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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9251488" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 68: LOOKING FOR SOME BONEHEADS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 14</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 13 January 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The heroes began their journey to the Forbidden Lands on foot, a prospect that left Thurloe rather grumpy until told they only had to go about three hours until they'd meet up with a tribe of lizardfolk ranchers who raised boneheads, mounts of a suitable size for the full-grown human and his five similarly-sized companions. Alewyth had started them off on the right foot that morning with a <em>heroes' feast</em> spell, along with her traditional morning casting of the <em>endure elements</em> spell upon herself. (Wakuren followed suit with three castings of the latter spell, upon himself, Robin, and Xandro, for Talonia was significantly hotter than Armaturia had been.) Then, with farewells from the Fleetfoot tribe, they went on their way, led by Beetle Darkcloud and his fastieth riding mount, Yellow-Belly.</p><p></p><p>As they walked through a field of wild flowers, Zander cast <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spells upon himself and his pseudodragon familiar, Petey, who rode upon his shoulder. Alewyth cast a <em>magic vestment</em> spell upon herself, after having already been ambushed by dinosaurs - velociraptors, specifically - on their first day here on the western continent. She was well aware it was best to be protected against the unexpected.</p><p></p><p>Two hours into their trek, she was glad for the extra protection her spell afforded her, for Wakuren, riding upon his air element warhorse Nimbus about 30 feet in the air, called down that there were half a dozen dinosaurs headed their way through the tall grasses. The half-orc couldn't get a good look at the approaching predators, for they were at this point merely depressions in the field as they pushed their way through the grasses, but there were definitely six of them, and they stopped about 60 feet ahead as if first catching the heroes' scent, then split up into two groups of three, each angling off so they could attack from ambush from opposite sides, much like the velociraptors - Beetle called them "clawfeet" - had done. Wanting to see for herself, Alewyth tapped the <em>butterfly brooch</em> she wore above her chest and a pair of butterfly wings sprouted from her back, flapping awkwardly and raising her erratically into the air. From her higher vantage, she could see the six incoming reptiles headed their way, mere disturbances through the grasses like a ship's wake on the ocean. But as the dinosaurs got closer, she and Wakuren could make them out as being very similar to velociraptors in build, only even bigger - deinonychi, as a matter of fact, what Beetle called "Carvers."</p><p></p><p>"They're coming this way," Alewyth warned the others. "Beetle, you might want to hang back - we don't want anything happening to our guide!" Beetle was only too happy to comply, bringing Yellow-Belly to the back of their little procession, which had halted once the approaching deinonychi had been spotted.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe didn't like not being able to see their foes either, so he activated the <em>fly</em> spell from his <em>celestial armor</em> and took to the air. (Not coincidentally, this also took him out of the suspected range of the denonychi's attacks.) Robin stepped back with Beetle and Yellow-Belly, plucking at the strings of her lute and beginning the words to her song of inspirational courage. Xandro stepped up in front of her, <em>Deathwhisper</em> in hand and ready for action. But he decided he'd let the dinosaurs come to him rather than leap into battle against an unknown enemy. Alewyth cast a <em>prayer</em> spell over the group.</p><p></p><p>The deinonychi came in from two opposite ends, starting to flank the heroes, but Zander was ready for them: he stepped forward and cast a <em>prismatic spray</em> spell, sending a rainbow of colored rays flowing out from his fingertips in a wide arc before him. The elf sorcerer's spell flowed over all six of the dinosaurs, with different effects. The first one was blasted with a bolt of electricity that fried it to ashes in an instant; the second and third were both engulfed in a flow of acid that burned them to death, their scales bubbling and the meat below them rippling and burning. The fourth deinonychus was also electrified to death, while the fifth one had its body instantly transformed into stone. The last one was first blinded, then disappeared as its body slipped through the Material World and fell onto an entirely different plane of existence. And just that quickly, the deinonychus threat was no more.</p><p></p><p>Beetle, once he was able to find his voice again, suggested they cut up flanks of meat from one of the slain dinosaurs - one killed by electricity rather than one slain by acid, preferably - as a means of trade with the lizardfolk from which they were going to try to get six bonehead mounts. "We can do you one better," Xandro said, having Wakuren pass him over <em>Hesperna's lamp</em> and bringing the slain deinonychus corpse into the extradimensional space with him. He returned again for the other one, then - just in case - took each of the acid-coated corpses and the petrified statue with him as well. "Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them," he opined. "And who knows? Maybe lizardfolk like a little acid with their dinosaur meat."</p><p></p><p>The halfling ranger shook his head at the powerful magic his new wards seemed to almost take for granted, then suggested they move on. "It's less than an hour to the lizardfolk arroyo," he told them.</p><p></p><p>And indeed it was. Not long after having been unsuccessfully ambushed, the group entered an area of high, stone walls with a maze of passageways cut into them over the years by flowing water - water which was now not much more than a slow-moving brook. But Beetle apparently knew his way through the maze with ease, for he took each turn with confidence and never once had to backtrack. "Here we go," he finally said, as he turned a corner and found a group of six lizardfolk looking down at him and Yellow-Belly from their perches on either side of a 20-foot-wide entrance to what Beetle knew as the outer boundary to the lizardfolk ranch. There were two lizardfolk on the right ledge and four on the left, that ledge being much wider than the other. Each upright reptile was armed with javelins and a club and held a wooden shield at the ready. When they saw Beetle and the strangers approach, they started hissing down at him.</p><p></p><p>Much to the surprise of five of the assembled heroes, Beetle started hissing right back up to them. But to Zander Quilson, who had had a permanent <em>tongues</em> spell cast upon him back in Armaturia, the hissing was quite understandable as a conversation in the lizardfolk's natural tongue. They greeted Beetle by name and he asked if <strong>Thassp</strong> was around.</p><p></p><p>"I'm right here," replied Thassp, riding forward on a bonehead - a two-legged dinosaur as large as a horse, with a thick skull covered in a knobby, bony plate - and speaking in the same sibilant language as his guards up on the ledges. "What can we do for you?"</p><p></p><p>"I travel with six strangers," Beetle replied. "We wish to trade for six of your boneheads, as our fastieths are much too small to support them."</p><p></p><p>"Poor luck, then," replied Thassp. "We have six boneheads, but none for trade - they're the mounts of me and my barbarians. Nocturnal predators have slain all of the others. But we'll be going on a hunting party soon, and we may be able to gather up a few more boneheads then." But then, sitting astride his own bonehead, he gave a close look to the six people Beetle had brought with him to the lizardfolk arroyo. "You have strange-looking companions, indeed. I've never seen a drow with skin so pale," he said, looking at Zander, "nor a wide one," looking over Alewyth's stocky form. Then, glancing at the three humans in puzzlement, he added, "Nor a round-ear." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully with one hand. "Do you know what they taste like?"</p><p></p><p>Beetle furrowed his own brow in puzzlement, wondering if the lizardfolk barbarian was making some kind of joke; if so, it wasn't in good taste. But before he could decide how to answer, Thassp made him an offer, again in the lizardfolk tongue. "I'll tell you what," Thassp offered. "I'll take the wide one and one of the round-ears, and the rest of you can go free."</p><p></p><p>The halfling's frown grew even deeper; surely Thassp wasn't serious? The Fleetfoot tribe had traded with Thassp's lizardfolk for many years. Up on the ledge, the six lizardfolk were giving each other puzzled looks, as if to say, "Are we really doing this?"</p><p></p><p>Beetle looked up at the mounted barbarian leader with a smile frozen on his face and started talking to his charges in Common - a language the lizardfolk apparently didn't know. "Not sure what's going on, but get ready to run!" Beetle said without moving his lips. Zander, who had understood everything said between Thassp and Beetle, added, "Their leader's planning on eating us!"</p><p></p><p>Alewyth immediately took matters into her own hands. She raised her arms and spread them across each other, casting a <em>wall of stone</em> across the arroyo opening, sealing off Thassp and his bonehead mount. Her magical wall was the same height as the surrounding stone - about 30 feet up - but nowhere near as thick in cross-section. But it did the job, keeping Thassp from being able to do anything to them for the moment. He called back to his troops, and at the back of the arroyo, where the other five boneheads stood in their pen, his five lizardfolk barbarian troops raced to their mounts and leaped onto their backs, riding them to the gate. There was a bit of a bottleneck as the lead rider opened the gate and the others lined up to go through.</p><p></p><p>Beetle tugged on Yellow-Belly's reins and led his fastieth around the corner, out of range of the lizardfolk sentries' javelins. "We must flee!" he called to the others, but their dander was up, not liking being betrayed by a stranger they'd been led to believe was an ally.</p><p></p><p>"Over by me!" Thurloe called to Zander and Xandro, as Robin backed away and began playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute. Xandro pulled <em>Deathwhisper</em> from his scabbard and stood by the spellsword, waiting for the elf to approach. But then the lizardfolk sentries, spurred on by their leader's demands, threw their first volley of javelins down at the heroes. Xandro, Thurloe, and Zander were all targeted but managed to avoid the thrown weapons, whereas one of the two thrown at Nimbus as he and Wakuren flew up and over the wall hit the flying horse. But then Zander got close enough to Thurloe for the spellsword to cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell that teleported the three of them and Petey up to the western sentry post, behind the two lizardfolk on duty there. And the elf cast a <em>haste</em> spell upon the group while the spellsword was casting his own spell.</p><p></p><p><em>Deathwhisper</em> struck forward with lightning speed through the back of one of the lizardfolk sentries, its blade poking out of his stomach. When Xandro retracted the blade, the guard fell forward over the front edge of the sealed-off arroyo entrance, but he was already dead before he hit the ground some 30 feet below. Up on Nimbus's broad back, Wakuren cast a <em>greater command</em> spell at the four sentries on the eastern ledge, yelling the command, "Approach!" as part of the spellcasting. All four lizardfolk, dazed into compliance, started heading his way, heedless of the fact he was on a cloud-horse hovering 40 feet off the ground.</p><p></p><p>But Thassp now had a viable target he could hit, and he threw his first javelin up at Nimbus with all his considerable strength, catching the aerial steed in the belly. Behind him, his barbarian lieutenants lined up behind him, their own javelins at the ready. Down on the other side of the <em>wall of stone</em>, Alewyth cast an <em>air walk</em> spell upon herself and started climbing up the air until she too stood above the others.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe cast a <em>slow</em> spell down at the five barbarian riders, Thassp being too far ahead for the spellsword to be able to catch him as well within his spell's area of effect. But he purposefully did not target the boneheads they were riding, for a quick count told Thurloe there were six boneheads to be had, the exact number they'd come here to bargain for in the first place....</p><p></p><p>Xandro stabbed the other lizardfolk sentry as he spun to face the rapier-wielding rogue, slaying the scaled guard as quickly as he had the other one. About that same time, the other four sentries did their best to approach Wakuren, even if it meant walking off the side of their ledge and plummeting 30 feet to the ground below. But after having fallen in a heap, they simply dusted themselves up and did their best to leap the 40 feet of vertical distance keeping them from obeying their magical command.</p><p></p><p>In the back of the lizardfolk settlement, some of the other reptiles were gathering up their weapons and joining the fray. There were two upthrust sections of rock near the bonehead pens, which the lizardfolk rather unimaginatively referred to as "Big Rock" and "Little Rock," and two of the lesser members of the tribe were climbing up onto Big Rock to see what was going on. Four more scampered up onto the top of the bonehead fence, and from there up onto Little Rock, to do the same.</p><p></p><p>From the sentry post beside Xandro, Zander cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell that struck Thassp, then arced off to hit his lieutenants as well; like Thurloe, the elf opted not to harm the pachycephalosauruses they hoped to take as their own mounts once this battle had been won. The lizardfolk cried out in pain as the electricity coursed over their bodies. Then Nimbus flew down and kicked Thassp with a hardened hoof, while Wakuren slammed him with his <em>shield of Cal</em>. The unified attacks nearly threw the lizardfolk leader from his mount, but he hung on at the last moment.</p><p></p><p>That wasn't all that Thassp did, though. He roared in a barbaric fury, the roar turning into a high-pitched screech midway, as his reptilian muzzle extended forward by a good foot or more at the same time a bony projection grew out of the back of his skull. His arms lengthened, his fingers even more so, and flaps of reptilian skin turned them into leathery wings. Within moments, Thassp the lizardfolk barbarian leader was revealed for what he had recently become: a werebeast, now in his hybrid form, somewhere between his normal lizardfolk build and that of a pteranodon. The other lizardfolk gaped at their leader, never having seen him transform in such a way before.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth wasn't overly impressed; for all she knew, this was nothing new for the lizardfolk foe. She cast a <em>searing light</em> spell at the werebeast, while the lizardfolk assembled on Big Rock and Little Rock threw their javelins at the easiest target, the cloud horse flying up at just about their level. Thurloe, still in flight himself, cast a <em>ray of enfeeblement</em> spell down at the werepteranodon, draining him of some of the hybrid strength he'd developed since being bitten by a werequetzalcoatlus some nights earlier. Then while the strains of the song of inspirational courage wafted up from the far side of the <em>wall of stone</em>, Xandro brought out his <em>Dardolian Lute</em> and his <em>dire elk pick</em> and added to the tune, weaving in the summoning that brought his megaloceros into being.</p><p></p><p>The dire elk manifested beside one of the rearmost mounted barbarians in the lineup, and swung his broad antlers into the reptilian foe, sweeping him from his perch upon the bonehead's back and sending him flying some 20 feet away. Over by Thassp, the four enchanted lizardfolk sentries continued with their pointless efforts to leap up to Wakuren, while the lizardfolk on Little Rock and Big Rock lowered their weapons and gaped at what they saw, for they'd had no idea Thassp had become a werebeast. Their amazement was short-lived, however, for another <em>chain lightning</em> spell from Zander slew them outright while causing additional damage to the barbarians who had been the spell's real targets.</p><p></p><p>Then, when another strike from Wakuren's <em>shield of Cal</em> snapped Thassp's neck, the lizardfolk barbarians came to an easy solution and raised their hands in surrender, throwing their weapons on the ground beside them. They were crafty and fearsome warriors in their own right, true, but they also knew when they were hopelessly outmatched. Zander understood their cries for surrender and answered them in their own tongue. They agreed to turn over the six boneheads as recompense for having attacked the strangers, all too glad to put the situation behind them and escape with their lives. After all, they told themselves, they could always hunt down more boneheads for their own use later on.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth returned to the ground level outside the arroyo entrance and cast a <em>soften earth and stone</em> spell upon her <em>wall of stone</em>, then used <em>Sjondra</em> to smash a hole into it wide enough for a bonehead to ride through. The six heroes each took custody of a bonehead from a grateful and apologetic lizardfolk barbarian, and then, astride their new mounts, they followed Beetle and Yellow-Belly out of the maze of narrow, stone passageways and back out into the grasslands.</p><p></p><p>"We're going to have to come up with names for our new mounts," Alewyth pointed out to the others.</p><p></p><p>"Eh," grunted Thurloe. He didn't tend to give such things much thought (which no doubt accounted for the fact that back in Armaturia, he had a horse named "Horse").</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Alewyth, in keeping with her rock-based theme (she has a mule named Mica and a dire goat named Pyrite back in Armaturia), named her bonehead "Lapis." Wakuren, who had named his mule "Perseverance," opted to give his new dinosaur mount the name "Persistence." Thurloe, following his own pattern of not really giving a damn, named his bonehead "Boney." And then since Dan was running his son Joe's PC for this session (as Joe's back in college), he had Zander name his pachycephalosaurus "Pachy." That, in turn, prompted Harry to name Xandro's new steed "Ceph" and Robin's "Alosaurus." Quite the brilliant namesmiths in this campaign, I tell you.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My Godzilla T-shirt, as this was the same gaming session as the previous adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9251488, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 68: LOOKING FOR SOME BONEHEADS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 14 Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 8 Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 7 Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 8 Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 14[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5 Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 13 January 2024 - - - The heroes began their journey to the Forbidden Lands on foot, a prospect that left Thurloe rather grumpy until told they only had to go about three hours until they'd meet up with a tribe of lizardfolk ranchers who raised boneheads, mounts of a suitable size for the full-grown human and his five similarly-sized companions. Alewyth had started them off on the right foot that morning with a [i]heroes' feast[/i] spell, along with her traditional morning casting of the [i]endure elements[/i] spell upon herself. (Wakuren followed suit with three castings of the latter spell, upon himself, Robin, and Xandro, for Talonia was significantly hotter than Armaturia had been.) Then, with farewells from the Fleetfoot tribe, they went on their way, led by Beetle Darkcloud and his fastieth riding mount, Yellow-Belly. As they walked through a field of wild flowers, Zander cast [i]mage armor[/i] and [i]shield[/i] spells upon himself and his pseudodragon familiar, Petey, who rode upon his shoulder. Alewyth cast a [i]magic vestment[/i] spell upon herself, after having already been ambushed by dinosaurs - velociraptors, specifically - on their first day here on the western continent. She was well aware it was best to be protected against the unexpected. Two hours into their trek, she was glad for the extra protection her spell afforded her, for Wakuren, riding upon his air element warhorse Nimbus about 30 feet in the air, called down that there were half a dozen dinosaurs headed their way through the tall grasses. The half-orc couldn't get a good look at the approaching predators, for they were at this point merely depressions in the field as they pushed their way through the grasses, but there were definitely six of them, and they stopped about 60 feet ahead as if first catching the heroes' scent, then split up into two groups of three, each angling off so they could attack from ambush from opposite sides, much like the velociraptors - Beetle called them "clawfeet" - had done. Wanting to see for herself, Alewyth tapped the [i]butterfly brooch[/i] she wore above her chest and a pair of butterfly wings sprouted from her back, flapping awkwardly and raising her erratically into the air. From her higher vantage, she could see the six incoming reptiles headed their way, mere disturbances through the grasses like a ship's wake on the ocean. But as the dinosaurs got closer, she and Wakuren could make them out as being very similar to velociraptors in build, only even bigger - deinonychi, as a matter of fact, what Beetle called "Carvers." "They're coming this way," Alewyth warned the others. "Beetle, you might want to hang back - we don't want anything happening to our guide!" Beetle was only too happy to comply, bringing Yellow-Belly to the back of their little procession, which had halted once the approaching deinonychi had been spotted. Thurloe didn't like not being able to see their foes either, so he activated the [i]fly[/i] spell from his [i]celestial armor[/i] and took to the air. (Not coincidentally, this also took him out of the suspected range of the denonychi's attacks.) Robin stepped back with Beetle and Yellow-Belly, plucking at the strings of her lute and beginning the words to her song of inspirational courage. Xandro stepped up in front of her, [i]Deathwhisper[/i] in hand and ready for action. But he decided he'd let the dinosaurs come to him rather than leap into battle against an unknown enemy. Alewyth cast a [i]prayer[/i] spell over the group. The deinonychi came in from two opposite ends, starting to flank the heroes, but Zander was ready for them: he stepped forward and cast a [i]prismatic spray[/i] spell, sending a rainbow of colored rays flowing out from his fingertips in a wide arc before him. The elf sorcerer's spell flowed over all six of the dinosaurs, with different effects. The first one was blasted with a bolt of electricity that fried it to ashes in an instant; the second and third were both engulfed in a flow of acid that burned them to death, their scales bubbling and the meat below them rippling and burning. The fourth deinonychus was also electrified to death, while the fifth one had its body instantly transformed into stone. The last one was first blinded, then disappeared as its body slipped through the Material World and fell onto an entirely different plane of existence. And just that quickly, the deinonychus threat was no more. Beetle, once he was able to find his voice again, suggested they cut up flanks of meat from one of the slain dinosaurs - one killed by electricity rather than one slain by acid, preferably - as a means of trade with the lizardfolk from which they were going to try to get six bonehead mounts. "We can do you one better," Xandro said, having Wakuren pass him over [i]Hesperna's lamp[/i] and bringing the slain deinonychus corpse into the extradimensional space with him. He returned again for the other one, then - just in case - took each of the acid-coated corpses and the petrified statue with him as well. "Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them," he opined. "And who knows? Maybe lizardfolk like a little acid with their dinosaur meat." The halfling ranger shook his head at the powerful magic his new wards seemed to almost take for granted, then suggested they move on. "It's less than an hour to the lizardfolk arroyo," he told them. And indeed it was. Not long after having been unsuccessfully ambushed, the group entered an area of high, stone walls with a maze of passageways cut into them over the years by flowing water - water which was now not much more than a slow-moving brook. But Beetle apparently knew his way through the maze with ease, for he took each turn with confidence and never once had to backtrack. "Here we go," he finally said, as he turned a corner and found a group of six lizardfolk looking down at him and Yellow-Belly from their perches on either side of a 20-foot-wide entrance to what Beetle knew as the outer boundary to the lizardfolk ranch. There were two lizardfolk on the right ledge and four on the left, that ledge being much wider than the other. Each upright reptile was armed with javelins and a club and held a wooden shield at the ready. When they saw Beetle and the strangers approach, they started hissing down at him. Much to the surprise of five of the assembled heroes, Beetle started hissing right back up to them. But to Zander Quilson, who had had a permanent [i]tongues[/i] spell cast upon him back in Armaturia, the hissing was quite understandable as a conversation in the lizardfolk's natural tongue. They greeted Beetle by name and he asked if [b]Thassp[/b] was around. "I'm right here," replied Thassp, riding forward on a bonehead - a two-legged dinosaur as large as a horse, with a thick skull covered in a knobby, bony plate - and speaking in the same sibilant language as his guards up on the ledges. "What can we do for you?" "I travel with six strangers," Beetle replied. "We wish to trade for six of your boneheads, as our fastieths are much too small to support them." "Poor luck, then," replied Thassp. "We have six boneheads, but none for trade - they're the mounts of me and my barbarians. Nocturnal predators have slain all of the others. But we'll be going on a hunting party soon, and we may be able to gather up a few more boneheads then." But then, sitting astride his own bonehead, he gave a close look to the six people Beetle had brought with him to the lizardfolk arroyo. "You have strange-looking companions, indeed. I've never seen a drow with skin so pale," he said, looking at Zander, "nor a wide one," looking over Alewyth's stocky form. Then, glancing at the three humans in puzzlement, he added, "Nor a round-ear." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully with one hand. "Do you know what they taste like?" Beetle furrowed his own brow in puzzlement, wondering if the lizardfolk barbarian was making some kind of joke; if so, it wasn't in good taste. But before he could decide how to answer, Thassp made him an offer, again in the lizardfolk tongue. "I'll tell you what," Thassp offered. "I'll take the wide one and one of the round-ears, and the rest of you can go free." The halfling's frown grew even deeper; surely Thassp wasn't serious? The Fleetfoot tribe had traded with Thassp's lizardfolk for many years. Up on the ledge, the six lizardfolk were giving each other puzzled looks, as if to say, "Are we really doing this?" Beetle looked up at the mounted barbarian leader with a smile frozen on his face and started talking to his charges in Common - a language the lizardfolk apparently didn't know. "Not sure what's going on, but get ready to run!" Beetle said without moving his lips. Zander, who had understood everything said between Thassp and Beetle, added, "Their leader's planning on eating us!" Alewyth immediately took matters into her own hands. She raised her arms and spread them across each other, casting a [i]wall of stone[/i] across the arroyo opening, sealing off Thassp and his bonehead mount. Her magical wall was the same height as the surrounding stone - about 30 feet up - but nowhere near as thick in cross-section. But it did the job, keeping Thassp from being able to do anything to them for the moment. He called back to his troops, and at the back of the arroyo, where the other five boneheads stood in their pen, his five lizardfolk barbarian troops raced to their mounts and leaped onto their backs, riding them to the gate. There was a bit of a bottleneck as the lead rider opened the gate and the others lined up to go through. Beetle tugged on Yellow-Belly's reins and led his fastieth around the corner, out of range of the lizardfolk sentries' javelins. "We must flee!" he called to the others, but their dander was up, not liking being betrayed by a stranger they'd been led to believe was an ally. "Over by me!" Thurloe called to Zander and Xandro, as Robin backed away and began playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute. Xandro pulled [i]Deathwhisper[/i] from his scabbard and stood by the spellsword, waiting for the elf to approach. But then the lizardfolk sentries, spurred on by their leader's demands, threw their first volley of javelins down at the heroes. Xandro, Thurloe, and Zander were all targeted but managed to avoid the thrown weapons, whereas one of the two thrown at Nimbus as he and Wakuren flew up and over the wall hit the flying horse. But then Zander got close enough to Thurloe for the spellsword to cast a [i]dimension door[/i] spell that teleported the three of them and Petey up to the western sentry post, behind the two lizardfolk on duty there. And the elf cast a [i]haste[/i] spell upon the group while the spellsword was casting his own spell. [i]Deathwhisper[/i] struck forward with lightning speed through the back of one of the lizardfolk sentries, its blade poking out of his stomach. When Xandro retracted the blade, the guard fell forward over the front edge of the sealed-off arroyo entrance, but he was already dead before he hit the ground some 30 feet below. Up on Nimbus's broad back, Wakuren cast a [i]greater command[/i] spell at the four sentries on the eastern ledge, yelling the command, "Approach!" as part of the spellcasting. All four lizardfolk, dazed into compliance, started heading his way, heedless of the fact he was on a cloud-horse hovering 40 feet off the ground. But Thassp now had a viable target he could hit, and he threw his first javelin up at Nimbus with all his considerable strength, catching the aerial steed in the belly. Behind him, his barbarian lieutenants lined up behind him, their own javelins at the ready. Down on the other side of the [i]wall of stone[/i], Alewyth cast an [i]air walk[/i] spell upon herself and started climbing up the air until she too stood above the others. Thurloe cast a [i]slow[/i] spell down at the five barbarian riders, Thassp being too far ahead for the spellsword to be able to catch him as well within his spell's area of effect. But he purposefully did not target the boneheads they were riding, for a quick count told Thurloe there were six boneheads to be had, the exact number they'd come here to bargain for in the first place.... Xandro stabbed the other lizardfolk sentry as he spun to face the rapier-wielding rogue, slaying the scaled guard as quickly as he had the other one. About that same time, the other four sentries did their best to approach Wakuren, even if it meant walking off the side of their ledge and plummeting 30 feet to the ground below. But after having fallen in a heap, they simply dusted themselves up and did their best to leap the 40 feet of vertical distance keeping them from obeying their magical command. In the back of the lizardfolk settlement, some of the other reptiles were gathering up their weapons and joining the fray. There were two upthrust sections of rock near the bonehead pens, which the lizardfolk rather unimaginatively referred to as "Big Rock" and "Little Rock," and two of the lesser members of the tribe were climbing up onto Big Rock to see what was going on. Four more scampered up onto the top of the bonehead fence, and from there up onto Little Rock, to do the same. From the sentry post beside Xandro, Zander cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell that struck Thassp, then arced off to hit his lieutenants as well; like Thurloe, the elf opted not to harm the pachycephalosauruses they hoped to take as their own mounts once this battle had been won. The lizardfolk cried out in pain as the electricity coursed over their bodies. Then Nimbus flew down and kicked Thassp with a hardened hoof, while Wakuren slammed him with his [i]shield of Cal[/i]. The unified attacks nearly threw the lizardfolk leader from his mount, but he hung on at the last moment. That wasn't all that Thassp did, though. He roared in a barbaric fury, the roar turning into a high-pitched screech midway, as his reptilian muzzle extended forward by a good foot or more at the same time a bony projection grew out of the back of his skull. His arms lengthened, his fingers even more so, and flaps of reptilian skin turned them into leathery wings. Within moments, Thassp the lizardfolk barbarian leader was revealed for what he had recently become: a werebeast, now in his hybrid form, somewhere between his normal lizardfolk build and that of a pteranodon. The other lizardfolk gaped at their leader, never having seen him transform in such a way before. Alewyth wasn't overly impressed; for all she knew, this was nothing new for the lizardfolk foe. She cast a [i]searing light[/i] spell at the werebeast, while the lizardfolk assembled on Big Rock and Little Rock threw their javelins at the easiest target, the cloud horse flying up at just about their level. Thurloe, still in flight himself, cast a [i]ray of enfeeblement[/i] spell down at the werepteranodon, draining him of some of the hybrid strength he'd developed since being bitten by a werequetzalcoatlus some nights earlier. Then while the strains of the song of inspirational courage wafted up from the far side of the [i]wall of stone[/i], Xandro brought out his [i]Dardolian Lute[/i] and his [i]dire elk pick[/i] and added to the tune, weaving in the summoning that brought his megaloceros into being. The dire elk manifested beside one of the rearmost mounted barbarians in the lineup, and swung his broad antlers into the reptilian foe, sweeping him from his perch upon the bonehead's back and sending him flying some 20 feet away. Over by Thassp, the four enchanted lizardfolk sentries continued with their pointless efforts to leap up to Wakuren, while the lizardfolk on Little Rock and Big Rock lowered their weapons and gaped at what they saw, for they'd had no idea Thassp had become a werebeast. Their amazement was short-lived, however, for another [i]chain lightning[/i] spell from Zander slew them outright while causing additional damage to the barbarians who had been the spell's real targets. Then, when another strike from Wakuren's [i]shield of Cal[/i] snapped Thassp's neck, the lizardfolk barbarians came to an easy solution and raised their hands in surrender, throwing their weapons on the ground beside them. They were crafty and fearsome warriors in their own right, true, but they also knew when they were hopelessly outmatched. Zander understood their cries for surrender and answered them in their own tongue. They agreed to turn over the six boneheads as recompense for having attacked the strangers, all too glad to put the situation behind them and escape with their lives. After all, they told themselves, they could always hunt down more boneheads for their own use later on. Alewyth returned to the ground level outside the arroyo entrance and cast a [i]soften earth and stone[/i] spell upon her [i]wall of stone[/i], then used [i]Sjondra[/i] to smash a hole into it wide enough for a bonehead to ride through. The six heroes each took custody of a bonehead from a grateful and apologetic lizardfolk barbarian, and then, astride their new mounts, they followed Beetle and Yellow-Belly out of the maze of narrow, stone passageways and back out into the grasslands. "We're going to have to come up with names for our new mounts," Alewyth pointed out to the others. "Eh," grunted Thurloe. He didn't tend to give such things much thought (which no doubt accounted for the fact that back in Armaturia, he had a horse named "Horse"). - - - Alewyth, in keeping with her rock-based theme (she has a mule named Mica and a dire goat named Pyrite back in Armaturia), named her bonehead "Lapis." Wakuren, who had named his mule "Perseverance," opted to give his new dinosaur mount the name "Persistence." Thurloe, following his own pattern of not really giving a damn, named his bonehead "Boney." And then since Dan was running his son Joe's PC for this session (as Joe's back in college), he had Zander name his pachycephalosaurus "Pachy." That, in turn, prompted Harry to name Xandro's new steed "Ceph" and Robin's "Alosaurus." Quite the brilliant namesmiths in this campaign, I tell you. - - - T-shirt worn: My Godzilla T-shirt, as this was the same gaming session as the previous adventure. [/QUOTE]
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