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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8494669" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 22: THE LEAGUE OF BEASTSPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 5             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 2             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 2/paladin 3             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 4/rogue 1             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 5Game Session Date: 18 December 2021 - - -"Hey, kupo!" said Mogo as the dreamwalkers assembled for their nightly session of training.  "Want to see the next dream you'll be entering, kupo?"  He led them through a door in the Corridor of Dreams.  This latest dream was pretty much absent of background details - as was often the case when a dream was focused solely on what was occurring within - but there was a wide circle on the ground and in the middle of it were two combatants: a trim-bearded human and a black bear, each engaged in trying to wrestle each other into submission."You're going down!" promised the man, his biceps bulging as he tried to push the bear back out of the circle and thus win the match."Don't count on it!" countered the bear."How long has this dream been going on?" asked Alewyth, watching the combatants struggling to no avail - they seemed pretty evenly matched."Only a couple of days, kupo.  But while there are other dreamers who have been caught in their dreams for longer than this one, the one dreaming this dream is the closest to your present location, kupo."  Using his impressive ability to shape dreams, he caused a map to appear out of nowhere and indicated where the dreamer was located: in a cave along the edge of the Darkwood Forest just to the east of the city of Baron's Haven."So that's where we'll find him?" asked Zander."You betcha, kupo!"However, the group was in for a bit of a surprise the following morning when they said their goodbyes to Jorbalee Bennicut and her new ward Tommy and departed from the Merry Minstrel Inn.  The cave wasn't at all difficult to find, but lounging on a large rock before the cave entrance was a large tiger lazing in the sun.  It languidly raised its head at the sounds of the group's approach, then hopped off the rock and ambled into the cave, becoming almost immediately swallowed by the darkness within.  As Wakuren brought the mule-driven wagon to a halt, he saw a brief legend carved onto the rock the tiger had been laying upon.  It read simply, "THE LEAGUE OF BEASTS."  Off to the right about 30 feet or so was a smaller cave opening in which a horse stood eating hay from a pile before him, apparently unconcerned by the nearby presence of a large feline predator."What do you think?" Xandro asked.  "Druid?  Ranger?""Let's find out," Thurloe said, dropping down from his horse Horse and pulling his bastard sword from its scabbard - no point in taking any chances with a full-grown tiger in the area.  But as the others likewise climbed off their respective mounts (or the wagon in Wakuren's case), a figure stepped out from the cave the tiger had entered.  It was, inexplicably, the trim-bearded man from the dream they'd observed the previous night, dressed in combat leathers with a longbow and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back.  A golden-feathered owl sat perched upon his left shoulder."You're awake!" Thurloe gasped in surprise."I...am indeed," admitted the man, puzzled at the stranger's surprise that he should be awake - it was, after all, late morning.  "How may Viktor the Beastlord aid you?  Have you need of the League of Beasts?""We had come to wake you up," admitted Alewyth.  "We had reason to believe you had become trapped in your dreams."  She gave the ranger a quick explanation of the dream-sickness that had been crossing the small continent and their role in helping awaken those trapped in their dreams.  "Is there perhaps anyone else inside the cave that might be asleep?""Well, there's Bobo," Viktor admitted.  "And yes, a couple of days ago he started a rather early hibernation.  I thought nothing of it at the time."  He led the group into the cave network, past a timber wolf that looked at them warily and into a back cave where a black bear dozed.  After explaining their procedure, the five dreamwalkers wrapped a headband containing a dreamstone around the dozing bruin's temple, then sat around him in a circle.  As Viktor and his timber wolf Moonshadow stood guard, the five adventurers slipped into a gentle slumber, their minds slipping through the dimensions to the Dreamlands.Mogo was there waiting for them and escorted them to the proper door in the Corridor of Dreams.  "Good luck, kupo!" he said.Bobo and the dream version of Viktor were still at it.  "You're wearing down!" the ranger taunted.  "You're tiring out!""That's not what your mom said last night!" Bobo taunted right back.  The two figures were engaged in a shoulder hug as each tried dragging the other to the edge of the circle, so they could be thrown out and declared the loser of the match."Hey!  Bobo!  C'mere a minute!" yelled Thurloe, trying to get the bear's attention."In a bit!" called back Bobo.  "First I gotta throw this fool from the ring!""'Fool,' huh?" demanded the dream-Viktor.  "It is you who are foolish if you think to vanquish me!"Alewyth rustled around in her pack, bringing out a few muffins wrapped in a piece of fresh linen.  "I've got honey muffins!" she announced.  "Come and get them, if you're hungry!"  Bobo's head snapped in the dwarf's direction and he was sorely tempted, but at the last moment he concentrated back on the task at hand, pushing Viktor back a few steps towards the edge of the circle.  But the ranger turned to the side and they merely pivoted, remaining pretty much in place."How do we wake him?" asked Zander."It's pretty obvious he's dreaming about winning the match but he's having a hard time of it," Xandro observed.  "Maybe we should help him to win.""That would be cheating!" pointed out Wakuren, frowning."It's just a dream!" chided Thurloe, activating his touch of fatigue as he patted Viktor on the shoulder.  "Go get 'im, Viktor!" he pretended to cheer as the strength was drained from the wrestling ranger.  Following the logic - and seeing that the dream-Viktor hadn't apparently noticed Thurloe's interference in the match, Zander cast a ray of enfeeblement at the ranger, hitting him broadly in the back.  Viktor seemed to slump and Bobo took full advantage of his foe's weakness to scoot him closer to the edge of the circle.  Wakuren shrugged and cast a doom spell on the ranger as well.All in all, the attempts at interference piled up and Bobo was able to push his opponent out of the circle, where he fell on his back and didn't get back up.  Alewyth at first feared he might have been hurt but then noticed he was fading from view - as was what little background there was in this dream.  Bobo was waking up and his dream was dissipating all around them like smoke.One by one the dreamwalkers awakened back in the cave.  Bobo was rousing, although in the manner of most bruins he was taking his time about it.  That was perfectly fine for the adventurers, who all got to their feet and readied their weapons in case the black bear awoke in a less than agreeable disposition - it was never safe to assume with wild animals.  Zander looked over to the cave entrance for Viktor, but neither the ranger nor his wolf animal companion was there where they'd stood guard as the five dreamwalkers went to rescue Bobo from his dreams.  Instead, on the floor of the cave where the ranger had stood, was a piece of paper.  Zander picked it up and read it aloud.  It read:"Where's Windgate Pass?  Anybody know?" asked Thurloe.  Everyone looked expectantly at Xandro, as the bard had been a wanderer before being brought into service to the Queen of Dreams.  But this was further east than Xandro had ever been and the bard shrugged and shook his head.  "Why would he assume we knew where that was?" growled Thurloe, irritated at Viktor for having left them in the dark."I think he left the message for me," replied Bobo, yawning and stretching.  "Hey!  I just had a dream about you guys!  ...And something about honey muffins."  A few of the adventurers were taken aback that Bobo spoke just as well in real life as he did in dreams; apparently Viktor or someone else had applied the awaken spell to the black bear at some point in the past, raising him up to human intelligence."It sounds like Viktor might need our help," Alewyth replied.  "Do you know where this Windgate Pass is?"  Bobo did and he led the way, giving directions from the back of the mule cart as Wakuren drove the mules forward.  Alewyth rode her dire goat Pyrite and the men rode their horses, leaving the dwarf priestess's horse Mica to follow the wagon led by a rope tied to her bridle.  They went north along the road, up and over hills that got progressively higher the further north they went."I didn't see a wagon or anything when we first approached," Alewyth commented.  "Just a horse, and he was gone when we left.""Yeah, Viktor rides Blaze and the rest of us keep up on foot."  He named the other members of the League of Beasts: besides himself and the timber wolf Moonshadow there was Amber the tigress and Celeste the owl.  After a few moments, Bobo said, "This is Windgate Pass coming up."As they climbed the steep road they were met by Amber the tigress coming back down from higher up.  "We were ambushed," she said and at this point none of the adventurers was surprised to note she was speaking aloud in perfect Common.  "Blaze is dead.  Viktor's either dead or captured.  The rest of us scattered - we thought it best to escape and regroup; maybe we can attack when they're not expecting it.  But they seemed to know we were coming."  The tiger had long gashes down the side of her left shoulder, from which a pool of blood had matted her fur.  Alewyth immediately dropped from Pyrite's saddle and cast a healing spell on the tigress.  Amber told them the winged lions' cave was just ahead and the group decided they could trust the wounded tigress with their own animals while they went to the cave of the winged lions to go rescue Viktor and the couple taken from the road in the first place."Prep spells before we go in," cautioned Thurloe, casting a shield spell upon himself.  Zander cast a mage armor spell followed by an expeditious retreat spell he cast from a scroll.  Wakuren cast the traditional virtue spell upon the frail elf and then activated his ring of invisibility, sliding out of the visible light spectrum.  Alewyth cast a magic circle against evil spell upon herself and then a protection from evil spell on Zander, their weakest member when it came to hand-to-hand combat - anything they could do to keep him in the fight they usually did.  Then, deciding they were all ready, they climbed up the slope of the mountain from the side of the road, up to where they could see the shadows of a cave opening ahead.  Bobo accompanied them while Amber lounged in the back of the wagon, her head up and her ears alert for the sounds of danger.Alewyth heard a low, moaning sound as they got closer to the cave.  It was coming from somewhere either in the cave or nearby but was difficult to pinpoint exactly, for it wasn't constant, but rather started and stopped in random intervals.  Thurloe, bastard sword in hand, stepped boldly into the dark cave and as he did so he could see a ghostly form rise up from the floor, a glowing skeleton covered in tattered robes that flapped in a wind that wasn't present there inside the cave.  The moaning and wailing continued, but now that Thurloe was inside the cave the wails almost sounded like they were coming from somewhere outside.As a matter of fact, they were - as Bobo quickly figured out.  There was a glass bottle buried in the dirt along the side of the rock wall of the cave opening, and the wind blowing past its narrow lip caused the eerie moaning sounds.  Xandro followed the bear and plugged the top of the lip with a clump of dirt.  The moaning stopped immediately.  "It's a hoax!" he called to the others.Thurloe had come to the same conclusion himself as the "ghost" rose completely out of the cave floor but then just stood there looking menacing.  He stepped right up to it and poked it with the point of his bastard sword and the blade's illusion-dampening properties caused the undead figure to pop like a soap bubble.  "Just a triggered illusion," he said.  "Probably just meant to keep the locals away."  Zander stepped up beside him and activated the full power of his headband, granting him not only true seeing but the ability to see perfectly fine in absolute darkness.  Thurloe, not so equipped, lit a torch form his pack; he'd used up the last of his sunrods and hadn't thought to replenish his stock.  They could each see there were two passageways lowering down further into other caves in the cavern network, one to the north and one to the west.But there was also another smaller cave entrance to the north and from it poked a tawny-colored head.  Its feline eyes narrowed at the sight of Xandro and Bobo messing around with its master's bottle and just that quickly it was off and running, charging straight at the bard.  The mountain lion leaped at Xandro, crashing down upon him in a flurry of fangs and claws.  Wakuren popped back into visibility as his shield came crashing down upon the mountain lion's back, allowing Xandro to crawl out from beneath it and struggle back up to his feet.  He pulled out his magic short sword and went on the attack.  Alewyth, in the meantime, regretted having left her sure-footed dire goat behind and whistled for it to come to her.  Pyrite, hearing his mistress's call, departed from the group of riding mounts under Amber's overall protection and the tigress allowed it, knowing the dire goat was a part of this other group in the same way she was a part of the League of Beasts.  Once Pyrite ambled up, Alewyth wasted no time leaping back up into the saddle; with her innate dwarven darkvision she'd have no trouble seeing inside the lightless cave network and now she'd be moving at a much faster speed than her own dwarven legs could ever hope to carry her.The mountain lion had turned its attention to Wakuren but couldn't get a good grip on the half-orc's metal armor, nor could it find a way past the holy warrior's shield.  Bobo was adding his own teeth and claws to the mix so Xandro backed off, trading his sword for his Dardolian Lute, beginning the chords to his song of courageous inspiration.  Wakuren finally killed the lion by stabbing down upon its head with the pointed bottom of his badge-shaped shield, piercing its skull and slaying it instantly.Zander started down the natural stone steps to the west, with Thurloe following directly behind and Alewyth astride Pyrite not too far behind them.  Xandro, Wakuren, and Bobo in the meantime checked out the mountain lion's cave, finding it too held a sloping passageway in the back that eventually led them to the same cave to which the northern passageway from the "ghost" cave led.Turning a natural curve down the passageway, a scene of carnage appeared in Zander's magic-enhanced view: a pair of winged lions bent over the dead form of Blaze, Viktor's horse.  As they ripped hunks of bloody flesh from the horse's carcass, the elf saw the human features on the lion-beasts; that, plus the batlike style of the creatures' wings and the spikes jutting out from the tips of their tails identified the "winged lions" as manticores.  As only one had a shaggy mane flowing seamlessly into a thick beard, the sorcerer took these to be a mated pair.  Without making a sound, Zander reached inside a pocket of his robes and pulled out his figurine of wondrous power, dropping it on the soft leather of his boot rather than have it make noise clacking onto the stone steps before him and alert the hungry manticores.  The cooshee expanded to its full, living size in an instant and needed no prompting about his role in this upcoming battle."I can smell Viktor - he came this way!" Bobo said at the bottom of the natural stone steps leading into the cave to the north of the one currently occupied by feasting manticores.  There were two more passageways leading further down from this central cave, and according to the black bear's nose Viktor had been brought down the one to the west.  Wakuren and Xandro followed as Bobo sought out the ranger leader of the League of Beasts.But the manticores by now had noticed the intrusion into their cave network.  The male was the closest to the natural steps and leaped up them, eager to tear into Zander.  But there was a cooshee in the way determined not to let that happen and the two clawed at each other in wordless fury.  Seeing the narrowness of the passageway - there would be no getting past the manticore to enter fully into the cavern where Blaze's body now lay - Alewyth activated the amber amulet of vermin she wore around her neck, causing a giant bee to manifest in the air before her.  "Attack!" she called out to the bee and its wings buzzed furiously as it flew over the cooshee to try to impale the male manticore with its stinger.  Thurloe didn't care how cramped the fighting space was; he stepped up behind the cooshee, ready to strike with his bastard sword as soon as he found an opening to do so.  Zander sent a scorching ray spell over the fighter-wizard's head, crashing into the manticore and eliciting a roar of fury.  But Alewyth saw it a lost cause trying to get in there to aid any further in this particular battle and urged Pyrite forward, heading down the northern passageway to meet up with the others."There he is!" called out Bobo, rushing over to one of two cages along the back walls of the cave to which his sense of smell had led him.  Viktor lay unconscious inside the cage, built of sturdy limbs and branches bound tightly with ropes and vines.  Another cage held a human woman, also unconscious but with a manacle around one ankle, binding her to the bars of her cage by a chain.  Bobo started chewing at the vines, trying to free his friend.  Wakuren approached, somewhat worried that the captors hadn't place a manacle around Viktor's ankle - might that mean he was dead?  But then why place him in a cage?  He reached a hand in between the bars and touched the ranger's throat, giving a sigh of relief when he felt a pulse.  He then channeled a healing spell through his hand, healing the worst of the ranger's wounds.  This also had the effect of waking him up and he sat up, confused in the flickering light of Xandro's torch - for of the members of his own group assembled in the cave, the bard was the only one who couldn't see in the dark and had lit a torch to remedy that problem."Wha--?" sputtered Viktor, looking around.  "Where'm I?  Where's Celeste?"  Alewyth approached about that time and started breaking through the young woman's cage with Sjondra.  After smashing through it enough that she could release that end of the chain, she fed a healing potion to the unconscious woman and learned her name was Jacinda.  "Where's Lurec?" the young woman asked immediately, explaining Lurec was her husband and they had both been taken by the winged lions together.  Alewyth promised they'd look for him but was silently discouraged that he hadn't been placed in either cage; she wondered if the manticores might have already eaten him before starting in on the horse.  Bobo, in the meantime, promised Viktor he'd have him out of the cage soon.  "Celeste's out looking for help," the bear explained.  "She'll be back soon.""Want Celeste," Viktor whined.  Wakuren frowned, as this was not at all the demeanor of the battle-hardened ranger they'd met earlier that morning.The male manticore, by this time, was almost dead.  He'd been trading claw-scratches with the cooshee and would have already slain the elven dog if he had been the only foe to worry about.  But even though getting hit by a few flung spikes from the female manticore in the cave below, Thurloe had been doing a fine job carving up the bearded male with his bastard sword and Zander had been casting ranged spells from far enough back he was in little danger himself.  Then there was that blasted bee, flying about the manticore's head and trying to sting him; it hadn't succeeded yet but it was quite distracting.  The manticore made the mistake of trying to swat it out of the air with a massive forepaw and while his attention was thus diverted - even just for a moment - Thurloe stabbed his blade into the beast's heart, killing him.As the male crashed to the ground, Zander had a nice shot of the female manticore and let fly with another scorching ray spell, catching her in the flaming blast straight on and causing her fur to singe from the blazing heat.  Without missing a beat the cooshee scrambled over the male manticore's corpse and charged at its mate, his fangs bared.  The female manticore found herself grappling with the elven dog as Thurloe ran down the stone steps to join in the fight, the blade of his sword red with the blood of her slain mate.Zander didn't give the female manticore much time to live and decided he'd likewise do fine to move on, leaving the cleanup of this particular battle to the trained fighter, the elven dog, and the giant bee.  He followed the other passageway north and caught sight of the others helping free the people in the cages - and was then hit in the shoulder by an arrow that came whizzing up from another passageway leading north from the cage chamber.  With the darkvision provided by his magic headband he could see the sniper was an elf like himself, only one garbed more like Viktor in leather armor.  "We've got intruders!" the archer called back in Elven to someone in the cave down there with him.Wakuren had moved on to explore a farther passageway, turning himself invisible again through the power of his ring.  The passageway was narrow, not wide enough to allow two people to walk side by side, and all of a sudden there was a blur ahead of him as a night-black creature came bounding up the stone steps to crash into Wakuren, not even knowing the invisible half-orc had been there.  Wakuren brought his shield crashing down onto the back of the summoned yeth hound, bringing himself to full visibility again in doing so.  Xandro, alerted to the sounds of combat from that direction, followed Wakuren's path and soon saw the two of them struggling to slay each other.Alewyth cast a spiritual weapon spell, sending a warhammer of solid force flying down the passageway to crash into the elven archer who had just shot Zander.  She slapped Pyrite's flank as she did so, telling the dire goat to return back to the other animals.  She'd dismounted to free Jacinda from her cage, but now that there was full-blown combat afoot she didn't want her goat to be slain.Thurloe finally slew the second manticore after a fierce battle, cutting a sideways gash along the beast's neck that proved to be her undoing.  Then, seeing nothing of interest in the manticores' den besides the half-eaten corpse of Viktor's horse Blaze, he followed the side passageway to the cavern with the cages.  The cooshee and the giant bee followed.  Once there, the elven dog raced down the passageway, eager to tear into the elven archer.  However, there was a hidden pit trap on the floor just before where the archer, Randalvael, stood, covered in an illusion that blended seamlessly with the rest of the cavern floor.  Landing on a section of floor that wasn't actually there, the cooshee plummet down 20 feet to the bottom of the pit, his fall somewhat broken by the bodies of the swarm of spiders lairing down there.  Randalvael hadn't taken any chances on the spiders escaping, either; a permanent repel vermin spell along the top of the pit's interior walls took care of that.The cooshee howled in pain as dozens, if not hundreds of venomous spiders bit at his flesh; Zander stopped the pain by calling out the command word to revert his trusty elven hound back to his statuette form.  He'd have to remember to go pull him back out of the pit after they'd dealt with this elven ranger who was apparently in league somehow with the manticores.Randalvael shot arrows at Alewyth, trying to either slay her outright or at least prevent her from casting any more offensive spells at him.  But in the meantime, his sister Kaernadasha followed the course of the yeth hound she'd summoned and saw Wakuren and Xandro fighting off the ebony canine - and now Thurloe came into view as well, attracted to the sounds of combat.  That was too good of an opportunity to miss out on, so she cast a lightning bolt spell up the passageway, over the yeth hound's back but blasting into both Wakuren and Thurloe, the bard having dodged out of range at the last moment.  Then, to add insult to injury, the little follow-on arcs of electricity still flashing across his metal armor, Wakuren felt the yeth hound grab up his ankle in its teeth and bear down, trying to trip the half-orc into a prone position where it would have a better time ripping out the cleric-paladin's throat.  But Thurloe slew the yeth hound before it had a chance and the summoned creature departed the Material Plane for its own infernal regions.  Xandro applied some healing to the fighter, whose numerous bleeding wounds indicated he could undoubtedly use it.Alewyth's spiritual warhammer continued swatting at Randalvael, giving the dwarven priestess time to approach him with her own warhammer in hand.  Keeping mentally aware of the pit trap's location, she brought Sjondra slamming into the elf's side.  He grunted, tossed his longbow to the side, and pulled out a melee weapon of his own: a gleaming, black-bladed longsword that somehow managed to look evil.  Behind her, Zander read the words to a shocking grasp spell from one of his many purchased scrolls, imbuing his hand with electrical energy he could deliver at a mere touch.  He stepped beside Alewyth and lashed out at the enemy elf, but Randalvael easily avoided the sorcerer's touch, bringing his blade into Zander's side as he did so.  The elf felt not only the pain of the wound but a familiar energy-sapping sensation as the sword channeled some of Zander's life-energy into Randalvael.  The evil ranger's equally evil smile distinctively told what Randalvael thought about having a magic sword that provided him with the stolen life-energy of his opponents.With the yeth hound gone, there was nothing preventing Wakuren from rushing down the steps and bringing his shield slamming into Kaernadasha.  She took the slam with much better grace than the half-orc would have thought possible for a skinny elven wizard, until he realized she'd probably had time to enhance herself with a stoneskin spell.  Thurloe was down into the lower chamber right after Wakuren, but he was immediately brought to immobility by a hold person spell cast by the elven wizard.Knowing his mistress's hold person spell was a temporary measure at best, Podkin stepped through the illusory wall hiding the cave in which the elven siblings stored their treasure and flew up to the frozen fighter's shoulder, biting at his neck and hoping to inject enough venom into Thurloe's system to send him crashing to the floor, asleep.  But Thurloe, even immobilized, was made of tough stuff and the homunculus's venom failed to force him into undesired slumber.Alewyth knew a one-on-one fight against a foe whose life-draining weapon put the odds in his favor was a losing proposition, so she brought Sjondra swinging in against the ranger's vampiric blade, hoping to sunder it away.  Her first attempt failed, as did her second, and to make things worse Randalvael not only kept a knowing smirk on his face while he evaded her blows, he got in a couple of hits himself, healing his own wounds from those he was inflicting upon the dwarven priestess.  But at least her spiritual weapon managed to clock the arrogant elf a few times before it winked out, its duration spent.Xandro followed Thurloe's path into the elves' den.  Wakuren cast a cure light wounds spell upon himself and maneuvered into position so the bard could catch the wizard between the two of them.  But then Kaernadasha cast a Melf's acid arrow spell at the burly half-orc, catching him full-on in the chest and stomach, coating his armor and the skin at his neck in burning acid.  Wakuren cried out in agony as the acid burned through his flesh and he hurriedly cast more curative spells on himself in a desperate battle to outpace the damage the long-lasting acid was doing to his skin.  This kept him preoccupied long enough that - coupled with Thurloe's inability to overcome the hold person spell by force of will - left Xandro up against the elven wizard and her homunculus familiar all by himself.Zander finally managed to touch Randalvael and discharge his shocking grasp spell into the evil ranger.  However, the vampiric blade flashed out again, drawing sustenance from one elf and channeling it into the other and most of the sorcerer's work had been undone in that short a moment.  Alewyth tried swatting the weapon from his hand again to no avail and convinced herself she'd have to take him out the much harder way, by beating him in battle without first depriving him of his vampiric weapon.  Disappointed in how quickly his shocking grasp spell had been neutralized - and realized staying in close-quarters combat with the elven ranger was just offering himself up as a source of stolen life energy - Zander backed off, opting to go with much safer strategy of lobbing magic missile spells at the ranger from a distance.  But that just allowed Randalvael to concentrate more fully on attacking Alewyth with his vampiric blade.Xandro dodged around Kaernadasha, getting in a strike from his frost short sword from an unexpected angle and making it through her stoneskin defense.  The wizard staggered back and cast a bear's endurance spell on herself, something she'd normally do before entering battle, but this time she'd not had enough forewarning.  And to be caught fighting in melee against a hated human, of all things - disgusting!  It was bad enough they bred like rabbits and had pushed the other races out of the way when quietly taking over the continent, but having to stoop to combat with what looked to be a human bard, of all things?Podkin switched over to attack Xandro, seeing him as more of a threat to his mistress than the still-immobilized Thurloe, whose forehead was now dripping with sweat at the attempts to unlock his own mobility from the spell that damned elf had cast on him.  The homunculus snapped its teeth at Xandro's throat but the nimble bard managed to duck aside just in time.  Wakuren, still staggering from the acid coating him, shambled into a half-hearted attempt to strike the author of his misery with his shield and that allowed Xandro to sneak in again with a rapid thrust of his blade, once again chopping away at the elven wizard's stoneskin defense.  At this pace, he hoped to have whittled it away to nothing in no time at all.Another flurry of magic missiles came flying at Randalvael, who cursed at Zander in their shared tongue, little liking the fact he had no defenses against the spell while still having to deal with the dwarven priestess before him.  Zander's magic missile spells were doing a fairly good job at balancing the scales against the ranger's vampiric blade, for the sorcerer's spells were dealing out more damage than Randalvael could replenish through attacking Alewyth with his black-bladed longsword.  And over on the other side of the cavern, Wakuren breathed a sigh of relief as the Melf's acid arrow spell finally ran its course, allowing him to concentrate on the attack once again.  He brought his shield slamming into the wizard, finally overcoming the last of her stoneskin protection.  Wanting now nothing more so much as to escape this horrid melee combat, Kaernadasha cast a fly spell in preparation to seeking safety in the skies outside the cavern network she and her brother had set up as a means of capturing humans and selling them as slaves to races near and far - bugbears, gnolls, it mattered not to the elves.  Xandro and Wakuren each attacked her as she flew past them, heading for the passageway her summoned yeth hound had taken.  Podkin followed, snapping ineffectually one more time at Xandro as he passed the bard.But then, just as it seemed they were going to get away, Thurloe finally freed himself from the wizard's accursed spell.  She was too far away for him to be able to catch up to her, but she was still within visual range in his torchlight, so he raised a hand, pointed at her flying form, and cast a magic missile spell of his own, to the accompaniment of Xandro's tune of courageous inspiration, for once the wizard had gotten past him the bard decided his best role was to aid his friends who could still fight their attackers.  Kaernadasha fell to the stone floor of the cavern in a lifeless heap, much to Thurloe's pleasure.  With a gasp, her homunculus followed suit, its unholy life dependent upon the life force of its mistress.Alewyth was still relying upon Sjondra to try to take out Randalvael, and the elf was starting to look the worse for wear, but then he activated an as-yet-unused power of his vampiric sword and the blade infused his whole body with positive energy, healing him completely.  Astonishment - perhaps even bordering closely on despair - crossed Alewyth's face as she realized they were effectively starting their combat all over again, with all the work they'd put into wearing him down having been for naught.Zander reacted by upping his combat spells from magic missile to his last scorching ray of the day.  He howled in disappointment as the rays struck the side of the stone wall of the passageway, missing the ranger entirely.  Randalvael laughed aloud at the frustration on the faces of his foes.  "What do you expect, hanging out with humans?" he taunted in Elvish, dripping disdain upon the final word in his sentence.But now that Kaernadasha had been taken out, Wakuren had nothing preventing him from making his way to Randalvael and attacking him from the other side.  The evil ranger found himself in the middle of a pincer maneuver, with Wakuren's shield slamming him in his back (and very nearly toppling him into the spider pit, but the ranger kept his balance at the last moment) while Alewyth kept up the assault with Sjondra at his front.  And now Thurloe cast another magic missile spell of his own at the ranger.  He was still new enough to wizardry that he could only manage a single missile per casting but he deemed it him doing his part from so far away.Xandro continue playing his lute; it was getting pretty crowded around the ranger slaver.  And Randalvael knew just how close he'd been to falling into the spider pit.  Wheeling around to face Wakuren, he sent his black blade cutting into the acid-scarred half-orc.  "I see the blood of humanity has made you even less worthy of life!" he snarled in the Elven tongue, but his words were meaningless to Wakuren, who didn't even understand the language of his unknown orcish father's people, let alone Elven.  He pretty much figured out the ranger's overall meaning, however, just from the look of disgust on his face.  He tried grabbing the ranger's wrists to see if he could fling him into the pit, but Randalvael was too nimble for such a slow-moving attack by a man in heavy armor for it to have too much of a chance of success.But Randalvael soon learned that turning his back upon Alewyth was a bad idea.  She lowered Sjondra to her side and charged at the ranger's back, hitting him just above the beltline with her shoulder.  He dropped his sword as he plummeted into the pit of spiders and only Wakuren grabbing Alewyth by the shoulder prevented her from falling down after him.  He cursed and shrieked as the spiders swarmed over his body, biting him countless times in mere seconds."We can throw you down a rope and haul you out of there," Wakuren offered.  "But we'll be turning you over to the authorities in Baron's Haven for your kidnapping scheme."  He received only Elven cursing for a response.  Thurloe wandered over to the edge of the pit and added, "And we killed the woman with you, in case you were wondering."  Randalvael's response was cut short by the spiders climbing into his mouth as he tried to talk.  Judging by the silence that followed, it didn't take long for the venom to claim his life.Alewyth picked up the vampiric sword and brought it with her over in the cave the elven siblings had used as their own personal lair, judging from the two cots lined up along the back.  She dropped it on the stone floor of the cave, then used Sjondra to sunder it into pieces.  The magic warhammer not only shattered the blade into shards, it absorbed them into itself.  Alewyth knew that as it absorbed magic weapons it would slowly be gaining in power itself, although the abilities of the weapons it destroyed in that fashion would have no bearing on its own future powers.Thurloe scraped his bastard sword along the back wall until it found and shut down the illusory wall spell that had been hiding the siblings' treasure cave.  While he and Xandro went inside to see what all it might contain, the other three looked at the other few items in the outer cave.  There was a small table and two chairs, upon which sat a journal of some sort and a magic wand in the middle of being recharged.  The writing in the book was in the Elven script; skimming through it, Zander saw it was a record of transactions the elves had made selling human slaves to various other races - some of them apparently living on nearby islands off the coast of the small continent of Armaturia.Alewyth, however, was more interested in the small barrel along the wall opposite the cots.  Lifting the lid, she was surprised to see it about a third full of water - and half a dozen frogs.  A detect magic spell showed the frogs were all magical in nature somehow, which didn't make a whole lot of sense until Zander worked it out from notations in the journal: Kaernadasha used baleful polymorph spells to turn their human captives into frogs, which were then delivered to their new buyers, at which time she would undo the effects of the magic.  Among the chests of coins, spellbooks, and the gear just recently confiscated from Viktor (the latter of which would be returned to the ranger), Thurloe and Xandro discovered a transport device made of a wooden bucket with a sealable lid, no doubt the means by which the frogs were carried by the manticore to their new masters before Kaernadasha returned them to human form - and a life of slavery.  Unfortunately, while the journal detailed the humans by number and how much they were sold for, no specific names or their current locations were provided.On the plus side, the wand was able to restore the six frogs back to human form.  One of them was Lurec, Jacinda's missing husband.  He was the most recent addition to the barrel of frogs; Kaernadasha's current mastery of wizardly spells only allowed her to cast one baleful polymorph spell each day.By the time the group returned back to the cage cavern - now accompanied by six additional people - Bobo had chewed through the vines keeping Viktor imprisoned inside the cage.  He stood dazed and blinking in confusion, until an owl flew into the cavern and alit upon his shoulder.  "Celeste!" Viktor cried out in obvious relief, returning to his normal self now that his owl friend had returned.  "I found Moonshadow," the owl said and sure enough the wolf trotted into the cavern.  "And Amber told us you were already in here."  The rescued humans huddled behind the adventurers in fear at the presence of the lupine carnivore, but Moonshadow just sighed.  "Quit worrying," he said.  "I don't eat people."Celeste explained Viktor's condition to the adventurers as the rescued captives gathered together around Jacinda (the young woman especially pleased to see her husband safe and sound) and Xandro removed the manacle from around her ankle with the aid of his newly-purchased lockpicks.  Viktor, it turned out, had suffered a head injury beyond their ability to heal properly and since then had suffered from a much diminished intellect.  Fortunately, Celeste was not only a celestial owl but had studied wizardry and was able to telepathically communicate with the ranger, feeding him his lines to the point where he seemed almost like he was before the accident.  Of course, this was only possible as long as the celestial owl maintained contact with the ranger; once separated, Viktor was without his advisor and reverted to his lower level of intellect."I think it high time we returned these good people to Baron's Haven!" declared Viktor, once more seeming like his own self.  The group departed the cave network, glad to be out of its shadows and once more under the bright sun.  They got a bit of a surprise when the tigress who was supposed to be guarding their riding mounts was nowhere to be seen.  In her place was a short-haired blonde woman, wrapped in a blanket.  But then she dropped the blanket and pitched forward out of the wagon, landing on all fours and once again resuming her tigress form.  Alewyth had heard of druids of sufficient power and training being able to attain the forms of animals - she was pretty sure it was called "wildshaping."  The weretiger thought she could guess the dwarf's assumptions about her but said nothing.The captives were loaded into the back of the wagon and Wakuren turned the mules around back the way they had come, in the direction of Baron's Haven. - - -The authorities of Baron's Haven gave a reward of 2,000 gp for the rescue of the captives and the taking down of the elven slavers, which was split evenly between the two groups.  Viktor allowed the adventurers to keep the elves' loot taken from their cave as a reward for having rescued him, which contained two vials of Keoghtom's ointment.  Zander was also sure to retrieve his jade cooshee from the spider pit, and they also managed to claim Randalvael's boots of elvenkind and cloak of elvenkind.  The players haven't decided who gets what yet, but while it would probably cause Randalvael to roll over in his grave if they allowed one or both of the humans to make use of the elven racist's items, Zander will likely end up with both.  We'll see. - - -T-shirt worn: I have a shirt with a wolf superimposed on an American flag in the background, so that was the one that made the most sense to wear during a session involving a league made up primarily of beasts, especially when one of them was an awakened timber wolf.</blockquote>

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