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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6567397" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 92: THE CURSE OF ABEROTH</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)/arch-witch</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</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>"I'm afraid we cannot accept your money," said the elven restaurant owner as he ushered the heroes into the open-air seating section of the walled garden behind the building. "Not for the heroes of the Cathedral of Correleon!" Like many of the elves in Greyhawk City, he felt a deep debt of gratitude toward the heroes who had prevented a drow attack on the cathedral many months ago that would have killed off the majority of the elven population in the city.</p><p></p><p>"Here is some chilled wine while you make your selections," he said, passing menus among the party of five and then distributing glasses of a dark, red wine. Sure enough, the glasses had been chilled with a <em>prestidigitation</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>"This is very nice," said Feron, sipping the elven vintage as she looked over the menu.</p><p></p><p>"I could get used to this," admitted Rale, mentally calculating how many times he could swing by for some free food before he wore out his welcome.</p><p></p><p>Alas, the quiet outing did not last for very long. The five heroes hadn't even decided upon their meals when a sudden disruption caused the other customers to scream, leap out of their chairs, and flee for the exits. Looking up from their menus, they saw the reason for the commotion: a skeleton had suddenly appeared in the middle of the walled garden. It stood in a half-crouched position as if ready to pounce and slowly scanned the area. Then, locking eyes with Telgrane - a rather curious turn of phrase, come to think of it, given that neither the skeleton nor the archmage had eyes in the classical sense anymore - it raced toward its prey, arms outstretched.</p><p></p><p>The heroes were without their traditional armor but they had long since learned never to go anywhere without at least some form of protection. Thunderwolf leaped up from his chair, grabbing for his bow and pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back. Chalkan followed suit, and the two sent arrows flying somewhat ineffectually bouncing off the skeleton's bones. The undead creature seemed to have specifically targeted Telgrane, despite the fact that he was seated at the far side of the table and there were closer heroes it could have attacked. Instead, it leaped up onto the table and launched itself at the surprised archmage, who barely had time to cast a spell in his own defense. But with his archmage training, he managed to cast a fireball at nearly point-blank range and still manage to shape its area of effect to avoid hitting his friends in the blast. The skeleton took the fiery explosion smack-dab in the middle of its grinning skull and collapsed into a pile of bones on the far side of the table from Telgrane, who had finally managed to extricate himself from his chair in the meantime.</p><p></p><p>"What was that all about?" wondered Feron, sending her eagle, Felix, to reconnoiter the area in case there was someone nearby who had summoned the skeleton and sent it after the heroes. The proud bird leaped from the back of Feron's chair and took wing.</p><p></p><p>"No idea -- but I don't think it's over yet," replied Rale. "Look!"</p><p></p><p>The rogue was pointing down at the skeleton's remains, now a pile of loose bones. They started bouncing around on the garden floor as if a tremor preceding an earthquake were starting up. But there was no earthquake; only the bones were affected. They bounced higher and higher, and then suddenly sprung up fully from the ground, forming <em>two</em> complete skeletons. They crouched, skulls scanning for the enemy -- and then simultaneously focused on Telgrane. With an eerie mirroring of motion, they leaped to attack the archmage.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane opted not to reply with another spell; instead, he flipped open the tinder box he wore at his belt. A series of embers arced out of the metal box, hitting the garden floor and bursting into flame, coalescing into a 9-foot-tall female humanoid form with twin horns curving up from her brow. Infernia looked at the approaching skeletons and pushed Telgrane behind her protectively. "I will defeat them, Master!" she promised.</p><p></p><p>Rale, meanwhile, opted to try to figure out why this was occurring. And the best way to do that, he reasoned, was to ensure he was an unnoticed observer. Activating one of the powers of his <em>rod of thievery</em>, he cloaked himself in invisibility and stepped aside. Regretting his inability to strike undead beings in the same manner as he could living foes, he nonetheless armed himself with his favorite short sword.</p><p></p><p>Infernia's flaming fists pounded one of the skeletons into so many bone fragments, and Rale nervously waited to see if the pile would rise up again as two separate skeletons. But fortunately it did no such thing. Thunderwolf and Chalkan continued their arrow barrages at the remaining skeleton, doing little overall damage. Feron was without her normal dragonscale armor and had none of her weapons, but that hardly meant she was unarmed or unable to assist in a combat. Wildshaping into an air elemental, she reached over and grabbed up the skeleton, flinging it up over her head and smashing it down onto the floor, where it shattered into hundreds of fragments.</p><p></p><p>Now that both skeletons had been destroyed, the bone fragments of each started bouncing. This time, knowing ahead of time what was going to happen, the heroes could see that with each bounce, the shattered bones merged back together, healing up the damage they had sustained, all the while drawing closer together with each bounce. And then, all at once, the bones bounced back into full skeletons -- only now there were <em>four</em> of them.</p><p></p><p>"I do not understand this, Master!" complained Infernia.</p><p></p><p>"We'll figure it out!" promised Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>"I think I can contain them," announced Feron, casting a <em>wall of fire</em> spell in such a way to completely encircle the four animated skeletons while they were still somewhat close together, with the heat energy of the flames aimed inwards. The heroes tensed, waiting to see what would happen. They didn't have long to wait, for the four skeletons leaped through the flames with no regard for their own safety, each of them making a bee-line towards Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>"What did you do to these guys to tick them off so bad?" asked Thunderwolf, dropping his bow and unsheathing Xanthros, hoping his enchanted blade would have better effect on these tougher-than-normal skeletons.</p><p></p><p>"No idea, but I appreciate you guys keeping them away from me!" Telgrane said, backing up to the restaurant wall. Then, seeing the incoming skeletons scurrying around the protective ring of allies to get to him, he followed Feron's lead and cast a <em>wall of fire</em> in a half-circle around himself, with the heat energy of the flames aimed outwards, away from himself, hopefully causing the skeletons to have second thoughts before piercing the wall to get to him.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" complained Chalkan, as the heat from Telgrane's <em>wall of fire</em> started burning his shirt. The group had become accustomed to Telgrane shaping his spells so as to avoid his allies; it had been quite some time since he'd forgotten to do so.</p><p></p><p>"Sorry!" called out Telgrane from inside his protective arc of fire.</p><p></p><p>Rale activated his <em>winged boots</em> and flew up to the restaurant roof, the better to see if anyone nearby was paying special attention to this ruckus in the back garden of an elven restaurant. He also pulled out a scroll of <em>magic circle against evil</em> and activated it by reciting the arcane words inscribed upon it, thinking that if these skeletons were indeed summoned creatures, he could keep them from getting to Telgrane if he was within range. To that end, he moved along the roof until he was standing just behind and above Telgrane, hopefully safe in his fiery cocoon on the ground below.</p><p></p><p>Infernia and Feron swatted the approaching skeletons, but they couldn't prevent two of them from piercing Telgrane's protective <em>wall of fire</em>, even if it meant their own destruction immediately thereafter. But one of the reasons they were so determined to get within visual distance with the archmage became apparent, as a familiar greenish glow suffused Telgrane's body. "<em>Dimensional anchor</em>!" exclaimed Telgrane, recognizing the spell's effects. It had never even occurred to him to "bink" back to Headquarters; now that option was apparently out of reach, for he had neglected to prepare any <em>dispel magic</em> spells that morning.</p><p></p><p>Feron bashed the last of the quartet of skeletons into smithereens, and once again the bone-bouncing began, just outside the confines of Telgrane's <em>wall of fire</em> spell, so as the eight skeletons rose up half of them were already taking damage. Each looked straight into the solid sheets of vertical flames as if they could see the archmage hidden within. Then, suddenly, they switched tactics.</p><p></p><p>Four of the skeletons broke ranks and approached the restaurant wall, two on either side of the semicircular <em>wall of flames</em>. The first in line steadied itself against the wall, while the other behind it ran up its back and pulled itself up onto the roof. Rale soon found himself flanked by two skeletons who apparently didn't even realize he was there. He stepped back nonetheless, since it was apparent his <em>magic circle against evil</em> wasn't doing anything to keep them at bay.</p><p></p><p>Infernia continued bashing away at the skeletons even now approaching her master, and Thunderwolf and Chalkan continued with their weapon attacks. But Feron decided to call in for some reinforcements; casting the words to a summoning spell, two massive earth elementals rose up out of the garden floor and began smashing those skeletons remaining. Neither skeleton on the ground was able to take the pounding of more than one set of clublike fists before being scattered into so many bone fragments, but by that time, the two skeletons that had made it to the roof had just about completed their mission. The first leapt down at Telgrane, grappling him with its bony fists and then, to the archmage's consternation, with the bones of its rib cage, which opened up like a Venus flytrap to engulf him. </p><p></p><p>"I will save you, Master!" called out Infernia, stooping over to pick up both Telgrane and the skeleton that had wrapped itself almost completely around him. She pulled him toward her, out of the encompassing <em>wall of fire</em>, but then a strange thing happened: she had no sooner pulled him through the flames than he disappeared from her grasp, passing forward through the restaurant wall and falling back into his original position. As one of his last actions, Telgrane tried plunging himself and his undead attacker off to the side, only to find himself passing through the upright plane of fire to his left and falling back into place by passing through the flames to his right. <em>Some sort of recursion field</em>, he thought to himself, as the skeleton continued binding him tighter with its own bones.</p><p></p><p>Just as the first skeleton had Telgrane just about completely immobilized, the second one leapt down and joined the grapple, engulfing the archmage from the other side. Telgrane felt nothing; he was caught in a stasislike effect that not only completely immobilized him but also cut him off mentally from his familiar.</p><p></p><p>"MASTER!" called out Infernia in shock as she no longer felt Telgrane's presence over the mental link they shared.</p><p></p><p>The twin skeletons then mentally deactivated the <em>dimensional anchor</em> effect upon their prey and teleported away. When Infernia pushed her head back into the <em>wall of fire</em>, Telgrane was gone.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Back at Headquarters, the five heroes rapidly explained to the others what had happened while gathering up their armor and the rest of their adventuring gear. Delphyne offered to use her <em>crystal ball</em> to scry upon Telgrane, while Cal cast a <em>discern location</em> to try to locate the missing archmage. "He's hundreds of miles from here," the cleric announced, puzzled, just as Delphyne said, "I'm getting something."</p><p></p><p>The others gathered around the witch to peer into the <em>crystal ball</em>. Telgrane, still bound in the bones of the two skeletons intertwined around him, stood at the top of a flattened pyramid in an underground cavern, before another undead figure whose robes declared him to likely be a lich. The lich was speaking from a carved throne, but Delphyne's scrying device had no audio features and the heroes had no idea what was being said. But the lich had apparently given a command, for the two skeletons and their immobilized prey instantly vanished from sight, teleporting away. The image in the <em>crystal ball</em> followed Telgrane for a brief moment, just enough for the heroes to see the skeletons climbing up onto a table among a group of half-dissected corpses, before breaking up into static.</p><p></p><p>"That other room's likely shielded from scrying," Delphyne explained.</p><p></p><p>"We'll need to <em>teleport</em> over there," reasoned Rale. "Delphyne, do you have that spell at hand? You can return immediately."</p><p></p><p>The arch-witch readily agreed. "Where shall I take us? To the lich, or to Telgrane?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"To Telgrane," replied Rale immediately, already taking charge of the rescue operation. "We'll deal with the lich after we've made sure Telgrane's okay."</p><p></p><p>The standard preparing-for-battle spells were cast (all but <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em>, which Telgrane habitually cast upon the group). Delphyne then cast a <em>greater teleport</em> spell and the assembled group found themselves at the base of the pyramid, among scattered bones, with the lich looking down at them from his throne. All around them a loud alarm blared, announcing their sudden intrusion.</p><p></p><p>"I said take us to Telgrane!" groused Rale.</p><p></p><p>"I did!" argued Delphyne. "There must be a teleport redirect effect in here!"</p><p></p><p>There was no further time for arguments, for the bones all started bouncing. "Oh, no!" cried out the heroes in unison, imagining a virtual army of the skeletal kidnappers manifesting from the numerous bones scattered along all sides of the pyramid. But that wasn't what happened. After a few initial bounces, the bones all started falling upwards, taking their respective positions until they had formed a pair of massive, snakelike creatures made entirely of the disparate bones of a great number of different types of creatures.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne recognized them at once. "Boneyards!" she cried. "But much bigger than the ones we've seen before!"</p><p></p><p>But that was all there was time to say before gravity suddenly reversed itself underneath their feet. The heroes went flying 40 feet into the air before slamming painfully into the ceiling. At least most of them did; Delphyne grabbed her <em>broom of flying</em> from its sheath on her back, and while she didn't manage to sit upon it like normal, she was at least able to hang onto it with one hand while she hung, upside down, about halfway between floor and ceiling. Rale, wearing his <em>winged boots</em>, managed to flip himself over in midair and prevent himself from crashing into the cavern ceiling, hovering in place while he tried to keep an eye on the two advancing boneyards. The <em>reverse gravity</em> was affecting them as well, but their serpentine bodies were so long they managed to coil from floor to ceiling and back again; it didn't seem to matter to them which way was currently up.</p><p></p><p>As Thunderwolf and Chalkan pulled out their drow <em>floatdisks</em>, Feron wildshaped back into air elemental form, the better to maneuver in this strange new environment. And as the heroes reoriented themselves to the shifting gravity, the boneyards struck.</p><p></p><p>The first snapped at Thunderwolf, mere seconds after he had gotten onto his <em>floatdisk</em>. Teeth made of sharpened splinters of arm-bones dug into his flesh, but he managed to twist out of the creature's mouth without falling off his transport disk.</p><p></p><p>The other made its way towards Delphyne, who was pulling herself up onto her broom. "Bink away!" cried Rale, fearing for the witch's safety -- especially after she was simply supposed to have transported the rest of them here and returned to backup duty at Guild Headquarters. Delphyne started the words to a spell, but was quickly engulfed by the boneyard before she could finish its casting. She felt the massive creature's makeshift teeth sink deep into her flesh, and then she felt an even greater pain as her own bones were shattered all over her body and forcibly ripped through her flesh to merge with the undead monstrosity that was killing her. As her final action, she frantically tried activating the Guild ring which would "bink" her back home, but for whatever reason it had no effect. In a single moment, Delphyne the arch-witch had been slain; her broom dropped from bloody, boneless hands to fall to the ceiling above.</p><p></p><p>Infernia had no bones and thus had nothing to worry about the boneyards' horrific attack, but could still be slain by them. However, she recognized them for what they were: mere bodyguards. She was after the one behind her Master's kidnapping (and possibly death, although the fire elemental didn't want to think about that possibility), and the lich looked like her best bet. She raced along the ceiling, and then at the point directly above the base of the pyramid, leaped "up" - from her point of view, in any case, as she was upside down - and twisted her body as gravity shifted in mid-leap, landing unsteadily upon the platform in front of the lich. "What have you done with my Master?" she demanded as she regained her balance and equilibrium.</p><p></p><p>Chalkan maneuvered his <em>floatdisk</em> out of the snapping jaws of the boneyard that had slain Delphyne and sent a <em>scorching ray</em> down at the lich. All three of his rays struck true, visibly blasting into the undead spellcaster's body to horrific effect.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf, however, was being chewed up by the other boneyard, and although he had been able to resist having his bones crushed and absorbed into the monstrosity, it was likely only a matter of time. Feron saw the truth of the matter and went flying over to aid him, lest he end up sharing Delphyne's sad fate. She snatched up the young fighter in an arm made of rapidly-spinning air, then dragged him away from the hungry boneyard. Rale, in the meantime, had flown down to the pyramid's flat top and attacked the lich with his sword, recently upgraded to an undead bane weapon. The lich staggered back from the rogue's blows, and then the blast of energy from Infernia's <em>circlet of blasting</em> sent him flying backwards into oblivion. He toppled from the pyramid, slid down its smooth wall, and fell onto the floor, where the <em>reverse gravity</em> effect which ringed the pyramid began to take effect. However, he only made it about 10 feet up before his skeletal body was subsumed into the serpentine form of one of the massive boneyards.</p><p></p><p>"We need to get out of here!" Rale yelled, giving the platform a quick but thorough investigation, for he had seen there were no visible doors along the base of the pyramid. "Aha!" he cried, finding a hidden lever along one of the armrests on the lich's throne. He activated it, and the throne, along with the central section of the pyramid's top, began sinking into the structure.</p><p></p><p>"In here! Quick!" called out the rogue, seeing a stone plate begin to slide into place above them, forming a new ceiling as they submerged. Chalkan and Infernia were already in place; Feron, with Thunderwolf tucked under her arm, soon followed suit. The platform continued to sink, the ceiling slid into place, and the heroes were no longer within reach of the hungry boneyards.</p><p></p><p>"We're going to have to deal with them after we rescue Telgrane," observed Thunderwolf. "We'll need to gather up Delphyne's things." He knew from past experience that the more powerful Guild spellcasters could resurrect Delphyne even without part of her body to work with, but he knew she'd want her broom, her magical robes, and the rest of her gear.</p><p></p><p>"One thing at a time," replied Rale.</p><p></p><p>A set of stairs beckoned down into darkness. Rale led the way, followed by Infernia, whose eagerness to find her Master - if only his body - provided the rogue with a convenient, mobile source of illumination. The first chamber beyond the stairs, which Rale envisioned to be just below the level of the pyramid's floor in the cavern above, was a wide hallway interspersed with six niches spaced equally along the eastern and western walls. Inside each niche was an immobile skeleton, but with wet-looking viscera wrapped around its middle and along each arm; another strand wound up through its lower jaw and protruded like some obscene tongue.</p><p></p><p>"Ranged attackers," commanded Rale, stepping back up the stairway while Thunderwolf and Chalkan stepped forward, bows at the ready. Without entering the room, they each let fly at two of the undead forms in the back of the room. Feron, at the same time, cast a <em>wall of fire</em> along the east side of the room, blasting the three niches and their undead inhabitants with cleansing fire.</p><p></p><p>The response was immediate; the three mohrgs to the east staggered through the flames, while the others stepped out of their niches to the west and raced to attack the heroes. But the adventurers had backed up to the narrow stairs and the mohrgs were forced to fight them one at a time. Under such conditions, they didn't last long. The last one had attacked Infernia, who had moved up to the front of the line of heroes, and while it clawed at her and sent its hideous tongue her way to try to paralyze her - something which was quite impossible to a being comprised entirely of flames - it burned itself to oblivion at the touch of the flames of her body.</p><p></p><p>"Heh," snickered Rale, finding humor in the situation despite their grim task and the toll it had taken thus far. "Stupid bugger licked himself to death."</p><p></p><p>They moved on. Ahead was an arcane library, guarded by two sets of full plate armor that Rale was certain would animate if they passed. Seeing no other ways out of the library, he took a passageway to the west, leaving the library for later. The passageway ahead opened into a diamond shape, with three other passageways extending out from there. Rale insisted upon checking it out carefully, looking for traps, while Infernia seethed impatiently just behind him. Feron, still in air elemental form, took the opportunity to peek down the other hallways. To the south was an "X" shape of niches, each holding the flayed form of a human without any skin remaining, corded muscles exposed in the dim illumination from Infernia's fiery body. To the north was a circular room, the floor of which was inscribed with a familiar summoning circle. To the east was a much larger room; from what she could see of it, it looked to the druid to contain tables to the south and an otherwise open space to the north.</p><p></p><p>"He must be in there!" exclaimed Infernia, stepping forward in her eagerness, only to be stopped by Rale's outstretched (and quickly singed) hand.</p><p></p><p>"Careful!" he replied, sucking his burned fingers. "I don't think there's a floor in the middle of that diamond."</p><p></p><p>"Do not be ridiculous," replied Infernia. "I can see it right there."</p><p></p><p>"Illusion," responded Rale. "I think it's one of those <em>illusory wall</em> spells, only cast sideways over an open pit."</p><p></p><p>"Then I will step around it," announced Infernia, hugging the walls as she made her way into the room she believed her Master to be in. Feron took the opportunity to cast a <em>firestorm</em> spell, engulfing all of the skinless blasphemes and anything inside the room Infernia was headed towards. After all, the druid reasoned, the fire would not harm Infernia, and if Telgrane was really in there he'd be unaffected as well.</p><p></p><p>Infernia stepped into the room, and for a moment she was afraid her Master was in there, for a skeleton engulfed in flames staggered towards her. At first, she thought it might just be due to the lingering remains of Feron's spell, but then she saw the flames were actually emanating from the bones of the skeleton, with fire leaping from the skull's empty eye sockets. "Master?" the fire elemental whimpered, barely noticing the other hulking form in the northern corner of the room, even now bearing down upon her. This was a humanoid figure with spikes protruding from its back and knuckles; fresh corpses hung from its back, each impaled in place by several spikes.</p><p></p><p>Chalkan stepped forward to block the corridor from the advancing blasphemes, for Feron's attack spell had awakened them from their apathy. However, while he peppered the first one with arrows as it approached, the blaspheme struck out, dazing the adventurer while sapping him of some of his strength. The others failed to notice that Chalkan merely stood there, taking repeated blows from the creatures he was attempting to hold off, and hardly even moving while they repeatedly attacked him.</p><p></p><p>The cadaver collector struck out without mercy, dropping Infernia with a pair of well-placed blows from its spike-covered fists while she was still distracted by the blazing skeleton that might very well have once been her Master. The fire elemental fell backwards upon the floor of the short hallway leading into the room, the flames of her body diminishing in size as her life-essence began leaving her body. In moments, she'd be nothing but embers; a few seconds more, and she'd be unliving ash.</p><p></p><p>Rale stepped into the room over Infernia, and was stabbed by a series of the cadaver collector's knuckle-spikes for his trouble. Feron dropped a series of lightning strikes onto the massive thing before it could add Rale to the corpse collection on its back, and saw Telgrane sit up from a table in the back. He brushed off a collection of dusty bones from him as he did so; Feron's earlier <em>firestorm</em> spell had completely destroyed the two curse skeletons that had engulfed the archmage, releasing him from their stasis. As he sat up dizzily from his ordeal, the mental link with his familiar snapped back into place, and he instantly became aware of her impending death. Without a second thought, he cast a <em>limited wish</em> draining himself of some of his vitality in exchange for Infernia's flames blazing forth in full force once again.</p><p></p><p>Infernia sat up and gave a cry of exultation. Almost as an afterthought, she smashed the burning bones skeleton on her way to engulf her beloved Master in a flaming bear hug. Before succumbing to Infernia's fiery embrace, Telgrane cast a shaped <em>meteor swarm</em> spell that took out the cadaver collector before it could add Rale to the pile of corpses on its back.</p><p></p><p>Thunderwolf had in the meantime noticed Chalkan's dire predicament, and was sending a series of arrows plunging into the chest of the closest blaspheme to the still-dazed half-elf. Then Telgrane stepped out of the room in which the lich Aberoth created his various forms of undead, and cast his second spell since being abducted from the elven restaurant in what seemed to him to be mere seconds ago. The blasphemes exploded immediately into flames, staggered to the ground, and burned into blackened husks.</p><p></p><p>"Good to have you back," replied Rale, adding, "Watch out for the floor there." Telgrane looked down at the floor, saw through the <em>illusory wall</em> with his arcane vision, and responded, "Yes, I see. There's a gelatinous cube down there in the pit. Quite nasty."</p><p></p><p>The group caught Telgrane up to speed on what had transpired since his abduction. He, in turn, passed on what he had deduced about the lich responsible for having him abducted. "Remember that fight in the Vecna Library?" he asked. "One of the liches cursed me as his body burned to ashes in one of my <em>wall of fire</em> spells. We never did find his lair or his phylactery. I believe this was his 'curse' -- capturing me, no doubt to turn me into some sort of undead being for the effrontery of having destroyed him earlier. I'd be willing to bet he'd have turned me into a 'blazing bones' skeleton, too, no doubt to see what difference starting out with a half-fire elemental might make."</p><p></p><p>There were still two areas the group hadn't explored yet: the arcane library and whatever extended down the corridor beyond where the blasphemes had stood in their niches. They chose the latter, walking past the burned blasphemes to another circular room, this one much smaller and holding only a stone statue depicting Vecna, God of Secrets, against the far wall. One of his eyes blazed with the light of a glowing gemstone.</p><p></p><p>"Let me check this out," said Rale, stepping forward into the room once he had given the floor, walls, and ceiling a quick perusal to see if there were any traps waiting for him. As soon as he stepped into the room, a beam of light shot out from the gem in Vecna's eye, piercing the rogue and preventing him from stepping further into the room. Rale also felt the telltale tingling sensation that experience had told him was an attempt to drain him of his life energy. But this was having no such effect, for one of Rale's preparations before willingly entering the crypt of a lich had been to read the contents of a <em>death ward</em> spell, preventing his life energy from being drained.</p><p></p><p>"Is that all you got?" he yelled at the unmoving statue, gathering his will to fight against the force that was preventing him from moving forward. It took all of his strength, but he finally managed to fight his way forward enough to snag the gem out of Vecna's eye socket, at which time the beam extinguished and the rogue found he could move normally again.</p><p></p><p>"Who'd like to do the honors?" Rale asked, flipping the gem to the others.</p><p></p><p>"I would!" replied Infernia enthusiastically, snatching the gem from the air. Rale smiled and tossed her the hammer he used to pound in pitons. She grabbed it up, dropped the gemstone phylactery to the stone floor, and smashed down viciously with the hammer. It may have only been her imagination, but she thought she may have heard a scream of "Nooooooo!" as the phylactery shattered and Aberoth's sentience dissipated into the ether, his soul being sent onto whatever afterlife he'd successfully avoided for centuries.</p><p></p><p>"NOBODY harms my Master!" she said down at the shattered crystal, her blazing eyes squinting in anger.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The rest of the adventure was mostly clean-up in nature. The two suits of armor were death knights, but they were taken down easily at range with spells. The PCs grabbed up the contents of Aberoth's library, intending to pass them on to the Church of Boccob. In doing so, they found two fake books, one containing several vials of <em>silversheen</em> and <em>oils of timelessness</em>, the other a small fortune in gems. We just hand-waved the slaying of the boneyards, once Telgrane was revived and would be able to throw several 9th-level spells at them. They also figured out how the curse skeletons (and Aberoth) were able to teleport out of the crypt when all other attempts at teleportation were doomed to failure: they had magical gems inside their skulls which "pierced" the teleport-redirect that sent anyone directly to the base of the pyramid, despite their intentions. So, pilfering one of the gems, they were able to teleport home.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne was later restored via <em>true resurrection</em> -- it's an expensive spell, but the players hate losing levels of hard-earned experience, and at this stage of the campaign the 25,000 gp cost is mostly negligible. But Vicki was very upset that Delphyne had been slain, especially after she had agreed just to be their transportation and then return back to HQ as a "ready reserve" member. Of course, I knew that once they arrived they'd be caught up in the <em>reverse gravity</em>/boneyard trap, and that she wouldn't be able to leave until the PCs figured out the effects of the magical gemstones that allowed them to teleport out of the crypt, but I held my tongue. I did NOT expect her to be slain so quickly, but we've always been a "let the dice fall where they may" type of gaming group.</p><p></p><p>When I originally wrote this adventure, I had no idea which PC would be targeted, as we hadn't played through "Eye of Vecna" yet and I wasn't sure which PC would be responsible for Aberoth's death. Once I learned it was Telgrane, though, I added the blazing bones skeleton in Aberoth's undead lab, specifically to screw with the players, who would (hopefully) worry that that was indeed Telgrane's new undead form. It turns out I did indeed make Logan very nervous; he was afraid Telgrane would go the way of Akari and he'd have no high-level PCs to run for the rest of the campaign. In the meantime, he ran Infernia as a replacement PC for the bulk of this adventure, and discovered she's pretty bad-ass for someone with only 43 hit points at the equivalent of 19th level. (But he's still much happier running both Telgrane and Infernia than just Infernia.)</p><p></p><p>We played this adventure over two gaming sessions: at the end of the first session, taking us up to Telgrane's actual abduction; and then yesterday we finished it up and started our next adventure. It was a short session, as Jacob had signed up for a "Magic: the Gathering" tournament that required him to leave at 4:45 PM. (Our gaming sessions start at noon.) So we marked down the locations of the PCs and their enemies, and we'll pick it up the next time we play, right now scheduled for 11 April 15.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6567397, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 92: THE CURSE OF ABEROTH[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)/arch-witch Feron Dru, half-elf druid Rale Bodkin, human rogue Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] "I'm afraid we cannot accept your money," said the elven restaurant owner as he ushered the heroes into the open-air seating section of the walled garden behind the building. "Not for the heroes of the Cathedral of Correleon!" Like many of the elves in Greyhawk City, he felt a deep debt of gratitude toward the heroes who had prevented a drow attack on the cathedral many months ago that would have killed off the majority of the elven population in the city. "Here is some chilled wine while you make your selections," he said, passing menus among the party of five and then distributing glasses of a dark, red wine. Sure enough, the glasses had been chilled with a [i]prestidigitation[/i] spell. "This is very nice," said Feron, sipping the elven vintage as she looked over the menu. "I could get used to this," admitted Rale, mentally calculating how many times he could swing by for some free food before he wore out his welcome. Alas, the quiet outing did not last for very long. The five heroes hadn't even decided upon their meals when a sudden disruption caused the other customers to scream, leap out of their chairs, and flee for the exits. Looking up from their menus, they saw the reason for the commotion: a skeleton had suddenly appeared in the middle of the walled garden. It stood in a half-crouched position as if ready to pounce and slowly scanned the area. Then, locking eyes with Telgrane - a rather curious turn of phrase, come to think of it, given that neither the skeleton nor the archmage had eyes in the classical sense anymore - it raced toward its prey, arms outstretched. The heroes were without their traditional armor but they had long since learned never to go anywhere without at least some form of protection. Thunderwolf leaped up from his chair, grabbing for his bow and pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back. Chalkan followed suit, and the two sent arrows flying somewhat ineffectually bouncing off the skeleton's bones. The undead creature seemed to have specifically targeted Telgrane, despite the fact that he was seated at the far side of the table and there were closer heroes it could have attacked. Instead, it leaped up onto the table and launched itself at the surprised archmage, who barely had time to cast a spell in his own defense. But with his archmage training, he managed to cast a fireball at nearly point-blank range and still manage to shape its area of effect to avoid hitting his friends in the blast. The skeleton took the fiery explosion smack-dab in the middle of its grinning skull and collapsed into a pile of bones on the far side of the table from Telgrane, who had finally managed to extricate himself from his chair in the meantime. "What was that all about?" wondered Feron, sending her eagle, Felix, to reconnoiter the area in case there was someone nearby who had summoned the skeleton and sent it after the heroes. The proud bird leaped from the back of Feron's chair and took wing. "No idea -- but I don't think it's over yet," replied Rale. "Look!" The rogue was pointing down at the skeleton's remains, now a pile of loose bones. They started bouncing around on the garden floor as if a tremor preceding an earthquake were starting up. But there was no earthquake; only the bones were affected. They bounced higher and higher, and then suddenly sprung up fully from the ground, forming [i]two[/i] complete skeletons. They crouched, skulls scanning for the enemy -- and then simultaneously focused on Telgrane. With an eerie mirroring of motion, they leaped to attack the archmage. Telgrane opted not to reply with another spell; instead, he flipped open the tinder box he wore at his belt. A series of embers arced out of the metal box, hitting the garden floor and bursting into flame, coalescing into a 9-foot-tall female humanoid form with twin horns curving up from her brow. Infernia looked at the approaching skeletons and pushed Telgrane behind her protectively. "I will defeat them, Master!" she promised. Rale, meanwhile, opted to try to figure out why this was occurring. And the best way to do that, he reasoned, was to ensure he was an unnoticed observer. Activating one of the powers of his [i]rod of thievery[/i], he cloaked himself in invisibility and stepped aside. Regretting his inability to strike undead beings in the same manner as he could living foes, he nonetheless armed himself with his favorite short sword. Infernia's flaming fists pounded one of the skeletons into so many bone fragments, and Rale nervously waited to see if the pile would rise up again as two separate skeletons. But fortunately it did no such thing. Thunderwolf and Chalkan continued their arrow barrages at the remaining skeleton, doing little overall damage. Feron was without her normal dragonscale armor and had none of her weapons, but that hardly meant she was unarmed or unable to assist in a combat. Wildshaping into an air elemental, she reached over and grabbed up the skeleton, flinging it up over her head and smashing it down onto the floor, where it shattered into hundreds of fragments. Now that both skeletons had been destroyed, the bone fragments of each started bouncing. This time, knowing ahead of time what was going to happen, the heroes could see that with each bounce, the shattered bones merged back together, healing up the damage they had sustained, all the while drawing closer together with each bounce. And then, all at once, the bones bounced back into full skeletons -- only now there were [i]four[/i] of them. "I do not understand this, Master!" complained Infernia. "We'll figure it out!" promised Telgrane. "I think I can contain them," announced Feron, casting a [i]wall of fire[/i] spell in such a way to completely encircle the four animated skeletons while they were still somewhat close together, with the heat energy of the flames aimed inwards. The heroes tensed, waiting to see what would happen. They didn't have long to wait, for the four skeletons leaped through the flames with no regard for their own safety, each of them making a bee-line towards Telgrane. "What did you do to these guys to tick them off so bad?" asked Thunderwolf, dropping his bow and unsheathing Xanthros, hoping his enchanted blade would have better effect on these tougher-than-normal skeletons. "No idea, but I appreciate you guys keeping them away from me!" Telgrane said, backing up to the restaurant wall. Then, seeing the incoming skeletons scurrying around the protective ring of allies to get to him, he followed Feron's lead and cast a [i]wall of fire[/i] in a half-circle around himself, with the heat energy of the flames aimed outwards, away from himself, hopefully causing the skeletons to have second thoughts before piercing the wall to get to him. "Hey!" complained Chalkan, as the heat from Telgrane's [i]wall of fire[/i] started burning his shirt. The group had become accustomed to Telgrane shaping his spells so as to avoid his allies; it had been quite some time since he'd forgotten to do so. "Sorry!" called out Telgrane from inside his protective arc of fire. Rale activated his [i]winged boots[/i] and flew up to the restaurant roof, the better to see if anyone nearby was paying special attention to this ruckus in the back garden of an elven restaurant. He also pulled out a scroll of [i]magic circle against evil[/i] and activated it by reciting the arcane words inscribed upon it, thinking that if these skeletons were indeed summoned creatures, he could keep them from getting to Telgrane if he was within range. To that end, he moved along the roof until he was standing just behind and above Telgrane, hopefully safe in his fiery cocoon on the ground below. Infernia and Feron swatted the approaching skeletons, but they couldn't prevent two of them from piercing Telgrane's protective [i]wall of fire[/i], even if it meant their own destruction immediately thereafter. But one of the reasons they were so determined to get within visual distance with the archmage became apparent, as a familiar greenish glow suffused Telgrane's body. "[i]Dimensional anchor[/i]!" exclaimed Telgrane, recognizing the spell's effects. It had never even occurred to him to "bink" back to Headquarters; now that option was apparently out of reach, for he had neglected to prepare any [i]dispel magic[/i] spells that morning. Feron bashed the last of the quartet of skeletons into smithereens, and once again the bone-bouncing began, just outside the confines of Telgrane's [i]wall of fire[/i] spell, so as the eight skeletons rose up half of them were already taking damage. Each looked straight into the solid sheets of vertical flames as if they could see the archmage hidden within. Then, suddenly, they switched tactics. Four of the skeletons broke ranks and approached the restaurant wall, two on either side of the semicircular [i]wall of flames[/i]. The first in line steadied itself against the wall, while the other behind it ran up its back and pulled itself up onto the roof. Rale soon found himself flanked by two skeletons who apparently didn't even realize he was there. He stepped back nonetheless, since it was apparent his [i]magic circle against evil[/i] wasn't doing anything to keep them at bay. Infernia continued bashing away at the skeletons even now approaching her master, and Thunderwolf and Chalkan continued with their weapon attacks. But Feron decided to call in for some reinforcements; casting the words to a summoning spell, two massive earth elementals rose up out of the garden floor and began smashing those skeletons remaining. Neither skeleton on the ground was able to take the pounding of more than one set of clublike fists before being scattered into so many bone fragments, but by that time, the two skeletons that had made it to the roof had just about completed their mission. The first leapt down at Telgrane, grappling him with its bony fists and then, to the archmage's consternation, with the bones of its rib cage, which opened up like a Venus flytrap to engulf him. "I will save you, Master!" called out Infernia, stooping over to pick up both Telgrane and the skeleton that had wrapped itself almost completely around him. She pulled him toward her, out of the encompassing [i]wall of fire[/i], but then a strange thing happened: she had no sooner pulled him through the flames than he disappeared from her grasp, passing forward through the restaurant wall and falling back into his original position. As one of his last actions, Telgrane tried plunging himself and his undead attacker off to the side, only to find himself passing through the upright plane of fire to his left and falling back into place by passing through the flames to his right. [i]Some sort of recursion field[/i], he thought to himself, as the skeleton continued binding him tighter with its own bones. Just as the first skeleton had Telgrane just about completely immobilized, the second one leapt down and joined the grapple, engulfing the archmage from the other side. Telgrane felt nothing; he was caught in a stasislike effect that not only completely immobilized him but also cut him off mentally from his familiar. "MASTER!" called out Infernia in shock as she no longer felt Telgrane's presence over the mental link they shared. The twin skeletons then mentally deactivated the [i]dimensional anchor[/i] effect upon their prey and teleported away. When Infernia pushed her head back into the [i]wall of fire[/i], Telgrane was gone. - - - Back at Headquarters, the five heroes rapidly explained to the others what had happened while gathering up their armor and the rest of their adventuring gear. Delphyne offered to use her [i]crystal ball[/i] to scry upon Telgrane, while Cal cast a [i]discern location[/i] to try to locate the missing archmage. "He's hundreds of miles from here," the cleric announced, puzzled, just as Delphyne said, "I'm getting something." The others gathered around the witch to peer into the [i]crystal ball[/i]. Telgrane, still bound in the bones of the two skeletons intertwined around him, stood at the top of a flattened pyramid in an underground cavern, before another undead figure whose robes declared him to likely be a lich. The lich was speaking from a carved throne, but Delphyne's scrying device had no audio features and the heroes had no idea what was being said. But the lich had apparently given a command, for the two skeletons and their immobilized prey instantly vanished from sight, teleporting away. The image in the [i]crystal ball[/i] followed Telgrane for a brief moment, just enough for the heroes to see the skeletons climbing up onto a table among a group of half-dissected corpses, before breaking up into static. "That other room's likely shielded from scrying," Delphyne explained. "We'll need to [i]teleport[/i] over there," reasoned Rale. "Delphyne, do you have that spell at hand? You can return immediately." The arch-witch readily agreed. "Where shall I take us? To the lich, or to Telgrane?" she asked. "To Telgrane," replied Rale immediately, already taking charge of the rescue operation. "We'll deal with the lich after we've made sure Telgrane's okay." The standard preparing-for-battle spells were cast (all but [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i], which Telgrane habitually cast upon the group). Delphyne then cast a [i]greater teleport[/i] spell and the assembled group found themselves at the base of the pyramid, among scattered bones, with the lich looking down at them from his throne. All around them a loud alarm blared, announcing their sudden intrusion. "I said take us to Telgrane!" groused Rale. "I did!" argued Delphyne. "There must be a teleport redirect effect in here!" There was no further time for arguments, for the bones all started bouncing. "Oh, no!" cried out the heroes in unison, imagining a virtual army of the skeletal kidnappers manifesting from the numerous bones scattered along all sides of the pyramid. But that wasn't what happened. After a few initial bounces, the bones all started falling upwards, taking their respective positions until they had formed a pair of massive, snakelike creatures made entirely of the disparate bones of a great number of different types of creatures. Delphyne recognized them at once. "Boneyards!" she cried. "But much bigger than the ones we've seen before!" But that was all there was time to say before gravity suddenly reversed itself underneath their feet. The heroes went flying 40 feet into the air before slamming painfully into the ceiling. At least most of them did; Delphyne grabbed her [i]broom of flying[/i] from its sheath on her back, and while she didn't manage to sit upon it like normal, she was at least able to hang onto it with one hand while she hung, upside down, about halfway between floor and ceiling. Rale, wearing his [i]winged boots[/i], managed to flip himself over in midair and prevent himself from crashing into the cavern ceiling, hovering in place while he tried to keep an eye on the two advancing boneyards. The [i]reverse gravity[/i] was affecting them as well, but their serpentine bodies were so long they managed to coil from floor to ceiling and back again; it didn't seem to matter to them which way was currently up. As Thunderwolf and Chalkan pulled out their drow [i]floatdisks[/i], Feron wildshaped back into air elemental form, the better to maneuver in this strange new environment. And as the heroes reoriented themselves to the shifting gravity, the boneyards struck. The first snapped at Thunderwolf, mere seconds after he had gotten onto his [i]floatdisk[/i]. Teeth made of sharpened splinters of arm-bones dug into his flesh, but he managed to twist out of the creature's mouth without falling off his transport disk. The other made its way towards Delphyne, who was pulling herself up onto her broom. "Bink away!" cried Rale, fearing for the witch's safety -- especially after she was simply supposed to have transported the rest of them here and returned to backup duty at Guild Headquarters. Delphyne started the words to a spell, but was quickly engulfed by the boneyard before she could finish its casting. She felt the massive creature's makeshift teeth sink deep into her flesh, and then she felt an even greater pain as her own bones were shattered all over her body and forcibly ripped through her flesh to merge with the undead monstrosity that was killing her. As her final action, she frantically tried activating the Guild ring which would "bink" her back home, but for whatever reason it had no effect. In a single moment, Delphyne the arch-witch had been slain; her broom dropped from bloody, boneless hands to fall to the ceiling above. Infernia had no bones and thus had nothing to worry about the boneyards' horrific attack, but could still be slain by them. However, she recognized them for what they were: mere bodyguards. She was after the one behind her Master's kidnapping (and possibly death, although the fire elemental didn't want to think about that possibility), and the lich looked like her best bet. She raced along the ceiling, and then at the point directly above the base of the pyramid, leaped "up" - from her point of view, in any case, as she was upside down - and twisted her body as gravity shifted in mid-leap, landing unsteadily upon the platform in front of the lich. "What have you done with my Master?" she demanded as she regained her balance and equilibrium. Chalkan maneuvered his [i]floatdisk[/i] out of the snapping jaws of the boneyard that had slain Delphyne and sent a [i]scorching ray[/i] down at the lich. All three of his rays struck true, visibly blasting into the undead spellcaster's body to horrific effect. Thunderwolf, however, was being chewed up by the other boneyard, and although he had been able to resist having his bones crushed and absorbed into the monstrosity, it was likely only a matter of time. Feron saw the truth of the matter and went flying over to aid him, lest he end up sharing Delphyne's sad fate. She snatched up the young fighter in an arm made of rapidly-spinning air, then dragged him away from the hungry boneyard. Rale, in the meantime, had flown down to the pyramid's flat top and attacked the lich with his sword, recently upgraded to an undead bane weapon. The lich staggered back from the rogue's blows, and then the blast of energy from Infernia's [i]circlet of blasting[/i] sent him flying backwards into oblivion. He toppled from the pyramid, slid down its smooth wall, and fell onto the floor, where the [i]reverse gravity[/i] effect which ringed the pyramid began to take effect. However, he only made it about 10 feet up before his skeletal body was subsumed into the serpentine form of one of the massive boneyards. "We need to get out of here!" Rale yelled, giving the platform a quick but thorough investigation, for he had seen there were no visible doors along the base of the pyramid. "Aha!" he cried, finding a hidden lever along one of the armrests on the lich's throne. He activated it, and the throne, along with the central section of the pyramid's top, began sinking into the structure. "In here! Quick!" called out the rogue, seeing a stone plate begin to slide into place above them, forming a new ceiling as they submerged. Chalkan and Infernia were already in place; Feron, with Thunderwolf tucked under her arm, soon followed suit. The platform continued to sink, the ceiling slid into place, and the heroes were no longer within reach of the hungry boneyards. "We're going to have to deal with them after we rescue Telgrane," observed Thunderwolf. "We'll need to gather up Delphyne's things." He knew from past experience that the more powerful Guild spellcasters could resurrect Delphyne even without part of her body to work with, but he knew she'd want her broom, her magical robes, and the rest of her gear. "One thing at a time," replied Rale. A set of stairs beckoned down into darkness. Rale led the way, followed by Infernia, whose eagerness to find her Master - if only his body - provided the rogue with a convenient, mobile source of illumination. The first chamber beyond the stairs, which Rale envisioned to be just below the level of the pyramid's floor in the cavern above, was a wide hallway interspersed with six niches spaced equally along the eastern and western walls. Inside each niche was an immobile skeleton, but with wet-looking viscera wrapped around its middle and along each arm; another strand wound up through its lower jaw and protruded like some obscene tongue. "Ranged attackers," commanded Rale, stepping back up the stairway while Thunderwolf and Chalkan stepped forward, bows at the ready. Without entering the room, they each let fly at two of the undead forms in the back of the room. Feron, at the same time, cast a [i]wall of fire[/i] along the east side of the room, blasting the three niches and their undead inhabitants with cleansing fire. The response was immediate; the three mohrgs to the east staggered through the flames, while the others stepped out of their niches to the west and raced to attack the heroes. But the adventurers had backed up to the narrow stairs and the mohrgs were forced to fight them one at a time. Under such conditions, they didn't last long. The last one had attacked Infernia, who had moved up to the front of the line of heroes, and while it clawed at her and sent its hideous tongue her way to try to paralyze her - something which was quite impossible to a being comprised entirely of flames - it burned itself to oblivion at the touch of the flames of her body. "Heh," snickered Rale, finding humor in the situation despite their grim task and the toll it had taken thus far. "Stupid bugger licked himself to death." They moved on. Ahead was an arcane library, guarded by two sets of full plate armor that Rale was certain would animate if they passed. Seeing no other ways out of the library, he took a passageway to the west, leaving the library for later. The passageway ahead opened into a diamond shape, with three other passageways extending out from there. Rale insisted upon checking it out carefully, looking for traps, while Infernia seethed impatiently just behind him. Feron, still in air elemental form, took the opportunity to peek down the other hallways. To the south was an "X" shape of niches, each holding the flayed form of a human without any skin remaining, corded muscles exposed in the dim illumination from Infernia's fiery body. To the north was a circular room, the floor of which was inscribed with a familiar summoning circle. To the east was a much larger room; from what she could see of it, it looked to the druid to contain tables to the south and an otherwise open space to the north. "He must be in there!" exclaimed Infernia, stepping forward in her eagerness, only to be stopped by Rale's outstretched (and quickly singed) hand. "Careful!" he replied, sucking his burned fingers. "I don't think there's a floor in the middle of that diamond." "Do not be ridiculous," replied Infernia. "I can see it right there." "Illusion," responded Rale. "I think it's one of those [i]illusory wall[/i] spells, only cast sideways over an open pit." "Then I will step around it," announced Infernia, hugging the walls as she made her way into the room she believed her Master to be in. Feron took the opportunity to cast a [i]firestorm[/i] spell, engulfing all of the skinless blasphemes and anything inside the room Infernia was headed towards. After all, the druid reasoned, the fire would not harm Infernia, and if Telgrane was really in there he'd be unaffected as well. Infernia stepped into the room, and for a moment she was afraid her Master was in there, for a skeleton engulfed in flames staggered towards her. At first, she thought it might just be due to the lingering remains of Feron's spell, but then she saw the flames were actually emanating from the bones of the skeleton, with fire leaping from the skull's empty eye sockets. "Master?" the fire elemental whimpered, barely noticing the other hulking form in the northern corner of the room, even now bearing down upon her. This was a humanoid figure with spikes protruding from its back and knuckles; fresh corpses hung from its back, each impaled in place by several spikes. Chalkan stepped forward to block the corridor from the advancing blasphemes, for Feron's attack spell had awakened them from their apathy. However, while he peppered the first one with arrows as it approached, the blaspheme struck out, dazing the adventurer while sapping him of some of his strength. The others failed to notice that Chalkan merely stood there, taking repeated blows from the creatures he was attempting to hold off, and hardly even moving while they repeatedly attacked him. The cadaver collector struck out without mercy, dropping Infernia with a pair of well-placed blows from its spike-covered fists while she was still distracted by the blazing skeleton that might very well have once been her Master. The fire elemental fell backwards upon the floor of the short hallway leading into the room, the flames of her body diminishing in size as her life-essence began leaving her body. In moments, she'd be nothing but embers; a few seconds more, and she'd be unliving ash. Rale stepped into the room over Infernia, and was stabbed by a series of the cadaver collector's knuckle-spikes for his trouble. Feron dropped a series of lightning strikes onto the massive thing before it could add Rale to the corpse collection on its back, and saw Telgrane sit up from a table in the back. He brushed off a collection of dusty bones from him as he did so; Feron's earlier [i]firestorm[/i] spell had completely destroyed the two curse skeletons that had engulfed the archmage, releasing him from their stasis. As he sat up dizzily from his ordeal, the mental link with his familiar snapped back into place, and he instantly became aware of her impending death. Without a second thought, he cast a [i]limited wish[/i] draining himself of some of his vitality in exchange for Infernia's flames blazing forth in full force once again. Infernia sat up and gave a cry of exultation. Almost as an afterthought, she smashed the burning bones skeleton on her way to engulf her beloved Master in a flaming bear hug. Before succumbing to Infernia's fiery embrace, Telgrane cast a shaped [i]meteor swarm[/i] spell that took out the cadaver collector before it could add Rale to the pile of corpses on its back. Thunderwolf had in the meantime noticed Chalkan's dire predicament, and was sending a series of arrows plunging into the chest of the closest blaspheme to the still-dazed half-elf. Then Telgrane stepped out of the room in which the lich Aberoth created his various forms of undead, and cast his second spell since being abducted from the elven restaurant in what seemed to him to be mere seconds ago. The blasphemes exploded immediately into flames, staggered to the ground, and burned into blackened husks. "Good to have you back," replied Rale, adding, "Watch out for the floor there." Telgrane looked down at the floor, saw through the [i]illusory wall[/i] with his arcane vision, and responded, "Yes, I see. There's a gelatinous cube down there in the pit. Quite nasty." The group caught Telgrane up to speed on what had transpired since his abduction. He, in turn, passed on what he had deduced about the lich responsible for having him abducted. "Remember that fight in the Vecna Library?" he asked. "One of the liches cursed me as his body burned to ashes in one of my [i]wall of fire[/i] spells. We never did find his lair or his phylactery. I believe this was his 'curse' -- capturing me, no doubt to turn me into some sort of undead being for the effrontery of having destroyed him earlier. I'd be willing to bet he'd have turned me into a 'blazing bones' skeleton, too, no doubt to see what difference starting out with a half-fire elemental might make." There were still two areas the group hadn't explored yet: the arcane library and whatever extended down the corridor beyond where the blasphemes had stood in their niches. They chose the latter, walking past the burned blasphemes to another circular room, this one much smaller and holding only a stone statue depicting Vecna, God of Secrets, against the far wall. One of his eyes blazed with the light of a glowing gemstone. "Let me check this out," said Rale, stepping forward into the room once he had given the floor, walls, and ceiling a quick perusal to see if there were any traps waiting for him. As soon as he stepped into the room, a beam of light shot out from the gem in Vecna's eye, piercing the rogue and preventing him from stepping further into the room. Rale also felt the telltale tingling sensation that experience had told him was an attempt to drain him of his life energy. But this was having no such effect, for one of Rale's preparations before willingly entering the crypt of a lich had been to read the contents of a [i]death ward[/i] spell, preventing his life energy from being drained. "Is that all you got?" he yelled at the unmoving statue, gathering his will to fight against the force that was preventing him from moving forward. It took all of his strength, but he finally managed to fight his way forward enough to snag the gem out of Vecna's eye socket, at which time the beam extinguished and the rogue found he could move normally again. "Who'd like to do the honors?" Rale asked, flipping the gem to the others. "I would!" replied Infernia enthusiastically, snatching the gem from the air. Rale smiled and tossed her the hammer he used to pound in pitons. She grabbed it up, dropped the gemstone phylactery to the stone floor, and smashed down viciously with the hammer. It may have only been her imagination, but she thought she may have heard a scream of "Nooooooo!" as the phylactery shattered and Aberoth's sentience dissipated into the ether, his soul being sent onto whatever afterlife he'd successfully avoided for centuries. "NOBODY harms my Master!" she said down at the shattered crystal, her blazing eyes squinting in anger. - - - The rest of the adventure was mostly clean-up in nature. The two suits of armor were death knights, but they were taken down easily at range with spells. The PCs grabbed up the contents of Aberoth's library, intending to pass them on to the Church of Boccob. In doing so, they found two fake books, one containing several vials of [i]silversheen[/i] and [i]oils of timelessness[/i], the other a small fortune in gems. We just hand-waved the slaying of the boneyards, once Telgrane was revived and would be able to throw several 9th-level spells at them. They also figured out how the curse skeletons (and Aberoth) were able to teleport out of the crypt when all other attempts at teleportation were doomed to failure: they had magical gems inside their skulls which "pierced" the teleport-redirect that sent anyone directly to the base of the pyramid, despite their intentions. So, pilfering one of the gems, they were able to teleport home. Delphyne was later restored via [i]true resurrection[/i] -- it's an expensive spell, but the players hate losing levels of hard-earned experience, and at this stage of the campaign the 25,000 gp cost is mostly negligible. But Vicki was very upset that Delphyne had been slain, especially after she had agreed just to be their transportation and then return back to HQ as a "ready reserve" member. Of course, I knew that once they arrived they'd be caught up in the [i]reverse gravity[/i]/boneyard trap, and that she wouldn't be able to leave until the PCs figured out the effects of the magical gemstones that allowed them to teleport out of the crypt, but I held my tongue. I did NOT expect her to be slain so quickly, but we've always been a "let the dice fall where they may" type of gaming group. When I originally wrote this adventure, I had no idea which PC would be targeted, as we hadn't played through "Eye of Vecna" yet and I wasn't sure which PC would be responsible for Aberoth's death. Once I learned it was Telgrane, though, I added the blazing bones skeleton in Aberoth's undead lab, specifically to screw with the players, who would (hopefully) worry that that was indeed Telgrane's new undead form. It turns out I did indeed make Logan very nervous; he was afraid Telgrane would go the way of Akari and he'd have no high-level PCs to run for the rest of the campaign. In the meantime, he ran Infernia as a replacement PC for the bulk of this adventure, and discovered she's pretty bad-ass for someone with only 43 hit points at the equivalent of 19th level. (But he's still much happier running both Telgrane and Infernia than just Infernia.) We played this adventure over two gaming sessions: at the end of the first session, taking us up to Telgrane's actual abduction; and then yesterday we finished it up and started our next adventure. It was a short session, as Jacob had signed up for a "Magic: the Gathering" tournament that required him to leave at 4:45 PM. (Our gaming sessions start at noon.) So we marked down the locations of the PCs and their enemies, and we'll pick it up the next time we play, right now scheduled for 11 April 15. [/QUOTE]
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