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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9810128" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 9: DOWN FOR A LONG NAPPC Roster:  Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 2                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 2                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 2                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 2NPC Roster: Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 2Game Session Date: 22 November 2025 - - -Several days after foiling the protection racket scheme at the Alehouse, the group was back there with "Lucky" Eddie, sharing a pitcher of ale.  "I see Grigor's got the burned floorboards replaced already," noted Kruz."Yeah, he got right on that," agreed the informant.  "Listen, I got a tip I think you'll be interested in," he said in a quiet voice, not wanting to be overheard by those at the other tables.  "It's likely pretty lucrative - and possibly very lucrative.""We're listening," Brendan said, leaning forward so he wouldn't miss a single word."According to some folks in the know," confided "Lucky" Eddie, "there's no such things as gnomes no more - they all got killed off by some disease the drow created to wipe them all out.""Nonsense," scoffed Brendan.  "I've seen several gnomes right here in the city.""That's the thing," answered the informer.  "They're not gnomes.  Any gnomes you see today aren't really gnomes, but dragons assuming gnome form.  After all, once a dragon assumes a humanoid form, it's locked in and can't be changed.  And since dragons can live for centuries, they're stuck in their gnome forms: gnome or dragon, gnome or dragon.  It's not like they can just swap over to looking like an elf or something.""Go on," prompted Adrielle, sipping at her ale.  She wasn't very familiar with gnomes, but there were dragons who lived under the sea, beside her merfolk people."Which leads to my deal," continued "Lucky" Eddie.  "I know where there's a dragon living right here in Port Duralia.  She's disguised herself as a gnome potion maker and get this: she's closing down shop for a week, no reason given.  And remember, dragons hibernate for longer and longer as they get older, a week or two when they're relatively young, up to years at a time when they're ancient.  The fact that this one's hibernating for a week means it's still fairly small - young enough you guys could probably be able to handle her even if you wake her up - but even young dragons like to collect treasure.  I'd be willing to bet there's a small fortune to be had in that shop of hers, just waiting to be taken by someone with the guts to go get it!""I don't understand," replied Shiroko.  "Are you suggesting we go kill a dragon and steal her treasure?  Dragons are majestic creatures, part of the celestial bureaucracy!""Lady, you don't know what you're talking about!" scoffed "Lucky" Eddie.  "Maybe that's what dragons are like over in your homeland, but that's not what they're like over here in Armaturia!  See, there's not even supposed to be any dragons in Armaturia - the Royal Family drove them all out centuries ago.  So any dragon hiding here in Port Duralia is already defying the orders of the Royal Family.  And let me remind you: dragons have no qualms against eating people!  I checked around, and wouldn't you know it - there's a bunch of people who've gone 'missing' around this dragon's potion shop.  Coincidence?  I don't think so!""If you say so..." hazarded Shiroko.  This land was certainly different than Sokoku; savage dragons who killed and ate people?  What a strange place!"So, who is this dragon and where do we find her potion shop?" asked Brendan.  He for one was all in on taking out a dragon and helping himself to her treasure hoard."I'll tell you," replied the informer, taking another swig of his ale.  "Only first, I think it's only fair we discuss my share of whatever the dragon's got in her hoard."  That led to a good ten minutes of back-and-forth arguments about how much the information was worth, especially since "Lucky" Eddie wasn't planning on joining them in breaking into the potion shop and dealing with the sleeping dragon to be found there.  (He claimed a bad knee prevented such rigorous activities, and he wouldn't want to slow the others down.  Hoppy, whose mismatched legs gave him the hopping gait responsible for his name, bit his tongue and said nothing.)  The informant wanted a straight percentage of whatever they found, whereas Kruz and Brendan pushed for him getting a simple, up-front "finder's fee" for the information he was providing.  Eventually, the informant agreed to a flat fee, and then the bickering began again until they'd talked him down to 50 pieces of gold, up front - in exchange for everything he knew about the dragon's habits, business, and so on.  "Lucky" Eddie agreed, and started filling them in once he'd received his 50 gold coins."Her name's Mushmelon," he told him, and gave them the address of her potion shop.  It was in a block of buildings where half of the businesses were no more, their shops all boarded up.  "There's a drow tailor on that block, and a couple of apartments, and two ladies who run a meat roll shop, but there are three other places that are all out of business.  But you ask me, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the owners of those businesses didn't get gobbled up by the dragon and she took over their buildings.  I could see a dragon wanting to spend some time in its full size, you know what I'm saying?  And a little gnome-sized potion shop would likely seem kind of cramped for a dragon of a decent size.""How big of a dragon are we talking?" asked Shiroko."One sleeping for a week at a time?  Probably, I dunno, the size of a big dog?  Maybe as big as a pony?  But she's gonna want some growing room, right?  Once she's as big as a draft horse, those gnome quarters are gonna seem pretty cramped.""Let's go check it out," suggested Brendan, getting up from the table and heading for the door.  The others followed him to the address the bearded informant had given them, and sure enough, the door with "Mushmelon's Potion Shop" painted on its front also had a notice nailed below reading, "CLOSED FOR FAMILY ISSUE - BACK OPEN IN ONE WEEK."  Brendan, Kruz, and Hoppy took a stroll around the block of connected buildings while Adrielle and Shiroko went inside the business in the southeastern corner of the block: "Mandy's Meat Rolls."  While the two women chatted with Mandy over a pair of meat rolls, the men determined the three boarded-up doors were all adjacent to the potion shop; the south and west streets were rather busy while those to the north and east were smaller alleyways; and that the best place of entry was likely a door on the north side, directly opposite from the front door to the potion shop along the south.Once they'd gathered back up together again, Kruz briefed the two women on their findings, and Adrielle explained what all the two women had learned: Mushmelon was an elderly gnome; she had been selling potions in her shop for at least a decade; she wore an oversize mushroom cap as a hat; and she brewed the potions herself in the back of her shop.  The tailor shop was run by a drow named Vhaelian who employed a young human woman about Mandy's age."So, what's the plan?" Shiroko asked."I think," replied Kruz, "we wait until about 10 bells tonight, after all the shops have closed and everyone's had plenty of time to lock up and go home, and then we enter through the back door to the potion shop.  We run a lesser risk of being seen in the back alley than on the busier street.  There's a full moon out tonight, so that should be enough light for me to see to use my lockpicks.""No need for lockpicks," corrected Shiroko.  "I still have a knock scroll left.""Oh," replied Kruz.  "Okay, even better, then."  He hid his disappointment; he'd been rather looking forward to demonstrating his lockpicking skills.  Oh well, another time then.Adrielle wanted to know how long they thought the break-in would take; it was the first night of the full moon, so at midnight she needed to meet up with members of her merfolk tribe and let them know what all she'd learned about life among the surface-dwellers in the past month, since her last report.  Kruz said he didn't anticipate it taking more than an hour.  Their plans all made, Kruz just wanted to do one more thing first: brief the Silent Sodality on their plans and get the official blessing of the leadership, who didn't take kindly to unauthorized thievery in the areas they controlled.  But once properly briefed, Kruz got permission to take out the dragon who'd been eating the locals in her neighborhood.Thus it was that by ten bells that evening, the five were in the alleyway behind the potion shop.  Brendan drank down a vial of antitoxin, then nodded his readiness."What's the antitoxin for?" asked Adrielle.  The aquatic dragons she knew of had no venom."You never know," replied the monk.  "It was a good thing I had antitoxin in my system when we met up with those damned meenlocks in the sewers."  Adrielle just shrugged her acceptance of the monk's argument.Shiroko unrolled her scroll of knock and read the words by the light of the full moon, each word disappearing from the parchment as she pronounced it aloud.  But when she was done, the door before them was unlocked and ready for entry.  "I'll go in first," offered Kruz, opening the door and stepping inside into a darkened room.  Shiroko followed right behind him, with Adrielle and Hoppy right behind her.  Brendan took a moment to place the skull mask over his head and then, with full darkvision in play, stepped in behind the others, closing the door behind him.The room was a large one, 40 feet to a side, filled with numerous cauldrons and tables containing various alchemical apparatus.  While the others examined the walls looking for ways into the boarded-up business to the west of the lab, Brendan went straight for the door to the south which opened up to the front of the potion shop.  He gave the doorknob a quick once-over, saw nothing untoward, but then decided to call Kruz over to let the guy with the most experience with traps to give it his perusal.  The rogue looked it over, once his eyesight had adjusted to the dim lighting in the lab - there was some moonlight shining through a few cracks by the door through which they'd entered - and as such the two of them missed it entirely when Hoppy, whose bullywug eye granted him full darkvision, found a secret door along the western wall of the lab.  As Kruz gave the doorknob to the shop his "all clear" and he and Brendan entered the shop, the other three went through the secret door and entered an empty room filled with dust and cobwebs.Shiroko cast a dancing lights spell and led the way into the room.  She didn't get more than 15 feet in before a spider about as big as she was dropped down upon her from the ceiling, landing on her back and biting at her neck with its venomous fangs.  She shrieked in pain, spun about, and cast a hail of stones spell that caused rocks to form in the air above it and drop down upon the arachnid.  Adrielle ran into the room with her short sword drawn and stabbed it deep into the spider's abdomen, pulling out her blade now covered in the spider's fluids.  It skittered in a circle and crashed to the dusty floor, its legs twitching spasmodically in death."Thanks," gasped Shiroko to her combat companion, as Hoppy limped into the room and placed a hand upon the hengeyokai's neck, casting a cure light wounds spell to heal the damage the spider's fangs had caused.  The venom still coursed through Shiroko's system - there was nothing the mongrelfolk adept could do about that - and she still felt a bit woozy and a bit weaker than normal, but at least the bleeding had stopped at the back of her neck.  Hoppy received a heartfelt thanks as well."Paydirt!" exclaimed Brendan inside the potion shop as he spotted numerous shelves along the walls, each filled with racks of different-colored potions in stoppered glass vials.  Then he saw there was a note affixed to each shelf, reading as follows: "Aw, crap!" he declared, and then filled in Kruz about what he'd found.  The two decided after a quick glance around the rest of the room - a customer window, currently closed with wooden shutters, a set of steps leading up to a platform behind the counter where a gnome would be able to be at eye level to a human customer, and a pair of closed doors leading elsewhere - that they'd best meet up with the others and see what sort of mischief they'd gotten into.  They could come back and fill their backpacks with potions and figure out which ones were tainted with poison later on, after they'd found and dealt with the dragon."Looks like we missed out on some action," remarked Kruz when he saw the twitching corpse of the monstrous spider."Yeah, and check that out," said Adrielle, pointing to the exterior door to the north, which was boarded up from the outside.  There were a pair of loaded crossbows in each northern corner of the room, pointed at the door so that anyone entering through the boarded-up door would get a pair of bolts in their sides for their trouble.  The trigger wire, the rogue noted, was a length of spider webbing - almost impossible to see in the dim lighting.  The scout also pointed out the desiccated bodies of the spider's previous victims, cocooned up in webbing along the ceiling, the dried husks drained of their fluids and left to rot."There's more over this way," pointed out Shiroko, heading further west.  In the middle of the wall, a crude doorway had been constructed by simply smashing through the stone wall, leaving small stones and chunks of gravel on the floor at either side of the doorway.  "It looks like the dragon has expanded her territory into the abandoned businesses nearby."  The wu jen ducked her head through the doorway and saw another dusty, empty room, but this one had one difference: in the southeastern corner, an impromptu room had been built by stacking up chunks of rocks pulled from the wall to form the doorway between the two closed businesses.  With the illumination from the dancing lights spell circling above her head, she saw the wall didn't quite reach to the top of the ceiling; there was a foot and a half gap or thereabouts at the top, and no visible door into the nearly sealed-off section.Adrielle came up behind Shiroko and looked around, but she was focusing on the ceiling.  She saw the boarded-up door to the west was similarly trapped, this time with a spider-web net ready to drop down upon anyone entering through that way, and a few more cocooned remnants of previous victims, but more importantly, she saw another spider on the ceiling, this one twice the size as the one they'd already killed.  "Incoming!" she warned, for the massive arachnid was making its way towards them, upside-down on the ceiling.Kruz stepped into the doorway, his light crossbow in hand and a quarrel already set into place.  Once he saw the monstrous spider, he let fly with his bolt and pierced it just behind its head.  But the wound, if anything, seemed to spur the spider to greater speed; dropping down from the ceiling, it scurried forth and bit at Kruz, the rogue pulling back too late to get bitten but in time enough to prevent too much of the arachnid's venom to get into his system.  Still, he dropped back so he could reload, allowing others to step forward in his place.  Hoppy limped over and cast a cure light wounds spell upon the wounded rogue, careful not to interrupt the reloading of the changeling's crossbow.Shiroko backed up as well and let fly with another hail of stone spell, dropping rocks from midair onto the massive arachnid.  Adrielle ran forward, impaling the spider on the tip of her blade and pushing it in as far as it would go before pulling it back out - and giving it a twist for an extra bit of damage.Brendan charged the spider next, slamming the tip of his quarterstaff down upon the arachnid's head, as Kruz sent another crossbow bolt into its abdomen.  It was facing Adrielle, though, and got in a bite through the leather armor on her leg, injecting the scout with its insidious venom.  Adrielle limped back out of range while Shiroko cast a magic missile its way using her wand, then the scout dashed forward again and stabbed it while it was otherwise distracted.  Brendan swung again at it but it dodged the blow, moving much faster than the monk would have guessed it capable.  But a final bolt from Kruz and the monstrous spider was slain, joining its smaller version in death."What are the odds the dragon sleeps back there, behind that wall?" whispered Kruz as Hoppy attended to Adrielle's leg wound."If she does, she's a heavy sleeper," commented Shiroko, summoning forth her daily unseen servant and setting it to the task of dismantling a section of the makeshift wall.  As it pulled down stones from the top of one section, the others could clearly see the stones hadn't just been stacked into place, they'd been adhered to one another with spider silk.  Kruz slung his crossbow over his back and moved to help, Brendan setting aside his quarterstaff to do likewise.  Before too long, they had lowered a section of the wall enough for Shiroko to climb up and peek over it, to report back there was no dragon back there.  "But there are a few chests, crates, and boxes.""The dragon's treasure!" exclaimed Brendan, clamoring up to see for himself, and then dropping down to the other side to give the overall collection a thorough investigation.  Once Kruz had joined him and determined there weren't any traps in place that he could see, they opened the containers and discovered a decent collection of coins - gold and silver, mostly, with some copper pieces among them - and a small pile of gemstones.  The group took turns filling up their backpacks, deciding they'd divide everything up equally once they got back home.  But then Brendan decided the wooden containers would be perfect for transporting all of the potion vials from the shop, so they passed the chests, boxes, and crates over the wall so they could take them over to the potion shop.Before they could do so, however, Adrielle announced she'd found another secret door, this time on the southern wall next to the impromptu hoard wall the others had just clamored over.  This led, surprisingly, to the drow tailor's workshop, judging from the wheeled racks of clothing hanging on hangers, and the alteration tables in view.  "He must be allied with the dragon," the scout surmised.  "I'll bet he was the one who procured the spiders for her as lair guardians.""Well, he's not here now," pointed out Brendan.  "Let's go get those potions loaded up.  He led the others back to the potion shop, where he oversaw the careful packing up of every potion vial from each of the shelves."I have a detect poison spell on hand," prompted Shiroko, but the group decided to save that for later - after all, they were sort of on the clock right now - Adrielle still had to go meet with her merfolk compatriots at midnight - and none of them were planning on drinking down anything from this new stash in any case, as Mushmelon didn't have any markings on any of the vials or shelves indicating which potions and oils were which.  But dragons were said to know every item in their personal treasure hoards, so they had no trouble believing the dragon knew exactly which potions were which - and which were the poisonous lookalikes.  Once they were all loaded up, snugly enough so none of the glass vials would break during transport, they stashed the containers by the back door of the lab, through which they'd entered the dragon's lair."Now then," announced Kruz, "that dragon's got to be around here somewhere.""Here!" called Hoppy, who'd been examining the eastern wall of the potion lab and discovered yet another secret door.  This one was tucked away in the southeastern corner of the lab, but worked on the same principles as the others they'd unearthed.  But Brendan voiced his opinion they should go check out Mushmelon's apartment first, in cast she was sleeping away in her gnome form.  As he had suspected, the western door from the potion shop led straight into the gnome's living room, where gnome-sized furniture lined the walls.  From there, they entered the gnome's bedroom, bathroom, and entry hall, finding each to be empty of inhabitants."Okay," conceded the monk.  "Let's go check out Hoppy's secret door.  She's got to be back there somewhere."  Kruz activated the door, allowing it to swivel out into the next room, which was as abandoned as the other boarded-up businesses had been.  But almost immediately after Kruz pushed open the door, the group heard the unmistakable sound of skittering, insectoid feet upon the stone floor.  "That's not good," announced Kruz.The rogue wasn't wrong.  No sooner had he voiced his concern when a flood of spiders swarmed forward from the shadows of the next room over - normal-sized spiders, for which Kruz thanked the many gods - and spilled out into the potion lab.  The rogue fumbled at his belt and managed to grab up a flask of oil, spilling it onto the floor before him in hopes of lighting it ablaze and keeping the swarm of spiders at bay, but they were too quick for him.  Within seconds, they had crawled through the oil and up onto the rogue's kegs, biting at him with their mandibles, while others did likewise to Adrielle and Brendan.  (Shiroko had instinctively backed up as soon as she heard the skittering, and Hoppy, with his limping gait, had been further back than the others when Kruz first opened the door.)Adrielle, screaming in disgust as she slapped the spiders from her body, went to run into the next room and slipped in the patch of oil, landing on her back and getting completely engulfed by the little arachnids, who up until that point had only made it past her shins.  The only thing that allowed her to stifle the threatening subsequent screams was the thought of spiders crawling into her mouth should she be so unwise as to do so.Hoppy ambled up and, out of cure light wounds spells for the night, used his wand to cast such a spell on Kruz.  Brendan, slapping spiders from him, leaped over the prone Adrielle and landed on his feet in the other room, just past the oil slick.  He looked to the north, and there, through another hole in the wall where the dragon pulled stones away to connect rooms that apparently hadn't been connected before, sat another enormous spider, this one as big as the monk.  It differed from the other two giant spiders they'd fought earlier - the lair guardians, likely supplied by the drow - in that this one had a thinner body, thicker legs, and was built more along the lines of a tarantula than a black widow.  And oddly enough, hanging below its mandibles was an extra pair of limbs (besides the standard eight legs), each ending in a rather humanoid hand, although with longer fingers than any human or elf.But Brendan didn't stop to wonder about the spider's strange anatomy.  He loaded up his sling and let fly, sending a sling bullet hurtling across the room to strike the arachnid monster in the side of the head.  Kruz followed behind Brendan, and while he couldn't get as good a look at it as the monk did - his changeling heritage provided him with low-light vision, not the full darkvision afforded by Brendan's skull mask - he could see enough of its silhouette to fire off a crossbow bolt that hit it in the center of its mass.Then the spider did something completely unexpected: it spoke.  In a raspy voice, it said, "So, I assume you've come looking into the people who have gone missing around here.  Well, my little pets need to eat, don't they?  And I've just nearly spent myself laying all of these eggs" - Brendan belatedly realized the thick webs he could see behind the spider (an aranea, he now realized) was an egg sac, containing who knew how many eggs, each of which would hatch into another aranea - "I could use a good source of meat right about now, and I think you'll fit the bill just fine!"  Then Mushmelon did something else the monk didn't expect: it fired off a magic missile spell at him, unerringly striking him in the chest.Shiroko steeled herself, lifted the hem of her kimono, and dashed through the spider swarm so she could squeeze past Adrielle and get into the next room.  She made it without picking up too many of the spider swarm onto her kimono, and fired a magic missile of her own at the aranea.  With the dancing lights spell still swirling above her head and lighting up the rooms, she could see a telltale mushroom cap hat sitting on the floor next to the aranea.  That at least made much more sense to the hengeyokai; she still didn't believe noble dragons would act in such a common fashion as attack and devour people, but a shapeshifting spider?  She could certainly believe that!Kruz and Adrielle found themselves the main attraction as far as the swarm of spiders was concerned, but Adrielle carefully got herself back to her feet, ran her hands down her face and both sides of her body to try to brush off as many spiders as she could, and carefully stepped out of the patch of oil that had tripped her up just moments ago.  Then she ran into the next room, saw the aranea perched before her egg sac, and let loose the scream she'd been holding in while covered in spiders, turning it into a battle cry as she charged the aranea and stabbed her with the blade of her short sword.  Hoppy limped along in her wake, placing his wand upon her shoulder and firing off another cure light wounds spell, knowing she could use it after the dozens, if not scores, of spider bites she'd received.  (He wisely opted not to tell her about the spiders still clinging to the back of her hair, for fear of distracting her from the task at hand.)Brendan and Kruz each fired off another bit of ranged ammunition, each scoring a hit, but then Mushmelon pushed Adrielle aside and scrambled after the monk, biting him and pumping him full of venom.  Shiroko backed further away and blasted her again with her wand of magic missiles, while the spider swarm chased after Kruz and Brendan, engulfing them once more.  Adrielle took the opportunity to plunge her short sword deep into Mushmelon's abdomen, much as she'd done to the guardian monstrous spiders earlier.  The aranea let out a scream of pain, and then one more ranged attack each from Brendan, Kruz, and Shiroko took her out.That left only the spider swarm to deal with.  Hoppy helped brush spiders off of Brendan and then fired off a charge from his healing wand at the monk, while Kruz and Shiroko busied themselves stamping on as many spiders as they could.  It took a while, but eventually what few spiders remained decided to scurry off into the shadows instead of carry on the attack."Let's get out of here," suggested Adrielle.  "It was a spider instead of a dragon, but we took out the one responsible for all the missing people we found hanging in the cocoons up by the ceiling in the other rooms.""Not so fast," replied Brendan.  "Mushmelon laid a bunch of eggs - we need to set those on fire before they hatch, and then we need to go find the father and deal with him as well.""The father?" repeated Shiroko.  "You mean--""I mean I'm willing to bet that's more than just a drow tailor," the monk replied.  After burning the egg sac, they made their way back to the tailor's workshop and quietly went through a door into his living quarters.  (Kruz finally got to show off his lockpicking skills.)  They found Vhaelian fast asleep in his bed in drow form, and any fears they might have had about his status as the male counterpart to the female aranea Mushmelon were dismissed when, after waking him by Kruz pouring another flask of oil directly upon him, he started changing shape into his spiderlike form.  But it was too late for him to do much else, as Brendan still held the torch they'd lit to burn the egg sac, and the male aranea quickly went up in a blaze."That's two more shops going out of business," remarked Kruz.  "Those meat roll girls are going to have the whole block to themselves.""They do make good food," replied Adrielle.  "What was that meat roll I had called?""Beef," answered Shiroko, surprised at first but then remembering that mermaids probably didn't get a whole lot of opportunity to eat beef under the sea."Okay, now we can go," assured Brendan as they gathered up their stuff.  Everyone carried a chest, crate, or box filled with vials of potions, oils, and the occasional deadly poison, and the group left through the back door of the potion lab, the way they had entered."And it's before midnight," added Kruz, looking up at the full moon and estimating the time by its location.  "You'll still have time to make it to your appointment, Adrielle.""Good," replied the mermaid scout in the human body.  She had plenty to tell the members of her merfolk tribe about land-dweller customs and practices. - - - Joe was out sick for this game session, so Dan ran both his and Joe's PCs.  And since it was still kind of early when we finished and the following adventure was a fairly short one, I offered to run them through that one as well, letting them know it would start with Adrielle's meeting with her fellow mermaids.  Vicki was all for it, so we went through the next adventure immediately after finishing up this one. - - - T-shirt worn: My white T-shirt with a blue dragon on it, only because I wanted to reinforce the adventure's plot hook premise, that the gnome potion maker Mushmelon was actually a dragon in disguise.</blockquote>

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