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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6382351" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 85: KRAGGOTH, LORD OF STONE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)/archwitch</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender</p><p></p><p>"I tell ye, 'e's a durned fool!" exclaimed the dwarven visitor to the Adventurers Guild Headquarters. "If 'e's not careful, 'e could blow the whole blasted city sky high with 'is carelessness!"</p><p></p><p>Rale frowned at the dwarf sitting across from him in one of the conference rooms scattered about in the Headquarters building. He was no expert on magic, but he wasn't aware of any spells quite <em>that</em> powerful. Hopefully the dwarf was just being melodramatic.</p><p></p><p><strong>Arvath Stonecrafter</strong> had approached the Guild that morning with an unusual story. It seems he had recently been hired by a human wizard named <strong>Kraggoth</strong> to help him identify the properties of an enormous hunk of stone the wizard had unearthed during his explorations in a cavern system underneath the nearby mountains. Arvath immediately recognized the rock as a chunk of <em>fluxstone</em>, a dangerous but naturally-occurring gem that warps magical energies in the immediate vicinity. (Indeed, most <em>rods of wonder</em> – including the one owned by Feron – contain a core cylinder of fluxstone to help shape their chaotic abilities.)</p><p></p><p>Despite warning Kraggoth that using a chunk of fluxstone that size for magical experiments was inherently dangerous, the wizard ignored the dwarf's repeated warnings, sticking by his intentions to incorporate the fluxstone into his keep's defenses and dismissing Arvath from his service. (Worse yet, he refused to pay the dwarf the consulting fee he had been promised.) In desperation, Arvath had approached the Adventurers Guild, hoping there might be a wizard there who could talk some sense into Kraggoth.</p><p></p><p>"So this Kraggoth, what is he like?" asked Delphyne. She and Telgrane, as arcane spellcasters, had been drafted into this discussion as potential "sense-talking Guild wizards."</p><p></p><p>"Frankly, 'e's a bit o' a loon," replied Arvath. "'E's a human, like you two" - and here he pointed towards Rale and Delphyne, giving Telgrane an appraising assessment before apparently discarding him from consideration - "but 'e fancies 'imself a bit o' an expert on dwarven culture. 'E's got dwarven weapons on 'is walls, dwarven mead in 'is kitchen, that sort o' thing. But the fool's got no in'erent sense o' value or craftsmanship! 'Is 'dwarven trinkets' is all low-quality stuff - I suspect some dwarven merchants're scamming the ignorant tosser into purchasin' the worthless crap they couldn't otherwise get rid o'."</p><p></p><p>"But he's a powerful wizard in his own right?" asked Thunderwolf, frowning.</p><p></p><p>"Well, now, I dunno 'bout that, son. I figger his 'mastery o' the arcane arts' is about as factual as 'is 'mastery o' dwarven culture.' But 'e is a wizard, I kin attest t' that - I seen 'im cast spells an' the like. But 'ow powerful a wizard? No idea. Me specialty's stonecraftin', not magic."</p><p></p><p>"But this fluxstone is dangerous?" pursued Thunderwolf.</p><p></p><p>"In large quantities, yes," responded Telgrane. "It has a warping effect upon magical energies, which is why it's used in <em>rods of wonder</em> and similar items with chaotic attributes. And there's no telling what effect any magic cast in its vicinity might have: it could turn the caster into a walking pile of sentient mud or indeed vaporize a city, as Arvath warns - if the fluxstone were large enough."</p><p></p><p>"Sounds like we'd better go have a talk with this Kraggoth," grunted Galrich, standing up and placing a hand on the hilt of a weapon - one of a half dozen - hanging from his belt, signifying he'd heard enough and was ready for some action. "Where's this guy live?"</p><p></p><p>"'E's got 'isself a keep on th' outskirts o' town," replied Arvath.</p><p></p><p>"Figures," snorted Aerik. "It's always the outskirts of town with these wizard types."</p><p></p><p>"You have to admit, it's safer that way," replied Rale. Their friend Pythagoras Greymantle kept a small manor at the edge of town, the better to contain any magical experiments gone awry. In fact, so had Palliphron Vex, and it was a good thing too when one of his chaos magic experiments literally exploded in his face and produced the carnivorous "butterflies of doom."</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," said Telgrane, standing up from his chair and patting his own belt-stored powerful weapon - only in his case, it was the tinder box inside which his Large fire elemental familiar, Infernia, lay sleeping in her ember form.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>"It's jus' over th' hill here," said Arvath, leading the adventurers down a street leading out of the city of Greyhawk.</p><p></p><p>"Wait, what was that?" asked Delphyne, holding a hand up for the others to stop, and cocking her head to listen.</p><p></p><p>"What was what?" asked Rale, not having heard anything. But he stopped and listened with the others, and before long he could hear it as well: a slow, steady thumping sound. He was a bit disturbed to realize that he could not only hear the thumping sound, he could actually <em>feel</em> it through the soles of his boots.</p><p></p><p>"It's getting louder," observed Thunderwolf. Looking over at the others, he saw that Galrich and Aerik already had their weapons out and at the ready.</p><p></p><p>And then the head rose up into their field of vision beyond the curve of the hill. The group scrambled to the top of the hill to get a good look, and their eyes boggled at the sight before them: down the center of the road strode an enormous humanoid figure, looking to have been created out of the stones of a small castle or keep. Massive, rectangular legs ending in no discernible feet thumped down into the dirt of the road, propelling the stone colossus at a respectable speed. Two arms made from curved towers swung at his sides, and atop his right shoulder sat a wooden ballista. His head was another small tower perched upon a wide slab of stone spanning the breadth of his wide shoulders; between the crenelations on top and the narrow window slits, this highest tower gave more than a little the appearance of a warrior's protective helmet. On either side of his head crouched a stone gargoyle.</p><p></p><p><strong>"ARVATH STONECRAFTER!"</strong> bellowed the humanoid tower, spotting the dwarf standing among the assembled heroes. <strong>"YOU LITTLE WEASEL! I TOLD YOU I WASN'T PAYING YOU FOR YOUR FEARFUL ADVICE!"</strong></p><p></p><p>"Holy crap!" exclaimed Rale. "That thing--it's Kraggoth himself!"</p><p></p><p><strong>"AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A DWARF?"</strong> continued the walking tower. It focused its attention on the adventurers standing beside the dwarven stonecrafter. <strong>"WHAT, DID YOU GO RUNNING TO THE ADVENTURERS GUILD FOR HELP? PATHETIC! THOSE IDIOTS WOULDN'T KNOW A TRUE ADVENTURER IF ONE WALKED UP TO THEM AND SAID, UH, 'HELLO, I'M A TRUE ADVENTURER!'"</strong></p><p></p><p>"What's he on about?" Rale demanded.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, of course: Kraggoth!" said Thunderwolf, everything clicking into place in his head. "I was helping my uncle, Farthingale, the other day with the new Challenge of Champions contest for new applicants. Kraggoth applied for membership, and went through the contest, but he failed. Rather spectacularly, as I recall. <em>That's</em> where I knew his name! It's been bugging me since the briefing this morning."</p><p></p><p><strong>"I OUGHT TO GO GIVE THE ADVENTURERS GUILD A LITTLE VISIT!"</strong> bellowed Kraggoth, stomping forward. <strong>"I WONDER IF I'M POWERFUL ENOUGH NOW TO JOIN THEIR STUPID LITTLE CLUB?"</strong></p><p></p><p>"Uh oh," said Rale.</p><p></p><p>"I think that's our cue," replied Telgrane, flipping open the top to his tinder box. A stream of embers arced out, taking on the 9-foot-tall flaming form of Infernia as it hit the ground. The fire elemental seemed nonplussed at seeing a walking tower approach her; it was always something like this since she had agreed to serve her master as a familiar. "Saddle up!" commanded Telgrane, stepping upon the <em>carpet of flying</em> he had just unrolled from his back. Infernia stepped behind them, and the archmage caused the carpet to rise up from the ground.</p><p></p><p>To either side of him, the other heroes were following suit. Rale, Galrich, and Aerik stepped onto the <em>drow floatdisks</em> that did double duty as shields, whereas Delphyne preferred the comfort of her own broom. Rale took the opportunity to become invisible, using the first of the powers from the <em>rod of thievery</em> he carried. He dashed off to the far right, then skimmed along the road hoping to circle around the stone colossus.</p><p></p><p>Arvath, meanwhile, shook himself out of the state of shock he had experienced upon first seeing this stone monstrosity. "I'll, uh, I'll go warn the Guild!" he cried, high-tailing it back the way he had come.</p><p></p><p>Technically, Thunderwolf initiated hostilities by shooting an arrow at one of the gargoyles perched at the top of Kraggoth's body, suspecting it might not just be the carved sculpture it looked to be. He was correct; upon being shot in the torso, the gargoyle shrieked in pain, extended its wings, and leapt from the top of the walking tower, making a bee-line for the young fighter. This was enough to wake the other into aggressive movement as well, but by the time it made it all the way to Thunderwolf he had already slain the first one. The young fighter hurriedly switched targets, weaving erratically on his <em>floatdisk</em> and belatedly realizing he was facing his gargoyle opponent in its own favored element.</p><p></p><p>Kraggoth stomped inexorably forward, surprised to see his enemies all flying in seemingly different directions. Telgrane cast a <em>meteor swarm</em> at the colossus, modifying it in mid-casting to create sonic energy, thinking that might be the best way to damage what was, in effect, a moving structure. But he gasped in dismay as the spell rapidly crossed the distance between them and then just fizzled into nonexistence. He recognized the effect as some sort of antimagic, and warned Delphyne about it as she was still within yelling distance. (It was at this point the archmage regretted not having cast his traditional <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the collected group before they scattered.)</p><p></p><p>Galrich and Aerik helped Thunderwolf take care of the second gargoyle, and it too fell the short distance to the ground, its stony body cracking and shattering upon impact with the road surface below.</p><p></p><p>Altering his tactics, Telgrane cast a <em>wall of force</em> spell directly across the road Kraggoth was traversing, causing an invisible 10-foot-tall plane of protective energy to come into existence at the colossus's feet. Delphyne, having recognized Telgrane's spell by the verbal components and anticipating his strategy, turned herself invisible with one of the wands in her bracer and shot around to the left of the creature, hoping to line herself up to cast a <em>Bigby's crushing hand</em> spell to push the walking tower over the invisible tripping hazard.</p><p></p><p>But the <em>wall of force</em> wasn't a hazard just to Kraggoth; Rale, not up on his verbal spell components, had no idea that there was now an invisible field of force blocking his path, and slammed face-first into it, toppling off his <em>floatdisk</em> and falling in a heap on his back, the now-unmanned disk returning to visibility once it lost contact with him and falling at his side, spinning in a circle along its edge in ever-increasing speed like a dropped coin. Still invisible, Rale grabbed his bruised face and struggled to get up, snatching at his <em>floatdisk</em> with his other hand as he did so. It winked back into invisibility with him as he did so.</p><p></p><p>By now, Kraggoth had reached the <em>wall of force</em> and blundered into it. Despite the vast bulk of the stone colossus the spell effect held true, and he tripped over it but somehow managed to regain his balance. <strong>"WHAT THE HELL?"</strong> boomed Kraggoth in obvious consternation. Telgrane, with his permanent <em>arcane sight</em>, was the only one able to actually see the <em>wall of force</em>, and noted Kraggoth now stood with one towerlike leg on either side of the invisible impediment.</p><p></p><p>Seeing that force effects were able to penetrate Kraggoth's anti-magic, Delphyne and Telgrane started peppering it with <em>magic missile</em> spells. The archmage then summoned a greater earth elemental and commanded it to topple the stone colossus over the <em>wall of force</em>. It gave its best effort, but even the Huge elemental was dwarfed in size by the massive construct, who probably stood a full 70 feet tall when standing upright. (The heroes had noticed it walked rather hunched over, as if preparing itself to strike out at its much smaller foes with its massive tower arms.)</p><p></p><p>Galrich flew his <em>floatdisk</em> to the level of the colossus's shoulder and hovered directly in the thing's face. Aerik, sworn to keep his liege safe (and, if failing to keep him out of danger, at least following him into his foolhardy schemes), did likewise, only he decided to veer off to the creature's right shoulder and see what he could do about the ballista, which had already shot at Telgrane twice and only narrowly missed the archmage each time. His <em>vorpal greatsword</em> cut great chunks of wood from the ballista's structure, while his liege lord hovered directly in Kraggoth's face wondering at the best approach now that he was up here. The colossus didn't seem to have any actual eyes to poke, just a slit of darkness from the front face of the small tower that made up its head. But Galrich didn't have time to make a choice, for Kraggoth was much more flexible than the half-orc would have given him credit for, and the stone colossus swatted Galrich from in front of his face as he would an irritating gnat. Galrich was hurled bodily through the air some thirty feet to Kraggoth's left, to land in a crumpled heap after a sixty-foot descent. His <em>floatdisk</em> landed on the "roof" of the walking structure, between the pair of broad shoulders and in front of Kraggoth's artificial head.</p><p></p><p>"M'Liege!" cried Aerik, ready to leap after his fallen future king, but the dwarf relaxed once he saw Galrich rise up to his feet, admittedly somewhat unsteadily, the full fires of his rage stoked to maximum. <em>He's fine!</em> thought the dwarven bodyguard to himself with a touch of relief. He redoubled his efforts at striking the ballista, thinking the best way to save Galrich was to take down this wretched construct.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne was in the proper position by now and cast her <em>Bigby's crushing hand</em> spell, sending a Large handlike projection of pure force energy slamming into the area equivalent to the stone colossus's shoulder blades. That, combined with the earth elemental's efforts below, had the desired effect: Kraggoth, with a roar of surprise, toppled over the <em>wall of force</em> and came crashing down to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, Thunderwolf was directly in its path. He was 30 feet in the air on his <em>floatdisk</em> and quickly assessed his two options: either try to steer the drow device out of the way or simply make a frantic leap for it. His survival instincts must have kicked in, because he barely registered having made his snap decision before he was leaping through the air to the ground below, tucking and rolling when he landed to cushion some of the blow. His abandoned <em>floatdisk</em> fell to the ground beside him, followed immediately by the towering Kraggoth, whose crashing body caused the earth below him to send up divots of solid stone larger than Thunderwolf himself. The fighter rolled out of the way, then, when it was safe, went back to retrieve his <em>floatdisk</em>.</p><p></p><p>Rale could now see the bottom of the stone colossus's feet: solid planes of smooth stone. He pulled out a handful of pitons from his pack and approached the downed Kraggoth, thinking to hammer a few pitons into each leg as a means to secure some rope, or better yet, chain - if they could get their hands on any. Aerik came flying down after the stone colossus, having maneuvered out of the way on his own <em>floatdisk</em> during the construct's plummet to the ground. Galrich, eyes blazing with barbaric fury, charged the colossus's leg with his <em>vorpal greataxe</em>, while the earth elemental battered it from behind.</p><p></p><p><strong>"YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THIS!"</strong> bellowed the outraged wizard, his body intrinsically merged with that of his own stone keep after ignoring Arvath's advice about messing about with the fluxstone. He tried but failed to return himself to an upright position, in large part due to the <em>crushing hand</em> still pressing down upon his back. <strong>"I AM KRAGGOTH, LORD OF STONE! I WILL GRIND YOU ALL TO POWDER! I WILL DESTROY YOUR HEADQUARTERS! I WILL PERSONALLY SMASH TO PASTE EVERY SO-CALLED ADVENTURER IN THIS CITY!"</strong></p><p></p><p>But by then, the greater earth elemental had pummeled great gaps into the stone colossus's body, and the last of his life energy seeped out of the no-longer-mobile edifice.</p><p></p><p>"You will shut up," observed the elemental in the guttural Terran tongue, standing by for further orders from Telgrane now that its original objective had been achieved.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane put the elemental to good use while it was still present: using its ability to move through solid stone, he had it wade through the keep in search of obvious treasure. Most of Kraggoth's furniture and all of his delicate alchemical apparatus had been destroyed in his final fall, if it hadn't already been shattered simply by the act of the construct lurching down the road, but the wizard of dubious talent had kept a few chests of treasure easily obtainable by the elemental - and, more importantly, intact. The earth elemental was also able to separate the fluxstone from the rest of the colossus, and the Wing Three adventurers took that with them as well, partly to avoid a similar incident in the future, but also because the substance was fairly valuable and could be sold to a responsible buyer for a tidy sum.</p><p></p><p>"I think our job here is done," replied Telgrane. "Good call on the <em>Bigby's crushing hand</em>, Delphyne."</p><p></p><p>"And good thinking about the placement of the <em>wall of force</em>," she responded in turn.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, real nice job there, Telgrane," complained Rale, rubbing his bruised forehead. He was going to have quite a goose-egg there, he could already feel it.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>This short encounter came about for one reason and one reason only: I absolutely fell in love with the concept of the stone colossus once I saw it in Pathfinder's <em>Bestiary 4</em>. One of the advantages of gaming as infrequently as we do is that I have the preparation time to come up with some really unique models. I decided I was going to build a scale model of the stone colossus, and since I was already ahead of the game by some four adventures or so at that point I figured I'd have plenty of time to build it. I picked up some grey crafting paper at my local Michael's Hobby Shop - not as thick as cardboard, but heavier than normal paper. I had originally tried creating a "spine and legs" skeleton out of paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and actually had something that stood up in a striding position, but it all fell apart once I started adding layers of torso from my craft paper. So that was my first deviation from the stone colossus illustration: I ended up making rectangular legs from the craft paper, so it was more stable and would take the weight.</p><p></p><p>The spine was still a paper towel roll, upon which I dropped four overlapping levels (each wider and thicker than the ones below it) of torso, each with a circle cut out of the top layer and barriers along the hidden interior edges so each would rest on the level below it at the appropriate height. The head was the general circumference of the paper towel roll with a "point" at the front; the advantage of building all of this around a paper towel spine allowed the torso sections and head to swivel from side to side, so I could position my stone colossus in the best configuration for its current stance. The arms I kept fairly circular, dangling down from the oversized shoulders. I built a cardboard ballista to sit inside the battlements of the creature's right shoulder, just like in the Pathfinder illustration. And I drew in some windows and a few crenelations to keep it from being just all bland grey. To keep it standing, I built it an 8-inch-by-8-inch base out of a sheet of tan poster board (complete with one-inch grid lines), and to ensure it would stay in place I cut the areas under its feet on three sides and folded them up and glued them to the insides of its hollow legs. The whole thing stood about 14 inches tall, putting it at 70 feet in D&D Miniatures scale.</p><p></p><p>We played this short adventure during the last half of our second session of "The Ice Princess." I never know what the players are going to come up with, and while I thought the second half of the adventure would likely take most of the six hours we had allotted for gaming, I thought it might not be a bad idea to bring the next adventure with me, just in case we finished early. I had three adventures written and ready to go, but the next in sequence was possibly going to be a two-session adventure, while the two adventures that followed it were both definitely done-in-ones. I opted to bump "Kraggoth, Lord of Stone" forward one adventure, and I'm glad I did so. We started our gaming session at noon, like normal, and finished up part 2 of "The Ice Princess" by about 3:30. I went to the back of my van and got my stone colossus "miniature" (hidden from view in a garbage bag) and we started this adventure up, finishing up around 5:45; we usually try to finish between 6:00 and 6:30, whenever possible. So everything worked out for the best.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6382351, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 85: KRAGGOTH, LORD OF STONE[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)/archwitch[/INDENT] [INDENT] Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian[/INDENT] [INDENT] Rale Bodkin, human rogue[/INDENT] [INDENT] Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender[/INDENT] "I tell ye, 'e's a durned fool!" exclaimed the dwarven visitor to the Adventurers Guild Headquarters. "If 'e's not careful, 'e could blow the whole blasted city sky high with 'is carelessness!" Rale frowned at the dwarf sitting across from him in one of the conference rooms scattered about in the Headquarters building. He was no expert on magic, but he wasn't aware of any spells quite [I]that[/I] powerful. Hopefully the dwarf was just being melodramatic. [B]Arvath Stonecrafter[/B] had approached the Guild that morning with an unusual story. It seems he had recently been hired by a human wizard named [B]Kraggoth[/B] to help him identify the properties of an enormous hunk of stone the wizard had unearthed during his explorations in a cavern system underneath the nearby mountains. Arvath immediately recognized the rock as a chunk of [I]fluxstone[/I], a dangerous but naturally-occurring gem that warps magical energies in the immediate vicinity. (Indeed, most [I]rods of wonder[/I] – including the one owned by Feron – contain a core cylinder of fluxstone to help shape their chaotic abilities.) Despite warning Kraggoth that using a chunk of fluxstone that size for magical experiments was inherently dangerous, the wizard ignored the dwarf's repeated warnings, sticking by his intentions to incorporate the fluxstone into his keep's defenses and dismissing Arvath from his service. (Worse yet, he refused to pay the dwarf the consulting fee he had been promised.) In desperation, Arvath had approached the Adventurers Guild, hoping there might be a wizard there who could talk some sense into Kraggoth. "So this Kraggoth, what is he like?" asked Delphyne. She and Telgrane, as arcane spellcasters, had been drafted into this discussion as potential "sense-talking Guild wizards." "Frankly, 'e's a bit o' a loon," replied Arvath. "'E's a human, like you two" - and here he pointed towards Rale and Delphyne, giving Telgrane an appraising assessment before apparently discarding him from consideration - "but 'e fancies 'imself a bit o' an expert on dwarven culture. 'E's got dwarven weapons on 'is walls, dwarven mead in 'is kitchen, that sort o' thing. But the fool's got no in'erent sense o' value or craftsmanship! 'Is 'dwarven trinkets' is all low-quality stuff - I suspect some dwarven merchants're scamming the ignorant tosser into purchasin' the worthless crap they couldn't otherwise get rid o'." "But he's a powerful wizard in his own right?" asked Thunderwolf, frowning. "Well, now, I dunno 'bout that, son. I figger his 'mastery o' the arcane arts' is about as factual as 'is 'mastery o' dwarven culture.' But 'e is a wizard, I kin attest t' that - I seen 'im cast spells an' the like. But 'ow powerful a wizard? No idea. Me specialty's stonecraftin', not magic." "But this fluxstone is dangerous?" pursued Thunderwolf. "In large quantities, yes," responded Telgrane. "It has a warping effect upon magical energies, which is why it's used in [I]rods of wonder[/I] and similar items with chaotic attributes. And there's no telling what effect any magic cast in its vicinity might have: it could turn the caster into a walking pile of sentient mud or indeed vaporize a city, as Arvath warns - if the fluxstone were large enough." "Sounds like we'd better go have a talk with this Kraggoth," grunted Galrich, standing up and placing a hand on the hilt of a weapon - one of a half dozen - hanging from his belt, signifying he'd heard enough and was ready for some action. "Where's this guy live?" "'E's got 'isself a keep on th' outskirts o' town," replied Arvath. "Figures," snorted Aerik. "It's always the outskirts of town with these wizard types." "You have to admit, it's safer that way," replied Rale. Their friend Pythagoras Greymantle kept a small manor at the edge of town, the better to contain any magical experiments gone awry. In fact, so had Palliphron Vex, and it was a good thing too when one of his chaos magic experiments literally exploded in his face and produced the carnivorous "butterflies of doom." "Let's go," said Telgrane, standing up from his chair and patting his own belt-stored powerful weapon - only in his case, it was the tinder box inside which his Large fire elemental familiar, Infernia, lay sleeping in her ember form. - - - "It's jus' over th' hill here," said Arvath, leading the adventurers down a street leading out of the city of Greyhawk. "Wait, what was that?" asked Delphyne, holding a hand up for the others to stop, and cocking her head to listen. "What was what?" asked Rale, not having heard anything. But he stopped and listened with the others, and before long he could hear it as well: a slow, steady thumping sound. He was a bit disturbed to realize that he could not only hear the thumping sound, he could actually [I]feel[/I] it through the soles of his boots. "It's getting louder," observed Thunderwolf. Looking over at the others, he saw that Galrich and Aerik already had their weapons out and at the ready. And then the head rose up into their field of vision beyond the curve of the hill. The group scrambled to the top of the hill to get a good look, and their eyes boggled at the sight before them: down the center of the road strode an enormous humanoid figure, looking to have been created out of the stones of a small castle or keep. Massive, rectangular legs ending in no discernible feet thumped down into the dirt of the road, propelling the stone colossus at a respectable speed. Two arms made from curved towers swung at his sides, and atop his right shoulder sat a wooden ballista. His head was another small tower perched upon a wide slab of stone spanning the breadth of his wide shoulders; between the crenelations on top and the narrow window slits, this highest tower gave more than a little the appearance of a warrior's protective helmet. On either side of his head crouched a stone gargoyle. [B]"ARVATH STONECRAFTER!"[/B] bellowed the humanoid tower, spotting the dwarf standing among the assembled heroes. [B]"YOU LITTLE WEASEL! I TOLD YOU I WASN'T PAYING YOU FOR YOUR FEARFUL ADVICE!"[/B] "Holy crap!" exclaimed Rale. "That thing--it's Kraggoth himself!" [B]"AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A DWARF?"[/B] continued the walking tower. It focused its attention on the adventurers standing beside the dwarven stonecrafter. [B]"WHAT, DID YOU GO RUNNING TO THE ADVENTURERS GUILD FOR HELP? PATHETIC! THOSE IDIOTS WOULDN'T KNOW A TRUE ADVENTURER IF ONE WALKED UP TO THEM AND SAID, UH, 'HELLO, I'M A TRUE ADVENTURER!'"[/B] "What's he on about?" Rale demanded. "Oh, of course: Kraggoth!" said Thunderwolf, everything clicking into place in his head. "I was helping my uncle, Farthingale, the other day with the new Challenge of Champions contest for new applicants. Kraggoth applied for membership, and went through the contest, but he failed. Rather spectacularly, as I recall. [I]That's[/I] where I knew his name! It's been bugging me since the briefing this morning." [B]"I OUGHT TO GO GIVE THE ADVENTURERS GUILD A LITTLE VISIT!"[/B] bellowed Kraggoth, stomping forward. [B]"I WONDER IF I'M POWERFUL ENOUGH NOW TO JOIN THEIR STUPID LITTLE CLUB?"[/B] "Uh oh," said Rale. "I think that's our cue," replied Telgrane, flipping open the top to his tinder box. A stream of embers arced out, taking on the 9-foot-tall flaming form of Infernia as it hit the ground. The fire elemental seemed nonplussed at seeing a walking tower approach her; it was always something like this since she had agreed to serve her master as a familiar. "Saddle up!" commanded Telgrane, stepping upon the [I]carpet of flying[/I] he had just unrolled from his back. Infernia stepped behind them, and the archmage caused the carpet to rise up from the ground. To either side of him, the other heroes were following suit. Rale, Galrich, and Aerik stepped onto the [I]drow floatdisks[/I] that did double duty as shields, whereas Delphyne preferred the comfort of her own broom. Rale took the opportunity to become invisible, using the first of the powers from the [I]rod of thievery[/I] he carried. He dashed off to the far right, then skimmed along the road hoping to circle around the stone colossus. Arvath, meanwhile, shook himself out of the state of shock he had experienced upon first seeing this stone monstrosity. "I'll, uh, I'll go warn the Guild!" he cried, high-tailing it back the way he had come. Technically, Thunderwolf initiated hostilities by shooting an arrow at one of the gargoyles perched at the top of Kraggoth's body, suspecting it might not just be the carved sculpture it looked to be. He was correct; upon being shot in the torso, the gargoyle shrieked in pain, extended its wings, and leapt from the top of the walking tower, making a bee-line for the young fighter. This was enough to wake the other into aggressive movement as well, but by the time it made it all the way to Thunderwolf he had already slain the first one. The young fighter hurriedly switched targets, weaving erratically on his [I]floatdisk[/I] and belatedly realizing he was facing his gargoyle opponent in its own favored element. Kraggoth stomped inexorably forward, surprised to see his enemies all flying in seemingly different directions. Telgrane cast a [I]meteor swarm[/I] at the colossus, modifying it in mid-casting to create sonic energy, thinking that might be the best way to damage what was, in effect, a moving structure. But he gasped in dismay as the spell rapidly crossed the distance between them and then just fizzled into nonexistence. He recognized the effect as some sort of antimagic, and warned Delphyne about it as she was still within yelling distance. (It was at this point the archmage regretted not having cast his traditional [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on the collected group before they scattered.) Galrich and Aerik helped Thunderwolf take care of the second gargoyle, and it too fell the short distance to the ground, its stony body cracking and shattering upon impact with the road surface below. Altering his tactics, Telgrane cast a [I]wall of force[/I] spell directly across the road Kraggoth was traversing, causing an invisible 10-foot-tall plane of protective energy to come into existence at the colossus's feet. Delphyne, having recognized Telgrane's spell by the verbal components and anticipating his strategy, turned herself invisible with one of the wands in her bracer and shot around to the left of the creature, hoping to line herself up to cast a [I]Bigby's crushing hand[/I] spell to push the walking tower over the invisible tripping hazard. But the [I]wall of force[/I] wasn't a hazard just to Kraggoth; Rale, not up on his verbal spell components, had no idea that there was now an invisible field of force blocking his path, and slammed face-first into it, toppling off his [I]floatdisk[/I] and falling in a heap on his back, the now-unmanned disk returning to visibility once it lost contact with him and falling at his side, spinning in a circle along its edge in ever-increasing speed like a dropped coin. Still invisible, Rale grabbed his bruised face and struggled to get up, snatching at his [I]floatdisk[/I] with his other hand as he did so. It winked back into invisibility with him as he did so. By now, Kraggoth had reached the [I]wall of force[/I] and blundered into it. Despite the vast bulk of the stone colossus the spell effect held true, and he tripped over it but somehow managed to regain his balance. [B]"WHAT THE HELL?"[/B] boomed Kraggoth in obvious consternation. Telgrane, with his permanent [I]arcane sight[/I], was the only one able to actually see the [I]wall of force[/I], and noted Kraggoth now stood with one towerlike leg on either side of the invisible impediment. Seeing that force effects were able to penetrate Kraggoth's anti-magic, Delphyne and Telgrane started peppering it with [I]magic missile[/I] spells. The archmage then summoned a greater earth elemental and commanded it to topple the stone colossus over the [I]wall of force[/I]. It gave its best effort, but even the Huge elemental was dwarfed in size by the massive construct, who probably stood a full 70 feet tall when standing upright. (The heroes had noticed it walked rather hunched over, as if preparing itself to strike out at its much smaller foes with its massive tower arms.) Galrich flew his [I]floatdisk[/I] to the level of the colossus's shoulder and hovered directly in the thing's face. Aerik, sworn to keep his liege safe (and, if failing to keep him out of danger, at least following him into his foolhardy schemes), did likewise, only he decided to veer off to the creature's right shoulder and see what he could do about the ballista, which had already shot at Telgrane twice and only narrowly missed the archmage each time. His [I]vorpal greatsword[/I] cut great chunks of wood from the ballista's structure, while his liege lord hovered directly in Kraggoth's face wondering at the best approach now that he was up here. The colossus didn't seem to have any actual eyes to poke, just a slit of darkness from the front face of the small tower that made up its head. But Galrich didn't have time to make a choice, for Kraggoth was much more flexible than the half-orc would have given him credit for, and the stone colossus swatted Galrich from in front of his face as he would an irritating gnat. Galrich was hurled bodily through the air some thirty feet to Kraggoth's left, to land in a crumpled heap after a sixty-foot descent. His [I]floatdisk[/I] landed on the "roof" of the walking structure, between the pair of broad shoulders and in front of Kraggoth's artificial head. "M'Liege!" cried Aerik, ready to leap after his fallen future king, but the dwarf relaxed once he saw Galrich rise up to his feet, admittedly somewhat unsteadily, the full fires of his rage stoked to maximum. [I]He's fine![/I] thought the dwarven bodyguard to himself with a touch of relief. He redoubled his efforts at striking the ballista, thinking the best way to save Galrich was to take down this wretched construct. Delphyne was in the proper position by now and cast her [I]Bigby's crushing hand[/I] spell, sending a Large handlike projection of pure force energy slamming into the area equivalent to the stone colossus's shoulder blades. That, combined with the earth elemental's efforts below, had the desired effect: Kraggoth, with a roar of surprise, toppled over the [I]wall of force[/I] and came crashing down to the ground. Unfortunately, Thunderwolf was directly in its path. He was 30 feet in the air on his [I]floatdisk[/I] and quickly assessed his two options: either try to steer the drow device out of the way or simply make a frantic leap for it. His survival instincts must have kicked in, because he barely registered having made his snap decision before he was leaping through the air to the ground below, tucking and rolling when he landed to cushion some of the blow. His abandoned [I]floatdisk[/I] fell to the ground beside him, followed immediately by the towering Kraggoth, whose crashing body caused the earth below him to send up divots of solid stone larger than Thunderwolf himself. The fighter rolled out of the way, then, when it was safe, went back to retrieve his [I]floatdisk[/I]. Rale could now see the bottom of the stone colossus's feet: solid planes of smooth stone. He pulled out a handful of pitons from his pack and approached the downed Kraggoth, thinking to hammer a few pitons into each leg as a means to secure some rope, or better yet, chain - if they could get their hands on any. Aerik came flying down after the stone colossus, having maneuvered out of the way on his own [I]floatdisk[/I] during the construct's plummet to the ground. Galrich, eyes blazing with barbaric fury, charged the colossus's leg with his [I]vorpal greataxe[/I], while the earth elemental battered it from behind. [B]"YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THIS!"[/B] bellowed the outraged wizard, his body intrinsically merged with that of his own stone keep after ignoring Arvath's advice about messing about with the fluxstone. He tried but failed to return himself to an upright position, in large part due to the [I]crushing hand[/I] still pressing down upon his back. [B]"I AM KRAGGOTH, LORD OF STONE! I WILL GRIND YOU ALL TO POWDER! I WILL DESTROY YOUR HEADQUARTERS! I WILL PERSONALLY SMASH TO PASTE EVERY SO-CALLED ADVENTURER IN THIS CITY!"[/B] But by then, the greater earth elemental had pummeled great gaps into the stone colossus's body, and the last of his life energy seeped out of the no-longer-mobile edifice. "You will shut up," observed the elemental in the guttural Terran tongue, standing by for further orders from Telgrane now that its original objective had been achieved. Telgrane put the elemental to good use while it was still present: using its ability to move through solid stone, he had it wade through the keep in search of obvious treasure. Most of Kraggoth's furniture and all of his delicate alchemical apparatus had been destroyed in his final fall, if it hadn't already been shattered simply by the act of the construct lurching down the road, but the wizard of dubious talent had kept a few chests of treasure easily obtainable by the elemental - and, more importantly, intact. The earth elemental was also able to separate the fluxstone from the rest of the colossus, and the Wing Three adventurers took that with them as well, partly to avoid a similar incident in the future, but also because the substance was fairly valuable and could be sold to a responsible buyer for a tidy sum. "I think our job here is done," replied Telgrane. "Good call on the [I]Bigby's crushing hand[/I], Delphyne." "And good thinking about the placement of the [I]wall of force[/I]," she responded in turn. "Yeah, real nice job there, Telgrane," complained Rale, rubbing his bruised forehead. He was going to have quite a goose-egg there, he could already feel it. - - - This short encounter came about for one reason and one reason only: I absolutely fell in love with the concept of the stone colossus once I saw it in Pathfinder's [I]Bestiary 4[/I]. One of the advantages of gaming as infrequently as we do is that I have the preparation time to come up with some really unique models. I decided I was going to build a scale model of the stone colossus, and since I was already ahead of the game by some four adventures or so at that point I figured I'd have plenty of time to build it. I picked up some grey crafting paper at my local Michael's Hobby Shop - not as thick as cardboard, but heavier than normal paper. I had originally tried creating a "spine and legs" skeleton out of paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and actually had something that stood up in a striding position, but it all fell apart once I started adding layers of torso from my craft paper. So that was my first deviation from the stone colossus illustration: I ended up making rectangular legs from the craft paper, so it was more stable and would take the weight. The spine was still a paper towel roll, upon which I dropped four overlapping levels (each wider and thicker than the ones below it) of torso, each with a circle cut out of the top layer and barriers along the hidden interior edges so each would rest on the level below it at the appropriate height. The head was the general circumference of the paper towel roll with a "point" at the front; the advantage of building all of this around a paper towel spine allowed the torso sections and head to swivel from side to side, so I could position my stone colossus in the best configuration for its current stance. The arms I kept fairly circular, dangling down from the oversized shoulders. I built a cardboard ballista to sit inside the battlements of the creature's right shoulder, just like in the Pathfinder illustration. And I drew in some windows and a few crenelations to keep it from being just all bland grey. To keep it standing, I built it an 8-inch-by-8-inch base out of a sheet of tan poster board (complete with one-inch grid lines), and to ensure it would stay in place I cut the areas under its feet on three sides and folded them up and glued them to the insides of its hollow legs. The whole thing stood about 14 inches tall, putting it at 70 feet in D&D Miniatures scale. We played this short adventure during the last half of our second session of "The Ice Princess." I never know what the players are going to come up with, and while I thought the second half of the adventure would likely take most of the six hours we had allotted for gaming, I thought it might not be a bad idea to bring the next adventure with me, just in case we finished early. I had three adventures written and ready to go, but the next in sequence was possibly going to be a two-session adventure, while the two adventures that followed it were both definitely done-in-ones. I opted to bump "Kraggoth, Lord of Stone" forward one adventure, and I'm glad I did so. We started our gaming session at noon, like normal, and finished up part 2 of "The Ice Princess" by about 3:30. I went to the back of my van and got my stone colossus "miniature" (hidden from view in a garbage bag) and we started this adventure up, finishing up around 5:45; we usually try to finish between 6:00 and 6:30, whenever possible. So everything worked out for the best. [/QUOTE]
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