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: 8372901" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 12: UNDERDARK DREAMSPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 3             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1/paladin 2             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 3             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 3Game Session Date: 7 August 2021 - - -"Hold it right there!" commanded the dwarves, stepping into the path of the mule-driven wagon.  Wakuren brought the draft animals to a halt, while beside them Thurloe, Xandro, and Zander Quilson likewise pulled on the reins of their horses, bringing them to a stop just before the entrance to the dwarven city of Stonehold, dug deep into one of the Shieldwall Mountains."What seems to be the problem?" asked Alewyth, who had been born and raised in Stonehold.  She well knew her people were often standoffish and many preferred to stay among their own kind, but they had plenty of trade with the human cities and towns in the Barony of Kornak just outside their own mountain dwelling."He is," one of the dwarven guards said, pointing a stubby finger at Wakuren.  "Surely you weren't planning on allowing an orc into the city?"Alewyth looked over at the half-orc sitting beside her at the front of the wagon.  Wakuren was certainly a fierce-looking specimen, with seemingly more of his unknown orcish father in his facial features than those of his equally unknown human mother, who had abandoned him at birth to be raised in the Temple of Cal in Port Duralia.  But in the months that she'd known him, she saw in him a gentle spirit - one so willing to do everything he could to overcome his fearsome appearance that he refused to carry a weapon upon his person, relying solely upon his shield in those cases where a fight was unavoidable.  But she realized not everyone knew Wakuren as well as she did and the racial animosity between orcs and dwarves ran deep on both ends."I vouch for him," Alewyth declared.  "He has received training as both a cleric and a paladin of Cal and will cause no trouble while within our city."The guards looked at each other, then at Alewyth (and the holy symbol of Aerik on her armor and on a chain around her neck), and finally back at Wakuren, who likewise wore the symbol of Cal on a chain around his neck and on the large steel shield he carried at his side.  Finally, they relented.  "Fetch the symbol of acceptance," one of the guards said to another behind the massive doors that could close the entrance to the city in case of attack.  While a dwarven guard of lower rank went to do what he had been commanded, the one who had given him his command turned back to Alewyth with a solemn expression on his face.  "You will be personally responsible for the orc's behavior," he warned her."Half-orc," Wakuren corrected gently.  "And half-human."  When that got him nothing more than a glare, he added, "It's not like I had any say in my heritage."  He held out one arm to the guard.  "But if you like, you may cut my arm and watch as I heal it, channeling power from the God of Healing."By that time the lower-ranking guard had returned with a circlet of burnished bronze.  The holy symbol of Aerik, God of Earth and Protection, was etched in its front.  The dwarf handed it to Wakuren.  "You will wear this while inside the city of Stonehold," the dwarf commanded.  "It will show everyone that you have been properly vetted and allowed into the city."Wakuren placed the circlet upon his brow.  "As you wish," he said, knowing his own patron god would have no issue with him temporarily wearing the holy symbol of an allied god upon his head while visiting the dwarven city for whom Aerik was its patron deity.  Without another word, the two guards stepped aside and allowed the five adventurers to enter Stonehold.The first thing Wakuren noticed about Stonehold was that just past the gates a massive crevice in the mountain formed a sort of natural central square, with doorways carved into either side of the gap.  Above were other openings carved into the stone at higher levels, some of them serving as windows for the rooms carved within and others as doorways leading to stone bridges which spanned the crevice.  He knew, from Alewyth's description of the city, that the majority of Stonehold had been carved by the industrious dwarves directly into the stone of the mountain; this central crevice was one of the largest natural openings to be found within the entire city.  And it was as wide as several streets side by side, allowing for easy travel via horses and a mule-driven wagon.  But they would need to be stabled inside one of the structures adjacent to the crevice, for the majority of Stonehold was accessible only to those creatures not much larger than a dwarf.  Alewyth found the close quarters comforting; to the other adventurers, it was a bit claustrophobic once they had stabled the animals, left the wagon behind, and were prowling the narrow tunnels on the way to the home of Alewyth's parents.Alewald and Edgyth Putterpye welcomed their daughters' companions - even Wakuren, after an initial shock at his orcish appearance.  Alewyth's father was a gem miner and cutter, while her mother was a baker.  They made room for the four guests in their home, although it meant two of them sleeping in a small guest bedroom and the other two camping out in the living room, for living space was at a premium when every square inch of it had needed to be carved from the stone of the mountain.  It made for somewhat cramped quarters, but the guys were polite enough not to mention it and Alewyth was oblivious to what to her was completely normal.The next morning, after a fantastic dwarven breakfast, the adventurers did a bit of quick shopping, Zander picking up some scrolls, Thurloe and Alewyth each buying some potions, and Wakuren putting in an order for a suit of magical plate mail, ostensibly for Thurloe since he figured the dwarven armorsmiths would have less qualms about crafting magic armor for a human than they would for a half-orc, and the crafty cleric knowing full well the magical nature of the armor would allow it to resize to fit his build despite it allegedly having been built for Thurloe.  Then, their purchases completed, Alewyth led them through the city and out the back gates, following a tunnel she said would lead to the location of the next dreamer: Deepshaft, the neighboring dwarven city to Stonehold.  Deepshaft, as the name indicated, was a mostly vertical city that plunged half a mile or more down both sides of a wide chasm; it was situated much deeper into the mountain than was its sister city, with more of its populace involved in mining than held true in Stonehold, many of whose citizens spent the majority of their lives on the surface of the mountain, farming and raising goats.The group got its first bit of excitement several minutes out of Stonehold, when a choker dropped silently down behind Thurloe, who had agreed to bring up the rear as the tunnel had narrowed to where only two could comfortably walk side by side; as the only two with darkvision, Alewyth and Wakuren were in the lead with Zander and Xandro just behind them, the elf carrying an everburning torch for the benefit of those who couldn't see perfectly fine in absolute darkness.  The lanky being, half-starved and desperate for a meal, slipped its boneless fingers around Thurloe's face, hoping to both prevent him from crying out and choke him into unconsciousness so he could scurry off with his meal before the others were even aware of the fighter's abduction.  Unfortunately for the dark-skinned abomination, Thurloe wore a metal torc around his neck which had been given to him by the first dreamer they'd rescued, a wizard by the name of Grimboldt, and it was this metal torc that no doubt saved Thurloe's life, for the choker found it hard to crush a windpipe so protected.  Unable to drop his prey as quickly as he had hoped, the choker's desperate gamble cost him his life as Thurloe wrenched away from the creature's grasp, spun about, and cut him across the torso with a swift swing of his bastard sword's blade.  On the plus side, the choker wasn't hungry anymore - nor would he ever be again."What--?" sputtered Zander, spinning around to see what the commotion was behind him and surprised to see Thurloe Pulver standing over the corpse of a creature the elf had never seen before in his life - nor had he heard its stealthy approach.Alewyth walked over to examine the body.  "Choker," she said matter-of-factly.  "Fortunately, they tend to be solo."  She and Wakuren gave their surroundings a quick scan in case there might be others about, but it didn't look like such was the case.  "Let's keep moving," she suggested, and Zander was only too happy to put the creepy-looking thing behind him.Another hour later, though, they ran into their second ambush of the day.  The tunnel they were traversing had dropped in elevation several times and sometimes had widened and others had narrowed; they were currently walking single-file through a narrow section where doing so was pretty much their only option.  Wakuren had volunteered to take the lead after Alewyth had informed him the tunnel wasn't going to branch off for a bit yet.  There was the sound of running water just ahead and the cramped tunnel opened into an oblong cave, the floor of the tunnel becoming the top of a natural stone bridge traversing the open space of the cave above and below them.  A rather quick-moving stream ran from right to left some 20 feet below the bridge.As Wakuren described the scene to the others behind him, he stepped out onto the bridge - only to see a form pop up out of the stone itself, directly before him.  This was a squat, bulky creature made of solid rock, vaguely humanoid in shape with two arms and two legs, although what served as a head mostly grew out of the torso without the benefit of a neck.  The half-orc recognized it as an earth elemental right away and instinctively raided his holy symbol of Cal before him, for as an adherent of the God of the Air, Wakuren was capable of turning away creatures made of earth as easily as most clerics could likewise turn undead creatures from their path.  "Begone with you!" Wakuren called out, channeling a blast of energy through his holy symbol as the creature raised a stony fist to strike the half-orc.  It just barely finished its swing before turning about and fleeing back the way it had come, sinking back into the stone of the bridge seemingly without affecting the natural structure in the least by its passing through it."It was probably summoned," Wakuren warned the rest of the group behind him.  "That probab--"  But the rest of his sentence was cut off in mid-stream as the silence spell took effect, confirming Wakuren's suspicions there was likely a spellcaster nearby, for he had no doubt the earth elemental's sudden appearance wasn't just an unfortunate happenstance but rather a deliberate act by someone hoping to benefit from travelers being tossed down into the underground stream below.  And in this supposition he was absolutely correct, for off to his right, on the ground beside the stream, a troglodyte cleric had just cast the silence spell after recognizing the emblem on the half-orc's shield marking him as a spellcaster; with the spell focused on the far end of the bridge, the troglodyte had just ensured there would be no spellcasting at all by anyone up on the bridge, without impeding his own ability to cast spells down at the bottom of the cave.Nor was the troglodyte cleric alone down there; further downstream from the cleric were two others of his race, armed with javelins and clubs, as well as a monitor lizard the trio used as a guard beast and tracker.  The closest of the troglodytes cast his first javelin up at Wakuren, the point of the weapon being silently deflected by the half-orc's shield.  The other troglodyte and the monitor lizard both moved up, alerted to the presence of potential prey.Alewyth couldn't see what was going on but she had seen the javelin bounce off Wakuren's shield, noticed the lack of sound, and deduced it had been a silence spell that had cut off Wakuren's warning.  She began the words to a bless spell and was pleased to hear her own words being vocalized normally; she was apparently outside the area of effect of the silence spell, then - good to know.  Behind her, Zander cast a mage armor on himself while he still could.Thurloe raced past Wakuren and high-tailed it to the far side of the bridge, standing just inside the cave tunnel formed by the far wall rising up from the cavern below.  He pulled out his composite longbow and scanned the shadows for signs of the enemy below, using only the flickering light of Zander's everburning torch by which to see.  Spotting movement below, he shot an arrow down at the second troglodyte, even though he wasn't entirely sure what it was he was attacking at this point.  Wakuren followed suit, crossing the stone bridge to squeeze past Thurloe, knowing he'd need to get past the silence spell's area of effect if he were to be able to cast any of his spells, which were his only means of ranged combat since he refused to carry any weapons.Below, the troglodyte cleric cast a shield of faith spell upon himself, readying for battle with these interlopers, for he could see these were likely surface people having come down into the Underdark.  While he cast his spell, Xandro stepped out onto the bridge and fired his light crossbow down at the same troglodyte Thurloe had shot, his bolt catching the reptilian humanoid in the head just above his eye, killing him immediately.The other troglodyte threw a javelin up at Thurloe, causing the fighter to duck back into the safety of the cave.  In the meantime, the monitor lizard crossed the stream to get to the side of the dead troglodyte, where it wasted no time biting off hunks of the creature's flesh and gorging himself.  The lizard played no favorites; this meal was as good as any other it might expect to find.Alewyth and Zander crossed the bridge quickly, squeezing past the others to get to the safety of the other cave tunnel and, more importantly, to an area where they could hear noises once again and were therefore assured of being able to cast their spells as needed.  Wakuren decided Thurloe was sufficient to provide for the group's defenses against any threat coming from the direction of the stone bridge and continued on down the tunnel to see if there were any dangers to be had from this direction.  A set of natural stone steps dropped off to his left where the tunnel widened out and he could hear the sounds of rushing water coming from that direction.  Carefully making his way down the uneven steps, he saw before him a wide cavern where a waterfall cascaded into a pool of water that covered more than half of the back end of the cavern.  Facing the waterfall were three more troglodytes, javelins at the ready to throw at anybody who might fall down the waterfall - no doubt expecting the earth elemental to have been able to toss in a few potential meals by now.  Due to the sounds made by the cascading water, they didn't hear Wakuren's approach.  Sensing it was safe to do so, Wakuren cast an entropic shield spell upon himself, hoping to deflect some of the damage those javelins might do to him.Back at the first cavern, the two remaining troglodytes rushed to the back wall and tried climbing up to the stone bridge; of the two, only the cleric was successful on his first attempt, the other one losing his footing and sliding back to the ground level.  Thurloe shot an arrow at the troglodyte cleric, who hissed in silent pain at the wound, his own spell absorbing the sounds he made.In the waterfall cavern, Wakuren rushed at the three troglodytes, slamming the closest with his shield as he spun to face the charging half-orc, having heard his clomping boots over the sounds of the waterfall at the last moment.  Alewyth mentally calculated the distance involved and planted a sound burst spell far enough behind the troglodytes that it should affect two of them without encompassing Wakuren as well; fortunately, her aim was true and the cleric of Cal was not hit with the cacophonous burst.  Then Zander stepped into visual range and sent a magic missile spell streaking over to hit one of the reptiles Alewyth had just hit with her own spell and it was enough to slay the troglodyte outright.  As the other one seemed to have gotten the worst of the sound burst spell - and was momentarily stunned into immobility - Wakuren spun about to face the third troglodyte, who at this point had not been targeted at all, neither by spell nor by blow.By this time, the physical combat had stirred whatever glands were responsible for the troglodytes' unholy stench and Wakuren was easily close enough to detect it.  His face wrinkled in disgust but he managed to overcome the worst of the effects, as did Alewyth, who was further back and just barely in range to even detect the foul odor; Zander was still far enough back that he didn't have to worry about it just yet.  And now Xandro stepped into view, his crossbow stowed on his back and his lute out, as his fingers began the first strumming chords of his song of courageous inspiration.Back in the first cavern, the troglodyte cleric had pulled himself fully up onto the bridge while Thurloe readied another arrow into his bow and pulled back the drawstring.  The reptile charged forward silently, dodging the arrow as Thurloe released it.  Behind him, the other troglodyte ran up the wall and pulled himself up onto the bridge as well.Wakuren found himself surrounded by a troglodyte on either side of him, slamming him with their stone clubs.  He brought his shield around to block one of them, but that only left him wide open to the attack from the other one.  Alewyth, seeing his predicament, raced forward and brought her enchanted warhammer Sjondra to bear, bringing it crashing down upon the skull of one of the troglodytes - and getting a much bigger whiff of the creature's stench at this closer range; fortunately, dwarves were made of stern stuff and she managed to resist its debilitating effects.  But at this point Wakuren had held out for as long as he could and he felt the strength pour out of his limbs as his stomach rolled and turned at the vile stench filling his nostrils.  He slammed again at his reptilian foe but his shield bash was not at its full force.Thurloe dropped his bow and took several steps back, trying to keep as much distance as he could between himself and the charging troglodyte cleric, at least long enough for him to pull the bastard sword from the sheath on his back.  By then, Zander had brought down one of the two remaining troglodytes fighting Wakuren and Alewyth with another magic missile spell, and hearing Thurloe's warning cry - for the fighter had backed out of the area of effect of the silence spell - he turned to face the threat approaching from the bridge.  Xandro turned to face that way as well, still playing his lute and empowering the limbs of his friends as they fought off the troglodyte menace.Wakuren had taken quite a beating by now and felt the need for some quick healing but knew that doing so while standing too close to the remaining troglodyte was just asking to be bludgeoned again by the reptile's club.  With nowhere else to go (at least if he didn't want to risk tripping over the corpse of a slain troglodyte), he stepped into the pool of water, casting a cure light wounds spell upon himself while keeping a wary eye on his foe.  Fortunately, said foe was concentrating on Wakuren as well and stepped into the pool after him, learning only too late that it wasn't a smart idea to turn his back upon Alewyth Putterpye.  Sjondra crushed his skull as well and he fell face-first into the water, sending a wave splashing over Wakuren.  But the half-orc was fine with getting a little wet if it meant not being attacked any longer.  He cast a divine favor spell upon himself and started wading back to the shore.The troglodyte cleric went all primal on Thurloe, slashing at him with his claws and snapping at him with his teeth.  Thurloe's nose wrinkled at the stench of his foe and his stomach churned, threatening to release Edgyth Putterpie's wonderful breakfast back out into the wild.  But the fighter swallowed down his gorge and sent his bastard sword glancing off the cleric's scaly hide.  The reptile snarled at the blow, looked about him, and saw far too many enemies and far too few of his allies.  He turned, bumping into the troglodyte that had just made it across the stone bridge and spun him about, the two of them racing back across the bridge the way they had come.  Unlike with the choker, food had not been so scarce lately that winning this fight was a matter of life or death and the cleric chose to flee and survive to spring other ambushes on other days in the future.Thurloe, however, was a firm believer in making sure your enemies never got a chance to attack you again on a different day in the future.  He raced after the fleeing reptiles, scooping up his abandoned longbow in passing and then taking careful aim as the troglodytes scurried down the sides of the cavern wall.  Neither made it down to the ground level alive and the monitor lizard had himself a choice of banquets that day.After regrouping, assessing their wounds, and casting healing spells upon those who needed them, the group pressed on.They reached the outskirts of Deepshaft less than an hour later.  As Wakuren still wore the circlet with the symbol of Aerik on his brow, the dwarves of Deepshaft barely gave him a second glance, accepting that if their Stonehold brethren saw fit to let him into the dwarven lands then he must have already passed muster.Naturally, Alewyth took up the role of party leader when dealing with her fellow dwarves.  "We're lookin' fer someone caught up in 'is or 'er dreams," she told the guardsdwarves, and the other dreamwalkers couldn't help but notice her dwarven accent was more pronounced when among her own people."Ah, yer after th' lazy one," one guard snickered.  "Ye c'n find 'im in th' 'ospital tent, down on level two o' th' southern mines.  Bjuennar 'ere c'n take ye, if'n ye like."Bjuennar, a scar-faced veteran, was more than happy to escort a pretty young dwarven cleric of the God of Earth and Stone (and her four companions, although he barely gave them a glance) to the southern mines.  He took the group straight to see the foreman of the mines, who was intrigued when Alewyth told him of their plans to try to wake him.  "Well, ye're welcome t' try," he offered.  "Feller's name is Altum Deepdelver, 'e just fell over asleep on th' job one day and we've not been able t' wake 'im since.  Nobody had any better ideas, so we drug 'im over t' th' 'ospital tent and th' clerics've been lookin' after 'im since.  Most o' th' miners figger he's just fakin' and lazin' about, th' slothful bugger.""I c'n assure ye, we've met up with others caught up in this dream sickness," Alewyth replied.  "We still don't know what's causing it, but we've been able t' rescue three others before 'im."  The foreman just shrugged and led them to the hospital tent, where he left them in the care of the two dwarven clerics tending to the medical needs of the miners.  After explaining the situation and what they intended to do, the group was allowed to drag Altum's cot into the open where there was more room, wrap a dreamstone in a bandanna and tie it around Altum's head, then sit around his sleeping form in a circle, each dreamwalker holding a dreamstone of their own in one hand.  The two miner clerics watched them for a bit, but when it became apparent all these five strangers were going to do was fall asleep sitting upright, they quickly lost interest and went about their other duties."Hey, kupo!" Mogo greeted them in the dreamlands when, one by one, each of the five fell asleep and sent their dream-forms out of the Mortal Plane altogether.  "Is everyone ready, kupo?"  Mogo fluttered in the air beside one of the seemingly endless doors in the Hallways of Dreams.  At their acknowledgment of readiness, the moogle opened the door and ushered everyone into Altum Deepdelver's personal dreamscape.  "Good luck, kupo!" Mogo called, closing the door behind them and then looking through the window he'd caused to materialize in the top half of the door so he could monitor their progress.The quintet stepped onto a flat, desolate land with only the blackened, burned remains of trees and shrubs scattering the otherwise lifeless ground.  "Not much here," Zander observed.  "Where's Altum, and how are we supposed to wake him?""He won't necessarily be present," Alewyth pointed out.  "Haven't you ever had a dream about other things, when you didn't even appear in them?"  Zander shrugged his acceptance of the possibility."Still, it's not really apparent what all we're supposed to do," Thurloe observed.Suddenly, the flapping of powerful wings alerted the group to a presence dropping down from the skies above: a massive, three-headed dragon with twin, spiked tails trailing behind him.  With a roar of challenge coming from three separate throats, the dragon landed on the desert ground, causing a small explosion of dust and grit as he landed."I think that's a gorynych!" exclaimed Xandro, identifying it from tales he'd heard as a child.  "But I didn't think they got that big!""Maybe not in real life, but this is a dream!" Alewyth reminded him, raising the dreamstone she held in her right hand.  She presented it to the massive gorynych as she'd raise her holy symbol of Aerik to an undead being she intended to turn away.  Had it been her holy symbol, she'd have channeled positive energy through it; on the dreamscape, she merely used it to focus her will as she imagined the gorynych being reduced in size and strength, hoping to make it a much more manageable foe like they did with the dream fox, the first dream-foe they had overcome with their dreamstones.  Beside her, the four other dreamwalkers did the same.It made not a lick of difference.  With a three-throated roar, three draconic heads opened wide three enormous mouths and sent forth three bursts of lightning.  Alewyth, Wakuren, and Xandro, standing in the middle of the group of five, were each instantly obliterated, their dream-bodies dissolved into nothingness in the blink of an eye."Run!" Thurloe cried, taking off at full speed to the left as Zander likewise fled to the right.That also made no difference, other than causing the gorynych to have to track them down one at a time to slay them.  It hopped towards Thurloe, its wings gliding it to an easy landing as it bent forward and snapped at him with three sets of teeth.  The fighter's body was pulled apart into three messy chunks and each head swallowed down its own morsel before spinning in place and setting its triple gaze over at Zander.  It then repeated its performance, gobbling the elven sorcerer down before roaring its defiance to the sky above."Kuuuuuupo!" swore Mogo, his eyes as wide as saucers as he watched the five dreamwalkers get killed in a matter of mere moments.Fortunately, the only effect their dream-deaths had was to force each of the five back into wakefulness on the Material Plane.  Zander, as the last to have been slain in the dream, was the last to wake back up in his real body."What the Hell was that?" he demanded."I told you: a gorynych," Xandro explained.  "A really, really big one.""Did anybody feel like they were successful in weakening it in any way?" Alewyth asked the others.  The universal feeling was that their dreamstones had been useless.  "Try it again?" she offered.  Enthusiasm wasn't particularly high but failing anything else, they decided to give it a go.  It took them a while to calm their heartbeats down and get themselves composed to where they could fall back asleep, but eventually they all managed it and met back up in the Hallway of Dreams."Holy crap, kupo!" Mogo exclaimed once they were all five back in place."Yeah, tell me about it!" Thurloe agreed.  "So how come our dreamstones aren't helping?"Mogo had no idea.  "Maybe concentrate on weakening the creature before you even enter the dream, kupo...?" the moogle guide suggested, but it was fairly obvious he was just clutching at straws here.  Still, they followed his suggestion - and it made no difference.  The gorynych ripped them apart just as easily as it had before.So the next time they entered the dream, they started running off in five different directions so it would be harder for the three-headed dragon to blast as many of them at one time.  It landed in the middle of them, while they formed a five-pointed star around the creature in much the same way they were surrounding the sleeping form of Altum Deepdelver on the Material Plane.  It did no good, the only change being it took the three-headed dragon almost a minute to slay them.At Mogo's suggestion, the next time they entered the dream they were each wielding two dreamstones, one in each hand.  That gave them a valuable piece of information: two dreamstones were just as useless against the gorynych as one had been.  Their dream-deaths were just as swift that time."I'm getting kind of tired getting killed over and over!" complained Thurloe Pulver as the group met up in the Hallway of Dreams yet again."Yeah, this obviously isn't working, kupo!" agreed Mogo."Any ideas why?" asked Alewyth.  Mogo just shook his head, sending his pom-pom antenna waving back and forth.  "No, kupo.  I have an idea, but you're probably not going to like it, kupo."  He looked at each of the dreamwalkers in turn.  "This dream-dragon is much too powerful for you now, but if you leave the dreamstone on the dwarf's forehead, over time he will bond more strongly with it and maybe that will help you to tap into your own dreamstones, kupo.""You mean just give up?" asked Thurloe.  "Walk away, after all the time we spent to get to this Altum guy, and come back later on?"  Mogo just shrugged and nodded, sending his pom-pom antenna fluttering about again."Works for me," Zander offered."Me too," Xandro admitted.  "We can always come back later, after we've gotten more powerful and more used to dream combats.  After all, this is only, what? - our fourth dream battle."Thurloe sighed.  "Yeah, all right - I just hope that thing doesn't get any stronger over time than it already is.""Then I guess you guys can wake back up and go back the way you came, kupo.  You'll need to head back out of the mountain and travel east; the next dream victim is that way, kupo."It was a dejected group that woke back up around the still-sleeping Altum Deepdelver.  "I guess we can't win them all," suggested Wakuren.  But the dwarven miner clerics weren't at all disappointed in the lack of results, for nothing they had tried had worked, either.  Alewyth instructed them to keep the bandanna in place on Altum's forehead, so he could better attune to the dreamstone, and promised they'd be back later to try again."Possibly much later," piped up Thurloe.After getting the clerics to promise to send word to the Temple of Aerik in Stonehold if there was any change in Altum's status - especially if he happened to wake up on his own - the group took their leave of Deepshaft and returned back to Alewyth's family home in Stonehold.  Fortunately, their way back was much more uneventful than their trek to Deepshaft had been.  They spent the evening with Alewyth's parents and hunkered down to another claustrophobic night sleeping in their cramped quarters.The next morning had the benefit of starting off with Edgyth's marvelous pastries as a major part of their hearty dwarven breakfast.  But before they could say their goodbyes to the Putterpyes - and Wakuren could fetch the armor he'd ordered - there was a knock on the door and a sheepish-looking Priest of Aerik asked to see the five adventurers.  "I hate t' bother ye, but there's a matter that might be could use yer expertise..." he began, before explaining that one of the dwarves in the city had been unable to be awakened this morning."Th' lad's name's Brokar Herdson," the priest of Aerik explained, "an' 'e normally tends t' th' rothé 'is family raises in th' city."  He led the five heroes to the Herdson residence, where the non-dwarven among them got their first whiff of "stench kow" - not as pungent as troglodyte stench, but not far off.  Alewyth took charge, handing out a dreamstone to each of the dreamwalkers (and noting they were now down to eleven) and setting them up in a circle around Brokar's sleeping form."Oh, good, kupo!" Mogo exclaimed upon seeing the five appear at the Hallway of Dreams.  "We just got a new dreamer stuck right by your present location, kupo!  I was afraid we'd have to send you right back there when you reported in tonight, kupo!"  As creatures that existed only in the dreamlands, the moogles - and the Queen of Dreams who ruled over them - had no way of communicating with the dreamwalkers except when they were asleep.  Mogo led them to another door and activated the window that allowed them to look into the dreamscape before entering it."Oh, no!" exclaimed Thurloe.This dreamscape looked very much like the one in which they'd fought - although "been slain by" was a more apt description - the gorynych in Altum Deepdelver's dream.  Fortunately, there were a few differences: while this was also a desolate landscape, it came complete with scattered boulders of various sizes.  It was also apparently underground, as opposed to the open-air desert of the gorynych's home ground."There better not be any damned three-headed dragons in here..." muttered Thurloe as the five dreamwalkers entered the dream.  As before, Mogo's touch attuned them to the dream so they'd be able to interact with it.They heard a muffled cry from the left; looking that way, they saw a dwarf - easily identifiable as Brokar Herdson - scrambling back to his feet after a fall.  He looked in panic over his shoulder at whatever it was that was after him.His pursuer was quite distinctive.  Towering as tall as a storm giant, he had the build and garb of a rather thin hill giant: hard, firm muscles instead of sloppy fat, and wearing a wrap of cured animal skins around his hips and leather sandals upon his feet with criss-crossed straps reaching up his calves.  The biggest difference was his head, or rather his lack thereof, for sprouting up from his neck was an oversize hand, its fingers curled in an attempt to grab onto the fleeing dwarf.Expecting trouble of the same sort the gorynych had given them, each of the dreamwalkers had a dreamstone clenched in their hands, even here in the dreamlands.  As one, they raised their dreamstones and pointed them at the nightmare hand-beast, using their limited powers of dream manipulation to will the creature to become weaker.Surprising all five of them, it worked.The hand-beast shrunk in stature as it chased after a panicked Brokar.  The fleeing dwarf passed them by, and by the time to pursuing monstrosity caught up to where the heroes were standing it was little taller than an ogre.  "That's more like it!" enthused Thurloe before cutting down the beast with his bastard sword.  Upon the nightmare hand-beast's passing, the dreamscape started fading out of view as Brokar Herdson began waking up.  Hurriedly, the dreamwalkers followed him into wakefulness."Ye did it!" cried out Brokar's parents, Hilda and Hongar, upon seeing their son arise from his too-long slumber.  "We were worried about ye, son!""What happened?" asked Brokar, rubbing his eyes and stretching.  "What time is it?"A grateful family of rothé herders rewarded the group with a bag of fermented stench kow milk.  Alewyth accepted it in gratitude on behalf of the group before anyone could decline and embarrass the family.  Once they had left the Herdsons, the Aerik priest passed over a bag of coins to his fellow adherent.  "This's fer doin' what th' others in our order could not," he told Alewyth.  "Use it as ye need, and no arguments."  Alewyth thanked the elder and they returned to her parents' dwelling to fetch their belongings.  There she said a tearful goodbye to her folks, gathered their mounts, and went to fetch the magic armor Wakuren had ordered.  Thurloe took custody of it for the time being to foster the illusion it had been made for him and stowed it in the wagon.  As they left Stonehold, Wakuren returned the circlet he'd been ordered to wear while within the dwarven Underdark lands."I thank you for the temporary use of your token," he said, handing the circlet to one of the guards.  "May Aerik bestow His blessings upon you.""Hrrmph!" snorted the guard, not sure of what to make of a civilized orc. - - -Once outside the city, Wakuren switched over to his new +1 full plate armor, something he'd been itching to buy as soon as he had the cash.  He passed his old armor - a +1 chain shirt - to Alewyth, as it was better than the armor she'd been wearing, and since we're using the rules that magical armor shifts and alters to fit the body of whoever's wearing it (as long as they're the correct size category).  In addition, Vicki had stated a desire to have Alewyth purchase a dire goat as a riding mount, and I had told her the best time to do that was when she was back at home in Stonehold.  I also suggested that the prices for a saddle, saddlebags, barding, etc. would be the standard prices from the Player's Handbook in Stonehold, but if she waited until she was back in the "human lands" she'd have to pay the "exotic" prices as dire goats aren't quite as commonly seen there.  So she opted for a military saddle, bit and bridle, and saddle bags for her dire goat, which she decided to name Pyrite.Joe, in the meantime, is still deciding on a name for his cooshee.  He...tends to take his time coming up with names. - - -T-shirt worn: This was the same game session as "Farthingale's Fortunes," so I was still wearing my Mello Yello T-shirt.  Lame tie-in: the Ghidorah figure (from my Godzilla figures collection I have displayed in my man-cave and the bookshelf in the hallway just outside it) has golden scales, not unlike the golden color of the soft drink.  Tenuous, yes, but a tie-in nonetheless.</blockquote>

Verification