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Dreams of Erthe
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9025175" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 50: HELL ON ERTHE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 5</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 10</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Robin the Balladeer, human bard 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Scarlie Besker, half-orc commoner 5</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 6 May 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Alewyth lifted <em>Sjondra</em> up to her face and spoke into the dreamstone embedded on one side of the hammer's face. "How much further to the dreamer, Mogo?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>The moogle replied, his kittenish voice being broadcast across the planes through the dreamstones. "Less than half a mile. straight ahead, kupo!"</p><p></p><p>The dwarven priestess dismounted from her dire goat Pyrite and tied his reins to the side of the mule-driven wagon. "We'll have to leave the wagon and mounts here and continue on on foot," she told the others. "Our road has become little more than a deer path at this point, and the wagon's not going to make it through the rest of these trees." Sure enough, the mules had been brushing up against low branches in the Oakpine Woods and did not seem to particularly like it. The others climbed down out of their saddles and fastened reins to the wagon, with Scarlie once again volunteering to look after the animals while the dreamwalkers and Robin went about their business.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe led the way, his bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em> out and ready, dodging around trees but trying to keep in a more-or-less northerly direction. And sure enough, eventually the woods opened into a clearing, inside of which was likely the house they had been seeking. However, it was not at all quite like they had expected.</p><p></p><p>For one thing, this was no backwoods cabin but a rather impressive single story wooden building with a two-story stone tower off to the west side, and a separate wooden structure - likely a stables or a cart shed - off to the right. But the buildings stood all alone in the middle of a circular clearing in the middle of the woods, surrounded at equal distances by six large stone structures, monolithic in style and structure. And these stone pillars were the boundary of the home's strangest feature: a bluish, solid hemisphere of force that completely enclosed the entire structure.</p><p></p><p>"If our dreamer's in there, I don't know how we're going to get in to wake him," the spellsword informed the others.</p><p></p><p>"There's somebody inside," Xandro pointed out. Sure enough, a blue-toned figure went from behind the main building into a door in the side of the stables. From their distant vantage point, he looked to be wearing ripped rags, and while his skin seemed to be blue that was likely an effect of the force shield through which they were viewing him.</p><p></p><p>"I'm going to go check it out," Wakuren announced, casting an <em>air walk</em> spell upon himself. Then, activating his <em>ring of invisibility</em>, he vanished from view as he strode into the clearing and began climbing his way up to the top of the hemispherical force shield. Standing at its very top, he looked down in all directions, noticing what looked to be an angel - white-feathered wings growing from her back and all - rounding the west side of the house and stepping into the front door. Before he lost sight of her, Wakuren sent his senses flowing her way, trying to detect any evil emanations she might be giving off, for he was well aware there was a species of devil called an erinyes that looked every bit the angel - he'd met up with several of them during the "wake" of the dead wizard Seamus Volossio. But while the figure gave off no aura of evil, Wakuren couldn't be sure if it were because she truly was a celestial being or if the force shield somehow blocked such senses.</p><p></p><p>However, something else caught the half-orc's attention from his 50-foot-high vantage point. Off to the northeast, alongside a lone oak tree inside the relatively circular clearing, was a lean-to structure seemingly made of intertwined branches, and beneath this rude dwelling stuck out a pair of human legs. Thinking he might have found their dreamer after all, Wakuren went back to the others and explained what he had seen.</p><p></p><p>The general consensus was not to alert anything inside the blue bubble if they could help it, so Thurloe led everyone in a wide arc through the forest, which allowed them to approach the man beside the oak tree from the forest side, with the tree hopefully blocking the sight of anyone looking from inside the bubble. The man stirred at the sound of their approach, rising quickly and then, seeing the approaching heroes, exploding with a heartfelt, "Oh, thank the gods! I've prayed for someone to come to my rescue!"</p><p></p><p>Well, this wasn't the dreamer they had been seeking, that was for sure. The man introduced himself as <strong>Hadrian Pascobelli</strong> and he looked every bit the hobo: he wore a bedraggled-looking robe of indiscriminate color, streaked as it was with mud and dirt; his hair and beard were in tangles; and his weathered face - surely that of a man in his late sixties - wore a put-upon expression, as if lately fate had been giving him the short end of the stick. If any of the dreamwalkers had been forced to hazard a guess as to his occupation, more than one of them would have found "hermit" to have topped their list.</p><p></p><p>"Look at me!" Hadrian said. "How old do you think I am?" Then, without waiting for a reply, he answered hi sown question. "I'm <em>27 years old!</em> At the rate I'm aging, I'll be dead in a couple of days! You've got to help me!"</p><p></p><p>"What can we do?" asked Alewyth. "What's causing this unnatural aging?"</p><p></p><p>Taking a deep breath, Hadrian began his story. "Three weeks ago, I got hold of a <em>well of many worlds</em> - a circle of fabric which, when unrolled, opens up a <em>planar gate</em> to a random plane of existence. I was experimenting with it downstairs in my summoning chamber, when a devil popped out of it - it had apparently linked up with one of the levels of Hell. Almost immediately, several more started entering my basement through the <em>well</em>. I fought them off as best as I could and held my ground for a bit, but after using up my most powerful spells I started to lose ground. Getting to the <em>well</em> and rolling it back up was no longer possible, as I was forced to retreat back up the stairs to the ground level."</p><p></p><p>Hadrian was staring off into the distance as he told his tale. "I made it outside the house when I saw the six pillars I had erected around it. They were the cornerstones of a magical field of energy I was working on - that's the whole reason I built my home out here, in the middle of nowhere, where I wouldn't be disturbed. I knew the field was theoretically possible, but I had yet to finish it. So in the heat of my panic, knowing that I could potentially be responsible for opening a permanent portal between our world and Hell that would allow fiends to encompass the entire planet, I used up the last <em>wish</em> in my <em>ring of three wishes</em> to erect the shield which even now encompasses my home and keeps the devils imprisoned within."</p><p></p><p>"That was quick thinking," commended Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"No, it was idiocy of the highest order!" countered Hadrian. "I could have wished that I hadn't activated the <em>well of many worlds</em>, or that it opened up into a celestial realm instead of Hell, but instead I wished to contain them inside an unfinished force shield whose design I had yet to work all of the bugs out of. So, as a result, the force shield was activated, but without any other power source to run it, it tied it in to my own life force, which has caused my rapid aging! And worse, the farther I step away from the field, the weaker it gets, so I can't even go too far away or the whole thing will shut off and I'll have released a potentially infinite horde of devils to ravage the planet! I've been trapped here, without any of my spellbooks - they're all inside - and I've been reduced to using my few remaining <em>magic missile</em> spells to bring down rabbits and squirrels as my meals!" The elderly-looking wizard wrung his hands over his face at his predicament. Zander looked over at the ashes of a nearby campfire, and sure enough there were the bones of a few of Hadrian's recent meals in with the burnt sticks. "And on top of it all," Hadrian added, "my owl familiar <strong>Lowell</strong> has been stuck up in his nest since around the time I opened the gate to the level of Hell! I don't know if the two events are related, but without Lowell I've had no means of communicating with the outside world!"</p><p></p><p>"Well, we can help you on that front," said Wakuren, reactivating his <em>ring of invisibility</em> and <em>air walking</em> up to the top of the tree by which Hadrian had built his lean-to shelter. He cradled the sleeping owl in his arms and returned to the ground level, to find Alewyth had already explained the reason for their presence and their ability to awaken creatures who had become trapped in their dreams.</p><p></p><p>"We'll wake Lowell up first," Alewyth promised, "and then we'll see what we can do about your devil problem."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren, returning to visibility, led the other four heroes back into the deeper forest, while Robin was sent back to the wagons, specifically to fetch Scarlie and have him bring Hadrian some food while she returned to watch over the dreamwalkers while they performed their ritual. By the time she got back, Zander's <em>jade cooshee</em> had been activated and the young bard found herself sharing guard duty with a life-sized, living and breathing elven dog. "One of these days," she told the cooshee while rubbing him under the chin, "that silly elf's going to have to come up with a name for you."</p><p></p><p>In the Dreamlands, each of the five dreamwalkers were met up with their individual moogle guides and led to the Corridor of Dreams, where once again Mogo fluttered by a particular door. "This is the dream you're looking for, kupo!" he told them, pulling to door open and ushering them inside the dreamscape.</p><p></p><p>Stepping into the dream, they found themselves on a forest path not too dissimilar to the one they'd been following before it faded into a mere deer path. But there was a clearing ahead, and inside the clearing was the dream as they had peeked at it the other day, when they were still too far away to successfully interact with the dreamer. A humanoid owl-man - whose avian features, they now realized, matched up remarkably well with Lowell the owl familiar - was being menaced by a group of seven animal-men hybrids: a squirrel, a rabbit, a hedgehog, an otter, a mouse, a ferret, and a weasel. Each stood roughly the size of a human, and on two legs, and each wielded some type of weapon, all pointed at Lowell, who in this dream sequence was unarmed save for the owlish talons on the ends of his fingers and the sharp beak at the front of his face.</p><p></p><p>"We've had enough of you and your kind eatin' us and our kind," sneered the rabbitfolk, hopping forward and bringing his halberd's blade down at Lowell. The owlkin tried to step aside at the last moment to avoid being cut but ended up with a deep slash along one arm. From the owl's other side, the squirrelkin darted in, stabbing Lowell in the side with his sharp spear.</p><p></p><p>Xandro was the first to react among the dreamwalkers, and although Robin now normally took care of playing the song of inspirational courage for the group in the real world, here in the Dreamlands the task fell to him. Wakuren reacted next, summoning forth an axiomatic giant wasp and sending it to attack the hulking, hunched-over hedgehog, who wielded a sharp-looking dagger dripping with some sort of venomous substance. The wasp's stinger struck true, but the burly mammal managed to resist the worst of the venom's effects.</p><p></p><p>Zander quickly judged distances and planted a <em>fireball</em> spell such that its expanding flames encompassed all of Lowell's attackers but the hedgehog. It was apparent when the flames finished their exploding expansion that all six critters had felt the effects of the spell to one extent or another.</p><p></p><p>The otter was the next to attack, hitting Lowell with his longspear. By this time, having taken three successful attacks, Lowell was feeling very much the worse for wear. Alewyth came to his rescue in an indirect fashion by casting her own summoning spell as she moved up to attack the animal-men; her spell caused a fiendish dire wolf to manifest by the otter before she could reach him herself. The dire wolf made short work of the otterfolk, clamping down upon a furry arm and pulling the lanky creature down to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe didn't have a whole lot of spells prepared in the real world that would be of particular help in this fight, but he perhaps best among the five realized that in the Dreamlands that was no impediment at all. Using the lucid dreaming training Mogo taught them each night as they slept, he imagined a different spell selection having been made that morning and cast an <em>enlarge person</em> spell upon Lowell, thinking the increase in size would bring about a healthier constitution and a more fearsome appearance. While the second effect was perhaps true, all the size increase had really done for Lowell was to make him that much of a bigger target to hit, and so far the animal-men had all but ignored the dreamwalkers and their summoned companions. As if to bring home the fact, the mouseling shot an arrow at Lowell's now towering figure, catching the owlkin in the chest (straight through the tweed vest he wore). At Wakuren's shouted advice, Lowell backed up away from at least physical combat range so one of the clerics could heal him.</p><p></p><p>But the hedgehogfolk was forced to direct his attention at the giant wasp trying to sting him. He stabbed out twice in rapid succession with his envenomed blade, and sure enough the poison had an effect upon the wasp more than just the wound it opened in the side of its thorax: it lost a bit of its fighting strength, as muscles weakened by the impact of the blade's magical venom.</p><p></p><p>With Lowell currently out of stabbing range and a fiendish dire wolf blocking the way to go get him, the weaselkin stabbed the point of his spear at the wolf, catching it in the side of his shaggy throat. The rabbit's halberd and the squirrel's spearhead likewise cut into the wolf's pelt, a necessary precursor to them being able to attack the owlkin as they truly desired. But Lowell wasn't entirely out of harm's way, as the weasel let fly with a longbow arrow that caught the giant owl-man in the shoulder.</p><p></p><p>Xandro moved up, pointing the <em>Dardolian Lute</em> at the hedgehog and letting loose with a <em>sound burst</em> effect that had the spiny critter cringing in momentary pain. Wakuren took the opportunity to pull the arrows from Lowell's body and apply the soothing effects of a <em>cure serious wounds</em> spell to the owl-man. The half-orc's summoned wasp pressed on the attack against the hedgehog, who by all appearances not only seemed to be the group's leader but also its potentially most deadly member with that <em>dagger of venom</em> he wielded.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast another spell, an <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> that engulfed all foes but the otterfolk and the hedgehog in its crushing embrace. The humanoid otter crawled back to his feet, only to be attacked by the fiendish dire wolf again as he did so and end up flat on his face again on the forest floor, the lupine's great paw pinning him in place. And by then Alewyth had finished her approach, bringing <em>Sjondra</em> crashing down upon the hapless otterfolk. The wolf lowered his head and nipped at the back of the otter's furry neck while he was at it, killing him by the crushing power of his jaws.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe had likewise arrived within combat range by this time, and he brought his bastard sword slicing into the hedgehog's side, just as the stout fellow slew the giant hornet, causing the insect to vanish back to the plane from which he had been summoned. The hedgehog fell forward from Thurloe's blow, and after that it was a simple matter to take out the rest of the animal-men, for five of them were tightly squeezed by jet-black tentacles rising up from the forest floor and the hedgehog had been wounded beyond easy recovery. Once all seven humanoid animals had been slain, the trees in the dreamscape started vanishing, a sure sign that Lowell - the real owl familiar, not the half-human hybrid wearing a tweed vest in his dream - was waking up.</p><p></p><p>Hadrian was overjoyed when the five dreamwalkers and Robin returned to his lean-to with his owl back awake and perched on Wakuren's shoulder; once the familiar got within sight of his master he flew the distance and alit upon Hadrian's shoulder instead. But the bedraggled wizard was also focused upon scarfing down the trail rations Scarlie had brought him, as his own food sources had been rather scarce of late.</p><p></p><p>Once the wizard had finished his meager meal, the group got down to business: how to deal with the devils who had infiltrated Hadrian's home from the <em>well of many worlds</em> in his basement? He knew from past experience that the farther away from the force shield he strayed, the weaker it became, and this proved to be the cornerstone for their eventual plan: Hadrian would slowly start walking away from his home, while the five heroes and Robin would each station themselves equidistant around the blue globe, pushing against it at the midpoint between the two closest stone pillars. Eventually, the force shield would shut off, allowing the six heroes to enter the perimeter; at that point, Lowell - stationed back in his nest - would inform Hadrian of his success, and the wizard would return at best speed back to the tree, bringing the force shield back up to full strength again (only now with the heroes trapped inside the hemisphere with an unknown number of devils). Thurloe and Wakuren further enhanced the plan by having everyone reconnoiter at the back of Hadrian's house, so Zander could cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the whole group, then Wakuren would pick up <em>Hesperna's lamp</em> with the other five hidden inside, turn invisible, and make his way into the house and down to the basement, where they could hopefully grab the <em>well of many worlds</em> without encountering too much resistance.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, it's a plan," agreed Thurloe. "Prep spells, and then we go in." The spellsword cast a <em>shield</em> spell on himself from his wand, then passed it over to Zander so the elf could do the same. Zander also cast the spells <em>mage armor</em> and <em>stoneskin</em> on himself, while Alewyth cast the spells <em>aid</em> and <em>shield of faith</em> on herself and <em>bless</em> and <em>prayer</em> on the assembled group. Wakuren covered himself in <em>entropic shield</em>, <em>shield of faith</em>, <em>bull's strength</em>, and <em>bear's endurance</em> spells, then converted some of the positive energy he normally would channel into a chance to turn undead into a <em>divine shield</em> effect instead. Xandro, as per usual, cast three <em>heroism</em> spells on the heroes most likely to find themselves in the front lines of battle: Alewyth, Thurloe, and Wakuren. Then the half-orc activated his <em>ring of invisibility</em> again and the group surrounded the wizard's home, each stepping into an arc between two of the six support pillars. Robin was visibly nervous, not only because she wasn't used to be as close to impending battle as the five heroes with whom she traveled, but also because her lute remained on her back, as her normal combat role - providing a song of inspirational courage to help stir the others to greater combat exploits - was not to be this time, as the group hoped to avoid the attention of any devils in the vicinity until they could gather together behind Hadrian's house and enter <em>Hesperna's lamp</em>.</p><p></p><p>Hadrian began his retreat away from his home, heading in a straight line as far away as he could go; Scarlie, no trained combat specialist but able to hold his own in a fight, accompanied him as a bodyguard of sorts. After a minute or so, Hadrian felt a burst of excitement over the empathic link he shared with Lowell and realized the six heroes must have made it through his force shield. Explaining what he'd felt to Scarlie, the two reversed course and returned to the oak tree just inside the clearing where Hadrian had been living for the last three weeks. And sure enough, even though the blue tint of the force shield made it difficult to make out a whole lot of details, Hadrian and Scarlie could tell the heroes were now inside the circumference of the six stone pillars. "Here's hoping they can make it to the <em>well of many worlds</em> in time," Hadrian voiced aloud, a note of worry in his voice - for he knew the likely fate of the world if they failed in this mission.</p><p></p><p>Zander moved straight to the back of the house after breaching the force shield, for he'd been stationed in the back to start with. His still-active cooshee kept by his master's heels. Robin had been one arc away from the elf sorcerer, and she gratefully stepped up beside him, a fairly safe place to be in case of any trouble, for while the elf was not much of a physical combatant he had perhaps the most deadly arsenal of spells among the assembled group of heroes. Thurloe had been given the arc directly in front of the house, and he dashed between the main building and the smaller structure to the right, passing a door on the side of the wagon shed and hearing some sort of smashing noise coming from within. But he forced himself to ignore the distraction and head straight to the back yard. Reaching the back, he turned the corner to head over by Zander and Robin - and was immediately scratched along the front of his right thigh by a pair of unseen claws.</p><p></p><p>However, "unseen" was perhaps too strong of a word. As the spellsword turned to face the likely position of his invisible attacker, he saw a brief flash of the barest outline of a creature the same general size and build of an adult lion. "Hellcat!" he cried out aloud, causing Zander and Robin - and Xandro, whose starting arc was the closest to the feline devil and would have been its initial attacker had Thurloe not literally walked right up to it - to turn in his direction and squint at the barely-noticeable outline of the hellcat's shape. But Xandro was able to get enough of an idea of its physical location to be able to creep up behind it and sent <em>Deathwhisper</em>'s blade sinking deep into its back flank. The hellcat roared aloud in pain, making it quite obvious to the heroes that their eyes were not in fact playing tricks on them - there was a nearly-invisible feline devil before them!</p><p></p><p>The hellcat spun about in place and brought both pairs of front claws and its wicked fangs reaching out for the impertinent human who had dared to attack it, but Xandro knew enough about hit-and-run tactics to back up out of immediate range; only one set of claws found any purchase at all against the rogue's armor, and the damage done was fortunately minimal.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren followed Thurloe's path between the house and the wagon shed as Alewyth, off to the west of the house, activated her <em>butterfly brooch</em> and flapped her wings to bring her up and over the house's single story roof, skirting her way around the two-story stone tower.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the hellcat, a spell normally infallible but in this case fizzling out to nothing upon impact due to the feline's inherent resistance to spells. Robin, at his side, pulled the lute from her back and started the initial chords to the song of inspirational courage - from the hellcat's roars of pain and anger, it was already fairly obvious that there was a battle raging in the back yard and they might as well get whatever magical advantage her song could provide them.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe brought his bastard sword crashing into the hellcat's flank, personally glad it had turned its back on him to concentrate on attacking Xandro, who had caused it so much harm with his initial sword-strike. Of course, that likely meant the hellcat would now focus its attention on Thurloe, but the spellsword took comfort that he'd have five allies aiding him in taking this feline devil down. And with any luck, they could slay it in time to pull off their "hide in the lamp while Wakuren takes us invisibly to Hadrian's basement" plan before any of the hellcat's allies made an appearance....</p><p></p><p>On that front, Xandro provided all the firepower needed, feinting to the left to draw the hellcat's attention that way and then slashing its throat with a swing to the right. The fiendish lion-thing collapsed to the ground, giving further evidence that it had walked through an interplanar portal to get to the Material World instead of having been summoned here.</p><p></p><p>However, the battle was not over - there wasn't even time for a breather before the side door opened in front of the still-invisible Wakuren and a beetle-devil the size of a man stepped in front of him. His innate ability to detect the forces of good told him there was some sort of mortal meddler immediately before him, so he snapped at the unseen half-orc with an impressive set of mandibles, but Wakuren stepped back out of harm's way in time. However, through the now-open door to the wagon shed, Wakuren could see a blue-skinned chain devil swinging his chains at the wooden wagon, tearing it to splinters one blow at a time out of sheer boredom and a desire to smash something. There were also the animated remains of a horse skeleton standing at the front of the shed, before the closed set of wooden doors at the front of the structure; the kocrachon beetle-devil had just raised the poor beast, long after the devils had attacked it and started eating the flesh from its bones before it had actually died of its wounds.</p><p></p><p>Not one to pass up an opportunity dropped into his lap, Wakuren channeled positive energy into his <em>shield of Cal</em> and performed an expertly-executed smite evil attack using every last ounce of strength he could muster. The impact was powerful enough to crack the kocrachon's carapace, and the half-orc cleric-paladin deemed losing his invisibility was a small price to pay for having dealt the forces of evil so big of a blow.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth alit in the back yard next to the others, having arrived too late to see any of the combat with the hellcat. Zander ran up to the narrow lane between the two buildings - in which Wakuren and the kocrachon were battling - and, with everyone in his group of six heroes well within range, cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the group. Robin continued on with her song, although her face held a look of sheer terror at the sight of the barely-seen dead hellcat and the very obviously still alive beetle-demon from the depths of Hell.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe pushed his way past Zander and attacked the kocrachon from behind with his bastard sword. There wasn't any room for Xandro to fit in past the spellsword, so he held <em>Deathwhisper</em> at the ready in case the beetle-thing somehow made it past Thurloe. But the kocrachon was rightly focused upon the half-orc standing immediately before it, although Wakuren managed to deflect the beetle-devil's attacks with his shield. He finished the insectoid fiend off with a final blow from the bottom tip of his shield, which came smashing down upon the kocrachon's head. As it fell to the ground in a tangle of insectoid limbs, Wakuren stepped over it and slammed the door closed, holding the doorknob in one hand to prevent the chain devil from getting through before the others could enter <em>Hesperna's lamp</em>, which he wore in a strap from his belt.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth rose straight up into the air, butterfly wings flapping as hard as they could go, to ensure there weren't any other devils headed their way. There didn't seem to be, unless they were invisible like the hellcat.</p><p></p><p>Zander abandoned the "hide in the lamp" plan and ran around the wagon shed over to front of the house, deciding they needed to get to the <em>well of many worlds</em> as quickly as possible. The cooshee kept pace, with Robin following close behind, her fingers still strumming her inspirational tune. But inside the shed, the kyton opted to open the door in a different way than anticipated by Wakuren, by sending the animated chains he wore all along his body (and which had looked to be rags to the heroes when viewed from outside the blue-tinted force shield) smashing at the wooden door in rapid succession. The door shattered into splinters, leaving Wakuren holding a chunk of wood with a doorknob attached to it. "Uh oh," he said to himself.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe brought his bastard sword up by his shoulder, ready to send it swinging into the kyton as soon as the chain devil emerged from the wagon shed. Wakuren took a step back from the doorway, so he too could lash out at the kyton when he appeared, using his shield in a concentrated attack while Thurloe attacked with his blade. Xandro, not liking the close quarters in which this next battle was looking to take place, ran around the shed to catch up to Robin. But then Alewyth lowered herself down to the roof level, from where she had a good view of the kyton approaching the open doorway. She cast a <em>dismissal</em> spell and the blue-skinned chain devil looked up at her in surprise, making eye contact with the dwarven priestess before vanishing from view, the cleric's spell having returned him to Hell. She realized he could simply return through the same <em>well of many worlds</em> if he wished, but she also understood that Hell was infinitely large and it was unlikely he'd been returned close enough for him to take advantage of that temporary (hopefully temporary!) portal to the Material Plane.</p><p></p><p>With the chain devil gone, the animated skeletal horse wandered up to Wakuren, fitting its bony body - which still had chunks of flesh attached here and there, each bloody morsel showing bite marks from the numerous devils who had tormented it to death - between the partially-demolished wagon and the western wall. "Oh, you poor thing," Wakuren said to himself, before holding up his holy symbol of Cal and blasting the animated skeleton to smithereens with a burst of holy energy.</p><p></p><p>Over at the front door, Zander opted not to wait for Xandro to check it out for traps, rightly figuring the devils had no need for such measures. Pulling it open, the elf's sensitive ears noted the sounds of voices coming from the right - the kitchen, as Hadrian had told them before they set off around the force shield. (The stairs leading to the basement were immediately to the left upon entering the front door, the elf recalled.) But not wanting to be ambushed from behind if he went immediately down the stairs, the sorcerer crept quietly toward the kitchen.</p><p></p><p>Inside the kitchen there was quite a spectacle. The floor was covered in hacked-apart foodstuffs, as the two bearded devils standing therein had created a game for themselves to alleviate the boredom of waiting for the force shield to diminish away to nothingness after Hadrian's eventual death: one would toss an object - an apple, perhaps, or a potato - into the air and the other would try to chop it into two with his glaive before it hit the floor. So intent were they on their little game they failed to notice the entry of the first batch of heroes and likewise failed to realize the import of the chords of the song of inspirational courage drifting in from outside. (Robin remained pressed up against the outer wall of the house, just to the east of the front door, not wanting to make herself a target.)</p><p></p><p>Thurloe was the first one to enter the kitchen, pushing his way past Zander again in his haste to allow his blade to taste fiendish blood. Xandro was right behind him and their twin blades each struck the closest bearded devil, who shrieked in pain and outrage at these interlopers having spoiled their game. But then the realization hit that if these strangers had made their way into the ring of six stone pillars, the accursed force shield must finally be down, and his bearded face broke out into a wicked grin. Alewyth removed the grin from his face post-haste when she cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell into the kitchen, catching both barbazu in its area of effect, covering them with holy flames much different from the comfortable flames of Hell. Wakuren entered the house behind his fellow cleric, making his way towards the kitchen as well.</p><p></p><p>Zander focused upon the second bearded devil, the one farther away from Thurloe and Xandro, and sent a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell his way. He supposed these bearded devils also had some level of resistance against spells, but unlike his <em>magic missile</em> attack on the hellcat outside, this one struck true and seemed to deal a fair amount of damage to the surprised fiend. While the first devil focused its attention upon Thurloe (missing with its glaive strike at the spellsword), the other moved up beside his partner and used his weapon's greater reach to cut into the flesh on Alewyth's left arm. The wound began to fester almost immediately; to the dwarf, it seemed as if the gash had been filled with painful acid that continued eating away at her with each passing second.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe and Xandro continued their attacks upon the first bearded devil, while Alewyth dropped back and tried casting a healing spell upon her infernal wound. Surprisingly, the spell had no effect, which caused no small amount of panic in the dwarven priestess of Aerik. But Wakuren tried a healing spell of his own and managed to overcome the infernal wound's resistance to healing energy, causing Alewyth to breathe a heavy sigh of relief.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast another <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the one he'd already hit, and it backed up in pain, obviously staggered from the electrical attack. The other bearded devil continued its attacks upon Thurloe, while the other one apparently decided it wanted nothing more to do with melee combat against these powerful mortals; it <em>teleported</em> one room away, to the library that formed the entire bottom floor of the stone tower, to warn the two barbed devils there of the intruders and their surprising level of spellpower.</p><p></p><p>Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Robin stepped into the house through the open front door. Her fingers continued playing her magical tune, while her eyes glanced across the room to seek out any potential dangers. The room was apparently a living room or a lounge area, with a sofa and a couple of chairs, but no active combatants - judging from the sounds of combat coming from her right, they were currently confined to the kitchen.</p><p></p><p>The sounds of battle from the kitchen came to an abrupt halt when Thurloe pierced the bearded devil's belly with the blade of his sword. He stepped further into the room and then ducked through the open fireplace that connected kitchen to living room - the last fire, fortunately, having long since been nothing more than cold ashes. He stared at the door in the curved stone wall of the living area, the likeliest place - other than the doorway leading downstairs, which was also in his field of view - for any devilish reinforcements to show up.</p><p></p><p>With a moment's combat reprieve, Xandro pulled the <em>Dardolian Lute</em> from his back and, using his <em>dire elk pick</em>, played the tune that summoned the megaloceros into being smack dab in the middle of the living area. That way, the bard-rogue figured, any devil reinforcements would have a target that was not him or any of his adventuring partners to have to deal with first. Alewyth, seeing the logic of that plan, followed suit by using a <em>summon nature's ally</em> spell to call forth a celestial brown bear to manifest beside Xandroi's dire elk.</p><p></p><p>The barbed devils in the library had been playing their own boredom-reducing game: as the center of the room held an enclosed spiral staircase leading up to the top floor of the tower, one barbed devil would take a book from the shelf and toss it either to the right or to the left, and it was up to the other one to hit it with a <em>scorching ray</em> before it fell to the floor. The ashes and smoldering books covering the floor of the lower level showed this game was about to come to a forced end by lack of new books to use, when the bearded devil had <em>teleported</em> in to warn its more powerful brethren of the dangerous foes in the kitchen. It gasped out its message before collapsing to the floor amid a cloud of book-dust, its every last ounce of vitality having been extinguished.</p><p></p><p>With a burst through the library door, the two barbed devils - each towering over the heroes, who stood at most nearly half their size - exploded into the living area. One went straight for the dire elk standing immediately before it, while the other skirted around its companion and went for Thurloe, rising to a standing position after having crawled into the living area through the fireplace. Zander, recalling the success he'd had with <em>lightning bolt</em> spells against the devils so far, cast another such spell at the barbed devil attacking Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>Robin, still playing the song of inspirational courage and wishing it could do more to slow the speed of her own frightened heart, slowly slid along the front wall and stepped into the kitchen, where her friends could still hear her music but there was no longer any combat taking place. She stepped carefully so as not to slip in the chopped up fruits and vegetables covering the majority of the kitchen floor.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe mentally activated his <em>torc of the titans</em> to boost his own strength and brought <em>Spellslicer</em> slamming into the barbed devil approaching him - and did quite a number on his hands gripping the weapon as he did so, for a great number of the devil's wicked spines pierced his flesh as he brought his blade to bear. He cried out in pain and Xandro, having just crawled through the fireplace behind the spellsword, cast a <em>cure light wounds</em> spell on him to take away the worst of the injuries. Meanwhile, the dire elk, heedless of his own safety, swung his massive rack of antlers at the other barb-covered hamatula, but it dodged the blow with ease.</p><p></p><p>From near the kitchen doorway, Wakuren tried casting a <em>blindness/deafness</em> spell at the hamatula fighting the dire elk, but he ran afoul of the fiend's innate spell resistance. Alewyth cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> and sent a dwarven warhammer made of solid force energy flying over the celestial bruin's broad back to strike the barbed devil in combat with Thurloe. Fortunately, the devil's resistance to spells was unable to overcome this particular spell, and the force-hammer clonked it a good one in the side of his head. The bear swiped a pair of claws at the same devil at about the same time, but it was unsuccessful for the hammer-clonking had forced the barbed devil to step to the side at the last moment. Then it made a surprise maneuver, reaching over the celestial brown bear to grab at Wakuren, snatching him off his feet and dragging him in for a painful embrace that sent numerous sharp spines piercing the half-orc through his metal armor. The other one performed a similar maneuver against Thurloe, a great number of wicked spines stabbing into the spellsword's chest and thighs. Both front-line heroes were much the worse for wear after these brutal attacks, and the success of their joint venture brought wicked smiles to the barbed devils' spiny faces - these "heroes" might have fought their way through the bearded devils with relative ease, but the hamatulas were made of much more powerful stuff!</p><p></p><p>Zander crawled through the fireplace and sent a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell crashing over Thurloe's head and through the upper body of the hamatula he was fighting. The spellsword used his <em>anklet of translocation</em> to <em>dimension door</em> himself back to the relative safety of the kitchen, nearly slipping in a pile of squashed apple chunks when he landed. Xandro backed his way through the fireplace and cast another <em>cure light wounds</em> spell on Thurloe, who looked like he needed much more powerful healing, but that was all the bard-rogue could do for him, and he figured every little bit helped.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren extracted himself from the barbed devil's embrace and momentarily hid behind the body of the great celestial bruin, using him as a shield to cast a <em>cure serious wounds</em> spell on himself that he desperately needed. The dire elk tried getting the barbed fiend's attention with another swipe of its antlers, but the crafty devil had by this time realized the summoned animals were easily ignored; the real threats were these adventurers! But Alewyth added to the mix by summoning a fiendish dire wolf, thinking to fight fire with fire by sending fiend after fiend. It snapped its jaws at the nearest devil, with no success. Alewyth's <em>spiritual warhammer</em> fared better, clonking the same devil another time in the side of his barbed head, while her celestial bear swiped again in vain with a set of sharp claws.</p><p></p><p>The barbed devil that had grappled with Thurloe was by this time quite the worse for wear, and he backed off against the curved stone wall of the tower keep, casting forth an <em>unholy blight</em> that killed the celestial brown bear outright and put a serious hurt on all of the other heroes save Xandro, whose fortunate position in the kitchen just to the side of the open fireplace prevented him from being within range, and Robin, who likewise had a solid wall between her and the barbed devil making the unholy attack. The other devil, trying to intimidate the heroes with a show of superior strength, brought its spiny fists down upon the head of the fiendish dire wolf, crushing its skull and sending it vanishing into oblivion. "Who wants some of that?" it taunted the heroes. "Get out of here while you still can, while we go explore the world beyond the blue bubble!" None of the heroes gave the fiend a reply, but several of them picked up on the fact that the barbed devil apparently thought the force shield surrounding Hadrian's estate was permanently lowered.</p><p></p><p>Zander replied with another <em>lightning bolt</em> spell directed at the barbed devil that had cast the <em>unholy blight</em> spell, slaying it outright to the surprise and consternation of the other hamatula. Robin, seeing the vile fiend slain, started playing her song of inspirational courage with a little more fortitude behind it - the heroes just might be able to pull this off after all!</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, not willing to wait for one of the clerics to have a free moment to see to his wounds, drank down a <em>potion of cure moderate wounds</em> from his own private stash, while Xandro cast another <em>cure light wounds</em> spell upon him to help him regain his full fighting strength. Meanwhile, out in the living area, as the dire elk made another ineffectual attack against the remaining hamatula, Wakuren decided to go for it, leaping at the barbed devil with an overhead swing of his <em>shield of Cal</em>, after having channeled holy energy into the shield in an attempt to smite the evil fiend before him, and fully willing to take some damage if it meant dealing out even more damage to his foe. He screamed in pain as the fiend's spikes stabbed into his flesh, but Alewyth was right there behind him to cast a <em>cure critical wounds</em> spell on him after he disengaged.</p><p></p><p>But the half-orc's maneuver seemed to be the turning point in the fight. As Alewyth's <em>spiritual warhammer</em> was redirected to this second foe, it grabbed for Wakuren again, but this time failed to take purchase of the armored cleric-paladin. Zander cast an <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> spell that caught the barbed devil in a myriad of writhing appendages, also catching up the dire elk but considering it a small price to pay for at least the temporary reprieve of a moment while the devil had to <em>teleport</em> away from the ebon tentacles if it couldn't rip its way through using brute force. The dire elk, however, continued pressing the attack against the barbed devil with his impressive rack of antlers and with the fiend unable to move out of the way, this time the attack was successful. The sorcerer failed to notice that the sphere of tentacles rising up from the living area floor also blocked the way to the stairs leading down to the lower level, where they needed to go.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe, still woozy from blood loss from his many wounds, drank down a second potion while Xandro pumped the last bit of healing energy into the spellsword via his final <em>cure light wounds</em> spell for the day. But Wakuren wanted to press the attack against the barbed devil while it was still an option, so he leaped at the edge of the grasping tentacles, bringing the pointed bottom edge of his <em>shield of Cal</em> down upon the barbed devil's head with all the strength he could muster, even though it meant more punishment from the fiend's many sharp spikes. Alewyth joined her fellow cleric in the attack, accepting the multiple piercings from the fiend's wicked spikes as the price to whack him a good one with <em>Sjondra</em>. And above her head, Alewyth's <em>spiritual warhammer</em> continued its own attacks.</p><p></p><p>That was enough for the barbed devil. He <em>teleported</em> into the kitchen, part of which he could see through the open fireplace. He ended up manifesting right next to Zander, which caused the poor sorcerer to bleat in terror and instinctively hurl a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the fiend, once again getting his spell past the devil's spell resistance. Robin saw the devil's presence in the kitchen and scooted back into the living room, never once missing a beat from her magical tune.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe had healed himself up to the point he was ready for some hand-to-hand combat again, and stepped to the devil's side, swinging <em>Spellslicer</em> for all he was worth. And Xandro blasted the fiend with a <em>sound burst</em> from his <em>Dardolian Lute</em>, none of which the barbed devil appreciated overly much - he'd come here to escape the kind of punishment he was taking in the living room!</p><p></p><p>About that time, the dire elk suddenly vanished - the duration of his summoning having expired - and the <em>Elobar's black tentacles</em> found nothing within their grasp. Wakuren scrambled through the fireplace, swatting the barbed devil with his shield, finding it a way in which he could avoid being stabbed with numerous spikes and barbed spines when attacking the fiend, as long as he was sure to strike with the shield's flat front face. But it was Alewyth casting a <em>searing light</em> spell at the devil and her <em>spiritual warhammer</em> flying through the open fireplace to continue its attacks that finally told the barbed devil that enough was enough - with another <em>teleport</em>, he was gone from the kitchen to parts unknown, although the group knew he had to be somewhere within Hadrian's life-force-powered force shield surrounding his home.</p><p></p><p>"Cancel your spell!" ordered Wakuren as he ran towards the stairs. Zander obediently dismissed the <em>black tentacles</em> as the half-orc crashed down the stairs, Alewyth hot on his heels. They were the first to make it to the bottom of the stairs, and thus the first to see the devils gathered together there.</p><p></p><p>Directly across from the bottom of the stairs was a closet of shelves, each containing various spell components, and perched upon one shelf was a little imp, gleefully mixing items together and chuckling madly whenever he caused the mixture to bubble or turn colors. But on the floor before him was a black, circular opening - surely the <em>well of many worlds</em> - and examining it was a large-headed devil in wizard's robes: an amnizu. Standing at his side was the harried barbed devil from upstairs, frantically describing to the amnizu the amount of permanent devil-death those mortal adventurers had been dealing upstairs.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren picked up the thread of the conversation, saying, "Above all else, we want to prevent a devil incursion through this portal. If it means slaying everyone who's come over thus far, then that's what we'll do. But if you return to Hell right now, we will allow you to live. You're potentially immortal - you decide whether fighting us and facing a permanent death on this plane is a chance you're willing to take!" Alewyth, who would much rather slay all of the devils she could, opted not to argue and followed Wakuren's lead - even she knew the five heroes had blown through a lot of their most powerful spells and wouldn't be able to hold off any new reinforcements indefinitely.</p><p></p><p>"They killed both bearded devils, plus the other barbed devil with me, and possibly the kyton and hellcat outside!" the wounded hamatula confirmed.</p><p></p><p>"Both of them, dead - and the undead horse the kocrachon raised, after we killed the kocrachon," Wakuren added, figuring banishing the chain devil back to Hell was close enough to a confirmed kill.</p><p></p><p>The amnizu thought it over for a total of about three seconds before readily agreeing. "Back in the portal!" he commanded the imp, but the barbed devil beat him to it, leaping through the <em>well of many worlds</em> before Wakuren could change his mind.</p><p></p><p>"There's an erinyes in here somewhere, too," Alewyth added. "Send her through or we'll kill her when we find her."</p><p></p><p>"Done," the amnizu replied after sending a telepathic summons to the erinyes, who was busy at the top floor of the tower looking through Hadrian's dresser drawers. She soon flew down to join the amnizu, pushing her way past the other heroes on the stairs (after Wakuren called to them to let her pass), and together the two devils leaped through the portal. The half-orc then rolled it up, closing the gateway to Hell.</p><p></p><p>"Now what?" Zander asked, joining the others downstairs.</p><p></p><p>"Got a <em>scorching ray</em>?" Wakuren asked him. He did, and soon the dangerous item was burning away.</p><p></p><p>The threat having been dealt with, the six heroes returned to the perimeter, motioning through the force shield for Hadrian to head far enough away to let them back out. He and Scarlie got the message and were off, and soon enough the two groups were reunited back by Hadrian's makeshift lean-to at the base of the tree in which Lowell had his nest.</p><p></p><p>"Now what will you do?" Alewyth asked, after they had regaled the wizard with the tale of what they had seen and done inside his home. "Can you even get back into your house with the force shield up?"</p><p></p><p>"If I move far enough back that it drops, and then stay away for 12 hours or more, that would probably break the connection," Hadrian mused. "Or...or you could just smash the six stone pillars. Without them in place, the force shield will lose its cohesiveness almost immediately."</p><p></p><p>"Do you want us to do that?" Xandro asked. "I'm sure you put a lot of effort into getting those built precisely to specifications."</p><p></p><p>The old man sighed. "And I'm too old now to be able to finish the job," he said, for the advanced aging caused by his life force powering his prototype force shield hadn't - and wasn't about to - be restored. "Go ahead and smash them - it's better than me getting stuck inside my own force shield without being able to get back out again, if anything were to cause it to snap back into place." Alewyth nodded her understanding and hefted <em>Sjondra</em>, eager to be about the business at hand.</p><p></p><p>"So what will you do now?" Zander asked Hadrian.</p><p></p><p>"I suppose I'll just live out whatever months or years are left me out here in the woods. Lowell's here to help catch fresh meat, and there are edible plants and mushrooms to be found in the woods...but my days of being a wizard are behind me, I fear, with all of my spellbooks burned to ashes."</p><p></p><p>"You poor man," Robin commiserated.</p><p></p><p>"Don't feel too bad for me. I'm the victim of my own folly." And Hadrian gazed wistfully into the distance, as if saying goodbye to to the life he had originally expected to live, experimenting on his force shield out in the woods where he was unlikely to be bothered.</p><p></p><p>Once Alewyth had smashed the pillars and the force shield dissipated as predicted, Hadrian led them into his home to assess the damage. At his insistence, he gave them a sack full of diamonds, a magical dagger, and seven potions he had created downstairs in his lab. "I'm sure these will be of more use to you than to me," he said. Thurloe shot Alewyth a look that said, "Don't even think about not accepting his payment."</p><p></p><p>And with a sad farewell, the heroes said goodbye to the elderly wizard they knew to be all of 27 years old, returning to their wagon and animals and heading back the way they had come, until the path became a road again and they could veer off in the direction of the next dreamer needing help awakening.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Vicki usually brings homemade brownies to our game sessions, but this time she switched to vanilla cupcakes, and for a good reason: it was Dan's birthday. The fact that he chose to spend four hours of his birthday playing in our every-other-Saturday game says a lot about how much we're enjoying our campaign.</p><p></p><p>Some of our more recent adventures have been fairly easy on the PCs, due to lucky die rolls, but this one was a lot more exciting - I had boith Wakuren and Thurloe down to 2 hp each during the course of our battles! Had they failed their grapple checks (to avoid being "bear hugged" by the barbed devils), I could easily have had two PC deaths on my hands during this session (which would have been a pretty poor birthday gift!). But it was admittedly nice to see them worried for their PCs for a change!</p><p></p><p>As this was adventure #50, the PCs all made it to 11th level and our campaign is now exactly halfway done.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My TARDIS T-shirt, as I didn't have anything more appropriate, and with the <em>well of many worlds</em> in Hadrian's basement, his house was technically "bigger on the inside" (infinite, in fact) "than it was on the outside."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9025175, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 50: HELL ON ERTHE[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 10[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 5[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 4[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 10[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Robin the Balladeer, human bard 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Scarlie Besker, half-orc commoner 5[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 6 May 2023 - - - Alewyth lifted [I]Sjondra[/I] up to her face and spoke into the dreamstone embedded on one side of the hammer's face. "How much further to the dreamer, Mogo?" she asked. The moogle replied, his kittenish voice being broadcast across the planes through the dreamstones. "Less than half a mile. straight ahead, kupo!" The dwarven priestess dismounted from her dire goat Pyrite and tied his reins to the side of the mule-driven wagon. "We'll have to leave the wagon and mounts here and continue on on foot," she told the others. "Our road has become little more than a deer path at this point, and the wagon's not going to make it through the rest of these trees." Sure enough, the mules had been brushing up against low branches in the Oakpine Woods and did not seem to particularly like it. The others climbed down out of their saddles and fastened reins to the wagon, with Scarlie once again volunteering to look after the animals while the dreamwalkers and Robin went about their business. Thurloe led the way, his bastard sword [I]Spellslicer[/I] out and ready, dodging around trees but trying to keep in a more-or-less northerly direction. And sure enough, eventually the woods opened into a clearing, inside of which was likely the house they had been seeking. However, it was not at all quite like they had expected. For one thing, this was no backwoods cabin but a rather impressive single story wooden building with a two-story stone tower off to the west side, and a separate wooden structure - likely a stables or a cart shed - off to the right. But the buildings stood all alone in the middle of a circular clearing in the middle of the woods, surrounded at equal distances by six large stone structures, monolithic in style and structure. And these stone pillars were the boundary of the home's strangest feature: a bluish, solid hemisphere of force that completely enclosed the entire structure. "If our dreamer's in there, I don't know how we're going to get in to wake him," the spellsword informed the others. "There's somebody inside," Xandro pointed out. Sure enough, a blue-toned figure went from behind the main building into a door in the side of the stables. From their distant vantage point, he looked to be wearing ripped rags, and while his skin seemed to be blue that was likely an effect of the force shield through which they were viewing him. "I'm going to go check it out," Wakuren announced, casting an [I]air walk[/I] spell upon himself. Then, activating his [I]ring of invisibility[/I], he vanished from view as he strode into the clearing and began climbing his way up to the top of the hemispherical force shield. Standing at its very top, he looked down in all directions, noticing what looked to be an angel - white-feathered wings growing from her back and all - rounding the west side of the house and stepping into the front door. Before he lost sight of her, Wakuren sent his senses flowing her way, trying to detect any evil emanations she might be giving off, for he was well aware there was a species of devil called an erinyes that looked every bit the angel - he'd met up with several of them during the "wake" of the dead wizard Seamus Volossio. But while the figure gave off no aura of evil, Wakuren couldn't be sure if it were because she truly was a celestial being or if the force shield somehow blocked such senses. However, something else caught the half-orc's attention from his 50-foot-high vantage point. Off to the northeast, alongside a lone oak tree inside the relatively circular clearing, was a lean-to structure seemingly made of intertwined branches, and beneath this rude dwelling stuck out a pair of human legs. Thinking he might have found their dreamer after all, Wakuren went back to the others and explained what he had seen. The general consensus was not to alert anything inside the blue bubble if they could help it, so Thurloe led everyone in a wide arc through the forest, which allowed them to approach the man beside the oak tree from the forest side, with the tree hopefully blocking the sight of anyone looking from inside the bubble. The man stirred at the sound of their approach, rising quickly and then, seeing the approaching heroes, exploding with a heartfelt, "Oh, thank the gods! I've prayed for someone to come to my rescue!" Well, this wasn't the dreamer they had been seeking, that was for sure. The man introduced himself as [B]Hadrian Pascobelli[/B] and he looked every bit the hobo: he wore a bedraggled-looking robe of indiscriminate color, streaked as it was with mud and dirt; his hair and beard were in tangles; and his weathered face - surely that of a man in his late sixties - wore a put-upon expression, as if lately fate had been giving him the short end of the stick. If any of the dreamwalkers had been forced to hazard a guess as to his occupation, more than one of them would have found "hermit" to have topped their list. "Look at me!" Hadrian said. "How old do you think I am?" Then, without waiting for a reply, he answered hi sown question. "I'm [I]27 years old![/I] At the rate I'm aging, I'll be dead in a couple of days! You've got to help me!" "What can we do?" asked Alewyth. "What's causing this unnatural aging?" Taking a deep breath, Hadrian began his story. "Three weeks ago, I got hold of a [I]well of many worlds[/I] - a circle of fabric which, when unrolled, opens up a [I]planar gate[/I] to a random plane of existence. I was experimenting with it downstairs in my summoning chamber, when a devil popped out of it - it had apparently linked up with one of the levels of Hell. Almost immediately, several more started entering my basement through the [I]well[/I]. I fought them off as best as I could and held my ground for a bit, but after using up my most powerful spells I started to lose ground. Getting to the [I]well[/I] and rolling it back up was no longer possible, as I was forced to retreat back up the stairs to the ground level." Hadrian was staring off into the distance as he told his tale. "I made it outside the house when I saw the six pillars I had erected around it. They were the cornerstones of a magical field of energy I was working on - that's the whole reason I built my home out here, in the middle of nowhere, where I wouldn't be disturbed. I knew the field was theoretically possible, but I had yet to finish it. So in the heat of my panic, knowing that I could potentially be responsible for opening a permanent portal between our world and Hell that would allow fiends to encompass the entire planet, I used up the last [I]wish[/I] in my [I]ring of three wishes[/I] to erect the shield which even now encompasses my home and keeps the devils imprisoned within." "That was quick thinking," commended Alewyth. "No, it was idiocy of the highest order!" countered Hadrian. "I could have wished that I hadn't activated the [I]well of many worlds[/I], or that it opened up into a celestial realm instead of Hell, but instead I wished to contain them inside an unfinished force shield whose design I had yet to work all of the bugs out of. So, as a result, the force shield was activated, but without any other power source to run it, it tied it in to my own life force, which has caused my rapid aging! And worse, the farther I step away from the field, the weaker it gets, so I can't even go too far away or the whole thing will shut off and I'll have released a potentially infinite horde of devils to ravage the planet! I've been trapped here, without any of my spellbooks - they're all inside - and I've been reduced to using my few remaining [I]magic missile[/I] spells to bring down rabbits and squirrels as my meals!" The elderly-looking wizard wrung his hands over his face at his predicament. Zander looked over at the ashes of a nearby campfire, and sure enough there were the bones of a few of Hadrian's recent meals in with the burnt sticks. "And on top of it all," Hadrian added, "my owl familiar [B]Lowell[/B] has been stuck up in his nest since around the time I opened the gate to the level of Hell! I don't know if the two events are related, but without Lowell I've had no means of communicating with the outside world!" "Well, we can help you on that front," said Wakuren, reactivating his [I]ring of invisibility[/I] and [I]air walking[/I] up to the top of the tree by which Hadrian had built his lean-to shelter. He cradled the sleeping owl in his arms and returned to the ground level, to find Alewyth had already explained the reason for their presence and their ability to awaken creatures who had become trapped in their dreams. "We'll wake Lowell up first," Alewyth promised, "and then we'll see what we can do about your devil problem." Wakuren, returning to visibility, led the other four heroes back into the deeper forest, while Robin was sent back to the wagons, specifically to fetch Scarlie and have him bring Hadrian some food while she returned to watch over the dreamwalkers while they performed their ritual. By the time she got back, Zander's [I]jade cooshee[/I] had been activated and the young bard found herself sharing guard duty with a life-sized, living and breathing elven dog. "One of these days," she told the cooshee while rubbing him under the chin, "that silly elf's going to have to come up with a name for you." In the Dreamlands, each of the five dreamwalkers were met up with their individual moogle guides and led to the Corridor of Dreams, where once again Mogo fluttered by a particular door. "This is the dream you're looking for, kupo!" he told them, pulling to door open and ushering them inside the dreamscape. Stepping into the dream, they found themselves on a forest path not too dissimilar to the one they'd been following before it faded into a mere deer path. But there was a clearing ahead, and inside the clearing was the dream as they had peeked at it the other day, when they were still too far away to successfully interact with the dreamer. A humanoid owl-man - whose avian features, they now realized, matched up remarkably well with Lowell the owl familiar - was being menaced by a group of seven animal-men hybrids: a squirrel, a rabbit, a hedgehog, an otter, a mouse, a ferret, and a weasel. Each stood roughly the size of a human, and on two legs, and each wielded some type of weapon, all pointed at Lowell, who in this dream sequence was unarmed save for the owlish talons on the ends of his fingers and the sharp beak at the front of his face. "We've had enough of you and your kind eatin' us and our kind," sneered the rabbitfolk, hopping forward and bringing his halberd's blade down at Lowell. The owlkin tried to step aside at the last moment to avoid being cut but ended up with a deep slash along one arm. From the owl's other side, the squirrelkin darted in, stabbing Lowell in the side with his sharp spear. Xandro was the first to react among the dreamwalkers, and although Robin now normally took care of playing the song of inspirational courage for the group in the real world, here in the Dreamlands the task fell to him. Wakuren reacted next, summoning forth an axiomatic giant wasp and sending it to attack the hulking, hunched-over hedgehog, who wielded a sharp-looking dagger dripping with some sort of venomous substance. The wasp's stinger struck true, but the burly mammal managed to resist the worst of the venom's effects. Zander quickly judged distances and planted a [I]fireball[/I] spell such that its expanding flames encompassed all of Lowell's attackers but the hedgehog. It was apparent when the flames finished their exploding expansion that all six critters had felt the effects of the spell to one extent or another. The otter was the next to attack, hitting Lowell with his longspear. By this time, having taken three successful attacks, Lowell was feeling very much the worse for wear. Alewyth came to his rescue in an indirect fashion by casting her own summoning spell as she moved up to attack the animal-men; her spell caused a fiendish dire wolf to manifest by the otter before she could reach him herself. The dire wolf made short work of the otterfolk, clamping down upon a furry arm and pulling the lanky creature down to the ground. Thurloe didn't have a whole lot of spells prepared in the real world that would be of particular help in this fight, but he perhaps best among the five realized that in the Dreamlands that was no impediment at all. Using the lucid dreaming training Mogo taught them each night as they slept, he imagined a different spell selection having been made that morning and cast an [I]enlarge person[/I] spell upon Lowell, thinking the increase in size would bring about a healthier constitution and a more fearsome appearance. While the second effect was perhaps true, all the size increase had really done for Lowell was to make him that much of a bigger target to hit, and so far the animal-men had all but ignored the dreamwalkers and their summoned companions. As if to bring home the fact, the mouseling shot an arrow at Lowell's now towering figure, catching the owlkin in the chest (straight through the tweed vest he wore). At Wakuren's shouted advice, Lowell backed up away from at least physical combat range so one of the clerics could heal him. But the hedgehogfolk was forced to direct his attention at the giant wasp trying to sting him. He stabbed out twice in rapid succession with his envenomed blade, and sure enough the poison had an effect upon the wasp more than just the wound it opened in the side of its thorax: it lost a bit of its fighting strength, as muscles weakened by the impact of the blade's magical venom. With Lowell currently out of stabbing range and a fiendish dire wolf blocking the way to go get him, the weaselkin stabbed the point of his spear at the wolf, catching it in the side of his shaggy throat. The rabbit's halberd and the squirrel's spearhead likewise cut into the wolf's pelt, a necessary precursor to them being able to attack the owlkin as they truly desired. But Lowell wasn't entirely out of harm's way, as the weasel let fly with a longbow arrow that caught the giant owl-man in the shoulder. Xandro moved up, pointing the [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] at the hedgehog and letting loose with a [I]sound burst[/I] effect that had the spiny critter cringing in momentary pain. Wakuren took the opportunity to pull the arrows from Lowell's body and apply the soothing effects of a [I]cure serious wounds[/I] spell to the owl-man. The half-orc's summoned wasp pressed on the attack against the hedgehog, who by all appearances not only seemed to be the group's leader but also its potentially most deadly member with that [I]dagger of venom[/I] he wielded. Zander cast another spell, an [I]Elobar's black tentacles[/I] that engulfed all foes but the otterfolk and the hedgehog in its crushing embrace. The humanoid otter crawled back to his feet, only to be attacked by the fiendish dire wolf again as he did so and end up flat on his face again on the forest floor, the lupine's great paw pinning him in place. And by then Alewyth had finished her approach, bringing [I]Sjondra[/I] crashing down upon the hapless otterfolk. The wolf lowered his head and nipped at the back of the otter's furry neck while he was at it, killing him by the crushing power of his jaws. Thurloe had likewise arrived within combat range by this time, and he brought his bastard sword slicing into the hedgehog's side, just as the stout fellow slew the giant hornet, causing the insect to vanish back to the plane from which he had been summoned. The hedgehog fell forward from Thurloe's blow, and after that it was a simple matter to take out the rest of the animal-men, for five of them were tightly squeezed by jet-black tentacles rising up from the forest floor and the hedgehog had been wounded beyond easy recovery. Once all seven humanoid animals had been slain, the trees in the dreamscape started vanishing, a sure sign that Lowell - the real owl familiar, not the half-human hybrid wearing a tweed vest in his dream - was waking up. Hadrian was overjoyed when the five dreamwalkers and Robin returned to his lean-to with his owl back awake and perched on Wakuren's shoulder; once the familiar got within sight of his master he flew the distance and alit upon Hadrian's shoulder instead. But the bedraggled wizard was also focused upon scarfing down the trail rations Scarlie had brought him, as his own food sources had been rather scarce of late. Once the wizard had finished his meager meal, the group got down to business: how to deal with the devils who had infiltrated Hadrian's home from the [I]well of many worlds[/I] in his basement? He knew from past experience that the farther away from the force shield he strayed, the weaker it became, and this proved to be the cornerstone for their eventual plan: Hadrian would slowly start walking away from his home, while the five heroes and Robin would each station themselves equidistant around the blue globe, pushing against it at the midpoint between the two closest stone pillars. Eventually, the force shield would shut off, allowing the six heroes to enter the perimeter; at that point, Lowell - stationed back in his nest - would inform Hadrian of his success, and the wizard would return at best speed back to the tree, bringing the force shield back up to full strength again (only now with the heroes trapped inside the hemisphere with an unknown number of devils). Thurloe and Wakuren further enhanced the plan by having everyone reconnoiter at the back of Hadrian's house, so Zander could cast a [I]haste[/I] spell on the whole group, then Wakuren would pick up [I]Hesperna's lamp[/I] with the other five hidden inside, turn invisible, and make his way into the house and down to the basement, where they could hopefully grab the [I]well of many worlds[/I] without encountering too much resistance. "Okay, it's a plan," agreed Thurloe. "Prep spells, and then we go in." The spellsword cast a [I]shield[/I] spell on himself from his wand, then passed it over to Zander so the elf could do the same. Zander also cast the spells [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]stoneskin[/I] on himself, while Alewyth cast the spells [I]aid[/I] and [I]shield of faith[/I] on herself and [I]bless[/I] and [I]prayer[/I] on the assembled group. Wakuren covered himself in [I]entropic shield[/I], [I]shield of faith[/I], [I]bull's strength[/I], and [I]bear's endurance[/I] spells, then converted some of the positive energy he normally would channel into a chance to turn undead into a [I]divine shield[/I] effect instead. Xandro, as per usual, cast three [I]heroism[/I] spells on the heroes most likely to find themselves in the front lines of battle: Alewyth, Thurloe, and Wakuren. Then the half-orc activated his [I]ring of invisibility[/I] again and the group surrounded the wizard's home, each stepping into an arc between two of the six support pillars. Robin was visibly nervous, not only because she wasn't used to be as close to impending battle as the five heroes with whom she traveled, but also because her lute remained on her back, as her normal combat role - providing a song of inspirational courage to help stir the others to greater combat exploits - was not to be this time, as the group hoped to avoid the attention of any devils in the vicinity until they could gather together behind Hadrian's house and enter [I]Hesperna's lamp[/I]. Hadrian began his retreat away from his home, heading in a straight line as far away as he could go; Scarlie, no trained combat specialist but able to hold his own in a fight, accompanied him as a bodyguard of sorts. After a minute or so, Hadrian felt a burst of excitement over the empathic link he shared with Lowell and realized the six heroes must have made it through his force shield. Explaining what he'd felt to Scarlie, the two reversed course and returned to the oak tree just inside the clearing where Hadrian had been living for the last three weeks. And sure enough, even though the blue tint of the force shield made it difficult to make out a whole lot of details, Hadrian and Scarlie could tell the heroes were now inside the circumference of the six stone pillars. "Here's hoping they can make it to the [I]well of many worlds[/I] in time," Hadrian voiced aloud, a note of worry in his voice - for he knew the likely fate of the world if they failed in this mission. Zander moved straight to the back of the house after breaching the force shield, for he'd been stationed in the back to start with. His still-active cooshee kept by his master's heels. Robin had been one arc away from the elf sorcerer, and she gratefully stepped up beside him, a fairly safe place to be in case of any trouble, for while the elf was not much of a physical combatant he had perhaps the most deadly arsenal of spells among the assembled group of heroes. Thurloe had been given the arc directly in front of the house, and he dashed between the main building and the smaller structure to the right, passing a door on the side of the wagon shed and hearing some sort of smashing noise coming from within. But he forced himself to ignore the distraction and head straight to the back yard. Reaching the back, he turned the corner to head over by Zander and Robin - and was immediately scratched along the front of his right thigh by a pair of unseen claws. However, "unseen" was perhaps too strong of a word. As the spellsword turned to face the likely position of his invisible attacker, he saw a brief flash of the barest outline of a creature the same general size and build of an adult lion. "Hellcat!" he cried out aloud, causing Zander and Robin - and Xandro, whose starting arc was the closest to the feline devil and would have been its initial attacker had Thurloe not literally walked right up to it - to turn in his direction and squint at the barely-noticeable outline of the hellcat's shape. But Xandro was able to get enough of an idea of its physical location to be able to creep up behind it and sent [I]Deathwhisper[/I]'s blade sinking deep into its back flank. The hellcat roared aloud in pain, making it quite obvious to the heroes that their eyes were not in fact playing tricks on them - there was a nearly-invisible feline devil before them! The hellcat spun about in place and brought both pairs of front claws and its wicked fangs reaching out for the impertinent human who had dared to attack it, but Xandro knew enough about hit-and-run tactics to back up out of immediate range; only one set of claws found any purchase at all against the rogue's armor, and the damage done was fortunately minimal. Wakuren followed Thurloe's path between the house and the wagon shed as Alewyth, off to the west of the house, activated her [I]butterfly brooch[/I] and flapped her wings to bring her up and over the house's single story roof, skirting her way around the two-story stone tower. Zander cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the hellcat, a spell normally infallible but in this case fizzling out to nothing upon impact due to the feline's inherent resistance to spells. Robin, at his side, pulled the lute from her back and started the initial chords to the song of inspirational courage - from the hellcat's roars of pain and anger, it was already fairly obvious that there was a battle raging in the back yard and they might as well get whatever magical advantage her song could provide them. Thurloe brought his bastard sword crashing into the hellcat's flank, personally glad it had turned its back on him to concentrate on attacking Xandro, who had caused it so much harm with his initial sword-strike. Of course, that likely meant the hellcat would now focus its attention on Thurloe, but the spellsword took comfort that he'd have five allies aiding him in taking this feline devil down. And with any luck, they could slay it in time to pull off their "hide in the lamp while Wakuren takes us invisibly to Hadrian's basement" plan before any of the hellcat's allies made an appearance.... On that front, Xandro provided all the firepower needed, feinting to the left to draw the hellcat's attention that way and then slashing its throat with a swing to the right. The fiendish lion-thing collapsed to the ground, giving further evidence that it had walked through an interplanar portal to get to the Material World instead of having been summoned here. However, the battle was not over - there wasn't even time for a breather before the side door opened in front of the still-invisible Wakuren and a beetle-devil the size of a man stepped in front of him. His innate ability to detect the forces of good told him there was some sort of mortal meddler immediately before him, so he snapped at the unseen half-orc with an impressive set of mandibles, but Wakuren stepped back out of harm's way in time. However, through the now-open door to the wagon shed, Wakuren could see a blue-skinned chain devil swinging his chains at the wooden wagon, tearing it to splinters one blow at a time out of sheer boredom and a desire to smash something. There were also the animated remains of a horse skeleton standing at the front of the shed, before the closed set of wooden doors at the front of the structure; the kocrachon beetle-devil had just raised the poor beast, long after the devils had attacked it and started eating the flesh from its bones before it had actually died of its wounds. Not one to pass up an opportunity dropped into his lap, Wakuren channeled positive energy into his [I]shield of Cal[/I] and performed an expertly-executed smite evil attack using every last ounce of strength he could muster. The impact was powerful enough to crack the kocrachon's carapace, and the half-orc cleric-paladin deemed losing his invisibility was a small price to pay for having dealt the forces of evil so big of a blow. Alewyth alit in the back yard next to the others, having arrived too late to see any of the combat with the hellcat. Zander ran up to the narrow lane between the two buildings - in which Wakuren and the kocrachon were battling - and, with everyone in his group of six heroes well within range, cast a [I]haste[/I] spell on the group. Robin continued on with her song, although her face held a look of sheer terror at the sight of the barely-seen dead hellcat and the very obviously still alive beetle-demon from the depths of Hell. Thurloe pushed his way past Zander and attacked the kocrachon from behind with his bastard sword. There wasn't any room for Xandro to fit in past the spellsword, so he held [I]Deathwhisper[/I] at the ready in case the beetle-thing somehow made it past Thurloe. But the kocrachon was rightly focused upon the half-orc standing immediately before it, although Wakuren managed to deflect the beetle-devil's attacks with his shield. He finished the insectoid fiend off with a final blow from the bottom tip of his shield, which came smashing down upon the kocrachon's head. As it fell to the ground in a tangle of insectoid limbs, Wakuren stepped over it and slammed the door closed, holding the doorknob in one hand to prevent the chain devil from getting through before the others could enter [I]Hesperna's lamp[/I], which he wore in a strap from his belt. Alewyth rose straight up into the air, butterfly wings flapping as hard as they could go, to ensure there weren't any other devils headed their way. There didn't seem to be, unless they were invisible like the hellcat. Zander abandoned the "hide in the lamp" plan and ran around the wagon shed over to front of the house, deciding they needed to get to the [I]well of many worlds[/I] as quickly as possible. The cooshee kept pace, with Robin following close behind, her fingers still strumming her inspirational tune. But inside the shed, the kyton opted to open the door in a different way than anticipated by Wakuren, by sending the animated chains he wore all along his body (and which had looked to be rags to the heroes when viewed from outside the blue-tinted force shield) smashing at the wooden door in rapid succession. The door shattered into splinters, leaving Wakuren holding a chunk of wood with a doorknob attached to it. "Uh oh," he said to himself. Thurloe brought his bastard sword up by his shoulder, ready to send it swinging into the kyton as soon as the chain devil emerged from the wagon shed. Wakuren took a step back from the doorway, so he too could lash out at the kyton when he appeared, using his shield in a concentrated attack while Thurloe attacked with his blade. Xandro, not liking the close quarters in which this next battle was looking to take place, ran around the shed to catch up to Robin. But then Alewyth lowered herself down to the roof level, from where she had a good view of the kyton approaching the open doorway. She cast a [I]dismissal[/I] spell and the blue-skinned chain devil looked up at her in surprise, making eye contact with the dwarven priestess before vanishing from view, the cleric's spell having returned him to Hell. She realized he could simply return through the same [I]well of many worlds[/I] if he wished, but she also understood that Hell was infinitely large and it was unlikely he'd been returned close enough for him to take advantage of that temporary (hopefully temporary!) portal to the Material Plane. With the chain devil gone, the animated skeletal horse wandered up to Wakuren, fitting its bony body - which still had chunks of flesh attached here and there, each bloody morsel showing bite marks from the numerous devils who had tormented it to death - between the partially-demolished wagon and the western wall. "Oh, you poor thing," Wakuren said to himself, before holding up his holy symbol of Cal and blasting the animated skeleton to smithereens with a burst of holy energy. Over at the front door, Zander opted not to wait for Xandro to check it out for traps, rightly figuring the devils had no need for such measures. Pulling it open, the elf's sensitive ears noted the sounds of voices coming from the right - the kitchen, as Hadrian had told them before they set off around the force shield. (The stairs leading to the basement were immediately to the left upon entering the front door, the elf recalled.) But not wanting to be ambushed from behind if he went immediately down the stairs, the sorcerer crept quietly toward the kitchen. Inside the kitchen there was quite a spectacle. The floor was covered in hacked-apart foodstuffs, as the two bearded devils standing therein had created a game for themselves to alleviate the boredom of waiting for the force shield to diminish away to nothingness after Hadrian's eventual death: one would toss an object - an apple, perhaps, or a potato - into the air and the other would try to chop it into two with his glaive before it hit the floor. So intent were they on their little game they failed to notice the entry of the first batch of heroes and likewise failed to realize the import of the chords of the song of inspirational courage drifting in from outside. (Robin remained pressed up against the outer wall of the house, just to the east of the front door, not wanting to make herself a target.) Thurloe was the first one to enter the kitchen, pushing his way past Zander again in his haste to allow his blade to taste fiendish blood. Xandro was right behind him and their twin blades each struck the closest bearded devil, who shrieked in pain and outrage at these interlopers having spoiled their game. But then the realization hit that if these strangers had made their way into the ring of six stone pillars, the accursed force shield must finally be down, and his bearded face broke out into a wicked grin. Alewyth removed the grin from his face post-haste when she cast a [I]flame strike[/I] spell into the kitchen, catching both barbazu in its area of effect, covering them with holy flames much different from the comfortable flames of Hell. Wakuren entered the house behind his fellow cleric, making his way towards the kitchen as well. Zander focused upon the second bearded devil, the one farther away from Thurloe and Xandro, and sent a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell his way. He supposed these bearded devils also had some level of resistance against spells, but unlike his [I]magic missile[/I] attack on the hellcat outside, this one struck true and seemed to deal a fair amount of damage to the surprised fiend. While the first devil focused its attention upon Thurloe (missing with its glaive strike at the spellsword), the other moved up beside his partner and used his weapon's greater reach to cut into the flesh on Alewyth's left arm. The wound began to fester almost immediately; to the dwarf, it seemed as if the gash had been filled with painful acid that continued eating away at her with each passing second. Thurloe and Xandro continued their attacks upon the first bearded devil, while Alewyth dropped back and tried casting a healing spell upon her infernal wound. Surprisingly, the spell had no effect, which caused no small amount of panic in the dwarven priestess of Aerik. But Wakuren tried a healing spell of his own and managed to overcome the infernal wound's resistance to healing energy, causing Alewyth to breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Zander cast another [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the one he'd already hit, and it backed up in pain, obviously staggered from the electrical attack. The other bearded devil continued its attacks upon Thurloe, while the other one apparently decided it wanted nothing more to do with melee combat against these powerful mortals; it [I]teleported[/I] one room away, to the library that formed the entire bottom floor of the stone tower, to warn the two barbed devils there of the intruders and their surprising level of spellpower. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Robin stepped into the house through the open front door. Her fingers continued playing her magical tune, while her eyes glanced across the room to seek out any potential dangers. The room was apparently a living room or a lounge area, with a sofa and a couple of chairs, but no active combatants - judging from the sounds of combat coming from her right, they were currently confined to the kitchen. The sounds of battle from the kitchen came to an abrupt halt when Thurloe pierced the bearded devil's belly with the blade of his sword. He stepped further into the room and then ducked through the open fireplace that connected kitchen to living room - the last fire, fortunately, having long since been nothing more than cold ashes. He stared at the door in the curved stone wall of the living area, the likeliest place - other than the doorway leading downstairs, which was also in his field of view - for any devilish reinforcements to show up. With a moment's combat reprieve, Xandro pulled the [I]Dardolian Lute[/I] from his back and, using his [I]dire elk pick[/I], played the tune that summoned the megaloceros into being smack dab in the middle of the living area. That way, the bard-rogue figured, any devil reinforcements would have a target that was not him or any of his adventuring partners to have to deal with first. Alewyth, seeing the logic of that plan, followed suit by using a [I]summon nature's ally[/I] spell to call forth a celestial brown bear to manifest beside Xandroi's dire elk. The barbed devils in the library had been playing their own boredom-reducing game: as the center of the room held an enclosed spiral staircase leading up to the top floor of the tower, one barbed devil would take a book from the shelf and toss it either to the right or to the left, and it was up to the other one to hit it with a [I]scorching ray[/I] before it fell to the floor. The ashes and smoldering books covering the floor of the lower level showed this game was about to come to a forced end by lack of new books to use, when the bearded devil had [I]teleported[/I] in to warn its more powerful brethren of the dangerous foes in the kitchen. It gasped out its message before collapsing to the floor amid a cloud of book-dust, its every last ounce of vitality having been extinguished. With a burst through the library door, the two barbed devils - each towering over the heroes, who stood at most nearly half their size - exploded into the living area. One went straight for the dire elk standing immediately before it, while the other skirted around its companion and went for Thurloe, rising to a standing position after having crawled into the living area through the fireplace. Zander, recalling the success he'd had with [I]lightning bolt[/I] spells against the devils so far, cast another such spell at the barbed devil attacking Thurloe. Robin, still playing the song of inspirational courage and wishing it could do more to slow the speed of her own frightened heart, slowly slid along the front wall and stepped into the kitchen, where her friends could still hear her music but there was no longer any combat taking place. She stepped carefully so as not to slip in the chopped up fruits and vegetables covering the majority of the kitchen floor. Thurloe mentally activated his [I]torc of the titans[/I] to boost his own strength and brought [I]Spellslicer[/I] slamming into the barbed devil approaching him - and did quite a number on his hands gripping the weapon as he did so, for a great number of the devil's wicked spines pierced his flesh as he brought his blade to bear. He cried out in pain and Xandro, having just crawled through the fireplace behind the spellsword, cast a [I]cure light wounds[/I] spell on him to take away the worst of the injuries. Meanwhile, the dire elk, heedless of his own safety, swung his massive rack of antlers at the other barb-covered hamatula, but it dodged the blow with ease. From near the kitchen doorway, Wakuren tried casting a [I]blindness/deafness[/I] spell at the hamatula fighting the dire elk, but he ran afoul of the fiend's innate spell resistance. Alewyth cast a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] and sent a dwarven warhammer made of solid force energy flying over the celestial bruin's broad back to strike the barbed devil in combat with Thurloe. Fortunately, the devil's resistance to spells was unable to overcome this particular spell, and the force-hammer clonked it a good one in the side of his head. The bear swiped a pair of claws at the same devil at about the same time, but it was unsuccessful for the hammer-clonking had forced the barbed devil to step to the side at the last moment. Then it made a surprise maneuver, reaching over the celestial brown bear to grab at Wakuren, snatching him off his feet and dragging him in for a painful embrace that sent numerous sharp spines piercing the half-orc through his metal armor. The other one performed a similar maneuver against Thurloe, a great number of wicked spines stabbing into the spellsword's chest and thighs. Both front-line heroes were much the worse for wear after these brutal attacks, and the success of their joint venture brought wicked smiles to the barbed devils' spiny faces - these "heroes" might have fought their way through the bearded devils with relative ease, but the hamatulas were made of much more powerful stuff! Zander crawled through the fireplace and sent a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell crashing over Thurloe's head and through the upper body of the hamatula he was fighting. The spellsword used his [I]anklet of translocation[/I] to [I]dimension door[/I] himself back to the relative safety of the kitchen, nearly slipping in a pile of squashed apple chunks when he landed. Xandro backed his way through the fireplace and cast another [I]cure light wounds[/I] spell on Thurloe, who looked like he needed much more powerful healing, but that was all the bard-rogue could do for him, and he figured every little bit helped. Wakuren extracted himself from the barbed devil's embrace and momentarily hid behind the body of the great celestial bruin, using him as a shield to cast a [I]cure serious wounds[/I] spell on himself that he desperately needed. The dire elk tried getting the barbed fiend's attention with another swipe of its antlers, but the crafty devil had by this time realized the summoned animals were easily ignored; the real threats were these adventurers! But Alewyth added to the mix by summoning a fiendish dire wolf, thinking to fight fire with fire by sending fiend after fiend. It snapped its jaws at the nearest devil, with no success. Alewyth's [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] fared better, clonking the same devil another time in the side of his barbed head, while her celestial bear swiped again in vain with a set of sharp claws. The barbed devil that had grappled with Thurloe was by this time quite the worse for wear, and he backed off against the curved stone wall of the tower keep, casting forth an [I]unholy blight[/I] that killed the celestial brown bear outright and put a serious hurt on all of the other heroes save Xandro, whose fortunate position in the kitchen just to the side of the open fireplace prevented him from being within range, and Robin, who likewise had a solid wall between her and the barbed devil making the unholy attack. The other devil, trying to intimidate the heroes with a show of superior strength, brought its spiny fists down upon the head of the fiendish dire wolf, crushing its skull and sending it vanishing into oblivion. "Who wants some of that?" it taunted the heroes. "Get out of here while you still can, while we go explore the world beyond the blue bubble!" None of the heroes gave the fiend a reply, but several of them picked up on the fact that the barbed devil apparently thought the force shield surrounding Hadrian's estate was permanently lowered. Zander replied with another [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell directed at the barbed devil that had cast the [I]unholy blight[/I] spell, slaying it outright to the surprise and consternation of the other hamatula. Robin, seeing the vile fiend slain, started playing her song of inspirational courage with a little more fortitude behind it - the heroes just might be able to pull this off after all! Thurloe, not willing to wait for one of the clerics to have a free moment to see to his wounds, drank down a [I]potion of cure moderate wounds[/I] from his own private stash, while Xandro cast another [I]cure light wounds[/I] spell upon him to help him regain his full fighting strength. Meanwhile, out in the living area, as the dire elk made another ineffectual attack against the remaining hamatula, Wakuren decided to go for it, leaping at the barbed devil with an overhead swing of his [I]shield of Cal[/I], after having channeled holy energy into the shield in an attempt to smite the evil fiend before him, and fully willing to take some damage if it meant dealing out even more damage to his foe. He screamed in pain as the fiend's spikes stabbed into his flesh, but Alewyth was right there behind him to cast a [I]cure critical wounds[/I] spell on him after he disengaged. But the half-orc's maneuver seemed to be the turning point in the fight. As Alewyth's [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] was redirected to this second foe, it grabbed for Wakuren again, but this time failed to take purchase of the armored cleric-paladin. Zander cast an [I]Elobar's black tentacles[/I] spell that caught the barbed devil in a myriad of writhing appendages, also catching up the dire elk but considering it a small price to pay for at least the temporary reprieve of a moment while the devil had to [I]teleport[/I] away from the ebon tentacles if it couldn't rip its way through using brute force. The dire elk, however, continued pressing the attack against the barbed devil with his impressive rack of antlers and with the fiend unable to move out of the way, this time the attack was successful. The sorcerer failed to notice that the sphere of tentacles rising up from the living area floor also blocked the way to the stairs leading down to the lower level, where they needed to go. Thurloe, still woozy from blood loss from his many wounds, drank down a second potion while Xandro pumped the last bit of healing energy into the spellsword via his final [I]cure light wounds[/I] spell for the day. But Wakuren wanted to press the attack against the barbed devil while it was still an option, so he leaped at the edge of the grasping tentacles, bringing the pointed bottom edge of his [I]shield of Cal[/I] down upon the barbed devil's head with all the strength he could muster, even though it meant more punishment from the fiend's many sharp spikes. Alewyth joined her fellow cleric in the attack, accepting the multiple piercings from the fiend's wicked spikes as the price to whack him a good one with [I]Sjondra[/I]. And above her head, Alewyth's [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] continued its own attacks. That was enough for the barbed devil. He [I]teleported[/I] into the kitchen, part of which he could see through the open fireplace. He ended up manifesting right next to Zander, which caused the poor sorcerer to bleat in terror and instinctively hurl a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the fiend, once again getting his spell past the devil's spell resistance. Robin saw the devil's presence in the kitchen and scooted back into the living room, never once missing a beat from her magical tune. Thurloe had healed himself up to the point he was ready for some hand-to-hand combat again, and stepped to the devil's side, swinging [I]Spellslicer[/I] for all he was worth. And Xandro blasted the fiend with a [I]sound burst[/I] from his [I]Dardolian Lute[/I], none of which the barbed devil appreciated overly much - he'd come here to escape the kind of punishment he was taking in the living room! About that time, the dire elk suddenly vanished - the duration of his summoning having expired - and the [I]Elobar's black tentacles[/I] found nothing within their grasp. Wakuren scrambled through the fireplace, swatting the barbed devil with his shield, finding it a way in which he could avoid being stabbed with numerous spikes and barbed spines when attacking the fiend, as long as he was sure to strike with the shield's flat front face. But it was Alewyth casting a [I]searing light[/I] spell at the devil and her [I]spiritual warhammer[/I] flying through the open fireplace to continue its attacks that finally told the barbed devil that enough was enough - with another [I]teleport[/I], he was gone from the kitchen to parts unknown, although the group knew he had to be somewhere within Hadrian's life-force-powered force shield surrounding his home. "Cancel your spell!" ordered Wakuren as he ran towards the stairs. Zander obediently dismissed the [I]black tentacles[/I] as the half-orc crashed down the stairs, Alewyth hot on his heels. They were the first to make it to the bottom of the stairs, and thus the first to see the devils gathered together there. Directly across from the bottom of the stairs was a closet of shelves, each containing various spell components, and perched upon one shelf was a little imp, gleefully mixing items together and chuckling madly whenever he caused the mixture to bubble or turn colors. But on the floor before him was a black, circular opening - surely the [I]well of many worlds[/I] - and examining it was a large-headed devil in wizard's robes: an amnizu. Standing at his side was the harried barbed devil from upstairs, frantically describing to the amnizu the amount of permanent devil-death those mortal adventurers had been dealing upstairs. Wakuren picked up the thread of the conversation, saying, "Above all else, we want to prevent a devil incursion through this portal. If it means slaying everyone who's come over thus far, then that's what we'll do. But if you return to Hell right now, we will allow you to live. You're potentially immortal - you decide whether fighting us and facing a permanent death on this plane is a chance you're willing to take!" Alewyth, who would much rather slay all of the devils she could, opted not to argue and followed Wakuren's lead - even she knew the five heroes had blown through a lot of their most powerful spells and wouldn't be able to hold off any new reinforcements indefinitely. "They killed both bearded devils, plus the other barbed devil with me, and possibly the kyton and hellcat outside!" the wounded hamatula confirmed. "Both of them, dead - and the undead horse the kocrachon raised, after we killed the kocrachon," Wakuren added, figuring banishing the chain devil back to Hell was close enough to a confirmed kill. The amnizu thought it over for a total of about three seconds before readily agreeing. "Back in the portal!" he commanded the imp, but the barbed devil beat him to it, leaping through the [I]well of many worlds[/I] before Wakuren could change his mind. "There's an erinyes in here somewhere, too," Alewyth added. "Send her through or we'll kill her when we find her." "Done," the amnizu replied after sending a telepathic summons to the erinyes, who was busy at the top floor of the tower looking through Hadrian's dresser drawers. She soon flew down to join the amnizu, pushing her way past the other heroes on the stairs (after Wakuren called to them to let her pass), and together the two devils leaped through the portal. The half-orc then rolled it up, closing the gateway to Hell. "Now what?" Zander asked, joining the others downstairs. "Got a [I]scorching ray[/I]?" Wakuren asked him. He did, and soon the dangerous item was burning away. The threat having been dealt with, the six heroes returned to the perimeter, motioning through the force shield for Hadrian to head far enough away to let them back out. He and Scarlie got the message and were off, and soon enough the two groups were reunited back by Hadrian's makeshift lean-to at the base of the tree in which Lowell had his nest. "Now what will you do?" Alewyth asked, after they had regaled the wizard with the tale of what they had seen and done inside his home. "Can you even get back into your house with the force shield up?" "If I move far enough back that it drops, and then stay away for 12 hours or more, that would probably break the connection," Hadrian mused. "Or...or you could just smash the six stone pillars. Without them in place, the force shield will lose its cohesiveness almost immediately." "Do you want us to do that?" Xandro asked. "I'm sure you put a lot of effort into getting those built precisely to specifications." The old man sighed. "And I'm too old now to be able to finish the job," he said, for the advanced aging caused by his life force powering his prototype force shield hadn't - and wasn't about to - be restored. "Go ahead and smash them - it's better than me getting stuck inside my own force shield without being able to get back out again, if anything were to cause it to snap back into place." Alewyth nodded her understanding and hefted [I]Sjondra[/I], eager to be about the business at hand. "So what will you do now?" Zander asked Hadrian. "I suppose I'll just live out whatever months or years are left me out here in the woods. Lowell's here to help catch fresh meat, and there are edible plants and mushrooms to be found in the woods...but my days of being a wizard are behind me, I fear, with all of my spellbooks burned to ashes." "You poor man," Robin commiserated. "Don't feel too bad for me. I'm the victim of my own folly." And Hadrian gazed wistfully into the distance, as if saying goodbye to to the life he had originally expected to live, experimenting on his force shield out in the woods where he was unlikely to be bothered. Once Alewyth had smashed the pillars and the force shield dissipated as predicted, Hadrian led them into his home to assess the damage. At his insistence, he gave them a sack full of diamonds, a magical dagger, and seven potions he had created downstairs in his lab. "I'm sure these will be of more use to you than to me," he said. Thurloe shot Alewyth a look that said, "Don't even think about not accepting his payment." And with a sad farewell, the heroes said goodbye to the elderly wizard they knew to be all of 27 years old, returning to their wagon and animals and heading back the way they had come, until the path became a road again and they could veer off in the direction of the next dreamer needing help awakening. - - - Vicki usually brings homemade brownies to our game sessions, but this time she switched to vanilla cupcakes, and for a good reason: it was Dan's birthday. The fact that he chose to spend four hours of his birthday playing in our every-other-Saturday game says a lot about how much we're enjoying our campaign. Some of our more recent adventures have been fairly easy on the PCs, due to lucky die rolls, but this one was a lot more exciting - I had boith Wakuren and Thurloe down to 2 hp each during the course of our battles! Had they failed their grapple checks (to avoid being "bear hugged" by the barbed devils), I could easily have had two PC deaths on my hands during this session (which would have been a pretty poor birthday gift!). But it was admittedly nice to see them worried for their PCs for a change! As this was adventure #50, the PCs all made it to 11th level and our campaign is now exactly halfway done. - - - T-shirt worn: My TARDIS T-shirt, as I didn't have anything more appropriate, and with the [I]well of many worlds[/I] in Hadrian's basement, his house was technically "bigger on the inside" (infinite, in fact) "than it was on the outside." [/QUOTE]
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