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Dreams of Erthe
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8811670" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 37: THE BLOOD DIAMOND</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 4/paladin 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 8</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 22 October 2022</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Once again back in the dwarven mining city of Agatesgate, the five heroes paid Streggin Cavedelver for his services and went off to find Scarlie Besker. He was in the inn where they'd rented a room for him, enjoying a dwarven ale. "Hey, you're back!" he said, finishing up his drink. "We ready to move on to the next village?"</p><p></p><p>"Not quite," replied Alewyth. "We need to head back to Basutra."</p><p></p><p>"Back? Why? Somebody else fall asleep there and get stuck in their dreams?"</p><p></p><p>"No, but there's a shrine of Delphyne there and we can use it to teleport back to Baron's Haven, where we have some business there that will likely take a couple of days at the very least. But I'm afraid we can't take the wagon or animals with us, so we'll need you to stay behind with them again in Basutra."</p><p></p><p>"Hey, if they got ale in Basutra, I'll be fine holing up there for as long as you need." Alewyth frowned at the half-orc's obvious addiction to alcoholic beverages, but she loosened up when they went to the stables to retrieve their wagon and animals and she saw he'd taken good care of Pyrite and the horses and mules. Saddling up, they turned about and headed back the way they had come, returning to Basutra, the city where they'd had the run-in with the werewasp. Thurloe spent the day in the back of the wagon, poring over the various spellbooks he'd acquired from the evil wizards they'd fought over his short adventuring career, trying to make sense of them. By the time they hit Basutra two days later, he had the grasp of a new summoning spell which would allow him to draw forth a creature from another entire plane of existence to serve him for a brief period of time. He'd seen Wakuren and Alewyth summon celestial bison and the half-orc had even figured out some way to bring forth a hippogriff made up of elemental winds; Thurloe was eager to be able to wield such magic himself.</p><p></p><p>Once they got the animals stabled and Scarlie tucked away into a comfortable inn (where he immediately went to the bar and ordered the first of no doubt many beers), the five made their way to the shrine to Delphyne, Goddess of Magic. Opening the hidden door behind the statue of the goddess, they flipped through the pages of the book attached to a podium until they found the one showing the statue of Delphyne in her shrine in Baron's Haven. Below the drawing were the following letters:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Fortunately, they already knew the trick to this particular passphrase. Starting with the "B" in the top left corner and "bouncing" up and down from left to right until hitting the end and returning back the other way, the group found the passphrase. Alewyth said aloud, "Baron's Haven ley one eight" and the five of them disappeared, stepping out into the Temple of Delphyne in Baron's Haven.</p><p></p><p>"Now remember, they don't allow public spellcasting here," Zander told the others.</p><p></p><p>"You already reminded us," Thurloe groused. "That's why I'm wearing my breastplate instead of relying upon a <em>mage armor</em> spell I won't be allowed to cast." Despite having been initially trained to fight with his bastard sword while wearing armor, since learning the spellsword arts he'd gone without, as the armor sometimes made it more difficult to cast spells. But he figured here in this backwards city he wouldn't be casting any spells in any case - he didn't want to get hauled before the magistrate again and sentenced to clearing out rubble from collapsed wizards' towers or anything. Once had been enough of that!</p><p></p><p>"But we're forgetting something else," Xandro pointed out. "We're wanted criminals here, remember? Apparently the Baron was none too pleased about us killing a bunch of his undead soldiers."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, yeah," Alewyth recalled.</p><p></p><p>"We should be fine," Thurloe scoffed. "As long as we stay out of sight of the hobgoblin guards the Baron sent after us, it seems like the local human population was quite okay with us taking down a bunch of undead abominations. Remember that 'warning' we got from those human guards as we were leaving town?"</p><p></p><p>"All the same, I stand out like a sore thumb," replied Wakuren - as indeed he did, being no doubt the only half-orc in the whole city (if not the continent) parading around in the armor and tabard of a cleric-paladin of Cal, God of the Air and of Healing. Activating his <em>ring of invisibility</em>, he disappeared from view. "The four of you blend in a lot better without me," he told the others.</p><p></p><p>"And you know, you look a lot better this way!" joked Thurloe. As the half-orc was invisible, the spellsword was unable to see the momentary look of fury crossing Wakuren's unseen face before he was able to master his anger.</p><p></p><p>They recalled the location of Iriadorrista's shop, for the elven gemcutter had done the carving on the smaller dreamstones they'd each had incorporated into their primary items: Thurloe's bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em>; Alewyth's dwarven warhammer <em>Sjondra</em>; Zander Quilson's <em>jade cooshee</em>; Wakuren's <em>shield of Cal</em>; and Xandro's <em>Dardolian lute</em>. But Iriadorrista apparently remembered them just as well, for her face broke into a welcoming smile when she saw them enter her shop. "You're back!" she said. "But there's one less of you!"</p><p></p><p>"I'm right here," Wakuren said, dismissing his <em>invisibility</em> and finding himself inordinately pleased that the good-looking elf maiden had recognized his absence. Alewyth removed the <em>Haggoth's handy haversack</em> from her back and pulled out the three dreamstones they'd rescued from the kobold warren. Thurloe also retrieved the drawings he'd made while sound asleep, his body on the Mortal Plane mirroring the actions he took in the Dreamlands under the supervision of the Queen of Dreams herself. The parchment drawing showed how the three rough dreamstone chunks were to be sliced into five roughly petal shapes, and the runes to be carved into each. Iriadorrista took them into a side room where she often consulted with clients and looked over the drawings and the three chunks of dreamstone. "I can do this, sure," she agreed. "They'll be ready the day after tomorrow, if that works for you."</p><p></p><p>"That will be fine," Wakuren replied, giving the elf his best smile - one where his lips covered the slight tusks growing up from his lower jaw, which often caused others a bit of fright.</p><p></p><p>"In return, I wonder if you might be willing to do me a little favor," Iriadorrista asked. She then explained an issue she had with a recent customer. "This man came in yesterday with a blood diamond," she said. "He asked me to carve a rune into it, we agreed upon a price, and I told him it would be done today by noon. However, after I closed the shop yesterday and went to begin work on his gemstone, the very touch of it made me feel...uncomfortable. It was as if...as if the thing were emanating a palpable sense of evil. I know that sounds silly...."</p><p></p><p>"Not at all," reassured Wakuren.</p><p></p><p>"In any case, I decided I wouldn't be doing the work after all. He should be here in the next half hour or so, and while I have <strong>Hal</strong> here for security" - here she indicated the human security guard who stood in the front corner of the shop to deter theft - "I wouldn't mind it at all if there were five seasoned adventurers like yourselves on hand when I tell the wizard I won't be doing his job like I had said."</p><p></p><p>"We'd be happy to help," Wakuren replied on behalf of the entire group, his chest puffed out at having been described as a "seasoned adventurer" - he certainly liked the sound of that! "May we see this blood diamond?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"Certainly," Iriadorrista answered, nipping off to the back room where she did the actual gemcutting and returning with a small, wooden box. She opened it up, revealing a red diamond the size of a thumbnail. "This is what he wanted carved onto it," she added, holing out a sheet of folded parchment.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe grabbed up the sheet, opened it, and grunted. "This rune - it means 'life eternal,'" he told the others. "Wizard dude's probably got plans to turn himself into a lich, and this, no doubt, is to be his phylactery."</p><p></p><p>"It's evil," Wakuren said, having actually winced at the level of evil emanating from the red gem.</p><p></p><p>"Do you have any other red diamonds you could swap with this one?" Zander asked.</p><p></p><p>Iriadorrista shook her head. "Blood diamonds are very rare," she explained. "I have diamonds this size, but they aren't red like this one. And I have red gemstones, but they aren't diamonds. I'm afraid if we tried exchanging this for another, he'll see right through the attempt."</p><p></p><p>"If he's somehow infused this with evil, he'll know any fake we give him isn't the same gemstone," Wakuren agreed. "You said he'll be here soon?" The gemcutter agreed, then further agreed to allow the five heroes to use the conference room off to the side of the shop to make their preparations. In the meantime, she had her salesgirl, a young elf named <strong>Kiirinarra</strong>, help her bring the dreamstones into the workshop through the door behind the sales counter.</p><p></p><p>Inside the conference room, with the door closed, the heroes made their "preparations" all right - but they consisted of spellcasting they didn't want either of the elven women to see them perform; better they have plausible deniability if the heroes were accused of illegal spellcasting within the city limits. But once they had all cast the spells they wanted in place, Wakuren opened the door again so they could see the sales counter. Iriadorrista and Kiirinarra took their places and waited the customer's return.</p><p></p><p>They didn't have long to wait. No more than five minutes later, a bald man with a dark moustache and goatee walked boldly into the shop, heading directly to the counter. He didn't even bother glancing over at Hal, the human guard, nor did he look over at the conference room where the five heroes stood, ready for trouble. "Do you have my blood diamond?" he demanded, reaching down for a coin purse at his belt.</p><p></p><p>"I have it right here," Iriadorrista replied, taking the wooden box from the shelf behind the counter and placing it within reach, along with the folded parchment. "But I'm afraid I will not be able to perform the work we had discussed."</p><p></p><p>"What? Why ever not?" demanded <strong>Corbin Mallaxus</strong>, his dark eyebrows furrowed in anger.</p><p></p><p>"It doesn't matter why not," replied Wakuren, stepping forward. "The lady will not be preparing your phylactery for you. And I would like to discuss your intentions as they might pertain to lichdom." A quick perusal of the man's aura confirmed to the half-orc he was every bit as evil as the blood diamond he had brought to the shop.</p><p></p><p>"My intentions are none of your business!" retorted Corbin, snatching up his wooden box and his parchment. He didn't even bother opening the box to ensure his blood diamond was in there; he either trusted the shopkeeper wouldn't have tried anything or had some way to sense its presence unseen. But the other four heroes stepped out of the conference room, hands on weapons. Corbin, apparently not liking the five-to-one odds (six-to-one if you counted Hal), turned back to face Iriadorrista. "I shall have to take my business to a more reputable gemcutter, I see!" he snorted in disgust, then turned on his heels and made to depart the store. Wakuren placed a hand on the wizard's shoulder but it was brushed away.</p><p></p><p>"Quick - inside the lamp!" demanded Wakuren, placing it on the floor. As the others touched the lamp and said "eintret," they were immediately shunted into the extradimensional interior of the living quarters originally crafted by the night hag Hesperna. Then Wakuren scooped up the lamp and, activating his <em>ring of invisibility</em>, faded from view. He stepped outside the gem shop just in time to see Corbin Mallaxus turn the corner into an alleyway. But by the time Wakuren had run to the corner, the wizard was gone - no doubt having followed their own course of action and cast a spell within the city limits once in a place he wouldn't be seen doing so. Wakuren couldn't be sure of what spell had been cast - <em>teleport</em>? <em>dimension door</em>? - but whatever it was, there was no way to follow Corbin Mallaxus now. Wakuren set down the lamp, deactivated his ring, and entered the lamp to tell the others they could come out now and that Mallaxus had eluded the half-orc.</p><p></p><p>Returning to Iriadorrista's shop, they reported what had happened and suggested she send word to the other gemcutters in the city about Mallaxus and his evil blood diamond. "Good idea: I'll write up some quick notes and have them delivered by messenger," she promised. Then, with two days to kill, the heroes made their way back to the Merry Minstrel Inn, where they'd stayed the last time they were in town. Xandro was friends with the owner, Jorbalee Bennicut, and she was more than happy to get him a single room (as they'd all really be staying inside the lamp's extradimensional interior) and hire his services as the evening's entertainment. They found out Tommy, the orphan they'd rescued from his uncle and put into Jorbalee's care, was doing fine in his new circumstances. "He's been a bit help," Jorbalee assured them.</p><p></p><p>At their request, Jorbalee opened the small room in which she'd placed the famed bard Carmen Melodius, one of the three dreamers the five dreamwalkers had thus far been unable to awaken. She was still asleep, the leather headband they'd put around her temple to keep the dreamstone in place on her forehead exactly as they'd placed it. "Shall we give it another shot?" asked Alewyth. "It's been a month or so since we last tried."</p><p></p><p>"Worth a shot, I suppose," admitted Thurloe, and the five took their places around Carmen's bed, sitting in a circle and slowing their breathing, each wearing a dreamstone on their own brow. Within moments, they were all asleep and back in the Dreamlands.</p><p></p><p>"Good luck, kupo!" said Mogo after his dreamwalker students told him what they wanted to do. But while they had indeed grown a bit in power since the last time they had entered Carmen's ongoing dream, the end result was still the same: the giant ape made quick work of them, tearing their dream-bodies apart with his bare hands and his massive teeth, causing them to be forced awake. After two further attempts, they gave it up. "Still got a way to go, I guess," sighed Zander.</p><p></p><p>"We should try to find out what we can about that bald wizard," Alewyth suggested. "I don't like the idea of him becoming a lich." At her prompting, they asked around if anybody knew the wizard and eventually Xandro hit pay dirt, not only finding out the wizard's name but the address where he lived. It was in the better part of town, among the more well-to-do. "Let's go check it out!" the bard enthused. Wakuren once again faded from view as they walked the streets of Baron's Haven into the more respectable part of the city. And they did find the Mallaxus estate: it was rather hard to miss, for the ten-foot-tall hedges flanking his property were distinctive enough to call attention to it. There was but a single entrance: a pair of tall, thick gates that bore the Mallaxus family crest. But trying to peek through the thick hedges was problematic, giving only the barest view of what seemed to be a single-story structure in the middle of the property. "I kind of expected a tall, wizard's tower," Alewyth admitted.</p><p></p><p>"Guy likes his privacy," Thurloe grunted.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go check it out," Wakuren said from behind them. Hesperna's lamp suddenly appeared on the street beside them, the invisible half-orc having placed it there and stepped away. "I have a <em>gaseous form</em> spell that will get me over the hedges," he said. "We can take a peek through his house, see what all he's up to. If he's planning lichdom, he's probably up to something no good."</p><p></p><p>"That's technically illegal," Zander pointed out. "We don't have any authorization to go sneaking into his house."</p><p></p><p>"We're already technically outlaws here," Xandro replied. The bard touched the lamp and, saying the command word, disappeared inside. Sighing, the elf followed suit, with Alewyth and Thurloe right behind him. When all four of them were inside, Xandro added, "The bad thing about this type of plan is we have no way of seeing what's going on outside while Wakuren goes exploring."</p><p></p><p>"We could stay behind," Alewyth pointed out, "but then if he runs into any trouble we wouldn't be there to come to his aid."</p><p></p><p>"But we wouldn't even know to come to his aid in the first place," argued Xandro. "That's the whole problem with this setup."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren, however, saw no problem with his plan. Casting his spell right there on the street (while invisible, so he was fairly certain he wouldn't get caught), he - and the lamp he held in his hands - turned to a vaporous gas and wafted over the thick hedges flanking Corbin Mallaxus's property. As he lowered his elevation onto the grounds surrounding the little dwelling, Wakuren saw the wizard employed a set of guards. This pair stood motionlessly, one on either side of the house. Curious, the gaseous half-orc altered his path to get a close-up look at one of them.</p><p></p><p>At first, Wakuren thought he was dealing with a mummy, for the figure was wrapped head to toe in linen bandages. But as he got closer, he saw not only flesh beneath the bandages that showed an unhealthy coloration, but a great deal of stitches holding the skin together. The fact the "mummy" gave off no aura of evil whatsoever led Wakuren to the belief he was looking not at an undead mummy but a bandage-wrapped flesh golem. Both were made of reanimated flesh, but a flesh golem was given life by an elemental spirit rather than that of the person who had once worn that dead flesh. In any case, Wakuren had no desire to deal with the flesh golem guardians and instead made a full circuit around the house, finding only a front door and another to the side - no windows at all in his house; that was a bit suspicious! Given the building was a single structure flanked on all sides by 10-foot-tall hedges, it certainly seemed as if Corbin Mallaxus didn't want any neighbors seeing what he was up to.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren sent his vaporous form gliding underneath the front door, glad to see it wasn't airtight. Looking about, he saw he was in a main room lit by <em>everburning torches</em>, which made sense given the wizard's human visual limitations and the lack of natural light brought about by the total lack of windows. There was an open doorway to a kitchen to the left and beyond that a dining area; Wakuren checked them both out but they were empty. Retracing his path, he flowed underneath another door, this time finding himself in a simple bedroom. The bedroom was austere, with a single bed trunk, and a garderobe along one wall; the half-orc was glad the <em>gaseous form</em> spell prevented him from being able to smell, for he doubted the bedroom smelled very nice while connected to a latrine pit. There was another door at the northeastern corner of the room, which if Wakuren was picturing things correctly, lined up rather nicely with the side door, attached to a short projection along the eastern side of the building he suspected led to a stairwell leading down to a lower level. Instinctively sensing for evil, he was surprised when he got a strong reading coming from the other side of the door, this one just as strong as the auras from Corbin Mallaxus and his blood diamond.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren backtracked the way he had come, exiting the dwelling by flowing out underneath the front door and floating around to the side door. He got the same reading from this door and idly wondered if there was some sort of trap in place. If so, there was only one way to find out: flowing underneath the door, Wakuren got his answer, for standing there at the top of the stairs was a thin-bodied creature with large, batlike ears and a pair of wings equally suited to a bat, although this being had a separate pair of humanoid arms ending in clawed fingers. Wakuren couldn't recall if this was an imp or a quasit; then, noting the creature's greenish-gray coloration (and vaguely recalling imps as having red skin), he settled into the assumption (for now) that this was a quasit, and Corbin's familiar. He'd have to check with Thurloe to find out for sure; the spellsword studied such things.</p><p></p><p>Then Wakuren noted something he should have paid attention to right away: the quasit, or whatever it was, seemed to be staring right at him with a quizzical expression on its face. Could it see him, even though he was fully invisible and under the effects of a <em>gaseous form</em> spell? Experimentally, Wakuren shifted to the left and then to the right; the homunculus followed his every move. Well, that answered that, then - although there wasn't much Wakuren could do about it. Wordlessly, he allowed himself to float down the stairs to the lower level, the homunculus following behind inquisitively.</p><p></p><p>The room at the bottom of the steps was a library, complete with a small desk containing a book bound in black leather. There were two closed doors leading into other rooms; heading south, Wakuren slid his vaporous body beneath the door and found himself in a workroom of sorts, with several tables containing various projects in different states of completion. There was a skeleton standing in an open doorway, wearing what at first Wakuren took to be a purple feather boa - but then he realized they were three separate sections of intestine-like appendages, one along each forearm and another coiled up in the skeleton's ribcage. <em>A mohrg</em>, the half-orc realized, and turned back to exit the room the way he'd come - only to find the door now wide open and the homunculus hovering in the air, watching him.</p><p></p><p>Returning to the library, Wakuren slid beneath the other closed door, only to have the homunculus open it behind him and follow. This room was just as sinister despite being empty, for there were three empty cells along the north wall, each containing a wooden bench and an old bucket. Despite there not being any prisoners stored here at present, Wakuren could only imagine this was where Mallaxus kept the "components" for his flesh golems outside before they were slain and experimented upon.</p><p></p><p>There was another door from the room of cells, this one leading to an operating room of sorts where Wakuren imagined the flesh golems had been crafted, if the dried bloodstains on the central table and the row of surgical implements on the smaller table against the south wall were any indication. There was but one more door from this room - besides an open doorway leading to the workshop, for Wakuren could see the mohrg's bony back standing at the end of it - and it proved to be an empty room of a much notably lower temperature: a cold storage room for corpses, no doubt. Again, the current lack of dead bodies didn't give the half-orc any feelings of relief, for he was certain the room had been put to use before and would be again.</p><p></p><p>Since that seemed to be the entirety of the lower level, Wakuren retraced his path back to the stairwell and started rising up it - only to see the homunculus following his every move. This, he realized, was going to be problematic, for the little creature's wings allowed it to fly at a much faster speed than he could manage while in <em>gaseous form</em>. Still, there didn't seem to be much Wakuren could do about it at the moment, so he made his way outside, flew over the hedges, and landed on a back street behind the Mallaxus estate, where he dismissed the <em>gaseous form</em> spell and returned to solid - though still invisible - form.</p><p></p><p>But as soon as the half-orc had retained solid form, the homunculus moved in to attack, snapping at him with its wicked teeth. He dodged the blow and instinctively returned the attack with a swipe of his shield, which had the effect of dismissing his <em>invisibility</em>. He at least had the satisfaction of having slammed the shield directly into the homunculus's body, but it staggered away, wings flapping rapidly in an attempt to gain an altitude higher than Wakuren could reach with his shield. Having attained such a safe height, the homunculus took a moment to taunt the intruder into his master's house. "You're dead, half-orc!" he said. "You hear me? You're dead!" It grinned evilly at the thought of what Corbin Mallaxus would do to someone who had blatantly invaded his home, especially when the homunculus was able to give him such a good description of what Wakuren looked like. But Wakuren wasn't particularly concerned, for the vile creature couldn't report back if it were already dead. Raising his right hand, upon which he wore the <em>gauntlet of Cal</em>, he summoned a <em>javelin of lightning</em> into his hand and sent it flying up at the winged beast. The homunculus squawked in pain and outrage as the <em>lightning bolt</em> struck true, then turned and flew back to his master's home as quickly as it could. Wakuren growled in irritation when he realized he wouldn't have the opportunity for a second such attack, for the wizard's familiar was already over the hedge and out of view.</p><p></p><p>Grumbling to himself, Wakuren entered the lamp and briefed the others on what he'd seen. From the description he gave of the familiar, Thurloe was able to state confidently that was likely a homunculus Wakuren had fought, and almost certainly Corbin's familiar.</p><p></p><p>"But now what?" asked Alewyth. "Can we report this to the guards?"</p><p></p><p>"Not without admitting that Wakuren cast a <em>gaseous form</em> spell upon himself and then trespassed into a citizen's home," Thurloe pointed out. "That won't get Mallaxus in trouble so much as us. Face it: there's not a lot we can do about this. Hopefully Iriadorrista's messages made sure any other local gemcutters won't be carving up that blood diamond of his into a phylactery any time soon." They returned to the Merry Minstrel Inn, where they enjoyed a hearty dinner and listened to Xandro's performance on the <em>Dardolian lute</em> before calling it a night. Thurloe opted to stay in the inn's room for the night, with the lamp beneath the bed and the others safely inside its extradimensional spaces. Wakuren, for one, wanted the extra protection being on an entirely different plane of existence would afford him, knowing the homunculus would report back his intrusion into Corbin's house.</p><p></p><p>But the night passed without incident, and the next morning the five heroes ate breakfast in the inn, Tommy proudly bringing a basket of breakfast rolls to their table. However, once they had completed their meal, they were at a loss as to what to do with the day - for the dreamstones wouldn't be finished until the following day, as per Iriadorrista's announced schedule. Still, they decided to swing by her shop to see how progress was going on their project.</p><p></p><p>Kiirinarra was there at the shop, as was Hal, but the clerk was nervously wringing her hands. She breathed a big sigh of relief when the five heroes stepped into the shop, and she raced from behind the counter to fill them in. "Iriadorrista's missing!" she blurted out. "She's normally here to open the shop, but it was still locked up when I got in, but I have a key so I opened it myself, but there's no answer at Iriadorrista's door, and that man came back at the end of the day yesterday--"</p><p></p><p>"Hold on - slow down!" commanded Thurloe. "What man? The bald wizard, Mallaxus?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, him!" replied Kiirinarra. "He showed back up at the end of the day, right before we were about to close up for the night. He had a wooden box with him - a bigger one, not the one he kept the blood diamond in - and he opened it to show Iriadorrista what was in it, and then she went all white and grabbed up her tools from the back room and went off with him. And we haven't seen her since!"</p><p></p><p>"What would have been in the box?" queried Zander.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren had an idea. "It could easily have been the finger of someone she cares about," he theorized. "I could see him threatening her family with further harm if she didn't cooperate." He turned to the elven shop clerk. "Does Iriadorrista have any family living here in the city?"</p><p></p><p>"Her mother, yes." Kiirinarra told them the street she lived on, but she was unsure of her exact address. Wakuren was ready to go racing off to see the gemcutter's mother at once, but before he could do so Xandro asked a few pertinent questions. "You say Iriadorrista is normally here first thing in the morning," he told the elven clerk. "So she lives nearby?" Kiirinarra pointed to a door from the workshop. "The other half of the building is her apartment," she explained. The door was locked, but Kiirinarra said under the circumstances she was sure her boss would have no problems with the bard picking the lock to her living quarters. It took him less than a minute to get the lock open, and then they went through her quarters; as expected, they were empty, her bed still made and obviously not having been slept in.</p><p></p><p>"The bastard kidnapped her," Alewyth muttered.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," Xandro said, leading the group towards the Mallaxus estate. Fortunately, to get there they had to pass by the street where Iriadorrista's mother, <strong>Avaranella</strong>, lived. Xandro was able to ascertain her address by a couple of friendly questions of the people in the neighborhood; Wakuren did his part by remaining <em>invisible</em> so his half-orc countenance didn't scare off the locals.</p><p></p><p>Knocking on the door, Xandro called out, "Avaranella? Are you home? It's very important."</p><p></p><p>"Go away," came a woman's fearful voice from the other side of the door.</p><p></p><p>"It's about your daughter, Iriadorrista. We think someone's taken her, and we're on our way to go get her back. But we wanted to make sure you're okay. Did anyone come by yesterday evening, making threats?"</p><p></p><p>There was the sound of locks being undone on the other side of the door, and then it opened and in the doorway stood the gemcutter's mother. "He did more than make threats," Avaranella replied, holding forth the bandaged stump where her right hand had been. "But you say Iri's been kidnapped? By that horrible man?"</p><p></p><p>"We're going to get her back," Alewyth promised.</p><p></p><p>"He said if I said anything, he'd be back to kill me," the elven woman said, shuddering. "But you already know...." She looked up at the four adventurers standing on her porch (as Wakuren was still invisible). "Please, if you can save her from that monster...."</p><p></p><p>"You close this door back up and keep it locked," Thurloe told the woman. "We'll be back with your daughter." And after hearing her lock the closed door back up, the group rushed over to the Mallaxus estate with all haste. "Same deal as yesterday," Thurloe told the others, once they were all inside the lamp, on the street behind the Mallaxus estate, where nobody would witness them casting spells within the city limits of Baron's Haven without the proper authorization. Alewyth cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon herself, following it up with a <em>magic vestment</em> spell on her armor and a <em>bless</em> spell on the group at large. Wakuren beefed himself up with more spells than he'd ever cast upon himself at one time before, with <em>owl's wisdom</em>, <em>bull's strength</em>, and <em>eagle's splendor</em> increasing his overall personal combat effectiveness, followed by <em>shield of faith</em> and <em>entropic shield</em> spells to make it harder for Corbin and his homunculus and mohrg allies to deal the half-orc any serious damage. Xandro even pitched in by casting a <em>heroism</em> spell on the cleric-paladin of Cal. Thurloe made do with a charge from his <em>wand of shield</em>, before passing it over to Zander so the elf sorcerer could do the same. Zander also cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself and a <em>haste</em> spell on the group. Then Wakuren activated his <em>ring of invisibility</em>, stepped on the platform in the center of the lamp's extradimensional space and said the command word, "aussteig" - which shunted him back outside by the physical lamp. Then he picked up the lamp and cast a <em>gaseous form</em> spell upon himself, once again taking on the substance of invisible fumes. He floated up and over the hedge and flowed around the house to slide beneath the front door.</p><p></p><p>However, having been alerted to the half-orc's previous intrusion the day before, Corbin Mallaxus had been able to make some preparations. As Wakuren's invisible, vaporous body seeped beneath the front door, his living life force activated an <em>alarm</em> spell that made a raucous racket that had to have instantly alerted Corbin of the intrusion. Wakuren flowed over to the dining room, assumed solid form, set down the lamp, and said the command word that shunted him back inside. "Triggered an <em>alarm</em> spell," he told the others. "No need to try sneaking around - he's got to know we're here."</p><p></p><p>Advancing up to the bedroom door, they found it locked - but it took Xandro longer to unpack his lockpicks than it did to overcome the simple lock in the door. The bedroom was empty, but by now Alewyth was impatient and eager to get downstairs where she was sure Iriadorrista was being held. She crossed the room and, finding the door to the stairs locked as she had expected, brought <em>Sjondra</em> crashing into the locked door, sundering it from its hinges. Xandro just shrugged and rolled his lockpicking tools back up into their bundle, then stowed them on his belt.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren, still invisible, crept down the stairs as quietly as his armor would allow. The homunculus was squatting on the table in the library, gathering up the black-leather-bound tome, when the half-orc slammed his shield into the familiar's head, channeling Cal's smiting power through it as it struck home. The homunculus dropped the book and reeled drunkenly in the air, trying to regain his equilibrium, when a <em>magic missile</em> spell from Zander from the bottom of the stairs slew it outright. It crashed to the library floor in an unliving heap. Two rooms away, Corbin Mallaxus swore quietly to himself as he felt the link to his familiar go dead. But he carried on, casting defensive spells upon himself in preparation for the fight to come.</p><p></p><p>Xandro, in the meantime, took the opportunity to send the point of his <em>frost short sword</em> into the skull of the homunculus, just to make sure it was truly dead. Satisfied, he then pulled the <em>Dardolian lute</em> from his back and began the initial chords to his song of inspirational courage. Thurloe brushed past him, bastard sword out and ready for action, and opened the door to the workroom. Sure enough, there was Iriadorrista sitting in a wooden chair, bent over the blood diamond with a loupe on one eye and her gemcutting instruments in hand. But that wasn't all of note in the workshop: besides the mohrg, which still stood in the doorway on guard duty, there was a right hand crawling about on its fingertips on top of a smaller table in the corner; Thurloe couldn't help but notice the severed hand was wearing a tiger's eye ring on one finger that gave it the appearance of some cyclopean overseer watching the gemcutter's work. But as Corbin didn't appear to be in the room, Thurloe moved over to the other door from the library, which he recalled led to the room with the three cells.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth stepped into the workshop, her holy symbol of Aerik held before her. As she sent a blast of positive energy through Aerik's icon (hoping to cause the mohrg to crumble away to dust or at least flee the scene; to the priestess's disappointment, it did neither), Alewyth couldn't help but notice the manacle around Iriadorrista's left ankle, from which was attached a length of heavy chain mounted to the stone floor beneath the table at which she sat. Judging from the chain's apparent length, it seemed she had the full range of the workshop but that was about it. But the elf looked up from her work at the Alewyth's approach, and a look of relief passed over her face.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren pocketed the black tome the homunculus was gathering up and stepped into the workshop behind Alewyth, casting a spell that summoned an air element hippogriff into being. It immediately attacked the mohrg, its front talons clawing their way across the skeletal being's skull. It retaliated at once, sending its clawed "tongue" shooting forth from its open jaws; the slimy appendage hit the hippogriff, but its paralytic secretions had no effect upon a creature whose body was composed of the swirling winds from the Elemental Plane of Air. Not liking its nearness to this elemental force, the crawling claw - animated the night before, using Avaranella's severed hand - skittered to the far side of the table upon which it crouched, and the air elemental hippogriff, seeing the motion, instinctively swatted at it with its right front talons. That was enough to slay the crawling claw in one blow; it fell to the floor, landing upside down and preventing Corbin Mallaxus from seeing anything if he tried <em>scrying</em> through the tiger's eye ring it wore, using the linked amulet around his neck.</p><p></p><p>Then Zander ran into the workshop, scooting the long way around the table at which Iriadorrista sat, until he had a good line of sight on the mohrg. Then he sent a <em>scorching ray</em> spell blasting across the room to hit the undead thing square on with one fiery stream. (The other one, unfortunately, missed completely.)</p><p></p><p>Anticipating imminent contact with the enemy, Corbin cast a summoning spell of his own and set a bearded devil immediately before the door linking the construct lab - in which he stood - to the room with the three cells. It was just in time, too, for Thurloe opened the door immediately after having cast a <em>mirror image</em> spell on himself. He was surprised to see a bearded devil standing before him in the doorway (and Corbin standing at the back of the room, behind the devil), while the fiend was just as surprised to see six identical spellswords facing him through the doorway. Overcoming his initial surprise, the devil stabbed forward with his glaive, but the Thurloes successfully dodged out of the way.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth pulled Iriadorrista away from the mohrg and the hippogriff, admonishing her to hold still as she brought <em>Sjondra</em> crashing down upon the chain by the elf's foot. Several links broke under the assault, and the gemcutter found herself free, a mere half-dozen links jangling from the manacle around her left foot. "Run!" Alewyth called to her, and Iriadorrista did as she was told, rushing out of the workshop and into the safety of the arcane library. "Don't leave the house, though!" Alewyth amended, not wanting the gemcutter to run afoul of the two flesh golems roaming around the necromancer's yard. Back in the workshop, the mohrg and the hippogriff traded blows, the elemental creature getting the better of the deal, for all of its attacks could harm the undead thing, whereas the mohrg's paralytic attacks were useless against the being born of winds.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the mohrg, trading a lower damage output (compared to a <em>scorching ray</em> spell like he'd tried using earlier) for a guaranteed successful strike. Corbin sidled over to the cooler chamber, casting another summoning spell before closing the door and cutting himself from view. But the yeth hound he'd summoned from the Fiendish Planes manifested behind the six Thurloes, snapping at the nearest with his teeth - and, surprisingly, missing entirely as the multiple images shifted back and forth in a rather confusing pattern. The bearded devil was having a similar problem stabbing out with his glaive and striking nothing but empty air.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, taking inspiration from Xandro's magical tune, activated his <em>torc of the titans</em> and brought his bastard sword swinging at the bearded devil with all he was worth. The blade hit the fiend in the side of the torso and went in deep, but not as deep as the spellsword would have expected; he's forgotten to take into account the devil's insanely thick skin, granting it a level of protection against mortal weapons that only silver or holy magic could overcome. Wakuren departed the workshop in search of Corbin and approached Thurloe from the library, hitting the devil in the doorway with the side of his shield.</p><p></p><p>While the air element hippogriff and the mohrg each did their best to take the other out, Alewyth cast a <em>searing light</em> spell at the undead abomination. Unfortunately, due to their jostling about as they struggled to slay each other, the dwarf priestess missed with her spell. Zander took a chance and attempted another <em>scorching ray</em> spell, this time managing to hit the mohrg with both rays of flame.</p><p></p><p>Corbin, by this time, had come to an unfortunate conclusion: the odds were against him and it was in his best interests to escape the current combat in his house and restart his machinations elsewhere. He hated to give up his blood diamond, but he knew perfectly well the ritual to infuse a diamond with the slain souls of tortured captives; another blood diamond could easily be crafted in the days to come. But with his familiar dead, the necromancer needed the black tome the homunculus had been sent to fetch for his master, for it had the intricate ceremonies and rituals needed to ensure the successful transformation into an undying lich. Corbin need only fetch the tome before he could use the <em>scroll of teleport</em> he held in his left hand to ensure his successful getaway from these meddling heroes. And he knew exactly where the tome had been left: on the table in the library, and hopefully the others would be too busy fighting off his allies for them to notice his sudden appearance in the arcane library before he would be on his way to safety.</p><p></p><p>With these thoughts in mind, Corbin Mallaxus said the words to a <em>dimension door</em> spell and appeared standing next to the table in his library - where he saw, to his horror, the black tome was missing! Who had taken it? He looked on the floor by the body of his slain homunculus, hoping the loyal familiar might have dropped it at his side in his death, but no, it wasn't there either! Fury rose in the necromancer: who had dared to take what he needed to ascend to lichdom?</p><p></p><p>Iriadorrista screamed at the necromancer's sudden appearance by her side. She fled to the stairs, while Xandro was surprised to see he was now merely steps away from the foul wizard who'd cut off Iriadorrista's mother's hand just to force the gemcutter to do his bidding. "Guys!" he called out, breaking the flow of his song. "He's here in the library - come quick!" But then he thrust at the necromancer with his <em>frost short sword</em>, the blade cutting into Corbin's side and eliciting a yelp of surprise and pain.</p><p></p><p>The bearded devil, tired of being the target for Thurloe's blade, decided to <em>teleport</em> behind all five of the <em>mirror images</em> and the real thing, for he was having a difficult time sorting them out and had thus far been unable to land his glaive into any of them. However, Wakuren slammed his shield sideways into the fiend's throat right as he was about to begin his <em>teleport</em> maneuver, and as a result when he did pop behind the foes facing him in the doorway, it was only to collapse onto the floor with a crushed throat. Beside the bearded devil, the yeth hound snapped at one of the <em>mirror images</em>, but all six of the apparent Thurloes had by this time spun about to face the fiendish threats, and the hound's jaws snapped closed on empty air once again. But the real spellsword's blade came crashing down upon the yeth hound's back, cutting deep and pulling back before the confused creature could recall which of the six identical <em>Spellslicer</em> blades had been the real one.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth swung <em>Sjondra</em> into the side of the mohrg, who thus far had been gradually whittled away by the attacks from the air element hippogriff and Zander's spells. The undead thing's bones were cracked in several locations, and the dwarf got the feeling it wouldn't be long before they had brought about its destruction. And indeed, after it struck at the hippogriff and the hippogriff returned the favor, Zander brought the mohrg down with a final <em>magic missile</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren left the yeth hound to Thurloe and his <em>mirror images</em> and ran over to aid Xandro in the library. As Corbin was standing behind the table, the half orc leaped up upon it and from that vantage point brought his shield slamming down upon the necromancer with all of his considerable strength. Corbin staggered away sidewise, somewhat dazed, which gave Wakuren the opportunity to leap down from the tabletop and bring his shield crashing sideways into the evil wizard's side. But Mallaxus wasn't out of the fight yet: frantically scrabbling backwards a step or two to get out of the reach of Wakuren's shield, he cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell directly into the half-orc's face, the initial burst of electricity sending another arc flashing over to strike Xandro as well. The bard stepped back after the blast, sheathing his blade and returning to his song of inspirational courage on his lute. Let those more geared toward melee combat deal with such things!</p><p></p><p>The yeth hound snapped at another <em>mirror image</em> and once again missed. Thurloe, however, did not miss with his blade, and another deep gash opened up on the fiendish hound's body. It voiced a cry of pain that sounded surprisingly human.</p><p></p><p>But with the mohrg taken care of, Alewyth was now free to join the fight against Corbin Mallaxus. Returning to the library, she cast a <em>hold person</em> spell on the necromancer and was pleased to see him unable to shake it off. His body froze, his fingers up and in the midst of some sort of spellcasting, and Wakuren broke into a rather evil grin once he saw Corbin was - temporarily at least - out of the fight. Grabbing the back of the wizard's bald head, the half-orc spun him around and sent his face full-force into the side of the stone stairs leading up to the ground level of his home. He heard the sound of Corbin's nose breaking and a gush of blood poured from his wounded face, but Wakuren refused to release his grip. Instead, he pulled Corbin's head back (at which point a cluster of <em>magic missiles</em> came streaking in from the doorway to the workshop, courtesy of Zander), and then - just as he could feel Corbin begin to shrug off the effects of the <em>hold person</em> spell, sent his face crashing once again into solid stone.</p><p></p><p>One room over, the yeth hound made a final ineffectual bite at a random Thurloe before the real one cut his spine in two with his bastard sword. With a final howl of despair, the yeth hound vanished, returning to the foul plane from which he had been summoned. Over by the stairs, Alewyth shielded Iriadorrista with her own stocky body, not to keep her safe from harm but to prevent her from seeing the spectacle occurring in the arcane library, for Corbin was already quite dead but Wakuren, a look of fury blazing on his orcish features, continued pounding the wizard's face into the stone, again and again and again. By this time the necromancer didn't really have much of a face at all, merely a pulpy mess where his face used to be, and the red stain on the side of the stairs continued to grow with each slam. Finally, Thurloe put a stop to it by laying a hand on Wakuren's shoulder; the half-orc nearly responded by turning his fury upon the spellsword until he saw who it was and forcibly calmed himself down. He let Mallaxus's limp body fall to the floor when he released the back of his head.</p><p></p><p>The group then went about recovering what they could from the wizard's dwelling: the arcane scroll of <em>teleport</em> with which he'd planned on making his escape; the tiger's eye ring from Avaranella's severed and animated hand and the amulet from around Mallaxus's neck that had allowed him to scry through it; the contents of his arcane library (Thurloe had already discovered the necromancer's spellbooks and was flipping through them, seeing if there was anything there that caught his interest); and, of course, the blood diamond. Iriadorrista hadn't had time to finish the carving Corbin had forced her to begin and thus far it just held the rune for "life," without the corresponding "eternal" to go with it. Wakuren, now that his temporary rage had abated, offered up that the clerics at the local Temple of Cal could probably cleanse it of the evil with which it had been suffused, leaving behind a quite valuable gem. Iriadorrista agreed at once, vowing to use the money from the sale of the gem to pay to have her mother's severed hand regenerated, with the rest being paid to the five heroes as a reward for having saved her from Corbin Mallaxus. And she further vowed to accept no payment for the carving of the dreamstones.</p><p></p><p>"Are you sure?" asked Alewyth, not wanting to take advantage of the elf for having done something she considered to be part of her job.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe slapped the dwarf's thigh with the back of his hand. "Of course she's sure!" he hissed, amazed at the stupidity of someone turning down an offer of free services. And here he thought dwarves were supposed to have a good head for money!</p><p></p><p>Two days later, once the dreamstones had been finished up - the three rough chunks having been carved into a set of five petal-shaped pieces of roughly the same size and shape, each with arcane runes carved upon the upper faces - and carefully placed inside Alewyth's extradimensional haversack for safekeeping, the five heroes checked out of the Merry Minstrel Inn, said their goodbyes to Jorbalee and Tommy, and returned to the Shrine of Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>"I hope Scarlie's sober," commented Zander as Alewyth deciphered the code phrase to return them to Basutra. "I don't know how he manages to put away all the ale he drinks." Just then, a tendril extended from his forearm and the tiny eye at its tip pointed at the elf's face. <I've been focusing my attention on several other hosts in other worlds,> it admitted telepathically. <Has anything of interest happened on this world in the past several of your days?></p><p></p><p>"Nah," scoffed Zander to his extraplanar symbiote. "Just the same old boring stuff."</p><p></p><p><Figures!> scoffed the nibish-riule.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This was a fun adventure to run - and once again, the players' favorite plan of "Wakuren carrying everyone else inside the lamp while he flies around in <em>gaseous form</em> while invisible" went slightly astray when he couldn't shake the homunculus after rolling three natural 1s in a row when trying to be sneaky. (We joked that while in <em>gaseous form</em>, the only way he knew to move around must be by making fart noises - and especially loud ones when squeezing his vaporous body underneath doors.) However, I inadvertently helped them out a bit on that front, as if Wakuren's wearing the tiger's-eye ring while invisible and one of the other PCs wears the <em>amulet of scrying</em> while inside the lamp, they'll at least have some idea of what's going on in the outside world while he's carrying them around.</p><p></p><p>And there at the end, Logan came up with Wakuren's plan for taking out Corbin once and for all by announcing, "I Power Attack the stone wall with the necromancer's face!"</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: One of my two Red Cross T-shirts I got for donating blood, as it tied in nicely to the blood diamond Corbin tried to use as his phylactery.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8811670, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 37: THE BLOOD DIAMOND[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 8[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 4/paladin 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 8[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 22 October 2022 - - - Once again back in the dwarven mining city of Agatesgate, the five heroes paid Streggin Cavedelver for his services and went off to find Scarlie Besker. He was in the inn where they'd rented a room for him, enjoying a dwarven ale. "Hey, you're back!" he said, finishing up his drink. "We ready to move on to the next village?" "Not quite," replied Alewyth. "We need to head back to Basutra." "Back? Why? Somebody else fall asleep there and get stuck in their dreams?" "No, but there's a shrine of Delphyne there and we can use it to teleport back to Baron's Haven, where we have some business there that will likely take a couple of days at the very least. But I'm afraid we can't take the wagon or animals with us, so we'll need you to stay behind with them again in Basutra." "Hey, if they got ale in Basutra, I'll be fine holing up there for as long as you need." Alewyth frowned at the half-orc's obvious addiction to alcoholic beverages, but she loosened up when they went to the stables to retrieve their wagon and animals and she saw he'd taken good care of Pyrite and the horses and mules. Saddling up, they turned about and headed back the way they had come, returning to Basutra, the city where they'd had the run-in with the werewasp. Thurloe spent the day in the back of the wagon, poring over the various spellbooks he'd acquired from the evil wizards they'd fought over his short adventuring career, trying to make sense of them. By the time they hit Basutra two days later, he had the grasp of a new summoning spell which would allow him to draw forth a creature from another entire plane of existence to serve him for a brief period of time. He'd seen Wakuren and Alewyth summon celestial bison and the half-orc had even figured out some way to bring forth a hippogriff made up of elemental winds; Thurloe was eager to be able to wield such magic himself. Once they got the animals stabled and Scarlie tucked away into a comfortable inn (where he immediately went to the bar and ordered the first of no doubt many beers), the five made their way to the shrine to Delphyne, Goddess of Magic. Opening the hidden door behind the statue of the goddess, they flipped through the pages of the book attached to a podium until they found the one showing the statue of Delphyne in her shrine in Baron's Haven. Below the drawing were the following letters: Fortunately, they already knew the trick to this particular passphrase. Starting with the "B" in the top left corner and "bouncing" up and down from left to right until hitting the end and returning back the other way, the group found the passphrase. Alewyth said aloud, "Baron's Haven ley one eight" and the five of them disappeared, stepping out into the Temple of Delphyne in Baron's Haven. "Now remember, they don't allow public spellcasting here," Zander told the others. "You already reminded us," Thurloe groused. "That's why I'm wearing my breastplate instead of relying upon a [I]mage armor[/I] spell I won't be allowed to cast." Despite having been initially trained to fight with his bastard sword while wearing armor, since learning the spellsword arts he'd gone without, as the armor sometimes made it more difficult to cast spells. But he figured here in this backwards city he wouldn't be casting any spells in any case - he didn't want to get hauled before the magistrate again and sentenced to clearing out rubble from collapsed wizards' towers or anything. Once had been enough of that! "But we're forgetting something else," Xandro pointed out. "We're wanted criminals here, remember? Apparently the Baron was none too pleased about us killing a bunch of his undead soldiers." "Oh, yeah," Alewyth recalled. "We should be fine," Thurloe scoffed. "As long as we stay out of sight of the hobgoblin guards the Baron sent after us, it seems like the local human population was quite okay with us taking down a bunch of undead abominations. Remember that 'warning' we got from those human guards as we were leaving town?" "All the same, I stand out like a sore thumb," replied Wakuren - as indeed he did, being no doubt the only half-orc in the whole city (if not the continent) parading around in the armor and tabard of a cleric-paladin of Cal, God of the Air and of Healing. Activating his [I]ring of invisibility[/I], he disappeared from view. "The four of you blend in a lot better without me," he told the others. "And you know, you look a lot better this way!" joked Thurloe. As the half-orc was invisible, the spellsword was unable to see the momentary look of fury crossing Wakuren's unseen face before he was able to master his anger. They recalled the location of Iriadorrista's shop, for the elven gemcutter had done the carving on the smaller dreamstones they'd each had incorporated into their primary items: Thurloe's bastard sword [I]Spellslicer[/I]; Alewyth's dwarven warhammer [I]Sjondra[/I]; Zander Quilson's [I]jade cooshee[/I]; Wakuren's [I]shield of Cal[/I]; and Xandro's [I]Dardolian lute[/I]. But Iriadorrista apparently remembered them just as well, for her face broke into a welcoming smile when she saw them enter her shop. "You're back!" she said. "But there's one less of you!" "I'm right here," Wakuren said, dismissing his [I]invisibility[/I] and finding himself inordinately pleased that the good-looking elf maiden had recognized his absence. Alewyth removed the [I]Haggoth's handy haversack[/I] from her back and pulled out the three dreamstones they'd rescued from the kobold warren. Thurloe also retrieved the drawings he'd made while sound asleep, his body on the Mortal Plane mirroring the actions he took in the Dreamlands under the supervision of the Queen of Dreams herself. The parchment drawing showed how the three rough dreamstone chunks were to be sliced into five roughly petal shapes, and the runes to be carved into each. Iriadorrista took them into a side room where she often consulted with clients and looked over the drawings and the three chunks of dreamstone. "I can do this, sure," she agreed. "They'll be ready the day after tomorrow, if that works for you." "That will be fine," Wakuren replied, giving the elf his best smile - one where his lips covered the slight tusks growing up from his lower jaw, which often caused others a bit of fright. "In return, I wonder if you might be willing to do me a little favor," Iriadorrista asked. She then explained an issue she had with a recent customer. "This man came in yesterday with a blood diamond," she said. "He asked me to carve a rune into it, we agreed upon a price, and I told him it would be done today by noon. However, after I closed the shop yesterday and went to begin work on his gemstone, the very touch of it made me feel...uncomfortable. It was as if...as if the thing were emanating a palpable sense of evil. I know that sounds silly...." "Not at all," reassured Wakuren. "In any case, I decided I wouldn't be doing the work after all. He should be here in the next half hour or so, and while I have [B]Hal[/B] here for security" - here she indicated the human security guard who stood in the front corner of the shop to deter theft - "I wouldn't mind it at all if there were five seasoned adventurers like yourselves on hand when I tell the wizard I won't be doing his job like I had said." "We'd be happy to help," Wakuren replied on behalf of the entire group, his chest puffed out at having been described as a "seasoned adventurer" - he certainly liked the sound of that! "May we see this blood diamond?" he asked. "Certainly," Iriadorrista answered, nipping off to the back room where she did the actual gemcutting and returning with a small, wooden box. She opened it up, revealing a red diamond the size of a thumbnail. "This is what he wanted carved onto it," she added, holing out a sheet of folded parchment. Thurloe grabbed up the sheet, opened it, and grunted. "This rune - it means 'life eternal,'" he told the others. "Wizard dude's probably got plans to turn himself into a lich, and this, no doubt, is to be his phylactery." "It's evil," Wakuren said, having actually winced at the level of evil emanating from the red gem. "Do you have any other red diamonds you could swap with this one?" Zander asked. Iriadorrista shook her head. "Blood diamonds are very rare," she explained. "I have diamonds this size, but they aren't red like this one. And I have red gemstones, but they aren't diamonds. I'm afraid if we tried exchanging this for another, he'll see right through the attempt." "If he's somehow infused this with evil, he'll know any fake we give him isn't the same gemstone," Wakuren agreed. "You said he'll be here soon?" The gemcutter agreed, then further agreed to allow the five heroes to use the conference room off to the side of the shop to make their preparations. In the meantime, she had her salesgirl, a young elf named [B]Kiirinarra[/B], help her bring the dreamstones into the workshop through the door behind the sales counter. Inside the conference room, with the door closed, the heroes made their "preparations" all right - but they consisted of spellcasting they didn't want either of the elven women to see them perform; better they have plausible deniability if the heroes were accused of illegal spellcasting within the city limits. But once they had all cast the spells they wanted in place, Wakuren opened the door again so they could see the sales counter. Iriadorrista and Kiirinarra took their places and waited the customer's return. They didn't have long to wait. No more than five minutes later, a bald man with a dark moustache and goatee walked boldly into the shop, heading directly to the counter. He didn't even bother glancing over at Hal, the human guard, nor did he look over at the conference room where the five heroes stood, ready for trouble. "Do you have my blood diamond?" he demanded, reaching down for a coin purse at his belt. "I have it right here," Iriadorrista replied, taking the wooden box from the shelf behind the counter and placing it within reach, along with the folded parchment. "But I'm afraid I will not be able to perform the work we had discussed." "What? Why ever not?" demanded [B]Corbin Mallaxus[/B], his dark eyebrows furrowed in anger. "It doesn't matter why not," replied Wakuren, stepping forward. "The lady will not be preparing your phylactery for you. And I would like to discuss your intentions as they might pertain to lichdom." A quick perusal of the man's aura confirmed to the half-orc he was every bit as evil as the blood diamond he had brought to the shop. "My intentions are none of your business!" retorted Corbin, snatching up his wooden box and his parchment. He didn't even bother opening the box to ensure his blood diamond was in there; he either trusted the shopkeeper wouldn't have tried anything or had some way to sense its presence unseen. But the other four heroes stepped out of the conference room, hands on weapons. Corbin, apparently not liking the five-to-one odds (six-to-one if you counted Hal), turned back to face Iriadorrista. "I shall have to take my business to a more reputable gemcutter, I see!" he snorted in disgust, then turned on his heels and made to depart the store. Wakuren placed a hand on the wizard's shoulder but it was brushed away. "Quick - inside the lamp!" demanded Wakuren, placing it on the floor. As the others touched the lamp and said "eintret," they were immediately shunted into the extradimensional interior of the living quarters originally crafted by the night hag Hesperna. Then Wakuren scooped up the lamp and, activating his [I]ring of invisibility[/I], faded from view. He stepped outside the gem shop just in time to see Corbin Mallaxus turn the corner into an alleyway. But by the time Wakuren had run to the corner, the wizard was gone - no doubt having followed their own course of action and cast a spell within the city limits once in a place he wouldn't be seen doing so. Wakuren couldn't be sure of what spell had been cast - [I]teleport[/I]? [I]dimension door[/I]? - but whatever it was, there was no way to follow Corbin Mallaxus now. Wakuren set down the lamp, deactivated his ring, and entered the lamp to tell the others they could come out now and that Mallaxus had eluded the half-orc. Returning to Iriadorrista's shop, they reported what had happened and suggested she send word to the other gemcutters in the city about Mallaxus and his evil blood diamond. "Good idea: I'll write up some quick notes and have them delivered by messenger," she promised. Then, with two days to kill, the heroes made their way back to the Merry Minstrel Inn, where they'd stayed the last time they were in town. Xandro was friends with the owner, Jorbalee Bennicut, and she was more than happy to get him a single room (as they'd all really be staying inside the lamp's extradimensional interior) and hire his services as the evening's entertainment. They found out Tommy, the orphan they'd rescued from his uncle and put into Jorbalee's care, was doing fine in his new circumstances. "He's been a bit help," Jorbalee assured them. At their request, Jorbalee opened the small room in which she'd placed the famed bard Carmen Melodius, one of the three dreamers the five dreamwalkers had thus far been unable to awaken. She was still asleep, the leather headband they'd put around her temple to keep the dreamstone in place on her forehead exactly as they'd placed it. "Shall we give it another shot?" asked Alewyth. "It's been a month or so since we last tried." "Worth a shot, I suppose," admitted Thurloe, and the five took their places around Carmen's bed, sitting in a circle and slowing their breathing, each wearing a dreamstone on their own brow. Within moments, they were all asleep and back in the Dreamlands. "Good luck, kupo!" said Mogo after his dreamwalker students told him what they wanted to do. But while they had indeed grown a bit in power since the last time they had entered Carmen's ongoing dream, the end result was still the same: the giant ape made quick work of them, tearing their dream-bodies apart with his bare hands and his massive teeth, causing them to be forced awake. After two further attempts, they gave it up. "Still got a way to go, I guess," sighed Zander. "We should try to find out what we can about that bald wizard," Alewyth suggested. "I don't like the idea of him becoming a lich." At her prompting, they asked around if anybody knew the wizard and eventually Xandro hit pay dirt, not only finding out the wizard's name but the address where he lived. It was in the better part of town, among the more well-to-do. "Let's go check it out!" the bard enthused. Wakuren once again faded from view as they walked the streets of Baron's Haven into the more respectable part of the city. And they did find the Mallaxus estate: it was rather hard to miss, for the ten-foot-tall hedges flanking his property were distinctive enough to call attention to it. There was but a single entrance: a pair of tall, thick gates that bore the Mallaxus family crest. But trying to peek through the thick hedges was problematic, giving only the barest view of what seemed to be a single-story structure in the middle of the property. "I kind of expected a tall, wizard's tower," Alewyth admitted. "Guy likes his privacy," Thurloe grunted. "Let's go check it out," Wakuren said from behind them. Hesperna's lamp suddenly appeared on the street beside them, the invisible half-orc having placed it there and stepped away. "I have a [I]gaseous form[/I] spell that will get me over the hedges," he said. "We can take a peek through his house, see what all he's up to. If he's planning lichdom, he's probably up to something no good." "That's technically illegal," Zander pointed out. "We don't have any authorization to go sneaking into his house." "We're already technically outlaws here," Xandro replied. The bard touched the lamp and, saying the command word, disappeared inside. Sighing, the elf followed suit, with Alewyth and Thurloe right behind him. When all four of them were inside, Xandro added, "The bad thing about this type of plan is we have no way of seeing what's going on outside while Wakuren goes exploring." "We could stay behind," Alewyth pointed out, "but then if he runs into any trouble we wouldn't be there to come to his aid." "But we wouldn't even know to come to his aid in the first place," argued Xandro. "That's the whole problem with this setup." Wakuren, however, saw no problem with his plan. Casting his spell right there on the street (while invisible, so he was fairly certain he wouldn't get caught), he - and the lamp he held in his hands - turned to a vaporous gas and wafted over the thick hedges flanking Corbin Mallaxus's property. As he lowered his elevation onto the grounds surrounding the little dwelling, Wakuren saw the wizard employed a set of guards. This pair stood motionlessly, one on either side of the house. Curious, the gaseous half-orc altered his path to get a close-up look at one of them. At first, Wakuren thought he was dealing with a mummy, for the figure was wrapped head to toe in linen bandages. But as he got closer, he saw not only flesh beneath the bandages that showed an unhealthy coloration, but a great deal of stitches holding the skin together. The fact the "mummy" gave off no aura of evil whatsoever led Wakuren to the belief he was looking not at an undead mummy but a bandage-wrapped flesh golem. Both were made of reanimated flesh, but a flesh golem was given life by an elemental spirit rather than that of the person who had once worn that dead flesh. In any case, Wakuren had no desire to deal with the flesh golem guardians and instead made a full circuit around the house, finding only a front door and another to the side - no windows at all in his house; that was a bit suspicious! Given the building was a single structure flanked on all sides by 10-foot-tall hedges, it certainly seemed as if Corbin Mallaxus didn't want any neighbors seeing what he was up to. Wakuren sent his vaporous form gliding underneath the front door, glad to see it wasn't airtight. Looking about, he saw he was in a main room lit by [I]everburning torches[/I], which made sense given the wizard's human visual limitations and the lack of natural light brought about by the total lack of windows. There was an open doorway to a kitchen to the left and beyond that a dining area; Wakuren checked them both out but they were empty. Retracing his path, he flowed underneath another door, this time finding himself in a simple bedroom. The bedroom was austere, with a single bed trunk, and a garderobe along one wall; the half-orc was glad the [I]gaseous form[/I] spell prevented him from being able to smell, for he doubted the bedroom smelled very nice while connected to a latrine pit. There was another door at the northeastern corner of the room, which if Wakuren was picturing things correctly, lined up rather nicely with the side door, attached to a short projection along the eastern side of the building he suspected led to a stairwell leading down to a lower level. Instinctively sensing for evil, he was surprised when he got a strong reading coming from the other side of the door, this one just as strong as the auras from Corbin Mallaxus and his blood diamond. Wakuren backtracked the way he had come, exiting the dwelling by flowing out underneath the front door and floating around to the side door. He got the same reading from this door and idly wondered if there was some sort of trap in place. If so, there was only one way to find out: flowing underneath the door, Wakuren got his answer, for standing there at the top of the stairs was a thin-bodied creature with large, batlike ears and a pair of wings equally suited to a bat, although this being had a separate pair of humanoid arms ending in clawed fingers. Wakuren couldn't recall if this was an imp or a quasit; then, noting the creature's greenish-gray coloration (and vaguely recalling imps as having red skin), he settled into the assumption (for now) that this was a quasit, and Corbin's familiar. He'd have to check with Thurloe to find out for sure; the spellsword studied such things. Then Wakuren noted something he should have paid attention to right away: the quasit, or whatever it was, seemed to be staring right at him with a quizzical expression on its face. Could it see him, even though he was fully invisible and under the effects of a [I]gaseous form[/I] spell? Experimentally, Wakuren shifted to the left and then to the right; the homunculus followed his every move. Well, that answered that, then - although there wasn't much Wakuren could do about it. Wordlessly, he allowed himself to float down the stairs to the lower level, the homunculus following behind inquisitively. The room at the bottom of the steps was a library, complete with a small desk containing a book bound in black leather. There were two closed doors leading into other rooms; heading south, Wakuren slid his vaporous body beneath the door and found himself in a workroom of sorts, with several tables containing various projects in different states of completion. There was a skeleton standing in an open doorway, wearing what at first Wakuren took to be a purple feather boa - but then he realized they were three separate sections of intestine-like appendages, one along each forearm and another coiled up in the skeleton's ribcage. [I]A mohrg[/I], the half-orc realized, and turned back to exit the room the way he'd come - only to find the door now wide open and the homunculus hovering in the air, watching him. Returning to the library, Wakuren slid beneath the other closed door, only to have the homunculus open it behind him and follow. This room was just as sinister despite being empty, for there were three empty cells along the north wall, each containing a wooden bench and an old bucket. Despite there not being any prisoners stored here at present, Wakuren could only imagine this was where Mallaxus kept the "components" for his flesh golems outside before they were slain and experimented upon. There was another door from the room of cells, this one leading to an operating room of sorts where Wakuren imagined the flesh golems had been crafted, if the dried bloodstains on the central table and the row of surgical implements on the smaller table against the south wall were any indication. There was but one more door from this room - besides an open doorway leading to the workshop, for Wakuren could see the mohrg's bony back standing at the end of it - and it proved to be an empty room of a much notably lower temperature: a cold storage room for corpses, no doubt. Again, the current lack of dead bodies didn't give the half-orc any feelings of relief, for he was certain the room had been put to use before and would be again. Since that seemed to be the entirety of the lower level, Wakuren retraced his path back to the stairwell and started rising up it - only to see the homunculus following his every move. This, he realized, was going to be problematic, for the little creature's wings allowed it to fly at a much faster speed than he could manage while in [I]gaseous form[/I]. Still, there didn't seem to be much Wakuren could do about it at the moment, so he made his way outside, flew over the hedges, and landed on a back street behind the Mallaxus estate, where he dismissed the [I]gaseous form[/I] spell and returned to solid - though still invisible - form. But as soon as the half-orc had retained solid form, the homunculus moved in to attack, snapping at him with its wicked teeth. He dodged the blow and instinctively returned the attack with a swipe of his shield, which had the effect of dismissing his [I]invisibility[/I]. He at least had the satisfaction of having slammed the shield directly into the homunculus's body, but it staggered away, wings flapping rapidly in an attempt to gain an altitude higher than Wakuren could reach with his shield. Having attained such a safe height, the homunculus took a moment to taunt the intruder into his master's house. "You're dead, half-orc!" he said. "You hear me? You're dead!" It grinned evilly at the thought of what Corbin Mallaxus would do to someone who had blatantly invaded his home, especially when the homunculus was able to give him such a good description of what Wakuren looked like. But Wakuren wasn't particularly concerned, for the vile creature couldn't report back if it were already dead. Raising his right hand, upon which he wore the [I]gauntlet of Cal[/I], he summoned a [I]javelin of lightning[/I] into his hand and sent it flying up at the winged beast. The homunculus squawked in pain and outrage as the [I]lightning bolt[/I] struck true, then turned and flew back to his master's home as quickly as it could. Wakuren growled in irritation when he realized he wouldn't have the opportunity for a second such attack, for the wizard's familiar was already over the hedge and out of view. Grumbling to himself, Wakuren entered the lamp and briefed the others on what he'd seen. From the description he gave of the familiar, Thurloe was able to state confidently that was likely a homunculus Wakuren had fought, and almost certainly Corbin's familiar. "But now what?" asked Alewyth. "Can we report this to the guards?" "Not without admitting that Wakuren cast a [I]gaseous form[/I] spell upon himself and then trespassed into a citizen's home," Thurloe pointed out. "That won't get Mallaxus in trouble so much as us. Face it: there's not a lot we can do about this. Hopefully Iriadorrista's messages made sure any other local gemcutters won't be carving up that blood diamond of his into a phylactery any time soon." They returned to the Merry Minstrel Inn, where they enjoyed a hearty dinner and listened to Xandro's performance on the [I]Dardolian lute[/I] before calling it a night. Thurloe opted to stay in the inn's room for the night, with the lamp beneath the bed and the others safely inside its extradimensional spaces. Wakuren, for one, wanted the extra protection being on an entirely different plane of existence would afford him, knowing the homunculus would report back his intrusion into Corbin's house. But the night passed without incident, and the next morning the five heroes ate breakfast in the inn, Tommy proudly bringing a basket of breakfast rolls to their table. However, once they had completed their meal, they were at a loss as to what to do with the day - for the dreamstones wouldn't be finished until the following day, as per Iriadorrista's announced schedule. Still, they decided to swing by her shop to see how progress was going on their project. Kiirinarra was there at the shop, as was Hal, but the clerk was nervously wringing her hands. She breathed a big sigh of relief when the five heroes stepped into the shop, and she raced from behind the counter to fill them in. "Iriadorrista's missing!" she blurted out. "She's normally here to open the shop, but it was still locked up when I got in, but I have a key so I opened it myself, but there's no answer at Iriadorrista's door, and that man came back at the end of the day yesterday--" "Hold on - slow down!" commanded Thurloe. "What man? The bald wizard, Mallaxus?" "Yes, him!" replied Kiirinarra. "He showed back up at the end of the day, right before we were about to close up for the night. He had a wooden box with him - a bigger one, not the one he kept the blood diamond in - and he opened it to show Iriadorrista what was in it, and then she went all white and grabbed up her tools from the back room and went off with him. And we haven't seen her since!" "What would have been in the box?" queried Zander. Wakuren had an idea. "It could easily have been the finger of someone she cares about," he theorized. "I could see him threatening her family with further harm if she didn't cooperate." He turned to the elven shop clerk. "Does Iriadorrista have any family living here in the city?" "Her mother, yes." Kiirinarra told them the street she lived on, but she was unsure of her exact address. Wakuren was ready to go racing off to see the gemcutter's mother at once, but before he could do so Xandro asked a few pertinent questions. "You say Iriadorrista is normally here first thing in the morning," he told the elven clerk. "So she lives nearby?" Kiirinarra pointed to a door from the workshop. "The other half of the building is her apartment," she explained. The door was locked, but Kiirinarra said under the circumstances she was sure her boss would have no problems with the bard picking the lock to her living quarters. It took him less than a minute to get the lock open, and then they went through her quarters; as expected, they were empty, her bed still made and obviously not having been slept in. "The bastard kidnapped her," Alewyth muttered. "Let's go," Xandro said, leading the group towards the Mallaxus estate. Fortunately, to get there they had to pass by the street where Iriadorrista's mother, [B]Avaranella[/B], lived. Xandro was able to ascertain her address by a couple of friendly questions of the people in the neighborhood; Wakuren did his part by remaining [I]invisible[/I] so his half-orc countenance didn't scare off the locals. Knocking on the door, Xandro called out, "Avaranella? Are you home? It's very important." "Go away," came a woman's fearful voice from the other side of the door. "It's about your daughter, Iriadorrista. We think someone's taken her, and we're on our way to go get her back. But we wanted to make sure you're okay. Did anyone come by yesterday evening, making threats?" There was the sound of locks being undone on the other side of the door, and then it opened and in the doorway stood the gemcutter's mother. "He did more than make threats," Avaranella replied, holding forth the bandaged stump where her right hand had been. "But you say Iri's been kidnapped? By that horrible man?" "We're going to get her back," Alewyth promised. "He said if I said anything, he'd be back to kill me," the elven woman said, shuddering. "But you already know...." She looked up at the four adventurers standing on her porch (as Wakuren was still invisible). "Please, if you can save her from that monster...." "You close this door back up and keep it locked," Thurloe told the woman. "We'll be back with your daughter." And after hearing her lock the closed door back up, the group rushed over to the Mallaxus estate with all haste. "Same deal as yesterday," Thurloe told the others, once they were all inside the lamp, on the street behind the Mallaxus estate, where nobody would witness them casting spells within the city limits of Baron's Haven without the proper authorization. Alewyth cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell upon herself, following it up with a [I]magic vestment[/I] spell on her armor and a [I]bless[/I] spell on the group at large. Wakuren beefed himself up with more spells than he'd ever cast upon himself at one time before, with [I]owl's wisdom[/I], [I]bull's strength[/I], and [I]eagle's splendor[/I] increasing his overall personal combat effectiveness, followed by [I]shield of faith[/I] and [I]entropic shield[/I] spells to make it harder for Corbin and his homunculus and mohrg allies to deal the half-orc any serious damage. Xandro even pitched in by casting a [I]heroism[/I] spell on the cleric-paladin of Cal. Thurloe made do with a charge from his [I]wand of shield[/I], before passing it over to Zander so the elf sorcerer could do the same. Zander also cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell on himself and a [I]haste[/I] spell on the group. Then Wakuren activated his [I]ring of invisibility[/I], stepped on the platform in the center of the lamp's extradimensional space and said the command word, "aussteig" - which shunted him back outside by the physical lamp. Then he picked up the lamp and cast a [I]gaseous form[/I] spell upon himself, once again taking on the substance of invisible fumes. He floated up and over the hedge and flowed around the house to slide beneath the front door. However, having been alerted to the half-orc's previous intrusion the day before, Corbin Mallaxus had been able to make some preparations. As Wakuren's invisible, vaporous body seeped beneath the front door, his living life force activated an [I]alarm[/I] spell that made a raucous racket that had to have instantly alerted Corbin of the intrusion. Wakuren flowed over to the dining room, assumed solid form, set down the lamp, and said the command word that shunted him back inside. "Triggered an [I]alarm[/I] spell," he told the others. "No need to try sneaking around - he's got to know we're here." Advancing up to the bedroom door, they found it locked - but it took Xandro longer to unpack his lockpicks than it did to overcome the simple lock in the door. The bedroom was empty, but by now Alewyth was impatient and eager to get downstairs where she was sure Iriadorrista was being held. She crossed the room and, finding the door to the stairs locked as she had expected, brought [I]Sjondra[/I] crashing into the locked door, sundering it from its hinges. Xandro just shrugged and rolled his lockpicking tools back up into their bundle, then stowed them on his belt. Wakuren, still invisible, crept down the stairs as quietly as his armor would allow. The homunculus was squatting on the table in the library, gathering up the black-leather-bound tome, when the half-orc slammed his shield into the familiar's head, channeling Cal's smiting power through it as it struck home. The homunculus dropped the book and reeled drunkenly in the air, trying to regain his equilibrium, when a [I]magic missile[/I] spell from Zander from the bottom of the stairs slew it outright. It crashed to the library floor in an unliving heap. Two rooms away, Corbin Mallaxus swore quietly to himself as he felt the link to his familiar go dead. But he carried on, casting defensive spells upon himself in preparation for the fight to come. Xandro, in the meantime, took the opportunity to send the point of his [I]frost short sword[/I] into the skull of the homunculus, just to make sure it was truly dead. Satisfied, he then pulled the [I]Dardolian lute[/I] from his back and began the initial chords to his song of inspirational courage. Thurloe brushed past him, bastard sword out and ready for action, and opened the door to the workroom. Sure enough, there was Iriadorrista sitting in a wooden chair, bent over the blood diamond with a loupe on one eye and her gemcutting instruments in hand. But that wasn't all of note in the workshop: besides the mohrg, which still stood in the doorway on guard duty, there was a right hand crawling about on its fingertips on top of a smaller table in the corner; Thurloe couldn't help but notice the severed hand was wearing a tiger's eye ring on one finger that gave it the appearance of some cyclopean overseer watching the gemcutter's work. But as Corbin didn't appear to be in the room, Thurloe moved over to the other door from the library, which he recalled led to the room with the three cells. Alewyth stepped into the workshop, her holy symbol of Aerik held before her. As she sent a blast of positive energy through Aerik's icon (hoping to cause the mohrg to crumble away to dust or at least flee the scene; to the priestess's disappointment, it did neither), Alewyth couldn't help but notice the manacle around Iriadorrista's left ankle, from which was attached a length of heavy chain mounted to the stone floor beneath the table at which she sat. Judging from the chain's apparent length, it seemed she had the full range of the workshop but that was about it. But the elf looked up from her work at the Alewyth's approach, and a look of relief passed over her face. Wakuren pocketed the black tome the homunculus was gathering up and stepped into the workshop behind Alewyth, casting a spell that summoned an air element hippogriff into being. It immediately attacked the mohrg, its front talons clawing their way across the skeletal being's skull. It retaliated at once, sending its clawed "tongue" shooting forth from its open jaws; the slimy appendage hit the hippogriff, but its paralytic secretions had no effect upon a creature whose body was composed of the swirling winds from the Elemental Plane of Air. Not liking its nearness to this elemental force, the crawling claw - animated the night before, using Avaranella's severed hand - skittered to the far side of the table upon which it crouched, and the air elemental hippogriff, seeing the motion, instinctively swatted at it with its right front talons. That was enough to slay the crawling claw in one blow; it fell to the floor, landing upside down and preventing Corbin Mallaxus from seeing anything if he tried [I]scrying[/I] through the tiger's eye ring it wore, using the linked amulet around his neck. Then Zander ran into the workshop, scooting the long way around the table at which Iriadorrista sat, until he had a good line of sight on the mohrg. Then he sent a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell blasting across the room to hit the undead thing square on with one fiery stream. (The other one, unfortunately, missed completely.) Anticipating imminent contact with the enemy, Corbin cast a summoning spell of his own and set a bearded devil immediately before the door linking the construct lab - in which he stood - to the room with the three cells. It was just in time, too, for Thurloe opened the door immediately after having cast a [I]mirror image[/I] spell on himself. He was surprised to see a bearded devil standing before him in the doorway (and Corbin standing at the back of the room, behind the devil), while the fiend was just as surprised to see six identical spellswords facing him through the doorway. Overcoming his initial surprise, the devil stabbed forward with his glaive, but the Thurloes successfully dodged out of the way. Alewyth pulled Iriadorrista away from the mohrg and the hippogriff, admonishing her to hold still as she brought [I]Sjondra[/I] crashing down upon the chain by the elf's foot. Several links broke under the assault, and the gemcutter found herself free, a mere half-dozen links jangling from the manacle around her left foot. "Run!" Alewyth called to her, and Iriadorrista did as she was told, rushing out of the workshop and into the safety of the arcane library. "Don't leave the house, though!" Alewyth amended, not wanting the gemcutter to run afoul of the two flesh golems roaming around the necromancer's yard. Back in the workshop, the mohrg and the hippogriff traded blows, the elemental creature getting the better of the deal, for all of its attacks could harm the undead thing, whereas the mohrg's paralytic attacks were useless against the being born of winds. Zander cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the mohrg, trading a lower damage output (compared to a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell like he'd tried using earlier) for a guaranteed successful strike. Corbin sidled over to the cooler chamber, casting another summoning spell before closing the door and cutting himself from view. But the yeth hound he'd summoned from the Fiendish Planes manifested behind the six Thurloes, snapping at the nearest with his teeth - and, surprisingly, missing entirely as the multiple images shifted back and forth in a rather confusing pattern. The bearded devil was having a similar problem stabbing out with his glaive and striking nothing but empty air. Thurloe, taking inspiration from Xandro's magical tune, activated his [I]torc of the titans[/I] and brought his bastard sword swinging at the bearded devil with all he was worth. The blade hit the fiend in the side of the torso and went in deep, but not as deep as the spellsword would have expected; he's forgotten to take into account the devil's insanely thick skin, granting it a level of protection against mortal weapons that only silver or holy magic could overcome. Wakuren departed the workshop in search of Corbin and approached Thurloe from the library, hitting the devil in the doorway with the side of his shield. While the air element hippogriff and the mohrg each did their best to take the other out, Alewyth cast a [I]searing light[/I] spell at the undead abomination. Unfortunately, due to their jostling about as they struggled to slay each other, the dwarf priestess missed with her spell. Zander took a chance and attempted another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell, this time managing to hit the mohrg with both rays of flame. Corbin, by this time, had come to an unfortunate conclusion: the odds were against him and it was in his best interests to escape the current combat in his house and restart his machinations elsewhere. He hated to give up his blood diamond, but he knew perfectly well the ritual to infuse a diamond with the slain souls of tortured captives; another blood diamond could easily be crafted in the days to come. But with his familiar dead, the necromancer needed the black tome the homunculus had been sent to fetch for his master, for it had the intricate ceremonies and rituals needed to ensure the successful transformation into an undying lich. Corbin need only fetch the tome before he could use the [I]scroll of teleport[/I] he held in his left hand to ensure his successful getaway from these meddling heroes. And he knew exactly where the tome had been left: on the table in the library, and hopefully the others would be too busy fighting off his allies for them to notice his sudden appearance in the arcane library before he would be on his way to safety. With these thoughts in mind, Corbin Mallaxus said the words to a [I]dimension door[/I] spell and appeared standing next to the table in his library - where he saw, to his horror, the black tome was missing! Who had taken it? He looked on the floor by the body of his slain homunculus, hoping the loyal familiar might have dropped it at his side in his death, but no, it wasn't there either! Fury rose in the necromancer: who had dared to take what he needed to ascend to lichdom? Iriadorrista screamed at the necromancer's sudden appearance by her side. She fled to the stairs, while Xandro was surprised to see he was now merely steps away from the foul wizard who'd cut off Iriadorrista's mother's hand just to force the gemcutter to do his bidding. "Guys!" he called out, breaking the flow of his song. "He's here in the library - come quick!" But then he thrust at the necromancer with his [I]frost short sword[/I], the blade cutting into Corbin's side and eliciting a yelp of surprise and pain. The bearded devil, tired of being the target for Thurloe's blade, decided to [I]teleport[/I] behind all five of the [I]mirror images[/I] and the real thing, for he was having a difficult time sorting them out and had thus far been unable to land his glaive into any of them. However, Wakuren slammed his shield sideways into the fiend's throat right as he was about to begin his [I]teleport[/I] maneuver, and as a result when he did pop behind the foes facing him in the doorway, it was only to collapse onto the floor with a crushed throat. Beside the bearded devil, the yeth hound snapped at one of the [I]mirror images[/I], but all six of the apparent Thurloes had by this time spun about to face the fiendish threats, and the hound's jaws snapped closed on empty air once again. But the real spellsword's blade came crashing down upon the yeth hound's back, cutting deep and pulling back before the confused creature could recall which of the six identical [I]Spellslicer[/I] blades had been the real one. Alewyth swung [I]Sjondra[/I] into the side of the mohrg, who thus far had been gradually whittled away by the attacks from the air element hippogriff and Zander's spells. The undead thing's bones were cracked in several locations, and the dwarf got the feeling it wouldn't be long before they had brought about its destruction. And indeed, after it struck at the hippogriff and the hippogriff returned the favor, Zander brought the mohrg down with a final [I]magic missile[/I] spell. Wakuren left the yeth hound to Thurloe and his [I]mirror images[/I] and ran over to aid Xandro in the library. As Corbin was standing behind the table, the half orc leaped up upon it and from that vantage point brought his shield slamming down upon the necromancer with all of his considerable strength. Corbin staggered away sidewise, somewhat dazed, which gave Wakuren the opportunity to leap down from the tabletop and bring his shield crashing sideways into the evil wizard's side. But Mallaxus wasn't out of the fight yet: frantically scrabbling backwards a step or two to get out of the reach of Wakuren's shield, he cast a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell directly into the half-orc's face, the initial burst of electricity sending another arc flashing over to strike Xandro as well. The bard stepped back after the blast, sheathing his blade and returning to his song of inspirational courage on his lute. Let those more geared toward melee combat deal with such things! The yeth hound snapped at another [I]mirror image[/I] and once again missed. Thurloe, however, did not miss with his blade, and another deep gash opened up on the fiendish hound's body. It voiced a cry of pain that sounded surprisingly human. But with the mohrg taken care of, Alewyth was now free to join the fight against Corbin Mallaxus. Returning to the library, she cast a [I]hold person[/I] spell on the necromancer and was pleased to see him unable to shake it off. His body froze, his fingers up and in the midst of some sort of spellcasting, and Wakuren broke into a rather evil grin once he saw Corbin was - temporarily at least - out of the fight. Grabbing the back of the wizard's bald head, the half-orc spun him around and sent his face full-force into the side of the stone stairs leading up to the ground level of his home. He heard the sound of Corbin's nose breaking and a gush of blood poured from his wounded face, but Wakuren refused to release his grip. Instead, he pulled Corbin's head back (at which point a cluster of [I]magic missiles[/I] came streaking in from the doorway to the workshop, courtesy of Zander), and then - just as he could feel Corbin begin to shrug off the effects of the [I]hold person[/I] spell, sent his face crashing once again into solid stone. One room over, the yeth hound made a final ineffectual bite at a random Thurloe before the real one cut his spine in two with his bastard sword. With a final howl of despair, the yeth hound vanished, returning to the foul plane from which he had been summoned. Over by the stairs, Alewyth shielded Iriadorrista with her own stocky body, not to keep her safe from harm but to prevent her from seeing the spectacle occurring in the arcane library, for Corbin was already quite dead but Wakuren, a look of fury blazing on his orcish features, continued pounding the wizard's face into the stone, again and again and again. By this time the necromancer didn't really have much of a face at all, merely a pulpy mess where his face used to be, and the red stain on the side of the stairs continued to grow with each slam. Finally, Thurloe put a stop to it by laying a hand on Wakuren's shoulder; the half-orc nearly responded by turning his fury upon the spellsword until he saw who it was and forcibly calmed himself down. He let Mallaxus's limp body fall to the floor when he released the back of his head. The group then went about recovering what they could from the wizard's dwelling: the arcane scroll of [I]teleport[/I] with which he'd planned on making his escape; the tiger's eye ring from Avaranella's severed and animated hand and the amulet from around Mallaxus's neck that had allowed him to scry through it; the contents of his arcane library (Thurloe had already discovered the necromancer's spellbooks and was flipping through them, seeing if there was anything there that caught his interest); and, of course, the blood diamond. Iriadorrista hadn't had time to finish the carving Corbin had forced her to begin and thus far it just held the rune for "life," without the corresponding "eternal" to go with it. Wakuren, now that his temporary rage had abated, offered up that the clerics at the local Temple of Cal could probably cleanse it of the evil with which it had been suffused, leaving behind a quite valuable gem. Iriadorrista agreed at once, vowing to use the money from the sale of the gem to pay to have her mother's severed hand regenerated, with the rest being paid to the five heroes as a reward for having saved her from Corbin Mallaxus. And she further vowed to accept no payment for the carving of the dreamstones. "Are you sure?" asked Alewyth, not wanting to take advantage of the elf for having done something she considered to be part of her job. Thurloe slapped the dwarf's thigh with the back of his hand. "Of course she's sure!" he hissed, amazed at the stupidity of someone turning down an offer of free services. And here he thought dwarves were supposed to have a good head for money! Two days later, once the dreamstones had been finished up - the three rough chunks having been carved into a set of five petal-shaped pieces of roughly the same size and shape, each with arcane runes carved upon the upper faces - and carefully placed inside Alewyth's extradimensional haversack for safekeeping, the five heroes checked out of the Merry Minstrel Inn, said their goodbyes to Jorbalee and Tommy, and returned to the Shrine of Delphyne. "I hope Scarlie's sober," commented Zander as Alewyth deciphered the code phrase to return them to Basutra. "I don't know how he manages to put away all the ale he drinks." Just then, a tendril extended from his forearm and the tiny eye at its tip pointed at the elf's face. <I've been focusing my attention on several other hosts in other worlds,> it admitted telepathically. <Has anything of interest happened on this world in the past several of your days?> "Nah," scoffed Zander to his extraplanar symbiote. "Just the same old boring stuff." <Figures!> scoffed the nibish-riule. - - - This was a fun adventure to run - and once again, the players' favorite plan of "Wakuren carrying everyone else inside the lamp while he flies around in [I]gaseous form[/I] while invisible" went slightly astray when he couldn't shake the homunculus after rolling three natural 1s in a row when trying to be sneaky. (We joked that while in [I]gaseous form[/I], the only way he knew to move around must be by making fart noises - and especially loud ones when squeezing his vaporous body underneath doors.) However, I inadvertently helped them out a bit on that front, as if Wakuren's wearing the tiger's-eye ring while invisible and one of the other PCs wears the [I]amulet of scrying[/I] while inside the lamp, they'll at least have some idea of what's going on in the outside world while he's carrying them around. And there at the end, Logan came up with Wakuren's plan for taking out Corbin once and for all by announcing, "I Power Attack the stone wall with the necromancer's face!" - - - T-shirt worn: One of my two Red Cross T-shirts I got for donating blood, as it tied in nicely to the blood diamond Corbin tried to use as his phylactery. [/QUOTE]
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