peppered once again with arrows. This was little more than an inconvenience to the nosferatu, whose undead body could handle most physical strikes as long as they weren't made by silver weapons, but it was certainly irritating! And then Hagan popped out of the main bedchamber, voicing another <em>power word</em> spell. this one of a type the sorcerer was certain <em>could</em> affect an undead creature. With a snarl of hatred, the nosferatu found he had been robbed of his sight; instinctively, he returned to his mist form and flattened himself against the wall until he could find the arrow slit and return to the open air outside, where he would wait out the blindness effect.</p><p></p><p>With a sudden gasp, Gilbert stopped his dancing and immediately erected another layer of magical protection around himself: with a <em>quickened mirror image</em> spell, there was suddenly an entire roomful of Gilberts - nine, in fact, if you didn't count the stunned mirror-duplicate getting its face sloughed off by Finoula's whip.</p><p></p><p><What I miss?> he demanded over the link, and once he'd been filled in, he cast another spell, a <em>dimension door</em> that brought him to the bottom of the stairs (the other illusory Gilberts coming along for the ride), just past the sprawled figure of the slain werebat rogue - who, Gilbert noted absently, was now no longer in his hybrid form but was now just another dead, naked human male. He looked all about him, trusting his <em>see invisibility</em> spell would pick up the nosferatu if he had any such shenanigans in mind. <He show up again, we kill him for good this time!> he vowed.</p><p></p><p>Back up in the main bedroom, Binkadink and Obvious finally managed to slay the mirror-gnome, who vanished into nothingness as the jackalope duplicate had done before him. Soon after, Darrien slew his own duplicate, and he and his gear vanished without a trace. <em>Bummer</em>, thought the ranger. <em>That would have been an easy way to get a spare Arachnibow....</em></p><p></p><p>Once Finoula managed to slay the mirror-Gilbert - well before Hagan's stunning effect had worn off, fortunately - he too vanished into nothingness and the ranger dropped back down to the floor, taking the <em>bag of holding</em> with her and thereby plunging the room back into darkness. <His coffin's got to be in here, somewhere,> she opined, having made it to the top floor of the building without having found it. There was only one logical place they hadn't explored yet, barring any extradimensional pocket rooms: the closet that the nosferatu had originally popped out of. Sure enough, the entire back half of the walk-in closet was hidden by an illusion, and there lay the wooden coffin, in full view. Finoula pulled back the lid but the coffin was empty save for a covering of grave dirt on the bottom.</p><p></p><p><So now what?> she asked the others.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Hours later, the stalemate was still on: the nosferatu had failed to overcome any of the heroes, and they in turn had been unable to track him down to destroy him. But they hadn't been idle during the long night; Hagan and Gilbert had dragged the coffin down from the third-floor closet (exposing a cache of coins and jewelry hidden under the floorboards beneath - bonus!) to the werebat cavern below the manor house. (Thank the gods for the <em>teleport</em> spell, thought Gilbert - he wouldn't have wanted to lug it down 80 feet of winding stairs!) But the heroes had decided to make their stand against the nosferatu in as wide open a space as possible and the vast chamber where they had rescued Horace fit the bill. Expecting that the undead monstrosity needed to return to his coffin before sunrise - which should be within the hour, likely - this seemed a good way to draw him out into the open. Of course, with so much time having passed, most of the group's protective spells had long since worn off: no more <em>stoneskins</em> or <em>mage armor</em> spells, no <em>fire shields</em> or even regular <em>shields</em>. Even the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell was gone; the heroes would have to make do with normal speech.</p><p></p><p>But the strategy bore fruit soon enough, for the nosferatu strolled into the cave as bold as you please. He had apparently been healed of all of his damage; the same could not be said of the adventurers, although Malrin had done what she could. But he apparently did not want to re-engage combat, either, for he started by calling out, "I wish to talk!"</p><p></p><p>"So talk," replied Finoula, both of her primary weapons in hand.</p><p></p><p>"I have killed your soldiers. You have killed my werebats. In this we are even, yes? I have a proposal: you leave here, never to return. I, in turn, seek elsewhere for my prey. I will leave your soldiers, the inhabitants of your kingdom, alone - this I swear."</p><p></p><p>"Any chance we could get you to feed on orcs and goblins?" asked Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"And what about the families of those you killed?" demanded Finoula, anger rising in her voice. The nosferatu brushed the notion off with a gesture of his hand, as if waving away an irritating fly. What were the lives of mere mortals to him, save as prey?</p><p></p><p>"I have idea," began Gilbert, turning the rest of his sentence into the words of a <em>prismatic spray</em> spell. Unfortunately, the spell's greatest drawback was its unpredictability, and in this case it was a green ray that struck the nosferatu in the chest, imbuing him with a poison effect to which his undead body was completely immune.</p><p></p><p>"I see combat is our only way ahead," sneered the nosferatu, stepping forward. But before he could take more than a single step, a bolt of lightning came crashing down on him, Malrin having cast her prepared <em>call lightning</em> spell. He seemed unfazed by the damage.</p><p></p><p>Darrien knew from experience that his arrows were all but useless against the nosferatu's undead flesh, so he moved back by the creature's coffin, the bait that had brought him here to face his assembled enemies. Finoula summoned a fire elemental, who appeared suddenly behind the nosferatu and sent a flaming fist crashing into him. At the same time, Hagan brought a <em>Mordenkainen's sword</em> into being, which flew across the cavern and stabbed at the nosferatu. Gilbert cast a simple <em>magic missile</em> at him and stepped back, while Mudpie - having been returned to his normal size - stepped forward to protect his master.</p><p></p><p>And then Binkadink and Obvious raced forward; they had no spells to contribute, but the gnome was pretty sure his magical glaive would be a perfectly acceptable substitute. The nosferatu stepped back toward the stairs as the gnome stabbed at him with his bladed weapon. Malrin repositioned herself so she could still see her foe and brought down another mostly-ineffectual lightning bolt while the fire elemental stepped forward, trying to hit him with its flaming limbs.</p><p> </p><p>Darrien, lacking anything else useful to do, started hacking away at the wooden coffin with his scimitar. But then the battle came to an abrupt halt as Hagan cast a <em>disintegrate</em> spell at the bald vampire, knowing full well it would affect undead flesh as well as any other nonliving matter. And sure enough, the nosferatu's body was awash in a sudden beam of light, then vanished in a cloud of dry dust that coated the stone floor of the cavern where he had stood just a second ago. Wezhley jumped up and down excitedly on his master's shoulder, proud at the half-orc's spellcasting prowess. The threat averted, Finoula redeployed her fire elemental over to the wooden coffin, setting it ablaze in the time it still had left on this plane. Just in case there was a chance the nosferatu could regenerate, they wanted to make absolutely sure there was no coffin there to allow it to rest.</p><p></p><p>After watching the coffin burn to ashes, Hagan ushered half of the group through the <em>carpet of teleportation</em> back to the dragonfly vessel, then cast a final <em>teleport</em> spell transporting the rest of them back to Battershield Keep. They'd bring Horace back to his sentry duties, but not until everyone had gotten a good ten hours of sleep or so - they had certainly earned it!</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Boy, were my werebats ever pushovers! The group (mostly Binkadink) plowed through them like they weren't even there. But I made up for it with my <em>mirror of opposition</em> trap. Dan's face was priceless when I asked him to pass his PC folder over my way so I could see which spells his mirror-duplicate could use against him. I tried getting Dan to role-play the dancing in place for 3 rounds, but with five players (one running a second character - the NPC druid) those 3 rounds took the better part of an hour and I don't think he'd have liked gyrating for that long. (Incidentally, it's a good thing Hagan wasn't one of the four people in the room when the <em>mirror of opposition</em> was triggered - I shudder to think of the havoc I could have wreaked had I had the half-orc sorcerer's spell repertoire at hand to use against the PCs!)</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, Jacob was unable to attend this session - he's a shift manager at his work and at the last minute he had to cover for somebody who didn't make it in. So rather than have one of the other players run Castillan as well as their own PC, I just decided that the bounder was elsewhere when adventure called this time. He'll share in the XP earned, though - it wouldn't be right to penalize Jacob's PC for something out of his control. (Plus, it's easier when everyone levels up at the same time.)</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My "WWDD?" shirt, featuring Daryl Dixon from "The Walking Dead." It had two meanings: the TV show was a hint as to the nosferatu's undead nature and Daryl was a good stand-in for the garrison soldiers pulling sentry duty for Kordovia.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7625224, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 63: NIGHTWINGS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 17 Darrien, half-elf ranger 17 Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 17 Gilbert Fung, human wizard 17 Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 17[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 11 MARCI, humanoid construct[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 22 June 2019 - - - The sun was setting as Aithanar pulled the Vistani wagon to a halt at the side of the road. The door opened at the back of the wagon, allowing Gilbert and Hagan to exit, each of the two spellcasters carrying their respective familiars: Wezhley the weasel perched upon the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder and Mudpie reduced to the size of a pebble inside the a pocket of the hefty wizard's robe. Darrien dropped from the top of the wagon, where he'd been sitting in Castillan's normal spot; the elven bounder was off at one of the taverns, no doubt, well into a game of cards and keeping an ear to any scuttlebutt he might pick up. The half-elf ranger hurried to catch up to the other two. As they started up the winding path to the garrison keep, they were passed by Finoula on her pony Daisy, with her timber wolf Wrath trotting in her wake, and Binkadink riding his jackalope, Obvious. They made much better time than the three striking out on foot, and by the time the trio made it up to the keep Finoula and Binkadink had already dismounted and were in a discussion with Aerik Battershield, who had asked the group to swing by this evening. Behind him, by the stone keep, Slayer led a small group of mercenaries in weapons practice before they went out on patrol that night. "What...all this about?" wheezed Gilbert when he got to the top of the hill. He was quite winded from the hike and had seriously considered using a [i]teleport[/i] or [i]dimension door[/i] spell to save himself the effort of getting all the way to the top. "We've been havin' a problem with retention among th' hired soldiers," Aerik explained in a quiet voice, not wanting to be overheard by any of the garrison troops. "There's been no complaints about th' wages, th' hours, or th' weapons an' armor provided; nonetheless, we seem to have several mercenaries desertin' every week. They just wander off an' are never seen again. I'd like ye t' look into it, if'n ye would." "When have they gone missing?" Finoula asked. "Always it's when they're on patrol," Aerik answered. "They go off on their patrol schedule, an' they dinnae come back." "How many patrol together?" asked Darrien. "Teams o' two - a buddy system, t' prevent anyone from gettin' th' drop on a lone soldier. An' it's always both o' the soldiers goin' missin' at th' same time, too. We tried rotatin' th' men around so's they dinnae get to used t' th' same partner all th' time, in case one disgruntled soldier talks 'is buddy into desertin' with 'im, but so far it's had no effect." "Maybe need three people together, not just two," suggested Gilbert. "Maybe these aren't desertions," pointed out Binkadink reasonably. "Could someone - or something - have been attacking them?" "Each o' th' soldiers got hisself a signalin' horn in case o' trouble," Aerik argued. "Nobody's used 'em. An' there's been no signs o' combat on th' patrol routes." "Maybe we interview garrison men, see what we learn from them," suggested Gilbert. "Be me guest," offered the gruff dwarf. Then his attitude lightened and he called out, "A good evenin' to ye, Mr. Dulorro!" Gilbert turned and watched an elderly man trudging up the path to the garrison keep. He looked to be sixty years old or more and walked with the aid of a cane, but he carried a picnic basket in his other hand and didn't seem nearly as winded walking up the hill as Gilbert had been, despite his advanced years. Gilbert took an immediate dislike to him and glared at the old man with his magically-enhanced vision, trying to see if he were some form of undead. He wasn't - but that didn't let him off the hook, Gilbert decided. "Good evening, gentlemen - and a good evening to you, too, young miss!" the old man amended upon seeing Finoula; she just smiled, realizing the elderly human had no idea that the silver-haired elven maiden before him was actually much older than he was. "I brought the troops some baked goods." Aerik called over to the men and Slayer immediately called a halt to their weapons training. One of the soldiers ran into the keep, returning with an empty picnic basket to trade for the one the old man carried. "Just some rolls and biscuits," he apologized, passing the basket over to the eager recruit. "My little way of giving thanks to the troops protecting us from the orcs and goblins of the forest." Gilbert insisted on looking at the contents of the basket, lifting the cloth covering the baked goods to do so. To his irritation, there was nothing untoward about the basket's contents - in fact, the biscuits smelled quite good...and was that a scent of baked-in honey? The mage's mouth started watering. "Who you, exactly?" he demanded to the old man. "Oh, please forgive my manners - my name is [b]Stefan Dulorro[/b], I live just inside the forest. A retired baker by trade; now I make the rounds among the garrison forts, passing along my good wishes and the occasional basket of biscuits and such." "That's very generous of you," said Finoula with a smile. "Well, it keeps me busy and gets me out of the house every now and again," Stefan replied, matching the elf's friendly smile with one of his own. "I wonder, have you heard anything about any garrison soldiers missing over the last few weeks?" she asked. "Missing?" Stefan scratched his head while he thought. "No, but I have heard a few of them wondering aloud what the pay is for a similar post in the kingdom to the south. There was a name mentioned, Lord...Castlethorne? Something like that, in any case. Apparently he's paying top coin for the services of mercenaries." "Cavelthorne!" snarled Gilbert. "Little rat buying our mercenaries out from under us!" Aerik confirmed that the missing men had all been posted at the three southernmost garrison forts - those closest to Lord Cavelthorne's kingdom. "Come on - we talk to men while they stuff faces with biscuits!" Stefan waved his farewells and started his trek back down the hill path, while Gilbert led the other heroes in questioning the garrison soldiers. The interrogations brought about some useful information. "Yeah, I heard Lord Cavelthorne's paying out a bunch of gold to go guard his kingdom instead of this one. Haven't heard no specific prices, though," said one recruit. "I knew one of the guys who went missing," offered another. "He didn't give any indication he was dissatisfied with the pay for this job." Another insisted one of the missing men had family in Kordovia - there was no way he'd desert his post for more money elsewhere and leave them behind to face the next orc and goblin attack, especially since a recent wave had actually made it into the city proper. "You ask me, there’s somethin' in that forest besides orcs an' goblins pickin' 'em off," mused a grizzled soldier. "Th' other week, I coulda swore I heard leathery wings flappin' – likely a dragon, you just see if I ain't right. Prolly a smaller one, sure, but a dragon's a dragon – wouldn't have to be no bigger'n a horse or so to polish off two soldiers all by itself." But the best possible lead came from a rather thin-looking soldier, all but buried under his heavy armor. "I might've been one of the last guys to have seen [b]Horace[/b] alive, come to think on it. See this ring here? Ain't worth much, but I won it off him at cards, the night he went missin', right before we was off on our patrols." "Lemme see ring!" demanded Gilbert, holding out a pudgy hand. The soldier, at a nod from Aerik, dropped the ring into the wizard's hand. The soldier was right, the ring was practically worthless - but as a physical link to a recently-missing troop, it could be invaluable in determining Horace's fate. Gilbert pulled the [i]crystal ball[/i] from his robes and passed a hand over it. It clouded over as he concentrated on Horace, holding the man's ring in his hand. Immediately, the [i]crystal ball[/i] turned black. "Stupid thing!" snarled Gilbert, shaking it like a snow globe to try to get an image to appear. But Hagan reached over and steadied Gilbert's hand. "It's working fine," the half-orc explained. "Horace is bound, hand and foot, in a cavern of some sort, by a pool of water." This was the second time in recent history that Gilbert had scried upon a scene of utter darkness, leaving his human eyes unable to see anything, while Hagan's half-orc ancestry gave him a full view. "You get good enough view you can teleport us there?" Gilbert asked. Hagan examined the image in the dark crystal sphere and nodded. "Sure," he said, "just not all of us at once." After some discussion, the group decided to return to Battershield Keep and teleport from there. For one thing, Aithanar would be staying behind with Daisy and Wrath; for another, the [i]carpet of teleportation[/i] that linked to their dragonfly vessel was stored there, and it would be quicker for some of the heroes to wait on the spelljamming vessel for Hagan and a small group to teleport over, bringing the carpet with them. Gilbert cast a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] on the group, then sent Binkadink to go fetch the carpet. While the gnome did that, Gilbert cast [i]stoneskin[/i] and [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spells upon himself and Mudpie (who was still pebble-sized inside a pocket of the wizard's robes). Malrin cast a [i]goodberry[/i] spell, resulting in almost a dozen healing berries, which she placed in a belt pouch at her hip. At Binkadink's request, she cast a [i]reduce animal[/i] spell on Obvious, halving his size and making it easier for the jackalope - usually the size of a large draft horse - to be brought along with Hagan when he teleported the group over to the lightless cavern where Horace was being held captive. She followed that spell up with [i]greater magic fang[/i] and [i]stoneskin[/i] spells on the jackalope, turning him into a pony-sized combat machine. The gnome climbed up onto his mount's saddle and Gilbert noted, "You look less silly on smaller mount, gnome." Gilbert stepped onto the [i]carpet of teleportation[/i] and over to the dragonfly vessel to wait for the all-clear signal telling him the carpet had been laid out flat in the cavern and it was safe to step through again. He had MARCI come with him, and Malrin followed suit. Then Hagan, standing beside Finoula, Darrien, and Binkadink astride Obvious, cast his [i]teleport[/i] spell and the group was instantaneously transported across the miles into a dark cavern, with the flickering illusory flames of the [i]everlasting torches[/i] tied to the antlers of the little gnome's helmet providing the only illumination. Finoula spotted Horace at once beside her and bent over him to ascertain his condition. His wrists and ankles were tied together by strips of cloth and he was covered in bites and scratches, but he was still breathing and merely unconscious, not dead as she had originally feared. He had been stripped of his armor, but she saw it propped up against the wall on the other side of a pool of water beside him. She felt the pulse at his neck - it was faint, but steady - and saw numerous puncture marks at his throat. "Vampires!" she gasped to herself, and then noticed how close together some of the bite-marks were. If the marks were the work of vampires, then some of them must have been mere babies, given how close together they were! As their eyes adjusted to the gloom of the cavern, the heroes could see five human-sized figures scattered around the massive cavern, turning their way in surprise at the sudden influx of light. They hissed and chittered in irritation, and Darrien, assuming that anything guarding a human captive must be in cahoots with the instigator if not the culprit himself, sent a volley of arrows at the dark figure nearest him. He couldn't even see fully just what it was he was shooting at - it was just a shape at this point - but it spread wide a pair of dragonlike wings as some of the archer's arrows struck true. Hagan wasted no time in dropping the rolled-up carpet and sending it unrolling with a kick of his feet. <Carpet's ready!> Hagan called over the link. <Looks like werebats - five, at least!> Indeed, the half-orc's darkvision had given him a good look at what they were facing: humanoid bats at least as big as he was, with wings made of leathery flaps of skin stretched tight over oversized fingers. Gilbert arrived onto the carpet at once, having spent the time waiting on the dragonfly vessel casting a [i]shield[/i] spell on himself and Mudpie. Gilbert was really only comfortable stepping into combat with as many protective spells as he could manage to cast already in place; to the irritation of his companions, he often spent time in combat providing himself additional defenses instead of taking out the enemy. But he stepped forward at once, if only to allow MARCI and Malrin to follow behind him. Binkadink and Obvious could see well enough for the gnome to send his mount hippity-hopping forward in a surge of speed, and he brought his glaive stabbing forward into the chest of a werebat at the far side of the cavern. The creature shrieked in pain, his yells echoing across the cavernous space all around them, almost seeming to increase in volume as they reverberated around the vast, open space - strangely enough, accompanied by the sounds of flapping wings. Then all was made clear as scores - if not hundreds - of bats flapped around the heroes, one group dive-bombing Binkadink and Obvious while another swarmed over and among Hagan, Finoula, Darrien, and the prone Horace. Claws ripped and fangs pierced flesh in a chaotic frenzy of bloodletting. While Darrien's attention was thus distracted, the werebat he had shot crossed the gulf between him and bit at the archer as he hovered over the pool of water beside the ranger. Two more werebats raced up to aid the one being stabbed by Binkadink, while another closed the distance between him and Gilbert. But the portly wizard was having none of that; with a few hastily spoken syllables, he brought a [i]quickened wall of force[/i] into existence between them, extending all the way across the pool of water to the far wall, effectively sealing Binkadink and Obvious on one side of the magical barrier with four werebats and a swarm of bats, and the rest of the group over in a smaller section of the cavern with but one bat swarm and a heavily-wounded werebat. Of course, the [i]wall of force[/i] was only 20 feet high, a mere fourth of the way to the cavern's ceiling, but that wouldn't do much to help those incapable of flight. Malrin caused her hand to sprout a ball of fire, courtesy of a [i]produce flame[/i] spell, and threw it at the werebat attacking Darrien. Finoula, not liking at all being surrounded on all sides by a swarm of biting bats, activated her [i]lightning amulet[/i] and turned her body into a blast of electricity, frying the bats all around her as she blasted straight up at the cavern's ceiling, where she reverted to elven form and stuck to the stone roof by the [i]boots of spider climbing[/i] she wore. Below her, scorched bats fell from the air in a rain of death to create a macabre tripping hazard. Darrien managed to keep his footing while he shot at the werebat with his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. As the lycanthrope fell dead into the pool of water below him, the half-elf ranger followed suit, seeing the pool as the only way for him to cross over to Binkadink's side of the [i]wall of force[/i]. Hagan cast a [i]fly[/i] spell and crossed over the wall to join the ranger there. But their presence wasn't entirely needed, as Binkadink brought his magical glaive killing the wounded werebat before him, then swung it on either side of him in rapid succession, impaling the two werebats who had foolishly rushed in to aid their comrade. In as many seconds, all three lycanthropes had fallen lifelessly to the stone floor of the cavern. That left only one werebat remaining of the original group, the one who had failed to reach Gilbert before the wizard put the [i]wall of force[/i] in his way. After convincing himself that he couldn't get to the heavyset morsel, the werebat turned and, seeing his companions all dead, tried to flee only to be gored by Obvious's antlers as the jackalope raced to the only remaining potential threat. The swarm of bats followed, swooping in to bite at Binkadink and Obvious, but the jackalope was protected by the [i]stoneskin[/i] spell Malrin had cast upon him earlier. Ignoring the flitting bats all around him, the gnome brought his glaive down on the fleeing werebat, slicing through a wing and shoulder and bringing the beast crashing to the ground, dead. With the last of their masters slain, the bats immediately lost interest in combat and returned to their roosts among the stalactites among the cavern's ceiling. With combat behind them, Gilbert dismissed his [i]wall of force[/i] spell and strolled over to Horace, indicating for MARCI to follow. Finoula walked down the cavern wall to return to her previous position beside the bound soldier and cut his bonds. As she poured a healing potion down his throat, bringing him coughing back into consciousness, Gilbert instructed MARCI to inject the former captive with a dose of truth serum. "Gilbert--what the Hell?" demanded Finoula, astonished at the level of distrust the portly mage had for everyone he didn't personally know. "What did you do that for?" "Want to make sure he only tell us the truth," Gilbert answered. "You're fat!" exclaimed Horace, rubbing his wrists where the binds had bitten into them. Gilbert shrugged; it was an indicator that the serum was working. "Tell us about other missing soldiers," he demanded. Horace told them what he knew. He and his combat partner had been ambushed by a great swarm of rats pouring out of the Vesve Forest; while Horace had been fighting them off, a bald man had stepped forward and apparently put his fellow soldier under some sort of spell. The bald creep drank the soldier's blood until sated, then turned him over to a quartet of werebats. He commanded the rats to leave, then Horace and the other soldier had been flown, each in the grip of two werebats, here to the cavern. There the captives had been used as food sources for the hungry werebats and the bald vampire, who drank their blood and then, upon the deaths of the other captives, had their corpses butchered for meat for the lycanthropes. That would have been Horace's fate as well, had the heroes not found their way here to rescue him. "You remember that," Gilbert reminded Horace. "We save your butt. Now we take you someplace safe while we deal with rest of threat." He had Finoula take him to the dragonfly ship via the [i]carpet of teleportation[/i]. She returned minutes later, informing the group that Aithanar would look after him until they returned there themselves. Hagan rolled the carpet back up and placed it into the [i]portable hole[/i] Malrin kept in her pack. "Now what?" Darrien asked. "Now we find bald vampire and any other werebats living here," Gilbert replied. "Then I'm going to shift into something a little less conspicuous," Malrin announced, wildshaping into an animal form. She often spent much of her combat time as an owl, appreciating its greater mobility (and, truth be told, smaller target space); this time, though, her body shrank down to the configuration not of an owl, but rather of a bat. <I ought to blend in just fine in this form!> she said over the telepathic link Gilbert had set up earlier. There was a short passageway carved into the natural stone cavern at the northwestern end, leading to a winding set of stairs heading up. Finoula led the group up the stairs, making a full eight rotations before opening to a room with a closed door. Opening it cautiously, the ranger found herself in a library stocked with books on shelves along the walls. There was a closed door on the walls to the east and west and a set of stairs leading up to a higher level. All in all, this looked like a room in a manor house of at least minor nobility. Finoula listened at the eastern door and, hearing nothing, opened the door. This led to a front room, with two suits of armor along the wall and what must be the front door facing south; the room opened into another room around the corner at the north. Half expecting the armor to animate and attack her, Finoula stepped into the room, her longsword [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] in one hand and her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i] in the other, but despite her premonitions nothing untoward happened. With a shrug, the elf returned to the library and checked out the door to the west. This led to a kitchen, laid out with all manner of baking supplies. A faint scent of freshly-baked rolls lingered in the air and Finoula groaned inwardly. <Mr. Dulorro!> she gasped over the link. <That nice old man is a part of all of this!> <Not necessarily,> argued Hagan, unlike Gilbert willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. <Or if he is, it might not be under his own will. Vampires can charm people into doing their bidding, remember.> <Why vampire charm baker, force him to give free goodies to soldiers?> demanded Gilbert. <Out of goodness of unbeating heart?> <It could be a type of intelligence-gathering,> suggested Darrien. <Find out who's going to be on what patrol routes, that sort of thing.> <If anybody here need to start gathering some intelligence...> began Gilbert, before mentally trailing off. <Hmm. Look at books on shelves: Theocracy of the Pale. Lycanthropes. Folktales of the Living Dead.> Darrien walked through the kitchen, confirming that it was a dining room connecting to the front-room - all empty of inhabitants - and finding a back door - locked from the inside - from the kitchen before returning back to the library. By then, Hagan and Wezhley had entered from the winding stairs, followed by Binkadink and Obvious - the latter of which wouldn't have made it up the stairwell in his normal size. "I'm going to announce our presence," stated the gnome, lifting his [i]horn of goodness and evil[/i] to his lips. He gave the musical instrument a big blow, sending a "BLATT!" reverberating throughout the manor as a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell took place around the gnome. "Nice job, stupid gnome!" groused Gilbert. "There go any element of surprise we might have had!" "They're going to find out we're here soon enough anyway," countered Binkadink, leading Obvious up the stairs to the second floor of the building. Malrin followed in bat form. There was a doorway around the corner from the stairwell; pulling it open, Binkadink was simultaneously attacked by the three werebats hiding within the room. Hearing the commotion, Finoula bounded up the stairs, followed by Darrien and Hagan, with Gilbert and MARCI bringing up the rear. By the time Finoula had rounded the corner Binkadink had already slain the three werebats; it was so much easier wielding his glaive in close quarters now that he'd had the shaft made to be extendable and retractable with a spoken command word! Moving past the gnome and his jackalope, Finoula went around the corner and opened the next door. There was another werebat waiting in that room, and, to the ranger's surprise, yet another one lurking around the other corner of the hallway. Finoula found herself pinned between two heartier werebats than the ones they'd encountered thus far, these two working in concert to ensure one of them was able to plunge its fangs into the elf's throat and suck forth a great quantity of blood. A dozen thoughts went racing through the elf's mind at once: she should have checked the end of the hallway before opening the door; these werebats must have had some sort of formal training in their human lives (if they were even human and not, say, elves); was it possible that this bite would spread the contagion of lycanthropy to Finoula, such that she'd transform into a werebat herself on the nights of the full moon? But then she focused on the task at hand: taking these beasts down before they did the same to her. As she was already facing the one standing in the doorway she focused her attention on him, stabbing at him with [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] and flicking her whip at him, while trying not to let the other one overbalance her and send her crashing to the floor. She felt another form flick past her, but this was just Malrin, casting a healing spell on her fellow elf in passing, the better to help Finoula remain standing as long as possible. Down the hall, Darrien sent a cluster of arrows bristling into the werebat facing Finoula, causing him to hiss in pain and spill blood from his mouth. Hagan and Gilbert were still stuck on the stairs, unable to move further into the hallway by the press of bodies before them. Still, they put the time to good use, Hagan casting a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell on himself and Wezhley while Gilbert cast a [i]see invisibility[/i] spell on his own eyes, just in case. The werebats focused their attacks on Finoula, as she was already at hand. But then Binkadink brought his glaive down on the one in the doorway, practically slicing his head from his neck. Obvious surged forward toward Finoula and the remaining werebat attacking her from behind. A ball of flames suddenly appeared above the wings of the little bat flitting at the end of the hallway, and Malrin sent it flying into the werebat, singeing its fur. Finoula wrestled the werebat off her back and spun to face him, stabbing out with her longsword and piercing one of his leathery wings. Several arrows went streaking past her head, to bury themselves in the werebat's body as he shrieked in pain. Wezhley reminded his master that Hagan still had a [i]fly[/i] spell active, and he went soaring over Gilbert's head as the wizard finished up the casting of a [i]fire shield[/i] spell that would protect him and Mudpie from cold-based attacks. Hagan landed beside Darrien, who was still pulling arrows from his quiver and loading up the [i]Arachnibow[/i]. Seeing the number of enemies intent on his death, the werebat rogue turned to fly up the stairs at his end of the hallway - and was promptly cut down by Binkadink's glaive. <Thanks, guys!> Finoula offered over the link. Malrin landed on the elf's shoulder and examined the wounds on her neck brought on by the werebat's wicked fangs. <I'm no expert,> the druid explained, <but I don't think there's much chance of the bat-lycanthropy having been spread through the bite.> <Let's hope you're right!> replied Finoula, leading the way up the stairs to the third level of the building. There was still no sign of the bald vampire apparently behind these attacks on the Kordovian garrison soldiers. There was a door at the end of the third-floor hallway; Finoula stationed herself just past it with her longsword at the ready as Binkadink reached over from his perch on Obvious's back and opened the door. All was blackness within, and the illumination spilling from the gnome's helmet did nothing to dispel it. <Magical darkness,> he reported over the link. <I'm going in.> Despite the lack of vision, Finoula could hear the crackling of flames from the room within, as well as various heavy bits of furniture being moved around as Obvious bumped blindly into them. Darrien followed the pair into the room, but while they crisscrossed it looking for hidden enemies, the ranger kept his hand on the wall to his right and followed it to the far side of the room. By the increased sounds of crackling, he deduced the fireplace was just off to his left when he found a doorknob. He tried to turn it, but it was locked. This was a conundrum; even if Castillan had been here, he'd have had a rather difficult time picking a lock in absolute darkness! <Gilbert! You have any way of lighting up this darkness?> the half-elf asked over the link. <Hold your horses, I coming,> groused Gilbert. He stepped into the doorway and cast a [i]dispel magic[/i] spell targeting the [i]deeper darkness[/i] effect. Immediately, the magical darkness was dissipated, allowing the room to be illuminated from the flames of the lit fireplace along the western wall. This allowed the group to see the mess Obvious had made of the furniture - but more importantly, it illuminated the [i]mirror of opposition[/i] attached to the wall directly across from the room's entry door. Four figures stepped out of the magic mirror, one after another: virtual duplicates of Binkadink astride Obvious, Darrien, and Gilbert Fung. Each was a perfect mirror image of their respective targets, and each wore an expression of abject hatred for their "original model." Before any of the heroes in the room could react, the gnome and jackalope attacked their counterparts, the mirror-Obvious biting at the neck of the real thing while the faux Binkadink brought his own magical glaive down upon the real gnome fighter. Then the mirror-Gilbert, whose mind was filled with the same spells as his original, cast an [i]Otto's irresistible dance[/i] at Gilbert; with mounting horror, Gilbert started capering and dancing about, despite his best efforts to stop it and do something useful instead. The counterfeit Darrien sent a flurry of arrows from his own [i]Arachnibow[/i] streaking across the room to the real Darrien, who managed to snatch two of them out of the air before they struck thanks to his [i]gloves of arrow snaring[/i], but the others struck true with as much force as the ranger himself would have been able to provide. The mirror-Gilbert then stepped forward, wheeled, and cast a [i]maximized cone of cold[/i] spell at the real versions of Gilbert, Binkadink and Obvious, Darrien, and even Finoula from through the doorway. The sudden blast of cold energy almost dropped Finoula there on the spot; she staggered to stay upright and only a [i]mass cure light wounds[/i] spell from Malrin kept her standing. The spell was a welcome touch to the others in the room as well, all of whom had been greatly harmed by the powerful spell. MARCI then stepped forward beside Finoula. "I am unable to inject the normal healing mixture as I am currently out of stock," she announced. "I can, however, inject you with a stimdose that will aid you in retaining consciousness." She jabbed a needle into the elf woman's neck, injecting a cooled substance that made the her feel more alert and powerful as it coursed through her system. Meanwhile, while Gilbert danced in place helplessly, he seethed at the logical brilliance of this insidious trap, especially assuming it had been put into place by the bald vampire, who didn't even cast a reflection and thus couldn't trigger the trap himself! Inside the room, as Binkadink and Obvious traded blows and bites with their counterparts and the two Darriens peppered each other with arrows to see which one would fall first, unseen in the chaos, the locked closet door opened and out stepped the bald vampire. He sent a set of wicked claws scratching at Darrien, whose attention was elsewhere; that certainly got the ranger to stop worrying about what his mirror-clone was up to! With mounting horror, Darrien realized this bald man before him was a vampire - although he didn't look like any vampire the ranger has ever heard of. Despite the complete hairlessness on his gleaming scalp, the vampire made up for it with a pair of the longest, bushiest eyebrows Darrien had even seen! And when he opened his mouth, no doubt in preparation of plunging his fangs into the half-elf's neck, Darrien saw their placement: instead of being sharpened eye teeth, as he would have expected, the bald vampire's fangs were his two front teeth! Still shaky on her feet, Finoula activated the [i]heal[/i] spell stored in her sword and felt a surge of energy course through her body, unlimbering muscles clenched up by the [i]cone of cold[/i] spell Gilbert's mirror duplicate had cast. She stepped into the room, her whip uncoiled in her hand as she prepared herself for some retaliation. Hagan followed Finoula into the room and made a tactical decision: taking out the evil Gilbert was currently the top priority. He sent a [i]power word stun[/i] spell crashing into the portly mage, causing him to cease all actions and just stand there, dumbfounded. <That's a good look for you, Gilbert!> the half-orc teased, but Gilbert made no reply, his full concentration currently centered on dancing about. The mirror versions of Binkadink and Obvious attacked their real-life counterparts, and while the real Obvious followed suit in attacking his duplicate, Binkadink broke with tradition and also targeted the other jackalope, hoping that together, they could bring him down much sooner than the gnome would be able to bring down the fake gnome, who, Binkadink was well aware, had an [i]amulet of health[/i] just as powerful as his own likely to keep him in the fight that much longer. Perhaps surprised at this unexpected maneuver, the fake Obvious's attention faltered, allowing the real Obvious to clamp down on his duplicate's neck and pull him to the floor, forcing the fake Binkadink to leap from the saddle to keep from falling prone. But even that measure brought with it some peril, for in doing so the fake gnome was unable to ward off the real Binkadink's striking glaive, cutting deep into the fake's red dragonhide armor. The nosferatu vampire had failed to grapple Darrien, but now his attention was diverted by the silver-haired elf who had just stepped into the room. A firm traditionalist, the undead beast preferred female victims whenever possible; the soldiers had been exclusively male but this had been balanced by their easy availability. Now, with Finoula standing before him, her lovely neck exposed, the nosferatu turned from Darrien without a further thought and directed his gaze - and the full force of his will - at the female elf. It wasn't enough; as lovely as Finoula might be, she was no fragile female victim - she'd proven her ruggedness time after time over the course of her adventuring career. Perhaps aided by her elven heritage, she shrugged off the nosferatu's attempts at mental domination without any seeming effort. A [i]flame strike[/i] spell suddenly erupted over the mirror-duplicates of Binkadink, Obvious, and Darrien, proof that even while in bat form Malrin could contribute to the destruction of the group's enemies. But even with wisps of smoke streaming from his body, the half-elven mirror image was focused solely on slaying his original form and he continued sending arrows at Darrien. Darrien, for his part, opted to do his best to ignore these attacks for a moment as he brought his own [i]Arachnibow[/i] to bear on the nosferatu menacing Finoula (or trying to, anyway, for all the good it was doing him). Then Finoula turned and looked at the undead monstrosity right in the eye, demonstrating her fearlessness or her complete contempt for the threat he posed. She slowly raised a hand to her neck, drawing the vampire's attention, but her fingers stopped at the amulet she wore there; in an instant, her body was a lightning bolt crashing through the nosferatu's undead form. She reappeared beside Darrien, who now felt he could return his attention to his own duplicate. Not sure off the top of his head whether the undead could be stunned, Hagan decided to cast his next [i]power word stun[/i] on the fake Darrien instead; he, at least, shouldn't be immune! Sure enough, he wasn't - as evidenced by the fact that he froze up immediately, dropping the [i]Arachnibow[/i] at his feet. He made a nice, slack-jawed partner to the fake Gilbert standing beside him, while the real Gilbert continued his frantic dancing. The Binkadinks attacked each other violently, with the two jackalopes following suit. But one jackalope finally got the better of the other one, causing his enemy to fall lifelessly to the ground, his throat all but ripped open and spilling his life's blood out onto the floor. The fact that the dead jackalope then faded from existence proved that it was the original Obvious who had defeated his foe and not the other way around. With a snarl of hatred, the nosferatu sent a fist slamming into Finoula's face, then uttered a guttural word and the room fell once again into darkness. Unseen by the others, his body turned to mist and he wafted back through the open closet door, where there was a narrow slit in the outer wall allowing him access to the open air outside. Once out in the moonlight, he could feel all of the damage he had taken thus far healing up instantly. Nobody seemed willing to stay inside a pitch-black room if they could help it. Malrin was the first to exit, flapping her bat-wings to propel her out into the hallway by MARCI, who had been standing by until she was needed - or until she was told what to do by Gilbert, the human whose orders she always obeyed to the best of her ability. Darrien was the next to exit, following along the wall until he found the doorway. <Gilbert! Can you dispel the darkness again?> called out Finoula, but there was no answer from the wizard, still dancing away. So the ranger figured a way to do it herself: she'd noted a small globe in the center of the ceiling, like an embedded chandelier; assuming this was the source of the magical darkness, she walked up the wall with her [i]boots of spider climbing[/i], pulling open the [i]bag of holding[/i] at her belt as she did so. Then placing the open bag over the ceiling fixture, she stepped onto the edge of the bag carefully with each foot, such that she stood with each boot half on the ceiling and half on the bag. The end result was a cessation of the [i]deeper darkness[/i] effect, while Finoula hung upside-down from the ceiling like a bat, her silvery hair hanging down and her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i] snapping again and again at the still-stunned mirror-Gilbert. Realizing this was a magic effect and not a true person, she indulged in a whim and concentrated on flaying the skin from the fat wizard's face with the barbed lash. With the darkness negated, it was apparent the nosferatu was no longer present, although where he might have gotten to was anybody's guess. Hagan made the best of it by casting a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell on the three remaining mirror duplicates, making the gnome his primary target. The fake Binkadink continued his attack on his gnomish original and was retaliated against in kind not only by the real Binkadink but by Obvious as well. But then the nosferatu re-entered the fray, seeping into an arrow-slit in the hallway just before the stairwell leading back down to the second floor and resuming his normal, humanoid form. Darrien was the closest victim at hand, and while he'd rather sip from the silver-haired elf's neck, in a pinch this male half-breed would do. He tried to dominate the ranger but once again, frustratingly, had no success of that front. (Unbeknownst to either of them, Darrien was still standing close enough to the still-capering Gilbert that the corpulent mage's [i]magic circle against evil[/i] protected him from all forms of mental domination.) <He's here!> came a chorus of voices over the [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell, sounding like Darrien and Malrin in unison. Then Darrien brought his [i]Arachnibow[/i] up and the bald vampire with the funny teeth found himself being peppered once again with arrows. This was little more than an inconvenience to the nosferatu, whose undead body could handle most physical strikes as long as they weren't made by silver weapons, but it was certainly irritating! And then Hagan popped out of the main bedchamber, voicing another [i]power word[/i] spell. this one of a type the sorcerer was certain [i]could[/i] affect an undead creature. With a snarl of hatred, the nosferatu found he had been robbed of his sight; instinctively, he returned to his mist form and flattened himself against the wall until he could find the arrow slit and return to the open air outside, where he would wait out the blindness effect. With a sudden gasp, Gilbert stopped his dancing and immediately erected another layer of magical protection around himself: with a [i]quickened mirror image[/i] spell, there was suddenly an entire roomful of Gilberts - nine, in fact, if you didn't count the stunned mirror-duplicate getting its face sloughed off by Finoula's whip. <What I miss?> he demanded over the link, and once he'd been filled in, he cast another spell, a [i]dimension door[/i] that brought him to the bottom of the stairs (the other illusory Gilberts coming along for the ride), just past the sprawled figure of the slain werebat rogue - who, Gilbert noted absently, was now no longer in his hybrid form but was now just another dead, naked human male. He looked all about him, trusting his [i]see invisibility[/i] spell would pick up the nosferatu if he had any such shenanigans in mind. <He show up again, we kill him for good this time!> he vowed. Back up in the main bedroom, Binkadink and Obvious finally managed to slay the mirror-gnome, who vanished into nothingness as the jackalope duplicate had done before him. Soon after, Darrien slew his own duplicate, and he and his gear vanished without a trace. [i]Bummer[/i], thought the ranger. [i]That would have been an easy way to get a spare Arachnibow....[/i] Once Finoula managed to slay the mirror-Gilbert - well before Hagan's stunning effect had worn off, fortunately - he too vanished into nothingness and the ranger dropped back down to the floor, taking the [i]bag of holding[/i] with her and thereby plunging the room back into darkness. <His coffin's got to be in here, somewhere,> she opined, having made it to the top floor of the building without having found it. There was only one logical place they hadn't explored yet, barring any extradimensional pocket rooms: the closet that the nosferatu had originally popped out of. Sure enough, the entire back half of the walk-in closet was hidden by an illusion, and there lay the wooden coffin, in full view. Finoula pulled back the lid but the coffin was empty save for a covering of grave dirt on the bottom. <So now what?> she asked the others. - - - Hours later, the stalemate was still on: the nosferatu had failed to overcome any of the heroes, and they in turn had been unable to track him down to destroy him. But they hadn't been idle during the long night; Hagan and Gilbert had dragged the coffin down from the third-floor closet (exposing a cache of coins and jewelry hidden under the floorboards beneath - bonus!) to the werebat cavern below the manor house. (Thank the gods for the [i]teleport[/i] spell, thought Gilbert - he wouldn't have wanted to lug it down 80 feet of winding stairs!) But the heroes had decided to make their stand against the nosferatu in as wide open a space as possible and the vast chamber where they had rescued Horace fit the bill. Expecting that the undead monstrosity needed to return to his coffin before sunrise - which should be within the hour, likely - this seemed a good way to draw him out into the open. Of course, with so much time having passed, most of the group's protective spells had long since worn off: no more [i]stoneskins[/i] or [i]mage armor[/i] spells, no [i]fire shields[/i] or even regular [i]shields[/i]. Even the [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell was gone; the heroes would have to make do with normal speech. But the strategy bore fruit soon enough, for the nosferatu strolled into the cave as bold as you please. He had apparently been healed of all of his damage; the same could not be said of the adventurers, although Malrin had done what she could. But he apparently did not want to re-engage combat, either, for he started by calling out, "I wish to talk!" "So talk," replied Finoula, both of her primary weapons in hand. "I have killed your soldiers. You have killed my werebats. In this we are even, yes? I have a proposal: you leave here, never to return. I, in turn, seek elsewhere for my prey. I will leave your soldiers, the inhabitants of your kingdom, alone - this I swear." "Any chance we could get you to feed on orcs and goblins?" asked Darrien. "And what about the families of those you killed?" demanded Finoula, anger rising in her voice. The nosferatu brushed the notion off with a gesture of his hand, as if waving away an irritating fly. What were the lives of mere mortals to him, save as prey? "I have idea," began Gilbert, turning the rest of his sentence into the words of a [i]prismatic spray[/i] spell. Unfortunately, the spell's greatest drawback was its unpredictability, and in this case it was a green ray that struck the nosferatu in the chest, imbuing him with a poison effect to which his undead body was completely immune. "I see combat is our only way ahead," sneered the nosferatu, stepping forward. But before he could take more than a single step, a bolt of lightning came crashing down on him, Malrin having cast her prepared [i]call lightning[/i] spell. He seemed unfazed by the damage. Darrien knew from experience that his arrows were all but useless against the nosferatu's undead flesh, so he moved back by the creature's coffin, the bait that had brought him here to face his assembled enemies. Finoula summoned a fire elemental, who appeared suddenly behind the nosferatu and sent a flaming fist crashing into him. At the same time, Hagan brought a [i]Mordenkainen's sword[/i] into being, which flew across the cavern and stabbed at the nosferatu. Gilbert cast a simple [i]magic missile[/i] at him and stepped back, while Mudpie - having been returned to his normal size - stepped forward to protect his master. And then Binkadink and Obvious raced forward; they had no spells to contribute, but the gnome was pretty sure his magical glaive would be a perfectly acceptable substitute. The nosferatu stepped back toward the stairs as the gnome stabbed at him with his bladed weapon. Malrin repositioned herself so she could still see her foe and brought down another mostly-ineffectual lightning bolt while the fire elemental stepped forward, trying to hit him with its flaming limbs. Darrien, lacking anything else useful to do, started hacking away at the wooden coffin with his scimitar. But then the battle came to an abrupt halt as Hagan cast a [i]disintegrate[/i] spell at the bald vampire, knowing full well it would affect undead flesh as well as any other nonliving matter. And sure enough, the nosferatu's body was awash in a sudden beam of light, then vanished in a cloud of dry dust that coated the stone floor of the cavern where he had stood just a second ago. Wezhley jumped up and down excitedly on his master's shoulder, proud at the half-orc's spellcasting prowess. The threat averted, Finoula redeployed her fire elemental over to the wooden coffin, setting it ablaze in the time it still had left on this plane. Just in case there was a chance the nosferatu could regenerate, they wanted to make absolutely sure there was no coffin there to allow it to rest. After watching the coffin burn to ashes, Hagan ushered half of the group through the [i]carpet of teleportation[/i] back to the dragonfly vessel, then cast a final [i]teleport[/i] spell transporting the rest of them back to Battershield Keep. They'd bring Horace back to his sentry duties, but not until everyone had gotten a good ten hours of sleep or so - they had certainly earned it! - - - Boy, were my werebats ever pushovers! The group (mostly Binkadink) plowed through them like they weren't even there. But I made up for it with my [i]mirror of opposition[/i] trap. Dan's face was priceless when I asked him to pass his PC folder over my way so I could see which spells his mirror-duplicate could use against him. I tried getting Dan to role-play the dancing in place for 3 rounds, but with five players (one running a second character - the NPC druid) those 3 rounds took the better part of an hour and I don't think he'd have liked gyrating for that long. (Incidentally, it's a good thing Hagan wasn't one of the four people in the room when the [i]mirror of opposition[/i] was triggered - I shudder to think of the havoc I could have wreaked had I had the half-orc sorcerer's spell repertoire at hand to use against the PCs!) Incidentally, Jacob was unable to attend this session - he's a shift manager at his work and at the last minute he had to cover for somebody who didn't make it in. So rather than have one of the other players run Castillan as well as their own PC, I just decided that the bounder was elsewhere when adventure called this time. He'll share in the XP earned, though - it wouldn't be right to penalize Jacob's PC for something out of his control. (Plus, it's easier when everyone levels up at the same time.) - - - T-shirt worn: My "WWDD?" shirt, featuring Daryl Dixon from "The Walking Dead." It had two meanings: the TV show was a hint as to the nosferatu's undead nature and Daryl was a good stand-in for the garrison soldiers pulling sentry duty for Kordovia. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
Top