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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7981159" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 76: THE LAWS OF ZONTOK</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 19</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Genevar, humanoid mutant</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hans, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Klause, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Kristoff, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Leon, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Nikolai, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Odin, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 2 May 2020</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The sound of buzzing flies alerted the travelers to the presence of the corpses ahead even before the smell kicked in. The Kordovians had been on the move for nearly two weeks now, searching for Digger, the last of Obvious's litter-mates. His other four siblings had become used to the life of a riding mount and seemed to enjoy it, or at least not be bothered by the extra weight - rather negligible, given their builds. And while the scent-trail of their missing brother was old, every once in a while they'd find a clump of fur stuck to a bramble or a jackalope paw-print in a patch of dried mud showing them they were still on the right path.</p><p></p><p>Ahead, though, was the decaying remains of a hyena-headed humanoid, its body sliced open in several places that told the more combat-oriented of the heroes the creature - an "ark," Genevar informed them - had likely been killed by a bladed weapon. Binkadink realized they'd seen a similar creature themselves on their own world, had fought and slain it, in fact - although at they time they had supposed it to be an avatar of Yeenoghu the gnoll demon-god.</p><p></p><p>Near the rotting ark were the bones of a much different creature, something along the lines of an elk or a moose, with a great, curving rack of antlers. Darrien clued in to the identifiable feature showing this was not a creature from their own world of Oerth: the skull had eye sockets for six eyes, three on each side of the head. Unlike the ark, whose carcass had been left to rot where it had fallen, the mutant elk looked to have been carefully stripped of meat and skin, perhaps by hunters.</p><p></p><p>"You think whoever did this still around?" asked Gilbert from atop his jackalope mount, Twitchy-Tail. Behind him sat Genevar, their local mutant guide; his earth elemental familiar Mudpie was currently the size of a small pebble and housed in a front pocket of his robes. MARCI, who usually stuck close to the only pure strain human in the party, was currently riding behind Binkadink on Obvious, the only jackalope of the five to have been <em>awakened</em> to full human intelligence.</p><p></p><p>"I doubt it," replied Finoula, who had dismounted Clover to check out the two bodies. "These have been here for a good couple of weeks at the least." Seeing nothing of value on the ark's corpse, she climbed back up onto her jackalope mount, Aithanar pulling her into place before him. The contented grin on the young elf fighter's face showed he for one certainly enjoyed the current riding assignments.</p><p></p><p>"Digger!" called Quickpaws in the shared language of burrowing mammals. Hagan, sitting upon the male hopper's back, had no idea what his mount had said until Binkadink translated. "He's picked up the scent," the gnome said. "Lead on, Quickpaws," he replied to Obvious's brother, and Hagan found himself the lead rider in the jackalope formation hippity-hopping through the grasslands.</p><p></p><p>Another dozen miles or so later the group saw tents up ahead in the distance and Gilbert called for them to halt. "Not sure what we might encounter up ahead," he warned the others. "Best we go in ready for combat." The rangers each reacted by casting <em>barkskin</em> spells upon themselves, while Hagan cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself and his weasel familiar Wezhley, who sat perched on the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder, enjoying the view. Gilbert cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the group and a <em>comprehend languages</em> spell upon himself; they had been relying upon Genevar's telepathic powers to translate for them, for nobody in the strange world of Gamma Terra seemed to speak any languages familiar to the Kordovian heroes, but the heavyset mage deemed it important that at least one of them be able to understand what was being said if Genevar was somehow taken out.</p><p></p><p><Okay, we ready?> Gilbert asked over the link. He got acknowledgements to the affirmative and Hagan spurred Quickpaws on, the others following in line.</p><p></p><p>The tents, they saw as they got closer, were six in number and arranged in a circle, with a campfire in the middle and a series of metal poles stuck into the ground in a large square just beyond. Inside the square were four large, antlered quadrupeds - living members of the same species whose bones they found by the slain ark, judging by the six eyes on each mutant elk. Adjacent to the impromptu corral was a large rectangle of some light-colored metal with a small railing on each side, its purpose unknown.</p><p></p><p>There was a movement by one of the tents, as the flaps opened and what looked to be a dwarf stepped out. This dwarf wore tanned leather hide armor and had the sides of his head shaved, leaving only a strip of hair along the top, the same color as his thick beard. He held a waraxe in one hand and reached inside his tent to grab a spear as the group approached.</p><p></p><p>Before anyone could say anything, Genevar spoke hurriedly to the group. <Obvious, whatever you do, don't say a word aloud in front of these men - they'll kill you if you do!> she warned.</p><p></p><p>The dwarf called out a few words in an unknown language and Genevar spoke to the group again. <I'm going to telepathically translate everything said between us,> she said. <I don't usually do so because it gives me a splitting headache, but it's really important that they think we can speak their language. Go ahead and talk to them like normal; they'll hear their own language being spoken.> In the meantime, three other dwarves had come out of their tents, armed with the same types of weapons. They weren't overtly hostile, but their bearing said they were willing to fight if necessary.</p><p></p><p><I didn't know you had dwarves on your world,> said Aithanar.</p><p></p><p><We don't. Or that's not what we call them. These are humans, only mutants, like me. They just all have the same mutations, making them shorter and thicker than normal, plus they can see fine in absolute darkness.></p><p></p><p><So...dwarves,> argued Aithanar.</p><p></p><p>"Greetings," said a red-haired dwarf, stepping forward to meet the group as they brought their jackalopes to a halt just outside their campground. "What brings--Servants!" This last was said with astonishment and awe, as the four dwarved each dropped to a knee and lowered their gazes to the ground before them. The heroes all dismounted from their jackalope steeds and looked back and forth among each other in confusion. MARCI took the opportunity to scan those kneeling before them. "Non-human entities," she reported back. To her programming, only pure strain humans - those without mutations - counted as "human" (although Gilbert had ordered her to confer "human" status to the other adventurers, a process that consisted of overwriting her files on the status of each hero).</p><p></p><p>"Um...please rise," Gilbert said hesitantly. He wasn't sure what was going on but at least these dwarves didn't look like they were about to attack them.</p><p></p><p>The four dwarves rose as bidden and looked in awe at the heroes. The Kordovians couldn't help but notice their gazes were reserved particularly for Aithanar, Darrien, and Finoula. "We are honored by your presence among us, great Servants," said the red-haired dwarf. "I am <strong>Nikolai</strong>. How may we help you? Are you here to judge us, to observe our devotion to the Laws of <strong>Zontok</strong>?"</p><p></p><p>Seeing that the question had been addressed to those among the heroes with elven blood, Finoula took it upon herself to answer. "We seek a jackalope, like the five we ride. It was separated from the group and we wish to return it to its family."</p><p></p><p>Nikolai seemed slightly puzzled by this odd quest, but far be it for him to question the words of a Servant, those working directly for Zontok Himself! "We captured a hopper a few weeks ago," he admitted. "Our leader, <strong>Kristoff</strong>, took it as his own riding mount after his herdbeast" - here he indicated the pen of four mutant elk behind him - had been slain in combat with an ark. Kristoff is off on a scouting party with one of our other men, but you are welcome to remain here as our honored guests until they return." He turned to one of the other dwarves. <strong>Hans</strong> - get the stew cooking!" Hans dashed off to the cook fire to comply, obviously wanting to make a good impression in the eyes of these Servants.</p><p></p><p>Nikolai led the group to the center of the camp, where he ushered them to sit around the fire. Hans had a stew-pot over the flames and the smell of cooking venison told of a good meal ahead. "If I may," hazarded Nikolai, "may I ask why Servants of Zontok travel in the company of mere men, and mutants like the stunted one?" This last comment, Binkadink realized, was directed at him - apparently these mutated human "dwarves" had never seen a gnome before and assumed he was just another form of mutated human.</p><p></p><p>"Why do you think it unusual?" Finoula countered. "Do Servants not travel with men, if the reason is sound?" She had absolutely no idea if this was a logical answer or not but it sounded like "Servants" were something along the lines of "Angels" and this Zontok was the dwarves' god. She found she didn't mind being mistaken for a celestial being and was willing to play the part if that was what it took to get their hands on Digger. And as obsequious as these dwarves were being, it didn't sound like asking for them to hand over Digger upon his return was going to be any problem at all.</p><p></p><p>"But of course, if Zontok wills it," replied Nikolai. He looked expectantly for Finoula to expand upon her answer but she didn't seem inclined to do so. He turned to Gilbert Fung. "Have you served the Servants long?" Gilbert just frowned, considering the best answer, prompting Nikolai to ask, "You do know the history of Zontok, don't you? You do know who you serve and the importance of our holy mission?"</p><p></p><p>Before Gilbert had a chance to get argumentative, Finoula stepped in. "This would be a good time for you to explain, for the benefit of those among us who are not true Servants," she said. "I would hear how well you have taken the history to heart." That, she reasoned, would put Nikolai on the defensive, thinking he was being tested by the Servants of Zontok and would veer him off the mental path of why these particular Servants were traveling with people who had no idea who this Zontok god was.</p><p></p><p>"Certainly," agreed Nikolai with a grin - if he thought he was being tested for his devotion he was certainly under the belief he was properly prepared. The other dwarves looked at him as he began his tale, occasionally darting glances at the elves and half-elf to see how well Nikolai's oratory was being received.</p><p></p><p>"In the beginning," intoned Nikolai, "there was darkness and void without form. And then Zontok said, 'Let there be light!' - and lo, there was light.</p><p></p><p>"And Zontok then created the heavens and the earth and the seas and all manner of animals to populate his world. And He created mankind in His own image and sent him out to populate the world. Zontok then went up to His castle at the top of the world and looked down upon the earth, to see what mankind would do with the gifts He had given them.</p><p></p><p>"For some time mankind flourished, spreading out among the world and living in harmony with nature. But then, mankind discovered warfare and broke into separate tribes to make war upon each other. Great was their cunning, creating more and more powerful weapons over the years to slay the other tribes, until they poisoned the air and the land and the seas with their warfare.</p><p></p><p>"Zontok looked down upon the poor earth and said, 'If mankind wishes to wage constant war, I will create new life to destroy mankind, that they may perish and be replaced with new masters of the earth.' And then did Zontok open the minds of the beasts, giving them great cunning and the ability to fashion their own weapons to eradicate mankind.</p><p></p><p>"And the Beasts Who Think Like Men did bring mankind to its knees, nearly wiping them off the face of the world. Only then did mankind recall the early days before warfare and how plentiful was the food and how pleasant the lands and the seas and the clean air. And mankind cried out to Zontok, begging forgiveness and asking to be restored as the masters of the earth.</p><p></p><p>"Zontok replied to His creations, 'This I will not do, for you have lost favor in My sight. But you may earn back My favor – and your right as rulers of the earth – by defeating the Beasts Who Think Like Men. Prove to Me your worthiness to once again inherit the world and all will be as it once was.'</p><p></p><p>"And that is our most holy edict: to seek out the Beasts Who Think Like Men and slay them. Only then will the world return to the paradise it once was."</p><p></p><p>Nikolai looked at Finoula expectantly. "Very well said," she praised him. "You have learned well."</p><p></p><p>"It was my adherence to the teachings of Zontok that led me to recognize you immediately," the red-haired dwarf replied. "For the Servants in Zontok's castle are said to be very much like men, but smooth of face with ears that come to points. And it is said Zontok occasionally sends His servants to wander the world to see how well mankind is faring in its task to slay the Beasts Who Think Like Men."</p><p></p><p>"We recently slew a band of hoops," ventured Binkadink, hoping to elevate his own reputation among the Brotherhood of Zontok from "stunted one" to "warrior capable of taking out the Beasts Who Think Like Men."</p><p></p><p>"Hoops!" spat Nikolai in disgust at the word. He was about to elaborate when there was a commotion from the other side of the camp: another dwarf came riding up on a herdbeast. "Nikolai!" he cried as he approached the camp. "Kristoff's been taken--we were ambushed by hissers!"</p><p></p><p>Hissers, Gilbert recalled, were what they had referred to as "sonic yuan-ti" when they met up with a trio of the snake-men in the Vesve Forest, another group of Gamma Terra emigrants who had crossed the dimensional boundaries into Oerth. But before he could explain this to the rest of the Kordovians over the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> Nikolai was upbraiding the newcomer for his actions.</p><p></p><p>"Be still!" Nikolai hissed. "Have you forgotten the Laws of Zontok?"</p><p></p><p><strong>Odin</strong>, properly chastised, slipped from the back of his herdbeast and took a calming breath, his head held high. "Forgive me, Nikolai - I forgot my composure in the excitement."</p><p></p><p>"Forgiven," answered he red-haired dwarf. "Now report."</p><p></p><p>"Kristoff and I were ambushed by four hissers," Odin replied. "Nikolai's hopper was knocked out immediately, and in falling over it pinned him to the ground where he was helpless to use his weapons. He ordered me not to aid him, but to return here immediately to gather a rescue party."</p><p></p><p>"And do you see the wisdom in Kristoff's orders?" asked Nikolai.</p><p></p><p>"I do," Odin replied. "I could not have taken out four hissers by myself. To try to do so would result in my own capture and possible death."</p><p></p><p>"Quite right. Was Kristoff still alive when you left?"</p><p></p><p>"He was." The Brotherhood men knew hissers often captured their food for later consumption - there was a good chance Kristoff and the hopper would have been taken alive, since the snake-men ate infrequently.</p><p></p><p>"Come," said Kristoff, turning back to the fire. "We have guests." Odin nearly died in astonishment in seeing Servants sharing their fire. Nikolai addressed the group of visitors, looking at Finoula as he spoke; he'd apparently taken her as the chief of Zontok's Servants among the trio. "It would seem Zontok has provided an opportunity to observe us in action against the Beasts Who Think Like Men. You are welcome to accompany us and observe first-hand our zeal in following the Laws of Zontok."</p><p></p><p>"We will fight by your side," offered Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"That will be most welcome," agreed Nikolai, thinking the Servants would not have brought along human and mutant allies if they weren't allowed to assist. He turned and led his band toward the corral as Odin remounted his herdbeast. The heroes all remounted their jackalopes and Binkadink filled Obvious in on what was going on. "We're going to take out the hissers who just captured Digger," he told his loyal steed. Obvious relayed the information to his siblings, using the burrowing mammal language that the Brotherhood would not even recognize as speech if they heard it.</p><p></p><p>Odin led the group to the point where he and Kristoff had been ambushed. The grasses had been crushed under the weight of the hissers' heavy bodies, indicating the way they had gone. Drag marks on the ground indicated Digger and Kristoff had been pulled behind, likely unconscious. The group pressed on, following the indicated path.</p><p></p><p>Eventually the trail led to a set of buildings out in the middle of the prairie, a metal-mesh fence surrounding them. There had apparently been a gate at the end of the gravel-strewn road leading up to the buildings, but it had been pulled away many decades ago and tossed aside.</p><p></p><p>"Before we go in, we have preparations to make," Finoula advised Nikolai. "Blessings of Zontok to bestow." That was perfectly acceptable for the dwarf, who halted his men with silent hand signals while the others cast their spells. Knowing these "sonic yuan-ti" were capable of sonic bursts of significant power, <em>protection from energy</em> and <em>resist energy</em> spells were applied liberally among the combatants and their riding mounts. Darrien considered the advantages of increasing the size of the jackalopes and herdbeasts but was ultimately talked out of it, given the prisoners were likely inside one of the two buildings and the riding mounts were already large enough that getting them through a door would be a tight squeeze. He did cast a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell on his own mount Droopy-Ear, to give her a bit more stamina for the battle ahead.</p><p></p><p>Then, seeing the other spellcasters had finished their own magical preparations, he dropped an arrow into his <em>Arachnibow</em> and looked around as Droopy-Ear inched forward, her bunny nose low to the ground as she followed Digger's scent. However, they only got several feet past the open gate and onto a strange, black stonelike substance Darrien had never seen before on his own world when there was a flash of light and he felt a burning sensation in his shoulder. Looking up, he saw a hisser perched on the roof of the larger of the two buildings, holding what looked like just the central portion of a crossbow. Another hisser rose up - it had been laying prone on the roof beside the other one - and shot at him with the not-quite-a-crossbow, which sent a beam of light like a focused <em>scorching ray</em> or something his way. He dodged this second beam and, hunched forward onto Droopy-Ear's back, coaxed her forward to the side of the larger building, where a set of closed double doors in a sort of alcove allowed for some respite from the rooftop snipers.</p><p></p><p>Hans followed quickly in Darrien's wake, wanting to stay close beside the Servant with the smaller ears. He threw his spear at one of the rooftop hissers as he did so but didn't see if he'd hit before he and his herdbeast were along the side of the building. Another of the Brotherhood, <strong>Klause</strong>, rode up beside him; the snipers couldn't get them all if they charged forth as one.</p><p></p><p>Hagan raised himself up onto Quickpaws' broad back and could see a third hisser at the back of the roof, bringing his own laser rifle to bear. Casting a <em>sunbeam</em> centered over the trio of hisser snipers, the half-orc was pleased to see at least one of them had been blinded by the searing light of his spell.</p><p></p><p>At her request, Aithanar steadied Finoula as she stood up onto Clover's back, then activated her <em>lightning amulet</em>. Just like that, her body transformed into a living lightning bolt that blasted into the body of the hisser who had shot Darrien and then changed course to blast through the one beside it, this one apparently now blind from Hagan's spell. She regained her elven form up on the edge of the building's roof. Aithanar, now the only one astride Clover, scooted forward and guided her into the open gateway, sending her to the left behind the smaller building and the fence, where they'd be out of view of the hisser snipers.</p><p></p><p>Nikolai and another Zontok dwarf, <strong>Leon</strong>, rode forward on their herdbeasts, tossing spears up at the two hissers at the front of the building's roof. The third hisser, however, brought his laser rifle to bear on Finoula, who saw a red dot floating on her armor before a beam of energy broached the gap between hisser and elf and sent a wave of fiery pain lancing into her torso. At the same time, the blinded hisser beside her, unable to see his target, sent a cone of sonic energy her way, thinking there'd be no way for her to dodge that. But she didn't even bother, the sonic waves being absorbed by her <em>protection from energy</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>The third hisser shot his rifle at Hans down below, scoring a hit and a cry of pain from the mounted dwarf.</p><p></p><p>Over behind the smaller building, a group of eight furry bodies crawled out of holes along the building's structure at ground level. Aithanar caught their movement from the corner of his eye and turned Clover to face them, his longsword in hand and ready to attack what looked to him to be nothing more unusual than dire rats. But this was not his home world and these were not dire rats; like most creatures on Gamma Terra they were mutants, these going by the colloquial term "squeakers." As one, they each focused their sonic attacks upon the elf and his jackalope mount, but like Finoula they had been protected against sonic attacks by spells cast before entry. Clover, however, winced under the combined attack; she'd only had a <em>resist energy</em> spell cast upon her and the concentrated amount of sonic waves from the eight squeakers overcame her protection. She staggered but did not fall.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink saw the main action was taking place on the rooftop and sent Obvious bounding forward, through the open gateway and then hurtling up onto the roof with a giant upwards leap. The gnome's <em>reverberating glaive</em> cut down the hisser sniper; on the gnome's orders, MARCI dropped down off of the saddle behind Binkadink and recovered the slain reptile's laser rifle. This she passed down to Darrien right before he climbed down from Droopy-Ear's back. Then, <em>Arachnibow</em> back in place on the ranger's back and this strange new weapon in hand, he stepped inside through the double doors.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert, astride Twitchy-Tail with Genevar behind him, cast a <em>fireball</em> spell at the squeakers. They squealed in pain, but while they were all singed and burned none of them had been slain. Seeing this, Hagan followed up with a <em>chain lightning</em> spell, resulting in eight dead bodies on the ground before Aithanar and Clover. The elf waved his gratitude to the arcane spellcasters.</p><p></p><p>Hans followed Darrien into the building. A blanket had been hung from the ceiling to prevent the light from the windows in the double doors from penetrating into the large, open area beyond, but there was enough to allow the half-elf to see there were piles of demolished furniture piled up against the back walls. Outside, Klause dismounted from his herdbeast and followed the others inside.</p><p></p><p>Up on the rooftop, Finoula activated her amulet once again and blasted through the two remaining hisser snipers, only one of whom could still see. She took another shot from the laser rifle of the hisser from the back for her actions, while the blind reptile tried biting the elf upon her return to physical form - but, unable to see her, missed by a long shot.</p><p></p><p>And then two more hissers arrived on the scene, each having been patrolling around the fenced areas going in different directions. They rounded opposite corners of the larger building, one of them facing the open gateway and the other seeing Gilbert and Genevar riding on Twitchy-Tail directly before him. This one sent his sonic blast forward, and while Gilbert and his jackalope mount were able to weather the damage Genevar, weakened by her continual attempts to keep open the telepathic translation effect allowing the Kordovians to communicate with the Brotherhood dwarves, slipped into unconsciousness. Gilbert had just enough time to grab her before she slipped over the side of the hopper's back.</p><p></p><p>But Binkadink and Obvious had spotted the patrolling hisser below him and the jackalope leaped down from the rooftop directly upon the startled snake-man. Binkadink's glaive came slicing into the reptile's skin, nearly slaying it outright. And they weren't the only ones dropping down from the rooftop, for over by the double doors MARCI hung by her metal fingers and dropped to the ground. As she landed, she saw the hisser approaching from the back of the building, and then Odin raced past her on his herdbeast, his waraxe out. The hisser sent a sonic blast out at the two as they approached but it didn't slow either of them down; Odin's blade cut through the thick, scaly hide of the hisser while his trained war-mount gored the reptile with its impressive rack of antlers. The hisser hissed in pain, spraying blood as it did so. Leon and his herdbeast came riding up behind Odin, bringing his own axe to bear. Over towards the front of the building, Gilbert had Twitchy-Tail back off away from the hisser currently fighting Binkadink and Obvious and cast a <em>spectral hand</em> spell. He wasn't quite sure yet what he was going to do with it but he'd at least decided these hissers were best fought at range.</p><p></p><p>Inside the larger building, Darrien opened a door and entered a smaller room. It contained a desk with a weird chair that had little wheels on the bottom of it and a bunch of odds pieces of metallic equipment of unknown purpose. Through a window on the east wall he could see Gilbert and an unconscious Genevar astride Twitchy-Tail. There was another closed door to the north; opening it, Darrien spotted a group of six dire rats; the squeakers blasted him with ineffectual sonic waves - all of which were absorbed by his <em>resist energy</em> spell - before he switched back to his <em>Arachnibow</em> and <em>webbed</em> the little buggers in place. Then he, Klause, and Hans cut them down at their leisure.</p><p></p><p>Hagan sent Quickpaws through the open gateway, killing off the patrol hisser facing Binkadink with a simple <em>magic missile</em> spell; it had looked to be on its last...well "legs" wasn't quite accurate for a creature with the lower body of a snake, but the concept still applied. Up on the rooftop, Finoula killed the two remaining snipers with a third use of her <em>lightning amulet</em>, slaying them both. She gathered up the laser rifles, certain they could be put to good use by the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Leon and Odin continued their attack on the hisser, joined now by Nikolai. The hisser managed to bite Odin and pull him from his herdbeast, coiling his serpentine body around the struggling dwarf. But then Gilbert's <em>spectral hand</em> came flying forward, touching the hisser and discharging a <em>maximized vampiric touch</em> spell through it. That weakened the snake-man to the point where a single chop from Nikolai's waraxe was all it took to cut the hisser down. Odin crawled gratefully from the creature's loosening coils.</p><p></p><p>Looking about, there seemed to be no further combatants in the immediate area. Regrouping, Finoula handed the rifles she'd taken from the slain snipers to Nikolai and Hans; they seemed familiar with the weapons. Darrien passed his on to Odin for the same reason, preferring the familiarity of his <em>Arachnibow</em>. Aithanar volunteered to stay outside with the jackalopes and herdbeasts while the others searched for the Brotherhood's captured leader and Obvious's brother, Digger. He peeked inside the smaller building, which housed a rusted, armored wagon of some sort with narrow windows along the front and sides; the wheels had odd projections along their outer surfaces. The squeakers they'd killed had apparently been nesting underneath the vehicle.</p><p></p><p>MARCI revived the unconscious Genevar; Gilbert had bestowed "honorary human" status to the little mutant girl to allow the medical construct to apply healing to a non-human entity. Hagan cast a more powerful spell on her to absorb sonic energy so she wouldn't be taken out again. And then Darrien led everyone through the upper level of the larger building, finding a kitchen area, bathroom facilities, and three separate bunkrooms but no kidnapped dwarves or jackalopes. "Got to be another level to this place," mused Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"And I think I know where it is," replied Darrien, leading them to the room with the slain squeakers. There was a closet-sized area in the corner of the room with a set of metal doors set in its front face. While the half-elf started trying to pry the doors apart using his scimitar, Genevar walked up beside him and pushed a button on the side of the doors. Immediately, a groaning noise from below them indicated the imminent arrival of an elevator. "So much for any element of surprise," sighed Finoula.</p><p></p><p>The doors opened to an empty room, which Genevar said would take them down to a lower level. The problem was there wasn't a whole lot of room inside this elevator room and five dwarves, five Kordovian adventurers (as Aithanar was staying behind), a mutant girl, a human-sized medical construct, and two familiars all needed to get down to the lower level, preferably all at the same time.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Teleport?</em>" suggested Darrien to Hagan.</p><p></p><p>"Not without seeing where we'd be going," replied the half-orc. "Going in blind's likely to end up with us inside a solid wall."</p><p></p><p>"<em>Crystal ball</em> first, then?" Darrien persisted, looking at Gilbert. The mage shook his head. "We wasting time," he said, adding over the mental link, <...and best if we not show our magic to these Brotherhood dwarf guys. They probably want our magic stuff as much as we want their blazer rifles.></p><p></p><p><Laser rifles,> corrected Genevar.</p><p></p><p><Whatever.> In the end, it was decided Binkadink and the five Zontok dwarves would ride the elevator down; Hagan and Gilbert would cast <em>fly</em> spell on themselves (the heavyset mage offered to carry Genevar) and hover above the elevator (Genevar showed them a hatch in the roof which allowed them to crawl up above the elevator room), while Darrien and Finoula would walk down the sides of the elevator shaft above the elevator car using their <em>cloak of the white spider</em> and <em>boots of spider climbing</em>, respectively. As for MARCI, she'd be safely inside the <em>portable hole</em> until needed; Wezhley'd be fine on Hagan's shoulder and Mudpie fit nicely inside Gilbert's pocket, still the size of a pebble.</p><p></p><p>Everyone took their places inside or above the elevator, then one of the dwarves pushed the "down" button Genevar had shown them. The doors closed and with a mechanical groan the room descended dozens if not scores of feet below the surface of the ground.</p><p></p><p>There were two hissers waiting at the bottom for them, these two armed not with laser rifles but scimitars and "whackers" (Genevar called them "golf clubs" but didn't bother explaining the term). But the dwarves had been ready for anything and as the doors opened and the two Beast Who Think Like Men were revealed directly ahead, Nikolai, Hans, and Odin opened fire with their laser rifles as the two hissers sent a pair of sonic blasts reverberating into the enclosed space of the elevator. They'd no doubt expected their prey to drop at once, Gamma Terra not knowing the ways of magic and the hissers thus unprepared for <em>resist energy</em> and <em>protection from energy</em> spells.</p><p></p><p>Klause and Leon surged forward, axes swinging. Binkadink did likewise, extending his <em>reverberating glaive</em> so he could strike from behind the dwarf directly ahead of him. The dwarven riflemen had concentrated fire on a single foe, the hisser to the left; Binkadink did likewise, hoping to take one of the two hissers out quickly. But these hissers were slightly bigger and definitely tougher than the ones they had fought upstairs; in a way that was actually comforting, as it might indicate the tougher fighters were reserved for guarding those things important to the hisser nest - like captured prisoners.</p><p></p><p>With the elevator partially emptied, Finoula was able to crawl through the hatch on the ceiling and drop down into the car itself; she brought her <em>flaming burst whip of thorns</em> to bear upon the hisser to the right. (It was getting crowded over there by the leftmost hisser!) Gilbert dropped through the hatch as well, casting a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> at the leftmost hisser guard. Binkadink's blade slew the beast, bringing his glaive swinging over to the right to score a deep cut across the torso scales of the other one.</p><p></p><p>Darrien dropped into the elevator car and sent an arrow at the remaining hisser guard, who by this time had probably realized he was facing more than he could handle. To his credit, he didn't seem to even consider abandoning his post, even while being shot at by lasers. Instead, he struck forward with blinding speed and bit Leon, grabbing the startled dwarf up in his arms and crushing him with the coils of his serpentine body. But then Hagan dropped into the elevator and slew the hisser guard with a well-placed <em>polar ray</em> spell. The dwarves looked at their weird mutant allies with looks of surprise; they were wielding powers the Brotherhood had never seen before! No wonder they were allowed to travel with Servants!</p><p></p><p>Klause turned to the left and approached a wide, metal door with a round wheel that spun counterclockwise. He then tugged hard at the door, which opened slowly into the tunnel junction. Inside was a room across a moat of sorts, with a narrow walkway bridging the gap between tunnel and the room beyond - which, Finoula saw as she followed Klause into the strange room, was hanging from the ceiling by four large pillars in the corner. But there, laying bound in the middle of the hanging room, were the unmistakable forms of Digger and Kristoff, the movements of their chests giving silent indication both still breathed. Klause, Finoula, and Nikolai began frantically untying the bound captives.</p><p></p><p>"You stay up there, where safe," admonished Gilbert to Genevar, standing on the roof of the elevator car. "We check this place out." Seeing the captives were being untied and awakened, Gilbert crept down the corridor to the right, passing a pile of crates on four large, wooden pallets and bound in some transparent material. Darrien had paused to give the boxes a quick examination; Binkadink followed Gilbert down the corridor, Leon and Odin trailing in his wake, their weapons out and ready for further combat. Darrien, in the meantime, wondered what the symbols on the crates might mean; he recognized it as writing but didn't know the alphabet used on this strange world. And even if Genevar had been there to read the markings on the crate to him, he'd have no idea what "MREs" would mean. And he didn't dare ask any of the dwarves, as he was supposed to be one of these celestial "Servants" who worked directly for Zontok and knew everything already. Oh well - it probably wasn't important.</p><p></p><p>Hagan flew down the corridor, passing Gilbert and company and rounding the corner. While the area just outside the elevator had been illuminated by some <em>everburning torches</em> that didn't flicker, the corridor leading this way was shrouded in darkness. But the half-orc could see just fine in the dark, as could the mutant "dwarves" - and the sight Hagan saw when he turned the corner was a strange one indeed.</p><p></p><p>First of all, he discounted the three hissers standing protectively just ahead - he'd seen hissers before and these seemed not quite as big as the guards they'd just taken down; plus they were just armed with scimitars and those "whacker-sticks," not laser rifles. But behind them was an enormous, metal pillar, rising up past the top of the ceiling of the corridor; Hagan got the impression the ceiling of the room beyond was close in height to the surface of the ground outside - an easy 100 feet. The pillar was in the middle of a cylindrical room, with a stairwell of interspersed stairs and flat surfaces going all around the outer walls of the vertical shaft. The pillar itself must be massive, judging by the four buttresses at the bottom, likely giving it some sort of structural support. But of primary interest to the half-orc sorcerer was the creature whose lengthy body was wrapped around this massive column: it was a hisser, but one with a female shape and a cobralike hood around her head; this was likely a hisser queen and she was easily five time the size of the three normal-sized hissers below her.</p><p></p><p>Hagan had taken all of that in in a matter of a second or two, then ducked back around the corner and explained over the link to the other Kordovians what he'd seen. Finoula, Nikolai, Kristoff, and Klause stepped back out into the tunnel junction, followed by a wary - and nervous - Digger. Finoula passed on to the dwarves what Hagan had told her over the link.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>haste</em> spell on himself, Binkadink, Darrien, Finoula, Hans, Leon, and Odin - all those within range at the time of casting, since he realized he Brotherhood dwarves would not leave this place with Beasts Who Think Like Men still alive, even if their primary goal - rescuing Kristoff and Digger - had been accomplished. Better see what it took to see this thing through to the end, then!</p><p></p><p>Binkadink strode boldly around the corner; he had no darkvision but the <em>everburning torches</em> on the antlers of his helmet provided enough illumination for him to see the hissers straight ahead and make out the basic shape of the pillar Hagan had described. Odin followed, raising his laser rifle and shooting the center hisser. Then Darrien stepped around the corner, shooting a barrage of arrows at the same hisser; he'd learned the value of concentrated fire on a single foe. Hans then added his own rifle to the mix and the middle hisser died before it could even try to fight back.</p><p></p><p>Hagan stepped back around the corner and cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell on the two remaining hissers, who stood side by side in front of the wide, white column behind them. Klause, spurred by the holy cause of Zontok, raced forward, waraxe in hand, but before he could reach the hissers the hisser queen spat at him, the venom striking the dwarf in the eyes and blinding him instantly. And then the hissers closed, sending waves of sonic energy before them - surprisingly, with no visible reaction from their intended prey.</p><p></p><p>Finoula raced up to one of the hissers, striking out at it with <em>Tahlmalaera</em>'s flashing blade. Behind her, Kristoff ran up with Nikolai's borrowed waraxe. Nikolai had a bead on a hisser with the rifle and sent a laser beam burning into the side of the reptile's head. Gilbert cast a <em>maximized chain lightning</em> spell on the two hissers, causing them a massive amount of damage each but dropping neither. Leon charged one of the hissers, bringing his axe-blade slicing through reptilian scales. But it was once again Binkadink who scored the killing blows, bringing his glaive to slice deep into the neck of one hisser, nearly decapitating it, and then swinging it deep into the belly of the other, gutting it. Both fell before the gnome, neither one rising.</p><p></p><p>That left only the hisser queen herself. Odin approached and shot her from below; Darrien did likewise, albeit with arrows from his <em>Arachnibow</em> rather than with laser beams from a sniper rifle. Hagan cast a <em>meteor swarm</em> at the hisser queen, striking unerringly with each meteor and blissfully unaware of the dire consequences had even one of his conjured burning rocks hit the lower stages of the Olympian missile the hisser queen was wrapped around. While Klause, hands to his burning eyes, stumbled away, the hisser queen slithered down the body of the ICBM, sliding along one of its four stabilizer fins and sending out an even more powerful version of the sonic blast employed by all hissers. She hissed in obvious irritation when none of her foes dropped at her sonic barrage.</p><p></p><p>Finoula activated her <em>lightning amulet</em> again, blasting directly into the hisser queen and rebounding off close by where she had started. Nikolai, Hans, and Odin continued firing their rifles at the hisser queen and while it seemed like her thick scales offered some amount of protection they were clearly wearing her down. Kristoff and Binkadink approached from opposite sides and brought their blades to bear against the scaled monstrosity towering above them, while Gilbert cast a <em>cone of cold</em> spell up into her face, ensuring he wouldn't hit any of his allies in the process. Fittingly, it was one of the Brotherhood who brought the killing blow, his waraxe cutting deep into the hisser queen's snakelike body and causing her to drop to the ground, dead - it was all Kristoff and Leon could do to scramble out of the way before she fell directly on top of them.</p><p></p><p>"We did it!" exulted Kristoff.</p><p></p><p>"Zontok is well and truly pleased with your efforts," Finoula intoned, thinking it was something a Servant would say under these conditions.</p><p></p><p>Several hours later, back at the Brotherhood camp, the two groups prepared to go their separate ways. "It was an honor to serve alongside the Servants of Zontok," Kristoff said. "I thank you for my rescue, and in addition to the hopper, I gladly give you these." Three of the dwarves each passed forward their laser rifles to Aithanar, Darrien, and Finoula, who solemnly accepted them. (Darrien almost failed to keep up a solemn appearance as he'd secretly been hoping for a chance to get his hands on one of these laser rifles, to see if he could train himself in their use, and was overjoyed the opportunity had been literally handed to him.)</p><p></p><p>"Go forth, and continue to do the will of Zontok," Finoula replied; she was quite enjoying being the celestial representative of a god, even if she was fairly lacking in knowledge of the god's particular ethos. Then she mounted up on Clover, by herself this time; Aithanar was now riding Digger, with Genevar behind him. (She'd pointed out, to Gilbert's annoyance, there was "a lot more room" riding with the slim elf than the heavyset human.)</p><p></p><p>As the Kordovian band rode their six jackalopes off towards the desert where Genevar was convinced they'd find Eradicator Base and rescue the superheroes who would in turn help save the world of Gamma Terra and the Brotherhood dwarves packed up their camp, taking down their tents and the poles of the collapsible corral and storing them on the hoversled one of the herdbeasts would pull behind it as they sought out the next group of Beasts Who Think Like Men to kill, the little mutant gratefully dismantled the telepathic translation field she'd been concentrating on keeping up and running during their dealings with the Brotherhood of Zontok. But before she did so, they all heard the first verses to a holy song the Brotherhood dwarves sang heartily among themselves:</p><p></p><p>"Oh, you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry, you'd better not shout, I'm telling you why: the Zontok Laws are coming to town...."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This was an adventure I'd been long waiting to spring on the players. It had as its genesis a comic book I had written and drawn for my little brother; when I was in high school, my two younger brothers and my little sister and I played three RPGs: AD&D (1st edition), Gamma World, and Champions. When I went off to college, our campaigns pretty much came to a stop, so I thought it would be cool to make them each comic books of their respective PCs' exploits after the events of the three campaigns we'd been running. So for the first three Christmases after I started college, I did one comic for each sibling; a D&D comic for one, a Gamma World comic for another, and a Champions comic for the third. Then, in each of the next two years, I switched which games were assigned to each sibling, until they each had a comic for each of the three games at the end of the third year.</p><p></p><p>In any case, "The Laws of Zontok" was originally the comic I made for the youngest of my two little brothers, in which his PC met up with the Brotherhood of Zontok, a new "cryptic alliance" I'd designed for the Gamma Word game - basically, a group of people who mistakenly worshiped Santa Claus as a god. The basic plot was the same as the 3.5 D&D adventure I eventually wrote up for this campaign - the protagonists meet up with a group of Brotherhood raiders and help them take out a hisser nest, complete with an oversize hisser queen - but I added the whole "Servants" thing once I realized this time around I'd have D&D elves in the picture. But the trappings are all there, from Zontok's "castle at the top of the world" (the North Pole, naturally), to the edicts against shouting that got Odin in trouble when he reported Kristoff's capture, and the Brotherhood's penchant for riding "herdbeasts" (mutant reindeer) into battle. Even their names were clues, with Kristoff and Nikolai being stand-ins for "Kristopher (Kringle)" and "(Jolly Old Saint) Nicholas" and "Klause" being somewhat obvious in hindsight. Even "Leon" is "Noel" spelled backwards; Hans and Odin got added in without obvious Santa references because not <em>everything</em> should be a clue (although now that I think about it, Odin's a guy from the "north lands" with a white beard...).</p><p></p><p>I did up stats for the Zontok dwarves (I made them each a 6th-level ranger) and their herdbeasts and let each player run one of them as well as their PCs for the assault on the hisser nest. I had enough dwarf minis to go around, but the "herdbeast" minis ended up being one reindeer, a buffalo, and three goats.</p><p></p><p>In any case, I put the hisser nest in an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) site for this version of the story because Dan and I both started our Air Force careers as missile launch officers at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota a couple of decades ago and I thought he'd appreciate it. (Plus, how often do you get to use an ICBM site in a D&D adventure?) He pegged right away that the fenced area with two buildings had the same general structure as the Minuteman III alert facilities where we used to pull alert and was suitably amused. And while there wasn't a whole lot of treasure in this adventure, Joey at least is pretty happy with a laser rifle for his PC; the other two went to Binkadink and Finoula.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: My "Happy Happy Happy" T-shirt featuring Phil Robertson from "Duck Dynasty," since as a long-bearded guy he was the closest thing I had as a stand-in for Zontok - or the mutant "dwarves" who worshiped him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7981159, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 76: THE LAWS OF ZONTOK[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 19 Darrien, half-elf ranger 19 Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 19 Gilbert Fung, human wizard 19 Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 19[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 8 Genevar, humanoid mutant Hans, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6 Klause, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6 Kristoff, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6 Leon, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6 MARCI, humanoid construct Nikolai, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6 Odin, Brotherhood of Zontok dwarven ranger 6[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 2 May 2020 - - - The sound of buzzing flies alerted the travelers to the presence of the corpses ahead even before the smell kicked in. The Kordovians had been on the move for nearly two weeks now, searching for Digger, the last of Obvious's litter-mates. His other four siblings had become used to the life of a riding mount and seemed to enjoy it, or at least not be bothered by the extra weight - rather negligible, given their builds. And while the scent-trail of their missing brother was old, every once in a while they'd find a clump of fur stuck to a bramble or a jackalope paw-print in a patch of dried mud showing them they were still on the right path. Ahead, though, was the decaying remains of a hyena-headed humanoid, its body sliced open in several places that told the more combat-oriented of the heroes the creature - an "ark," Genevar informed them - had likely been killed by a bladed weapon. Binkadink realized they'd seen a similar creature themselves on their own world, had fought and slain it, in fact - although at they time they had supposed it to be an avatar of Yeenoghu the gnoll demon-god. Near the rotting ark were the bones of a much different creature, something along the lines of an elk or a moose, with a great, curving rack of antlers. Darrien clued in to the identifiable feature showing this was not a creature from their own world of Oerth: the skull had eye sockets for six eyes, three on each side of the head. Unlike the ark, whose carcass had been left to rot where it had fallen, the mutant elk looked to have been carefully stripped of meat and skin, perhaps by hunters. "You think whoever did this still around?" asked Gilbert from atop his jackalope mount, Twitchy-Tail. Behind him sat Genevar, their local mutant guide; his earth elemental familiar Mudpie was currently the size of a small pebble and housed in a front pocket of his robes. MARCI, who usually stuck close to the only pure strain human in the party, was currently riding behind Binkadink on Obvious, the only jackalope of the five to have been [i]awakened[/i] to full human intelligence. "I doubt it," replied Finoula, who had dismounted Clover to check out the two bodies. "These have been here for a good couple of weeks at the least." Seeing nothing of value on the ark's corpse, she climbed back up onto her jackalope mount, Aithanar pulling her into place before him. The contented grin on the young elf fighter's face showed he for one certainly enjoyed the current riding assignments. "Digger!" called Quickpaws in the shared language of burrowing mammals. Hagan, sitting upon the male hopper's back, had no idea what his mount had said until Binkadink translated. "He's picked up the scent," the gnome said. "Lead on, Quickpaws," he replied to Obvious's brother, and Hagan found himself the lead rider in the jackalope formation hippity-hopping through the grasslands. Another dozen miles or so later the group saw tents up ahead in the distance and Gilbert called for them to halt. "Not sure what we might encounter up ahead," he warned the others. "Best we go in ready for combat." The rangers each reacted by casting [i]barkskin[/i] spells upon themselves, while Hagan cast a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell upon himself and his weasel familiar Wezhley, who sat perched on the half-orc sorcerer's shoulder, enjoying the view. Gilbert cast a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell on the group and a [i]comprehend languages[/i] spell upon himself; they had been relying upon Genevar's telepathic powers to translate for them, for nobody in the strange world of Gamma Terra seemed to speak any languages familiar to the Kordovian heroes, but the heavyset mage deemed it important that at least one of them be able to understand what was being said if Genevar was somehow taken out. <Okay, we ready?> Gilbert asked over the link. He got acknowledgements to the affirmative and Hagan spurred Quickpaws on, the others following in line. The tents, they saw as they got closer, were six in number and arranged in a circle, with a campfire in the middle and a series of metal poles stuck into the ground in a large square just beyond. Inside the square were four large, antlered quadrupeds - living members of the same species whose bones they found by the slain ark, judging by the six eyes on each mutant elk. Adjacent to the impromptu corral was a large rectangle of some light-colored metal with a small railing on each side, its purpose unknown. There was a movement by one of the tents, as the flaps opened and what looked to be a dwarf stepped out. This dwarf wore tanned leather hide armor and had the sides of his head shaved, leaving only a strip of hair along the top, the same color as his thick beard. He held a waraxe in one hand and reached inside his tent to grab a spear as the group approached. Before anyone could say anything, Genevar spoke hurriedly to the group. <Obvious, whatever you do, don't say a word aloud in front of these men - they'll kill you if you do!> she warned. The dwarf called out a few words in an unknown language and Genevar spoke to the group again. <I'm going to telepathically translate everything said between us,> she said. <I don't usually do so because it gives me a splitting headache, but it's really important that they think we can speak their language. Go ahead and talk to them like normal; they'll hear their own language being spoken.> In the meantime, three other dwarves had come out of their tents, armed with the same types of weapons. They weren't overtly hostile, but their bearing said they were willing to fight if necessary. <I didn't know you had dwarves on your world,> said Aithanar. <We don't. Or that's not what we call them. These are humans, only mutants, like me. They just all have the same mutations, making them shorter and thicker than normal, plus they can see fine in absolute darkness.> <So...dwarves,> argued Aithanar. "Greetings," said a red-haired dwarf, stepping forward to meet the group as they brought their jackalopes to a halt just outside their campground. "What brings--Servants!" This last was said with astonishment and awe, as the four dwarved each dropped to a knee and lowered their gazes to the ground before them. The heroes all dismounted from their jackalope steeds and looked back and forth among each other in confusion. MARCI took the opportunity to scan those kneeling before them. "Non-human entities," she reported back. To her programming, only pure strain humans - those without mutations - counted as "human" (although Gilbert had ordered her to confer "human" status to the other adventurers, a process that consisted of overwriting her files on the status of each hero). "Um...please rise," Gilbert said hesitantly. He wasn't sure what was going on but at least these dwarves didn't look like they were about to attack them. The four dwarves rose as bidden and looked in awe at the heroes. The Kordovians couldn't help but notice their gazes were reserved particularly for Aithanar, Darrien, and Finoula. "We are honored by your presence among us, great Servants," said the red-haired dwarf. "I am [b]Nikolai[/b]. How may we help you? Are you here to judge us, to observe our devotion to the Laws of [b]Zontok[/b]?" Seeing that the question had been addressed to those among the heroes with elven blood, Finoula took it upon herself to answer. "We seek a jackalope, like the five we ride. It was separated from the group and we wish to return it to its family." Nikolai seemed slightly puzzled by this odd quest, but far be it for him to question the words of a Servant, those working directly for Zontok Himself! "We captured a hopper a few weeks ago," he admitted. "Our leader, [b]Kristoff[/b], took it as his own riding mount after his herdbeast" - here he indicated the pen of four mutant elk behind him - had been slain in combat with an ark. Kristoff is off on a scouting party with one of our other men, but you are welcome to remain here as our honored guests until they return." He turned to one of the other dwarves. [b]Hans[/b] - get the stew cooking!" Hans dashed off to the cook fire to comply, obviously wanting to make a good impression in the eyes of these Servants. Nikolai led the group to the center of the camp, where he ushered them to sit around the fire. Hans had a stew-pot over the flames and the smell of cooking venison told of a good meal ahead. "If I may," hazarded Nikolai, "may I ask why Servants of Zontok travel in the company of mere men, and mutants like the stunted one?" This last comment, Binkadink realized, was directed at him - apparently these mutated human "dwarves" had never seen a gnome before and assumed he was just another form of mutated human. "Why do you think it unusual?" Finoula countered. "Do Servants not travel with men, if the reason is sound?" She had absolutely no idea if this was a logical answer or not but it sounded like "Servants" were something along the lines of "Angels" and this Zontok was the dwarves' god. She found she didn't mind being mistaken for a celestial being and was willing to play the part if that was what it took to get their hands on Digger. And as obsequious as these dwarves were being, it didn't sound like asking for them to hand over Digger upon his return was going to be any problem at all. "But of course, if Zontok wills it," replied Nikolai. He looked expectantly for Finoula to expand upon her answer but she didn't seem inclined to do so. He turned to Gilbert Fung. "Have you served the Servants long?" Gilbert just frowned, considering the best answer, prompting Nikolai to ask, "You do know the history of Zontok, don't you? You do know who you serve and the importance of our holy mission?" Before Gilbert had a chance to get argumentative, Finoula stepped in. "This would be a good time for you to explain, for the benefit of those among us who are not true Servants," she said. "I would hear how well you have taken the history to heart." That, she reasoned, would put Nikolai on the defensive, thinking he was being tested by the Servants of Zontok and would veer him off the mental path of why these particular Servants were traveling with people who had no idea who this Zontok god was. "Certainly," agreed Nikolai with a grin - if he thought he was being tested for his devotion he was certainly under the belief he was properly prepared. The other dwarves looked at him as he began his tale, occasionally darting glances at the elves and half-elf to see how well Nikolai's oratory was being received. "In the beginning," intoned Nikolai, "there was darkness and void without form. And then Zontok said, 'Let there be light!' - and lo, there was light. "And Zontok then created the heavens and the earth and the seas and all manner of animals to populate his world. And He created mankind in His own image and sent him out to populate the world. Zontok then went up to His castle at the top of the world and looked down upon the earth, to see what mankind would do with the gifts He had given them. "For some time mankind flourished, spreading out among the world and living in harmony with nature. But then, mankind discovered warfare and broke into separate tribes to make war upon each other. Great was their cunning, creating more and more powerful weapons over the years to slay the other tribes, until they poisoned the air and the land and the seas with their warfare. "Zontok looked down upon the poor earth and said, 'If mankind wishes to wage constant war, I will create new life to destroy mankind, that they may perish and be replaced with new masters of the earth.' And then did Zontok open the minds of the beasts, giving them great cunning and the ability to fashion their own weapons to eradicate mankind. "And the Beasts Who Think Like Men did bring mankind to its knees, nearly wiping them off the face of the world. Only then did mankind recall the early days before warfare and how plentiful was the food and how pleasant the lands and the seas and the clean air. And mankind cried out to Zontok, begging forgiveness and asking to be restored as the masters of the earth. "Zontok replied to His creations, 'This I will not do, for you have lost favor in My sight. But you may earn back My favor – and your right as rulers of the earth – by defeating the Beasts Who Think Like Men. Prove to Me your worthiness to once again inherit the world and all will be as it once was.' "And that is our most holy edict: to seek out the Beasts Who Think Like Men and slay them. Only then will the world return to the paradise it once was." Nikolai looked at Finoula expectantly. "Very well said," she praised him. "You have learned well." "It was my adherence to the teachings of Zontok that led me to recognize you immediately," the red-haired dwarf replied. "For the Servants in Zontok's castle are said to be very much like men, but smooth of face with ears that come to points. And it is said Zontok occasionally sends His servants to wander the world to see how well mankind is faring in its task to slay the Beasts Who Think Like Men." "We recently slew a band of hoops," ventured Binkadink, hoping to elevate his own reputation among the Brotherhood of Zontok from "stunted one" to "warrior capable of taking out the Beasts Who Think Like Men." "Hoops!" spat Nikolai in disgust at the word. He was about to elaborate when there was a commotion from the other side of the camp: another dwarf came riding up on a herdbeast. "Nikolai!" he cried as he approached the camp. "Kristoff's been taken--we were ambushed by hissers!" Hissers, Gilbert recalled, were what they had referred to as "sonic yuan-ti" when they met up with a trio of the snake-men in the Vesve Forest, another group of Gamma Terra emigrants who had crossed the dimensional boundaries into Oerth. But before he could explain this to the rest of the Kordovians over the [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] Nikolai was upbraiding the newcomer for his actions. "Be still!" Nikolai hissed. "Have you forgotten the Laws of Zontok?" [b]Odin[/b], properly chastised, slipped from the back of his herdbeast and took a calming breath, his head held high. "Forgive me, Nikolai - I forgot my composure in the excitement." "Forgiven," answered he red-haired dwarf. "Now report." "Kristoff and I were ambushed by four hissers," Odin replied. "Nikolai's hopper was knocked out immediately, and in falling over it pinned him to the ground where he was helpless to use his weapons. He ordered me not to aid him, but to return here immediately to gather a rescue party." "And do you see the wisdom in Kristoff's orders?" asked Nikolai. "I do," Odin replied. "I could not have taken out four hissers by myself. To try to do so would result in my own capture and possible death." "Quite right. Was Kristoff still alive when you left?" "He was." The Brotherhood men knew hissers often captured their food for later consumption - there was a good chance Kristoff and the hopper would have been taken alive, since the snake-men ate infrequently. "Come," said Kristoff, turning back to the fire. "We have guests." Odin nearly died in astonishment in seeing Servants sharing their fire. Nikolai addressed the group of visitors, looking at Finoula as he spoke; he'd apparently taken her as the chief of Zontok's Servants among the trio. "It would seem Zontok has provided an opportunity to observe us in action against the Beasts Who Think Like Men. You are welcome to accompany us and observe first-hand our zeal in following the Laws of Zontok." "We will fight by your side," offered Binkadink. "That will be most welcome," agreed Nikolai, thinking the Servants would not have brought along human and mutant allies if they weren't allowed to assist. He turned and led his band toward the corral as Odin remounted his herdbeast. The heroes all remounted their jackalopes and Binkadink filled Obvious in on what was going on. "We're going to take out the hissers who just captured Digger," he told his loyal steed. Obvious relayed the information to his siblings, using the burrowing mammal language that the Brotherhood would not even recognize as speech if they heard it. Odin led the group to the point where he and Kristoff had been ambushed. The grasses had been crushed under the weight of the hissers' heavy bodies, indicating the way they had gone. Drag marks on the ground indicated Digger and Kristoff had been pulled behind, likely unconscious. The group pressed on, following the indicated path. Eventually the trail led to a set of buildings out in the middle of the prairie, a metal-mesh fence surrounding them. There had apparently been a gate at the end of the gravel-strewn road leading up to the buildings, but it had been pulled away many decades ago and tossed aside. "Before we go in, we have preparations to make," Finoula advised Nikolai. "Blessings of Zontok to bestow." That was perfectly acceptable for the dwarf, who halted his men with silent hand signals while the others cast their spells. Knowing these "sonic yuan-ti" were capable of sonic bursts of significant power, [i]protection from energy[/i] and [i]resist energy[/i] spells were applied liberally among the combatants and their riding mounts. Darrien considered the advantages of increasing the size of the jackalopes and herdbeasts but was ultimately talked out of it, given the prisoners were likely inside one of the two buildings and the riding mounts were already large enough that getting them through a door would be a tight squeeze. He did cast a [i]bear's endurance[/i] spell on his own mount Droopy-Ear, to give her a bit more stamina for the battle ahead. Then, seeing the other spellcasters had finished their own magical preparations, he dropped an arrow into his [i]Arachnibow[/i] and looked around as Droopy-Ear inched forward, her bunny nose low to the ground as she followed Digger's scent. However, they only got several feet past the open gate and onto a strange, black stonelike substance Darrien had never seen before on his own world when there was a flash of light and he felt a burning sensation in his shoulder. Looking up, he saw a hisser perched on the roof of the larger of the two buildings, holding what looked like just the central portion of a crossbow. Another hisser rose up - it had been laying prone on the roof beside the other one - and shot at him with the not-quite-a-crossbow, which sent a beam of light like a focused [i]scorching ray[/i] or something his way. He dodged this second beam and, hunched forward onto Droopy-Ear's back, coaxed her forward to the side of the larger building, where a set of closed double doors in a sort of alcove allowed for some respite from the rooftop snipers. Hans followed quickly in Darrien's wake, wanting to stay close beside the Servant with the smaller ears. He threw his spear at one of the rooftop hissers as he did so but didn't see if he'd hit before he and his herdbeast were along the side of the building. Another of the Brotherhood, [b]Klause[/b], rode up beside him; the snipers couldn't get them all if they charged forth as one. Hagan raised himself up onto Quickpaws' broad back and could see a third hisser at the back of the roof, bringing his own laser rifle to bear. Casting a [i]sunbeam[/i] centered over the trio of hisser snipers, the half-orc was pleased to see at least one of them had been blinded by the searing light of his spell. At her request, Aithanar steadied Finoula as she stood up onto Clover's back, then activated her [i]lightning amulet[/i]. Just like that, her body transformed into a living lightning bolt that blasted into the body of the hisser who had shot Darrien and then changed course to blast through the one beside it, this one apparently now blind from Hagan's spell. She regained her elven form up on the edge of the building's roof. Aithanar, now the only one astride Clover, scooted forward and guided her into the open gateway, sending her to the left behind the smaller building and the fence, where they'd be out of view of the hisser snipers. Nikolai and another Zontok dwarf, [b]Leon[/b], rode forward on their herdbeasts, tossing spears up at the two hissers at the front of the building's roof. The third hisser, however, brought his laser rifle to bear on Finoula, who saw a red dot floating on her armor before a beam of energy broached the gap between hisser and elf and sent a wave of fiery pain lancing into her torso. At the same time, the blinded hisser beside her, unable to see his target, sent a cone of sonic energy her way, thinking there'd be no way for her to dodge that. But she didn't even bother, the sonic waves being absorbed by her [i]protection from energy[/i] spell. The third hisser shot his rifle at Hans down below, scoring a hit and a cry of pain from the mounted dwarf. Over behind the smaller building, a group of eight furry bodies crawled out of holes along the building's structure at ground level. Aithanar caught their movement from the corner of his eye and turned Clover to face them, his longsword in hand and ready to attack what looked to him to be nothing more unusual than dire rats. But this was not his home world and these were not dire rats; like most creatures on Gamma Terra they were mutants, these going by the colloquial term "squeakers." As one, they each focused their sonic attacks upon the elf and his jackalope mount, but like Finoula they had been protected against sonic attacks by spells cast before entry. Clover, however, winced under the combined attack; she'd only had a [i]resist energy[/i] spell cast upon her and the concentrated amount of sonic waves from the eight squeakers overcame her protection. She staggered but did not fall. Binkadink saw the main action was taking place on the rooftop and sent Obvious bounding forward, through the open gateway and then hurtling up onto the roof with a giant upwards leap. The gnome's [i]reverberating glaive[/i] cut down the hisser sniper; on the gnome's orders, MARCI dropped down off of the saddle behind Binkadink and recovered the slain reptile's laser rifle. This she passed down to Darrien right before he climbed down from Droopy-Ear's back. Then, [i]Arachnibow[/i] back in place on the ranger's back and this strange new weapon in hand, he stepped inside through the double doors. Gilbert, astride Twitchy-Tail with Genevar behind him, cast a [i]fireball[/i] spell at the squeakers. They squealed in pain, but while they were all singed and burned none of them had been slain. Seeing this, Hagan followed up with a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell, resulting in eight dead bodies on the ground before Aithanar and Clover. The elf waved his gratitude to the arcane spellcasters. Hans followed Darrien into the building. A blanket had been hung from the ceiling to prevent the light from the windows in the double doors from penetrating into the large, open area beyond, but there was enough to allow the half-elf to see there were piles of demolished furniture piled up against the back walls. Outside, Klause dismounted from his herdbeast and followed the others inside. Up on the rooftop, Finoula activated her amulet once again and blasted through the two remaining hisser snipers, only one of whom could still see. She took another shot from the laser rifle of the hisser from the back for her actions, while the blind reptile tried biting the elf upon her return to physical form - but, unable to see her, missed by a long shot. And then two more hissers arrived on the scene, each having been patrolling around the fenced areas going in different directions. They rounded opposite corners of the larger building, one of them facing the open gateway and the other seeing Gilbert and Genevar riding on Twitchy-Tail directly before him. This one sent his sonic blast forward, and while Gilbert and his jackalope mount were able to weather the damage Genevar, weakened by her continual attempts to keep open the telepathic translation effect allowing the Kordovians to communicate with the Brotherhood dwarves, slipped into unconsciousness. Gilbert had just enough time to grab her before she slipped over the side of the hopper's back. But Binkadink and Obvious had spotted the patrolling hisser below him and the jackalope leaped down from the rooftop directly upon the startled snake-man. Binkadink's glaive came slicing into the reptile's skin, nearly slaying it outright. And they weren't the only ones dropping down from the rooftop, for over by the double doors MARCI hung by her metal fingers and dropped to the ground. As she landed, she saw the hisser approaching from the back of the building, and then Odin raced past her on his herdbeast, his waraxe out. The hisser sent a sonic blast out at the two as they approached but it didn't slow either of them down; Odin's blade cut through the thick, scaly hide of the hisser while his trained war-mount gored the reptile with its impressive rack of antlers. The hisser hissed in pain, spraying blood as it did so. Leon and his herdbeast came riding up behind Odin, bringing his own axe to bear. Over towards the front of the building, Gilbert had Twitchy-Tail back off away from the hisser currently fighting Binkadink and Obvious and cast a [i]spectral hand[/i] spell. He wasn't quite sure yet what he was going to do with it but he'd at least decided these hissers were best fought at range. Inside the larger building, Darrien opened a door and entered a smaller room. It contained a desk with a weird chair that had little wheels on the bottom of it and a bunch of odds pieces of metallic equipment of unknown purpose. Through a window on the east wall he could see Gilbert and an unconscious Genevar astride Twitchy-Tail. There was another closed door to the north; opening it, Darrien spotted a group of six dire rats; the squeakers blasted him with ineffectual sonic waves - all of which were absorbed by his [i]resist energy[/i] spell - before he switched back to his [i]Arachnibow[/i] and [i]webbed[/i] the little buggers in place. Then he, Klause, and Hans cut them down at their leisure. Hagan sent Quickpaws through the open gateway, killing off the patrol hisser facing Binkadink with a simple [i]magic missile[/i] spell; it had looked to be on its last...well "legs" wasn't quite accurate for a creature with the lower body of a snake, but the concept still applied. Up on the rooftop, Finoula killed the two remaining snipers with a third use of her [i]lightning amulet[/i], slaying them both. She gathered up the laser rifles, certain they could be put to good use by the heroes. Leon and Odin continued their attack on the hisser, joined now by Nikolai. The hisser managed to bite Odin and pull him from his herdbeast, coiling his serpentine body around the struggling dwarf. But then Gilbert's [i]spectral hand[/i] came flying forward, touching the hisser and discharging a [i]maximized vampiric touch[/i] spell through it. That weakened the snake-man to the point where a single chop from Nikolai's waraxe was all it took to cut the hisser down. Odin crawled gratefully from the creature's loosening coils. Looking about, there seemed to be no further combatants in the immediate area. Regrouping, Finoula handed the rifles she'd taken from the slain snipers to Nikolai and Hans; they seemed familiar with the weapons. Darrien passed his on to Odin for the same reason, preferring the familiarity of his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. Aithanar volunteered to stay outside with the jackalopes and herdbeasts while the others searched for the Brotherhood's captured leader and Obvious's brother, Digger. He peeked inside the smaller building, which housed a rusted, armored wagon of some sort with narrow windows along the front and sides; the wheels had odd projections along their outer surfaces. The squeakers they'd killed had apparently been nesting underneath the vehicle. MARCI revived the unconscious Genevar; Gilbert had bestowed "honorary human" status to the little mutant girl to allow the medical construct to apply healing to a non-human entity. Hagan cast a more powerful spell on her to absorb sonic energy so she wouldn't be taken out again. And then Darrien led everyone through the upper level of the larger building, finding a kitchen area, bathroom facilities, and three separate bunkrooms but no kidnapped dwarves or jackalopes. "Got to be another level to this place," mused Gilbert. "And I think I know where it is," replied Darrien, leading them to the room with the slain squeakers. There was a closet-sized area in the corner of the room with a set of metal doors set in its front face. While the half-elf started trying to pry the doors apart using his scimitar, Genevar walked up beside him and pushed a button on the side of the doors. Immediately, a groaning noise from below them indicated the imminent arrival of an elevator. "So much for any element of surprise," sighed Finoula. The doors opened to an empty room, which Genevar said would take them down to a lower level. The problem was there wasn't a whole lot of room inside this elevator room and five dwarves, five Kordovian adventurers (as Aithanar was staying behind), a mutant girl, a human-sized medical construct, and two familiars all needed to get down to the lower level, preferably all at the same time. "[i]Teleport?[/i]" suggested Darrien to Hagan. "Not without seeing where we'd be going," replied the half-orc. "Going in blind's likely to end up with us inside a solid wall." "[i]Crystal ball[/i] first, then?" Darrien persisted, looking at Gilbert. The mage shook his head. "We wasting time," he said, adding over the mental link, <...and best if we not show our magic to these Brotherhood dwarf guys. They probably want our magic stuff as much as we want their blazer rifles.> <Laser rifles,> corrected Genevar. <Whatever.> In the end, it was decided Binkadink and the five Zontok dwarves would ride the elevator down; Hagan and Gilbert would cast [i]fly[/i] spell on themselves (the heavyset mage offered to carry Genevar) and hover above the elevator (Genevar showed them a hatch in the roof which allowed them to crawl up above the elevator room), while Darrien and Finoula would walk down the sides of the elevator shaft above the elevator car using their [i]cloak of the white spider[/i] and [i]boots of spider climbing[/i], respectively. As for MARCI, she'd be safely inside the [i]portable hole[/i] until needed; Wezhley'd be fine on Hagan's shoulder and Mudpie fit nicely inside Gilbert's pocket, still the size of a pebble. Everyone took their places inside or above the elevator, then one of the dwarves pushed the "down" button Genevar had shown them. The doors closed and with a mechanical groan the room descended dozens if not scores of feet below the surface of the ground. There were two hissers waiting at the bottom for them, these two armed not with laser rifles but scimitars and "whackers" (Genevar called them "golf clubs" but didn't bother explaining the term). But the dwarves had been ready for anything and as the doors opened and the two Beast Who Think Like Men were revealed directly ahead, Nikolai, Hans, and Odin opened fire with their laser rifles as the two hissers sent a pair of sonic blasts reverberating into the enclosed space of the elevator. They'd no doubt expected their prey to drop at once, Gamma Terra not knowing the ways of magic and the hissers thus unprepared for [i]resist energy[/i] and [i]protection from energy[/i] spells. Klause and Leon surged forward, axes swinging. Binkadink did likewise, extending his [i]reverberating glaive[/i] so he could strike from behind the dwarf directly ahead of him. The dwarven riflemen had concentrated fire on a single foe, the hisser to the left; Binkadink did likewise, hoping to take one of the two hissers out quickly. But these hissers were slightly bigger and definitely tougher than the ones they had fought upstairs; in a way that was actually comforting, as it might indicate the tougher fighters were reserved for guarding those things important to the hisser nest - like captured prisoners. With the elevator partially emptied, Finoula was able to crawl through the hatch on the ceiling and drop down into the car itself; she brought her [i]flaming burst whip of thorns[/i] to bear upon the hisser to the right. (It was getting crowded over there by the leftmost hisser!) Gilbert dropped through the hatch as well, casting a [i]ray of enfeeblement[/i] at the leftmost hisser guard. Binkadink's blade slew the beast, bringing his glaive swinging over to the right to score a deep cut across the torso scales of the other one. Darrien dropped into the elevator car and sent an arrow at the remaining hisser guard, who by this time had probably realized he was facing more than he could handle. To his credit, he didn't seem to even consider abandoning his post, even while being shot at by lasers. Instead, he struck forward with blinding speed and bit Leon, grabbing the startled dwarf up in his arms and crushing him with the coils of his serpentine body. But then Hagan dropped into the elevator and slew the hisser guard with a well-placed [i]polar ray[/i] spell. The dwarves looked at their weird mutant allies with looks of surprise; they were wielding powers the Brotherhood had never seen before! No wonder they were allowed to travel with Servants! Klause turned to the left and approached a wide, metal door with a round wheel that spun counterclockwise. He then tugged hard at the door, which opened slowly into the tunnel junction. Inside was a room across a moat of sorts, with a narrow walkway bridging the gap between tunnel and the room beyond - which, Finoula saw as she followed Klause into the strange room, was hanging from the ceiling by four large pillars in the corner. But there, laying bound in the middle of the hanging room, were the unmistakable forms of Digger and Kristoff, the movements of their chests giving silent indication both still breathed. Klause, Finoula, and Nikolai began frantically untying the bound captives. "You stay up there, where safe," admonished Gilbert to Genevar, standing on the roof of the elevator car. "We check this place out." Seeing the captives were being untied and awakened, Gilbert crept down the corridor to the right, passing a pile of crates on four large, wooden pallets and bound in some transparent material. Darrien had paused to give the boxes a quick examination; Binkadink followed Gilbert down the corridor, Leon and Odin trailing in his wake, their weapons out and ready for further combat. Darrien, in the meantime, wondered what the symbols on the crates might mean; he recognized it as writing but didn't know the alphabet used on this strange world. And even if Genevar had been there to read the markings on the crate to him, he'd have no idea what "MREs" would mean. And he didn't dare ask any of the dwarves, as he was supposed to be one of these celestial "Servants" who worked directly for Zontok and knew everything already. Oh well - it probably wasn't important. Hagan flew down the corridor, passing Gilbert and company and rounding the corner. While the area just outside the elevator had been illuminated by some [i]everburning torches[/i] that didn't flicker, the corridor leading this way was shrouded in darkness. But the half-orc could see just fine in the dark, as could the mutant "dwarves" - and the sight Hagan saw when he turned the corner was a strange one indeed. First of all, he discounted the three hissers standing protectively just ahead - he'd seen hissers before and these seemed not quite as big as the guards they'd just taken down; plus they were just armed with scimitars and those "whacker-sticks," not laser rifles. But behind them was an enormous, metal pillar, rising up past the top of the ceiling of the corridor; Hagan got the impression the ceiling of the room beyond was close in height to the surface of the ground outside - an easy 100 feet. The pillar was in the middle of a cylindrical room, with a stairwell of interspersed stairs and flat surfaces going all around the outer walls of the vertical shaft. The pillar itself must be massive, judging by the four buttresses at the bottom, likely giving it some sort of structural support. But of primary interest to the half-orc sorcerer was the creature whose lengthy body was wrapped around this massive column: it was a hisser, but one with a female shape and a cobralike hood around her head; this was likely a hisser queen and she was easily five time the size of the three normal-sized hissers below her. Hagan had taken all of that in in a matter of a second or two, then ducked back around the corner and explained over the link to the other Kordovians what he'd seen. Finoula, Nikolai, Kristoff, and Klause stepped back out into the tunnel junction, followed by a wary - and nervous - Digger. Finoula passed on to the dwarves what Hagan had told her over the link. Gilbert cast a [i]haste[/i] spell on himself, Binkadink, Darrien, Finoula, Hans, Leon, and Odin - all those within range at the time of casting, since he realized he Brotherhood dwarves would not leave this place with Beasts Who Think Like Men still alive, even if their primary goal - rescuing Kristoff and Digger - had been accomplished. Better see what it took to see this thing through to the end, then! Binkadink strode boldly around the corner; he had no darkvision but the [i]everburning torches[/i] on the antlers of his helmet provided enough illumination for him to see the hissers straight ahead and make out the basic shape of the pillar Hagan had described. Odin followed, raising his laser rifle and shooting the center hisser. Then Darrien stepped around the corner, shooting a barrage of arrows at the same hisser; he'd learned the value of concentrated fire on a single foe. Hans then added his own rifle to the mix and the middle hisser died before it could even try to fight back. Hagan stepped back around the corner and cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell on the two remaining hissers, who stood side by side in front of the wide, white column behind them. Klause, spurred by the holy cause of Zontok, raced forward, waraxe in hand, but before he could reach the hissers the hisser queen spat at him, the venom striking the dwarf in the eyes and blinding him instantly. And then the hissers closed, sending waves of sonic energy before them - surprisingly, with no visible reaction from their intended prey. Finoula raced up to one of the hissers, striking out at it with [i]Tahlmalaera[/i]'s flashing blade. Behind her, Kristoff ran up with Nikolai's borrowed waraxe. Nikolai had a bead on a hisser with the rifle and sent a laser beam burning into the side of the reptile's head. Gilbert cast a [i]maximized chain lightning[/i] spell on the two hissers, causing them a massive amount of damage each but dropping neither. Leon charged one of the hissers, bringing his axe-blade slicing through reptilian scales. But it was once again Binkadink who scored the killing blows, bringing his glaive to slice deep into the neck of one hisser, nearly decapitating it, and then swinging it deep into the belly of the other, gutting it. Both fell before the gnome, neither one rising. That left only the hisser queen herself. Odin approached and shot her from below; Darrien did likewise, albeit with arrows from his [i]Arachnibow[/i] rather than with laser beams from a sniper rifle. Hagan cast a [i]meteor swarm[/i] at the hisser queen, striking unerringly with each meteor and blissfully unaware of the dire consequences had even one of his conjured burning rocks hit the lower stages of the Olympian missile the hisser queen was wrapped around. While Klause, hands to his burning eyes, stumbled away, the hisser queen slithered down the body of the ICBM, sliding along one of its four stabilizer fins and sending out an even more powerful version of the sonic blast employed by all hissers. She hissed in obvious irritation when none of her foes dropped at her sonic barrage. Finoula activated her [i]lightning amulet[/i] again, blasting directly into the hisser queen and rebounding off close by where she had started. Nikolai, Hans, and Odin continued firing their rifles at the hisser queen and while it seemed like her thick scales offered some amount of protection they were clearly wearing her down. Kristoff and Binkadink approached from opposite sides and brought their blades to bear against the scaled monstrosity towering above them, while Gilbert cast a [i]cone of cold[/i] spell up into her face, ensuring he wouldn't hit any of his allies in the process. Fittingly, it was one of the Brotherhood who brought the killing blow, his waraxe cutting deep into the hisser queen's snakelike body and causing her to drop to the ground, dead - it was all Kristoff and Leon could do to scramble out of the way before she fell directly on top of them. "We did it!" exulted Kristoff. "Zontok is well and truly pleased with your efforts," Finoula intoned, thinking it was something a Servant would say under these conditions. Several hours later, back at the Brotherhood camp, the two groups prepared to go their separate ways. "It was an honor to serve alongside the Servants of Zontok," Kristoff said. "I thank you for my rescue, and in addition to the hopper, I gladly give you these." Three of the dwarves each passed forward their laser rifles to Aithanar, Darrien, and Finoula, who solemnly accepted them. (Darrien almost failed to keep up a solemn appearance as he'd secretly been hoping for a chance to get his hands on one of these laser rifles, to see if he could train himself in their use, and was overjoyed the opportunity had been literally handed to him.) "Go forth, and continue to do the will of Zontok," Finoula replied; she was quite enjoying being the celestial representative of a god, even if she was fairly lacking in knowledge of the god's particular ethos. Then she mounted up on Clover, by herself this time; Aithanar was now riding Digger, with Genevar behind him. (She'd pointed out, to Gilbert's annoyance, there was "a lot more room" riding with the slim elf than the heavyset human.) As the Kordovian band rode their six jackalopes off towards the desert where Genevar was convinced they'd find Eradicator Base and rescue the superheroes who would in turn help save the world of Gamma Terra and the Brotherhood dwarves packed up their camp, taking down their tents and the poles of the collapsible corral and storing them on the hoversled one of the herdbeasts would pull behind it as they sought out the next group of Beasts Who Think Like Men to kill, the little mutant gratefully dismantled the telepathic translation field she'd been concentrating on keeping up and running during their dealings with the Brotherhood of Zontok. But before she did so, they all heard the first verses to a holy song the Brotherhood dwarves sang heartily among themselves: "Oh, you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry, you'd better not shout, I'm telling you why: the Zontok Laws are coming to town...." - - - This was an adventure I'd been long waiting to spring on the players. It had as its genesis a comic book I had written and drawn for my little brother; when I was in high school, my two younger brothers and my little sister and I played three RPGs: AD&D (1st edition), Gamma World, and Champions. When I went off to college, our campaigns pretty much came to a stop, so I thought it would be cool to make them each comic books of their respective PCs' exploits after the events of the three campaigns we'd been running. So for the first three Christmases after I started college, I did one comic for each sibling; a D&D comic for one, a Gamma World comic for another, and a Champions comic for the third. Then, in each of the next two years, I switched which games were assigned to each sibling, until they each had a comic for each of the three games at the end of the third year. In any case, "The Laws of Zontok" was originally the comic I made for the youngest of my two little brothers, in which his PC met up with the Brotherhood of Zontok, a new "cryptic alliance" I'd designed for the Gamma Word game - basically, a group of people who mistakenly worshiped Santa Claus as a god. The basic plot was the same as the 3.5 D&D adventure I eventually wrote up for this campaign - the protagonists meet up with a group of Brotherhood raiders and help them take out a hisser nest, complete with an oversize hisser queen - but I added the whole "Servants" thing once I realized this time around I'd have D&D elves in the picture. But the trappings are all there, from Zontok's "castle at the top of the world" (the North Pole, naturally), to the edicts against shouting that got Odin in trouble when he reported Kristoff's capture, and the Brotherhood's penchant for riding "herdbeasts" (mutant reindeer) into battle. Even their names were clues, with Kristoff and Nikolai being stand-ins for "Kristopher (Kringle)" and "(Jolly Old Saint) Nicholas" and "Klause" being somewhat obvious in hindsight. Even "Leon" is "Noel" spelled backwards; Hans and Odin got added in without obvious Santa references because not [i]everything[/i] should be a clue (although now that I think about it, Odin's a guy from the "north lands" with a white beard...). I did up stats for the Zontok dwarves (I made them each a 6th-level ranger) and their herdbeasts and let each player run one of them as well as their PCs for the assault on the hisser nest. I had enough dwarf minis to go around, but the "herdbeast" minis ended up being one reindeer, a buffalo, and three goats. In any case, I put the hisser nest in an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) site for this version of the story because Dan and I both started our Air Force careers as missile launch officers at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota a couple of decades ago and I thought he'd appreciate it. (Plus, how often do you get to use an ICBM site in a D&D adventure?) He pegged right away that the fenced area with two buildings had the same general structure as the Minuteman III alert facilities where we used to pull alert and was suitably amused. And while there wasn't a whole lot of treasure in this adventure, Joey at least is pretty happy with a laser rifle for his PC; the other two went to Binkadink and Finoula. - - - T-Shirt Worn: My "Happy Happy Happy" T-shirt featuring Phil Robertson from "Duck Dynasty," since as a long-bearded guy he was the closest thing I had as a stand-in for Zontok - or the mutant "dwarves" who worshiped him. [/QUOTE]
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