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Dreams of Erthe
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8670404" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 30: PLATOON OF THE DEAD</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 3/paladin 3</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 5/rogue 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 6</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 18 June 2022</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"Well, at least this time it's a short trip," pointed out Alewyth. Having dealt with two individual dreamers inside the confines of the city of Devlinshire, they had learned the next dreamer was in a compound only about four miles out of the city. "That beats the multiple-day journeys we've been used to."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but the people living there seem kind of weird," argued Thurloe. They had asked around Devlinshire before they left the city, seeing what they could learn about the inhabitants of the walled complex they were heading to.</p><p></p><p>"Some weird couple lives out that way. Always wearing black robes and stuff, hardly ever come into town. They pretty much keep to themselves," reported one merchant. Another added, "I don't think I've ever seen the man. The woman's rather nice looking, although she's always dressed in black and insists on wearing that silly top hat."</p><p></p><p>"I think they're healers or something," pointed out another local. "I know I've seen wounded soldiers being sent to them now and again."</p><p></p><p>"You ever seen the wounded come back out again?" prompted Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Now that you mention it, no."</p><p></p><p>"That says wonders about their healing abilities," Thurloe scoffed. But it being such a short trip, they didn't have long to wait to find out for themselves. The complex the couple lived in was surrounded by 10-foot-tall walls, made of solid, sturdy-looking stone. A single gate of thick, wooden doors stood at the southern side, apparently the only way in. But in the middle of the complex stood a two-story tower, also made of stone and apparently designed without any windows - not any that could be seen from outside the walls, in any case. On the ground just in front of the gate was a circle inscribed in the stone, ringed with magical runes. Wakuren brought the mules to a halt and stepped down from the wagon, walking into the magical circle without hesitation. Then, seeing no knocker or other way of announcing their presence, he pounded loudly on the wooden gate with his gauntleted fist.</p><p></p><p>"You hear that?" he asked as Thurloe came up to stand beside him. The others dismounted from their own horses (or dire goat in the case of Alewyth) but gave the circle a wide berth, in case there was any funny business going on.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah. Sounds like guys marching," the fighter-wizard replied. Indeed, the sound of tramping boots, all in step, could be heard from the other side of the wall, as well as the occasional clink of armor. It sounded like there was a contingent of at least a dozen soldiers inside the compound.</p><p></p><p>"Hey! open up!" Thurloe called to the soldiers marching inside the compound. They gave no answer, continuing their maneuvers - without the benefit of anyone calling out the cadence, Thurloe noted. But then, after about a minute had passed, a feminine voice from the air above the gate called out, "Who's there?"</p><p></p><p>Wakuren took the lead from Thurloe, knowing how impatient and insensitive the young human could be. "My name is Wakuren," he called up to the empty air at the top of the wall, where the voice had seemingly come from. "I have four others with me, and we came to see if perhaps there was someone inside your complex who had fallen asleep and has been unable to be awakened."</p><p></p><p>"What--?" gasped the woman's voice. "How could you possibly know that?"</p><p></p><p>"Then there is someone asleep and trapped in their dreams? We've been traveling the continent, pulling people from the dreams they have been trapped in. The specifics of the situation are still unknown, but we have been trained in the ritual that helps them escape and have had many more successes than failures. Would you let us in, so we can help?"</p><p></p><p>"Hang on," replied the woman's voice. "I'll be right there."</p><p></p><p>"Prep spells," suggested Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Why?" demanded Xandro. "She sounded reasonable enough."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, and those yuan-ti looked like normal farmers, and those desert babes looked perfectly human until we woke up and found out they were hags and we were on the menu. Prep spells." He pulled out his <em>wand of shield</em> and cast the spell on himself; since devoting himself to arcane spellcasting he'd done without his heavy armor, which hampered the movements he needed to perform to successfully cast spells. Wakuren, perhaps seeing the logic in Thurloe's reasoning, cast a <em>divine favor</em> spell upon himself and followed it up with a <em>bull's strength</em> that increased his physical prowess - a useful attribute if it came to a fight. Alewyth cast a <em>bless</em> spell on the assembled group and then a <em>shield of faith</em> and a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell on herself. Zander equipped himself with a <em>mage armor</em> spell and a <em>bear's endurance</em> spell, then cast <em>haste</em> on the group.</p><p></p><p>"You really think that's necessary?" Alewyth asked the elf sorcerer. "It's liable to run out before we even get a chance to use it."</p><p></p><p>"Then I can always cast another," argued Zander.</p><p></p><p>But then there was no time for further discussion, for the woman's voice called out, "Halt!" and the sounds of marching immediately ceased. "You two: open the gate!" she called and there were the sounds of a heavy bar being dragged out of place. Shortly thereafter the two doors swung inwards, revealing the presence of a young human woman dressed in a black skirt that came down to her booted heels, a black blouse, and a black top hat, all of which accentuated her black hair rather nicely and set off her pale features. As the two soldiers stood awaiting further orders, she turned to the group of soldiers as a whole and called out, "Slay each of these people if you ever see them inside this complex without being accompanied by me!" She then smiled at her visitors and bid them to enter. “No point in not being cautious," she smirked. Once the five had set foot inside the complex she had the two soldiers close the doors and put the heavy bar back in place, then resume their places in the formation. The soldiers stood in rows of four and none of the heroes missed out on the sickly-sweet smell of decay in the air, as if something had died here recently. Getting a good look at the undead flesh of the armed and armored soldiers, it wasn't too difficult to pinpoint the sources of the scent of death surrounding the area.</p><p></p><p>"I'm <strong>Mellistra</strong>," said the woman in the top hat. "<strong>Dellios</strong> is inside. This way." Without another word she pivoted on her heels and headed to the keep, whose door faced the front gate. While her back was turned, Wakuren focused his senses and confirmed that she, and the soldiers all around them, were radiating distinct auras of evil. She opened the door, ushered the five visitors inside, and then returned her attention to the unmoving soldiers standing in their ranks. "Resume!" she called out, and at once they began marching once again, moving in a counterclockwise direction around the keep.</p><p></p><p>Mellistra led the five dreamwalkers past the open doorway of a side room that contained six empty metal gurneys, each large enough to hold a body, and went up a set of stairs to the upper level. The keep's interior was lit by a series of <em>everburning torches</em> set in sconces along the walls. Alewyth's frown said all she needed to express her feelings about the quality of people they were here to help but she held her tongue.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, however, was never one not to speak his mind. "So, you got a bunch of zombies marching around out there, huh?"</p><p></p><p>"Not zombies, no - they're dread warriors," Mellistra corrected him. "They move as fast as they did in life and retain all of their previous combat training. They're on special order from <strong>Duke Virgil Devlin</strong> himself, so I don't want to hear any lecturing about the 'evils' of raising the dead for personal use. You got any problems with what we're doing, you take it up with him, not with us. Everything we're doing here is strictly above-board." At the top of the stairs she turned to her left and opened a door. "Dellios is in here," she said. Zander, intrigued by the woman's top hat and wondering if it might be magical in nature, activated his <em>scout's headband</em>, granting himself <em>true seeing</em>. To his disappointment, the top hat was apparently nothing more than an odd fashion accessory; it had no inherent magical properties.</p><p></p><p>The bedroom beyond was of a decent size, with a bed for two upon which was lying a man in his early thirties, wearing his nightclothes. An unholy symbol of Akari, Lord of Death and Undeath, hung on a thin chain around his neck; a larger version was attached to the wall over the bed. There was a door to a bathroom at the far side of the room and a pair of sliding doors meeting at a corner, apparently leading to a closet. Standing motionlessly in front of the closet doors was what looked to be a human skeleton holding a longsword; this was actually a baneguard, one of two providing internal security on this level of the keep. (The other was in the next room over, an arcane library.)</p><p></p><p>Alewyth explained the process by which they would rescue Dellios from his dream. As she tied the headband in place around the sleeping cleric's temple, Mellistra said, "I want to come with you."</p><p></p><p>"Inside his dream?" asked Xandro. "I'm afraid that's not possible - not without the proper training, in any case."</p><p></p><p>"Hmmph!" sighed the woman in the top hat. "Then I'll be right here, watching."</p><p></p><p>"That will not be necessary," Zander suggested. "Perhaps you'd like to wait outside?"</p><p></p><p>"I'll wait right here, making sure everything's on the up-and-up," Mellistra countered. She indicated the baneguard standing in the corner. "We both will."</p><p></p><p>"Very well, then - let's make it three," replied the elf sorcerer, pulling the <em>jade cooshee</em> figurine from his robes and bringing the elven dog to life with the utterance of a command word. "You stand on guard duty too," he commanded the cooshee, who wagged his tail in understanding. Then, after dragging the bed into the middle of the room so the five dreamwalkers could sit in a circle around him, they each slowed their breathing and entered the dreamlands. As usual, each was met by his or her personal moogle guide, who led them through the ever-changing world of dreams into the Dream Corridor, where Mogo was waiting for them. "Ready, kupo?" he asked, opening a specific door in the near-endless halls of similar-looking doors, each one a distinct dream of a specific dreamer. "Good luck, kupo!" he called as the five dreamwalkers entered the cleric's dream.</p><p></p><p>Dellios was there, fully armored and sitting at a table, a chessboard before him. Sitting across from him was a skeletal being wearing robes, idly holding a scythe in His skeletal left hand while His right moved a black chess piece. "<strong>CHECK</strong>," Akari intoned, causing Dellios to frown down at the board. A drop of nervous sweat dripped down the side of his face.</p><p></p><p>Stepping forward and looking at the chessboard, the dreamwalkers could see things were not looking good for Dellios; his forces were hopelessly outnumbered and Akari had amassed a slew of the cleric's pawns and a few more powerful pieces, which sat at the side of the table. Dellios had, by this point in the game, managed to take a mere two pawns from Akari's army.</p><p></p><p>"I'm not real comfortable with this," Alewyth admitted. "Do we really want to wake up a guy who's been creating undead monstrosities?"</p><p></p><p>"If the Nightmare King has him trapped here in his dream, it's no doubt in our best interests to release him - that's got to work against our adversary," pointed out Wakuren.</p><p></p><p>"So let's get on with it - let's go kill him," suggested Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Slaying a god will not be easy, even in a dream," warned Wakuren. "And I'd imagine it's even more difficult slaying the God of Death."</p><p></p><p>"Who says I was talking about killing the Bone Guy?" demanded Thurloe, pulling his bastard sword from its scabbard on his back. "Let's kill Dellios and see what happens."</p><p></p><p>"That'll probably just loop us back to the beginning of the dream," argued Alewyth. "Let's see what we can do about helping him win his chess match." Touching her hand to the dreamstone she wore in a leather headband about her own brow, she concentrated on altering the dream as they'd been taught by Mogo and one of the black bishops disappeared from the board - the very bishop that had been putting the white king in check.</p><p></p><p>"Fine," grumbled Thurloe. "We'll do it your way." He concentrated as well and one of the black knights disappeared from the board. The other three followed suit, removing Akari's queen and the other bishop and knight, leaving the God of Death with only his king, rooks, and a half-dozen pawns, most of which were currently blocking the rooks from any useful moves. With the new board layout, Dellios had a much better chance of winning the game and he proved that was true by doing so a dozen moves later. Without a word, Akari stood up from his chair, made a silent bow in the direction of His servant, and disappeared from view. After he left, the walls in the room started fading from view as well. "He's waking up," Alewyth pointed out. "Let's go!"</p><p></p><p>The six figures all woke at about the same time, the heroes getting up from their lotus positions and stretching, while Dellios sat upright in bed and looked around him in confusion. "You're awake!" cried Mellistra happily.</p><p></p><p>"What's going on?" demanded Dellios. "Who are these people?"</p><p></p><p>"They woke you up," Mellistra explained. "You've been asleep for like two and a half weeks - almost three!"</p><p></p><p>"What? How--?" sputtered the cleric. Then realization hit him and his eyes nearly bugged out in shock. "The Duke's project! We'll be weeks behind!"</p><p></p><p>"I took care of it," Mellistra assured her husband.</p><p></p><p>"Well, it seems as if our job here is done," Thurloe said, eager to get out of the keep surrounded by 16 dread warriors programmed to kill them. "If you'd like to escort us back outside your walls, we'll let you get back to it."</p><p></p><p>"They know about the warriors!" Dellios gasped.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but it's fine," soothed Mellistra. "Our project is legitimate and well within the law; even these goody-goody types can't very well complain."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren held up his hands in a placating gesture. "We're just glad we were able to awaken you, and in so doing damage that much more of the overall plans of the Nightmare King," he assured Dellios. While the half-orc had been training as a cleric-paladin of Cal and personally found undead to be anathema, he couldn't very well break the laws of the Duke's lands; if the Duke allowed the creation of an undead army there was little Wakuren could do about it.</p><p></p><p>"We'll not be causing any trouble with the Duke," added Alewyth, whose views on the undead mirrored Wakuren's.</p><p></p><p>"See?" said Mellistra. "You're awake, they're leaving, and we can get back to business as usual." His wife's words seemed to finally penetrate and Dellios visibly relaxed.</p><p></p><p>And then a white-haired servant girl entered the room. "That's all very well and good," she said, looking over the heroes and allowing her gaze to focus upon Thurloe. "But I would remind you both that you're already behind schedule, the Duke is getting impatient, and that one" - here she pointed at Thurloe - "is a suitable candidate for the conversion process."</p><p></p><p>Mellistra gave Thurloe an appraising lookover and was nodding her head in appreciation, when Dellios said something that surprised the heroes. "And just who the Hell are you?" He had apparently never seen this young lady before.</p><p></p><p>But Thurloe wasn't overly concerned with white-haired serving girls being hired on while Dellios had been sleeping; he was more interested in being an unwilling volunteer for this conversion process. Thinking this whole thing was a setup, he spun about and fired a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell directly at Dellios, who was just now climbing out of bed in his nightshirt. "Hey!" he cried as the strength left his body, causing him to drop back down upon the mattress of his bed.</p><p></p><p>Seeing they were apparently fighting their way out of the keep - and idly wondering what their plans were once they had to cross the compound and pull off the heavy bar on the double doors of the gate, all while fighting off 16 dread warriors; hopefully Thurloe had some thoughts on the matter when they got that far - Xandro pulled his <em>frost short sword</em> from its scabbard and stabbed it deep into Dellios's side. It seemed strange to the bard to rescue a person from their dream and then turn around and try to kill them, but so be it; he wasn't the one that decided to reward the five dreamwalkers for rescuing Dellios by turning Thurloe into a dread warrior.</p><p></p><p>Zander Quilson raced across the room before everyone else realized there was a combat ensuing, preferring to get to the relative safety at the side of his cooshee. As he did so, he recast the <em>haste</em> spell upon himself and his friends (and his dog), since the original spell had already run its course. But the white-haired servant was already well aware of the combat and dropped her human form in order to attack the elven sorcerer as he fled past her, stinging him in the side with the tip of her tail. In doing so, she revealed herself in her true form: a humanoid reptile with white scales, a draconic face, and dragon's wings sprouting from her back. Wakuren was not at all surprised to denote the white abishai as yet another source of evil inside this keep. Quick as a wink (and aided by the <em>haste</em> spell), he swung his shield at her, catching her with its edge.</p><p></p><p>The cooshee responded to the start of combat by biting and clawing at Mellistra, who was standing beside the dog. He easily pulled her down to the floor, pinning her in place with a paw on her arm. She responded by casting a <em>vampiric touch</em> spell, imbuing her right hand with sparkling black energy, and trying to touch the dog to drain away some of his life energy. But the cooshee was well-versed in the ways of spells - part of his design allowed him to snatch away spell energy from those his master had targeted for "fetch" and he dodged her reach, knocking her back down with a side-swipe of his paw. She fell back down upon the floor, cursing in a quite unladylike manner, the <em>vampiric touch</em> spell still active in her hand.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth swung <em>Sjondra</em> into the white abishai's side, while Dellios called out for the baneguard to attack everyone in the room save him and Mellistra. Then, realizing his unpreparedness for combat while wearing only his nightshirt, he cast a <em>shield of faith</em> spell upon himself, one hand still holding his side where Xandro had just stabbed him.</p><p></p><p>But then Thurloe swung his bastard sword into the white abishai and nearly cut her in two. She flopped to the floor and he grunted in pulling his blade free from her torso. And then Wakuren called out in his loudest voice, "TRUCE! LET THERE BE NO MORE FIGHTING!"</p><p></p><p>"You started it!" yelled Dellios, pointing a finger at Thurloe. "You attacked me with a spell, and then you" - here he spun and stabbed a pointing finger at Xandro - "you stabbed me! But fine, hold off your attacks - for the moment," he said to the baneguard, who had taken a step towards Alewyth with its sword raised. The undead skeleton lowered its weapon, awaiting further orders.</p><p></p><p>"Let's all take a calming breath," Wakuren suggested. "It was this white dragon-thing that was advocating for an attack upon Thurloe. With her out of the way, I think we can all agree that we'll go our separate ways without any further bloodshed. And I can heal that wound for you."</p><p></p><p>"Don't bother - I can do it myself," grumbled Dellios, casting a <em>cure moderate wounds</em> spell upon the gash in his side, healing it completely. Then, turning to his wife, he asked, "And just who exactly was she - and what was she doing here?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, <em>you</em> were asleep, and <em>you're</em> the only one who can cast <em>create undead!</em>" Mellistra countered. "I had to make...additional arrangements." Dellios just shrugged angrily at her, his expression asking in a non-verbal way, "And...?" Mellistra hesitated, then admitted, "I used some <em>planar ally</em> scrolls, did a little summoning, and brought forth some allies who could animate the dead bodies for us." She spun on her husband. "What else was I supposed to do? <em>You</em> were asleep for who-knows-how-long-it-was-going-to-be, and the Duke was breathing down my neck, so <em>I</em> was the one left holding the bag...."</p><p></p><p>"Wait a minute," interrupted Xandro. "You said, 'allies' - there are more of them? Here in the keep?" He looked nervously about him.</p><p></p><p>"Well yeah, but only two, and they're not the <em>exact</em> same...one's black and one's green."</p><p></p><p>"If they're demons or devils, they're probably gonna have telepathy," Thurloe warned the others. "They're likely on their way up here right now."</p><p></p><p>As indeed they were. Upon having received the telepathic call from their white abishai counterpart, the green and black abishais had started heading up the sloped ramp from the underground level - the level containing the summoning circle. Seeing as how the white abishai had already revealed its true self to the mortals, these two saw no sense in wearing their human guises.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, truce?" asked Thurloe. He looked down at the body of the creature he had slain and noticed it was already regenerating the damage he had dealt it. Apparently killing the abishais wasn't even a permanent solution.</p><p></p><p>"<em>Temporary</em> truce," amended Mellistra. "Once we deal with the abishais, you guys get out and leave us alone!" Dellios just shook his head at how out of hand the situation had become while he had been trapped in his dreams. He walked over to the closet and started pulling on his armor.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren positioned himself at the top of the stairs, planning on being an obstacle the abishais would need to overcome to get to the others. Thurloe stood immediately behind him, bastard sword at the ready. Zander positioned himself in the library (where he soon found the other baneguard, which creeped him out) with Alewyth, whose <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell encompassed the four of them. Xandro was still in the bedroom but he pulled out his lute and began playing his song of courageous inspiration, while Thurloe passed his <em>wand of shield</em> over to Zander so the elf could use it and pass it back. The cooshee, in the meantime, had dragged the regenerating white abishai's corpse over to the bathroom and into the tub, where his job was to keep chewing on her and give her something to have to regenerate anew. After all, they didn't want her rising back to life to attack them all from behind while they were focused on safeguarding the stairs below them.</p><p></p><p>But the telepathic abishai were well aware of the heroes' plans. As a result, neither stepped around the corner to the bottom of the stairs where they would be able to be seen, but remained in hiding in the general living area. The black abishai focused her powers on Wakuren, hoping to <em>charm</em> him into attacking his companions, but he was safely ensconced in Alewyth's <em>magic circle against evil</em> and the spell protected his mind from such magical attacks. The green abishai then attempted to telepathically <em>command</em> Alewyth to come downstairs and talk under a flag of truce, but that had no effect either. Once it became apparent the heroes upstairs were fully shielded against their mental attacks, the green abishai changed tactics. "Very well then," she said. "We'll try this another way." She went over to the front door of the keep, opened it wide, and stepped outside. "Slay everyone inside this keep who doesn't have wings!" she commanded, and the ranks of dread warriors altered course and headed inside the keep.</p><p></p><p>"What? No! Don't! I countermand those orders!" called down Dellios, still buckling on his armor with his wife's assistance. But from the sounds of the tromping footsteps below, the dread warriors fully accepted the green abishai as outranking Dellios - after all, many of them had been animated by her directly while the cleric of Akari slept on. "This is all your fault, you know!" accused Dellios to Mellistra.</p><p></p><p>"How was I to know this was going to happen?" countered the necromancer. "They were just supposed to animate the dead guys and turn them into dread warriors - you know, the job <em>you</em> were supposed to be doing instead of taking a three-week nap!"</p><p></p><p>Despite the plans of making the top of the stairs the single point of defense, Thurloe changed tactics when he heard the dread warriors spilling into the living area downstairs and hoped to be able to prevent the rest from getting in. Thus, he pushed past Wakuren and raced down the stairs, bastard sword out and ready for action. The first of the undead were just now entering the keep's interior but the black abishai was right there around the corner from the stairs, so she became the fighter-wizard's first target. Thurloe grunted as he swung his blade with all his might, catching the draconic devil in the side of the torso. But it wasn't a killing blow - far from it - and she retaliated in kind, ripping with her front talons, snapping with her dragon-teeth, and sending the tip of her scorpionlike tail stabbing at the mortal foe before her. The tail strike failed to hit, so Thurloe luckily didn't get the opportunity to experience firsthand how it felt to have acidic venom pumped directly into his bloodstream - but there would be plenty of other chances in the very near future, he well knew.</p><p></p><p>Zander, confused on why Thurloe was bringing the fight to the opposing forces when he thought the whole point was to be fighting them at a bottleneck, readied a <em>magic missile</em> spell in case anyone made it up the stairwell. But then the dread warriors made it as far as Thurloe and attacked, each carrying a battleaxe and well trained in its use. Wakuren, saddened at the sudden loss of their strategy, raced down the stairs to join battle rather than leave Thurloe there alone to fight against overwhelming odds. Raising his holy symbol of Cal before him, he channeled positive energy through the focus and blasted the undead in a wide arc, affecting the first six to have entered the keep. In an attempt to flee from the cleric-paladin of Cal, four of them tried fitting into the side room where the six metal gurneys were stored, while the other two turned around and tried getting back out through the front door, being prevented from doing that by the wave of other dread warriors trying to get in.</p><p></p><p>From outside the keep, the green abishai gathered up the required mystical energy and summoned forth a quintet of lemures, four of them appearing inside the keep and the fifth stuck outside with her due to lack of available elbow room - the keep's interior was getting crowded! It became even more so when Alewyth summoned a celestial bison at the bottom of the stairs. It gored the first undead figure before it, one of the six Wakuren had just sent fleeing. Thurloe slew the black abishai with another well-placed blow of his bastard sword, but just as with its white cohort upstairs, death was nothing more than an inconvenient - and temporary - time out for it, as its wounds started immediately to seal up. From the top of the stairs, Xandro's inspirational tune got louder as the bard advanced to see if he could see the battle raging below.</p><p></p><p>Zander finally went downstairs, spotting a bit of green outside from his view just below the celestial bison's legs, so he cast a <em>magic missile</em> at what he knew to be the green-scaled abishai. He then whipped out the dagger from his belt and stabbed at a dread warrior as it hurried past him, trying to get inside the room with the gurneys as it fled Wakuren's holy power.</p><p></p><p>But now other dread warriors were rushing into the keep. Wakuren ran to the front door and raised his holy symbol, sending forth a second blast of positive energy and turning another group of the undead into panicked flight. However, he was now within striking distance of the green abishai and she went after him with a vengeance. Behind him, a few of the lemures tried attacking him and Thurloe but found a mysterious, unseen force (Alewyth's <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell) preventing the summoned creatures from being able to even touch their intended targets, for the dwarf had run down the stairs after having summoned her celestial bison from the Upper Planes to aid the heroes in fighting off the hordes of evil. The bison charged forward, trampling over the bodies of the dread warriors in its way, until it burst out the front door and spun about once outside, goring another undead warrior with its horns. The green abishai just barely managed to fly up out of range as the shaggy beast did his best to slay the evil creatures before him.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe made quick work of the nearest lemure, its body exploding in a puff of rancid gas as it was slain. Xandro stepped cautiously down the stairs, still playing his song of inspirational courage on the <em>Dardolian lute</em>. Zander spread his fingers before him and cast a <em>burning hands</em> spell that caught nearly half a dozen dread warriors in its flames. And while some of the dread warriors had made it back outside and were fleeing, more of those who had been stuck outside trying to get in had a suitable victim in their sights, namely the celestial bison who had been so diligently trying to pare down their ranks. The green abishai attacked the noble beast from above, her tail stabbing down at its head and injecting her vicious, strength-draining venom into his system.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren slew another of the lemures with his shield, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the smell the thing's death caused. Having gone on the offensive against them, he was no longer protected by the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, but that was a tradeoff the half-orc was willing to make, for the lemures were definitely on the "kill list" - the dread warriors being kind of a gray area, since they had been commissioned by Duke Virgil Devlin. Still, if they only killed the dread warriors in self-defense, the Duke could hardly take offense, right?</p><p></p><p>Alewyth ran up to stand beside Wakuren and channeled her own positive energy through her holy symbol of Aerik, causing more of the dread warriors to flee. Outside, the celestial bison had managed to stab the flying green abishai with one of his horns, causing the draconic devil to cry out in pain. Thurloe killed another lemure and stepped up to the doorway, knowing the worst of their enemies were still outside. (In the back of his mind he was aware the black abishai's body was regenerating, but he figured he had cut her up enough it was going to be some time before she was back in action.)</p><p></p><p>Xandro decided he'd done enough with his lute and set it aside, drawing forth his longsword and attacking the nearest dread warrior with it. Zander cast another <em>burning hands</em> spell, the fan of flames burning three of the undead soldiers to a crisp. But outside, the celestial bison was finally overcome by the small horde of undead soldiers attacking it with their battleaxes and it disappeared, not with an explosion of rancid gas like the slain lemures but the pleasant scent of roses.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren stepped outside, ignoring the fleeing dread warriors which had been turned away by the waves of positive energy being sent in their direction, and channeled more of his god's power through his shield, using it to smite the green abishai, apparently the leader of the three devils Mellistra had brought forth with her desperate spells. The devil tried <em>commanding</em> the half-orc into serving her, but despite the fact he was now well outside Alewyth's protective <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, Wakuren was having none of it. There were now only two lemures left of the five the green abishai had summoned to her aid, and the one outside with her attempted to hit Wakuren for the sake of its mistress, but the cleric of Cal avoided its clumsy blow. And then Thurloe's bastard sword cut the right wing from the green devil, causing her to fall to the ground where she quickly fell victim to another blow from his sword, this one cutting through scales, muscle, and bones and piercing her heart. Xandro and Wakuren made short work of the two remaining lemures.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth stepped outside herself and cast her last turn undead of the day toward the group still forming up to try to get inside the keep, causing panic and confusion in their ranks as some tried to flee and those further back tried pressing on. By then, Dellios and Mellistra came barreling down the stairs, finally ready for battle themselves now that the cleric had his armor on. "Don't kill the dread warriors!" he called out to the others, worried about how behind schedule this was going to put him with the Duke.</p><p></p><p>"Settle down, lad," calmed Alewyth. "Most of these have just been turned - there's no real harm come to them." She knew Zander had killed a couple of the ones inside but wasn't exactly sure of their number. With the abishais all slain, Dellios was able to assert control of the dread warriors, getting them lined back up in formation outside.</p><p></p><p>"Well, this is just lovely," Dellios complained. "We're down to just thirteen. I don't know how we're going to be able to make up the difference." Mellistra looked appraisingly back over to Thurloe, but he cut her off with a pointed finger and a warning: "Don't even think about it, you crazy broad!"</p><p></p><p>"This one's regenerating!" Xandro called from inside the keep, stabbing his longsword into the black abishai to give her more to have to fix up in her battered body. "Anybody know how to get them to stay dead?"</p><p></p><p>"You brought them forth," Dellios pointed out to his wife.</p><p></p><p>"I know, <em>I know!</em>" replied Mellistra. Then she listed off what would prevent them from regenerating: "Holy water. <em>Holy</em> weapons. <em>Blessed</em> weapons. I think that's about it."</p><p></p><p>Dellios turned to the five heroes. "I don't suppose any of you has any holy water?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"Not on me," Wakuren answered. "I could create some, but I don't have the spell ready at hand - it would take me until tomorrow to cast it."</p><p></p><p>"Same here," added Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"Well, you're not staying here until tomorrow," announced Mellistra. "I want you five out of here, pronto."</p><p></p><p>"Works for me, you damned loony," Thurloe snarled. "C'mon guys, we'll let them figure it out."</p><p></p><p>"But what about those undead monstrosities?" asked Zander, who had by this time collected his <em>jade cooshee</em> and dragged the white abishai's body outside with the other two. The dread warriors continued attacking the regenerating corpses as a stop-gap measure, long enough for someone to head back into the city and purchase enough vials of holy water to completely douse the three abishais, ensuring they stayed dead.</p><p></p><p>"Not our problem," answered Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps this situation will convince the Duke putting together a platoon of undead soldiers is not ideal," suggested Wakuren. "I'd like to take them all out, but I also don't want the Duke's forces hunting us down for, like it or not, breaking the law."</p><p></p><p>"What about the three you killed already?" demanded Mellistra. "You owe us for them, at least. I don't see why we can't have just the one of you to help make up the difference!"</p><p></p><p>"I hear any more talk about me joining their ranks and you're gonna have to start doing some regenerating yourself, lady!" warned Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>"Enough," interjected Dellios, starting to wish he'd never been awakened from his dream. "Mellistra, go into town and pick up some holy water. I'll stay here and oversee the situation until your return. As for the five of you, thank you for your assistance, but I think it would be best of you were on your way."</p><p></p><p>"Suits me fine," snarled Thurloe, walking over to the front gate. "Hey, Wakuren, give me a hand with this, would you?" Together, they lifted the bar away from the gate and swung the heavy wooden doors open.</p><p></p><p>"Why do <em>I</em> have to go get the holy water?" Mellistra groused to her husband.</p><p></p><p>"Because <em>you</em> were the one who brought those devils into this situation!" answered Dellios.</p><p></p><p>"Only because <em>you</em> were sleeping when you were supposed to be animating the bodies!"</p><p></p><p>"Well, it's not like I <em>chose</em> to get stuck in my nightmare, now, was it? And you don't know how bad that nightmare was! Sheer torment, let me tell you!"</p><p></p><p>Thurloe couldn't let that one pass. "He was playing chess!" he called over to Mellistra.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, chess, was it? So while <em>you</em> were off playing a <em>game, I</em> was stuck dealing with the Duke wondering why we were so far behind schedule!"</p><p></p><p>Thurloe and Wakuren pulled the doors to the gate shut behind them. They had no way to put the bar back in place, but that wasn't their immediate concern. Instead, they remounted their riding mounts and Wakuren climbed into the wagon, grabbing up the reins of their two mules.</p><p></p><p>"Was that absolutely necessary?" chided Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"Necessary? No," admitted Thurloe. "But fun? Yes. I hope they both enjoy their marital bliss." As they continued on down the road, Dellios and Mellistra's argument eventually faded from earshot behind them.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This adventure took us about three and a half hours to run through, after which time I handed out the players' upgrade checklists, because everyone advanced to 7th level. Harry decided to add a second level of rogue to Xandro, Logan gave Wakuren a 4th level of paladin, and Dan started Thurloe off with his first level in the spellsword prestige class; Alewyth and Zander are continuing on as our only single-class PCs. But each of their signature items got a power-up as well - the moogles have set up a communication station in the Dreamlands, and now besides their own individual moogle guides, there will be a moogle assigned to the communication station at all times, through which messages can be passed through the dreamstones in the PCs' signature items to the moogle on duty. In this way, the PCs can ask questions of the moogles, pass on messages to the Queen of Dreams, and receive answers without having to go to all the trouble of one of them falling asleep and visiting the Dreamlands "in person," as it were.</p><p></p><p>I also added something extra to Logan's upgrade checklist. For no apparent reason, Wakuren just gained an inherent +2 bonus to his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores. His initial thought was this might have been some sort of atunement bonus from wielding both the <em>shield of Cal</em> and the <em>gauntlet of Cal</em>. We'll have to wait to see if he's right.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" T-shirt, given the nature of the dread warriors.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8670404, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 30: PLATOON OF THE DEAD[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 6[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 3/paladin 3[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 5/rogue 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 6[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 18 June 2022 - - - "Well, at least this time it's a short trip," pointed out Alewyth. Having dealt with two individual dreamers inside the confines of the city of Devlinshire, they had learned the next dreamer was in a compound only about four miles out of the city. "That beats the multiple-day journeys we've been used to." "Yeah, but the people living there seem kind of weird," argued Thurloe. They had asked around Devlinshire before they left the city, seeing what they could learn about the inhabitants of the walled complex they were heading to. "Some weird couple lives out that way. Always wearing black robes and stuff, hardly ever come into town. They pretty much keep to themselves," reported one merchant. Another added, "I don't think I've ever seen the man. The woman's rather nice looking, although she's always dressed in black and insists on wearing that silly top hat." "I think they're healers or something," pointed out another local. "I know I've seen wounded soldiers being sent to them now and again." "You ever seen the wounded come back out again?" prompted Thurloe. "Now that you mention it, no." "That says wonders about their healing abilities," Thurloe scoffed. But it being such a short trip, they didn't have long to wait to find out for themselves. The complex the couple lived in was surrounded by 10-foot-tall walls, made of solid, sturdy-looking stone. A single gate of thick, wooden doors stood at the southern side, apparently the only way in. But in the middle of the complex stood a two-story tower, also made of stone and apparently designed without any windows - not any that could be seen from outside the walls, in any case. On the ground just in front of the gate was a circle inscribed in the stone, ringed with magical runes. Wakuren brought the mules to a halt and stepped down from the wagon, walking into the magical circle without hesitation. Then, seeing no knocker or other way of announcing their presence, he pounded loudly on the wooden gate with his gauntleted fist. "You hear that?" he asked as Thurloe came up to stand beside him. The others dismounted from their own horses (or dire goat in the case of Alewyth) but gave the circle a wide berth, in case there was any funny business going on. "Yeah. Sounds like guys marching," the fighter-wizard replied. Indeed, the sound of tramping boots, all in step, could be heard from the other side of the wall, as well as the occasional clink of armor. It sounded like there was a contingent of at least a dozen soldiers inside the compound. "Hey! open up!" Thurloe called to the soldiers marching inside the compound. They gave no answer, continuing their maneuvers - without the benefit of anyone calling out the cadence, Thurloe noted. But then, after about a minute had passed, a feminine voice from the air above the gate called out, "Who's there?" Wakuren took the lead from Thurloe, knowing how impatient and insensitive the young human could be. "My name is Wakuren," he called up to the empty air at the top of the wall, where the voice had seemingly come from. "I have four others with me, and we came to see if perhaps there was someone inside your complex who had fallen asleep and has been unable to be awakened." "What--?" gasped the woman's voice. "How could you possibly know that?" "Then there is someone asleep and trapped in their dreams? We've been traveling the continent, pulling people from the dreams they have been trapped in. The specifics of the situation are still unknown, but we have been trained in the ritual that helps them escape and have had many more successes than failures. Would you let us in, so we can help?" "Hang on," replied the woman's voice. "I'll be right there." "Prep spells," suggested Thurloe. "Why?" demanded Xandro. "She sounded reasonable enough." "Yeah, and those yuan-ti looked like normal farmers, and those desert babes looked perfectly human until we woke up and found out they were hags and we were on the menu. Prep spells." He pulled out his [I]wand of shield[/I] and cast the spell on himself; since devoting himself to arcane spellcasting he'd done without his heavy armor, which hampered the movements he needed to perform to successfully cast spells. Wakuren, perhaps seeing the logic in Thurloe's reasoning, cast a [I]divine favor[/I] spell upon himself and followed it up with a [I]bull's strength[/I] that increased his physical prowess - a useful attribute if it came to a fight. Alewyth cast a [I]bless[/I] spell on the assembled group and then a [I]shield of faith[/I] and a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell on herself. Zander equipped himself with a [I]mage armor[/I] spell and a [I]bear's endurance[/I] spell, then cast [I]haste[/I] on the group. "You really think that's necessary?" Alewyth asked the elf sorcerer. "It's liable to run out before we even get a chance to use it." "Then I can always cast another," argued Zander. But then there was no time for further discussion, for the woman's voice called out, "Halt!" and the sounds of marching immediately ceased. "You two: open the gate!" she called and there were the sounds of a heavy bar being dragged out of place. Shortly thereafter the two doors swung inwards, revealing the presence of a young human woman dressed in a black skirt that came down to her booted heels, a black blouse, and a black top hat, all of which accentuated her black hair rather nicely and set off her pale features. As the two soldiers stood awaiting further orders, she turned to the group of soldiers as a whole and called out, "Slay each of these people if you ever see them inside this complex without being accompanied by me!" She then smiled at her visitors and bid them to enter. “No point in not being cautious," she smirked. Once the five had set foot inside the complex she had the two soldiers close the doors and put the heavy bar back in place, then resume their places in the formation. The soldiers stood in rows of four and none of the heroes missed out on the sickly-sweet smell of decay in the air, as if something had died here recently. Getting a good look at the undead flesh of the armed and armored soldiers, it wasn't too difficult to pinpoint the sources of the scent of death surrounding the area. "I'm [B]Mellistra[/B]," said the woman in the top hat. "[B]Dellios[/B] is inside. This way." Without another word she pivoted on her heels and headed to the keep, whose door faced the front gate. While her back was turned, Wakuren focused his senses and confirmed that she, and the soldiers all around them, were radiating distinct auras of evil. She opened the door, ushered the five visitors inside, and then returned her attention to the unmoving soldiers standing in their ranks. "Resume!" she called out, and at once they began marching once again, moving in a counterclockwise direction around the keep. Mellistra led the five dreamwalkers past the open doorway of a side room that contained six empty metal gurneys, each large enough to hold a body, and went up a set of stairs to the upper level. The keep's interior was lit by a series of [I]everburning torches[/I] set in sconces along the walls. Alewyth's frown said all she needed to express her feelings about the quality of people they were here to help but she held her tongue. Thurloe, however, was never one not to speak his mind. "So, you got a bunch of zombies marching around out there, huh?" "Not zombies, no - they're dread warriors," Mellistra corrected him. "They move as fast as they did in life and retain all of their previous combat training. They're on special order from [B]Duke Virgil Devlin[/B] himself, so I don't want to hear any lecturing about the 'evils' of raising the dead for personal use. You got any problems with what we're doing, you take it up with him, not with us. Everything we're doing here is strictly above-board." At the top of the stairs she turned to her left and opened a door. "Dellios is in here," she said. Zander, intrigued by the woman's top hat and wondering if it might be magical in nature, activated his [I]scout's headband[/I], granting himself [I]true seeing[/I]. To his disappointment, the top hat was apparently nothing more than an odd fashion accessory; it had no inherent magical properties. The bedroom beyond was of a decent size, with a bed for two upon which was lying a man in his early thirties, wearing his nightclothes. An unholy symbol of Akari, Lord of Death and Undeath, hung on a thin chain around his neck; a larger version was attached to the wall over the bed. There was a door to a bathroom at the far side of the room and a pair of sliding doors meeting at a corner, apparently leading to a closet. Standing motionlessly in front of the closet doors was what looked to be a human skeleton holding a longsword; this was actually a baneguard, one of two providing internal security on this level of the keep. (The other was in the next room over, an arcane library.) Alewyth explained the process by which they would rescue Dellios from his dream. As she tied the headband in place around the sleeping cleric's temple, Mellistra said, "I want to come with you." "Inside his dream?" asked Xandro. "I'm afraid that's not possible - not without the proper training, in any case." "Hmmph!" sighed the woman in the top hat. "Then I'll be right here, watching." "That will not be necessary," Zander suggested. "Perhaps you'd like to wait outside?" "I'll wait right here, making sure everything's on the up-and-up," Mellistra countered. She indicated the baneguard standing in the corner. "We both will." "Very well, then - let's make it three," replied the elf sorcerer, pulling the [I]jade cooshee[/I] figurine from his robes and bringing the elven dog to life with the utterance of a command word. "You stand on guard duty too," he commanded the cooshee, who wagged his tail in understanding. Then, after dragging the bed into the middle of the room so the five dreamwalkers could sit in a circle around him, they each slowed their breathing and entered the dreamlands. As usual, each was met by his or her personal moogle guide, who led them through the ever-changing world of dreams into the Dream Corridor, where Mogo was waiting for them. "Ready, kupo?" he asked, opening a specific door in the near-endless halls of similar-looking doors, each one a distinct dream of a specific dreamer. "Good luck, kupo!" he called as the five dreamwalkers entered the cleric's dream. Dellios was there, fully armored and sitting at a table, a chessboard before him. Sitting across from him was a skeletal being wearing robes, idly holding a scythe in His skeletal left hand while His right moved a black chess piece. "[B]CHECK[/B]," Akari intoned, causing Dellios to frown down at the board. A drop of nervous sweat dripped down the side of his face. Stepping forward and looking at the chessboard, the dreamwalkers could see things were not looking good for Dellios; his forces were hopelessly outnumbered and Akari had amassed a slew of the cleric's pawns and a few more powerful pieces, which sat at the side of the table. Dellios had, by this point in the game, managed to take a mere two pawns from Akari's army. "I'm not real comfortable with this," Alewyth admitted. "Do we really want to wake up a guy who's been creating undead monstrosities?" "If the Nightmare King has him trapped here in his dream, it's no doubt in our best interests to release him - that's got to work against our adversary," pointed out Wakuren. "So let's get on with it - let's go kill him," suggested Thurloe. "Slaying a god will not be easy, even in a dream," warned Wakuren. "And I'd imagine it's even more difficult slaying the God of Death." "Who says I was talking about killing the Bone Guy?" demanded Thurloe, pulling his bastard sword from its scabbard on his back. "Let's kill Dellios and see what happens." "That'll probably just loop us back to the beginning of the dream," argued Alewyth. "Let's see what we can do about helping him win his chess match." Touching her hand to the dreamstone she wore in a leather headband about her own brow, she concentrated on altering the dream as they'd been taught by Mogo and one of the black bishops disappeared from the board - the very bishop that had been putting the white king in check. "Fine," grumbled Thurloe. "We'll do it your way." He concentrated as well and one of the black knights disappeared from the board. The other three followed suit, removing Akari's queen and the other bishop and knight, leaving the God of Death with only his king, rooks, and a half-dozen pawns, most of which were currently blocking the rooks from any useful moves. With the new board layout, Dellios had a much better chance of winning the game and he proved that was true by doing so a dozen moves later. Without a word, Akari stood up from his chair, made a silent bow in the direction of His servant, and disappeared from view. After he left, the walls in the room started fading from view as well. "He's waking up," Alewyth pointed out. "Let's go!" The six figures all woke at about the same time, the heroes getting up from their lotus positions and stretching, while Dellios sat upright in bed and looked around him in confusion. "You're awake!" cried Mellistra happily. "What's going on?" demanded Dellios. "Who are these people?" "They woke you up," Mellistra explained. "You've been asleep for like two and a half weeks - almost three!" "What? How--?" sputtered the cleric. Then realization hit him and his eyes nearly bugged out in shock. "The Duke's project! We'll be weeks behind!" "I took care of it," Mellistra assured her husband. "Well, it seems as if our job here is done," Thurloe said, eager to get out of the keep surrounded by 16 dread warriors programmed to kill them. "If you'd like to escort us back outside your walls, we'll let you get back to it." "They know about the warriors!" Dellios gasped. "Yeah, but it's fine," soothed Mellistra. "Our project is legitimate and well within the law; even these goody-goody types can't very well complain." Wakuren held up his hands in a placating gesture. "We're just glad we were able to awaken you, and in so doing damage that much more of the overall plans of the Nightmare King," he assured Dellios. While the half-orc had been training as a cleric-paladin of Cal and personally found undead to be anathema, he couldn't very well break the laws of the Duke's lands; if the Duke allowed the creation of an undead army there was little Wakuren could do about it. "We'll not be causing any trouble with the Duke," added Alewyth, whose views on the undead mirrored Wakuren's. "See?" said Mellistra. "You're awake, they're leaving, and we can get back to business as usual." His wife's words seemed to finally penetrate and Dellios visibly relaxed. And then a white-haired servant girl entered the room. "That's all very well and good," she said, looking over the heroes and allowing her gaze to focus upon Thurloe. "But I would remind you both that you're already behind schedule, the Duke is getting impatient, and that one" - here she pointed at Thurloe - "is a suitable candidate for the conversion process." Mellistra gave Thurloe an appraising lookover and was nodding her head in appreciation, when Dellios said something that surprised the heroes. "And just who the Hell are you?" He had apparently never seen this young lady before. But Thurloe wasn't overly concerned with white-haired serving girls being hired on while Dellios had been sleeping; he was more interested in being an unwilling volunteer for this conversion process. Thinking this whole thing was a setup, he spun about and fired a [I]ray of enfeeblement[/I] spell directly at Dellios, who was just now climbing out of bed in his nightshirt. "Hey!" he cried as the strength left his body, causing him to drop back down upon the mattress of his bed. Seeing they were apparently fighting their way out of the keep - and idly wondering what their plans were once they had to cross the compound and pull off the heavy bar on the double doors of the gate, all while fighting off 16 dread warriors; hopefully Thurloe had some thoughts on the matter when they got that far - Xandro pulled his [I]frost short sword[/I] from its scabbard and stabbed it deep into Dellios's side. It seemed strange to the bard to rescue a person from their dream and then turn around and try to kill them, but so be it; he wasn't the one that decided to reward the five dreamwalkers for rescuing Dellios by turning Thurloe into a dread warrior. Zander Quilson raced across the room before everyone else realized there was a combat ensuing, preferring to get to the relative safety at the side of his cooshee. As he did so, he recast the [I]haste[/I] spell upon himself and his friends (and his dog), since the original spell had already run its course. But the white-haired servant was already well aware of the combat and dropped her human form in order to attack the elven sorcerer as he fled past her, stinging him in the side with the tip of her tail. In doing so, she revealed herself in her true form: a humanoid reptile with white scales, a draconic face, and dragon's wings sprouting from her back. Wakuren was not at all surprised to denote the white abishai as yet another source of evil inside this keep. Quick as a wink (and aided by the [I]haste[/I] spell), he swung his shield at her, catching her with its edge. The cooshee responded to the start of combat by biting and clawing at Mellistra, who was standing beside the dog. He easily pulled her down to the floor, pinning her in place with a paw on her arm. She responded by casting a [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell, imbuing her right hand with sparkling black energy, and trying to touch the dog to drain away some of his life energy. But the cooshee was well-versed in the ways of spells - part of his design allowed him to snatch away spell energy from those his master had targeted for "fetch" and he dodged her reach, knocking her back down with a side-swipe of his paw. She fell back down upon the floor, cursing in a quite unladylike manner, the [I]vampiric touch[/I] spell still active in her hand. Alewyth swung [I]Sjondra[/I] into the white abishai's side, while Dellios called out for the baneguard to attack everyone in the room save him and Mellistra. Then, realizing his unpreparedness for combat while wearing only his nightshirt, he cast a [I]shield of faith[/I] spell upon himself, one hand still holding his side where Xandro had just stabbed him. But then Thurloe swung his bastard sword into the white abishai and nearly cut her in two. She flopped to the floor and he grunted in pulling his blade free from her torso. And then Wakuren called out in his loudest voice, "TRUCE! LET THERE BE NO MORE FIGHTING!" "You started it!" yelled Dellios, pointing a finger at Thurloe. "You attacked me with a spell, and then you" - here he spun and stabbed a pointing finger at Xandro - "you stabbed me! But fine, hold off your attacks - for the moment," he said to the baneguard, who had taken a step towards Alewyth with its sword raised. The undead skeleton lowered its weapon, awaiting further orders. "Let's all take a calming breath," Wakuren suggested. "It was this white dragon-thing that was advocating for an attack upon Thurloe. With her out of the way, I think we can all agree that we'll go our separate ways without any further bloodshed. And I can heal that wound for you." "Don't bother - I can do it myself," grumbled Dellios, casting a [I]cure moderate wounds[/I] spell upon the gash in his side, healing it completely. Then, turning to his wife, he asked, "And just who exactly was she - and what was she doing here?" "Well, [I]you[/I] were asleep, and [I]you're[/I] the only one who can cast [I]create undead![/I]" Mellistra countered. "I had to make...additional arrangements." Dellios just shrugged angrily at her, his expression asking in a non-verbal way, "And...?" Mellistra hesitated, then admitted, "I used some [I]planar ally[/I] scrolls, did a little summoning, and brought forth some allies who could animate the dead bodies for us." She spun on her husband. "What else was I supposed to do? [I]You[/I] were asleep for who-knows-how-long-it-was-going-to-be, and the Duke was breathing down my neck, so [I]I[/I] was the one left holding the bag...." "Wait a minute," interrupted Xandro. "You said, 'allies' - there are more of them? Here in the keep?" He looked nervously about him. "Well yeah, but only two, and they're not the [I]exact[/I] same...one's black and one's green." "If they're demons or devils, they're probably gonna have telepathy," Thurloe warned the others. "They're likely on their way up here right now." As indeed they were. Upon having received the telepathic call from their white abishai counterpart, the green and black abishais had started heading up the sloped ramp from the underground level - the level containing the summoning circle. Seeing as how the white abishai had already revealed its true self to the mortals, these two saw no sense in wearing their human guises. "Okay, truce?" asked Thurloe. He looked down at the body of the creature he had slain and noticed it was already regenerating the damage he had dealt it. Apparently killing the abishais wasn't even a permanent solution. "[I]Temporary[/I] truce," amended Mellistra. "Once we deal with the abishais, you guys get out and leave us alone!" Dellios just shook his head at how out of hand the situation had become while he had been trapped in his dreams. He walked over to the closet and started pulling on his armor. Wakuren positioned himself at the top of the stairs, planning on being an obstacle the abishais would need to overcome to get to the others. Thurloe stood immediately behind him, bastard sword at the ready. Zander positioned himself in the library (where he soon found the other baneguard, which creeped him out) with Alewyth, whose [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell encompassed the four of them. Xandro was still in the bedroom but he pulled out his lute and began playing his song of courageous inspiration, while Thurloe passed his [I]wand of shield[/I] over to Zander so the elf could use it and pass it back. The cooshee, in the meantime, had dragged the regenerating white abishai's corpse over to the bathroom and into the tub, where his job was to keep chewing on her and give her something to have to regenerate anew. After all, they didn't want her rising back to life to attack them all from behind while they were focused on safeguarding the stairs below them. But the telepathic abishai were well aware of the heroes' plans. As a result, neither stepped around the corner to the bottom of the stairs where they would be able to be seen, but remained in hiding in the general living area. The black abishai focused her powers on Wakuren, hoping to [I]charm[/I] him into attacking his companions, but he was safely ensconced in Alewyth's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] and the spell protected his mind from such magical attacks. The green abishai then attempted to telepathically [I]command[/I] Alewyth to come downstairs and talk under a flag of truce, but that had no effect either. Once it became apparent the heroes upstairs were fully shielded against their mental attacks, the green abishai changed tactics. "Very well then," she said. "We'll try this another way." She went over to the front door of the keep, opened it wide, and stepped outside. "Slay everyone inside this keep who doesn't have wings!" she commanded, and the ranks of dread warriors altered course and headed inside the keep. "What? No! Don't! I countermand those orders!" called down Dellios, still buckling on his armor with his wife's assistance. But from the sounds of the tromping footsteps below, the dread warriors fully accepted the green abishai as outranking Dellios - after all, many of them had been animated by her directly while the cleric of Akari slept on. "This is all your fault, you know!" accused Dellios to Mellistra. "How was I to know this was going to happen?" countered the necromancer. "They were just supposed to animate the dead guys and turn them into dread warriors - you know, the job [I]you[/I] were supposed to be doing instead of taking a three-week nap!" Despite the plans of making the top of the stairs the single point of defense, Thurloe changed tactics when he heard the dread warriors spilling into the living area downstairs and hoped to be able to prevent the rest from getting in. Thus, he pushed past Wakuren and raced down the stairs, bastard sword out and ready for action. The first of the undead were just now entering the keep's interior but the black abishai was right there around the corner from the stairs, so she became the fighter-wizard's first target. Thurloe grunted as he swung his blade with all his might, catching the draconic devil in the side of the torso. But it wasn't a killing blow - far from it - and she retaliated in kind, ripping with her front talons, snapping with her dragon-teeth, and sending the tip of her scorpionlike tail stabbing at the mortal foe before her. The tail strike failed to hit, so Thurloe luckily didn't get the opportunity to experience firsthand how it felt to have acidic venom pumped directly into his bloodstream - but there would be plenty of other chances in the very near future, he well knew. Zander, confused on why Thurloe was bringing the fight to the opposing forces when he thought the whole point was to be fighting them at a bottleneck, readied a [I]magic missile[/I] spell in case anyone made it up the stairwell. But then the dread warriors made it as far as Thurloe and attacked, each carrying a battleaxe and well trained in its use. Wakuren, saddened at the sudden loss of their strategy, raced down the stairs to join battle rather than leave Thurloe there alone to fight against overwhelming odds. Raising his holy symbol of Cal before him, he channeled positive energy through the focus and blasted the undead in a wide arc, affecting the first six to have entered the keep. In an attempt to flee from the cleric-paladin of Cal, four of them tried fitting into the side room where the six metal gurneys were stored, while the other two turned around and tried getting back out through the front door, being prevented from doing that by the wave of other dread warriors trying to get in. From outside the keep, the green abishai gathered up the required mystical energy and summoned forth a quintet of lemures, four of them appearing inside the keep and the fifth stuck outside with her due to lack of available elbow room - the keep's interior was getting crowded! It became even more so when Alewyth summoned a celestial bison at the bottom of the stairs. It gored the first undead figure before it, one of the six Wakuren had just sent fleeing. Thurloe slew the black abishai with another well-placed blow of his bastard sword, but just as with its white cohort upstairs, death was nothing more than an inconvenient - and temporary - time out for it, as its wounds started immediately to seal up. From the top of the stairs, Xandro's inspirational tune got louder as the bard advanced to see if he could see the battle raging below. Zander finally went downstairs, spotting a bit of green outside from his view just below the celestial bison's legs, so he cast a [I]magic missile[/I] at what he knew to be the green-scaled abishai. He then whipped out the dagger from his belt and stabbed at a dread warrior as it hurried past him, trying to get inside the room with the gurneys as it fled Wakuren's holy power. But now other dread warriors were rushing into the keep. Wakuren ran to the front door and raised his holy symbol, sending forth a second blast of positive energy and turning another group of the undead into panicked flight. However, he was now within striking distance of the green abishai and she went after him with a vengeance. Behind him, a few of the lemures tried attacking him and Thurloe but found a mysterious, unseen force (Alewyth's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell) preventing the summoned creatures from being able to even touch their intended targets, for the dwarf had run down the stairs after having summoned her celestial bison from the Upper Planes to aid the heroes in fighting off the hordes of evil. The bison charged forward, trampling over the bodies of the dread warriors in its way, until it burst out the front door and spun about once outside, goring another undead warrior with its horns. The green abishai just barely managed to fly up out of range as the shaggy beast did his best to slay the evil creatures before him. Thurloe made quick work of the nearest lemure, its body exploding in a puff of rancid gas as it was slain. Xandro stepped cautiously down the stairs, still playing his song of inspirational courage on the [I]Dardolian lute[/I]. Zander spread his fingers before him and cast a [I]burning hands[/I] spell that caught nearly half a dozen dread warriors in its flames. And while some of the dread warriors had made it back outside and were fleeing, more of those who had been stuck outside trying to get in had a suitable victim in their sights, namely the celestial bison who had been so diligently trying to pare down their ranks. The green abishai attacked the noble beast from above, her tail stabbing down at its head and injecting her vicious, strength-draining venom into his system. Wakuren slew another of the lemures with his shield, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the smell the thing's death caused. Having gone on the offensive against them, he was no longer protected by the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell, but that was a tradeoff the half-orc was willing to make, for the lemures were definitely on the "kill list" - the dread warriors being kind of a gray area, since they had been commissioned by Duke Virgil Devlin. Still, if they only killed the dread warriors in self-defense, the Duke could hardly take offense, right? Alewyth ran up to stand beside Wakuren and channeled her own positive energy through her holy symbol of Aerik, causing more of the dread warriors to flee. Outside, the celestial bison had managed to stab the flying green abishai with one of his horns, causing the draconic devil to cry out in pain. Thurloe killed another lemure and stepped up to the doorway, knowing the worst of their enemies were still outside. (In the back of his mind he was aware the black abishai's body was regenerating, but he figured he had cut her up enough it was going to be some time before she was back in action.) Xandro decided he'd done enough with his lute and set it aside, drawing forth his longsword and attacking the nearest dread warrior with it. Zander cast another [I]burning hands[/I] spell, the fan of flames burning three of the undead soldiers to a crisp. But outside, the celestial bison was finally overcome by the small horde of undead soldiers attacking it with their battleaxes and it disappeared, not with an explosion of rancid gas like the slain lemures but the pleasant scent of roses. Wakuren stepped outside, ignoring the fleeing dread warriors which had been turned away by the waves of positive energy being sent in their direction, and channeled more of his god's power through his shield, using it to smite the green abishai, apparently the leader of the three devils Mellistra had brought forth with her desperate spells. The devil tried [I]commanding[/I] the half-orc into serving her, but despite the fact he was now well outside Alewyth's protective [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell, Wakuren was having none of it. There were now only two lemures left of the five the green abishai had summoned to her aid, and the one outside with her attempted to hit Wakuren for the sake of its mistress, but the cleric of Cal avoided its clumsy blow. And then Thurloe's bastard sword cut the right wing from the green devil, causing her to fall to the ground where she quickly fell victim to another blow from his sword, this one cutting through scales, muscle, and bones and piercing her heart. Xandro and Wakuren made short work of the two remaining lemures. Alewyth stepped outside herself and cast her last turn undead of the day toward the group still forming up to try to get inside the keep, causing panic and confusion in their ranks as some tried to flee and those further back tried pressing on. By then, Dellios and Mellistra came barreling down the stairs, finally ready for battle themselves now that the cleric had his armor on. "Don't kill the dread warriors!" he called out to the others, worried about how behind schedule this was going to put him with the Duke. "Settle down, lad," calmed Alewyth. "Most of these have just been turned - there's no real harm come to them." She knew Zander had killed a couple of the ones inside but wasn't exactly sure of their number. With the abishais all slain, Dellios was able to assert control of the dread warriors, getting them lined back up in formation outside. "Well, this is just lovely," Dellios complained. "We're down to just thirteen. I don't know how we're going to be able to make up the difference." Mellistra looked appraisingly back over to Thurloe, but he cut her off with a pointed finger and a warning: "Don't even think about it, you crazy broad!" "This one's regenerating!" Xandro called from inside the keep, stabbing his longsword into the black abishai to give her more to have to fix up in her battered body. "Anybody know how to get them to stay dead?" "You brought them forth," Dellios pointed out to his wife. "I know, [I]I know![/I]" replied Mellistra. Then she listed off what would prevent them from regenerating: "Holy water. [I]Holy[/I] weapons. [I]Blessed[/I] weapons. I think that's about it." Dellios turned to the five heroes. "I don't suppose any of you has any holy water?" he asked. "Not on me," Wakuren answered. "I could create some, but I don't have the spell ready at hand - it would take me until tomorrow to cast it." "Same here," added Alewyth. "Well, you're not staying here until tomorrow," announced Mellistra. "I want you five out of here, pronto." "Works for me, you damned loony," Thurloe snarled. "C'mon guys, we'll let them figure it out." "But what about those undead monstrosities?" asked Zander, who had by this time collected his [I]jade cooshee[/I] and dragged the white abishai's body outside with the other two. The dread warriors continued attacking the regenerating corpses as a stop-gap measure, long enough for someone to head back into the city and purchase enough vials of holy water to completely douse the three abishais, ensuring they stayed dead. "Not our problem," answered Thurloe. "Perhaps this situation will convince the Duke putting together a platoon of undead soldiers is not ideal," suggested Wakuren. "I'd like to take them all out, but I also don't want the Duke's forces hunting us down for, like it or not, breaking the law." "What about the three you killed already?" demanded Mellistra. "You owe us for them, at least. I don't see why we can't have just the one of you to help make up the difference!" "I hear any more talk about me joining their ranks and you're gonna have to start doing some regenerating yourself, lady!" warned Thurloe. "Enough," interjected Dellios, starting to wish he'd never been awakened from his dream. "Mellistra, go into town and pick up some holy water. I'll stay here and oversee the situation until your return. As for the five of you, thank you for your assistance, but I think it would be best of you were on your way." "Suits me fine," snarled Thurloe, walking over to the front gate. "Hey, Wakuren, give me a hand with this, would you?" Together, they lifted the bar away from the gate and swung the heavy wooden doors open. "Why do [I]I[/I] have to go get the holy water?" Mellistra groused to her husband. "Because [I]you[/I] were the one who brought those devils into this situation!" answered Dellios. "Only because [I]you[/I] were sleeping when you were supposed to be animating the bodies!" "Well, it's not like I [I]chose[/I] to get stuck in my nightmare, now, was it? And you don't know how bad that nightmare was! Sheer torment, let me tell you!" Thurloe couldn't let that one pass. "He was playing chess!" he called over to Mellistra. "Oh, chess, was it? So while [I]you[/I] were off playing a [I]game, I[/I] was stuck dealing with the Duke wondering why we were so far behind schedule!" Thurloe and Wakuren pulled the doors to the gate shut behind them. They had no way to put the bar back in place, but that wasn't their immediate concern. Instead, they remounted their riding mounts and Wakuren climbed into the wagon, grabbing up the reins of their two mules. "Was that absolutely necessary?" chided Alewyth. "Necessary? No," admitted Thurloe. "But fun? Yes. I hope they both enjoy their marital bliss." As they continued on down the road, Dellios and Mellistra's argument eventually faded from earshot behind them. - - - This adventure took us about three and a half hours to run through, after which time I handed out the players' upgrade checklists, because everyone advanced to 7th level. Harry decided to add a second level of rogue to Xandro, Logan gave Wakuren a 4th level of paladin, and Dan started Thurloe off with his first level in the spellsword prestige class; Alewyth and Zander are continuing on as our only single-class PCs. But each of their signature items got a power-up as well - the moogles have set up a communication station in the Dreamlands, and now besides their own individual moogle guides, there will be a moogle assigned to the communication station at all times, through which messages can be passed through the dreamstones in the PCs' signature items to the moogle on duty. In this way, the PCs can ask questions of the moogles, pass on messages to the Queen of Dreams, and receive answers without having to go to all the trouble of one of them falling asleep and visiting the Dreamlands "in person," as it were. I also added something extra to Logan's upgrade checklist. For no apparent reason, Wakuren just gained an inherent +2 bonus to his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores. His initial thought was this might have been some sort of atunement bonus from wielding both the [I]shield of Cal[/I] and the [I]gauntlet of Cal[/I]. We'll have to wait to see if he's right. - - - T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" T-shirt, given the nature of the dread warriors. [/QUOTE]
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