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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6070153" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 45 - THE STICK PALACE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p><p> </p><p>This adventure came about as a result of my desire to flesh out Delphyne's background a bit. Thus far, all we knew about Delphyne was that her parents had died when she was eight years old, she was subsequently raised by her grandmother, and that her grandmother had taught her the ways of witchcraft, then sent her out into the world once she had taught her all she knew. I sent Vicki an email, asking her to come up with Delphyne's grandmother's name, which grandmother she was (the mother of Delphyne's mother or of her father), the name of her black cat familiar, a childhood nickname that her grandmother called her, and the name of the stuffed animal she had carried around with her as a child. The results Vicki sent me back were as follows <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Delphyne's maternal grandmother was <strong>Esmerelda Blinx</strong>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Esmerelda's black cat was named <strong>Pitch</strong>, after the darkness of her fur.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As a child, Delphyne's favorite stuffed animal was a rabbit named <strong>Babbit</strong>. When Delphyne went off to see the world for herself, she left Babbit behind with her grandmother to remember her by, and so she "wouldn't get lonely."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Esmerelda used to call Delphyne "Prattle," both because of her tendency to chat on and on about nothing as a child, and as a bit of a pun on the first part of her surname, "Babelberi."</li> </ul><p>I think Vicki knew I was building a Delphyne-centered adventure, and was eager to see what would come of it.</p><p></p><p>I don't think she was expecting what she got as a result. I started the adventure with another dream: - - - </p><p></p><p>The years seemed to fall away as Delphyne approached the Stick Palace; all seemed the same as when she last saw it. She smiled as she spotted the weathered skull embedded in the massive tree’s trunk just to the left of the front door, and it greeted her warmly. "Miss Delphyne! I’ll alert the mistress that you've arrived! She will be pleased."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you, <strong>Percival</strong>," replied Delphyne. "How is she?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, moving a bit slower now these days, but there's still life in her yet!" the skull chuckled. Rale gave it a worried look, but Delphyne seemed to be taking the animated skull in stride, so he assumed everything was okay. Chalkan didn't seem bothered in the least; Akari gave it a quick sweep of his ability to detect evil and then ignored it once it was clearly not of an evil bent. The three passed their reins on to Old Clem, who gathered them up and tied them to a series of trees not far away, then settled in to brushing them down after their travels.</p><p></p><p>Soon thereafter, there was a call from the window above. "I’ll be right down, Prattle! Give an old woman a moment to handle the stairs!"</p><p></p><p>In a minute or so, the door opened, and Esmerelda Blinx appeared. Although she had been an old woman for as long as Delphyne had known her, she seemed appreciably more ancient than the young witch had ever noticed before, but a spark of energy still flickered behind her mismatched eyes – the left one green, the right one blue. "Oh, and you've brought friends! Come in, come in!"</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, the old witch spotted the symbol of Hieroneous around Akari's neck. "A paladin?" she asked, confronting the elf. "You're not one of those hard-nosed types, who thinks all witches are evil and need to be burned at the stake, are you?" she glowered.</p><p></p><p>"No ma'am," replied Akari with a smile. "If you're at all like Delphyne, I'm sure we won't be needing any stakes today."</p><p></p><p>"Me like her?" squawked Esmerelda in mock indignation. "Just who raised who, now? I'd say <em>she's</em> like <em>me!</em>" But she gave the elf a smile and ushered everyone to follow her up into her home, basically a tree house perched on the outthrust branches of an old oak tree, and accessed through its hollow trunk. The elderly witch leaned heavily on a crooked walking stick. "I need to talk to you about a possible threat from the forest," the elderly witch said to her granddaughter over her shoulder as she slowly mounted the stairs one step at a time. "But tea first, I think!"</p><p></p><p>The stairwell led up to a wide open area which obviously served as a dining room. Four wooden chairs, apparently handcrafted from branches and tree limbs, sat around a simple wooden table. Another stairway stood directly across from the entry stairs that led up to a closed door, and the dining area branched off to a small kitchen to the right and what seemed to serve as both a small library and a storage location for various arcane paraphernalia on the left.</p><p></p><p>“You make yourselves right at home,” called Esmerelda to her visitors, hobbling towards the kitchen. "I’ll get the tea on. Prattle, there are tea-cakes on the tray, if you’d like to pass those out. Then we can have our little talk."</p><p></p><p>As Esmerelda fussed about in the kitchen, a black cat sidled up to Delphyne and began rubbing at her leg. "Well, hello, Pitch!" said Delphyne, scratching her grandmother's familiar between the ears, just as she liked. "You want up, don't you?" The young witch easily lifted the cat and plopped her down on her left shoulder, where she purred contentedly and looked across Delphyne's back to Iggy, who sat perched in his accustomed place upon the witch's right shoulder. The two familiars glared at each other, each seeing the other as a rival for Delphyne’s affections. Despite the extra weight on her shoulders, Delphyne managed to pass small plates to each place setting and distribute the tea-cakes to her friends.</p><p></p><p>Esmerelda had Delphyne pull up her rocking chair from its place in the kitchen, where she liked to sit by the cook-fire, over to the head of the table, then joined the others. Satisfied that everyone was comfortable, the elder witch began her tale.</p><p></p><p>"It all started a few months ago. I’d get this feeling that I was being watched, from a distance; it always seemed as if my watcher was hidden deep, deep in the shadows of the forest. In my younger days, I would have simply stormed out into the forest to confront whoever it was that was a’spyin’ on me, but I’m afraid I don’t move so fast these days. So I’d just ignore it, and send old Pitch – you like it up there on little Prattle’s shoulder, don’t you, you naughty kitty? – here to go do my spyin’ for me. But try as she might, Pitch could never find whoever it was that was so interested in us.</p><p></p><p>"Then, one day, I heard this deep voice coming from the forest; it says '<em>VLOKT!</em>'" Esmerelda called out that last word in a rough voice, and the adventurers all jumped a little at the unexpected power in the elderly woman's voice. They didn't get to jump very far, though, for upon vocalization of the command word, the four chairs the group had been sitting on immediately sprouted extra limbs and entwined around them, pinning their bodies to their chairs and their arms tightly to the arms of the chairs. They struggled briefly, to no avail.</p><p></p><p>But Esmerelda wasn't done yet. "Einnich! Zveinnin! Dreischu!" she called out, and at each new command word one of the chairs dropped through the floor and out of view, leaving a bound and confused Delphyne alone in the room with her grandmother and the two familiars. "Who are you?" she called out. "You're not my grandmother!"</p><p></p><p>"Well, maybe I wasn't up until a few days ago, dearie," replied the old crone, "but I certainly am now. But don't worry, I won't be her for much longer - I think I'll get much more use out of your body than your old granny's!" And the old witch cackled out loud at the anticipation. Iggy, frightened and unsure of what to do, flew off of Delphyne's shoulder and flapped over to a kitchen shelf. The old witch then repeated the command words, sealing off the three extradimensional links on the floor underneath the dining room table, from this side at least. But she wasn't overly concerned, confident that the surprises she had readied on the other side of the passages would keep Delphyne's adventuring companions busy for more than enough time for her to complete her wicked plan.</p><p></p><p>Any retort Delphyne might have given was cut short by the stinging sensation in her neck. Turning her head, she saw that Pitch was grinning evilly at her, and that while she still retained the majority of her black cat form, her tail had become that of a scorpion. As she watched helplessly, it stabbed her again and again, and the young witch felt the venom entering her system, making her lethargic and unable to move.</p><p></p><p>The old witch ambled over and inspected Delphyne with a critical eye - the blue one, in fact. "A few more for good luck," she advised, and the cat-thing that definitely wasn't Pitch complied, stabbing Delphyne a couple more times for good measure, until the young witch could no longer even move her head from side to side. "There we go," cooed the usurper of Esmerelda's body, and said the command word that released the bindings of the wooden chair. She then addressed the rooms at large, readying the defenses of the Stick Palace in the event Delphyne's adventuring companions escaped the extradimensional trap the old witch had readied for them.</p><p></p><p>"<strong>Souldrip</strong>, be my eyes, and prepare for action – remember that <strong>Bocklereave</strong> owes us a boon! <strong>Punkin</strong>, be vigilant, and fight off any intruders! <strong>Nooser</strong>, be alert for trespassers and strangle their very lives from them! <strong>Cracklespark</strong>, obey my second’s orders as you would my own, or suffer the consequences! In the meantime, we shall be upstairs – and we do not wish to be disturbed!" And with that, the old witch cackled in delight and pulled a ladder from the ceiling over by the library nook, hoisting the helpless Delphyne effortlessly over one shoulder with surprising strength and climbing to the branches above.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p><em>As visits to a friend's grandmother's house go, this one is slightly sub-optimal</em>, thought Akari as he plummeted through the floor, bound to a chair. The lighting changed as he passed through the floor, going from that of a well-lit, sunny room to a shadowy murk all at once. The bound paladin hit the floor with no sound at all, not even as his chair splintered at the crash and broke apart. He extracted himself from its once-clinging embrace and looked around at his surroundings.</p><p></p><p>He was in a nondescript room some 15 feet by 20 feet, with a closed door at either end. There were no visible light sources, yet the room was lit by a feeble illumination nonetheless. And there were three skeletons bearing down on him.</p><p></p><p>"Crap!" called out the elf, pulling <em>Deathstriker</em> from his belt - or tried to, in any case, but his attempted vocalizations made no sound at all. He hurled the hammer at the closest skeleton, and it smashed the thing to bits with little effort. When Akari raised his hand to catch the hammer upon its return, he noticed his own hand was skeletal as well. <em>No, not skeletal</em>, he amended, touching one hand to the other and definitely feeling skin. But any further thoughts as to puzzling out the odd effects of the room he was in took a back seat to survival, as the remaining two skeletons closed on him.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p><em>This sucks!</em> thought Rale as he plummeted into a murkily-lit room. He tried voicing his opinions to the world around him, but his words were magically silenced. He extracted himself quickly from the chair he had been bound to as a burly orc skeleton came rushing his way, a wickedly-curved sword in one hand and a round shield in the other. Then he scrambled to get a weapon out and just barely parried the skeleton's sword-thrust with his own new weapon, <em>Belladonna</em>. He kicked the skeleton away from him long enough to try to activate his Guild ring, but it was ineffective; wherever he was, it didn't seem like he was on the material plane any more. And worse yet, his Guild ring was on what looked to be a skeletal hand, despite his ability to feel the warmth of his own unseen skin. Then the rogue had no time for further introspection about the cruelties of fate as he battled for his life.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p><em>What in the--?</em> thought Chalkan as he suddenly plummeted through the dining room floor and into an eerily-lit room with four skeletons eager to chop him into pieces. He had the misfortune of his chair surviving the fall, and it tried clinging to him as he in turn tried to extract himself from its embrace before the undead were upon him. He got himself free and got his longsword out before he could be cut to ribbons, and while he realized that a blade was a poor weapon against skeletons, it was all he had to work with at the moment - the undead were too close for him to use his bow, and the innate silence of the room prevented him from casting even a <em>magic missile</em> spell at them. So he fought them off as best he could, slowly making his way towards the closest of the two doors in this room.</p><p></p><p>Then he noticed that his skin was invisible, making the hand holding his sword look like it was skeletal.</p><p></p><p><em>What in the--?</em> he thought yet again.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Delphyne was laid out on her back on a small table, on a platform open to the skies above the forest in which the Stick Palace sat. The intruder in her grandmother's body had stripped her of all jewelry, including the Guild ring which could have <em>teleported</em> her back to Guild Headquarters had she been able to move enough to activate it. But she was completely immobilized, unable to even protest as her pouches and bags were removed from her belt; all of her spell components were in those containers, which were dumped unceremoniously in a small sack along the access hole of the treetop platform.</p><p></p><p>The elderly witch placed a gemstone upon Delphyne's forehead, and started painting arcane symbols upon the young witch's face and brow, including special runes all along her mouth. "I think I’m going to like that body of yours a lot more than I like this one, 'Prattle,'" the old witch cackled. "Your grandmother was but a means to an end. I had to endure this body of hers for the past three weeks making my preparations, but now the time has come for you to be evicted and for <strong>Hagatha</strong> to take control. Oh, what fun I shall have in that body! Not to worry, though, dearie – you won’t feel a thing! And there’s no use in struggling, as my sweet little Souldrip has envenomed you to the point that you shouldn't be able to move a muscle for the better part of a day! I've taken the liberty of giving back the use of your mouth, so that we can talk in your final moments as you, before I take over. Now then, whatever shall we talk about?"</p><p></p><p>"You won't get away with this," snarled Delphyne, somewhat surprised that her mouth was able to move once again. She tried moving her hands, but no luck; only the runes painted along Delphyne's mouth were allowing her to speak.</p><p></p><p>"I won't?" asked Hagatha in a mocking tone. "I can't imagine why not. This process worked just fine with your grandma; I don't see why it should be any different this time." And she chuckled quietly to herself, before turning her attention to a small mirror she had perched in the crook of a branch. She focused her attention on carefully placing a similar gemstone on her own forehead, keeping it in place with a drop of <em>sovereign glue</em>, and then painting similar runes upon her own face. While her attention was thus diverted away from her helpless captive, Hagatha failed to notice a small movement in that direction.</p><p></p><p>Painfully, slowly, a stuffed bunny climbed up onto the table next to Delphyne. She stifled a surprised gasp, afraid that the usurper in the corner of the platform would hear and investigate. The young witch knew immediately who and what this was - it was Babbit, her old stuffed bunny, the one possession she had had with her when she first went to stay with her grandmother, Esmerelda Blinx, upon the sudden death of her parents. And she knew there was no way her bunny would be able to move around on its own - unless her grandmother was behind it somehow. A silent tear slid down the witch's face at the sight of Babbit pulling itself to its full, if insignificant, height.</p><p></p><p>The stuffed bunny had no fingers or individual digits on its stumpy foreleg; nonetheless, Delphyne understood when it held a stumpy paw up to its mouth and turned to look at Hagatha that her grandmother was warning her to remain absolutely quiet. Delphyne tried to nod but couldn't, but was sure that her grandmother knew she'd do as she had been told. Then the bunny reached into a rip along the seam of its side and pulled out a small flask. It was a bit of an effort to pop the cork off using only two stuffed paws, but Babbit somehow managed, and carefully tipped the flask between Delphyne's lips. Delphyne swallowed greedily, and immediately felt a tingling throughout her body. She still couldn't move, but she knew now that she should be able to soon.</p><p></p><p>Hagatha finished her facial runes and turned to Delphyne. Babbit had just enough time to hurl itself off the side of the table and fall to the floor; fortunately, its plush body made little noise upon impact, and Hagatha failed to notice. "It's time," she said, grinning wickedly at Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>The hag began chanting an unholy ritual in a elder tongue. Almost immediately, the sky turned dark, and a terrible wind set the branches of the forest's trees whipping back and forth. As clouds flashed by in the sky overhead, a sudden bolt of lightning hit the hag. However, instead of hurting her, it was absorbed by the gemstone on her head; then, just as suddenly, an arc of lightning jumped from her gemstone to the one on Delphyne's forehead and stayed in place, joining the two figures, old and young, forehead to forehead. As this occurred, strange and awful images began flooding Delphyne's mind, as memories that weren't hers own began taking up residence in her brain.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne screamed, not from pain but from pure hatred and a sense of violation.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The three adventurers had each, independently, learned a bit about the trap they were in. They were on a part of the Ethereal Plane somehow, in a closed ring of eight more-or-less identical rooms. Each was 15 feet wide by 20 feet long, with a door on each of the shorter walls. Going through a door led to the next room in sequence, and when you got to the end of the eight rooms you ended up right back at the first. Despite none of the rooms appearing to be made of anything but right angles, somehow they all curved together into a closed loop. And they had been "seeded" with plenty of undead to fight; not only orc and human skeletons but a necrophidius (an undead construct made from the skeleton of a serpent and the skull of a man), and the animated remains of a sail-finned, fossilized dinosaur. Fortunately, the fact that the adventurers' skin was all invisible and they had no way to talk aloud to each other had not prevented them from figuring out that when they first met up with each other in the Ethereal Ring they weren't encountering undead versions of their companions. No doubt Delphyne's evil grandmother had hoped they'd have attacked each other upon meeting, but they were too wise for that.</p><p></p><p>Now that Rale, Akari, and Chalkan had met up with each other and fought off the undead menaces, they had to figure out a way to return to the Stick Palace. They figured their best bet was to return the way they had come; while there were no indications that the portal in the ceiling was still there, there was a chance that it might still be active. Chalkan and Akari, by dint of wearing the heaviest armor, got to be the stable platform upon which Rale scrambled; then the rogue, balanced upon their shoulders, reach up at the ceiling until his hand plunged right through it. He got himself a good grasp, then pulled himself up through the invisible hole in the ceiling, and found himself back under the dining room of the Stick Palace, his flesh fully visible, his ears once again picking up sound - and an angry quasit staring down at him from the edge of the table.</p><p></p><p>"Ah-ah-ah," scolded Souldrip, now looking nothing like Pitch the cat. "You stay down there where you belong!" And he launched himself at Rale, who rolled out of the way at the last moment. A scorpionlike tail stabbed out and struck the floor by his neck, but the rogue scrambled to his feet and pulled out his short swords.</p><p></p><p>"Cracklespark! Deal with this human!" commanded the quasit, unsure of his ability to deal with a fully-prepared adventurer on his own. Immediately, the cookfire under the kitchen cauldron blazed to life, then ambled out from the pot and assumed the form of a small fire elemental. "Nooser - get him!" cried out Souldrip, and a loose rope uncoiled itself from a library shelf and slithered towards the rogue.</p><p></p><p>Rale wasn't particularly thrilled with fighting either opponent, but he judged the rope to be the lesser threat and attacked it first. A sideways swipe with his magical blade severed off the thing's "head" - little more than a fancy knot - and it fell to the floor, lifeless once more. Rale kicked over the kitchen table, scooped up the rope, and fastened it to a table leg while the fire elemental made its way around the obstacle. By the time it had circled the table, Rale had dropped the rope onto the space of the floor he had just crawled out of moments before, but the rope just sat there - the link had closed! Then he tried repeating the three command words the old witch had used - "Einnich, Zveinnin! Dreischu!" - and the rope fell through the extradimensional space, now active once more. Akari caught the rope, and allowed Chalkan, being lighter, to climb up first. Neither of them had any idea what to expect up above, as the Ethereal Ring's silencing effect prevented them from hearing what was going on in the Stick Palace.</p><p></p><p>By the time Chalkan was climbing back into the dining room, Souldrip realized he was going to need even more reinforcements. "Punkin, activate!" he called off, while flying up a short stairwell on the far side of the kitchen. A pumpkin on a kitchen shelf started rapidly growing vines, which knitted and merged into a simple skeletal structure while the pumpkin itself popped out carved facial features along one side. Then the animated scarecrow jumped to join the fray.</p><p></p><p>By the time Akari had climbed back into the dining room, there was a pitched battle between Rale and Chalkan against a small fire elemental, a scarecrow, and a hill giant who had been released from the bottle in which he had been imprisoned by Hagatha. As the elf flung <em>Deathstriker</em> at the confused giant, the latest combatant entered the room from the small summoning chamber off the kitchen: Bocklereave the vrock, summoned by Souldrip the quasit to repay its prior debt to Hagatha and her minions.</p><p></p><p>In the midst of all of this chaos, another entity approached. Iggy flew down through the hole in the library ceiling, calling out a warning to the group: "Delphyne's in trouble! At the top of the tree!"</p><p></p><p>Akari didn't like the odds, so he summoned his griffon to him. <strong>Tsukitora</strong> manifested in the crowded kitchen, and at his master's command burst through an outer wall of the Stick Palace to the open air outside. "Go save Delphyne!" commanded Akari, hoping to be able to follow shortly after he had dealt with the demonic vrock.</p><p></p><p>Rale didn't hesitate - at the sound of Delphyne in peril he had abandoned the fight and scrambled up the ladder and out of the library. He soon found himself climbing a more natural ladder composed of carefully arranged tree limbs, and popped up through a hole in the floor of an open-air platform, where Delphyne was writhing on a table, an arc of electricity dancing between her and her grandmother. She had regained a slight bit of mobility, enough to wriggle her way to the edge of the table and gracelessly fall off of it, but Hagatha scooted to the side and the electricity arc continued undisturbed, each moment further filling up Delphyne's brain with Hagatha's memories and knowledge.</p><p></p><p>"I’m not sure how you’re able to move," the hag howled over the wind, "but it won’t make any difference in the long run! You can’t get out of range of the download, and before long, I’ll have taken over your mind, while your soul gets booted out to whatever afterlife you’ve earned. You’re finished, girlie!"</p><p></p><p>"Not if I have anything to say about it!" yelled Rale, racing towards the hag with his swords in hand, his rush silently applauded by Iggy, flapping to a branch nearby.</p><p></p><p>"You don't," commented Hagatha, spitting off the words to a spell that struck Rale smack-dab in the face. He stopped, staggered, and then shifted into the form of a frog, which hopped around the floor in wild confusion.</p><p></p><p>By this time, Delphyne had enough movement restored to be able to stand. She tried pulling the gemstone from her forehead, but it had been glued in place. Suddenly, a massive form rose up behind her grandmother's form, and the young witch had only a moment to stifle a cry before the winged beast was upon her. It gripped her in its curved talons, then hoisted her up into the sky with him. Tsukitora's strong wings flapped in the storm as he verified his grip on the young witch.</p><p></p><p>"No!" cried Hagatha, as the link between her and her next body was severed. The lightning was cut away from Delphyne's gemstone once the griffon had pulled her out of range, and the arc lashed out in all directions. Everywhere it struck – the side of the table, the floor, a branch of the tree – the wood took on the semblance of the hag’s face, and began speaking about whatever memories were transferred there. Within mere moments, there was a confusing babble of voices – or, more accurately, the same voice – blathering on simultaneously about a myriad of different memories, as the hag screamed out in torment and frustration, her life-essence dissipating in all directions.</p><p></p><p>The multiple lightning strikes from Hagatha's forehead gem started the upper platform of the Stick Palace on fire. By the time Akari and Chalkan had dealt with the monsters in the Stick Palace's kitchen and dining room and climbed up to the Stick Palace's upper levels, the battle was over. Hagatha had collapsed as her consciousness dissipated among the burning surfaces of the treetop platform. Chalkan entered the inferno to see Delphyne's grandmother lying in a heap and Iggy desperately trying to pull a sack containing Delphyne's belongings over the side of the platform to safety. Chalkan pushed it over the side, then, at Iggy's urging, grabbed up a stuffed bunny from the side of the table and a small frog that had been hopping around in terror among the flames. Everybody climbed down to the forest floor, as Tsukitora landed with Delphyne, now just barely strong enough to stand. Surprisingly, the young witch reached out immediately for her stuffed bunny.</p><p></p><p>With shaky movements that mirrored the young witch's feebleness, Babbit rose up a final time. Its seams were ripped in several places, with stuffing falling out, and one button eye hung by a thread. "You take care of yourself, my little Prattle," whispered the stuffed bunny in what was inarguably the voice of Esmerelda Blinx. "It was good to get to see you again...I’m so proud of you....” And then the bunny fell over, and Delphyne could tell that whatever final spark of life essence had been keeping it animate was finally extinguished.</p><p></p><p>"Goodbye, Gramma," she cried, hugging her stuffed bunny tight.</p><p></p><p>Hagatha's ritual, which had called forth the lightning bolt which had in turn enabled the mental download process, now culminated in a full-blown storm. Sheets of rain blasted down from the skies, eventually putting out the blaze that had started at the top of the Stick Palace. The group spent the night in the treetop building, in the morning burying the body of Esmerelda Blinx - freed, in death, of the possession of Hagatha the greenhag. At Delphyne's request, Akari said a few words over her grave, and the group spent the next few days cleaning up and repairing the Stick Palace, until all evidence of the battles fought there had been removed. Delphyne found a set of her grandmother's diaries, in which the witch had been faithful in recording entries daily, up until a date three weeks ago, when they suddenly stopped. That, Delphyne realized, was the day that her grandmother had been overpowered by the greenhag. Pitch must have likewise been killed, her place taken by Hagatha's own familiar, Souldrip. But Esmerelda, though slain, had found a way to hold out, to keep one last little bit of herself alive in the form of Babbit, to keep her granddaughter safe this one last time.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne sadly closed the front door to the Stick Palace and said her farewells to Percival, who gave her his laments and offered her best wishes in the days to come. She thanked the old skull, touching the cool bone at the side of his temple, and promised she'd be back from time to time. Then she turned to her companions, who were gathering up the horses. "I'll meet you back at Headquarters," the young witch said quietly, mounting her broom and dashing off into the sky before they had a chance to argue. They did have time to notice that Babbit was tucked protectively under her arm.</p><p></p><p>"She just needs some time alone," Akari said, watching her disappear into the distance. Then, without another word, he turned his horse and headed back towards the road to Greyhawk City. The others followed suit.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This adventure was a bit of a concern for me. I was afraid it might be a bit too much of a railroad, considering that the whole thing pretty much fell apart if the PCs didn't all get captured as I had planned, and that Delphyne spent a good chunk of it paralyzed and unable to do anything constructive. But everyone had a good time, even though we did have a bit of fun comparing Galrich's secret backstory ("I'm the next king of my own country!") to Delphyne's ("My evil grandmother is trying to kill me--what the Hell?") Vicki was furious at Delphyne's "grandmother" before she found out that Esmerelda's body had been usurped. And when I showed her the initiative card I had made of Babbit, and explained that this is what she saw crawling up onto the table with a paralyzed Delphyne, Vicki knew right away that Esmerelda was somehow in the stuffed bunny.</p><p></p><p>As for the rest of the guys, they had an interesting time trying to communicate in the Ethereal Ring - I didn't allow them to talk or explain their hand gestures, but rather made them pantomime their actions as if they were their PCs.</p><p></p><p>In the end, we all had a good time, and while the other PCs didn't get much in the way of treasure, Delphyne was Esmerelda Blinx's sole living relative, so she inherited the Stick Palace and all of its contents. She didn't keep everything; anything she saw that she didn't remember as belonging to her grandmother, she destroyed, including the slinky black outfit that Hagatha had planned on wearing once she was comfortably inside Delphyne's body. It would have provided a +4 deflection bonus to AC and granted the wearer a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves vs. spider venom; nonetheless, it was Hagatha's, so Delphyne burned it. Likewise, the <em>ring of mind shielding</em> that hid Hagatha's true alignment was potentially valuable, but it was Hagatha's, so it was destroyed. While Delphyne has some of Hagatha's memories implanted in her head, she's managing to ignore the more vile stuff. On the plus side, she learned a few useful spells and a rudimentary understanding of the Giant language from her ordeals.</p><p></p><p>And now Babbit sits on Delphyne's bed in her room at Wing Three of the Greyhawk City Adventurers Guild, his previous duty - keeping Esmerelda Blinx from being all alone when Delphyne was sent out to see the world on her own - having been fulfilled in a commendable fashion.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and Cal managed to restore Rale back to human form, so he didn't have to live out the remainder of his life on a fly diet.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6070153, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 45 - THE STICK PALACE[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Rale Bodkin, human rogue[/INDENT] This adventure came about as a result of my desire to flesh out Delphyne's background a bit. Thus far, all we knew about Delphyne was that her parents had died when she was eight years old, she was subsequently raised by her grandmother, and that her grandmother had taught her the ways of witchcraft, then sent her out into the world once she had taught her all she knew. I sent Vicki an email, asking her to come up with Delphyne's grandmother's name, which grandmother she was (the mother of Delphyne's mother or of her father), the name of her black cat familiar, a childhood nickname that her grandmother called her, and the name of the stuffed animal she had carried around with her as a child. The results Vicki sent me back were as follows[list][*]Delphyne's maternal grandmother was [b]Esmerelda Blinx[/b]. [*]Esmerelda's black cat was named [b]Pitch[/b], after the darkness of her fur. [*]As a child, Delphyne's favorite stuffed animal was a rabbit named [b]Babbit[/b]. When Delphyne went off to see the world for herself, she left Babbit behind with her grandmother to remember her by, and so she "wouldn't get lonely." [*]Esmerelda used to call Delphyne "Prattle," both because of her tendency to chat on and on about nothing as a child, and as a bit of a pun on the first part of her surname, "Babelberi."[/list]I think Vicki knew I was building a Delphyne-centered adventure, and was eager to see what would come of it. I don't think she was expecting what she got as a result. I started the adventure with another dream: - - - The years seemed to fall away as Delphyne approached the Stick Palace; all seemed the same as when she last saw it. She smiled as she spotted the weathered skull embedded in the massive tree’s trunk just to the left of the front door, and it greeted her warmly. "Miss Delphyne! I’ll alert the mistress that you've arrived! She will be pleased." "Thank you, [b]Percival[/b]," replied Delphyne. "How is she?" "Oh, moving a bit slower now these days, but there's still life in her yet!" the skull chuckled. Rale gave it a worried look, but Delphyne seemed to be taking the animated skull in stride, so he assumed everything was okay. Chalkan didn't seem bothered in the least; Akari gave it a quick sweep of his ability to detect evil and then ignored it once it was clearly not of an evil bent. The three passed their reins on to Old Clem, who gathered them up and tied them to a series of trees not far away, then settled in to brushing them down after their travels. Soon thereafter, there was a call from the window above. "I’ll be right down, Prattle! Give an old woman a moment to handle the stairs!" In a minute or so, the door opened, and Esmerelda Blinx appeared. Although she had been an old woman for as long as Delphyne had known her, she seemed appreciably more ancient than the young witch had ever noticed before, but a spark of energy still flickered behind her mismatched eyes – the left one green, the right one blue. "Oh, and you've brought friends! Come in, come in!" Suddenly, the old witch spotted the symbol of Hieroneous around Akari's neck. "A paladin?" she asked, confronting the elf. "You're not one of those hard-nosed types, who thinks all witches are evil and need to be burned at the stake, are you?" she glowered. "No ma'am," replied Akari with a smile. "If you're at all like Delphyne, I'm sure we won't be needing any stakes today." "Me like her?" squawked Esmerelda in mock indignation. "Just who raised who, now? I'd say [i]she's[/i] like [i]me![/i]" But she gave the elf a smile and ushered everyone to follow her up into her home, basically a tree house perched on the outthrust branches of an old oak tree, and accessed through its hollow trunk. The elderly witch leaned heavily on a crooked walking stick. "I need to talk to you about a possible threat from the forest," the elderly witch said to her granddaughter over her shoulder as she slowly mounted the stairs one step at a time. "But tea first, I think!" The stairwell led up to a wide open area which obviously served as a dining room. Four wooden chairs, apparently handcrafted from branches and tree limbs, sat around a simple wooden table. Another stairway stood directly across from the entry stairs that led up to a closed door, and the dining area branched off to a small kitchen to the right and what seemed to serve as both a small library and a storage location for various arcane paraphernalia on the left. “You make yourselves right at home,” called Esmerelda to her visitors, hobbling towards the kitchen. "I’ll get the tea on. Prattle, there are tea-cakes on the tray, if you’d like to pass those out. Then we can have our little talk." As Esmerelda fussed about in the kitchen, a black cat sidled up to Delphyne and began rubbing at her leg. "Well, hello, Pitch!" said Delphyne, scratching her grandmother's familiar between the ears, just as she liked. "You want up, don't you?" The young witch easily lifted the cat and plopped her down on her left shoulder, where she purred contentedly and looked across Delphyne's back to Iggy, who sat perched in his accustomed place upon the witch's right shoulder. The two familiars glared at each other, each seeing the other as a rival for Delphyne’s affections. Despite the extra weight on her shoulders, Delphyne managed to pass small plates to each place setting and distribute the tea-cakes to her friends. Esmerelda had Delphyne pull up her rocking chair from its place in the kitchen, where she liked to sit by the cook-fire, over to the head of the table, then joined the others. Satisfied that everyone was comfortable, the elder witch began her tale. "It all started a few months ago. I’d get this feeling that I was being watched, from a distance; it always seemed as if my watcher was hidden deep, deep in the shadows of the forest. In my younger days, I would have simply stormed out into the forest to confront whoever it was that was a’spyin’ on me, but I’m afraid I don’t move so fast these days. So I’d just ignore it, and send old Pitch – you like it up there on little Prattle’s shoulder, don’t you, you naughty kitty? – here to go do my spyin’ for me. But try as she might, Pitch could never find whoever it was that was so interested in us. "Then, one day, I heard this deep voice coming from the forest; it says '[i]VLOKT![/i]'" Esmerelda called out that last word in a rough voice, and the adventurers all jumped a little at the unexpected power in the elderly woman's voice. They didn't get to jump very far, though, for upon vocalization of the command word, the four chairs the group had been sitting on immediately sprouted extra limbs and entwined around them, pinning their bodies to their chairs and their arms tightly to the arms of the chairs. They struggled briefly, to no avail. But Esmerelda wasn't done yet. "Einnich! Zveinnin! Dreischu!" she called out, and at each new command word one of the chairs dropped through the floor and out of view, leaving a bound and confused Delphyne alone in the room with her grandmother and the two familiars. "Who are you?" she called out. "You're not my grandmother!" "Well, maybe I wasn't up until a few days ago, dearie," replied the old crone, "but I certainly am now. But don't worry, I won't be her for much longer - I think I'll get much more use out of your body than your old granny's!" And the old witch cackled out loud at the anticipation. Iggy, frightened and unsure of what to do, flew off of Delphyne's shoulder and flapped over to a kitchen shelf. The old witch then repeated the command words, sealing off the three extradimensional links on the floor underneath the dining room table, from this side at least. But she wasn't overly concerned, confident that the surprises she had readied on the other side of the passages would keep Delphyne's adventuring companions busy for more than enough time for her to complete her wicked plan. Any retort Delphyne might have given was cut short by the stinging sensation in her neck. Turning her head, she saw that Pitch was grinning evilly at her, and that while she still retained the majority of her black cat form, her tail had become that of a scorpion. As she watched helplessly, it stabbed her again and again, and the young witch felt the venom entering her system, making her lethargic and unable to move. The old witch ambled over and inspected Delphyne with a critical eye - the blue one, in fact. "A few more for good luck," she advised, and the cat-thing that definitely wasn't Pitch complied, stabbing Delphyne a couple more times for good measure, until the young witch could no longer even move her head from side to side. "There we go," cooed the usurper of Esmerelda's body, and said the command word that released the bindings of the wooden chair. She then addressed the rooms at large, readying the defenses of the Stick Palace in the event Delphyne's adventuring companions escaped the extradimensional trap the old witch had readied for them. "[b]Souldrip[/b], be my eyes, and prepare for action – remember that [b]Bocklereave[/b] owes us a boon! [b]Punkin[/b], be vigilant, and fight off any intruders! [b]Nooser[/b], be alert for trespassers and strangle their very lives from them! [b]Cracklespark[/b], obey my second’s orders as you would my own, or suffer the consequences! In the meantime, we shall be upstairs – and we do not wish to be disturbed!" And with that, the old witch cackled in delight and pulled a ladder from the ceiling over by the library nook, hoisting the helpless Delphyne effortlessly over one shoulder with surprising strength and climbing to the branches above. - - - [i]As visits to a friend's grandmother's house go, this one is slightly sub-optimal[/i], thought Akari as he plummeted through the floor, bound to a chair. The lighting changed as he passed through the floor, going from that of a well-lit, sunny room to a shadowy murk all at once. The bound paladin hit the floor with no sound at all, not even as his chair splintered at the crash and broke apart. He extracted himself from its once-clinging embrace and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a nondescript room some 15 feet by 20 feet, with a closed door at either end. There were no visible light sources, yet the room was lit by a feeble illumination nonetheless. And there were three skeletons bearing down on him. "Crap!" called out the elf, pulling [i]Deathstriker[/i] from his belt - or tried to, in any case, but his attempted vocalizations made no sound at all. He hurled the hammer at the closest skeleton, and it smashed the thing to bits with little effort. When Akari raised his hand to catch the hammer upon its return, he noticed his own hand was skeletal as well. [i]No, not skeletal[/i], he amended, touching one hand to the other and definitely feeling skin. But any further thoughts as to puzzling out the odd effects of the room he was in took a back seat to survival, as the remaining two skeletons closed on him. - - - [i]This sucks![/i] thought Rale as he plummeted into a murkily-lit room. He tried voicing his opinions to the world around him, but his words were magically silenced. He extracted himself quickly from the chair he had been bound to as a burly orc skeleton came rushing his way, a wickedly-curved sword in one hand and a round shield in the other. Then he scrambled to get a weapon out and just barely parried the skeleton's sword-thrust with his own new weapon, [i]Belladonna[/i]. He kicked the skeleton away from him long enough to try to activate his Guild ring, but it was ineffective; wherever he was, it didn't seem like he was on the material plane any more. And worse yet, his Guild ring was on what looked to be a skeletal hand, despite his ability to feel the warmth of his own unseen skin. Then the rogue had no time for further introspection about the cruelties of fate as he battled for his life. - - - [i]What in the--?[/i] thought Chalkan as he suddenly plummeted through the dining room floor and into an eerily-lit room with four skeletons eager to chop him into pieces. He had the misfortune of his chair surviving the fall, and it tried clinging to him as he in turn tried to extract himself from its embrace before the undead were upon him. He got himself free and got his longsword out before he could be cut to ribbons, and while he realized that a blade was a poor weapon against skeletons, it was all he had to work with at the moment - the undead were too close for him to use his bow, and the innate silence of the room prevented him from casting even a [i]magic missile[/i] spell at them. So he fought them off as best he could, slowly making his way towards the closest of the two doors in this room. Then he noticed that his skin was invisible, making the hand holding his sword look like it was skeletal. [i]What in the--?[/i] he thought yet again. - - - Delphyne was laid out on her back on a small table, on a platform open to the skies above the forest in which the Stick Palace sat. The intruder in her grandmother's body had stripped her of all jewelry, including the Guild ring which could have [i]teleported[/i] her back to Guild Headquarters had she been able to move enough to activate it. But she was completely immobilized, unable to even protest as her pouches and bags were removed from her belt; all of her spell components were in those containers, which were dumped unceremoniously in a small sack along the access hole of the treetop platform. The elderly witch placed a gemstone upon Delphyne's forehead, and started painting arcane symbols upon the young witch's face and brow, including special runes all along her mouth. "I think I’m going to like that body of yours a lot more than I like this one, 'Prattle,'" the old witch cackled. "Your grandmother was but a means to an end. I had to endure this body of hers for the past three weeks making my preparations, but now the time has come for you to be evicted and for [b]Hagatha[/b] to take control. Oh, what fun I shall have in that body! Not to worry, though, dearie – you won’t feel a thing! And there’s no use in struggling, as my sweet little Souldrip has envenomed you to the point that you shouldn't be able to move a muscle for the better part of a day! I've taken the liberty of giving back the use of your mouth, so that we can talk in your final moments as you, before I take over. Now then, whatever shall we talk about?" "You won't get away with this," snarled Delphyne, somewhat surprised that her mouth was able to move once again. She tried moving her hands, but no luck; only the runes painted along Delphyne's mouth were allowing her to speak. "I won't?" asked Hagatha in a mocking tone. "I can't imagine why not. This process worked just fine with your grandma; I don't see why it should be any different this time." And she chuckled quietly to herself, before turning her attention to a small mirror she had perched in the crook of a branch. She focused her attention on carefully placing a similar gemstone on her own forehead, keeping it in place with a drop of [i]sovereign glue[/i], and then painting similar runes upon her own face. While her attention was thus diverted away from her helpless captive, Hagatha failed to notice a small movement in that direction. Painfully, slowly, a stuffed bunny climbed up onto the table next to Delphyne. She stifled a surprised gasp, afraid that the usurper in the corner of the platform would hear and investigate. The young witch knew immediately who and what this was - it was Babbit, her old stuffed bunny, the one possession she had had with her when she first went to stay with her grandmother, Esmerelda Blinx, upon the sudden death of her parents. And she knew there was no way her bunny would be able to move around on its own - unless her grandmother was behind it somehow. A silent tear slid down the witch's face at the sight of Babbit pulling itself to its full, if insignificant, height. The stuffed bunny had no fingers or individual digits on its stumpy foreleg; nonetheless, Delphyne understood when it held a stumpy paw up to its mouth and turned to look at Hagatha that her grandmother was warning her to remain absolutely quiet. Delphyne tried to nod but couldn't, but was sure that her grandmother knew she'd do as she had been told. Then the bunny reached into a rip along the seam of its side and pulled out a small flask. It was a bit of an effort to pop the cork off using only two stuffed paws, but Babbit somehow managed, and carefully tipped the flask between Delphyne's lips. Delphyne swallowed greedily, and immediately felt a tingling throughout her body. She still couldn't move, but she knew now that she should be able to soon. Hagatha finished her facial runes and turned to Delphyne. Babbit had just enough time to hurl itself off the side of the table and fall to the floor; fortunately, its plush body made little noise upon impact, and Hagatha failed to notice. "It's time," she said, grinning wickedly at Delphyne. The hag began chanting an unholy ritual in a elder tongue. Almost immediately, the sky turned dark, and a terrible wind set the branches of the forest's trees whipping back and forth. As clouds flashed by in the sky overhead, a sudden bolt of lightning hit the hag. However, instead of hurting her, it was absorbed by the gemstone on her head; then, just as suddenly, an arc of lightning jumped from her gemstone to the one on Delphyne's forehead and stayed in place, joining the two figures, old and young, forehead to forehead. As this occurred, strange and awful images began flooding Delphyne's mind, as memories that weren't hers own began taking up residence in her brain. Delphyne screamed, not from pain but from pure hatred and a sense of violation. - - - The three adventurers had each, independently, learned a bit about the trap they were in. They were on a part of the Ethereal Plane somehow, in a closed ring of eight more-or-less identical rooms. Each was 15 feet wide by 20 feet long, with a door on each of the shorter walls. Going through a door led to the next room in sequence, and when you got to the end of the eight rooms you ended up right back at the first. Despite none of the rooms appearing to be made of anything but right angles, somehow they all curved together into a closed loop. And they had been "seeded" with plenty of undead to fight; not only orc and human skeletons but a necrophidius (an undead construct made from the skeleton of a serpent and the skull of a man), and the animated remains of a sail-finned, fossilized dinosaur. Fortunately, the fact that the adventurers' skin was all invisible and they had no way to talk aloud to each other had not prevented them from figuring out that when they first met up with each other in the Ethereal Ring they weren't encountering undead versions of their companions. No doubt Delphyne's evil grandmother had hoped they'd have attacked each other upon meeting, but they were too wise for that. Now that Rale, Akari, and Chalkan had met up with each other and fought off the undead menaces, they had to figure out a way to return to the Stick Palace. They figured their best bet was to return the way they had come; while there were no indications that the portal in the ceiling was still there, there was a chance that it might still be active. Chalkan and Akari, by dint of wearing the heaviest armor, got to be the stable platform upon which Rale scrambled; then the rogue, balanced upon their shoulders, reach up at the ceiling until his hand plunged right through it. He got himself a good grasp, then pulled himself up through the invisible hole in the ceiling, and found himself back under the dining room of the Stick Palace, his flesh fully visible, his ears once again picking up sound - and an angry quasit staring down at him from the edge of the table. "Ah-ah-ah," scolded Souldrip, now looking nothing like Pitch the cat. "You stay down there where you belong!" And he launched himself at Rale, who rolled out of the way at the last moment. A scorpionlike tail stabbed out and struck the floor by his neck, but the rogue scrambled to his feet and pulled out his short swords. "Cracklespark! Deal with this human!" commanded the quasit, unsure of his ability to deal with a fully-prepared adventurer on his own. Immediately, the cookfire under the kitchen cauldron blazed to life, then ambled out from the pot and assumed the form of a small fire elemental. "Nooser - get him!" cried out Souldrip, and a loose rope uncoiled itself from a library shelf and slithered towards the rogue. Rale wasn't particularly thrilled with fighting either opponent, but he judged the rope to be the lesser threat and attacked it first. A sideways swipe with his magical blade severed off the thing's "head" - little more than a fancy knot - and it fell to the floor, lifeless once more. Rale kicked over the kitchen table, scooped up the rope, and fastened it to a table leg while the fire elemental made its way around the obstacle. By the time it had circled the table, Rale had dropped the rope onto the space of the floor he had just crawled out of moments before, but the rope just sat there - the link had closed! Then he tried repeating the three command words the old witch had used - "Einnich, Zveinnin! Dreischu!" - and the rope fell through the extradimensional space, now active once more. Akari caught the rope, and allowed Chalkan, being lighter, to climb up first. Neither of them had any idea what to expect up above, as the Ethereal Ring's silencing effect prevented them from hearing what was going on in the Stick Palace. By the time Chalkan was climbing back into the dining room, Souldrip realized he was going to need even more reinforcements. "Punkin, activate!" he called off, while flying up a short stairwell on the far side of the kitchen. A pumpkin on a kitchen shelf started rapidly growing vines, which knitted and merged into a simple skeletal structure while the pumpkin itself popped out carved facial features along one side. Then the animated scarecrow jumped to join the fray. By the time Akari had climbed back into the dining room, there was a pitched battle between Rale and Chalkan against a small fire elemental, a scarecrow, and a hill giant who had been released from the bottle in which he had been imprisoned by Hagatha. As the elf flung [i]Deathstriker[/i] at the confused giant, the latest combatant entered the room from the small summoning chamber off the kitchen: Bocklereave the vrock, summoned by Souldrip the quasit to repay its prior debt to Hagatha and her minions. In the midst of all of this chaos, another entity approached. Iggy flew down through the hole in the library ceiling, calling out a warning to the group: "Delphyne's in trouble! At the top of the tree!" Akari didn't like the odds, so he summoned his griffon to him. [b]Tsukitora[/b] manifested in the crowded kitchen, and at his master's command burst through an outer wall of the Stick Palace to the open air outside. "Go save Delphyne!" commanded Akari, hoping to be able to follow shortly after he had dealt with the demonic vrock. Rale didn't hesitate - at the sound of Delphyne in peril he had abandoned the fight and scrambled up the ladder and out of the library. He soon found himself climbing a more natural ladder composed of carefully arranged tree limbs, and popped up through a hole in the floor of an open-air platform, where Delphyne was writhing on a table, an arc of electricity dancing between her and her grandmother. She had regained a slight bit of mobility, enough to wriggle her way to the edge of the table and gracelessly fall off of it, but Hagatha scooted to the side and the electricity arc continued undisturbed, each moment further filling up Delphyne's brain with Hagatha's memories and knowledge. "I’m not sure how you’re able to move," the hag howled over the wind, "but it won’t make any difference in the long run! You can’t get out of range of the download, and before long, I’ll have taken over your mind, while your soul gets booted out to whatever afterlife you’ve earned. You’re finished, girlie!" "Not if I have anything to say about it!" yelled Rale, racing towards the hag with his swords in hand, his rush silently applauded by Iggy, flapping to a branch nearby. "You don't," commented Hagatha, spitting off the words to a spell that struck Rale smack-dab in the face. He stopped, staggered, and then shifted into the form of a frog, which hopped around the floor in wild confusion. By this time, Delphyne had enough movement restored to be able to stand. She tried pulling the gemstone from her forehead, but it had been glued in place. Suddenly, a massive form rose up behind her grandmother's form, and the young witch had only a moment to stifle a cry before the winged beast was upon her. It gripped her in its curved talons, then hoisted her up into the sky with him. Tsukitora's strong wings flapped in the storm as he verified his grip on the young witch. "No!" cried Hagatha, as the link between her and her next body was severed. The lightning was cut away from Delphyne's gemstone once the griffon had pulled her out of range, and the arc lashed out in all directions. Everywhere it struck – the side of the table, the floor, a branch of the tree – the wood took on the semblance of the hag’s face, and began speaking about whatever memories were transferred there. Within mere moments, there was a confusing babble of voices – or, more accurately, the same voice – blathering on simultaneously about a myriad of different memories, as the hag screamed out in torment and frustration, her life-essence dissipating in all directions. The multiple lightning strikes from Hagatha's forehead gem started the upper platform of the Stick Palace on fire. By the time Akari and Chalkan had dealt with the monsters in the Stick Palace's kitchen and dining room and climbed up to the Stick Palace's upper levels, the battle was over. Hagatha had collapsed as her consciousness dissipated among the burning surfaces of the treetop platform. Chalkan entered the inferno to see Delphyne's grandmother lying in a heap and Iggy desperately trying to pull a sack containing Delphyne's belongings over the side of the platform to safety. Chalkan pushed it over the side, then, at Iggy's urging, grabbed up a stuffed bunny from the side of the table and a small frog that had been hopping around in terror among the flames. Everybody climbed down to the forest floor, as Tsukitora landed with Delphyne, now just barely strong enough to stand. Surprisingly, the young witch reached out immediately for her stuffed bunny. With shaky movements that mirrored the young witch's feebleness, Babbit rose up a final time. Its seams were ripped in several places, with stuffing falling out, and one button eye hung by a thread. "You take care of yourself, my little Prattle," whispered the stuffed bunny in what was inarguably the voice of Esmerelda Blinx. "It was good to get to see you again...I’m so proud of you....” And then the bunny fell over, and Delphyne could tell that whatever final spark of life essence had been keeping it animate was finally extinguished. "Goodbye, Gramma," she cried, hugging her stuffed bunny tight. Hagatha's ritual, which had called forth the lightning bolt which had in turn enabled the mental download process, now culminated in a full-blown storm. Sheets of rain blasted down from the skies, eventually putting out the blaze that had started at the top of the Stick Palace. The group spent the night in the treetop building, in the morning burying the body of Esmerelda Blinx - freed, in death, of the possession of Hagatha the greenhag. At Delphyne's request, Akari said a few words over her grave, and the group spent the next few days cleaning up and repairing the Stick Palace, until all evidence of the battles fought there had been removed. Delphyne found a set of her grandmother's diaries, in which the witch had been faithful in recording entries daily, up until a date three weeks ago, when they suddenly stopped. That, Delphyne realized, was the day that her grandmother had been overpowered by the greenhag. Pitch must have likewise been killed, her place taken by Hagatha's own familiar, Souldrip. But Esmerelda, though slain, had found a way to hold out, to keep one last little bit of herself alive in the form of Babbit, to keep her granddaughter safe this one last time. Delphyne sadly closed the front door to the Stick Palace and said her farewells to Percival, who gave her his laments and offered her best wishes in the days to come. She thanked the old skull, touching the cool bone at the side of his temple, and promised she'd be back from time to time. Then she turned to her companions, who were gathering up the horses. "I'll meet you back at Headquarters," the young witch said quietly, mounting her broom and dashing off into the sky before they had a chance to argue. They did have time to notice that Babbit was tucked protectively under her arm. "She just needs some time alone," Akari said, watching her disappear into the distance. Then, without another word, he turned his horse and headed back towards the road to Greyhawk City. The others followed suit. - - - This adventure was a bit of a concern for me. I was afraid it might be a bit too much of a railroad, considering that the whole thing pretty much fell apart if the PCs didn't all get captured as I had planned, and that Delphyne spent a good chunk of it paralyzed and unable to do anything constructive. But everyone had a good time, even though we did have a bit of fun comparing Galrich's secret backstory ("I'm the next king of my own country!") to Delphyne's ("My evil grandmother is trying to kill me--what the Hell?") Vicki was furious at Delphyne's "grandmother" before she found out that Esmerelda's body had been usurped. And when I showed her the initiative card I had made of Babbit, and explained that this is what she saw crawling up onto the table with a paralyzed Delphyne, Vicki knew right away that Esmerelda was somehow in the stuffed bunny. As for the rest of the guys, they had an interesting time trying to communicate in the Ethereal Ring - I didn't allow them to talk or explain their hand gestures, but rather made them pantomime their actions as if they were their PCs. In the end, we all had a good time, and while the other PCs didn't get much in the way of treasure, Delphyne was Esmerelda Blinx's sole living relative, so she inherited the Stick Palace and all of its contents. She didn't keep everything; anything she saw that she didn't remember as belonging to her grandmother, she destroyed, including the slinky black outfit that Hagatha had planned on wearing once she was comfortably inside Delphyne's body. It would have provided a +4 deflection bonus to AC and granted the wearer a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves vs. spider venom; nonetheless, it was Hagatha's, so Delphyne burned it. Likewise, the [i]ring of mind shielding[/i] that hid Hagatha's true alignment was potentially valuable, but it was Hagatha's, so it was destroyed. While Delphyne has some of Hagatha's memories implanted in her head, she's managing to ignore the more vile stuff. On the plus side, she learned a few useful spells and a rudimentary understanding of the Giant language from her ordeals. And now Babbit sits on Delphyne's bed in her room at Wing Three of the Greyhawk City Adventurers Guild, his previous duty - keeping Esmerelda Blinx from being all alone when Delphyne was sent out to see the world on her own - having been fulfilled in a commendable fashion. Oh, and Cal managed to restore Rale back to human form, so he didn't have to live out the remainder of his life on a fly diet. [/QUOTE]
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