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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6174935" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 72 - STRIKEFORCE: ABYSS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Akari, tiefling paladin</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</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/dwarven defender</p><p></p><p>For this adventure, I told Joey that he'd be running Aerik Battershield instead of Thunderwolf, but that any XP he earned for this adventure would be given to Thunderwolf, who would be off having an "off-screen adventure." He agreed, Jacob gave him the Aerik folder, and we were off.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>A Guild page entered the common living area bearing a sealed envelope. The wax on the back bore the seal of Dr. Pythagoras Greymantle. Delphyne took it from the page with a smile, and he went back down the stairs and about his business. A few of the other adventurers in the area gathered around the young witch as she opened the envelope and read its contents. Inside was a brief message:</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, the envelope contained five tickets, addressed to Delphyne, Akari, Cal, Galrich, and Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"How nice!" exclaimed Delphyne. "We're going to the symphony!"</p><p></p><p>"We're doing what now?" asked Galrich.</p><p></p><p>"It'll be fun!" enthused the witch. "Hobnobbing with the upper classes, dressing up nicely for a change - that means your best outfit, Galrich; you too, Aerik! They don't let you wear armor or bring weapons into the Symphony Hall!"</p><p></p><p>"I'll be sure to wear my nicest armor," muttered Galrich.</p><p></p><p>"No weapons?" gasped Aerik, aghast at the very thought.</p><p></p><p>"I'm not kidding!" chided Delphyne. "Dress up nice for once in your life! And no weapons larger than a dagger!" And then she ran upstairs to her room to go through her closet to decide what to wear.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"This is ridiculous!" grumbled Galrich, tugging at his stiff collar.</p><p></p><p>"I'm with you," mumbled Aerik, surreptitiously patting his unfamiliar dress garb to ensure the dagger in his sleeve was still in place - as well as the one in his other sleeve, the ones strapped to both shins, and the one tucked inside the back of his pants. Then, satisfied that all was well, he casually scratched his beard - and made sure the one sewn inside his shirt, hidden by his lengthy beard, was in place as well.</p><p></p><p>"You both look very nice," assured Delphyne, resplendent in her fanciest gown. She worried about how her hair looked, not being able to see it for herself as her reflection had been stolen in the Abyss months ago, but she had had Feron see to her hairstyle rather than leave it in the hands of any of the men in her group, and was reasonably sure she looked fine. She pretended not to notice Aerik's weapons check, and in fact felt under her own sleeve to ensure her bracer of wands was in place. She was planning on enjoying the evening's fun, but she was an adventurer, and she'd learned from long experience that it paid to be prepared.</p><p></p><p>"Ah, there you are!" said a familiar voice. "I'm so glad you could make it!" Dr. Greymantle smiled upon seeing the group of five adventurers. "I do believe we're to be treated to quite a concert this evening. The lead violinist is said to have a solo performance lined up that will bring tears to the eye!"</p><p></p><p>"Doubt that," muttered Galrich, and his dwarven bodyguard gave a knowing nod of agreement. Still, neither one complained as they were all ushered to their seats. The lights dimmed, the conductor took his place at the front of the orchestra, and the music began.</p><p></p><p>Aerik found himself somewhat surprised at the quality of the music; as a stoic dwarf, symphony orchestras were not something he had ever bothered with, and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that the musicians must have worked as hard at their craft as a dwarven metalworker at his forge. Granted, with a metalworker you'd at least have something to show for all of your efforts, something long-lasting, but he was willing to give himself up to this temporary pleasure, for awhile at least. And then a voice in his head interrupted his thoughts.</p><p></p><p>"I have just cast a silent version of <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em>," Greymantle's voice said over the mental link. "Now then, I imagine you're all wondering why I asked you here under this pretense."</p><p></p><p>Delphyne gave a quiet sigh to herself but said nothing, nor did she add any mental comments over the shared link. But she thought to herself, <em>Of course; this couldn't simply be a nice night out in the upper class part of town. I wonder what adventure we're going to be dragged into now?</em></p><p></p><p>"My apprentice Rebecca has informed me of your unusual predicament, your reflections having been stolen by Grottlepox the Puppeteer," said the archmage over the mental link. His face was immobile as he said it; nothing betrayed the fact that he was doing anything but giving the orchestra his full attention. "I'm aware that the nalfeshnee could be observing you at any moment, hence the subterfuge with the orchestra. I want it to look as if we're just watching the performance silently, not having a conversation about what to do about Grottlepox.</p><p></p><p>"So, I've gotten the basics from Rebecca, but I'd like to hear it from each of you. Tell me everything you can about Grottlepox, his castle, the Muckmire Fens, and the circumstances in which your reflections were stolen."</p><p></p><p>Cal began the tale, with the others piping up with significant details along the way. They not only explained about the whole escapade in the Muckmire Fens, but Cal also provided details about the time Lord Stanwyck tried sacrificing him to Grottlepox, and the demon summoned Galrich through one of the mirrors, recapturing the half-orc's image afterwards to use again. Dr. Greymantle listened intensely, interrupting upon occasion to ask for specific details, or verifying in his mind that he had the layout of Castle Shatterhope correct in his head.</p><p></p><p>At the end of the evening's performances, the archmage asked the group aloud if they wouldn't mind visiting him at his manor house the next day. He said he would like to see each of them, one at a time, for about two hours each, to test a new magic item he was working on: a helmet that repeats sounds. It didn't matter in which order they came to visit him, but he said he'd consider it a great favor. Then, over the still-active <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell, he instructed the spellcasters not to prepare any spells the following morning, so they'd have no spells ready when they arrived at his manor. And with that, he bid the group a pleasant evening, and went his separate way.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The following morning, Akari was the first one to knock upon the door to Greymantle Manor. The archmage answered the door himself, ushered in the tiefling, and led him into a comfortable chair in his living room. A small table nearby held an oversized helmet. "I took the liberty of taking a special gemstone into the concert with me last night," said Dr. Greymantle. "It made a copy of the sounds made in the concert hall; I would like you to listen to the sounds, which will be played back in this helmet" – and here he strapped the oddly-shaped helmet into place upon Akari's head – "and then let me know whether it sounds close enough as to how you remember the music to be. I'm still working out a few bugs, trying to get the gem to focus more on the music and less on the various coughs and twitches of the audience. But listen intently if you would, please, and then give me your impressions at the end. Sadly, I was unable to make a recording of the entire concert; that's another thing I'm working on, although I suspect I'll need a bigger gemstone. Are you ready?"</p><p></p><p>"Whenever you are," replied Akari. Dr. Greymantle activated a switch on the front of the helmet and directed the paladin to lay back and relax for the next hour and a half or so, while he puttered around at the kitchen table with some notes.</p><p></p><p>Shortly after sitting at the kitchen table, the archmage cast another silent <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell. "Alright then," he said over the link. "You will not actually hear any music from the helmet; that's just the ruse I'm using in case Grottlepox is observing us right now. However, I need you to sit still for the next hour and a half, after which time I'll ask you questions about how the music sounded; you may answer however you see fit, but I'd like everybody to play along with the ruse. This is all part of my plan; your group should have all of your adventuring gear ready to go tomorrow morning at 8 bells exactly. Very well, then, if there are no questions, I'll let you lie back and sit quietly until I tell you to remove the helmet. You may even sleep if you like; I'll wake you when we're done here. Then you can head on back to Headquarters and send over the next one of your group."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Akari woke up suddenly. He was in a laboratory of some sort; his last memory was of lifting his arms to remove the helmet from his head in Greymantle Manor. He felt strange; he couldn't feel his right hand, his body felt heavy and awkward, and with a start he realized he wasn't breathing. He tried sucking in a breath of air - and nothing happened. Panicked, he sat up abruptly, and got the shock of his life.</p><p></p><p>Akari wasn't alone in the room - lying upon other tables were four other humanoid shapes, made up of what looked like heavy armor grafted into and around bodies partially carved of wood. They, too, sat up abruptly, their body movements projecting surprise, their expressionless faces looking around in panic. Akari saw that he was in a similar body himself - and the reason he couldn't feel his right hand was because he no longer had one. Instead, a large, thick blade extended from his right wrist.</p><p></p><p>Dr. Greymantle stood in the middle of the room. "I imagine you are full of questions," he said, "but we don't have a lot of time. You recall the helmet I had each of you wear yesterday? Yes, that was yesterday. That helmet was making a full copy of your memories and personalities, which I have stored in the warforged bodies you're currently inhabiting. Creating a permanent personality matrix - like the one I made for Pinwhistle, many years ago - is incredibly expensive and difficult to do; I'm afraid I had neither the time nor the resources at hand to make permanent copies of your true selves. As a result, your personalities will fade away within 24 hours, leaving your construct bodies mindless and uninhabited.</p><p></p><p>"However, I want to reassure you that your normal bodies are perfectly fine; they're in a guest room at the back of the vessel – in fact, we’ll visit them before you disembark. Each of 'you' – these copies, I mean – will be dead in the span of a day. There's nothing I can do about that. But your normal selves will be fine; better than fine, in fact, for during that day you're going to go to Castle Shatterhope and get their - your - reflections back!"</p><p></p><p>Cal, in a warforged body across the room from Akari, realized he'd seen this laboratory before - it was the construct repair lab aboard the <em>Planar Scout</em>. He got up off the table he'd been lying upon, his heavy feet clanging upon the floor. The others followed suit, and Dr. Greymantle led the group through the <em>Planar Scout</em> to a guest room in the back, where five beds had been pushed against the back wall. Upon the beds lay the sleeping forms of Akari, Delphyne, Cal, Galrich, and Aerik, fully armed and armored, as if ready to go on an adventure. Rebecca looked up and waved at the living constructs as they entered the room.</p><p></p><p>"They're doing fine," the young apprentice reassured them. "I'll watch over them as they sleep."</p><p></p><p>"Delphyne, I'd suggest you take your spellbooks and component pouches from your living counterpart and prepare your spells for the day. Akari, Cal, you'll want to prepare your spells as well - and Cal, I recommend you have a <em>find the path</em> spell ready; Pilot will position the <em>Planar Scout</em> within 2 to 5 miles of Castle Shatterhope, but we'll have no idea in which direction it will lie. That will be up to you.</p><p></p><p>"In the meantime, I have prepared this," and here he handed Delphyne a hand-drawn partial map of Castle Shatterhope. "Based upon your descriptions, this is what we know of the interior of Grottlepox's castle. The building is, unfortunately, shielded from scrying, so I was unable to ascertain the rest of the layout. But you can see the hallway where the mirrors were originally positioned; they might still be stored there, but apparently Grottlepox often carries them about with him, so if they're not hanging on the walls of the hallway they're likely with him.</p><p></p><p>"Another thing," he said. "I can cast a <em>delayed plane shift</em> upon eight items of your choosing. I suggest you decide among yourselves which items you'd like to take with you on your strikeforce mission. In 24 hours, those eight will <em>teleport</em> back to the <em>Planar Scout</em>, and will be returned to your original selves. Anything else you bring with you will not be returning."</p><p></p><p>"Couldn't we bring them back with us?" asked Warforged Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>Dr. Greymantle gave the female-shaped warforged - the slightest of the five of them - a sad smile. "Perhaps you don't understand," he said. "You will not be returning from this mission. We will drop you off, then Pilot will take us away from here, and we'll spend the next 24 hours hidden underneath the waters of the eternal swamplands of the Muckmire Fens, protected by the ship's shields. This room is currently shielded by a <em>nondetection</em> spell; once we reach the Muckmire Fens, I'll cast a <em>dimensional anchor</em> upon each of your living forms, to prevent Grottlepox from using the mirrors to summon them to him. It will be up to you to enter Castle Shatterhope, find the mirrors, and destroy them. We'll know you're successful when your living bodies start projecting images again." Rebecca and Delmond, Greymantle's two apprentices, each held up a hand mirror with which they had been examining the bodies of the sleeping adventurers.</p><p></p><p>"And in 24 hours, whether we're successful or not, we'll be dead," said Warforged Cal, tapping his metal chest with a three-fingered hand.</p><p></p><p>"That is correct," replied Dr. Greymantle. "After 24 hours, or when your reflections are returned to you, the <em>Planar Scout</em> will return to the Material Plane, and the eight items you have selected will be <em>teleported</em> back to this room shortly thereafter."</p><p></p><p>"Then let's get choosing," suggested Warforged Akari. "<em>Hoardmaster</em> is a <em>holy fiend bane longsword</em> - I won't be able to wield it myself very well with only my left hand, but you might want to use it, Aerik. I say that's one of the eight."</p><p></p><p>"And I'll want my hammer," added Warforged Cal.</p><p></p><p>"I'm bringing my greataxe," replied Warforged Galrich.</p><p></p><p>In the end, they decided to also bring Akari's <em>boots of levitation</em> and his shield, which granted spell resistance to its wielder; Delphyne's <em>wand of magic missiles</em>; and Cal's <em>cloak of protection</em> and <em>ring of deflection</em>. Dr. Greymantle cast his spell, and then the warforged distributed the items amongst themselves.</p><p></p><p>The archmage explained the basic traits about the warforged bodies, how they needed neither food, water, nor sleep; how they were immune to poisons, paralysis, disease, and the like; how they could be targeted by spells focusing not only on living objects but also by those dealing with objects; and so on. He also explained the differences between each of their new bodies: Warforged Delphyne could activate an <em>overland flight</em> spell; Warforged Galrich's was extra plated and offered even better protection than normal against certain types of attacks; Warforged Aerik's forearms housed four explosive charges that could be propelled against enemies from a distance. He also warned that Warforged Cal would not be able to draw upon the powers he had gained by having Kord's blood flowing through his veins, nor could Warforged Akari use any of the inherent tiefling abilities he had just started to master, as in both cases the warforged bodies had no blood from which to draw such power. For the same reason, Warforged Galrich would find it difficult to fuel his rage without the adrenaline which he had grown accustomed to relying upon.</p><p></p><p>The archmage further explained that these warforged bodies, unlike Pinwhistle's, had not been given any sense of pain. "It's for the best, given the circumstances," explained Greymantle. "If you're captured by Grottlepox and his minions, I don't want your last hours to be spent in torment. And likewise, while we're doing everything we can to assist you, neither myself, Pinwhistle, nor my apprentices will be accompanying your strikeforce on your mission into Castle Shatterhope. We want to get your reflections back, but I'm afraid I cannot risk an eternity of torment for us, or even for your own living selves - it's why we're sending you warforged copies in, instead of your real selves."</p><p></p><p>"There's no need to apologize," replied Warforged Cal. "We understand completely."</p><p></p><p>Finally, Dr. Greymantle explained that he had built in the illusion of a demon into each warforged body, which could be activated at will. Akari could take on the semblance of a babau; Cal a bar-lgura; Delphyne a succubus; Aerik a hezrou; and Galrich a vrock.</p><p></p><p>"Gate successfully opened to the Muckmire Fens," announced Pilot's voice from the air. "Transition successful."</p><p></p><p>"Is everyone ready?" asked Dr. Greymantle. "We're here."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The <em>Planar Scout</em> hung just over the surface of the slimy waters of the Muckmire Fens. Warforged Cal and Warforged Delphyne, between the two of them, had ensured that all five members of the strikeforce had been shielded with a <em>stoneskin</em> spell. The <em>find the path</em> spell, as well as a few <em>protection from evil</em> and <em>magic circle vs. evil</em> spells, rounded out the preparations, and then the five warforged leapt off the side of the vessel. Before they hit the swamp, their bodies turned to mist, courtesy of Warforged Cal's <em>wind walk</em> spell. They sped along the marshlands in the direction that Warforged Cal's spell told them lie Castle Shatterhope, while behind them, the <em>Planar Scout</em> wheeled around in midair and sped off in another direction, seeking a deep place in which to submerge.</p><p></p><p><em>Wind walking</em> was a new experience for the group, this being the first time Cal - warforged or otherwise - had ever tried the spell. It proved to be quite exhilarating, and likely reduced the chance of having to waste valuable (and quite limited) time and energy combating any of a dozen various denizens in the swamplands eager to devour anything they encountered. In a manner of but a few minutes, the squat, bulky silhouette of Castle Shatterhope rose from the fetid swamp before them. The group did a quick circle around the castle, then headed back the way they came, to revert to their physical bodies once more and plan out their strategies.</p><p></p><p>"I only saw the drawbridge door in the front," said Warforged Cal. "Anybody see any other means of entry?" Nobody had.</p><p></p><p>"It looks like they're using Grottlepox's puppets fer the majority of their security force," pointed out Warforged Aerik. "Wielding only crossbows, from what I could tell." Indeed, the ramparts along the second-highest level of the castle had been manned by the nalfeshnee's petitioners, naked humans - and members of other intelligent races - pierced through the hands, feet, and neck with bones, from which sinews extended straight upright into an X-shaped pair of bound bones. Blood oozed from where the sinews were attached, making for a grisly living marionette indeed.</p><p></p><p>"I spotted a succubus at each of the four towers, among the puppets," reported Warforged Delphyne. "I assume they're the leaders of the puppet forces."</p><p></p><p>"An' those ape-demons up on the upper roof," remarked Warforged Aerik. "Four at least, by my count."</p><p></p><p>"Bar-lguras," pointed out Warforged Cal.</p><p></p><p>"Whatever."</p><p></p><p>"So do we barge in?" asked Warforged Galrich. "Or try to sneak in, somehow?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't know how we'd sneak in, unless we resumed our cloud forms from the <em>wind walk</em> spell," pointed out Warforged Cal. "We should be able to squeeze in through the drawbridge door that way, but we couldn't go at the faster speed; we'd have to go much slower, and we'd definitely be seen."</p><p></p><p>"What if we used our demon illusions?" suggested Delphyne. "We could say we're reporting back from a secret mission for Grottlepox himself."</p><p></p><p>"You and I are the only ones who speak Abyssal," pointed out Warforged Cal.</p><p></p><p>"Then you two use your demon illusions," suggested Warforged Akari. "The rest of us will look like normal. We can explain that we're warrior constructs, sent to work for Grottlepox. And that would explain why we don't talk."</p><p></p><p>The group talked it over amongst themselves; surprisingly, while Akari and Cal both wanted to give their warforged bodies a workout with a frontal assault, for once Galrich was being the voice of reason and suggesting trying to use subterfuge. Aerik, not surprisingly, sided with his liege; even though this was merely a copy of his liege in a fabricated body, and even though this was the perfect opportunity to do what he wanted for once instead of continually siding with his master, old habits died hard and he seemed just as unwilling to let his warforged master come to harm any more than his living counterpart would. In the end, Warforged Delphyne sided with the half-orc and the dwarf, and they jointly decided to give the "two demons bringing in three warforged constructs" ploy a chance.</p><p></p><p>"Do we all know what we're doing?" asked Warforged Cal. "Are we forgetting anything?" It didn't seem like it, so they started trudging through the swamplands back to the castle.</p><p></p><p>"Who goes there?" demanded one of the succubi from the upper ramparts. She spoke in Abyssal, and Warforged Delphyne answered her in kind.</p><p></p><p>"Battle constructs for Lord Grottlepox," replied Warforged Delphyne, her construct body wrapping her in the illusion of a succubus herself.</p><p></p><p><Do you believe this?> thought one of the succubi on the rooftop to her neighbor, using her inherent powers of telepathy. <Just who do they take us for?></p><p></p><p><Those are the first demons I've ever seen in my life that radiate auras of goodness!> thought-replied the second succubus. Then, to the puppets stationed along the front ramparts above the closed drawbridge, she commanded, <Open fire!></p><p></p><p>A volley of crossbow bolts came racing down at the group, and Warforged Cal immediately realized his mistake. "We're busted!" he called out to the rest of the strikeforce. "Attack!"</p><p></p><p>Warforged Akari raced straight for the closed drawbridge, then activated his magical boots and <em>levitated</em> up to the level of the ramparts, where he grabbed the crossbow from a puppet's bleeding hand and flung it away behind him. Warforged Delphyne, still wearing the illusory form of a succubus, took to the air and sent a <em>fireball</em> screaming into the rightmost tower, engulfing the succubus and about five puppet-guardsmen stationed there in a billowing ball of flames. At the spell's end, only the succubus staggered on her feet, still alive.</p><p></p><p>Two of the bar-lguras stationed on the upper roof <em>teleported</em> down to the ground level and tried grappling with Warforged Cal, who boxed them in their ears for the effrontery. The two succubi and one of the bar-lguras who had been stationed at the back of the castle came scrambling forward to see what the commotion was all about; one of the female demons summoned a vrock to the ground before the castle to deal with the odd intruders there. That suited Warforged Galrich just fine, as it gave him a target he could reach; together, he and Warforged Aerik cut the vrock up so badly the vulture-demon suddenly decided he didn't owe his succubus companion <em>that</em> much of a favor, and <em>teleported</em> away to safety.</p><p></p><p>Up in the air, Warforged Delphyne cleared out most of the leftmost tower's guards with another <em>fireball</em> spell, then was grappled from behind by a <em>teleporting</em> bar-lgura, whose hairy, simian limbs clenched around her waist tightly, pinning her arms to her sides. Certain that she didn't want to see what the ape-demon's next plans for her were, she cast a <em>greater teleport</em> with a quick vocalization and ended up on the upper rooftop of the castle, leaving her erstwhile opponent to plummet to the ground below, where he was cut to ribbons by Warforged Aerik and Warforged Galrich.</p><p></p><p>"I'm likin' this sword of yers!" Warforged Aerik called up to Warforged Akari, who was attacking the succubi who had survived the <em>fireballs</em>. He found, to his great delight, that the blade built into his right arm was also a <em>fiend bane</em> weapon, cutting through the demons' resistance as easily at it slid into their flesh. The succubi realized almost immediately that they wouldn't fare long against this blade-handed construct, and teleported away to warn their master about the assault upon the castle.</p><p></p><p>"Well, since it looks like we're finished with the sneakin' about..." said Warforged Aerik, raising his left arm to the drawbridge and firing a concussive blast at it. A hole exploded through the wood of the door, and Warforged Galrich didn't wait for the accompanying cloud of smoke to dissipate before dashing inside.</p><p></p><p>Just inside, there was a stairway leading down - which Galrich's memories told him led to the hallway where the mirrors had been hung when the group's reflections had been captured. Just beyond the stairway, a pair of hezrous guarded a set of double doors. Warforged Galrich ducked inside the castle and hopped down the stairs to the right before either demon could react, but the rightmost hezrou leapt immediately in pursuit.</p><p></p><p>By the time Warforged Aerik followed his master into the castle proper, the second hezrou was ready for him, and it activated a trap. A cube of crackling energy sprang up around Warforged Aerik, completely sealing off the drawbridge and sending bolts of energy into the dwarf's warforged body. It seemed apparent that this trap was apparently geared towards a more typical living being; immune to pain in this body, Warforged Aerik shrugged it off and concentrated on trying to cut his way through the field with <em>Hoardmaster</em>.</p><p></p><p>Up above, Warforged Akari noticed that he and Warforged Delphyne had taken care of all of the true demons, leaving only a handful of the puppets with their crossbows: a minimal threat. Warforged Cal called up to them that a passageway through the drawbridge had been blown open, so they flew - and levitated, as the case may be - down to the ground level. There they found the door had been sealed off by the cube trap imprisoning Warforged Aerik. Warforged Cal tried moving past it in gaseous form (reactivating the <em>wind walk</em> spell which was still potentially in effect for several hours yet), with no luck. Finally, a <em>disintegrate</em> spell from Warforged Delphyne brought the energy cube down, releasing Warforged Aerik to race down the stairs after his master.</p><p></p><p>Down the stairs, Warforged Galrich had been busy smashing mirrors, taking time away from this pursuit only to defend himself against the hezrou guard who had followed him. The hezrou soon found himself being attacked by Warforged Galrich on one side and Warforged Aerik on the other, while the other guard upstairs was in heated battle against the warforged copies of Akari and Delphyne. After Warforged Akari indicated to the cleric of Kord that he and Delphyne could handle their hezrou on their own, Warforged Cal, still in his <em>wind walk</em> form, sped down the stairs. Warforged Galrich had just discovered the collection of mirrors continued around the corner from the original stretch of wall, and that there were five conspicuous absences along the next set of walls. He set about smashing all of the ones along the right-hand wall, leaving his bodyguard to keep the hezrou busy. But the eager barbarian strayed too far, for while the corridor made another left-hand turn, he continued straight into a 15-foot cubicle, which the hezrou activated with a command word; it was another torment trap, one of three set side by side, each like the one in which Warforged Aerik had found himself upstairs.</p><p></p><p>While Warforged Galrich roared in frustration and attacked the energy wall with his greataxe, Warforged Aerik kept at the hezrou until he had slain it, and Cal slipped by in gaseous form to check out the rooms beyond. Coming to an end of the bending corridor, he confirmed what Greymantle's map - and the cleric's own memories - told him, that a door to the right led to the large chamber in which the group had first met Grottlepox, securely inside his <em>magic circle vs. good</em>, with marionettes hanging from the ceiling. Seeing the place as he had expected, and empty but for the miserable marionettes, he ducked back under the door and flowed into the door just beyond. This proved to be a workshop of a particularly cruel nature, where the nalfeshnee demon crafted his eternal puppets out of the poor souls who wound up in his evil realm. Warforged Cal seeped back under the door, returned to the corridor, and resumed solid form once again. By this time both hezrous had been slain, and the combined efforts of Galrich and Aerik had taken down the energy wall that had been keeping the barbarian imprisoned.</p><p></p><p>Upstairs, Warforged Akari pulled open the set of double doors, revealing a massive room beyond.</p><p></p><p>There were two figures fighting off to the right, an older, bearded, light-skinned man and a younger, dark-skinned elf, both of them naked, and both trailing bone-and-sinew marionette strings which hung above them. They jockeyed and wrestled for position, the older one snarling, "Dammit, get off me, Jhondauri!"</p><p></p><p>"What, and deprive Lord Grottlepox of his entertainment?" sneered the white-haired drow, pinning his former master's head to the floor. They both seemed oblivious to Akari's presence, and he likewise filed them away as insignificant.</p><p></p><p>At the far side of the room, though, was a figure of much more significance to the paladin of Hieroneous, for it was none other than Grottlepox the Puppeteer, crouched in a massive stone throne. Five mirrors hung suspended in the air to his right, and he snarled in irritation at the lot of them, which showed nothing but gray static. A pair of flustered succubi flanked him on either side, trying to get his attention.</p><p></p><p>"They're like nothing we've ever seen before!" said one of the female demons. "They're slaughtering our forces!"</p><p></p><p>"Then send more forces!" snarled Grottlepox. "Grab some of the puppets from downstairs and send them up to defend the ramparts! That's what they're there for!" Then he turned his attention back to his mirrors, bumping one on the top of its frame in irritation with a meaty fist.</p><p></p><p>The paladin charged into the room, his built-in sword held poised at the nalfeshnee demon. Grottlepox looked up and swatted the succubi out of his way, standing to meet this unexpected threat. At the last moment, he caught sight of the Hieronean emblem on Warforged Akari's shield, and a look of shock and surprise crossed the piggish features on the demon's face. The charging construct's blade sliced deep into Grottlepox's chest - piercing the same nipple from which he had made his mortal descendant Akari drink his blood, triggering his transformation into a tiefling. The Puppeteer roared in pain, but the wound was not fatal.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, however, Warforged Cal had arrived in the room and cast a <em>dimensional anchor</em> spell at the nalfeshnee, preventing him from fleeing. The demon took his frustration out on the one-armed paladin construct before him, his claws tearing deep grooves into Warforged Akari's artificial body.</p><p></p><p>Warforged Delphyne, standing behind Warforged Cal, stepped to the side and cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell centered on Grottlepox, targeting each of the five hanging mirrors, the two marionettes, and the two succubi as secondary targets. The mirrors shattered, although the three demons and the still-struggling puppets seemed unaffected.</p><p></p><p>Realizing that now was the time to strike for all he was worth, Warforged Akari channeled all of his remaining <em>smite evil</em> attacks through his hand-blade and into his demonic great-great-grandsire. Again, Grottlepox howled in outrage and pain, it having been decades since anyone had dared to take him on in battle in such a fashion.</p><p></p><p>Warforged Cal followed up with a <em>holy word</em> spell that instantly destroyed both succubi and the two marionette petitioners. The immortal soul of Lord Spencer Stanwyck, bound into puppet form and being overpowered from behind by the evilly-grinning puppet form of his former drow servant Jhondauri, had no idea that the massive, armored construct who cast the spell that destroyed him was powered by the personality and memories of his bastard son Cal. As his evil soul departed the puppet body, it was reabsorbed into the very fabric of the Abyssal plane, where it would, over time, manifest itself into any of a variety of native demons - manes, perhaps, or dretch.</p><p></p><p>The <em>holy word</em> spell simultaneously shut Grottlepox off temporarily from his senses of both sight and sound. Blind, deaf, and currently unable to teleport away, Grottlepox began speaking the words to a <em>dispel magic</em> spell which would strip all of the effects away from him, and his twisted mind immediately started forming strategies - he'd <em>teleport</em> to his <em>magic circle</em> downstairs, leading all of the puppets he had hanging there in a wave of disposable cannon fodder against these construct enemies; if needed, he could <em>teleport</em> over to his fiendish zaratan and lead the impossibly massive turtle against his foes, let's see how they fared against that! - when Warforged Akari's <em>fiend bane</em> blade stabbed up through the nalfeshnee's throat, washing the construct in a flow of demonic blood and ichor. Grottlepox staggered, let out a whimpering "No..." as his final word, and fell to the floor, dead, his body spontaneously bursting into flames and collapsing into ashes upon his death.</p><p></p><p>Warforged Galrich and Warforged Aerik smashed every remaining mirror they found on their way back down the hallway, rejoining the others only to find they had already dealt with the threat of the nalfeshnee and taken care of the magic mirrors that had imprisoned their reflections.</p><p></p><p>"We did it," said Warforged Akari, somewhat surprised that the strikeforce had been successful.</p><p></p><p>"They probably already know back on the <em>Planar Scout</em>," replied Warforged Cal. "Our bodies should be reflecting normally in mirrors again. Nice job with the <em>chain lightning</em>, Delphyne."</p><p></p><p>"Thanks," the young witch replied.</p><p></p><p>"We should let our true selves know that Grottlepox is dead," decided Akari. "Do we have a means of contacting the ship?" The spellcasters among them mentally searched their spell inventories, to no avail.</p><p></p><p>"I could summon Tsukitora," suggested Warforged Akari. "I'll tell him, and he can tell the real me when I summon him next time."</p><p></p><p>"No, let him be," suggested Warforged Cal. "No sense dragging a noble beast like your celestial griffon into an Abyssal layer like this." He stuck a stubby finger into the foul ashes where the nalfeshnee's body had fallen, just before his throne. Then he turned to Akari and wrote "We killed Grottlepox" in block letters upon Akari's shield with the demon's own ashes. "Once we're all...dead, and our gear goes teleporting back to the <em>Planar Scout</em>, we'll read this, and we'll know."</p><p></p><p>"So what do we do now?" asked Warforged Galrich. "In the time we have left?"</p><p></p><p>The cleric of Kord gave it some thought, and while his warforged face could not produce a smile, the others could certainly hear it in his voice. "I don't know about you," he said, "but I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to carve a big holy symbol of Kord right here on the back of Grottlepox's throne. You just know some demon's going to eventually take this place over as his own; I say we leave him a nice housewarming gift."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This was a blast to run. For Castle Shatterhope, I used the cardboard castle shell I had originally used for Vandergrotten Keep (and which Galrich had decided he'd bequeath to Aerik as "Battershield Keep" as soon as he became king). I removed the inner buildings and made a rectangular "top" that fit over the inner crenelations along the ramparts. This top was flat, and was where the bar-lguras held station; the succubi and puppets were on guard duty along the original ramparts. I had some problems fitting the geomorphs that I had designed as the only rooms encountered thus far in Castle Shatterhope (in the adventure "Bad Blood") into the dimensions of the original Vandergrotten Keep, but by creating a lower level and giving the "hall of mirrors" three left turns (wrapping it around the puppet workshop), I got everything to fit, even taking the size of a nalfeshnee demon (and his need for wider doors and hallways than the standard 5-foot models) into account.</p><p></p><p>We seemed to have been plagued by a series of natural "1s" on our respective dice in this adventure. At one point, a bar-lgura <em>teleported</em> behind Warforged Cal and tried grappling him from behind, intending to then <em>teleport</em> him into one of the torment cages like Warforged Galrich eventually found himself in. I rolled a "1" for my bar-lgura's grapple check, snorted in disgust, and said the ape-demon had failed miserably, unless Dan also rolled a "1" on Warforged Cal's grapple check - which he promptly preceded to do. To celebrate the fluke occurrence, we mimed giving each other high-fives, during which we then both purposefully missed the other's hand and acted all clumsy. (Dan and I have very similar comic sensibilities.) None of my bar-lguras ever did manage to teleport a grapple victim into a cage; come to think of it, they tried on numerous occasions and all failed miserably when I ran "Bad Blood" as well. I guess Grottlepox should have hired some stronger bar-lguras.</p><p></p><p>I made the same offer I had given Joey to the other players: they could apply the XP earned by the warforged PCs to either of their normal PCs (if they decided to apply it to a PC that had spent most of this adventure drugged and asleep on the <em>Planar Scout</em>, then their "off-screen adventure" would have taken place shortly after the events of this adventure, but before the next one).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6174935, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 72 - STRIKEFORCE: ABYSS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Akari, tiefling paladin Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender[/INDENT] For this adventure, I told Joey that he'd be running Aerik Battershield instead of Thunderwolf, but that any XP he earned for this adventure would be given to Thunderwolf, who would be off having an "off-screen adventure." He agreed, Jacob gave him the Aerik folder, and we were off. - - - A Guild page entered the common living area bearing a sealed envelope. The wax on the back bore the seal of Dr. Pythagoras Greymantle. Delphyne took it from the page with a smile, and he went back down the stairs and about his business. A few of the other adventurers in the area gathered around the young witch as she opened the envelope and read its contents. Inside was a brief message: Sure enough, the envelope contained five tickets, addressed to Delphyne, Akari, Cal, Galrich, and Aerik. "How nice!" exclaimed Delphyne. "We're going to the symphony!" "We're doing what now?" asked Galrich. "It'll be fun!" enthused the witch. "Hobnobbing with the upper classes, dressing up nicely for a change - that means your best outfit, Galrich; you too, Aerik! They don't let you wear armor or bring weapons into the Symphony Hall!" "I'll be sure to wear my nicest armor," muttered Galrich. "No weapons?" gasped Aerik, aghast at the very thought. "I'm not kidding!" chided Delphyne. "Dress up nice for once in your life! And no weapons larger than a dagger!" And then she ran upstairs to her room to go through her closet to decide what to wear. - - - "This is ridiculous!" grumbled Galrich, tugging at his stiff collar. "I'm with you," mumbled Aerik, surreptitiously patting his unfamiliar dress garb to ensure the dagger in his sleeve was still in place - as well as the one in his other sleeve, the ones strapped to both shins, and the one tucked inside the back of his pants. Then, satisfied that all was well, he casually scratched his beard - and made sure the one sewn inside his shirt, hidden by his lengthy beard, was in place as well. "You both look very nice," assured Delphyne, resplendent in her fanciest gown. She worried about how her hair looked, not being able to see it for herself as her reflection had been stolen in the Abyss months ago, but she had had Feron see to her hairstyle rather than leave it in the hands of any of the men in her group, and was reasonably sure she looked fine. She pretended not to notice Aerik's weapons check, and in fact felt under her own sleeve to ensure her bracer of wands was in place. She was planning on enjoying the evening's fun, but she was an adventurer, and she'd learned from long experience that it paid to be prepared. "Ah, there you are!" said a familiar voice. "I'm so glad you could make it!" Dr. Greymantle smiled upon seeing the group of five adventurers. "I do believe we're to be treated to quite a concert this evening. The lead violinist is said to have a solo performance lined up that will bring tears to the eye!" "Doubt that," muttered Galrich, and his dwarven bodyguard gave a knowing nod of agreement. Still, neither one complained as they were all ushered to their seats. The lights dimmed, the conductor took his place at the front of the orchestra, and the music began. Aerik found himself somewhat surprised at the quality of the music; as a stoic dwarf, symphony orchestras were not something he had ever bothered with, and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that the musicians must have worked as hard at their craft as a dwarven metalworker at his forge. Granted, with a metalworker you'd at least have something to show for all of your efforts, something long-lasting, but he was willing to give himself up to this temporary pleasure, for awhile at least. And then a voice in his head interrupted his thoughts. "I have just cast a silent version of [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i]," Greymantle's voice said over the mental link. "Now then, I imagine you're all wondering why I asked you here under this pretense." Delphyne gave a quiet sigh to herself but said nothing, nor did she add any mental comments over the shared link. But she thought to herself, [i]Of course; this couldn't simply be a nice night out in the upper class part of town. I wonder what adventure we're going to be dragged into now?[/i] "My apprentice Rebecca has informed me of your unusual predicament, your reflections having been stolen by Grottlepox the Puppeteer," said the archmage over the mental link. His face was immobile as he said it; nothing betrayed the fact that he was doing anything but giving the orchestra his full attention. "I'm aware that the nalfeshnee could be observing you at any moment, hence the subterfuge with the orchestra. I want it to look as if we're just watching the performance silently, not having a conversation about what to do about Grottlepox. "So, I've gotten the basics from Rebecca, but I'd like to hear it from each of you. Tell me everything you can about Grottlepox, his castle, the Muckmire Fens, and the circumstances in which your reflections were stolen." Cal began the tale, with the others piping up with significant details along the way. They not only explained about the whole escapade in the Muckmire Fens, but Cal also provided details about the time Lord Stanwyck tried sacrificing him to Grottlepox, and the demon summoned Galrich through one of the mirrors, recapturing the half-orc's image afterwards to use again. Dr. Greymantle listened intensely, interrupting upon occasion to ask for specific details, or verifying in his mind that he had the layout of Castle Shatterhope correct in his head. At the end of the evening's performances, the archmage asked the group aloud if they wouldn't mind visiting him at his manor house the next day. He said he would like to see each of them, one at a time, for about two hours each, to test a new magic item he was working on: a helmet that repeats sounds. It didn't matter in which order they came to visit him, but he said he'd consider it a great favor. Then, over the still-active [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell, he instructed the spellcasters not to prepare any spells the following morning, so they'd have no spells ready when they arrived at his manor. And with that, he bid the group a pleasant evening, and went his separate way. - - - The following morning, Akari was the first one to knock upon the door to Greymantle Manor. The archmage answered the door himself, ushered in the tiefling, and led him into a comfortable chair in his living room. A small table nearby held an oversized helmet. "I took the liberty of taking a special gemstone into the concert with me last night," said Dr. Greymantle. "It made a copy of the sounds made in the concert hall; I would like you to listen to the sounds, which will be played back in this helmet" – and here he strapped the oddly-shaped helmet into place upon Akari's head – "and then let me know whether it sounds close enough as to how you remember the music to be. I'm still working out a few bugs, trying to get the gem to focus more on the music and less on the various coughs and twitches of the audience. But listen intently if you would, please, and then give me your impressions at the end. Sadly, I was unable to make a recording of the entire concert; that's another thing I'm working on, although I suspect I'll need a bigger gemstone. Are you ready?" "Whenever you are," replied Akari. Dr. Greymantle activated a switch on the front of the helmet and directed the paladin to lay back and relax for the next hour and a half or so, while he puttered around at the kitchen table with some notes. Shortly after sitting at the kitchen table, the archmage cast another silent [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell. "Alright then," he said over the link. "You will not actually hear any music from the helmet; that's just the ruse I'm using in case Grottlepox is observing us right now. However, I need you to sit still for the next hour and a half, after which time I'll ask you questions about how the music sounded; you may answer however you see fit, but I'd like everybody to play along with the ruse. This is all part of my plan; your group should have all of your adventuring gear ready to go tomorrow morning at 8 bells exactly. Very well, then, if there are no questions, I'll let you lie back and sit quietly until I tell you to remove the helmet. You may even sleep if you like; I'll wake you when we're done here. Then you can head on back to Headquarters and send over the next one of your group." - - - Akari woke up suddenly. He was in a laboratory of some sort; his last memory was of lifting his arms to remove the helmet from his head in Greymantle Manor. He felt strange; he couldn't feel his right hand, his body felt heavy and awkward, and with a start he realized he wasn't breathing. He tried sucking in a breath of air - and nothing happened. Panicked, he sat up abruptly, and got the shock of his life. Akari wasn't alone in the room - lying upon other tables were four other humanoid shapes, made up of what looked like heavy armor grafted into and around bodies partially carved of wood. They, too, sat up abruptly, their body movements projecting surprise, their expressionless faces looking around in panic. Akari saw that he was in a similar body himself - and the reason he couldn't feel his right hand was because he no longer had one. Instead, a large, thick blade extended from his right wrist. Dr. Greymantle stood in the middle of the room. "I imagine you are full of questions," he said, "but we don't have a lot of time. You recall the helmet I had each of you wear yesterday? Yes, that was yesterday. That helmet was making a full copy of your memories and personalities, which I have stored in the warforged bodies you're currently inhabiting. Creating a permanent personality matrix - like the one I made for Pinwhistle, many years ago - is incredibly expensive and difficult to do; I'm afraid I had neither the time nor the resources at hand to make permanent copies of your true selves. As a result, your personalities will fade away within 24 hours, leaving your construct bodies mindless and uninhabited. "However, I want to reassure you that your normal bodies are perfectly fine; they're in a guest room at the back of the vessel – in fact, we’ll visit them before you disembark. Each of 'you' – these copies, I mean – will be dead in the span of a day. There's nothing I can do about that. But your normal selves will be fine; better than fine, in fact, for during that day you're going to go to Castle Shatterhope and get their - your - reflections back!" Cal, in a warforged body across the room from Akari, realized he'd seen this laboratory before - it was the construct repair lab aboard the [i]Planar Scout[/i]. He got up off the table he'd been lying upon, his heavy feet clanging upon the floor. The others followed suit, and Dr. Greymantle led the group through the [i]Planar Scout[/i] to a guest room in the back, where five beds had been pushed against the back wall. Upon the beds lay the sleeping forms of Akari, Delphyne, Cal, Galrich, and Aerik, fully armed and armored, as if ready to go on an adventure. Rebecca looked up and waved at the living constructs as they entered the room. "They're doing fine," the young apprentice reassured them. "I'll watch over them as they sleep." "Delphyne, I'd suggest you take your spellbooks and component pouches from your living counterpart and prepare your spells for the day. Akari, Cal, you'll want to prepare your spells as well - and Cal, I recommend you have a [i]find the path[/i] spell ready; Pilot will position the [i]Planar Scout[/i] within 2 to 5 miles of Castle Shatterhope, but we'll have no idea in which direction it will lie. That will be up to you. "In the meantime, I have prepared this," and here he handed Delphyne a hand-drawn partial map of Castle Shatterhope. "Based upon your descriptions, this is what we know of the interior of Grottlepox's castle. The building is, unfortunately, shielded from scrying, so I was unable to ascertain the rest of the layout. But you can see the hallway where the mirrors were originally positioned; they might still be stored there, but apparently Grottlepox often carries them about with him, so if they're not hanging on the walls of the hallway they're likely with him. "Another thing," he said. "I can cast a [i]delayed plane shift[/i] upon eight items of your choosing. I suggest you decide among yourselves which items you'd like to take with you on your strikeforce mission. In 24 hours, those eight will [i]teleport[/i] back to the [i]Planar Scout[/i], and will be returned to your original selves. Anything else you bring with you will not be returning." "Couldn't we bring them back with us?" asked Warforged Delphyne. Dr. Greymantle gave the female-shaped warforged - the slightest of the five of them - a sad smile. "Perhaps you don't understand," he said. "You will not be returning from this mission. We will drop you off, then Pilot will take us away from here, and we'll spend the next 24 hours hidden underneath the waters of the eternal swamplands of the Muckmire Fens, protected by the ship's shields. This room is currently shielded by a [i]nondetection[/i] spell; once we reach the Muckmire Fens, I'll cast a [i]dimensional anchor[/i] upon each of your living forms, to prevent Grottlepox from using the mirrors to summon them to him. It will be up to you to enter Castle Shatterhope, find the mirrors, and destroy them. We'll know you're successful when your living bodies start projecting images again." Rebecca and Delmond, Greymantle's two apprentices, each held up a hand mirror with which they had been examining the bodies of the sleeping adventurers. "And in 24 hours, whether we're successful or not, we'll be dead," said Warforged Cal, tapping his metal chest with a three-fingered hand. "That is correct," replied Dr. Greymantle. "After 24 hours, or when your reflections are returned to you, the [i]Planar Scout[/i] will return to the Material Plane, and the eight items you have selected will be [i]teleported[/i] back to this room shortly thereafter." "Then let's get choosing," suggested Warforged Akari. "[i]Hoardmaster[/i] is a [i]holy fiend bane longsword[/i] - I won't be able to wield it myself very well with only my left hand, but you might want to use it, Aerik. I say that's one of the eight." "And I'll want my hammer," added Warforged Cal. "I'm bringing my greataxe," replied Warforged Galrich. In the end, they decided to also bring Akari's [i]boots of levitation[/i] and his shield, which granted spell resistance to its wielder; Delphyne's [i]wand of magic missiles[/i]; and Cal's [i]cloak of protection[/i] and [i]ring of deflection[/i]. Dr. Greymantle cast his spell, and then the warforged distributed the items amongst themselves. The archmage explained the basic traits about the warforged bodies, how they needed neither food, water, nor sleep; how they were immune to poisons, paralysis, disease, and the like; how they could be targeted by spells focusing not only on living objects but also by those dealing with objects; and so on. He also explained the differences between each of their new bodies: Warforged Delphyne could activate an [i]overland flight[/i] spell; Warforged Galrich's was extra plated and offered even better protection than normal against certain types of attacks; Warforged Aerik's forearms housed four explosive charges that could be propelled against enemies from a distance. He also warned that Warforged Cal would not be able to draw upon the powers he had gained by having Kord's blood flowing through his veins, nor could Warforged Akari use any of the inherent tiefling abilities he had just started to master, as in both cases the warforged bodies had no blood from which to draw such power. For the same reason, Warforged Galrich would find it difficult to fuel his rage without the adrenaline which he had grown accustomed to relying upon. The archmage further explained that these warforged bodies, unlike Pinwhistle's, had not been given any sense of pain. "It's for the best, given the circumstances," explained Greymantle. "If you're captured by Grottlepox and his minions, I don't want your last hours to be spent in torment. And likewise, while we're doing everything we can to assist you, neither myself, Pinwhistle, nor my apprentices will be accompanying your strikeforce on your mission into Castle Shatterhope. We want to get your reflections back, but I'm afraid I cannot risk an eternity of torment for us, or even for your own living selves - it's why we're sending you warforged copies in, instead of your real selves." "There's no need to apologize," replied Warforged Cal. "We understand completely." Finally, Dr. Greymantle explained that he had built in the illusion of a demon into each warforged body, which could be activated at will. Akari could take on the semblance of a babau; Cal a bar-lgura; Delphyne a succubus; Aerik a hezrou; and Galrich a vrock. "Gate successfully opened to the Muckmire Fens," announced Pilot's voice from the air. "Transition successful." "Is everyone ready?" asked Dr. Greymantle. "We're here." - - - The [i]Planar Scout[/i] hung just over the surface of the slimy waters of the Muckmire Fens. Warforged Cal and Warforged Delphyne, between the two of them, had ensured that all five members of the strikeforce had been shielded with a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell. The [i]find the path[/i] spell, as well as a few [i]protection from evil[/i] and [i]magic circle vs. evil[/i] spells, rounded out the preparations, and then the five warforged leapt off the side of the vessel. Before they hit the swamp, their bodies turned to mist, courtesy of Warforged Cal's [i]wind walk[/i] spell. They sped along the marshlands in the direction that Warforged Cal's spell told them lie Castle Shatterhope, while behind them, the [i]Planar Scout[/i] wheeled around in midair and sped off in another direction, seeking a deep place in which to submerge. [i]Wind walking[/i] was a new experience for the group, this being the first time Cal - warforged or otherwise - had ever tried the spell. It proved to be quite exhilarating, and likely reduced the chance of having to waste valuable (and quite limited) time and energy combating any of a dozen various denizens in the swamplands eager to devour anything they encountered. In a manner of but a few minutes, the squat, bulky silhouette of Castle Shatterhope rose from the fetid swamp before them. The group did a quick circle around the castle, then headed back the way they came, to revert to their physical bodies once more and plan out their strategies. "I only saw the drawbridge door in the front," said Warforged Cal. "Anybody see any other means of entry?" Nobody had. "It looks like they're using Grottlepox's puppets fer the majority of their security force," pointed out Warforged Aerik. "Wielding only crossbows, from what I could tell." Indeed, the ramparts along the second-highest level of the castle had been manned by the nalfeshnee's petitioners, naked humans - and members of other intelligent races - pierced through the hands, feet, and neck with bones, from which sinews extended straight upright into an X-shaped pair of bound bones. Blood oozed from where the sinews were attached, making for a grisly living marionette indeed. "I spotted a succubus at each of the four towers, among the puppets," reported Warforged Delphyne. "I assume they're the leaders of the puppet forces." "An' those ape-demons up on the upper roof," remarked Warforged Aerik. "Four at least, by my count." "Bar-lguras," pointed out Warforged Cal. "Whatever." "So do we barge in?" asked Warforged Galrich. "Or try to sneak in, somehow?" "I don't know how we'd sneak in, unless we resumed our cloud forms from the [i]wind walk[/i] spell," pointed out Warforged Cal. "We should be able to squeeze in through the drawbridge door that way, but we couldn't go at the faster speed; we'd have to go much slower, and we'd definitely be seen." "What if we used our demon illusions?" suggested Delphyne. "We could say we're reporting back from a secret mission for Grottlepox himself." "You and I are the only ones who speak Abyssal," pointed out Warforged Cal. "Then you two use your demon illusions," suggested Warforged Akari. "The rest of us will look like normal. We can explain that we're warrior constructs, sent to work for Grottlepox. And that would explain why we don't talk." The group talked it over amongst themselves; surprisingly, while Akari and Cal both wanted to give their warforged bodies a workout with a frontal assault, for once Galrich was being the voice of reason and suggesting trying to use subterfuge. Aerik, not surprisingly, sided with his liege; even though this was merely a copy of his liege in a fabricated body, and even though this was the perfect opportunity to do what he wanted for once instead of continually siding with his master, old habits died hard and he seemed just as unwilling to let his warforged master come to harm any more than his living counterpart would. In the end, Warforged Delphyne sided with the half-orc and the dwarf, and they jointly decided to give the "two demons bringing in three warforged constructs" ploy a chance. "Do we all know what we're doing?" asked Warforged Cal. "Are we forgetting anything?" It didn't seem like it, so they started trudging through the swamplands back to the castle. "Who goes there?" demanded one of the succubi from the upper ramparts. She spoke in Abyssal, and Warforged Delphyne answered her in kind. "Battle constructs for Lord Grottlepox," replied Warforged Delphyne, her construct body wrapping her in the illusion of a succubus herself. <Do you believe this?> thought one of the succubi on the rooftop to her neighbor, using her inherent powers of telepathy. <Just who do they take us for?> <Those are the first demons I've ever seen in my life that radiate auras of goodness!> thought-replied the second succubus. Then, to the puppets stationed along the front ramparts above the closed drawbridge, she commanded, <Open fire!> A volley of crossbow bolts came racing down at the group, and Warforged Cal immediately realized his mistake. "We're busted!" he called out to the rest of the strikeforce. "Attack!" Warforged Akari raced straight for the closed drawbridge, then activated his magical boots and [i]levitated[/i] up to the level of the ramparts, where he grabbed the crossbow from a puppet's bleeding hand and flung it away behind him. Warforged Delphyne, still wearing the illusory form of a succubus, took to the air and sent a [i]fireball[/i] screaming into the rightmost tower, engulfing the succubus and about five puppet-guardsmen stationed there in a billowing ball of flames. At the spell's end, only the succubus staggered on her feet, still alive. Two of the bar-lguras stationed on the upper roof [i]teleported[/i] down to the ground level and tried grappling with Warforged Cal, who boxed them in their ears for the effrontery. The two succubi and one of the bar-lguras who had been stationed at the back of the castle came scrambling forward to see what the commotion was all about; one of the female demons summoned a vrock to the ground before the castle to deal with the odd intruders there. That suited Warforged Galrich just fine, as it gave him a target he could reach; together, he and Warforged Aerik cut the vrock up so badly the vulture-demon suddenly decided he didn't owe his succubus companion [i]that[/i] much of a favor, and [i]teleported[/i] away to safety. Up in the air, Warforged Delphyne cleared out most of the leftmost tower's guards with another [i]fireball[/i] spell, then was grappled from behind by a [i]teleporting[/i] bar-lgura, whose hairy, simian limbs clenched around her waist tightly, pinning her arms to her sides. Certain that she didn't want to see what the ape-demon's next plans for her were, she cast a [i]greater teleport[/i] with a quick vocalization and ended up on the upper rooftop of the castle, leaving her erstwhile opponent to plummet to the ground below, where he was cut to ribbons by Warforged Aerik and Warforged Galrich. "I'm likin' this sword of yers!" Warforged Aerik called up to Warforged Akari, who was attacking the succubi who had survived the [i]fireballs[/i]. He found, to his great delight, that the blade built into his right arm was also a [i]fiend bane[/i] weapon, cutting through the demons' resistance as easily at it slid into their flesh. The succubi realized almost immediately that they wouldn't fare long against this blade-handed construct, and teleported away to warn their master about the assault upon the castle. "Well, since it looks like we're finished with the sneakin' about..." said Warforged Aerik, raising his left arm to the drawbridge and firing a concussive blast at it. A hole exploded through the wood of the door, and Warforged Galrich didn't wait for the accompanying cloud of smoke to dissipate before dashing inside. Just inside, there was a stairway leading down - which Galrich's memories told him led to the hallway where the mirrors had been hung when the group's reflections had been captured. Just beyond the stairway, a pair of hezrous guarded a set of double doors. Warforged Galrich ducked inside the castle and hopped down the stairs to the right before either demon could react, but the rightmost hezrou leapt immediately in pursuit. By the time Warforged Aerik followed his master into the castle proper, the second hezrou was ready for him, and it activated a trap. A cube of crackling energy sprang up around Warforged Aerik, completely sealing off the drawbridge and sending bolts of energy into the dwarf's warforged body. It seemed apparent that this trap was apparently geared towards a more typical living being; immune to pain in this body, Warforged Aerik shrugged it off and concentrated on trying to cut his way through the field with [i]Hoardmaster[/i]. Up above, Warforged Akari noticed that he and Warforged Delphyne had taken care of all of the true demons, leaving only a handful of the puppets with their crossbows: a minimal threat. Warforged Cal called up to them that a passageway through the drawbridge had been blown open, so they flew - and levitated, as the case may be - down to the ground level. There they found the door had been sealed off by the cube trap imprisoning Warforged Aerik. Warforged Cal tried moving past it in gaseous form (reactivating the [i]wind walk[/i] spell which was still potentially in effect for several hours yet), with no luck. Finally, a [i]disintegrate[/i] spell from Warforged Delphyne brought the energy cube down, releasing Warforged Aerik to race down the stairs after his master. Down the stairs, Warforged Galrich had been busy smashing mirrors, taking time away from this pursuit only to defend himself against the hezrou guard who had followed him. The hezrou soon found himself being attacked by Warforged Galrich on one side and Warforged Aerik on the other, while the other guard upstairs was in heated battle against the warforged copies of Akari and Delphyne. After Warforged Akari indicated to the cleric of Kord that he and Delphyne could handle their hezrou on their own, Warforged Cal, still in his [i]wind walk[/i] form, sped down the stairs. Warforged Galrich had just discovered the collection of mirrors continued around the corner from the original stretch of wall, and that there were five conspicuous absences along the next set of walls. He set about smashing all of the ones along the right-hand wall, leaving his bodyguard to keep the hezrou busy. But the eager barbarian strayed too far, for while the corridor made another left-hand turn, he continued straight into a 15-foot cubicle, which the hezrou activated with a command word; it was another torment trap, one of three set side by side, each like the one in which Warforged Aerik had found himself upstairs. While Warforged Galrich roared in frustration and attacked the energy wall with his greataxe, Warforged Aerik kept at the hezrou until he had slain it, and Cal slipped by in gaseous form to check out the rooms beyond. Coming to an end of the bending corridor, he confirmed what Greymantle's map - and the cleric's own memories - told him, that a door to the right led to the large chamber in which the group had first met Grottlepox, securely inside his [i]magic circle vs. good[/i], with marionettes hanging from the ceiling. Seeing the place as he had expected, and empty but for the miserable marionettes, he ducked back under the door and flowed into the door just beyond. This proved to be a workshop of a particularly cruel nature, where the nalfeshnee demon crafted his eternal puppets out of the poor souls who wound up in his evil realm. Warforged Cal seeped back under the door, returned to the corridor, and resumed solid form once again. By this time both hezrous had been slain, and the combined efforts of Galrich and Aerik had taken down the energy wall that had been keeping the barbarian imprisoned. Upstairs, Warforged Akari pulled open the set of double doors, revealing a massive room beyond. There were two figures fighting off to the right, an older, bearded, light-skinned man and a younger, dark-skinned elf, both of them naked, and both trailing bone-and-sinew marionette strings which hung above them. They jockeyed and wrestled for position, the older one snarling, "Dammit, get off me, Jhondauri!" "What, and deprive Lord Grottlepox of his entertainment?" sneered the white-haired drow, pinning his former master's head to the floor. They both seemed oblivious to Akari's presence, and he likewise filed them away as insignificant. At the far side of the room, though, was a figure of much more significance to the paladin of Hieroneous, for it was none other than Grottlepox the Puppeteer, crouched in a massive stone throne. Five mirrors hung suspended in the air to his right, and he snarled in irritation at the lot of them, which showed nothing but gray static. A pair of flustered succubi flanked him on either side, trying to get his attention. "They're like nothing we've ever seen before!" said one of the female demons. "They're slaughtering our forces!" "Then send more forces!" snarled Grottlepox. "Grab some of the puppets from downstairs and send them up to defend the ramparts! That's what they're there for!" Then he turned his attention back to his mirrors, bumping one on the top of its frame in irritation with a meaty fist. The paladin charged into the room, his built-in sword held poised at the nalfeshnee demon. Grottlepox looked up and swatted the succubi out of his way, standing to meet this unexpected threat. At the last moment, he caught sight of the Hieronean emblem on Warforged Akari's shield, and a look of shock and surprise crossed the piggish features on the demon's face. The charging construct's blade sliced deep into Grottlepox's chest - piercing the same nipple from which he had made his mortal descendant Akari drink his blood, triggering his transformation into a tiefling. The Puppeteer roared in pain, but the wound was not fatal. In the meantime, however, Warforged Cal had arrived in the room and cast a [i]dimensional anchor[/i] spell at the nalfeshnee, preventing him from fleeing. The demon took his frustration out on the one-armed paladin construct before him, his claws tearing deep grooves into Warforged Akari's artificial body. Warforged Delphyne, standing behind Warforged Cal, stepped to the side and cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell centered on Grottlepox, targeting each of the five hanging mirrors, the two marionettes, and the two succubi as secondary targets. The mirrors shattered, although the three demons and the still-struggling puppets seemed unaffected. Realizing that now was the time to strike for all he was worth, Warforged Akari channeled all of his remaining [i]smite evil[/i] attacks through his hand-blade and into his demonic great-great-grandsire. Again, Grottlepox howled in outrage and pain, it having been decades since anyone had dared to take him on in battle in such a fashion. Warforged Cal followed up with a [i]holy word[/i] spell that instantly destroyed both succubi and the two marionette petitioners. The immortal soul of Lord Spencer Stanwyck, bound into puppet form and being overpowered from behind by the evilly-grinning puppet form of his former drow servant Jhondauri, had no idea that the massive, armored construct who cast the spell that destroyed him was powered by the personality and memories of his bastard son Cal. As his evil soul departed the puppet body, it was reabsorbed into the very fabric of the Abyssal plane, where it would, over time, manifest itself into any of a variety of native demons - manes, perhaps, or dretch. The [i]holy word[/i] spell simultaneously shut Grottlepox off temporarily from his senses of both sight and sound. Blind, deaf, and currently unable to teleport away, Grottlepox began speaking the words to a [i]dispel magic[/i] spell which would strip all of the effects away from him, and his twisted mind immediately started forming strategies - he'd [i]teleport[/i] to his [i]magic circle[/i] downstairs, leading all of the puppets he had hanging there in a wave of disposable cannon fodder against these construct enemies; if needed, he could [i]teleport[/i] over to his fiendish zaratan and lead the impossibly massive turtle against his foes, let's see how they fared against that! - when Warforged Akari's [i]fiend bane[/i] blade stabbed up through the nalfeshnee's throat, washing the construct in a flow of demonic blood and ichor. Grottlepox staggered, let out a whimpering "No..." as his final word, and fell to the floor, dead, his body spontaneously bursting into flames and collapsing into ashes upon his death. Warforged Galrich and Warforged Aerik smashed every remaining mirror they found on their way back down the hallway, rejoining the others only to find they had already dealt with the threat of the nalfeshnee and taken care of the magic mirrors that had imprisoned their reflections. "We did it," said Warforged Akari, somewhat surprised that the strikeforce had been successful. "They probably already know back on the [i]Planar Scout[/i]," replied Warforged Cal. "Our bodies should be reflecting normally in mirrors again. Nice job with the [i]chain lightning[/i], Delphyne." "Thanks," the young witch replied. "We should let our true selves know that Grottlepox is dead," decided Akari. "Do we have a means of contacting the ship?" The spellcasters among them mentally searched their spell inventories, to no avail. "I could summon Tsukitora," suggested Warforged Akari. "I'll tell him, and he can tell the real me when I summon him next time." "No, let him be," suggested Warforged Cal. "No sense dragging a noble beast like your celestial griffon into an Abyssal layer like this." He stuck a stubby finger into the foul ashes where the nalfeshnee's body had fallen, just before his throne. Then he turned to Akari and wrote "We killed Grottlepox" in block letters upon Akari's shield with the demon's own ashes. "Once we're all...dead, and our gear goes teleporting back to the [i]Planar Scout[/i], we'll read this, and we'll know." "So what do we do now?" asked Warforged Galrich. "In the time we have left?" The cleric of Kord gave it some thought, and while his warforged face could not produce a smile, the others could certainly hear it in his voice. "I don't know about you," he said, "but I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to carve a big holy symbol of Kord right here on the back of Grottlepox's throne. You just know some demon's going to eventually take this place over as his own; I say we leave him a nice housewarming gift." - - - This was a blast to run. For Castle Shatterhope, I used the cardboard castle shell I had originally used for Vandergrotten Keep (and which Galrich had decided he'd bequeath to Aerik as "Battershield Keep" as soon as he became king). I removed the inner buildings and made a rectangular "top" that fit over the inner crenelations along the ramparts. This top was flat, and was where the bar-lguras held station; the succubi and puppets were on guard duty along the original ramparts. I had some problems fitting the geomorphs that I had designed as the only rooms encountered thus far in Castle Shatterhope (in the adventure "Bad Blood") into the dimensions of the original Vandergrotten Keep, but by creating a lower level and giving the "hall of mirrors" three left turns (wrapping it around the puppet workshop), I got everything to fit, even taking the size of a nalfeshnee demon (and his need for wider doors and hallways than the standard 5-foot models) into account. We seemed to have been plagued by a series of natural "1s" on our respective dice in this adventure. At one point, a bar-lgura [i]teleported[/i] behind Warforged Cal and tried grappling him from behind, intending to then [i]teleport[/i] him into one of the torment cages like Warforged Galrich eventually found himself in. I rolled a "1" for my bar-lgura's grapple check, snorted in disgust, and said the ape-demon had failed miserably, unless Dan also rolled a "1" on Warforged Cal's grapple check - which he promptly preceded to do. To celebrate the fluke occurrence, we mimed giving each other high-fives, during which we then both purposefully missed the other's hand and acted all clumsy. (Dan and I have very similar comic sensibilities.) None of my bar-lguras ever did manage to teleport a grapple victim into a cage; come to think of it, they tried on numerous occasions and all failed miserably when I ran "Bad Blood" as well. I guess Grottlepox should have hired some stronger bar-lguras. I made the same offer I had given Joey to the other players: they could apply the XP earned by the warforged PCs to either of their normal PCs (if they decided to apply it to a PC that had spent most of this adventure drugged and asleep on the [i]Planar Scout[/i], then their "off-screen adventure" would have taken place shortly after the events of this adventure, but before the next one). [/QUOTE]
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