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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8386796" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 13: INVASION FROM AFAR</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1/paladin 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 3</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 28 August 2021</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Alewyth was getting used to riding on her new dire goat Pyrite; it was quite different than sitting beside Wakuren in the front of the mule-driven wagon, that was for sure! The group was three days out of Stonehold and had perhaps another half-day before reaching the small village of Pendlewick, the location of the next dream victim they'd try to rescue.</p><p></p><p>As the group ambled down the road on their respective mounts they saw ahead of them, off to the side of a road, a canvas tent: large, circular, with a pointed top, of the types often used in circuses. A young man in the robes of a wizard stood just outside it, holding a rather elaborate-looking staff with a large lens on top. The staff had several small projections sticking out of it, giving it the appearance it wasn't quite sure if it wanted to be a wizard's staff or a coat rack for dolls.</p><p></p><p>"Come one, come all!" the young wizard called out to the group as they got nearer. "For the paltry sum of five silver coins, you can see strange beasts from exotic lands, all in the safety and comfort of a shaded tent! Do not pass on the opportunity of a lifetime! What do you say, my lady, good gentlemen – will you enter the tent and be astounded by the creatures I will show you?"</p><p></p><p>The adventurers looked among themselves to discern the level of interest. "What do you think?" asked Alewyth. "We're making good time, and it's not likely to be that long of a diversion."</p><p></p><p>"The price is pretty low, too," agreed Thurloe. "Sure, why not?"</p><p></p><p>"You guys go ahead," replied Xandro. "I'll stay out here and look after the animals."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren had the mules pull the wagon off to the side of the road and Alewyth, Thurloe, Xandro, and Zander followed suit with their own riding mounts. The three horses and the dire goat were given free rein to take the opportunity to graze among the grasses and plants along the side of the road; Xandro pulled the waterskin from his belt and helped himself to a long drink. The young wizard, in the meantime, was collecting silver coins from the other four and ushering them inside the tent. "Are you sure you will not reconsider, my good sir?" he asked Xandro. "Inside you will see wonders nearly beyond belief!" Xandro merely shook his head and waved him off, turning to give his horse White a good rubdown.</p><p></p><p>"Very well then, come inside, line up along the edge if you please," the young wizard said to the others. "Form a single row, so everyone can see the wonders to come!" There were already ten people lined up along the inner surface of the canvas tent, mostly farm-folk by the looks of them, although there was at least one traveling merchant among them, which explained the small pony and cart parked outside on the other side of the tent. Thurloe noticed there was no central tent pole, the outer poles each angling up and meeting in the middle at the top point. There was an easy eight-foot clearance along the edges of the tent, while the middle had to be around 12 feet high.</p><p></p><p>Once everyone had been positioned to his satisfaction, and after having peeked back outside to see there was nobody else within view who might be coaxed inside, the young wizard began his spiel. "For those who do not know me, I am <strong>Dolmarr Vingerman</strong>," he said, "apprentice to the local wizard here in the village. I have learned the ways of mighty magics, which allow me to summon forth visions of faraway lands and the strange and exotic denizens that exist therein!" As he was saying this, he was peering through the lens at the top of his odd little staff, concentrating on tweaking a few of the knobs and projections. And suddenly, there in the middle of the tent, an image began to form. With the flaps closed, it was already dark inside the tent but the image taking shape was darker still, as if capturing the picture of a landscape seen at nighttime. It wasn't anything particularly interesting, though, merely a collection of broad-leafed plants, quite low to the ground.</p><p></p><p>"Pfeh!" snorted one of the farmers. "For this I paid five silvers?"</p><p></p><p>"One moment please, while I focus in on a few of the wonders I have promised," replied Dolmarr, peering through his lens and twiddling knobs. The plants in the circle at the center of the tent whisked forward and out of view, being replaced by others who seemed to slide sideways into the circle. Zander realized this was probably some sort of <em>scrying</em> device that projected the image of the area upon which it was focused. He squinted down at the floor of the tent and saw no runes or glyphs, no magic circle, merely the dirt of the surrounding area. So the image was being projected from the staff somehow.</p><p></p><p>But while the sorcerer was puzzling out how the staff might work, a sudden gasp from the rest of the audience brought his attention away from Dolmarr and the staff and back toward the dark image in the middle of the tent. There were more of the broad-leafed plants in view, but more importantly, there was now a hideous, reptilian monster standing in the middle of the tent eating them.</p><p></p><p>The creature stood on a pair of powerful hind legs with a tail sticking out behind it for balance. From head to tail it had to measure close to 15 feet long - and what a head it had! Its cranial dome was covered in thick warts and protrusions, rather like the head of a heavy mace. It placidly continued eating its meal, ignoring the people surrounding it and staring at it in wide-eyed fascination.</p><p></p><p>"It can't see us, can it?" whispered a frightened old farmer.</p><p></p><p>"Not in the least," reassured Dolmarr. "It is far away on the continent of Talonia, where it cannot harm us."</p><p></p><p>"It's so dark," complained another observer. "Can't you make it lighter, so we can see it better?"</p><p></p><p>"I should be able to," mumbled Dolmarr to himself, fiddling with some of the knobs on the staff. He now wished he'd had more time to practice with the staff (although since his master hadn't realized Dolmarr had "borrowed" it for this money-making venture and he'd need to return it before its presence was missed, it wasn't as if he'd had a lot of time to figure out all of its workings) and that he'd factored in the nighttime status of the continent of Talonia. Still, one of these switches ought to be able to cast some more illumination on the scene....</p><p></p><p>Dolmarr Vingerman never did realize what exactly he'd done that got the image focused so much better, but all of a sudden the dinosaur before them was in much clearer detail; it was much easier to make out the banded patterns on the creature's scaled back and the intricate veins on the leaves it was eating. Of course, the sudden sounds of insects buzzing and the grunt of astonishment coming from the pachycephalosaurus standing in the middle of the tent was an indicator that the reason for the image's much-clearer focus might not have been the one Dolmarr had intended. There was now an earthy smell in the tent as well that hadn't been there a moment earlier.</p><p></p><p>With a bleat of panic, the knobby-headed dinosaur raised its head from the plant it had been eating and looked about him at the strange creatures who, in its mind, had suddenly appeared in a ring all around it while it ate. This caused the villagers to panic in return, and several of them yelped aloud; those closest to the tent flaps made a hurried dash toward it while Dolmarr frantically started flipping switches trying to undo whatever he'd done to project the creature across the miles to end up inside the tent with them.</p><p></p><p>Zander had no idea what kind of creature this monster was, but he didn't like being trapped inside a tent with it. He pulled the <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> from his pocket and dropped it to the ground in front of him, calling out the command word that brought the cooshee to full size and apparent life. Thurloe, beside him, pulled the bastard sword from the scabbard on his broad back and readied his blade for action. Alewyth started the words to a <em>bless</em> spell, realizing combat was likely imminent with this unknown monster. Wakuren tried the opposite approach, casting a <em>bane</em> spell upon the monster, hoping to lessen the impact of any attacks it might make upon those trapped inside the tent with it.</p><p></p><p>But panic was now underway: the villagers were screaming in terror, some making a mad rush towards the closed tent flaps and others trying to climb underneath the bottom of the canvas walls. The pachycephalosaurus was in just as much of a blind panic and it lashed out in the way it knew best, by lowering its head into battering ram configuration and dashing forward. Its thick skull crashed into the skull of a commoner who had dropped to his knees in an attempt to scramble under the tent and he was slain instantly, the entire side of his head caved in from the impact. Naturally, this caused the villagers to scream even louder in terror, which put the pachycephalosaurus into even more of a panic....</p><p></p><p>From outside the tent, Xandro heard the screaming and rushed over to the tent flap to see what was going on. He was nearly bowled over by the sudden exit of a townsman who had found his way to the flap and wasn't going to let anything get in his way of an immediate exit. As the light from outside momentarily illuminated the scene inside the darkened tent and the bard saw some sort of lizard-monster in there with his friends, he pulled the lute from his back and started his song of courageous inspiration, knowing from past experience it was one way he could aid all of his friends at once while they faced danger.</p><p></p><p>The cooshee darted forward and snapped his teeth at the pachycephalosaurus, getting no purchase on the reptile's thick hide but attracting its attention. Zander cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon his elven dog, hoping to protect his combat avatar - for the delicate sorcerer had no desire to wade into combat with the dinosaur himself! Thurloe stepped over and, while the creature's focus was on the cooshee, brought his bastard sword down in a two-handed blow upon the scaled back of the mighty lizard-thing, but it swerved at the last moment - an accidental repositioning to better face the cooshee, nothing it had done on purpose - and the fighter's blade skittered off the creature's scales at an angle, deflected off to the side. Over by the tent flap, Dolmarr continued trying to fiddle with the staff, desperately attempting to undo the damage he'd done and send this monster back to Talonia. His face was white with terror and disbelief that things had somehow gone so wrong.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth cast another spell, this time a <em>doom</em> spell focused on the pachycephalosaurus which she hoped would lessen its combat prowess. Wakuren also cast a spell, a <em>divine favor</em> on himself, in preparation for him wading into battle armed only with his shield. By this time, about half of the farmers had escaped the tent, a few by the tent flaps and the rest by scrambling underneath the canvas walls on their stomachs.</p><p></p><p>The panicked dinosaur focused on the one foe that best fit its preconceived knowledge of a predator species, striking the cooshee with its knobbed skull. The dog yelped in pain at the blow and darted off to the side, then rushed in and snapped at the reptilian beast with its teeth again, slashing a set of front claws at it as well for good measure. Zander cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the dinosaur, the twin blades of force striking unerringly into the beast's shoulder. Another farmer went racing out through the tent flap and this time, giving up on figuring out the staff's workings in time, Dolmarr went with him, fleeing to the relative safety of the world outside the canvas tent, whose interior now included a 30-foot-diameter patch of the continent of Talonia. The wizard's apprentice started sprinting as fast as he could back towards his master's cottage; maybe <strong>Grimblegrack Fishmelon</strong> could find a way to put this whole fiasco to rights!</p><p></p><p>Activating the power of the magical torc he wore around his neck, Thurloe brought his bastard sword crashing into the scaled body of the pachycephalosaurus and this time he was rewarded by the sudden appearance of a large gash across the creature's broad flank and the welcome gushing of its life's blood spattering across the broad leaves of the plants underfoot. That answered one of the fighter's questions, for he knew the power of his sword <em>Spellslicer</em> would dissipate the monster had it been nothing more than an illusion. Alewyth, too, had decided on joining the fight in person, having cast the spells she had on hand that were likely to be of use; now, she brought her warhammer <em>Sjondra</em> crashing into the side of the dinosaur's head. Behind it, Wakuren's shield went slamming into the base of its tail. But the simple-minded dinosaur was still focused on the cooshee, butting its head in the canine's direction while the elven dog ducked under the blow and scooted off to the side again.</p><p></p><p>But now the cooshee was getting new orders from his master, for Zander had seen Dolmarr flee the scene and realized that weird staff was the key to getting the dinosaur sent back to where it had come from. "Go get the staff, boy!" he called to his elven dog, and in an instant the cooshee had darted out of the tent, running down Dolmarr before he had gotten too far down the road. He snapped his teeth over the end of the wooden staff and tugged it out of Dolmarr's grip; in truth, the wizard's apprentice wasn't willing to put up much of a fight. He continued his staggered run back toward Grimblegrack's cottage, while the cooshee, tail wagging, trotted back with the staff held proudly in his grip, realizing he was indeed a very good boy.</p><p></p><p>A final <em>magic missile</em> spell from Zander's fingertips finished off the pachycephalosaurus and it collapsed to the ground on its side with a solid thud. Seeing it lying lifelessly on the tent floor, the elven sorcerer backed out of the tent flaps to meet up with his eager cooshee. Back in the tent, Thurloe and Alewyth held their weapons at the ready, not sure if the danger was indeed over with, for they could still hear the sounds of unseen buzzing insects emanating from the parts of the Talonian jungle they still couldn't see. That idiot wizard had somehow turned a <em>scrying</em> device into a <em>teleportation circle</em> and as far as anybody could tell the circle was still in effect.</p><p></p><p>The last of the panicked villagers finally fled the tent, bumping straight into Xandro in his haste and falling backwards to land on a displaced Talonian plant. And it was at that moment that Thurloe and Alewyth's fears were proven to be valid, for suddenly manifesting along one side of the circle of vegetation came three more dinosaurs, creeping stealthily.</p><p></p><p>These three had the same general build as the pachycephalosaurus - bipedal, with a tail held aloft behind them as a counterbalance - but there were several differences. These three were much smaller than the knobby-headed monstrosity they were hunting, each with a mouth of sharp teeth denoting their carnivorous nature. In addition, a large, curving talon rose from each foot like a displaced scythe.</p><p></p><p>The body of the pachycephalosaurus was over on the other side of the tent, but there was other living prey much closer at hand. While two of the velociraptors snapped their wicked teeth at Wakuren, who was hard-pressed to keep them at bay behind his shield, the other darted forward and ripped the throat out of the prone villager lying on his back near the tent flaps. This was the second death brought about as a result of Dolmarr Vingerman's ill-advised moneymaking scheme.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren went immediately on the offensive, slamming his shield into the side of the head of the first velociraptor to try to take a bite out of him. Thurloe stepped forward and attacked the same one with his bastard sword, thinking to try to focus all of their attacks on one dinosaur at a time the better to take them out of the fight as quickly as possible. Alewyth, however, was closer to the middle of the three velociraptors and chose to attack that one with her dwarven warhammer. Shrieking in fury, the two dinosaurs snapped and clawed at Wakuren and Alewyth, the third one wandering back over to help his hunt-mates by attacking Thurloe instead of dining upon the villager whose throat he'd just ripped out.</p><p></p><p>Zander examined the staff his cooshee had just obediently dropped at his feet. He'd seen a variety of magical devices in his lifetime and this one was without a doubt of gnomish design, for it lacked the sleek elegance of elven workmanship or even the detailed and no-nonsense deliberateness of those crafted by dwarves. This, however, had "gnome" written all over it, from the short knobs that stuck out at the staff's top near the wide glass lens (some of which twisted, some of which could be pulled into different positions, and some of which could be pushed in or pulled out to different lengths) to the gems embedded at seemingly random places along its length and which glowed to different degrees when the various knobs and levers were fiddled with. None of it made any sense to the elven sorcerer, who realized it was probably going to have to be a process of trial and error to figure out how to reverse the <em>teleportation circle</em> effect or at least shut it off.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren sent his shield slamming into his velociraptor foe once again, eliciting a hiss of pain from the dinosaur. He barely registered the sound of Xandro's tune of inspiration, as the bard had continued his performance-enhancing magical song to aid his friends in their various combats and had managed to keep playing even after having been nearly run over by the fleeing villager who had become prey to these savage dinosaurs.</p><p></p><p>Zander decided it would be best not to experiment with the staff until all of his friends were outside the current circle of effect; he didn't want to send them over to the savage continent of Talonia with no way to get them back. With that thought in mind, he called out another order to his cooshee and the elven dog immediately complied, grabbing up the side of a tent flap in his teeth and pulling it aside so his master could see inside the tent's otherwise unlit interior. Seeing the three small dinosaurs snapping at the other three heroes, Zander cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell that finished off the velociraptor Wakuren had been fighting. Thurloe activated another use of his <em>torc of the titans</em>, feeling the added strength flow through his limbs as he brought his blade slicing into the side of the velociraptor he'd been fighting off. Alewyth sent <em>Sjondra</em> slamming into the side of her own reptilian foe, which clawed back at her and tried grabbing her arm between its pointed teeth. Wakuren brought the side of his shield slamming into the ribs of the velociraptor biting at Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>A whine from the cooshee denoted his desire to join in the fray, but Zander cautioned him to stay in place holding open the tent flap and fired off another <em>magic missile</em> spell, slaying the second of the sleek predators. Thurloe, no longer under attack, spun about and brought his bastard sword crashing down into the skull of the one attacking Alewyth, cleaving the beast's head in two. Then, the current batch of reptilian monsters slain, Zander called for everyone to exit the tent so he could see about reversing the <em>teleportation circle</em>'s effects. Staggering back outside, Alewyth and Wakuren took the opportunity to cast <em>cure light wounds</em> spells upon themselves, healing up the worst of the bites and scratches they'd received during combat with their prehistoric foes.</p><p></p><p>But before Zander could even begin to try his experiments with the oddball staff, another figure came bursting into the circle of vegetation - and reptilian corpses - currently covering the tent's interior. This was another dinosaur, smaller in size like the velociraptors but lacking their fearsome teeth and scythelike claws; this one was built more like a sleeker version of the pachycephalosaurus, likely also a planteater by nature. However, this particular dinosaur was mounted by a strange-looking humanoid the heroes immediately mistook for a gnome, for he was the same general size and build of a gnome but with features (especially the nose) more to scale with that of a human or elf. He was dressed in combat leathers and had some sort of face-paint covering his exposed skin, while his hair was entwined in thick clumps more than a little bit reminiscent of tentacles. "Bondo quintessy?" the startled halfling called out as his riding mount slammed into the canvas tent, rebounded off, and started circling the interior looking for a way out of this structure that had suddenly sprung up around it.</p><p></p><p>"Hang on, we'll try to get you back!" Zander called to the little fellow, but the halfling gave no sign of having understood. While Zander poked about with the staff, the halfling ranger tried to warn the strange elf (whose skin was much lighter than any elf he'd ever seen before in his life) of the danger rapidly approaching. "Ziggurakk!" he cried. "Bantu nobishky!"</p><p></p><p>Despite the unbridgeable gap in their respective understanding of foreign languages, the halfling's desperate warnings soon became evident when another pair of dinosaurs rushed onto the scene. This was the pair of deinonychi who had caught the scent of the halfling's mount and had been chasing after them. The deinonychi were in all respects save size built along the same frame as the velociraptors had been, right down to the curved toe claw sprouting up from each foot, but they towered over the halfling and his pony-sized dinosaur mount; they towered over even Thurloe, the tallest of the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Their momentum sent the deinonychi crashing into the same patch of tent wall the halfling's mount had ran into, but the predators' claws made quick work of the canvas and they popped out the side of the tent and in the midst of the horses and mules grazing contentedly while waiting for their trip to resume. Pyrite saw the vicious carnivores and dashed off behind the wagon, while Horse, White, and Eddy ran off it different directions at top speed, one deinonychus snapping its wicked teeth at White as he passed but fortunately catching nothing more than a clump of mane as the panicked horse fled. The mules, Mica and Perseverance, were still hooked up to the wagon and they started trying to flee in opposite directions, but fortunately they soon came to an agreement about which way they were going and the wagon lurched off to the left, across the road they'd been traversing and then onto the adjoining field on the other side.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe sighed in frustration at this fourth wave of reptilian intruders from afar, this pair the most dangerous-looking of the bunch. He charged forward with his sword raised, channeling the last daily use of his magic torc to put as much power into the blow as he could. The sword's blade sunk deep into the dinosaur's flesh, causing it to cry out in a roar of pain that could easily have been mistaken for the cry of a dragon.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell and a hammer, very similar in size and shape to <em>Sjondra</em> but composed entirely of force energy, manifested in the air before her and at her mental command went streaking to slam into the ribs of the second deinonychus. Wakuren dashed back inside the tent to attack the first dinosaur - the one who had snapped at the horses - to hopefully draw its attention to him instead of their beasts of burden. His shield slammed into the creature's tail, right where it joined the beast's torso. Xandro's eyes bulged at the size of these new attackers but he steadfastly continued playing his melody, inspiring the others to greater and greater acts of heroism.</p><p></p><p>The cooshee dropped the tent flap from his mouth and darted forward to snap his teeth at the tail of the second deinonychus. Zander cast another <em>magic missile</em> spell at the same creature, hoping to bring it down quickly. But the deinonychi had each decided upon a primary foe among these strange creatures attacking them in this strange land where suddenly it was full daytime, with one focusing on Thurloe and the other spinning about to snap at Wakuren, still back in the ripped tent.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe's blade and Alewyth's summoned <em>spiritual warhammer</em> crashed into the same deinonychus at the same time, the dwarven priestess following up her mentally-controlled attack with a solid blow from <em>Sjondra</em> after she charged at her reptilian foe. The combination of attacks slew the massive dinosaur, who collapsed in place half outside the ruined tent. Wakuren didn't notice the creature's demise, intent upon fighting off its partner without getting bitten in half. The cooshee came to aid him, biting and clawing at the dinosaur's nearest leg while the massive beast snapped its jaws at the half-orc combatant before it. And then Thurloe's blade struck it from the other side, as Alewyth redirected her <em>spiritual weapon</em> before it blinked back out of existence after having struck a final blow at the remaining deinonychus's head. <em>Sjondra</em> went slamming into the monster's leg and Xandro, seeing that this was the last remaining foe and it looked to be losing steam quickly, set down his lute, pulled out his rapier, and charged it. He buried the blade into its body up to the hilt, pulling it back out just in time to see it fall over like a felled tree.</p><p></p><p>The halfling and his dinosaur mount had made it outside through the tent flap and the little humanoid was babbling excitedly in his strange language. "Anybody got a means of translating what he's saying?" asked Xandro. "Or making him understand what we're saying?" The spellcasters among them all searched their spell inventories and came up short.</p><p></p><p>"You got that blasted staff figured out yet?" called Thurloe, wanting to shut the <em>teleportation circle</em> before anything else got shunted over. Zander was having no luck with it; what probably seemed completely straightforward to a gnome wizard was nowhere near to being obvious to the frazzled elven sorcerer.</p><p></p><p>But then a pair of figures approached from the north. One was an angry-looking gnome stomping down the road with one arm raised above his head; the other was Delmarr Vingerman, hobbling in a bent-over posture but only because his master had a death grip upon his right earlobe and was dragging him along. Fluttering beside the gnome was his familiar, a hummingbird who flitted about this way and that in apparent agitation.</p><p></p><p>"What the Hell is going on over here?" demanded Grimblegrack Fishmelon upon seeing the shredded tent and the corpses of various dinosaurs laying strewn about on the dirt. Alewyth veered over to fill him on his apprentice's role in accidentally bringing a series of dinosaurs across from one continent to another. The gnome wizard looked at the carnage - including the two dead villagers - and closed his eyes, holding his fingers at the bridge of his prodigious nose as if fighting off an extreme headache. "Okay, you, elf: give me the staff," he demanded, holding out a hand. Zander passed the staff over to Grimblegrack without a word. The gnome held it up, focused it on the circle of vegetation and dead dinosaurs, and started pulling levers and twisting knobs. Various gemstones lit up and blinked on and off, and with a pop of compressed air the center of the damaged tent was once again as it had been. One of the velociraptors, and both of the deinonychi, however, were still lying where they had fallen as they were outside of the circle.</p><p></p><p>The heroes were quickly dispatched to fetch their fleeing animals and bring them back, in part so the horses and mules could be used to drag the bigger deinonychi into the center of the tent so Grimblegrack could reverse the <em>teleportation circle</em> effect and send them back to Talonia.</p><p></p><p>"What about the other gnome?" Alewyth asked.</p><p></p><p>"What other gnome?" Grimblegrack demanded.</p><p></p><p>"The one on the dinosaur," the dwarven priestess replied, pointing at what she considered to be a gnome in dreadlocks.</p><p></p><p>"That's a <em>halfling!</em>" sputtered the gnome wizard, clearly offended that these heroes couldn't tell the difference between a dinosaur-riding savage and a noble gnome schooled in the wizardly arts. But through a series of pantomimes they convinced the halfling to enter the tent. In a flash he was gone, returned to his home continent once more. "I'd've thought the nose was a dead giveaway," grumbled Grimblegrack to himself.</p><p></p><p>In the end, though, he thanked the heroes for their assistance in taking down the dinosaurs his idiot apprentice had inadvertently brought over, and in keeping the subsequent deaths to a minimum. "You realize we're going to have to pay to have them both <em>raised</em> if we expect to keep your neck out of the hangman's noose," he said to Delmarr, who blanched visibly.</p><p></p><p>"Can you use that staff to <em>teleport</em> anybody anywhere?" asked Thurloe, already thinking of a way he might wheedle the gnomish wizard into helping them along on their way.</p><p></p><p>"Within some limits," Grimblegrack answered. "I'd need to scry on the other end of the <em>teleportation circle</em> first to establish the link. Why? Do you need to be somewhere?"</p><p></p><p>In the end, Grimblegrack agreed to set up a <em>teleportation circle</em> the group could use to travel immediately to the outskirts of the village of Pendlewick, where their next dream victim was supposed to be. There was no real hurry, but Thurloe was eager to shave off any time he could from the trip. And the gnome gave them another token as thanks for their assistance in slaying the dinosaurs and helping to clean up the mess afterwards: a small metal chest, the size of a loaf of banana bread. Opening it, Thurloe saw it was filled with an assortment of hard candies that had apparently been there for so long they had fused into one connected mass. "Uh, thanks," he said to the wizard, not wanting to offend him.</p><p></p><p>That finally brought a smile to the sour gnome's face. "The candy's an illusion," he said, chuckling. "It's an extradimensional space inside. It won't be useful in carrying any large items you might have, but I've found it to be a good method of transporting large quantities of coins and gems." The fighter's eyebrows raised at that; it would be <em>much</em> easier carrying around their collected treasure in such a small chest than the larger ones they had in the back of the mule wagon.</p><p></p><p>"And I believe my idiot apprentice Dolmarr has the first of the coins you might wish to take with you," prompted Grimblegrack.</p><p></p><p>With a sheepish look, Dolmarr reached into his coin purse and returned the twenty pieces of silver he'd collected from Alewyth, Thurloe, Wakuren, and Zander as payment to see the wondrous creatures he'd promised to show them from inside the tent.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>We had some scheduling issues with this session; Harry had a school chorus picnic from 11:00 to 1:00 and Dan, Vicki, and Joe had a birthday party they needed to hit in the early evening so they wanted a "no later than" finishing time of 4:30. So, rather than run the original adventure I had planned for this session, in which they'd meet up with the next dreamer trapped inside their own dreams, I swapped it for this one which was to have taken place after that one. I knew this adventure was a much shorter one, basically one extended encounter stretched out in waves at a single location, and figured we should be able to finish it off in about two hours. I was pretty close: we started at 1:30 and finished up at 3:35. So the next time we play - in two weeks, as both families will be out of town next Saturday - we'll run through "Middlewich Manor," the adventure I had originally intended to be adventure #13.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My "Duck Dynasty" T-shirt, if only because it shows four bearded faces, any one of which could have stood in for the gnome wizard Grimblegrack Fishmelon, if you squinted hard enough.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8386796, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 13: INVASION FROM AFAR[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1/paladin 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 3[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 28 August 2021 - - - Alewyth was getting used to riding on her new dire goat Pyrite; it was quite different than sitting beside Wakuren in the front of the mule-driven wagon, that was for sure! The group was three days out of Stonehold and had perhaps another half-day before reaching the small village of Pendlewick, the location of the next dream victim they'd try to rescue. As the group ambled down the road on their respective mounts they saw ahead of them, off to the side of a road, a canvas tent: large, circular, with a pointed top, of the types often used in circuses. A young man in the robes of a wizard stood just outside it, holding a rather elaborate-looking staff with a large lens on top. The staff had several small projections sticking out of it, giving it the appearance it wasn't quite sure if it wanted to be a wizard's staff or a coat rack for dolls. "Come one, come all!" the young wizard called out to the group as they got nearer. "For the paltry sum of five silver coins, you can see strange beasts from exotic lands, all in the safety and comfort of a shaded tent! Do not pass on the opportunity of a lifetime! What do you say, my lady, good gentlemen – will you enter the tent and be astounded by the creatures I will show you?" The adventurers looked among themselves to discern the level of interest. "What do you think?" asked Alewyth. "We're making good time, and it's not likely to be that long of a diversion." "The price is pretty low, too," agreed Thurloe. "Sure, why not?" "You guys go ahead," replied Xandro. "I'll stay out here and look after the animals." Wakuren had the mules pull the wagon off to the side of the road and Alewyth, Thurloe, Xandro, and Zander followed suit with their own riding mounts. The three horses and the dire goat were given free rein to take the opportunity to graze among the grasses and plants along the side of the road; Xandro pulled the waterskin from his belt and helped himself to a long drink. The young wizard, in the meantime, was collecting silver coins from the other four and ushering them inside the tent. "Are you sure you will not reconsider, my good sir?" he asked Xandro. "Inside you will see wonders nearly beyond belief!" Xandro merely shook his head and waved him off, turning to give his horse White a good rubdown. "Very well then, come inside, line up along the edge if you please," the young wizard said to the others. "Form a single row, so everyone can see the wonders to come!" There were already ten people lined up along the inner surface of the canvas tent, mostly farm-folk by the looks of them, although there was at least one traveling merchant among them, which explained the small pony and cart parked outside on the other side of the tent. Thurloe noticed there was no central tent pole, the outer poles each angling up and meeting in the middle at the top point. There was an easy eight-foot clearance along the edges of the tent, while the middle had to be around 12 feet high. Once everyone had been positioned to his satisfaction, and after having peeked back outside to see there was nobody else within view who might be coaxed inside, the young wizard began his spiel. "For those who do not know me, I am [B]Dolmarr Vingerman[/B]," he said, "apprentice to the local wizard here in the village. I have learned the ways of mighty magics, which allow me to summon forth visions of faraway lands and the strange and exotic denizens that exist therein!" As he was saying this, he was peering through the lens at the top of his odd little staff, concentrating on tweaking a few of the knobs and projections. And suddenly, there in the middle of the tent, an image began to form. With the flaps closed, it was already dark inside the tent but the image taking shape was darker still, as if capturing the picture of a landscape seen at nighttime. It wasn't anything particularly interesting, though, merely a collection of broad-leafed plants, quite low to the ground. "Pfeh!" snorted one of the farmers. "For this I paid five silvers?" "One moment please, while I focus in on a few of the wonders I have promised," replied Dolmarr, peering through his lens and twiddling knobs. The plants in the circle at the center of the tent whisked forward and out of view, being replaced by others who seemed to slide sideways into the circle. Zander realized this was probably some sort of [I]scrying[/I] device that projected the image of the area upon which it was focused. He squinted down at the floor of the tent and saw no runes or glyphs, no magic circle, merely the dirt of the surrounding area. So the image was being projected from the staff somehow. But while the sorcerer was puzzling out how the staff might work, a sudden gasp from the rest of the audience brought his attention away from Dolmarr and the staff and back toward the dark image in the middle of the tent. There were more of the broad-leafed plants in view, but more importantly, there was now a hideous, reptilian monster standing in the middle of the tent eating them. The creature stood on a pair of powerful hind legs with a tail sticking out behind it for balance. From head to tail it had to measure close to 15 feet long - and what a head it had! Its cranial dome was covered in thick warts and protrusions, rather like the head of a heavy mace. It placidly continued eating its meal, ignoring the people surrounding it and staring at it in wide-eyed fascination. "It can't see us, can it?" whispered a frightened old farmer. "Not in the least," reassured Dolmarr. "It is far away on the continent of Talonia, where it cannot harm us." "It's so dark," complained another observer. "Can't you make it lighter, so we can see it better?" "I should be able to," mumbled Dolmarr to himself, fiddling with some of the knobs on the staff. He now wished he'd had more time to practice with the staff (although since his master hadn't realized Dolmarr had "borrowed" it for this money-making venture and he'd need to return it before its presence was missed, it wasn't as if he'd had a lot of time to figure out all of its workings) and that he'd factored in the nighttime status of the continent of Talonia. Still, one of these switches ought to be able to cast some more illumination on the scene.... Dolmarr Vingerman never did realize what exactly he'd done that got the image focused so much better, but all of a sudden the dinosaur before them was in much clearer detail; it was much easier to make out the banded patterns on the creature's scaled back and the intricate veins on the leaves it was eating. Of course, the sudden sounds of insects buzzing and the grunt of astonishment coming from the pachycephalosaurus standing in the middle of the tent was an indicator that the reason for the image's much-clearer focus might not have been the one Dolmarr had intended. There was now an earthy smell in the tent as well that hadn't been there a moment earlier. With a bleat of panic, the knobby-headed dinosaur raised its head from the plant it had been eating and looked about him at the strange creatures who, in its mind, had suddenly appeared in a ring all around it while it ate. This caused the villagers to panic in return, and several of them yelped aloud; those closest to the tent flaps made a hurried dash toward it while Dolmarr frantically started flipping switches trying to undo whatever he'd done to project the creature across the miles to end up inside the tent with them. Zander had no idea what kind of creature this monster was, but he didn't like being trapped inside a tent with it. He pulled the [I]figurine of wondrous power[/I] from his pocket and dropped it to the ground in front of him, calling out the command word that brought the cooshee to full size and apparent life. Thurloe, beside him, pulled the bastard sword from the scabbard on his broad back and readied his blade for action. Alewyth started the words to a [I]bless[/I] spell, realizing combat was likely imminent with this unknown monster. Wakuren tried the opposite approach, casting a [I]bane[/I] spell upon the monster, hoping to lessen the impact of any attacks it might make upon those trapped inside the tent with it. But panic was now underway: the villagers were screaming in terror, some making a mad rush towards the closed tent flaps and others trying to climb underneath the bottom of the canvas walls. The pachycephalosaurus was in just as much of a blind panic and it lashed out in the way it knew best, by lowering its head into battering ram configuration and dashing forward. Its thick skull crashed into the skull of a commoner who had dropped to his knees in an attempt to scramble under the tent and he was slain instantly, the entire side of his head caved in from the impact. Naturally, this caused the villagers to scream even louder in terror, which put the pachycephalosaurus into even more of a panic.... From outside the tent, Xandro heard the screaming and rushed over to the tent flap to see what was going on. He was nearly bowled over by the sudden exit of a townsman who had found his way to the flap and wasn't going to let anything get in his way of an immediate exit. As the light from outside momentarily illuminated the scene inside the darkened tent and the bard saw some sort of lizard-monster in there with his friends, he pulled the lute from his back and started his song of courageous inspiration, knowing from past experience it was one way he could aid all of his friends at once while they faced danger. The cooshee darted forward and snapped his teeth at the pachycephalosaurus, getting no purchase on the reptile's thick hide but attracting its attention. Zander cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell upon his elven dog, hoping to protect his combat avatar - for the delicate sorcerer had no desire to wade into combat with the dinosaur himself! Thurloe stepped over and, while the creature's focus was on the cooshee, brought his bastard sword down in a two-handed blow upon the scaled back of the mighty lizard-thing, but it swerved at the last moment - an accidental repositioning to better face the cooshee, nothing it had done on purpose - and the fighter's blade skittered off the creature's scales at an angle, deflected off to the side. Over by the tent flap, Dolmarr continued trying to fiddle with the staff, desperately attempting to undo the damage he'd done and send this monster back to Talonia. His face was white with terror and disbelief that things had somehow gone so wrong. Alewyth cast another spell, this time a [I]doom[/I] spell focused on the pachycephalosaurus which she hoped would lessen its combat prowess. Wakuren also cast a spell, a [I]divine favor[/I] on himself, in preparation for him wading into battle armed only with his shield. By this time, about half of the farmers had escaped the tent, a few by the tent flaps and the rest by scrambling underneath the canvas walls on their stomachs. The panicked dinosaur focused on the one foe that best fit its preconceived knowledge of a predator species, striking the cooshee with its knobbed skull. The dog yelped in pain at the blow and darted off to the side, then rushed in and snapped at the reptilian beast with its teeth again, slashing a set of front claws at it as well for good measure. Zander cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the dinosaur, the twin blades of force striking unerringly into the beast's shoulder. Another farmer went racing out through the tent flap and this time, giving up on figuring out the staff's workings in time, Dolmarr went with him, fleeing to the relative safety of the world outside the canvas tent, whose interior now included a 30-foot-diameter patch of the continent of Talonia. The wizard's apprentice started sprinting as fast as he could back towards his master's cottage; maybe [B]Grimblegrack Fishmelon[/B] could find a way to put this whole fiasco to rights! Activating the power of the magical torc he wore around his neck, Thurloe brought his bastard sword crashing into the scaled body of the pachycephalosaurus and this time he was rewarded by the sudden appearance of a large gash across the creature's broad flank and the welcome gushing of its life's blood spattering across the broad leaves of the plants underfoot. That answered one of the fighter's questions, for he knew the power of his sword [I]Spellslicer[/I] would dissipate the monster had it been nothing more than an illusion. Alewyth, too, had decided on joining the fight in person, having cast the spells she had on hand that were likely to be of use; now, she brought her warhammer [I]Sjondra[/I] crashing into the side of the dinosaur's head. Behind it, Wakuren's shield went slamming into the base of its tail. But the simple-minded dinosaur was still focused on the cooshee, butting its head in the canine's direction while the elven dog ducked under the blow and scooted off to the side again. But now the cooshee was getting new orders from his master, for Zander had seen Dolmarr flee the scene and realized that weird staff was the key to getting the dinosaur sent back to where it had come from. "Go get the staff, boy!" he called to his elven dog, and in an instant the cooshee had darted out of the tent, running down Dolmarr before he had gotten too far down the road. He snapped his teeth over the end of the wooden staff and tugged it out of Dolmarr's grip; in truth, the wizard's apprentice wasn't willing to put up much of a fight. He continued his staggered run back toward Grimblegrack's cottage, while the cooshee, tail wagging, trotted back with the staff held proudly in his grip, realizing he was indeed a very good boy. A final [I]magic missile[/I] spell from Zander's fingertips finished off the pachycephalosaurus and it collapsed to the ground on its side with a solid thud. Seeing it lying lifelessly on the tent floor, the elven sorcerer backed out of the tent flaps to meet up with his eager cooshee. Back in the tent, Thurloe and Alewyth held their weapons at the ready, not sure if the danger was indeed over with, for they could still hear the sounds of unseen buzzing insects emanating from the parts of the Talonian jungle they still couldn't see. That idiot wizard had somehow turned a [I]scrying[/I] device into a [I]teleportation circle[/I] and as far as anybody could tell the circle was still in effect. The last of the panicked villagers finally fled the tent, bumping straight into Xandro in his haste and falling backwards to land on a displaced Talonian plant. And it was at that moment that Thurloe and Alewyth's fears were proven to be valid, for suddenly manifesting along one side of the circle of vegetation came three more dinosaurs, creeping stealthily. These three had the same general build as the pachycephalosaurus - bipedal, with a tail held aloft behind them as a counterbalance - but there were several differences. These three were much smaller than the knobby-headed monstrosity they were hunting, each with a mouth of sharp teeth denoting their carnivorous nature. In addition, a large, curving talon rose from each foot like a displaced scythe. The body of the pachycephalosaurus was over on the other side of the tent, but there was other living prey much closer at hand. While two of the velociraptors snapped their wicked teeth at Wakuren, who was hard-pressed to keep them at bay behind his shield, the other darted forward and ripped the throat out of the prone villager lying on his back near the tent flaps. This was the second death brought about as a result of Dolmarr Vingerman's ill-advised moneymaking scheme. Wakuren went immediately on the offensive, slamming his shield into the side of the head of the first velociraptor to try to take a bite out of him. Thurloe stepped forward and attacked the same one with his bastard sword, thinking to try to focus all of their attacks on one dinosaur at a time the better to take them out of the fight as quickly as possible. Alewyth, however, was closer to the middle of the three velociraptors and chose to attack that one with her dwarven warhammer. Shrieking in fury, the two dinosaurs snapped and clawed at Wakuren and Alewyth, the third one wandering back over to help his hunt-mates by attacking Thurloe instead of dining upon the villager whose throat he'd just ripped out. Zander examined the staff his cooshee had just obediently dropped at his feet. He'd seen a variety of magical devices in his lifetime and this one was without a doubt of gnomish design, for it lacked the sleek elegance of elven workmanship or even the detailed and no-nonsense deliberateness of those crafted by dwarves. This, however, had "gnome" written all over it, from the short knobs that stuck out at the staff's top near the wide glass lens (some of which twisted, some of which could be pulled into different positions, and some of which could be pushed in or pulled out to different lengths) to the gems embedded at seemingly random places along its length and which glowed to different degrees when the various knobs and levers were fiddled with. None of it made any sense to the elven sorcerer, who realized it was probably going to have to be a process of trial and error to figure out how to reverse the [I]teleportation circle[/I] effect or at least shut it off. Wakuren sent his shield slamming into his velociraptor foe once again, eliciting a hiss of pain from the dinosaur. He barely registered the sound of Xandro's tune of inspiration, as the bard had continued his performance-enhancing magical song to aid his friends in their various combats and had managed to keep playing even after having been nearly run over by the fleeing villager who had become prey to these savage dinosaurs. Zander decided it would be best not to experiment with the staff until all of his friends were outside the current circle of effect; he didn't want to send them over to the savage continent of Talonia with no way to get them back. With that thought in mind, he called out another order to his cooshee and the elven dog immediately complied, grabbing up the side of a tent flap in his teeth and pulling it aside so his master could see inside the tent's otherwise unlit interior. Seeing the three small dinosaurs snapping at the other three heroes, Zander cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell that finished off the velociraptor Wakuren had been fighting. Thurloe activated another use of his [I]torc of the titans[/I], feeling the added strength flow through his limbs as he brought his blade slicing into the side of the velociraptor he'd been fighting off. Alewyth sent [I]Sjondra[/I] slamming into the side of her own reptilian foe, which clawed back at her and tried grabbing her arm between its pointed teeth. Wakuren brought the side of his shield slamming into the ribs of the velociraptor biting at Thurloe. A whine from the cooshee denoted his desire to join in the fray, but Zander cautioned him to stay in place holding open the tent flap and fired off another [I]magic missile[/I] spell, slaying the second of the sleek predators. Thurloe, no longer under attack, spun about and brought his bastard sword crashing down into the skull of the one attacking Alewyth, cleaving the beast's head in two. Then, the current batch of reptilian monsters slain, Zander called for everyone to exit the tent so he could see about reversing the [I]teleportation circle[/I]'s effects. Staggering back outside, Alewyth and Wakuren took the opportunity to cast [I]cure light wounds[/I] spells upon themselves, healing up the worst of the bites and scratches they'd received during combat with their prehistoric foes. But before Zander could even begin to try his experiments with the oddball staff, another figure came bursting into the circle of vegetation - and reptilian corpses - currently covering the tent's interior. This was another dinosaur, smaller in size like the velociraptors but lacking their fearsome teeth and scythelike claws; this one was built more like a sleeker version of the pachycephalosaurus, likely also a planteater by nature. However, this particular dinosaur was mounted by a strange-looking humanoid the heroes immediately mistook for a gnome, for he was the same general size and build of a gnome but with features (especially the nose) more to scale with that of a human or elf. He was dressed in combat leathers and had some sort of face-paint covering his exposed skin, while his hair was entwined in thick clumps more than a little bit reminiscent of tentacles. "Bondo quintessy?" the startled halfling called out as his riding mount slammed into the canvas tent, rebounded off, and started circling the interior looking for a way out of this structure that had suddenly sprung up around it. "Hang on, we'll try to get you back!" Zander called to the little fellow, but the halfling gave no sign of having understood. While Zander poked about with the staff, the halfling ranger tried to warn the strange elf (whose skin was much lighter than any elf he'd ever seen before in his life) of the danger rapidly approaching. "Ziggurakk!" he cried. "Bantu nobishky!" Despite the unbridgeable gap in their respective understanding of foreign languages, the halfling's desperate warnings soon became evident when another pair of dinosaurs rushed onto the scene. This was the pair of deinonychi who had caught the scent of the halfling's mount and had been chasing after them. The deinonychi were in all respects save size built along the same frame as the velociraptors had been, right down to the curved toe claw sprouting up from each foot, but they towered over the halfling and his pony-sized dinosaur mount; they towered over even Thurloe, the tallest of the heroes. Their momentum sent the deinonychi crashing into the same patch of tent wall the halfling's mount had ran into, but the predators' claws made quick work of the canvas and they popped out the side of the tent and in the midst of the horses and mules grazing contentedly while waiting for their trip to resume. Pyrite saw the vicious carnivores and dashed off behind the wagon, while Horse, White, and Eddy ran off it different directions at top speed, one deinonychus snapping its wicked teeth at White as he passed but fortunately catching nothing more than a clump of mane as the panicked horse fled. The mules, Mica and Perseverance, were still hooked up to the wagon and they started trying to flee in opposite directions, but fortunately they soon came to an agreement about which way they were going and the wagon lurched off to the left, across the road they'd been traversing and then onto the adjoining field on the other side. Thurloe sighed in frustration at this fourth wave of reptilian intruders from afar, this pair the most dangerous-looking of the bunch. He charged forward with his sword raised, channeling the last daily use of his magic torc to put as much power into the blow as he could. The sword's blade sunk deep into the dinosaur's flesh, causing it to cry out in a roar of pain that could easily have been mistaken for the cry of a dragon. Alewyth cast a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell and a hammer, very similar in size and shape to [I]Sjondra[/I] but composed entirely of force energy, manifested in the air before her and at her mental command went streaking to slam into the ribs of the second deinonychus. Wakuren dashed back inside the tent to attack the first dinosaur - the one who had snapped at the horses - to hopefully draw its attention to him instead of their beasts of burden. His shield slammed into the creature's tail, right where it joined the beast's torso. Xandro's eyes bulged at the size of these new attackers but he steadfastly continued playing his melody, inspiring the others to greater and greater acts of heroism. The cooshee dropped the tent flap from his mouth and darted forward to snap his teeth at the tail of the second deinonychus. Zander cast another [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the same creature, hoping to bring it down quickly. But the deinonychi had each decided upon a primary foe among these strange creatures attacking them in this strange land where suddenly it was full daytime, with one focusing on Thurloe and the other spinning about to snap at Wakuren, still back in the ripped tent. Thurloe's blade and Alewyth's summoned [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] crashed into the same deinonychus at the same time, the dwarven priestess following up her mentally-controlled attack with a solid blow from [I]Sjondra[/I] after she charged at her reptilian foe. The combination of attacks slew the massive dinosaur, who collapsed in place half outside the ruined tent. Wakuren didn't notice the creature's demise, intent upon fighting off its partner without getting bitten in half. The cooshee came to aid him, biting and clawing at the dinosaur's nearest leg while the massive beast snapped its jaws at the half-orc combatant before it. And then Thurloe's blade struck it from the other side, as Alewyth redirected her [I]spiritual weapon[/I] before it blinked back out of existence after having struck a final blow at the remaining deinonychus's head. [I]Sjondra[/I] went slamming into the monster's leg and Xandro, seeing that this was the last remaining foe and it looked to be losing steam quickly, set down his lute, pulled out his rapier, and charged it. He buried the blade into its body up to the hilt, pulling it back out just in time to see it fall over like a felled tree. The halfling and his dinosaur mount had made it outside through the tent flap and the little humanoid was babbling excitedly in his strange language. "Anybody got a means of translating what he's saying?" asked Xandro. "Or making him understand what we're saying?" The spellcasters among them all searched their spell inventories and came up short. "You got that blasted staff figured out yet?" called Thurloe, wanting to shut the [I]teleportation circle[/I] before anything else got shunted over. Zander was having no luck with it; what probably seemed completely straightforward to a gnome wizard was nowhere near to being obvious to the frazzled elven sorcerer. But then a pair of figures approached from the north. One was an angry-looking gnome stomping down the road with one arm raised above his head; the other was Delmarr Vingerman, hobbling in a bent-over posture but only because his master had a death grip upon his right earlobe and was dragging him along. Fluttering beside the gnome was his familiar, a hummingbird who flitted about this way and that in apparent agitation. "What the Hell is going on over here?" demanded Grimblegrack Fishmelon upon seeing the shredded tent and the corpses of various dinosaurs laying strewn about on the dirt. Alewyth veered over to fill him on his apprentice's role in accidentally bringing a series of dinosaurs across from one continent to another. The gnome wizard looked at the carnage - including the two dead villagers - and closed his eyes, holding his fingers at the bridge of his prodigious nose as if fighting off an extreme headache. "Okay, you, elf: give me the staff," he demanded, holding out a hand. Zander passed the staff over to Grimblegrack without a word. The gnome held it up, focused it on the circle of vegetation and dead dinosaurs, and started pulling levers and twisting knobs. Various gemstones lit up and blinked on and off, and with a pop of compressed air the center of the damaged tent was once again as it had been. One of the velociraptors, and both of the deinonychi, however, were still lying where they had fallen as they were outside of the circle. The heroes were quickly dispatched to fetch their fleeing animals and bring them back, in part so the horses and mules could be used to drag the bigger deinonychi into the center of the tent so Grimblegrack could reverse the [I]teleportation circle[/I] effect and send them back to Talonia. "What about the other gnome?" Alewyth asked. "What other gnome?" Grimblegrack demanded. "The one on the dinosaur," the dwarven priestess replied, pointing at what she considered to be a gnome in dreadlocks. "That's a [I]halfling![/I]" sputtered the gnome wizard, clearly offended that these heroes couldn't tell the difference between a dinosaur-riding savage and a noble gnome schooled in the wizardly arts. But through a series of pantomimes they convinced the halfling to enter the tent. In a flash he was gone, returned to his home continent once more. "I'd've thought the nose was a dead giveaway," grumbled Grimblegrack to himself. In the end, though, he thanked the heroes for their assistance in taking down the dinosaurs his idiot apprentice had inadvertently brought over, and in keeping the subsequent deaths to a minimum. "You realize we're going to have to pay to have them both [I]raised[/I] if we expect to keep your neck out of the hangman's noose," he said to Delmarr, who blanched visibly. "Can you use that staff to [I]teleport[/I] anybody anywhere?" asked Thurloe, already thinking of a way he might wheedle the gnomish wizard into helping them along on their way. "Within some limits," Grimblegrack answered. "I'd need to scry on the other end of the [I]teleportation circle[/I] first to establish the link. Why? Do you need to be somewhere?" In the end, Grimblegrack agreed to set up a [I]teleportation circle[/I] the group could use to travel immediately to the outskirts of the village of Pendlewick, where their next dream victim was supposed to be. There was no real hurry, but Thurloe was eager to shave off any time he could from the trip. And the gnome gave them another token as thanks for their assistance in slaying the dinosaurs and helping to clean up the mess afterwards: a small metal chest, the size of a loaf of banana bread. Opening it, Thurloe saw it was filled with an assortment of hard candies that had apparently been there for so long they had fused into one connected mass. "Uh, thanks," he said to the wizard, not wanting to offend him. That finally brought a smile to the sour gnome's face. "The candy's an illusion," he said, chuckling. "It's an extradimensional space inside. It won't be useful in carrying any large items you might have, but I've found it to be a good method of transporting large quantities of coins and gems." The fighter's eyebrows raised at that; it would be [I]much[/I] easier carrying around their collected treasure in such a small chest than the larger ones they had in the back of the mule wagon. "And I believe my idiot apprentice Dolmarr has the first of the coins you might wish to take with you," prompted Grimblegrack. With a sheepish look, Dolmarr reached into his coin purse and returned the twenty pieces of silver he'd collected from Alewyth, Thurloe, Wakuren, and Zander as payment to see the wondrous creatures he'd promised to show them from inside the tent. - - - We had some scheduling issues with this session; Harry had a school chorus picnic from 11:00 to 1:00 and Dan, Vicki, and Joe had a birthday party they needed to hit in the early evening so they wanted a "no later than" finishing time of 4:30. So, rather than run the original adventure I had planned for this session, in which they'd meet up with the next dreamer trapped inside their own dreams, I swapped it for this one which was to have taken place after that one. I knew this adventure was a much shorter one, basically one extended encounter stretched out in waves at a single location, and figured we should be able to finish it off in about two hours. I was pretty close: we started at 1:30 and finished up at 3:35. So the next time we play - in two weeks, as both families will be out of town next Saturday - we'll run through "Middlewich Manor," the adventure I had originally intended to be adventure #13. - - - T-shirt worn: My "Duck Dynasty" T-shirt, if only because it shows four bearded faces, any one of which could have stood in for the gnome wizard Grimblegrack Fishmelon, if you squinted hard enough. [/QUOTE]
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