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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9034384" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 51: COVEN OF VENGEANCEPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 11             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 5             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 5/paladin 6             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 5             Xena, human ranger 11             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 11NPC Roster:Robin the Balladeer, human bard 3              Scarlie Besker, half-orc commoner 5Game Session Date: 20 May 2023 - - -The group ambled into the city of Dalton Heights and immediately started hitting the taverns for information, with Xandro and Robin doing the best job at getting the locals to talk to these dusty strangers, for the city seemed to have more than the normal share of aristocrats about, and a significant number of the cityfolk turned their noses up at these common-looking travelers who went about in the company of not one, but two half-orcs.  But rounds of drinks had a way of loosening tongues, and before too long the bards had gotten the location of the next dream victim and instructions on how to find his manor.Pulling up to the mansion, the group dismounted from their various steeds and climbed down from the mule-driven wagon.  Scarlie once again volunteered to stay with the animals, never feeling comfortable with those so obviously above his station.  But when Alewyth knocked upon the front door and announced their intentions to awaken anyone who'd been sleeping for far past the normal time, they were ushered inside by excited servants who went to summon the mistress of the house.  The master of the manor was one Lord Nobart Cutherton, and according to his worried wife he'd been sleeping now for three weeks, and the local clerics had been unable to awaken him with any of their spells and remedies.  "It could be we're able to have Lord Nobart awake for tonight's dinner," advised Alewyth.  Lady Bethany Cutherton was more than willing to allow the five dreamwalkers to pull her husband's bed out into the middle of the bedroom floor so they could sit around it in a circle.  Robin and Zander's activated jade cooshee were placed on guard duty to watch over their sleeping bodies while they tried to rescue Lord Nobart from his dream, and then the five closed their eyes and entered the Dreamlands, one by one, as they each slowed their breathing and fell asleep.They were each met by their individual moogle guides, who ushered them into the Corridor of Dreams where Mogo was waiting for them.  "This is the current dream, kupo!" he said, hovering in place with his little wings while his kittenish paws opened the door for his five students.  "Good luck, kupo!"The dreamscape was a simple dinner party with twelve dignitaries sitting around a table while servants placed covered dishes in front of each.  Lord Nobart was in the back of the room, looking around nervously as if afraid he'd make a social faux pas and embarrass himself in front of these other noblemen.  As the five dreamwalkers lined up against the back wall to observe the progress of the dream - at this stage they had no real idea of how to usher the dream to its conclusion, so that Lord Nobart could be awakened - the eleven other noblemen all turned their heads as one to stare at the twelfth diner.  Realizing they all had expressions of expectation on their faces, as if waiting for him to make the first move, Lord Nobart lifted his covered tray with a shaking hand and set it aside, careful not to knock over his fluted glass of sparkling white wine.  Eleven faces grinned at him as he looked down upon his meal: a plate of writhing earthworms.Lord Nobart let out a gasp of horror and looked up from his horrid meal to the other eleven aristocrats.  As one, they were grinning madly at the scene of his consternation and discomfort, as if enjoying his inability to decide what he should do next.  Their grins grew wider, then wider still, until the ends of their lips reached to their ears, and still they kept expanding, until the impossible width of their wicked smiles caused their entire faces to rip into twain and there, beneath the drooping flesh of their shattered visages were entirely different faces: hard, shiny with dripping fluids, these internal faces burst forth from the split heads of the noblemen diners and continued moving forward, propelled by dozens of legs in a centipedal form.Lord Nobart bleated in terror at the sight of eleven face-centipedes bursting from the bodies of his hosts and fellow diners and leaped up from his chair, cowering in the back corner of the room, holding his spoon out before him as if brandishing a weapon.  But fortunately, the dreamwalkers took this as their cue: apparently, if they were to slay these eleven face-centipedes there was a good chance the dream would end and Lord Nobart Cutherton would finally awaken from his dream coma.Zander was the first to react.  The lengthy table seated five diners on each of its long sides and one at each end; Lord Nobart had been the farthest away along the western edge of the table.  The elven sorcerer took a step forward from the front of the room and lined himself up with the five face-centipedes originally seated across the table from Lord Nobart and sent a lightning bolt spell blasting through five horrid bodies.  Three of the terrors were slain instantly, their bodies curling as they burned to ash; the other two survived this initial attack but were obviously singed by the blast of electricity.Wakuren, a man of action when action was required, stepped up and slammed his shield of Cal into the face-centipede seated at the front end of the table.  Beside him Thurloe, a man of caution when a means of ensuring to his own safety was at hand, opted not to attack but rather to cast a shield spell upon his dream-self, even knowing full well he could not actually be slain by these dream figments.  Alewyth was in more of a Wakuren state of mind and slammed the closest face-centipede - one that had just been singed by Zander's spell - with Sjondra.Xandro raced forward with Deathwhisper drawn and stabbed its blade deep into the chitinous side of one of the face-centipedes that had been sitting on Lord Nobart's side of the table and had made the mistake of facing towards the frightened noblemen when there were foes at hand.  Xandro's sudden attack nearly split the creature into two segments, and as he pulled his blade back out from between a pair of legs, black ichor spilled from the wound onto the hardwood floor below."St-stay back!" stammered Lord Nobart, still threatening the monsters away with his raised spoon.  The three face-centipedes closest to the nobleman all lurched at him, biting at him with wicked mandibles growing out from the sides of their horrid faces.  Blood dripped from three insectoid faces as they pulled back from their attacks, looks of triumph evident in their burning eyes.  And indeed, Lord Nobart looked very much the worse for wear, stumbling down onto one knee as his strength gave out.The face-centipede Wakuren had struck with his shield whipped about and snapped at Thurloe, mistaking him as his attacker.  Two more darted after Xandro, while another pair attacked Alewyth.  The dreamwalkers had to give these horrid little monsters credit: once battle erupted, they were more than willing to engage whatever enemy stepped into range.Zander stepped to the side and lined up a fireball spell such that its explosion engulfed four of the face-centipedes at the far end of the room, slaying one outright and burning the three that had been menacing Lord Nobart.  The elf was glad to see he'd targeted his spell in such a manner as to avoid getting the nobleman within range of his expanding flames.  Wakuren stepped forward (evading the attack of the face-centipede that had just snapped at Thurloe as he did so) and used the lucid dreaming training he'd received from Mogo to cast a healing spell at Lord Nobart from across the room.  He could see the nobleman's wounds heal up, although the bloodstains on his garments were still in evidence.Thurloe was now ready for combat himself and, seeing the success of the elf's fireball spell, mirrored the attack with another of the same spell cast in the same location.  Another of the face-centipedes died in the attack, and the other two assaulting Lord Nobart were burned rather badly.  Alewyth leaped up onto the table, ran across its length, and came leaping down at one of these two, swinging Sjondra in an overhand arc as she landed on the floor on the other side of the table.  Her hammer-swing slew the multilegged beast, crushing in its chitinous head and causing it to collapse in a writhing pile of twitching limbs.Xandro attacked another of the remaining face-centipedes with his magic short sword, while Lord Nobart took the opportunity to hide behind Alewyth - he may have been a nobleman, but he was more than willing to give up propriety for the sake of his own life!  The bard found himself the target of two snapping, mandible-filled faces, while another tried biting at Thurloe.  But the one in the corner opened its mouth wide and spewed forth a cone of acid, engulfing not only Alewyth and Lord Nobart but also catching Thurloe in the spray; none of them were particularly hurt by the attack, but the acid burned something fierce!Another lightning bolt spell from Zander slew two more of the segmented menaces, while Wakuren bashed in another insectoid head with the pointed bottom of his shield.  Thurloe slew another with his bastard sword, and when Alewyth's next hammer-strike finished off the final face-centipede, she saw the walls of the dreamscape starting to melt - a sure sign that the dream was finally over and the dream victim was waking up.  The five dreamwalkers each forced themselves awake, and after some explanations from his wife about how long he'd been sleeping and how these five strangers had shown up at the door to rescue him, Lord Nobart insisted upon paying them for their services.  Thurloe took custody of the 500 pieces of gold the nobleman insisted upon giving them, fearful that Alewyth or Wakuren would do something stupid along the lines of insisting that payment was unnecessary.  With that, the group departed the Cutherton manor, returned to their wagon and mounts, and went to find Scarlie a room for the night.Once their mounts had been stabled for the evening and Scarlie had a room to himself, he carried Hesperna's lamp into his bedroom and placed it on the dresser.  Inside its extradimensional space, the others were bunking down for the night; if nothing else, the magic lamp saved them a lot of money over the months on room charges.Robin, upon falling asleep, ended up in her own dreamscape and went about her own dreams all night; in the morning, she'd probably remember nothing of them.  For the five dreamwalkers, however, it was back to their training.  Mogo ushered them into the dreams of others, demonstrating the best methods of interrogating a sleeping suspect and getting them to answer truthfully.  It was an interesting approach, and one they five would have loved to explore further were they not interrupted by a moogle they'd never seen before.  "Come quickly, kupo!" the moogle cried out upon opening the door to this particular dreamscape.  "The Queen of Dreams has something you need to see at once, kupo!"  And with that the little moogle spun about in midair, flapping her wings as fast as she could and propelling herself at top speed down the Corridor of Dreams, confident the five dreamwalkers - and Mogo - would follow.Follow they did, down one passageway after another, as the moogle led them through a maze of dream corridors to the specific room housing the dream in question.  There, standing in the Corridor of Dreams with a frown on her beautiful face, stood the Queen of Dreams.  "I believe you should see this for yourselves," she told them, opening the door wide for them to enter the dream and frowning in distaste. Mogo led his students into the dreamscape.  There were four figures within, all female, and all completely naked.  Three were elderly, with sickly, sagging, bluish skin and curving horns growing up from their foreheads.  One of these three sat astride the back of the fourth woman, this one quite human, who was struggling to get up off of her hands and knees."The night hags are not even trying to hide their actions," declared the Queen of Dreams with a frown.  "Usually, they seal themselves off in a pocket dimension where they cannot be detected - not even by me.  It's almost as if they wish to be discovered!"Five mouths hung open in shock as the dreamwalkers got a better look at the human woman being ridden around like a pony by one of the night hags: it was none other than Charlotte Pulver, the woman who had raised Thurloe as his aunt all these years - but whom the group had recently discovered was actually his birth mother.  She tried freeing herself from the hag, to no avail, and didn't even seem to notice her son and his friends as they observed her struggles - not surprisingly, for they were not by her side in the Mortal Plane and had not anchored themselves to her dream via the dreamstones they used in their ritual to free those stuck in their dreams.  But then they got another shock as the three night hags proved they could see the dreamwalkers, for they turned and stared them right in the eyes.  One raised a crooked finger at Thurloe and said, in a croaking voice, "You're the ones responsible for our dear sister Hesperna's death!  Well, this is what comes of such an unforgivable sin."  She pointed a wrinkled thumb in the direction of the night hag riding Charlotte.  "There's nothing you can do about it now, dearie; if you want to save the woman, you'll need to come on home to where she lives - and where me and my two sisters will be waiting for you.  Oh," she added as an afterthought, "don't forget to bring Hesperna's lamp - we'll be wanting that back."  And then, with an evil cackle, the other hag clapped her hands together and the entire dreamscape vanished - sealed off, no doubt, in the way they normally avoided notice from the Queen of Dreams or any of her moogle aides.  The group was now standing in an empty field of unending whiteness in all directions.The Queen of Dreams was seething with suppressed anger.  "They've sealed themselves off from us," she said.  "There's nothing further to be done from here.""We've got to get back to Shandoh Valley," Thurloe said.  "As quickly as we can.""You realize it's a trap," pointed out Zander."Yeah, obviously," snapped the spellsword.  "But what else are we supposed to do?""I think Dalton Heights has a Shrine of Delphyne," Xandro pointed out.  "We can use that to teleport to the closest shrine to your hometown.""That would be...Baron's Haven," Thurloe decided.  "And even then, it's a full day's ride to Shandoh Valley.""I have a means of shortening that time," Wakuren promised.  They all woke themselves and ended back inside the extradimensional space of Hesperna's lamp.  Wakuren then exited the lamp and woke up Scarlie, explaining their need to leave immediately and leave him behind with the wagon and animals again.  "We're not sure how long we'll be gone," the half-orc cleric told the group's hired wagon driver.  "Probably only a day or two.""Okay, good luck," Scarlie replied and rolled over to go back to bed.Wakuren departed the inn and headed over to the temple district, stopping only when he arrived at the Shrine to Delphyne.  By then Alewyth had retrieved the set of magic goggles that allowed her to see through the half-orc's gemstone he wore on his forehead, so she exited the lamp and appeared by Wakuren's side.  Then the two clerics entered the shrine and Alewyth's keen dwarven senses allowed her to find the hidden room in the back with the teleport circle.  Fortunately, they had teleported to Baron's Haven before, so solving the puzzle that gave the command word to attune the teleportation circle to that city was easy enough.  But they were wanted criminals in the city - all but Robin, in any case - so Alewyth returned to the extradimensional lamp's interior and Wakuren activated his ring of invisibility before saying the command phrase and stepping into the Shrine of Delphyne in Baron's Haven.And then the half-orc did something he'd never done before.  Rising his arms above him, he called up into the night sky, "Almighty Cal, send to your servant a steed capable of flight to Shandoh Valley!"  There was a crackle of thunder in the skies above, and then a form streaked down from the sky.  It was white in color and fluffy like a cloud, but it took the shape of a heavy warhorse and, trusting in Cal's wisdom, Wakuren leaped up onto its back.  Sure enough, despite seeming to have been made out of cloudstuff, the horse reared and took to the skies with the half orc cleric-paladin settled comfortably on his back.  "I will call you Nimbus!" Wakuren told his bonded mount and the steed snorted cloudstuff in agreement.Wakuren rode upon Nimbus's back all throughout the night and through the following sunrise, until he started to recognize the town below as that of Thurloe's birthplace.  As tired as he'd ever been - for he had feared to doze off while riding through the skies - he brought Nimbus to a landing on the road that led to the Pulver residence.  Behind them, Wakuren knew, was the farm of Thurloe's Uncle Claude.  Dismissing his mount, he set Hesperna's lamp behind a bush off the side of the road and said the word that allowed him to enter the lamp, where he greeted the others, who had slept through the airborne flight to Shandoh Valley.  "We're here," Wakuren told the others as he began taking off the pieces of his armor."What are you doing?" demanded Thurloe.  "We need to go fight those hags!""We will," Wakuren promised the spellsword.  "But I need some sleep if I'm going to be any help at all.  It's a couple hours after sunrise - I'll sleep until this afternoon and then we'll go deal with the hags.  They won't be bothering your mother again until she tries to sleep tonight in any case."  Thurloe, never one known for his patience, didn't like it but couldn't deny the wisdom of the half-orc's words.  (And, having been hag-ridden by Hesperna herself, he knew full well the typical night hag schedule, so he couldn't very well argue from that front.)As a result, it was late afternoon when Wakuren got up from his slumber and started pulling his armor back into place.  "I'm ready to cast a heroes' feast spell," Alewyth informed him, and after casting it the six heroes took another hour devouring the magical feast summoned by the priestess of Aerik.  Then, with Thurloe practically champing at the bit, they exited the magical lamp.  As usual, Wakuren picked it up and stashed it in one of his large pouches hanging from his belt.  Then Thurloe led the group straight to the house of the two people who had raised him since birth."I'm going to keep calling Charlotte my aunt for the time being," Thurloe warned the others, having decided not to admit to her he knew she was really his birth mother, at least not quite yet.  He'd see about freeing her from the night hags and then see where it went from there.  Arriving at the front door, he told everyone to prepare for combat, just in case.  He figured there was a pretty good chance the night hags were casing the area, and could easily already know the heroes had shown up as instructed.  He cast a protection from evil spell upon himself and then used a charge from his wand of shield to further protect himself in that fashion.  Zander also used a charge from the spellsword's wand on himself, then cast the spells mage armor and stoneskin upon himself.  Alewyth cast the spells stoneskin on herself, align weapon upon Sjondra, and bless upon the assembled group.  Wakuren cast shield of faith, entropic shield, and air walk spells upon himself.  Xandro cast three heroism spells, one each upon Thurloe, Alewyth, and Wakuren, their most frequent front-line combatants.  Finally, Zander activated his scout's headband and granted himself the ability to see invisibility.  He then did a full circuit around the house, seeing if there were any invisible - or ethereal - night hags visible outside Thurloe's parents' house."All clean," he reported back to the others."Okay, then," said Thurloe as he commenced knocking on the front door.  After a moment, the door opened and there standing in the hallway was Thurloe's Uncle Marten.  There was a strange woman standing beside him, and next to her was a timber wolf, but as Marten didn't seem fazed by their presence Thurloe decided they must be friends."Thurloe, my boy!" beamed Marten.  "I didn't know you were in town!  How are things?""Fine, fine," replied Thurloe.  "Say, how's Aunt Charlotte?""Well, she had a rough night of it - tossed and turned something fierce all night long, she did, poor thing.  She's upstairs resting now.  But come on in, all of you!  This here is Xena, she's staying upstairs in the guest room and I'm working on making a replacement leather strap for her quiver.""How do you do?" asked Xena, a young human woman looking to be in her early twenties.  She indicated her wolf animal companion.  "This is Runt - he's fully domesticated, as safe as a dog.""We'd like to go check on Aunt Charlotte," Thurloe said, heading up the stairs.  The others followed, Marten, Xena and Runt in the rear of the formation; Marten twigged to the fact that he'd never met Robin before, so he made a point of introducing herself to her, not sure why Thurloe and his other friends were readying their weapons as they made their way to the bedroom he shared with his wife.  Thurloe opened the door and stepped into the room, walking over to his mother, who was resting in bed as Marten had said.  Outside in the hallway, Robin began the traditional song of inspirational courage: better to start playing it now and magically enhancing the heroes' combined combat abilities even if it turned out not to be needed quite yet; that certainly beat not having them into play if combat did in fact break out immediately.  But she took up station past the open doorway to the master bedroom, knowing her place was not on the front lines.Alewyth followed Thurloe into the bedroom, Sjondra out and ready for action.  And then Zander entered, and with his scout's headband still active he was able to see what none of the others could: the trio of night hags stood at the head of the bed in which Charlotte Pulver was sleeping - they were ethereal, so their bodies were actually intersected by the bed as they were on the Ethereal Plane looking into the Material Plane - and across the other side of the room stood three ethereal nightmares, jet-black steeds with flames erupting from their manes and hooves.  Acting on instinct, the elven sorcerer cast a magic missile spell at one of the night hags, realizing the missiles he shot her way were made of solid force energy and could pierce all the way through to the Ethereal Plane.  The hag's look of pain upon the missiles' impact told him his instincts had been correct.Zander had activated his jade cooshee before entering the Pulver residence, and the elven dog trotted up by his master's side; he couldn't see any of the ethereal beings but he knew his master wouldn't have fired off a magic missile spell at nothing.  Wakuren entered the open doorway next, looking around for enemies and seeing none.But then the three nightmares manifested into the Material Plane, the two closest to Zander attacking the elf and the other going for Wakuren, who stood immediately before the flaming equine beast.  Xena stepped up and shot an arrow at the nightmare attacking Wakuren, hitting it right in the throat and causing it to vomit up blood as it snorted flames.  Her wolf darted into the room beside her and bit at the nightmare's legs, high up enough to avoid the flames erupting from its hooves.  Thurloe attacked one of the two nightmares targeting Zander, catching it in the side with his bastard sword Spellslicer and activating the vampiric touch spell he had stored into the blade the previous day.Then the three night hags manifested into the room, stepping up into the air before doing so so they ended up standing on the bed instead of sharing the same space as it.  As one, they pointed crooked fingers at Zander Quilson and channeled rays of enfeeblement at him.  All three rays struck true and the elf found himself barely strong enough to remain standing; he staggered on weak knees and fell against the door to the balcony off the master bedroom.The hags knew they couldn't siphon off all of the elf's strength with their rays of enfeeblement, but they weren't concerned for they knew they had a secret ally capable of finishing the job.  With his scout's headband still active, Zander saw a spider nearly as large as he was scuttle across the ceiling, headed his way.  As weak as he was, he was unable to evade it when it dropped from the ceiling and popped back into visibility, but fortunately for the elf his frantic fumbling at the balcony door was successful and he spilled outside into the open air, causing the arachnid's mandibles to miss his neck by mere happenstance.  As a result, the spider's strength-sapping venom was not able to reduce the elf to an immobile foe too weak to even move a muscle, as had been the intention.Charlotte sat up in bed, screamed, and crawled to the foot of the bed, totally confused as to why her bedroom was now filled with flaming-maned horses and ugly, blue-skinned hags - not to mention her son Thurloe and a bunch of his friends.  Marten's concerned voice called up from the stairs, "What's going on up there?"Xandro entered the room and stabbed at Wakuren's nightmare foe with Deathwhisper, slaying it.  Thurloe continued his attacks upon the second nightmare, while Robin continued her song from out in the corridor.  Alewyth swung Sjondra into the same nightmare Thurloe was fighting, causing a crunching sound that the priestess of Aerik sincerely hoped was a rib or two breaking.Zander barely had enough strength to lift his hands up at aim them at the spider, but he managed to do so and fired off another magic missile spell at it.  The missiles immediately slew the arachnid, which upon death reverted to its true form, that of a little winged imp.  (One of the three hags, Ukrezhia, cried out "Filthfang!  No!" upon the death of her familiar.)The cooshee joined Thurloe and Alewyth in attacking the second nightmare, while Wakuren swung his shield of Cal in a lateral arc and caught one of the night hags, Khonstanzia, in the neck with its edge, crushing her windpipe instantly and causing her to fall lifelessly upon Marten and Charlotte's bed.  Charlotte screamed again and scrambled further to the foot of the bed, not wanting to step off the bed for fear of getting caught up in a fight with one of the black horses at the other side of the bedroom.The only nightmare not yet hit in battle followed Zander out onto the balcony, snapping at the weakened elf with its teeth.   The other one, the one closest to the open doorway to the hallway - from which Robin's magical tune could still be heard - attacked Xena.  The young ranger managed to duck away from its bite at the last possible moment, grabbing for another arrow from her damaged quiver (the strap was currently being held in place with a piece of string) to feed into her longbow.  Runt snapped at the nightmare's legs to no avail.As if in response to a sudden signal between them, the two remaining night hags both disappeared; Zander, out on the balcony, was unable to verify they had merely shifted from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane, but that's exactly what they had done.  They arrived in the special combat arena they had crafted as their nightly torment lair, cursing the heroes who had turned out to be much more powerful than they had anticipated.  No wonder Hesperna had been overcome by these mortals!Xandro, Alewyth, and Thurloe continued their weapon attacks upon the same nightmare, weakening it considerably until Zander took it out with a lightning bolt spell he blasted at both equine fiends.  It crashed to the ground and Xena got off another arrow at the sole remaining nightmare before it too vanished, fleeing to the relative safety of the Ethereal Plane and the hags' combat arena."Are you okay?" Thurloe asked Charlotte as Marten entered the room, confused to see the bodies of two large horses and one blue-skinned hag in his bedroom."I--I think so," Charlotte replied, shaking in fright.  The group vowed to stick by her and not let her out of their sight, in case the hags got a notion to attack again.  After several minutes, the effects fo the rays of enfeeblement wore off and Zander was able to rise again and stand on his two legs."What are you going to do now?" Marten wanted to know."There's no point in waiting for them to press the attack," Thurloe decided.  "We're going to hunt them down.""How?" asked Zander.  "They're in the Ethereal Plane, and we have no way to get there."  He knew none of the adventurers knew the plane shift spell, nor the spells ethereal jaunt or etherealness, any one of which could at least get them to the Ethereal Plane, of not to a specific location on that plane."Sure we do," Thurloe replied.  "They've got it rigged so they snag Aunt Charlotte every time she goes to sleep.  So we send her to sleep wearing a dreamstone, and we follow her into her dreams like normal.""Will that work?" asked Alewyth.  "Normally our moogle guides take us to the Corridor of Dreams.  The night hags will have sealed Charlotte's dreamscape away from the Corridor of Dreams.""It's worth a shot," the spellsword insisted.  "At the very least, we'll have Charlotte's dreaming mind as a beacon to guide us - and since she's not in a dream coma, the signal might be easier to follow."With that thought in mind, they dragged Konstanzia's corpse off of the bed and dropped it over by the bodies of the two slain nightmares - which Marten was examining with a practiced eye; the leatherworker was already figuring out how best to skin the nightmares and what all he might be able to fashion from nightmare hide.  Then they dragged the bed away from the wall, got Charlotte to agree to try to fall asleep (aided by a healthy dose of "medicinal brandy" Marten provided to his wife) wearing a dreamstone on her forehead, and the five dreamwalkers all took up position in a circle around the bed.  Robin, Marten, Xena, Runt, and the cooshee would stand guard over their bodies as they slept.Xandro was the first to appear in Charlotte's dream - the ritual had worked, allowing him to "home in" on the night hags' combat arena.  Charlotte was once again naked on all fours with one of the hags, Esperella, riding her like a pony.  He ran up and attacked the other hag, Ukrezhia, with Deathwhisper's deadly blade.  Thurloe was the next to appear and he went straight for the night hag riding his mother, slicing into her sagging flesh with Spellslicer.  Then, suddenly, Alewyth was standing there beside him and Sjondra crushed Esperella's head in, causing her to fall off Charlotte's back in a lifeless heap.Zander was the next to appear in the combat arena, and he cast a lightning bolt spell at the sole remaining nightmare, knowing how well his previous such spell had done against the fiendish equines.  This one was no less deadly, and the nightmare was slain at once.Wakuren then appeared in the middle of the arena and started sprinting towards Ukrezhia.  The hag backed up, holding her hands out before her and frantically calling out, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, we can make a deal!""Nope!" replied Wakuren, slamming his shield of Cal into her side.  But then he found himself alone on the back of the arena, Ukrezhia having hurriedly passing over to the Material Plane to avoid the half-orc cleric's attacks.Runt snapped his lupine jaws at Ukrezhia when she suddenly manifested by the side of the bed, between the sleeping forms of Thurloe and Xandro.  He caught her ankle between his teeth and brought her crashing to the bedroom floor.Back in the ethereal mini-dreamscape, Xandro approached a massive, metal chest - the size of a footlocker - he saw at the rear end of the circular arena.  It didn't look to be locked or trapped, so he popped open the top, hoping to discover it filled with coins and gems from throughout the Outer Planes.  Instead, he saw the faces of five wriggling larvae looking up at him, each human head connected to the body of a writhing, giant maggot.  With an unexpected squeal of terror, he slammed the lid back down before any of the larvae could crawl out of the chest.Thurloe, however, had forced himself awake and his consciousness ended up back in his body as Ukrezhia was trying to regain her footing after having been tripped by Xena's pet wolf.  Robin had immediately started her song of inspirational courage when she saw the dreamwalkers starting to awaken; now Alewyth was stirring, and Zander was blinking his eyes as he too woke back up.  His cooshee bit the night hag in the arm, drawing blood.Back in the combat arena, Wakuren decided some of them had best remain in place in case the night hag returned.  He used his lucid dreaming training to cover Charlotte Pulver in her normal clothes, embarrassed at having the woman remain naked when there was something he could do about the situation.Xena loosed an arrow at Ukrezhia three times in rapid succession, only hitting with the first one but it sinking in to the feathers at the end of the shaft.  Runt continued chewing on the hag's ankle, preventing her from rising.  Outnumbered here, the night hag once again shifted planes, returning to her ethereal combat arena where she and her two sisters had hoped to convert Charlotte Pulver into a sixth larvae, at which point it would be time to return to the Lower Planes to sell them off to interested buyers among the fiendish races.Xandro was surprised to see the night hag return to the arena so soon after having left it, but he wasted no time in pressing the attack, slashing at her with Deathwhisper.  Wakuren then finished her off with a final blow from his shield, channeling Cal's smiting energy through it.  When the combat arena started fading around them, Xandro and Wakuren knew it was time to wake up.  They did so, to see Thurloe checking to see if his mother was okay.  Marten held his wife's hand, assuring her Thurloe and his friends had taken care of the "blue witches" who had been plaguing her sleep.  Then, with Thurloe promising to sit by her to make sure everything remained safe, Charlotte fell back into an exhausted slumber, catching up on some solid sleep after having been tormented in her dreams for the last several times she'd tried to sleep.Marten went back to his workshop and finished the replacement strap for Xena's quiver, refusing all payment - not only for the quiver strap but also the previous night's lodging in their spare bedroom.  "I figure you've paid more than enough for both, putting your life on the line to help save my wife from those witches," he told her.That night, the heroes camped out in Hesperna's lamp inside Thurloe's old bedroom.  "Are you going to tell your parents you know that Charlotte's your mother?" Alewyth wanted to know."Nah," the spellsword answered.  "If they had wanted me to know, they'd have mentioned something by now.  We'll leave things like they are - I figure it's easier on her that way."The next morning, Xena went her own way with Runt, while Wakuren bundled everyone else back into the magic lamp - they'd exited only long enough to say their farewells to the Pulvers - and summoned Nimbus back to the Material Plane.  Then it was an all-day flight through the skies towards Baron's Haven, where they used the teleportation circle in the hidden room behind the Shrine of Delphyne to return to Dalton Heights.  (This required the figuring out of a new command phrase, which Wakuren and Alewyth puzzled out by following arrows - pointing either left or right beneath the letters in the alphabet - to shift each letter in a string of unpronounceable words to the correct letters to form the command phrase, "TELEPORT LEY LINE TWO SEVEN.")  Then they met back up with Scarlie and were back on the road in a more standard fashion, riding their horses and Alewyth's dire goat while Scarlie, Wakuren, and Robin sat in their customary seats in the mule-driven wagon. - - -My granddaughter Samantha was visiting us during this game session, so knowing she'd want to play with us I had her create a one-shot PC, a human ranger she named Xena.  And then, as luck would have it, Joe stayed in college that Saturday (although his finals had ended several days earlier, he was a bit slow in packing up his goods and returning to his parents' house for the summer) and as a result Sami ran not only Xena and Runt but also Zander Quilson.  (Had I known for sure Joe would have been a no-show, I wouldn't have worried about creating a "just-in-case" ranger PC for Sami.)  But we all had a good time, so that's what matters. - - -T-shirt worn: My "Oxford Comma Preservation Society" T-shirt, to represent the nightmare landscape in which the night hags were torturing their victims - for what better depiction of a horrendous nightmare than a world in which the Oxford comma is not regularly used?</blockquote>

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