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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Warlock" data-source="post: 5425377" data-attributes="member: 21215">38. What World Are You From?Late one night, camped in a wilderland frontier, preferably with cover, be it boulder strewn moor, or stunted marsh trees, or the equivalent, but with a clear view of the night sky overhead, the characters on watch hear the sounds of an echoing chase, with many feet, and flapping wings which seems to fade and close on their camp with nothing to see. Anyone looking up at the night sky will see what look like heat shimmers, followed moments later by the moon overhead changing from bright and full to an angry blood red, parts of it sheared off and floating in the sky behind it, and a foul stink and thin haze creeps into their camp, kept at bay only by the light of their campfire.A few moments later a figure crashes through the scrub and cover into their camp, clutching a bleeding stump of an arm, and gasping for breath, before hitting the ground at the edge of the firelight. When it looks up, it is a haggard, older face, but one well known to the characters - a significant adversary or villain they have foiled before, but never killed or brought to permanent justice. He/she will also seem to recognize the characters, but confused, ask, "How? You're dead. Dead. I saw them kill you and eat the corpses. HOW?"That is when the sounds of the chase arrive, bringing strange man-things with no faces, just masses of ganglia where a head should be with weird polearms that arc purple lightning at their tips, and from above the flapping of great wings as a strange cross between a wyvern and a manta ray alights at the edge of the camp, ridden by a robed figure who grips the sides of the flying beast with tentacular hands, but has a taut mummified elven face whose eyes have been replaced by worms. With a sibilant voice he commands the ganglians to eradicate the escape slaves.The ganglians rush forward attacking the party, using abilities that trip, shove, and daze with lightning, in an effort to surround them. Once that has happened, the rider will command his beast to fly, swooping  down to snatch the wounded villain, and fly off. As he is taken, he screams at the party..."Don't let them find it! Whatever it takes. Never let them find Esker's Delve...kill them all, kill the twins!" as he is borne out of sight.As the characters vanguish one ganglian after the other (make them a significant challenge) the remainder appear to get weaker, transparent, and shadowy, and translucent, tortured faces of men and women can be seen overlayed over their faceless necks. When as many as the party member remain, there is a mighty thundercrack, which knock the characters to the ground.The moon is once again itself, and normal night sounds and smells return. Any animals the characters have seem skittish for a while, but otherwise normalcy returns, though the group has any wounds they suffered in the battle.If anyone decides to search or track, they will find the tracks and blood trail of the dream adversary, impossibly faint at the edge of the camp, deeper, and more normal where he fell, and then faint transparent blood stains that go for a dozen feet in the direction he was carried off.</blockquote>

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