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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9349189" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 73: DEVILED EGGSPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 15             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 9             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 8             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 9             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 15NPC Roster:Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 5Game Session Date: 11 May 2024 - - -The heroes continued their westward journey, each mounted upon their pachycephalosaurus mount but Wakuren; his "bonehead" dinosaur trotted along behind Robin, its harness attached to the saddle upon which she sat, while the half-orc rode upon his air element warhorse, Nimbus, 10 feet above the surface of the ground below.  As was his wont, Zander chose to ride directly beneath Wakuren and Nimbus, using them as an impromptu umbrella to shade himself from the burning sun.  For even though he, Alewyth, Wakuren, Xandro, and Robin were all sporting endure elements spells that kept them in a comfortable environment temperature-wise, the equatorial sun still tanned (and burned) easier than it did back on their home continent of Armaturia.  The elf had cast his standard mage armor spell upon himself and his pseudodragon familiar Petey (and, at Wakuren's request, another such spell upon Nimbus as well) - and this after the heroes had all devoured the contents of Alewyth's heroes' feast spell, which she liked to cast first thing in the morning to get them set off on a good day's journey.The forests around them had gotten wetter over the last several days, and as they traveled westward, they did so with a patch of wetlands directly to the north of them.  This actually pleased their halfling guide, Beetle, for it gave him a familiar landmark by which to gauge their location.  "Last time," he reminded his charges, "Andrea and I were on the other side of the mountains, with the wetlands just beyond the range.  Once we pass this swamp, we should be able to veer north a bit and get back on track to the way I'm more familiar with."After an hour or more traveling beside the wetlands, they found themselves approaching a small caravan from the rear.  The pachycephalosaurus mounts - and Beetle's smaller fastieth mount, Yellow-Belly - were easily outpacing the slower group ahead, which seemed to consist of a dozen or so humanoid frogs and half as many velociraptors, walking in a group around two squatty dinosaurs, each pulling a wooden travois behind it, loaded with wooden crates and boxes overflowing with dried grasses and straw.  "Frowny frogs ahead," warned Alewyth, using the term Princess Caroline had used for the bullywugs they'd encountered in her dreams.  Of course, the heroes had encountered actual bullywugs in real life as well; early in their adventuring careers they'd encountered a small group of them in the sewers below Port Duralia.  Those bullywugs had been a greenish-brown in coloration, but this batch here was a more reddish-brown.  None of the heroes thought anything of it, though, figuring this was an entirely different continent - small wonder if there were taxonomic differences between the species to be found so far apart.As the faster group got closer to the caravan, the velociraptors picked up their scent and came to an immediate halt, spinning about in place and alerting the frog-men of the presence of strangers.  Fearing combat was imminent, Xandro cast a heroism spell upon himself and let his hand stray to the hilt of his magic rapier, Deathwhisper, urging his mount Ceph forward ahead of the rest of the group.  Zander borrowed Thurloe's wand of shield and cast a charge upon himself, before returning it so the spellsword could do the same.  Petey took flight, leaving Zander's shoulder to fly straight up until he had a clear view in all directions, to ensure there weren't any other potential threats in the area.Two bullywugs in the rear of the caravan advanced towards the heroes, halfspears out and ready.  Seeing this, Robin pulled the lute from her back and began the song of inspirational courage, having her mount Alosaurus head to the back of the formation (where Beetle and Yellow-Belly soon joined her).  Wakuren used the disguise self property of his robe of blending to give himself an appearance very much like a bullywug, while casting a tongues spell to grant him the ability to speak and understand their language, figuring they'd be more friendly dealing with someone of their own amphibious race.One of the bullywugs called out in his croaking language, "Who are you?  What do you want?""Just travelers, passing through," Wakuren replied in the bullywug's own tongue."Got any eggs?"Wakuren was a little taken aback by such a strange question, coming completely out of the blue as it had.  But he covered his surprise quickly, answering, "Eggs?  Nope, no eggs.""Get off with you, then," replied the bullywug fighter, indicating with a nod of his head the odd group of bonehead riders should move past them and be on their way.  That would have been fine for the half-orc - they didn't want any trouble from these strangers, after all - but with his tongues spell still active and translating all languages, he heard a perfectly understandable cry of "Hey - is there someone out there?" and another voice calling "Help us!  Free us from our captors!" coming from one of the boxes in the travois of the trailing lug-beast.  Again hiding his surprise, Wakuren simply nodded his understanding to the bullywug guard and rode back towards his own group, to quickly tell them what he'd heard.  "I think they might have been baby bullywugs," he hazarded, since the language had sounded the same as that spoken by the bullywug guard.As the heroes were concentrating on picking up what Wakuren was telling them, none of them noticed one of the bullywugs up by the front travois making casting motions with his webbed hands.  The spellcaster, Glorpalthorp, successfully summoned a creature from another realm, having it appear completely submerged in the nearby swamp waters, where it could spring out at the others if they got too close to the caravan, which had come to a complete stop while the bullywug guard pair spoke to the representative from this other group.  Alewyth urged Lapis forward, casting a detect magic spell as she did so.  She was far enough away that she could only examine the two bullywug rear guards with her spell, but it was enough to see neither held any magic items, nor were they covered in any magic spells themselves.However, despite the bullywug guards giving the heroes the okay to move past them and be on their way, their velociraptor companions had other ideas - they were hungry (they were very often hungry, no matter how much they had to eat or how recently they'd fed), and they broke off from the caravan and headed as one towards the nearest potential meal: Alewyth Putterpye and her bonehead mount Lapis.  The four closest each made a bounding leap, with their wicked toe-claws out and ready to rend when they landed, but they did not work together very well, for of the four only one caught Lapis in its leaping pounce, the other three coming up short or bumping into each other mid-leap.  Xandro sped Caph forward instantly, cutting a deep gash into the velociraptor that had cut open a wound along Lapis's side.  He was pleased to see Deathwhisper had dealt a more severe blow to the predator than it had made against Alewyth's loyal mount.Zander rode Pachy forward a bit - but not too much; the elf didn't want to find himself in close-quarters combat with a pack of six velociraptors! - and cast a summon monster spell of his own.  Unbeknownst to the elf sorcerer, he'd inadvertently copied the same strategy of Glorpalthorp, in summoning his red slaad at the bottom of the swamp waters, so it could spring up in surprise and attack the dinosaurs and frog-men from a direction they wouldn't expect.  But the red slaad, upon taking form in the murky swamp waters, was instantly attacked by Glorpalthorp's previously-summoned giant octopus, a rubbery tentacle entwining itself around the toad-thing's body.  The slaad slashed at the offending tentacle with its claw-tipped hand, fighting for its very life completely underwater, where none but the octopus could see him.  (Zander, in the meantime, wondered if he'd somehow fumbled the summoning spell.)Thurloe rode up on Boney and brought Spellslicer swinging deep into the side of a velociraptor attacking Lapis; the vampiric touch spell he had stored in the blade triggered, damaging the predator even further and giving the spellsword a boost of stolen life-energy.  Seeing the damage being taken by their trained guard-beasts, the bullywugs waddled to their rescue in their awkward, loping gait.  The other two bullywug fighters stayed by the lug-beasts and their boxes and bundles, sending the draft dinosaurs forward again with a slap on the flank.  Two of the blindheims moved along with them, the other four running over to aid in battle against the heroes.Wakuren cast a summon monster spell and brought forth a bralani, a svelte-looking, elflike creature from the Upper Planes.  The first thing she did upon arrival was cast a mirror image spell, tripling the apparent local bralani population.  Then the three of them headed over to assist in the combat at hand.Glorpalthorp ribbeted out a few bubbly syllables and cast an unholy blight spell, encompassing Thurloe on Boney, Xandro on Ceph, Wakuren on Nimbus, and Alewyth on Lapis.  Of the eight targeted, only Xandro was overcome by a feeling of sickness, making him feel nauseous like he was about to throw up.  The feeling soon passed, but it kept him from the combat for a short while, which the bullywug spellcaster saw as a good thing.Under the fetid waters of the swamp, the summoned octopus got the summoned red slaad in its suckers and squeezed hard, forcing the air from the toad-thing's lungs.  Despite his predicament, the slaad opened his mouthful of jagged teeth and bit deep into the octopus' rubbery flesh, causing both blood and ink to stain the already-dark waters.Alewyth cast an empowered flame strike, killing one of the velociraptors outright and seriously harming the others in the area of effect.  They snapped at her and Thurloe, no longer going for their riding mounts but seeking revenge against those who had caused them harm.  (While figuring, no doubt, that after the riders were dealt with the mounts could be taken down that much more easily.)   But then Xandro caught one of the predators from behind with a quick stab of his rapier, piercing its internal organs and slaying it with the one stroke.  When he pulled out his blade, the velociraptor fell lifelessly to the ground.Zander rode up, cast his arms out wide, and brought a prismatic spray shooting out at his varied foes.  One velociraptor was slain instantly by a gout of acid gushing out from the sorcerer's outspread arms, while another burned to a crisp as his body was instantly engulfed in a blaze of flames.  Two others vanished, transported instantly to other planes of existence.  And two blindheims were also caught up in the spell, one of them affected by instant insanity and the other one not affected at all, the spell having been successfully deflected by his inherent resistance.  Thurloe rode up and slashed at the confused blindheim with his bastard sword before the creature had enough time to get his bearings.Then the two bullywugs fighters made their approach upon the scene, stabbing their halfspears at Alewyth and Thurloe.  The other two, upon orders from Glorpalthorp, abandoned the caravan and went to add their own weapons to the fray.  But Wakuren, sensing the bullywug spellcaster was the one in charge of this whole operation, had Nimbus charge through the air right at him, lowering himself to a foot off the ground as they neared the frog-man's corpulent form, so Wakuren could lean to the side in the saddle and bring his shield of Cal smashing into the amphibian's face at full force.  It was all Glorpalthorp could do to remain standing after such a powerful blow.  Nimbus kicked out at the bullywug, but he had stumbled back enough from the shield bash that the cloud-steed's attack missed.  In a panic, Glorpalthorp cast a cone of cold into the faces of his two enemies, catching Wakuren full-on while Nimbus ducked under the blast of frost, evading the spell quite nicely.Wakuren's summoned bralani, however, had moved into position and fired off a lightning bolt spell that blasted its way through two of the blindheims.  The confused blindheim felt an overwhelming sense of sudden panic and fled from Zander, his course taking him almost directly behind Wakuren and Nimbus.  Petey took off after him, stabbing at him with his tail-stinger but failing to penetrate his hide.  The other three blindheims went after Thurloe, Xandro, and Alewyth, until the dwarf cast an empowered sound burst at the three of them that shook them up quite nicely.  Xandro stabbed one in the back with Deathwhisper, ending its life, while Zander rode Pachy into position to fire off a lightning bolt spell through the other two, mirroring the bralani tactic of a moment ago.Under the water, the octopus continued tightening its grip, but to no avail; the red slaad bit through his rubbery flesh and slew the eight-armed terror, whose body disappeared immediately upon being slain.  Then the red slaad popped his head up above the surface of the water and started wading to dry land, eager to fight some landbound foes.Spellslicer took the life - and very nearly the head - of one of the bullywug fighters, as the other one pivoted his way and tried stabbing the spellsword with his halfspear.  The two reinforcements were, by this time, almost close enough to join the fray themselves.Wakuren, oblivious to the proximity of the crazed blindheim behind him, leapt from Nimbus's saddle and raced to Glorpalthorp, slamming him again with his shield.  This second blow was as powerful as the first had been, and the half-orc heard the audible snap of his vertebrae giving way as his neck-bones shattered and the bulltywug spellcaster collapsed to the ground, quite dead.  Nimbus, in the meantime, had heard the crazed blindheim come up behind him and he spun around, getting off a good kick to the chin with a powerful hoof.Back by the others, the bralani trio sent a whirlwind blast buffeting another blindheim and one of the bullywugs.  The bullywugs attacked with their halfspears, and Alewyth decided to meet the attack of the one targeting her with her own weapon, the dwarven warhammer Sjondra.  Xandro slew another of the blindheims with his rapier, and at this stage it was fairly apparent how the battle was going to end at this side of the combat.  That freed Zander to worry about the two lug-beasts and the two blindheims trying their very best to get them out of combat range; apparently whatever it was they had in those crates and boxes was very important.  Channeling additional electrical power through his ring, the elf sorcerer cast a chain lightning spell through his metamagic rod of maximize spell, sending a deadly bolt of lightning striking full-force into the lead lug-beast, then arcing off to the other one and the two blindheims.  The main target died instantly, bringing his travois to a dead halt, while the other three managed to hang on to life for at least a little bit longer - although all three had taken at least some damage from the blast.  Petey chose that moment to return to his master's shoulder, deeming these frog-people too bothersome for him to try to poison with his sleep venom.Rising up from the swamp, the red slaad came hopping over to the still-crazed blindheim, killing him with one swipe of his claws.  At the same time, Thurloe took down one of the three remaining bullywug fighters with his bastard sword.  The last two focused their attention upon Alewyth and Xandro, fighting for all they were worth - almost as if they feared fleeing more than they feared death.  But the human rogue and the dwarven priestess gave back as good as they got, stabbing and slamming with their own weapons of choice.Wakuren raced up to one of the lead blindheims and snapped his neck with the edge of his shield of Cal in a lateral swing.  Nimbus tried kicking at the remaining lug-beast - a creature Andrea's notes on dinosaurs referred to as a "moschops" - but didn't seem to deal a whole lot of damage to the thick-skinned reptile.  It snapped at the cloud-steed in irritation, catching a mouthful of fluffy cloudstuff that exploded out of the sides of the lug-beast's snapping jaws like a smoker exhaling after a long draw on his pipe.The bralani trio sent another blast of wind at a bullywug fighter, as Alewyth bashed at him with Sjondra.  Xandro abandoned the fight at the back end, sending Ceph speeding forward to go aid in ensuring the second lug-beast didn't escape with its travois.  Zander and Pachy followed alongside.  But the sorcerer's summoned red slaad was already on the scene, lashing out with his claws and teeth and slaying one of the two remaining blindheims.  After that, with only one blindheim, one bullywug, and one lug-beast remaining of the entire original caravan, the heroes made quick work of them.  "They were all evil," Wakuren informed the others, after the fact.Now with access to the contents of the crates and boxes, the heroes saw they all contained eggs of various shapes and sizes, carefully packed in straw to keep them from being damaged during transit.  All, that is, but for a small box with air holes poked in its sides; it was from here the pleas for help had come.  "Hold still, I'll have you out in a moment," promised Wakuren, pulling open the box, which had been nailed closed.  Inside were three tiny, humanoid tree frogs of bright coloration - quite different from the drab reddish browns of the bullywugs, blindheims, and velociraptors."Thank you," replied the largest of the grippli.  "One of the bullywugs said they had captured us alive to start a breeding colony of grippli, since our eggs are soft and jellylike and cannot be easily transported.""What's with all of the eggs?" demanded Alewyth once Wakuren and Zander had translated the grippli's words."We do not know," admitted the grippli.  "But we have seen these egg-gathering expeditions come by our lands before.  A group of our tribe followed them once, and saw where they take the eggs they have stolen.  It is not far from here, a large structure of stone, with great doors at the front, and in the back, the den of shining evil!""'Den of shining evil?'" asked Zander.  "What's that?""We do not know - it is a cavern, below the ground, that glows with a unnatural, reddish light.  We can show you the way, if you wish, but we will not enter it ourselves.""Who runs this operation?""A pair of elves with horns," replied the grippli.  "We have no other word for them.  One is a male, one is a female.  They have many dinosaurs who serve them, as these did - a spiketail and a pair of great carvers.  And both of the elves with horns can cast spells.""Very well then," replied Wakuren, as Robin and Beetle joined them on their mounts.  "We will travel to this den of shining evil and have a look for ourselves."  But before they resumed their travel, the half-orc cast a mass cure light wounds spell on the assembled team, healing up the worst of their damage.The grippli directed the heroes to the "den of shining evil" - a walled structure of solid stone, with a massive set of wooden gates along the middle of the front wall.  A pair of familiar-looking guards stood at attention on either side of the gates, the lights blazing from their eyes identifying them as blindheims.  According to the grippli, once the gates were opened - say, to allow in a caravan of lug-beasts carrying loads of stolen eggs - there was an open area just behind, with numerous gates and doors on all three walls.  The door at the very back led to a natural cavern with stone steps leading down, and that entire area was suffused with an eerie, reddish light.Zander sent Petey to do an aerial reconnaissance around the fortress.  Upon his return, he reported back that there was just the one set of gates leading into the fortress, there were open-air pens up at the front containing a stegosaurus ("spiketail," according to Beetle), a megaraptor ("great carver") and three velociraptors ("clawfeet"), and a moschops ("lug-beast"), and another pen that seemed to be empty save for a small, shedlike structure with a roof.   Other areas further back were also covered with roofs, but these all seemed to be single-story affairs."We go in stealthily," Wakuren decided.  "You all get into the lamp, I activate my ring of invisibility, and then I air walk us all into the courtyard past the main gates.""I like it," Thurloe declared.  He generally liked plans where others took the risks and exposed themselves to danger.  He was the first to touch his hand to the magic lamp and say the command word that shunted him inside its extradimensional interior."I'll be watching from inside," Alewyth reassured the half-orc.  Once inside the lamp, she donned the headband that allowed her to see through the gem Wakuren wore on his brow for that very purpose.Once the heroes were all inside, Wakuren bid Nimbus to watch over Beetle and the other mounts, then faded from view and walked through the air past the blindheim guards and into the courtyard, as planned.  Then, one by one, the heroes started exiting the lamp and going their separate ways to explore.Xandro picked a door that Petey had said led to a roofed shed in an otherwise empty pen with a muddy pool of brackish water in the back.  It turned out to be a small bedroom, with a simple cot in one corner and a closed chest in the opposite one.  Opening the chest, Xandro found a ceramic bowl and a spoon which radiated magic, as well as two blocks of magical incense.  Other than a wooden holy symbol of Galrich, God of Water, hanging on a peg on one wall, the room was otherwise empty.  A door led to the muddy pen, but Xandro didn't even bother opening it, as Petey had said the pen was empty.  But judging from the contents of the room, he guessed the bedroom belonged to the bullywug spellcaster and the others of his race and the blindheims likely wallowed around in the muddy pond when not otherwise occupied.  Of course, those days were now over, given they'd all been slain, but the two blindheims on guard duty at the raised platforms by the gate likely shared the pool once they got off shift.Zander and Petey exited the lamp next, only they did so under the protection of a greater invisibility effect brought on as a side effect of having cast a mislead spell while still inside Hesperna's lamp.  The elf wandered south, toward the door that led to the den of shining evil.  Thurloe was out next, after having cast a protection from evil spell on himself.  Then came Robin, who followed Xandro into the bullywug leader's quarters to see what he had discovered.Wakuren cast a protection from evil spell on himself as well, after having determined both blindheim guards had auras reeking of the taint of evil.  He did so in a low voice, so as not to be overheard by the guards, whose backs were turned to him up on their perches.  Then Alewyth exited the lamp - she'd taken the time to remove the headband allowing her to see through the gem on Wakuren's brow - and cast a spell of her own: wall of stone, which stretched across the two sets of massive gates facing each other just inside the enclosure, one holding the fiendish stegosaurus and the other the megaraptor and three velociraptors.  The wall of stone was shaped like a squared-off "C," five feet above the surface of the ground and supported in the middle by a stone column reaching to the ground.  That configuration prevented either of the gates from opening into the courtyard, effectively sealing off the five dinosaurs and rendering them incapable of being let out to disturb the heroes as they explored the area, looking for the "elves with horns" who ran this place.  Of course, Alewyth took absolutely no precautions against being heard, and sure enough, as her magical stone structure manifested into place, the blindheims looked down from their perches at the intruders below and behind them, and the obviously powerful magic they had at their command.Then, looking briefly at each other from across the opposite sides of the front gates with eyes that sent out beams of coherent light, they wordlessly came to the same conclusion and scrambled over the front wall, hanging by their webbed hands until dropping to the ground and bounding away at top speed.Xandro came back out of Glorpalthorp's living quarters and opened the next door.  It was a roofed structure, with an L-shaped corridor that held three smaller pens whose walls didn't reach the ceiling.  Two were empty, but three contained a half-dozen serpents with wings that were held close to the body, as if the half-fiend vipers had yet to learn to fly.  After popping his head over the top of the wall to look at the vipers, he opted not to disturb them for now, as they didn't look like they had the opportunity (or immediate inclination) to hurt anyone.About that time, the door directly across the courtyard from the one Xandro had just entered opened up, and out stepped a robed figure carrying a wooden quarterstaff.  The man's skin was a bright red and a pair of horns sprouted from his brow.  "Where is that blasted caravan?" he grumbled to himself.  "They should have been--"  At that point, he saw Xandro standing in the open doorway to the newborn pens, and turned his head to see Alewyth, Thurloe, and Robin and stopped mid-sentence.  "What?" he sputtered, surprised at seeing intruders this far into his fortress.  He hurriedly backed into his room and slammed the door.  Thurloe, the closest to the door, could hear him pounding on an interior wall in the room from which he had momentarily stepped out - apparently warning someone else in a nearby room that there were intruders present.Zander and Petey, still invisible, moved closer to the door and the sorcerer cast a summoning spell that brought forth a blazing fire elemental some 32 feet tall.  It reared back, ready to snatch up either of the "elves with horns" should they appear.  (Zander decided the term was likely the grippli description of a tiefling, if they'd never seen one before.)  Thurloe approached the door next to the one the robed tiefling with the staff had used, and he pushed it open.   The room looked to be roughly triangular in design, but there was nobody in the part he could see.  (That, it would turn out, was because the female tiefling whose bedroom this was had been warned by the knocking on the wall of intruders, and she had popped into the bathroom at the back of her chambers, where she cast a quick protective spell upon herself.)Playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute, Robin exited Glorpalthorp's quarters and stood just outside the doorway, looking up at the massive fire elemental whose body was crackling with flames.  Then Wakuren went charging into the door the male tiefling had used, kicking it open with a well-placed boot.  He was still invisible, but the tiefling saw a brief outline in the dust and flying shards of wood caused by the half-orc's violent entrance into his personal quarters, and he fired off a baleful polymorph spell, cursing aloud when it failed to turn Wakuren into a snail.  The tiefling druid, Quintacus, hurriedly retreated to the back of his room as Xandro ran up to Wakuren and cast a heroism spell on the half-orc.  Alewyth followed up with a bless spell cast upon the entire group, including the fire elemental.Zander cast an Elobar's black tentacles spell into the female tiefling's room, covering it in writhing appendages, but the lack of cries or screams told him they had been unsuccessful in capturing the other half of the tiefling duo behind the egg thefts.  The fire elemental, much too large to enter either of the tiefling's rooms, cooled its heels just outside, ready to pounce if either showed their red-skinned faces.Thurloe, however, was able to enter the tiefling female's room and take a look around to see that she wasn't there.  There was only one other door in the room, on the far side of the tentacles, so she was either in there or she had turned herself invisible or teleported out or something.  Then something told him to check out the ceiling, and sure enough, there was a snake-lizard thing with glider wings stretched on either side of its limbs clinging to the ceiling.  They had a brief moment of eye contact before the nagasaur leaped at Thurloe's face, biting him on the bridge of the nose before he could fend it off with his bastard sword.In the next room over - also triangular in shape - Wakuren charged at Quinticus, but rather than bash him with his shield he rather touched the man's robes, casting a bestow curse upon him as he did so.  The half-orc had been hoping to turn him mute, so he'd be less likely to be able to cast any additional spells, but the druid managed to overcome the intended effects.Out in the courtyard, Alewyth cast a magic circle against evil spell on herself and approached the side-by-side bedroom doors, unaware that the female tiefling, a sorceress named Lucrixia, had cast a dimension door spell from her bathroom and teleported to the front of the courtyard, where she frowned in disbelief at the wall of stone keeping the northernmost pens closed and the dinosaurs behind them out of play.  Fortunately for the tiefling, none of the intruders was facing her way, and none noticed her sudden presence in the courtyard.  Which suited her just fine, as she prepared to cast one of her most powerful offensive spells next....Xandro followed Wakuren into Quinticus's bedroom, casting an expeditious retreat spell on himself as he did so.  That way, he reasoned, he would be able to catch up with the druid if he made a break for it back outside into the courtyard.  That was exactly what Quinticus desperately wanted to do, silently cursing himself for not having had the presence of mind to plant his quarterstaff in the ground when he first saw the intruders, so he could cast a changestaff spell immediately thereafter and have a treant fighting them off while he and Lucrixia regrouped and figured out the best way to deal with the threat.  Now, he had to find his way past the armored orc and the round-eared elf with the light skin, and he figured the best way to do that was as something much smaller and faster than his present form.  Wildshaping instantly into a bat, he flapped past a startled Wakuren (who swung his shield of Cal at him but failed to connect) and Xandro (who was much quicker with his rapier and cut the bat's side as he flew past), making it outside his shattered doorway before being swatted by a massive elemental made of burning flames.  Fortunately, the blow was a glancing one and it barely singed the bat's fur, failing to set him ablaze.However, a sudden beam flashed out of nowhere and struck Quinticus's bat body, draining him some of his personal vigor. Zander remained invisible after having cast the enervation spell at the bat.  Then the elemental swatted at the bat again, sending Quinticus on an erratic course but still managing to both stay airborne and avoid bursting into flame himself.There was a lot of commotion going on out in the courtyard behind him, Thurloe could tell, but his full concentration was on the flapping nagasaur in his face, trying to bite him again.  He finally managed to catch it with the edge of his sword's blade, and the reptile fell to the ground, dead.  At the death of her familiar, Lucrixia gave a cry of anguish and cast her prismatic spray spell, and for the first time in their lives, the heroes got a taste of what it was like to be on the receiving end of what was rapidly becoming Zander Quilson's favorite attack spell.A violet beam struck the fire elemental and it immediately popped out of existence, swept completely off the Material Plane and onto a random Outer Plane - exactly where, no one had any way of determining.  Alewyth gave a cry as she was suddenly engulfed in searing flames, having been struck by a red ray; the pain lasted only for a moment, leaving her singed but still alive.  Zander was struck by a beam of pure yellow and was fried by a massive blast of electricity which caused his teeth to rattle, his hair to stand on end, and then his limbs to give way as he lost consciousness and fell to the courtyard ground; his invisible form was momentarily lit up by the force of the blast.  Petey managed not to share in his master's fate by dint of dodging the blast at the last moment, perhaps subconsciously picking up the tiefling's thoughts at her magical attack strategy.  But poor Robin took the worst of the spell's brunt, being hit by an orange ray that ate away at her body with a powerful, corrosive acid.  Her song of inspirational courage stopped in mid-chord as she fell lifelessly to the ground.Wakuren rushed out of Quinticus's bedroom a moment too late to find himself targeted by the prismatic spray spell, but he had been focusing on the escaping bat-druid in any case.  Summoning a javelin of lightning in his right hand - the one wearing the gauntlet of Cal - he let fly, piercing the bat's chest and slaying the druid outright.  Quinticus flopped to the ground, dead, his body returning to its natural form as life left his body.  It was only then that Wakuren saw that the same fate had just happened to Robin, and heard Petey's telepathic cries that Zander was down and dying.Alewyth cast a bane spell upon Lucrixia, but the tiefling managed to overcome its intended effects.  Xandro sprinted out of the room and ran over to the tiefling, moving behind her in preparation of trying to stab her in the back when her attention was focused on those before her.  A little voice in the back of his head wondered why Robin had stopped playing her magical song, but he failed to see her crumpled and steaming body lying in the dirt by Glorpalthorp's room.Petey, still invisible and eager for revenge, dashed through the air at Lucrixia, stabbing out with his tail-stinger and pumping sleep venom into her system.  He snarled in irritation when she failed to fall over in an immediate slumber.  Thurloe cast a displacement spell on himself, once again focusing upon keeping himself safe from harm over taking down his group's enemies.  (Anyone trying to argue with him over his tactics would get the same answer back: he was better able to focus on offense once he knew defense had been taken care of.  It never persuaded his friends that his tactics were wise, but he stuck by his assertations nonetheless.)Lucrixia moved away from Xandro, lining up her next spell for maximum effect.  Patey stabbed at her again but missed this time, to his increased irritation.  But then Wakuren, unsure of the invisible Zander's position, cast a mass cure light wounds spell that targeted all of his allies within range as he ran towards the tiefling.  It was enough to awaken the elf from his unconsciousness, and he took the opportunity to cast a haste spell on himself, Petey, Xandro, and Alewyth - the only members of his team within immediate range of the spell's area of effect.  He even managed to stab at Lucrixia as she stepped past him, oblivious to the fact he was even there, but then fired off a cone of cold spell at Alewyth, Wakuren, and Xandro, catching Petey in its midst quite unintentionally (for the pseudodragon was still protected by the greater invisibility spell effect caused by Zander's mislead spell).  This time even the little reptile was affected by the spell, but none of the heroes dropped as a result of the sudden blast of frost sent their way.Alewyth, teeth gritted to keep them from chattering, responded with a blindness/deafness spell focused upon stripping Lucrixia's sight from her.  But then the dwarf learned what defensive spell the tiefling had cast upon herself before using dimension door to move to the courtyard: spell reflection, which rebounded the priestess's spell right back at her, causing Alewyth to go blind.  As her world turned dark - a rare experience for a dwarf blessed with darkvision - Alewyth cursed the fact that she knew the words to the remove blindness spell but had not chosen that as one of the spells she had prepared for the day.  Unless Wakuren happened to have prepared the spell himself, she was now blind until tomorrow, when she could pray to Aerik for a new set of spells.  (Besides the remove blindness spell, Alewyth knew she'd also be praying for a resurrection spell for poor Robin, caught up in a fight beyond her own abilities to handle.)Xandro stabbed at Lucrixia with his rapier Deathwhisper, causing blood to spill from her lips as he pulled the blade out of her back.  Zander scrambled backwards to get out of immediate range - Wakuren's mass cure light wounds spell had roused him back into consciousness, but the cone of cold spell had almost taken him out again.  Then Thurloe ran up and attacked the tiefling with his own blade, Wakuren bashed her with his shield, and Alewyth - damned if she was going to let a little thing like being totally blind stop her from aiding her friends in battle - cast a summoning spell that caused an earth titan - a greater earth elemental, with fists the size of boulders - to rise up from the ground.  It slammed down at the tiefling, causing her to fall forwards, and then another stab with Deathwhisper and Lucrixia was no more.With their foes dead, the group went through the room with the newborn pens and entered the den of shining evil via a set of natural stone steps leading down into a roughly oval cavern.  Sure enough, the cavern was lit by a reddish light, seemingly coming from a "hole" in the air above them - Wakuren surmised it was a coin-sized rift to an Outer Plane of pure evil.  Arrayed along the cavern's outer edges were crates and crates of eggs, each protected by dried grasses and straw - the same as the caravan had been bringing back to the fortress.  The heroes smashed the eggs with fervor, then Alewyth commanded her elemental to bring the ceiling down upon the cavern.  When it was done, the small gate to Abyssia had been buried under tons of stone, preventing anyone else from picking up where the tieflings had left off."Now what?" asked Alewyth, when the others returned to where she'd been sitting.  "There are still the dinosaurs in the pens to deal with.""No point in dealing with them," argued Thurloe.  "They can't get out, so they'll starve to death where they are.  Better yet, the megaraptor and velociraptors will get to have it out and start eating each other for a bit, so they'll outlast the stegosaurus.""Still, it seems cruel, to let them starve like that," countered the dwarf."They're evil," Thurloe reminded her.  "They're only getting what they deserve.  And then, when they die, they'll go off to dino-hell or whatever and they'll look back on their final days of starving to death in their pens with fond memories."  Alewyth wasn't convinced, but she also realized the futility in them risking their lives to slay dinosaurs that Fate would deal with in any case.Zander dismissed his Elobar's black tentacles spell and they did a quick search of both triangular bedrooms, unearthing an ancient tome detailing the ritual of bathing eggs in the light from Abyssia to grant the beings growing within the fiendish properties of those who dwelled in such vile lands; the book was in some language indecipherable to any of the heroes, and it had apparently been indecipherable to Quinticus as well, for he had a special helm that allowed him to make sense of it.  The heroes burned the tome but kept the helm of detect magic and comprehend languages.  There was also a vial of oil of timeliness, which had apparently been partially used to keep the book from aging any further; Xandro applied it to Robin's body to keep it from decaying until Alewyth could return her to life the following day.  In Lucrixia's room they found a decanter of endless water, which she apparently used to restock the pools of water in the open-air pens when the rains failed to do so.  Other than a few healing potions and a vial of stone salve, that was all the tieflings had of value among them; they apparently had no use for coins of gemstones.One by one, the heroes re-entered Hesperna's lamp, Xandro popping back out with a blanket with which to wrap Robin's body before returning back inside.  Then standing alone in the courtyard, Wakuren whistled for Nimbus and climbed up onto the cloud-steed's broad back when he appeared.  "let's get back to Beetle and the other mounts," he said, and Nimbus rose in the air to do just that. - - -It took us a good four and a half hours to run through this adventure, the fight against the caravan taking us from noon until about 3:00 PM.  Harry was upset at Robin's death, but I told him we'd handwave it such that she had earned enough XP to advance to 6th level, so that when Alewyth cast the resurrection spell the following day, she'd still be 5th level (as she had been when she died).  He still wasn't happy about it - he doesn't like it when bad things happen to "his" characters - but he eventually accepted it.Incidentally, I don't think any of the players picked up on the fact that having a pair of tieflings imbuing dinosaurs (and other creatures that hatch from eggs) with the half-fiend or fiendish template explains the origins of Cunning-Devil, the fiendish tyrannosaurus they slew to gain Beetle's services as a guide.  But Cunning-Devil, once he had grown to a sufficient size, shook off any loyalties he felt to Quinticus and Lucrixia and went off on his own. - - -T-shirt worn: My "Chaotic evil means never having to say you're sorry" T-shirt, due to the alignments of a good chunk of the foes in this adventure.</blockquote>

Verification