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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6076280" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 49 - BALLYHOO'S TRAVELING CIRCUS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p><p></p><p>NPC roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter</p><p></p><p>This adventure involved me being a bit sneaky and misleading, as I specifically wrote it as a surprise for the players, to spring it on the PCs while they were on their way to a different adventure. I often sprinkle in the occasional wandering monster when they're "on the road" - this was more in the form of a "wandering adventure." Knowing that there was an aspect of the adventure that had the potential to creep the players out, I began the adventure session with a "Written Statement from the DM," which I read aloud to them. I'll post it below. That got them all worried!</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Aerik Battershield approached the rest of the Wing Three adventurers, Galrich in tow. "I wanted to let you folk know that we're off in the morning," commented the gruff dwarven fighter. "That holy symbol of Moradin you gave me, that you got from that black dragon's hoard in the swamp? Well, I been wearing it, as you all know, and it's apparently decided I'm worthy or somethin', 'cause it's telling me about a dwarven testing facility up north in the mountains. I figger it's Moradin's will that I go there, and since I’m charged with keepin' Lord Slayer here alive, I figger he's gotta come with me. Any of you lot are welcome to tag along, too, if'n ye wanna."</p><p></p><p>Talking it over amongst themselves, they decided that Cal, Feron, and Akari would join Aerik and Galrich on their quest to Moradin's Forge. Old Clem would come with to tend to the horses, and Fang would guard Old Clem and the horses while the adventurers entered the Forge. The amulet was basically sending telepathic instructions to Aerik on where to go to find the dwarven testing facility, but it wasn't an actual intelligence, that could be communicated with or carry on a conversation.</p><p></p><p>The group packed up their things and made their arrangements for the journey the next morning.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>On the way to Moradin's Forge, the group passed through the small town of Crestfallen, one of the last towns they'd see before the road entered the actual mountains. After stocking up on basic supplies, the group was approached in the street by a young boy of about 8 or so, named <strong>Wendell</strong>. "Are you guys 'venturers?" he gushed in surprise and poorly disguised glee. "Have you ever fought a dragon? What kinds of weapons do you have? Can I have one?"</p><p></p><p>Talking with Wendell, he passed the following information on to the group: His father was one of the townsfolk killed by a goblin incursion last year. His mother was still very sad, and lots of men come by to comfort her. When there were men comforting his mom, he had to stay out of the house and not bother them. His mom took special medicine for her sadness, and <strong>Whiskey Joe</strong> from the bar usually brought it to her. Sometimes Wendell slept in the hay of the stables where it was warm, and sometimes, if he went to the farmhouses on the outskirts of town, a few of the farmers' wives would give him some food. Otherwise, there were some apple trees nearby.</p><p></p><p>But the bestest, most excitingest news Wendell had to pass on to the group was that there was a traveling circus in the area! Another 'venturer was in town just last week and said there was a traveling circus over in Rutherton that would probably be coming this way next. It had been a whole week since the 'venturer had said that, so the circus could be here any day now!</p><p></p><p>Wendell had practically given up breathing, so excited was he about meeting a group of 'venturers and the impending circus visit. Cal tried to calm him down, and Galrich showed him some of his weapons, let him hold them, and demonstrated how best to attack enemies with them. Cal gave him a few quick wrestling lessons, and Wendell was practically in heaven. But eventually the group had to move on, so they said their goodbyes to the young lad, Aerik surreptitiously passing him along a few coins for when he needed some decent food in between the few times when Wendell's drunken mother actually took care of him. Wendell waved to them from the edge of town and watched them until they vanished over the horizon.</p><p></p><p>After leaving the town of Crestfallen behind, the road began meandering between and over small hills, getting increasingly larger as the mountains rose up ahead in the near distance. Mist streamed along the road at the deeper valleys between the hills, covering the ground in a soft, white haze. The sky seemed slightly overcast, with a single dark rain cloud hanging in the sky promising at least a scattering of rain in the near future.</p><p></p><p>As the group climbed the latest hill of the road, they could hear the tinkling of exotic music coming from the other side. Rising over the hill, they saw a strange caravan emerging from the covering mists and heading towards them: horses pulled wagons of various sizes, as did at least one other creature – a hill giant near the front of the train pulled a large wagon by a heavy chain. Several workers walked alongside the wagons, one accompanied by a mechanical man some eight feet tall. Judging by the way many of them were staggering, the wagon train seemed to have been traveling for a long while, as the men and animals were near exhaustion. In fact, Akari identified the exotic music as a typical circus tune, only played at about a third of its normal speed. It was apparently some sort of automatic clockwork mechanism attached to one of the carts, but at the speed they were going, the normally happy tune sounded more like a dirge.</p><p></p><p>As the two groups approached each other, the adventurers were able to make out a few more details. The lead wagon was pulled by a light horse, staggering as if on its last legs. The words "Ballyhoo's Traveling Circus" was painted on the side of the wagon in bold, gaudy letters, so it looked like one of Wendell's dreams were about to come true after all. Staggering next to the lead wagon stood a gaunt man in a flashy red outfit and a black top hat. The mechanical man was identifiable as a shield guardian; several members of Wing Three had met up with others of this type before, most recently in Graymalkin Academy. The music was coming from the lead wagon, but it was accompanied by a buzzing noise as well.</p><p></p><p>The rancid smell of death hit the adventurers at about the same time that they could make out the bloodstains and missing chunks of flesh apparent on the bodies of the ringmaster and his horse; simultaneously, the buzzing noise was identified as the drone of a cloud of flying insects swarming around the traveling circus.</p><p></p><p>Akari focused his internal sight on the group, and confirmed his suspicions: the ringmaster, his horse, and the hill giant pulling the next wagon were all radiating strong auras of evil. He unleashed <em>Hoardmaster</em>, called "Zombies!" to the others, and leapt down from his horse, the better to meet them at their own level. The others followed suit, and Old Clem chased around gathering up the horses' reins and leading them back the way they'd come until the heroes could deal with the threat. At Galrich's order, Fang accompanied the elderly hireling.</p><p></p><p>By this time, the lead zombies had finally noticed the group's approach, and their lumbering gait became stronger and more focused. The ringmaster ran forward, teeth gnashing at Akari, who happened to be the closest to him. His horse strained to pull its loaded wagon in the same direction, eyes blaring in hatred and teeth eager to bite into the elf's flesh. Akari swung <em>Hoardmaster</em> into the ringmaster's chest, and in doing so incurred the shield guardian's wrath. It ran forward to protect <strong>Ballyhoo</strong>, its erstwhile master in life who enjoyed the same status despite his undead state. Belatedly, Akari noticed the amulet around Ballyhoo's neck, no doubt the control device for the construct.</p><p></p><p>Cal and Galrich, meanwhile, ran to the side to deal with the hill giant. As they approached, they could see it was wearing a leopard skin strongman's outfit, upon which were printed the words "<strong>Big Dummy</strong>." Big Dummy - apparently multitasking in the circus as a strongman, a clown of sorts, and a pack animal - carried a greatclub in one massive hand and was chained to the front of the large wagon, similarly emblazoned with the name of the circus. Two circus workers shambled along at his side, the three of them all obviously zombies. Cal and Galrich flanked Big Dummy, while Aerik took on the approaching circus hands. Despite their undead nature, they were all moving as fast as a normal human now that their attention had been drawn to possible new sources of food, and the adventurers found them more difficult to defeat than they would have expected from zombies.</p><p></p><p>Feron, meanwhile, opted not to take on the obvious zombies but to focus her attention on the droning flies that were swarming all around them. The flies themselves were undead, but still able to fly, still able to bite, and a possible source of contagion - after all, there had to be some explanation for the sudden zombification of an entire traveling circus, and the flies seemed the most apparent cause. The half-elf druid cast <em>flame strike</em> spells in the areas of thickest concentration of the swarms of flies.</p><p></p><p>While all of this was happening, the slow-moving circus train continued trudging along, so there were continually new wagons coming into view. The next wave consisted of a light horse zombie pulling a wagon painted with the legend "Mistress Zambori – Fortune Teller and Mystic" and a pair of draft horse zombies pulling a barred wagon whose logo proudly informed the viewers that housed within was "Kongo, Ape-Monster of the Dark Jungle!" Alongside the former wagon shambled what must be <strong>Mistress Zambori</strong> herself, her fingers curved into claws as she raced to devour Akari, who had by this time managed to slay Ballyhoo the ringmaster and had just about taken care of the shield guardian as well, which had apparently targeted the elf above all others. Aerik, having dispatched the two circus hands, ran over to intercept the undead fortune teller, while Cal and Galrich between them killed Big Dummy. <strong>Kongo</strong>, a dire ape zombie, stretched his rotting, simian arms as far out of the bars as he could, but was unable to reach any of the living foes in the area. He roared in frustration.</p><p></p><p>Feron had burned the zombie fly swarms, and raced ahead to help the others. The draft horses dodged over to bite her, tipping Kongo's wagon over and causing an obstacle in the road that the following wagons had to avoid. Kongo took advantage of the slight damage to its wagon to rip its way through the weakened wood, and Feron blasted away at it with ranged spells before it could fully free itself.</p><p></p><p>Still the wagons came. The next was a single undead horse shambling along, pulling a small wagon behind it. This one proclaimed to hold the “Reptile-Man of the Marshlands.” Surprisingly, amidst the sounds of combat all around her, Feron heard a noise emanating from the cage: "<em>Ssethla scaboroth vernisshus?</em>" it called from the shadows of the wagon’s interior. Feron recognized the language as Draconic, and although she didn't speak it, she was able to ascertain that the lizard man inside was still alive. He didn't speak Common, or any of the other languages Feron knew, so the two performed a pantomime while around them her companions battled against zombies of various types. The lizard man signaled that the zombie plague had started with a rainfall; Feron glanced up suspiciously at the sole rain cloud they had spotted before the undead nature of the traveling circus had been discovered, and sure enough it was still there. The lizard man indicated that the rain had turned the others into zombies, and that the zombies could create more zombies via their bite; he had escaped by dint of his roofed wagon keeping the rain off of him, and an <em>amulet of hide from undead</em> that he wore around his neck. He was a spellcaster, and had been surviving for days on the pure water he was able to summon through his own feeble spells. Akari was able to determine that the lizard man was not evil, so he helped Feron break through the wagon and release the reptilian cleric. The lizard man gave them both a grateful nod and then hightailed it away as fast as he could run.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, another group of wagons had approached. A wagon similar to Kongo's, pulled by a pair of zombie draft horses, announced in bright letters it carried "The Man-Eater of the Moors." This was obviously a dire wolf that had succumbed to the zombie plague, but it was unable to get out of its cage, so Galrich and Cal took care of the draft horses and left the undead wolf for later, while it snarled and growled helplessly from inside its barred cage.</p><p></p><p>Coming up behind it were two more wagons, one larger than the others and one much, much smaller. The large one was pulled by a zombie elephant, who snorted as it saw potential prey and tried goring Aerik with an ivory tusk. The little wagon at its side was less than three feet tall and pulled by a single pony, flesh rotting from its bones. There was a grinning clown's face painted on the tiny wagon's top, and as it approached Cal and Feron, two little doors popped open and two clowns stepped out.</p><p></p><p>These clowns were unlike any clowns Cal had ever seen. Their white facepaint was streaked with gore, and their lips were as red with dripping blood as they were with makeup. They cocked their heads to the side upon exiting the too-small cart, as if testing their surroundings and sniffing the tantalizing scents of living flesh through their bulbous, red noses. Then, spotting the adventurers, their faces twisted with horrible grins and grimaces and the clowns raced towards the heroes with eternal hunger gleaming in their insane eyes.</p><p></p><p>Cal resisted a bleat of horror and called upon the power of Kord through his holy symbol, blasting them into oblivion.</p><p></p><p>But there were more. The doors to the tiny wagon opened again, and out stepped two more clowns. They were followed in turn by two more, and two more after that. A total of eight zombie clowns had exited the tiny cart, which had to be an extradimensional space of some sort, similar to the <em>Heward's handy haversacks</em> worn by both Feron and Akari. The zombie clowns shuffled at first in their ridiculously oversized shoes, then loped after the adventurers with cries of undead glee on their horrible lips. Cal blasted them with wave upon wave of positive energy, not wanting to let them anywhere near him. After they had been dispatched, Feron took care of the undead pony with a <em>produce flame</em> spell, burning the wretched thing where it stood.</p><p></p><p>The others were all ganging up on the zombie elephant, who in life (according to the advertisement on the side of the massive cart she pulled) had been named <strong>Ellie</strong>. Ellie was surrounded by another cloud of biting, undead flies; Feron took care of them while the others cut great hunks of rotting flesh from the elephant, who barely noticed their efforts until she suddenly collapsed in a heap, destroyed by their concentrated efforts.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Ellie's wagon and the pony-driven "clown car" were the last of Ballyhoo's Traveling Circus. After Cal healed everyone up, it was time to strike at the cause of the zombie plague itself: the rain cloud, which, as if sensing their attention, started dropping thick, viscous drops of black rain down on them. It followed this up with a blast of lightning which narrowly missed Feron, who dived to the side at the last moment. While the others took cover as best they could, Akari called forth his griffon, Tsukitora, from the celestial realms, and he and Cal leapt upon the beast. Cal was not an experienced griffon rider, but he held on as best he could as the magnificent beast took wing. Tsukitora flew away from the motionless wagons of the shattered circus, gained an appropriate height, and then flew directly into the black cloud.</p><p></p><p>Almost immediately, the two heroes were bombarded by a series of images, which flashed by in their minds in rapid succession. The first was of a strikingly handsome man of about 30 years, wearing dark robes and holding a staff of fused bones; the name <strong>Nestor Blackheart</strong> flashed through the heroes' minds as the image flashed by. One image showed him sacrificing a series of young women to a skeletal carving in some deep dwelling; another showed an arcane explosion ripping through the spellcaster’s ritual chamber; yet another image showed the wizard’s body being ripped apart and transforming into a nebulous cloud of energy. A final image showed the rain cloud spilling black rain down upon the circus troupe.</p><p></p><p>Together, the cleric and the paladin put together a sequence of events: Nestor Blackheart, a necromancer, had attempted a ritual to attain lichdom, but its failure transformed him into the semi-sentient nephomorph whose body they currently inhabited - Tsukitora was hovering in place inside the rain cloud - which now existed merely as a primal force with the nebulous desires to both protect itself and further the cause of the undead.</p><p></p><p>With a start, Cal realized that merely breathing in the vapors of the nephomorph was infecting him; Akari's immunity to diseases was protecting the paladin, but probably not his flying mount. Cal gathered up his holy symbol and channeled a burst of holy energy through it. Coming as it was from inside the nephomorph's very body, the cloud-creature was harmlessly dissipated as once. Tsukitora landed, and Akari used his inherent remove disease ability to counter the effects of the virulent disease running through Cal's body and that of the griffon.</p><p></p><p>The others, meanwhile, had spent the time that Cal and Akari were airborne to dispatch the dire wolf zombie still trapped in its cage. They then began a systematic search of each wagon, removing any valuables and setting the wagons ablaze to burn to ashes. The bodies of the slain zombies were put to torch as well.</p><p></p><p>"That could have been very bad," remarked Cal as they watched the circus wagon train burn. "As contagious as the zombie plague was, it could easily have spread beyond the ability to control."</p><p></p><p>"It's a good thing this happened in a relatively desolate area," replied Feron. "Can you imagine if this had happened in, say, Greyhawk City, or some other heavily-populated urban area?"</p><p></p><p>"Hey," piped up Akari, "do you think this counts as saving the world again?"</p><p></p><p>"I'd say so," assessed Cal, after giving it some thought.</p><p></p><p>"I'm counting it," confirmed Akari.</p><p></p><p>"You know," said Aerik, looking at his liege, "the ghost of yer mother - may the Gods Above rest 'er soul - said you had some world-savin' to do afore ye'd be ready to take on the throne fer yerself. I betcha this was one of them tasks ye was supposed to accomplish." The half-orc looked thoughtful and nodded his assent.</p><p></p><p>"So, we ready to move on?" asked Galrich. "We've still got Moradin's Forge ahead of us. Let's gather up Old Clem, Fang, and the horses, and get on with it."</p><p></p><p>Several minutes later, the reassembled group continued on down the mountain path, following the mental summons emanating from the dwarf's holy symbol of Moradin. They left a blazing inferno behind them, the flames completely destroying the virulent corruption of the infected circus troupe.</p><p></p><p>"Those clowns gave me the willies," admitted Cal as they rode, suppressing a shudder.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6076280, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 49 - BALLYHOO'S TRAVELING CIRCUS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Feron Dru, half-elf druid Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian[/INDENT] NPC roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter[/INDENT] This adventure involved me being a bit sneaky and misleading, as I specifically wrote it as a surprise for the players, to spring it on the PCs while they were on their way to a different adventure. I often sprinkle in the occasional wandering monster when they're "on the road" - this was more in the form of a "wandering adventure." Knowing that there was an aspect of the adventure that had the potential to creep the players out, I began the adventure session with a "Written Statement from the DM," which I read aloud to them. I'll post it below. That got them all worried! - - - Aerik Battershield approached the rest of the Wing Three adventurers, Galrich in tow. "I wanted to let you folk know that we're off in the morning," commented the gruff dwarven fighter. "That holy symbol of Moradin you gave me, that you got from that black dragon's hoard in the swamp? Well, I been wearing it, as you all know, and it's apparently decided I'm worthy or somethin', 'cause it's telling me about a dwarven testing facility up north in the mountains. I figger it's Moradin's will that I go there, and since I’m charged with keepin' Lord Slayer here alive, I figger he's gotta come with me. Any of you lot are welcome to tag along, too, if'n ye wanna." Talking it over amongst themselves, they decided that Cal, Feron, and Akari would join Aerik and Galrich on their quest to Moradin's Forge. Old Clem would come with to tend to the horses, and Fang would guard Old Clem and the horses while the adventurers entered the Forge. The amulet was basically sending telepathic instructions to Aerik on where to go to find the dwarven testing facility, but it wasn't an actual intelligence, that could be communicated with or carry on a conversation. The group packed up their things and made their arrangements for the journey the next morning. - - - On the way to Moradin's Forge, the group passed through the small town of Crestfallen, one of the last towns they'd see before the road entered the actual mountains. After stocking up on basic supplies, the group was approached in the street by a young boy of about 8 or so, named [b]Wendell[/b]. "Are you guys 'venturers?" he gushed in surprise and poorly disguised glee. "Have you ever fought a dragon? What kinds of weapons do you have? Can I have one?" Talking with Wendell, he passed the following information on to the group: His father was one of the townsfolk killed by a goblin incursion last year. His mother was still very sad, and lots of men come by to comfort her. When there were men comforting his mom, he had to stay out of the house and not bother them. His mom took special medicine for her sadness, and [b]Whiskey Joe[/b] from the bar usually brought it to her. Sometimes Wendell slept in the hay of the stables where it was warm, and sometimes, if he went to the farmhouses on the outskirts of town, a few of the farmers' wives would give him some food. Otherwise, there were some apple trees nearby. But the bestest, most excitingest news Wendell had to pass on to the group was that there was a traveling circus in the area! Another 'venturer was in town just last week and said there was a traveling circus over in Rutherton that would probably be coming this way next. It had been a whole week since the 'venturer had said that, so the circus could be here any day now! Wendell had practically given up breathing, so excited was he about meeting a group of 'venturers and the impending circus visit. Cal tried to calm him down, and Galrich showed him some of his weapons, let him hold them, and demonstrated how best to attack enemies with them. Cal gave him a few quick wrestling lessons, and Wendell was practically in heaven. But eventually the group had to move on, so they said their goodbyes to the young lad, Aerik surreptitiously passing him along a few coins for when he needed some decent food in between the few times when Wendell's drunken mother actually took care of him. Wendell waved to them from the edge of town and watched them until they vanished over the horizon. After leaving the town of Crestfallen behind, the road began meandering between and over small hills, getting increasingly larger as the mountains rose up ahead in the near distance. Mist streamed along the road at the deeper valleys between the hills, covering the ground in a soft, white haze. The sky seemed slightly overcast, with a single dark rain cloud hanging in the sky promising at least a scattering of rain in the near future. As the group climbed the latest hill of the road, they could hear the tinkling of exotic music coming from the other side. Rising over the hill, they saw a strange caravan emerging from the covering mists and heading towards them: horses pulled wagons of various sizes, as did at least one other creature – a hill giant near the front of the train pulled a large wagon by a heavy chain. Several workers walked alongside the wagons, one accompanied by a mechanical man some eight feet tall. Judging by the way many of them were staggering, the wagon train seemed to have been traveling for a long while, as the men and animals were near exhaustion. In fact, Akari identified the exotic music as a typical circus tune, only played at about a third of its normal speed. It was apparently some sort of automatic clockwork mechanism attached to one of the carts, but at the speed they were going, the normally happy tune sounded more like a dirge. As the two groups approached each other, the adventurers were able to make out a few more details. The lead wagon was pulled by a light horse, staggering as if on its last legs. The words "Ballyhoo's Traveling Circus" was painted on the side of the wagon in bold, gaudy letters, so it looked like one of Wendell's dreams were about to come true after all. Staggering next to the lead wagon stood a gaunt man in a flashy red outfit and a black top hat. The mechanical man was identifiable as a shield guardian; several members of Wing Three had met up with others of this type before, most recently in Graymalkin Academy. The music was coming from the lead wagon, but it was accompanied by a buzzing noise as well. The rancid smell of death hit the adventurers at about the same time that they could make out the bloodstains and missing chunks of flesh apparent on the bodies of the ringmaster and his horse; simultaneously, the buzzing noise was identified as the drone of a cloud of flying insects swarming around the traveling circus. Akari focused his internal sight on the group, and confirmed his suspicions: the ringmaster, his horse, and the hill giant pulling the next wagon were all radiating strong auras of evil. He unleashed [i]Hoardmaster[/i], called "Zombies!" to the others, and leapt down from his horse, the better to meet them at their own level. The others followed suit, and Old Clem chased around gathering up the horses' reins and leading them back the way they'd come until the heroes could deal with the threat. At Galrich's order, Fang accompanied the elderly hireling. By this time, the lead zombies had finally noticed the group's approach, and their lumbering gait became stronger and more focused. The ringmaster ran forward, teeth gnashing at Akari, who happened to be the closest to him. His horse strained to pull its loaded wagon in the same direction, eyes blaring in hatred and teeth eager to bite into the elf's flesh. Akari swung [i]Hoardmaster[/i] into the ringmaster's chest, and in doing so incurred the shield guardian's wrath. It ran forward to protect [b]Ballyhoo[/b], its erstwhile master in life who enjoyed the same status despite his undead state. Belatedly, Akari noticed the amulet around Ballyhoo's neck, no doubt the control device for the construct. Cal and Galrich, meanwhile, ran to the side to deal with the hill giant. As they approached, they could see it was wearing a leopard skin strongman's outfit, upon which were printed the words "[b]Big Dummy[/b]." Big Dummy - apparently multitasking in the circus as a strongman, a clown of sorts, and a pack animal - carried a greatclub in one massive hand and was chained to the front of the large wagon, similarly emblazoned with the name of the circus. Two circus workers shambled along at his side, the three of them all obviously zombies. Cal and Galrich flanked Big Dummy, while Aerik took on the approaching circus hands. Despite their undead nature, they were all moving as fast as a normal human now that their attention had been drawn to possible new sources of food, and the adventurers found them more difficult to defeat than they would have expected from zombies. Feron, meanwhile, opted not to take on the obvious zombies but to focus her attention on the droning flies that were swarming all around them. The flies themselves were undead, but still able to fly, still able to bite, and a possible source of contagion - after all, there had to be some explanation for the sudden zombification of an entire traveling circus, and the flies seemed the most apparent cause. The half-elf druid cast [i]flame strike[/i] spells in the areas of thickest concentration of the swarms of flies. While all of this was happening, the slow-moving circus train continued trudging along, so there were continually new wagons coming into view. The next wave consisted of a light horse zombie pulling a wagon painted with the legend "Mistress Zambori – Fortune Teller and Mystic" and a pair of draft horse zombies pulling a barred wagon whose logo proudly informed the viewers that housed within was "Kongo, Ape-Monster of the Dark Jungle!" Alongside the former wagon shambled what must be [b]Mistress Zambori[/b] herself, her fingers curved into claws as she raced to devour Akari, who had by this time managed to slay Ballyhoo the ringmaster and had just about taken care of the shield guardian as well, which had apparently targeted the elf above all others. Aerik, having dispatched the two circus hands, ran over to intercept the undead fortune teller, while Cal and Galrich between them killed Big Dummy. [b]Kongo[/b], a dire ape zombie, stretched his rotting, simian arms as far out of the bars as he could, but was unable to reach any of the living foes in the area. He roared in frustration. Feron had burned the zombie fly swarms, and raced ahead to help the others. The draft horses dodged over to bite her, tipping Kongo's wagon over and causing an obstacle in the road that the following wagons had to avoid. Kongo took advantage of the slight damage to its wagon to rip its way through the weakened wood, and Feron blasted away at it with ranged spells before it could fully free itself. Still the wagons came. The next was a single undead horse shambling along, pulling a small wagon behind it. This one proclaimed to hold the “Reptile-Man of the Marshlands.” Surprisingly, amidst the sounds of combat all around her, Feron heard a noise emanating from the cage: "[i]Ssethla scaboroth vernisshus?[/i]" it called from the shadows of the wagon’s interior. Feron recognized the language as Draconic, and although she didn't speak it, she was able to ascertain that the lizard man inside was still alive. He didn't speak Common, or any of the other languages Feron knew, so the two performed a pantomime while around them her companions battled against zombies of various types. The lizard man signaled that the zombie plague had started with a rainfall; Feron glanced up suspiciously at the sole rain cloud they had spotted before the undead nature of the traveling circus had been discovered, and sure enough it was still there. The lizard man indicated that the rain had turned the others into zombies, and that the zombies could create more zombies via their bite; he had escaped by dint of his roofed wagon keeping the rain off of him, and an [i]amulet of hide from undead[/i] that he wore around his neck. He was a spellcaster, and had been surviving for days on the pure water he was able to summon through his own feeble spells. Akari was able to determine that the lizard man was not evil, so he helped Feron break through the wagon and release the reptilian cleric. The lizard man gave them both a grateful nod and then hightailed it away as fast as he could run. In the meantime, another group of wagons had approached. A wagon similar to Kongo's, pulled by a pair of zombie draft horses, announced in bright letters it carried "The Man-Eater of the Moors." This was obviously a dire wolf that had succumbed to the zombie plague, but it was unable to get out of its cage, so Galrich and Cal took care of the draft horses and left the undead wolf for later, while it snarled and growled helplessly from inside its barred cage. Coming up behind it were two more wagons, one larger than the others and one much, much smaller. The large one was pulled by a zombie elephant, who snorted as it saw potential prey and tried goring Aerik with an ivory tusk. The little wagon at its side was less than three feet tall and pulled by a single pony, flesh rotting from its bones. There was a grinning clown's face painted on the tiny wagon's top, and as it approached Cal and Feron, two little doors popped open and two clowns stepped out. These clowns were unlike any clowns Cal had ever seen. Their white facepaint was streaked with gore, and their lips were as red with dripping blood as they were with makeup. They cocked their heads to the side upon exiting the too-small cart, as if testing their surroundings and sniffing the tantalizing scents of living flesh through their bulbous, red noses. Then, spotting the adventurers, their faces twisted with horrible grins and grimaces and the clowns raced towards the heroes with eternal hunger gleaming in their insane eyes. Cal resisted a bleat of horror and called upon the power of Kord through his holy symbol, blasting them into oblivion. But there were more. The doors to the tiny wagon opened again, and out stepped two more clowns. They were followed in turn by two more, and two more after that. A total of eight zombie clowns had exited the tiny cart, which had to be an extradimensional space of some sort, similar to the [i]Heward's handy haversacks[/i] worn by both Feron and Akari. The zombie clowns shuffled at first in their ridiculously oversized shoes, then loped after the adventurers with cries of undead glee on their horrible lips. Cal blasted them with wave upon wave of positive energy, not wanting to let them anywhere near him. After they had been dispatched, Feron took care of the undead pony with a [i]produce flame[/i] spell, burning the wretched thing where it stood. The others were all ganging up on the zombie elephant, who in life (according to the advertisement on the side of the massive cart she pulled) had been named [b]Ellie[/b]. Ellie was surrounded by another cloud of biting, undead flies; Feron took care of them while the others cut great hunks of rotting flesh from the elephant, who barely noticed their efforts until she suddenly collapsed in a heap, destroyed by their concentrated efforts. Fortunately, Ellie's wagon and the pony-driven "clown car" were the last of Ballyhoo's Traveling Circus. After Cal healed everyone up, it was time to strike at the cause of the zombie plague itself: the rain cloud, which, as if sensing their attention, started dropping thick, viscous drops of black rain down on them. It followed this up with a blast of lightning which narrowly missed Feron, who dived to the side at the last moment. While the others took cover as best they could, Akari called forth his griffon, Tsukitora, from the celestial realms, and he and Cal leapt upon the beast. Cal was not an experienced griffon rider, but he held on as best he could as the magnificent beast took wing. Tsukitora flew away from the motionless wagons of the shattered circus, gained an appropriate height, and then flew directly into the black cloud. Almost immediately, the two heroes were bombarded by a series of images, which flashed by in their minds in rapid succession. The first was of a strikingly handsome man of about 30 years, wearing dark robes and holding a staff of fused bones; the name [b]Nestor Blackheart[/b] flashed through the heroes' minds as the image flashed by. One image showed him sacrificing a series of young women to a skeletal carving in some deep dwelling; another showed an arcane explosion ripping through the spellcaster’s ritual chamber; yet another image showed the wizard’s body being ripped apart and transforming into a nebulous cloud of energy. A final image showed the rain cloud spilling black rain down upon the circus troupe. Together, the cleric and the paladin put together a sequence of events: Nestor Blackheart, a necromancer, had attempted a ritual to attain lichdom, but its failure transformed him into the semi-sentient nephomorph whose body they currently inhabited - Tsukitora was hovering in place inside the rain cloud - which now existed merely as a primal force with the nebulous desires to both protect itself and further the cause of the undead. With a start, Cal realized that merely breathing in the vapors of the nephomorph was infecting him; Akari's immunity to diseases was protecting the paladin, but probably not his flying mount. Cal gathered up his holy symbol and channeled a burst of holy energy through it. Coming as it was from inside the nephomorph's very body, the cloud-creature was harmlessly dissipated as once. Tsukitora landed, and Akari used his inherent remove disease ability to counter the effects of the virulent disease running through Cal's body and that of the griffon. The others, meanwhile, had spent the time that Cal and Akari were airborne to dispatch the dire wolf zombie still trapped in its cage. They then began a systematic search of each wagon, removing any valuables and setting the wagons ablaze to burn to ashes. The bodies of the slain zombies were put to torch as well. "That could have been very bad," remarked Cal as they watched the circus wagon train burn. "As contagious as the zombie plague was, it could easily have spread beyond the ability to control." "It's a good thing this happened in a relatively desolate area," replied Feron. "Can you imagine if this had happened in, say, Greyhawk City, or some other heavily-populated urban area?" "Hey," piped up Akari, "do you think this counts as saving the world again?" "I'd say so," assessed Cal, after giving it some thought. "I'm counting it," confirmed Akari. "You know," said Aerik, looking at his liege, "the ghost of yer mother - may the Gods Above rest 'er soul - said you had some world-savin' to do afore ye'd be ready to take on the throne fer yerself. I betcha this was one of them tasks ye was supposed to accomplish." The half-orc looked thoughtful and nodded his assent. "So, we ready to move on?" asked Galrich. "We've still got Moradin's Forge ahead of us. Let's gather up Old Clem, Fang, and the horses, and get on with it." Several minutes later, the reassembled group continued on down the mountain path, following the mental summons emanating from the dwarf's holy symbol of Moradin. They left a blazing inferno behind them, the flames completely destroying the virulent corruption of the infected circus troupe. "Those clowns gave me the willies," admitted Cal as they rode, suppressing a shudder. [/QUOTE]
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