ADVENTURE 18: INVITATION FROM THE UNDERWORLD
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 19 August 2017
- - -
The troll airship landed gracefully just outside the entrance to the Skylanders Academy building and the three heroes hopped out. Strolling through the doors, Baabby once again frightened poor Hugo half out of his skin and the bespectacled Mabu went racing through the hallways screaming about the upcoming Sheepocalypse.
"Ah," said Master Eon to himself, hearing his assistant flee screaming from the front doors. "Baabby must be back from his voyage to the Twin Kingdoms of Twilight. I hope everything went well."
Meeting the heroes in the reception room, Master Eon listened with gladness about the success of their latest mission. "I am pleased you were able to bring peace to the Twilight Kingdoms," he said. "I, too, have news to share - but I fear mine is not nearly as pleasant."
"Is Shelldon okay?" gasped Sam.
"He's fine," reassured the aged Portal Master. "But it's about Shelldon - or rather, Xacho - that I must speak to you about." Sam gulped loudly and prepared himself for the worst.
"First of all, he remains trapped in the shape of a snail. Our attempts to restore him to his normal human form have thus far failed." Sam breathed a sigh of relief; Shelldon was safe and still his pet snail - so far so good. "However," added Master Eon, "we have learned a few more things about the curse Xacho was placed under.
"First of all, there seems to be only two potential avenues of returning him to his normal form. The first is to convince the one who cursed him into snail form to reverse the spell."
"Thaat would be the Devourer of Nightmares," said Baabby.
"Fat chance there," scoffed Sam. "I don't think Don would ever do that."
"Nor, sadly, do I," admitted Master Eon.
"What's the second possibility?" asked Sapphrina.
"The second possibility is that Xacho will return to his human form once the individual who cursed him into snail form is slain."
"I like that plan a lot better!" enthused Sam.
"Me too!" agreed Baabby.
"It sounds like 'Plan B' for the win," added Sapphrina.
"There's more," added Master Eon, frowning. "As a snail, Xacho has been cursed with immortality - the better to torment the man who greatly feared snails. Once that curse has been lifted, and Xacho's snail form is no more, his immortality will likewise be gone."
"So he'll live out the rest of his days as a human," said Sam. "That's not so bad. You humans are okay by me."
"Unfortunately, once his immortality is gone, he will revert to his true age," said Master Eon. "He will regain his human form - and then age several thousand years in a mere moment. Within seconds of having the curse removed, Xacho will be dead. And there's nothing we can do about it, I'm afraid."
"Well, wait a minute," argued Sapphrina. "There is one thing we can do about it - just not lift the curse."
"That would mean letting Don live!" argued Sam. "That won't work - he's gotta die, or he'll kill everybody else if he ever gets free!"
"You mean slaying the Devourer of Nightmares will restore Xacho, but restoring Xacho means he dies seconds thereafter?" the fairy asked incredulously. "And there's no way around it?"
Master Eon looked sadly at the three heroes. "I'm afraid not."
"Does...does Shelldon know about this?" asked Sam.
Master Eon looked over at the little crow, and a half smile formed along one side. "He does," the wizard said. "Using magic, I've been able to talk to him about it, and he knows the ramifications of your intended course of action."
"And...?" prompted Sam.
"And I'm happy to report that Xacho wishes to live out the rest of his days as Shelldon, your pet snail," Master Eon said. "Furthermore, he asked to be allowed to travel with you once again - specifically, upon the position of honor on your left shoulder. It seems he wishes to see his life's work completed, even if he isn't the one wielding his blade this time around. And," Master Eon smiled quietly to himself, "he appears to quite enjoy your sense of humor, Sam."
"I knew it!" Sam cried. "I knew he was an excellent judge of character the minute I first saw him on that beach!" Sapphrina just rolled her eyes in disbelief, but she was glad to hear that Xacho supported their plans. And if they could use magic to speak with him, he might be able to advise them as they took steps to take down the Devourer of Nightmares once and for all.
"Can I see him?" asked Sam Crow eagerly.
"But of course." Master Eon tapped his staff on the floor, and the door opened up. Hugo entered, one hand delicately holding Shelldon, the other held up to shield his eyes from having to look at Baabby too closely - his overwhelming fear of sheep made him enormously uncomfortable in the presence of the hulking baabarian.
"Shelldon!" Sam cried, taking the snail from the Mabu's hand and placing him on his left shoulder. "Glad to see you, buddy!" Then, he added, "If you're glad to see me too, then just hold still and don't say anything!" Shelldon didn't move, nor did he speak, leaving a grinning Sam to exclaim, "I knew it! He missed me!"
Master Eon allowed the heroes to greet Xacho for a few moments before mentioning the other point of interest. "During your sojourn to the Twilight Kingdoms, we received a letter from Queen Necrotifi of the Kingdom of Anubiset. She sends word that her lands are under attack - and also that she had expected a visit from 'Xacho's assistants' a week ago, and did we have any idea why they might be late?"
"Oh dear," replied Sapphrina.
"Xaacho's aassistaants?'" repeated Baabby. "Does she mean us?"
"What, we had an appointment with another Queen? I don't remember any appointment with a Queen." He narrowed his beady, black eyes. "Wait, is this another prophecy? What is it this time, 'The Tardy Sheep and the Fashionably Late Crow' or something?"
"I know the Kingdom of Anubiset," replied Sapphrina. "I've been there in the past, with Xacho. It's on the other side of the Gate of Death, in the Underworld. We'll need to wear special Death Masks if we even hope to survive."
"Well, that sounds pleasant," griped Sam.
"Do you know this Queen Necrotifi?" asked Baabby.
"NO, I'm afraid she's after my time," replied the fairy. "But Anubiset helped Xacho and I on our quest when we were first empowering the Rift-Weaver's Blade. I feel I owe it to her kingdom to help."
"But..." began Sam.
"Good enough for me," replied Baabby. "Let's go, guys!"
"But..." added Sam.
"Let's go, Sam!" repeated Baabby, as he and Sapphrina sprinted back to the airship. Sam grumbled the whole way, struggling to catch up.
- - -
The airship came to a landing on a bleak and forlorn floating island. The ground was the color of dust; gray clouds blocked out most of the sun but didn't threaten rain so much as refuse to give forth the cleansing waters they no doubt contained.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Sam asked. "What was all that talk about Death Masks?"
"We won't need them quite yet," Sapphrina replied. "We need to follow the Path of Skulls to the Bridge of Bones. We'll need to pick up some Death Masks before we cross the Bridge of Bones, because the living cannot exist on the other side of the Dark Waters of Shrieking Souls."
"That all sounds horrible!" argued Sam. "Couldn't we take a shortcut through, like, the Path of Mild Stomach Irritation or something?"
"This way," said the fairy, ignoring the little crow's protests as usual. Baabby followed Sapphrina, walking with confidence, but he did have the Rift-Weaver's Blade unsheathed and ready at hand, just in case.
Sam followed, looking down at the bone-white cobblestones on the path they were treading. "Hey!" he cried. "These aren't real skulls on this Path of Skulls, are they?" Sapphrina continued ignoring him, but the crow knew he was right. They looked like the tops of human skulls all right; the uppity fairy didn't pay them any heed because, unlike her two companions, she didn't have to walk on them - she just glided over them with her genie-like tail trailing behind her.
Sam was going to complain further about the skulls he and Baabby were walking on, but he was interrupted by the growling of a group of creatures stepping forward from the mists. Four of them were the size of mastiffs, while the fifth was probably big enough to ride like a horse. All had flaming red eyes, coal-black fur, and growled as if hungry.
"Hell hounds!" hissed Sapphrina to the others.
"Nice doggies!" tried Sam.
But the "doggies" turned out to be not so nice. Their fur standing on end, they crouched as if to pounce upon the heroes. But then Baabby surprised them by pouncing first. Leaping forward with his Rift-Weaver's Blade raised high, he brought it down into one of the hell hound, practically slicing the canine in two, then allowing his blade to continue its bloody arc, carving deep into the body of another. With one mighty blow, two of the hell hounds lay dead alongside the Path of Skulls.
Sam opted to try to take out the leader with an explosive arrow. As he might have guessed had his actions been driven more by careful forethought and less by pants-wetting terror, the fiery explosion didn't seem to faze the Nessian warhound in the least. In fact, as if to demonstrate the point to the crow archer, it bounded forward and gave forth a blast of fiery breath that encompassed not only Sam but the fairy as well. Sapphrina, particularly susceptible to the power of the elements as were all fairies, staggered off in a daze from the blast of fire. Sam wasn't particularly pleased at having his feathers singed, but he managed to tough it out long enough to call out his battle-cry at the top of his voice.
"BAABBY! HELP ME!"
But Baabby was unable to help immediately, for the other two hell hounds were flanking him and using their own fiery breath weapons to singe the baabarian's woolly fleece. Worse yet, they had learned from the others' mistakes and were far enough away from each other that the sheep-man wouldn't be able to slay them both with one swing. So, playing no favorites, Baabby attacked the one he happened to be facing, bringing the Rift-Weaver's Blade crashing down on the hell hound's skull and slaying him instantly.
Sapphrina had to take a moment to cast a protection from energy spell upon herself, shielding herself from further fire attacks - another like the one she'd just taken would easily kill her! That left Sam having to deal with the Nessian warhound - who he decided to name "Woofy" on the spot - all by himself. He pulled a couple of normal arrows from his quiver and sent them whirling into the warhound's body. "Bad Woofy!" he called. "If I had a rolled-up newspaper, you'd be getting a swat on the nose - but good!" Then, realizing what he'd just said, he smiled at his unintended pun and said, "Hey! You're the Big Bad Woof!"
"Woofy" seemed unamused. To drive the point home, he chomped down on Sam's left arm and started chewing through the leather of his bracer. Fortunately, by that time Sapphrina had gotten her wind back and flew over to the pair, sending a frigid cone of cold (because really, is there any other kind?) blasting into the horse-sized dog. The Nessian warhound yelped in pain - releasing Sam's arm in the process, for which the little crow was grateful - and focused his attention on the spellcasting fairy.
There was now only one normal-sized hell hound remaining in the fight, and it raced up to bite at Baabby. But the baabarian swung around with a speed and agility that belied his hulking form, bringing his magical greatsword crashing into the canine's body. The hell hound's spine snapped in half from the force of Baabby's blow, and he died instantly. Then the sheep-man looked over to his friends to see how they were faring, just in time to see Sapphrina send a cold-infused lightning bolt (for fairies were good at swapping out the elements of various spells) into the Nessian warhound's face, leaving it weak enough that Sam was able to finish it off with some well-placed arrows.
"Sorry," Baabby said, heading their way. "I guess you don't need my help after aall."
"Sure we do!" argued Sam. "Only now, it's more in the line of healing rather than combat assistance - or, you know, combat replacement. Like you do the combat while we watch. Or whatever." Sam was babbling at this point, but he felt better once Baabby cast a healing spell on him and he felt a bit more like his old self.
Baabby had just finished up casting a healing spell on Sapphrina and was finally tending to his own wounds when an eerie voice whispered across the battlefield. "It hasssss the sssssword," the voice said. "The sssssword the Massssster wantsssss...."
The trio of heroes looked up to see four ghostly forms rising up from the ground - again, one of them much larger than the other three.
"Ghosts!" cried Sam.
"No..." began Baabby, peering at the forms as they rose from the ground and came into full view.
"...Wraiths!" called Sapphrina - but then, she was the only one who had been here before and was better-versed in identifying the local inhabitants.
The largest one, the dread wraith, floated over to Baabby and swung at him with an outstretched hand of skeletal bones. The baabarian felt a sudden chill as the undead creature's hand passed through the sheep-man's armor and body, draining a part of his life-force and vitality. In return, Baabby swung his Rift-Weaver's Blade at the dread wraith, and if the creature expected it to pass harmlessly through his incorporeal body he got quite a surprise, for the magic inherent in the greatsword allowed it to affect the undead thing. As Baabby had put the full force of his considerable strength into the swing, the dread wraith ended up getting the worse end of that deal. Then Sapphrina only added to the thing's frustration as she fired a blast of magic missiles from her wand at it, confident not only in their unerring accuracy at striking the intended target but also in the power of the pure force energy to harm even incorporeal beings.
"Get the sssssheep," the dread wraith called. "Take hisssss sssssword!" As one, the other three wraiths flew at Baabby, surrounding him and reaching into his body to drain his life energy.
Sam targeted an explosive arrow such that it would hit two of the wraiths on one side of Baabby without getting the sheep-man in the blast radius. It was anybody's guess whether the attack would affect either of them, but at least by using a magical explosive effect there was a chance that they'd be affected. For once, luck was on Sam's side, as the explosion hurt both of the targeted wraiths - although not to the extent that either was slain.
The dread wraith struck out at Baabby again with its skeletal claws. But an incorporeal body cannot drain life energy from a solid form if that solid form is dexterous enough to move out of the way at the last moment, which is exactly what Baabby did. Then he continued his movement, swinging his greatsword out to the side and killing one of the lesser wraiths, then cleaving through another wraith, slaying it as well. He had hoped to continue his swing and get yet a third wraith, but it dodged out of the way. He spun in a circle and swung the greatsword around for another shot at the last of the smaller wraiths, but it managed to back up out of the way.
So Sapphrina blasted it with her wand of magic missiles, guaranteeing a hit. Unfortunately, it didn't guarantee a kill, and the wraith survived long enough to strike out at Baabby again. Sam targeted another explosive arrow to encompass the two remaining undead targets, but of the two, only the lesser wraith was affected - and it still wouldn't die!
The dread wraith slashed out with both sets of skeletal claws, driving them deep within the baabarian's back as the sheep-man faced the lesser wraith, hoping to deal with the weaker foes first so the trio could all concentrate on the larger threat together. He hissed in pain as the dread wraith siphoned off some of his living energy, converting it to a type of vitality that increased the undead thing's own unholy strength. Furious, Baabby slashed out again with the Rift-Weaver's Blade, cutting deep into the lesser wraith's undead body - if it had been alive, it would be bleeding profusely at the deepness of the cut. He swung again, hoping to finish it off, but missed.
Sapphrina could see by the way the wraith seemed to be phasing in and out of existence that it was just about slain. So she split up her attacks from the next round of her wand of magic missiles, sending one arcane bolt of energy to finish off the lesser wraith while the others streaked unerringly into the dread wraith's body. Sam followed up with an explosive arrow right in the dread wraith's hooded face, and it managed to stagger in place in midair. The creature struck out at Baabby again with a set of skeletal claws, but it was rapidly losing strength and the attack went wide. After taking a step backwards to avoid the dread wraith's claws, Baabby immediately changed course and sprang forward, driving the Rift-Weaver's Blade forward like a spear through what would have been the dread wraith's heart - if he still had one. But heart or no heart, the blow was the final strike needed, and the dread wraith dematerialized, its incorporeal body fading into mist that quickly dissipated into the gloomy atmosphere of the underworld.
It was about that time that the mummy showed up.
Staggering across the Bridge of Bones, the bandaged-wrapped skeleton looked to be on its last legs. Sam raised his Dynabow 3.0 and took aim, allowing the magic bow to charge up an arrow full of explosive energy.
"No! Don't!" called out Sapphrina. "He's a good guy!"
"Good grief," muttered Sam, lowering his bow. "How the heck can you tell?" But by then the fairy had flown over to where the mummy had collapsed to the ground, one hand holding his stomach.
"The walls...have been overcome," the mummy reported. "Beware...the Skittering Fiend." Then he pulled his hand away from his stomach, revealing the three Death Masks he'd hidden inside his bandages. He passed them over to Sapphrina. One was an excellent likeness of the fairy; she put that one on and passed the others to her two companions, who had approached behind her. Baabby took one that was a passable representation of a sheep, and gave the final one - clearly a bird of some sort, if not necessarily a crow - over to Sam. They pulled the masks over their heads and tightened the straps.
"Won't Shelldon need one?" asked Sam.
"He's immortal," Sapphrina reminded him. "He'll be fine without the protection."
"Let's go," said Baabby, leading the way across the Bridge of Bones. Sapphrina and Sam followed; the little crow tried not to look down at the water at the humanoid forms prowling around down there.
It wasn't long that the heroes were in the underworld proper before the Skittering Fiend made an appearance. Stepping forward out of the mists on eight powerful legs, the spidery demon glared at the heroes with eight shiny, black eyes and started rubbing his mandibles as if in appreciation of the upcoming meal.
Sam was having none of that. (Or perhaps more importantly, he was determined to make sure the spider had none of him!) The archer sent an explosive arrow crashing into the bebilith's head, momentarily engulfing all of its eyes in a cloud of flame. Shielded by the explosion, a normal arrow went flying into the demon's body shortly thereafter.
Baabby judged the distance between them and for once opted on an attack spell instead of just running at the threat with his sword out. He said the words to a blindness/deafness spell, opting for the former affliction, thinking that a blind demon would be much easier to defeat - especially one this size, with a body easily 20 feet long and a leg-span over twice that. Unfortunately, like many fiends it had an innate spell resistance that in this case served it well; the spell bounced harmlessly away and the bebilith ended up being the one closing the distance between the two.
"My Master wants your sword," it announced as it casually swiped at the baabarian with a claw. Blood flew, along with a tuft of white wool. Sapphrina flew close enough to the demon to cast a cone of cold at it and was pleased to see the spell seeming to have some effect against the bebilith. As for Sam, he wanted very much to be behind the giant spider instead of facing its mouth with its horrible mandibles. He began racing in a counterclockwise direction, sending another explosive arrow into the demon's flank as he ran.
After having given attack spellcraft a fair chance, Baabby opted to fall back into his comfort zone - face-on melee attack! He screamed in rage and raced toward the bebilith, charging at full speed. When he reached the creature's head, he slid on his knees and stabbed up with his Rift-Weaver's Blade as he skidded along the ground. This did two things: it carved a deep groove in the bebilith's chitinous armor, and it hid the baabarian beneath the bebilith's own body, where he was safe from immediate retaliation.
But not for long: all the Skittering Fiend had to do was back up a bit for Baabby to come back into view, and the spider-fiend bit at the baabarian and raked at him with its two front claws. Baabby gritted his teeth against the pain, but his strong constitution prevented the fiend's venom from having any debilitating effect on the hulking adventurer.
The creature's great size worked against it, for Sapphrina was able to fly at the fiend's head and blast it with another cone of cold without having any fears of hitting Baabby with her spell, as he was many feet below her. And while this was going on, Sam continued his race around the bebilith's body, firing another explosive arrow as he ran. He figured he was over halfway to directly behind it, where he planned to get some flanking - and some sneak attack damage - in, while Baabby dealt with the creature at its head end.
But Sam never got his chance. Once again, Baabby's immense strength, fueled beyond the norm by the power of his rage, allowed him to strike deep into the body of his foe, stabbing up into its abdomen such that the Rift-Weaver's Blade's entire length was buried in bebilith flesh. He tugged - hard - to get the blade free, drenching himself in demon ichor as he did so, and then managed to race out from beneath the bebilith before its lifeless body crashed to the ground. He shook the gore from his body and his blade as the bebelith's spidery legs began twitching spasmodically in death.
"Ugh!" complained Sam. "I hate it when spiders do that! It's creepy!"
"Come on," said Baabby, ignoring the little crow's complaints. (Everybody seemed to be doing that today!) He strode purposefully into the mist, following Sapphrina's lead, as she was the only one of them who knew where they were going.
Sam sighed. "Come on, Shelldon!" he said to the snail perched on his left shoulder. "Let's not get left behind!" And the little crow followed his friends into who knew what dangers still faced them in the underworld.
- - -
Logan used a bunch of Map Pack cards from the "Hellscapes" set for the battles with the hell hounds, wraiths, and bebilith. We have a Nessian warhound D&D miniature, but for the other, normal-sized hell hounds he used two hyenas and two black panthers. Likewise, Logan used the standup darkness elemental tokens I'd made for earlier adventures as the wraiths (they look pretty much the same), and for the bebelith he used a plastic spider I picked up from Target years ago for a dollar.
He also did some stat modifications for the wraiths and the bebelith, converting the wraith's normal Constitution-draining attacks into straight hit point loss and doing away with the bebelith's "rend armor" attack. After all, this is meant to emulate the Skylanders games more so than "straight" D&D, and Logan (quite rightly) realized it would be easier, and more fun, for Harry to have Baabby deal with straight hp loss than have to try to recuperate from ability damage/drain.
And Harry was again surprised when the adventure ended, having expected to get to the "real battle" in Anubiset rather than have this be just a "travel to the site" adventure. But it just serves as reinforcement that you never know what's going to happen in a D&D adventure, Skylanders or no Skylanders.
PC Roster:
Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 10
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 10
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 10
NPC Roster:
Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 10
Game Session Date: 19 August 2017
- - -
The troll airship landed gracefully just outside the entrance to the Skylanders Academy building and the three heroes hopped out. Strolling through the doors, Baabby once again frightened poor Hugo half out of his skin and the bespectacled Mabu went racing through the hallways screaming about the upcoming Sheepocalypse.
"Ah," said Master Eon to himself, hearing his assistant flee screaming from the front doors. "Baabby must be back from his voyage to the Twin Kingdoms of Twilight. I hope everything went well."
Meeting the heroes in the reception room, Master Eon listened with gladness about the success of their latest mission. "I am pleased you were able to bring peace to the Twilight Kingdoms," he said. "I, too, have news to share - but I fear mine is not nearly as pleasant."
"Is Shelldon okay?" gasped Sam.
"He's fine," reassured the aged Portal Master. "But it's about Shelldon - or rather, Xacho - that I must speak to you about." Sam gulped loudly and prepared himself for the worst.
"First of all, he remains trapped in the shape of a snail. Our attempts to restore him to his normal human form have thus far failed." Sam breathed a sigh of relief; Shelldon was safe and still his pet snail - so far so good. "However," added Master Eon, "we have learned a few more things about the curse Xacho was placed under.
"First of all, there seems to be only two potential avenues of returning him to his normal form. The first is to convince the one who cursed him into snail form to reverse the spell."
"Thaat would be the Devourer of Nightmares," said Baabby.
"Fat chance there," scoffed Sam. "I don't think Don would ever do that."
"Nor, sadly, do I," admitted Master Eon.
"What's the second possibility?" asked Sapphrina.
"The second possibility is that Xacho will return to his human form once the individual who cursed him into snail form is slain."
"I like that plan a lot better!" enthused Sam.
"Me too!" agreed Baabby.
"It sounds like 'Plan B' for the win," added Sapphrina.
"There's more," added Master Eon, frowning. "As a snail, Xacho has been cursed with immortality - the better to torment the man who greatly feared snails. Once that curse has been lifted, and Xacho's snail form is no more, his immortality will likewise be gone."
"So he'll live out the rest of his days as a human," said Sam. "That's not so bad. You humans are okay by me."
"Unfortunately, once his immortality is gone, he will revert to his true age," said Master Eon. "He will regain his human form - and then age several thousand years in a mere moment. Within seconds of having the curse removed, Xacho will be dead. And there's nothing we can do about it, I'm afraid."
"Well, wait a minute," argued Sapphrina. "There is one thing we can do about it - just not lift the curse."
"That would mean letting Don live!" argued Sam. "That won't work - he's gotta die, or he'll kill everybody else if he ever gets free!"
"You mean slaying the Devourer of Nightmares will restore Xacho, but restoring Xacho means he dies seconds thereafter?" the fairy asked incredulously. "And there's no way around it?"
Master Eon looked sadly at the three heroes. "I'm afraid not."
"Does...does Shelldon know about this?" asked Sam.
Master Eon looked over at the little crow, and a half smile formed along one side. "He does," the wizard said. "Using magic, I've been able to talk to him about it, and he knows the ramifications of your intended course of action."
"And...?" prompted Sam.
"And I'm happy to report that Xacho wishes to live out the rest of his days as Shelldon, your pet snail," Master Eon said. "Furthermore, he asked to be allowed to travel with you once again - specifically, upon the position of honor on your left shoulder. It seems he wishes to see his life's work completed, even if he isn't the one wielding his blade this time around. And," Master Eon smiled quietly to himself, "he appears to quite enjoy your sense of humor, Sam."
"I knew it!" Sam cried. "I knew he was an excellent judge of character the minute I first saw him on that beach!" Sapphrina just rolled her eyes in disbelief, but she was glad to hear that Xacho supported their plans. And if they could use magic to speak with him, he might be able to advise them as they took steps to take down the Devourer of Nightmares once and for all.
"Can I see him?" asked Sam Crow eagerly.
"But of course." Master Eon tapped his staff on the floor, and the door opened up. Hugo entered, one hand delicately holding Shelldon, the other held up to shield his eyes from having to look at Baabby too closely - his overwhelming fear of sheep made him enormously uncomfortable in the presence of the hulking baabarian.
"Shelldon!" Sam cried, taking the snail from the Mabu's hand and placing him on his left shoulder. "Glad to see you, buddy!" Then, he added, "If you're glad to see me too, then just hold still and don't say anything!" Shelldon didn't move, nor did he speak, leaving a grinning Sam to exclaim, "I knew it! He missed me!"
Master Eon allowed the heroes to greet Xacho for a few moments before mentioning the other point of interest. "During your sojourn to the Twilight Kingdoms, we received a letter from Queen Necrotifi of the Kingdom of Anubiset. She sends word that her lands are under attack - and also that she had expected a visit from 'Xacho's assistants' a week ago, and did we have any idea why they might be late?"
"Oh dear," replied Sapphrina.
"Xaacho's aassistaants?'" repeated Baabby. "Does she mean us?"
"What, we had an appointment with another Queen? I don't remember any appointment with a Queen." He narrowed his beady, black eyes. "Wait, is this another prophecy? What is it this time, 'The Tardy Sheep and the Fashionably Late Crow' or something?"
"I know the Kingdom of Anubiset," replied Sapphrina. "I've been there in the past, with Xacho. It's on the other side of the Gate of Death, in the Underworld. We'll need to wear special Death Masks if we even hope to survive."
"Well, that sounds pleasant," griped Sam.
"Do you know this Queen Necrotifi?" asked Baabby.
"NO, I'm afraid she's after my time," replied the fairy. "But Anubiset helped Xacho and I on our quest when we were first empowering the Rift-Weaver's Blade. I feel I owe it to her kingdom to help."
"But..." began Sam.
"Good enough for me," replied Baabby. "Let's go, guys!"
"But..." added Sam.
"Let's go, Sam!" repeated Baabby, as he and Sapphrina sprinted back to the airship. Sam grumbled the whole way, struggling to catch up.
- - -
The airship came to a landing on a bleak and forlorn floating island. The ground was the color of dust; gray clouds blocked out most of the sun but didn't threaten rain so much as refuse to give forth the cleansing waters they no doubt contained.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Sam asked. "What was all that talk about Death Masks?"
"We won't need them quite yet," Sapphrina replied. "We need to follow the Path of Skulls to the Bridge of Bones. We'll need to pick up some Death Masks before we cross the Bridge of Bones, because the living cannot exist on the other side of the Dark Waters of Shrieking Souls."
"That all sounds horrible!" argued Sam. "Couldn't we take a shortcut through, like, the Path of Mild Stomach Irritation or something?"
"This way," said the fairy, ignoring the little crow's protests as usual. Baabby followed Sapphrina, walking with confidence, but he did have the Rift-Weaver's Blade unsheathed and ready at hand, just in case.
Sam followed, looking down at the bone-white cobblestones on the path they were treading. "Hey!" he cried. "These aren't real skulls on this Path of Skulls, are they?" Sapphrina continued ignoring him, but the crow knew he was right. They looked like the tops of human skulls all right; the uppity fairy didn't pay them any heed because, unlike her two companions, she didn't have to walk on them - she just glided over them with her genie-like tail trailing behind her.
Sam was going to complain further about the skulls he and Baabby were walking on, but he was interrupted by the growling of a group of creatures stepping forward from the mists. Four of them were the size of mastiffs, while the fifth was probably big enough to ride like a horse. All had flaming red eyes, coal-black fur, and growled as if hungry.
"Hell hounds!" hissed Sapphrina to the others.
"Nice doggies!" tried Sam.
But the "doggies" turned out to be not so nice. Their fur standing on end, they crouched as if to pounce upon the heroes. But then Baabby surprised them by pouncing first. Leaping forward with his Rift-Weaver's Blade raised high, he brought it down into one of the hell hound, practically slicing the canine in two, then allowing his blade to continue its bloody arc, carving deep into the body of another. With one mighty blow, two of the hell hounds lay dead alongside the Path of Skulls.
Sam opted to try to take out the leader with an explosive arrow. As he might have guessed had his actions been driven more by careful forethought and less by pants-wetting terror, the fiery explosion didn't seem to faze the Nessian warhound in the least. In fact, as if to demonstrate the point to the crow archer, it bounded forward and gave forth a blast of fiery breath that encompassed not only Sam but the fairy as well. Sapphrina, particularly susceptible to the power of the elements as were all fairies, staggered off in a daze from the blast of fire. Sam wasn't particularly pleased at having his feathers singed, but he managed to tough it out long enough to call out his battle-cry at the top of his voice.
"BAABBY! HELP ME!"
But Baabby was unable to help immediately, for the other two hell hounds were flanking him and using their own fiery breath weapons to singe the baabarian's woolly fleece. Worse yet, they had learned from the others' mistakes and were far enough away from each other that the sheep-man wouldn't be able to slay them both with one swing. So, playing no favorites, Baabby attacked the one he happened to be facing, bringing the Rift-Weaver's Blade crashing down on the hell hound's skull and slaying him instantly.
Sapphrina had to take a moment to cast a protection from energy spell upon herself, shielding herself from further fire attacks - another like the one she'd just taken would easily kill her! That left Sam having to deal with the Nessian warhound - who he decided to name "Woofy" on the spot - all by himself. He pulled a couple of normal arrows from his quiver and sent them whirling into the warhound's body. "Bad Woofy!" he called. "If I had a rolled-up newspaper, you'd be getting a swat on the nose - but good!" Then, realizing what he'd just said, he smiled at his unintended pun and said, "Hey! You're the Big Bad Woof!"
"Woofy" seemed unamused. To drive the point home, he chomped down on Sam's left arm and started chewing through the leather of his bracer. Fortunately, by that time Sapphrina had gotten her wind back and flew over to the pair, sending a frigid cone of cold (because really, is there any other kind?) blasting into the horse-sized dog. The Nessian warhound yelped in pain - releasing Sam's arm in the process, for which the little crow was grateful - and focused his attention on the spellcasting fairy.
There was now only one normal-sized hell hound remaining in the fight, and it raced up to bite at Baabby. But the baabarian swung around with a speed and agility that belied his hulking form, bringing his magical greatsword crashing into the canine's body. The hell hound's spine snapped in half from the force of Baabby's blow, and he died instantly. Then the sheep-man looked over to his friends to see how they were faring, just in time to see Sapphrina send a cold-infused lightning bolt (for fairies were good at swapping out the elements of various spells) into the Nessian warhound's face, leaving it weak enough that Sam was able to finish it off with some well-placed arrows.
"Sorry," Baabby said, heading their way. "I guess you don't need my help after aall."
"Sure we do!" argued Sam. "Only now, it's more in the line of healing rather than combat assistance - or, you know, combat replacement. Like you do the combat while we watch. Or whatever." Sam was babbling at this point, but he felt better once Baabby cast a healing spell on him and he felt a bit more like his old self.
Baabby had just finished up casting a healing spell on Sapphrina and was finally tending to his own wounds when an eerie voice whispered across the battlefield. "It hasssss the sssssword," the voice said. "The sssssword the Massssster wantsssss...."
The trio of heroes looked up to see four ghostly forms rising up from the ground - again, one of them much larger than the other three.
"Ghosts!" cried Sam.
"No..." began Baabby, peering at the forms as they rose from the ground and came into full view.
"...Wraiths!" called Sapphrina - but then, she was the only one who had been here before and was better-versed in identifying the local inhabitants.
The largest one, the dread wraith, floated over to Baabby and swung at him with an outstretched hand of skeletal bones. The baabarian felt a sudden chill as the undead creature's hand passed through the sheep-man's armor and body, draining a part of his life-force and vitality. In return, Baabby swung his Rift-Weaver's Blade at the dread wraith, and if the creature expected it to pass harmlessly through his incorporeal body he got quite a surprise, for the magic inherent in the greatsword allowed it to affect the undead thing. As Baabby had put the full force of his considerable strength into the swing, the dread wraith ended up getting the worse end of that deal. Then Sapphrina only added to the thing's frustration as she fired a blast of magic missiles from her wand at it, confident not only in their unerring accuracy at striking the intended target but also in the power of the pure force energy to harm even incorporeal beings.
"Get the sssssheep," the dread wraith called. "Take hisssss sssssword!" As one, the other three wraiths flew at Baabby, surrounding him and reaching into his body to drain his life energy.
Sam targeted an explosive arrow such that it would hit two of the wraiths on one side of Baabby without getting the sheep-man in the blast radius. It was anybody's guess whether the attack would affect either of them, but at least by using a magical explosive effect there was a chance that they'd be affected. For once, luck was on Sam's side, as the explosion hurt both of the targeted wraiths - although not to the extent that either was slain.
The dread wraith struck out at Baabby again with its skeletal claws. But an incorporeal body cannot drain life energy from a solid form if that solid form is dexterous enough to move out of the way at the last moment, which is exactly what Baabby did. Then he continued his movement, swinging his greatsword out to the side and killing one of the lesser wraiths, then cleaving through another wraith, slaying it as well. He had hoped to continue his swing and get yet a third wraith, but it dodged out of the way. He spun in a circle and swung the greatsword around for another shot at the last of the smaller wraiths, but it managed to back up out of the way.
So Sapphrina blasted it with her wand of magic missiles, guaranteeing a hit. Unfortunately, it didn't guarantee a kill, and the wraith survived long enough to strike out at Baabby again. Sam targeted another explosive arrow to encompass the two remaining undead targets, but of the two, only the lesser wraith was affected - and it still wouldn't die!
The dread wraith slashed out with both sets of skeletal claws, driving them deep within the baabarian's back as the sheep-man faced the lesser wraith, hoping to deal with the weaker foes first so the trio could all concentrate on the larger threat together. He hissed in pain as the dread wraith siphoned off some of his living energy, converting it to a type of vitality that increased the undead thing's own unholy strength. Furious, Baabby slashed out again with the Rift-Weaver's Blade, cutting deep into the lesser wraith's undead body - if it had been alive, it would be bleeding profusely at the deepness of the cut. He swung again, hoping to finish it off, but missed.
Sapphrina could see by the way the wraith seemed to be phasing in and out of existence that it was just about slain. So she split up her attacks from the next round of her wand of magic missiles, sending one arcane bolt of energy to finish off the lesser wraith while the others streaked unerringly into the dread wraith's body. Sam followed up with an explosive arrow right in the dread wraith's hooded face, and it managed to stagger in place in midair. The creature struck out at Baabby again with a set of skeletal claws, but it was rapidly losing strength and the attack went wide. After taking a step backwards to avoid the dread wraith's claws, Baabby immediately changed course and sprang forward, driving the Rift-Weaver's Blade forward like a spear through what would have been the dread wraith's heart - if he still had one. But heart or no heart, the blow was the final strike needed, and the dread wraith dematerialized, its incorporeal body fading into mist that quickly dissipated into the gloomy atmosphere of the underworld.
It was about that time that the mummy showed up.
Staggering across the Bridge of Bones, the bandaged-wrapped skeleton looked to be on its last legs. Sam raised his Dynabow 3.0 and took aim, allowing the magic bow to charge up an arrow full of explosive energy.
"No! Don't!" called out Sapphrina. "He's a good guy!"
"Good grief," muttered Sam, lowering his bow. "How the heck can you tell?" But by then the fairy had flown over to where the mummy had collapsed to the ground, one hand holding his stomach.
"The walls...have been overcome," the mummy reported. "Beware...the Skittering Fiend." Then he pulled his hand away from his stomach, revealing the three Death Masks he'd hidden inside his bandages. He passed them over to Sapphrina. One was an excellent likeness of the fairy; she put that one on and passed the others to her two companions, who had approached behind her. Baabby took one that was a passable representation of a sheep, and gave the final one - clearly a bird of some sort, if not necessarily a crow - over to Sam. They pulled the masks over their heads and tightened the straps.
"Won't Shelldon need one?" asked Sam.
"He's immortal," Sapphrina reminded him. "He'll be fine without the protection."
"Let's go," said Baabby, leading the way across the Bridge of Bones. Sapphrina and Sam followed; the little crow tried not to look down at the water at the humanoid forms prowling around down there.
It wasn't long that the heroes were in the underworld proper before the Skittering Fiend made an appearance. Stepping forward out of the mists on eight powerful legs, the spidery demon glared at the heroes with eight shiny, black eyes and started rubbing his mandibles as if in appreciation of the upcoming meal.
Sam was having none of that. (Or perhaps more importantly, he was determined to make sure the spider had none of him!) The archer sent an explosive arrow crashing into the bebilith's head, momentarily engulfing all of its eyes in a cloud of flame. Shielded by the explosion, a normal arrow went flying into the demon's body shortly thereafter.
Baabby judged the distance between them and for once opted on an attack spell instead of just running at the threat with his sword out. He said the words to a blindness/deafness spell, opting for the former affliction, thinking that a blind demon would be much easier to defeat - especially one this size, with a body easily 20 feet long and a leg-span over twice that. Unfortunately, like many fiends it had an innate spell resistance that in this case served it well; the spell bounced harmlessly away and the bebilith ended up being the one closing the distance between the two.
"My Master wants your sword," it announced as it casually swiped at the baabarian with a claw. Blood flew, along with a tuft of white wool. Sapphrina flew close enough to the demon to cast a cone of cold at it and was pleased to see the spell seeming to have some effect against the bebilith. As for Sam, he wanted very much to be behind the giant spider instead of facing its mouth with its horrible mandibles. He began racing in a counterclockwise direction, sending another explosive arrow into the demon's flank as he ran.
After having given attack spellcraft a fair chance, Baabby opted to fall back into his comfort zone - face-on melee attack! He screamed in rage and raced toward the bebilith, charging at full speed. When he reached the creature's head, he slid on his knees and stabbed up with his Rift-Weaver's Blade as he skidded along the ground. This did two things: it carved a deep groove in the bebilith's chitinous armor, and it hid the baabarian beneath the bebilith's own body, where he was safe from immediate retaliation.
But not for long: all the Skittering Fiend had to do was back up a bit for Baabby to come back into view, and the spider-fiend bit at the baabarian and raked at him with its two front claws. Baabby gritted his teeth against the pain, but his strong constitution prevented the fiend's venom from having any debilitating effect on the hulking adventurer.
The creature's great size worked against it, for Sapphrina was able to fly at the fiend's head and blast it with another cone of cold without having any fears of hitting Baabby with her spell, as he was many feet below her. And while this was going on, Sam continued his race around the bebilith's body, firing another explosive arrow as he ran. He figured he was over halfway to directly behind it, where he planned to get some flanking - and some sneak attack damage - in, while Baabby dealt with the creature at its head end.
But Sam never got his chance. Once again, Baabby's immense strength, fueled beyond the norm by the power of his rage, allowed him to strike deep into the body of his foe, stabbing up into its abdomen such that the Rift-Weaver's Blade's entire length was buried in bebilith flesh. He tugged - hard - to get the blade free, drenching himself in demon ichor as he did so, and then managed to race out from beneath the bebilith before its lifeless body crashed to the ground. He shook the gore from his body and his blade as the bebelith's spidery legs began twitching spasmodically in death.
"Ugh!" complained Sam. "I hate it when spiders do that! It's creepy!"
"Come on," said Baabby, ignoring the little crow's complaints. (Everybody seemed to be doing that today!) He strode purposefully into the mist, following Sapphrina's lead, as she was the only one of them who knew where they were going.
Sam sighed. "Come on, Shelldon!" he said to the snail perched on his left shoulder. "Let's not get left behind!" And the little crow followed his friends into who knew what dangers still faced them in the underworld.
- - -
Logan used a bunch of Map Pack cards from the "Hellscapes" set for the battles with the hell hounds, wraiths, and bebilith. We have a Nessian warhound D&D miniature, but for the other, normal-sized hell hounds he used two hyenas and two black panthers. Likewise, Logan used the standup darkness elemental tokens I'd made for earlier adventures as the wraiths (they look pretty much the same), and for the bebelith he used a plastic spider I picked up from Target years ago for a dollar.
He also did some stat modifications for the wraiths and the bebelith, converting the wraith's normal Constitution-draining attacks into straight hit point loss and doing away with the bebelith's "rend armor" attack. After all, this is meant to emulate the Skylanders games more so than "straight" D&D, and Logan (quite rightly) realized it would be easier, and more fun, for Harry to have Baabby deal with straight hp loss than have to try to recuperate from ability damage/drain.
And Harry was again surprised when the adventure ended, having expected to get to the "real battle" in Anubiset rather than have this be just a "travel to the site" adventure. But it just serves as reinforcement that you never know what's going to happen in a D&D adventure, Skylanders or no Skylanders.