Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9841321" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 13: CUT DOWN IN HIS PRIMEPC Roster: Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 3                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 3                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 3                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 3NPC Roster:Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 3Game Session Date: 10 January 2026 - - -It was early evening, and the group had just stepped outside the Geshuku Boardinghouse when a familiar horse-drawn carriage pulled up.  The door to the carriage opened and out stepped Denton Cogswell, the butler to the Wentworth household.  "If you have the time," he said, "Lord and Lady Wentworth have another bit of pressing business to which they would like to hire you to oversee."  The Wentworths had proven to be a trustworthy family and they paid well, so the five adventurers piled into the carriage and soon found themselves being ushered into Wentworth Manor.Lord Wentworth met with them in the sitting room.  "I'm sorry for troubling you all again," he began, "but something has come up involving the return of our son, Waylon, to the ranks of the living.  We hired a reputable gemcutter, a dwarf by the name of Kerndell Lapidarius, to carve the diamonds needed for the raise dead spell, but we hadn't heard word from him in several days, and now we're being told he's 'regrettably having to turn down our order' at the last minute.  But time is running out, and there's no longer enough time to have a different gemcutter provide the rune-carved diamonds that will ensure Waylon's successful return to life!""I don't understand," admitted Kruz.  "There's a time limit on having the diamonds carved to your specifications?"  Lord Wentworth explained that a cleric could only use a raise dead spell on a slain target for a given number of days, and beyond that the spell would invariably fail."So what exactly is it you want us to do?" asked Brendan.  He also wanted to ask how much the nobleman was willing to pay, but he couldn't find a tactful way to approach the subject."Go to this Lapidarius and convince him to finish carving our diamonds in time for Waylon to be brought back to life," Lord Wentworth replied.  "I'll gladly pay you 2,000 pieces of gold if you can get the dwarf back on task."Happy with the answer to his unvoiced question, the barefoot monk replied, "Sure, we'll go pay this dwarven gemcutter a visit."  Lord Wentworth provided the group with the street address of the Lapidarius shop, and the five promised to return with the results of their visit.Kerndell Lapidarius had his shop on the Trade Way, deep in the business section of Port Duralia.  As it was now past eight bells in the evening, the dwarf's shop was closed - as were those up and down the street.  But there was a hand-written notice nailed to the front of Lapidarius's front door which read, "CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE."  No reason was given.  Adrielle pounded on the door, but there was no answer.  Kruz looked up and down both ways along the street, saw nobody was within eyesight, and pulled out his lockpicking tools.  While he gave the lock a go, Brendan wandered around the building, seeing if there was a back door.  There was not.  Shiroko drank down a spider climb potion and clambered up the outer wall, stepping onto the roof to see if there was a chimney they could use to enter the gemcutter's shop.  There was a flue, but it was much too narrow to serve as a point of entry.Shiroko walked back down to the front of the shop, where Kruz was just about ready to pack it in.  "I almost had it a couple of times," he admitted, "but it's a really well-made lock.  I could probably get it open with enough work, but it'd take me a good 20 minutes or so - and I'm afraid someone will walk by and see us if I spend that much time at the task.""I have an idea," Shiroko offered.  She knew of a spirit folk wu jen who sold potions and scrolls and kept odd hours - there was a good chance his shop, which wasn't too far away, might still be open.  "I'll be back in a bit."  Sure enough, some 15 minutes or so - during which time the others hung out in a nearby alley, so as not to be seen loitering around the gemcutter's place of business after hours - the hengeyokai returned with her new purchases: two scrolls of the knock spell, one for now and one for her to study later, to see if she could master casting the spell on her own.  She unrolled one scroll and said the words inscribed therein, and the front door made a clicking sound.  Kruz turned the knob, opened the door, and walked right in.Brendan, as was his habit, drank down a vial of antitoxin before following the others inside. "Are you expecting this dwarf to be poisonous?" Adrielle asked with a puzzled look on her face."It never hurts to be cautious," replied the monk, slipping his skull mask over his head as he entered the shop, as there was no illumination provided.  Shiroko cast a dancing lights spell upon seeing the same thing, causing glowing balls of gentle light to circle around her head.  The place was empty, and the only door was behind the counter where purchases were made.  Adrielle slipped over the counter, opened the door, and entered the workshop at the back of Kerndell's shop.  There the group found him slumped motionlessly over a worktable."Is he dead?" asked Hoppy, limping forward to help if he could.Brendan was over by the dwarf in a moment.  There was no blood anywhere, and as he got close to Kerndell he saw the dwarf was breathing.  "He's just asleep," he told the others, shaking the gemcutter awake with a hand on his shoulder.  Kerndell Lapidarius awoke in a flash, sat up, and saw a skull-faced figure looming over him.  "I'm doing it!" he cried in fear, picking up his tools and dropping a loupe over his eye.  "I'll have it done in time!""Whoa, whoa, there," said the monk, belatedly slipping the skull mask off his face to show the dwarf he was just a human, and quite alive, rather than some undead menace.  "We just want to see what's up with you canceling Lord Wentworth's commission.""You're--with Lord Wentworth?" Kerndell sputtered.  "Not--not working for the necromancer?""What necromancer?" asked Shiroko.Kerndell gave a deep breath before explaining, and muttered to himself, "Praise be to the gods - maybe you were sent to fix this horrible situation."  Then he explained why he had suddenly canceled Lord Wentworth's order, after he had two of the three diamonds - those carved with the runes for "Life" and "Death" - already finished, and the third, to be inscribed with the rune for "Rebirth," over halfway done.  "I was approached by a drow elf," he explained, "who wanted me to drop all of my other projects and craft him a diamond with the rune for "Undeath" upon it.  I gather he intended to use it to transform into some sort of unliving spellcaster or something, and he needed it done before the first day of the new moon, as that apparently had some impact upon the ritual he'd be performing.  I told him I couldn't take on the assignment, because I already had a time-sensitive project on hand - in truth, I wouldn't have taken on the job in any case, as I prefer to have nothing to do with the undead - but he refused to take 'no' for an answer.  He cast some sort of charm spell on my fiancée, a dwarf lass named Bonnie Emberhair, and threatened to place her in an ever-increasingly embarrassing series of scenarios if I didn't get him his diamond in time.  First, he'd have her performing topless in gentlemen's clubs; then he said he'd enter her as a 'priestess' in a brothel-temple of Desdemona; and he said if I failed him, he'd parade her naked into a mongrelfolk enclave and let all takers have their way with her."  Hoppy winced at that last bit, knowing too well too many of his kind who would be more than willing to take their pleasure on a "smooth-skin," whether she was a willing partner in the union or not."When's the new moon start?" asked Brendan."Day after tomorrow," replied Kerndell."Then we will rescue Bonnie from the drow wizard," promised Adrielle, "if you will see that the third diamond for Lord and Lady Wentworth is completed in time.""Gladly!" agreed Kerndell Lapidarius, setting aside the necromancer's diamond upon which he'd been feverishly working until he passed out from fatigue.  "Just please, bring me back my Bonnie!""Okay," said Shiroko when the group exited the gemcutter's shop.  "Where is the nearest gentlemen's club?"  Everyone looked at Kruz."This way," he said, taking off.  The changeling rogue had a pretty good map of the city in his head, so the other four followed him without hesitation."That's it," he said ten minutes later, pointing to a single-story building just ahead.  "The Black Eagle Gentlemen's Club, members of the nobility only, common folk like us need not apply."  There was a human doorman standing beneath an overhanging awning at the front door of the establishment.  "He won't let us in," Kruz warned the group."But surely he will talk to us," assumed Shiroko, walking forward and nodding for the rogue to accompany her.  The others hung back; Shiroko was dressed in an intricate kimono and might be able to pass herself off as a foreign aristocrat, and Kruz could be assumed to be her bodyguard, but it was best if the shoeless Brendan and Hoppy, an obvious sinborn, stayed out of sight."Excuse me," said Shiroko as she approached the doorman."Members only," replied the doorman, not wanting to deal with strangers he didn't know."I thought I might view your establishment, to see if I wished to join," suggested the hengeyokai."I'm afraid it doesn't work that way.  First you join, then you get in.""Ah, but what if--?" began the wu jen, following it with the words to a hypnotism spell.  The tactic had worked very well when she'd been confronted by a bouncer at the Aerie, a notorious gambling den run by kenku.  But this time the spell failed her, the doorman blinking his eyes in confusion for a moment but otherwise unaffected.Shiroko frowned.  "Perhaps you can just tell me if there's a dwarven bard singing in your establishment tonight," she suggested."I'm sorry, we don't discuss such matters with non-members.""What about hiring performers?" Shiroko tried.  "Who would I speak to about performing for your club?""Go around back, to the workers' entrance," suggested the doorman, pointing a thumb behind him."Thank you," replied Shiroko, seeing she wasn't going to get any information out of him.  She and Kruz went around the building, gesturing for the others to follow.  "He wasn't a whole lot of help," the wu jen sighed."I'll handle it from here," offered Brendan as he knocked on the back door to the club.  A worker opened the door, and Brendan pushed his way in.  "Is Bonnie Emberhair performing here tonight?" the monk asked.  "We're her backup performers.""What?  We didn't hear anything about backup performers," complained the worker, frowning at the sight of Kruz and Adrielle in their leather armor with weapons at their belts.  Hoppy had the hood pulled as far forward as it would go and looked down at the floor, trying not to be spotted as a mongrelfolk."Yeah, well we got separated in the city streets, so we're a little late," Brendan lied. "But this is the right place, correct?" asked Adrielle.  "Bonnie's performing here tonight?  Her and a male drow?""Yeah, she's giving a performance right now," agreed another worker.  "But I don't know anything about a drow - she showed up alone.""She's through here?" Brendan asked, pointing to a door at the far end of the room and heading in that direction.  The worker followed, saying he'd have to go check with the manager first.  Brendan readily agreed to wait while he checked, standing by the door as the worker went through it and closed it behind him.  The monk waited a moment or two and then opened it and stepped into the Black Eagle Gentlemen's Club, the others following behind him.Bonnie was there, giving a heartfelt performance on the lute, belting out a dwarven tune.  The elderly noblemen sitting at the tables, most of them human but with a couple of elves in the mix, gave her their full attention, but whether that was due to the quality of her performance or the fact she wore nothing above the waist was a matter of some conjecture.  Brendan strode over beside her, pulling out a whistle from his pocket as if he were part of her troupe.  The dwarf gave him a puzzled expression - which clearly said, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" - but was professional enough not to lose a beat in her song.Adrielle strode over by the dwarf, looked around for a drow spellcaster and saw no one fitting that description, and whispered, "We're here to rescue you!"  That also got her a puzzled look from the bard, for as far as Bonnie was concerned, she didn't need rescuing.  But the drow necromancer, standing invisibly behind the dwarf, saw the approaching adventurers and realized he was in for a fight.  As quietly as he could (and here Bonnie's lute playing and singing helped hide his spellcasting), he cast a shield spell upon himself.Kruz went over to the right after entering the club, leaping up onto the bar so he could get a good view of the entire performance area.  Then he activated the birthmark at his throat, coaxing it forth into a silver necklace whose clear gemstone he held up to his eye.  With the true seeing his changeling birthright provided, he clearly saw the drow necromancer standing behind Bonnie.  "Drow wizard behind her left shoulder!" he called out, causing a few of the noblemen to grumble about the disturbance.Hoppy and Shiroko entered the area last, the sinborn trying to fade into the background by the restroom while the wu jen activated her daily unseen servant and had it knock over bottles behind the bar, trying to create a diversion that would allow the others to grab Bonnie and make a break for it.  But despite all the noise and confusion, Bonnie played on and continued the words to her song, taking a step back as an invisible hand on her arm pulled her back closer to the back wall.Brendan unwound the spiked chain he wore across his torso like a bandolier, swinging it over his head and sending one end over in front of Bonnie, to slice up the left half of a sofa sitting in front of the fireplace, in which a blazing fire burned.  He hadn't noticed the bard stepping back a step and assumed that was where the invisible drow was standing, but he was further back.  Adrielle grabbed Bonnie's arm and told her they needed to leave, but the bard pulled away, determined to continue the job for which she'd been paid.Then a sudden darkness collapsed over the back half of the gentlemen's club, plunging the area from just in front of the fireplace to the bar to the right in deep shadows.  The noblemen inside the area of effect of the drow's darkness effect cried out in alarm at the sudden lack of illumination, while Kruz pulled out his light crossbow and fired a bolt at the space where he'd seen the drow before his true seeing effect winked out.  The bolt missed, embedding itself in the wall to the left of the fireplace.  Hoppy was at the very edge of the area of darkness and stood there, unsure of what to do.Shiroko had paid attention to where Kruz had said the drow was standing and cast a hail of stone spell over that area, catching both the drow and the left-hand side of the sofa in her spell's area of effect.  But Bonnie was unaffected and continued her performance, although nobody was currently able to see her.Kruz was well outside the area of magical darkness, and he heard the footfalls of the club's security forces fast approaching from behind him.  "What are you doing up there?" demanded a burly dwarven fighter armed with a mace.  Kruz, for once, decided to apply the honest truth.  "We're trying to rescue the dwarven bard who's performing for your club, as she's under a charm effect cast upon her by an invisible drow wizard," he said.  The dwarf frowned and said Kruz would have to come with him back to the security room, where he could make his full statement for the record.  Kruz just shrugged and went along with it, while the second dwarven fighter approached the area of darkness with a frown on his bearded face.Brendan stepped out of the darkness and found himself face to face with an unhappy dwarf.  "Um, hello there," he offered, realizing his ragged attire and the spiked chain he held in both hands made him stand out as not belonging in this high-class establishment.  "I can explain...."Adrielle tried to grab at Bonnie and pull her along, but the bard once again shrugged herself away.  But then she and Shiroko, who were close enough to Bonnie, clearly heard a male voice from the darkness say, "Drink this."  The music suddenly stopped, and then the voice continued: "Tell Lapidarius hiring you to attack me has shortened the timeline!  We're advancing the agenda to the next step, and he has no one but himself to blame!"  Then, unseen in the magical darkness, he canceled his invisibility and drank down his own potion of gaseous form, just as Bonnie had done a moment before.Kruz went around the corner with the dwarven fighter into the security area, where he was given a seat while he explained in detail why he had trespassed into the club.  The other dwarven fighter had grabbed Brendan on the shoulder and was telling him to likewise come with him.  At the same time, Shiroko cast a second hail of stone spell over the same area, catching the vaporous drow and the sofa (which would never see use practical again, alas) within the area of falling rocks.Adrielle exited the area of darkness since the music had stopped and her feeling around blindly with her hands had not resulted in determining Bonnie's current location.  The dwarven security guard motioned for her to accompany him and Brendan back to the security holding area.  Brendan walked slowly beside the dwarf, looking back at the area of darkness.  When he saw the two figures floating out of the darkness, all misty and seemingly intertwined (their vaporous bodies overlapping each other a bit), Brendan broke off, heading back towards the two, taking a hit from the dwarven fighter's mace as he raced by.  Hoppy and Shiroko exited the area of magical darkness behind the two gaseous figures, as Adrielle raced behind Brendan.  Everyone converged on the door to the workers' area at the same time, the two gaseous forms seeping below the door before Adrielle pulled it open.Kruz and his dwarven security guard heard the commotion at the same time.  "Wait here," commanded the dwarf as he exited the room with his mace in hand to assist his companion; Kruz waited for all of a few seconds before exiting the room himself.  He locked eyes with Brendan and saw they were at the "bug out" part of their unspoken plan, and he headed for the front doors, behind which he knew stood the unhelpful doorman.  The two dwarves converged on Brendan, swinging with their maces and one connecting with a solid "thud" as the monk dodged the other one.  But then he made it through the door into the workers' area, and the fleet-footed monk was much faster than either of the two dwarves.  One dwarf saw Kruz looking back before exiting through the front doors and began to give chase, but the nimble changeling was gone in a flash, running around the building to meet up with the rest of his group in the back.Shiroko pulled out her wand of magic missile and stared at the two overlapping, misty forms - it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.  But she was pretty sure she had deduced which part was made up by the drow and fired off a charge, the magical blast outlining his gaseous form for a second as it hit.  But the two were now over by the back door, which Adrielle opened as she exited the building.  Hoppy followed the floating mist, fearful of walking through them lest it somehow damage Bonnie.  Shiroko got off a second strike from her wand, successfully targeting the misty drow, and then hit him one more time as they floated up into the cloudy sky, where it was no longer possible to make them out.  "They're getting away!" she cried."And so better we!" cried Kruz, sprinting around from the front of the building.  "Run for it!"  The group fled, not wanting to have to spend time explaining to the Black Eagle staff about why they had been there and what they'd been trying to do while trespassing into the club.  Plus, if the drow's threat was serious, he was going to immediately enroll Bonnie as a "priestess" in a local Temple of Desdemona - the Goddess of Fertility.  Such "temples" were often merely euphemisms for brothels, where the "priestesses" were either willing prostitutes or unwilling victims drugged into compliance.Once again, everyone turned to Kruz.  "Where's the nearest temple of Desdemona?" Shiroko asked."There's the one on third street," began Brendan, before realizing he probably didn't want to admit to admit to intimate knowledge of the location of the local bordellos.  "...or so I've heard," he finished up lamely, as Hoppy cast a cure light wounds spell to heal up the bruise the monk had taken from the dwarven fighter's mace."As you might imagine, there are quite a few, mostly in the lower part of town," replied Kruz.  "We'll just have to keep looking until we find her again."The group struck out at the first two "Temples to Desdemona" they checked, but the third one they tried - about a half-hour after fleeing the Black Eagle Gentlemen's Club - seemed more likely, given the skeleton that appeared from out of a nearby alleyway when the group approached.  "You guys got the skeleton," called out Shiroko as she advanced down the alleyway to the left of the building, where the only indication of the structure's purpose was the shapely silhouette of Desdemona painted on the door.  Finding the door locked, she knocked on the door with her knuckles.  Adrielle stepped up beside her, downing a potion or barkskin as she did so, and they heard the approaching tread of heavy feet from the other side of the door.  "Just a moment!" sang a deep-set voice from inside.Kruz advanced partway toward the skeleton, then readied his club to smash it in when it approached.  Brendan did likewise, stepping beside the changeling rogue and readying his own quarterstaff.  Hoppy limped up behind the two, certain he'd likely be more needed out here fighting the skeleton than inside the building, rescuing Bonnie - if she were indeed in there at all.  But the three men weren't just up against a single skeleton: two more followed the first from out of the alley, and then the drow necromancer himself came up from behind his undead servitors.  "Ah, the rescue force, as expected," he sneered, then cast a spell in Brendan's direction.At first, the monk thought it was another darkness effect, but if so, this one was much more effective than the one the drow had used inside the gentlemen's club, for it was pitch black everywhere the monk looked.  With a sinking feeling, he realized this was no darkness effect: he'd been the victim of a blindness/deafness spell and was now completely without vision!  "I'm blind!" he cried out, so his two companions would know of his circumstances - maybe Hoppy could cure him with a spell?"Why hello!" sang the person opening the door to Shiroko and Adrielle, giving them each an appraising stare up and down their bodies.  "Are you here as neophyte worshipers, here to serve the temple as voluntary priestesses?  If so, Desdemona has seen fit to favor this poor temple with an abundance of attention tonight!""No, we wish to spend some time with one of your, uh, priestesses," countered Shiroko."That won't be a problem at all," replied the House Matron, reaching over to the counter directly behind and pulling out a donation bowl.  "I am Divinity, House Matron of this Temple of Desdemona."  Divinity was quite large, standing nearly six feet tall and likely tipping the scales at close to three hundred pounds; the tight-fitting dress threatened to rip open at the seams with every motion.  A tiny holy symbol of Desdemona hung at the end of a chain, only narrowly avoiding being engulfed by Divinity's bosom.  Once Shiroko dropped a single gold coin into the donation bowl - and Adrielle added a silver piece of her own, with the explanation, "I just like to watch" - Divinity scooped up the coins and grabbed a hand-bell from behind the counter.  Ringing it produced a burly half-orc guard from a door at the end of the entry hall.  "These two young things wish to perform a sacrament to the goddess," Divinity explained."Do you have any dwarven priestesses?" inquired Shiroko.  "I've never tried a dwarf before.""Why darling, you are in luck!" beamed Divinity.  Looking over to the half-orc, the House Matron said, "Take them to our new recruit."  The half-orc grunted in response and headed back towards the door from which he had come, beckoning for the two women to follow.  They passed by a curtain to the left, from which a growl could be heard; Shiroko guessed it was likely a guard dog that did not appreciate the scent of a fox hengeyokai in his dwelling-place.Outside, things were a bit more hectic.  Two of the skeletons had focused their attacks on the now-blind Brendan, and he was having a difficult time avoiding claw attacks he couldn't see coming.  The other skeleton was attacking Kruz, and Hoppy was keeping Brendan in the fight with frequent applications of the cure light wounds spell; the sinborn adept had used up all of those spells for the day and was now falling back on the use of his wand, while the monk lashed out blindly against foes he couldn't see to target properly.  But while Kruz was doing a decent job of fighting back against his undead opponent using his club, nobody was able to bring the fight to the drow necromancer.  He cast a ray of enfeeblement spell at the rogue, and it was nothing more than pure luck that the ray missed its target.A sudden thought struck Hoppy: cure light wounds spells healed up the living, but ate away at the undead like acid.  With that thought in mind, the sinborn cast a cure light wounds spell onto his rat familiar Scruffy and sent him into battle.  Scruffy leapt at the chance - he'd never been able to assist in combat before tonight - and got off to a fabulous start when he bit down on the ankle of one of the skeletons attacking Brendan.  The rat's bite triggered the spell, and the healing energy flowed from living rat to undead foe in a cascade, doubling in power through a random spike that caused the skeleton's bones to untether, raining down in a shower of bones that stayed where they fell."The other skeleton is directly in front of you!" called out Hoppy, and Brendan swatted the end of his quarterstaff in front of him, but the weapon failed to connect.  The drow, feeling Brendan was more or less out of the fight, concentrated fire on Kruz, sending a magic missile spell striking him in the chest while the rogue dealt with the skeleton attacking him.Inside the temple, the half-orc opened a door at the end of the hall and ushered the two women inside a cramped room.  There lay Bonnie in a drugged stupor, on a straw mattress lying upon a metal-framed cot.  A manacle locked around the dwarf's right ankle connected to a chain attached to the frame of the cot.  "Let's get you out of here," said Shiroko, pulling out her second knock scroll and reading the arcane syllables aloud; she'd have to wait until later to try to master the spell well enough to add it to her spellbook scrolls.  In the meantime, the locks popped open at both ends of the chain, and the wu jen helped Bonnie sit up while Adrielle pulled a potion of delay poison from her magical haversack and gave it to the bard to drink.  The drugs she'd been exposed to upon entering the temple as a "voluntary priestess" were already in her system, but the potion temporarily negated their effectiveness, and Bonnie Emberhair blinked as if waking from a dream."It looks like your gear is under the cot," pointed out Adrielle, pulling out the bard's clothing and lute.  "Hurry up and get dressed, and we'll get you out of here and back with..." - her mind went blank as to the gemcutter's name."Kerndell," offered up Shiroko."Kerndell sent you?" asked Bonnie, her eyes wide in surprise.  She didn't recall having ever met these people before until encountering them that evening in the Black Eagle Gentlemen's Club, but if her fiancée had trusted them, then she would do the same.  She hurried back into her clothes as Shiroko kept a furry ear to the door, making sure no one would interrupt them.  But it seemed as if the half-orc had returned to his post at the front of the temple with his counterpart.Kruz and his skeletal foe continued trading blows, while the other skeleton continued getting the better of Brendan and Hoppy healed him back up with his wand.  But then Kruz got in a lucky hit and his foe collapsed into a pile of loose bones, freeing the rogue up to deal with the necromancer behind all of their troubles this evening.  Hoppy cast a cure light wounds spell on Kruz as he ran past the sinborn, who was doing his best to direct Brendan as to the location of his skeletal foe.Scruffy was no longer imbued with a cure light wounds spell, but he'd gotten a taste of combat and liked the feel of helping his master, who'd always taken good care of him.  He scampered over to the drow necromancer and bit him on the leg, causing him to yell out in pain and step away.  But Scruffy kept up the attacks, biting him on alternating legs (as a rat, that was about all he could reach) and doing his best to keep his attention focused away from the adventurers.  But the wizard got in one final attack against Kruz, hitting him with a ray of exhaustion spell that sapped him of both strength and dexterity, leaving the changeling feeling very much the worse for wear.  Then the drow had to focus his attention back on the bite-crazy rat who was leaving teeth marks on both of his lower legs.Inside the temple, Shiroko led the other two women back down the hall to a larger chamber with a door that she knew led to the guards' station.  "Hey!" she yelled, then got an attack spell at the forefront of her mind, ready to cast upon the first of the two half-orcs to respond.  Adrielle stepped up beside and in front of the hengeyokai, changing Galrich's fang from stiletto to shortspear.  As for Bonnie, she had her lute out and began singing the song of inspirational courage, to aid her new friends in their attacks on her behalf.The door slammed open and the first of the half-orcs advanced - right into Adrielle's forward-thrusting spear-tip, as Shiroko cast a lightning blade spell at the second foe.  Neither fighter dropped, but it was obvious both had been wounded by the attacks.  However, being of a more hand-to-hand combat focus, they both saw Adrielle and her shortspear as the greatest of their foes and they both went for her, attacking with their heavy maces from two directions.  The scout couldn't block both and found herself slipping into unconsciousness as the head of one mace slammed hard against her temple.  Fortunately, Shiroko scooped her up by the back of her collar and dragged her backwards around the corner, where the hallway was much narrower and only one guard could attack them at a time.  She pulled a healing potion from her belt, unstoppered the top, and poured it down the scout's mouth as she dragged her backwards.  It was enough for Adrielle to wake back into full consciousness, grab up the weapon still held loosely in both hands, and stand on her own as the half-orcs charged around the corner, howling for blood.Feeling extremely weak, Kruz loaded up his crossbow and fired a bolt at the drow, amazed at how heavy his weapon felt now that much of his strength had been drained away.  The bolt went wide, but the drow was busy fending off Scruffy's frantic attacks on his ankles and barely even noticed he'd been targeted.  But Hoppy had taken Brendan by the shoulders from behind and steered him into his skeletal foe, and that allowed the blinded monk to destroy it with a few successful hits from his quarterstaff.Seeing the last of his skeletal servitors being destroyed and not liking the prospect of a three-on-one fight (four-on-one if you counted the rat), the drow cast a deep slumber spell at Kruz, figuring once the rogue was out of the picture he needn't fear a blind monk or a mongrelfolk healer too much.  The spell struck the rogue and he instantly collapsed, falling in a heap where he stood.  Hoppy, realizing Brendan was all but useless in a fight in his current condition, reached inside his robes and pulled out his own little-used melee weapon, a wooden club.  Then, with a howl, he turned on the drow spellcaster with a vengeance, swinging for all he was worth.As it turned out, it wasn't worth much - but it did allow Scruffy an opportunity to scurry over to the unconscious Kruz and bite him on the bridge of his nose.  The sudden pain brought the changeling back to full wakefulness, and while he was still under the weakening effects of the ray of exhaustion spell, at least he was back in the fight.Adrielle readied her shortspear just in time for the first half-orc to come running down the hallway at the women.  As Bonnie continued her inspirational song, Shiroko cast a daze spell upon him, causing him to be befuddled enough to stand in place for a moment, giving the women a brief respite as the other half-orc couldn't get at them with his partner in the way.  Adrielle stabbed at the dazed fighter with her shortspear, and Shiroko cast an ice knife spell at the guard in the back, causing it to explode into shards that hit both half-orcs but was far enough back to keep the women unscathed.The drow had had quite enough of this pointless fight and was about out of attack spells in any case.  He backed away from Scruffy - who was still chewing away at the wizard's feet at every opportunity - and cast a spider climb spell upon himself, dodging a swing from Brendan's quarterstaff as he did so.  He pulled the rapier from his scabbard and approached Kruz, ready to finish him off, but the rogue sat up and scrambled away; somehow, he'd overcome the effects of his deep slumber spell!  Then both Kruz and Hoppy went after the drow with their clubs, and the spellcaster turned and ran for the safety of the temple building.  When he got there, he ran straight up the wall and across the roof, leaving his foes behind him.Or so he thought.  Scruffy clambered up the wall right behind him, racing across the rooftop and, seeing the necromancer climb down over the wall at the far end of the building, leaped off the roof to drop squarely on his head, biting the drow's ear for a change of pace.  Kruz ran over to the temple door to see if Adrielle had a potion of spider climb in her haversack, while Hoppy directed Brendan in that direction as well.Adrielle killed the first half-orc by running it in with her shortspear, and the second guard turned and ran back to his guard station.  However, this was more of a tactical retreat than mere fleeing in terror, because when he opened the door to the front of the temple - where Divinity stood, amazed at the commotion, behind the front counter - he at least had the advantage of the temple's guard beast to help him fight off his enemies.  Divinity ran over to the curtain and pulled it open.The women pursued the fleeing half-orc, Adrielle in the lead and Bonnie bringing up the rear.  The bard had continued playing her song, and Shiroko, out of her own most powerful attack spells, used a prestidigitation spell to make the half-orc fighter she could see through the open door smell like the most scrumptious cut of meat she could imagine.  With any luck, the savory scent would convince the temple's guard dog to attack the half-orc instead of them.But things didn't work out that way.  Adrielle got to the half-orc before the temple guard beast could, and stabbed him through the heart with her shortspear.  Then the guard beast made its appearance, and it was no simple canine but a krenshar, built like a hyena that could pull the skin from its face, revealing its skull and tendons.  But it went for the dead half-orc, the aroma coming from its dead flesh too tempting to ignore.  Shiroko hit it with a simple ray of frost spell and then Adrielle found herself facing it with her shortspear held before her."Aaaagh!" cried Divinity, slapping hands to temples and spinning about, racing to the room behind the desk reserved for the House Matron at a fast waddle.  Once there, a door slam indicated the female adventurers wouldn't be bothered by the House Matron of the Temple of Desdemona in any way, shape, or form.Kruz ran into the temple and saw Adrielle fighting a krenshar.  "Quick!" he called.  "I need a potion of spider climb!""Busy!" replied Adrielle, stabbing at the skull-faced beast, who growled at her and clawed at her with a front paw.  But then she skewered it with the tip of her spear, slaying the foul beast.  She rummaged around in her haversack and tossed a potion vial over to the changeling rogue.Brendan, however, opted not to worry about such things.  Hoppy had led him over to the front door of the temple, but he felt the back wall of the alley and decided he could probably climb it on his own, blindness or no blindness.  Such indeed proved to be the case, as the wall was only 10 feet tall, and the monk dropped down on the far side, quarterstaff in hand.  Soon after, Kruz had clambered up onto the top of the roof and was loading his crossbow again, for the drow necromancer was still there, fighting off Scruffy; he'd managed to swat the rat from his head but failed in his attempts to stab him with the point of his rapier.  (By this point, it was likely the drow would have a lifelong fear of rats if he managed to escape his current predicament and live to try another attempt at lichdom at the next new moon.)"He's straight ahead of you, along the wall!" Kruz called from above, and that was all Brendan needed to hear.  He held his quarterstaff in his left hand and let his right hand guide him along the alley wall as he raced towards the drow, running until they collided and then slamming his staff hard against the drow's head.  Kruz shot his crossbow down at the drow, hitting him in the head and dropping him in a heap at Brendan's feet.  "You got him, Brendan!" the rogue called down to the blind monk, feeling sorry for him for having lost his vision and hoping the thought that he'd taken down the spellcaster might make him feel better.Hoppy cast a cure light wounds spell on Adrielle as the group gathered back up together.  Kruz helped liberate a magic ring from the drow's finger, and found Shiroko had likewise taken the coin purses off the slain half-orcs (and regained the gold and silver pieces she and Adrielle had "donated" to the temple earlier)."Come on," said Adrielle to Bonnie once the group was all back together.  "Let's get you back to Kerndell."Kerndell was overjoyed to see Bonnie Emberhair released from the drow's thrall, and promised he'd have Lord and Lady Wentworth's diamonds finished by the next evening.  And such was the case; Waylon Wentworth was restored to life by Father Bones, the leader of the Port Duralia Temple of Akari, and a grateful Lord Wentworth paid the group the amount he'd promised.  Kerndell Lapidarius also gave each of the heroes 1,000 pieces of gold for rescuing Bonnie, and promised to invite them to their wedding festivities when the time came.Brendan, whose blindness had been cured the morning after the rescue by a cleric at the Pantheonic Temple, looked over his pile of reward money and thought the life of an adventurer was a fine one indeed. - - -We played through this adventure on 10 January 2026 instead of the traditional New Year's Day, as Dan and Vicki's cat, Chloe, had recently been diagnosed with cancer and Vicki wanted to spend every last minute with her before they had to put her out of her misery.  So after the adventure was finished, we retired to the family room and performed our traditional New Year's Day Christmas gift exchange between the two families that make up our gaming group.I didn't end up needing to make any maps for this adventure, as Kerndell Lapidarius's shop had already been built for the adventure "Race Against the Moon," the Black Eagle Gentlemen's Club was taken from "Fox Hunt," and the Temple of Desdemona was reused from "Dregs," all adventures from my previous campaign, "Dreams of Erthe." - - -T-shirt worn: A Christmas present I got a few weeks ago - a red shirt with the caption, "When the DM smiles, it's already too late."</blockquote>

Verification