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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VicsHacienda" data-source="post: 9885266" data-attributes="member: 6965574">As Fafnir approaches he sees the altar is not ruined, but rewritten. A slab of pale stone sits at the heart of the sanctuary, its surface carved over again and again. Deep gouges form the rigid lines of the Ragesian Torch, cut hard enough into the altar to bite shadows into the stone, though unable to erase what came before: a sword and sunburst, signs of Nuada.The stone around those older carvings is smoother, worn by years of hands that came here in faith. The newer cuts are sharp. Angry. Recent, in the way violence always feels recent.At the base of the altar, iron rings have been bolted into the floor, one bent, one holding a length of chain that ends in a small manacle.Ash has collected in the carved grooves of the torch; faint scoring marks can be seen beneath. Words, scratched out harshly enough so that they cannot be read.The air remains warm here, uncomfortably so, like the ashes of a forge after it's been doused. But devils held sway here, so it isn't a surprise.We find some remains. The room has been profaned by body parts, some animal, some not, nailed to walls and scattered.[ATTACH=full]433082[/ATTACH]Fafnir frowns, wondering how to contact his god and make his presence known, and somehow remove some of the desecration. With our help he begins preparing the altar. We extend our weapons, still blooded. Osnald prestidigitates the altar and rests his dagger atop. Viggo reluctantly leaves his multitool but stays near, as if worried someone will steal it. Finally, the warhammer rests, touching the others. He prays quietly, his spirit guardians still whirling around him.The chains twitch as if reacting to being cleansed. One of them flies at Fafnir, trying to impale him; he grabs it and wrestles it aside. "My muscles are too strong for you!" he growls.Trevor and I eye the passage to the west, a hall with eight statues, likely the one described by Osnald. We smell a sweet scent.<h3>More Devils, But Sharp</h3>Suddenly Osnald jumps. Emerging from a curtain blocking the lower eastern entry is a barbed fiend. It hurls flame at the bard before ducking back around the corner. Osnald, burnt, steps forth, bringing his giant spectral hand across the room to block the entry.Viggo snatches back his multitool, glaring at Fafnir, and moves toward the upper entry to look. He mind whips the devil.Fafnir, still concentrating on his prayers, bunches armored muscles. He can see the altar return almost to a lustrous sheen, its taint dropping away."There's more!" calls Viggo from the door. Flame bursts near him."What the naughty word is going on?" Trevor grumbles, hurdling over the debris to get to the upper entry. I close the western door and leap after him. I enter the eastern hall and see barbed devils past Viggo.They hurl flame directly at the wizard, lighting up the hall. He coughs and curses, absorbing it as best he can, but I can feel the heat fifteen paces away.[ATTACH=full]433083[/ATTACH]Osnald runs and retrieves his dagger from the altar, moving his giant hand into the hall and trying to punch the lead devil. Viggo casts a blinding ray of light, filling the hall with an eye-searing flash.Fafnir grabs Einherjar, nodding with satisfaction at the altar, and he and his bulls walk into the hall. He swings at the lead devil with a solid impact, thunder crackling. The bulls soar and gore.The devil, battered and blinded but standing, withdraws around a corner, thunder sounding.Trevor curses again and disappears, appearing at the lower entry. He unleashes his whip. I run up behind Fafnir, urging Osnald to peer around the north corner to make sure we aren't being sneaked up on. In the meantime, we're all lined up in the eastern passage, unable to see around the corner where the devils are.Rattling chains whip out at Trevor, who ducks. More flames are hurled at him, but he moves easily aside. Viggo brushes past us all, throwing another blinding ray of light down the hall. Fafnir disappears around the corner, with his guiding bolt lighting up the passage. Osnald's hand disappears, spent.At least we've got light.Trevor likewise vanishes around the corner. The Aquiline Heart snaps. Sulfurous smoke fills the hall. Wood and steel ring with Strathmorian rage. Chains bang against the floor.I dash around the corner into the south corridor, drawing arrows, moving past the room where Trevor is dealing death. A chain devil lies grappled and prone, and a barbed devil hovers. I miss the unnerving gaze the chain devil gives Trevor before its chains rise up and batter at the hero. He parries them. The barbed devil gets gored by bulls before missing Trevor with claws and tail.Osnald dislikes being left behind as much as I do, and appears at the corner.Viggo looks up at the cobwebs near the ceiling, suspecting the imp is still around, invisible. "C'mere, boy! Want to be a familiar?" he calls. He then moves up to look into the room. He smiles at the prone chain devil and tosses a mind whip at it.Fafnir storms into the room and lets the chain devil have it. It dissolves into sulfurous smoke, and Trevor's whip drops. He looks up at the remaining barbed devil. Trevor steps beside, weapons whirling and hunter's mark set. A single whipcrack sends the fiend back to the Hells. "Is there any more of these showers of naughty words?"Well, I hadn’t done a feckin’ thing to help today.It's time to rest.</blockquote>

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