ADVENTURE 15: DOWN THE ROAD A BIT
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 14 February 2026
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"What is a basilisk?" asked Hoppy. Having lived his entire life within the confines of the city of Port Duralia, he'd never heard of the creature.
"Big reptile," replied Brendan. "Kind of like a crocodile, only bigger, and with eight legs. And its gaze can turn you to stone." He'd never seen one for himself, but he'd at least heard of the creature before. And now, their current mission from the Port Duralia Adventurers Guild was to head out into the mountainous hills north of the city and try to take one alive.
"And that's why they gave us two doses of stone salve," added Kruz, holding up the two vials provided by the Guild. "If it turns any of us to stone, we can get restored with these." He frowned as a sudden thought crossed his mind. "We'll want two different people to hold these," he said. "It would be really bad if the one person holding both doses was the one turned to stone."
"We might want to pick up an additional dose or two on our own, just in case," suggested Adrielle. Part of the deal was they'd return any unused doses of the stone salve when they returned with the basilisk.
Shiroko was studying the scrolls the group had been given as part of the equipment to aid them in their quest. Each scroll was identical, holding one casting of the baleful polymorph spell. "I think I can manage this," she said, after deciphering the arcane markings on the scrolls. That was good, because she was their only arcane spellcaster, although Kruz could sometimes manage to cast a spell from a scroll if it came down to that. "I can understand why they might want it taken alive," she said, "but why do they want it turned into a snail?"
"Well, it's harmless that way," said Brendan, pointing out the obvious. "And...I guess if it gets loose, it won't get very far before they catch up to it? I dunno - who knows why wizards do things the way they do? As long as the pay's okay, I'm okay with following any oddball requests like that." The wizard who was funding this particular expedition would be paying the group 1,200 pieces of gold for the return of an intact specimen.
"We'll need some supplies," pointed out Adrielle. "Tents, bedrolls, riding mounts...." They'd be traveling at least two days to get to the area where a basilisk had been spotted, and it would take much longer if they were going to be traveling on foot. And with Hoppy's mismatched legs and hopping gait, it would take even longer than a similar group who didn't have a mongrelfolk among their numbers.
"I'll walk," volunteered Shiroko.
"You'll slow us down," countered Brendan.
"I won't be walking looking like this," replied the wu jen, spreading her arms and allowing the sleeves of her kimono to flap to her sides. "I'll be in fox form, trotting alongside your horses. It'll actually be good to spend some time in animal form."
"Or you could ride with me," volunteered Adrielle.
The rest of the day was spent seeing to their purchases. Brendan, Adrielle, and Kruz each purchased a riding horse, with the changeling offering to allow Hoppy to ride with him. Adrielle's mount was a white mare and she immediately named her Conch, given her coloration. She asked the others what they'd be naming their horses, but neither seemed particularly eager to come up with a name just yet. Brendan already owned a tent big enough for him and Kruz, and they picked up another tent for the women and a smaller one for Hoppy, and made sure everyone had a bedroll and blanket, plus enough food to last them for several days away from the city, for they had no idea how long it would take them to track down the basilisk others had occasionally spotted hunting to the north. Adrielle bought a third vial of stone salve, just in case, and Shiroko purchased five scrolls of the spell bear's endurance, which, if she understood what she'd heard of the spell, would increase their chances of fighting off petrification should any of them end up in the area of effect of the basilisk's gaze. Plus, she hoped if she studied the scrolls at night (in her hybrid form), she might be able to learn how to cast the spell on her own; it seemed like an eminently practical spell to know. Brendan bought two vials of oil of shillelagh, the better to enhance the combat capabilities of his quarterstaff, although he was getting to like using his spiked chain, and it was fast becoming his preferred weapon. Still, it was good to have options.
Their purchases made, it was late enough in the day the group unanimously agreed to postpone their departure until the next morning. Their first day of travel was uneventful, with the three new riders getting the hang of controlling their mounts. "Did you guys come up with names for your horses?" asked Adrielle again to Brendan and Kruz.
"Nope," replied Brendan, and seemed to have no desire to advance that particular conversation.
"Me neither," admitted Kruz. "I'll come up with something." But when they camped for the evening, neither of the horses had been granted a name. Shiroko pored over her scrolls by the light of the campfire, but the bear's endurance spell evaded her mental grasp - she could see how the spell was invoked from the scroll, but the arcane symbology used was different than what she was used to. Belatedly, she chided herself for making her purchases from the closest scroll merchant, rather than heading over to the shop of Arukuyume, the elderly spirit folk wu jen from which she purchased all of the items unique to her homeland. One could spend all day in Port Duralia looking for a scroll of the fire shuriken spell, for example, for the spell was generally unknown by Armaturian spellcasters. She suspected, though, that had she purchased the bear's endurance scrolls from Arukuyume she'd already have mastered it and scribed it into the lengthy scroll she used as a spellbook.
It was on the morning of the second day of travel the group ran into their first bit of excitement. Brendan and Adrielle rode side by side down a road passing through a thick forest, with Shiroko in fox form perched on the saddle behind the scout, while behind them rode Kruz and Hoppy. Suddenly, there was movement ahead, and stepping out between the trees was a giant praying mantis, its thin body half again as long as either of the horses. It cocked its head in the group's direction, stepped fully out from between the trees, spread its wings, and flew directly at Brendan and his unnamed mount. The monk hastily drank down a potion of mage armor knowing it would likely be his only opportunity to do so before combat started.
The mantis landed directly before the monk's horse and lashed out with its forward claws, but the horse, despite Brendan's attempts to control it, reared up in fear and the claws missed their mark. Shiroko cast the one spell she could while in animal form: a still ice knife spell, which sent an icy dagger flying towards the giant mantis. It hit the massive insect, sending a blast of cold energy coursing through the creature's carapace. At the same time, Kruz sent a crossbow bolt flying into the giant insect's thorax, just below its clawed forelimbs. Adrielle drank down a potion of barkskin and urged Conch forward, her weapon Galrich's fang in its trident configuration. Behind her, Shiroko dropped from her perch behind the saddle and landed on the dirt road. She ran around to approach the mantis from behind, biting at one armored leg, to little effect.
The mantis struck again at its original target and caught it in its claws, but failed to get in a bite before the horse had wriggled from its grasp. Then Kruz shot it again, and Brendan abandoned his mount, leaping off to the side while unwinding his spiked chain from around his torso. Swinging one end above his head to gain momentum, he sent it crashing into the side of the giant insect's body. Then Adrielle charged the mantis in her mount, and stabbed it with the three prongs of her trident. But the mantis was focused on its original target, and caught the horse's neck with its clawed forelimbs and this time pulled it in close enough to bite the steed on the side of his throat. It ignored the snow fox trying to gnaw upon one of its rear legs, and the horse's thrashing about moved the mantis just enough for Kruz's next shot to miss, but eventually the horse once again got free and started running off to the side, eager to be far away. Brendan swung his chain at the mantis but it moved after the horse and the swing went wide.
Hoppy dropped from the back of Kruz's horse and limped after the fleeing horse; fortunately, it was forced to stay on the road and ran right by the mongrelfolk, so the adept was able to touch it in passing and cast a cure light wounds spell on it, sealing up the worst of its wounds and calming it somewhat. It slowed enough for the sinborn to catch up to it, calming it with soothing tones and casting a second healing spell at it (which it seriously needed).
A second charge at the mantis upon Conch allowed Adrielle to pierce the giant praying mantis upon the three prongs of her trident, finally slaying the hungry insect. Hoppy returned to the group leading Brendan's horse by the reins, and the monk gratefully remounted. Kruz helped Hoppy back up behind him on his own horse, and the group was once again on their way, heading north.
About four hours later, the road had led into the hills, and the group found their first indication the basilisk had been nearby, for a group of reptilian tracks made by either a heavy-bodied creature with eight feet or a pair of four-legged beasts crossed the dirt road. None of the group was a seasoned tracker, but they steered their mounts in the direction the tracks led and hoped for the best. They lost the spoor several times, each time spending time looking around to pick up the trail again, but eventually they found themselves headed uphill towards the side of a massive stone upcropping rising up from the grassy hills.
"We might be getting close," said Brendan, thinking if there were a cave in the stone cliff ahead, that might very well be a suitable lair for a basilisk. And that's when a sudden shriek came screaming from the stone around the corner, bringing all three horses to an immediate halt as the three riders pulled back on their reins.
"Was that the basilisk? Do they shriek like that?" Adrielle whispered to the others. As a mermaid, she had no immediate familiarity with basilisks.
"Not sure," whispered Brendan, slipping from his horse and gripping his quarterstaff as he advanced quietly along the stone cliff face. Hoppy dismounted from the back of Kruz's horse, limping forward to grab the reins of Brendan's horse so it wouldn't stray. Brendan saw a low tunnel down along the ground at the cliff's side, and dropped down to give it a closer look. It looked like it might just be wide enough to allow a person to wriggle through it, as long as they didn't wear heavy armor or a backpack. The tunnel twisted to the right and he didn't think he could get his quarterstaff through it, so he set it by the side of the cliff, pulled on his skull mask - there would likely be no illumination on the other side of the tunnel, so the mask's darkvision would come in handy - and crawled into the tunnel on his stomach.
The tunnel curved to the right but then opened up into a wider cavern with a ceiling height the monk guessed to be 15 or 20 feet. There were about a dozen giant mushrooms in the cavern, and he caught a bit of motion from the corner of his eye. Looking that way, he saw at least one or two of the mushrooms were ambling slowly in his direction. There was a faint illumination coming from the back of the cavern, which the monk could see came from the glowing orbs behind the eyes of a beetle the size of a small dog who had wandered in from another cavern behind the first one. Brendan hadn't seen any of these creatures in person before, but having talked with adventurers from the Guild, he recognized these were likely a giant fire beetle, shriekers, and some violet fungi - the latter being the ones that were shambling around. And sure enough, the beetle wandered closer and set off another of the shrieker fungi, which gave off a blast of noise at the movement. Having seen enough, Brendan scooted backwards, safe in the knowledge only the fire beetle would fit through the low tunnel, and it wasn't much of a threat.
"No basilisk, and there's no way it could fit through that tunnel," he said as he reclaimed his quarterstaff. By that time, the others had dismounted from their horses and Shiroko had returned to her hybrid form: a young woman with the ears and tail of a white-furred fox. Hoppy had gathered the horses and tied their reins to a rope he'd tied around a tree, keeping them close but giving them room to graze on the grasses within range.
"Let's see what's around the corner, then," suggested Adrielle, creeping forward with Galrich's fang in its trident form. She saw something on the ground ahead: a small carving of something with wings. On the right, along the cliff face, there was a cave opening a bit before where the carving lay upon the grass. This was a more likely basilisk lair, so she moved slowly and cautiously. Behind her, Kruz advanced and confirmed, "That looks like a bat on the ground, either a live one turned to stone or else a really good carving."
Shiroko unrolled one of her newly-purchased scrolls and cast a bear's endurance spell upon herself. Then she joined the others, getting out the first of her baleful polymorph spells. It looked like they'd found the basilisk's lair; now the main question was: was it here, or out hunting? Adrielle found out when she approached the cave opening and saw the basilisk lying curled up beside a pillar in the back of the cave, one of two rows of four that led to a set of wide stairs leading down into darkness. Not wanting to get too close to it, she backed up and told the others what she'd seen.
Shiroko came up with a plan to get close enough to it to be able to use her baleful polymorph spell scroll. "I'll summon my unseen servant," she said, "and have it pick up that petrified bat. If I can get the basilisk to focus on it, I can send it to the back of the cave, and sneak up close enough while its back is turned to turn it into a snail." She pulled a potion of spider climbing from her billowy sleeve and drank down its contents. "I can even creep up to it on the ceiling, where it won't think to look for me."
"Sounds good," replied Kruz. "What do you want us to do?"
"Keep it busy if the first spell scroll fails," the wu jen suggested. "Just remember not to kill it! We need it still alive."
"Yeah, no payment if we show up with a dead snail," Branden added. The wizard behind this expedition had even given the group a glass jar with air holes in the lid and a special leather pouch to carry it in for transporting the basilisk-in-snail-form.
Shiroko activated her unseen servant and had it pick up the petrified bat. Then she walked up the side of the cliff wall and around the corner, climbing up onto the cave's ceiling and sending both servant and bat statue down towards the crouched basilisk. Concerned that it didn't seem to be taking the bait - it was completely ignoring the floating bat; did it have poor eyesight? - Shiroko cast a coldflame foxfire spell at the back of the cavern, calling forth a pair of glowing orbs that hovered in place 10 feet away from the basilisk. That did the trick: it raised itself up on all eight feet and turned to look at the glowing spheres, but the wu jen left them in place, not wanting to send them crashing into the reptile, for that would hurt the basilisk (although it wasn't likely to kill it) and extinguish the faint illumination that was focusing its attention away from the front of the cave.
Kruz had his crossbow out and loaded, and stepped directly in front of the cave entrance, but kept his eyes focused upon the cave floor. He'd heard you could be turned to stone by looking directly at the basilisk and didn't want that to happen, but he wanted to be able to shoot at it if Shiroko's plan went awry. Brendan drank down a vial of antitoxin, his all-purpose preparation for any given combat. Hoppy hung back by the horses, staying well out the way but within earshot if the others called that they needed him.
Adrielle was getting antsy, though, so she took the opportunity of the basilisk having its back turned to go running down the right side of the cave, stopping once she got behind the first pillar. The basilisk's hearing was apparently much better than its eyesight, for it spun away from the glowing balls of blue light and turned her way, but by then she was safely behind the stone column, slowing her breathing and trying not to make any noise.
Shiroko, crouched on the cavern's ceiling, froze in place and mentally willed the basilisk not to look up. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't look at the beast, and concentrated on sending her unseen servant closer to the basilisk, "flying" the stone bat through the air close enough for the basilisk to notice. That did the trick; the reptile's weak eyes saw the bat "flying" to the rear of the cavern and turned back to face the glowing orbs once again. Shiroko breathed a sigh of relief - and then Brendan, having seen Adrielle successfully move up, decided he'd do the same thing, and he raced down past her to go hide behind the second pillar.
Shiroko froze in place again, wishing to curse out the impetuous monk but not wanting to draw the basilisk's attention. But Brendan had already done that, and it moved over by the row of western pillars, behind which Adrielle and Brendan were hiding. The scout had the presence of mind to move just enough to keep the stone column between her and the advancing reptile, whereas the monk wasn't quite as forward-thinking; as a result, the basilisk saw half of Brendan's body behind the pillar as it stepped forward, and instinctively triggered its petrifying gaze upon the monk. Brendan just had enough time to say, "Oh, sh--" before his body became stone and his voice was cut off in mid-word.
Fortunately, Brendan wasn't one of the ones carrying a vial of stone salve: Adrielle, Kruz, and Hoppy each carried one of the group's three doses. Realizing she could easily be next, Adrielle quietly pulled out her vial of the precious salve and placed it on the ground by the stone pillar, so that if she were petrified like Brendan their means of restoration wouldn't likewise be removed from play.
With her heart practically in her mouth, Shiroko crept along the ceiling until she determined she was likely close enough to the basilisk for the baleful polymorph spell to have a chance at success. She read the words to the scroll, daring to look at her intended victim but focusing upon its tail, not wanting to look at it fully if it turned its head her way while she verbalized the words to the spell. But luck was with her, for the spell not only went off as desired, it worked fine the first time, with the basilisk shrinking down immediately into the form of an ordinary garden snail. The wu jen let out a sigh of relief and started climbing down the side of the cavern wall, letting the others know it was safe to look at the snail. Adrielle started rubbing the contents of her stone salve on Brendan's petrified form, and before long he had regained the ranks of the living, the partial word "--it!" coming from his lips. Then, as she was the one wearing the leather satchel with the glass jar over one shoulder, Adrielle went to go fetch the snail and place it into its new temporary home.
But while she was doing so, she heard the distinctive sound of bone on metal, coming down from the direction of the stairs in the back of the cavern. The two rows of pillars already indicated this was not just any old cave but likely the entrance to some sort of secret temple, and a quick peek down the stairs confirmed it, for at the back of the smaller cavern below stood a 20-foot-tall statue of a human wearing a hooded cloak, with his left hand held out as if about to receive something, and his right hand held behind his back, out of view. Calling the others over, Brendan and Kruz confirmed that was a statue of Gareth, the God of Betrayal.
"This is like some sort of secret shrine," the changeling rogue observed.
"Let's check it out!" suggested Adrielle. Brendan was all for it, as secret shrines seemed like the perfect place to pick up unexpected treasure beyond the reward they had already earned for having captured the basilisk. He gave the stairs a thorough check (still wearing his skull mask so he could see just fine despite the darkness this far back from the cave entrance in the front), and he saw no indications the steps pivoted or were laden with any traps. "Looks safe," he said, and stepped down upon the first two.
Adrielle didn't have as much patience as the cautious monk and ran down the middle of the stairs, tossing an activated sunrod down onto the floor beside the statue before she stepped down onto the cavern's floor herself. From the bottom of the stairs, she could see the statue of Gareth was perched upon a trio of raised plinths, rising up to the stone carving like a smaller set of steps. But then she sensed something dropping down upon her and let instinct take over; swatting aside a falling stalactite with the tines of her trident.
When it landed on its side, however, the scout could see this was no stalactite at all, but rather some sort of mollusk, with a glistening foot like that of a snail along the widest part of its cone-shaped shell. "Piercer," observed Kruz, looking up at the cavern's ceiling. There were a number of stalactites hanging down from there, with no way to tell which - if any - of them might actually be piercers. Actually, there was one way, as the rogue saw one of the stalactites moving to the side to get into position right above Adrielle, and then drop down upon her. He shouted out a warning, and she once again swatted it away with her trident.
"Everybody down who's coming down," suggested Brendan, keeping a wary eye on the ceiling. But it looked as if there were just the two of them, and with both having given a go at Adrielle, they were not much of a danger at the moment. But Shiroko and Hoppy joined the others down the stairs, standing before the statue of Gareth.
Brendan wander to the back of the statue, curious as to see what Gareth was doing with his right arm. Apparently, he was hiding an unsheathed short sword behind his back; quite appropriate for the God of Betrayal, the monk felt. But then he noticed a couple of holes along the bottom of the back wall, rather like the one he'd crawled through to reach the cavern with the fire beetle and the fungi, only much smaller - there was no way he'd be able to fit into a hole that size. But he could drop to the floor and look through one of the holes, which was exactly what he did. The tunnel sloped down at an angle, and at the far end he could see a couple of jail cells, with a captive sitting motionlessly in each, their clothes having rotted away with the majority of their skin. Time had reduced both to skeletons.
"There's probably a secret door along here somewhere," he told the others, after describing what he'd seen. Adrielle and Kruz joined in the search, but Brendan found the opening mechanism before the others did. Pulling a hidden level hidden as part of Gareth's back leg, the grinding sound of stone on stone reverberated across the cavern as a section of wall slid to the side, revealing yet another set of steps leading down to a sideways corridor, on the back of which were ten cells, each with a decomposing prisoner. But that wasn't all: three of the cells held undead prisoners - two skeletons and a zombie, occupying three cells on the ends of the row of cells - and hiding beneath the benches upon which all of the dead sat were a large number of rat-creatures, half a dozen the size of smallish dire rats and a pair of larger ones, with enormous teeth jutting out of their mouths, as well as nearly two dozen tiny men with saggy skin - jermlaine, if the tales the monk had heard about them were true. They were said to attack even creatures as big as a man, swarming over them and shearing them of their hair, with which they made various ropes and nets.
But Adrielle didn't like the looks of the rat-things or the vast number of potential foes there, and called for Brendan to close up the sliding door again. The monk found it easy enough - just pulling the hidden switch in the opposite direction - and the grinding noise began again as the door started sliding closed. Some of the barrow rats began stepping forward through the bars of the jail cells, with jermlaine climbing up onto their backs, tiny little spears at the ready. But the door closed on them before they could reach the bottom of the steps.
"They can still come out through the tunnels!" called Adrielle, stepping back from the nearest hole, Galrich's fang pointed at the hole and ready to stab out at anything that emerged.
"Here!" called Hoppy. He held in his mismatched hands one of the piercers that had tried to impale Adrielle from above. It was the size and shape of a pointed stalactite, and Kruz grabbed it up from the sinborn and stuffed it, point first, into one of the holes. Shiroko brought the other one and Brendan plugged up the other hole. "There!" he exclaimed, once both holes were secure. "I think a couple of those bigger rats were osquips, and they can eat their way through solid stone - they're no doubt the ones responsible for these two little tunnels in the first place - but it'll take them time to carve another tunnel through this wall." The others were familiar with osquips, as little Kenji Geshuku had adopted one back at his mother's boardinghouse, and called it an "ugly puppy."
"Back the way we came?" asked Shiroko. As far as she was concerned, the quest was over - they'd gotten their basilisk for the wizard, after all.
"I don't know," argued Brendan. "We've found two ways into a bunch of hidden caverns and passageways behind that Gareth shrine. I'd kind of like to see what all's back there."
"We are right here," added Kruz. "Might as well take a look around before we head back home."
"So: that other way in Brendan found?" asked Adrielle. Once she got confirmation that was the plan, she sent Galrich's fang through its alternate configurations until it was a stiletto once again, and slid it into its sheath at her hip; she'd likely have a difficult time maneuvering it through the bending passageway, if Brendan had seen fit to leave his quarterstaff behind when he tried crawling through it. With a mental summons, Shiroko brought the glowing orbs of her coldflame foxfire spell with her, then sent them ahead of her through the tunnel as she crawled forward first. With the faint illumination from the orbs giving her enough light to see by, she targeted them into the closest of the violet fungus, then cast the spell two more times - all that she had prepared that day - each time focused upon the same shambling mushroom. After the third casting, the violet fungus blackened and wilted in place, slain by the repeated blasts of cold energy. But then the wu jen scrambled backwards, allowing Brendan to be the first to actually enter the cavern beyond.
Once again leaving his quarterstaff behind, the monk crawled forward on his belly, his spiked chain unwound and dragging behind him as he maneuvered through the narrow passageway. Once fully inside the cavern, he stood up and pulled the rest of his chain into the cavern with him, then swung it over his head and sent one end smashing into the body of the next-closest violet fungus, as the shriekers all around him started up with their ear-splitting chorus. He noted the giant fire beetle had retreated back into the cavern further back, possibly driven away by the shriekers' obnoxious cacophony.
Adrielle was the next to enter the cavern, one loop of her backpack wound around an ankle and being dragged in behind her, and she shook Galrich's fang into shortspear form before stabbing it into the same violet fungus Brendan had targeted. Kruz crawled through the tunnel next, with his loaded light crossbow held before him, and he took a shot through Brendan's legs at a violet fungus creeping up behind the monk. Shiroko was next back in the tunnel, and she had just enough room to see - in the light of the active sunrod Adrielle had brought with her from the chamber with the statue of Gareth - to target the same fungi with a still ice knife spell. It reeled from the cold energy but still ambled forward, while the other one swung multiple tendrils at Adrielle, catching her a couple of times on the arm, to little effect. Then Brendan bashed that one to a pulp with the end of his spiked chain and Kruz killed the other one with a well-placed shot from his crossbow. Only then did the changeling fully enter the chamber, allowing Shiroko and Hoppy to join them, the shriekers shrieking their displeasure at the intrusion.
"There's nothing here," observed Shiroko when they went to the cavern further back. Sure enough, the only feature in the smaller cavern, other than the giant fire beetle, who was keeping his distance, was a large pool in the center of the natural cavern.
"Maybe," admitted Brendan, looking over to Adrielle. "You want to give it a look-see?"
"Sure," agreed the scout at once, stepping to the edge of the pool and diving in, using her amulet of Kessaia to return to her natural form as she did so. By the time she hit water, she was once again a mermaid, and she took a moment as she swam to the bottom of the pool (where she found an underwater tunnel leading further south) to extend Galrich's fang back into its trusty trident form. The passageway led to a stream whose current moved from west to east, through a cavern tunnel whose upper half was filled with air. She popped her head above the surface and saw a platform to the south, beyond which was a closed door, no doubt another way into the dungeon complex Brendan had been sure was there. But crouched before the door was an enormous frog, and it turned its bulging eyes in the mermaid's direction. Before she had time to react, it spat its tongue in her direction, and she was mighty glad it whizzed past her ear without making contact, for she could see its tip was barbed, like a nasty spearhead, with three rows of barbed spines growing out of the sides.
"I do not seek to fight you," she said in the Aquan language, thinking there was a possibility this creature was intelligent. But the archer frog just reeled its odd tongue back into its mouth, croaked loudly, and attacked her again. But this time Adrielle was ready, and she dropped down below the stream's surface, allowing the barbed tongue to pass by her overhead. Then she swam back above the water's surface, stabbing at the oversize frog with the tip of her trident. She caught it with at least one of the three tines, but then the frog bent forward and bit her, its obscene mouth closing over her entire head and one shoulder. This thing had sharp teeth as well as the barbed tongue, and she struggled to pull herself free, her blood coloring the water as she resubmerged.
She'd been hoping to clear the way for her friends, but Adrielle knew that wasn't really a necessity, and she swam back the way she'd come, popping back up in the chamber with the pool of water. "Hoppy, please," she said, swimming to the side of the pool where the sinborn adept could provide her with healing spells to close up her bite-wounds. She told the group what she'd found, and assured then the underwater tunnel was short enough they could all traverse it without fear of drowning. Brendan took a deep breath and dived in, finding the tunnel at the bottom of the pool and swimming through it. Popping his head back above water when he got to the stream, he swung his spiked chain at the archer frog before it could react to his presence, catching it in the side of the head. Then Adrielle was there beside him stabbing at it with her trident, but it hopped away at the last moment to focus upon Brendan and her attack missed. Shiroko then popped her head above water but opted to stay back; she was already out of her more powerful spells for the day, but tried a flare spell, hoping to momentarily distract the archer frog. But such was not in the cards, and the frog ignored her spell.
Kruz entered the stream with a loaded light crossbow held before him, and he shot at the archer frog, which was every bit as big as Adrielle had claimed. Having grown up in the city, he'd never seen a frog this big!
The archer frog pivoted again and bit at Adrielle, catching her arm but not getting enough of a grip to try to swallow her whole. Hoppy popped his head up above water, gasping for breath; the others had apparently forgotten he wasn't much a swimmer, with one foot ending in a satyr's hoof. He wasn't there to help fight the frog in any case, merely heal up those who got wounded doing so. For now, he concentrated on keeping his head above water and in one general place, not allowing the slow-moving stream to push him further away from the action.
Brendan's spiked chain went slamming into the side of the frog's head again, causing it considerable pain. Adrielle stabbed at it again with her trident, while Kruz send another crossbow bolt sticking into its side. Shiroko grabbed out her dagger and swam underwater until she arrived at the edge of the platform upon which the frog stood, and popped up to stab it in the foot before dropping back down below the water's surface once again. Confused at having so many people all around it, the frog tried biting at Adrielle again but missed. Then it was hit again by the spiked chain, and when it turned in Brendan's direction, Adrielle stabbed it with her trident. Finally, Kruz got it in the head with a third crossbow bolt, and that was the strike that finally slew it.
While the others climbed up onto the platform, Adrielle explored further downstream, finding another door along what would have to be the far east side of the Gareth statue, this one slightly ajar. She swam back upstream to rejoin her companions, telling them of what she saw as she climbed up onto the stone floor and reverted to her borrowed human form. Kruz was already inspecting the door, finding no traps and discovering it wasn't even locked. But when he opened it, he saw a doglegging corridor with a door to the right, and to the left a familiar clump of cells with skeletal prisoners.
"Quick, give me a hand with this," said Brendan, tossing his chain over one shoulder and pulling on the slain archer frog's carcass. The others help drag it through the door - it took some serious prodding to get it to fit through - and plopped it in the middle of the corridor, over by the closest jail cell. "Tribute," he called down the corridor, where he knew the jermlaine and their rodent companions had gathered. "We don't wish you any harm, and you're welcome to make a meal out of this frog if you'd like!" Then he stepped back, opened the door, and saw it was an empty barracks, likely where the security forces in charge of the prisoners once slept. There were four dusty cots, each with a chest at its foot, and the monk sent Kruz and Shiroko in to check the place out. But the chests were all empty, and the group returned back the way they'd come, closing the door by where they'd slain the archer frog behind them. As soon as the door was closed, though, there was the clattering of claws on stone as the osquips and barrow rats made a bee-line for the dead frog flesh, the jermlaine joining them in an unexpected feast.
The group went back into the stream and followed Adrielle to the other door, climbing up onto a much smaller platform. They ended up at the far end of the jail cells, where they found and explored a room where it looked like prisoners were processed, and an adjoining room where their goods were stored while they were being held. Kruz surmised the whole thing seemed like a kidnapping operation, with prisoners being held in seclusion while they waited for their ransoms to be paid. But while the storage room contained only odds and ends junk - a couple of rings, and empty leather folding wallet, a pair of keys of unknown usefulness, and a parchment fragment detailing a section of a hand-drawn map of an unknown dungeon region somewhere - Adrielle unearthed a secret compartment in the side of a desk in the processing room, inside of which was a nice-looking short sword. Shiroko confirmed, with a detect magic spell, that the blade was magical, and it was quickly determined the sword was a luck blade. "These things have wishes loaded up in them!" exclaimed Kruz excitedly, but experimentation soon determined if this particular luck blade had contained any wishes, they had long since been used up. "Oh well," he said, "I'll still take it. A magic blade's a magic blade, after all."
There was a single door left unexplored at that point, and that turned out to lead to a vertical shaft leading to the surface, its smooth sides indicating it had been crafted by magic, not nature. However, a spider the size of a grown man had constructed a web across the shaft at about 10 feet up, leaving one side open enough for it to scramble up and down the wall. It started toward the group when they opened the door, but the adventurers saw no point in fighting a spider that had no apparent treasure about its lair, and simply closed the door on it.
"Seen enough?" asked Shiroko. She'd have had to fight the thing off with her wand of magic missiles, as she was out of combat spells for the day.
"Yeah, I think we've gotten all we can from this place," admitted Brendan. "Let's go back." As they weren't sure how to open the sliding door from the back side, and looking around for a secret activation switch would have brought them too close to the feasting jermlaine and their rodent steeds, they dove back into the underground stream and swam against the current to get back to the submerged passageway that led back to the cavern with the pool. Then, dripping wet, they crawled back through the narrow tunnel and out into the fresh air, where they saw they still had a good two to three hours before sunset.
"We could stay here overnight," suggested Shiroko. "The cave offers enough protection from the elements."
"No," argued Adrielle. "I don't want to sleep too close to those wrinkly little men or their rats, in case they change their minds about attacking us. I'd rather we put a few miles between us." That being the general consensus, they took turns changing into dry clothes in the cave while the others kept watch for intruders, then remounted their horses and headed back south towards Port Duralia.
- - -
I had a planned travel encounter for the way back, involving an ogre and his pet dire wolf out hunting for prey, but it was getting late by that time and we still had our upgrades to 4th level to do. So the ogre and dire wolf were never encountered; maybe they'll show up in a later adventure.
Joe once again had to work the day we played through this adventure, so his dad Dan ran both Brendan and Kruz. But we let Joe make the upgrades to his own character.
- - -
T-shirt worn: The one with four dinosaurs fleeing an incoming d20 falling down from the skies, as it was a good representation of a reptile (in this case, a basilisk) trying to run from the fate in store for it (in this case, being baleful polymorphed into a snail).
PC Roster:
Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 3
Brendan Conaill, human monk 3
Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 3
Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 3
NPC Roster:
Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 3
Game Session Date: 14 February 2026
- - -
"What is a basilisk?" asked Hoppy. Having lived his entire life within the confines of the city of Port Duralia, he'd never heard of the creature.
"Big reptile," replied Brendan. "Kind of like a crocodile, only bigger, and with eight legs. And its gaze can turn you to stone." He'd never seen one for himself, but he'd at least heard of the creature before. And now, their current mission from the Port Duralia Adventurers Guild was to head out into the mountainous hills north of the city and try to take one alive.
"And that's why they gave us two doses of stone salve," added Kruz, holding up the two vials provided by the Guild. "If it turns any of us to stone, we can get restored with these." He frowned as a sudden thought crossed his mind. "We'll want two different people to hold these," he said. "It would be really bad if the one person holding both doses was the one turned to stone."
"We might want to pick up an additional dose or two on our own, just in case," suggested Adrielle. Part of the deal was they'd return any unused doses of the stone salve when they returned with the basilisk.
Shiroko was studying the scrolls the group had been given as part of the equipment to aid them in their quest. Each scroll was identical, holding one casting of the baleful polymorph spell. "I think I can manage this," she said, after deciphering the arcane markings on the scrolls. That was good, because she was their only arcane spellcaster, although Kruz could sometimes manage to cast a spell from a scroll if it came down to that. "I can understand why they might want it taken alive," she said, "but why do they want it turned into a snail?"
"Well, it's harmless that way," said Brendan, pointing out the obvious. "And...I guess if it gets loose, it won't get very far before they catch up to it? I dunno - who knows why wizards do things the way they do? As long as the pay's okay, I'm okay with following any oddball requests like that." The wizard who was funding this particular expedition would be paying the group 1,200 pieces of gold for the return of an intact specimen.
"We'll need some supplies," pointed out Adrielle. "Tents, bedrolls, riding mounts...." They'd be traveling at least two days to get to the area where a basilisk had been spotted, and it would take much longer if they were going to be traveling on foot. And with Hoppy's mismatched legs and hopping gait, it would take even longer than a similar group who didn't have a mongrelfolk among their numbers.
"I'll walk," volunteered Shiroko.
"You'll slow us down," countered Brendan.
"I won't be walking looking like this," replied the wu jen, spreading her arms and allowing the sleeves of her kimono to flap to her sides. "I'll be in fox form, trotting alongside your horses. It'll actually be good to spend some time in animal form."
"Or you could ride with me," volunteered Adrielle.
The rest of the day was spent seeing to their purchases. Brendan, Adrielle, and Kruz each purchased a riding horse, with the changeling offering to allow Hoppy to ride with him. Adrielle's mount was a white mare and she immediately named her Conch, given her coloration. She asked the others what they'd be naming their horses, but neither seemed particularly eager to come up with a name just yet. Brendan already owned a tent big enough for him and Kruz, and they picked up another tent for the women and a smaller one for Hoppy, and made sure everyone had a bedroll and blanket, plus enough food to last them for several days away from the city, for they had no idea how long it would take them to track down the basilisk others had occasionally spotted hunting to the north. Adrielle bought a third vial of stone salve, just in case, and Shiroko purchased five scrolls of the spell bear's endurance, which, if she understood what she'd heard of the spell, would increase their chances of fighting off petrification should any of them end up in the area of effect of the basilisk's gaze. Plus, she hoped if she studied the scrolls at night (in her hybrid form), she might be able to learn how to cast the spell on her own; it seemed like an eminently practical spell to know. Brendan bought two vials of oil of shillelagh, the better to enhance the combat capabilities of his quarterstaff, although he was getting to like using his spiked chain, and it was fast becoming his preferred weapon. Still, it was good to have options.
Their purchases made, it was late enough in the day the group unanimously agreed to postpone their departure until the next morning. Their first day of travel was uneventful, with the three new riders getting the hang of controlling their mounts. "Did you guys come up with names for your horses?" asked Adrielle again to Brendan and Kruz.
"Nope," replied Brendan, and seemed to have no desire to advance that particular conversation.
"Me neither," admitted Kruz. "I'll come up with something." But when they camped for the evening, neither of the horses had been granted a name. Shiroko pored over her scrolls by the light of the campfire, but the bear's endurance spell evaded her mental grasp - she could see how the spell was invoked from the scroll, but the arcane symbology used was different than what she was used to. Belatedly, she chided herself for making her purchases from the closest scroll merchant, rather than heading over to the shop of Arukuyume, the elderly spirit folk wu jen from which she purchased all of the items unique to her homeland. One could spend all day in Port Duralia looking for a scroll of the fire shuriken spell, for example, for the spell was generally unknown by Armaturian spellcasters. She suspected, though, that had she purchased the bear's endurance scrolls from Arukuyume she'd already have mastered it and scribed it into the lengthy scroll she used as a spellbook.
It was on the morning of the second day of travel the group ran into their first bit of excitement. Brendan and Adrielle rode side by side down a road passing through a thick forest, with Shiroko in fox form perched on the saddle behind the scout, while behind them rode Kruz and Hoppy. Suddenly, there was movement ahead, and stepping out between the trees was a giant praying mantis, its thin body half again as long as either of the horses. It cocked its head in the group's direction, stepped fully out from between the trees, spread its wings, and flew directly at Brendan and his unnamed mount. The monk hastily drank down a potion of mage armor knowing it would likely be his only opportunity to do so before combat started.
The mantis landed directly before the monk's horse and lashed out with its forward claws, but the horse, despite Brendan's attempts to control it, reared up in fear and the claws missed their mark. Shiroko cast the one spell she could while in animal form: a still ice knife spell, which sent an icy dagger flying towards the giant mantis. It hit the massive insect, sending a blast of cold energy coursing through the creature's carapace. At the same time, Kruz sent a crossbow bolt flying into the giant insect's thorax, just below its clawed forelimbs. Adrielle drank down a potion of barkskin and urged Conch forward, her weapon Galrich's fang in its trident configuration. Behind her, Shiroko dropped from her perch behind the saddle and landed on the dirt road. She ran around to approach the mantis from behind, biting at one armored leg, to little effect.
The mantis struck again at its original target and caught it in its claws, but failed to get in a bite before the horse had wriggled from its grasp. Then Kruz shot it again, and Brendan abandoned his mount, leaping off to the side while unwinding his spiked chain from around his torso. Swinging one end above his head to gain momentum, he sent it crashing into the side of the giant insect's body. Then Adrielle charged the mantis in her mount, and stabbed it with the three prongs of her trident. But the mantis was focused on its original target, and caught the horse's neck with its clawed forelimbs and this time pulled it in close enough to bite the steed on the side of his throat. It ignored the snow fox trying to gnaw upon one of its rear legs, and the horse's thrashing about moved the mantis just enough for Kruz's next shot to miss, but eventually the horse once again got free and started running off to the side, eager to be far away. Brendan swung his chain at the mantis but it moved after the horse and the swing went wide.
Hoppy dropped from the back of Kruz's horse and limped after the fleeing horse; fortunately, it was forced to stay on the road and ran right by the mongrelfolk, so the adept was able to touch it in passing and cast a cure light wounds spell on it, sealing up the worst of its wounds and calming it somewhat. It slowed enough for the sinborn to catch up to it, calming it with soothing tones and casting a second healing spell at it (which it seriously needed).
A second charge at the mantis upon Conch allowed Adrielle to pierce the giant praying mantis upon the three prongs of her trident, finally slaying the hungry insect. Hoppy returned to the group leading Brendan's horse by the reins, and the monk gratefully remounted. Kruz helped Hoppy back up behind him on his own horse, and the group was once again on their way, heading north.
About four hours later, the road had led into the hills, and the group found their first indication the basilisk had been nearby, for a group of reptilian tracks made by either a heavy-bodied creature with eight feet or a pair of four-legged beasts crossed the dirt road. None of the group was a seasoned tracker, but they steered their mounts in the direction the tracks led and hoped for the best. They lost the spoor several times, each time spending time looking around to pick up the trail again, but eventually they found themselves headed uphill towards the side of a massive stone upcropping rising up from the grassy hills.
"We might be getting close," said Brendan, thinking if there were a cave in the stone cliff ahead, that might very well be a suitable lair for a basilisk. And that's when a sudden shriek came screaming from the stone around the corner, bringing all three horses to an immediate halt as the three riders pulled back on their reins.
"Was that the basilisk? Do they shriek like that?" Adrielle whispered to the others. As a mermaid, she had no immediate familiarity with basilisks.
"Not sure," whispered Brendan, slipping from his horse and gripping his quarterstaff as he advanced quietly along the stone cliff face. Hoppy dismounted from the back of Kruz's horse, limping forward to grab the reins of Brendan's horse so it wouldn't stray. Brendan saw a low tunnel down along the ground at the cliff's side, and dropped down to give it a closer look. It looked like it might just be wide enough to allow a person to wriggle through it, as long as they didn't wear heavy armor or a backpack. The tunnel twisted to the right and he didn't think he could get his quarterstaff through it, so he set it by the side of the cliff, pulled on his skull mask - there would likely be no illumination on the other side of the tunnel, so the mask's darkvision would come in handy - and crawled into the tunnel on his stomach.
The tunnel curved to the right but then opened up into a wider cavern with a ceiling height the monk guessed to be 15 or 20 feet. There were about a dozen giant mushrooms in the cavern, and he caught a bit of motion from the corner of his eye. Looking that way, he saw at least one or two of the mushrooms were ambling slowly in his direction. There was a faint illumination coming from the back of the cavern, which the monk could see came from the glowing orbs behind the eyes of a beetle the size of a small dog who had wandered in from another cavern behind the first one. Brendan hadn't seen any of these creatures in person before, but having talked with adventurers from the Guild, he recognized these were likely a giant fire beetle, shriekers, and some violet fungi - the latter being the ones that were shambling around. And sure enough, the beetle wandered closer and set off another of the shrieker fungi, which gave off a blast of noise at the movement. Having seen enough, Brendan scooted backwards, safe in the knowledge only the fire beetle would fit through the low tunnel, and it wasn't much of a threat.
"No basilisk, and there's no way it could fit through that tunnel," he said as he reclaimed his quarterstaff. By that time, the others had dismounted from their horses and Shiroko had returned to her hybrid form: a young woman with the ears and tail of a white-furred fox. Hoppy had gathered the horses and tied their reins to a rope he'd tied around a tree, keeping them close but giving them room to graze on the grasses within range.
"Let's see what's around the corner, then," suggested Adrielle, creeping forward with Galrich's fang in its trident form. She saw something on the ground ahead: a small carving of something with wings. On the right, along the cliff face, there was a cave opening a bit before where the carving lay upon the grass. This was a more likely basilisk lair, so she moved slowly and cautiously. Behind her, Kruz advanced and confirmed, "That looks like a bat on the ground, either a live one turned to stone or else a really good carving."
Shiroko unrolled one of her newly-purchased scrolls and cast a bear's endurance spell upon herself. Then she joined the others, getting out the first of her baleful polymorph spells. It looked like they'd found the basilisk's lair; now the main question was: was it here, or out hunting? Adrielle found out when she approached the cave opening and saw the basilisk lying curled up beside a pillar in the back of the cave, one of two rows of four that led to a set of wide stairs leading down into darkness. Not wanting to get too close to it, she backed up and told the others what she'd seen.
Shiroko came up with a plan to get close enough to it to be able to use her baleful polymorph spell scroll. "I'll summon my unseen servant," she said, "and have it pick up that petrified bat. If I can get the basilisk to focus on it, I can send it to the back of the cave, and sneak up close enough while its back is turned to turn it into a snail." She pulled a potion of spider climbing from her billowy sleeve and drank down its contents. "I can even creep up to it on the ceiling, where it won't think to look for me."
"Sounds good," replied Kruz. "What do you want us to do?"
"Keep it busy if the first spell scroll fails," the wu jen suggested. "Just remember not to kill it! We need it still alive."
"Yeah, no payment if we show up with a dead snail," Branden added. The wizard behind this expedition had even given the group a glass jar with air holes in the lid and a special leather pouch to carry it in for transporting the basilisk-in-snail-form.
Shiroko activated her unseen servant and had it pick up the petrified bat. Then she walked up the side of the cliff wall and around the corner, climbing up onto the cave's ceiling and sending both servant and bat statue down towards the crouched basilisk. Concerned that it didn't seem to be taking the bait - it was completely ignoring the floating bat; did it have poor eyesight? - Shiroko cast a coldflame foxfire spell at the back of the cavern, calling forth a pair of glowing orbs that hovered in place 10 feet away from the basilisk. That did the trick: it raised itself up on all eight feet and turned to look at the glowing spheres, but the wu jen left them in place, not wanting to send them crashing into the reptile, for that would hurt the basilisk (although it wasn't likely to kill it) and extinguish the faint illumination that was focusing its attention away from the front of the cave.
Kruz had his crossbow out and loaded, and stepped directly in front of the cave entrance, but kept his eyes focused upon the cave floor. He'd heard you could be turned to stone by looking directly at the basilisk and didn't want that to happen, but he wanted to be able to shoot at it if Shiroko's plan went awry. Brendan drank down a vial of antitoxin, his all-purpose preparation for any given combat. Hoppy hung back by the horses, staying well out the way but within earshot if the others called that they needed him.
Adrielle was getting antsy, though, so she took the opportunity of the basilisk having its back turned to go running down the right side of the cave, stopping once she got behind the first pillar. The basilisk's hearing was apparently much better than its eyesight, for it spun away from the glowing balls of blue light and turned her way, but by then she was safely behind the stone column, slowing her breathing and trying not to make any noise.
Shiroko, crouched on the cavern's ceiling, froze in place and mentally willed the basilisk not to look up. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't look at the beast, and concentrated on sending her unseen servant closer to the basilisk, "flying" the stone bat through the air close enough for the basilisk to notice. That did the trick; the reptile's weak eyes saw the bat "flying" to the rear of the cavern and turned back to face the glowing orbs once again. Shiroko breathed a sigh of relief - and then Brendan, having seen Adrielle successfully move up, decided he'd do the same thing, and he raced down past her to go hide behind the second pillar.
Shiroko froze in place again, wishing to curse out the impetuous monk but not wanting to draw the basilisk's attention. But Brendan had already done that, and it moved over by the row of western pillars, behind which Adrielle and Brendan were hiding. The scout had the presence of mind to move just enough to keep the stone column between her and the advancing reptile, whereas the monk wasn't quite as forward-thinking; as a result, the basilisk saw half of Brendan's body behind the pillar as it stepped forward, and instinctively triggered its petrifying gaze upon the monk. Brendan just had enough time to say, "Oh, sh--" before his body became stone and his voice was cut off in mid-word.
Fortunately, Brendan wasn't one of the ones carrying a vial of stone salve: Adrielle, Kruz, and Hoppy each carried one of the group's three doses. Realizing she could easily be next, Adrielle quietly pulled out her vial of the precious salve and placed it on the ground by the stone pillar, so that if she were petrified like Brendan their means of restoration wouldn't likewise be removed from play.
With her heart practically in her mouth, Shiroko crept along the ceiling until she determined she was likely close enough to the basilisk for the baleful polymorph spell to have a chance at success. She read the words to the scroll, daring to look at her intended victim but focusing upon its tail, not wanting to look at it fully if it turned its head her way while she verbalized the words to the spell. But luck was with her, for the spell not only went off as desired, it worked fine the first time, with the basilisk shrinking down immediately into the form of an ordinary garden snail. The wu jen let out a sigh of relief and started climbing down the side of the cavern wall, letting the others know it was safe to look at the snail. Adrielle started rubbing the contents of her stone salve on Brendan's petrified form, and before long he had regained the ranks of the living, the partial word "--it!" coming from his lips. Then, as she was the one wearing the leather satchel with the glass jar over one shoulder, Adrielle went to go fetch the snail and place it into its new temporary home.
But while she was doing so, she heard the distinctive sound of bone on metal, coming down from the direction of the stairs in the back of the cavern. The two rows of pillars already indicated this was not just any old cave but likely the entrance to some sort of secret temple, and a quick peek down the stairs confirmed it, for at the back of the smaller cavern below stood a 20-foot-tall statue of a human wearing a hooded cloak, with his left hand held out as if about to receive something, and his right hand held behind his back, out of view. Calling the others over, Brendan and Kruz confirmed that was a statue of Gareth, the God of Betrayal.
"This is like some sort of secret shrine," the changeling rogue observed.
"Let's check it out!" suggested Adrielle. Brendan was all for it, as secret shrines seemed like the perfect place to pick up unexpected treasure beyond the reward they had already earned for having captured the basilisk. He gave the stairs a thorough check (still wearing his skull mask so he could see just fine despite the darkness this far back from the cave entrance in the front), and he saw no indications the steps pivoted or were laden with any traps. "Looks safe," he said, and stepped down upon the first two.
Adrielle didn't have as much patience as the cautious monk and ran down the middle of the stairs, tossing an activated sunrod down onto the floor beside the statue before she stepped down onto the cavern's floor herself. From the bottom of the stairs, she could see the statue of Gareth was perched upon a trio of raised plinths, rising up to the stone carving like a smaller set of steps. But then she sensed something dropping down upon her and let instinct take over; swatting aside a falling stalactite with the tines of her trident.
When it landed on its side, however, the scout could see this was no stalactite at all, but rather some sort of mollusk, with a glistening foot like that of a snail along the widest part of its cone-shaped shell. "Piercer," observed Kruz, looking up at the cavern's ceiling. There were a number of stalactites hanging down from there, with no way to tell which - if any - of them might actually be piercers. Actually, there was one way, as the rogue saw one of the stalactites moving to the side to get into position right above Adrielle, and then drop down upon her. He shouted out a warning, and she once again swatted it away with her trident.
"Everybody down who's coming down," suggested Brendan, keeping a wary eye on the ceiling. But it looked as if there were just the two of them, and with both having given a go at Adrielle, they were not much of a danger at the moment. But Shiroko and Hoppy joined the others down the stairs, standing before the statue of Gareth.
Brendan wander to the back of the statue, curious as to see what Gareth was doing with his right arm. Apparently, he was hiding an unsheathed short sword behind his back; quite appropriate for the God of Betrayal, the monk felt. But then he noticed a couple of holes along the bottom of the back wall, rather like the one he'd crawled through to reach the cavern with the fire beetle and the fungi, only much smaller - there was no way he'd be able to fit into a hole that size. But he could drop to the floor and look through one of the holes, which was exactly what he did. The tunnel sloped down at an angle, and at the far end he could see a couple of jail cells, with a captive sitting motionlessly in each, their clothes having rotted away with the majority of their skin. Time had reduced both to skeletons.
"There's probably a secret door along here somewhere," he told the others, after describing what he'd seen. Adrielle and Kruz joined in the search, but Brendan found the opening mechanism before the others did. Pulling a hidden level hidden as part of Gareth's back leg, the grinding sound of stone on stone reverberated across the cavern as a section of wall slid to the side, revealing yet another set of steps leading down to a sideways corridor, on the back of which were ten cells, each with a decomposing prisoner. But that wasn't all: three of the cells held undead prisoners - two skeletons and a zombie, occupying three cells on the ends of the row of cells - and hiding beneath the benches upon which all of the dead sat were a large number of rat-creatures, half a dozen the size of smallish dire rats and a pair of larger ones, with enormous teeth jutting out of their mouths, as well as nearly two dozen tiny men with saggy skin - jermlaine, if the tales the monk had heard about them were true. They were said to attack even creatures as big as a man, swarming over them and shearing them of their hair, with which they made various ropes and nets.
But Adrielle didn't like the looks of the rat-things or the vast number of potential foes there, and called for Brendan to close up the sliding door again. The monk found it easy enough - just pulling the hidden switch in the opposite direction - and the grinding noise began again as the door started sliding closed. Some of the barrow rats began stepping forward through the bars of the jail cells, with jermlaine climbing up onto their backs, tiny little spears at the ready. But the door closed on them before they could reach the bottom of the steps.
"They can still come out through the tunnels!" called Adrielle, stepping back from the nearest hole, Galrich's fang pointed at the hole and ready to stab out at anything that emerged.
"Here!" called Hoppy. He held in his mismatched hands one of the piercers that had tried to impale Adrielle from above. It was the size and shape of a pointed stalactite, and Kruz grabbed it up from the sinborn and stuffed it, point first, into one of the holes. Shiroko brought the other one and Brendan plugged up the other hole. "There!" he exclaimed, once both holes were secure. "I think a couple of those bigger rats were osquips, and they can eat their way through solid stone - they're no doubt the ones responsible for these two little tunnels in the first place - but it'll take them time to carve another tunnel through this wall." The others were familiar with osquips, as little Kenji Geshuku had adopted one back at his mother's boardinghouse, and called it an "ugly puppy."
"Back the way we came?" asked Shiroko. As far as she was concerned, the quest was over - they'd gotten their basilisk for the wizard, after all.
"I don't know," argued Brendan. "We've found two ways into a bunch of hidden caverns and passageways behind that Gareth shrine. I'd kind of like to see what all's back there."
"We are right here," added Kruz. "Might as well take a look around before we head back home."
"So: that other way in Brendan found?" asked Adrielle. Once she got confirmation that was the plan, she sent Galrich's fang through its alternate configurations until it was a stiletto once again, and slid it into its sheath at her hip; she'd likely have a difficult time maneuvering it through the bending passageway, if Brendan had seen fit to leave his quarterstaff behind when he tried crawling through it. With a mental summons, Shiroko brought the glowing orbs of her coldflame foxfire spell with her, then sent them ahead of her through the tunnel as she crawled forward first. With the faint illumination from the orbs giving her enough light to see by, she targeted them into the closest of the violet fungus, then cast the spell two more times - all that she had prepared that day - each time focused upon the same shambling mushroom. After the third casting, the violet fungus blackened and wilted in place, slain by the repeated blasts of cold energy. But then the wu jen scrambled backwards, allowing Brendan to be the first to actually enter the cavern beyond.
Once again leaving his quarterstaff behind, the monk crawled forward on his belly, his spiked chain unwound and dragging behind him as he maneuvered through the narrow passageway. Once fully inside the cavern, he stood up and pulled the rest of his chain into the cavern with him, then swung it over his head and sent one end smashing into the body of the next-closest violet fungus, as the shriekers all around him started up with their ear-splitting chorus. He noted the giant fire beetle had retreated back into the cavern further back, possibly driven away by the shriekers' obnoxious cacophony.
Adrielle was the next to enter the cavern, one loop of her backpack wound around an ankle and being dragged in behind her, and she shook Galrich's fang into shortspear form before stabbing it into the same violet fungus Brendan had targeted. Kruz crawled through the tunnel next, with his loaded light crossbow held before him, and he took a shot through Brendan's legs at a violet fungus creeping up behind the monk. Shiroko was next back in the tunnel, and she had just enough room to see - in the light of the active sunrod Adrielle had brought with her from the chamber with the statue of Gareth - to target the same fungi with a still ice knife spell. It reeled from the cold energy but still ambled forward, while the other one swung multiple tendrils at Adrielle, catching her a couple of times on the arm, to little effect. Then Brendan bashed that one to a pulp with the end of his spiked chain and Kruz killed the other one with a well-placed shot from his crossbow. Only then did the changeling fully enter the chamber, allowing Shiroko and Hoppy to join them, the shriekers shrieking their displeasure at the intrusion.
"There's nothing here," observed Shiroko when they went to the cavern further back. Sure enough, the only feature in the smaller cavern, other than the giant fire beetle, who was keeping his distance, was a large pool in the center of the natural cavern.
"Maybe," admitted Brendan, looking over to Adrielle. "You want to give it a look-see?"
"Sure," agreed the scout at once, stepping to the edge of the pool and diving in, using her amulet of Kessaia to return to her natural form as she did so. By the time she hit water, she was once again a mermaid, and she took a moment as she swam to the bottom of the pool (where she found an underwater tunnel leading further south) to extend Galrich's fang back into its trusty trident form. The passageway led to a stream whose current moved from west to east, through a cavern tunnel whose upper half was filled with air. She popped her head above the surface and saw a platform to the south, beyond which was a closed door, no doubt another way into the dungeon complex Brendan had been sure was there. But crouched before the door was an enormous frog, and it turned its bulging eyes in the mermaid's direction. Before she had time to react, it spat its tongue in her direction, and she was mighty glad it whizzed past her ear without making contact, for she could see its tip was barbed, like a nasty spearhead, with three rows of barbed spines growing out of the sides.
"I do not seek to fight you," she said in the Aquan language, thinking there was a possibility this creature was intelligent. But the archer frog just reeled its odd tongue back into its mouth, croaked loudly, and attacked her again. But this time Adrielle was ready, and she dropped down below the stream's surface, allowing the barbed tongue to pass by her overhead. Then she swam back above the water's surface, stabbing at the oversize frog with the tip of her trident. She caught it with at least one of the three tines, but then the frog bent forward and bit her, its obscene mouth closing over her entire head and one shoulder. This thing had sharp teeth as well as the barbed tongue, and she struggled to pull herself free, her blood coloring the water as she resubmerged.
She'd been hoping to clear the way for her friends, but Adrielle knew that wasn't really a necessity, and she swam back the way she'd come, popping back up in the chamber with the pool of water. "Hoppy, please," she said, swimming to the side of the pool where the sinborn adept could provide her with healing spells to close up her bite-wounds. She told the group what she'd found, and assured then the underwater tunnel was short enough they could all traverse it without fear of drowning. Brendan took a deep breath and dived in, finding the tunnel at the bottom of the pool and swimming through it. Popping his head back above water when he got to the stream, he swung his spiked chain at the archer frog before it could react to his presence, catching it in the side of the head. Then Adrielle was there beside him stabbing at it with her trident, but it hopped away at the last moment to focus upon Brendan and her attack missed. Shiroko then popped her head above water but opted to stay back; she was already out of her more powerful spells for the day, but tried a flare spell, hoping to momentarily distract the archer frog. But such was not in the cards, and the frog ignored her spell.
Kruz entered the stream with a loaded light crossbow held before him, and he shot at the archer frog, which was every bit as big as Adrielle had claimed. Having grown up in the city, he'd never seen a frog this big!
The archer frog pivoted again and bit at Adrielle, catching her arm but not getting enough of a grip to try to swallow her whole. Hoppy popped his head up above water, gasping for breath; the others had apparently forgotten he wasn't much a swimmer, with one foot ending in a satyr's hoof. He wasn't there to help fight the frog in any case, merely heal up those who got wounded doing so. For now, he concentrated on keeping his head above water and in one general place, not allowing the slow-moving stream to push him further away from the action.
Brendan's spiked chain went slamming into the side of the frog's head again, causing it considerable pain. Adrielle stabbed at it again with her trident, while Kruz send another crossbow bolt sticking into its side. Shiroko grabbed out her dagger and swam underwater until she arrived at the edge of the platform upon which the frog stood, and popped up to stab it in the foot before dropping back down below the water's surface once again. Confused at having so many people all around it, the frog tried biting at Adrielle again but missed. Then it was hit again by the spiked chain, and when it turned in Brendan's direction, Adrielle stabbed it with her trident. Finally, Kruz got it in the head with a third crossbow bolt, and that was the strike that finally slew it.
While the others climbed up onto the platform, Adrielle explored further downstream, finding another door along what would have to be the far east side of the Gareth statue, this one slightly ajar. She swam back upstream to rejoin her companions, telling them of what she saw as she climbed up onto the stone floor and reverted to her borrowed human form. Kruz was already inspecting the door, finding no traps and discovering it wasn't even locked. But when he opened it, he saw a doglegging corridor with a door to the right, and to the left a familiar clump of cells with skeletal prisoners.
"Quick, give me a hand with this," said Brendan, tossing his chain over one shoulder and pulling on the slain archer frog's carcass. The others help drag it through the door - it took some serious prodding to get it to fit through - and plopped it in the middle of the corridor, over by the closest jail cell. "Tribute," he called down the corridor, where he knew the jermlaine and their rodent companions had gathered. "We don't wish you any harm, and you're welcome to make a meal out of this frog if you'd like!" Then he stepped back, opened the door, and saw it was an empty barracks, likely where the security forces in charge of the prisoners once slept. There were four dusty cots, each with a chest at its foot, and the monk sent Kruz and Shiroko in to check the place out. But the chests were all empty, and the group returned back the way they'd come, closing the door by where they'd slain the archer frog behind them. As soon as the door was closed, though, there was the clattering of claws on stone as the osquips and barrow rats made a bee-line for the dead frog flesh, the jermlaine joining them in an unexpected feast.
The group went back into the stream and followed Adrielle to the other door, climbing up onto a much smaller platform. They ended up at the far end of the jail cells, where they found and explored a room where it looked like prisoners were processed, and an adjoining room where their goods were stored while they were being held. Kruz surmised the whole thing seemed like a kidnapping operation, with prisoners being held in seclusion while they waited for their ransoms to be paid. But while the storage room contained only odds and ends junk - a couple of rings, and empty leather folding wallet, a pair of keys of unknown usefulness, and a parchment fragment detailing a section of a hand-drawn map of an unknown dungeon region somewhere - Adrielle unearthed a secret compartment in the side of a desk in the processing room, inside of which was a nice-looking short sword. Shiroko confirmed, with a detect magic spell, that the blade was magical, and it was quickly determined the sword was a luck blade. "These things have wishes loaded up in them!" exclaimed Kruz excitedly, but experimentation soon determined if this particular luck blade had contained any wishes, they had long since been used up. "Oh well," he said, "I'll still take it. A magic blade's a magic blade, after all."
There was a single door left unexplored at that point, and that turned out to lead to a vertical shaft leading to the surface, its smooth sides indicating it had been crafted by magic, not nature. However, a spider the size of a grown man had constructed a web across the shaft at about 10 feet up, leaving one side open enough for it to scramble up and down the wall. It started toward the group when they opened the door, but the adventurers saw no point in fighting a spider that had no apparent treasure about its lair, and simply closed the door on it.
"Seen enough?" asked Shiroko. She'd have had to fight the thing off with her wand of magic missiles, as she was out of combat spells for the day.
"Yeah, I think we've gotten all we can from this place," admitted Brendan. "Let's go back." As they weren't sure how to open the sliding door from the back side, and looking around for a secret activation switch would have brought them too close to the feasting jermlaine and their rodent steeds, they dove back into the underground stream and swam against the current to get back to the submerged passageway that led back to the cavern with the pool. Then, dripping wet, they crawled back through the narrow tunnel and out into the fresh air, where they saw they still had a good two to three hours before sunset.
"We could stay here overnight," suggested Shiroko. "The cave offers enough protection from the elements."
"No," argued Adrielle. "I don't want to sleep too close to those wrinkly little men or their rats, in case they change their minds about attacking us. I'd rather we put a few miles between us." That being the general consensus, they took turns changing into dry clothes in the cave while the others kept watch for intruders, then remounted their horses and headed back south towards Port Duralia.
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I had a planned travel encounter for the way back, involving an ogre and his pet dire wolf out hunting for prey, but it was getting late by that time and we still had our upgrades to 4th level to do. So the ogre and dire wolf were never encountered; maybe they'll show up in a later adventure.
Joe once again had to work the day we played through this adventure, so his dad Dan ran both Brendan and Kruz. But we let Joe make the upgrades to his own character.
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T-shirt worn: The one with four dinosaurs fleeing an incoming d20 falling down from the skies, as it was a good representation of a reptile (in this case, a basilisk) trying to run from the fate in store for it (in this case, being baleful polymorphed into a snail).
